Site Suggestions

So, we as staff on Ardent really want to know what you, as members, suggest we do to improve the site!

Feel free to post suggestions here -- for anything! I really am curious as to what you think will improve the site. Don't feel shy for suggesting things. If you would prefer anonymity, let me know and we can set something up for that as well.

We will personally reply to each suggestion.

Some sort of bonus for other-species to fight rolls. Wolves can have a 5-10% bonus based on size for fighting, I don't see why other-species can't have the same. It wouldn't need to be based on height (Say, a horse towers over a wolf and wouldn't need the donation-only 10% attack for being direwolf+ sized)

Suggestion one: based on family of animal.
For example: feline 5% attack. bird 5% perception. equine 5% agility, etc.

Suggestion two: allow the player to choose their bonus similarly to how a player can choose from the free ones in character creation. (5% agility, attack or defense of your choice upon character creation. within reason. Maybe limit it to only large other species so you can't have a gecko with 5% attack.)

Suggestion three: Double the bonus of 'build' to make up for the lost 'size' bonus for other-species. I actually see now that other-species don't get a build OR a size bonus to fighting. All the more reason to potentially find a solution for us who enjoy our non-wolves. :( My lioness would be at minimum -10% penaltied in every fight which is odd to say a lion would be disadvantaged against a wolf.

Considering & discussing! - nyx

Since characters can have two skills, how about the ability to have two specialties too? I definitely don’t think you should be able to stack master skills bonuses in fights but I don’t see much of a conflict with say, having both tactician and daredevil. So perhaps limit the number of fight related specialty bonuses to one but go hog wild with the rest?

Cross-skill specialties will be a thing eventually! I'm down for any ideas for those, and would like them to be more powerful/beneficial than just single Mastery, but I'd like to stick to 1 Specialty per character - nyx

I'd like to make a suggestion for melee fights. If a fight is 2 vs 1 naturally there should be an advantage in battle for the team of two. Generally it's not good to be outnumbered by your adversary.

Right now from what I understand the scores are added together and averaged. Since one player's score is always going to be brought down in some portion by the other if feels like a disadvantage.

How about in the case of, say, a team of two vs a lone wolf, Team of Two takes the highest score of their rolls?

So Anne and Andy are fighting Bob and these are their scores:

Anne: 159
Andy: 293
Bob: 267

So rather than averaging you take Andy's score since it's the highest and compare it to Bob's score and in this case the team wins.

Then you don't have to worry about calculating any sort of new bonus and there is an advantage for the team in that you basically have a second roll to maybe improve the team's score.

———————

This one… may be a bit whiny but I just want to get it off my chest. It's always bugged me that "Right to Mate" fights are named that way when no one really has the "right" to force sex on someone else, regardless of if they win a fight. It's just really weird. I'd rather it be called something along the lines of "Forced Breeding" or heck "Rape/Prevention of Rape" because that's usually what it comes down to. No need to sugar coat it, we know what it is! xD

EDIT: OR to simplify I think if you take the word "Right" out of the challenge it would work a lot better. It takes out the entitlement but leaves the challenge name mostly unchanged so something like "Mating Challenge"

Added to my list to discuss with Tea! - nyx

Haaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeee. I’m back. Oh my gods so many good suggestions up there @_@

#1 Okay! So, you know how expensive it can be to make a non-wolf character (Horsey, for instance) and that cost seems to be prohibitive to Other Species successfully having plot arcs where they could have children (because, thus far as I’m aware, there is no discount for a site-born character that is Other Species or a Canine/Hybrid). Not many people seem to be willing to adopt from Hybrids, Canines, or Other Species characters. So, my suggestion is to offer a discount, like we do with big woofers, odd colored woofers, etc.

Make it easier for people to adopt these babies. After all, we have the option to make them in the first place. But they go nowhere as they rarely get played long enough to reproduce. I hope to change that!

Added to discussion list - nyx

#2 A clearer description in the Gemstore for accessories (Large Accessories, particularly): I’m uncertain as to whether you have to pay for one bracer at a time, for instance. I’ve seen purchases go through where they are mentioned in the plural, so I’m assuming they are bought as a pair per front and back legs?

