Mildly Irritating: Aetolia's Pet Peeves

Nipsy

I use Bloody Tidings as a IC inside joke/meme of sorts, because it was the first response I ever had to Iosyne IC.
So much so I had it inscribed on my dagger, so it brings bloody tidings in the way of offerings, but I wholeheartedly agree that the context of it is grossly mis-used.

I think "Dark tidings" is probably the most notorious of these I have seen.

However, my peeve.
Drop rates on relic pieces in Drakuum and Torturer's Caverns, is it like 1/1983892328731297.9273293292pi29383

It makes me a sad Gnome, I just want a spirit pup and a stiff style scroll.

Sryaen

People who kill mounts, hounds, golems, falcons, etc. What is this, 2007?

Tetchta

Don't dismount your spider mount in Luzith's and then qq!

Saidenn

You can't pour a barrel into a cask. You can pour a barrel into a pot or a vial, but you can't then fill a cask from said pot unless there are at least 50 sips/refills in the pot/cauldron, meaning you have to do some irritating roulette of moving things between barrels, vials, pots, etc if you plan to use barrels and then move to casks, or lose however many refills you have.

This is especially so for venoms.

Iazamat

Out-of-place furniture just being dropped in random spots in cities, like the unicorns gates or pylon room.

Aeryx

Another pet peeve of mine, and I'm fairly certain everyone can relate, is for the most part how amazing and exciting the free Wheel of Fate spins are...except for the absolute trash that is Experience Gain. Woo boy. 1100 exp for the day when I need 67 million to level. If it was me, I'd probably make it give you a scaling amount that's tied to a certain % of the person's level, at least make it moderately exciting to get 1% of my level or something, instead of like 0.0016% like it is.(yes I really took the time out of my day before bed to do the math.)

Tetchta

This isn't really a pet peeve and I'm not sure if anybody is even necessarily doing anything wrong, but it gets frustrating feeling like the only way to ever get RP is to be the one initiating. I feel like probably 9/10 scenes I've done with people in the past year were ones where I had to more or less barrel into a room and shake them for attention. I don't mind being extroverted, but idk. Feels like nobody wants to bother even if you go out of your way to give them reasons to interact with you. Again, nobody's doing anything wrong and noone's obligated to do anything they don't want; just gets me bummed out sometimes.

Ayastia

Tetchta said:

This is super petty (a pet peeve if you will) but "tidings" or "[good/dark] tidings" is not a greeting. "Tidings" means "news." One can be the bearer of "dark tidings" or "good tidings" but it's not a greeting. If you say "dark tidings," you're suggesting you're either responding to bad news or have some bad news to impart. If you just say "tidings," it's also a bit nosensical, but you might also be suggesting you have news to share. I have no idea how this became a thing in the game; nearest as I can guess is that someone used to greet their orgs by saying "What tidings?" or something to that effect, and it's somehow boiled down into some goofy greeting that makes it seem like you're trying really hard to sound archaic within the context of the game's world, but are just sayin' somethin' that's absolutely silly and makes no sense.

I did not know this! Good to know. That said... I think Aya opening with dark tidings is fitting. It seemed many consider it dark news when she wake up. 

Toz

@Alela are you taking notes? "Dark tidings" into "IT'S ME" could be the combo to really take you to the next level.

Aeryx

Man, I guess maybe I should change the starting soon screen for the stream again some time soon, huh?

Iazamat

If your response to anything happening at all is "it'll resolve itself" or some variation thereof, please just refrain from commenting. We get it, you're not interested in the RP or the event, but stop being strangely meta about it.

Bulrok

Or telling people to shut up.

Tetchta

The general disregard for yes and in a variety of areas will always frustrate me every time it happens. But overall I don't think it's really good roleplay to put a thin IC veneer over "well the admin will never delete the game, so we shouldn't treat existential threats seriously." It's a real immersion breaker.

Toz

The people responsible for saying 'it will not get deleted' have been deleted.

Saidenn

Inb4 the specter of the Indorani rises from the ashes to remind us what the admin will and will not delete.

Roux

An added note to this vein of thinking - taking death and coming back for granted in an IC manner. Sure, we all know we'll never really have our characters die unless we WANT them to, but for them it shouldn't just be hum drum. Death should be serious, a real risk at least insofar as wrapping it into RP is concerned. We all sort of suspend our disbelief for the purposes of PK and such of course.

Eliadon

Roux said:

An added note to this vein of thinking - taking death and coming back for granted in an IC manner. Sure, we all know we'll never really have our characters die unless we WANT them to, but for them it shouldn't just be hum drum. Death should be serious, a real risk at least insofar as wrapping it into RP is concerned. We all sort of suspend our disbelief for the purposes of PK and such of course.

