Future of the Interact option?

[Kakita Shinji]

Brian Gondek came up with interesting thread on FB forums. I think it's worth moving here:

So, what's the intention for this option? What do the developers intend to do? What would the players like?

[Kakita Shinji]

Mateusz Wielgosz (Kakita Shinji)
Bokken duel seems nice and other kinds of friendly rivalry.
But also some kind of social stuff. But I guess transition of items should be out of question. Not only because samurai are merchants - because it would easly damage balance. But maybe some other in-character stuff.

How about public glorification of other player, consuming lot of fate, but giving +10 glory, with mastery it could give some neat soul-thingy. Cooldown here too.

Tea ceremony that requires 2-4 other players, also fate consuming, with cooldown , but with Sen no Rikyu; soul for mastery.

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Brian Gondek
Agreed; I am opposed to a marketplace for trading items. The only way I see it being kosher would be if the following things happened:

* Only within the same clan.
* Some sort of clan v clan politics began to occur in game.
* Gift only, costs fate for both, cooldown applied

This could then mimic the idea of the clan supporting its own, and would make sense.

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Brian Gondek
Duelling:

Without a character death option other than seppuku, duelling other than with bokken would be irrelevant. I suppose the participants could agree that the loser commits seppuku...

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Emily Winner (Utaku Mo-Li)
(Let's move this to the new forum!)

I disagree with dueling. There's another FB game that I quit playing because the duel option got out of hand. There was a lot of room for bully dueling. Without the option to a) pick a second or b) choose what you'd use to duel and have very little mechanical reward for doing it, I think it would end up being abused. Level 60 folks with Iai 50 + items could easily walk up to a poor lv 60 shuggie with Iai 0 and force a seppuku (if we follow a pp's suggestion). My wouldn't that suck!

[utakumoli]

(Thanks for moving this over, Shinji!)

[Kakita Shinji]

That was good idea Mo-Li-san

I'm with you on duelling. It should be only friendly tryouts.

[utakumoli]

Just to put it out there, the "other game" I'm talking about has nothing to do with L5R at all. It's rather popular, tho, so I'm not gonna say which one. ;p

[Togashi Homsar]

I would like to pelt people with snowballs.

[utakumoli]

Daniel P Kelly:

I think that the Dueling thing should be a viable option, however you should only be able to duel another person with a comparable stat line for Iajutsu or the like, perhaps in the range of only 5-10 points separating in a base stat.

And as something in addition to add: You must first challenge someone meeting the above criteria, locking in whatever equipment they desire to use and after that, the challenge is made apparent to the recipient of the challenge, who in turn has to lock in the equipment they would use and then accept, that or to simply refuse the challenge in which case they would suffer a small penalty to honor and or glory.

(Copied from the old forum)

[Tamori Hiki]

Invitation to a Duel
Proposed skill: Meditation
Opponent total: 20(45)
Accept/Decline

Location specific skills only allowed: no battle or horesmanship in temples
Invitation open as long as both characters remain in the location.
Challenger roll based on his stats and gear at the time of requesting the duel.
Person accepting the duel is free to change their gear and stats before doing so.

Potential bonus glory for challenging people whose base stat is higher and honor for accepting when your stat is lower.

[Jay Luo]

I've been wanting to add some sort of player-to-player interaction, both cooperative and competitive, which is why I made the 'interact' page. However, I haven't actually done so yet, because I'm worried about the potential for abuse.

Being able to help another player sounds like a nice thing to do, but if you have a dynasty of 100 and all 100 members "help" you (by giving you the best items, bragging in court about you to raise your glory, etc.) it could pose a balance issue.

For player-vs-player, I've seen games where this is very predatory, which is unfun for the players who get picked on. I like the mostly amicable community that we've developed here so far, so I feel cautious about adding anything that might disrupt that.

I'd *like* to add more player interaction, though, so that's not to say any of this is off the table. But any of these mechanics need some thought to make sure they are both reasonably balanced and fun.

[Isawa Kinen]

I think duels should be kept friendly at best, or used to settle debates in the forums (you know, like real samurai). Anyone can offer it to anyone else, and there should be little or no penalty for declining.

As a thought for wanting to help other players, a "Sempai & Kohai" relationship came to mind. Players can help train lower level characters (perhaps limited by level or a Ring, Void seems reasonable) by giving them some kind of bonus (Fate, Koku, higher % of succeeding) when they are in the same area. Something a little more direct than the Dynasty.

[utakumoli]

I like the sempai-kohai idea very much, though I don't know how difficult it would be to code. If it's doable, that would be awesome!

[Isawa Kinen]

I actually just had another idea, involving the random encounters. The two that I seem to get stuck with the most is a very boring courtier and an arrogant duelist.

One of the options for the courtier is to trick another samurai in getting into a conversation and using that chance to escape. Perhaps if this is chosen, you can choose which other samurai in the area you shall choose as your victim, and now they are stuck in the encounter instead of you.

And then the arrogant duelist. One of the options I have, because I have a Dragon Ally, is to get a champion to fight instead. Once again, maybe you could choose someone else in the area to serve as your champion. Rather than send the encounter over to them, they can choose to help out or not, and both players get the EXP, although the champion would probably get more Glory and Honor.

These should probably be limited in some fashion. Like for the duelist, you can only pick people in your Dynasty or fellow Clansmen. For the boring courtier, you can pick people from clans that are less friendly to yours. (Example: I'm Phoenix so I can choose to target a Mantis if I wanted. Cranes can target Lions and vice versa. Scorpion could probably target anyone, it seems like something they would do.)

Anyway, just tossing out more ideas.

[Soshi Kiso]

I'm not against the idea of trading between players. For instance, why could you *not* trade a rumor, or blackmail information to someone that has more use for it then you do? Maybe pick up a clan favor in the process, or trade for something the two players feel is of equivalent value? There could even be a glory loss/gain depending on what is gifted or traded for, or even trading at all. But I can't see trading kata, followers, positions or souls. Maybe just things you normally turn in, like opium, tea, silk, katanas, simple scrolls........you get the drift.

I still feel dueling/competition would not be the worst thing in the world if it was done correctly. Obviously non-lethal, but not just iajutsu/kenjutsu. Two shugenja could have a spell craft contest, or poetry, etc. Essentially things we already click for a competition, but would be between two players instead of everyone or everyone in your 1-20, 21-40 etc level range.

[Akodo Tomatsu]

Why not have some special items that while in your inventory are unequipped and labeled as gifts, then via interact you could give them to other players, which would transform them into equitable items? For example, "Hand Crafted Daisho" would be a gift in your inventory, obtained from doing a quest or such, then I gift it to Bayushi Senshi via the interact tab, and when he receives it, it becomes an equip-able item for his hand with some bonus to Iaijutsu and kenjutsu or such.

[Kaiu Tekkusu]

If i may add my 2 cents. I propose a "Major Event" similar to the random encounter table Jay has developed. There is some major event in an area and only people with that event ready may "Interact" Everyone teams up, Equips and attempts to beat the said event as per normal pass/fail that has already been developed.

What an awesome way to fight the Dark Oracle of Fire and his army or through the falling of Kaiu Kabe. I think in this case there should be degrees of success and rewards, AS WELL AS FAILURES, that should be reaped by all.

Jay did wonderful with the tournaments. So much so that I think bracketing would be a nice flavor to add in. lvls 1-20, 21-40, so on and forth.

As these events are so Major I think they shoul donly be accessible 1 time per bracket

Just my thoughts