More about kismet

[Mariela]

Well.

Here's the thing. If the system was active with no real limits upon what you could get with the trading of kismet, I am not surprised that people would try to get things that were crazy impossible.

That being said, I am always sad that the only real goody with kismet you can get is to be able to play odd races. Especially since my only odd race is a sun elf.

Maybe it would be possible for a collection of skills, spells, feats and so forth to be pulled together into a list that the IMs would be comfortable for people to have, or conditionally have and once a month be able on an announced day to buy out of the Kismet store. And then if something is getting too common, they could swap it out of the list and replace it with something else. Everyone would have to submit what they wanted, and how much kismet they have, account name, and of course the reasoning they wanted the skill/spell/feat for review. Maybe even come up with four or five 'wish list' wants for the occasion?

[Nedylene]

Do we need to use kismet for spells/skills? There are other features in the mud which we can easily use the kismet for.

How about this for a novel idea.. Hidden in the mud is a few specific dungeons/area with involved quests involved. Some of the older people have seen these dungeons/areas opened up on very rare occassions. So, why do we not create a kismet program that you can trade some of your kismet for an opportunity to explore one of these dungeons/areas? All party members involved must have the appropriate kismet and you will have to commit to seeing the dungeon through.

Or... Dwellings are now becoming more common in the game. I love it, it's great. Do why don't we open up a furniture shop that is open when you have the appropriate amount of kismet to order custom furniture, wall tapestries, rugs/carpets for your dwelling? Or a garden shop where you can order rare plants, benches, lawn gnomes etc? It would give people the chance who have dwellings to redecorate. You already need an amount of kismet to qualify for dwellings so why not be ab le to meddle with interior design occassionally? May even open the door for some bards or talented types to sell themselves as interior decorators and create a business helping people remodel their house?

I could come up with more suggestions as well if needed. I just don't see the need for more skills/spells for a single player. I would rather see them code new and exciting spells into the game then use their resources to add a new skill/spell to a player

[Dalvyn]

Kismet currently has the following very big problem in my opinion: your kismet score increases no matter what you do during your online time. Whether you just idle out, or you spend hours on typing "mine" again and again, or spend your time roleplaying and interacting with others, or spend your time organizing mud-wide events, or spend your time raiding the same area again and again, your kismet score increases. That, in my opinion, makes it a somewhat worthless (non-indicative) value: it just represents that amount of time you have spent on the game, it does not indicate whether how you spent those hours deserves a reward or not.

[Raona]

Bah! In my effort to split the kismet discussion from the glory discussion, I made triplets. So my apologies to anyone who chimed in on the kismet discussion and finds their reply is here, now.

[Dalanna]

Since there now is a thread for just Kismet, I'm moving my post here. (They werent separated when I posted before) Instead of having another thread on kismet ideas. Sorry to anyone who suffers through my ramble twice.

Seems to me the older players are saying two things lately.

1.) They have completed nearly all the available quests, so no longer have their income supplemented by questing, yet their equipment is increasingly expensive with levels and repairs costly.

2.) They have an overabundance of Glory and Kismet and want to use it for something.


So here's a thought from a new player who knows nothing about coding. (This may be completely impossible.)

A series of far reaching quests could be added in which a high level character would be able to use Kismet and Platinum to purchase an item through a rare offer from Aurora's catalog company, this item would have little to no practical use to an adventurer, but be extremely valuable. Like a Calimsham Rug, meteorite fragments, or the left slipper of Tymora. Something high class, maybe frivilous, and one of a kind or nearly one of a kind, that would be valuable among the upper class nobles but only to a collector. Maybe an illuminated manuscript , the player could take to Candlekeep to redeem eventually.

All these items would randomly fluctuate in value -5% to +25% each in game year. Like an investment bond, giving higher level characters the ability to make money. The longer they keep it the more chances they have of it increasing, and at anytime they can turn it in for its current value in platinum by running through a quest. Each item would have one noble in some corner of Faerun interested in it, and the player would have to follow leads (some of them incorrect) to find that specific noble.

To buy these items it would be like skill buying. The Kismet cost and Plat cost for each rising incrementally as they buy them. Each bond being worth exactly how much plat it costs the year of purchase.

I'm not sure how impossible that would be to code, and its not an idea that I'd say is at all fleshed out, just a concept that would both allow players to use kismet thats burning holes in their pockets, and earn some sizeable amounts of money to allow them to still adventure and maintain their equipment.

