To die or not to die? That is the question.

Posts : 760

Sup ya'll, how ya'll living?!

So I've been on this site for awhile now. I've once been a moderator during the revamp of the site and a trial moderator when I returned. Enjoyed it for the most part, but I felt their was a lack in the site as a whole. That "oomph" that roleplay sites have was just missing. While I do feel like the potential of the site is always there, it remains just state of Potential. It's never in a 'dying' state that a majority of forums go through but it's never truly thriving. It sits in the middle sometimes moving forward and sometimes moving back.

I feel like an issue on US that I've been noticing is the lack of conflict on this site. There are literally no events that include actual combat between shinobi, even though the series that we pull from revolves around conflict. Hell the reason you get jutsus, special characteristics, and missions is to get stronger so you won't get wreck (Games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls is a witness to that regards). Now I'm not saying that we should just force people into combat, shit that's the last thing I want or that combat should be the main focus, but the lack of conflict in a conflict-based setting is just..... redundant to me.

In almost any of your favorite anime/manga there is some form of physical combat that directly affects the way the story is told, especially if you like shounen manga. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Dragonball Z, Toriko, are just a few of the many shounen that are heavy on combat. Even if this idea of shounen combat isn't your favorite, I bet there is one genre of fiction you like where combat between main characters (PVP for an RP site) changes the story. Naruto for example is and has always been filled with combat since the very first chapter. [Ref-1][Ref-2]

Combat is a part of a healthy site, but not the focus. Like protein, too little and you don't see any growth after a series of working out. The combat on the previous sites that I've been on always played a direct role into the 'plot' of the site. It was an awesome system because the entire site had to read and role-play to have an influence on the 'site-wide plot' and anything anyone did IC affected the outcome, making activity fun and a must have. Plus these plots were never manufactured by the staff for the most part. They happened naturally because people were interested in ways that they could make their character become a part of a bigger story. Also, the majority of conflict didn't even involve massive death, as it was easy to just attack NPCS in a village and create some type of conflict that way. Death actually only came at the every end of these plots for the most part, or during the middle, and only one or two people actually died.

I also understand that sites with too much combat become 'mosh pits' where nothing is fun and everything is about who will get killed first. Too much excess of protein without any of those fats and carbs, and you're dealing with Rabbit starvation on the body (If you don't know what that is, type Rabbit Starvation in google or whatever search you use and just wiki that shiz). The burden on the staff increases heavily, as they are essentially seen as referees of death. The bad sides outweigh the good in this scenario, as everyone's jutsu would get reworked, people would argue that X staff member approved Y jutsu because of Z reason. Sites like this can break easily. I think Ingoo is a site like this, but I never role-played there.

So to propose a healthy diet of combat and story (both personal and general), I believe there should be a clause/system that states a few things. This may not make logic IC, but the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion.

Currently, the investment into US for a new character who wishes to rank up to S Rank is about 20k words alone for SC training. That's fucking garbage. We're not even counting the missions you have to do to get points, or the writing you have to do for experience points. That's way too much, as we should assume that everyone should want to rank their character by default, simply because that's the point of playing the game... and you automatically do so by simply role playing. Role playing, contrary to popular belief is more like playing a game than it is writing. Writing is just the method it's played by.

This investment alone creates stagnation, because no one wants to risk the death of their character. All that training goes down the drain in just one thread. A majority of the members are pacifist and choose to avoid conflict, so US is full of people seeking to do personal plots with their own character, only interacting with others when there can be good achieved. I'm willing to bet no good story ever came from good events, bad things have to happen in order for readers to feel connected to the story. In terms of RP, bad things can't and shouldn't always mean what you wrote yourself - for yourself.

So in light of this, there should be some type of clause.

Death Clause:

Quote :: 1. All combat threads between ninja of same villages are assumed to "Knock Out" by default and even if severely injured the death of said characters will be ignored. The players involved in combat must state "maiming" or "death-match" before hand.

There isn't much logic in this, but we can easily say the various ninja NPCS that are in the village would be around enough to prevent the death of their own shinobi.

Quote :: 2. By default, all combat between members of different villages will be assumed to "maiming". (Unless stated otherwise) This does not include death but can include serious injury and loss of a single limb in combat.

