AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

To not make it too cluttered and everyone just marking everything (which would limit the likelyhood of it being realistical to all do at once) everyone has 2 votes.

Now this is my own project and mostly my own curiosity to see what the current playerbase feels needs a spice up/change the most.

You are free to comment too of course with your own ideas.

No promises come with this, though the team will of course discuss the result and see what we can do about it.

Custom scripting is (unfortunately) not on the list, for while I know it is greatly wanted, we sadly simply do not have the capacity do provide it.

Mind, this is my own nonsense, and not sanctioned by the team. Alas I did not discuss it with them (yet).

P.S. More cats is always a valid poll.

Thank you for doing this poll.

Wow, a poll.

That said, I'm not voting :mrgreen:

. Instead, let me express my priceless opinions in this fashion:

More player events which simply have DM support

- Yes please. Double yes. Let players "ride the wave" and act as an overseer.

More DM events, which are individual for players/factions

- Depends on a staff capacity. Yes if it's sufficient, no if it would mean the rest of the server would have to wait.

More DM events, which are server wide

- Not events, but event. I'd love to see one, big event that affects the whole Amia and lasts for a while. I don't know, Oblivion like situation when suddenly some hellish portals opens across the Island (and beyond) and sprouts armies of devils. Find the cause, close them, fight endless waves - let the players solve the situation.

More random NPC posessions

- Always.

Amia being more lore-heavy

Don't really care.

Amia being less lore-heavy.

Don't really care.

More / new items

More / new RANDOM items. Yes please. Yellow items rules. I still don't know why there is no +5 yellow bin. It's so dull to have # 14 Plate of Tyranny or # 19452 Surestrike light flail. Unique names, unique proprieties and yellow color is the jizz. If it was up to me, I'd remove any item with stale proprieties and put ONLY random items in the module. Diablo like, except without uniques.

Oh, and set items would be neat too.

More new areas

Probably the contrary. Less areas, but more detailed (for example, minotaur maze is amaz(e)ing). We already have a lot of areas which are boring, aka - a vast plain that serves only to spawn creatures to kill. So I'd rather see these areas made more appealing by adding some neat and "suprising" stuff to them rather than new areas.

Less areas in general

* points above *

DC prize reduction for RP items

I'd personally see prices on RP items gone. Do note - RP items. If someone requests a great idea item that enrich the server, why not.

Make optical familiar/companion customization on character creation free for more individuality

Yes. More unique stuff the better.

More variety in bosses

Anytime. Not a priority, though.

===================

A personal note - Please, please... PLEASE reconsider death penalties. Reconsider consequences for errors. It's been tossed in the air many times before, and often caused quite a debate, but now, when the community is relatively stable and we know what to expect from each other (mostly), I think it's appliable. Not to mention the direct connection between death penalties and "evil is not being taken seriously when it's around." (first one who'll say "hell naw, dem evil griefers will go on frenzy if dat happens" will get smacked by a dead fish).

I was always digging for harsh death penalties, since 2009, and I have not given up on you, Amia. Yet.

In order of priority:
1) More DM support for player events, faction and and group events.
2) More global (trans-planar?) plotlines. Quality > quantity, though.
3) Consistency and lore improvement. Amian lore, including that derived at least in part from PC and NPC actions should always take precedence over other lore, FR lore in particular.
May be difficult to achieve.
4) Less retcons.
5) More cats.
6) Other things.
7) Base game change consideration.

Can you elaborate on point 7.?

It's a relatively very low priority, but long-term survival of Amia may benefit from an eventual switch to a different base game. It still holds, as we can see - but it will not hold indefinitely, and such switch could help with population issues.

That would require significant preparations, consent of majority and agreement on the new base game as medium for Amia.

PS: New base game medium should, ideally, furthermore expand possibilities for players and DMs initiatives and roleplay through greater functionality and more options.

I don't honestly see any way you could change the base game without basically putting all of the work from 12 (?) years of this server into an entirely new game, hoping that it will make people happier. I mean, it is like a suggestion I was reading back up on, changing the setting to Greyhawk. Just the effort of pulling that off would likely block 99% of all Dev and DM work, leaving Amia pretty empty. Also, I'm not sure I personally would play this, if it was a different base game, unless you really, really manage to replicate it pretty well. And personally, I doubt that is possible. I mean, I very highly doubt you will get anything that even closely resembles Amia, and NWN, without using Amia, and NWN.

