The Force Next Timeline (important post on page 6)

As mentioned before, I’m quite sick of the same people getting forcers all the time. Even when they’re applied for it still seems to be the same people… to change the game up a bit why don’t we try and accept people for force who hasn’t had it before? Granted you’re going to need a couple of senior players for teaching the mechanics of force etc but it just gets so repetative with the same people every tl.

One of the primary problems there, is there is a small group of people who will manage to get one forcer among them, be it via an app or via a roll, and they will search their buddies characters until they find a forcer. Strangely this group tends to use Chagrians as much as possible, but the belief in general is that any race with a natural bonus to force will roll force more often, and/or be a better bet in general. You can figure these people out for yourself by asking yourself, who are the people who have had a forcer in every era the last few timelines, and when their forcer dies, they “roll” another immediately after, and you’ll know precisely who is responsible. The real issue for the imms, I would guess, is that while its obvious what they’re doing because they keep getting the forcers, its not provable that they are rolling for force because, after all, its not like these guys are rolling 20 characters a day and walking out of the academy to their pal and getting checked. Which makes enforcing the no rolling for force thing pretty hard.

Just by saying Chagrian I know exactly who you’re talking about… just for an example i’ve had one forcer in 6 years and some have had none, that they know of anyway… but it always seems to be the same people… give the others a chance 😛

@Sarac: Plenty of new faces have seen force this timeline. They just end up getting themselves killed early. The reason you see a lot of the same people is because they have been playing long enough to amass points and because they know how to survive. Until last TL I had never had a forcer before and I’ve played here since 1999-2000ish. Now I could probably have at least 1 forcer every TL, as long as it is purchasable, because of my point bank (I’m a saver).

Force applications tend to favor people with a reputation for getting things done and progressing the story. I know the IMMs have given new people a chance, though, if they liked the pitch they got. Too often people beg and beg for force, or talk about how bad they want it, then when they get it they don’t do anything with it or hide for fear of losing their character.

I can think of at least 3 or 4 characters right now that just will not risk putting their forcer in a dangerous situation. The best part is that some of these people will even later boast about how they survived the whole TL. Waste of a character if you ask me, but it’s your character to waste I suppose.

“The same people always have forcers.”

In the last 8 years I’ve played 3 forcers. The only reason it always seems like I’m playing a forcer is because I don’t get myself killed. I only fight on my terms, and I aggressively try to seek out other forcers to kill. The amount of forcer turnover every tl is very high and there are only a handful of players who don’t just roll over and die on their first engagement.

This is the very same.reason why the “same people” get apped forcers when the staff wants a game-changer. When you only have 6 good pkers, one of those 6 is going to get chosen.

My first forcer was last TL. Walldo and the imm staff gave me a shot because I wrote a good app. Up until that point I had never done anything all that special in my years of playing. Players that haven’t had it can get it just keep trying. I bought force this TL. It’s not nearly as hard to rack up points as you think in eras 2 and 3 I’ve gotten almost 15k. No farming just level your chars and do stuff with them you’ll have more fun, die more often and get more points.

Yeah, it’s definitely way more accurate to say that the same few people are longer lived on forcers. I’m willing to bet each tl there’s over 50 unique awakened forcers, there’s just very high turnover.

I think the biggest divide here is that no one seems to notice all the scrubs who have forcers and die within a week, or quit for the timeline within days of rolling to protect themselves. There are absolutely a few people who game the system and always have a forcer as a result of rolling for force. Anyone who says otherwise is either delusional or a part of the problem. But Andvari is right too, there are absolutely certain people who, once given the force, seem to become immortal/unstoppable killing machines and sources of frusteration for anyone foolish enough to face em head on. I honestly feel though, like the only changes that really need to be made as far as forcer selections and such goes is a little more activity enforcement, lot of people are fine but a lot more are not, too huddled up and scared to ever risk the possibility of combat. I also really think that “Pacifism” in any capacity, should be an automatic denial on apps (For forcers, obviously). On rolls, what can you do, your character is your character but apps are for a PURPOSE. And pacifism is stupid 1000x over for anything that is a “DEFENDER” of anything at all, and on LOTJ really just means self rightous passive aggressive asshole.

SO! Here is a draft of what we are aiming towards. Thoughts?

We will be taking a different approach to the force this timeline. Our Jedi will be more along the lines of what was described in the Original Trilogy – mystics and scholars that don’t go around showing off their lightsabers to the galaxy. They are not the Republic’s enforcers. The dark side will follow suit for more obvious reasons – they need to survive to carry out their evil plots.

To this end, we will be restricting more skills than usual and have put into place systems to ensure these skills don’t come in until the time has come. Awareness will not be available on day one, but it will come in very soon after the timeline starts. Ditto for awaken and combat skills. These will become available for the two sides at different times.

Purchasing force will not be available at the very outset of the timeline to help control the system, though we are looking at tweaking the traditional natural roll rate.

We are still working through to finalize what skills will and won’t be available. Think things like lightsabers, parry, jump/grab/etc. but no sense, farspeak, etc

I like this idea to an extent. I think a full overhaul would be more ideal than just turning off a bunch of powers. But if we’re going to get things down to kind of bare bones, these are my suggestions.

Suggested in from start:

Neutral: meditate (should have the room echo removed), parry, lightsabers, lightsaber crafting, advanced lightsaber, breach, force grab, foresight perception, lightsaber throw (this could be easily be a no and added later), senses, lightsaber mastery

Light: Clarity, vitality

Dark: Fury, Carnage, Force Lightning for lols only since its worthless anyway.

New skill: Force develop. Burns mana, has shit chance of working. Otherwise has rule set like science develop. 😛 Unlocks new skills for factions. Kappa.

I dig it Walldo. Dig the shit out of it.

Out of curiosity, whats the intended goal of this? Is it to nerf forcers so that combatants have a better chance of fighting them? The more I think on this subject, it seems that lowering their power against the greater game as a whole is the intended direction here. If that’s the case, if forcers are dropped down to just being slightly better combatants, shouldn’t the price for them be lowered some too? 20k+ for a character that’s had a large amount of its skill removed to give other people a chance at killing it, seems like a lot.

I think the idea is to change the mud’s culture regarding forcers. The less freight-train powerful forcers are from the get-go, the more clans become reliant on themselves. This prevents the whole “I’m not going out to fight unless Quicksilver/Ocerion/Andvari/Xavious etc are on!” problem that we commonly face.

I really like the idea. It will keep forcers in the game, they will still be mysterious and powerful in their own ways and they won’t become the real powerhouses they are now until way late in the timeline.

I guess my worry is that this version of changing the culture, is to just make them so worthless that they aren’t needed anymore. Kind of like bounty hunters. The problem you describe of waiting for specific people to be on, isn’t going to change just because those people aren’t forcers. Others will still be waiting out for those players to show up as combatants and pilots. It just seems like there should be a better alternative to promoting less reliance on others to do the job, than gutting the forcers.