Steve wrote:All jest aside, if the main argument against a Caravan System is the furthering or promoting of less PC to PC encounters, then the general paradigm should be to reduce all available Areas to condense RP.
If that is the main argument against the caravan system of some kind, then it is the worst argument I have seen on these forums, and I have made some pretty bad ones myself.
The boat South of Candlekeep allowed us to skip FAI, now you have to trod through it. That is a long winding road with nothing but bunch of buffed up epics that stand still and stare at one other. You cannot even go through the left side of the map anymore. So, let us do a little quick calculation... on how many area transitions you are required to do to complete Maltz' Quest.
Inside his shop to Eastern Baldur's Gate -
one area transition.
Eastern Baldur's Gate to Docks of Baldur's Gate -
two area transitions.
Docks of Baldur's Gate to a cave at the river -
three area transitions.
Cave at the river to area north of FAI -
four area transitions.
Area north of FAI to FAI -
five area transitions.
From FAI to Lion's Way -
six area transitions.
Lion's way to area north of Beregost -
seven area transitions.
Area north of Beregost to Beregost -
eight area transitions.
And then back from Beregost to area north of Beregost -
nine area transitions.
Area north of Beregost to Lion's way -
ten area transitions.
Lion's way to FAI -
eleven area transitions.
FAI to area north of FAI -
twelve area transitions.
Area north of FAI to the small cave with a boat -
thirteen area transitions.
Small cave to BG docks -
fourteen area transitions.
BG docks to east BG -
fifteen area transitions.
Eastern BG to Malt'z Shotp -
sixteen area transitions.
And if each transition takes that 2 minutes on average... you will spent 32 minutes waiting for the next area to load.
This long, long walk just promotes less and less role-play, not to mention how it will produce more server lag since more and more players are forced to concentrate and squeeze through FAI. Personally, I just want to skip the FAI as it currently stands a very unfortunate bottle neck - it rarely has anything to offer to my characters beyond that occasional player merchant willing to haggle and let go of an item at their monetary loss.
Valefort wrote:But ... impromptu RP like that along the trade way happens all the time ?
There is no impromptu RP to be found at FAI. Those who tend to sit at the campfire cannot be shifted two steps without first requesting some DM assistance - and were I to stop talking with someone - it almost always seems to generate some kind of mob around my character. Well, if my character lingers in the area for longer than 20 minutes. You just need one or two people stopping by and suddenly anyone who scrolls the scryign tool sees a concentration of players at FAI and so they rush over.
You know, you kind of know exactly what you will get with FAI RP. So it is not really imprompty.
Steve wrote:I've asked, argued and pleaded for Staff to change the SCRY to be completely off and all PCs hidden, at login. Then, Players wishing to advertise themselves can do so at will.
Asking, arguing, pleading for a change will result in change when majority of players actually choose to hide their locations. But currently, most do not. Then you just need to think of that odd new player or returning old player who wouldn't know to advertise their own need for a party. This server is massive, it is easy to get lost and not find a soul, and things have changed. For example, I just recently discovered where the low level bandits, wolves, and phase spiders are! I have been here long enough to have Flasmix drag one of old characters to Beregost with the 'DMFI follow tool'. By the way, is that thing still on the server?
Anyhow, the people who wish to keep their locations hidden can toggle their locations hidden whenever they need to be hidden.
