Lawless Areas

[Kinaed]

When the Southside was originally created, it was at the request of players to have a 'lawless' area. We've recently set up zone flags to call a place lawless, and we're going to be adding 'accept' dialogue to the game to begin to enforce theme of different places. What this means is that players will receive a warning text if they fit a certain description, and be requested to OOCly 'accept' the warning before they may enter certain areas.

So, with this, we're considering a major revamp to how Southside works. This will happen, but the question is what sort of flavor will we give it, and what do the players, on the whole, want it to look like?

Please vote, and give us comments!

[Dice]

I would like to note that I am specifically very against arrests not being performable in the area. These other options are primarily based off what NPCs in the area might do, and that works for me. But limiting arrests stops a PC from taking an action that is completely feasible - nothing would ICly stop a PC from slapping the cuffs on another PC.

[Kinaed]

I'm not sure I agree as I think NPCs might very well jump in to prevent Reeves, Knights, etc from attempting it.

[Kinaed]

Hera's player suggested mobs that randomly steal from passersby to be added to the list.

[Kinaed]

Okay, it's looking like what the Southside will become is an area with the following characteristics:

1. Accept dialogue for players who normally would find the area dangerous to receive a notice for them to accept.
2. Roaming gang mobs that may be aggressive to particular sorts of players.
3. Roaming thief mobs that may steal from particular sorts of players.
4. Crime messages will be buried in the area.

This said, can we get any sort of player agreement regarding different behaviors when in Southside to elsewhere? I'm not certain what it would take, but I'm acutely aware that the theme of the area will be disrupted if law players act with the same authority as they normally would in lawful areas. There would be pressures and dangers to exerting one's lawful authority in a lawless area, but I'm not certain how we might represent that. Any opinions?

Thank you everyone who voted!

[wimple]

I'm not sure how the aggression could tie in - if someone is wearing an item from their guild, could that cause the aggro or negative response? Could it be as simple as the mobs there don't assist players (i.e. don't yell at you for yanking someone around without their will, don't try to assist if you're being attacked or yell for help, etc.) Or, alternatively, the mobs call for the aggro gang mobs to come, so you have to finish up quickly or face a big fight?

Just throwing some things out there. The whole restrain/arrest command might have another check it goes through when in lawless areas, resulting in it failing or such as well.

[Dice]

I'm fine with arrest having a chance of summoning the hostile mobs or something similar - just not an outright automatic fail. I think in most cases NPCs wouldn't lift a finger to help someone, but now and again you might get some angry thugs..

I like the idea that just being there is only dangerous if you're wearing insignia (or how else will they know that you're a Reeve/Knight/whatever?), but if you actually use arrest, that also reveals you.

[Clockwork]

I think of southside the same way I think of Old City in Sin City. As long as there is some sort of order kept by the thugs and the multitudes, the real cops will steer clear. A Reeve in southside knows that he's not welcome, and that he's likely to catch a knife in the back if he does so much as look the wrong way. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and if someone big goes to ground there, it wouldn't necessarily stop the Reeves from chasing them in.

Of course, the corollary is that we should have some law NPCs northside.

[Kinaed]

What would law NPCs northside do?

We already report crimes in lawful areas, but not sure what else we ought to consider.

[Geras]

Perhaps things could be handled more subtly. As a Reeve, I already avoid this area simply as a matter of good RP, but I do think Reeves (and Knights) should be able to enter the area if they go in force.

What about having a system similar to the lawless flag for the southside instead? IE whenever a law type passes through certain rooms the Thieves get warned (allowing them to flee or set up an ambush when necessary). That would be a nice equivalence to the Reeves being warned of criminal activity on the northside. After all, there aren't any guard mobs for Reeves, nor IMHO should there be.

I'm even fine with there being outright x-blocks for certain special locations like the Blind Horse too. I think this would be preferable to adding NPCs to the game. After all, Tenebrae him/herself may not always want to start a war with Reeves who wander in.

On a separate note, maybe there could be a delay in how quickly the Reeves at least get a message on criminal activity - something akin to a messenger? The couple times I've actually paid attention to them I've been there way too fast to make sense IC.