Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Morningstar

Pages: 1 ... 12 13 [14]
196
BM General Discussion / Re: Exotic realm cultures
« on: July 09, 2011, 09:50:07 AM »
Are there any evil realms out there? Other than Outer Tilog of course, I haven't really seen an truly evil heartless realm. Is there no one man enough to loot, pillage and torture, just for looting and torturing sake? A realm that maybe possibly rewards people based on assassinations and truly heartless acts.

I can kinda see that any realm like this would find itself with many enemies fast.

Arcachon started out that way.  Sort of.  Looking back, I kind of regret overthrowing Tom (playing as "Tanaziel", I believe) and his bumbling, patsy ruler character as quickly as we did.  But once the initial rebellion was over, we were straight up mean for awhile. 

Strategically picked the island specifically for it being easily defensible and we created an "us vs. the world" mentality where rape, loot, and pillage was the name of the game.  Anyone within striking distance was a raiding target and we made lots of enemies very quickly.  And the roleplay to go with it was ridiculous at times how twisted and demented it could get.  Headed by Seraphina (world-renowned assassin dubbed "The Angel of Death") with her psychological warfare that forced other rulers to adopt otherwise unthinkable tactics and politics in order to fight back, and Malus ("The Overlord") whose atrocities, warcrimes, and civil rights violations would make communist China blush.  Now that I think about it, if The Dark Knight's Joker ruled a realm in BM, it would have been old school Arcachon.

Outside of that, I remember Svunnetland Empire being a Roman Empire-styled realm.  The ruler eschewed the "King" title (prior to custom titles) and was referred to as Caesar, and all the Dukes formed the Senate, who had voting rights on nearly all things pertaining to the realm as a whole.  Was kinda fun and really worked with the whole "decadent empire falling apart at the seams" idea that FEI started out with.

197
Roleplaying / Re: Ex Cineribus Resurgam
« on: July 08, 2011, 08:13:28 PM »
In the library of the Morningstar estate, two men speak in hushed tones.  The Lady Arella and her small entourage had arrived earlier that morning.  She had spent the past few hours exploring the grounds and was now cleaning up to officially present herself to the duchess.  There had been a few trouble patches since their arrival, but they believed most of what was uncovered thus far would only serve to build new memories.

Why is this estate so large and how have I come to own it? Your family was once very prominent in the realm.  Everything in it they have left to you.  Why are there so many guards stationed here?  Your family was once very prominent in the realm.  It is a sign of respect that they have protected the grounds from those who would wish it ill.  Who is... was... my family?  Where are my parents?  Sadly, the two of us know very little of them and they have since passed on from this life.  What's with all the angel symbology and art?  Lady, this land is named after the Aenil- the angels.  Everything about the realm revolves around this mythos... or truth.  Who is Helios?

Well, they couldn't assume it would all go without a hitch.

"...balance,"  Gibral continues.  "We know our roles, and that is to maintain the balance in this world.  Yes, she may be one of us, but this is the path she has chosen and we cannot push too hard in our attempts to 'aid' her."

Mikil sighs.  Gibral was right.  Often when the two disagreed, Gibral was the one who didn't quite get it.  But not this time.  "I'm sorry, my friend.  You are absolutely correct.  I know the danger of upsetting the balance.  It is why we had to take her the first time."

He stands up and walks to the large picture window, opening it slightly for some fresh air.  The cold, brittle ground was finally beginning to thaw but winter, as always, had done its damage.  The earth was by all accounts dead- awaiting the touch of what was promised to breathe new life into its roots.  Spring was not far off.  But for now, hope seemed a distant dream. 

A slight breeze hits his face and ruffles some nearby books that were left open on the table.  The air is crisp.  Refreshing and yet jarring.  He turns around to face his friend.

"What is she hoping to accomplish, Gibral?  She never quite made that clear to us.  Why start over?  And why now?"

Before the man-at-arms is allowed a chance to answer, a scream erupts from Arella's chambers.  Swords drawn, the two men rush out of the library and down the hall.  Neither of them notice the parchment that flutters out of one of the books and comes to rest on the floor.

198
If there is one thing Arcachon is known for it's characters having an all consuming passion which robs them of reason.

That's kind of our bag, especially when it contributes to the whole Island being a half-savage madhouse.

Always has been Arcachon's one good trick ever since its inception, with its first two rulers driven quite literally to the point of insanity.  Glad to see others are following gleefully in our footsteps.

199
Far East Island / Re: Reviving the South
« on: July 07, 2011, 09:27:49 AM »
From what I've heard people in the south have painted themselves into a corner. To start a war many of the rulers would basically need to do something that goes against their established characters. There also doesn't seem to be a big enough dissident group in any of the realms to stage a take over and shake things up. What we need is for someone to just go insane and get things started.

