Through The Eyes Of A Virgin

[Aislin 4354]

If you wish to scroll through the photo album detailing all of Ladrod’s adventures, click here.

 

After a discussion with a couple friends of mine regarding the server, I came to the realization that absolutely nobody on this server is unbiased completely, except for the new players. I decided to create a secret alternate account and pretend to be a new player, to provide better insight into the server for myself and the community. Below are my findings. I present to you:

 

Through The Eyes of a Virgin: An Insight on a Noob’s LotC Experience

 

Overview

 

If you don’t want to read the specifics and all the text that is going to follow, just read this and the conclusion. Basically, I have recently undergone the entire introductory experience to our server from the perspective of a new player, using an alternate account. Utilizing my experience as a Guide and an Application Team member, as well as my general observations over my two years here, I’ve created a persona that represents the average noob of LotC: Ladrod. Ladrod is a 14 year-old boy from the East coast of the United States, and has been an avid Minecraft player since Beta, but has no roleplay experience outside of Runescape and Skyrim. He likely joined this server as a result of viewing a trailer displaying our fantastic builds/PvP battles, or a friend suggested that he check us out. He is of average intelligence and has the desire to roleplay, but he is not interested enough to dedicate 50 hours a week. He really is here to be on a gorgeous map with some cool RPG elements mixed in with Minecraft, and to learn how to roleplay.

 

I conducted this experiment to learn more about the server and why we haven’t been retaining any members from the hordes of accepted applications. Furthermore, I sought to attain a more objective and holistic view of the server and its playerbase. I share these results with you only because I think the fruits of my labor may have some benefit to the playerbase and the staff, in how we conduct ourselves now and the decisions we make for the future.

 

Note: I will not be conducting any experiment in Gronkkston, or with the Orc playerbase, to eliminate any bias that I may or may not hold towards the Orcs.

 

Application (01:45AM EST - Thursday Oct 24th)

 

Ladrod's Application

 

The Application Team had no idea that I was doing this, and I filed an application as any normal applicant would. I even had a couple AT members that didn’t know which app was mine to guess, and none were able to guess correctly. I wrote a slightly above average application, simply to speed up the process a little. The application process has been quite streamlined since Danny’s revamp of the app. The application was posted at 01:45AM EST, reviewed at 04:39PM EST, and implemented at 05:47AM EST the next day. Put on pending, minor changes made, then I was accepted. This part is all good in my mind, though the overall time could’ve been shorter.

 

A Humble Introduction (12:42PM EST - Saturday Oct 26th)

 

104 players online. No staff members online.

 

Ladrod was born into the world of Anthos, at 01:42PM EST on a Saturday. Ladrod logged on to a black screen, and an automatic prompt telling him that he had to register his character card. After a couple of failed attempts, Ladrod successfully registered as Ladrod, the 97 year-old Elf, standing at 7’0” tall. Instead of spawning at the Cloud Temple like any new character should, Ladrod spawned in the middle of the dwarven lands. Ladrod asks for help, but for some reason he is still in the Wandering Soul chat (rather than automatically joining /rp). No instructions were given on how to join the different chats, and automatically forcing Ladrod to speak in Wandering Soul chat made it difficult for him to get assistance. Ladrod walks out of Cloud Temple and sees nobody, so he descends the steps to open the “Free bread” chest, which was empty. He goes to break some wheat from the huge, untouched wheat field by spawn, but is told “You do not have permission to do that!“, which frustrates Ladrod a little bit. He also makes an attempt to take down a tree, but is again informed he does not have permission for that.

 

Ladrod decides to get out of the Cloud Temple, so he takes the nearest path, which takes him to the Cloud Temple library. It contains some cool things, but not much information, and the Monk Shoppe doesn’t even have an automated shop or anybody there. He continues to wander around, stumbling upon an unregioned farm, where he collects a half-stack of melons and four wheat. After about 20 minutes stumbling around the Cloud Temple trying to get out, Ladrod finally exits the gate.

