Surfacers in the Underdark
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:33 am
Hey! For those not wishing to read my long explaination for why I believe that implementation of these suggestions might be a good thing, I'll briefly post them here, with the reasoning following.
- Some form of mechanical inconvenience imposed on surfacers in the Underdark(blindness/reduced AB without ultravision, inability to rest in certain areas)
- Dungeon expansion or additions for the surface, specifically around the mid-upper teen and early twenties levels, to give people an incentive to so to say "stay on their turf"
Now as for why I believe these would enhance peoples' experience! Lately its been a vastly increasing trend to see surfacer characters on the Underdark server, to the point where the majority of people online on the UD tend to be surfacer parties, and there's nothing innately wrong with that. The issue is moreso that this creates so much unecessary conflicts, between two parties that both have a sense of entitlement to what they do. This is by no means me whining after having lost in PvP. Quite the opposite, my character has been victorious in all of these exchanges so far, but from an OOC perspective, as a player anything that breeds bad blood feels like a loss for everyone involved, regardless of which side your character is on.
But putting thought into it, none of it makes sense to me. The Underdark is a realm of chaos, slavery and death. Why would these characters venture down there willingly? The answers I found when asking around, were quite simply that surfacer characters have nowhere as convenient to hunt on the surface, as the areas avalible on the Underdark, and thusly they've migrated from Forest of Despair to Deep Giants/Slime Temple and from the Mountains to Cloakers, so on.
We all know that most surfacer groups won't bend their character's mindset to show respect to underdarkers they come across, and that most underdarkers aren't going to show non-natives respect in turn, leading to default and very frequent conflict, which is why I make the suggestion to implement some sort of mechanical separation, or alternative incentive to restore the sense of mystique and peril that comes along with a surfacer treading the dark realms below, or an underdarker daring to brave the sunlands, which is already a penalized endeavor since the influental subtearrean races avoid the sun.
In summary, it feels like there's nothing but a whole lot of lowlevel death and highlevel spite comming out of this trend, along with going down to the Underdark to hunt, being treated as casually as heading to a nearby forest. In the long run, its very derogatory to immersion, in the eyes of most that I've spoken to, both from above and below. I myself am both a surface/UD player.
Am I wrong, am I right? Who knows. But those are my thoughts on the matter. The rest lies with the wise powers that be.
- Some form of mechanical inconvenience imposed on surfacers in the Underdark(blindness/reduced AB without ultravision, inability to rest in certain areas)
- Dungeon expansion or additions for the surface, specifically around the mid-upper teen and early twenties levels, to give people an incentive to so to say "stay on their turf"
Now as for why I believe these would enhance peoples' experience! Lately its been a vastly increasing trend to see surfacer characters on the Underdark server, to the point where the majority of people online on the UD tend to be surfacer parties, and there's nothing innately wrong with that. The issue is moreso that this creates so much unecessary conflicts, between two parties that both have a sense of entitlement to what they do. This is by no means me whining after having lost in PvP. Quite the opposite, my character has been victorious in all of these exchanges so far, but from an OOC perspective, as a player anything that breeds bad blood feels like a loss for everyone involved, regardless of which side your character is on.
But putting thought into it, none of it makes sense to me. The Underdark is a realm of chaos, slavery and death. Why would these characters venture down there willingly? The answers I found when asking around, were quite simply that surfacer characters have nowhere as convenient to hunt on the surface, as the areas avalible on the Underdark, and thusly they've migrated from Forest of Despair to Deep Giants/Slime Temple and from the Mountains to Cloakers, so on.
We all know that most surfacer groups won't bend their character's mindset to show respect to underdarkers they come across, and that most underdarkers aren't going to show non-natives respect in turn, leading to default and very frequent conflict, which is why I make the suggestion to implement some sort of mechanical separation, or alternative incentive to restore the sense of mystique and peril that comes along with a surfacer treading the dark realms below, or an underdarker daring to brave the sunlands, which is already a penalized endeavor since the influental subtearrean races avoid the sun.
In summary, it feels like there's nothing but a whole lot of lowlevel death and highlevel spite comming out of this trend, along with going down to the Underdark to hunt, being treated as casually as heading to a nearby forest. In the long run, its very derogatory to immersion, in the eyes of most that I've spoken to, both from above and below. I myself am both a surface/UD player.
Am I wrong, am I right? Who knows. But those are my thoughts on the matter. The rest lies with the wise powers that be.