I actually disagree with this one - it should be inferred that we -will- return from the mirror simply by virtue of how frequently it occurs. Unless something major changes, Varian sends us back every time on Sapience, and even the other continents don't want our souls in their afterlives.

Sure, we're part of the cycle - but Varian exists over all of that. So my peeve is when adventurers who don't play hardcore mode take death as any more than an inconvenience.

Ayastia

Roux said:

An added note to this vein of thinking - taking death and coming back for granted in an IC manner. Sure, we all know we'll never really have our characters die unless we WANT them to, but for them it shouldn't just be hum drum. Death should be serious, a real risk at least insofar as wrapping it into RP is concerned. We all sort of suspend our disbelief for the purposes of PK and such of course.

So, not always... obviously given track record with gods.. but I usually try and remember that at any time your characters "destiny" can be accomplished and you will stay in the halls. I do not usually do it for aya but when it comes to the 'should we sacrifice this character since they will just come back'...

@Eliadon Disagree man. I CANNOT remember the exact line, but Varian says something like 'Your purpose has not yet been served' in the death messages. That can change anytime. The characters, I think, should never get complacent 

Sryaen

Eliadon said:

Roux said:

An added note to this vein of thinking - taking death and coming back for granted in an IC manner. Sure, we all know we'll never really have our characters die unless we WANT them to, but for them it shouldn't just be hum drum. Death should be serious, a real risk at least insofar as wrapping it into RP is concerned. We all sort of suspend our disbelief for the purposes of PK and such of course.

I actually disagree with this one - it should be inferred that we -will- return from the mirror simply by virtue of how frequently it occurs. Unless something major changes, Varian sends us back every time on Sapience, and even the other continents don't want our souls in their afterlives.

Sure, we're part of the cycle - but Varian exists over all of that. So my peeve is when adventurers who don't play hardcore mode take death as any more than an inconvenience.

No, we're not playing supporting characters in the Aetolian version of 'The Edge of Tomorrow' starring Tom Cruise. The idea of 'dw bro, just die, you'll come back bro, i swear' is so silly and really detracts from any meaningful choices that may arise. I view it personally that each time you never really know if it'll be the last time you come back or not, which is why I will 100% leave Caitria at lessers if we're outnumbered by like.. a LOT. I'm all for a good fight, but throwing away your 'life' for the sake of you, the player, knowing you'll come back regardless seems like really shallow RP.

Ayastia

Damn... throwing the wife to the wolves xD

Toz

That's only really applicable to the living though. Undead just pop back up like a daisy. Vampires reform all dramatic like too. But, let's look at the living side:
-No adventurer has ever been kept, really, so it seems like a safe bet

-Lots of named NPCs keep coming back. Varian figures Luzith has a destiny still too?
-Soul call, devo rezz, hell racial rezz - any endgame buddy can bring you back. Ring rezz, if there's no body. Even the tear doesn't exactly ask Varian for permission?

Death seems more like Varian has a rubber stamp and entirely too much paperwork to deal with to bother turning you down, to me.

I think death should matter and characters should be free to play it out, but someone treating death like a bungee jump isn't *wrong* in a strictly RP sense without ignoring and handwaving a whole lot, for better or for worse.

Iesid

I think the pet peeves that started this discussion is about how some people (my character, for instance) just handwave the deaths of PCs. This extends to NPCs too, after the Gorshire event especially.

"If they don't come back, it was their time."

When you spend almost 200 years going through that song and dance, it becomes difficult to believe you aren't immortal. Just go ahead and try living through 200 years of a universal constant and then you tell me if your outlook doesn't change.

Eaku

I think it kind of depends on how you treat every time your character has died.

Eaku has died a lot. An absolutely absurd amount of times. Sure he's going to freak out the first few times, but eventually after sixty-something years of dying over and over again while hunting, while fighting, while touching things he shouldn't - and every time getting sent back by the mirror, revived by someone, or told to buzz off by Albedos - it seems very reasonable to adopt an attitude of "i'll go when it's actually my time, since the mirror keeps telling me i'm part of some plan or something, and i really don't think getting knocked over the head at lesser #551 is that time". Not to mention all the times he's wiped out entire groups of NPCs (like, say, at Tiyen Esityi) and come back in a day to find they're all back, or times he has specifically killed people who aren't even undead and seen them within an hour. If your character takes it more seriously or is more worried about it, by all means, that's valid RP too, but it's not particularly fair to act like everyone has to take death seriously when it can be very in-character not to. Death is a common consequence but actual lasting death is exceedingly rare for adventurers and most NPCs, and part of immersing myself in the world means that I accept that while it's a possibility for Eaku, it isn't very likely and at this point he'd know that too.

