One thing that I don't like about Lusternia is the blanket enemying that has to occur when there are so many conflict quests and mechanisms. I would like to see really 'dangerous' enemies differentiated from those that have done an opposing village quest, or who really aren't going to be running around killing things in the nation.

Thus, since we don't yet have bard guild guards, I'd like to suggest that they function differently from normal guards, along with a new enemy status mechanic. I'm sure there are better words and descriptions for it, but let's call it being declared unwelcome, and being declared a formal enemy.

Elryn has declared you unwelcome in the Collective of Serenwilde for: supporting the Furrikin slave trade.

Now, the difference between being declared unwelcome and being declared an enemy is that if you enter nation-loyal territory it is not considered enemy territory for the purposes of experience loss - but it -does- negate your avenger protection while inside. So while it is unsafe to trespass, its not going to cost you anything more than usual if you are attacked.

The main difference however is that normal guards will not react to your presence at all, only bard (and maybe monk as well?) guards will attempt to deal with you. Rather than attacking on sight, they will instead knock you out and transport you to the boundary of the territory. For example:



So essentially, they entangle unwelcome visitors, who have a 50% chance to writhe out before being knocked out if they are lucky, and then are teleported to a safe place outside the city/commune/village.

This is a much better option for enemying low-levelled people just experimenting with skills and quests, and I think might make the interactions between nations a little less murderous. Anyway, its just a thought.

That's a good idea. (Not sure if it should be the role of bards guards--maybe monk guards).

One thing that has annoyed me about villages is that people treat the villages akin to a "unconditionally surrendered nation", not a "temporary political ally". The truth is more the latter than the former. I don't think just because the Seren hold the territories of, say, Stewartsville that suddenly the beings there follow the religious dictates and cultural dictates of the commune or city.

I never thought I'd agree with you, Tully, but I do like it. A great deal, actually. If they remained for too long, however, have the regular guards rough them up a bit, then teleport them out.

EDIT: None of that. - Mods

mmmm, bard-flavored guards

Sounds like a well-thought-out idea to me, and I like it. Maybe monk guards would take care of this "bouncer" job, and bardic guards could be like aggressive influencers, starting debates with those who enter, attempting to destroy their ego and make them leave the area in shame.

I like. Lots.

I'm glad it's approved!

Edit:

I really like this suggestion too!

We were actually considering not having bards summon guards but rather embed special songs into a room.

Anyway, interesting idea, though not sure we would go that way. It would take some time to implement. One comment is that it seems odd the ancestral spirit would demand that you leave and then tie you up.

Ooh. Do you have plans for monk guards then?

Well, it was only a quick sketch of what could happen, obviously you guys can come up with something much more interesting.

My reasoning was that I actually thought being dragged out room-by-room would be much cooler, but decided it was probably way too hard to code with pathing and such, so teleporting was the more reasonable solution (and being knocked out and dragged 'behind the scenes' was almost as nice a touch).

The problem with that though is that I wanted the player to have a chance to make a decision and react, not have the 'bouncer' guards instantly work every time and have nothing for the player to do about it (or have a chance to fail and just sit there stupidly). That's why I thought maybe if they had to stay in the same location for the 'get out' spell to work, it would allow them to make a response (violently, if they choose), and have a chance of getting past them.

Oh, as an addition if this idea goes through (or just on its own, even), what if formal enemies actually cost power to track?

So say, for every formal enemy (that guards try to kill and totems hit), the nation nexus is drained by 2 power every IC month. Those who are unwelcome would not cost any power - the reasoning could be that it only takes word of mouth to get the bouncer-guards to recognize problems, but to get mystic totems/statues attuned to a person it takes magical energy.

So if you have 200 enemies, you're paying 400 power a month. If you only have 20 enemies, you're paying 40 power a month. It's a way of making sure that enemying isn't done frivolously, or kept overly long.

It also tilts the balance in favour of someone who is genuinely trying to ask for a reprieve. It is in the organizations interest to listen and consider it, not just dismiss it out of hand because they like the power trip. I think in Lusternia it is particularly important to encourage enemy statuses to be fairly easily reversible, because here most of our nation helping quests get you enemied somewhere else by default.

Edit: And this would only count for nation enemies, not guild/clan enemies. Just because otherwise there would be too much doubling up.

Wait, so basically you want to make guard clots unkillable? Because, when combined with totems/statues, that's what these would do.

Guards also should not give writhe afflictions if you can put more than one of them in a room.

How do you mean?

If you're a formal enemy, you obviously wouldn't get entangled/knocked out/teleported.

Totems hit when you enter the room.

If a guard pushes you from the room, you're going to have to re-enter in order to start attacking again.

This means you're going to hit the totem again, and you'll probably get pushed back out before you cure it + attack.

Ahh, if you said that then I missed it. That's fine, then, I guess.

I don't think anyone should be in the business of 'making enemies' and I also think people enemy to lightly at times, or for trumped up reasons. (Not that it happens all the time, but it has happened) I also think the whole "you did one thing to us 2 IRL years ago, and haven't done anything since" is silly.

Just for reference, the numbers of enemies the 4 nations currently have are as follows:

Seren-342, Celest-505, Mag-470, Glom-248

Edit: I'd recommend it only be 1p per enemy per month though, though even 2p wouldn't be that bad when you take into account the whole 'unwelcome' thing, which would cut down drastically on enemies too, so Celest wouldn't be paying 505 per month once they sorted through their statuses.

A problem with this just occurred to me: there wouldn't be anything stopping you from unenemying raiders and declaring them unwelcome, causing the guards to kick them out and making the guards unkillable.

Aye, its a good point. My thinking was that as soon as you attacked a loyal, they would cease to deal with you peacefully, and wouldn't try again while they were 'in combat'. So even if you were unwelcome, you could just kick the guard and try and kill it. Which would obviously then alert the nation as normal.

I would like this better if it were monk guards honestly and then the bard guard option being the songs.

The guards could lock you down and toss you out with the nations weapon of choice.

It does seem to make more sense for monks given the grappling thing.