Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: The Exile Challenge

« on: July 26, 2022, 02:53:46 PM »

Sounds like a different, interesting variation on the original challenger or the island challenge, but I died so many times on them that I have been trying a different challenge, partly like this one.

I play as an outcast, even changed my tribe name to the Outcast, no interaction with villages at all, I pick a start well away from any tribes cultural area. I keep my initial gear but need to survive a year to claim I beat the challenge.

Yep, same here. The original challenge is very satisfying when achieved, but quite frustrating and even boring many times. Walking 3 hours thru a scrub mire in the zoomed-in map is no joke!

Also, I wasn't expecting that not interacting with villagers would lengthen the "interesting phase" of the game so much. Curious!

First time I'm playing with a Kiesse. They seem pretty good, in the sense that they aren't overpowered like the Kaumo or Owl, or underpowered like the Driik or Islanders. I think they are pretty balanced, if one wants to "get real", i.e., not being a elite sniper or an  urban emo Driik incapable of even lighting a match  .
 


 

2

General Discussion / The Exile Challenge

« on: July 26, 2022, 01:15:51 AM »

Hi everybody,

Just to share with you a challenge idea I've been following that I've found quiet entertaining and, well, challenging: The Exile Challenge!


Description:
A easier, funnier, but still hard, version of The Challenge ( https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=901.0 ). You have committed sacrilege, and, after beating you up, the people decided against killing you; instead, you are condemned to 6 months of exile in the wilderness with nothing on your person, not even clothes. During your exile, you are taboo: you can't interact with any villager in the Unreal World.

In this Exile Challenge, unlike the original "Challenge", you can zoom out and also use the World map.   

Start:
- Roll random char
- Winter
- Random start location
- Scenario: hurt, helpless, afraid
- First movement: Discard all items, including clothes. You are naked and have literally nothing.

Objective:
- Survive the whole winter half of the year

Rules:
- No interaction of any kind with villagers (including wanderers in the world map). No trade, no quests, no talking, no fighting, nothing
- No entering any settlement, for any reason whatsoever
- Can trade with merchants
- Can fight robbers, njerpezit


So far, I'm having a surprisingly good time with this. The beginning was easier than in the original Challenge, of course, but with time the "taboo" of being an exile sets you up for an interesting midgame. You have no access to good gear for a long time, which limits your efficacy at hunting, making it more rewarding. Also, you are always exposed to the weather so caves and good planning ahead are essential (no ducking into a village when it is -1000!). When you finally have enough furs to trade, you still have to find merchants, and there are also the other less peaceful "trade" options, njerps. You are essentially alone in the wild, with no civilization to fall back to, except the merchants and, if you beat them, your enemies.

In my current run, I rolled some Proletarian Kiesse, completely average guy (60 in spear and bow, except 80 in Timbercraft, which is surprisingly useful!). Initial injury was well over 50, making him useless for active hunting or fishing. So the first 2 weeks were spent crafting a stone knife, a javelin, eating berries, curing wounds and trying not to die of cold. Always on the edge!

Finally, when my proletarian everyman was more or less cured, it was time to fish and try to catch something that could actually walk. Not that easy! With hunger increasing (the Kiesse aren't the greatest fishdudes) I finally located a herd of reindeer AND an elk, all of them right next to each other! So my proletarian spent two tense days chasing, poking and chasing again both elk and reindeer, and the usual not-dying-of-cold thing. Finally, it was the elk whom succumbed, after two lucky javelin shots.

Happiness! Basic clothing, bow and couple arrows, some meat. Setting up camp in a cave, I began to roam the mires, and a sudden drop in temperature almost killed me twice. At last I located another reindeer herd and, after a day of insistent harassment, bagged one. More clothes, meat. Cool! (not freezing).

That's the story so far. Now looking for more prey, and with proper insulation the Proletarian should be able to last longer in the field without having to build a fire. The plan: get more furs, make leather out of one to have leather rope (stone axe) and a skin (that saves a lot of time breaking ice for water). With enough furs, looking for merchants will be next (iron handaxes and knives are actually beautiful things, if you only have stone!). Hunt more, dry food, be careful with the cold, perhaps find a njerp to have some brief conversation...

It's gonna be a blast, being an Exile!

