Wild Hunt Clarifications

[Yourstruly]

From the file:

After a character is created there’s a set amount of time before their capture
becomes due, this time is shorter for higher tier characters.

There were people who were T2 who were created less than 4 months ago that were taken. If that is the length of time after creation for a T2 before they are captured, then that means everyone will be taken every wild hunt, correct? Is that the intent of the wild hunt, to put everyone into a small grid for a few days every few months?

If someone waits the 10 weeks to be fatecrafted, does that reset the amount of time or is it from when the character was created, period? Because it is 3 months (Dec 21 -> March 21) until the next Wild Hunt. Those waiting 10 weeks to be fatecrafted will return at the start of March. If they count still as they did, then they will get a couple of weeks to RP before they are scooped up again.

I understand the intent behind the Wild Hunt is to encourage people to keep working toward their goals, but many T2s found themselves effectively set to 0. It’s one thing to go forward 2 and back 1, but to be sent back to square 1 is disheartening to the point of feeling outright punished. Many people I’ve spoken with don’t feel inspired to work harder: the game is already a constant drive of effort due to the boroughs. There are those who invest 8+ hours (aka the amount of an RL job) a day into the game just to keep the player factions afloat.

I understand the intent of the Wild Hunt. I understand the intent of all of it. I actually think the borough system is a good idea. But I think it needs to be tuned to better support playing a game. I want to be able to decide to have fun and craft stories rather than feel like I need to put in the effort I would for a real job just so that other people can have fun and craft stories because they only get a few hours a week compared to my several hours a day.

Additionally, the Wild Hunt itself I think was not ready to go live. Not just because of the buggy nature of an Eidolon and 63rd Lieutenants being captured (though that qualifies), but because half of the rooms were pulling from Redstone (this may be intentional, but I doubt it) and I feel like there needed to be more to *do*. I explored extensively on Navessa as did others and there was… nothing. It was such a great opportunity to have hidden things to uncover, LLM-driven quests, stories, encounters, etc. It could have been a very rich environment for us to interact with. But it was just a bunch of largely ‘faceless’ rooms without any narrative other than ‘woke up here.’ There could have been supply caches showing up for people to uncover (and potentially fight over if everyone split off into groups/factions).

tl;dr
I get the intent, I see the goal, but I think it needs further finetuning. I also want to know if we should expect for everyone T2 and above to be taken every Wild Hunt.

[Holic]

I keep meaning to write a lengthy post regarding the Wild Hunt and karma gains, with a bunch of thoughts with respect to reward vs punishment in this game and how unpleasantly skewed that balance is. Still might but been low on energy and motivation, the latter of which is pretty widespread here in the wake of this bugged Hunt.

So for now I’m going to piggyback on the OP. I’m not sure anyone feels the mechanical detriments of this more keenly than combat forward T2s with 1 focus, imo. No matter how you slice it this system, while I also understand and even agree with its necessity in theory, is incredibly punishing and needs a rework but at least T3s getting knocked down to T2 will still find themselves capable in mid-tier mist hunts and rescues. Being T1 again is basically crippling, and moreover I don’t understand the point or significance in setting back someone before they’ve even achieved anything through the karma system to begin with.

TLDR, my thoughts on the Hunt/Karma sitch are:

-Should not affect T2/1FP characters, to me there’s no point and it only demoralizes players who are already at the bottom of the food chain.

-T2s who HAVE earned karma to purchase foci and T3+ should be able to recover their lost karma over time, or if a permanent deduction is non-negotiable let it be a much smaller amount. In general however, punishing the players who have done extra to support the game is just bad practice.

-Hunt should be once a year, maximum twice, to give it the relevance and meaning it’s meant to have and players time to actually progress their characters to a point where that would matter.

-Karma should be something people can acquire more easily. Not everyone is a DM/Storyrunner type and many have genuine anxiety over having to run plots. Said plots, while fun, are usually self-contained stories and rarely have any impact or relevance to the live grid world. Even if only a much smaller/slower accumulating amount, reward your players for supporting events, for being active and engaging their fellows, reward them for sticking to and enforcing theme. Some of us are better as copilots; we shouldn’t be more or less locked out of progression because of that.

Which brings me to my biggest and most controversial suggestion regarding the Wild Hunt. I don’t really feel like character’s age of existence should matter here at all; I feel it should be based on engagement and contribution to the community as a whole. Because of how karma is gained, so long as someone feels comfortable enough coming out of the woodwork to run a plot every month or so they can progress, even if the rest of the time they remain indoors/in private mode and are never seen in public. Never engage with the rest of the player base. Never help with raids. Never attend events.

Many of the PCs that were taken this hunt are always out there causing trouble, antagonizing, helping new players, participating in crucial content for borough securing, upholding theme, etc. They are accessible and enjoyable to engage with and help keep the world alive more than any amount of plots can, or have. Why should they be subject to the same punishment as someone who does virtually none of these things?

Reward the good players that are still here, help us feel like our time and effort is valued. Especially when a community is this small and every meaningful contribution matters.

[Author]

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