VonAulus

What if?

I think some of that does come down to different teams having different culture and changing regulations. You can still for the most part get land from any one of the nations on the map and create something new. I have seen quite a few towns popping up on the additional tiles owned by the nations which is a much better way to integrate roleplayers into the greater story then one off settlements ever will be. You are right about not really needing Admin approval for a lot of what is voted on. The reason why that stuff ends up there is because of pass controversies where people complain which forces a response out of Admins to grab the reigns tighter. On regime change. Telanir does not own the server or really run it day to day at all. I was more saying that something very radical like that would need to happen to really shake up the culture from the top down. Either that or all players who have been here over three years step back from nation leadership.

I think I have been on both sides of this issue pretty recently and it is extremely difficult to legislate for. Player's and staff both want defined rules that they can use to make situations go away that are a problem. More charters/settlements does not equal more integration into the server for new players. The activity data from that last year would show that is inverse, more people log in when the roleplay hubs are more active. If people really wanted, World Team could publish a report of what the data shows. We have detailed data at least ranging back to February which would be before Corona went global. However, I am reading this thread and there is something to the suggestions of chaos and dynamism being important. That is not necessarily something the staff can fix all on its own. Charters are not dynamic though, they are linear. You make a city - you recruit people - you burn out - there is an empty city staff has to deal with and make rules around. It is a viscous cycle that only the most capable are able to upend. Maybe this has caused an over reaction on the part of World Team, including policy I helped push through. Dynamism server wide, however, must rely on player actions and decisions. From perspective of being an Admin and from being one of the almost decade long players, the desire to prevent one's loss is high these days. No one wants to lose now with so much invested, which touches on Urara's point of investment. That is a double edged sword with players being so invested in a nation they will sacrifice greater server health to protect the existence of their nation. I am sure there are moments I could have been accused of the same thing during my play time. Though I think I might have had the most cities burnt down in LotC's history. I wish we could go back and see data from two maps ago and the freebuild era. I would guess it would not look as good as rose colored glasses see. Most of the best parts of the map where occupied by inactive free builds that had one person breaking activity check signs to keep their chests there. The server was much more racist, homophobic, transphobic, and full of sexual predators during that map as well. Of course those are not things that are completely fixed and never will be, but it is obvious meaningful improvements have been made on some of those fronts. I think most of the nations are controlled by a stagnant veteran player leadership that does not dream big or think creatively. People are set in their aesthetics and friend groups and would rather ride out slice of life roleplay. That is not something Admin's or Moderation or World can fix. I do think allowing Nation's to completely control their roads and way larger amounts of land across the board will bear fruit later into the map as Nations expand into each other. I am sure we will get our fill of war. I predict a summer war... there normally always is one. I will be doing some more self reflection on how to help solve some of the 'boring' problem but my own ability to fix that has slightly been exhausted on the organization of the creation of this map. Sometimes you are going to have to look at yourself and see if you are contributing to the boring or doing something interesting. I remember a lot of epic or fantastical things that happened just because someone with an iron will refused to be denied IRP or OOCly. Maybe we are lacking those new personalities or they are prevented by waiting on the Admin team to approve anything. It both starts at the top and the bottom. It is unreasonable to expect 6 volunteers with no real power over the future of the server to fix our problems. However I could not see a solution to that problem besides change in ownership and a complete changing of what LotC is. Are we ready for what LotC would look like on the other side of an ownership change? I think a lot of people would rather hold onto their character/magical/national investments. I appreciate people's comments on this thread, it has engaged my idle brain on this snowy day.

Keep up the good work Junar!

Good work Hiebe, so proud of everything we have been moving forward with! +1

So proud!

Hype!

So hype!

That is pretty cool.

8.0: Settlements Howdy future citizens of Almaris, I am reaching out today to give a bit of an update on the Settlement system for next map. Firstly, four active Settlements from this map have already received vouchers for next map based on consistently meeting requirements. Al’Faiz, Vaelya, Talons Grotto, and Marsumar. More info will be coming very soon to those four about land placement for next map. For all those who did not meet this initial wave, there is going to be a simple process to attempt to get a Settlement for next map. There will not be a ton of these slots available and will be reserved for the best ideas the World Team thinks have a good chance of success. This form is applicable to both Settlements from the current map, and for new ideas. Quick refresher on what we are looking for can be found in the current Region Rules post: That is all I have for today, I will be checking the responses on this post for questions. You can also hit me up on Discord at Grool#6871. https://forms.gle/rWArdFiuJwGWCB6A8

Welcome to the team, Anore!

