[POLL] On the subject of Stalkers targeting players…

@EmeraldSky @Noblejanobii @Scytherwolf @SlickSlack @Lychee @Ho-Oh @Suicune’s Fire @Shruikan @Chibi Altaria @Bulbasaur @James-Typhlosion @TylerNinetales

Hey guys.

So as it’s currently set, during the end of every Night Cycle, a random civilian or player can be targeted by the Stalkers (it’s an equal chance for everyone and as it stands, not even traveling together will prevent a death this way). If it’s a civilian, there is some threat of loss if they’re a shop owner or have a skill/perk that would have come in handy. If they’re a player, obviously that’s also pretty nasty as they could lose equipment and now they need to work around being a different Pokémon.

When I made the development choice of having it possible for Stalkers to potentially target players, I overlooked the fact they would lose half their sochas and could lose equipment from that (each time you die, each item as a 50% chance of being lost). That’s pretty sucky and unfair and I honestly wouldn't be cool with that either if I was a player. My original intention was to make it a bit more exciting and dicey by having the players consider the fact they could be next! But I think it’s uncool if losing equipment and stuff could happen as a result just due to bad luck like that.

So by using the voting options, let me know your thoughts based on these below. If enough people feel a certain way, I’ll modify the mechanics behind how Stalkers chose their targets to keep things fair and fun.

• Option A – Keep it as is. If you honestly think things are fine as is and you don’t mind having the risk of being a target and don’t even mind the potential money and equipment loss as a result, this is the option to pick.
• Option B – Players can still be targets, but no equipment/money losses from dying this way. This means exactly as it says. You can still be killed during the end of the Night Cycle, but all those nasty in-game penalties like losing half your sochas and having chances of losing your gear are tossed out for these instances. But you do become one of your reincarnation Pokémon.
• Option C – Players will only become targets later in the game. Kind of like Season 4. When the players recovered a Phylactery, this triggered a mini Dark Event where they were hunted and could now become targets. So this would mean in the early parts of the game, you’re safe, but later on after a certain something happens, you all come on that list. If we go with Option C, the loss of money and equipment is taken off.
• Option D – Take us off the list entirely! This means players will never become targets of Night Cycle Stalker attacks. Wholesome plot armor for all! And you also ruin Aglome Oen’s day and I know everyone enjoys that. So do I, but don’t tell him I said so! I still haven’t figured out where he’s hiding these days.

This poll will close on Wednesday the 18th, so please make your voice heard soon! In the meantime, please hold off on making your action choice as the results of this poll could potentially affect what happens in Day 3. Don’t worry about the Day 3 Day Cycle countdown timer while this is active, I’m freezing that and it won’t take affect until after this poll closes and we know the results.

Also, for Lychee specially, if the voting lands on anything besides Option A or B, I’ll overturn the Day 2 Night Cycle results, Nico will stay as a Cinccino, and a civilian will be rolled instead.

Also, feel free to share your thoughts on this as well.

I'm ok to keep it as-is! And I'm also perfectly ok not to reverse anything- to keep the activity of the recent night cycle regardless of the poll outcome. It does make things more scary, but now I know its random I think it's quite ok. Technically Nico saved a civilian just by being present!

And of course you could lose your stuff, just like dying any other way. I think that mechanic might encourage people to share their equipment around, because it's more likely we get to hold onto our equipment if it's in many different hands?
Anyways anyways, i'll be happy with anything~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lychee

I'm ok to keep it as-is! And I'm also perfectly ok not to reverse anything- to keep the activity of the recent night cycle regardless of the poll outcome. It does make things more scary, but now I know its random I think it's quite ok. Technically Nico saved a civilian just by being present!

And of course you could lose your stuff, just like dying any other way. I think that mechanic might encourage people to share their equipment around, because it's more likely we get to hold onto our equipment if it's in many different hands?
Anyways anyways, i'll be happy with anything~

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Yep, it's totally random and could have happened to anyone, really.

Like you said, it would be best that if anyone has multiple types of the same equipment (such as having three weapons or two armors), drop those extras into the Team Inventory so not only do you allow other players that don't have anything to pick them up and use them, but you also protect them from being lost in case you run into something nasty.

I had a whole post typed up and I lost it, so I'll give you the revised version. xD

Basically I was saying that, while I don't mind being targeted, having no way to prevent item loss is kind of really unfair. Say you were playing a video game and you died and lost your items. Generally if you die, it's your own fault. You knew what you were getting into. However here it's purely based on luck. So not fair imo. Plus it was kind of crappy to already have an Emissary death without prior warning or knowledge that it could occur.

I don't mind keeping it almost as is, however I think there should be a preventative measure for item loss. Say travelling in pairs doesn't prevent a death, but your team mate salvages your items when you die. That way if you DO happen to die you don't lose all your items. If you were travelling solo and happen to be on the hit list, well, at least you had a chance to prevent it from happening. Then the fault lies with you.