(At least as long as I understand you correctly, as wanting to move away fron NWN to a different game)

To be sure i understand correctly, you mean dropping NWN and moving the whole thing we have here to another game like NWN2 or the like?

You understand that correctly. I can't help to point out that it is at the bottom of priority list. There must be first proper Amia, something to (perhaps) eventually transfer.

There's nothing wrong with Nwn. Nwn 2 is, in my opinion, far worse.

I do not think this is worth much debate for now. (Mind, not stopping you from doing so if you still wish to). Redoing the whole thing in a new game would imho be an entirely new thing and even it it would bear the same name would likely not have too much in common anymore with the current server as there would be no way to transfer what we have, so it would be Ground Zero and IMHO an entirely new thing.

Personally I'd like to see more smaller spontaneous events and more NPC possessions. It is my belief that the best events aren't the larger overarching plots, but the smaller personal events.

I think just more DM events in general, whether it is faction-based or server-wide. The issue right now, I think, is that RP is stale since there is really nothing to RP about. We need things happening, or we will just be standing around talking about the weather. When events happen, RP springs up from that, even if it's lounging in the Dale discussing current events.

I also voted for more areas. I understand what people are trying to get at when they say we have too many already. I get that. Personally, though, I am completely against axing areas from the server. Some places simply have too much RP over the years that have gone into making them what they are, and if you just wipe that off the server, that RP and lore is gone and can't be explored again. Instead, adding areas will make more possible RP, also making more areas to explore. Some peoples' concern is that people are "spread too thin" and it is hard to run across people to RP with because of server size and population. I agree with what was said in another thread, though, that if people want to be found, they will be found. More areas, plz.

Shadowfiend wrote:

Personally I'd like to see more smaller spontaneous events and more NPC possessions. It is my belief that the best events aren't the larger overarching plots, but the smaller personal events.

More DM backing of PC plots and NPC interactions were my 2 choices for much the same reason. Most everything on that list is good in some way or another, but having DMs around is something that has no substitute.

It may be my age on the server, but honestly I'm okay with there not being wide reaching server plots that often. I'm fine with there not being some new cosmic threat to solve every month. That stuff is fine when sprinkled in, but if PCs want something to scrap over on a city/national/world level, I'd much prefer the actions come from PCs and then be supported by DMs. Not the other way around. PCs are used to being spoonfed interactions that come from off-island, but they should feel empowered enough to start dialogue and stuff with those places themselves.

I like NPC possession and I hardly ever see it unless it is specifically requested. Not every interaction has to "go" somewhere for it to he meaningful and fun. Animating the world around players and backing their efforts up, those are the two things Ive wanted for years more than anything like the arcanum/cold war/vodak/silver ooze/orcus/Undoer plots. That stuff starts to lose its meaning and gravitas if it happens too often. That stuff is dessert, day to day operations is the meat and potatoes in my book.

There is one more thing I'd like to change:

Gold. Money. Cash. Bucks. Dough.

We all know the economy on Amia does not work. We have how many millionaires around? How many Donalds are running about? Do note - my main is a millionaire too, so I'm shooting in my own lines.

How to create a proper cash flow / dump, that's the question. A few suggestions:

1, Spellcasting components for spellcasters, broken armor / weapon for meleers. Aka - for every spell a spellcaster casts, a portion of his gold dissapears (see it s an expanse for the casting components. I naturally don't want to see a spellcasting component for every single spell, that would be ridiculous). In case of meleers, duriability on equipment would do the charm. You get hit, armor looses duriability. You hit with sword, sword looses duriability. So from time to time, you have to repair your stuff and it'll cost you. Better the equipment, more the cost, you follow I'm sure. Higher spell level, higher cost.
2, Put a weight on gold. Let's say you can obtain 25k from a "regular" shop for a top tier stuff. so I'd see 25k of gold weighting what, 5lbs? 2,5? And make it a one slot inventory item. That's open for discussion, of course. Please no arguments about low str. characters in a place where Bags of Holding are as common as a ... eh, Bags of Holding? Meh.
3, Lower the buyout cap in shops, aka. not 25k for your shiny sword, but 5k and no more. If it encourage people to trade more, all the better, no?
4, Raise the price of top tier vital consumables, such as Heal pots and various scrolls.
5, Loot/Gold drop on death (shamelessly supporting this with my other idea of increasing the death severity)

... yeah.

