BZPRPG News and Discussion

[Simulacrum]

Some personal favourites (by no means all of them):

 

Homicide

Sharks

Split Knuckles

My Name Is

 

Possible contender for absolute favourite: Inferiority.

 

Also, all of the afterlife Grokk (magical mystery tour~) posts are wonderful, but it's ongoing, so I don't think I need to link them (if you haven't read them check out Nuju's sig ASAP).

[Razgriz]

I am working out another returning character, but I don't have everything nailed down, even if I did decide definitely "Yes I feel like juggling two characters again."

the things i read in the wee hours of the morning and shake my head to myself

 

"if only i had known"

[shadow pridak money gang]

you know what they say. actions count, tarkus cheap

 

-Tyler

[They]

Can someone give a quick run-down of the Kentoku Civil War since the Dastana cessation?

[Krayzikk]

 

 

In all seriousness, very little. Only one or two Toroshu have made much of a response, and the Rora herself has yet to do anything.

[They]

Excellent, thanks!

[Keeper of Kraata]

I'm about to have some Imperial-aligned NPC extremists attack Robalta in Sado. Fortunately, some handy sellswords are nearby. Convenient, ain't it?

[25K Now!]

I don't even know what's going on.

 

What's going in Kentoku man.

 

WHAT'S GOING oOOOOOn?

[Razgriz]

nothing

[shadow pridak money gang]

 

-Tyler

[Wazdakka]

So I've been gone for three months. How would I get back into things?

[Nato G]

Hey Keeper, are you still waiting for posts from Maeloc's party, or can we get the amulet quest moving again? 

 

Sorry to sound impatient, but I really want to see where this is going. 

Edited February 22, 2015 by Roman Torchwick

[Hitoshura]

So I've been gone for three months. How would I get back into things?

Catch up on current news, maybe, then reintroduce your character(s) in the topics.

[Keeper of Kraata]

I was, but I suppose enough people have posted. I'm sorry I've been a bit out of it lately, I'll get to work on the next one.

[Nato G]

Nah, it's alright. Everyone has IRL stuff that gets in the way of RPing. I only asked because it's been quite a while since you asked people to post, and not a lot's happened. 

[Keeper of Kraata]

"No, I'm sure it doesn't say 'only the penitent may pass', why?"

[Perp]

Hey peeps,

Over the past week a few of us have scribed a petition to the Staff regarding the RPG's 'Native Tech' section of the rules. The goal of the petition is to refine and update the rules regarding Native Tech that will provide a much more streamlined experience for players as well as remove some of the reliance on Staff approval through more defined limits and possibilities that will further guide newer players while challenging experienced inventors.

Be sure you read the entirety of the petition here, and, if you support it, sign your username here.

Thanks for your time.

[Silvan Haven]

I'll be honest, most of the petition was written by Perp there. The rest of us mostly just discussed what should and should not be put on there. We had some rather...lively debates about it.

[They]

This list is... robust.  I'm not sure any newer players would find this an easier list, unless they have a background in Dungeons & Dragons.  I definitely like it, though.  It's extensive, but perhaps it would serve better on the wiki than in the section for character creation? If it helps with easing the staff's jobs, though, I'm all for it.

[sunflower]

Its purpose is to update and add some logical organization to existing tech in the game currently, seeing as the current iteration that we have doesn't take into account some recent advances and inventions made.

[Silvan Haven]

We were aiming for a list that had pretty much everything a person might need on it, as well as any commonly found inventions that were not tied down to a single player's shop..

[Eyru]

Eh,  if it makes the staff's job easier, I suppose it's a good idea. A lot of the list seems pretty superfluous, though: do we really need to list off iron, clay, and seaweed as resources? (side note: where did rubber and plastics come from? Those seem like comparatively advanced resources)

 

Personally, I don't know how I feel about cataloguing every little thing in the BZPRPG. Newer players already have a ton of information to absorb; this feels like stuff that belongs on a wiki page.

 

but who cares what i think lol

[Silvan Haven]

Pretty much anything electronic requires rubber to insulate the wires and plastic is pretty darn close to rubber as far as materials go.

 

Much of the list is for inventors to reference when they need to check if what they want to use is on Mata Nui. We could make an abridged version for the main topic and put the rest of it on the wiki if needed.

[Nato G]

I agree. Considering some of the weird so-called "native tech" items I've seen a few characters try to make, I think a list like this is exactly what we need in order to show them what is/n't possible. 

