Shattered Kingdoms

And people why you are why I quit posting on the forums. Logical discussion is not whining. I stated my opinion in the opening sentence and then the rest of it was my thoughts on the subject. But then again, I'm just going to go back to playing Tera. Later guys. One less "whiner" to deal with for you I suppose.

The consensus among players is that long jail sentences are extremely boring. It is also generally accepted that games should be fun, not boring. Jail sentences exist for IC reasons and are a part of the game. Do you think there should be alternative forms of punishment for the OOC reason that having your character stuck in jail for hours of real life time is no fun? If so, what? I am aware that it is possible to get broken out of jail and also to pay or RP your way out. These are not always available to all characters though. In my own personal experience, my characters have always been denied any opportunity to RP or pay down their crimes. And, in fact, it often has to be that way in a black-and-white, good vs. evil game unless good RP is just tossed aside for the sake of OOC player convenience. I don't personally care whether there is any addition or adjustment to this element of the law code, but I am aware that players hate long jail sentences and I am interested in hearing if there are any good proposals for alternatives or add-ons to the current system.

This topic has been brought up probably more times than any other specific topic. Things won't change and the OOC punishment will continue. Some will claim that it will create more RP... that is probably as rare as someone winning the lottery. Good luck, but it won't happen though.

You have made a pointless post. Either post some ideas, make a cogent argument, or get out.

His post isn't pointless. This thread is, and I'll show you why.





In addition, I'll add that I personally don't believe an alternative should be required. I think that people playing criminals and people playing leaders of tribunals should be more mature than they have been in the past. That isn't to say that there aren't exceptions - I'm sure there are plenty of examples of criminals who have sought to make amends for their crimes in hopes of getting their sentence reduced/pardoned, and leaders who have granted it. I'm one of the (apparently few) people who think that jailtime actually does present a bit of opportunity for roleplay, if you're creative about it, and sometimes willing to swallow your pride along with a slender slice of humble pie.

Dulrik will not listen to whining or nonsense. People asking for reduced sentences "just because" is not going to work. Dulrik does listen to logic and reason. If you have a great idea that would improve this element of SK and can back it with sound logic then I would wager he'll consider it. I personally have not thought of any alternative that I like or that I would want to propose. Personally, if I had a lengthy jail sentence on a character with little hope of getting broken out or bartering a deal, I would just roll an alt and let the time get served out while I'm offline, checking in every now and then to see if a jailbreak is possible. Objectively, I'm not sure this is very good for the game. It breaks character continuity If I do something like that. But, I don't really know if there are good alternatives.

I do agree that in some circumstances jailing does represent a RP opportunity. It represents a PvP opportunity, too, when you have jailbreak parties and jailbreak defense parties. That isn't usually how it goes down, though. As with cabal relic wars, it mostly happens when one team is offline.

If you are a darkie and you rack up a huge crime list and then you go and make the bone head mistake of getting caught, you just lost. That's how it is. Don't get caught, or don't commit the crime.

If you are a lightie, you were probably busted in either the Empire or up North. Both of these places execute and so the jail sentence isn't normally as bad as a place like Nerina. The jail sentence isn't as bad for you.

Reducing jail times, therefore, is really more of a buff to darkies. I'm telling you, if jail times were reduced we can all rest assured that there will be abundant murders in Zhenshi, where the jail sentences are the longest.

Maybe some will say that real world examples don't apply, but let me take a stab at one: Suddently, the USA eliminates all speed limits. What would people do? Would they continue driving 30mph on that long stretch of road where no one is ever seen? Maybe some might, but the vast majority of people are going to drive fast. Why? There is now no longer a penalty.

Ok, so what if the penalty is just reduced? Let's say we take a speeding penalty that normally goes for $200 and reduce it to $20. I'm gonna speed. I just don't care enough about that $20 to bother adhering to a stupid rule like that.

If you are going to have rules, you have to enforce them. Otherwise, you don't actually have rules.

No whining.

The counter to this is that we all lose when a major villain gets taken out of the game. Villains drive PvP on SK. They always have. They take the biggest risks yet get no more reward than the heroes and, in fact, get punished pretty hard for it when they get massive jail sentences. It's also not always boneheaded how you end up in jail. You can get charmed and tossed in jail, for instance. IC, my law-abiding/law-enforcing characters are satisfied when an enemy gets jailed. OOC, it does leave a bad taste in my mouth when I know a guy just got smacked with hours of sitting around time. For long enough sentences, and especially if your team happens to be weak during your login times, it's a fate much worse than a full jloot (you generally get looted on your way into jail anyway).

Ultimately, I am OK with the way it is. That is not to say I think there is no room for improvement. I think there is.

Lightie communities tend to have harsher punishments than darkies. The Empire doesn't even punish a lot of crimes, and in the north you just end up with punishments of mutilation, and death.

Lighties get out of jail much quicker than darkies due to these facts.

I don't think jail time is that bad honestly. If you're in jail for a long time it's possible to be broken out. That, and nobody is forcing you to make your character get a lengthy jail sentence. If you're willing to go to the lengths of getting some of these horrendous jail sentences then you should be willing to pay the consequences when, and if the law catches up with you.

I used to see how large of a list I could get when I played a darkie, not come to the forums and whine about how much jail time my character could be facing.