When going server wide plots, try to make it inclusive instead of it creating exclusive atmosphere. In my opinion of the concerns of past.

25K individual gold pieces weigh 500 pounds, it's 50 pieces to 1 pound.
There's already a 10% gold loss on death.
Gold and wealth really isn't the problem though, it's lack of interest.

Kudark wrote:

There's already a 10% gold loss on death.

Yeah, well... that's hardly a punishment, really.

Gold and wealth is not a problem, I agree, but it could be made more interesting and "valuable".

1.I would like to see more Dm's on the Staff. Especially active late night Dm's.

2.A sever wide DM Evil Noble House Plot line where we as Pc's can request to make Char's for the Noble House but we agree to them being Perma killed.

Fixing the economy is a totally different topic--one that has been run into the ground. But I will say that spell components will never fix the economy. Same way houses don't really work as a sink. People grind just that much more to get what they want and need. Trying to control the exit of gold from the system(players) is pointless until you control the intake(sources of gold). It's like bailing water out of a quickly sinking canoe rather than fixing the leak. As long the possible influx is infinite, the possible maximum will always be infinite... it will simply be harder to attain under some circumstances. And there will be that one person who has hours and hours to stay up running the abyss.

The best thing I've been able to theorize so far is firstly some exponential decay function to current PC gold held. You can explain it by inflation or Waukeen and the Wealth gods, or whatever you want. But someone with 20 Million gold might come down to owning somewhere under 5 million. Someone with with 500k would be reduced to ~100k. Someone with 50k ends up with around 10k(this is all based off of X*e^-1.5, where X is PC gold). You get the picture, the more gold you have, the more of a reduction you see. The less gold you have, the smaller the reduction. Rich PCs still stay rich, relatively, but the margins are reset. And that's what you want to do before you do anything to the economy, even before fixing the influx. Otherwise, PCs that have been here for eons and have Daddy Warbucks money will not be affected by any of the changes and it will be just that much harder for new PCs to keep up.

After that, then you implement fixes for the gold incomes. And that is a difficult thing to do, as we found out when we nixed GP drops from monsters for a while. It can probably be fixed with diminishing returns on monster gold drops and selling to merchants, but that's difficult to explain IC.

That's longer than I planned on talking about the economy, but that's the gist of what it entails. Every time someone says "fix the economy," you have to realize that there's not some magic bullet. No more than in RL. It's all numbers and people's will to grind/trade/hoard, and that later part is hard to account for reliably.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

To get back on topic... everyone has already said what I would have said about the "normal PC" comment or exaggeration as it seems it was meant. I want to say though that for all its hangups, I think having PCs in positions of power or just places where they can influence the world is ultimately a good thing for DMs and server story. As a DM making wide sweeping stories, you have to constantly come up with something that will interest a wide range of PCs. Tough. Not impossible. But you get a person in authority or faction that feels empowered to make those moves on their own, knowing DMs will at least acknowledge the effort? That's great because you already have at least one interested party and can riff off of their lead. That generates RP right there. Again, for all their faults, both the Banites and the EO generated tons of RP because they dared to make big moves and a lot of the times DMs backed up their efforts. When I say back up, I don't mean appease their will, but say "alright, here's your shot. The outcome is up to you, the NPCs, and any PC that cares to oppose or help you." That's where the magic of roleplay happens.

There is a lot I could say here... But more I could help with. ;>

Well the community has overwhelmingly decided on more DM involvement.

The top 3 all call for more DM events/support, with 4th being DM's controlling NPC's.

That's pretty much the bottom line. The community has charted a course. Now we need to see if its followed.

BTW I luv you and missed hearing from you Commie. It's nice to be back. <3

Dark Immolation wrote:

1, Spellcasting components for spellcasters, broken armor / weapon for meleers. Aka - for every spell a spellcaster casts, a portion of his gold dissapears (see it s an expanse for the casting components. I naturally don't want to see a spellcasting component for every single spell, that would be ridiculous). In case of meleers, duriability on equipment would do the charm. You get hit, armor looses duriability. You hit with sword, sword looses duriability. So from time to time, you have to repair your stuff and it'll cost you. Better the equipment, more the cost, you follow I'm sure. Higher spell level, higher cost.

I like a way for more money drains (with moderation as not all are rich, and have the time to become rich), but durability of armour and weapons is very fast over ruled by PnP, as magical enchantment on it will prevent it from decaying by natural means.

