Should SoTA have jail(s)/prison(s) for player characters?

What about abandoning them in the ethereal plane locked up in the shrine of spirituality. They will have time to meditate for the penance. lol

 

Unless you could break out!!

 

Very similar to Freedom Mountain in U7 Serpent Isle where the prisoner gets sent to some dungeon and has to earn his/her freedom by finding a way out.

 

That would be a possible scenario too I guess. They did that in SI with the dungeon Freedom as well. I'm not sure I would take that route though.. at least not more than once. To just drop someone in that kind on dungeon I would say you'd need to escape X number of prisons first. Then they stick you someplace like Freedom of the Abyss in Underworld I. Thinking about it I rather like the idea of such a place being almost a hideout for organized crime scenarios. Still making it very difficult to get out mind you.

 

If there were a prison in this game, you would most probably have to escape the prison, and get back to the surface, by going through the caverns of the Underworld.

 

That may be an unlikely scenario. One problem with the dungeon or island prison is.. what happens to you when die? Depending on how death is handled. I suppose it's a potential issue with any prison really. If you die do you 'resurrect' in the prison or elsewhere? I'd hate for death to be used as an easy escape path.

 

I would love to see prisons and jails in the game. I say that despite our lack of information on virtues or PvP or whatever. I say that simply from a single player gameplay experience, as it's another interesting environment for quests, puzzles and exploration. If they want to wrap another core system around it (PvP) then even better!

 

I hope no one was thinking I was completely against a jail/prison system in game. I just want it to actually fit into the game and be interesting for the players that might go there. I don't want it to be some place where it gets repetitive and boring to go there, or a place that just locks someone up there for a certain amount of time with nothing to do but stare at a wall (thus taking away time they could be playing the game). I voted 'No' just because I can't really see a such a system in place right now.

But, there are ideas that people are bringing to the table that sound like fun. It is just bring those ideas to life that might be the hard part. Ideas are sometimes the simplest things to have, but writing out and detailing the complete system you want and then bringing it to life and making it interesting is hard. I wonder if someone can actually write up a completely detailed plan on the system they would like to see implemented. Fitting in with the game of course. Of course with so little information still known it might be hard to write up a plan on how to implement the system in very much detail.

 

Hehe, as an aside- who thought that "Oh, let's throw him into the most dangerous place possible that we can think of, and if they make it out alive then they are forgiven!" was ever a good idea? If anything, this seems to me like a training ground for Dark Overlords. The ones that keep coming out alive will be the ones that will eventually take over the world

 

I don't think it would be that hard to implement something along these lines.

 

i remember being jailed in UO...

placing a house half on the water wasnt allowed....

i just placed it on some fish steaks... not on water.. house placed..
hehehehe

fun times...

And Yes. why not jail bad naugty pk's !!! let em work off their time with jobs that devs dont want to do. like cleaning up stuff

Or let them go mine in caves, and then craft stuff, that sells for cheap to good and honest players. so those players get some small "advantage" by being able to buy cheap gear/stuff crafted by the hard working pk's..

hahaha

 

I dont know if its realistic to have jail or prison that is actually "FUN" for someone who murders other players. I played a private UO server where after 5 murder counts you had, upon dying, a choice lose stats or go to an interesting prison themed island. So what I would do, is go right out and murder 5 people just to check the place out. Kinda strange if you think about it.... jail isnt supposed to be fun. If im seeking it out for fun, the character im playing sure isnt. Only reason I do willingly get locked up in a jail in a role playing game is to experience content in the game. If game content is unlocked by murdering other players it will probably encourage PKing, even if the victim really has nothing to loot!
I am all for a very interesting jail/prison them QUEST in this game, not "CONSEQUENCE". I think there could be very interesting PvE and PvP themed prison and jail quests. A jail quest that even the most virtuous avatars may end up in if there in the wrong place at the wrong time. It shouldnt be something that you know is coming or that your seeking out, just another thing that is part of the game. Imagine this scenario: A robbery takes place, and YOU the Admirable lord Avatar are seen walking down the street as the real criminal has gotten away. The shopkeeper points YOU out to the guards saying "thats him! thats HIM! Guards get him!" because you just happened to customize your character's facial features that resembled the real crook. Imagine where we can go from here. Your avatar was always a good person at heart, now your forced to play the game through the prison/court system to prove your innocence, and along the way defend yourself against some rough, tough thug inmates. Your fighting skills and strength may improve in this quest and you learn some decent stealthing skills, and some other things that usually only criminals know that help you out later in the game once you prove your innocence and are released. You might come out with a more muscular appearance..... maybe even a few scars and tatts, but now your the Amirable Lord Avatar who was falsley accused, picked up some new skills and strengths crushing stones and brawling with brutes like a criminal thug. And now that everyone knows your innocent your not just the nice guy who finishes last anymore. Your a nice guy with the power of a brute!

