Bragging Podium

[Ilshara]

Aeryn, the Bejeweled Guide has given you a gift of twenty knowledge crystals.

Side Note: She's a pretty shade of blue, though her tiny fangs seem ominous.

[Joscelin]

Nice. Always wanted to be able to give/reward people with knowledge crystals. Gods know that I'm stuck with that mound of 250 crystals with no ability to share it with others.

[Ilshara]

Nice. Always wanted to be able to give/reward people with knowledge crystals. Gods know that I'm stuck with that mound of 250 crystals with no ability to share it with others.

Aye, that would be nice. Although at a ratio, but you probably had that in mind. Perhaps 1:5 If not less.

[ichiban]

Not sure how many but Ichiban and Aaridan kicked a few towers too. Seems to be a common theme there. As far as challenges go, I win some, I lose some (great brag, eh?).

[Aaridan]

Not sure how many but Ichiban and Aaridan kicked a few towers too. Seems to be a common theme there. As far as challenges go, I win some, I lose some (great brag, eh?).

Ah yes the old days of going into towers with eternity rune and kryllian golems....also when towers actually respawned decently.

[Bult]

...also when towers actually respawned decently.

I personally enjoyed the 3 month(rl) waiting time while towers were reviewed and upgraded. Only to find that the only change was to double the respawn time of the guards in towers. A change that probably took a few minutes of actual coding. This change was made to reduce the impact that a single powerful faction could make against the other factions due to repeated tower raiding. It was stated at the time of the change that it was under review and the changes could be reversed if they were deemed unnecessary.

With the increase in respawning times it has become impossible to negatively impact a enemy city via tower raiding if they even enlist only sporadically.
Whether the reduced raiding was a facet of low population or lack of interest due to the newfound pointlessness of the task, or both, is unknown. What did become obvious was there was no intention to change the respawn times back to the original time, even after several months of minimal tower raiding.

Seems like another knee-jerk reaction that is being jusified by complacency.



Brag: I'm stronger than all the girly monsters.

[Joscelin]

I rather prefer it this way. Because one city can't harm the other via non-stop raids when the city that is being raided lack the numbers to fight back. Raiding should be fun, not forced, and without consequences so long as one person enlists once and awhile.

As for a brag... I dunno. Stayed with every city and gave it my all via gold, time, fighting, and teaching for them? Took pride in that I guess, and it was a good ending to thousands of hours spent in Akanbar. Now I'm giving that same dedicated effort irl to my family and local community. *shrugs*

[Bult]

[QUOTE=Joscelin;3878]Raiding should be fun, not forced, and without consequences so long as one person enlists once and awhile. QUOTE]

A world without consequences becomes dull and uninteresting. If you can stave off your enemies best efforts with only causal input, why would your enemies bother? Which is precisely where anyone who had an interest in raiding is now. Not bothering.

[Joscelin]

The reason, in my opinion, why the numbers are so low in the first place. Was because there was a consequence to raiding before it was shut down temporarily. People come here to role play and escape from the stress of their real world, not to add more to it by worrying about a virtual city being destroyed and that they are helpless to do anything about it.

However, I guess some people, including my former self, like it that way: enjoyment at the expense of making others miserable enough to quit. And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the constant raiding of other cities back when I was a Templar. Seeing the frustration and helplessness of my enemies was funny. Especially how Aaridan and us cleaned out every single guard in cities until people like Kenan left for half a year irl, or cause others to literally stop trying to bother defending at all. My past self was damn proud of it. Nowadays, I think it was unfair to profit off of their misery.

[Bult]

I really struggle to understand how anyone could take pleasure in knowing they have made someone else miserable, and to go so far that they would quit playing this game is even worse. Every person who plays, no matter their affiliations or attitude, they add something to the game. Anyone who knowingly contributed to someone leaving the game should be ashamed.

I also find this poor justification to reducing the consequences of raiding. I would hope that people with the above attitude are the exception and not the rule. Its the responsibility of the indiviual to check your own behaviour, if something you are doing is causing other people to play less, then you should find another way to do things. And there are plenty of options. If the indiviuals are unwilling or incapible of changing themselves, then I think it should fall to the realm/guild patrons to step in. The admin changing the rules should always be the last option taken, in all but the most extreme cases.

[Joscelin]

But this is the behavior that was prevalent in many individuals during those olden days when we raided. The changes that transpired were the result of our inability to be responsible players. If nobody had their feelings harmed, tower rules wouldn't have been changed in the first place and everybody would be happy. Perhaps this is just natural in a setting where there is competition, or maybe some people just take things way too personally. Hell, the best microcosm of this conflict is the now closed "What do you like about Akanbar" thread. I'm just glad that I'm no longer a part of all the drama, which is the one thing I'm most proud to brag about.

[Bult]

I'm not certain I agree with your timeline of events there. The changes to towers that have rendered raiding incapable of impacting a city with even a semi active enlister only occured after the combined war on Golgonath, many many decades after your time as a templar and the olden days.

If nobody had their feelings harmed, tower rules wouldn't have been changed in the first place and everybody would be happy.

