The New Years Update

[Viper3X 1056]

Greetings and Happy New Year! I wanted to kick off the beginning of the year with an update packed full of promising changes, and I have been working tirelessly for the past week in order to do so. This update consists of additions, changes, and removals, which means that some will be equally liked and disliked. Nonetheless, I highly encourage you to consider these changes and hold off on the feedback threads until we give them a go. With lots of thought and consideration, I present to you today, the first day of 2014, the very first news announcement of 2014! I recommend reading through the list of changes thoroughly in order to minimize the wave of questions that are guaranteed to arise from this large update. I will not be providing a TL;DR, as all of the information is important and should be read. Without further ado, here’s the New Years update!

Change #1: We’ve heard your pleas, your cries, and your feedback regarding the reimplementation of the Lead Developer role. We have weighed the pros and cons, and I can safely say that I believe we have eliminated all cons associated with this role. How so? Read on! Who better to promote to Lead Developer than someone who has had past experience with this position? That’s right! Shiftnative will be reprising his role as Lead Developer here on LotC. He will be promoted to administrator promptly, and he will begin working on the development of the server once more as soon as he gets situated. But it doesn’t end there! In order to eliminate the biggest con of the Lead Developer role, we have decided that the Lead Dev will not be the person to go to for the final say in any and all situations. Instead, each administrator will have the final say in their own assigned area of focus on Lord of the Craft. With that said, we will still be working closely together in order to make LotC the best that it can be. The main difference now is that each admin has their own specific area of focus, rather than each administrator being a general admin with added responsibilities depending on where they help out. This is intended to give more direction to each administrator so that they know exactly what they should be doing and what they are expected to achieve. Again, it still doesn’t end there! We are also introducing an entirely new role that has never been seen before on LotC. With this update, I will be assuming the role of Lead Administrator (or Head Admin, whichever you prefer). My new role focuses on staff and community management. It will be my duty to oversee every staff team (much life before as Advisor of Teams), and I will also be working closely with the community in regards to server changes and ideas. It will also be my responsibility to oversee the administration team as a whole. What does this mean? No, I will not have the final say in regards to issues involving the server. However, it will be my responsibility to ensure that each administrator is kept in line and succeeds in their assigned duties. If an administrator is found to be, for example, slacking or abusive of their administrative powers, then it will be my duty to reprimand them. I would like to make this very clear. The Lead Administrator position is not what the Lead Developer position previously was. For example, if you have an issue with server maintenance then you will still go to Tythus, if you have a lore inquiry that must be elevated above the Lore Masters then you will still go to Rittsy, and if you have an issue with a team leader or a staff issue that must be elevated above the appropriate team leader then it will go to me. However, if for example an administrator is found to be abusing their in-game powers, then (and only then) will you bring it to the Head Administrator.

Change #2: Continuing on with the responsibilities of the Lead Administrator, starting today I will be taking charge of the GM team. Urasept has willingly handed the team over to me so that he may focus on the 4.0 antagonist development and other areas that he is required. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the Global Moderation team, you may take it up with me. The GM team can expect to see new quotas, expectations, and responsibilities outlined soon. To clarify, as Lead Administrator I am Head of the GM team and also Head of Team Leaders. I deal with all issues regarding staff management. I will also be taking charge of community management, much like Danny did as our player relations administrator. All community issues will be elevated to the Lead Admin should the need arise. These two sub-roles will be known as Staff Manager and Community Manager.

Change #3: We are promoting a new Team Leader for the Media Team! Lanader will be taking over Haelphon’s role as director of Media here on LotC. For all of you Haelphon fans out there, take comfort in knowing that Hael will still be participating in the Media Team when he has the time, but he will no longer be responsible for the team’s leadership as he has resigned from the position. Lanader will be undertaking a two week trial period that I have established for him. During this time he will prove his capability as Team Leader. A few individuals were considered for the role, but ultimately we decided to give Lanader a chance at the position. Lanader has already proven his moderator capabilities, so the transition should be fairly smooth for him. Please take the opportunity to congratulate him (and shiftnative!) on his new position.