 

The mighty adventurer takes his first step in his grand quest.

 

The Great Journey Begins (01:03PM EST - Saturday Oct 26th)

 

143 players online. No staff members online.

 

It had been about 45 minutes since Ladrod’s beginnings in Anthos, and he had found little to reward himself with. Upon leaving the Cloud Temple, he found Jistuma’s shop which was stocked and had convenient instructions on how to operate it. A helpful little place which had basic supplies such as sticks, cobblestone etc. Ladrod bought himself some supplies, then saw a stall claiming that tents were for sale and gave brief instructions on how to use one, but there was no way to purchase a tent and gave no indication to make a /modreq for one. Bit of a disappointment there for Ladrod as he began to go down the path. On the way, he found many branching paths that lead to nowhere with no people, and would turn back just as soon as he arrived. He found many empty structures, and a lot of the path was regioned, but no people were to be seen. It was a tedious process, not knowing what is important and what should be ignored, and it took him about 40 minutes to make his way off the path after finding something interesting.

 

Into the Mines of Moria (05:02PM EST - Sunday Oct 26th)

 

151 players online. No staff members online.

 

On Ladrod’s confused and disorientated quest to find the Elven motherland of Malinor, Ladrod ends up in one of the old public mines (Ritty’s system, not the new one put in place by Ever). The mines were quite visually impressive, but Ladrod found himself extremely frustrated at his inability to retrieve ore, and having to wait for ore to respawn. After spending about 30 minutes mining, Ladrod leaves the mine with two iron ores and eight coal! He leaves the mine, and finds that night has fallen. Scared to lose the few valuable he has slaved over for the past two days, Ladrod desperately attempts to find a safe haven for the night.

Instead of refuge, Ladrod is met by a spider, which he attacks with his stone sword. However, his experience bar inexplicably goes down and he swings slowly. He is doing no damage against the spider, unable to hit it, but the spider is attacking him very quickly! After a short and frustrating fight, Ladrod the Great falls to a measly spider. He then finds himself in a room that has no exit, and has to sit there for 5 painstaking minutes.

 

Of Elves and Men (05:30PM EST - Sunday Oct 26th)

 

146 players online. One staff member online, though it is worth noting that he seemed to be AFK.

 

Destiny had finally been met, thought Ladrod the Great as he set foot into the Shining Princedom of Malinor. The goal that he had been undertaking for three elven days had finally been reached; Ladrod was ready to befriend his elven kin and perhaps secure some employment. Yet, the temptation of the flesh is a strong one, and Ladrod had to talk to the hot dark elf in the corner. She told him to go away, also that she was a lesbian, and began to beat him with her walking stick that she used to guide herself (she was also blind). Then another female wood elf began to assault Ladrod, too, though the effeminate attacks were harmless for the most part. The emotional scar would never fade for Ladrod, however, and he trudged away shamefully from the angry females.

 

Ladrod then sought work from his elven brethren, inquiring with the likes of princes, clerics, farmers and even mages. Yet, no work was to be found for him. Was it due to his poor grammar and inability to roleplay effectively, or perhaps the simple lack of a professions plugin that renders most professions unused in roleplay? One can only speculate, but Ladrod found that his cries for assistance (both IC and OOC) were largely ignored*, or met with a swift dismissal. Eventually, a Dread Knight approached Ladrod and informed him that he would be disemboweled if he did not leave the city. Overall, the attitude seemed rather unwelcoming and the players seemed disinterested by Ladrod’s complete ineptness and confusion with roleplay, opting to ignore him instead of helping him improve.

 

It’s also worth noting that in certain elven faction skype chats, screenshots of Ladrod’s derpiness was being posted and laughed about, but none sought to help Ladrod. You know who you are. For shame.

 

*Due credit does go to a kind elf named Kina (Kizumachan), though, for teaching Ladrod how to utilize the emote funtion *[emote text] which had not been made clear to him sooner. Round of applause for Kizumachan.

