AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

Yesterday evening i attended a wedding in Winya Ravana. walked trough quite many areas and transitions and constantly kept thinking that server has aprox 30-40 players online at the same time. And after this wedding, itll be weeks before anyone uses these forest areas again. same goes with a underdark! why again new drow city? why just not upgrade underport to have own section? so the few drow we have playing wouldnt be isolated anymore of the rest of the RP going on in server.

who uses Electric Castle?

I love the diversity and the ammount of different maps in amia. but there really is a couple too many. am i alone with this?

I wonder when was the last time anybody went to Fort Summer.

Come to think of it, I wonder how many people even know that Fort Summer exists.

This hasn't even touched on B, that often has less players online and seems to be far more expansive in general. And whilst it is large, I just have to say that I really enjoy it. Take for example all the tombs and little areas in and around Khem - there is so much to just explore. And the Frozenfar feels (to me at least) like you've taken a trip into another world as you wander the endless snow plains in the dark, the aurora dancing around you. Perhaps no one goes to these areas often, but I still can't help feeling impressed with the effort that has gone into them.

a bit more compact amia would force more interaction between players? thats atleast how i see it.

take the drow for instance? ive played one since spring -05.

the whole drow community has been isolated from rest of the server, propably the reason why the numbers playing drow have diminished and it has become somewhat inbred society? surfacers dont interract with drow and drow stay in their own little corner of amia with no intention to interract with surface players. what if drow wouldnt have own city? or own areas? but a single drow run district within underport?

underport seems to be pretty heavily used area already. with 10+ more players actively using it, wouldnt that enhance the playing experience further for everyone? and free resources with server as there would be no need for so many areas.

same with winya! why on earth is there caves and forests vast as heck within the city? i can see no point.

You can end this discussion already.

As you may or may not have noticed by now, many old areas currently get an overhaul. Some may also be removed if they make no sense at all. This is all still under discussion.

This also takes a lot of time and is done bit by bit.

Amarice-Elaraliel wrote:

You can end this discussion already.

curious reply? does it mean that player input on areas in amia is unwelcome?

even if it doesnt affect on anything? cant it atleast be debated?

I remember when Sasuke and the like used to use the Electric Castle a lot for the reason that a lot of people didn't go there. Slaver stuff.

Though people do visit a particular portion of the Electric Castle a lot for.... Humbabungabag. I hope that's not being removed! That place is adorable.

@ De'aarth
I really see no problem. There should be areas people can go and explore, or use as secret hideouts if possible. I personally love freedom to explore, even if I won't be returning to those places often.

@Liz
Some people do know of Fort Summer, and it's history. Some are maybe planning to do something about it. We'll see.

I mentioned it in another thread, and I'll restate it here:

"Unused" areas still see RP. Not all of it is obvious.

Many of my characters seek out remote and otherwise little used areas specifically because they are not often traveled, for interactions that cannot happen when being walked upon every couple of minutes by strangers, or utilizing them for training, or ritual, or any number of other things. Some compression could, and probably will, be happening - but the idea that the option of some isolation hurts RP is completely subjective and in my option not at all true. I don't tend to play exhibitionist characters who spill their hearts out to someone in the middle of Cordor, where there is all sorts of other chatter and events happening around them, and who may elaborate on private details only in trusted company. Isolation allows for certain kinds of RP, usually the more deep and involved kind in my experience (and no, that does not mean cybering) to occur.

Much in real life, if you have something serious to discuss, you likely take it to a more controlled or at least less chaotic environment. That's one of the uses for private rooms, whether or not they have locking doors. That's also a function that remote or less-traveled areas serve. It also has use for tactical RP, wherein kidnappings, fights, mysteries, puzzles, or the like can use the environment to craft a situation, that may span over many Areas - but only if there are many Areas in which to unfurl a scheme. Running into a well-used, well-populated, already-controlled space every other area makes me feel claustrophobic, and waaaay to much like real world issues of everything being staked out, claimed, owned, trespassing, and so forth.

Let there be wild places to roam.

The "unused" maps should be left alone.

And for the record, Electric Castle is being used.

De'aarth wrote:

Amarice-Elaraliel wrote:

You can end this discussion already.

curious reply? does it mean that player input on areas in amia is unwelcome?

even if it doesnt affect on anything? cant it atleast be debated?

