Gemstone Prime HARDCORE: Assessing Interest and Establishing Rules (UNOFFICIAL)

[Fallen]

I'm looking to start an GS-Prime instance of the HARDCORE competition currently underway in Gemstone Platinum. Kithus/Brinret's HARDCORE competition is ongoing, and I highly recommend you join in if you're so inclined. The link to the competition can be found here: https://gswiki.play.net/Platinum_HARDCORE
The purpose of this thread is to see how many people are interested in participating, and ensuring the rules are seen as fair and fun for all those looking to be involved. I'm looking to start this competition on November 1st, 2017, so please DO NOT START YOUR HARDCORE CHARACTER BEFORE THIS DATE or he or she will NOT be eligible for the competition!

Depending upon the level of interest, I may cap the number of entries because I don't want to go broke paying out rewards. I also reserve the right to refuse anyone entry into this competition for any reason, as well as the right to disqualify an existing competitor or cancel the competition at any point. I will do my absolute best NOT to do this, but if cheating becomes rampant or there are unforeseen conflicts which interfere in the enjoyment of the community at large I will have little choice.

Here are the rules I am proposing. You will find they are nearly identical to the Platinum instance of the competition:

* All participants, upon creation, must be posted in the GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE thread. This includes name, race and profession. HARDCORE characters must be created on or after November 1st, 2017.

* Upon death you should submit a post to the thread informing the community of the character’s death and immediately delete the character. Inventory may be transferred to a non-HARDCORE character prior to deletion.

* HARDCORE characters must be self-spelled. This means no outside spells may be used. Spells the character can activate themselves from Magic Items or Scrolls are permitted.

* HARDCORE characters are not to be hunted with non-HARDCORE characters. Further, while playing more than 1 HARDCORE character at a time is permitted, MAing HARDCORE characters for group hunting purposes or any other unforseen benefits is not permitted. (No HARDCORE MA armies, please!)

* Items and silver may not be obtained from other characters. This means nothing may be received from another character or player shop. All silver and inventory must be earned by the HARDCORE character. NPC shop purchases are permitted. Items the HARDCORE character obtained from a merchant, including raffles and merchant services, are permitted.

* Items from a grand auction, Premium monthly raffle, Duskruin, Delirium Manor or other "pay to play", or "1 win per account" sources are not permitted. Items from Reim are permitted but only from your daily free Reim run.

* No outside services from OTHER CHARACTERS are allowed. This includes:
** Armor skills
** Artisan Skills
** Blessing
** Enchanting/Ensorcelling/Elemental Resistance
** Healing
** Locksmithing
** Mass spells
** Society or Adventure Guild resources (Pelts, Gems, Herbs, etc)

* Deaths resulting from PvP, direct GameMaster action, or GAME WIDE outage are exempt. Also any death that is a required part of a task that may or may not exist for a specific society is exempt.

* GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE characters cannot use any item purchased with Simucoins. Similar items found normally are allowed.

* GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE characters should toggle on the ability to view their level in their profiles.

And the Rewards:

* Upon reaching level 20 a GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE character can show their Lord/Lady title to **** for a 1 million silver reward payable to a non-HARDCORE character of their choice. The first character to achieve this level will receive a reward of 2 million silver.

* Upon reaching level 40 a GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE character can show their Great Lord/Lady title to **** for a 5 million silver reward payable to a non-HARDCORE character of their choice. The first character to achieve this level will receive a reward of 10 million silver.

* Upon reaching level 70 a GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE character can show their High Lord/Lady title to **** for a 10 million silver reward payable to a non-HARDCORE character of their choice. The first character to achieve this level will receive a reward of 20 million silver.

* Upon reaching level 100 a GemStone IV Prime HARDCORE character can show their Grand Lord/Lady title to **** for a 25 million silver reward payable to a non-HARDCORE character. The first character to achieve this level will receive a reward of 50 million silver and the adulation of his peers! Additionally the HARDCORE character is now exempt from deletion on death.

Please respond to this thread if you are interested in joining the competition and with any general questions/comments regarding its creation.

