This post is made in an effort to define the differences between trolls, griefers, and deviants, and address them individually. I know there are several similar posts already, but with the nature of this post being different, I thought it best that it was done in a fresh thread of it's own, or maybe I just think I can do it better than others. Who knows.(trololol?)
Oh, btw, there's 2,277 words and no real TL:DR.
First let me establish some information that is relevant to the topic and not everyone seems to be aware of.
Prisons: As of right now, they are not a thing. However, SBS has said they will add prisons if they can come up with a way to "play the prison game". With so much uproar over the topic, I'm positive they are looking for a way to implement it.
Punishment for Crimes: The last mention of a punishment for murder was 2days of spirit loss. The same amount of loss that any player would have for suffering a coup de grace. Due to popular request, the punishment severity will very likely be in the hands of nobility, though I don't know of SBS having confirmed that yet. Hopefully SBS will impose a limit to the extent of the punishment. Whatever the amount of spirit lost may be, it will be multiplied based upon your fame/infamy.
Spirit Loss Multiplier: When you suffer a coup de grace, or when convicted of a crime the amount of spirit you lose is multiplied based on your fame. The levels of fame are: unknown(gentry), notable(city council), prominent(mayor), famous(magistrate/baron), renowned(count), exalted(duke), and legendary(king). The multipliers are 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, and 32x respectively.
Why do I bring up this information? Because people disregard spirit loss entirely as a proper punishment for deviant behavior, regardless of griefing. They are also always insisting on prisons and an absurd duration in prison.
I'll quickly detail how severe the spirit loss can get. Let's say someone murdered 10 people and was caught and convicted of all 10 murders. Okay, 20 days spirit loss as a base. Were they well known before this for some reason? Did killing 10 people increase their infamy? Let's say they are 'prominent', as well known as the local mayor. That's a 2x multiplier. So were up to 40days of spirit loss. That's 40 off of the 356days you get for a spark(average). Seems pretty decent.
Not enough? Maybe players control the punishment and set it to 4 days spirit loss for murder. Now it's 80 days play loss for 10 murders. We know players would set it even higher if possible. So, 8 days spirit loss puts it at 160 day loss for 10 murders. Damn. That's steep. Far too much because the risk for deviant players is far too high. Only a handful of deviants would put up with that. That's not what SBS wants.
Potentially half a spark for 10 murders... that would be insane. Let's take it a step further though. A griefer? Following the misconception of what people think a griefer could do, let's say they commit 40 murders and are caught. They could be caught after 2-3 murders, but the end result is still the same for 40 murders. 2 days spirit loss, 80 days lost. 4 days spirit loss, 160 days lost. 8 days spirit loss, 320 days lost. Boom. Permadead griefer(probably). Time to buy another spark.
For the sake of simplicity and the fact that people likely have their own definitions of what trolling and griefing is, I will use Wikipedia to define griefing and trolling.
Despite griefing and trolling being completely different things they are often lumped together as a single negative entity. I will hold to this trend and treat them both as 'griefers' for the sake of this discussion.
Griefer Wikipedia: A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and angers other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways. A griefer derives pleasure primarily or exclusively from the act of annoying other users, and as such is a particular nuisance in online gaming communities, since griefers often cannot be deterred by penalties related to in-game goals. This creates a strong division between griefing and cheating, since cheating is done with intent of winning the game and thus is discouraged by in-game penalties.
Deviant: In the case of CoE, and for the sake of this discussion, a deviant is a player that uses the skills available in the deviant skill set to further their own goals and/or 'mission'/contract objectives at the cost of other players. Some example goals/objectives and ways to complete them are acquiring secret documents via theft, acquiring funds via theft, acquiring materials/goods/equipment via theft, sabotaging an economy via theft/destruction/murder, driving people from their land via theft/destruction/murder. Note that murder may sometimes be required for theft.
Now that I've defined griefers and deviants for the sake of this discussion, lets move onto why deviants shouldn't be punished to the extent that deviancy becomes largely extinct.
First off, why have deviant abilities in the game at all if they aren't intended for use. If they didn't want people to be concerned with being robbed or murdered then they would just disable the ability to do so entirely. I think this solidly proves that SBS fully intends for a portion of the population to be deviant.
My reasoning for why they would want such a thing is that they want players to feel the risk of potentially losing things that you worked hard for. Trust me, this is a good thing in gaming. A sense of potential loss increases the value of any gain and successful maintenance of said gain. Besides the simple fact that they need bad guys and want to avoid adding artificial content to the game as much as possible. cough liches and vampires cough
What weight and value does being 'good' even have if you never had the choice of being bad? Being good because it's the only option destroys any value it has. You only notice the light because there is darkness.
Next let's address what the requirements to be able to grief someone are. Why does this matter? Because the effort required to grief is the best deterrent possible. The concept of cost/reward applies to griefers as well.