8.0: Transfer Our approach to the transition to the next map is going to be different than previous maps, and is contingent on the goal of creating a fantasy environment that is more cohesive and sound on a narrative level, while still incentivizing player mechanics and community building. The culmination of this thought comes down to a few policies that will be outlined below. We know map transitions are some of the most speculated topics in our community so we want to be as transparent as we can be. Selection Requirements We will be offering prebuilding to roleplay communities that already have nation status on this map and meet the below criteria. To maintain LotC’s intrinsic themes - the largest racial nation of each core race will be given a pre-build region de facto. This would be Helena, Aegrothond, Krugmar, and Urguan. The next five largest groups, regardless of racial background, by activity data over the last 5 months that follow will automatically get pre-built spots for the next map. This would be: Haelunor, Sutica, Druids, Haense, Morsgrad. Helena – 25.21% Aegrothond – 9.73% Urguan – 4.47% Krugmar – 3.34% Haense – 8.76% Sutica – 7.33% Haelunor – 6.23% Morsgrad – 4.95% Druids – 4.33% No other group currently sits above 3%, the normal Nation Activity baseline. For transparency sake, this model maintains the same list of nations between the ranges of five months, four months, three months, two months, and one month. So there are no outline weeks or months in activity that are affecting this decision. To compensate for this accordingly, we intend to allow nations multiple tiles and far more control of the map to grant to player bases and engage in conflict and diplomacy. There will not be the normal tile lock from this map and nations will have much more freedom with their land to expand and take in new groups and players. We hope by taking the land management out of staff’s hands, we can shift land management towards dynamic roleplay. Nation Spot Selection The nation spot selection is going to involve a series of steps that will require communication from both Nation Leaders and World Team. We will send out a survey to those groups selected for prebuild asking a few basic questions regarding what sort of terrain, climate, and aesthetic a nation would desire. World Team is going to provide a few options to talk over with the Nation Leader and they will rank their top picks. World Team will place the Nations based on their ranked picks around the central themes of the map to ensure a more sensible fantasy world. We hope to have Nation Spots picked out over the next week or so from this post going up. The areas handed over to the players will not be box plots but will be demarcated by natural geographic region. They will have full control of their starting tiles and the terrain will be delivered to them to work on in their own build servers. Your build will need to work with the terrain and not involve significant edits to the terrain to add combat advantages. We hope by entrusting the players with more area, builds will form to the terrain more naturally. We will be checking in with the Nation Leaders on their build progress and reserve the right to request edits if we notice an unnatural and unfair deviation to the existing terrain. Non-Prebuild There will be a system in place before and at map launch to cater to the rest of the player base not included in the nation pre-build. There will be more details about that in a future post to review the status of settlements and lairs. Do not fear, we have not forgotten about you, and you’ll hear from us in our next development diary.

Very proud Muffins, good job!

