Spring Telethon of the Avatar 2017 Missed Questions

After you died they could mock you on the way to the Ankh.

 

We're talking about a simple matter of data entry on maybe 3 entries.. you could probably do it in less than 5 minutes.

There's a big difference here between going out.. killing a troll.. and eating it's head (trolls in SotA used to be human btw ) and putting a potion in a new character's back and letting them assume what is..or isn't in it. In your case, you know what you're doing.. new players don't know what they're doing.

 

Actually, this isn't entirely true. Ultima fans may recall speaking with ghosts a number of times. The spirits of the dead would pass on into the Void. While this isn't taking a position on a real life afterlife.. it is establishing a form of afterlife (or elusion to) which is relevant to the original question. Which relates to the SotA world and not the real one. As can go back as far as Ultima IV and find a talking skeleton in the ruins of Magincia.

 

How are you determining they are human? Right now, you are literally transported from earth to another planet (according to the introduction). Some of the beings on the planet clearly appear to be humans, but it could simply be parallel evolution. We certainly have yet to invent interstellar space travel, etc. In addition, you're talking about the waste products of bacteria that have consumed the corpse. Your argument falls a lot into the lines that you shouldn't eat plants because the soil they get fertilized from may have derived from the natural decomposition process of humans. I would note that in plenty of countries (including the United States), plants are fertilized with treated human feces. So any time you are eating vegetables and fruit, you are essentially engaging in the process of consuming items that come from the by product of the human waste process. http://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/stink-human-poop-fertilizer/

I would say the strongest argument against corpse wax being present in a potion is simply this:

"Adipocere is a crumbly, waxy, water-insoluble material consisting mostly of saturated fatty acids"

Since it cannot dissolve into water, its use in a potion is highly suspect.

 

Their creation is explained in the prequel novel. Trolls, elves, satyrs and fauns were all human once. Or in the very least descended from them. They were created from humans by the Obsidians to be used in the Obsidian war.

 

Not quite. By this reasoning it should be ok to just eat humans but there is a big difference here in what stage of the process we're talking about. By the time you get through plants it's been completely broken down and processed into something else entirely. But a by product of decomposition taken directly and bypassing that natural process entirely is something else.

Going to remember that one.

 

There's even something called... The Well of Souls... if we're talking about whether there are references to 'souls' in the Ultima universe

 

I really wish there was an "ignore thread" feature, because I'd really like to ignore this thread now.

 

If you stop reading the thread, it'll stop alerting you after a bit

 

Maybe... if new players are so very concerned about what is in their potions given to them by strangers in a new world...They should research it before drinking it...

It's not very good RP to just accept the truth of everything in a world you've never been to before. Heck... most people won't even drink tap water from their own faucet anymore. You would drink a strange red colored magical potion labeled "heal"?

 

Half the point.. why should they be? Why suspect there's anything in there but goodness like they imagine from every other gaming experience. They have no reason to suspect anything might be amiss. You only find out after the fact when you learn about the recipes.

You can argue it's not very good RP to suddenly start casting spells or pick up a weapon and walk out the gate and start killing stuff either. If you're playing according to what the game tells you.. that you are YOU from Earth.. most of us would be screaming "get me the hell out of here I want to go home!"

 

Sounds like they will merely learn from the experience and not be so trusting of strangers.

 

A little people flesh never killed anyone. Particularly fictional people flesh.

If you read a book not knowing your favorite character would turn out to be a child rapist, would you feel offended the author didn't warn you? Isn't roleplaying about playing the role and reacting to what happens around you? You want them to change the game to suit your role.

 

We're not reading a book and we're not watching a movie where all the characters are controlled by someone else and you're just passively watching things happen.

Nice universal catch all argument that can literally be applied to any suggestion made by anyone. Except that it has absolutely nothing to do with the role one decides to play.. (assuming one decides to play a role at all).

So.. what is about the subject that you actually care about? What argument would you make that this particular feature be left as is as opposed to a slight change that wouldn't alter gameplay for anyone? Or are you just making an argument because you can't see why someone would care because you don't?

 

Well I do think murder is morally reprehensible.

 

I think I just figured it out for you. Since these starting potions and loot table potions are "poofed" as you put it. We have no possible way of knowing they actually contain said corpse wax. Devs could if they wanted simply state "these potions do not contain corpse wax" and your problem would be solved.

 

My alternate suggestion would be to just add some dialogue in the intro about them being made with corpse wax. Then the new player can have a choice.

 

Sorry to interrupt this fascinating conversation about corpse wax, but I do have a crafting question for @DarkStarr that didn't seem to be asked during the Spring Telethon or in the R38 PostMortem Missed Questions:

Lao Tzu: Is there any possibility of increasing the number of choices for enchantment and masterworking from three at lower levels to four at GM levels?

I brought up this topic in an earlier post and included some of the math behind the change, but I never heard any follow-up from the devs. I would really appreciate an answer to this question, at least to know whether it's being considered or not. Thanks!

On another crafting-related item:

I addressed this issue in more detail in the R39 Feedback form.

- Lao Tzu

 

This is the question I had asked the answer in reply. The EXP part of my question, I am still trying to read more about and learn.. However, the SPAWN, mob/train issue must be broken then because it is very easy to get mobbed and trained by large groups of creatures. Once you run away a certain distance, yes they will return to their own area. BUT that is was not what I was talking about..

What I am talking about is walking up to say one or two creatures intending to fight them and one of two things happening:

1) You approach and suddenly a dozen others pop up and mob you all at the same time.
or
2) You start a fight with one or two creatures and suddenly others in the area just train on you and again you end up mobbed.

If need be, I can reproduce this issue easily and video record it if necessary so you can see exactly what I mean. Especially as a low level character, it is near impossible to have a good time fighting things due to this.

I wanted to know if you were aware of this and if it were planned to be looked at or fixed?

 

@DarkStarr I am seeing some interest in this idea. I see a lot of potential in it. I hope you could consider it, even if it couldn't make it for ep1. I threw out a year as a number. It could be something shorter, like a month. Personally I'd like something like a year for a Yew variation tree, 6 months for a Elm tree and 1 month for a birch tree. To expand on it the trees could start to look dead if not watered for too long and that would show how active the player is. That could affect whether you stop at their vendor (quality of life to save us time from visiting inactive vendors). I'd rather see them have to be pruned/watered in that respect so rain wouldn't auto water them and make them seem active. The seeds could be a type of rare drop, coto item or add-on store. Maybe at the end of life you could get a decent amount of wood from it or something. For me it was more about decoration, but having it give something back could be a way to encourage people to use them also.

By the way I think aging alcohol is an awesome idea. It would be so cool to take out your aged whiskey or wine for special events (that nice aged whiskey you had at the telethon) and obviously brewers would be able to sell them for more.