April Feedback Meeting

[Readicti 902]

Hail Lord of the Craftians~

 

You might have noticed the feedback forums once again being cleaned up. The GM team recently went over a lot of different topics brought up with feedback and voted on what we wanted to do with it. Here are the results! This post may be longer but hey, there was a lot of feedback! If you do not agree with the decisions, you are free to message me with a critical, well thought out opinion that I can bring to the team.

 

I’ll start with nexus and plots as that is one of the larger complaints on this map.

 

A few situations have recently come up involving a clarification on if claiming a plot of another player is RP. It’s been decided that all plot takeovers should be in roleplay. Pillars are not a roleplay item. Think of it as if it’s real life. A family isn't going to come home one morning and find that none of their keys work and all of their stuff is gone. There is going to be politics and potentially fighting. All plots must be taken in RP and shouldn't be sniped just because they can. Respect that someone probably put a lot of time into creating and maintaining the area.

 

Plot expansion prices were also brought up. At this point it doesn't look as if they will be a top priority but a reasonable proposal on how they can be changed is always welcome. Keep in mind expansions are supposed to be hard to get and something that an entire town has to work together to get. If someone can buy an expansion on their own, there’s a problem.

 

On a similar plot issue, it’s been brought to the team’s attention that certain plots sit with little activity but they are being held. These plots will individually be dealt with on a situation by situation basis as always. We do not want to kick a community from their plot as their could be multiple reasons for a drop in activity. If you see a plot being sat on, you are welcome to bring it forward to a GM to investigate and if you are holding a plot, ask yourself if it’s actually needed to drive your roleplay. This could change in the future however.

 

The final plot feedback brought up was the entire removal of nexus plots! It’s been written down as a to-do for a future map but it will most likely not happen on Athera. We understand that there is a lot wrong with Nexus regions and plots, but it’s not realistic to suddenly delete entire plots. That will cause a lot of the community to not be happy. And I don’t like being yelled at ;-;

 

On the topic of conquest- it’ll remain a similar rule of they can be denied with the ability for an appeal to staff. The GM and admin teams (parties who are neutral in said conflict, of course)will then be able to look at the situation and decide if the conquest should be forced.

 

Another fighting topic brought up was PvP default. This has been a long battle between the two sides of PvP vs RP default. PvP is staying but expect a clarification in PvP in the near future, most of the issues with PvP comes from those that do not understand that default means. Just remember that this is foremost a roleplay server and PvP is just a tool to make outcomes more smooth when two sides cannot agree on the method of combat.

 

TeamSpeak has been another very brought up discussion. After certain events, a lot of people went to their own TS. And you can’t really blame them. The current one is usable but poorly put together. Tythus is currently working on a system to make the LoTC TS a lot easier to use and an overhaul of the look will also happen at that time. Hopefully over time it can become more populated and active!

 

Another obvious project on our list was donations. These have long been promised perks that have been broken for a very long time as well as others perks that seem too expensive. Menarra and Tythus are working together to clean up the donations page and hopefully make the perks more useful to players!

 

Adding -1’s was brought up in a thread and a few GMs. The answer will remain the same with almost the entire team giving the idea -1’s (I make myself giggle). This promotes more of a rep farming atmosphere than there already is and we feel it can create a negative atmosphere because someone happens to not be liked.

 

Finally! The player/staff rift. This rift has slowly grown throughout my time as a player. This has occurred due to a few staff decisions being released without being fully thought over as well as players spreading their hurt feels to others. I've been working slowly to help fix those hurt feelings by reaching out to nation leaders so there is a quicker staff response to specific issues and Tsuyose, the GM lead, has started work on kicking the GM team into shape. If we work together this rift will shrink but this will only happen if we start creating trust on both sides. Remember if you have an issue with a specific staff member or a situation you feel isn't being looked after you are always welcome to come to Tsuyose or I and we’ll make sure it’s dealt with properly.

