Animus

(Night 3) A Murder in Salem [Mafia Party Game]

Tap tap tap.

Reinhold groaned groggily. He was never a morning person.

Tap tap tap.

What on earth was that sound?

Tap tap tap.

Finally the situation dawned upon him and Reinhold burst out of his covers.

"Who's there?!"

Despite Salem being a rowdy port during the day, its nights were deathly silent. Superstition was strong here and the old wives tail was that if you roamed at night, a witch would catch you. Nobody up to good would be running around at these wee hours. He ran out of his house in hopes of catching a glimpse of a perpetrator but as he did so he caught a glimpse of a fox running off into the distance. He was sceptical but he let it slide and returned to his sleep. He'd ask around if anyone heard anything tomorrow.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

I'm all for epic boss rp battles. Love those. But I do like there to be build up with character interaction before hand. Can't always be fightin'.

@Grayscythe

Imagine an epic battle against PKers.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

All these unintentional shots fired about the epic boss thingy. I think its safe to say most of are'nt into it.

Long Live The King!

Buuuump.

(Night 3) A Murder in Salem [Mafia Party Game]

If I get n1'd after all this waiting, I'm so gonna fume.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

<Snipped quote by Animus>

Yeah of courrse bot everyone hehe. But I do prefer to roleplay in a group, but still sometimes solo is a good change of pace too so it rreally depends on the playstyle of the players. Because I still have no group yet and joining a guild ot a small group is probably a good start for me.

@hivekiller

Theres plenty of open groups right now I believe. I'm sure there are several that would happily take you in.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

<Snipped quote by Animus>

I guess you're wrong on one thing friend. The 1st floor s well s the 2nd have been ostensibly detailed on SAO Progressive which follows Asuna's POV of the beginning of the game. To the point that the 1st book of the side series being way thicker than the 1 st of the regular series which is the basis for most of the anime series story.

@KoL

If you say so, then yes I'm wrong. Not gonna argue, I never read Progressive. However, was it that the 1st floor had a huge variety of things to do or was it more story based on the characters?

E: If indeed theres stuff to do then I'm cool with exploring it more. I wanted the time skip cuz it was to my knowledge that floor 1 was themeless and had little to it other than being large.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

Cool, then we're in agreement about that!

I still don't think we need to rush through the first boss. :)

And I wasn't saying, or trying to imply, that you were asking for a chain of epic boss fights, nor for your character to be the 'best' or whatever; so sorry if that's how it came across.

@LupusIntus

No offence taken. Chillax, bruh. Just trying to tell you that the type of direction you want the roleplay to go in is very similar to mine.

At some point in the roleplay, should we all join the same guild?
If we join the same guild(maybe not the same time), some players who wants to go solo for a while won't feel left out, because there is still guild chat(I guess?), the guild will sort of connect all of the players together. It will be easier to gather all the players for a boss fight or big event/hunt etc..

just my little opinion.

@hivekiller

I don't think its necessary for everyone. Maybe those who want to but we can all certainly meet up regardless of guild since we could be friends or just have similar goals. One guy even mentioned he wanted to be a solo player and only meet up with us every now and then. But its a sweet idea and I totally see people like Lao'Jax doing it (seeing how he tried to mass invite everyone into a party the moment the rp started).

SAO: Living in Aincrad

@LupusIntus

I don't exactly know where you're getting the info that no rare events would be available on floor 1? Sure, none were described in the book/anime but that doesn't mean game developers wouldn't put easter eggs/special events into the first massive level of such an MMO (with the largest geographical landmass of the entire game)?

The early stages would most likely see people in 2 camps, either despairing in the starter town or actively searching to clear content and discover the location of the boss room. This exploration would require gear which would require the completion of quests which would require a certain element of teamwork among small groups of players with similar goals.

I am not asking for 'grinding', nor for time to sit and write post after post of my character killing boars, but I personally didn't join this RP because I wanted a chain of epic boss fights all tied in a row (there are many of those RPs elsewhere on the site).