Spell components, are nice, and are needed already for PnP spells, but if you enforce them on any (or at least a lot of them) I just might miss the enscrew component kind of feats

Tormak mentioning his struggle to get an item for literally 13 years (o.O) makes me wonder.

Some time ago an idea is tossed in the air by a butthurt bosshunter who found his #198752 truestrike light hammer. The idea was something like this :

We should really consider the system where instead of an actual drop you'd find a token of some sort. And for a certain amount of tokens (would depend on how powerful / popular the item is) you'd obtain an epic item you want aka - An epic merchant Joe in Cordor will give you a Cloak of Fort +5 for a certain amount of tokens.

See, it's still a grind, but far less of a grind than searching for one item over and over and over again. I can't remember how many times I've killed bosses with Ed and Obsidian, but with no doubts it'd be hundereds and hundereds, and it is so, so dull after some time. And, maybe we can even add some gold sink into this idea too - say, Sureforged scimitar for ten tokens and 200k?

I dig for something like this very much.

By the way, that butthurt bosshunter I THINK was Soil, and I am allowed to poke at him because he knows I'm cool. :mrgreen:

I like the idea of tokens to a degree .. OOC, IC how ever it does not make any sense.

And using this system makes the game very fast feel more like a standard MMO
Also you will hurt those that only very occasional or only with group hunt a boss, as there is always a chance they get that one item.. instead of, "yeah oke we now have to kill it another 10 times for that scimitar"

However, I am a fan of also having other means of getting epic stuff, especially with the server being some what lower on population, and so less trade in rare items (that 99% of the time, are only for trade, not sell)

Frozen-ass wrote:

Also you will hurt those that only very occasional or only with group hunt a boss, as there is always a chance they get that one item.. instead of, "yeah oke we now have to kill it another 10 times for that scimitar"

Yeah, that's true. Which is why above all I support the idea of completely random, yellow items only. You'd never know what you'll find, which makes the venture that more exciting.

Guardian wrote:

I support the idea of completely random, yellow items only. You'd never know what you'll find, which makes the venture that more exciting.

I don't support "only" as i do like a lot of the items people made, with stories and stuff on them. BUT i am a heavy fan of having much much more (and especially higher lvl versions) of yellow stuff

Yeah. In my limited experience, all I've ever seen is mythal system +skills. So, yeah, it's better than mythal system, but IMO not by much. And skills are very stiuational. Some people might want certain skills, and others might want others. But then getting something like lore, well, it'S an almost useless item. So if they were maybe upped in power a slight bit, that might be good as well. Like actual 4/5 powers, but something useful instead of a skill bonus.

Frozen-ass wrote:

Dark Immolation wrote:

1, Spellcasting components for spellcasters, broken armor / weapon for meleers...

I believe you're misattributing Guardian's suggestion to me, there. I'm very much against anything like that, both for as a supposed gold sink and in terms of convenience of gameplay.

What I really want most.....

I want the players of Amia to treat each other with respect. I want the team to be partners with the players, instead of an "us" versus "them" scenario. I want us all to get along. This is supposed to be an escape, playtime and just fun. There is so much hate, so much negativism on all sides that it just makes me lose all wanting to log in.

So... instead of a big, sweeping plot, or changes to systems, I want everyone to take a deep breath, and remember their first days playing NWN on a PW server. For me, it was magical, astonishing and surreal. I was late to the game, and I'm a bit older than the typical player but, I loved it. I played for hours every day for years on several servers.

Amia needs to become a community again. I'm all for negative roleplay and consequences, but... too many think the goal is to "win at all costs". That's now how D&D works. I've had good and bad experiences and outcomes on other servers and went with it because I trusted those I played with. I've attempted that on Amia, and it bites me in the ass every time. Sure, they didn't break any rules, but... they did all they could to win, without giving a thought to story, or roleplay. For that to happen, a lot of people need to realize how they sound to others when they speak or write on these forums.

No one really likes to lose, I get that, but... winning at all costs no matter what is just boring to me. I've given years to Amia, not as many as some, but... I'd love to see a community come back, a group of friends that all play together, even play against each other, but everyone walks away enjoying the experience instead of rule mongering to prove why they should have won.

There are a few problems with what you say, That Guy. I get the 'first days on Amia' sentiment, but sadly we won't likely get those days back, ever. I mean, can I have MessiahOfDerp back? And him playing a certain character? And me actually somewhat trying to join the (then existing) West? That was fun.

