Olouth's vision of how to save the server
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Since I got ripped apart on the forum as of late for not trying to contribute or worse, not being constructive in my criticism, I figured I should give it a go. I see four issues as the main problematics we are currently facing. One, is the continued negative spiral on IRC, on the forum, and IC as well. The second, is our failed attempts to keep alive what should die, the whole "not killing your darlings" attitude within the community and within our DM team. The third, the deterioration of quality roleplay and plotting. And finally, the lack of transparency of what the DM team is doing, versus what we as players are seeing, and following that, the disagreement between where the DM team seem to be leading us and where some of our veteran players wanting us to go.
There are ALOT of other issues, but IMO the four mentioned are what I perceive as the greatest struggles.
As such, four initiatives need to be executed. In short, the way -I- see us saving our server once and for all.The first initiative, will be a No Bullshit Policy. Trolling, ridiculing, bitching needs to stop, and it needs to stop now. I am one of the people who need to stop it. So I will start. But it takes more. The Forum administrators should delete crap on the forum henceforth. If it isn't constructive, delete it. Followed by a PM stating if you have valid issues, discuss with a dm. If not, shut the hell up, go on a bender, walk away, and come back once you have cleared your head. Following this, Ban people from IRC who cannot follow the guidelines. And ban those from the server who cannot understand that bitching serves no purpose but pollutes the atmosphere.
Be consistent. And bring in a Forum moderator or two. People who handle the forum work load, so the DMs are freed to do other stuff. There are plenty of veterans on the server who can be trusted with such.The second, is to implement a "nothing is safe" attitude. I've been consulting businesses for years on this. Nothing is sacred. If something doesn't work, change it. But the belief that Factions, Characters, settings or implemented shit is safe, will only lead to bad things. I and I know many others agree, that some changes do not always have to be IC justified. Example: If Wyvernspur still does not get any applications, despite some dms loving it, remove it. Put something else in its stead. We have closed 10's and 20's of factions in the past because they did not work. So we as a community should be fine with it. If the dm team feels something else should replace it, then make it a week contest for the player base to come up with a useful idea. Our DM's should not carry all the work all the time. Give the players a chance.
The third initiative, is to promote our Roleplay appreciation forum. Try and bring back roleplayer of the week. but at least promote the forum section, and use it. Tell players if they use it, it will be noted. Give some EXP as a reward, but INFORM when you do it. Bring back Roleplay tokens. Use them actively. Ive always been a sucker for the carrot, rather than the stick. Throw those tokens about, let the word spread that those who roleplay consistently and even better promote good roleplay are rewarded. It worked in the past, it will work again.
And finally, the fourth initiative. TRANSPARENCY is THE concept of the year in businesses. Let us know WHAT you are doing. Those journals were awesome. Announcements of "we are currently rebuilding all factions, it will take a week or two more, stay posted" works wonders. When you as a dm team are discussing stuff, bring us onboard. Tell us about it. I know we have 4 or 5 DM's mostly working in the shadows. But I have no idea what they are doing. I know many others feel similar. More transparency equals less gossip, which leads to less bitching. AND THUS the circle is completed, and the fourth initiative assists the first.
THAT is what I would do. I hope it is constructive enough in its setup.
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And for good measures, the 5th thing to implement.
@O'louth:
First expressions are paramount. If any of you think back to when you started playing, you will, just as I, likely come to the conclusion that it was the first few minutes to an hour that made you stay.
I always liked the idea of a "prologue" quest for new arrivals. One that would be a trip down memory lane, and would give a level or two when completed, as well as some better starting gear.
**_"Imagine entering a portal on the road to Arabel." You wake up in a dusty room, As you look around, you find yourself in a now abandoned War Wizard Headquarter. Tumbled chairs and tables meet you as you open the first door. You are drawn to a strange statue, live like. It takes a moment before you realize that the statue is acually a petrified man. As you near it still, the ghost of Pyatt Pree visualises before you. He tells you he was once a necromancer who plagued the region, but was eventually put to rest by brave adventurers, who brought him down, and he was petrified by the War Wizards.
He asks that you kill his ghost, so he can finally find rest.You continue, and find a chest, containing the journal of Clar Banda. It tells her story, briefly, and you must kill a skeleton, a remaining part of her soul.
You continue on like this, down through the 10 year CoA history. You find a shadovar armor, a talassan spear. You move down a corridor, and find a prison, containing the now long forgotten villians. You find a portal to the EO HQ, now destroyed. You find a Harper Pin, and a journal telling of the many times goodly adventurers stood against all odds and prevailed.