How's that? Also I don't see how travelling in pairs doesn't affect anything. Is one Stalker so proficient that they can kill two Emissaries at once?

I would take things one step farther, and give us a chance to fight back. Should we survive our Stalker encounter, that could give us some valuable info. But I can understand if that would be game breaking.

But yeah, killing off one of us without making it clear up front that it could happen was unfair, so this is why I'm not comfortable with it as is.

To recap: What happened was unfair to me, but I would be okay with the fact that we too are targets IF we get a chance to fight back against a Stalker and survive.

Oh yes I'm actually super happy to die if I get to go down fighting! Random targeting while being able to actually fight back to prevent your own death would be pretty great.
I do admit I was very surprised to die and get no evasion rolls or fighting scenes or anything!

I think sneak attacks from the Stalkers are possible. Maybe not by all of them, but imagine they are able to mask their presence or something. Theoretically it could be a one-shot fatal blow. Though it's probably not likely on an Emissary. Could always do something like a flat damage to purity/sanity and then enter a regular battle.

How about we treat it like minecraft survival with Items Keep on. So if a Stalker comes and jabazzles us, we can keep the items. Also, i totally forgot to do my Night Action FeelsBadMan. I was gonna do the Candle Mansion so i could die lol

With the cost of some of the higher-end armour, losing it from something you have no control over would suck.

With falling due to battles or traps, you know it's a possibility before doing the action, so you can make a decision based on the risk of what items to bring. Getting One-shotted by the stalkers with no warning and losing your gear is just random, and encorages people not to buy the better gear cause it might go up in smoke with no warning or way to avoid it.

I'm fine with Stalkers targeting players, in fact I prefer it like this, it gives more threat to them, and allows the reincanation options we picked at sign-up to play a bigger part. But I'm not a fan of losing items from something 100% out of our control. So yeah, I'm all for option B.

@EmeraldSky @Noblejanobii @Scytherwolf @SlickSlack @Lychee @Ho-Oh @Suicune’s Fire @Shruikan @Chibi Altaria @Bulbasaur @James-Typhlosion @TylerNinetales

The Final Verdict!

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who chimed in on this, there were a lot of great and reasonable responses and even good alternative ideas. I’d also like to thank everyone for being patient, I’ll definitely return to doing narrative posts very soon, but I wanted to see how things would turn out from this poll first just because it affects a number of things with Lychee being the Night 2’s victim and how the way this resolves would affect that, too.

In a nutshell, we’re going with Option B - Players can still be targets, but no equipment/money losses from dying this way. And I totally think this is fair. Moreover, starting now the submission clock for Day 3 Day Cycle is being adjusted to give everyone three more days to submit actions.

But in terms of the responses…

I totally agree that losing stuff from getting killed this way just didn’t seem right and what Shruikan said definitely says it all. A death from a Night Cycle Stalker kill is something beyond your control, whereas if you took an action to search The Cathedral of Doom in Hellsville, Nebraska and it just so happened there was a trap that did your character in, welllll… you did have some control over that. Usually the nastier places to search will have description clues that will let you know the Tooth Fairy isn’t giving Peaches and Cream parfaits for free over there. Sure, Stalkers does have some good luck and bad luck elements to it, but I think having some control over the outcomes is important. Losing gear and hard-earned goodies through no fault of your own… yeah, nobody likes that.

The other thing I’m changing in light of this is the customized armor and weapons at Tactical Outfitters and The Armament Bunker. The prices on those will be drastically reduced (about 40% off) from their current price due to the fact that if you get killed this way, unfortunately you wouldn’t be able to wear that item, though it would at least still go into the Team Inventory. It wouldn’t be lost, but you wouldn’t be able to use it unless you or someone else becomes that exact species again. HINT: It’s possible in more ways than you think, but don’t go shouting that out too loud!

The idea of fighting back to prevent getting killed this way is an interesting one and I did think it over a bit, but given some behind the scenes things that I can’t really disclose, I can’t really implement that because certain things wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

Overall, I think it has a nice mix of pros and cons.

The Pros

• Makes the setting feel a little more realistic in the sense that the Stalkers are a real threat to everyone, civilians and Emissaries alike, and no one is safe.
• Lets the reincarnation pool have a bit more highlight.
• Having the roll land on a player prevents the possibility of a civilian with helpful perks, store ownership, and other benefits from being targeted instead.
• You’re healed back to full Health, Sanity, and Purity with your stats getting reset for your new form.

The Cons

• Has a bit of an inconvenience factor, such as if you’re no longer the size or type that you were hoping to utilize for a type or size related obstacle
• You get to read how your poor character was butchered during the night!
• The new stats and types might make you need to rethink your investigation plans, battle strategy, and/or item loadout. Also, species-based items will need to be unequipped due to a size change.

So overall, I think this worked out nicely.