Change of vista

To begin with, we have been on Lakeland for over a month and I've noticed a few people, including myself, getting fed up with it. Why? Read on to find out the reasons.

Lakeland is generally horribly small and cramped. The only good things it really does have is the somewhat larger inn and the keep, but that is where the good sides end. The rooms are tight and cramped, the town is small and cramped up, the keep is mostly unused as a guard "territory". Do we realisticly have that many guards so the keep would be occupied at least half of the time? I doubt it. There are several houses in the town, yes, but I think they're quite cramped up, as is everything else with the map. The woods are a joke and you can't realisticly even talk about "wilderness". The only forest area there is, is behind the town and only one small path that is hidden behind a few houses and ramps leads to it. It really is not is not even a remotely good solution. If the forest is that difficult to get to, why would anyone bother going in there? It leaves the forest next to completely useless. Does the ridiculous amount of water make up for this, then? No. What about the tiny isles in the lake? No. I don't think anyone but the tiny minority of people in Surna possess a boat of any kind to even travel by water. Complete waste of space and resources.

What about the characters that people play then? Several characters dwell the forests and wilderness around Surna, and not everyone wants to be stuck in the town. Ever since the plague event, we've been penned in the town, having little to no options to go elsewhere at all. I have a few examples of the characters that dwell the forests. These characters, and several others I don't really know of are restricted at best and unusable at worst.


T'zeetch'Rak
Phry's hunting and soul-sucking abomination that stalks the forests and chills it's victims for the feast. Due to the lack of foresty areas, the character is next to unplayable, since it cannot approach Surna without most likely getting attacked by the guards. The character has a very nice idea behind it, but is next to impossible to play as or develop in our current setting.

K'eyush
Our cuddly-wubbly grizzy bear. This poor thing doesn't have really anywhere to dwell or hunt in, since there is no wilderness. Seeing a bear just casually trot in the city is kinda silly, in my opinion.

Zack and Dnarh
They can't really hunt anything anymore, since they can't go out in the forest and do what they do best. They're forced to sit in the town, doing just about nothing, unless they find/have found something else to do. So much for having hunters characters too.

Rawlh'm
Our very own Lythari who we see often in the town. Without the forests and wilderness, he doesn't really have any place to hunt or flee into. Is it really a good decision if we just throw all the animals in the town and see what happens?

Rha'Lusk
Yeah, this is my very own character. I created this character so I wouldn't be bound to the town until someone is willing to teach Mirage the ways of magic. Unfortunately my poor Rha isn't doing too well in the tiny patch of forest behind the town, because noone ever goes there, so she has zero interaction. Lotta fun to sit in the forest, hoping for someone to come by.

Besides the characters, the forest opened a lot of RP opportunities, such as hunting, fishing, picking flowers and getting inappropriately touched by some dirty bumscag and getting scarred for life... In fact, my very first and memorable moment of RP was when Mirage was captured by an abesquilian and taken into the forest. John, Zayl and Marius(?) rescued her soon, though, with the cost of her dress. Nonetheless, I liked that a lot. I hope that won't stay as only memorable moment.

While this is from only my perspective, I've been trying to get other's opinions and characters included. I can't possibly describe everyone's perspectives, but I hope they will be voiced aswell. While Lakeland has some good sides too, the bad ones overshadow it by far in my opinion. With that being said, I hope I've made my disappointment and frustration with the map clear. If I missed something, do tell.

/rant

I agree. I can not go into the forest and hunt random strangers on Lakeland.

Exactly~!

While lakeland is really great, it would be perfect if it had an actual forested area, so I would have to agree with Markka.

I agree, Lakeland is Ok, but the old map was better.

-Lacuna
-Aer
-Eredus

To name a few.

Alright, back to mountainvillage then?
I don't like it when the players are unhappy.

343 Guilty Spark wrote:

Alright, back to mountainvillage then?
I don't like it when the players are unhappy.

Mountain or forest, whichever'll work.

Map's on Mountain Village - now get your asses on and RP.

Success!

I'll config the server to restart to mountainvillage again, too, if dats da case.

*facepalm*

Can't we just change it regularly, they're all good...

Also, there's a reason K'eyush wanders around the city. It's the easiest way for her to get food. You've kind of all taught her bar = food.

Graley wrote:

I agree. I can not go into the forest and hunt random strangers on Lakeland.

haven't even seen you on the server.

Honestly, Lakeland is far superior to either of the maps. The town and city area is far far -far- superior. Tbh while mountain is a good map, the buildings really suck, seeing as many of the buildings are just static, and the others are either just a box room or a two level box room. Also, I'd like to point out that Zack works as a guard, having joined in Mountain seeing as how there was nothing to do there because; and this is important. The forest is hardly ever used. Sure it's nice to have the option, but you can't deny that like, 80% 90% of the RP that happens is in the town, and even when the woods are used, a large area isn't. I'd also like to point out that the Lythari, as other dogs, could easily live in towns as strays, same goes with the bear, which often would come around the town anyways, plus it's near a lake, so ample fish to be had. My point is, when there's the woods, no-one bloody goes in there anyways unless two people that're bored agree to meet in the woods to fight or whatever. Furthermore, if we do mountain, I refuse to allow any "wild" animals or creatures into the city, this includes gnolls, bears, wolves and anything else that may fall under an aggressive creature, seeing as how the mountain city is walled and gated, not to mention it's on top of a cliff, meaning that nothing will get in or out, unlike lakeland where things can sort of come and go, seeing as how the only barriers are around the castle.

Gnolls could sneak inside, and such- as much as other creatures. Catfolk could be considered these monstrosities, too. Keep in mind. And people like Tzakuto are allowed in, and she's a 'phase-wasp' - Amongst other people, so I don't think you can restrict some people's rp, and not others - and I prefer Lakeland, much more then the other two, but in a community, you work to please everyone. So just swap out the maps regularly.

It's not hard for an intelligent animal to get into the city. Find a weak link in the defense or 1)Find someone to be their master 2)Get escorted into the city 3)??? 4)Profit

But the forests are used a lot more then you seem to be aware of...

With this many members, you'd think someone could manage to edit together the maps or something, assuming we got permission, which we should be able to.

Oskutin was on the server, earlier, actually. Lol- And you just need to add a large forest to Lakeland. That's all.

I have permission and the VMF to edit lakeland, there's even a thread about that asking if anyone wanted to take a crack at editing some stuff in.

Also, if the city is on a cliff and heavily guarded due to wartime measures, I don't see any animals getting in.

But is Surna on a cliff?--

I was pretty sure it wasn't in canon, Lakeland's not, nor was Forest-Village, and Mountain-Village was meant to be LEyenara.

It's hard to say what Surna is ICly, seeing as how I remember it always being said that IC Surna was way bigger than forestvillage. I always figure Surna is whatever we need it to be.

The mountainvillage map is one part of Surna that happens to be on a hill above the approaching area. Not a cliff.

Lakeland is a part of Surna that borders the Surna lake.

Just what I was thinking infact, that each map represents a diff part of Surna.

Me and some others were talking on the server, and I got an idea.

If we got permission, we could possibly get all three maps into one, and add teleports and an extra little section of 'crossroad', so it'd be like a large Surna (or 3 towns) which people could go to and from to their hearts content. :>

I just thought it'd be cool.