Fix Old Stones

[Random_White_Guy]

Please.

The place was awesome and always bumping and the curse kept people away. Now with the "Curse" as it stands people avoid it outright, and the more time it goes on the worse it just seems to get. there's very little IC benefit to being in or around it, it's a wasteland, and the curse has just stopped being interesting.

Many a PC I've had get stuck there in exile and every time it is the same thing.

Even if you succeed your will save you spend a round confused and can attack NPCs. Even if you succeed your fear save you can be in a room full of lights and start clawing at your face like a madman. The Darkness is either easily manuevered by those who have been there and know the layout or OOCly a hinderance to people who have never been.

Suggested alternatives:

- Get rid of the gimmicky darkness.
- Add "Maddened Thugs" that are low level NPCs that spawn like enemies crazed from the curse if you want a more hostile atmosphere. There are 0 NPCs on the top floor so a band of crazed marauders could roam and spawn there without causing faction conflicts.
- Fix the confusion or remove it, as it can bug the entire place hostile.
- Expand/Add more  cool status effects about the hair on your neck and the other current ones

There are just a few I could think of off the top of my head at the moment but yeah.

Please do something with this gem of the server that has been tarnished for so long.

[Vlaid]

I agree 100% with the premise of this post, but I enjoy the darkness. The other side-effects that result in very awkward attacking of NPC's or friends I do not as much.

Basically, if you combined the darkness+the old curse effects, I think it would be preferrable to the current incarnation.

It could use some work to make it more attractive place to be for shadier PC's...rather than a place to briefly go to pretend to be using it. It's just so isolated and not a lot of stuff in there really.

[Canzah]

I will agree with this without putting further thoughts into what specific improvements can be made. Likely because I am tired. w/e

The way the curse acts mechanically makes it near impossible to roleplay/loiter anywhere except in the small hubs of light. Perhaps that is intentional, yet the dark side of me feels cheated by it. Some concepts want to hang out in the darky dark yet the massive headache it can cause is a problem.

[Ryan]

I agree 100% on every point raised. I appreciate what the whole darkness thing is trying to do but it's more of an OOC hindrance at this point than anything else. Maybe it's time the grue curse thing was resolved so we have an IC excuse for doing away with the darkness?

[Guttersnipe]

I will say this much, over the last month that I've been watching, PCs who get banished and try to set up camp in the Old Stones simply fade away. It's a shame that creating fun conflict and being banished basically means the death of your concept. Anything done to help improve the situation, draw people into the places where the banished reside, is a step in the right direction.

[morva]

Ahem, get rid of the Sanatorium. Worst association ever. I played Creevy for a few months and in that time I never saw any Sanatorium pc's. I would suggest that you add another association in Old Stones that has to do with the criminal element ex: Cutthroats, Luster, Greasy hair men or something. Also the curse is really annoying. You end up attacking NPC's and the whole place gets bugged. Overall, Old Stones could use a little update.

[KingHovCopy]

In short, put it back to what it was at least. The darkness and annoying curses are more of an ooc annoyance than anything. The sanatorium is quite obviously abandoned, or nearly so, and should probably just fade away as stated.

[HerDarkMajesties]

I wouldn't say 'Fix', but certainly consider a rethink on the darkess / mechanics of the curse aspects. Endlessly tabbing and squinting at the minimap in an attempt to navigate about in the darkness is more OOCly frustrating than ICly immersive for example.

[Decimate_The_Weak]

The darkness is very annoying, yes. If anything, just make the area dark. The darkness VFX is not too fun to navigate through or RP in.

[Guttersnipe]

It's not so much the darkness that's the problem as all the little things that seem to lay in some of those hallways and you keep running into despite heading the correct way, etc..

I rather like the darkness myself, I don't like the random things you keep running into. What might help isn't so much removing the darkness, but instead lifting the darkness at corners and doorways so you can maneuver at those places which are the most difficult. If you could see at these points then maneuvering wouldn't be as much as a chore as it often is.

Addition: As for the other effects, using a *spoiler* wards them off but the tremors that cause you to lose your *spoiler* tend to come too frequently to make then useful for anything other than quickly moving through. Therefore, make the tremors much less frequent and people will have a more sure means to ward off the curse and roleplay inside the darker areas of the Old Stones.

Now this doesn't help those PCs who wouldn't use a torch, admittedly, but maybe for those who earn it something could be created so that those PCs become effectively immune? For instance, the rogue perk "Shadow" could potentially make PCs immune.

[ThisIsWonderland]

As someone who has future evil-inclined concepts lined up, I would like to add my two cents on how the current implementation of the Old Stones curse is more of a hassle than fun for the many reasons others have previously mentioned.

[DevilsnDemons]

Some of us are actively working at removing, or controlling the Old Stones' curse. Stay tuned, we might be able to fix it! :cool:

[Guttersnipe]

Some of us are actively working at removing, or controlling the Old Stones' curse. Stay tuned, we might be able to fix it! :cool:

The suggestions aren't about the removal of the curse, people like the curse. The suggestions are about how to make it so that people aren't avoiding the Old Stones altogether on concepts that make sense being there, therefore making the entire area a ghost-town.

I go into the Old Stones with fair frequency since my character lived there the last several years, but if I find someone in there to RP with 1 of 5 times I consider myself very lucky. If you can't find people to RP with you simply will go other places, which is only common sense and expected. And this trend is getting worse, not better.

[gab1]

Unsure about this, i've not spent much time there. I was under the impression that weilding a torch protected you from the curse, the urchin children and Higgins, not to get too spoilerized. I had spent a pretty long time down there though not longer than an hour in general.

I know it's unlikely that the others haven't figured this out so i assume i'm lucky. I've only once "blacked out" and i ascribed that to having no torch.


I agree that confusion around the NPC's without DM supervision is probably an accident or oversight, that should be changed to a DM spice rather than ambient effect.

[Valo56]

Remove all the scripted effects of the darkness, but DM's spawn the grue more often. I like the darkness VFX, myself.