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Ylem Aura Toggle On/Off
I have a proposal for an idea revolving the ylem aura. The idea is to add a toggle which will prevent you from gaining the aura but also would prevent you from using refining skills entirely while toggled.
The reason for this is largely for those who really do not want to participate in minors/lessers/majors and do not want to unwittingly become subject to open PK against their will. You can gain the aura simply by path tracking through the wrong area and often you won't be able to notice until it is too late. This wouldn't be much of a problem but there has been much talk of various characters being killed on this basis which is entirely within the rules but still completely sucks for whoever is getting killed.
Why it sucks:
Perhaps you are in the middle of a quest?
Maybe you were gathering commodities?
Possibly you had some items that simply drop on death in general in your inventory and might not get them back.
Why else it sucks:
Maybe the player in question entirely avoids PK due to the real-life stress and frustration it can cause.
While I know these are all risks that everyone generally acknowledges within the game, it can always be improved upon in order to create a playing environment that can cater to all types of players without causing them anxiety, frustration, and other things generally unwanted when playing a game that should be about fun and community.
Another idea for the path tracking issue could be to add a config for the tracker to stop a room before you would enter into an open PK zone so you can walk around it entirely.
I am just shooting ideas out here and have no idea how realistic or easy these changes are to make so bear with me. I mostly am hoping to create a discussion.
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Also, for those of you who might wonder, this post is directly prompted by the goings on with @Didi as well as events that have happened to many other players. Just because it is within the rules doesn't make it cool to go out of your way to target someone.
The reason for this is largely for those who really do not want to participate in minors/lessers/majors and do not want to unwittingly become subject to open PK against their will. You can gain the aura simply by path tracking through the wrong area and often you won't be able to notice until it is too late. This wouldn't be much of a problem but there has been much talk of various characters being killed on this basis which is entirely within the rules but still completely sucks for whoever is getting killed.
Why it sucks:
Perhaps you are in the middle of a quest?
Maybe you were gathering commodities?
Possibly you had some items that simply drop on death in general in your inventory and might not get them back.
Why else it sucks:
Maybe the player in question entirely avoids PK due to the real-life stress and frustration it can cause.
While I know these are all risks that everyone generally acknowledges within the game, it can always be improved upon in order to create a playing environment that can cater to all types of players without causing them anxiety, frustration, and other things generally unwanted when playing a game that should be about fun and community.
Another idea for the path tracking issue could be to add a config for the tracker to stop a room before you would enter into an open PK zone so you can walk around it entirely.
I am just shooting ideas out here and have no idea how realistic or easy these changes are to make so bear with me. I mostly am hoping to create a discussion.
-------
Also, for those of you who might wonder, this post is directly prompted by the goings on with @Didi as well as events that have happened to many other players. Just because it is within the rules doesn't make it cool to go out of your way to target someone.
Avatar of Fyrren drawn by the amazing Sessizlik.
2
Comments
As for a toggle, I think it is wholly unnecessary. I understand the desire to participate, but WILLINGLY going into an unstable area or orrery brings with it a risk, and from an IC perspective, Spirit has reasons to be suspicious of a character who spends 99% of their time within the company of and city of a group that is aligned against their beliefs and aims.
Accidentally walking through an active lesser sucks. People have been killed due to being a known character of the other side even though they didn't mean to show up. I have targeted a lowbie who hit a block and it was just a quick swap. The pathing would fix that, so that is definitely approved.
Otherwise? We already have an opt-out option for not getting aura: Don't enter the unstable area willingly. Don't enter Scidve during active orrery willingly. Don't enter fracture/vortex willingly.
I adore Didi as much as the next person, but her CHARACTER has been making choices, and those choices have consequences. Our characters are free to disagree with them, but let's try to remember roleplay in this. Disagree with the choices of certain characters adopting a hostile stance, sure, but act those out IC.
TL;DR: I adore Didi, make a path track config to go around unstable zones, ICA = ICC.
Edit: To briefly add tot his, I recall distinctly when a Spirean went to Orrery to observe and was slain on sight. They complained rather loudly and, because the character was not as beloved, they basically got told "Next time don't go into a PK zone if you don't want to die".
Let's please avoid double standards.
