Suggestions Wanted - Cure for Loneliness

[Ebok]

When you have a limited player-base and that player-base is expected to create conflict with each other, you will always get a divided result. It all boils down to incentives, if you want a certain behavior out of a group of people, make that behavior more fun and rewarding.

There are a number of ways to approach these issues, but each one involves changing one dynamic or another.

If you decide that Lower is not getting enough fresh players to make it an interesting place to be, then provide QUESTS and FACTIONS that would attract and reward players. If you dont have enough players to scatter around in a given area, then create a HUB for all activity for players near that area. If you want Upper and Lower PCs to have conflict, yet both be able to interact without gutting each other, then decrease tensions between upper and lower so that the neutral players that get dropped off in upper feel more free to travel to both settlements. The same goes with nature.

Inspire reasons for conflict, but also inspire reasons for cooperation. When you have groups that oppose each other only sometimes, you get some sweet dynamics that don't always have every conflict ending with one side or the other dead. ANYTIME you have a black and white situation, you're going to see more black and white results. Perfect division doesn't bend well. I suggest not employing it.

A good example of partial division was seen in EFU:O.
The Watch wanted everyone to survive that the city to stay hidden, there was always conflict between them and the attention grabbing seekers. But the Seekers also brought them warning of threat that were coming regardless. Some Watch liked the concept of seeing the surface again, while others just wanted to reform civilization here. (No need for alignment control)
The Seekers wanted to save everyone, they would bust people outta slavery, piss off mighty aberrant, etc, gave people who got here because of them a really good reason to like them. But then they also wanted to fuck the spellguard up, straight up revenge fiction. Then they wanted to get the heck outta the underdark. Sometimes however, the seekers and the spellguards would face mutually assured destruction if they DIDNT work together. (even if it was a competitive cooperation at best)
And the Spellguards managed to piss off the Seekers, and the Watch, and then the seekers. All trying to rebuild the machine and improve their own power and control.

––> My point with the above was that the fact that these factions had reasons to both fight and help the other groups provided a more secure and stable dynamic. Even if eventually that was seen into ruin. Seekers Watch and Spellguard could all yell at each other in a more neutral town square. Lots of interaction. Then add in lower, you had the tigereyes being the spellguards tools, the seekers repping themselves down there, the watch going back and forth from banishment to uneasy truces. Edit: not to mention, that when the tigereyes fell (because they were so black and white conflict) the watch and spellguard both would try to append criminals down there, which only worked sometimes: BUT it provides the server with an extreme information underground where information and misinformation was the name of the game.

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Summation
If you want more interesting conflict, create multiple points of reliance and competition without forcing the straight up death matches. If you want players to enjoy themselves and not be lonely, either don't put them in positions that make it so black and white, or provide them ample recompense for doing so. If you have a divided server, then setup some of the big factions with incentives to work with or aid those outside their current bubble.

• Create Neutral Ground (at least for the biggest of factions)
• Create unstable reliance and competition within the Factions
• Create enough boredom fulfilling games that a loner can do something to pass the time.
• Create centralized hubs that provide meeting places, communication, and fun between MORE then one faction.
• Let player characters have black and white conflicts on an individual basis, do not force those with the NPC factions (but maybe instead... with particular npcs within them).
• Do not support completely isolated concepts that you don't want to see. Support isolated concepts that you do.
• Above all, remove the KILL EM NOW AAAHHHHH motivators. If players see other characters (even their enemies) as a resource (alive~!) that can be valuable to them and their survival somehow, the conflicts will take on a political face with murder in the backalleys rather then all out take it or leave it warfare.

My two cents.

I have about a thousand ways to make these happen, however this isn't the place for that. If anyone wants to chatter with me, send me a pm and I'll find my way to IRC for some discussion.

[Jasede]

Seconding that bit about "Cynosure", I'd like there to be a really neutral-ish place that's not too hard to reach. Maybe a myconoid village, maybe something like the Sleeping P., or like what Fort Mur or even the Blue Mushroom used to be (I remember quite a lot meetings there back in the day). I know some of those may or may not still exist.

Where you can rest, get basic supplies, spawn, without having to worry that the NPCs will murder you for being a .

[Ebok]

There are Three mega-divisions that have interesting factions within them.
LOWER: gangs, revolutionaries, ascessionists, scum;
UPPER: spellguard, watch, society, mortuary, civil groups, machinists, new comers.
OUTSIDE: exiles, monsters, druids.

I strongly recommend that NO ADDITIONAL FACTIONS or locations be added or supported. Simply build with what is here, and allow them to grow towards each other in some ways. For example: Myconids that join the steward faction move into the old canal... allowing a place nearby everyone that nature leaning people might go, or that upper and lower could go to talk under threat of peace. Or a place where some of the conflicts with the Natural can take on a more socio-political role.

[Merrick4]

Hmm... I mentioned this in IRC I think, or somewhere else on here an issue I  believed. It seems that upper PC's, especially more active players have a great advantage over all others due to the population of Upper sanc. It seems like this gives them an unintended advantage, besides any aspects or advantages that were intended in the game creation. This specifically refers to finding quest groups and also being able to play for much longer should they choose.

Personally, I would think about some large IG events to address these issues, a renewed offensive against Lower by Sanctuary, or a ceasefire and some sort of amnesty. I've thought it out and there are many options, whether IG developments or new content or modifications.

I think balance is one of the greatest issues. I tend to almost always be a lot weaker and less geared up in PVP due to less active playing and an aversion to redo quests. I've said in the past that I tire of potion drinking contests as well, which in a way are also sometimes activity or grind contests overall in my perspective.

There's probably a hundred different solutions to get people to want to travel to Lower or other less active zones... It's good to see discussion and DM's deciding what might be the favored solution. I was thinking of a preponderance of content in and near the In-Between perhaps.

[The Band Played On]

I mentioned the following before, but it got drowned out by this thread, so I'm reposting:

Salvage Buyers:
Scrapper NPCs who buy parts from animatrons and other things found within the Machine, so that Lower PCs can delve into the Machine with a greater purpose.

Rothe Meat Buyers.
Lower needs food, having an NPC who accepts rothe meat (as one does in Upper) would make great RP sense and be useful for PCs who can't access Upper.

Map Quest:
Rather like the Wyrm Watcher one in EfU:M where an NPC sends you to a certain area to map it. The NPC could be in the Cathedral of Ascension, since it fits the whole Seeker motif that’s present there.

Random NPC Merchants:
Similar to how Sis Liman used to be, where you’d have various merchants show up, different ones each reset. Of course these would have a EfU:R/Lower motif. Scrappers, Sewertown Folk, Causril Commune Traders, perhaps even wandering merchants from outside Dunwarren who decided to sell their unique wares in Lower from time to time.

[TheTurboNerd]

I agree with the above post and i'm surprised how with scrappers about, there aren't salvager buyers already.

Also, being poor and hungry, wouldn't Lower accept meat of all kinds?

Because I've got all this great lizard meat that weighs a ton...

[Howlando]

As a quick fix (with more to come) I've added animatron part and rothe collection to NPCs in Lower. Less gold, more XP.

[goate]

Love you Howland.  This will give me something to motivate new Scrappers - My PC can show them how to scrap, and they can be rewarded for it.  :D