 

And that’s all we've gone over at this point! If you feel I missed a thread, it might either by on the list for a future meeting or I goofed. Feel free to message me your well thought out opinions if you do not agree with a decision or you want to bring up a new topic. I always welcome messages and feedback threads so keep them coming!

 

tl;dr: We did stuff and decided things!

[mmat 7460]

First

 

Deleted. ;)

[ski_king3 0]

YAYAYAYAYAY

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

Too many of these changes rely on GM discretion and GM judgement. The forced conquest one being especially problematic. When you leave things to be decided by the personal opinions of GMs it never ends well. Bias is there. Make set rules and precedents they have to follow instead.

[mitto 2312]

Adding -1’s was brought up in a thread and a few GMs. The answer will remain the same with almost the entire team giving the idea -1’s (I make myself giggle).

 

 

Your jokes are bad.

[Ford 1996]

Deleted. ;)

Deleted. ;)

Salty, Brit? :^ )

[IrishPerson 693]

Another new map won't solve the problems that we've had for months/years, take action rather then saying 5.0 will solve everything just like 4.0 and 3.0 were going to too.

 

Donation perks, teamspeaks and things of that nature don't matter if you're lacking players because of the lack of roleplay/difficulty of completing basic tasks for old players and new players alike.

 

Edit:

 

As a short term solution I propose the removal of nexus regions far away from the main road and cities so that people are less spread out. The road plots are okay-ish for now.

 

Removal of some limitations in the nexus crafting plugin such as but not limited too: iron tools, dark oak fences and doors etc. They are just a pain for new and old players alike. I can maybe understand weapons and armor moreso.

 

Events spark roleplay, do them but not major ones. Events for smaller groups on a more often basis allow people to not only get roleplay from the event itself but explain and discuss it with others after the event is finished and in the days following. Big events get too messy too quickly and provide little roleplay.

 

Also I'd suggest bringing back five monk bread on log in, limited to once a day to avoid abusing. It'll solve the rotten food for those who don't play every day and help new players if they're lost or something along those lines and run out of food. Have it so when thrown from inventory, they act as soulstone.

 

Finally make another mining world or regen the current ones, new players often go into the mines looking for iron but come out with an inventory full of cobble. 

 

Infact another note on GMs, I expect or rather hope that they are picked on their ability to moderate. Global Moderator should be easy to understand but for some reason (even the two times when I was a GM) they are responsible for the development and progression of alot of the server, something I don't understand. Just because they can moderate well does not mean they are suited to guide the server. Moderating is a busy little job, you'll rarely have time to roleplay if you become one. So why do these people make decisions on things they may be disconnected from?

 

Edit #2:

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you're sharing this with us but come on.

[mmat 7460]

Salty, Brit? :^ )

 

Bro... Your comment got rekt... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Readicti 902]

Too many of these changes rely on GM discretion and GM judgement. The forced conquest one being especially problematic. When you leave things to be decided by the personal opinions of GMs it never ends well. Bias is there. Make set rules and precedents they have to follow instead.

That was on the team side of the to do list :D It's been brought up and it's going to be worked on by Tsuyose and the team.

[Mj. 697]

9th.

 

This sounds like a big step in the future. Can't wait to see some of these implemented! I have also heard some discussion about what makes a nation, and that should be addressed at some point in the future. 

 

Can someone link me to the region expansions page?

[DrakeHaze. 2524]

There are only 2 ways of combat, Rp and Pvp. I've seen a player get chewed out for being attacked in a tavern and requesting pvp default in ooc after defending himself with 1 emote to ensure the combat was ready from both sides and it was properly initiated. It apparently constituted as a RP fight from the GM watching and the player was threatened with a ban.

PVP might be the default but that doesn't mean you can't ask for the fight to be PVP, it is not a loophole to force pvp, it is ones preference against another and it comes back to what is default.

[Aislin 4354]

All plots must be taken in RP and shouldn't be sniped just because they can. Respect that someone probably put a lot of time into creating and maintaining the area.

 

On the topic of conquest- it’ll remain a similar rule of they can be denied with the ability for an appeal to staff. The GM and admin teams (parties who are neutral in said conflict, of course)will then be able to look at the situation and decide if the conquest should be forced.

