Danny

Neither made that apparent at all, really. If we're referring to Humans, they've always been the most populated race - people have always seemed to choose to be humans over other races. People are killing off their characters quite often - they're then stuck with the decision on making a new one. I think that most people want to have the best RP they can get on the server, and if a nation appears to give that, they're likely to go with it. For dwarven lands, we'd likely put a higher dig limit than we have elsewhere.

No. As long as that settlement is actually in your sphere of influence, you are free to do so - much like you are in regioned land.

It does restore the nation balance, entirely, as explained in the OP. Nations wont dominate others, as it's easier than ever to avoid that - with nations encouraging more people to join them via better roleplay, better events, etc. Plus, nations don't shrink entirely - the smallest they can shrink is around the size Malinor is now. Some areas remain protected yes, but much will be unregioned.

It's not based on the amount of players of the race, it's based on those who actually live, work for, or reside in a nation. So, you wouldn't count towards Oren's figures. Larger population would inevitably lead to more land being obtained / used, however, the failure in administration could quite easily result in that land being lost due to it possibly pushing individuals away from that nation. We aren't taking the strength of the administration into account, as that's not something that's particularly simple to judge, nor does it reflect the amount of land that nation would have the ability to spread it's influence over, whereas population is the most appropriate thing to judge that on. Let's take a look at what's happened with the orcs - it's gone just about perfectly for them. That's exactly why we trialled this before introducing it - we now know that it works, so we know that we're able to introduce it to other nations. The system encourages smaller nations to encourage players to come to them. The nation having a lot of land, and a lot of players, results in it's RP being spread widely and not being as vivid. A nation with smaller land, is able to attract players as it's RP is close together and it's also pushed to make it's RP exciting and to run exciting events. No nation can really gain dominance via this. The influence can't extend over the entire map - it gets kept at a reasonable distance from their capital.

