Q: You allowed several anthro-races. Why can't we play an anthro <IRL animal species name>?
 

A: The intention is to allow beast races without making them feel ridiculous. Part of this is lending them credibility. No race NAMED uncreatively after the label of an IRL animal (in any real language) will be added to the Beyond Orcrest sim. Significant creativity in naming AND some kind of historical context must exist for a species to be accepted. This is why "Harengon" ('hare' is another word for rabbit), "Neko" (literally the Japanese word for 'Cat'), "Wolven" and other species with uncreative naming conventions are not permitted and many more historically recognized fantasy races with animal features are. If a fantasy race idea has a more creative name than "Wolven", and you can help create interesting and useful cultural quirks in a part of the world that is not already covered, the Orcrest team would be more than happy to hear you out!

 

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Q: Why have you chosen to raffle slots for the race I want to play?!

A: This is a two-part answer.

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The first objective is: We want to allow some fantasy races without the Flanderization "anything goes" allows - so we don't end up in situations with a naked demon and a paladin both trying to talk to you casually ignoring each other on a street corner, which removes all tension and stakes from an RP setting.

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The second objective is: Avoiding the appearance of favoritism that an admin application system can create if you get denied for something and someone you don't like gets selected instead. SL's RP community has a long-standing tradition of personal feuds; we're trying to prove up front we're not making decisions based on your personal feud. If we can provide some paranoid SecondLife nerds a bit of comfort so they can let their guard down a little, relax and just RP a couple days a week? Mission Accomplished, right?

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If another more elegant solution existed that covered both the first and second objective above: We'd be using it.



Q: Why a HUD system instead of by hand like Mhirdrun?

A: Effectively, we needed a system for nudging AFK people to get outside of their rentals, and go "bump into" other people, it is likewise a system for fair mediation between competing player interests that does not require constant oversight by moderators. It is also intended to be incredibly 'casual friendly', as long as you're good at making friends who can help you with the parts of the system you choose not to engage with.

Basically we're trying to provide for the needs of multiple communities from multiple types of roleplay sims while also trying to solve many of the problems inherrant in those kinds of sims we're getting players from. (Example: Players AFKing in their rentals on Gorean and Game of Thrones sims, bullies on PvP sims, etc.) SL's community is getting smaller, and so we're creating a large tent sim that provides a wide variety of different experiences to try to bring the community together.

While the main purpose is the facilitation of IC Drama and Conflict (i.e. story-telling) ... The system supports PvE; but not advanced PvE like major MMOs. PvP is supported; but without grinding or massive party-wipes. The game supports leveling up and making your own class, but there are circumstances where a level 1 character can quickly defeat a Max level one due to planning and proper equipment. There's crafting -- but crafting only ever requires a single material component. Factions exist and have wide support, but fights are limited to 4 people per team, and you can fill empty slots with NPCs, meaning you don't have to have a large faction constantly active to participate in the systems. If someone isn't interested in faction-related politics or gets ousted in a stressful situation? A safer "neutral town" is provided to give people an opportunity to escape.
 

A retirement system even exists, that allows you to start a new character with coins close to the value of your gear and wealth, one level below your old character, so you can keep your advancement and try something new without all the baggage or tension of the old character.

But even further? Advancement and treasure gains on the sim are time-gated, so that a character who plays an hour per day on 3 days per week can max out their advancement - the same, or close to the same amount of advancement as a player who plays many hours, 7 days a week because they enjoy the roleplay.



Q: What is time-gating, and why are you doing it?

A: Time-gating advancement is effectively preventing some individuals from getting too far ahead. It's capping the amount of XP and treasure you can get to an amount per calendar week so that the "gamey" parts do not take over your personal experience - so people can't constantly grind their way to power - while also being a mechanic to force AFKers to get out of their rentals at least once a week to go bump into other people who are not their friends -- to get people into good habbits that are healthy for a roleplay community.

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You are still perfectly welcome to AFK, or sitting on your throne in your faction base managing minions but the idea is: Your advancement milestones for that week will take twice as long to gain (on a given day) if you're not participating in the setting and it's economy - though you'll still reach max level in the same week as other players who started when you did.

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6 hours of AFK (an hour per XP tick - max 2 per day), or 3 hours of activity (doing 1 treasure node and waiting 1 hour for an XP tick afterward to cap out your 2 ticks per day - which you can wait out while RPing, distributing treasure, trading, or crafting your treasure into cool stuff), each week.

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Your character will likely reach max level sometime on week six (playing at least 3 hours per week), and advancement is mostly horizontal rather than vertical because we wanted low level characters to be strong enough that it was valuable to to take them into dungeons and give them treasure, even if you had maxed out your own advancement for the week: Allowing time-gated individuals to still participate in other people's advancement and enjoyment rather than "keeping up with the Joneses" by grinding all week.

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This creates RP situations where even if you don't have friends who can take you, or you're not a combat build, strangers might help if you paid them a small percentage (treasure beyond their cap!) to be your guardians, taking you to places you can't go on your own for advanced rewards all around - though the RP potential for betrayal also exists.

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Another useful feature of time-gating is that even winners in a fight generally have to use resources; which means players who constantly go around fighting and bullying others every day.. have the same access to potions that people choosing NOT to fight do. This means they can run out of resources, potions, and other toys they need to win which means eventually if the majority of the community believes their behavior is unreasonable: The community can handle them through simple economics by supporting small teams against their enemies. (Since combat is limited to 4v4 fights regardless of how much larger their faction is).