Game Mechanics Discrimination

[NegInfinity]

It would be nice if people could keep two very important things in mind:

1. There are races other than Drow in the Underdark.
2. Neither surface nor Underdark are equivalent to, say, Nine Hells or Negative Energy Plane.

Because when people keep calculating - in turns, one after another - what should be a blast radiuus, damage dice and energy type of a drow detonating upon seeing the sunlight, how long shoult the countdown take, and what should be the font color used for it... it gets tiresome.

[aaron22]

i think everyone is aware that the UD to a surfacer and visa versa is not the neg energy plane or nine hells. but can we put 1000 illithids at the border in the first room?


oh wait.. think illithids are cr 7 and a anything20/whatever10 can obliterate a million of those. it would take a while though.

yep.. level 30 can go where it pleases in FR. move along..

except maybe... the 88th level of the abyss where demogorgon would put up a pretty good fight.

level 30 toons makes everything weird. its fun. i like it. but its all weird when you take this into account. trying to meld lore with a server built around level 30s and then back to lore. and keeping it fun. gotta consider all this guys.

[Egg Shen]

Max Level = 30 minus ECL.
Then maybe we wouldn’t have Aasimar as the second most common race at bgtscc. Lol.

From a balance perspective, it’s always been absurd that we allow pvp and also allow some races to reach an effective level of 31 or 32. I realize that some aren’t worthy of their ECL status, which could be remedied several different ways, but by granting rare (as determined by FR lore) races a leg up on their less rare counterparts, we were never going to have a setting that looks like it should.

Level-capping ECL races would have the end result of balancing things out and I strongly suspect we’d have a lot less interest in races that are supposed to be rare. They would mysteriously become rare overnight if they provided no advantage over other players.

Additionally, I suspect the UD would attract so few players as to finally get repurposed once and for all.

[aaron22]

the advantages to being human far outweigh the ecl "bonus". this is very much likely the reason why being a human is so far out above the other races in numbers.

[Egg Shen]

And yet not nearly as high as it should be given the setting...

[aaron22]

and wizards are not powerful enough when compared to the books. but we are playing a game here and there has to be some sort of balance. maybe it would be a fun game if everyone played a level 30 human wizard.. all 88 online. human wizards. sign me up.

2 builds.. wanna play good build or evil build?

[adobongmanok]

Since it is "lore-wise" acceptable to have many surfacers running around in the Uppderdark which is considered Underdark,

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Upperdark

It was here where the surface dwellers and those in the Underdark most often meet.

It is lore appropriate.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Soubar

It is also lore appropriate to have UD races in Soubar. Doesn't explicitly say UD races on the citation, but it sure does seem fit the setting to have them roam around Soubar.

[Tekill]

I thought I locked this thread!?
Wonder what happened....
….well I drank to much whiskey messed up this years taxes and then tried to drunkenly to post on this thread.
Okay then, I'm back, I'm sober, my taxes are still screwed- so who was taking minutes of what we are talking about here?
Are we just doing this to hear ourselves talk?
I think there was some good points made or issues brought up at least, on both sides of the argument.


Some of us do not like this new mechanic patronizes what us hard working blue collared RP'ers are trying to do.
-Some do not think the mechanic is realistic, that it cant be explained in character.
-Some think we should be allowed to grind where we like, but at that players risk.
-Some feel we should not all be punished because of a few bad eggs. On the flip side, some believe its its not punishment, if its a rule for everyone.

Some of us feel its harder on the UpD & UD players because it marginalizes and alienates what we can do on the server.
-Some people think the UD is too small or too underpopulated and this rule aggravates these issues.
-Some people think the UpD and the UD are the same place and that if the UpD is open to surfacers then a part of the Surface should be open to the UD.

I pointed out that the Svivs are caught in the middle of this and face the biggest double standard. Since they are treated like UD, are still KOS but have their doors wide open to 'all' their enemies above and below. Wont somebody please think of the Svirfneblin?!

Some people think it should be harder to get to through to the other side.

Some people believe that the setting of the UD needs to be reevaluated. Quite a few people actually- but in many different ways, including axing it altogether.
-Some people blame and do not generally like drow RP.
-Some people believe that evil is bad.

Some people believe there is a connection to grinding on the 'other side' and PVP abuse.

Some people think the mechanic is a logical solution to stop players from Grinding the 'other side'.

Some people think that since there are more players on the surface that they should have more area and freedoms.

Some think there will be drow tea parties sex orgies if we let the underdarkers onto the surface. (I made up the sex orgy part). But some feel its unrealistic for one side to be able to travel to the other.

Some folk say that allowing us to go to the server ruins the chance for RP down in the UD.

Some people feel the rules are the rules. So suck it! - Just kidding! The rules were put in place for good reasons....accept for level 30s – who are allowed to break rules because they are all bad asses!

Some people think drow (but not svirvs naturally) should lose there spell resistance on the surface.
I think the UD RP has been a lot of fun and I feel I have been part of a great bunch of players down there. I think that a lot of the issues we are dealing with on the surface also happen in the UD, but maybe with differ

I think there is actually a lot of gray area over what should happen what could happen and what will happen on the 'other side', or if we include the UpD then, all three sides. This differing of opinion seems quite polarized.

But trust me, it is a good thing- it emulates life- which is basically what we are trying to do with our RP. Life is chaotic.....and so are the drow, coincidence?

((Some political scientists argue that polarization requires divergence on a broad range of issues based on a consistent set of beliefs. Others argue polarization occurs when there are stark partisan or ideological divides, even if opinion is polarized only on a few issues. /Wikipedia))

[Invoker]

I fully agree with Aspect of Sorrow at this point on what we should do with the UD

for the ZERO that it is worth. i agree as well

I worked my ass off to give my contribution in building up the place back in 2011, with 5 dedicated players (I was one) and zero DMs. In fact, I took up DMing too after about a year (6 factions + requests, 5-6 events x week, daily responses to PMs, full control and full responsibility) to make sure it took off and new and old players alike had a chance to shape the world with their RP down there.

What I think "you" (?!?!?!) should do, is what I do: either play there, DM there, or shut the (do-me) up.

I'm on my Drow 6 days a week, following my own advice.

These type of threads are pissing off all the serious players out there, and not only those with stakes in the UD. There was a time, the staff thought this was important, and to be avoided with the utmost care.

[Tsidkenu]

While I appreciate the variety of opinions being presented here, this thread is at its end.

Those players who still wish to express their opinions, for or against, the mechanically-enforced segregation of Surface-UD, I encourage you to make those known to staff directly via PM.

Thank you.