The Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the TRUTH (Virtue Discussion)

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The virtues of New Britannia have all the dangerous hallmarks of an organized religion! Avatars should accept these so-called "virtues" with great skepticism and only after very careful examination, choose to follow them.

Why does this so called King, this Lord British, seem capable of providing the moral compass that humans need to live a life of happiness and completeness? How do these so-called virtues, which often seem to conflict with each other, provide any pathway to enlightenment, or ultimate knowledge? How do they do anything beneficial for the people of New Britannia that they couldnt do without such knowledge?

Most dangerously, these virtues imply that humans are not born with any such "moral compass," and require the teachings and guidance of some ruler of persons. Lord British regards you all as sheep, easily manipulated by your fears and desires, and teaches you that you arent capable of becoming your authentic self without his religion! This is much like telling a dog it is wrong for barking, or that a tree is wrong for letting the wind bustle through its trees.

Nature has already provided you with the knowledge of Right Action. The statecrafters create their own moral frameworks to further your blindness to your own imprisonment! What the oracle calls truth, I call blind obedience! What the oracle calls courage, I call mindless action out of fear of consequence! What the oracle calls love, I call sociopathic manipulation! Love can never be embraced with ulterior motives! Courage does not exist when violence is the only choice! Truth can not be found in a world bound by the rules and ordinances imposed by human minds! The imposition of human values on the natural world will only lead to the eventual demise of the life we know and love.

Nature has already provided humans with all of the rules they need. To live outside of harmony with nature is to not live. Rulesystems designed to appease the appetites of the state are rarely in accordance with such harmony, and will cost the follower the authenticity of their own life's experiences.

I live a life of truth and honor, yet this oracle (which appears to be a clockwork machine no more wiser than any old kobold gear) seems it best to judge me on some arbitrary values from a culture that exists disharmoneously with Nature. I blaspheme your appropriation of the natural and eternal meanings of truth, love, and courage! I mock your oracle and jeer at your civilization's attempts to escape Nature's plan! I shall decide what is the Truth, and I shall decide that your oracle is filled with lies and deception!
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Really tho, I think the Truth elements havent been implemented fully, if anything more than barely-at-all. The compassion/love mechanics are more noticeable and sensible in the world, and I havent done much of anything regarding courage to compare. I dont think there is a whole lot to improve your truth virtue value at the moment. I say my exact name to almost every NPC, but there are only a select few that ask for it to result in a truth increase. Im not sure what else increases truth points beyond quests or the rare occassion that you need to spell your name right in a dialog that actually asks for it.

 

From sometime yesterday:

VirtueCourage: 215
VirtueLove: 1086
VirtueTruth: 420

I started with the Love story line. I have yet to progress in the Love story line beyond delivering Stanley's notes. I won't continue it until I'm another 10 or so levels higher. I've not stolen anything of which I am aware. I've given to beggars on occasion, and paid the one lady's rent in Ardoris. I won't pursue the Courage or Truth story lines until the developers say they are complete, and maybe a little polished to boot. I imagine adds to Truth and Courage won't really happen until then. I've completed all of the quests that I know of in the Hidden Vale, Soltown area, Resolute area, and internal to Ardoris.

The first thing I learned in Ultima IV way back when, was that stealing food from the fields was not gaining me any friends from the residents of the land. That was so unlike the other games I was playing at the time-- namely the Wizardry and Bard's Tale series. It was that moment that hooked me on the Ultimas. Since Richard Garriott is involved with SotA, I imagine the same still applies.

 

~'Test Your Virtues With Lord British'~

~Time Lord~

 

VirtueTruth: -24... from 124 (positive) few hours ago. All I did was loot some tomatoes in highvale battle scene.. with enemies around and burned houses. Gods.. what I did?

I really like the virtue system and we all know that is under development but I think that the "eyes" from npcs mechanics should work from a more realistic view. If we are just looting a dead/empty town or city, sounds like.. a surviving part of us, something logical. The weird behaviour is when someone decided to left behind all the stuff knowing that nobody is living there anymore (just an example).

I will try to look tomorrow how I can recove those points. Can't wait to see improvements and news about the system

 

Oh gosh, thank you for taking the hit to your Truth! Yes, it does seem quite weird that your Truth takes a hit when looting stuff that nobody wants anymore (given that everyone in that tutorial scene perished and won't miss it).

Hmm, I believe saying your real name when asked by NPCs is one way to increase your Truth virtue. By the way, jeon tried killing fauns and ended up with -5 courage from killing one that was saying "Please don't kill me!" or something to that effect. Another member frosin has been killing fauns and has not received a hit to his Courage, most likely because they didn't utter similar words. So yup, another mystery solved. Giving to beggars will also raise your Love (1 gold for 1 love). For Science!

 

You always give away the end of the movie before I'm even finished buying my popcorn! ...

hmm...

~Is it just me or is everything suddenly very digital up in here~

"I could understand such coming from a mechanical Oracle"...
~Time Lord~...

 

@Black Tortoise

That Oracle does creep me out. She seems aligned with Sauron and reminds me of a robotic Chucky doll. I dislike all her Sentinal Watcher spies following after me and scanning me everywhere I go. Does New Britannia take place in 1984?

 

Oh yeah, those evil sentinels! I had run around with immolation on to deal with them. What's more disgusting than some pesky lil eyeballs blocking your path making you walk at snail pace? Had to burn them all to crisp.

 

The oracle is evil! Mark my words ^^

 

The Oracle is SkyNet! The Truth is revealed!

 

hmm...

reminders of what's up here around here ?

marked

*steals something and scurries away leaving a single foot printed pathway in blood while whispering*
"with such thoughts of deceptions, some here might be what may be best described as "sinister"
~Nystal~ . . . . . . . . . . .

 

The Sand People are known to travel in single file to hide their numbers.

 

This is why Richard doesn't want numbers visible to Avatars... So they can't game the system... Or at least make it much more difficult.

"I don't want to BE Truthful... I want to understand the game so I can APPEAR to be Truthful." is what I'm getting from this thread.

"Why is my Truth score so low?"
"What did you steal?"
"Nothing, other than looting the victims of a horrible battle blind... That shouldn't count!"
"Why shouldn't that count? Seems pretty sleazy to me."
"'Cause that's what I do in Every Other MMO!"
"'Zackly why it should count, Bruh. Kinda the point of the whole 'Virtues' thing."

The whole point of the Virtue System, and You being the Avatar is to judge Your virtues, not your understanding of the Rules of the Virtue System. Not knowing the rules is part of the intent.

 

Is it wrong to cast immolation and run through the watchers? Never mind, I don't care! I'll happily accept all the anti-virtuous negative numbers.

 

Brother! Let's band up and declare war on the evil oracle. Evil eyes begone!

 

I do have to admit, I do not like the watchers. Ever wonder why there are none in Central Brittany?

 

@Ronan Maybe there are not many needed in Central Brittany because the Oracle has this all-seeing monstrosity there:

No doubt!

 

Yeah. I'm not even sure what the repercussions are for lowering the virtues.

An effect on the storyline? Not much of a story already so I'm not sure it matters. I would expect as the story develops they would need to zero out our virtues to account for unintended consequences.

NPC won't talk to you? Most of them are babbling idiots so not talking to them might actually be better.

 

Eh, she's a Giger wannabe. Total poser.

 

Would anyone know, if telling an NPC your fist name only would suffice, or should I be using my last name also if a last name applies? Up to this point, I've only been using my first name when asked who I am.

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