 

A Friendly Stranger (06:00PM EST - Sunday Oct 27th)

 

138 players online. No staff members online.

 

Thinking he was banished from the Elves after a Dread Knight threatened to drown him in lava (after the disembowelment), Ladrod left the elven lands and made his way past the empty expanses of Lenfarthing, and traveled through Brigand’s Pass to reach New Abresi. On his way, however, Ladrod met a stranger. “Stranger danger” Ladrod thought to himself as he approached the armored man, who turned out to be a bandit that made an attempt to rob him. Sparing Ladrod of losing his only possession (a rock), the kind bandit explained to Ladrod in OOC how minas works, how to make money and how to get to New Abresi, all without even needing to be asked. Furthermore, he didn’t take anything from the silly noob. Props to kido122, may you continue being a good chap.

 

The Shadowy Fyre Descends (06:14PM EST - Sunday Oct 27th)

 

124 players online. One staff member online.

 

After his near-death experience with a bandit, Ladrod finally made it to Abresi. The journey was long, treacherous and difficult to navigate, but he had made it. Ladrod the Mighty strides to the gates of New Abresi, where he asks several people for food. The first few simply ignore him, or walk away without any RP as they eat their baked potatoes. Ladrod manages to evoke a response from a human who refused to give him food, then kicked Ladrod in the face. Ladrod, physically assaulted for the second or third time that day, walks into the city and continues to beg for food. A nice human by the name of Percy Lanks (RabidAminal) gave Ladrod some bread and began to converse with him. Ladrod began to enjoy himself roleplaying as he recounted his stories of his time in Anthos thus far, but was cut short when a hooded, masked figure named “The Shadow” throws a brick at Percy’s head and then shoots Ladrod in the chest with a bow and arrow for no apparent reason. Percy drags him into the tavern and looks for help, but an ominous figure by the name of “Fyre” approaches Ladrod and drags him away, hushing him whilst doing so, then chucks him off a cliff. Ladrod is sent to the Cloud Temple again, to wallow in his confusion.

Welcome to Abresi!

 

A City of Midgets (04:22PM EST - Monday Oct 28th)

 

71 players online. No staff members online.

 

Ladrod yawns after a hauntingly terrible rest in his tent the night before. He had been in his lovely pink tent out in the woods by Kal’Ithrun, but his tent came with no door and the creatures of the night repeatedly attempted to kill him. Tired and hungry, Ladrod sets out for the grand dwarven city of Kal’Ithrun, formerly known as Storm’s Crossing. Ladrod introduces himself at the front gate, where he proclaims his distaste for elves (Ladrod still believes he is banished), and he is let into the city. He is kindly given an ale for free and is left to his own devices. Ladrod happily downs the ale then wanders through the city, when he stumbles upon a Stoneguard training session. Ladrod drunkenly hops into the ring, where he challenges all four dwarves to a fight against him. They kick him out of the arena, via some admittedly fun roleplay, but quickly realize that Ladrod is new to the server. When Ladrod mentions that he is having a hard time adjusting and that nobody roleplays with him, one of the Dwarves respond in L-OOC with:

 

“((HOW DID YE FAWKN GET ACCEPTED”

 

I was quite impressed with how welcoming and patient the Dwarves had been with Ladrod up until this point, and that saddened me. I don’t understand how any player would want to stay on this server when something like that is said. Either way, Ladrod left the arena, where he finds Indago Stormhammer (xSpullerx) and asks him for employment. Indago speaks with Ladrod about his skills, gives him a pickaxe and shows him to the Dwarven mine. After going through two capital cities (Abresi and Malinor, the two most active cities), Ladrod had finally received his first job.

 

I would like to thank Spuller for his kind attitude to new players and helpfulness.

 

Ladrod the Master Thief (11:18PM EST - Tuesday Oct 29th)

 

50 players online. No staff members online.

