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Sep-16-2006 10:24

there is a great variance between the older players and agencies
and those who came along later...a gap that perhaps is too hard
to close...might i suggest quarterly rounds where the townies are
deleted for all...the older players would still have the advantage of
money, experience points, general knowledge of the game but the
quarterly deletion of townies ( all players having to reacquire the
townie favors every 90 days ) would make the game more competitive among all players and add some challenge every 90
days for the older players...

Sep-16-2006 12:13

It must be a good suggestion, as it had drawn a good debate. There are a lot of twists and risks already that make the game interesting (villain hunts and pirates, for example) but, it could work under the right conditions. Its like with factions. After time, they slowly become less favorable with you unless you keep involved with them.

Sep-16-2006 12:23

OK, this is probably going to get me spanked, but..
So what you are saying now, Mary, is that in order for the site to remain financially profitable and attaract new players, the older players MUST give up any "edge" they had acquired? (and see? I can use big words too)
It seems to me that anyone can get interested enough to subscribe in order to build up their detective and agency and compete in the "big leagues"
And I resent the impication that we are not thinking of others. In fact, like I mentioned previously, I have given up many skill and experience points in order to help my agency and to help build up other members of my agency. And many others have done so as well.
If you are interested, I am POSITIVE that you can find a more established agency that will put itself out in order to help gain experiense, skill points, faction standings, favors, AND give you equipment.

Sep-16-2006 12:34

In that case Mary, more power to them.
As far as Sleuth goes, I will repeat: It really, really, really does not take that long to accumulated skill and experience points (I suppose the equivalent of health) and money in this game. As you can see I am aroud 100 days, which is about 4 months. In that period of time I have accumulated over 1,000,000 xp points, skills, and 8 contacts, all with a lot of help from my agency.
This game is set up that way for a reason...work hard, play hard.

Sep-16-2006 12:40

What if, as a compromise alternative to keeping the status quo or integrating a mechanics change with resounding repercussions, we split the middle on this one?

The solution might be to offer detectives the option to "switch" one of their contacts every x days or y amount of cases. What happens is, you do a favor for a townie, and after x cases or y days from receiving the same type of contact in that city, there's an increasing random chance that they will offer to be your contact. If you accept, you lose your former contact of the same type. If not, no change, and the opportunity will begin to accrue again.

Mary, though your argument is eloquent and appears to be for the good of the community at large, I don't see why the change you're proposing is necessary. For one, you claim there are about 60 "loyal" subscribers who are jeopardizing the game by being stagnant to any changes that would remove them from their perches. In reality, I would guess that there are several hundred, if not more, regular subscribers, as denoted by the size, age, and activity of many agencies. As far as these regulars' inability to process change, take a look through the message boards. The regulars are quite often the ones discussing, suggesting, and debating potential changes to the game. Some have made it in over the years, some have not.
You say that your proposal would inject a necessary amount of "chaos" into this game, which implies that it is lacking that "chaos". Pirates, factions, contact vs. evidence ratios, skill success, treasure hunts... all integral parts of the game that are based in whole or in part on randomness.

*cont.*

Sep-16-2006 12:45


You say all contacts should be lost and have to be reacquired (simultaneously I presume) every 90 days. It seems fair on its face, but consider the scope of ramification this would have. I get my PE contact on day 1, and can keep it for 90 days. Someone else has a terrible run of luck or is aiming at a specific PE contact, and gets it finally after 85 days of hard work, only to lose it in 5. I have clearly gained an advantage over this detective, and I have the potential to keep repeating that advantage 4 times a year. How is that an improvement over the "1 and done" system the game's creator (who over the years has changed a lot of things to improve the game, including contacts) envisioned from the beginning?

I always love to see new ideas on the board. I suggest a few myself from time to time. I also like to see good debate on these issues; but what we have here doesn't seem like "good" debate. It seems like detectives (no one specifically in mind with this) who do not have the desire to improve their characters clamoring to level a playing field that they have chosen not to compete on enough to be on the winning end.

In essence, this idea reeks of all the *negative* aspects of affirmative action. Great idea on paper, not too great in practice.