As you said, not shooting you down or looking for a fight just defending my own view of the issue. :)

@LupusIntus

I just mentioned how I'm not into a chain of epic boss fights. But the time skip allows us to skip straight into interaction which is the point of debate here. For example, it could be during the meeting on the discussion on how to take the boss. Or the dinner/celebration that occurs before the first boss fight. Those are places where plenty of interaction can occur that is non-fight based.

Regarding the quests, generally MMOs (traditional ones) have really simple starting areas. There is no epic quest to be had or complex chain line. As we've seen in the anime/books, SAO is more of a traditional MMORPG, meaning theres less of being led into a linear quest line and more players deciding what they should do. Furthermore, the known side quests in SAO level 1 are basically a "hunt X item for X exp" with the exception of "Anneal Blade". I highly doubt legit MMO developers would make a flood of massive hidden quests in the starting area of the game that is basically themeless. Regardless of its size, Floor 1 has never been mentioned again in the series except for being a safe and extremely large floor that can serve as a HQ for the army and players who gave up. Floor 1 has been explained to the only floor without a theme. There isn't any underlying story or premise to it.

It'd be a lot more interesting if we started these quests further into the game where our characters have developed into a cast full of variety AND we're in a more themepark centric level like maybe one with aquatic monsters or treetop battles or whatever variety we can come up with. Also, I don't intend for Natto to be the highest level/strongest fighter or anything along those cliche lines. Thats why I was asking Cait earlier if I could make an information broker type character because going on a long chain of epic boss fights is exactly what I don't want to do.

SAO: Living in Aincrad

My 2 cents on the timeskip, even though no one asked for it. :)

I agree that a timeskip would be convenient soon as more players end up 'going to sleep' at the end of night one, however I would strongly request we don't immediately jump to the boss battle/pre-boss planning. For one, if we're following a loose timeline of the show it took over a month to discover the boss room on floor one and I personally think a month is a bit too long of a skip. Secondly, I like the idea of this RP being more focused on actual every-day life in Aincrad rather than the progression through the game, as the show portrayed, and would certainly welcome more time to level up, develop characters, discover 'secrets' and the like. Would be fun if the GMs, or even other members of the RP, started a sort of 'quest board' that our characters could use as an excuse to team-up with each other (when they wouldn't otherwise meet).

Perhaps if we were looking for a way to get everyone together in 'the same room', as it were, there could be some other type of large event/rare group quest that would draw the players together. I also liked the idea of someone starting a guild that willing characters could join to provide more opportunities to act within our already-forming groups and the wider 20-something of us that are part of the RP.

The guild thing could start a ways down the line though, I'm in no rush (neither is Geist).

Jus' ma thoughts!

@LupusIntus

Taking into account there are a total of 100 floors and the giga bosses every 25 levels, I don't think time skipping to the start of the level 1 boss fight is that big of a skip. The idea of rare events/group quests like you said won't be something thats available on floor 1. Remember the fishing hidden event?

These sort of things open up the further into the game you play because people start diversifying their skill sets (e.g. fishing/smithing/cooking) into advanced levels. Stuff like our characters hunting and enjoying searching/cooking a Ragout Rabbit seems to be along the lines of what you're talking about. But these things won't appear on level 1 nor would they be the type of thing people do several days into the game because people will be either despairing or focusing on clearing it.

I don't have a say on the time skip since I'm obviously not a GM but I wanted to explain to you how procrastinating on level 1 won't get you to the scenario you're describing. In fact, I don't even think going through 100 bosses is feasible. We're bound to enter periods where we're bound to skip several floors at one go or be forced to have go through repetitive boss fights which some people might like but I'm rooting more for a interaction roleplay and not grinding as if it was a real MMO. I mean if I wanted to then I would go play a real MMO.

Btw I'm discussing and not shooting you down or creating a fight or anything >_>.