 

Ladrod sits in his tent, hungry and alone. He has an iron rock, a couple pieces of coal and some rocks. Ladrod could not mine long enough to get a significant amount of ore, he was too weak of an elf. No food, no proper shelter and no friends. Ladrod decides to revert to crime.

 

Note: The purpose of this segment was actually to rob somebody without a VA and record an average player reaction to this rule-breaking.

 

With his pickaxe in hand, Ladrod strides into the Abresi tavern and attempts to rob the barkeep (“Uncle Donny”), but his devious plans for theft are quickly thwarted when the innkeep (“Vectis”) sneaks up behind Ladrod and snaps his neck. Ladrod accuses Vectis (Drazker) in L-OOC of powergaming, to which Drazker responds calmly and in a friendly manner. He also accuses Drazker of trying to kill Ladrod for his iron, and asks many misinformed questions regarding death and permakilling. Drazker proceeds to kill Ladrod with PvP mechanics after much patience, as Ladrod could not figure out how to soulstone or /damage 20.

 

After a /t exchange with Drazker regarding the crypt, Ladrod returns to Abresi to exact revenge upon Drazker, directly violating the rules pertaining to returning to death sites. The Humans explain that Ladrod is breaking the rules, in a somewhat condescending but overall adequate manner. Then, Ladrod is accidentally led to believe that he has to PK his character and more overall confusion ensues. Overall, the humans handled a silly situation fairly well, especially considering Ladrod attempted to rob a man without any VA. In fact, VAs were not even mentioned once.

 

Ladrod the Mage (Forums)

 

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/99828-a-note-at-nation-crossing/

 

Ladrod decides to make a post on the forum to seek out a magic teacher. He receives much criticism or laughter directed at his foolishness, but no help.

 

When Pugsy Strikes (11:32PM EST - Tuesday Oct 29th)

 

42 players online. No staff members online.

 

After gaining some valuable lessons from the citizens of Abresi after performing a series of blunders, Ladrod walks out of the tavern. This is the scene of the devastating no-RP kill of Ladrod the Glorious.

 

Zetherane dropped a stone sword on the ground for his/her friend to pick up, but Ladrod accidentally walked by at the same time and picked it up. Zeth quickly demands he drops the sword, so Ladrod responds in turn with “You dropped it”, and is quickly killed through PvP without any further RP. All for a stone sword.

 

Ladrod is, once again, in the crypt. Drazker sends Ladrod a /t after witnessing the battle, apologizing for the actions of Zetherane and explains to Ladrod how to reach the wilds and offers Ladrod help, even offering him items to help him. Well done, Drazker, for being a helpful player.

 

The Great Wilderness (10:00PM EST - Wednesday Oct 30th)

 

86 players online. No staff members online.

 

Ladrod leaves Cloud Temple, an area he is far too familiar with at this point, and ventures out to the Wilds. He wanders through the GM Village, where he finds a stable with people inside. He ventures in and is quickly told to vacate the premises (but through roleplay so it’s fine). After leaving and continuing down the path, he finds the Wilds boat.

 

After getting off the boat, he finds that this area is still protected by regions. After leaving the Wilds docks, Ladrod proceeds to cut down trees and collect some resources. Shunned by the peoples of Anthos, Ladrod finds comfort in the solitude that his ugly little cobblestone shack provides. He found himself with little to do on the mainland of Anthos; other characters had little interest in interacting with him, jobs were scarce and money was hard to make, and anybody that was interested in interacting with him either wanted to kill him or only had smalltalk roleplay to provide. The wilds were a better place for him, Ladrod decided, as it was a place where he could play Minecraft, the game he paid money to play. There was no roleplay, but at least he had something to do out here.

 

The Wilds is where Ladrod lives to this day, and he will likely never leave, until he quits the server.

 

Conclusion

 

A lot of blame has been passed around on the server in the past months. Player groups have criticised other player groups, individual players criticise the staff, and we all criticise many mechanics of the server. Amongst all this blame, I think we’ve lost sight of what issues hold the most importance and what has been at fault.

