Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

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Where do you like to start?

Poll ended at Mon Jul 09, 2018 1:20 am

Cordor
62
41%
Andunor
44
29%
Skaljard Village
28
19%
Brogendenstein
14
9%
Sencliff (Pirate Start)
2
1%
 
Total votes: 150

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susitsu
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by susitsu » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:15 pm

Cordor is definitely not where you start for the quality of the roleplay, Cordor is where absolutely everyone is.

Underdark is just incredibly thematic and will always be my favorite area on the server to roleplay. I even like the package quest, and I do not like the Cordor package quest.

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Kenji
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Kenji » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:32 pm

I still had to pick Skal. I never had a problem transitioning from Skal to Cordor/Brog RP-wise, but the spread of resources on the mainland makes one really miss the abundant and compact resources as well as the shopkeeps on Skal. Too bad there isn't much to do post-level 18.

StrykerMontgomery
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by StrykerMontgomery » Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:17 pm

Id pick Skald except i have a fear of being trapped there and feel like I am on a different server lol
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liver and bones
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by liver and bones » Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:56 pm

I want to say Skal, but it feels bland without players populating it. With the change over to EE, Skal felt so good. Revisiting it on a new character just felt like stepping into a void.

Cordor. Political climate to easily join, lots of players, accessible early gear, and easy grind.

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Irongron
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Irongron » Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:40 pm

liver and bones wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:56 pm
I want to say Skal, but it feels bland without players populating it. With the change over to EE, Skal felt so good. Revisiting it on a new character just felt like stepping into a void.
I still find that it feels the most crowded starting area, given that players are entirely focused on the village itself. Cordor and Andunor do generally have more players overall, but they're often very spread out and can be of wildly differing levels. I did find that during the very first weeks after EE it often felt TOO crowded. I kind of like the level it is at now.

When making the Distant Shores server I did consider the possibility of one day turning it into a mid-level area instead, or even doing so with Cordor, and making Skal the default starting location.

Both of those options are a long way off though.

TimeAdept
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by TimeAdept » Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:05 am

Please don't remove Cordor as the default starting location, especially if the intention is to keep Skal only accessible in summers.

PinataPlethora
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by PinataPlethora » Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:13 am

Irongron wrote:
Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:40 pm
I still find that it feels the most crowded starting area, given that players are entirely focused on the village itself. Cordor and Andunor do generally have more players overall, but they're often very spread out and can be of wildly differing levels. I did find that during the very first weeks after EE it often felt TOO crowded. I kind of like the level it is at now.
I've been there a while, now, and I think the reason for that sense of overcrowding is that, not only is everyone in the village, but almost everyone is standing in the village square, at any given time. Right now, it's a lot of players who are new to the server, and even the game, and really haven't learned about or gotten comfortable with roleplaying yet, so they do the WoW thing where you just park in the middle of the busiest road with your helmet on and your weapon out, oblivious to the environmental and social conditions of the setting. I have never seen anyone RP beyond a passing conversation in a building other that the Mayor's house (gold/xp) or the trade hall (gold).

Conversely, Cordor can feel empty, even when it's the most populous server, because more players are distributed throughout residences and establishments, going about their RP business.

The reason for this, I think, goes back to my earlier comment about Skal not having discovered its identity, yet. The drive there, as I've seen, is primarily to level up and build character power. There are no overarching politics, and trade doesn't go very far beyond PC shops. Aside from the mysterious artificers' tower, and unless some upstart PC warlord gets really out of hand, Skaljard lacks the typical MacGuffins that compel characters in the other settlements to act. On the one hand, this does lend a certain purity of RP to what goes on there, since it's all coming out of the characters, but on the other hand, it can create a feeling of shallowness. It's a fantastic place to be if all you really want is to constantly go out on adventures with good company, but I question whether that's enough.

I think the question that I've been trying to answer, and that needs to be answered to complete a character's journey there is: Why am I on Skal?

The only simple answers that come to mind are exile, misfortune, and personal challenge. ICly, it's an awful, barren place with harsh conditions and monsters at every turn trying to eat you, and aside from the solitude, there's no convincing reason to stay. The ultimate goal, in a situation like that, is to escape, but that option already waits atop a silver platter, whenever a character decides they've had enough. Why not abandon this frozen waste and travel to Arelith, where the climate is more temperate, the treasure is more valuable, and the opportunities abound?

I am loving my time there, and having loads of fun with the characters I've met, but before I can consider it a complete settlement where I'd choose to center a character's life in the long term, I think it needs to find its raison d'etre.

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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Tourmaline » Mon Jun 11, 2018 2:33 am

I had a hard time getting invested in Skal because I knew my character would be leaving sooner or later anyway. It's good to have a low-level-only area on the one hand, but it also feels like nothing you do there really matters because their real life is going to begin when you get on the boat. And unless you're content not leveling past the late teens (I think?) you're going to have to get on that boat.

Just to my thinking, if it's meant to be a starting area to keep newbies quarantined from the rest of the island, you should top out at level 5 or 6. If it's meant to be a place where your character can base themselves and form their identity and a community around maybe it needs to be more possible to come and go.