There are two separate issues you are wanting addressed here: That Community Team has taken player run organization and is now using it. You Own the Wilven Monks idea and LotC Staff is plagiarizing you. First, the Wilven Monks are part of the collective of LotC since the creation and the project was contributed to by players and staff, some around, some gone. If anyone has ownership to the name, it is @shiftnative Here is an early lore piece, building on top of Native’s idea and group: It appears players have in the past been allowed to participate in the organization, which was created by an Admin of the server, and have had special perks such as having homes and a base at the Cloud Temple to help new players. I agree with you that this has been the case in the past and it may be a good idea to take it back that direction in the future. This doc I found seems to be from 2016. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qka8JHMr1TxA1CsJKK65BjoobKh_mGhhm_i5I1JXjkc/edit#heading=h.oz78tctpxlu6 This is 4 years after the order was founded by Native and naturally formed into something else. Since 2012 there have been multiple versions of staff monks, new player guides, roleplay mentors, and various other devices to attempt to help new players. The Wilven Monks are apart of that history and that is why Community Team took something that was inactive and attempted to use it to help the server. To take from my own brief example of submitting lore of the server. I helped Boogerbuster with finishing off the witch doctor shamanism lore back in the day. Once it was accepted I took a break and came back. It was completely different when I came back and they told me I had to reapply because things has changed in the magic system and shamanism. I realized that since I was gone, I was out of the loop and others who were actively using it had co-opted it. There is nothing wrong with that and it is part of being in a culture. People will take something you make and do something else with it. Another example would come more from my career as a builder. Many times I have built something for someone and they have left it abandoned and someone else moved in. The classic example would be the old city of Ves this map. The people I built it for let it go and someone else stepped in to use it. I might have bad feelings about that and not want them to use it, but there is no route or reason for me to take it away from them. They also evicted me from my own city I built but that is life. They were more proactive in taking hold of it and actively using it then I was and they are more then welcome to use the build or tear it down once I had vacated. A third example I will give is Carrion/Ruskan culture. The people who created Carrion/Kralta/Raevir do not condone the usage of the culture by all the different groups. The same could be said about the founding of Horen, Malinor, Krugmar, or the lore/culture of any player group. Once you create something it is out there to create off of. You don’t get to say, “No thats mine and only mine.” I think there is an argument to allowing players to participate in the order and to have Wilven Monk Characters. That seems to be another discussion then the one we are having about who owns the lore. Insert meme about ToS but this is why that clause is important. The Wilven Monks were not your idea and you have no claim to any ownership in any sort of plagiarism case. The Monks are a central aspect to the lore and culture of the server and live in the collective. I personally see no issue in the Community Team using this IC representation as a front to their activities because it adds to the immersion. Why use a different group of monks when this one has been doing the same job for years, off and on? Now if you want to have a Monk civil war story line, sign me up for that warclaim. I would prefer to shift the conversation towards how the Monks could better integrate the player base and work from their current base of operations to offer the best experience to new players the server can provide. New ideas for content and positive steps is definitely where the Admins’ focus lies, not in the gerrymandering of the past. I can not comment on items being taken away from you but that has happened to me before and seems like a conversation to have the with Story Team on how to balance the current iteration of the monks and in returning your Lore Items.

I am a slave to CMU ban me

Accepted, please msg me on discord : Grool#6871.

Hello Seuss, this application does not meet the Staff’s standard for what a Lair is. This camp could be done in another group’s region in coordination with them. I would suggest communicating with another group on Korvassa or on the mainland if you are still interested in putting this camp together.

Welcome to the World Team Competition! The World Team is introducing a Building Competition to gifted, creative players! The general concept of this project is to come together with the community to provide a competitive event with the cooperation of the Community Team to enhance the players’ experience. It will reward players who show promising creative ability to provide to the Lord of the Craft’s platform, allowing others to share a more realistic experience. And for those interested in such, perhaps entice some players to join our team! The competition is a glimpse into what both the World Team does daily and to connect our players with that! General Rules Theme: Participants must present a centralized theme in their build. With permission, participants will be allowed to work in groups. Players may not exceed a group of four. The World Team will host this competition for a few hours on the day, allowing all to complete their builds within a six hour time period. Once in the competition you will be able to have access to a 100x100 plot but the required plot size is only a 50x50, a flat plotworld will be what you will be working on. General Application Requirements Players must be thirteen years old or above. Given the style of your builds will determine your qualification. If you meet such requirements, you may be invited to an interview with the World Team. This event will give you the tools and resources to extend a helping hand to those who seek to become a part of our team! So, what is the general application process? To join our competition you simply need to join our Discord Server! (https://discord.gg/8WuyvY6) Once you’ve done that simply follow the format in #interview-request to get a chance to join the competition! So, what is the staff application process? Those who we see as fit to join the team will be approached by a member of our management. If you manage to get back to us with an interest in joining us we will consider your builds as your trial plots as if it was a normal Trial! No more than 10 applicants will be accepted at a time to the World Team. Thank you for reading this post, we will be starting soon so do make sure to request an interview before then! Prizes First place: 10k Mina, 5 Rename Tokens. Second place: 5k Mina. 4 Rename Tokens. Third place: 2.5k Mina, 3 Rename Tokens. Participation: 2 Rename Tokens. Send inquiries to DylanDeNewb#3399 on Discord for more info.

Hi, I talked to you a bit in PM’s about this application, however, we did not seem to get to a consensus about what you need. Before fully ruling on what is going to happen with this Lair Application can you please expand on where or if you need a region. If you do not need a region there is not much of a point for this app. If you do end up losing your home, I think we would be more able to help with setting up a spot for camp roleplay. If you want, you can edit your responses to the questions above and send me a PM on Discord when you have reconsidered that point.

