I think the only way PK Can be done ICly once again, really only comes down to the players that choose to be PK, and what they choose to do with that status.
Natalya for example is only PK BECAUSE of her RP, and as such will only ever attack if given reason, and it has to be a decent reason, IE: Someone attacked first, someone stole, someone insulted (continued after warnings given), so forth.
Personally I kind of want the PK system ripped out or changed heavily. I was discussing this with Fizban the other day, but I was too lazy at the time to write a post about it.
And yet, I sit here with a sprained hand, and I've just now decided to write about it. Go figure.
What I'd like to see is somewhat of a CONSENT system. I'm so tired of non-pkers getting to walk around and do whatever the hell they want thinking there's no way they will get in trouble cause "You cant kill me I dont have a PK flag! HA HA HA".
It'd take a lot of work, and a lot of thought and plotting out, and I know at the end of the day 4d probably won't go for it because "it leaves too much room for abuse".
Fact is at the end of the day, we can't prevent EVERYTHING, and thats why we have some simple, hard, rules. If players dont follow the rules, they are banned. No handouts, no flexibility, done and dusted. Lay out some rules that will get you banned. 3 strikes and you're out, idea. Start with temporary punishments, and if the problem persists, ban someone permanently. Thats already what we do though, however I still think we need to crack down on it a lil more.
Beside the point..
PK/Consent.
Can still have PK flags for those who want to go around and kill randomly if they should so choose, but I reckon thats what the arena is for.
I'd like to see PK flags removed, and have a consent system in place. (HELP CONSENT), as for what qualifies for murdering someone or not.
This means that yes, any player can be attacked, and as far as I can tell, it would mean player to player actions would have to be "checked" in some form for this all to work properly.
So, say, you're out of recall. You're off minding your own business, and someone randomly runs in and attacks you.
You either:
A) Don't care, let it go, ignore it.
B) Scream "That bastard!", and decide to take revenge by hunting them down and killing them yourself.
C) Go to a city guardhouse and report them to the authorities, which will then send guards out to go drag the killer to jail for a certain period of time.
In conjunction with being dragged to the guardhouse (which, Id say, your time in there will increase with the number of offences you start racking up), you are stripped of your clothing, which is stored in a sack in the guardhouse. To get it back, you have to pay your fine (and let's make it a hefty one, which again - gets more expensive with each offence you get on record).
Ofcourse, those on the run from the law might be able to hide, but they would have to stay out of recall, out of clan HQ, and out of any major cities or checkpoints. So theyd have to stay in.. say.. space, or forests, etc. They wouldnt be able to dodge the guards for long, though.
I'd like to say that criminals can only be reported if their crime is commited in a town or city, but too many people do spend their time outside of the cities and would be left without defense.
I know 4D isn't an RP enforced MUD, but there is, and always has been, a large difference between RP and PK. PK = OOC, RP = IC. I'd like to see the two merged, and the fact that we have players wandering around doing whatever they want and aren't touchable is just not realistic. ANYONE should be able to be attacked, it's what they DO in response to being attacked that is their choice. Ignore it, report it, or seek revenge. You would have to have a TIME LIMIT on how long you can wait before reporting, and also a check so that a player can't go take REVENGE and kill their attack AND then ALSO report them as a double-wammy.
Along those lines, this leads me to looting.
Perhaps, if you wanted to keep the PK flags so that those players dont have to abide by the CONSENT system (which I have mixed feelings about), then Id like to say that if a player Kills another player that doesn't have the PK flag, either make their corpse not lootable, OR, make it more realistic.
IE: I'd like to see GRAVES, as an example. Player 1 kills Player 2.
Player 2 is sent to recall,
Player 1 now has to dig the grave to get anything from the corpse.
This not only takes a large amount of time, but could also have it so player 1 only digs up one item at a time. But he'd have to be digging for a while to get anything in the first place, giving player 2 hopefully more than enough time to recover or go retrieve their items by OPENING their own grave, GETTING everything out, and wearing everything again.
I'd just like to see some more realistic things in the game. This recovery dealy, whilst somewhat necessary, is kind of unrealistic, surely there's something else we could do to make it a bit more believable.
Also the idea of digging graves could be tweaked and whatnot, but I think its a great idea for PK killings. It also gives the "victim" a sporting chance to get their gear back.
These are just the basic nutshell ideas okay, I could go into this a lot more, but use your imagination.
I also want something to shut players up already. Being a Hero myself, I'm sometimes faced with situations I find unacceptable, but refuse to use silence or freeze in a personal situation against Natalya, even though if the same situation was happening to someone else, Id immediately act if it was on the proper grounds to do so.
But also from an RP standpoint, I'm tired of people being able to say what they want and not really have any consequences. That's a common problem on 4d, I think, because you can't respond to idiots in any way.
Can we have something like a THUMP command, that, if you're higher level or tier, or even higher in remorts or AGE, or all of the above, you can THUMP someone to make them lose their vocal cords for say 10 minutes. If they continue, and you WARN them again, and they STILL continue, you can thump them again, and itll shut them up for 20 minutes.
Sure. It's not much. And itd have to have limited use, but it's SOMETHING to respond with. Personally I think if some newb idiot is insulting an older player that is attempting to maintain a level of respect and decency on the mud, they should damn well have the ability to shut the idiot up.
Again, it opens for abuse, but look, we aren't ever going to get around that, so let's not play chicken, put rules in place, and if players dont follow them it's their own damn fault.
I dunno. I just wanna see more consistancy. And I know this isn't a strict RP mud, but I'd love to see people RP and BE their characters and for the game to have just a bit more realism. I want more of an environment.. yknow? Rather than just idiots saying crap over gossip, or people talking about PK. Why cant we get into things a bit more.
I totally didn't mean to write this much. And I know I could have written so much of this better, or explained things a lot better.
Have I mentioned I haven't slept?
I hope this gets understood better than I think it's going to :/
