Shattered Kingdoms

Remove their ability to equip extra weapons and armor.

The whys and wherefores:

1. It'll get a lot more suits of armor and decent weapons back into the game on PCs instead of having them hoarded for use by NPCs.

2. It will prevent tribunal NPCs from becoming a lot tougher than they were originally designed to be (for example, a fully equipped warrior tribunal NPC suddenly becomes capable of beating an equal-level PC of the same class).

The arguments against it:

I can think of no real (ie: not manufactured) reason not to do this except for "it'll make my NPCs less buff and irritate my style of play!". However, it'll do a lot to level the playing field, because the main complaint about buff tribunal NPCs and high level high ability players vs less experienced players is that highly enchanted equipment on tribunal NPCs vastly tips the balance.

I know there's the "wah, you can kill the NPC and take the eq" argument. Yeah, you can. I just think that carrying around two or three extra suits of diamond or better enchanted eq and +8/+8 weapons for your tribunal NPCs is excessive.

How you can do it IC:

Just have the NPCs say "Not while I'm on duty". It's as easy as that! They get regulation equipment. You don't see a soldier IRL wandering around with a bazooka he brought from home.

You gave the solution yourself.

It's by far easier to gank an NPC than a PC. Mainly because NPCs can't quaff word or avoid combat in any other way(ethereal/teleport/etc).

You're right, it is a solution, but it is not the best one and it does not solve the entire problem. Also, it would not be very IC of me to create a character and wander around de-looting your NPCs. This is a problem that should be resolved at a higher level.

Why can't you deloot enemy tribunal NPCs?

If the problem arises to your allied tribunals, then how would you deloot your allied tribunal PC members also?

I'll take hoarding on NPCs any day than hoarding on PCs.

Because I don't care about tribunals. Hell, if I make a character I will probably join a tribunal.

You're right, you can't deloot your allied tribunals, it wouldn't make sense - even though it is oocly unfair for the reasons I outlined in my first post.

We will not reach an agreement, DA. You are one of the primary players who does this (and it's not against the rules, and I'd be tempted to do it myself, so don't get uppity at me). You have an immense personal interest in maintaining the status quo in this instance. I, on the other hand, believe that it is incredibly unfair to players with less knowhow and experience.

Sorcs should still be able to outfit charmies. That makes sense from an IC perspective and doesn't make life crazy-unfair oocly (although perhaps NPCs should remove equipment if they were charmed, made to wear equipment, then charm was dropped, for obvious anti-twink reasons).

Anyway, the reason I made my post was not to argue with you. I knew as soon as I even thought of it that you, personally, would not like it - after all, it gets in the way of your mode of play. The reason I made this post, and presented both points of view, was for the imms to make an informed decision.

As for your argument, "I'd rather have npcs hoarding than PCs", you've admitted in another thread that you collect the loot from your tribunal guards before scheduled reboots and redistribute it afterwards. I put the case to you that it is a player hoarding, and that you are that player, just as if a sorc carries armor for a charm it is that sorc hoarding, not the charm.

I collect the loot from the NPCs every 2 RL days for like 10 mins.

That leaves the rest of the playerbase about 2870 mins to actually dehoard the NPCs.

All it takes is growing a pair of balls, nothing more.

I could discuss the irony of this statement for hours, but I won't.

I've stated my argument quite plainly, you've stated that there is another possibility. It does not prevent the problem outlined in this thread (IE: the hoarding of loot for tribunal guards, making them far buffer than they were designed to be) in the slightest, and in many cases your solution to an ooc problem makes no IC sense.

Moreover, it is clear as daylight that you are personally biased (and I doubt very much that you could disagree), and any argument you make has to have that taken into consideration.

The Jardek vs D-A thread! I missed seeing you two argue. D-A needs to come back to the other site so I can watch some more.

That's exactly what I'm not interested in, Syn. As I suspect DA realises, the more he and I argue about some side-point, the less likely it is that anything will happen to balance a fairly clear and multi-faceted problem.

This is not A Jardek vs D-A thread, it is a thread describing what I believe to be a fairly obvious flaw in the mud. So please keep yourself on topic or out of the thread

The question is, do you arm the NPCs then just leave them, or, like I am assuming, arm them when you are around and then de-arm them when you leave?

Now if it is the latter then the solution to the problem (kill the NPC) is really the problem in itself (the NPC being EQed up is too powerful a tool for a tribunal member), is it not?