Nope. It merely means that we are already aware of this and we already work on it.

We do not really want to outright remove too much, only some areas which really make no sense at all.

You can always make suggestions of course. What I meant to say is that a discussion whether or not areas can get redone or removed is pointless because that has already been decided and is in the making.

If you have ideas for specific areas that is another matter and you can of course make your suggestions.

Dead wrote:

The "unused" maps should be left alone.

And for the record, Electric Castle is being used.

The lore behind the EC is some of the most fun out there. I love running quests there for that reason alone!

I don't think the problem is so much with "unused" wilderness areas (since if they're not used they can hardly spread the playerbase and if they are used, it's for some reason if people make the effort to go there) but with large settlements. If three people can walk through a city and not bump into eachother, it's probably too large. I don't really see why Winya was expanded; it was already pretty large for the outpost it's supposed to be. And I certainly don't see the need for several Underdark settlements. The Grove is another offender: it's huge and very easy to miss people in. Druid groves are supposed to be small and only house one or two druids on a permanent basis, they're not "druid cities." (I would actually love to see the grove get replaced by a network of small groves that individual PCs are appointed to and they then have to patrol the surrounding area. But that's a different topic.)

There are two places that can count as cities in the module: Cordor and Kohlingen. No other place is large enough in IC population or OOC playerbase to warrant more than two exterior/large interior areas, IMO.

Indeed many areas seem unused but arent really.

Hence why we rather not remove too much. While some areas see no constant RP they are still great to explore and for temporary RP.

Forstakkrr sure is one of my favourites in regards to roam the wilds.

Winya was expanded btw. because of the cut of that new tileset and else things could not be made fit in this specific new tileset.

im all for one UD area. its more than enough for the players who currently play any of the following : Drow, Svirf, Duergar, Shadowelf.

I for one would like to see all but underport removed.

One UD city will not work, if you ask me, the current settlements are rather fitting. Underport is the threshold to UD and sees enough activity which is not 100% drow. L'Obsul is the UD starting area for all races. As for Edonil/the-new-thing, there has to be that Lolthite city as long as there is a Lolthite playerbase.

Now which of these cities would you want to merge? All in one? Not really, because module-wise, a starting area for all races being merged with a sandbox Lolthite settlement is a developer's nightmare, and not very suitable for established RP. Underport with L'Obsul, probably, but i still don't see the point. Bear in mind, the number of UD transition areas on B is minimal, since all travel is handled by multi-choice transitions, so what you have left is the tunnel from L'Obsul to raft that goes to UPort, and linear Endless Stairs + Deeper Dark, which goes to Edonil and surrounding caverns.

This means that people don't get to miss each other when traveling already, and you have two hubs of activity: L'Obsul being the universal one, and Edonil being dependent on Lolthite activity.

Peeves wrote:

Dead wrote:

The "unused" maps should be left alone.

And for the record, Electric Castle is being used.

The lore behind the EC is some of the most fun out there. I love running quests there for that reason alone!

Good to know you're in charge. Expect to be bothered.

De'aarth wrote:

who uses Electric Castle?

Liz wrote:

I wonder when was the last time anybody went to Fort Summer.

Come to think of it, I wonder how many people even know that Fort Summer exists.

I use both these areas with Tae, as well as the Frozenfar areas in general, specifically because I encounter few people there. As for the lack of surfacers interacting with drow, maybe that's because most people aren't going to just click on random underdark entries until they somehow wander into Edonil just so the local guards can kill them on sight? Just saying. Though Tae wanders the underdark quite frequently, or used to.

Aeqvinox wrote:

One UD city will not work, if you ask me, the current settlements are rather fitting. Underport is the threshold to UD and sees enough activity which is not 100% drow. L'Obsul is the UD starting area for all races. As for Edonil/the-new-thing, there has to be that Lolthite city as long as there is a Lolthite playerbase.

thats the jest of it. llolthite player base is close to nothing at the moment.

i briefly brushed the topic with iron the other day. he made a good point to me that its not for the benefit of the server if one faction separates itself completely from the rest of the server. and thats exactly what the drow have been doing for years now.

and there is yet another drow settlement to be constructed.... if i could id veto it!

Please stop making assumptions. Just because something is added, doesn't necessarily mean that something else might not be removed. Or changed in some fashion.

