Desired Server Changes Follow-Up

[Viper3X 1056]

Before I begin, if you haven't read the thread yet please visit the following link: Click me!

As I said in the thread linked above, I am only considering/reviewing the suggestions that actually had polls associated with them (or became a popular topic). I provided over a weeks worth of time for the community to gather their ideas into one place, and here they are. Thanks for all of the ideas everyone, and I sincerely apologize for the length of time that it took to get this thread up. I wanted to discuss all of the topics with the admin team, but sometimes that's easier said then done with everyone's busy schedules. Let's get started!

1. Plug and Play
2. Catapults
3. Who Gets Access to the Magic Plugin & Whitelisted Subtypes
4. Limitation/Removal of Many Aspects of Combative RP or the Need for it
5. Eliminating Currency Plug-ins
6. What to do About Villain Applications
7. 4.0 Professions and Experience Gain
8. 4.0 Let's Condense Roleplay
9. Give us a Map

1. The Asulon Improvement Committee in, well, Asulon simply wasn't successful for many reasons, and I foresee similar issues occurning with this suggestion. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea on paper and I would love to see it work, but we tried twice in Asulon and it was never successful. However, I also do not think we will even require such a team in the near future, as I intend on solving that with the next big reveal I hope to make this week if all goes to plan.

2. This is a really neat suggestion, but unfortunately it doesn't really have a place on this server at this point in time. I can already imagine all of the trouble we will have to go through to regulate catapults and their use, as well as the damage they will cause if abused. Even if we felt they could be utilized on LotC, they certainly wouldn't be a priority for our coders. I took the opportunity to speak with Sporadic regarding catapults and he said that it would take much time and effort to code it properly (and lag-free). This would draw time and effort away from more pressing plugins like the magic plugin and Nexus (and I'm not referring to Nexus Combat, as I do not consider it pressing). Perhaps we can look into this again in the future.

3. We will definitely consider this (or a similar system) for the magic plugin if it is needed, but Telanir currently has a system in place for how this is going to work (no spoilers!). I'm not going to expand on this too much as I don't want to reveal anything, but know that the magic plugin is on its way. I have seen its progress -- and no, I would not be saying that if the plugin was still 6 months away. ;) In regards to the Whitelisted Subtypes thread, I believe this idea has already been somewhat implemented (or fully). Regardless, the Lore Team will be revealing numerous changes over the next little bit that will (hopefully) significantly improve the magic system.

4. I will be the first to say that combat roleplay isn't leaving any time soon. Discouraging the frequency of war on a large scale? Perhaps, but combat is a huge aspect of roleplay on its own and removing it would cause more harm than good. We have some changes in store for 4.0 that will hopefully improve our war/raid system, that's for certain, but I'm not quite ready to discuss that because a lot can change between now and then.

5. This is definitely a topic that would require even further community discussion. Why? In the end, it all comes down to shops. They are the primary reason we use a currency system currently. With the implementation of auction houses, non-physical currency can be used to purchase items even when the seller isn't online. This benefits members that play during the off-hours that otherwise wouldn't be able to purchase goods and items. If we didn't have a working shop system then I might be inclined to give it a go or investigate the possibility of a change, but right now everything seems to be functioning smoothly (at least from what I have been told).

6. Hmm... what to do with villain applications. That is the question now, isn't it? Unfortunately, I can't give you an answer right now. On one hand, 50% of the community wants to keep VAs or change them, and the other half wants them gone for good. I'm here to tell you that either option really won't change that much in the long run. Does that mean that I don't think something should be done? Of course not. What I am merely stating is that I think a lot of people overreact when it comes to villain applications. Many people seem to think that villains will run loose if we unrestrict villainy, but why? Isn't it us who defined villains as a separate group in the first place? We made them a thing due to VAs. If it weren't for VAs, people would just roleplay how they wanted to. You wouldn't have people trying to be the most ultimate evil villain in the world -- not that we encounter that kind of situation frequently anyway. Point number six is probably going to contain a lot of my own ramblings, so prepare yourself.

