Southern Minnesota Invites you to a castle siege!
- Thread starter Lurin
- Start date
I would really love to come, but the build cap excludes most of the people who would come for such an event. Half the people I normally come with would not be able to PC at this event, and I cannot see coming all that way just to NPC. Any idea on when the build cap is going to be lifted? I really want to play in the SoMn chapter.
Lurin
Paragon
Rezzik (NWC) said:
The cap continues to increase on schedule, it's most recent movement to 255 allows in characters that take a good amount of time to build up, specifically the example used when plotting the cap was 255 allows a character that attends 12 Weekends a year, and blankets every single month, to be a ways into their 6th year (having been played for 5) we know and understand that people have characters above that cap they would like to play, but we also have a very heavily population of characters that are just now passing that 100 build marker (even our most active new players that have visited multiple other chapters at least a few times are at about half the cap). We want our siege event to give the best experience to all comers, which means we continue to impose the cap even though serious consideration was given to it's limited repeal for the event. As our npc staff continues to grow in experience we look forward to welcoming all characters in 2013 (our fourth season) but at this time feel we can give our local, and traveling players, the best possible experience with the cap in place, and hope those with large characters consider bringing out an alt to join in the fun!
Unfortunately the people who would fit under the build cap do not have alts. The build cap eliminates three members of our group unless they rolled up brand new alts. I don't see that happening. If some of our group can't come, than none of us will come. That is just the way we roll. Best of luck to your event, and maybe see you in 2013 then.
I must admit, I am a little confused why not having a level cap would not give the best experience to all comers. Town APL woudn't need to change and mods can be scaled. Each chapter does have the prerogative to enforce specific rules, such as level caps. It just feels strange to have a larping alliance where a person has to do research to find which out which chapters they can bring their character into. I understand that a player has the option to create a new character, and by doing so they wouldn't be excluded from that chapter. My own personal character happens to fall under the build cap, albeit just barely, so I am not even truly affected by this policy. I speak entirely out of personal curiosity. The difference between a character with 255 build and one with 355 build is much more nominal than one with 30 build and 130 build. What criteria do you base your decision to keep such a large build cap around?
I hope my questions are taken as I intend them to be, which is simply looking to be informed. I am not questioning your right to have a policy, just trying to understand why that policy is there. I have really enjoyed playing with the people from your chapter, and hope to again this year. Perhaps in Chicago I can continue to teach Enan to be a frontline fighter.
I must admit, I am a little confused why not having a level cap would not give the best experience to all comers. Town APL woudn't need to change and mods can be scaled. Each chapter does have the prerogative to enforce specific rules, such as level caps. It just feels strange to have a larping alliance where a person has to do research to find which out which chapters they can bring their character into. I understand that a player has the option to create a new character, and by doing so they wouldn't be excluded from that chapter. My own personal character happens to fall under the build cap, albeit just barely, so I am not even truly affected by this policy. I speak entirely out of personal curiosity. The difference between a character with 255 build and one with 355 build is much more nominal than one with 30 build and 130 build. What criteria do you base your decision to keep such a large build cap around?
I hope my questions are taken as I intend them to be, which is simply looking to be informed. I am not questioning your right to have a policy, just trying to understand why that policy is there. I have really enjoyed playing with the people from your chapter, and hope to again this year. Perhaps in Chicago I can continue to teach Enan to be a frontline fighter.
IDK, I have played in chapters with extremely high level players, as a low level player, and it made me feel useless. It also ment that the plot had to take extensive time splitting up the different groups of players, and/or using really gimicky monster immunities and stats to try and balance it. And even with that it still felt stretched. There are times I have seen players with significantly higher levels then the rest involved simple stomp the rest of the module.
IDK, I understand why, but from a lot of lowbies perspective having to many high players come into the game can ruin it for them. I saw this at nationals as well as else where. That is not to say it isn't possible to do it right, and truthfully a lot of the brokenness of alliance comes from a glut of MIs which wouldn't be an issue, but I believe the intention of this rule is to let our chapter grow and build as a group until we are ready to join the rest of the alliance in the super high levels.