 
     

 

3

Suggestions / Re: Rites of Passage

« on: November 10, 2021, 03:12:44 AM »

Interesting suggestion indeed.

Very unFinnish like to limit people from wandering the wilds. Also would limit a start outside cultural areas.
Limiting Sartolais farmer character unable to acquire a shovel, until much later traveling over the entire UnRealWorld doesn’t make much sense.
I don’t think any/many youths during Iron Age would’ve lived to 16 and not make multiple selfbows and arrows by then. I made my first bow with my dad at ripe age of 4. And a new about every 1-2 years.

Hi JP_Finn,

I'm not aiming at simulating Finnish culture with this, ancient or modern, at all. I'm just suggesting a mechanism for a particular story-mode, the Rite of Passage, based on purposeful initial limitations for the player to be overcome, hopefully in an engaging way, and within a set period of time. 

Talking more generally, a survival game will always have the basic problem that, sooner or later, you will...survive! Or die, and that's it. The genre is inherently limited, if open-ended. One obvious way to avoid that limitation is to set time limits; another, concurrently, is to set limits to the power of the player, at least at the beginning.  That's what I'm proposing, under the guise of a story mode.




 

4

Suggestions / Re: Rites of Passage

« on: November 10, 2021, 03:04:14 AM »

Interesting. How do you complete the quest to visit every culture before you are allowed to use punts and rafts? Sometimes the archipelago doesn't have any territory on the mainland at all.

Hi Plotinus,

Well, the list above is just a sketch, to illustrate the idea.It can be modified to avoid illogical demands.

The general idea behind the social/knowledge gains is that you get to know/are allowed to do just what is necessary to complete the next quest, kind of like a "need-to-know" basis. In that way, the players is always on edge, but always growing.

 

5

Suggestions / Rites of Passage

« on: November 08, 2021, 04:52:14 PM »

Hi everybody,

I just want to share with you a self-imposed challenge I completed a while ago that, I think, can be incorporated into the game as a "story mode" without much difficulty. In it, you are a teenager undergoing a series of "rites of passage" towards manhood.

At the beginning, being a boy, you are not allowed to do much, even to stray from your original culture area. You don't know how to do most things, like making bows, or clothes, etc (menu options are greyed out/blocked). Being a boy, your social options are limited, can't trade or even speak to most villagers except your mentor (one of the village sages) that you report to. He gives you a series of challenges, each one more complex than the last. You have to return to the mentor with a token proving that you completed the challenge. As a reward, you are allowed to do more and more things, in the shape of learning how to do things (for example, how to construct a short bow), or, socially, to move outside your culture area, or buying certain items, etc. You will advance both in knowledge and in social standing.

At the end, the supreme test of adulthood: killing a Njerpezit in a fair fight. Only after that you are allowed to settle down and build a cabin, as an established member of the tribe. You have a year to do all this, otherwise the quest fails and you'll be a child forever, and be renamed Peter Pan  .

Optional: After a few more Njerpezit killings, your are promoted to War Chief, and are allowed to hire villagers to go raiding.


I found following this challenge produced a very focused game that was quite fun, especially when you "learn" from the old man little by little, expanding your power all the time, which is rewarding. I don't remember all the details, but here I give you a partial list of the passage quests and their rewards. At the beginning our teenager doesn't know how to do almost anything, and is not allowed to interact with any villager except his mentor. Again, this is just a sketch and can be improved. Food for thought!


Quest 1: The Young Aspirant. Hunt any animal.
Reward: Knowledge: how to build basic shelter, basic bows, arrows, javelin. Social: Allowed to leave culture boundaries.
Quest 2: To Know the World. Visit every culture, bring back tokens.
Reward: Knowledge: How to build kota, withes. Social: Allowed to trade for simple, basic tools (not weapons!)
Quest 3: The Mobile House. Build a kota from scratch.
Reward: Knowledge: How to make water skin, raft, birch ropes. Social: Allowed to trade for cows, furs.
Quest 4: To the Ends of the Earth. Visit the farthest northwestern point of the mainland, burn a trunk there at midnight
Reward: Knowledge: How to make shortbow, blunt arrows. Social: Allowed to trade for punt
Quest 5: To the Ends of the Sea. Find southermost island.
Reward: Knowledge of basic traps. Social: allowed to trade for shovel.
Quest 6: The Trader. Accumulate furs for X value.
Reward: Knowledge: how to make leather armor, overcoats. Social: Allowed to trade for simple weapons, nothing above "normal" quality
Quest 7: The Warrior. Find and kill a Njerpezit
Reward: Knowledge: How to build cabin, cellar. Social: allowed to hire villagers to help build cabin.
Quest 8: The Tribesman. Build your cabin
Reward: You are a man! Social: Can buy dogs.
(Optional)
Quest 9: The War Path. Kill 5 Njerpezit by yourself, can bring dog to fight.
Reward: Social: Allowed to buy any weapon, including master quality level. Allowed to lead war parties.
Quest 10: Marauder. Hire war party and annihilate Njerpezit village
Reward: You are acclaimed War Chief. Men respect you, women love you, children want to be like you. You can rest, at last. Long year.