 

I would say the best part of Ladrod’s experience with the server was, surprisingly, the community. Through the process of joining, Ladrod faced nothing but kindness and good help. OOCly, we are really kind to brand new players. Once roleplay is introduced into the equation, I found players to be less friendly, but not because we suddenly devolve into mindless beasts once we enter our realm of roleplay. The rude and unfriendly players rarely use /help or /wandering soul chat, which can explain the unproportional amount of helpful players Ladrod was met with before roleplaying. In roleplay, the players were generally helpful and understanding to the derpy Ladrod, and offered him guidance in OOC. There was usually one or two players in each roleplay hub that sought to randomly kill Ladrod, and several players in the Elven and Human community saw it prudent to ignore Ladrod’s cries for help, but Ladrod received good help from the playerbase. I don’t think the community is most at fault, and overall was pleased with our players.

 

As you can see in this report, moderators were few and far between. Ladrod never witnessed more than one staff member online, and never saw any GMs in /OOC,  /help or /wandering soul chats. One modreq was answered by BrandNewKitten (after waiting for a half an hour or so), where BNK provided Ladrod with assistance regarding the Nexus PvP plugin and other aspects of the server. (I forgot to screenshot these and did not put a whole section in for this). The staff need a far greater presence in-game, and need to interact with players more. I’m sure if Ladrod had encountered a GM in roleplay, he would have been provided all the help he needed quickly.

 

The initial experience on LotC is not user-friendly. Cloud Temple is empty, heavily regioned and confusing. There is little here to help players, with the exception of the Monk Farm and Jistuma’s shop. The path from Cloud Temple to Nation’s Crossing is long, confusing and cluttered with empty settlements that surely draw new players off the road to explore in search of roleplay. Players do not automatically join /rp channel after registering their character card, and there are no automated instructions on how to navigate channels. Furthermore, there is literally no mention of our custom pvp plugin, which has likely resulted in many new players dying from spamclicking mobs. A move of the Cloud Temple or fast travel ports from Cloud Temple could help this, as well as streamlining the channels.

 

There is little to do for new players. The Wilds are extremely difficult to locate for a noob, while much of the mainland still remains regioned. Resources are relatively difficult to harvest, with mines being difficult to locate (and Rittsy’s old mines still up - these should be removed). It is also very difficult for new players to make money or get a job, likely due to the lack of a professions plugin. Ores (iron, diamond and gold) hold a significant minas value, whilst everything else is worth next to nothing. Players must either mine or rob people of their values to make any sort of money. There are few organizations that are centered around professions (such as mining or farming), and as a result few jobs are available. Any jobs available are in armed guilds or militaries/guard roces, or the occasional RP guild (such as the Delvers). Release a professions plugin, make the Wilds accessible and unregion the map in the way that it was supposed to be. This will make it more fun for players, new and old alike.

 

The Nexus PvP plugin is confusing for new players, and alienates those familiar with Vanilla PvP (which is everybody on Minecraft). There is little instruction on it readily available to players, and the mining fatigue (the slow swing) renders pvp laggy and unresponsive. It alienates new players, and makes it difficult for noobs to pvp. Furthermore, stamina only serves as a hindrance without the professions plugin. Remove mining fatigue, and temporarily remove stamina until the professions plugin is introduced. Make further mention of our custom pvp plugin through automated messages and an inclusion of it in the “New Player Guide” or somewhere in the required reading for applicants.

 

I was expecting to experience much strife with the VA system, but I did not. Ladrod stole haphazardly from dozens of chests, and attempted robbery and assault upon innocent civilians. However, nobody reported Ladrod or even asked him for a VA. This could be because Ladrod was obviously new, but I remember a time in Asulon when every villainous act was met with “((Do you have a VA for that?))” in L-OOC; new and old players both faced this. Yet, it seems the playerbase has matured past Villain Applications and transcended the need for them. I suggest a removal of the Villain Application System, they seem to be an unnecessary hindrance at this point.