Which isn't even touching how Eaku can literally bring people back to life if their soul's paying enough attention.

Xavin

I think the rarity of actual lasting death for both PCs and NPCs can contribute in a positive way to storytelling when it actually does happen. As much as it upset me, I can think of one instance in particular where a favorite NPC of mine was killed and didn't come back. It's been a few years and it's still a bit of a source of trauma for my character. I think that there's valid points on both sides of the argument but it does seem a bit rough to expect people to treat every single death or potential death as if it's equivalent to a lasting one. The unfortunate thing is that it does take some of the wind out of the purpose of undeath.

Tetchta

So I can see all the angles here, but I like Iesid's description probably best? The PRESENT lore of the REALLY OUTDATED MIRROR SCENE is that Varian is intervening because your story is still important/happening. Technically, ICly, it's out of your hands. Any time could be the time where you just "ffwwipt!" into the Underhalls. There seems to be something special that keeps Adventurers from dying, obviously. Honestly I think a diverse IC perspective is actually pretty normal? There's some people who fear flying because there's like a .0001% chance the plane could crash, regardless of the statistics. Even though you've come back multiple times, you can still fear death. And the other holds true. "It's always been the mirror, I'm safe."

That said, death/the Cycle has to be some kind of broadscale existential threat to existence and revival not guaranteed for a lot of the game's premises to make sense. Honestly I think however you want to play it is best for you. From an UNDEAD/Vampire angle, there's lots of play too. I like to think Forced Decorporealization is oustandingly more painful than the normal way people die, since it's like your body tearing itself apart. So if you wanna play a vampire who hates dying, I mean, there's your in: it hurts a LOT. Alterantively, maybe you're either such a painslut or have been around for so many centuries that it doesn't bother you. "Cut my head off, see if that stops me!"

ALLL that said, I don't think the existential terror has to be there for death to matter. It sucks, it hurts your pride (possibly). And I think it's okay for death to just be...less of a big deal in Aet than in our real world. It kinda forces you to think of other modes of revenge and recompense for slights. Like murdering someone emotionally or banging their spouse or something.

Ayastia

Xavin said:

I think the rarity of actual lasting death for both PCs and NPCs can contribute in a positive way to storytelling when it actually does happen. As much as it upset me, I can think of one instance in particular where a favorite NPC of mine was killed and didn't come back. It's been a few years and it's still a bit of a source of trauma for my character. I think that there's valid points on both sides of the argument but it does seem a bit rough to expect people to treat every single death or potential death as if it's equivalent to a lasting one. The unfortunate thing is that it does take some of the wind out of the purpose of undeath.

I do not think anyone is saying treat every death like it could be the last. That is up to the player. I think the general want is not to just hand wave deaths away. 'It is ok if doing this gets this character killed because they will be back.' At least, that is it for me. 

Bulrok

The reason we keep coming back is cause we're actually Albedi creations and Varian and his creations can't kill Albedi creations that's why he didn't kill jox thanks for coming to my ted talk

Toz

Bulrok said:

The reason we keep coming back is cause we're actually Albedi creations and Varian and his creations can't kill Albedi creations that's why he didn't kill jox thanks for coming to my ted talk

World v Bamathis I'm here for it.

Iesid

Xavin said:

The unfortunate thing is that it does take some of the wind out of the purpose of undeath.

I don't think this is the case. Undeath is that character's opportunity to step outside of a process that they might find tyrannical, untenable, etc. It doesn't have to be about everlasting life mechanically - the choice is strictly character-driven. If I played an undead character, I would not feel undeath is cheapened by this notion, because this notion doesn't take away any of the motivation my character has/had that informed that choice. I.e ... "I chose undeath to free myself from Dhar's arbitrary decisions. I don't even want to run that risk." - suddenly the choice is about my character's fear or resentment for mortality, not really about 'living forever' in any mechanical sense.

There's a middle ground where we have a healthy acceptance that NPCs also come back, PCs come back, etc while still acknowledging the looming possibility that any thread could be cut short. My own pet peeve ties into this: I don't think there's a healthy acceptance of NPC death in some orgs and it gets in the way of them picking the fights they should fight.

Nipsy

I actually had this interaction recently in RP after killing someone in Enorian, and then the Pentarch and I bantering back and forth.

Ultimately my response was: You can hunt me and I may perish, but until the Earth refuses my will to continue, I shall persist.
-or something along that line-
Ultimately it was a good interaction and I enjoyed her hatred towards Undeath and my disdain for the Cycle in it.

There are avenues we can as players accept our "immortality(tm)" without being - lol, ill just be back pleb.