Even if the damage in particular would cause more than just a loss of a single limb, we can moderate the topic to include a proper injury. As humans, we realize the ability in which the body can and cannot move, but in RP settings things are stretched by the cannon. It is perfectly OK for a human body to go barreling into a tree several times larger than it without bones being broken instantly or major pain being felt. Again the logic isn't sound, but it was never sound in the cannon in the first place. [Ref-3]
[Ref-4] (Also simply look at Ref-2 as Iruka should be paralyzed from waist down, as a shuriken that large would have severed his spinal column) Look at how far Kakashi gets kicked back, yet simply gets up and enters into combat.

Quote :: 3. All combat between missing-nin is assumed death match, even if the missing-nin is within the village.

Death-match gets applied to anyone they RP with, even innocent bystanders (little genin characters etc). In order to prevent missing-nin from simply sneaking inside of villages and killing people, I propose updating any missing-nin to the bingo books, so that they can be identified by village security NPCS and anyone within the village. It would be really easy to make village NPCS of Jounin rank, that way genin that happen to post in these threads (should they happen) are not left alone to deal with powerful criminals.

So what does that all mean for the folks that did the tl:dr route?
- We initiate a death clause.
- With that clause, the chance of your character dying after one thread and wasting all of your hard work is lowered to a finite point. All you'll deal with is a maiming of sorts.
-With the risk lowered, more action can come because of this.
-More action and risk, more reward.
-There are risk if you chose nukenin route (but that's a given.)

So what you guys think? Yay? Nay? Fuck it, I do what I want because I am a strong, independent roleplayer? Let's discuss.

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

You guys are really pushing this combat stuff all of a sudden. Lol.

"Meh." was literally my response when I was reading the whole thing to be honest. I RP and Write the way I want to. I don't care if people don't think it's realistic or not. I apply the forum rules to my Rp and just roll with it. If combat happens, it happens. I'm not really going to force it on people for no reason.

Clauses aren't bad, and you're right about people not wanting to lose characters. Honestly, if Moku was to die, I'd probably be done. I worked on his plot and all for a year OOC, the longest I've ever had a character. Updating the bingo book was something I asked them to do months ago lol. "Bigger fish to fry." was the response that I got from multiple people.

It's whatever, honestly. Just hope people don't expect others to be forced to do a combat thread.

Posts : 1216

I like all the clauses and they seem reasonable. I agree with this healthy dose of combat. War does good for the economy much like fighting does good for a site's activity.

Posts : 757

@Cross, but not really

It's not about forcing combat, as I don't know where people are getting that mindset that combat needs to be enforced.

People should be able to enjoy the full use of their characters without always having to risk them 100% of the time. It's like target practice, except people seem to be fine with just hitting targets. That's OK. I also feel like this site sometimes doesn't want plots to happen, which seems boring to me. Role playing is not a solo act, it's about interacting with one another. In short, I feel like US is not a Naruto RP. Just an RP under the banner of Naruto, if that makes sense.

For any good site-wide plot to happen or something that involves all the members, there has to be some form of PVE or PVP. PVP should happen but doesn't always have to happen. It's not to say "here, go fight each other." It's more like saying "here, if you would fight for any reason, here's how it could go down."

All of the things your character has, your SC's, your jutsu etc etc... To be honest, the way RP happens on US, you could tell most people to completely remove what they have and their characters are unaffected. If that's the case, then why are they there in the first place?

It's like this site isn't interested in the storyline of Naruto at all and I find that really weird. The combat initiative is supposed to allow people to fight and create conflict. Not combat conflict, but political conflict between the villages. It's not about two people in a death match. It's about creating a system where you could get bonus points for spying on a missing nin or creating a system where two villages could have combat through tourneys for Chuunin Exams etc etc.

It's like people think we want ninjas to go kill each other (just because of what happened in Kiri) when we actually want cool systems like Chuunin Exams and things to happen without people losing their genin right off the bat. Imagine how cool it would be for someone like Moku who is always sniffing around being nosy, attending a year round event (every three months) in which genin can battle for instant Chuunin promotion or do it the hard way...

We want to be able to make events, but first we need clear defined rules on what could happen in these events if people were to fight. You just cant say "ok villages go to war with each other" and expect everything to fly.

I feel like US has the member base for something like a Chuunin Exams, but there are no clear cut rules on combat or anything to allow it to happen. Plus it sucks if your character dies. In a situation like Chuunin Exam event, you could have an open RP in which there's no death for people participating, and you get bonus funds for being apart of it.

It's like US doesn't want to interact with each other. And all I'm saying it's not always about combat, it's just that your character is lined head to toe with a way to kill someone. You need rules to establish what people can and cannot do, and not just leave it up in thin air.