Then, the second thing I remember is a small event involving the bridge to Guldorand. I'd never been there, benn really confused about it all happening, and well, it was a small DM event. That is exactly what is asked for in this thread. More DM events, no matter if small or huge.

Then there also is a certain other problem, and I personally don't see what you mean by 'people trying too hard to win'. I was actually told, in my PnP group, that I do the opposite. I don't try to win hard enough. That my characters don't seem to try to fight death enough. So I honestly don't see how you can try too hard. I mean, it is totally IC to try as hard as you can. Especially when it is about evil character trying to gain power. And if it is about powerbuilding, well, that is a thing that is 1. already intrinsic part of the server, 2. actually having a weaker character IC makes no sense if you claim your character to be strong, and 3. is terribly hard to define. A player I know called an old character a 'powerbuild' (that persons words) for a hin that was 100% built to not be seen while sneaking. As in, SF, ESF, stealthy, hin bonuses, whatever else you can do. Because it was built to have one specific power. So, in a sense, I would accuse everyone of powerbuilding. Even 20 SDs want to have a certain power (perhaps just power to RP, but power still) by being able to RP the SD stuff.

Basically, this is me not understanding what you mean by trying to win too hard. A PC will always try to win as hard as possible. In the classical archetypes, and the server, evil seems to be the more ambitious ones, because they do not have as much. Are you saying they shouldn't be as ambitious? I mean, I genuinely don't know what you mean, and am just grasping at what seems most likely to me. I probably should've just asked, instead of posting my own long text, lol.

robbi320 wrote:

There are a few problems with what you say, That Guy. I get the 'first days on Amia' sentiment, but sadly we won't likely get those days back, ever. I mean, can I have MessiahOfDerp back? And him playing a certain character? And me actually somewhat trying to join the (then existing) West? That was fun.

Then, the second thing I remember is a small event involving the bridge to Guldorand. I'd never been there, benn really confused about it all happening, and well, it was a small DM event. That is exactly what is asked for in this thread. More DM events, no matter if small or huge.

Then there also is a certain other problem, and I personally don't see what you mean by 'people trying too hard to win'. I was actually told, in my PnP group, that I do the opposite. I don't try to win hard enough. That my characters don't seem to try to fight death enough. So I honestly don't see how you can try too hard. I mean, it is totally IC to try as hard as you can. Especially when it is about evil character trying to gain power. And if it is about powerbuilding, well, that is a thing that is 1. already intrinsic part of the server, 2. actually having a weaker character IC makes no sense if you claim your character to be strong, and 3. is terribly hard to define. A player I know called an old character a 'powerbuild' (that persons words) for a hin that was 100% built to not be seen while sneaking. As in, SF, ESF, stealthy, hin bonuses, whatever else you can do. Because it was built to have one specific power. So, in a sense, I would accuse everyone of powerbuilding. Even 20 SDs want to have a certain power (perhaps just power to RP, but power still) by being able to RP the SD stuff.

Basically, this is me not understanding what you mean by trying to win too hard. A PC will always try to win as hard as possible. In the classical archetypes, and the server, evil seems to be the more ambitious ones, because they do not have as much. Are you saying they shouldn't be as ambitious? I mean, I genuinely don't know what you mean, and am just grasping at what seems most likely to me. I probably should've just asked, instead of posting my own long text, lol.

Yes, you completely missed my point. What I mean is... for example: I ran into a character on a mountain once in Brog. I was hunting giants. They were out there to hunt too. They said it was their mountain and I had to leave. I refuesed. They attacked. I killed them. They went on and on for hours in tells about how this or that should have made a difference, and how I was able to resist and remove some of their harmful spell effects. They thought I cheated. No... I used things in the game and I won fair and square.

The attitude of, "Well, you must have cheated because my guy is uber." is prolific. The bitching about losing in PVP that I hear constantly is disheartening. IF you lost, you lost. Sure, if there really was wrongdoing on the part of the winner, try to work it out, but... it's not the end of the world, hell, on Amia, there's NO penalty for losing other than, you lost.

Sure, we all want to win, but... when we lose, accept it graciously, instead of trying to prove the other guy cheated or did something wrong. And... if a player has to resort to underhanded and OOC means to win, that... is a problem.