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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by goatte » Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:12 am

I think, as far as Skal, the matter of character race and class also impacts the enjoyment one gets out of starting there. Not to mention the pace one is willing to go for character advancement. The message seems to be that if you want great RP, you go to Arelith. However, if you go to Arelith, you want to be high enough to be an actor and not one who is "acted upon" by others.

Every character I created, I have started on Skal. It has been downright hard for them, impossible for an Elven Specialist Mage (Diviner). However, I decided to enjoy the journey without worrying about the end point for it. When I started on Skal with my first character in January, the population on Skal was usually single-digits; sometimes it was just my character wandering around interacting with the NPCs, wildlife, and enemy tribes. I would have been happy to RP with others more, but just walking the land was interesting enough for most days. I would make up stories for my characters as they wandered around. For a Dwarven fighter and an elven cleric, that was good enough. For a mage, not so much. For a rogue, I suspect it would be impossible to subsist on combat XP in the lower levels.

Regarding Skal, itself, and the barrenness of it, it is what you make of it. If you are banished from Skaljard, with no way to sail off, you have a death sentence. However, you would have to work very hard to be banished. Speaking of banishment, Skal is a lot more open with no pre-existing political hierarchies to fight your way into or out of. If your character is lawful to neutrally aligned, it is easier to find a place on Arelith. Perhaps Skal is better suited for those of a chaotic alignment, more libertarian but not anarchic, to use a modern form of political arrangement? [Note: please don't use this statement to spark a political discussion regarding the RL situations in our respective nations. I really don't want to pervert an awesome discussion with RL here.]

Also, Skal being smaller forces diverse characters to rely on each other more to achieve goals and survive. On the bigger, more diverse island, it is easier to choose to self-segregate. I think I would miss the interactions my characters have had in that crowded wellyard in Skaljard. Oh, and one reason that there aren't many big conversations in the tavern is the continuing NPC conversations about ale, "paying the bill," and "bring me some ale" going off constantly. I, personally, find it hard to have a serious discussion with that playing in the background. Or folks walking up and sparking the "trade" discussions with certain NPCs. If I'm trying to read the discussion, I find it hard with those "I have some furs to trade" discussion lines appearing between all the important lines my character and others are speaking.

Personally, if my character could stay there, he would. However, being too high a character would affect the enjoyment of other players, I feel. Their characters might rely on mine too much and not meet their own challenges and grow. As it is, I hate walking through the Ghostwood to find that I've met someone coming the other way, and I've killed all the encounters before they could. It feels like theft to me. I enjoyed it running solo. If I team with them, they don't see hardly any experience, so that isn't an option, either.

All in all, I feel that Skal is a great environment, well thought out, with encounters that scale up for low to teens-level characters, as long as they can team up with, at least two others. Back in March/April, we had those numbers easy. This summer, the numbers are dropping down to where they were prior to the EE release. I think some of that is due to the vacation, but the other might be folks assuming they have to get to Arelith, as soon as possible, to get those "opportunities" we hear of on Skal.

My character that I'm currently playing has had four plus good years of game time on Skal. All of them have been interesting, interacting with generations of players/characters along the way. If you're willing to slow down a bit, you will enjoy Skal as a starting location, in my humble opinion.

[Excuse my essay, folks. I've developed strong feelings for Skal these months of RL time and will miss it when my character sails over next month RL.]

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goatte
(not a sacrificial one for the egos of other players)

StrykerMontgomery
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by StrykerMontgomery » Mon Jun 11, 2018 1:36 pm

I think a long term trading company thst takes advantage of Skal's resources during the summer season could create some interesting RP. Could even create reasons to have conjuration mages takes shifts there during the winter via yoinking. Have you seen the prices Adamantine go for these days?
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Tryn Dralar
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Tryn Dralar » Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:33 pm

I said Cordor because its the only one I have started from. I did make a character in Skald when it was in Beta and think its should always stay a starting point option, just as Brog should stay an option. Options are always nice as long as its set up for it of course. More options the better IMO.

Brandon Steel
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Brandon Steel » Sun Jun 17, 2018 5:54 am

Sencliff is absolutely busted so regardless of how much I like it I can’t really vote for it.

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Phoxly
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Phoxly » Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:30 am

Andunor is just SOOOOO good.

MoreThanThree
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by MoreThanThree » Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:46 am

If there was a way to make Cordor into a better starting location and also disempower decades-long monopolies over the city, it should be done.
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Dr_Hazard89
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Dr_Hazard89 » Wed Jun 20, 2018 9:25 am

I voted Andunor because the experience is just ... better in every way.
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Petrifictus
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by Petrifictus » Wed Jun 20, 2018 3:02 pm

The Bendir Dale & Grotto because gnome forever. Voted Andunor because the goblins.
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SockYeti
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Re: Prefered Starting Location on Arelith

Post by SockYeti » Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:21 pm

Had to go with Cordor only because that is the only place I have ever started from. Though I really want to try out Andunor
someday but the idea of starting fresh and not knowing a single person intimidates me a bit.
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