Age : 31 Posts : 1900

When I first read over this suggestion I truly admit to thinking that there was a subtle tone of combat being enforced on members without their approval however after sitting down, discussing a few things with a few people, and contemplating the entirety of what is being presented - I agree with the clauses in full and do say that they are reasonable.

It's not so much that combat is being enforced but more so encouraging combat without the risk of your character constantly dying every time you post. I admit, I would hate to lose Seika after what I had to go through with her since January... but a fine point was made that, with these clauses, the worry of "loss" is decreased (see below).

The Blinder Watcher wrote:: So what does that all mean for the folks that did the tl:dr route?
- We initiate a death clause.
- With that clause, the chance of your character dying after one thread and wasting all of your hard work is lowered to a finite point. All you'll deal with is a maiming of sorts.
-With the risk lowered, more action can come because of this.
-More action and risk, more reward.
-There are risk if you chose nukenin route (but that's a given.)

I openly admit, if there's a decreased possibility of losing my character - I would RP in more fights and "action" based threads. I cannot deny that action/fighting is crucial to a story. Let's take a look at my personal favorite storm of ultime - Lion King. If you've seen Lion King you know that action is crucial. There's action is every movie in some way and it always catches out attention. I feel that encouraging more action would do the same for our forum while also giving more members the opportunity to expand their "fun horizons". Again, it's not that action is being enforced but more accepted with decreased risk.

The die hard "I wanna kill everything" members are restrained some but this gives the "pacifist" members a chance to save their hard work as well - it's all about balance that benefits everyone in the long run.

Also, some people shy away at the sound of "site wide plots" because of the negative viewpoints associated - members taking forever to post, people lose interest, people randomly quit because x,y,z reasons, lousy rewards, those running the plot taking forever to post themselves, etc - but staff is always open to suggestions on how to improve these issues.

Some staff members of the past may have promised they would listen to suggestions and never changed but we're trying to be different then those "past staff members" by listening and considering options. I know bringing this up is like going on a bit of a tangent but I just wanted to address the fact staff is trying to make things work for the sake of their members. We're not your enemies, we're people behind screens who care and want the best for all of you.

Due to this, I'm quite interested about how others feel about these possible clauses so please get involved everyone. We're listening.

Posts : 1729

The last event we hosted, multiple people quit, and in some instances, staff action took so long that event threads closed early simply because nobody was interested in the event anymore. It didn't help that the event itself was a thinly veiled activity check, with people who failed to participate being archived unless they had a "good reason."

And the event prior to THAT one saw people fighting over "S rank" weapons "created by the gods." You'll note the use of quotation marks. All of the weapons only had one ability, and could only be used once per thread. Only one of the weapons had a secondary ability, and it was a shield explicitly stated to be so big you required the Strength SC to utilize it properly. And in that event, not only did it drag on for a god-awful long time, nearly half the participants were killed off.

Frankly, US is to events what Superman is to Kryptonite; one touch and they're useless.

Age : 32 Posts : 1912

And aside from that, the lack of fighting just goes to show that people are here to Roleplay with their characters, not to set out and kill people. When I want to fight, I set up a spar with people and just go with the flow of things. In Hiruzen's case, i've sparred the Raikage, i'm sparring two Konoha nin in a 3way spar and there will be more in the future. While I enjoy a good spar, I do not enjoy killing people's characters and ending all of the hard work they put into their character just like that. At the same time, I wouldn't like it if someone came at me with the intention to kill me because i'd either lose my character or get forced to take theirs.

I can hang up a long story about how we need to fight and all, but as far as I can see, the people that really want to fight are all pretty much located in the same village. If you want a reason to fight and kill each other, start a Coup, start up a civil war and get to it. It's not meant to sound negative or bitchy, but the fact that no one on the site is fighting shows that the vast majority simply does not want to.

If you all want to fight, you know where to find one another, and that's just how it is.

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

I'm not saying I'm against combat at all, I would love it, but the fact that SCs allow you to say "I have this and this, so I'm faster and hit harder than you. I can dodge everything that you throw at me with this SC. I'd admit this site is made for combat, but it's so limiting. So very limited. Most of the banned stuff are basic things that other sites regulate with their staff to make sure that they aren't used for the wrong things or in an overpowered way (mainly curse marks, sage modes, grudge fear etc)

Quote :: If you want a reason to fight and kill each other, start a Coup, start up a civil war and get to it. It's not meant to sound negative or bitchy, but the fact that no one on the site is fighting shows that the vast majority simply does not want to.

If you all want to fight, you know where to find one another, and that's just how it is.