That Guy wrote:

Yes, you completely missed my point. What I mean is... for example: I ran into a character on a mountain once in Brog. I was hunting giants. They were out there to hunt too. They said it was their mountain and I had to leave. I refuesed. They attacked. I killed them. They went on and on for hours in tells about how this or that should have made a difference, and how I was able to resist and remove some of their harmful spell effects. They thought I cheated. No... I used things in the game and I won fair and square.

I've had people do this, I just ignore the OOC BS storm, and if the insults fly before I resurrect them, then I don't, especially if I'm the one that got attacked or was being threatened. If they keep up greentexting me after I tell them to knock it off I just tell them to take it up with the DM's, and snag a screenshot.

I don't actually reply to them, or any of their arguments, but man I've heard the 'im actually strong i just suck a pvp' a few times and it's like, "well, guess you're not as good a fighter as you thought." But you won't even convince them of that so just ignore them.

In general, life gets a lot easier when you realize you aren't compelled to respond to someone.

That said PVP is really rare and I think people obsess over supposed 'what ifs' as opposed to regular or actual occurrences.

Commie wrote:

That said PVP is really rare and I think people obsess over supposed 'what ifs' as opposed to regular or actual occurrences.

You're actually right. I've been involved in "random PVP" maybe 5 or 6 times in 7 years. Yet, that is what everyone justifies for. Makes no sense to me.

Ah, yes. Ok. I see. On that level, yes. It's funny. The PnP group I mentioned, the reason I'm not too invested in my characters there (which I need to improve) is that I don't get mad when they die then. I'm a pretty sore loser. Well, apart from PvP, because I usually am so pumped full of adrenaline/nervosity/whatever that by the time I really understand what went on is after I get rezzed by the person who killed me, because most people do that. And because the PvP widget is free.
And because PvP happened to me so few times, I tend to be really nervous. I mean, I can just think of the last PvP tourney, where I was basically incredibly nervous. (I mean, Farija isn't really that cold. It was just my lack of being able to RP during that, lol) Of course, there are cases where bringing it up to the DMs is a good idea. I mean, hell, I don't think you even should, in most cases, be typing in tells to the person who killed you. If he did hack/cheat/whatever, it's not like he'll tell you. And otherwise, you are likely ruining his fun by complaining. (I'm not saying you should straight up not talk to them, but if you feel cheated by them, well, get over it, and don't bother them because of it)

My real point was about trying to get along and rebuild the community aspect of the server.

I'm around a long time now and for whatever reason i never got into a 'bad' situation on Amia just wanted to trow that out there.
And for the most part i have good interaction with fellow players other then some minor misunderstanding over a span of 12-13 years now?
That said i would love the have some Random NPC possession again, the ones i was involved with over the years were amazing
A great idea to do this Amarice and i fully support this!

Darkblade wrote:

That said i would love the have some Random NPC possession again, the ones i was involved with over the years were amazing
A great idea to do this Amarice and i fully support this!

Yup. Just stuff like getting Tristana to hop down the steps to chat/preach in the market-hall would be great.

In speaking with a friend about P&P DMing, I was reminded of a point on why having random NPC possession matters.

Get players interested, attached, and invested in NPCs and you've gained a great tool to motivate them.

A PC can die many times and wake up to fight the good/evil fight the next day. It could be reasoned, however, that most commoners don't have the strength to be brought back from the dead, in an esoteric XP=Life Force sort of deal. When you as a hero realize that the poor family you're protecting doesn't get the chance to come back should you fail, that lights a fire under your ass. In the same way, any villain knows the difficulty of replacing the human cattle that you've already scared into giving you weekly protection money or having to pay off new officials because the old ones got killed.

That's why you world-build. That's why you take the time to fill the setting with familiar faces that aren't necessarily important officials or rulers. Some PCs have seen literal dozens of would-be apocalypses. You're going to have a hard time motivating them with their own mortality, because even from an IC standpoint, their resources and abilities mean they've got the greatest chance to survive out of anyone. Same cannot be said for the NPCs.

It goes for more things than life and death scenarios, too, but that's the easiest way to illustrate the idea. Think of your absolute favorite NPC from any game. For humor, for personality, for looks, whatever. Now. Imagine there was a game mission where if you failed, that character is completely erased from the game. Even if you start from a previous save. Even if you start a new game. Even if you buy a whole new game and whole new game system.

