How will you act virtuously in SotA?

I think we all realize this game will be watching us, and deciding whether we're acting virtuous or not based on our choices throughout the game.

What will be watched, and what won't be is up to the Devs to implement. This is where we can help out.

In this thread, please list the in-game actions that you feel should effect your avatarhood.

Example:

1. Picking up an item from inside a shop or house should be considered stealing, and therefore, dishonest. Obviously if we are caught, we should get punished by the guards, but whether we are caught or not, I hope the game tracks the unvirtuous action and secretly lowers my 'truthiness'.

2. Running away from a fight to stay alive should only go so far to preserve your virtue. If you zone out of a scene while an enemy is attacking you, that should lower my 'courage'.

3. We need a /meditate emote, and it needs to allow us to 'interact' with certain shrines in the world, allowing us to seek inwardly for guidance and understanding in the virtue that shrine we meditate at represents.

Okay, I took some easy ones. Now it's your turn. What actions you make should affect your virtue?

 

I'm wondering what the effect of pvp combat will have on your virtue status. Looting corpses, healing players, resurrecting good people, resurrecting bad people, all should have some kind of consequence

 

I'm hoping for some solid opinions here. What consequence do you feel should occur durng PvP combat on your virtue, Ravicus?

We have to consider that we don't necessarily know if someone else is 'good' or 'bad', so it would have to be based on our own actions alone, I think. If you heal others on the battlefield, that could be a boon to Compassion. If they added 'death blows' to the game, and you chose to spare your enemies life when it came up, that would be compassion for sure.

Please provide some opinions of how the various PvP tactics might affect our virtue! (if that's your interest).

The way I see it, the more things we think of that get implemented, the more this game will feel alive, like the things we do really make some kind of lasting difference.

 

I would like to see the virtue system tied into quests, leaning to far one way or the other starts to open up quest based how good or evil the game sees you. perhaps even give access to certain areas and or trainers/vendors.

 

I'm kind of at an impasse on this being we do not know anything about the subject hehe. We sure can speculate on what we think though. I would assume that you were un virtuous on the battlefield, you would suffer some kind of stigma from the way the game perceives your pattern of logic. For instance, the game is watching you all the time, and you are not necessarily evil or good but the oracle can track your virtue pattern and maybe give +'s and -'s at times of great variance. Maybe in combat you will regen less or more, or you will heal less or more. Maybe food will buff you less or more. So many little things that could be affected by virtue. Now there in my opinion should be anti virtue status equalization buffs also as to balance the field more. I can see virtuous players getting better service from vendors whereas anti virtuous people might not even be able to use some vendors. But then again, there should be some vendors that only cater to the anti virtuous. I feel I am rambling in no certain direction at this point lol.

 

I hope that healing PKs will be just as bad as PKing itself. And killing PK healers will not be different from killing PKs.

 

Well so far we are all going to straight to hell lol

 

virtues conflict with mechanics in some places. for instance, if i loot the npc soldier corpses at ferig's camp, they respawn faster.

 

Every 1000 dead and wasted (not skinned) animals decreases your virtue.

The Cruel Trophy Hunter Curator Kvow

 

Why would I be virtuous?

 

to go undercover.

 

I've said this before, but I have a feeling the effects of virtue won't come into play much in episode 1. But tracking how virtuous we are (or aren't) will be going on for sure.

So basically, I see episode 1 as taking the place of the gypsy cards in all the Ultimas. Rather than asking us questions of how we would react in different situations during a card reading, I think Episode 1 will put us in those situations for us to react for real, all while the Oracle is watching and recording everything.

Then in Episode 2, when we travel to the next land (where we might finally meet Lord British/Lord Darkstarr), we'll get our 'reading' based on all your actions in Novia.

If I'm right about this, the more actions we think of that we could be making that we feel should affect our 'virtue' in some way, the more accurate that reading will be, and the more realistic it will feel.. are you with me?

 

I've been giving money to beggars. (Which is kind of challenging, because you have to keep answering them until the AI recognizes what you are saying and takes the 1 gold piece.)

Just talking/interacting with the NPCs should count as well I think. Learning their names, giving them yours, listening to their stories...

On an odd related topic - I've always felt sorry for Midge the cat in Owl's Head (the one that used to stand beside the Lunar Rift and is now standing out in the road). I felt that the back-story was that Midge must have been waiting for her owner to come back out of the Rift. But now the Rift is gone. Poor Midge.

Anyway... I tend to stop and "pet" Midge. Someone asked me how you do this - you click on her so she highlights blue, then type "Pets Midge" in parenthesis (Pets Midge). She will meow at you when you do this. As time has gone on, she now (Looks at you) as I approach and meows. Is the AI that advanced? Is she actually recognizing me? I don't know. I do know that the cats randomly (Look at you) as well. But whatever the case, I've taken to stopping and petting the animals as I run past.

 

I've been feeding Midge chickens, and now every time she sees me she does a cartwheel, roars like a lion, and challenges Mojito to a catfight.

 

By just following my own judgement .

When you have the strength to follow your own judgement you can also carry the weight of your actions .

 

I like the idea of tracking actions, but there is certainly a sticky wicket thrown in. I think it is more virtuous to give armor to a player who needs it than a gold to an NPC beggar, but will the game track that? If the person is on my friends list am I now only looking out for my own and not being virtuous? If the person is evil later while wearing my gifted armor am I a bad person for arming them when they started the game?

I would love a game to track intents as well as actions but the darn psychic interface is glitchy. As such, I am with Moonshadow:

The system is not perfect, but being tied to quests makes it more understandable and perhaps less exploitable. I have been in too many games where "Dread Lord of Kitten Squashing Soandso" is a great guy who is a blast to game with and very charitable but "His Eminence the Goodly Kindhearted Suchandsuch" is a real #$$^&%@! I doubt the problem can be solved in any game at this time, but quality quests will help point the way.

 

Remember, physics once 'denied' the possibility of a portable computer. I have to believe this is an easier problem to solve.

 

Well, I bet if anyone can solve it, it's the brains behind this game. As testers, we can hopefully point out the flaws we find as the system is implemented, so they can rework it and make it great before release. ;-)

 

To be more precise.. our knowledge of physics (or lack thereof) may have denied such a thing. The laws of physics themselves have never changed.

 

I was happy to find a beggar in Ardoris which you could give a lump sum (500g) to solve their underlying issue.
Would love if they expanded on this concept.