Change #4: While I did say that the SM team would be sticking around for the foreseeable future, I made that statement before there were plans for me to become Head of the GM team. I have decided that it would be more beneficial to the server to remove the SM team and implement the new trial GM system in its place. The new process will function much differently than the previous system that most would argue failed. In short, new GMs will be labeled a trial GM for two weeks. During this two week period, the trial GM(s) will be tested, evaluated, and trained extensively. At the end of the two weeks, the GM recruit will either be promoted to full GM or demoted from trial GM, depending on their success or failure. No longer will new GMs be tossed into the scary world of moderation with little training and direction. Expect to see new GMs join the team as we progress into the new year!

Change #5: In order to cut down on forum spam and elitism, we will be removing the ex-staff groups on the forums and Teamspeak server. In addition to this, we will also be removing Total Tophat, Fancy Fedora, and Brilliant Breezer from the list of forum groups. This is a small change, but likely the one that is going to draw the most negative feedback. I realize that people don’t like things being taken away from them, especially because they are “achievement” groups, but I want to try to cut down on redundant forum groups and useless TS ranks. Sorry guys!
 

Change #6: The ability to lockpick and forcefully break into chests is now disallowed outside of raids and war. Lockpicking LWC (locked) chests rarely ever creates RP for individuals other than the thief and the GM overseeing the theft, and it creates more trouble than it’s worth at the moment (especially considering the number of modreqs this creates). The creation of a plugin for lockpicking might change our stance on this, but until that day lockpicking/breaking into chests is not allowed outside of raids and war. Doors are still up for debate, so at this point in time you are allowed to lockpick/break down doors. The general consensus is that lockpicking introduces more problems than it’s worth, and the removal of such a thing will increase the value of LWC. What’s the point in LWC if you can just lockpick past it? With that said, you are still allowed to rob unlocked chests (though VA rules still apply) and other items not locked inside chests. One of the primary reasons we keep VAs is to regulate lockpicking and murder without motivation, and the removal of lockpicking will allow an easier transition to the removal of VAs if we decide to go that route.

Change #7: Finally, we will be removing the signature restrictions that were introduced after the last GM meeting that we held. We wanted a way to make signatures smaller (as people were making outrageously large signatures), but the system that we attempted to implement didn’t exactly work out the way that we planned to (even people with small signatures were having to shorten/remove them). We have decided to do away with restrictions and instead simply have FMs and GMs enforce it on a case by case basis, so please be reasonable with your signature sizes.

That looks like everything! I know some people were expecting either the magic plugin or the removal of VAs to be announced, but unfortunately that isn’t the case today. I can assure you that the magic plugin is being worked on tirelessly by Telanir, but hundreds of spells can’t be coded in one day! Villain applications will require further discussion between the administration and global moderation teams, but I guarantee that we will address them soon. We need to more thoroughly weigh the pros and cons of the options presented before us, and we didn’t want to rush a decision. Expect to see the changes rolled out tonight and tomorrow! I’ll close with saying that these changes are the first of many within the year of 2014, so don’t expect any of us to be going into hiding after today! Happy New Years everybody and enjoy your day!

-Viper3X and the rest of the Administration Team

[Ford 1996]

ouch

[Malaise 1570]

first  to cry

[Arkelos 1027]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Rig 17580]

Yay! First!

Damnit <:(

[Schneebo 1593]

Amazing! Thanks for the update Viper! I'm excited to see these new changes executed!

[Galendar 631]

Yay!!

[Gwonam_Blaze 385]

I'm pretty okay with this, to be honest.

[Augor 142]

I was loving the updates. 

 

But the forum groups..

 

 

Really, guys?

 

Really?

 

You've had these things for over two years.

 

 

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

 

 

REALLY?

[Sky 0]

Awesome news.

[Shadeleaf 1021]

I always upvote improvements!

[Overland 349]

  Woo, all these changes seem very brilliant and I can't wait to see them in full effect. Also, congratulations shiftnative on rejoining as Lead Developer.  

[nppeck 601]

[Dreek 1633]

Used up all of my plus ones :(

[Salamandra 1136]

You bastard.