I think the people who remain are happy with the current state of things. The people who weren't happy don't even log in anymore, which is precisely why I don't agree with the sort of changes that were implemented

[Joscelin]

I'm not certain I agree with your timeline of events there. The changes to towers that have rendered raiding incapable of impacting a city with even a semi active enlister only occured after the combined war on Golgonath, many many decades after your time as a templar and the olden days.



I think the people who remain are happy with the current state of things. The people who weren't happy don't even log in anymore, which is precisely why I don't agree with the sort of changes that were implemented

There were a lot of weird changes over the course of the years when I was a Templar and after that during the Ysallyra+Elysium vs Golgonath war. The changes to the tower respawn and it's temporary hiatus is just icing on the cake. Like how the rear southern gate of Golgonath was completely shut off because the additional guards in the back just drained the barracks heavily because city-raiders couldn't have enough with just raiding the front gates. I miss the back gates... made Golgonath unique with that special route towards Baresh.

The one positive change I can think of from the top of my head due to all the constant raiding and conflict was the repositioning of towers that were too close to the main highways. That was really annoying... how innocent merchants or individuals who do not wish to participate got caught in the middle of a raid. If enough people were active and kept participating in raids. Then perhaps the Gods would have fine-tuned the rules and mechanics of raiding to a greater degree with enough feedback from it's players. And not just any feedback... but more positive feedback instead of just a nonstop flow of complaints via messages.

[Aaridan]

I know that I cannot speak for the population of Akanbar, and the part that I do speak for is very very minimal. But here goes nothing:

I disagree strongly with what Joscelin is saying here, I believe that people who truly wish to RP and not involve themselves in the drama that is involved in raiding/killing/bashing/etc/etc can RP just perfectly without dealing with that type of conflict in their IG lives if they are in fact escaping their real life situations. I know that the land was most populated when in fact all three cities were engaged in the two versus one war, it was the most fun I've had personally. A world in my opinion must have a strong conflict somewhere for drama to happen...drama attracts players....players attract RP....RP attracts drama...it's a big endless circle. The12 hour respawn to tower raiding (Since now the cities can place 20 guards/wardens at any city location) is the only true sense of any battle RP and just doesn't cut it for those that seek that type of RP. I know that my time has basically dwindled down to a mere hour or two a day(if that), but the pure understanding and complatency of doing nothing is undeniable in nearly everyone you speak to.

Tower respawns used to be 4 rl hours back when I started with a guard minimum of 20....
(change)
Tower respawns went to 6hrs with guard minimums being level 38.
(change)
Tower respawns went to 12hrs with guard mimimums being level 38.

I understand that perhaps Akanbar's goal is not to be driven by straight tower raids/city raids and all that is involved in such warfare. Armies were added to prevent just that from happening and people being inside the city so easily. If the key was to move more towards the RP nature and to escape our real lives to a less stressful enviroment....well where is all the RP that should be happening?

Again, I don't really expect anyone except probably Bult to agree or understand what I am trying to say....but me as the player of Aaridan truly feels that not only has removing the sense of being able to raid and get the sense of togetherness it brought disappeared, but the goals and aspirtations of the players of Akanbar have nearly vanished. Well except for today when I logged on at 8am EST time to find the Elysians raiding the Golgonath towers which quickly ended after Aaridan stopped them once, but I suppose that is what people wish for.


Also no one is required to get emotional attached to this world, I know that I was for a very long time. I took pride in being the best and trying to lead my friends into battle. Those who have been hurt by Aaridan, I hope they know it is only a game and that is who *HE* roleplays.


Feel free to rip this post apart....but I stand by it.

[Joscelin]

Yeah... I also don't disagree with the consensus on how things were changed. It definitely didn't create any miraculous ripple effect where everybody is suddenly interested in roleplaying again. There's even a downside to the increased numbers of serf/citizen/clansman/mage enlistments and the decreased frequency of tower/guard respawns: it bloody drains military funds like hell. I actually don't mind all the raiding/army marching since it at least reduces the numbers of guards/armies leeching coins from the city's military reserves.

And yes, I didn't like the conflict/drama involved in raiding/fighting, but that's just me, who is part of a one percent minority, burnt out from the repetitiveness of it. As Aaridan pointed out, there are still plenty of people, who are the majority, still enjoying raiding and combat. Just up the frequency of tower spawns and keep the current spawn-rate of serfs/etc and we should be able to reach a compromise.

Oh, and here's a brag... I never in my character's military career had to march guards from the city's barracks unto enemy raiders or done any other underhanded tactics in order to defend a city. In raids, the only issue people have had with him was the auto-impede >_<;;, did my best to curve that down for the sake of noncombatants. The point is that I tried to play honorably and made sure Divine raiding laws were respected despite the relentless frequency of our raids. Always been proud of my teammates, which includes everybody in the past 90+ years of Joscelin's life, in raids and defenses, no matter how unfair the odds were stacked against us game mechanics-wise or player-wise. We've always made it through no matter how hard the circumstances were - though they weren't free of gripes and complaints unfortunately.