 

The Magic system is still rife with elitism, and magic is nigh impossible for new players to attain. In-game attempts to seek out a magic teacher were ignored or quickly brushed off, and making a forum post was only met with condescension and little help. I’m sure a large amount of players wish to roleplay as a mage in a pointy hat, but in order to do that they are sent through cliques and a needlessly complicated magic system, that is geared entirely towards combat magic. I believe the release of the magic plugin could render the MA irrelevant and we could remove it, giving more players the chance to roleplay magic however they want without the potential for powergaming or anything bothersome.

 

Lastly, I think one of the biggest problems is how difficult it is for new players to find roleplay, or any player for that matter. Whilst Ladrod found roleplay in Malinor, Abresi, Kal’Ithrun and Gronkkston (Ladrod went there and roleplayed but this was more for fun, results were not counted), it was much too difficult to locate these places for a new player and travel between them. Furthermore, no roleplay was to be found in Hael’unor, Lenfarthing or Adunia. Though a good amount of players have horses, not a single noob does and traveling the map is still a pain for them. I think the upcoming map (4.0) will solve this problem, but for now I think implementing racial soulstones and moving the Cloud Temple would fix this somewhat. It would also help if Malinor moved closer to the Anthos Highway.

 

I hope anybody reading this stops and thinks about the results of this experiment before continuing their roleplay experience on LotC. Part of the reason why this server has become stale for many players on this server is because an overwhelming majority of us are veterans of over a year (see Sparrow’s survey results) and are familiar with each other. We all know exactly how this server ticks, and we have pre-conceived notions and prejudices pertaining to everything on this server. New players have stopped coming into the server, despite our constant stream of applicants, in fact they’ve increased in quantity and quality since shiftnative’s reddit post.

 

We can continue to make temporary fixes to the server to suit our own needs, but this is only a short-term approach and it is not sustainable. Players will continue to leave, as is true with any Minecraft server, but if new players are not coming in to replace them with a fresh face and ignorant bliss then we will lose this server entirely. Right now our playerbase has a negative inflow-outflow of players, with us losing more players than we retain. If we are to survive as a server, we need to make every single decision we make with our new players at the forefront of our reasoning. You may like roleplay fighting for 45 minutes to settle a dispute over your character’s mother, but 99% of Minecraft players will be upset when they are told that they cannot clickyclicky people to death. You may enjoy having less than 10% of the server being in possession of magic, however most new players that want to learn magic will quit once they are told they have to wait two months to be a certified expert at it. These concepts are nice for ourselves, but serve us and not the people we are trying to attract.

 

The admins need to streamline the gameplay experience and make it more user-friendly, ripe with RPG elements and things to do as well as enhancing roleplay. This means get the plugins we need released, create awesome interactive dungeons, fix our plugins and latency issues, and make our server noob-friendly. The Media Team needs to focus less on news reports directed towards us (though I do love LotC-BC), and focus more on making awesome trailers, screenshots and stuff that will attract new players. Furthermore, we need to get in contact with other popular Minecraft Youtubers to advertise our server, and get people doing Let’s Plays. We need publicity. We are trying to return to our roots, and our roots stem from Availer deciding to create an awesome Minecraft server infused with RP and RPG elements, in fairly equal parts. We need to anchor our departure from “forum RP in Minecraft” and recreate our image.

 

Right now, this server is not geared towards casual players, and this problem extends past new players. A lot of the knowledge required to play this server is found on the forums, requires an application, or needs a staff member’s assistance. If you want to make a decent amount of money, or do magic, you need to invest a lot of time to do so. 6 months to be the highest level of mage, which is longer than most Minecraft servers exist for. Most players won’t use the forums, most players don’t want to write a lore post or write an app or read a forum thread. Most players want to play Minecraft, and most players aren’t going to spend 4 hours a day playing religiously. Most people are going to play casually, and we have to cater to that. This server should be streamlined enough that once you are whitelisted, you should be able to the navigate LotC without using any medium other than Minecraft. If we can do this, I think we’ll get a huge increase in numbers.