[sunflower]

but who cares what i think lol

hi

 

that'd be me

[The UltimoScorp]

I agree. Considering some of the weird so-called "native tech" items I've seen a few characters try to make, I think a list like this is exactly what we need in order to show them what is/n't possible. 

I only made a flame staff!

 

 

With a sword attachment.

 

 

which was sold to another player.

 

which I got approval for, thanks very much.

[sunflower]

Oh yeah, if anyone has thoughts, ideas, and/or revisions for the proposed tech list linked above, shout them out. Heck, just shoot holes in it if wanted, the point was to kinda try and integrate players more into this stuff.

 

Don't feel like this is written in stone at all.

[Timageness]

This sounds cool, but my PS3 keyboard wasn't coming up when I tried to sign it. 

You guys have my support if someone wants to add me to the list.

[Nato G]

I only made a flame staff!

 

 

With a sword attachment.

 

 

which was sold to another player.

 

which I got approval for, thanks very much.

 

 

Wasn't actually talking about you.

 

I was referring to some weird stuff I found while skimming through the old topics and on the wiki. 

[Silvan Haven]

This sounds cool, but my PS3 keyboard wasn't coming up when I tried to sign it. 

You guys have my support if someone wants to add me to the list.

 

Your name has been added.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Silvan Haven

[Timageness]

Sweet.

[25K Now!]

Man, those were the days.

[shadow pridak money gang]

i honestly don't know how it makes the staff's lives much easier - i agree the living list needs some kind of update but divvying up every minor resource we have on the island and making leaps and bounds with the tech level of the island is kinda...sus to me. wherever we put it, it's going to add a colossal amount of space. like, profiles post is big enough as it is, and the starter topic isn't exactly answering a lot of the problems it was meant to stave off, 

 

how this makes our jobs easier:

 

we didn't have to put it together ourselves

 

how it makes our jobs harder:

 

people love loopholes. anything towards the back half of this native list is wide open to customization (looking at bicycles and koro tech specifically) and people are going to have to get those customizations approved anyway. as it is the approval system is so screwed that as much as we try to tell people to run stuff by us it all goes through nuju anyway, meaning oftentimes we have no idea what people are getting through until it's already IC. a native list does just as much harm as it helps in that respect, because it cuts out the approval process for a lot of cool tech altogether

 

people won't read it. see starter topic and weep accordingly pls.

 

the tech level on mata nui was never supposed to be static like this. when the 2013 arc started out onu-koro was intended to be the vanguard for technological advancement, and the rest of the island would catch up as they may. after the piraka arrived and nuju kinda took a backseat with native tech, the entire island was able to develop stuff as inventors started flocking to places like po and ta, and then ga started contracting people, and then le...it's basically an entire island of rapidly developing city-states (except maybe ko) whose tech levels are always changing. a static list that would probably still need somewhat regular maintenance just seems superfluous.

 

idk maybe the boys disagree with me or something and i definitely appreciate the crapload of time perp, silv and grav dumped into it. i'm just not feeling it as a permanent appendix to the game

 

-Tyler

[sunflower]

i honestly don't know how it makes the staff's lives much easier - i agree the living list needs some kind of update but divvying up every minor resource we have on the island and making leaps and bounds with the tech level of the island is kinda...sus to me. wherever we put it, it's going to add a colossal amount of space. like, profiles post is big enough as it is, and the starter topic isn't exactly answering a lot of the problems it was meant to stave off,

It is a large collection of information, and never once did we expect it to be included as part of the already crowded Profile master post or New Player topic. The brief version that is there currently works fine for any new players wanting to join the game, but just having a brief version such as that makes it very, very difficult for those who are part of the game to develop anything meaningful without questions of "So wait, because we have photo-voltaic cells, electric trains, geothermal power plants, and radios, my M16 should be fine, right?" coming up.

 

And no large leaps in tech level have been made, we simply inferred from what we have currently. (E.g., rubber/plastics for wiring.)

 

how this makes our jobs easier:

 

we didn't have to put it together ourselves

 

how it makes our jobs harder:

 

people love loopholes. anything towards the back half of this native list is wide open to customization (looking at bicycles and koro tech specifically) and people are going to have to get those customizations approved anyway. as it is the approval system is so screwed that as much as we try to tell people to run stuff by us it all goes through nuju anyway, meaning oftentimes we have no idea what people are getting through until it's already IC. a native list does just as much harm as it helps in that respect, because it cuts out the approval process for a lot of cool tech altogether

Fair enough, though customization is pretty much the point of having opened up native tech for development. The staff approval process is another thing entirely.