Does a reincarnated original FEI realm founder slash self-declared deity returning to the realm who betrayed her and her people count as a shake up?

200
Far East Island / Re: Reviving the South
« on: July 07, 2011, 09:24:57 AM »

Tom never had a problem with Batesaor before.  To be honest, PoZ and Batesaor were two of the coolest concepts of the nascent FEI.  Arcaea was rather vanilla and boring.  Funny how things have played out. :D

Our initial dive into what would become Arcachon /Mazdragul with Seraphina and the Overlord was quite fun.

201
Roleplaying / Re: Ex Cineribus Resurgam
« on: July 07, 2011, 08:29:22 AM »
The three ride in silence for a time.  Arella doesn't remember much about these men, but she knows enough to be certain that with such a direct question, they would provide an answer in time.  The deep greens of the forest have finally ended and they are beginning to climbing a series of small rolling hills.

She smooths the leggins of her riding gear and cocks her head toward Gibral.  Finally, he capitulates.  "Lady, we have all been to Idapur.  You just don't..."

"You just don't remember, is all," finishes Mikil quickly.  He taps his head.  "Amnesia, remember?"

"Ah yes, that again," she sighs.  But the draw of the city.  The name of the city.  Everything about it makes her heart ache.

Gibral notices it first.  "M'lady, is that a tear I see?"

He reaches over to brush it away but Arella wipes at it fiercely before he is able.  Crying?  About a city she can't even remember?  How absurd!  Still...

"Lieutenant, why is it that I know of this Idapur?"  She stares directly at Mikil now.  "What sway does it hold over me?"

"I cannot say, m'lady."

Her eyes flash afire.  "You cannot? Or will not."

"I cannot," he repeats.  Gibral on the other side shifts nervously.

"On whose grounds?" she demands.  "Am I not your superior?"

Pulling at his hair, Mikil replies, "Yes, m'lady.  But we were specifically instructed to avoid these discussions.  You must be allowed to discover the truth on your own."

The woman's greenish-blue eyes flare once again.  "Mikil, I order you to tell me who has given you such instruction.  Tell me at once who would try to suppress my learning of my own past."

Mikil stares back at her in grim, determined silence.  After a moment, however, she hears a voice behind her.  Gibral.

"It was you, Lady Morningstar.  You gave us the command."

Arella whirls around, copper red hair flipping with the movement.  Her heart begins to pound frantically, as if attempting to leap out of her chest.

"Gibral.  Tell.  The men.  To stop."  She speaks slowly and deliberately.  "We are not going any further until the two of you tell me who I am and exactly what is going on."

Arella, who had turned and was now nearly facing whence they came, was the last of the three to notice the rider approaching.

"Good day, gentlemen. Lady," he offers as he nears.

Still steaming, the woman merely nods to Mikil, who speaks up.  "And a good day to you as well.  What news?"

The man faces Mikil.  "Sir the duchess has instructed that all knights-to-be must be escorted into the city and offered the opportunity to rest and clean up before their ceremony.  I am said escort."

He gestures to Arella and then to the city, now visible in the distance.  "Shall we?"

With an almost imperceptible nod, the woman starts toward Idapur, as if iron drawn to the lodestone.  The questions would have to wait.  For now.

202
Roleplaying / Re: Ex Cineribus Resurgam
« on: July 07, 2011, 05:01:54 AM »
A messenger arrives during dinner. Mikil speaks briefly to him before returning to the tent. He exchanges looks with the man who apparently is serving as her man-at-arms before returning to his seat. The man-at-arms, who had introduced himself as Gibral, gave a nod to the others in attendance. One by one they cleared out and left the three alone.

"M'lady," Mikil began, "Things have begun to move a little faster than we had anticipated. We are uncertain that you are ready."

"Ready for what, Mikil? Who is it outside?" she asked.

Gibral speaks now. "He is a messenger from the Duchess of Idapur. She is offering an oath of fealty for Arella Morningstar to become her knight."

Mikil continues, "How they've found us is uncertain. We believe that perhaps the peasants and lesser nobles in the area have begun to spread rumors which have proliferated to the capital city."

Idapur. Something about the name stirred her soul. A great warming and brokenness all at once flooded the woman. Arella, at least she presumes this is her name, looks puzzled. "Am I not a knight of the realm and you are my entourage? Why should an oath of fealty be any worry to you?"