 

Before I leave you, however, I implore the community to stop for a second. New players, in my experience, have been the people that I enjoy roleplaying the most with. They are almost never angry or confrontational, they do not care about silly lore or OOC restrictions and they go with the flow. You may not appreciate their inadequacy when roleplaying or their general derpiness, but you were just like them once upon a time. The next time you see somebody new and confused, offer them a hand in RP and OOC. Getting help from experienced veterans as Ladrod really made me happy, and I’m not even new, but it felt really good to have a nice conversation with another player and gain some direction. It only takes a couple minutes to help out a noob, and those meager moments could be the difference between a player staying on this server for many months or logging off and never returning.

 

P.S. I’m pretty sure every new player undergoes the following reaction when hearing about our lack of diamond weapons or armor:

 

 

EDIT: +1 diz **** i pozt fer rep

[CommunistSpy 441]

FIRST FIRST FIRST

[Cyndikate 2303]

This is....amazing.

 

This is a good find.

[The Great Mongol Khan 1110]

From analyzing the data. GM's please get on more. We need GM purge! PURGE PURGE PURGE!

[bungo 3965]

l0l u went hard

[IrishPerson 693]

From analyzing the data. GM's please get on more. We need GM purge! PURGE PURGE PURGE!

We need more active American GM's - GMT is fine.

[Kaiser 2347]

I think what I learned is we're all wrong in our own ways.

 

Good job trying to stay as IC (as in as Ladrod not as IC as the character) as possible... Gives a good perspective on how we treat new ones.

 

EDIT- I also want to add the best thing for people to do when starting is join a group. A group of bandits, the halfling community, the mages, etc. etc.- just join somewhere so you can start off a base and make friends.

[Dreek 1633]

Well,a certain dwarf is gonna get a beating.

[Hanrahan 2983]

My god, that's insightful. ..I feel terrible about myself as a Vet now, but it's all true. New players /don't/ care. When I was new, I was all like "Omg AC is the best Hidden blades wewt" and no one cared! It was the most fun I had on Lotc. Try it now? You'd never get away with it.

[VonAulus 2082]

Wow.

[Alan 1815]

Having read everything presented in this thread when it was in a doc a couple days ago, I can admit that it is rather eye opening. We are often told how our server isn't "noob" friendly, but words are words are words. It's rare when we have chances like this to actually see proof of those claims, and then it's not just words but rather it hits us that we truly are in such a state. We have already quickly begun changing many of the problems that you mentioned, and more are to come.

 

As of now, the Cloud Temple has since been reorganized. The "free bread" chest has been removed, as it is unrealistic to expect it to be consistently filled. Instead, it's a sight for sore eyes to open such a chest to only find it empty, which to new players leaves a bad first impression that gives a taste of inactive RP. For similar reasons, the shop in the library has been removed. The monk farm is private, and thus shall not be unregioned, but signs have since been placed there that point RPers to the nearest farm for crops should they need them.

 

On top of this, we are beginning to do something about the old mines that are still left standing. Either they will be replaced by mines of the new system, or they will be simply removed entirely. They are still built on the mining world, of course, so they can always be repurposed in the future if need be. This should prevent any confusion. In fact, check here for the newest update on this by Ever.

 

We have also had plans to create a "Tutorial Island" in 4.0 that is NOT a one time thing, but rather something that can be accessed from the CT at any time by anyone. It would have a hub area that gives info on general policies, rules, and guidelines so that players aren't totally lost when entering the world, as well as areas that branch off to give specific details on certain game mechanics and policies (magic, combat, etc.). However, it's pretty apparent that we are in need of one now for Anthos as well. Although it won't be as fancy or in depth as the 4.0 one will likely be, it will certainly be a lot better than nothing. There is no telling how long it will take to make it though, so no promises on when it will be released.