As you can see, this simple uses everything already in the game, only unveiling it (interactions and menu options) after certain conditions are met. The list of quests/rewards needs to be refined, of course, but it could be a nice thing to add as an alternative of an open world that always gets too easy after a while. And is fun! What do you think?

6

Suggestions / Show statistics without needing to die...

« on: May 08, 2021, 06:37:43 PM »

Hi,

As the title says, only when you die you can finally see some basic stats about your char: distance traveled, days adventuring, etc. Why not implement a "Statistics" screen, to see your current stats? It can have the following info:

- Start date of adventuring
- Days adventuring
- Distance traveled
- # of animals hunted (per species). Don't display zero kills, to have it cleaner, or fish!
- # of animals trapped (per species)
- # of Njerpezs killed
- # of buildings and/or total area of buidings
- # of traps (per kind)
- Total length of fences
- # of quests completed
- Total value of inventory
- # of cultures met
- gain per skill since beginning (ex: +10 bow, +15 hideworking, etc.)
- Whatever other interesting things you desire 

Shouldn't be too complex. Thoughts?

Regards,
Utumno.

7

General Discussion / Re: "The Challenge"

« on: April 25, 2021, 11:48:09 PM »

Hi,

Tried this challenge a couple times, always ended up a frozen statue. My strategy was to be always on the move until finding a village. Never happened before death!

This time I tried something different. Spawned near a big lake, so just stayed there. The idea was to get prepared as much as possible before going on the walk to find civilization.

Sequence of activities was:

1. Make stone knife, javelin. (for general work, fishing)
2. Build first shelter (2 days) by the shore.
3. Spawn light lever traps (over 20 or so) all around the big lake. Bait them with whatever berry is around, don't eat them. Sacrifice berries to the gods, they like it.
4. Alternate days between mainly fishing, and, if food surplus, mainly exploring/collecting wood for heating.

Your main enemy is the cold, much more than hunger. Therefore you always need wood, and with just a knife that means cutting down young pines. Lots of them. Also, collect branches and pine needles as kindling. Think ahead: build up caches of small tree trunks in strategic locations around the lake, plus shelters next to each one. The shelters give you some protection against the cold, and serve as secure bases to retreat if it gets too cold.

When traveling around the lake, always carry some kindling with you , and OBSERVE YOUR TEMPERATURE. If it falls to "cold", you should be near one of your wood caches, or have enogh time to cut down a young spruce and fire it before getting too cold. Again, thinking ahead is essential. Interrupt ANY activity if you temperature gets too low: fishing, building, hunting, whatever: cold kills, always, and another opportunity will arise sooner or later.

Be persistent and organized, and always be doing something. In my run it took me 25 traps and 24 days to kill enough birds to manufacture a leather cord (15 ft), and therefore a stone axe. Starvation only lasted the first 6 days because, between fishing and birds, I was always pretty well fed, even had some leftover food in particularly good days. The weather varied quite a lot: some days were almost like autumn and I used them to the max, other were so brutally cold I could do nothing but stand near a fire, and I got frostbite a few times. But all in all it was survivable. Watch your sleep: being awake in daylight is important.   

Soon afterwards, a stroke of good luck: got a badger! Badgers are great animals because any human can just run them down. From its fur I made enough cords to build a primitive bow plus some arrows.
 
By the day 43 I had another badger and more birds, plus a reliable 2-3 pikes in reserve. From the birds' leather I made a leather cap and shoes, and from the new badger, a fur hood.