Also a clear statement in regards to Large Accessories in terms of Offensive/Defensive items like armor. I’ve seen staff say that the item cannot cover more than 50% of the character, but new folk or those not present when it was stated might benefit from it being stated in the store, or in the guide section pertaining to the Gemstore :D

Added to my list, also added something to clarify some things in the meantime - nyx

#3 Echoing Daisy and a few other’s suggestions for more ways to gain skill pints! I love the suggestion for points for recruiting a new member to your pack/band. It’d be great if it could have a mirror to where the new member of said group could claim for being recruited to the group. I second (heavily) the claim for patrolling the pack border with 1 or more wolves (with a bonus for driving off a trespasser or greeting a stranger at the border, possibly?). Patrol threads should happen more often! And be actually rewarding in more than an IC reputation that will gain promotions. I also truly adore the thought of giving characters who attend festivals or ceremonies to gain skill points.

Adding to the suggestions for skill claims: (Pause… wait for it to pop back into my head, it just fled) … (it’ll come back later, continuing on!!) Ahah! I’d love if there were a skill claim option for getting to know a wolf—for instance, a new packmate might have been glimpsed, maybe even briefly introduced by the leader, but it may be beneficial to get to know the wolf. Oooo-- *deviates down to the next line*
We could add, “Get to Know a New Packmate/Bandmate” (Point amount up to staffers ^^).

#4 As that thought fled, another popped into place, and it’s a curious idea. Pack Loyalty or Pack Spirit… It’d be much like skill claims. The character participates in various pack activities, whether it’s a hunt, attending a meeting, getting promoted, talking with pack members, chatting with the alpha, and so on, or defending the pack from a raid/intruder/promoting the pack to a prospective new member.

Each action gains points, like with skills. It could be that this Pack unity thing could lend a small bonus in raids and sieges, or melees unrelated to resources (maybe a loner gave a pack member some lip and his packmates joined in to thrash that asshat?). Not a huge bonus, mind, but it makes some amount of sense that a united pack stands a better chance in a fight to defend their land than a disorganized, un-united group. It’s a very slap-dashed thought that literally just flew into my brain, forgive me if it’s hard to understand… It’s up to staff what the actions are, how many points each would gain, etc.

For now, that’s all I can think up. It’s almost midnight right this moment as I type this all up.

Added Skill Claim options for patroling and getting to know packmates/bandmates. The latter idea is interesting, but I do thing that is something best left to be ran & monitored by packs and their Alphas for now! - nyx

Maybe a notification of some sort to let people know their suggestion has either been rejected or currently under consideration? Perhaps an @ in discord? I know for me personally this would help me keep track of my suggestions and maybe refine the ones that have been rejected.

I'll try to remember to do this - nyx

Intellect Specialty:: "Panic Button"

Sometimes you need to know when you are outmatched and know when to turn tail... better run far, run fast!

Bonus:: 50% chance to flee all fights.

Wrote down in my list of Specialty ideas - nyx

Skill Claim Suggestions:
- Craft own defensive / offensive accessory + points to fighting *and/or* intellect?
^ Piggy backing on this, discount on purchasing an accessory with gems if a thread has been completed showing the craft.

- I like the hunting skill "first solo hunt" milestone thing, I'd like maybe to put some sort of "milestone" on every skill.
- Intellect: As naturally intellect/wisdom/etc grows as you age, a small flat skill point claim on age milestones (yearling, adult, elder?)
- Fighting: Win your first fight (maybe a steep bonus if you win your first fight vs parent? for a child learning to fight thing?
- Fighting alternative: Pup's first official fight lesson. Not a dice rolled fight, but parent/guardian teaching a 1 year or younger pup the basics.
- Healing: First solo heal (under 2 years old, so it's more of a right-of-passage that you've now treated your first patient growing up without a healer to guide you)
- Navigation: First trip outside the den / outside pack territory solo. (also limited in age, yearling and under?)
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Would it ever be possible to offer a donation reward that would allow us to apply a mutation/marking change to our current character?
(Over time, in gradual appearance similar to what we had for certain events.)

A "herd/flock" option for companions - allows the character to have multiple of a small species companion that would normally be together as a group (flock of small birds, family unit of raccoons, bats, mice, meerkats, etc). Only applies to non-combat companions.

The hunting skill claim "hunt 20 different animals effectively" is a bit oddly mathed. The only way I can claim this (and need the points) is if the majority of my hunts are small animals, and there are only so many small animals to do since they need to be 20 different animals. 20 medium predators would give someone 200 points alone, that's not including any seasonals or crafting or anything else for points.

I'm suggesting a second tier of this, a "hunt 10 different animals effectively" for 25 points or something, for the people like me. Once my current threads are done and claimed Az will have 105 hunting points with 6 different animals hunted (4 of them small animals) if I do all mediums from here on out, I'll max his hunting in 13 hunts before I actually reach the 20/20 different animals. That's not even including any large prey hunts. I'm running out of ideas for small prey XD

>.> I’m back. Some of these might be redundant, but I thought I’d throw them out there anyway lol *And occasionally add more as thoughts hit.