He's right. If people want to fight, they could go to each other, PM or skype and just go about it like any normal thing. Death happens, fights happen, but to just randomly have it? That's depending on the situation.

Like for example the thread you just reviewed of mine and called it 'boring' because there was no action or combat. Why the hell would Moku go screaming "I'm a rogue" in one of the three major villages? That's not something you really go out and just boast. It's a stereotype within itself to think that nukenin want to fight and have bloodlust all the time; which i'll just keep my words about the way the site treats nukenin since I just get the usual "You chose that route" before I even put out points. I've had a suggestion thread before, it's not the prettiest thing.

As for events, the chuunin exams were done here before and took months. I caught the very last end of it when I joined, but the threads are still there I do believe. The very last event that I clearly remember was the lame Aibori Kaguya hunt. I don't even think it finished? I have no idea. The event was laid out awful and people took forever to post (Not a bad thing, but 4 weeks? Come on.)

I'm all up for combat, I love it when done right and people don't bitch. I just don't know if it'll be done here right or not.

Posts : 757

It's pretty much everything you're saying, except a few clauses that prevent people from losing their character. The system slightly encourages combat, but does not enforce it.

The death clause doesn't change the way US operates, its literally just supposed to be a safety net.

Plus with it installed, Yoroi can easily say "Alright, I'm going to get approval to see if we can host an in-house Chuunin Exams, who in the Leaf Village could post?" And then you just change the format into the a mission and give them X amount of time to complete it. If you don't think it'll work then don't do it. But I feel like the option for things that should be there, should be there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now I kind of understand why you guys seem to not 'dislike' events. The problem seems to be that people dont participate and that sucks.

I just want to say this:

Global interaction is probably the most fun, as everyone is participating in the same plot. I'm aware that it may take forever or may not work, but it's not necessarily all about it. I firmly believe if you have one or two people working together on their personal plots, you should get some type of bonus for it. Like Moku and Seika should be getting bonuses for working their personal plots together. Hiruzen and Ruka should've got a bonus for connecting their characters plots together. Not a large bonus but an 'I constantly RP with other people' bonus.

All this death system does is allow things to take place without the loss of your character for the most part. Saying things like "go at it" is what we want do discourage because you never know who may step your thread unannounced, or who may be trying to do something that you have no clue about it.

You guys always talk about things as if the people that have been here are the only members that will ever stay here. What happens in the past should not dictate the future just because it didn't work last time. There are new people joining this site all the time that have no clue who you are or how things work here. I clearly did not when I joined. And it seems like I got a lot of hate for doing something that I thought was 'normal' for this type of RP.

This system just prevents those things because I see and realize the huge investment one makes into their character.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Drizzy wrote:: You guys always talk about things as if the people that have been here are the only members that will ever stay here. What happens in the past should not dictate the future just because it didn't work last time. There are new people joining this site all the time that have no clue who you are or how things work here. I clearly did not when I joined. And it seems like I got a lot of hate for doing something that I thought was 'normal' for this type of RP.

Be that as it may, the way you are putting things down now sounds a bit like the new people are the ones that matter more than the old members. While I understand why you would want this, the older members have never really been having a lot of luck with events on this site. Travis brought up the one about the Sunken Temple stuff and the three God Items you could get but hardly needed. Due to inactivity and forced participation, the site took a pretty big hit at the time and only one person actually got one of these items as far as I can remember. We also tried an event that was pretty much the villages trying to get smaller villages through mini-events and missions where people would clash with one another if need be and get things done, something Zack abused in order to metagame knowledge on other villages, kill a member of Kumogakure, attempt to kill a member of Konoha and use it as a stepping stone to kill the Daimyou of the water country and become some kind of wannabe-Emperor.

Events rarely ever work, and while I agree to the system thing Trey posted up about people being allowed to choose whether they want their characters to be able to die or not. Some of the new members (With New I mean pretty much everyone that joined this year) have shown that they would like to fight and kill people. While that is all fine and dandy, I still believe that we should just go with the system Trey posted up in FA and allow people to choose whether they want to fight or not. Few really want to fight, and most of them just do so in spars or plot related fights where no one gets killed, so all of this overthinking of stuff really isn't needed in my opinion. It's as you yourself told me a while ago when I made my Kaguya stuff.

"Do we really need new stuff when there is plenty of crap that needs to be worked out already?".

