Backup Lago

Have you changed your name? Because I don't recognise it.

42 minutes ago, ski_king3 said:

To answer this all to the detail I think you'd desire, we'd need someone willing to write a ten or so page essay.

 

That being said, most lore was made public, including Mathic, and it was/is being reworked due to the community's fairly negative response.

When did that happen?

mustresisturgetosayItoldyouso

33 minutes ago, James2k said:

1.9 pvp sucks

Is that 1.9 vanilla PvP sucks outright or 1.9 vanilla PvP plus whichever plugin LotC is trying to redesign it with sucks?

Figured I'd check in after, what's it been, two years? Looks like a lot's changed, a lot of new names, a lot of names that had gone are back, a lot of names that were there have gone.

I guess my question is, how's it been folks? What's happened over the past two years? Good stuff? Bad stuff? Stuff that somehow fits into both categories? Has the server got better or gone downhill? Are the staff more professional now or less? Do we have a map in a glass case or can people interact with it again?

A dwarf merchant reads the notice and shakes his head. "Carbarum gems? Ah suppose he's got iron gems and gold gems tuh. Aneh gud master of their trade knows carbarum beh a metal. 'e's mixing it up with diamonds."

I could work something out with Connor.

If the answer could result in you rejoining... extremely badly.

Who's in charge these days?

How badly do you need LMs?

- GMs unintentionally reveal in PMs that Halfling now have not lost their land due to inactivity. The reason they lost their land is because they were 'inflammatory' towards staff.

As I said, petty draconian revenge which GMs should be above rather than acting like children.

It still lacks a leg to stand on. Their reason now is "halfling leaders were rude." GMs are meant to be above petty revenge.

The GMs, FMs, and any other moderation team get it really rough, generally undeservingly. They try their best to make people happy, but what makes one person happy, often times makes others angry. There is often no right answer, and sometimes the right answer is difficult to make. They are expected to stay active(modreq’s, forum work, ect), to act professional, approachable, and be role models for the server.

Moderators will get **** for being professional, not being professional enough, making the “wrong” decision, or just enforcing the rules they’re supposed to enforce. More often than not, being Staff is largely thankless, aside from the few rare times. Regardless of what the they do, they will be given a hassle and will be largely disliked for whatever they do. Yet, they continue to do it anyways.

It's because of the way LotC's moderation is structured. GMs are the ultimate authority, not the server rules. You're not enforcers of the rules, you're in a sense vigilantes: you enforce what you think is right rather than what is written, and some of the rules are intentionally vague to assist this. And because there are so many of you, this results in inconsistent, opaque and terrifyingly personalised moderation and enforcement. Most of the GM enforcement rules are hidden from the players. As a result, the players as a whole don't trust you. These calls of bias and "pocket GM" are not unfounded: even if that's not the case it's how it appears.

This is easily fixed by changing the rules in a manner I've been suggesting for years, starting with axing the rule the that a player must immediately obey any GM command (whether it's breaking the rules or not) or face banning. End the "unwritten rule" nonsense and require any ban for a rule not on the server rules to be added to the server rules within 48 hours or to be overturned. Cap on the spot bans where the rest of the GM team has not been consulted at 1 hour. Create a second, public GM ban report forum where copies of every ban along with their reasons must be posted (I understand the need for the second one due to particularly graphic chatlog evidence not being suitable for public display). Drop this "cannot appeal for X hours" silliness: the whole point of a ban appeal is to protest the ban as wrong: all that serves is to claim infallibility and give you the power to ban freely without consquence.

Operate transparently and make the rules thread the ultimate authority rather than yourselves, and players will be angry at you far less.

And give the halflings their plot back. Seriously, this is just GM Team saving face and being angry at the loudmouth halfling leaders. You're talking about the right answer, and I can hardly see how obliterating the halfling's plot serves any right whatsoever.

This is about every halfling that we have spoke with in chats. The staff recognizes that not all halflings are at fault but many of you have been literally impossible to work with.

So you destroy their whole town for a few loudmouths?

Come on, this one's fairly obvious. You're putting not being seen to be undermined and getting one over a bunch of insolent halfling players over doing the right thing. Space is not at a premium on this map. So what if the halfling village is wildly inactive? Do you think destroying it will boost their activity?

Giving their perms to some active halflings, sure, that I could understand. But worldediting their village to dust? That's not trying to help their activity, that's an act of vengeance.

This isn't about fairness (as laughable as that word is on LotC) or activity, not any more. It's about saving face.

Essentially what BNK said. Just make it, manage it yourself, set the rules how you want to, and see who comes. Here's a very brief example, I might write a bigger one later.

"Underground Mage Dueling Arena

Rules
A match is presided over by either a judge or a panel of three judges. They monitor the match both in and out of character. When discussing powergaming judges confer via /whisper or via Skype so that the players cannot hear them. Any L-OOC prefaced with RULING: is a powergaming ruling agreed upon by the judges by which players must immediately abide.