Healing Skill Claims:
• +5 Actions:
Practiced applications of healing tools (herbs for pain, practice bandages, poultices)
Applied a piercing (Earrings, body piercings).
Applied Scarification or Tattoos (Could also be an Int claim?).
Concocted a poison.

• +10 Actions:
Diagnosed an ailment, wound, or pregnancy.
Gave a Pregnant Character a pregnancy check-up.

• +15 Actions:
Aided in birthing of Other-Species character.
Aided in a risky, difficult birthing.

• +20 Actions:
Successfully performed an amputation of an un-salvageable limb.
Sutured a bad wound shut.
Set a badly broken bone.

• +50 Actions:
Revived a character from near death (it’s been done, remember Erani and Adette? [that was a fun thread])
Successfully killed a character via poisons. (Get points for a plotted death!)

This was just a thought in passing, but generally speaking the only thing skills do is iccly give a character more desirable for a pack position(other than onlockable lands by skills and fighting)

So maybe putting in some randomly generated or judged systems for Hunting, healing, and navigated situations when people want? For example we could even have it where a severe maim could potentially not be as severe through a healing event where a healer tries to heal that wound? Or something along the lines of wounds from battle being treated and then a roll is made to see if a healer succesfully healed that wound/made it worse etc. Same with hunting - there's pack hunts that could possibly have a success rate through a rolling system or something similiar. In turn the pack gets a certain amount of food and perhaps some perks(+2 points to fighting etc. for two weeks to 1 ooc month) as a reward for having that prey. For navigation it could delve into natural disasters or maybe even having a chance for discovering new sub boards in certain area's with their skill.

again I'm not sure how well this would do in practice, but I feel like it would make having skills other than fighting much more fun.

Specialty suggestion: Always reroll your lowest dice in a fight. I *think* It'd be balanced, because yes you could reroll a 1 to a 40, but also you may reroll a 30 to a 10, as well as you'd be giving up the high % fighting bonuses to choose this one.

[A bit halfbaked, but these are what I've come up with over the past several months.]

Trophy Hunter
A Hunter so Masterful they can bring down large prey animals with fewer helping paws

Bonus: Hunts with this character needs fewer wolves to hunt Large Prey animals.


Mangler
A savage creature who fights to shred their opponent and leave them broken and bloodied.

Bonus: 50% Attack Bonus when seeking to maim their opponent.


Shepherd
Prey animals seem to just trust this wolf with their care and lives, and this wolf will not let that trust be broken!

Bonus: Small Bonus to stats (chosen by staff if implemented) when fighting to defend livestock from a raider attempting to hunt them.


Wielder
Weapons just seem to be this wolf's natural gift when fighting, and they seem almost unstoppable with a weapon in their grasp, and even able to bear multiple into battle. However, it seems they are completely inept at fighting unarmed.

Bonus: Opens up to two more accessory slots with their bonuses included when the character fights using weapons-- however, if the character does not fight with the weapons, they recieve a heavy disadvantage to their stats.


Dreamspinner
One who walks through dreams of the living and the dead.
Can pull others of the living into their dreams in Somnium, regardless of theirs or others relations to the dead (Just thought of an interesting added system to this... the character that gets pulled into the dream is randomly rolled. So you never know who you'll meet with this Specialty lol)

Murderhobo
A killer at heart, this character is a bringer of death to all foes, and is right at home in a death match
Bonus to attack when in a deathmatch

Perhaps the ability to add new threads to your thread log? So if someone tags you with a starter, you can add it to your thread log to remind yourself to reply later? ^^

So just a thought, you can change your wolfs height with gems , but how about build? Say for lore reasons you wanna make them skinny or chunky, makes sense cause weight can fluctuate and the like. Maybe do 200 gems per build option.

Say your wolf is light and you wanna make them heavy, so that would cost 400 gems. Aka 200 per state.

Maybe a way to purchase a skill point tier before a character has been accepted? That way an older character who comes from say a pack of warriors wouldn't be a beginner fighter upon joining. Say 200 or so gems for each tier, or more even to make it harder to obtain high level characters. There could even be an age limit on tiers, for realistic reasons (no yearlings that are past intermediate or something, pups born onsite must start as beginner, etc).

ie:
Novice rank - 200
Intermediate - 400
Advanced - 600
Expert - 800
Master - 1000