Mikil and Gibral exchange looks. Finally, Mikil replies, "It is not a worry to us. The timing just isn't quite what we'd expected. If you are ready to swear, let us inform the messenger and we shall ride to Idapur."

Arella looks at both of them for a long while, deep in thought. As she turns to find the messenger, Mikil adds, "if m'lady believes she is ready, then we will follow you. To hell and back, if necessary."

The tent flap falls before she hears Gibral add, "...we already have."

*****

Arella overhears hushed chatter behind her on the road.

"I definitely do not remember the trip taking this long. Are you sure we didn't miss a turn somewhere?"

"Gibral, are you really questioning my sense of direction. Or my memory, for that matter? The city is just up ahead."

"Just? Scouts say we've only neared the halfway point!"

The young woman slows her horse and settles in beside the two warriors. Their conversation stops immediately and they try changing the subject. Gibral asks about the weather and Mikil comments on her skill in the saddle- that surely she must have had some training earlier in life. Eventually she turns a sly smile to her lieutenant.

"Oh? And have we also been to Idapur earlier 'in life'? I believe we must have, judging by the way the two of you have been babbling on for the last twenty minutes."

"Yes," Gibral replies from her other side.

"No," Mikil answers at the same time. They look at each other.

"No," Gibral shifts in the saddle.

"Yes," Mikil does the same. Then together they offer, "It's complicated."

"Well then, seeing as how the city is apparently getting further away and not closer, I imagine we have plenty of time." She grins at them. "Do continue."

203
Roleplaying / Ex Cineribus Resurgam
« on: July 07, 2011, 05:00:50 AM »
It is such a disconcerting thing, to wake up not knowing who you are or where you've been. But such was the case this afternoon as the young woman awoke. Whatever was she wearing armor for? And this crudely fashioned sword at her him gave her little more comfort.

Drawing it slowly, she sliced delicately through the air and found- to her surprise- that while her mind may be saying she was unfamiliar with the situation, her body seemed to know exactly what it was doing. Hearing a noise behind her, she spun round. Bringing a fist up for defense, she lunged toward the noise with her sword-arm as a man only barely avoided being run through.

"Steady now, m'lady," the man said. His voice was calm. Soothing. And altogether nonplussed at having been the target of a near disembowelment. Instead, he bowed low and spoke again.

"My Lady Morningstar, I see that you have awakened with vigor. Perhaps today is the day?"

Wholly off-guard and not actually entirely awake, the woman lowered her weapon slowly and replied, "I know not of whom you speak, what you speak, who you are, or if we're both being completely honest, who I am."

His head dropped slightly. "Ah. It is to be this again. Well, m'lady, I am Mikil, your ever faithful lieutenant and friend. And you are the Lady Morningstar. I fear you have been suffering from a nasty bit of amnesia. Every couple of weeks, it reverts to this condition once more and we lose all progress we had made, including new memories you might have made in the interim." He paused, watching her face closely. "But come, it is nearly dinner time."

The man, Mikil, turned and walk back down the hill toward a small cluster of tents. Amnesia.

And here she was hoping for a more original explanation as to why she seemed to have forgotten everything. Including her first name. Surely it wasn't "Lady".

*****

With a deep breath, the young woman steps into the camp. She is very aware of all the eyes following her every move. They quickly avert elsewhere when she attempts to make eye contact with anyone, and the glances turn to whispers as she passes.

She reaches a particular tent where Mikil has stopped. It is no larger than the others, though slightly more decorative. Painted on the door is an unusual looking crest and as it catches her eye, she realizes it's been a recurring image throughout the camp.

Pausing, she asks, "Whose crest does this bear? And what does it symbolize?"

Mikil breathes before responding. "M'lady selected this after a peculiar dream some months back. It is... fitting."

Without another word, the lieutenant walks into the tent, letting the flap fall back down to leave the single broken silver wing on a deep purple field staring at her.

204
BM General Discussion / Re: Titan System Revalation
« on: July 07, 2011, 12:29:28 AM »
I realize I'm way late to the conversation.  I also realize that I've been away from the game for what I'm guessing is nearly 3 years.  (Actually, just found the resignation email I sent- September 2008.)  But I guess either we never fully had discussion on the subject back then or time away has given me some new thoughts and I figured I'd share them now.

1) Let me start by mentioning to those who don't know or remember, that I was one of the original Titans.  I say this for two reasons.  One, I hope it gives a little credibility knowing I've been on the "other side", but mostly I think it maybe points out a flaw we always (at least used to) have with the system.  Unless things have changed, the Titans were always "anonymous" and their identities as players were kept secret.  Some were a little more vocal than others and it was clear that they were a part of the group, but for the most part, there was never any official, public list stating who was a part of the team.  Thus, any efforts at transparency within the system died a horrible death at its onset.