The UD is being handled, but it's unrealistic to do every change at once. So we put it in in stages, the first of which is the new city.

De'aarth wrote:

Aeqvinox wrote:

One UD city will not work, if you ask me, the current settlements are rather fitting. Underport is the threshold to UD and sees enough activity which is not 100% drow. L'Obsul is the UD starting area for all races. As for Edonil/the-new-thing, there has to be that Lolthite city as long as there is a Lolthite playerbase.

thats the jest of it. llolthite player base is close to nothing at the moment.

i briefly brushed the topic with iron the other day. he made a good point to me that its not for the benefit of the server if one faction separates itself completely from the rest of the server. and thats exactly what the drow have been doing for years now.

and there is yet another drow settlement to be constructed.... if i could id veto it!

our new settlement looks to be in a much better position to facilitate rp across the entire underdark, as well as being much smaller. Edonil had no need to be spread out across three caves.

That said, there were quite a few people on for event days the last two saturdays. I can't speak for all their loyalities, but perhaps there are more lolthite drow than you think? I know i haven't seen qax in quite a while ;p

I saw Qax Saturday after the event :3

Nobody uses Tarkuul; please remove.

Bini wrote:

Nobody uses Tarkuul; please remove.

You joke, but there's already been at least one comment on these boards suggesting we get moved to B to suffer a slow death by neglect.

I noticed.

Sometimes I forget that even now, not everyone is aware of Tarkuul's significance to the server dynamic and plot.

Suggesting moving Tarkuul to B wasn't an underestimation of Tarkuul's population or importance. It was exactly the opposite, in fact: it was a suggestion that B could get new life breathed into it by the enthusiastic and active Tarkuul player base.

Amarice-Elaraliel wrote:

Indeed many areas seem unused but arent really.

Yup! I personally like certain areas for certain scenarios because they're out of the way. Less foot traffic means less chance of being interrupted while doing something nefarious.

Also, moving Tarkuul to B might be interesting. I'm not entirely certain. But I fear change, like the frightened baby chipmunk. Plus I think we'd get much less traffic if we got moved, to be entirely honest. I'm probably just one of those guys that makes loud unsubstantiated claims like those guys that say that Micheal Bay movies don't suck.

sometimes it's fun when Dm's add personality to one area or another with quests or lively interaction, and it's usually very meaningfull when it does happen in a unused area, like what happened in uhm with the triadics, or guldorand, even the cordor festival grounds.

Weeeeeeellllll.... Tarkewl is only accessible by portal anyway, right? What would it matter?

Tarkuul could probably be moved to B easily if you leave the portal from A behind. While I don't agree with the obliteration of the Underdark, I do kind of agree that the drow are considerably more shunted off to their own little world than they used to be, which greatly reduces their RP potential with the surface. This isn't necessarily bad but the loss/shift of significant everyday RP does have its effects.

IIRC the response to the suggestion to move Tarkuul to A was that Tarkuul is in a fair amount of physical proximity to Amia so they are on A so that shouts of largescale things like massive storms, smoke from amia, magical exposions, and really tall entities, will be something that can respond to and that may soon effect them. This effect would be nigh impossible if you moved them to B.

That I said I am of the general opinion B has too many areas too widely scattered and without enough active players to really support it as an RP center, though the number of higher level hunting grounds does draw a large number of people. Ultimately however you can get to just about anywhere on B from multiple places so you can't even really funnel people into one or two major places to get everywhere else, so the chances for even RPing with someone who is taking off to go hunt is pretty small with the exception of maybe Wiltun since people come in there to sell stuff and buy equipment and supplies.

Given that we're no longer struggling with player limits, I'm not sure why we should worry about both servers being equally active. Is there something wrong with B/Abroad hosting the distant adventure locations and some niche hubs? What exactly would we achieve by making it look more active by moving activity away from A?

Don't worry, folks, we'll be getting rid of these unused areas in due time, and completely at random. It might be because they are struck by blood red meteors from deep space, sink into the sea, razed to ashes by Screevers, sucked into an alternate time dimension, or become the site of ultraprogressive liberals that reject a fantastical reality and insist upon an invisible and inconceiveable banality.

Any PCs caught in the area at that time will be permakilled as per the "Serious Mode" rules.

