Your View: On Course—Off Course?

[Hot_Dip 680]

Not even close, There is no real competition atm for lotc so no defending of your position is needed. The server should have a lot of cool immersive plugins (like nexus) that make it a unique experience, but instead it just feels like slightly altered, very grindy vanilla. If there's one thing that yall need to fix its the lag and chunk loading, its been an issue for like 5 years and while sometimes its not as bad as others its never actually been fixed. Feels like no real money goes into the server anymore even tho the server seems to be getting plenty of donations. 

[ThumperJack 923]

The server is on a downward slope toward becoming the premier of something else entirely and not something of a good connotation. Roleplay certainly being a very distant part of it. I would not honestly call us a "premier roleplay server" at this current moment. Why?

 

For several months now, the roleplay community of the server (Yes, I define it as a separate community) has asked for changes and stated their distrust and discomfort with many parts of the server with feedback that was dismissive, insulting, or not received at all. Simply look at the most recent moderation poll and feedback post regarding bad faith roleplay. The comments made by PVPers and by our own moderation in these instances and dozens of others clearly show the sort of hands we're expected to put our safety and comfort in when issues arise. How are we supposed to feel safe on the server when our own moderation admin dismisses our concerns on a poll that he made? Or when moderators insult or even ban players for simply asking questions?

 

Another example being the highly disputed raid tools that were pushed against during their testing period. They were pushed out without actual guidelines for their usage or any means for groups to defend against them. They were and are a free ticket to a PVP kick and disruption of roleplay. This was expressed by many during their testing and even afterward, only to be surprised with their implementation after our builds were completed. No warning, no means to defend ourselves. They need to be removed.

 

I've played on the server for years now and it has never quite gotten to be this terrible of an experience. People should not feel uncomfortable or unsafe to log onto the server. There is a lot that needs to change.

[megavoltar 1110]

Off-course, hyperfriction, red-tape, old-power appeasement, and combat-rp are the worst among the lot, hyperfriction in particular gets VILE depending on why it happened"

Also I'd advocate for the removal of likes and dislikes, isn't handled well, too explosive for arguments and toxicity

[OwOrc 354]

1 minute ago, ThumperJack said:

 

 

Another example being the highly disputed raid tools that were pushed against during their testing period. They were pushed out without actual guidelines for their usage or any means for groups to defend against them. They were and are a free ticket to a PVP kick and disruption of roleplay. This was expressed by many during their testing and even afterward, only to be surprised with their implementation after our builds were completed. No warning, no means to defend ourselves. They need to be removed.

 

Remove raid tools = 2 hr long skirm where the attackers go forward and the defenders go back and close the gates. Look at Norland. If Urguan didn't find the way under to get into the city via the sewers it would've literally gone on to no end. There is war in the server, there is conflict in the server. That's part of it being a medieval fantasy genre. Remove raid tools = remove raids = only conflict is war, which is boring.

[AnonymousAlexa 3877]

1 minute ago, TheEnglishDuck said:

Remove raid tools = 2 hr long skirm where the attackers go forward and the defenders go back and close the gates. Look at Norland. If Urguan didn't find the way under to get into the city via the sewers it would've literally gone on to no end. There is war in the server, there is conflict in the server. That's part of it being a medieval fantasy genre. Remove raid tools = remove raids = only conflict is war, which is boring.

Raid tools should only be allowed when defenders get a one hour notice. Very cringe that raiders can insta hop over walls and slaughter civillians because people couldn't rally on a 5 minute notice lol

[OwOrc 354]

Just now, AnonymousAlexa said:

Raid tools should only be allowed when defenders get a one hour notice. Very cringe that raiders can insta hop over walls and slaughter civillians because people couldn't rally on a 5 minute notice lool

I can agree with a notice tbh. No fun in rallying to be met with like 5 civilians bro

[ichigomaster98 634]

There's groups of toxic players here and there, but the worst of them have red and blue names and enable the others to be how they are. Staff letting people blatantly cheat constantly and doing nothing about it, then punishing people following the rules, is probably the #1 thing for me not wanting to play on the server at the moment. The fishing plugin is pretty cool though, and it's only half the time chunks aren't loaded.

