Sat Feb 25, 2017 3:38 pm
I'll toss my own $0.02 as I'm wont to do. A few people have made some pretty good points, and I'd just like to toss in my own hat to the conversation.
"Knights are untouchable in combat, there's too many of them and they're all Grandmasters tricked out with plate and Damascus."
This is actually something I do agree with. I spent a lot of time railing on it when I played a Mage, and I'm not going to turn around and argue against it simply because I'm on the other side, now. Those of you who know me probably know that I'm dogshit at fighting, and I've literally never won a personal battle code-wise since 2012. That said, there are people out there who are just grandmaster everything, have every armor, all that. I'd argue more liberally that they're a threat to RP everywhere, but when you pick it apart down to brass tacks - What were you expecting? Honestly? Knights to be some sort of pushover that you can just 1v1 all day long? They, even moreso then Reeves, are meant to be combat buffs that beat the ever-loving piss out of anyone who questions the Order.
"Ashes are a 'get out of jail free' card for the Knights."
It's funny how much shade is being thrown at Ashes. I'm getting an enormous giggle out of all of it, because I can tell you for a fact that A) There's no one alive IC'ly who knows exactly what they do, and B) OOC'ly the Order, from what I've seen, is still uncertain as to it's power. It's all well and good that the Mages among us know what it does, but I'll be blunt - we've not been able to use it in an effective way thus far, and we're still reeling over what I personally believe to be a major IC/OOC blunder which cost us all of it.
TL;DR Can any Mages tell me what the Arien magedust does, because none of us know, and the one time we were able to use it, we were told that it didn't work because of "IC reasons." Maybe I'm just slow and out of the loop, but I haven't the foggiest of how this stuff works.
"Capturing Mages takes being prepared."
There's only so much preparation one can do without being psychic. The brutal truth of this is that, for AGES, the reason the Order was so good at getting Mages was because those players sold one another out freely and commonly. I'm not complaining that that's no longer the case, but lets face it - I freaking suck at my job as Inquisitor, and it's literally me and two other people calling the shots on the MUD. Three people represent the entirety of the Order's powers of investigations, and I don't think any of us have the time or inclination to play spymaster extraordinaires like we once did. We're lacking a shitload of IC AND OOC knowledge of our roles because - as we all know - the Order is constantly short on members and is constantly shifting leadership in a major way.
"Orbs are now useless and Magic has been nerfed."
I'm gonna call BS on that. Magick is more powerful now then it's ever been, and even I - one of the most dull and slower players on the MUD - can think of a thousand and one ways to eff over someone's day in a major way. It disappoints me very badly that after railing for ages for Mages to be given more spells on the Forums and on OOC chat that someone has the gall to say that Mages are weaker now then they were, say, a year or two ago. The imms and the playerbase both have seen me kirk out all over the forums about Mage weaknesses for ages, now, and I won't go on further about it, but we're getting to the point where our spell-list looks like a DnD 5E handbook for Wizards, and that's impressive in the extremes.
"The Order has access to highly useful and pointed RPA."
Tasker hit this one, and I agree. I think it's super neat that people think of us as this powerful and highly investigative force, but roughly 60% of the time, we're given the 'A masked person did X in Y location.' 20% of the time it's NPC's telling us that we're stupid for asking such questions, and 20% of the time we might get some useful information. Additionally, we've all only got so much QP to spare as a guild. I usually try to assist in RPA when I'm made aware of it, and the toll on my QP is real. I'm not complaining - I'm not doing anything with it anyway - but people should be made aware that our RPA more often then not leads to a complete brick wall.
I'm going to wrap all this up by voicing my own personal opinion on it : As an Orderite, I'm tired. I'm not really mad (Though I freely admit that I'm fannyflustered about some things, I won't burden the playerbase or the Imms with listening to that absolute nonsense), but more... Overworked and underpaid, if that makes any sense at all. The imms and players both have made it crystal clear that the Inquisition is NOT meant to take a combat role in the Order, and that those roles are to be given to KNIGHTS ONLY. But, more and more, my assistance is requested by those people. And that's not to say that I blame them - they genuinely require the help. But think about it from my point of view : I'm doing Priestly stuff (Taking confession, signing off on marriages, Reviewing, being a pappa to people on the MUD without parent figures), I'm doing Inquisition stuff (Looking over ancient and half-completed case-files, pouring over old, ripped-up tomes about Mages, trying desperately to give information to Knights and all), and I ALSO now need to worry about putting 100k RPXP into combat stuff because the Order cannot POSSIBLY be online 24/7, and it's just lunacy to tell people that they can't RP unless they're with a combat-ready RP partner. On top of all of this, I'm having to deal to getting a new Guildmaster every week, attend social events because it's expected of high-ranking Orderites, and foster my own, personal RP on the side. If it took you a long time to read that, then good - it's draining. There are advantages, like QP, IP, and RP literally whenever I want, but I am SWAMPED. And, shoot, maybe it's different for others, maybe I take this jazz too seriously. But it's becoming more and more of a hassle to log onto my main simply because if I don't play in 8-hour blocks of time, I'll fall behind on my 'work.' I get a new incident every day, and that's a MINIMUM of 6 hours of RP for me to look over the file, talk to the people involved, get other reports, and on and on and on... Because people wouldn't have mailed me if they didn't want that RP. I do understand how intoxicating being a Mage is. I do understand how playing witch to the Order for a few months can get to you before you attain power overwhelming. And I do understand the wont to exercise that, and give us RP and the like. But there's only three of us, guys. And I've been told that 33% of the MUD is Mages, Latent or otherwise. Three people within the Order that are meant to take care of the investigation of the entirety of the MUD. Three people in the Order who NEED to be called every time something goes down, because the aforementioned agreement between Knights and Orderites is a two-way street. Three people to handle ALL the mail, ALL the reports, ALL the daily goings-on of Lithmore.
All I'm asking of others - Mages and nonmages alike - is to recall that we're just a few dudes who do this in our spare time. I can't speak for the others. I won't speak for the others, but I'm just doing my best, man. I can only make up so much stuff every day. Without Orderites, the theme would absolutely break apart, and I'm running through a burnt-down library, scrambling to get a couple rotted pieces of paper to try and put together something - anything - that will make sense to other people when they ask me why Lithmore, the Capital of the known Urth, is constantly getting it's ass kicked by Mages and Daravi. I keep telling people this, and no one believes me : I don't know what I'm doing. And it wouldn't surprise me in the least to know that new Orderites won't know what they're doing, either.
Anywho. I won't tell anyone to do anything one way or the other. It's disingenuous of me, because I spent ages railing the Imms about how weak Mages were. Then I spent ages telling them how weak non-combatants were. I'm sure they're sick of listening to me ramble on about it. All I'm asking is that people understand why others get flustered. All I'm asking is that people be cool with those they RP with. And also realize how utterly wreck-face powerful older characters can be to newbies. Some of them get highly discouraged because of that stuff, man - just think about it. Someone like me could have his character die today, and I'd have more death RPXP then a person who's only been playing for a year or so would have made in his LIFETIME. The disconnect between old and new characters is insane. So just... Think, and be chill with one another.
Rothgar Astartes, Fyurii Rynnya, Nils 'Smith' Mattias, Edward Darson, Curos Arents.