I'm going to be completely open and honest to you about my personal opinion on villain applications. I propose to you two options -- two different approaches to the situation. Here's number one: remove villain applications. However, I do not think solely removing villain applications will solve the problem. In fact, I think it will expand our current ones. Let's say we removed VAs, I wouldn't just stop there and say everything is fixed. No -- if we're going to remove VAs, we also need to remove a couple of other things too. What other things, you might ask? In a few short words, lockpicking and killing without reason. Don't misunderstand me, you would still be able to rob chests when raiding or during war, but /only/ during the conflict. After all, your items can't be entirely safe when they're locked up. I strongly believe that removing lockpicking entirely will solve many issues. In addition to this, players shouldn't be able to make up random reasons as to why they should be able to kill someone. For example, a psychopath walks up to you and tries to kill you because he's insane and the voices are telling him to do it -- STOP right there, criminal scum! We don't want that. Why? One, it causes lots of arguments and complaining, and two, there's very little RP involved and we simply don't want people trying to murder other players for no good reason at all. If we ban these two things, I strongly believe that removing VAs /could/ work, but it's all theoretical (after all, I could be missing something).

The second option is to keep VAs but modify them greatly. If we were to keep them, I think we should simplify the process but still make obtaining a VA an actual achievement. Should they be hard? Certainly not. But they also shouldn't be a simple fill in the blanks and you're good to go. Perhaps a one VA per account system that would set you up for life. There's still some problems with this that I would like to point out, however. First and foremost, I greatly dislike the idea of forcing players to create /another/ application in addition to their whitelist application just so they can participate in "advanced" RP. Why? What's the point of it? The point is to weed out the bad roleplayers that would otherwise abuse the restricted evils. However, I'd like to say today that if someone is playing on the server to abuse certain aspects of roleplay, why should we have to revoke that aspect of roleplay from them and simply say "no more killing people for you!"? If they're breaking server rules, there's other forms of punishment for that *cough* suspension *cough*. I do not think revoking a certain RP privilege from them is an effective way of punishing someone. Either you take the toy away from the kid or you don't -- you don't break it up into tiny pieces, take a few, and then give it back to the child. Now you can't play with the toy without experiencing only part of the fun. That process just doesn't sound right to me.

Now hear me out. I am not saying that I am in favor of removing villain applications on a personal level. In fact, either decision will faze me little as I am only here to make sure that LotC grows and improves for the better. But with that said, I am also willing to push for a certain decision to be made if I believe that it will improve what we have already built ourselves upon. What do you guys think? Will removing villain applications really cause that much of a problem if we implement the above proposed changes? I truly think that the only reason people are that worried about removing VAs is because they think people will start to abuse the fact that they can now kill others and steal without having to file an application in order to do so (which right now is a very easy one). But what if we restrict that entirely? I'm all for removing restrictions and barriers, but the two restrictions suggested a couple of paragraphs up will cause all arguments regarding the need for VAs to be null and void. Unless I'm missing something, I strongly believe it is a secure system. Now hear me out one final time; I want to make it clear that I am in no way pushing for VAs to be removed or kept in any way, shape or form. But in my position I must constantly be looking for ways to improve Lord of the Craft, and if I've done my research correctly I believe this might be an improvement if implemented correctly. With that said, I want to hear the community's feedback on this. I'm also prepared to get yelled at just a tad because I haven't really discussed this with the staff yet.

7. Unless I'm mistaken, I am almost certain that the winning vote in that thread was the intended option for a professions plugin already (or a combination of the top two). However, we'll have to wait and see when we actually get closer to coding our own professions plugin.

8. This definitely won't be a problem come 4.0. There will only be four capitals for each of the four main races in addition to the high elves and Kharajyr (don't quote me on the Kha). We won't be allowing a bunch of new kingdoms to sprout up all over the place, and only the main capitals will be regioned anyways. That's the plan, but things do change.

9. Most of you are already aware of this, but this wish has already been granted at the time of this post. If you haven't seen the new dynmap yet, you can view it here or click on the tab at the top of the page titled "Map."