[_pr0fit 2945]

This is not a joke, I unironically miss the days when the staff were blatantly and openly corrupt, taking bribes from players for rulings and banning people they didn't like, at the very least, the playerbase had confidence that the staff would act consistently. Nowadays it feels like the staff are a bunch of wet fish who do nothing, I have heard it described numerous times as staff is just a higher level of roleplay where you do discord politics to shill for your group, I would trust very few staff members to be:
A. Competent
B. Consistent
C. Unbiased

This goes for pretty much any team, but most importantly the Moderation team, and even a lot of the Admin team. Now, there are some exceptions, there are a few moderators that I actively hear people go "Oh yes, this mod is moderating, they'll make a fair ruling." (*Cough* Anna *Cough*) but they are few and far between.

Additionally, the community has become more and more toxic, with OOC vendettas and beefing hitting some extreme and unhealthy levels, far more than I have ever seen before, and it is something that needs to be drastically addressed and probably harshly and without tolerance.

[itdontmatta 7192]

19 minutes ago, WestCarolina said:

Lastly, the most recent moderation feedback post. It has felt dismissive, and to be so disillusioned that we celebrate the fact that a small minority of people are content the state of moderation and not focusing on the large statistics that the majority are unhappy, unsatisfied and wish to see change is disappointing.

There has been an outcry for what feels like months now, people who don't feel comfortable going to moderation anymore, and those who don't want to log on because of how different the server is at the moment. 

 

I'm just gonna jump in here real quick. Respectfully, I'm not celebrating the fact that only 17% of the poll-answers are in approval of the moderation team. I don't understand how it is dismissive. I am actively trying to make changes in my leadership philosophy as I solicit feedback from my team & the playerbase as a whole. If there is an outcry, I haven't seen or heard it up until last night when I posted the poll. 

 

I realize that my tendency to be passive aggressive and point out hypocrisies on the forums can make people feel like I'm unapproachable. If people feel that the moderation team or server rules are going in a direction that is unhealthy for the longevity of our server — please reach out to me. Recently, other admins have been sending me some feedback that people have sent them, and it's very difficult for me to understand it without context or having a discussion with the player who is concerned.

 

I'm free for the next couple of days and I'll be out of town Friday-Sunday. If anyone wants to VC and provide me with constructive feedback feel free to reach out to me on discord. 

[Telanir 6432]

4 minutes ago, AnonymousAlexa said:

Raid tools should only be allowed when defenders get a one hour notice. Very cringe that raiders can insta hop over walls and slaughter civillians because people couldn't rally on a 5 minute notice lol

 

How do we balance this with red-tape? Giving notice…is that RP-friendly, or dynamic…or even interesting? And, suppose we do remove ladders, then the problem of perma-locked settlements returns—gates down, 24/7. (my problem here is not that players behind gates are safe, it is that it's that community interaction is (literally) gated, and new players be sad for sure).

 

I liked the beginning of this map a lot, gates were wide open come-on-in—but flat turning off conflict would be worse. What else can we try?

[Your Favorite Impure 734]

6 minutes ago, Telanir said:

 

How do we balance this with red-tape? Giving notice…is that RP-friendly, or dynamic…or even interesting? And, suppose we do remove ladders, then the problem of perma-locked settlements returns—gates down, 24/7. (my problem here is not that players behind gates are safe, it is that it's that community interaction is (literally) gated, and new players be sad for sure).

 

I liked the beginning of this map a lot, gates were wide open come-on-in—but flat turning off conflict would be worse. What else can we try?

How do raid ladders attribute to new players feeling welcomed or not though? If anything, raids are incredibly jarring for most new players, especially with how raids lately have been handled. 

[Hot_Dip 680]

3 minutes ago, Telanir said:

 

How do we balance this with red-tape? Giving notice…is that RP-friendly, or dynamic…or even interesting? And, suppose we do remove ladders, then the problem of perma-locked settlements returns—gates down, 24/7. (my problem here is not that players behind gates are safe, it is that it's that community interaction is (literally) gated, and new players be sad for sure).