While that was taken out of context, there are a ton of things I can think of that need to be taken care of on US before we should start looking at this. I am saying this because a certain group of people is starting to look really hungry for combat where as others are not and just want to work on their personal / village plot. The site encyclopedia can use some work because I had several of our site's canon jutsu denied for reasons, these coming both from the encyclopedia and from the Profession-only Jutsu. Aside from that, there is the problem of Water's sub-element, Mist, being pretty much restricted to Kirigakure people only due to the fact that mist can only really conceal and mist concealment is, and I quote "Too similar to Kirigakure no Jutsu". There is more that needs working out in the jutsu field that I feel should take priority over something only a handful of people really want.

I've made a plot for Konohagakure that I will start putting up once Yoroi "Finally" gets approved and I shot a plot or two towards Kumogakure that is being worked on as far as I know. If you guys want to fight, kill and have events, work with Trey and set up something in Kirigakure as that seems to be the place where people want to fight the most.

Again, it's not negativity, it's just me stating it as I see it.

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

I do enjoy seeing you actually trying to do something though. At least you're asking people want they want instead of doing something behind doors in staff, so I respect that. I do like the clauses, it helps out. And I agree with the global rp thing. It helps people push to make plots, but the main thing I'd personally want to see is some new toys to mess around with. We have edo tensei but no curse marks or sage modes? I mean. Does that make sense? I'm not trying to derail the topic at all, but I would guess the first thing to make combat more "fun" to people would be to tone down the strictness and actually give people something to work for instead if placing it on a ban list. Just monitor people and take it away if they abuse it. Shit, the only reason I didn't make Moku kill everyone he interacted with is because people put work into characters and when they lose them, sometimes you lose a member. The limited or banned list needs to be redone to work with combat.

Posts : 757

Cross wrote:: I do enjoy seeing you actually trying to do something though. At least you're asking people want they want instead of doing something behind doors in staff, so I respect that. I do like the clauses, it helps out. And I agree with the global rp thing. It helps people push to make plots, but the main thing I'd personally want to see is some new toys to mess around with. We have edo tensei but no curse marks or sage modes? I mean. Does that make sense? I'm not trying to derail the topic at all, but I would guess the first thing to make combat more "fun" to people would be to tone down the strictness and actually give people something to work for instead if placing it on a ban list. Just monitor people and take it away if they abuse it. Shit, the only reason I didn't make Moku kill everyone he interacted with is because people put work into characters and when they lose them, sometimes you lose a member. The limited or banned list needs to be redone to work with combat.

I agree 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000%

Curse Marks, Sage Modes etc etc are all fun things that could be personal plots that you have to write really well to get. The most exciting thing currently that you can do is either summonings or profession. SNORE.

Right now it'd be hard to include limited/forbidden things but once the other issues get balanced it becomes a simple matter of asking the member base. The only fun thing you can get that has a lot of power is a Jinchuuriki.... And those are so in need of reworks and balancing it's not even an option.

@The Red part

I could literally kiss you right now. I don't want people to think "I can't write my character the way I want and interact the way I want because someone might lose theirs and quit."

Thats why the clauses "ignore" the flow of RP. If the system is up, right now Moku's battle threads would be considered death match due to him being Missing-nin. But the most important part is "unless stated otherwise." If you and whoever agree to XXX scenario within the clauses that's fine. If you want to fight whatever person but only to knock out then just say [KO/P] and boom you're done. But in the actual thread, you would role-play as if you were going to kill him for real, but the label 'overrides' the IC actions. The only thing the staff wouldn't want is for people to always abuse the clauses. Thats hard because it's up to the people who want to post, the control is in their hands.

You should see Jashin characters, etc etc. You should see the Mist Swordsman. You should to see uniqueness.

@Vergil

Don't associate me with Trey lol. I don't take offense to that! Please don't. I don't mean that to attack you, I really dont!

F**KTREY. Lol, I say that as kindly as possible. But 'setting up something for Kiri' is like not what I would do with Trey. I want to do the opposite of whatever he's doing and screw all his plans up. I exist to torment this guy.

If I had my way Kirigakure would be knee deep in political war. It'd be like Amon vs Republic City. But he's so swamped he can't participate. And plus like Cross said, I wouldn't want people losing their characters because of it.

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

Oh well with that clarification, I enjoy the sound of this system. I wouldn't mind it being implemented, honestly. It's pretty open minded.