So there I was in the winter month, fully armed with stone knife and axe and bow plus arrows, and my old javelin. With shoes and a hood to have a little warmth. Apart from that, buck naked, but hey, I was alone. And with a full belly, surprisingly.

At this point i realized I could live indefinitely by the big lake, if I wasn't careless with the heating. I had two options:

1. Stay there until spring. Nothing new to do: fishing, birding, cutting down young trees, hunting the occasional animal. Pros: Quite safe, and it wasn't impossible that a big hervibore wandered about, offering the chance of getting some proper clothing and a change in diet. Cons: I'll have to live like that for months. Boring.   

2. Look for other people. Pros: My new gear gave me a better chance of completing the challenge than before, and I could actually stumble into an elk or similar. Cons: simply dangerous: already in winter month and getting colder, so mobility was compromised. I could well be practically disabled by hunger before hunting anything. Or just freeze, again. Or die of thirst.

Of course, being an irresponsible jerk, I choose 2.

Picked everything useful and went south. South is the best direction to go: from a random location, cultures tend to be closer in the north-south axis than in the east-west axis, and if you miss them, sooner or later you'll hit either another big lake or the sea. And that was what happened to me: after some days got to the ocean. Began walking west along the coast hoping to hit driik or some river mouth (to go upriver and explore). I used the cliffs as mountains (they have the same picture as mountains so I guess they are ok for the challenge?)  A few days later, an elk! Got him (almost freezing myself in the chase) and well, paradise: overcoat, mittens, fur boots, some 50 cuts. Yeah, the challenge was done. Only a matter of time, right?

I consider it done. I forgot some bad dream that had my happy self, just 3 days after the big kill, accidentely freezing to death  with all my damn new clothes on, trying to fire some stupid small trunk or something that refused to light up for a bit too long. But it was just a bad dream, a nightmire. I finished The Challenge!

Right? Right???

8

General Discussion / Re: Killing foreign traders in 10 easy steps!

« on: September 29, 2020, 01:06:06 PM »

Don't worry. Just woo the traders with your new, sexy falsetto voice. But be sure to name your character Farinelloinen, eh?

I tried this exploit in a heath field with no ice or snow. Apart from sparing me the testicular cryogenics, it worked very well. Usually there are like 1-3 traders with ranged weapons, so you need the same amount of furs to buy their arrows, one for each trader. Bring 1-2 extra just in case. (you'll recover them or die, so just don't worry) If you can buy their bows/crossbows, great, that way they can't shoot you with a picked-up arrow.

And lastly, I was wrong about the armor: just forget about it. If it gets to a melee, you lost. Wear almost nothing but your weapons, not even the skis. You need to be as deadly as possible at a distance for this exploit to work.

Just to make it clear, I normally hate exploits. But after doing all kinds of challenges to make this game harder, I decided to give my next character an easier life  .

9

General Discussion / Killing foreign traders in 10 easy steps!

« on: September 25, 2020, 01:57:19 AM »

If you don't like exploits, don't read any further! 

Hi guys,

I discovered (or re-discovered, surely somebody already thougth of this) a simpler, friendlier way to be a mass murderer to eliminate foreign traders.

First, about you:

1. Please have your bow skill as high as possible. Above 75 is fine, but YMMV. (Be nice and please be born as an Owl guy, with high eyesight and dexterity. Thanks)
2. Have in your posession many furs. Good furs. Winter furs, from the North.
3. Also, a good bow and some arrows/broadheads may be useful, or so people say.
4. Some armor, but not so heavy it impairs your bow skill significantly. A good fur overcoat and/or a cuirass (depending on your strength) are enough.

Location:

5. Meet the traders in some kind of open terrain. A frozen lake, an open mire or similar. No one's going to hide!

Time:

6. "Frozen lake" wasn't a poetic preference. Do this in the deepest winter, with the snow almost touching your cristallized but still functioning testicles.

 
Algorithm:

7. Look carefully at the happy traders. Ascertain which ones are selling arrows and broadheads. Buy all of them with your furs (you remembered to bring them, right?) Smile. Try to learn to say "hello" and "thanks" in their language. Also, "you suckers!". Keep smiling. It is a wonderful cultural exchange (you may also buy some of their swords and axes to be extra sure, if you have enough furs). 

