Akan-BAH!

[Xinia]

Figured I'd start the thread of things that seriously get under your skin (relating to Akanbar).

1. People who can't play alts correctly and blatantly break HELP MULTIPLAYING rules.
As in:

Most importantly, players must not pass either physical equipment or
knowledge/information between characters.

Equally it is forbidden to use another character to aide advancement of
another of your characters. Be it through voting or other means. It is also
forbidden for any person to use multiple characters to vote twice in the same
election, even if for another individual.

2. People who don't/can't/refuse to Roleplay.
As in, you ask them not to talk about OOC things in says. You tell them to stop talking about OOC things. But they just keep talking about some storm that's going on where they live or how they're hungry.

3. Misogynistic morons who make me murderous.
Namely, people who, as you're in the middle of a verbal fight with someone else, will begin to make crude implications to the point where their own ally has to tell them to shut up.

[Faralil]

That it takes a skill in intelligence to be able to determine what herb you put in your pipe. Instead of just being able to see what is in your pipe by typing EXAMINE PIPE, it's like needing a skill to be able to tell what you put in a potion bottle.

Emoting in bulletin board posts.

[Xinia]

it's like needing a skill to be able to tell what you put in a potion bottle.

ab lore elixirlist

ELIXIRLIST
You can now view a list of all your vials, salves and potions and how many
uses they have remaining.

Technically, you can see what's in your bottles without it, but I find that analogy amusing.

[Tsianina]

These should be seen less as gripes and more as areas for improvement.

1. Secrecy in the wrong places

A lot of people have been very helpful in answering my questions, and more so lately than a few weeks ago when I was new, so don't take this wrong. But even though a few people (like Xinia, Rachelle, Chyren, and Theo) have gone out of their way to answer things clearly about mechanics -- how skills or equipment work, for instance -- there's still a lot of times when basic details aren't in help files and people are cagey about them, where it makes no sense. Sometimes I learn a skill and can't get anyone to tell me how it works or what it does, let alone when I'd use it, as if the only correct way is through trial and error like they did it in their day (when they had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways, no doubt). Akanbar would be well served by being more forthcoming about mechanical stuff. I still haven't found a help file that tells me how to light and smoke a pipe (I found out how, but why aren't the commands in a help file?) and I find it silly that the help and SKILLS files are cagey about what skills do, what cures what, etc.

And yet at the same time, quests, which by their very nature only exist for the challenge of figuring them out, are very often considered fair game to give away. Sometimes the same person who won't tell me what my skills do is more than happy to walk me through a quest -- even if I don't want them to and never asked them to. In fact, just try asking for a vague hint about a quest -- for instance, just confirming that there is something more to do -- and you usually can't get it. But you can get led through the quest step by step.

2. Follow me!

A lot of people are trying really hard to be helpful by offering to lead me around to show me things. And I very much appreciate the intent. Maybe it's just me, but these "follow me" trips almost never help me at all. They just end up a blur of movement without explanation. At best, they give away everything and leave me nothing to figure out. More often, they reveal very little, and a simple explanation, "go here and ask so-and-so about such-and-such", would have helped a lot more. At worst, I end up dead because I didn't know where we were going and wasn't prepared. (Besides which, what if I have to log off in ten minutes -- if you won't say what we're doing, how can I tell if it's going to be done in time?)

What is even worse is when I don't immediately follow, I'm thrown on the defensive. In real life, do you often follow random people without any idea where they're going or why, just because they asked? Probably not, and real life is usually a lot less full of angry giants and dragons than Akanbar is. But "follow me" is such a norm in Akanbar that I have to justify not immediately following, and that always seems to insult people, when the default should be that following someone is usually based on knowing why and where.

Just a brief explanation of where we're going and what to expect there would go a long long way to making me know if I want to go, and ensuring I'm prepared for it, and whether I'll be able to benefit from it.

3. Help doesn't help

Usually the best way to know how to find your answer in the help files is to already know the answer. If you don't know the answer, it's nearly impossible to find it. If there was a command that searched help files for key words, you'd have at least a fighting chance, though even there, you'd often have trouble finding something if you didn't know the words that the help files use to refer to it. But often, obvious topics (for instance, HELP GODS) tell you nothing at all.

Actually, for all I know, there already is a command that searches the help files. Maybe it's even mentioned in one of the help files. But I would never be able to find it!

[Chyren]

Having my settings become corrupted.

Trying to export all of my settings and only getting the triggers, which is barely half of the usual amount of triggers.

Not having a real usable backup unless I go back much farther then I really want to.

[Faralil]

PORCUPINES! Oh how I hate you!

Death to you rabid porcupine!
This is where I draw the line!
You caught me with an empty pipe,
Paralyzed 'fore I could type,
Couldn't run, couldn't fight,
LOOK would not work right,
Oh great here comes the bear,
They timed it this way I swear,
Sh*t a tiger too?
There's nothing I can do.
This will never happen again.
I'll have coriander my friend.
Yeah porcupine I'm ready for you.
WHAT! I'm out of kindling too?!

[Timulty]

I have to second the issue of secrecy in all the wrong places... figure that, an assassin complaining about secrecy. By far the thing that annoys me most about Akanbar is how clunky the controls seem to be, and that learning how to get around these syntax problems is considered a virtue on must obtain. I do consider myself lucky that I can look at most of my skills and know what they do. On the flipside, it should not have taken me as long as it did to figure out how to use the various stuff around Anath's temple to worship her.

Another issue I have is with the idle rules. On the one hand, it's nice that we have a system that can essentially reward players for doing things other than killing monsters, because as you roleplay, gather ingredients and make stuff, explore, and do other stuff, you still get crystals. On the bad side, this means there has to be rules against abuse. Unfortunately... those rules give a certain mindset when playing the game. I'm basically afraid to ever play the game when I can't devote my full attention to it

[Chyren]

The issue about secrecy is sort of an odd one, because I think for most of the older players..they've been around it and forgot how much isn't explicitly said in skill or help files. There are a few players that will help with anything, though, IC or OOC. (Myself included mainly)

[Kresslack]

- Torches: Crumbling upon lighting, etc.

- No nightsight skill(s)

- Lack of RP, Majorly

- Unclear Skillsets. Instead of having a General Skillset like Riding...it's in Agility. Almost nearly unrelated.

[Chyren]

How many humans do you know that can see in the dark?

[Kresslack]

I can actually see quite well in low lighting. That's the key...low lighting. It's never just completely dark outside. There are the stars, moon, etc that play part in the adjustment determining how deep the darkness is. To have a message saying TWO, not one, but TWO moons are floating overhead...and it's pitch black...is a little absurd.

[Aaridan]

How many humans do you know that can shoot lightning out of their fingertips!?

It's a fantasy game, plus Kress does have a reasonable argument about the moons.

[Kresslack]

How many humans do you know that can shoot lightning out of their fingertips!?

I bet David Blaine or Chris Angel could do it....after countless retakes and video editing. Greenscreen, ftw.

[Tsianina]

At least we can create light crystals. (Though those of you who have to use runes to do it, do those cost more than torches?)

I'm not sure how to get more roleplay happening. It's hard to get anyone to sit still long enough to make anything start, let alone make it start in an organic and unaffected way.

[Chyren]

...Torches and throwing them isn't good enough for you? I understand the point, but, the moons thing is sort of...iffy. The moon(s) is(are) not going to give you enough ambient or direct light to see for any amount of distance. I can see 2 or 3 rooms, but anything longer then that is not feasible. Yes, game, magic, not reality, blah blah, it's still supposed to keep you immersed, not give you a way to go through every situation.