Shattered Kingdoms

Okay, so we've all gotten them. Crimes, banishments...and then the ever-beloved pardons. But the problem is that crimes can accumulate (I've seen them go into the 100's for silly things like training in law areas like Chibunei), and they don't go away. You can keep them there for decades upon decades, and if you're banished, forget ever getting pardoned. Its a rarity. Also: With the creation of bounty hunters (and they're buff), if you're outlawed in a lot of kingdoms, the game becomes extremely limited, increasing the possibility of becoming bored with the game and eventually deleting your character.

And yes, I realize you can rp with the tribunal to get pardons and such, however if you're a darky in a lightie city, or vice-versa, or in a cabal/tribunal that is opposed rply by that city, then you'll never get that pardon. My example of this would be like the Adepts getting outlawed in Taslamar, Zhenshi, Sith'a'niel, hell, even the Empire. You've basically limited whoever these players are to two kingdoms. How does one play the game when they cannot move? We also can't forget tribunal members who attack PC's just to get them outlawed and banished. It kills the spirit of the game.

Here's some solutions:

Reinstate the deathmark WITH some alterations: A deathmark cannot be placed unless a crime has already been committed. When the crime has been served, the deathmark goes away (as there are no more crimes).

Time-limit Banishment: Make banishments last a certain amount of time. I think it gets ridiculous when a grey aura-character gets life-long banishments from measly crimes (like attempted murder of a NPC or something) just because said tribunal leader does not like them. I'm not saying it happens to me, but it's happened quite a bit.

Buying pardons: Basically, each crime has an amounted worth. If you want to be free of crimes, you basically pay the tribunal directly (thus, funding your enemy), and the amount you pay will erase each crime. You could make it a whole number, or each being a price and just wiping it little by little (similar to a shop w/ shopkeeper).

Wipe of crime-list at reboot: Yes, I expect everyone to be against this. But hear me out. With the wipe of the crimes list every reboot (REBOOT, not crash), you're looking at more work for tribunal members. Since enemies will be once again allowed to walk through their lands, they're on high alert, ready and waiting to re-outlaw them. The benefit is more jobs, more responsibility placed on the tribunal to defend their kingdom. Right now, its simply: get them outlawed/banished and thats that, you're done forever. All you have to do now is wait for them to raid the city.

This also removes the idea of biased leaders/members who outlaw people simply for not liking them. Being outlawed in every kingdom kills the game. Yes, it is a choice made by each person, but when you're outlawed everywhere, you're basically resorted to constant fighting to do ANYTHING, thus, killing the experience of the game for a lot of people. I know everyone can attest to being outlawed in more than one kingdom (or all ^_^). It sucks!

This is simply a crude rough draft of ideas. I haven't thought of them all, so if you like em or not, explain what you think. Perhaps even think of an even better way of solving this problem, because there's nothing worse than being faced with 60 days in jail (-_-) and knowing you'll STILL be banished after that.

I don't like it.

If you want to worship the dark Gods and bring about the end of the world, you can stay the heck out of my kingdom, forever. And deal with it.

You pay the price for what your RP brings you, really.

What I disagree with is being banished for one crime, and when tribunal leaders refuse to RP the chance of a pardon with you.

Yes. But what can be done about it? That's my question. Thats why I've posted up these ideas. I only used the adept example because it was the most extreme of them all.

Kilia, big cheers from me. I think this is EXACTLY what needs to be done. I agree with you 100%.

You can not join a group of cultists bent on destroying the world or not reveal your membership, not engage in acts of violence within said kingdoms,.. or just deal with it.

This is what tribunal leaders are for. Debate with them. Don't expect them to be dupes and pardon you just because you ask for it, though. If you're hellbent on destroying the world, you can expect, and it's standard RP, for you to be exiled from most of it.

I have said it before, but I will say it again. If you don't want to be banished / outlawed then DONT BREAK THE LAW.

It really is no more complicated than that. I think it would be absolute insanity to reset a crime list at re-boot. And were that to be the case I would never join a tribunal again I don't think, it would make the tribunal worthless. People would attack and pillage cities (likely at the end of a month) knowing that there would be a reset and they would be unbanished, then all would go quiet again for a few weeks.

Regarding pardons, there is as much an onus on the banished to work for this as there is for the Tribunal to grant it. I have pardoned several people who I really did not walking around Taslamar. I pardoned because of the RP that surrouned the request (this included a Necro).

However, what I find happens mostly is a request for a pardon is made, I have a chat and say I will think about it or, prove your worth and we will re-visit the request in x amount of time, the character then throws a hissy fit and starts killing people, assists a raid, etc. and then blames me for not doing as they asked...

So all in all, I think the system is fine and the lawbreaker needs to shoulder some responsibility for their actions (the player too). The RP surrounding getting a pardon works two ways.

I think this attituse is total bs. What would the game be without bad guys? A mudsexxing mush? Thanks but I won't have any. You need bad guys to have fun playing a good guy, and bad guys break the law. The game should not turn to non-playable if you simply act acordingly to what your role is supposed to be. I agree with Kilia.

But if it reset at reboot, then my fancy 8 pages of crimes would be gone. And then every step I took in ayamoa wouldn't produce 2-5 bounty NPCs and maybe I could do something in ayamao again because aelraen is a fanatic and refuses to pardon me for any reason and insists I do jail time for 8 pages of crimes...


I'm not spending 150 days in jail for anything. So I think kilia might be on to something...

The current crime system is too harsh. The ideal solution would allow freer movement in the countryside but not through guarded areas (i.e. cities), as well as limitting jail time.

Does seem if someone has 150 days to pay, that the 'capturing' system is too weak, not just that the punishment is too strong.

1) functional bounty/reward system. Gets some money moving in the game to help the economy out. May trim the herd of criminals/keep their lists of crimes shorter.
2) faction leadership ability to provide a short-term diplomatic immunity, maybe of a RL day or so. Means leaders have to be around to renew it, but also will help allies defend during times of attack. Will spare a lot of odd OOCish like punishments also & allow people to actually RP the defense of their area.
3) some ability to turn say 20+ or so crimes into a deathmark. Deathmark would not clear a banishment. Can not deathmark lesser criminals (those without so many charges). Deathmark WOULD however clear the crime list/confiscate everything. May be too weak of a solution that people would not ever want to use, though.
4) Some way to convert jail time into community service. Payment going back into faction funds first (if not filled), else economy of said kingdom. Could be set amount(s) or settable by leader of faction. Some minor bit of code to facilitate this - hard to walk into a city you are outlawed in to pay a fine without getting clobbered. Maybe at some other bank, a transfer <faction> <coin> <#> sort of command.

Would readily agree 150 hours of jail time is a bit much.
That's a long time to be just sitting, mostly idle, save for minor
conversation/interactions. I think most would find something else
to do rather than play SK if they had long lists like this in many places,
w/o means of resolution.