You find a Goldfeather armor case, with a note telling of the rebellion. You find Cassiel, telling how he helped Gondegal win, only to kill him after. You find an Unseen Hand thief, who tells how Bhaliir sought power, but was actually a beholder.
In the end, you enter through a door way, and come out the Mage Tower near the Adventurers Guild. As you try and walk back through the door, you find it locked. A "hooded figure" welcomes you to Arabel, hopes you will stay a while, and maybe one day your legacy will be held in that odd place. And he then vanishes._**
If we do that, then "you" have seen the best of what a Group of many 1000 players we have had through the years could offer. How we, through an ancient game, made it come alive in ways newer games never will. And you start, with a second lvl in the backpack.
If you can do something along those lines, and Work on how we as a community act currently, the advertisement will be backed by all the best we can offer. -
That 5th idea is golden. If nothing else that alone would help people immerse themselves in all that is CoA quickly and feel like they too can make a change on the server to impact the future history of that of what is to come.
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1- I applaud your initiative.
2- Fair enough. But we've heard already that factions are being reworked. Which leads us to #4
3- Not a fan of this one. The whole subforum just serves a certain type of players to pat each other on the back constantly, which is fine, but I don't think it should influence anything IG.
4- It would be great to hear where DMs plan to stir the server… If they have a plan that is. -
I like the Idea of RP recognition in some form or another, maybe not xp, but other stuff, even from other people. It would let me know that how I'm Rping is working for the character, and not being just an annoying Prat–- also I am really knew to the whole rp thing with NWN, so feedback good.
I do not necessarily need DM transparency. Surprise is so much more fun, as long as it makes sense to the story i'm in so far.I LOVE idea number 5---not necessarily for the second level but for the depth it gives to the Cities history in game, without having to read all the Forums. Gives everyone a reason to know about Pyat Pree and all the rest.
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1. YES. This is possibly one of the most important point and the main reason I haven't been able to motivate myself to log in of late. Instead of bitching speak to a DM who will (should) look at it objectively and fairly. If there's something wrong with a players behavior, they'll handle it. If not, a DM might point out something you've not realised in the heat of the moment. I've only played here for 7 years, but in that time the number of derogatory comments I read made about other players has risen. There are days when I feel like I'm back in school, listening to one crowd bitch about another person or group and worse, even find myself getting drawn into it (yes, bad Hellgate :( ). End of the day, it's another human being on the other end of that character trying to do the same thing (most) of us are; HAVE SOME FUN!
2. As Direfish said, this is already underway from what the DM's are saying. Alternatively leave the faction in to fade into the background, just unsupported. If at a later date it garners interest, bring it back. I never used to get the point of letting characters I enjoyed playing die/retire, until I actually did it. New concepts are fun. Don't think character retirement should be forced, but no story lasts forever (I just wish the makers of Eastenders and Coronation Street would realise that), something to bear in mind. If your character picks a fight, argues with someone or goes off to hunt Criminal X, be prepared for the consequences. If your character dies, it dies. Things don't always go the way we plan them. Don't whine, bitch and call people meta-gamer cause you didn't win.
3. Sub-forum is there and in place for people to use. Personally always considered the fact people still want to RP with my characters sufficient. Token's aren't a bad idea if a DM see's something worthy of them IG, not just through forum backslapping. Though steer clear of bringing back Bad RP tokens, that's just not helpful.
4. It's always nice to get a teaser about cool new things that are planned for the modules future. Loved reading those plans for V5 posts. This sort of of thing gets the player bases creative minds working and thinking about potential concepts for the future. Downside is, it takes time and effort for our already busy DM team. I also found posts like this are pretty helpful.
5. This idea is awesome. The Road to Arabel has been updated a lot since I started, but something like this would be a good project for the new Builders Guild to look at, include things that Players and DM's alike remember as Server Shaking Awesome from the "good old days". Let people see that good RP and creative concepts can have an impact that will still be talked about years down the line.
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I can say that Topic 5 has been started today. It will take a while, but I have a go ahead from the Dms and have begun the works.
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Secondly, id ask our playerbase henceforth to adhere to Point number one. I cannot do it alone, but if we all start getting our shit together there is hope. CoA should be a place we go to ESCAPE dumb ass bosses, bills, yelling children and bad lunches. The negativity should be left on the road to Arabel.
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Not being from a small country with a tight-knit social fiber and strong mores, I don't see what point 1 even means, short of silencing people. Reinforcing unified visions of of order, correctness, and validity make people hating Hitler another ironic mess of the uneducated. Same for instating "quality" as an objectively referrable metric of roleplay. It's what a few people mean that is then imposed on everyone.