 

How are we supposed to take plots in RP if we can't conquest them? Yeah, sure, "the GMs will handle it!" sounds well and good on paper. Yet, the GM team has made it abundantly clear that not only are a good majority of the GM team completely incompetent when it comes to warfare, but also that they cannot put aside biases against or for certain groups when handling it. You guys removed VAs after you decided that players should be allowed to RP as needed, but now you're contradicting yourselves by saying that we can't be trusted to RP in this specific manner.

 

Every system involving warfare and GMs has failed. Horribly. Name one mechanic of warfare in recent memory involving GMs that has been a success. There are none. You guys are good at a lot of things, but war is not one of them. I'm sorry, but there's no other way I can put it at this point.

 

How about instead of giving players the ability to appeal a denied conquest, you make players able to conquest forcefully by default, and then staff intervene if absolutely necessary? Does that not seem like a sensible compromise?

 

On a similar plot issue, it’s been brought to the team’s attention that certain plots sit with little activity but they are being held. These plots will individually be dealt with on a situation by situation basis as always. 

 

So you're not removing Nexus, thus implicating some semblance of faith in the system, but you are not going to abide by any of its metrics? If you guys are going to force Nexus upon us, at least let us use it properly. Having a forced bullshit activity check on us is bad enough, but then you guys have the gall to determine that certain plots may not be active enough (by no standardized or known metric) even if we've played by your Nexus region rules? This is not fair to the playerbase, not at all.

 

The other stuff is fine.

[Skippy 2466]

I hope that the validation thing from the Teamspeak can be removed. I just think that if you don't want "trolls" or whoever to come into the Teamspeak, just lock your channel.

 

free team speak usage for all!!

[GodEmperorFlam 3447]

So you're not removing Nexus, thus implicating some semblance of faith in the system, but you are not going to abide by any of its metrics? If you guys are going to force Nexus upon us, at least let us use it properly. Having a forced bullshit activity check on us is bad enough, but then you guys have the gall to determine that certain plots may not be active enough (by no standardized or known metric) even if we've played by your Nexus region rules? This is not fair to the playerbase, not at all.

[Nathan_Barnett36 1564]

 

1)

A few situations have recently come up involving a clarification on if claiming a plot of another player is RP. It’s been decided that all plot takeovers should be in roleplay. Pillars are not a roleplay item. Think of it as if it’s real life. A family isn't going to come home one morning and find that none of their keys work and all of their stuff is gone. There is going to be politics and potentially fighting. All plots must be taken in RP and shouldn't be sniped just because they can. Respect that someone probably put a lot of time into creating and maintaining the area.

 

2)

On the topic of conquest- it’ll remain a similar rule of they can be denied with the ability for an appeal to staff. The GM and admin teams (parties who are neutral in said conflict, of course)will then be able to look at the situation and decide if the conquest should be forced.

 

3)

Finally! The player/staff rift. This rift has slowly grown throughout my time as a player. This has occurred due to a few staff decisions being released without being fully thought over as well as players spreading their hurt feels to others. I've been working slowly to help fix those hurt feelings by reaching out to nation leaders so there is a quicker staff response to specific issues and Tsuyose, the GM lead, has started work on kicking the GM team into shape. If we work together this rift will shrink but this will only happen if we start creating trust on both sides. Remember if you have an issue with a specific staff member or a situation you feel isn't being looked after you are always welcome to come to Tsuyose or I and we’ll make sure it’s dealt with properly.

 

1) No, just no.... The community has never suggested anything like this.

2) Do you seriously want me to bring up the event with 501 and the warclaim on Urguan? There was legit no reason to deny the conquest however 501 seems to think hes almighty and is a GM and can deny simply because "Im a GM, I don't give two shits about you"

3) Sorry but you've gone to far to even gain our trust properly. You'd have to try really hard and perhaps, maybe remove pocket gms and bias ones to... Then we may get somewhere.