8. Once you are the only one that has any arrows and/or  broadheads in a ten kilometer radius, step back to a comfortable distance, take your bow, bow, and start shooting. Use the broads at first against the nearest traders. Your objective is to kill or maim. Once a trader is unable to walk, let him crawl awhile and shoot the ones still standing. NEVER RUN! Ski backwards, let them tire themselves in the gonads-high snow. The more hurt they get, the faster they'll tire. After a few good-placed shots, all those sword-and-axe wielding capitalists will be either dead, crawling in the snow or so hurt/tired they will never harm you. If you are running out of arrows, give the coup-de-grace to the nearest blue sad sack and retrieve your arrows.

9. Recover your furs, arrows, and add an ungodly, game-breaking amount of loot.

10. Optionally, feel guilty. Not recommended. It is a game. (You know that, right?)

And that's it. I don't think this is an original find, but I discovered it with my latest character, a mad Owl with bow skill at 97 that got invaded by a band of traders that just wouldn't leave the settlement, and he was kind of a nervous little man. A sensitive, delicate soul, what can I say...

10

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 10:42:36 PM »

Hi Sami,

I see what you mean, that you prefer encounters to be peaceful by default. I can't agree that it is realistic, or that there aren't solutions to the "repeated encounters" issue, but anyway it is your game, not mine . So ok, let's keep it in the gentle, unsuspicious side.

I like your idea of bad karma for murder expressed as meeting, sooner or later, a "pacific" NPC that suddenly attacks by surprise, preferable in a very unfair way (attacking from behind, as you suggested). As a player if that happens I would like it to be clear why: for example, a message saying something like : "Aha! Last night the spirits revealed to me in a dream who murdered my cousin! IT WAS YOU!!!", and bang, hit to the head from behind  . If karma is the solution, it needs to be made clear why, otherwise it would appear arbitrary, not funny at all, and the player won't learn not to murder vagabounds on a whim, at least not without consequences.

Another variation: if the "karmic dream" NPC recognizes the PC as a murderer in a village (of the same tribe as the victim, of course), it shouts out the "killer!" message and the whole village attacks. Either death or a good mauling plus robbery of most items follows, as in an encounter with robbers.

So, let me change my first suggestion for dealing with the adventurer's exploit, and keep the second. That is:

1. Allow the killing of the NPC, but with clear and terrible karmic consequences (pacific NPC turning violent and attacking treacherously)
2. Possibility of discovery if trying to sell goods (obtained by killing) to the same tribe as the victim, implemented via a new flag.

How about it?

Regards,
U.
 

Hi Sami, nice to hear from you!

The rules of engagement I am proposing are limited to one-on-one encounters in the wild, not to villages, where they would indeed be quite tedious.

The rules I'm proposing don't assume hostility or peacefulness. That's the whole point. They assume that you don't know what are the intentions of the other guy, because this is the first time you see him. And besides, you are in the wilderness, meeting someone completely unknown, miles and miles from help if something goes wrong. It is natural to be careful (more so in tribal times!). And that's the idea: to be careful, and have some interaction to determine intention. And also, to give a fighting chance to the NPC, if it is the PC  the one not that peaceful, otherwise it is open to an obvious exploit.

Yes, I understand you talked about wild encounters, but we like to think that when two woodsmen meet in the wild they are by default more friendly than suspicious.
This is the cultural basis we are building on. (Things would be naturally different if there were known hostilities like tribal wars etc.)
The problem also is that if the same woodsmen keeps circling at your area you would basically have to define your good intention every time you meet him.
Or, if you would have to say it only once, and then could later approach the same NPC with wielded sword or readied bow the exploit would be right back.
Believe me, people would get bored to constant "friend or foe?" questions and they would sometimes forget to unwield their weapons, and unexpected mistakenly initiated troubles would arise.

There will be people to exploit, the innocents to attack, for those who are into it and as it's not (hopefully) the leading playstyle it's not even all that worthwhile to start cutting it down with laborous mechanics. As we've noticed of this thread already that exploit-proof intention declaration towards NPCs is hardly going to be exploit-proof at all.