 

I liked the beginning of this map a lot, gates were wide open come-on-in—but flat turning off conflict would be worse. What else can we try?

Yes a new raid system should be made where people are given a warning message in the tile before the raid commences. I have a google doc with a way better raid system, msg me on discord if you are interested in seeing it. 

[MailC3p 1159]

3 minutes ago, itdontmatta said:

 

I'm just gonna jump in here real quick. Respectfully, I'm not celebrating the fact that only 17% of the poll-answers are in approval of the moderation team. I don't understand how it is dismissive. I am actively trying to make changes in my leadership philosophy as I solicit feedback from my team & the playerbase as a whole. If there is an outcry, I haven't seen or heard it up until last night when I posted the poll. 

 

I realize that my tendency to be passive aggressive and point out hypocrisies on the forums can make people feel like I'm unapproachable. If people feel that the moderation team or server rules are going in a direction that is unhealthy for the longevity of our server — please reach out to me. Recently, other admins have been sending me some feedback that people have sent them, and it's very difficult for me to understand it without context or having a discussion with the player who is concerned.

 

I'm free for the next couple of days and I'll be out of town Friday-Sunday. If anyone wants to VC and provide me with constructive feedback feel free to reach out to me on discord. 

honestly I feel like people think your unapproachable because the players of LOTC

 

1. Have no social skills

2. don’t like confrontation.

 

i’ve never been staff, or really anyone with power while on lotc yet in Mid-Almaris I remember whenever I did something that would upset someone they would never DM me to resolve it, instead opting to DM one of my well known good friends who’d then confront me about the issue instead, you could probably be the best Admin ever, friendly and kind too, but that red tag will always be intimidating 

[Orlanth 3539]

Whilst I feel that I do have a lot to say on the matter of the direction the server is taking I'm going to put them aside in favor of trying to clear the dialogue here. That's to say that there are a couple things wrong with this kind of thread that I think most reasonable people can get behind.

First of all, a thread like this opens the flood gates to villainizing whatever may not be advantageous to a certain player base at a certain time. It is politically favorable for them to declare that X thing is a terrible idea and should never be implemented/should be removed, simply because it's not benefiting them at the moment. In terms of an objective standpoint, anything said on this thread will in turn become entirely useless because everyone is vying for their own agenda rather than what creates what we would consider 'premier' roleplay. Just reading through several of the comments here this kind of division isn't even subtle.

Second of all, the mission statement itself is an unfortunate case of no one can agree what it means. It is entirely possible for two sides of an argument to site a portion of the mission statement and both use it against each other. That's not to say that the intention of it is bad, but that is to say that it's a bit of a lackluster point of measurement. It's easy for anyone to say that roleplay means narrative, story and content but it seems no one can quite agree on what those should entail for LOTC.

My personal advice to the administration is to acknowledge that these issues exist so deeply that they're deeply rooted within the staff teams. At the risk of sounding a bit condescending towards administration, there needs to be more active involvement in moving the server in the correct direction. There needs to be an accepted singular guiding figure of LOTC that is inspired with the direction to turn it into something great, and that is the only way to actually surpass the road to 500 and beyond.

[DrakeHaze. 2483]

@TelanirServer is failing on the first and last guiding principle in your mission statement.

Roleplay first but majority of what is pushed forward is annoying harassment by immortal barbarians to further a narrative where nobody on either side has consequences because the stakes are only ones ooc ego and punishment dealt is either lackluster or a ban which does nothing to rehabilitate those that should; instead receive a villainy blacklist for 1.5x what they would have otherwise gotten in terms of length of ban.

With regards to combat-styles.. But theres no plugins to guide or inform player combat and rehashing combat rules may alleviate some issues it does address the incorrect wording for the final guiding principle. Either it needs to be reworded or removed entirely as it comes off as if there is supposed to be PLUGINS for default combat in some way, and it specifically cites D&D-style systems as some sort of example. This specific principle should be addressed at next admin meeting as the first concern, this is important to LoTC's core values and a change towards good in regards to this would benefit the server immensely going forward. 

Addressing the above will take allot of volunteer time, but what it requires most of all is taking the first step.