Topic...Cannibals ....where would they be or who would they be?

Exept we can't have meaningful cause people have an allmighty oracle protect them with electric shields from the ethers... the reason ? Cause there's some people who like to ruin others fun... vicious circle is it...

This is a conundrum... good luck.

 

It's easy enough to have an opt-in mechanism. First and foremost anyone who doesn't PvP is safe from being cannibalized by default. They have abandoned that protection. So the Oracle and surrounding lore really isn't an obstacle.

Next you add some other opt-in mechanism whereby anyone who wants to engage in it is also subject to it.. or you can opt-in to putting yourself at risk as part of a risk/reward where you get some sort of reward for hunting cannibals.

In this way.. only cannibals and cannibal hunters would be dealing with it directly. The harder issue to deal with is the more indirect results of having it all in the first place. If there were indeed cooking recipes.. they would be banned in any civilized town. No NPC town by default would ever allow public display or sale of let's say.. sentient remains for the purposes of consumption.

In theory there could be exceptions such as for medical research or what not but I don't see how any reasonable exceptions would be found in-game..

So you would need special vendor and décor rules that handle "civilized" public areas. (Note that this description excludes basements).

Player towns could in theory be allowed the option to use, display and sell these items. Naturally I'm thinking of Sawtooth Hollow but anyone with a basement could offer 'black market services'..

I don't think it would be too difficult to come up with a reasonable rule set. It's just down to proper design and implementation.

 

All I can say right now is that at the moment I think I'm quite possibly incapable of finding any levity here.

 

That Hanibal pic is actually what pops up if you google "Cannibal Art Beauty" , had to share heh. I agree that cannibalism has its issues with implementation which is why at one point i suggested that any crafting and decorating associated with it should only take place in an open pvp scene, allowing the players that are keen on it to set up a themed POT that included it while preventing places like owls head being draped in entrails.

 

Well you shouldn't mind me too much. I just take the subject very seriously.

As I'm sure you have surmised by my previous posts. I would take the idea of only allowing crafting and decorating in PvP towns one step further in the town owner must opt into cannibalistic aspects separately.

But going back to the OP. Who and why isn't a stretch. Small camps of cannibals could have resulted from conditions caused by Shardfall. Desperate times, corrupting magical influences etc. If you'll recall the early concept art for Lurkers and their backstory that they were once human for example.

 

I do agree that items crafted (gear, food, etc) from body parts should be a black market type thing. There could be special vendors who deal with these types of goods, so you'd have to seek them out. Regarding public vendors, true, for the most part they wouldn't....assuming they are in virtuous towns. I'm hoping there are non-virtuous NPC towns that have forsaken the virtues and do have public vendors who freely deal in them. It's your choice to opt-in by visiting these black market dealers or go to non-virtuous towns. You could even gate it further by explicitly having to ask the Vendor to "show my your illicit goods" so it's not displayed by default. And again, perhaps you have to be on "friendly" terms with the NPC vendor., and those terms could be quest based, karma, or whatever other mechanic.

 

I like that idea of having to actually ask the vendors. You could actually have a little fun with that.. the vendor could require you to do a quest or even seek out a password/phrase to prove yourself.

Just on the vendor idea alone it wouldn't necessarily have to be limited to illicit goods.. players could use that mechanic for their own quests if allowed to customize the password. I think that's an idea worthy of exploration! You could in theory flag any item as requiring a flag to purchase.

 

Yeah that dodgy trader at the red sash bandit camp is holding out on us!

 

One of us needs to start a new thread for that idea.

 

I agree with Bowen & Smack & c. that cannibalism-related 'products' should not be just available for sale anywhere. It's a point that should apply to a variety of 'illicit' goods, I agree also with the sentiment that POT's should have to opt-in (or not) for such things. If such things are allowed for sale in particular towns there could be consequences (others boycotting or even going to war with them). I like the opt-in idea as presumably most places would not tolerate the sale of people as food.

