ИДЕЯ ДЛЯ РИЗОМА

So basically, you'd rather people play toons and not care about the roleplaying aspect rather than learn about the lore in the tutorial? Many people can't be bothered to read these days. Shove the lore in their face, let them make their informed opinions, and allow them the opportunity to change race before they've lvled too far.

i don't disagree with daomei's point about the fact that the matis rep give's a bad image, enough so to make me consider (and then do) a toon delete and restart. but, if something about it was to be done, it should have been done in short time after silan was introducted, at this point, anything more then changing the words would be too much, but the game needs a "bad guy" how many ppl have gotten to that mission with a zorai, tryker, or fryos toon and said, hey these guys are different, i want to be one of them instead, thus they delete thier toon and go create a matis toon, so it can work both ways, some ppl like to be the bad guys, some the good, this way they see there's options. the matis were wrote to be the bad guys, if you choose to follow that, it's a choice, silan is a warning about the matis beliefs, but doesn't mean that someone playing a matis toon has to be a matis citizen, or karavan for that matter, had i known then what i know, i might still be a pale white toon, but as i rather not be the bad guy, i wanted the more enlightened race, so i choose zorai the 2nd time, (though they too have flaws, just more hidden at the start) and have never looked back, sure we zorai obsess over the goo, but after all it's invading our home, the matis just want to continue the very things that brought our ancestors from time out of mind to atys. we're all just a big scientific experiment, and i think that once the one's conducting the experiment were done, they released what we call the goo, to try to destroy what's left of an experiment they conducted, only the goo didn't spread as fast as they thought it would, and we've developed into homin race that may one day stop and then revert the effects of the goo, thus stopping the genocide that was intended for all of homin kind and indeed the big tree it's self.....

sorry that ended up way off topic, but anyway, there's some on topic stuff here and there in this so i'll post it anyway :)

I have to disagree with the OP's point. I don't think the comments made by Sterga Hamla on Silan should be changed.

When I was starting on Silan I was entertained and delighted by the game and learning the various skills available. When I got to Sterga Hamla I was shocked. His attitude - for a trainer on a starter island - seemed to be overly abrasive. I was playing a Matis and if this is what Matis are like I would maybe regret chosing a Matis toon.

When I got to the final part of the missions I saw the genius of the character of Sterga Hamla - I had to chose to be a 'good' Matis or a 'bad' Matis. I had not expected such depth of characterisation or backstory. I immediately read as much of the Lore as I could find, which I found thrilling and intriguing.

As we know there is good and bad in all people, races, nations, civilisations etc. but I had not expected to find this reflected in an MMORPG.

I was quite surprised when I found out that this 'Bad Matis' spoke not only to Matis toons but all toons. I had assumed that the four races would each have this depth of lore revealed, in its own way.

I would suggest as an alternative to modifying Stergla Hamla's comments and missions; that each of the 4 races betrayed the same depth through missions given on Silan.

I'd rather they changed the practical part of his tutorial rather than the roleplay part of it. It's honestly what I thought this thread was going to be about.

Half the missions in his chain aren't about crafting but gathering resources. Most aspects of crafting go completely untouched, like explaining the relevance of certain attributes, or the impact of higher grade materials on the overall craft.

Similarly, half the harvesting missions have nothing to do with harvesting at all. Care planning, for instance, is never even mentioned. Weather conditions are brought up only vaguely but are never fully explained, etc..

Some roleplay is nice, but I fear the lacking tutorial aspect of the tutorial missions is being overlooked.

+1 Pruvan

I would kindly ask not to add stuff into this idea thread which does not belong here.

I might agree that all Silan missions might well have use and to some extent, need of revamping or brushup. But fact is that this would be a lot of effort which would better be spent on innumerous other issues of more use and urgency, before.

I was dealing with the RP aspect which may be modified without major effort, without testing or debugging necessities of any kind. So please be so kind and stick with this intention. Feel free to present additional ideas no matter how realistic in a different thread.

I never played the Silan missions - on the Matis starter island everything was fine for me, no evil characters - some a touch arrogant probably, but that's fine for me if in turn the Fyros on their island were a touch stupid, the Trykers slightly irresponsible and the Zorai talking in riddles. Fact is that people for some reason seemingly seem to choose the Verdant Heights less often than they did before Silan was installed, and some reason might be that this character implies that we are villains to the core and players decided as Talkirc did and choosed a "good" character - although despite some unfortunate implications in the description of the race this is counteracted by the history of Atys, where you can see that, for example, the conflict in 2499 was provoked by the Trykers and Fyros breaking the old Treaty of the Four Nations. It is clear that the Matis had already the Fyros on their knees by the capture of Dexton. Here Mabreka saved the day by mediating between the war parties. Without any real need at that point, the Matis then signed a peace treaty and set Dexton free for a (rather minor) reparation payment. Doesn't sound villainous to me. That Jinovitch was a villain, there can be no doubt, but most likely he killed more Matis than people of other nations ...

Having said that, I wonder where Talkirc read that the Matis are responsible for the Goo. They aren't, of course, and the main knowledge about the Goo is in the hands of the Marauders - mainly of Zorai Marauders.

Fundamentally, all races have negative traits - the Fyros released the Kitins and burned down part of our world, the Zorai were slavers for a time and let the Trykers die at their gates when the Kitin came, the Trykers - the most harmless of the races - provoked a war just out of greed. And that's just for starters.

A final word on slavery in RL - most so-called civilised countries (if not all) have a sad history of slavery. It is true, though, that probably the US was the last nation to get rid of it. That it still is deeply rooted in the minds of the Americans, though, might be due to the fact that although slavery vanished after the Civil Wars, Afro-American still were bereft of many rights until the 1960s and 1970s. So I understand sensibilities here, but - as said - the Zorai introduced slavery for some time as well.

I agree to much Salazar wrote, only I feel mixing RL into the topic inappropriate. As to enslavement, it is indeed the only lasting stain on Matis, but in all our "historical" times (when RL players were playing homins) Matis had abolished slavery and signed three documents, namely treaty of four nation, declaration of homin rights, and free trade agreement banishing and condemning slavery.

So we remain with four peoples with their traits

Fyros - bellicose and rough, but sticking to honor, justice, truth, and discipline
Trykers - hedonistic and reckless, but emphasizing liberty, equality, and sharing
Zorai - bit weary and illogical, but caring for nature and equilibrium (Zorai may comment on, not complete)
Matis - arrogant and dominant, but striving for excellence and perfection, with a strong sense for style and harmony

so there is always an upside and a downside in all four peoples. My point is that the downside is widely over-emphasized in the Sterga Hamla representation of the Matis people.

And, to add that: Sterga Hamla is not "evil", but inconsistent. He is spouting arrogant and race-centered stuff, forcing an oath of allegiance. Afterwards, he is a generous and patient teacher, giving mats and dappers to his apprentices, without regards of their race, encourageing them, helping them, advising them, rewarding them, and lauding every progress. Even when he is betrayed by most homins, he is in no way resenting. He helps identifying the goo extractor, and when a young homin has passed the Chiang mission, he is the one crafting the rangers' armor. So my idea is to make the master Sterga character more consistent and more logical.


just my 2 dappers