 

That, and much more that we have acknowledged and are currently working on, some more planned on a long term scale than mere quick fixes. Thank you for doing this though Aislin, it was clearly needed.

[Neri 3590]

I thoroughly agree with you in pretty much every point. We're currently hoping to address every issue that you brought up.

 

1. The Cloud Temple will soon be moved to a more newb friendly location. I can't reveal more here but it's going to happen.

 

2. We're going to streamline the new player system. However, i'm at my wits end with the Tech Team and how hard it is to get things done so this may not happen for a while. I've complained for a long time about how hard it is for new players to integrate into the game (I did this exact thing back in Asulon but my cover got blown by a GM so my results were kinda invalid), and I want to get it changed badly.

 

3. Nexus PVP will likely be removed. All we need is vanilla HP doubled and professions, thank you. We never asked for this and we never wanted it.

 

4. Players attitudes? We can't change that, but hopefully if we make the server less frustrating to play then people will mellow out in time. Be the change you want to see in others - Gronkk is a prime example of this. Good Job, Gronkk, you're fighting the good fight.

 

5. Less laziness and more motivation, less cynicism and jaded attitudes. I often see GM's complaining in Admin chat on the server (remove my console perms if you dont want me monitoring 24/7 :^) ) as well as players being general asses to each other. This is a game. We're meant to enjoy it. If you find yourself being an ass then you need to seriously consider what's keeping you here. Either change your attitude, find whats causing the problem and try and solve it or kindly leave, thank you. 

 

Also, Admins. What are you doing? You're not leaders. Urasept cracks his whip at people when they do something wrong. Danny is Mr. Politics who addresses things once the workhorses have fixed them. Rittsy does lore. That's okay I guess. Tythus is the techie guy. I don't know why he needs to be Admin rank. Why not just make him senior tech or owner, since that's essentially what he is. We need more Admins who tell GM's what to do, when to do it, gives them a driving force and motivation. We need a Lead Developer, not this democracy crap that gets nothing done and makes everyone pass the buck. Thank you.

 

6. MA system. We need a magic plugin. We need a magic plugin. We need a magic plugin. This is my mantra. It will solve the majority of our issues with the magic plugin, I believe. You can no longer be High Yirsari Ascended Sage Cleric Omni-Arcane Wizard 3000 without proving it when challenged. A magic plugin will level the playing field and make 'magical strength' a quantifiable gauge.

 

7. Regions. These will be fixed.

 

 

I'm going to go into the game tonight and go balls deep on fixing as many problems with new players as I can. I suggest every other member of staff does the same. 

 

PS:

 

 

10/10

[Shar'ku/jenspelao 410]

"Instead of refuge, Ladrod is met by a spider, which he attacks with his stone sword. However, his experience bar inexplicably goes down and he swings slowly. He is doing no damage against the spider, unable to hit it, but the spider is attacking him very quickly! After a short and frustrating fight, Ladrod the Great falls to a measly spider. He then finds himself in a room that has no exit, and has to sit there for 5 painstaking minutes."

 

This means, Goodbye pvp nexus and that plugin that leaves you for 5 extremely annoying minutes at spawn

[DecoLamb 959]

We need more active American GM's - GMT is fine.

There's tons of apps up hosting active people in various timezones, maybe its time to look at them.

 

 

Also a thought. We have stained clay now.. why not do something with that to mark the roads to main cities for people? A few signs in spawn can tell what color goes where and lead them along.

[IrishPerson 693]

There's tons of apps up hosting active people in various timezones, maybe its time to look at them.

 

 

Also a thought. We have stained clay now.. why not do something with that to mark the roads to main cities for people? A few signs in spawn can tell what color goes where and lead them along.

GM's recently put forth their suggestions to Urasept when he asked for them, now we just wait for him to pick I suppose.

 

On another note, that idea is great, I'll do it once I finish the current modreqs.