For the sake of discussion, let's assume that any settlement above a basic farming town, or maybe a mining town has a couple guards, or at least a local militia. Because they should. If they don't then the Duke and/or Baron aren't doing their jobs. Let's also make the assumption that the majority of griefers will/would work alone. There will be groups and I will address that specifically later, but for the sake of this discussion and my argument we'll assume they are solo. I would like to make another assumption, but I know it won't be accepted, so I'll save it for later.
So, because of these assumptions we can rule out any griefing in a town that has guards because they should be able handle it, and if someone goes on a random rampage it won't last long. Just think of it in the terms of that person having a mental breakdown or being mentally unstable instead of a griefer. Kind of how you would IRL.
Since we've ruled out griefing in cities because of guards we can also rule out solo-griefing outside of towns IF you have hired guards. For example, a trading caravan, traveling merchant, or a goods shipment. We won't assume that you have hired guards though, we'll address that later.
- Preparation. They will not be able to just jump into a new character and go kill someone. It's highly unlikely that a child will be able to best an adult in combat. So they will need a character of appropriate age. They then need the equipment to attack you. A weapon and simple armor(They have to pay for these somehow). They need a backpack(or mount with saddlebags) with food and water.(You won't last an hour without food and water outside of town) If they plan to chase any player down they will need to have a mount of some kind. A player won't be able to catch a carriage on foot. The mount will need saddlebags to carry anything they may steal. They will need skills in mounted combat if you are mounted as well(or they will need to disable your mount). They will need to do this every time they are caught or start a new character.
After the preparation for griefing comes the actual act of griefing, part of that being combat, another part being finding a target to grief.
Combat difficulty. Firstly, if they wear heavy armor and are on foot you can likely outrun them. Secondly, player skill plays an incredibly massive role in combat. Even if they outclass you completely, they won't get away unscathed unless you are complete garbage at combat or unarmed. There are no instant heal mechanics(Not including potential talents). After they are injured they have to wait to recover, or suffer a major disadvantage during their next engagement. If you aren't on foot, then most likely any non-standard mount could kick their ass. I can see a trison easily taking out 2-3 players that aren't well equipped and practiced at combat with a trison. Even an ursaphant won't go down easy.
Finding a Target: This is both simple and difficult. Sure you could likely pick any random person in a caravan to grief and go for it. This increases the risk of failure to grief dramatically though. You could alternatively put effort into finding a target you know isn't equipped for self defense and doesn't have a guard. The majority of griefers want to put in as little effort as possible, so it's likely they will just attack randomly. This coincides with increasing the effort to grief being a valid deterrent to griefing.
Remember that assumption I wanted to make earlier, but saved for later? Were going to address that now as well as hiring guards to protect you.
Before we dive into that though, let's quickly mention what threats, other than players, there are when outside of towns. Wildlife(pteroguins, and canis rabbits), NPC bandits, and NPC evils(vampires, liches, and potentially daemons) Those are some pretty serious threats.
Now to that assumption I mentioned. Everyone not in a heavily guarded city should carry a simple weapon. I would like to assume that everyone is aware enough to do so. You never know when you might need to defend yourself. Those threats I mentioned could just as easily enter into an unguarded town. Sure, you won't stand a chance against a group of NPC bandits on your own, but if all the people in your small town are armed and band together they could make the bandits think twice about raiding you. Sadly I know that people just aren't going to do that until they are forced to by unfortunate events. This leads into my final bullet point(maybe? you hope? We'll see :P ).
- Stupidity, Foolishness, and Naivete. Leaving a town unprotected, on foot, and unprepared for combat is stupid at best. If you are traveling from one town to another without being prepared then you are asking to be griefed/robbed. If you have any cargo of significant value then you need to hire a couple of guards at the least. If you don't, then you are simply stupid. Can't afford a guard? Blame yourself for spending all your funds elsewhere. Trading your product isn't profitable enough to afford a guard? Then why are you trading that product?
Now for my last topic. How the system is okay as it is, if not a little too harsh on deviant players, but that's okay. We'll roll with it.
I lied, time for another bullet point, just because I can.
- Cost and Reward: Whatever you want to call it, cost/benefit, effort/reward, it's all the same thing. Deviants and griefers have roughly the same level of effort required for simple highway robbery. A significantly larger effort is required for the more complex deviant tasks. This cost and reward system is why I think everything will be okay. There's a strong enough cost to prevent the majority of griefers from... griefing. For the rest, SBS has given us the means to defend ourselves. Protect yourself at all times. What about the super hardcore griefers? Well, if someone hacks the game and ruins your day, then that's too bad. That's how I look at the fringe hardcore griefers. The ones that move in a group and have a large organization backing them and providing them equipment. You literally cannot punish griefers anymore without the collateral of punishing deviants as well. Fear not though. This is where your community steps in. It is the job of the local Baron or Duke to hunt down and root out groups like this. They must protect their citizens. If they don't, you need to move.
To summarize, I believe that the effort required to grief will deter the majority of griefers, but not all the serious deviants. Not only will it deter them, but SBS has provided every tool necessary to defend yourself against both griefers and deviants. It's up to you to make the effort required to do so. I hope there's enough value in protecting yourself to outweigh the cost. winky face
All input is welcome! Please don't hesitate to comment!