Howdy folks, Today we’re going to be giving you the lowdown on the new way that we’re working nations on the Lord of the Craft. Yup - this isn't us planning to do something, this is us actually doing something - and it's already begun. This new system of nation management is being introduced in order: to make the Realm of Anthos dynamic - previously, how many players a nation had, didn’t actually influence the world much at all. They still had huge amounts of land, much of it unoccupied, and it really didn’t work. Now, things are different. It’s a step forward (much like my proposal for side-story events in the Your View forum), which makes it so the playerbase’s actions actually does have a direct impact on the world. to aid Nation growth - this system encourages Nation Leaders - and members of the Nations - to improve their nation, and to make their nation appealing, and in turn to allow it to grow. to improve roleplay - the new system allows us to ensure that every nation remains unique, exciting and diverse from the other nations. It also means that we can ensure that the roleplay in these nations is at the highest level possible. to open up land for the regular player - this acts as both a nation management system, and a land-use management system. Our promises of free land back when developing Anthos are coming true. So, what actually does this system do? The new system introduces a new ‘population = land size’ system. If a nation has - as an example - 50 players, then it will have less regioned and controlled land than one with 250 players. This is only common sense, however is something we’ve failed to actually introduce in the past. It doesn’t make sense for a tiny nation to be able to control as much land as a giant one - they wouldn’t have the men, power or resources to do so. So, what we’re doing - and what we’ve actually already done with two nations - is, if a nation has a small number of players, the amount of land they have control over is reduced. We’ll of course do this to reasonable levels. It is possible that we may actually begin work on a plugin to deal with this, as was previously planned - but that’s not definite yet. The land that they no longer have control over, then does two things: becomes free-build remains regioned, without that nation having control The way in which the nation then regains control of that land, is via increasing it’s population. How does it do this? It makes itself more appealing - it runs events, it makes forum threads, forum posts about events that were RP’d in-game - it makes itself look like the best nation to join. If they don’t do that, then they obviously can’t control the land they lost control of. However, if they do do that, then the land will be returned to their control - however, it will not be regioned again. Of course, we aren’t going to force people to take control of land again - if they chose to not control it, then it will remain uncontrolled, or another nation could obtain it via diplomacy or war. In instances where land was at one point regioned, but was unregioned due to a nation not being able to control it, the land does remain unregioned, however, the nation is in ‘rp-control’ of it. This means that they have the authority to dictate who resides there, who settles there, what happens on it. So whilst, yes, you can still go and build yourself a house in the orcish deserts - if they regain control of that land, they have the power to decide whether you’ll stay there or not. But, how exactly does this benefit the general playerbase? It resolves the issues that we’ve previously faced, with almost all the land being regioned. It means we have a systematic method through which we can ensure everyone has available land to build on, but to also ensure that nations remain vitally important, and that the essential areas are protected. It provides much more depth to the roleplay you’ll be able to see in nations. If you previously didn’t visit a nation much, maybe you’ll end up doing so now, as they could be running a festival, having a carnival or simply having a little party. The arrival of more events, run by nations, means that you won't be relying on the antagonist (which is still being introduced) for all of your savoury events - instead, you’ll be able to enjoy some peaceful and joyful events. In addition to this new system, we’re also attaching a Lore Master and a GM to each Nation Leader to provide a vital communication link between them and the staff, which we previously lacked. Do remember, these GMs and LMs are not for the nation. They aren’t pocket staff - they aren’t the go-to-guys for your regioning, or chest/door unlocking in that nation - you still make ModReqs for that. They’re there to provide a link between the Nation Leader and their respective staff teams, just that. They still will work on the usual GM work, of course. You may recall the ‘Nations’ plugin that we had some small work done on back in Asulon. This takes some of the same aspects from that. The nations plugin aimed to ensure that nations only had power appropriate to their playerbase - this is essentially that, however, done manually to allow us to be less restrictive and firm on it, but instead to tailor the system to fit each nation. Many of you will also recall the promises we made around a month ago, here. This is how we’re fulfilling two of those promises: the unregioning of Anthos - in a slightly less major way than we had originally planned the focusing of roleplay on capitals - this system will mean that Nation Leaders will make their capitals exciting, and be running events in them, spreading the RP away from the current locations to where it should be. We’ve already applied this system to two nations - the orcs, and the elves. The orcs were the very first to go ahead with it and it went absolutely brilliantly. Of course, we’re not splitting up nations like we did with the orcs, only the land aspects of it. The Elves also allowed for this system to be introduced onto themselves - with Malinor become a city state, and surrendering some of it’s land to Oren - obviously, as Oren is the most populated nation - however, Oren will be making much of that land unregioned anyway, but still having control over it. Both Malinor and the Orcs are able to gain control over that land again as they grow their population. Expect to see much more exciting and entertaining events and roleplay within these nations! That’s about all for now. Keep an eye out for our second year anniversary on the 21st of June, and also the newsletter to be released within the first few days of June. I’ll be around to answer questions after about an hour of this being posted - I’ve got an exam tomorrow, so need to get some revision and practice papers done! Until then, feel free to ask any questions you may have below. Have a great day, and make sure you join with your nations to make the server filled with much more enjoyable, and exciting roleplay!

Exactly what would be done - like the OP says, there'd be an RP invitation sent out that'd reach the ears of everyone - as the example has, the Islanders calling for aid from the Anthos mainland.

Well, an example is what I had in the OP. It could potentially fail in that example, and then the threat would spread onto the Anthos mainland. Alternatively, say, there was on the Anthos mainland to stop corruption spreading - if that wasn't managed, then that corruption would stay there permanently.

There's no really set defined time length on how long each storyline would be. They will change to completely different ones though, yes. One may be an infestation of spiders, and the next storyline could be a powerful Mage causing trouble. Some could take two events, some ten, some more.