Personally, I think it might be refreshing to try out low level characters in a chapter that will have ALOT of low level characters, it is really fun, and maybe some of your friends might think about the possibility that trying something new and getting back to those nostalgic days of when you began larp might be interesting. Look at it as an opportunity to try something new and different from what you have been doing for so many years.
That's just my two cents, and my personal opinion, which is not linked to any official opinion of any chapter =)
IDK, I understand why, but from a lot of lowbies perspective having to many high players come into the game can ruin it for them. I saw this at nationals as well as else where. That is not to say it isn't possible to do it right, and truthfully a lot of the brokenness of alliance comes from a glut of MIs which wouldn't be an issue, but I believe the intention of this rule is to let our chapter grow and build as a group until we are ready to join the rest of the alliance in the super high levels.
Personally, I think it might be refreshing to try out low level characters in a chapter that will have ALOT of low level characters, it is really fun, and maybe some of your friends might think about the possibility that trying something new and getting back to those nostalgic days of when you began larp might be interesting. Look at it as an opportunity to try something new and different from what you have been doing for so many years.
That's just my two cents, and my personal opinion, which is not linked to any official opinion of any chapter =)
The problem with just creating a new character is that involves more than just throwing some stats together in a database. To start with you will probably need new boffer phys reps for that character, and getting inexpensive materials is getting harder and harder. Then there are racial prosthetics, which is another cost unless you just want to be human. Finally, there is the costuming which can be very expensive to truly make it worth looking at.
I have been considering making an alt, but it is taking me a ton of time to try an decide exactly what I want to play before going out and making the financial commitment. My current character has over $400 invested in just costuming. When I do make my alt I want it to truly represent. I don't want to come into game as a human wearing a burlap tabard and cargo jeans. Creating a new character is actually quite the investment.
I have been considering making an alt, but it is taking me a ton of time to try an decide exactly what I want to play before going out and making the financial commitment. My current character has over $400 invested in just costuming. When I do make my alt I want it to truly represent. I don't want to come into game as a human wearing a burlap tabard and cargo jeans. Creating a new character is actually quite the investment.
Lurin
Paragon
In the end, and in an attempt to avoid having a long drawn out discussion I've had many times, I'll say that many people agree, and many people disagree with the SoMN policy. We are offering a particular flavor of game, not everyone enjoys the same flavors and thats okay. It has always been our intention to open the chapter to all comers after a ramp up process, initially the ramp up was going to be much slower, after consideration and talking to many experienced people I decided to go with a more accelerated ramp up process then I initially intended. Setting and maintaining a cap is an interesting experience obviously the biggest effect of more build at higher levels is how long a character has been around, which generally means larger/more power friends and resources to back them up. While this is not necessarily true in every case it is generally true in every game I have attended. In the end we went with a fairly large (50 build per year) number, which means that our cap has been accelerating in terms of the longevity of characters that can visit very quickly (the time from 205-255 is much much larger then 155-205)
Ultimately since SoMN is a bit isolated from the vast majority of other chapters so the decision was made to set up a structure that we felt would be best for building up a strong local culture, and then open it up for all characters, although we've always been a big proponent of making sure all players that attend have a good time, and often go to extra lengths for longer distance visitors to make sure their trips are memorable. We know that some folks will choose to wait until they can bring their current characters in for a variety of reasons, from not wanting to split their focus, to the expense of starting a new character, Unfortunately this is simply the nature of the game, like in most things it's all a balancing act, and we continue to be appreciative of the patience of those waiting for our cap to be removed, on schedule, at the end of this 2013 season.
Ultimately since SoMN is a bit isolated from the vast majority of other chapters so the decision was made to set up a structure that we felt would be best for building up a strong local culture, and then open it up for all characters, although we've always been a big proponent of making sure all players that attend have a good time, and often go to extra lengths for longer distance visitors to make sure their trips are memorable. We know that some folks will choose to wait until they can bring their current characters in for a variety of reasons, from not wanting to split their focus, to the expense of starting a new character, Unfortunately this is simply the nature of the game, like in most things it's all a balancing act, and we continue to be appreciative of the patience of those waiting for our cap to be removed, on schedule, at the end of this 2013 season.