Age : 31 Posts : 1900

Drizzy wrote:

Cross wrote:: I do enjoy seeing you actually trying to do something though. At least you're asking people want they want instead of doing something behind doors in staff, so I respect that. I do like the clauses, it helps out. And I agree with the global rp thing. It helps people push to make plots, but the main thing I'd personally want to see is some new toys to mess around with. We have edo tensei but no curse marks or sage modes? I mean. Does that make sense? I'm not trying to derail the topic at all, but I would guess the first thing to make combat more "fun" to people would be to tone down the strictness and actually give people something to work for instead if placing it on a ban list. Just monitor people and take it away if they abuse it. Shit, the only reason I didn't make Moku kill everyone he interacted with is because people put work into characters and when they lose them, sometimes you lose a member. The limited or banned list needs to be redone to work with combat.

I agree 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000%

Curse Marks, Sage Modes etc etc are all fun things that could be personal plots that you have to write really well to get. The most exciting thing currently that you can do is either summonings or profession. SNORE.

Right now it'd be hard to include limited/forbidden things but once the other issues get balanced it becomes a simple matter of asking the member base. The only fun thing you can get that has a lot of power is a Jinchuuriki.... And those are so in need of reworks and balancing it's not even an option.

@The Red part

I could literally kiss you right now. I don't want people to think "I can't write my character the way I want and interact the way I want because someone might lose theirs and quit."

Thats why the clauses "ignore" the flow of RP. If the system is up, right now Moku's battle threads would be considered death match due to him being Missing-nin. But the most important part is "unless stated otherwise." If you and whoever agree to XXX scenario within the clauses that's fine. If you want to fight whatever person but only to knock out then just say [KO/P] and boom you're done. But in the actual thread, you would role-play as if you were going to kill him for real, but the label 'overrides' the IC actions. The only thing the staff wouldn't want is for people to always abuse the clauses. Thats hard because it's up to the people who want to post, the control is in their hands.

You should see Jashin characters, etc etc. You should see the Mist Swordsman. You should to see uniqueness.

@Vergil

Don't associate me with Trey lol. I don't take offense to that! Please don't. I don't mean that to attack you, I really dont!

F**KTREY. Lol, I say that as kindly as possible. But 'setting up something for Kiri' is like not what I would do with Trey. I want to do the opposite of whatever he's doing and screw all his plans up. I exist to torment this guy.

If I had my way Kirigakure would be knee deep in political war. It'd be like Amon vs Republic City. But he's so swamped he can't participate. And plus like Cross said, I wouldn't want people losing their characters because of it.

All this

Especially the part about tormenting Trey, the bolded part, and the emphasis of what Cross said in red Aww yeah

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

About what this thread got to for some reason. Not that I don't think it doesn't deserve an FA thread of its own...

Quote :: Curse Marks, Sage Modes etc etc are all fun things that could be personal plots that you have to write really well to get. The most exciting thing currently that you can do is either summonings or profession. SNORE.

You should see Jashin characters, etc etc. You should see the Mist Swordsman. You should to see uniqueness.

There is a mean for the Staff to accomplish this and at the same time barely have to do anything. Allow more creative freedom for the RPers, you can't expect people to be interested in combat when stuff like armors, stat boosters and defensive moves are forbidden, you can't have more combat by restricting combat. I do understand some of the rules as to why Sage Mode and stuff like that is forbidden: they use alternate resource which kind of makes the user a little broken if one is trying to achieve a more interesting engaging and balanced combat. That does not mean that ALL attempts of making stuff like Sage Mode should be denied, decide some parts of Sage Mode that are absolutely unacceptable and deny just those parts, not the whole thing. Just allow the people more freedom and they will create your systems for you, don't deny that stuff, work with it and make it balanced so that those systems could enhance the combat system and provide more varied and creative combat.

About what actually concerns the original post:

I think that having a system of combat clauses like that is pretty good. I can't speak for everyone but I RP just to make a release of creative juices that fill up over time. All I want is to tell shitty stories. If other RPers are anything like that, having some sort of guarantees that they will be able to finish telling their story if they lose a fight would generally enhance the amount of combat seen around the site.

As far as events go I guess it could be interesting as long as they aren't a more fancy activity check and isn't forced on people. If people join events by themselves they are much more likely to finish that event than if they have it forced on them. Also it would make sense to grant people rewards for them that are actually relevant as opposed to absolutely nothing (Setting the Stage) or absolutely nothing masked as something (Gift of the Gods). Seeing how the site is interested in engaging people, there is nothing wrong in allowing them to be a little more broken, give more valuable rewards for amazing stuff they do.