 

people won't read it. see starter topic and weep accordingly pls.

As stated above, this list is meant for those people who've been here a while (and have sufficient interest in inventing technologies) to have a comprehensive list of materials and devices that they have access to, giving them a much clearer idea as to what the native tech is like here on Mata Nui and what they can use to make new technologies.

 

I, personally, do not think that something as indepth as this should be the first thing shoved into new players' faces when introduced to native tech at all. A vague, short rundown works best for that.

 

the tech level on mata nui was never supposed to be static like this. when the 2013 arc started out onu-koro was intended to be the vanguard for technological advancement, and the rest of the island would catch up as they may. after the piraka arrived and nuju kinda took a backseat with native tech, the entire island was able to develop stuff as inventors started flocking to places like po and ta, and then ga started contracting people, and then le...it's basically an entire island of rapidly developing city-states (except maybe ko) whose tech levels are always changing. a static list that would probably still need somewhat regular maintenance just seems superfluous.

Not set in stone at all, still. This provides a specific starting point for technological advancement, not a set of boundaries that may not be crossed. Honestly, one of the issues with technological advancement is that the only meaningful advancements we've really seen have been introduced either as gigantic leaps from Koro-specific technologies (Solar panels? Monorail?), or more recently as staff introduced advances (Onu-Koro's Exo-Matoran.) An expanded and specific list gives players the building blocks to make such advances on their own. Yes it would have to be updated with every new invention made and approved, but keeping such a list on the Wikia (as people have mentioned) would make keeping it up to date a non-issue.

 

idk maybe the boys disagree with me or something and i definitely appreciate the crapload of time perp, silv and grav dumped into it. i'm just not feeling it as a permanent appendix to the game

 

-Tyler

Your points are valid, and criticism is honestly the best thing for any idea.

 

<3

[Silvan Haven]

I was going to write up a response but it seems Gravity beat me to it.

 

Maybe it would help if people went and put their inventions on the wiki after they got it approved by staff. Probably in a section under the inventing character's name so that it's not just a general island-wide thing.

[Keeper of Kraata]

I was going to suggest similar, placing this on the wiki. If one wants to build stuff, hopefully they put thought into it; something a document like this would seriously help.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Keeper of Kraata

[AuRon the champion]

So does this mean we can rebuild them (characters) yet? Do we have the technology?

[Perp]

Okay, just gonna weigh in some of my own thoughts here, some following up on what Gravity said.

 

 people love loopholes.

Absolutely right - people love their loopholes. I see where you're coming from, having concerns with the content on the list. It should be noted, however, that we really didn't make up what was on the list; pretty much all of what was written down was done so after making sure the resources, tech or tools were already present in the game's canon.

 

The actual lists aren't what matter the most in regards to this petition anyway - the rules regarding how they're handled are of far greater importance. We specifically re-wrote the introductory paragraphs to the Native Tech section to more specifically define the limits the listed items can be taken to. Of course, there will still be players who find and try to use loopholes, but with the new rules I feel they'll be less in number than the ones we have now due to the vagueness of just what tech is available. See below for more on vagueness.

 

people won't read it. 

Some people don't read the rules anyway. Do you think a great deal will have read the old Native Tech section, but won't read the new one? (provided we cut it down, which was part of the original plan. See below for details) However, those that do read the rules will be better informed on the rules regarding Native Tech.

 

The idea is that Staff read and weigh in on the updated introductory paragraphs (second page) we've included in the petition. The finalized paragraphs, as well as a select few items from the three lists (with a link showing the rest of the lists included) can then replace the old section. There shouldn't be any problem with the content of the list, because we're only listing what the staff have approved.

 

the tech level on mata nui was never supposed to be static like this.

We never said it was static; we're just setting a more concrete base for ourselves and for new players in the months to come. Part of why we wrote the petition was because the idea of where the island was technically was a mystery to us. (we have solar powered trains, smartphone-like devices, but yet no cars or firearms or oil.)

 

Essentially we tried comparing Mata Nui like it was at the peak of the Industrial Revolution. It fit the tech we have now pretty well, so that was our starting point. Other parties may not imagine it that way, but that's fine. This was never meant to be static. To jump to a higher ledge, you need solid footing first.

 

 

I think that concludes everything I have to say.

[Makuta Miras]

Is Tu-Koro still around?

[Specter Knight]

I've never heard of it, so I don't think so...