Hi guys. I regret to inform you that your application for a lair has been unsuccessful. Firstly, your ‘lair lore’ section was incomplete. We expect 1000 words of original content lore, written for the purposes of this application. You failed to meet that criteria - it is not optional. I did have a look at your past posts, and I’m not finding anything particularly compelling that explains what your group is about or why you require a lair. To me, this sounds like something that you can easily work with the event team to create, for event purposes rather than a player-run RP group. Please keep in mind that anybody taking the details of your lair application into RP would be objectively metagaming, which is against the rules, so I do not accept your claim that ‘you can not explain nor give away every detail of what you are planning’. You did not give away any detail at all - not even an outline beyond past forum posts. If you really, really need your lore to be secret, I would encourage you to read the bottom of the lair application format. You can PM a mod to hide your thread if you feel it needs to be private. You did not complete your ‘lair builds’ section satisfactorily. You need to have original builds prepared, including photos. You did not provide either. Furthermore, I do not accept your response to the question about undertaking this group in an existing nation. You need considerably more detail and you need to interpret this through the prism of IC actions - you can not just say ‘oh, well, we’re edgy’. I want to know what it is you do to be edgy, why this would not be accepted by existing nations, what it will do to antagonize people, etcetera. Please elaborate on some specifics next time, perhaps even with some hypothetical scenarios. Why are you abducting people? What is your motivation in-character? This would be more apparent if you had completed the other sections. Finally, I have to reject your response in respect to what this lair might add to the greater world around them. If you decide to make another lair application, I would like you to explain the nature of your ‘player run events of a dark caliber’ and your ‘unique dark lore’. Currently, a number of dark magic groups are extant on the server. I do not accept that you are unable to work with them for the purpose of what you are aiming to do here. Perhaps if you had developed your ideas further, I would be more inclined to do so. Please remember that receiving a lair is a privilege afforded to those groups that are best placed to contribute to the server’s shared story, and that means this application is going to require a fair bit more detail to get you over the line. At the moment, this does not meet the required standard.

Processed.

Hi guys, Unfortunately, your application for a settlement has been unsuccessful. Firstly, your settlement lore section was incomplete. We expect 1000 words minimum of original lore summarizing what your settlement will be, not simply a collation of past roleplay posts. If you are going to include these posts (The key phrase in the description being ‘could include’ rather than ‘can consist of’) they need to compliment your 1000 word write-up rather than simply forming it in its entirety. This is a rule, not just a guideline. I also noticed that some of these posts aren’t written by your group or for your group. This is why we expect 1000 words of original content from you - any past forum posts are simply supplementary, as it isn’t fair that you be able to take credit for the work of others. I think that your settlement government structure definitely requires some work. What about this system is exactly theocratic? Keep in mind that King John is not a canon deity on the server - this is not an impediment, of course, by any means! - but should definitely be taken into account when considering that your stated ‘theocracy’ is based on ‘divine governance’. How does this divine governance actually translate to your theocracy? What sort of tenets does King John actually expect his subjects to espouse? What role do his teachings have in the application of law and how will this generate roleplay in your settlement? You mention ‘five individuals of different backgrounds’ - what’s the nature of these different backgrounds? Can you elaborate on this further? Your reference to the Council of Nemok as King John’s ‘prophets on earth’ needs much more development as well. I am satisfied with your builds and believe they fit the aesthetic fine. I also do not accept your answer that what you are going for here fits a unique niche that can not be done anywhere else. You are talking about the tenets and will of King John himself but you have not whatsoever elaborated on how that actually practically applies to roleplay. Offering a place for ‘cults, banditry, thieves, the so-called scum of the earth’ is not exactly a unique niche, either. I can name several places like that that exist on the server currently, and I would recommend looking into roleplaying with them if you are not willing to develop your concepts further. I don’t believe that your ‘new religion’ is anywhere near as developed as it ought to be to fulfil your stated goal of offering a new religion or culture for players to adhere to. I don’t think that ‘making the defense defend better’ is particularly relevant to this section either - this question really requires a lot of work and a bit more deep thinking if you would like to get accepted. As for being an antagonist, I am not seeing evidence of any ways that you will actually do this besides mindless banditry. If that is the route you would like to go for, that’s fine, but you don’t need a settlement in order to do that. You also did not tie your settlement into the server’s greater lore and narrative in a satisfactory fashion - everything that you wrote about here could have existed in total isolation from every other entity or occurrence on the server. If you want to be an antagonist, you need to give considerable thought to the context for your antagonism. This application will need a lot more work to be considered by World Team. Remember, we take the best candidates out of the pool when a slot becomes open. Giving you this feedback now is to prepare you to either make changes to your plan and update it with better and more cohesive information to put your best foot forward.

Accepted, please get the 100k to me in game.