You have been warned.

You forgot to mention my area eating Spacecats from an unknown dimension, Yoss!

Gah, the Langoliers are coming!! Everybody back on the plane!

Rather than try to split RP between the servers evenly, I'd redefine them into two distinct purposes. Move all of B's social areas to A, and move all of A's hunting areas to B. Not alter the geography IC, mind, but just have the transitions redirect all dungeons and deep wilderness to B.

While I understand that intention seems legit, I feel like that would just plant a stake in server A and say "Roleplay Island" And B would just read "Leveling/Boss Farming Island." It might already read that way, but I think it would probably discourage anyone from even trying to RP while leveling since they'll be all alone, and they'll know it.

What is the practical problem with the status quo you are trying to solve?

There isn't. Someone made a post saying that a bunch of areas that aren't pointless actually never get used. And then the discussion got weird.

Amarice-Elaraliel wrote:

You forgot to mention my area eating Spacecats from an unknown dimension, Yoss!

We have Kilrathi?

I CAN'T SEE THE AMUSING PICTURE. D:

My only issues with the expanse that Amia has in variety of zones is how long I can go walking the server and run into no (willing) RPers. I've gone hours wandering without finding a character willing to sit down and RP. If we compacted the zones this would happen far less often. Downsizing doesn't hurt you if there are alternatives and a zone already barely sees use.

Palin489 wrote:

Downsizing doesn't hurt you if there are alternatives and a zone already barely sees use.

thank you.

From my experience as someone who played the server a long time and saw it in a very much smaller state already... it does not truly matter how big or small the areas and the server as a whole are. People tend to usually gather in the same spots, regardless.

Why do some folks believe 'Amia B' equates to 'slow agonizing death due to neglect'? Who fed you that one? Of the two, I put in the bulk of my DM hours on B! I love how gorgeous the tilesets are and how much is being done!

Bmia is not 'Boss-mia' or 'B team-ia' it is simply the second server of Amia as we are that large and that awesome. Nothing more, nothing less.

DustSpray101 wrote:

Why do some folks believe 'Amia B' equates to 'slow agonizing death due to neglect'? Who fed you that one? Of the two, I put in the bulk of my DM hours on B! I love how gorgeous the tilesets are and how much is being done!

Bmia is not 'Boss-mia' or 'B team-ia' it is simply the second server of Amia as we are that large and that awesome. Nothing more, nothing less.

+1000000

I spend most of my play time on B, and I love it.

If the unused areas are not used that's a shame. We spent a lot of time scouring them with Uce and Chris, and they really are quite rewarding in terms of game experience if you devote just a bit of time into them. And I don't just mean hunting XP; those places are great and bring variation to the game in spades. Only if they were used... I wonder, should you start using them? Just get out there! Plenty of rocks to unturn, plenty of nasty worms under those rocks, and the deeper you explore, the nastier they turn.

And for the record, I haven't got any idea about the new Underdark. But Frozenfar and Fort Summer, etc. are peachy.

One thing to remember is that just because you or the people you tend to RP with don't use a specific area doesn't mean another person or group of people doesn't. Quite a few players travel and explore Amia and don't just stay within common hunting grounds, major cities and boss hunting areas. Hell most of my characters rarely hunt in the same location as others while levelling up with the exception of the main starting areas and a few small areas that I find enjoyable.

There are several areas in the game that former factions held as bases that are currently empty but those areas with some rp on other factions behalf could become their property. Why cause more work for the Dev team when these areas have been so wonderfully built and left vacant.

Sorry there are no areas that absolutely nobody uses. Getting to the insane asylum on B was really fun. I was lost for hours since none of the exits are marked with the little info gold buttons. That alone gave our little party reasons to stop and RP instead of run through.

I want one of the little drow with wings. That area on B is beautiful. The quests in the colder areas make it so your PC really has to talk to every NPC and the dialog is great! Then you have to go into every building and OMG look there's a fletcher that's not in Kohlingen!

Yes, I've gotten my PC killed by a pack of wolves and by really mad witches, still it was worth the trip. Then it’s always back to some sort of civilization for rest and a good barter session with the merchants.

I will say that I would like to see more sconces in the buildings that can be lit. Temple of the 8 Gods is very cool that way.

Areas that absolutely nobody uses!

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