Also just a note that inclusion of cannibalism and other unsavory elements to the game could serve as fodder for more complex r/p and elaboration of reasons to stand against various factions/foes, beyond "those are the bad guys so we fight them and we are the good guys because we do." A particular Order or faction may stand against a cannibal bandit gang for instance, while trading with some other faction of raiders that also stands against cannibals, blood sacrifices and such. Fleshing out of villainy across a spectrum allows for a deeper world (though in truth cannibalism isn't the foremost feature I would champion being added to the game, I would support such and other unpleasant elements being added for immersion/detail and clarity of conflicts).

 

What did I just read

Yea probably the oracle will have to sniff every pie for traces of humans before its allowed on the market... makes alot of roleplaying sense... total immersion...

 

Well lets put it this way.. a good vendor has to know where their products are coming from. There's no reason to think they're all complete idiots. It's not a state of mind conducive to RP to think of NPCs as mindless drones with no awareness of their actions or surroundings.

 

I want to make a human meat pie! What if it was a delicacy that the satyrs, kobalds and elves wanted for trade. There is a kobald trader already....... hrmmmm

It would be like baking a pie for you different nationality neighbor and trying to make friends by giving them their favorite meal!

Even the Trolls in the Hobbit ate people.

 

I just want to state: I LOVE THIS TOPIC AND THANKS OP FOR BRINGING THIS BACK INTO LIGHT! Sorry couldn't contain my joy!! There has been many pages written on this subject, but the threads are now defunct and locked. @RichardGarriott we love and support you sir!! *kneels* ~casts ward of invisibility for haters~ *poof*

 

It's a touchy subject and not my favorite. I've said many times the game doesn't need it and I still mean it.. BUT.. it all depends on how it's done. Richard, in the past has not been prone to gratuitous subject matter.. except for maybe the odd err.. honey loving couples now and then.. but back in those days resolution wasn't a problem. I'm not terribly worried it'll actually go in..

Should it go in however I'll make darn sure I do everything I can to see it's done as "right" as possible.

 

Now we know you dont like it bowen hehe, as you keep repeatedly stating. You do not have to keep posting that info. You have had some good ideas in this thread however, keep them coming. I would hate to start the me/you circular arguments we have had in the past on the subject. I promise I will try to stay constructive and keep my personal feelings out of it if you will

 

heh.. well like I've said.. to me it's more important HOW it's done. With all the past threads there have been I think we're rather past the circular arguments by this point.

I do seem to rather be repeating myself quite a bit don't I? I don't want any new readers misunderstanding my position and as you've seen I'm not above occasionally offering up ideas to make something work even if I don't care for it.

One of my primary concerns in how this would be handles is how it effects other players. In a way it's a lot like regular PvP.. SotA is meant for PvP to be consensual for a reason. Cannibalism goes a step further and a lot of the past ideas have essentially been non-consensual. Why people don't like it and don't want it is irrelevant. What matters is many feel very strongly about it.. to the point they would avoid PvP altogether if cannibalism was non-consensual within PvP. Many have said so. Past ideals have been modeled around the idea that if you want to avoid it entirely then you also have to avoid PvP entirely. Which would be a sad thing.

So the design goal imo should be to allow everyone who wants it to have a way to get it.. without forcing everyone else to have to actively avoid it. Do that and I can't complain.

 

Dont eat humens thats unhealthy.
Besides eating you frinds and neighbours isnt social accepted, try in stead this great club sandwich!


(only piggys where harmd in making this club sandwich)

 

Aye, I believe there could be a check box in options to prevent cannibalism on your corpse. Seems like it would not be to hard. I dunno I am not a programmer. I agree that it should be consensual also. The vendor Idea goes way back to when player owned towns where being thought up and there was talk of contraband quests that would flag you for pvp. This could be similar. As in the past I have mentioned that this could be pvp zone specific. In addition I stated that if you have any cannibalized goods on you when you leave a pvp zone you are still auto-flagged because you have "contraband" on you. This could be a boon to the contraband quest idea. The vendors that could sell such products should/could only be in pvp areas and clearly marked as a "shady dealer" or what have you. Maybe their could be a severe cooldown on the period of time between being cannibalized. I mean like once a day, once a week, or once a month to prevent abuse and increase value of the products.