 

I vote YES for jail but only as an option. I would like to see a system where a criminal breaking the law and get caught by guards gets different options for his penance: To pay a fine (not cheap please!), bribe the guard (random agreement) or get lock in jail.

The system I suggest should work for a 24 hours period. 1st time you get caught in that period, you do 15 minutes jail time. 2nd time, 30 minutes. Then it would be no more then 1 hour each additional time. Fine should increase the same way. Eventually, if you get caught too many times you should be condemned to the gallows!! After you rez you are a free man again. I'm sure a lot of people would love to see their character get the head cut by the guards but it would take hours and a lot killing and time wasted to do so.

Escape options: Friends get in the jail and get you free by killing the guards. Tough job but it should be doable at high cost since they could all go do jail themselves. I also love the Stygian Abyss idea! To access the dungeon, you need to break free with lockpicking or by forcing the gate with stat lost. If you do, you wander around in the dungeon towards the Stygian Abyss. There should be a rez point in the dungeon so if you die you dont spawn back in your cell or outside as a free man.

 

Hey I'm all for having fun, and if prisons are fun and some people are interested in becoming a PK because they want to experience the prison experiences and gain the rewards, nefarious titles, and whatever else... that's totally fine with me.

 

I don't think they should be fun if they are in game...it should be a punishment for a game choice they made and used as a deterrent. Of course this means there play style gets changed fora bit.

 

Even if going to prison is a fun game experience, you would be giving up other things in the game for being a criminal. So lets say you'd escape jail; you'd be an outlaw and would have trouble getting into cities. Then, hopefully they'd also make living as an outlaw a challenge and not easy.

I don't think that would create more PKers. It'll attract people who are committed PKers anyway, but do it for role-playing, so don't mind role-playing the part of a criminal. But it won't attract people who PK just out of boredom and lulz.

 

I think you contradict yourself: how is being sentenced to a virtual jail functionally different than being suspended?

 

We can throw rotten fruit at toons in jail! (just having fun)

 

Well, one is a game mechanic and the other is the restriction on the account based on activities that violate the TOS that result in time being taken away. Sort of hard to see myself being contradictory when the mechanics that involve the two are completely different wouldn't you say? One involves playing the game and having a in-game function restricting access to the game based on play style. The other involves knowingly violating rules....

Edit: And yes, I know both involve taking away time from the player. What I am talking about is the reason involved in the time taken away, not the process of jail vs. suspension. Obviously the jail vs. suspension take time away from a player, but the reason for the time taken away from a player is different.

 

there could be things you can do in jail as well, like break rocks, dig fix up things, thats mining, carpentry and planting, there could be a key hidden in the dirt that allows you to escape through a tower, you could have arena like pvp there, there is so much you could do in jail to still gain, someone can bail you out theres lots of options, then of course if you pk'd someone youd have to get caught by guards, or other players, have a public court hearing and sentencing! so many things you could do to make it fun! If only people thought outside the box and opened their minds! all that works just fine in other mmo/mmorpgs! and it involves the general public as well, if a pkr goes to sentencing everyone get a note in the chat system and you could go to that courtroom and participate in the hearing and vote innocent or guilty, and majority rules! then the funniest thing would be when the pkr got out he hunted you down and pkd you again! All that covers playing with other players and involving them in the world at hand! Like i said it would work well, if you get caught by a pk-hunter, or guard. but if you dont get caught then you dont pay the price! there you go real world play! Which works perfect in other games!