However, these 'things going on with Didi' are purely the consequences of her own actions - a spirit-classed person actively fighting alongside Shadow. As I said in a previous thread about all of this, I don't have any beef with Didi OOCly. But my character has every reason to see issue with some supposedly 'neutral' person shouting Shadow-themed things (slaughter, rip n tear, etc), attacking us at lessers and majors, and most importantly - NOT offering the same 'help' towards Spirit when we're controlling a foci point. The argument could be made that "Well why would Didi help you if you guys have been attacking her?" To which I direct that right back. Why the hell would we not attack her - or anyone else - for these actions? I've gotten so much OOC and IC grief over following the game's rules over open PK zones and ylem aura, that I'm sort of done with the backlash. Shadow's answer to this ( @Drystin mainly ) was: if you want to have open pk on anyone with hostility/ylem aura, that's fine. But you're not gonna like that can of worms you open; implying that if we wanted to take the stance of hostility towards Didi, that Shadow was going to grief us into the dirt. Further evidenced by the group of 8-10 shadow people led by Mazzion to go after Valorie and Jakarn in the fracture for agreeing with a forum post of mine where I.. basically said all of this. Again.
What an absolute joke coming from one of the guys who primarily goes out of his way to gank people in vortex/fracture. And you know what? That's completely within his right to do so. Because he's not breaking any rules by doing so. Yeah it may seem crappy behavior, but the alternative is to simply not go in those areas. If Drystin is around, I simply wouldn't bash the fracture or vortex until he's offline. Or have buddies to back you up. So I'm really tired of this double standard of holding some people accountable for their actions, but other people get a free pass.
If someone has some sort of trigger emotion or medical issue that arises during PK, that's just as much on them to not put themselves in that situation.
Looking forward to rehashing this same non-issue in a few weeks once it flares up again.
Tell me how I'm doing!
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As for the fun subject many have grown so fond of:
I didn't mean to attack anyone with this post, hence why I haven't really called anyone in particular out with it, because I am only on my own side of it all. Didi is a friend and I hate seeing her get so down to the point now that I don't know if she is going to be around for a while. I can definitely say the Shadow tether players who are friends of hers can be overly zealous with their protectiveness of her ICly and OOCly, including myself to a degree and that is definitely a fault of our own.
There has been a lot of he says, she says and my only POV is from the Shadow Tether and then whatever I see posted in the forums which generally seems to devolve into heated insults being flung from both sides while nothing really seems to be accomplished.
On behalf of myself, I apologize for any negativity I have thrown out into our community and hope that we can all work better together (Spirit and Shadow OOC) towards providing an understanding and fun community for everyone to be a part of. Then we can murder each other IC with no fear of grief
Sorry to rehash the subject but it started to really peeve me. Let's keep Aetolia fun for everyone!
Avatar of Fyrren drawn by the amazing Sessizlik.
Aisling had talked to me on discord about me not going out of my way to target Didi when this issue popped up last month, and I agreed to not put her on my target list if I was calling or to go out of my way to kill her unless 1) she entered our foci room with shadow forces and 2) attacked one of us. In that time, I have kept to my word. It was only the other day that she attacked Jaamir and then this whole thing spiraled, once again, out of control. I even wrangled some other Spirit fighters in web because they wanted to slay her and talked them out of doing so. So at this point, I'm not really sure what else could have been done on our end.
As for her getting down about this, I don't like seeing anyone upset to an OOC level that they feel a particular way about how their character is being treated, so maybe taking a step back might be for the best. And moving forward, perhaps coddling characters to the point where they feel they can do no wrong is uh, actually more harmful than helpful. No matter how beloved they might be, everyone should be held accountable for their actions.
Tell me how I'm doing!
I also agree that it would be good for her to step away for a while to let things mellow down. I have been trying to convince her IC and OOC to join Spinesreach as she has been very vocal about feeling most at home there and I believe she would have a lot of the freedoms she wants to maintain as far as associations with friends from the opposite tether goes, while also being able to actually gain something from being a part of lessers if she wants to be and have all the other benefits that come with being a part of a city/community.
Avatar of Fyrren drawn by the amazing Sessizlik.
It honestly is probably the best choice for Didi. I adore her but I have to agree that all this is getting out of hand. Nobody else in the game has the ability to go to a lesser and expect to be left alone. Even newbies get ganked if they travel the wrong path during one. Hell, I've been killed for logging in in an area contested. I think if people want Didi to be left alone at lessers if she is there and not participating, it is a mindset that needs to go out to everyone. In my example, I was one person who got ganked by like six or seven. Hell, even one on one I'm barely a small threat. And only if you have a power outage. The entire culture around lessers needs to change to fit everyone rather than just trying to protect one person. But I agree. Path track around contested areas instead of through! Very good!
Mind, I am not saying this is Sryaen's fault and he caused the issue. I am saying that the mindset of players needs to change. You cannot treat one person special while holding everyone else to the same standards.
I'm just saying this is a categorically silly number of times to talk about someone who isn't even participating in the thread and presumably is capable of defending themselves should the need arise.
Anyway pathing around lessers sounds good I'd 100% add it to all my bashing scripts.