It looks like I've covered everything. I apologize for the long post, but I felt it was needed in order for me to convey my thoughts correctly. I expect this thread to stir up quite a conversation, so try to remain civil! Thanks guys.

-Viper3X

[ℤ∃ʁ∅ 823]

1st

[paulie 181]

[SparehoeCakes 547]

Cool. Finallllllyyyy

[K00l 72]

Staff want more rp combat > > > > > > FTB system of combat defaulted

[Lathros 377]

Stop typing in orange. It hurts. ;-;

 

Edit : I also want my idea implemented it includes the following.

 

Less crashes.

[VonAulus 2082]

Staff want more rp combat > > > > > > FTB system of combat defaulted

Disgust. 

[Terafir 90]

My thoughts to you on the VA system recommendations:

Original thought: Basically what you're saying, "People will abuse killing, killing for no reason etc."

Thought after reading your suggestion: "Hell yeah, let's enforce these rules and remove VAs."

The only problem I see is that I have about 2-3 friends on the server who have psychopathy and killing VAs which state that they can "kill because the voices tell them to" or "kill because they are bored." You'd be removing that aspect of their characters.

On the other hand, it gets old quick when my friends say "oh yeah, I killed that person because I felt like it." Sorry guys, but you /really/ need to get out of here. It's no fun for anyone but you.

In other words, you make and enforce those rules, and I'll gladly support the removal of VAs.

(There you go people, happy now? :P )

[xXBegginBobXx 25]

The way I see this whole villain application thing is like this: Nobody really likes having to write them but a VA is what stops bad RP. If everyone is just let to do what they want, that will lead to powergaming, that to arguing and that to PvP death matches. I don't mind a bit of PvP now and again but this is an RP server. Don't ruin what we already have.

Apart from that it all sounds good :)

[aron. 427]

Beg Mog to come back and help develop 4.0

[JCQuiinn 168]

 

Beg Mog to come back and help develop 4.0

 

Oh god no that'd be a horrible idea.

[Kickstarted and Running 965]

Alras... If players really want to make Alras, they will. It won't be stopped, but they would need the following

 

1) Land

2) Players

3) Money

4) Time

5) Patience

[domainoft 191]

What sort of options are the Admins considering for In Game punishment of Villains? I believe most of our villainous problems can still be solved with a few IG changes. While I'm not a huge fan of asking for plugin after plugin, Perhaps it would be viable to consider a "Jail" plugin, Something that locks up those who are caught stealing, killing, lieing to the guards, smuggling ect. It would allow each race to decide their own rules and the length of time that someone can be prisoner.

 

What we would need with this to make it fun for everyone, and less ab-usable.

 

1. A restriction on the amount of time you can be locked up.

2. Things for inmates to do RPly and actual. "Jailhouse fights....Mining colony, Picking up trash on anthos highway, ect.

3. A handcuff...or shackle like system that reduces movement speed and the use of weapons.

4. Along with this, the ability for guards to fight in default pvp...and use the knockout system to start this shackling of a player...Perhaps an item that can be carried that gives the option. If the prisoner doesn't cooperate they can be killed again....or taken to jail.

 

I'm still on the side that feels the VA's no longer serve the purpose we initially wanted them too, but as Viper stated. Removing them alone will not fix the mindset of players. What stops a child from misbehaving....Discipline. It does not seem fair to kick a child from your house as the ONLY form of discipline. A much lesser degree of punishments could be issued and done ICly. This would still allow minor crimes, and major ones.....if they are caught repeatedly doing evil, it escalates.

[firespirit44 1323]

Remove lockpicking, its frankly pointless since everyone has a VA for lockpicking, and lwc chests are still subjugated to lockpicking. 

 

And I have never seen lockpicking provide rp to the victim, just to the thief and to the GM.

 

Chests should only be able to be broken into when you raid.

[Wretched 2075]

Remove lockpicking

 

I don't care much about the VA fiasco but yeah, lockpicking has to go.