[Fallen]

If this competition gets more people raising and healing, all the better. Not my idea of fun, but to each their own.

[Askip]

Bless your heart and those who give this a try. Reading this sent me down memory lane- the mage getting a ribbing for needing to swing a mein blade at thyrils and relnak due to low AS and mana. That was slow going.

Good luck to everyone!

Have fun, Askip

[Gelston]

No fucking way I'm even going to think about deleting a level 70 character... this shit just doesn't work in GS.

You'd have to actually start playing the game first.

[Mogonis]

No fucking way I'm even going to think about deleting a level 70 character... this shit just doesn't work in GS.

But you create and abandon PC usernames all the time. Baby steps.

[Fallen]

Some stuff to think about from Doug on the officials

Thanks for asking.

No, honestly in PLAT there haven't been any issues that have cropped up that I've seen. Might be worth checking in directly with Keith, though. I suspect he doesn't welcome it, but I suspect he's playing the role of arbiter / adjudicator as needed (more on this below). So he'd have a better perspective to offer.

Given that the HARDCORE event is run on the player honor system, I'd suspect that if the population were different, there might be some issues. Specifically, in PRIME, I would suggest the HARDCORE community discuss and decide how to handle the following items:

1) Total number of characters per player - given that Multi-Accounting has a bit higher price floor in PLAT this isn't likely to ever be an issue. In Prime, though, and especially if someone slogs it with F2P completely (which should be enticing in some categories) it could spiral fairly quickly. I'd say no more than 3 active characters in HARDCORE at any time as an opening bid. That might be too tight, though.

2) Multi-Accounting will be a thing, but what isn't really emphasized (yet!) in the PLAT effort is group hunting. I haven't said anything there, but I'm fairly sure that advancement in certain levels / game areas will require partnership. I don't have a potential inducement. It will likely grow out of necessity in PLAT, but here in PRIME we may need to encourage multiple player play versus multiple account play in some way. Very open to ideas here.

3) SLAMMING (bailing out of a combat encounter where the character is going to die) will likely be a thing. I have no insight into how to suggest it be managed, though - other than to add it to the list of prohibited activities and rely on the honor system. I have no insight on if this is an issue in PLAT, but as the levels increase, I wouldn't be surprised if even the most honorable player didn't at least consider bailing out if for no other reason than frustration.

4) The one grey area that could really use some work is the 'GAME-WIDE' impact deaths. While that may seem to be a fairly straight-forward line to bear (either the game is up or it isn't), it doesn't handle a couple of key areas very well. First, regional internet impact (ex: St Louis is under DDOS attack) and everyone seizes up briefly. A lot of folks clear up in game - and discussions begin about the weather. But as sure as I'm typing this, some HARDCORE member will get caught up in ghosting and be dead before he / she can manage to return. This same concept would hold true on a much more micro level (local ISP, local power outage). Here, I think the honor system can serve us fairly well - if stated clearly enough. Which leads me to my really strong suggestion:

Unless you want to play honor police, I would suggest these points get clarified and we just roll with it. Over the course of 100 hardcore levels I'm fairly convinced that a player that may be cutting corners will get identified by the community and be asked about those shortcuts. You (as the initiator of the idea can spend your time enjoying the effort with us. But try to find the right way to limit your involvement as the honor police. Sincerely.

And as a modest improvement - if a hardcore adventurer does fall in the 4th category above (technical and totally unable to control), and we purposefully allow for that in the rules, I'd suggest no DEATH STING POTIONS. Make it HARDCORE. WORK IT OFF.

Just a few ramblin' thoughts.

Doug

[Fallen]

Also, unless there are serious objections, I think there should be a ban on all artisan skills outside of Fletching.

[Taernath]

Also, unless there are serious objections, I think there should be a ban on all artisan skills outside of Fletching.

... why? Isn't fletching the easiest to exp boost with?

[Orthin]

... why? Isn't fletching the easiest to exp boost with?

It's practical application for archers would be my guess.

[Taernath]

It's practical application for archers would be my guess.

But why ban the other skills? I'd imagine everyone will be using fletching for a little extra exp, regardless of them being an archer.