Even stuff like Shinra Tensei could be made work in more creative hands, just don't deny it because it's called "Shinra Tensei" and read what people have to say about it. I guess people in general here love action, well BW's suggestion would help with getting people to see more action. I am more for it than against it Smile

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

To be fair, I once tried to get Sage Mode approved. I made a very balanced version of Sage mode that gave some slight combat boosts and worked with the summon species they had so snakes would get a slight boost in evasion + a snake brille to defend against light based attacks where toad sages would have enhanced strength due to the Kawasu Kumite. While I am sure that the particular jutsu + the system I made for it will have become too powerful due to the site-wide nerfs that seem to mostly revolve around Yoroi, a character I personally believed was pretty unique in that he was like the Unholy offspring of Orochimaru, Kimimaro and Jiraiya in one. Now, he has 0 snake based jutsu due to the fact that snake jutsu and everything Orochimaru did should be a clan, my kekkei genkai will no longer work with elemental natures, I can't aim for a Kekkei Tota or anything along those lines. Very few people on this site know what it's like to have uniqueness and fun factors drained from combat like I do.

The things I tried to make in a balanced form over the years i've had Yoroi:
-Sage Mode
-Chidori Nagashi
-Chidori [The one that does not cost 50000cp to just stun someone while costing 50 million funds]
-Rasengan [Same as above]
-Water Ninjutsu [Tobirama style]
-Eight Gates

While there is no doubt more than this, I can't really think of anything at this time. Though I am complaining about these things, I don't think we should bring too much stuff into the site as a means of avoiding US becoming the Second Coming of Ingoo. At some point, things started with a thread like this but escalated in people running around with a Ten Tailed Beast, a mind reading kekkei genkai and control over temperature [Fire/Ice release in one]. While we are 50.000 lightyears away from something like that happening, we do need to be VERY careful with what we allow and what we do not allow.

Sage Mode and Curse Seals COULD be allowed as long as they don't get too close to Jinchuuriki and become a slight increase in a physical stat while also allowing a physical empowerment such as fancy finger-wings like Sasuke or a tail for Curse Seals, a snake brille for Sage mode and like a passive boost equal to a C ranked SC that stacks with what the user already has so it does not become OP but doesn't become useless either while adding a lot of stuff to write and plot about. Things like the Eight Gates can never become fair due to the fact that it increases speed and strength for Taijutsu users. Having that stack with their own speed and strength SCs would just be too much. That, and I see no reason to allow someone to have a Jashin character due to the fact that they are immortal and any side-effect being really easy to avoid by having someone around that can put your ugly mug back on your shoulders during a fight or at the end of a fight. That however is just my point of view.

What I am saying is, please don't take things too far and let the nerfing of Yoroi not have been in vain. It would suck if all the hard work I put into a Hokage app that has been sitting around lonely and abandoned for 21 days became null and void due to things suddenly becoming okay now. I am mostly joking about this part, but I would still be tripping balls if all my work and suicide attempts became pointless all of a sudden.

PS: Things like Shinra Tensei and Bansho Tenin are NEVER okay. Magnetism is the only thing that can attract people to you aside from big breasts or a large penis, and magnetism is banned for a very good reason. The only thing that should be able to push people away is wind release because any form of Gravity manipulation should get dickslapped and murdered on the spot.

Posts : 1729

I swear to the Almighty Dark, it always comes back to those two. For the last gaht damn time, Sage Mode and Cursed Seal are banned for a reason To die or not to die? That is the question. 287405

To die or not to die? That is the question. 287405

Both traits work as little more than some combination of the Strength, Speed, Evasion, Endurance, and Chakra Capacity SCs, with an added flavour of physical deformation. And the Dark help you if any of their effects stack with those SCs. Nerfing them to allowable levels would make them "Sage Mode" or "Cursed Seal" in name only.

In the name of Cthulhu, how many times y'all gotta be told no before it sticks?

Posts : 84

Seeing as this is basically a rehash of another topic brought forth already, I shall reply the way I already had.

.Tora wrote:

Quote :: 1. All combat threads between ninja of same villages are assumed to "Knock Out" by default and even if severely injured the death of said characters will be ignored. The players involved in combat must state "maiming" or "death-match" before hand.

Sounds reasonable to me in essence, but I think it is a bit unnecessary. And, if for example, the said fight occurred outside of the village? There is no reason for this to apply if, say, the fight occurred in a barren wasteland, or even merely outside of the village. As such, I believe that under those circumstances, it would necessarily need to revert to a 'maiming' situation.

Quote :: 2. By default, all combat between members of different villages will be assumed to "maiming". (Unless stated otherwise) This does not include death but can include serious injury and loss of a single limb in combat.