[Alvirin]

My personal opinion is that kismet shouldn't be used to anything that you could get through IC means.

Since you can get kismet by doing nothing, I think that isn't really fair exchanging nothing by money, in the other hand what you say is an interesting idea if instead kismet was used money and with a longer negative range.

[Pascus]

I was wondering, Kismet is gained just by logging on that doesn't mean your character is doing something epic or just sitting around smoking a pipe, so why dont we have this. We can have areas that you need a certain amount of glory to go into, meaning like a dungeon that is so dangerous only those that are known throughout the kingdoms could enter it. And even if you complete all the quests there are still more ways to earn glory, rewards! So that means get to roleplay, and if those imms see us doing something and they think it would recieve glory they will reward us. Also I don't know if this is the topic or not, but I will put it here anyhow. I think its a great idea to have signature weapons, because they are out there but they are VERY rare VERY. So what about in order for a character to get a signature weapon they need to purchase it with glory and have a certain amount of hours logged on that character? It would be kismet but it wouldn't cost anything, unless that would be something too. I just don't want to see a bunch of rare signature weapons running around.

[Mariela]

I am going to point out something... and it will make me detested by the world at large...


You get faith objects for nothing.


As a priestess of a good goddess, earing back enough favor to supplicate for objects is not hard. I could literally spend a few days in the market square and I would have pleanty of favor to supplicate. Just healing everyone in sight when they are injured goes a long way towards this. I don't see kismet as being any different.

Do I want the faith favor levels adjusted? No. Mostly cause the religions do not have quests themselves that you can go and do. So catching favor is at least something you can do on your own. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUT I have known characters who get their faith symbol and literally have all three supplicate objects within a few days. They are either really really playing their character constantly, or they are going around JUST for that object.

No matter what you do, there will always be someone who is going to abuse the system. I am sure there are people otu there who ride in on other people's quests so they know what to do for the quest to be able to manage it easier and quicker. Or players who have a set pocket of quest they do right away so they have pleanty of glory right off the bat.

The point is....
Kismet. Yes you get an amount for logging. But from what I understand, that is also what we reward other people. I don't reward everyone just for playing with me. I reward them for clever or endearing or powerful RPs. RPs that require work. I log in approximately every night for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours and only have accumulated 2000 ish kismet, I think almost three. It would be neat if at 10, 000 kismet if I could get a milestone for hanging it out with the game for that long of a time, through that many RP rewards. Wether it's a weapon, a skill I desperately want but can't find anywhere, or a rename, something. A reward for helping making the community great.

I would propose something like that at like intervals such as:

1st Appreciation Reward - 10, 000 kismet
2nd Appreciation Reward - 15, 000 kismet
3rd Appreciation Reward - 25, 000 kismet


Ect. ect. ect. Making the intervals a bit wider the more kismet you have. And I say it's with permanate kismet, not current. That way, it shows your entire RP history. So those who have been in the game longer, can have more things to say, "Look.. I am a valued member of the community!" And gives people a reason to stay around for. And maybe since we can key hours logged to a certain character, maybe you have to have 10, 000 kismet and 500 hours on a certain character for them to qualify.

I am thinking this sort of the way that a job would reward someone for being faithful to the company and dong their job well. I know at least where I work........ we have Top Team Preformance rewards we are nominated for... it comes with these ridiculous red pins..b ut they are still nice to get. It shows that the powers that be WANT us to be around so they are tryign to spend money on us. So to speak. We also have tenure rewards. Granted they are Laaaaaaaaaame, but at 5 years with the company you get a lanyard for your nametag that says how long you had been with the company. At 10 you get a t-shirt. Lame, but still useful and fun to be able to say, "I earned this by showing up to work every day and taking care of you."

Sure, the company PAYS me to be there. But it's still nice to know that my good work is rewarded and even my just being loyal is rewarded.

[Glim]

Hmm, those numbers seem a bit big... almost impossible actually. Maybe the 10,000 wouldn't be too impossible, but if you look at the poll in the chat thread, only about 4 people even have above 7000 kismet.

10,000 kismet would take 416 days of playing. That is if you played constantly for that time and nothing else. 15,000 would take 625 and 25,000 would take 1041 days.

Now, even considering rewards, the numbers just seem a bit large to be a plausable goal. Perhaps something like 2.5k, 5k, 7.5k, and 10k.

Just my thoughts,