Breaking the IC rules of the arena (physical strikes in a mage duel, striking to kill outside of a death match, not obeying in character instructions from the judges) is part of roleplay: if caught the character automatically forfeits the match.

Breaking the OOC rules of the arena (eg: refusing to abide by judge's rulings on powergaming, engaging PvP in the arena, refusing PK on death if this was agreed to be a death match) results in the forfeiture of the match and the banning of the player from the arena: those who refuse to comply with the OOC rules aren't welcome.

It is in the overwhelming interests of the judges to be completely fair and impartial: suspicion of OOC bias on the part of the judges will destroy OOC trust in the arena and players will not attend. They'll probably go to other arenas (as any player can set up an arena)."

Never seen the new map from above before. Builders and painters did a good job.

Kinda wish it had players on it though. That'd do more for concentrating roleplay than any amount of rules restrictions.

Let the craftbook doors, 10 door vaults and hidden pits commence!

Come on GM team. I'd have thought you'd understand your server better than this.

"Ah shud be king."

Man, maybe you should have RP'd instead of expecting people to take care of ya.

And maybe you shouldn't talk down to people involved in situations you know nothing about.

In character, this wouldn't work because of the nature of dragonic creatures. A drake is a corrupted, tainted dragon. The small boy trying to ride it, assuming he managed to get on his back, would probably die of skin burns.

As for a dragon, you know when a cat gets food on the top of its head and it flails around trying to shake it off so it can eat it? That's what it'd be like with a dragon.

Out of character, it wouldn't work because you couldn't do dragon riding mechanically and the playerbase are very against it and have been for many years.

If players are caught having tea and crumpets with elves without RPing the curse out, the curse will be taken away from them.

That easy to cure, huh? Or are we talking PK clauses?

Nothing I hate more than an irreversible change being undone by "Mortalisation" by admin. Glaring at you, second wave Harbingers.

This lore had tremendous support from the community and it pains me that it was shot down.

I don't recall that, and this thread seems to disagree with that assertion.

As I recall (I can't access the LM forums to check because I'm not an LM any more) a year or so back when this went through the Lore Team, it had one person backing it for trial implementation, and that was me. I believe my suggestion was to approve it for your use only to see how it went. Nobody else was in favour.

Furthermore, if Pandan's post is any indication, the current LT isn't exactly on board either. And knowing the LT, I wouldn't have high hopes short of an overhaul.

Cut it down to its fundamental tenets. What is this at its very core? Then you can build it up again without weakness.

As is oh so common on LotC, a "curse" grants someone special powers. Unfortunately, this looks to be another creature that'll end up walking around insert-elven-capital-here while being completely socially accepted by elven society. That, and players inevitably powergaming their special powers to fight off the hordes of Oreners that come to kill it.

I see no change from last time that would warrant the current LT to change the verdict of a year ago.

When lockpicking chests for items existed, what did you like about it?

Nothing whatsoever.

We don't need lockpicking in any form. It's a wick for rage with no RP benefit whatsover. Besides, people will just hide their chests, just as they make vaults with 16 wooden doors to avoid doorpicking, or woud make all their walls 7 blocks tall if 6 block high grappling was allowed.

Lockpicking sucked when we had it in Anthos. That, and bringing it back is kind of a slap in the face to donors.

We've had one of those since Anthos.

You're playing monsters, so you'll be hunted.

Frost Witches are shapeshifting ice succubi made of necrotic slush that breed by infecting vunerable women and who seduce and then tear apart and eat men. They're practically the poster girls for all that is unholy in every religion in Vailor so the dwarves and humans of religious fervor are after them, and the humans, dwarves and orcs will try to eradicate them anyway because Frost Witches prey on them. And if there's one thing humans and those of human mentality do, it's try to eradicate their predators. If people don't see you as evil and want to hunt you down and kill you when your nature is exposed, then they're breaking character.

What isn't right is being metagamed, and that includes suddenly being very interested in seeing a Frost Witch player's teeth or blood.

All employment is paying for time.

If you want to charge people then charge people, but if you're charging professional fees then people'll expect professional quality (looking at the portfolio you have online you've got that covered) and professional behaviour. And posting block cap forum rants is not professional.

If children offer you worthless ingame stuff, politely tell them that you can't eat that. Don't post a rant up at everyone else at the forums because it tears your professional image down like nothing else. It makes you come across as an amateur, a hobbyist, and that makes people less willing to enter a business arrangement with you, which is what this is. You don't have to work for free, but neither to people have to buy from you.

Furthermore, how payment is rendered is an agreement you should make before you start. Don't tell people they should pay up front, demand it as part of the initial arrangment. It's no good asking for money after you've given them a goods because unless they signed a contract what legal weight do you have to chase them down? If you're requesting payment for services then this is a transaction and you should treat it as such. What happens if they're unhappy with the finished work? Agree this beforehand. Be clear from the start and nobody will feel cheated. Communicate well, assume nothing.

If you want to be treated like a professional, present yourself accordingly.

Pretty much that.