If the exploit itself really is the problem then kind of "negative karma" is the best way to fight it. There are several folklore based means that include for example the restless dead souls haunting their murderers, but it could be also made so that one day, when murderous player character happened to turn their back at random seemingly peaceful woodman they got attacked instead. Now that would be karma. And probably also encourage to be polite towards fellow woodsmen.

11

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 02:15:02 PM »

Hi Sami, nice to hear from you!

The rules of engagement I am proposing are limited to one-on-one encounters in the wild, not to villages, where they would indeed be quite tedious.

The rules I'm proposing don't assume hostility or peacefulness. That's the whole point. They assume that you don't know what are the intentions of the other guy, because this is the first time you see him. And besides, you are in the wilderness, meeting someone completely unknown, miles and miles from help if something goes wrong. It is natural to be careful (more so in tribal times!). And that's the idea: to be careful, and have some interaction to determine intention. And also, to give a fighting chance to the NPC, if it is the PC  the one not that peaceful, otherwise it is open to an obvious exploit.

All this assumes that most of the time human <> human encounters in the wild are hostile. They are not, in our opinion, and in (our) NPCs opinion too - though it seems to be many play the game differently. So, to me, this is a wrong point of view to start with.

Back in the day, as people still want to play the game the hostile way, we had a system where villagers would react to player characters entering the villages with wielded weapons. Coming too close, the villagers would attack. Nobody really wants this system, and we removed it too, as it's so burdensome to constantly answer to NPCs if you are friend or a foe.
And you make mistakes too, and get attacked even though you would want to play really peacefully.

12

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 01:53:35 AM »

So, to resume, we have two suggestions:

1. Rules of engagement for NPC, as described above, and
2. Possibility of discovery if trying to sell goods, obtained by killing, to the same tribe as the victim, implemented via a new flag.

13

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 01:30:30 AM »

So:
- The PC hires Jurkka to help out with the the village's quest to get rid of a robber band.
- Jurkka drops his axe during the battle and gets killed a bit later (possibly by Osmo, who made a pin cushion out of Jurkka's back during the fight, as the player was too careless/inexperienced to realize ranged NPCs are bad for the group's health).
- The PC pick up all the stuff laying around after the fight and gives Jurkka a fire burial.
- The PC returns to the village and reports that the robbers are all dead, but unfortunately, Jurkka was lost as well (that part is not available in the game).
- The PC tries to get rid of the junk collected, and gets lynched by the villagers for murdering Jurkka.

or:

The PC encounters the dead body of a hunter in the forest (which ought to be a possible outcome of the hunting the more active NPCs are going to engage in), takes farewell of him through a funeral pyre, picks up the items dropped by the body and goes to the nearest village, tries to get rid of the items he's got no use for, and gets a summary execution.

Well, that's solved if the "taken with violence" flag is only activated if the PC does the killing. That is, all items of the victim get that flag if killed by the PC. No biggie.

And if the PC accidentally kills the NPC in a group fight, well, you can say that the relatives will get mighty pissed off anyway if PC tries to sell something from the dear deceased by the side, no?

Regards,
Utumno

14

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 07, 2019, 08:53:54 PM »

Ara, that's an excellent addition, and not that hard to implement either.

You just need a field for "taken with violence" in the items' inventory data structure, plus another field for "from which tribe?". Then, if you try to sell it to said tribe, there will be some probability that it is will be recognized, with instant (and letal) consequences. 

How big the probability? Well, no idea. Let's say 50%, to have it be really dangerous. Also, don't show any indication/mark in the inventory about the "taken with violence" and "from where" fields to the player. The fun is facing the consequences of remembering (or not!) where your nice masterwork northern bow came from!


You know, the more I think about all this, the more I'm convinced these changes can be done relatively easy, and would really make the game more challenging and realistic without becoming too hard or boring. So Sami, if you happen to read this, please give it a whirl in your brain! 

15

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 07, 2019, 01:17:47 PM »

Hi Saiko,

I think robbers should always be considered aggresive. It simplifies things, and the player needs some righteous targets for his innate violence  .

I think in this game karma is not a strong enough deterrent. You can weather a lot of bad luck, and still be alive, especially knowing that you will have bad luck and prepare accordingly. Players will just continue to kill pacific NPC all the same. That's why I'll like to see an enforced peace, if that's the decision of the player.

Regards,
Utumno.