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@H:
Not being from a small country with a tight-knit social fiber and strong mores, I don't see what point 1 even means, short of silencing people.
Don't overreact, mate. I think Olouth is just trying to reform so he's setting a no-bitching rule for himself.
Forum rules haven't changed. -
Honestly. How do you read this as silencing others? He's ASKED everyone to watch out not to write things offending others when they can avoid it. And it can be avoided most of the time. He isn't the police or something.
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Initiative 1
Can’t say I’ve noticed this myself (yet), but I’m a returning casual player so give it time. I completely agree with the sentiment,Initiative 2
Naïve man that I am I assume this was the policy already.Initiative 3
I’m of two minds of this, it’s nice to see your characters named mentioned, it would be even better if the DM’s did hand out these RP tokens, or even tokens for those who’re getting the server involved in stuff. For instance my vote would go to Maylee and Brit, not because they seem to be pushing a server alter plot forward, but because they have a concept that gets others involved. Mainly in questing and fun RP. I also love how they stick to their guns and boot characters that don’t fit with the team. I’m still chuckling that a human wizard got booted from the party because he didn’t like Zak’s sense of humour.Initiative 4
To me this is one of the main areas this server if letting itself done. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the Pathfinder Online forums and they have created an awesome community by being open, honest and transparent. One of the best things they do is a blog letting the community know what they’re planning. Players then discuss the merits or this, and the developers will adjust their ideas based on community feedback. This causes the community to not only be engage but to actually offer suggestions, which can and will shape the thinking of the developers ideas. Pure genius.Initiative 5
Having player EFU briefly I can affirm that having that prologue can have a fundamental effect on how the game is perceived. The first time I did it I created a LE fighter who was formerly a slaver. Due to the apocalyptic nature of the story I found myself thinking how would a LE slaver feel after the destruction of the world, months of survival by himself and then suddenly finding a safe haven of civilisation. In short the prologue made me completely question my characters viewpoint and motivation.So I completely support O’louth’s suggested prologue for all new characters, it needs to be more than just a brief intro to Arabel’s history. Yes this is important and nice to have, but most new players won’t memorise every museum piece, though it will lay the ground work for a brief summary of important events. The prologue also needs to shape a new characters impression as to what Arabel is about, adventure and intrigue. Perhaps the prologue could introduce a new player to the factions, and how they intrigue against each other. It could also be used to provide a follow-on quest to one of the factions.
What I’m trying to say is after making it through the museum pieces allow a new player to interact with illusory heads of the current factions. If they’re interested in joining one (and only one) they could be give a token or item (perhaps a cloak) that could signify interest in a particular faction. This item could give them a minor boost but also lead onto a quest at the faction HQ and notify players in that faction that a prospect new faction member is currently playing. Wham-o if someone is on belonging to that faction they could issue a sending and invite them over for some RP and even assign them a job (again this could be the follow on quest thing, which could require them to take some action against a rival faction)
Membership or favour in one faction should equate to a corresponding decrease in influence in another. This could be as simple as NPC’s of the rival faction being rude to them via in-game dialogue. For instance say someone is interested in joining the Hardcastle faction, they get their cloak and do their assigned mission. While under probation NPC guards from the Silver Bannerman glare at them when they enter the palace or mutter “Merchantalist Dog” as they pass.
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We also need something for those who don't want to join a faction right away. and possibly a way to choose a background for our class as they can also help with concepts.
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Merge with EfU.
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lol
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I tried EfU and I couldn't find anyone to RP with, so I got bored quickly.
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Merge with EfU.
This guy knows his shit.
This is a prime example of what I was trying to state. Posts like this add NOTHING. They are counterproductive, and add dismay, and leave a bad taste in the mouth at least for me.
Jasede, I like you, but you need to get your head out of your rear end. I wont even comment on you B-Rock, since you have been doing this for years, being disruptive.
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Merge with EfU.
Jasede hasn't played in how many years now? our first good step would be to purge our forums of his/her toxic comments and just Jasede in general, cause nothing posted is worth reading
I went and tried efu. it isn't very new player savy. if you don't know how the server works your basically screwed, because though they have all these topics for new players, they all contradict one another.
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We do try to be transparent, but sometimes we are working things out between us, and making an announcement about it would be kind of silly as we might change our minds (probably based on a poll of the community) that's actually already happened a couple of times recently.
We give out good RP tokens, maybe we should give them out more often I guess. We might need to make super good RP tokens then though, to make them still be a special thing.
Some good stuff at the start of this thread. De-railing now though, don't want to have to lock it.