This, in my opinion, should be the default state of any topic (exceptions shall be presented below). This should include same village ninjas fighting and different village ninjas fighting each other. It's what makes most sense, to me.

Quote :: 3. All combat between missing-nin is assumed death match, even if the missing-nin is within the village.

This is where the exceptions begin. Naturally, this would be the prime example. Anywhere a Missing Nin is included (even in their safe havens), the thread should be automatically turned into a death-able topic. This allows for the true essence of being a Missing Nin to remain active - to kill or be killed, rather then turning the Missin Nin into the rebellious children that just leave their villages on a whim.

The second exception would be spars. Spars, regardless of whom is involved in them (with the exception of Missing Nin) should fall under the first quote's example - no killing and no maiming. First to be knocked out loses.

This would amount to death no longer being enabled in all topics. Topics would, now, be grouped into three kinds - Spar topic (marked as [Spar]), maiming topic (any unmarked topic) and Death-able/Deathmatch topic (those marked as [DA] or [DM], as well as any topic involved a Missing nin).

Once more, this has nothing to do with pushing combat at all (as some of you have already realized). It has to do with the with fostering the feeling of fairness among every person and roleplayer in the forum regardless of what type of roleplayer they are. As things stand, fighting is just too risky for most people. They lose their character, they lose everything. This leads to people not venturing into fighting at all which, considering a great deal of your application is combat-focused, is a very big letdown to a great number of people. There is no reason to force non-fighters to fight (like so many of you are defending), so why would we do the opposite and force combat-geared people to shy away from combat?

As such, this system would more or less help in the sense that it would allow the fighters to fight and the pacifists to remain away from combat, if they so wish. It is a balancing system, a sort of infrastructure that would, then, allow people to express their combative side without necessarily losing their character. Spars are fun and all, but that's all they are. Much like training in many sports, one does not necessarily put all their best forward. Why? Because one may want to save this so called "best" for an occasion one might need it, as a surprise tactic or to keep people from seeing it so often they develop ways of easily making it useless. As such, spars are very rarely taken seriously, being more of a fun exercise than a true fight. Because true fights lead to death, which in turn leads to someone losing all of their progress - which is what fueled this system forward.

The ironic part that few people seem to realize that this system is actually a nerf to the combat system. As we stand, on US, everytime you are RPing with someone, they can simply attack and attempt to kill you. If you decide to simply go to a foreign village and get some plots going there, some combat-craving person can simply jump in and kill you. So now, instead of gaining a plot, you have lost your character. In that sense, the current system we have on US is actually more restrictive to people's freedom, as you have no other choice than being extremely careful with whom you roleplay, lest they jump on you and attempt to kill you.

With this new hypothetical system in place, this could not happen. Not unless you agreed to a fight to the death or decided to roleplay with a Nukenin whom you don't trust (danger which, truthfully, should still be part of the essence of being a Nukenin). Even if you were attacked in a foreign village by some extremist, at the most you'd be maimed. You'd still be alive and you'd get to continue with your character. You wouldn't have to start all over or even give up on the site altogether, due to how demanding US currently is with character progression. One may even argue this maiming attack would push your personal plots forward, as opposed to terminating them completely.

See, that is the true merit of a system of this kind - it encourages combat but ultimately protects people and their characters.

___________

As for events, I agree. They generally tend to be the plague, on US, but this has greatly to do with people's outlook on them, from the start. This isn't necessarily untrue in other places but it is definitely far worse on US - due to the inactivity of the members and staff alike. This means that there needs to be a large overhaul in the working mechanics from both sides, which in turn means a deeper discussion needs to be held. I would suggest devoting an entirely different topic to it, so that some decision may be reached.

Curse marks/Sage mode/whatever should also be exempt from being discussed in this topic, guys. The more things get jumbled in one topic, the less change anyone will come to a true decision. If you guys think it is worth discussion, can you guys just make a separate topic? Razz

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

^
Agreed

Posts : 1729

Seems like someone is complaining about Death, or lack of it every other week, so to my sleep deprived mind, here's a proposed idea; Remove death.

More generally, throw out a big event ("A Wizard Did It"), and suddenly people only die (IC) 50% of the time (OOC, they only die when the user wants to let their PC die); the other half the time, they just wake up a week later, hurting like the devil, possibly sans equipment, and having completely forgotten how to perform one or more jutsu. Basically like Planescape: Torment, for anyone who's played the game.

I now resume sleeping and brooding over how I'm going to argue for Gouka's continued existence.

Age : 31 Posts : 1490

Moved to Solved topics given recent events and soon to be released system implementations.