There was certainly good reason for such anonymity, especially during the project's infancy.  Any action taken by a newly formed, untrusted body to police and harness rulebreaking was taken as an attack, or at least an affront, on a person or said person's character.  So not knowing who it was who cast "judgment" on you was safer for the Titans, who feared unfair retribution.  However, as I look back now, this certainly caused more harm than good.  There is, and has always been, a strong emphasis on the fact that the Titans are not above other players.  The players behind those accounts are not more important, more vital, and do not carry more authority than anyone else in the system.  What they were, however, were individuals who were willing to volunteer their time and efforts, as well as being people Tom himself knew to be trustworthy.

But the opinion of the general populous never really swayed toward them.  Mistrust and claims of "the Titans are out to get me" or "the Titans are only supporting their characters and their friends with unfair advantages" were prevalent and I doubt those have fully gone away.  The biggest, most simple answer in terms of trust is this: Titans should not be anonymous.  If you want transparency at the bottom and the entire system to be trustworthy, transparency must start at the top.

2) Titan actions have always seemingly come from out of nowhere.  As Tom has mentioned, this needs to be curbed.  Both accuser and accused should receive official in-game notifications at every step along the way.  First, when a complaint is received, detailing the complaint itself.  Second, when a complaint is accepted or rejected (along with rejection explanation to both players involved).  Third, when a decision has been reached, again with explanation on the decision to both players.  Transparency includes keeping people updated on progress, whether good or bad.  It also allows the accuser to know whether their complaint is being dealt with in a timely fashion- something I know we had issues with from time to time early on.

3) Once a decision has been reached, both the accuser and the accused should receive a notification upon logging into the related characters and be given a series of followup options that must be addressed before playing said character again.  Something as simple as "Accept Decision" or "Appeal Decision" with, once again, space to provide explanation/apology/affirmation/whatever.  That "option" probably should not be optional either, now that I think about it.  This provides space for feedback from the two players involved.  It's a good initial gauge on how the situation was handled and also is a simple way to make sure both parties full acknowledge the decision instead of simply ignoring a "slap on the wrist".

4) Regarding transparency within the community, I don't think that having the playerbase be a part of making the decision is wise, for many of the reasons stated by others, but also because of expediency.  If you open things up to discussion, they could drag on until the dawn of time if some of you get ahold of it- I still remember many of you quite well.  ::)

Instead, what I would recommend is to have the final decision made public. This does two things.  One, it establishes precedent for all to see and should encourage equal decisions for equal infractions across the board.  As a result, players find out that everyone is being treated fairly and with no special treatment.  The second thing this allows for is open discussion after the fact, so that both the Titans and the players can learn from the interaction and better move forward.

5) Multi-account accusations should be made into a separate option, plain and simple.  Everyone has already excluded it from the other suggestions made, and it should probably be established by in-game mechanics that there's a difference too.  Furthermore, if it doesn't bog down the servers too awfully much, it might be prudent to set some rolling multi-checks- both inter and intra-realm.  (Say for instance, Colonies today could have a Lukon-Assassins check and also check inside each of those realms.  Next day could have OT-Giblot, etc.)  System could be automated, I'd imagine, fairly easily to alert the Titans when a relatively high match score turns up and they can take over from there.  I know when I had the time on my hands as a Titan, I would occasionally do "random" checks on questionable accounts and was surprised how many hits I sometimes got.  Automating as much of the checking process as possible should help with the time constraints and also will cut down on how many are floating out there.

6) If you want to have an "expanded pool" of trusted people to help the process, while also adding another layer to the community involvement, have a larger group simply in charge of expediting complaints.  I spent some time briefly as an expediter with ChaCha and the whole job was to filter out questions, categorize them, and pass them along to the proper places.  This idea could be used similarly here.  For example, bring in a group of 20-30 people whose sole job is to filter out and accept or reject complaints.  If, after 10 or more votes are cast, a (approve)- b (reject) > 0, it's passed along to the Titans.  Likewise, if a (approve)- b (reject) < 0, the complaint is rejected and it never moves on to the Titans.

Oh, and... it's good to be back.  :P

205
BM General Discussion / Re: Looking for a Map Editor
« on: July 06, 2011, 07:31:29 PM »
The older Civ Editors had the option to turn off animation, which eliminated the issue of moving water and the like (also helped with your older machines to be able to run it).  Do the newer editors not have the same option?  I mean, you'd have to screen shot while in the editor and stitch it together from those, but I doubt that's too unreasonable.

Pages: 1 ... 12 13 [14]