Scary, isn't it? But if you make players care about NPCs, make good characters in general, that's the sort of motivation you have at your hands, DMs.

Hopefully this is the "general feedback" thread you mentioned in the Crickets topic, Amarice. Sorry if I picked the wrong one. I was writing a response to robbi when that one got locked. If you think it would be better served elsewhere, feel free to point me in the right direction.

I want to start off by saying that it is very difficult to convey tone in text. This could easily be misinterpreted as just trying to stir shit, but I'm being sincere in that I'd rather see Amia flourish than decay. This will go into some pretty personal reasons why I've not come back to the server, hopefully it'll be read with the tone of someone who misses the RP and not someone who is bitter and just wants to be a pain in the ass.

To Robbi:

Yes, I was being vague in the Crickets thread on purpose. The last time I went into specifics, Maverick00053 (I don't think I even know the guy) jumped down by throat and escalated the tone past what I was comfortable engaging with. You were actually showing reason in the thread I'm talking about and I appreciate that. I can totally understand your frustration with me for griping without providing examples of what I'd like to see better, so I'll lay the cards on the table.

The final straw that kept me from returning is pretty personal. My primary character was killed off while I was taking a break from the server for other reasons. I was notified in an impersonal PM couched in pseudo-customer service language and it ended with "we're sorry for the inconvenience." I was given no opportunity to avoid this fate, I was not given the opportunity to discuss it with the team, nor was I given any means to appeal the decision. The reason I was given, is that she was killed off because of my inactivity, and that special request characters required activity to maintain. Seems a bit of a stretch to me, but let's just assume they aren't lying about the premise. You would think that a "Hey, you need to be playing this PC to maintain her" PM would have been the first step in that conversation, but that didn't happen.

Secondly, server precedent, as far as I know, is to offer a replacement PC with some levels and gear in the case where a PC is killed off for plot reasons. I didn't get that offer, it it very much felt like I had the door hitting me on the ass on the way out, so to speak. I didn't really want to make this public, because I'm reasonably confident the DMs are just going to vehemently defend their decision instead of engage on why it could seem pretty fucked up from my perspective.

As for the reasons I was taking the break in the first place, they are less personal, and perhaps can be taken as points of suggestions as what -not- to do:

*No worthwhile plots. Stagnant fireplace/bedroom RP. What plots there were, were troubled by the below point:

*Cliques and favoritism were -ugly- back then. There were plots happening that you could not affect or even be a part of unless you were part of a very specific group of characters. The dragon plot was impossible to break into. The quintessence plot was impossible to break into. Any of Wiltun's many plots were impossible to break into. Not only that, but certain factions were being -showered- with high-powered loot for relatively trivial or innocuous events. Those factions were geared enough to make the most dedicated boss-hunter weep with envy, while other factions were doing the same type of events with regularity, and just had less generous DMs. Certain PCs, played by DMs, were also heavily tricked out with top-tier gear and custom abilities/spells that the rest of us could never hope to see. There was also zero public documentation about this, so it just seemed really shady and gross even if it was actually legit. Appearances matter.

*Staff choices were and are...questionable. DMs seemed to be recruited only from specific factions that had lots of DM friends. It seems like you had to know the right people and have a knack for not making waves in order to get elevated. Actual skill with the DM client or skill in writing a story seemed like an entirely tertiary qualification. Now, a lot of those people were great players and cornerstones of the RP scene. I get that. Props to them. However, the ability to play a single character well and meaningfully, and the ability to write and craft a story for others, are not the same skill. There are people I love to RP with that I would never let into the DM's chair. I don't mean this as an insult, but as genuine feedback. I saw DMs, within a month of being elevated, start harassing players and characters they didn't like with bullshit events and random harassing encounters that had no plot relevance and were only intended to annoy or disrupt those PC's efforts. That stuff isn't cool, and illustrate that even good, involved players aren't necessarily qualified to be staff.

*Neglect. I've seen groups of players and factions dump tons of effort into their faction areas or goals, only to have it ignored at best, or outright retconned at worst so that more popular players/characters can advance those same agendas. I can't help but notice that Server B sees 80-90% of the module updates even still while everything else is mostly ignored. Developers are naturally going to work on the areas their characters or friends hang out in, but it's still obvious to anyone observing.

I could go on, but I want to see how my tone is received first. Let me reiterate that I'm not trying to stir shit, but I am trying to illustrate some problems since I was asked.

Yup this was the thread.

I agree on the help with faction RP. I mean I have been a faction leader for 9 years now myself. Most of the time we did not have any DM at all. The rest of the time we mostly had a DM start stuff and then leave, with very few excpetions. So yes, this definately is an issue. Not only for factions but also for areas and plots in general.

I can gladly discuss with you the decision and issue with what happened to your character. Which was btw not a special character prequisite in general but due to the special nature of that special character. Anyways, I believe this might best be discussed in private, unless you specifically want it discussed on the forum. (your character, so your decision in the end).

What do I plan to do about it:

1. I believe I have a nice story arc idea that will start when I return from my holiday. At least I hope people will like it. I don't want to say too much in advance but it is something that will concern everyone, no matter class, race or alignment and should provide quite a few interesting encounters, bigger and smaller. The first ones ought to be announced, the second one a mix between announced and random events in between. It is also something any DM on the team can run encounters with and RP with independantly so people do not necessarily always have to wait for a specific event.

2. Get faster on giving feedback. I know it is unrealistic to think the DM team will always reach a quick decision, but I at least now started to discipline myself at least giving a "Recieved, posted, will get back to you asap".

3. Instead of just watching RP and toss DC, I'll see to have the NPC around interact with the RP going on too (if there are any). I do this occasionally already, but it would be better if it were more than just occasionally.

4. Worked out what hopefully is a nice job offer for the adventurer guild (will be sheduled, likely on a weekend) for after my holiday which also has a multi-alignment and way of approach.

5. Emphasize a bit more that team evil can gladly join villains of my plots. I always thought that was "self-evident" but from all I heard it seems it was not! (P.S. the Aurelites always like new recruites and allies)

Hit me on skype if you feel like it.

One suggestion I'd like to make is that part of the condition of being a DM, you no longer have the privilege of making requests private. Amia has always greatly suffered from issues of transparency and that would help. I don't think meta-gaming will be an issue because you'd have to be stupid to meta-game a DM. I also think all past requests should be retroactively added to the public archive (if they want to keep their position anyway, they could step down if they valued their privacy as a player over their staff obligations). It would do a lot of good to show that DMs receive the same level of scrutiny that players do.

NinjaClarinet wrote:

One suggestion I'd like to make is that part of the condition of being a DM, you no longer have the privileged of making requests private. Amia has always greatly suffered from issues of transparency and that would help. I don't think meta-gaming will be an issue because you'd have to be stupid to meta-game a DM. I also think all past requests should be retroactively added to the public archive. It would do a lot of good to show that DMs receive the same level of scrutiny that players do.

I would like this, always wondered how it went on the other side

In that case they would not receive the same level though? Seeing every player can submit their request to be non public. Not that I would mind my requests public, mind.

NinjaClarinet wrote:

Hit me on skype if you feel like it.

One suggestion I'd like to make is that part of the condition of being a DM, you no longer have the privilege of making requests private. Amia has always greatly suffered from issues of transparency and that would help. I don't think meta-gaming will be an issue because you'd have to be stupid to meta-game a DM. I also think all past requests should be retroactively added to the public archive (if they want to keep their position anyway, they could step down if they valued their privacy as a player over their staff obligations). It would do a lot of good to show that DMs receive the same level of scrutiny that players do.

I agree on this.

True, it's a slightly higher standard, but I kinda feel that's the whole point of DMing. I don't think such a change would create really any huge or drastic change of paradigm in the DM community, but it would at least be a small reminder in the back of your mind that you're supposed to be kept to a higher tier.

I think small exceptions should be ok. You'd be surprised about the meta-gaming and being a DM saving you from that.

Albeit, very very few requests actually have that issue of meta-gaming potential.

Amarice-Elaraliel wrote:

2. Get faster on giving feedback. I know it is unrealistic to think the DM team will always reach a quick decision, but I at least now started to discipline myself at least giving a "Recieved, posted, will get back to you asap".

3. Instead of just watching RP and toss DC, I'll see to have the NPC around interact with the RP going on too (if there are any). I do this occasionally already, but it would be better if it were more than just occasionally.

These two right here are, in my opinion, the two best of the five for ensuring server health.

I know I personally largely abstain from making requests because it often felt like pulling teeth to get attention. So being told it's being discussed and such would be welcome.

Second, casual npc possession is probably the smallest yet massively important role in making the server feel alive.

What do you want most...

Who is online