I'm not thinking you want random mob events. We can't just jump in game and do random events that come to the top of our heads - we need to make sure they actually make sense in the world - else they do the opposite of creating roleplay. and instead damage it. We need to ensure that they provide an enjoyable experience for players, to do which, we need to look at old events and see how they went. We need to ensure that they'll create roleplay even after the event has finished, to do so we need to make them memorable and ensure that their outcome actually affects the server. We need to make sure we have the staff and resources to run the event - initially, it may seem like a single GM could run it, but by mid-event it could take many, or we may need Event Team actors to run it, and only two might be online - time and staff availability are a major factor. There's more to running an event than just taking a skeleton idea and putting it into action - if you want a good, working event - planning is required, and planning is exactly what we will do.

Comments in bold. The entire point is it might not be enjoyable - hence why we need to find out before hand. Spontaneous events in the past are often those that are found most unenjoyable. The now: I know which one I preferED You can keep a pessimistic view like that if you wish - however, I certainly do not share it. Your points about Aegis are also rather inaccurate. Events back then did have planning done to them, and did often take a long time to implement. However, you didn't notice as events were running whilst they were being planned - we don't have any running just now. Allow us to get up to pace, and there wont be any shortage of events. The entire point behind these events are that they have a direct impact on the world, that they truly do change it and that they are meaningful to players - that they can go down in the lore as major world events, and that they can be spoken about months from now. If we quickly whisk up crap events, that ain't gonna happen. You can't complain about the time it's taken us to get this rolling - as we've ran multiple spontaneous events in Anthos, Elysium and Kalos already - and they received much negative feedback, they weren't enjoyed and they were worthless - which is quite substantial backing to my point that planned events > quickly thought up ones. In the end, it seems like your opinion is set on believing that us quickly thinking up events and just throwing them out there is better than actually developing good ones - which will also introduce new content, areas, etc. It's quite clear that your opinion isn't going to change.

Because that's the worst way to do anything. We aren't going to waste our time doing something that the players don't like, if we could spend our time doing something they do like. Spontaneous events that mean nothing at all aren't what we want - we want meaningful, entertaining events. Gauging feedback from after an event is idiocy - why on earth would we risk wasting time on running a large-scale event, which people don't like? Logically, the way to go forward, is to see what the playerbase thinks before going ahead with it. In the duration it took me to write this thread - I couldn't have run an event, so it's hardly as if the planning for this idea has taken up time that could be better spent.

Not like this they aren't. Currently, we don't do different, unique side-storylines that directly affect the state of the world, nor do we make use of locations not currently on the map.

There could potentially be some smaller-scale events exclusive to VA holders themselves, such as stealing from the vault of a fort - where they'd need to get in past guards, etc - but multiple of them. How that'd work I'm unsure. We'd still leave areas for sabotage by villains in many of the main events however.

Some of the events would provide freedom for people to do that, of course. However, it's more something that they'd need to instigate themselves as well - unless we specifically make it so there's room for hindrance. When it comes to events such as that in the OP, that's unlikely to be possible - the mobs are gonna be hostile to anyone.

Completely the opposite. It's entirely optional to all players whether they participate. Anyone can arrive at any event, regardless of their rank or standing. I can't think of any circumstances where a Nation Leader would take precedence in one of these events over a normal player - at most, they'd be commanding their soldiers.

RP fights are extremely unlikely to occur. We'd have ~100+ players present - RP fights can be clustered with even 5.

Howdy ladies and jellyspoons, This is a concept that I've been wanting to introduce to the server for a while, but I've never really discussed it with anyone except myself... I do feel it's something that we've been lacking lately, and it definitely fixes some of the issues that we're facing currently, in terms of a lack of events. It also reduces the requirement for us to rely on an antagonist for our event-based-roleplay. I want to hear what you guys think, before I go and turn it into a full-blown proposal for the staff, implement it - only to find out you guys think its crap, and you don't like it. The idea's inspired by a feature of Guild Wars 2 - the Living Story. What this is (in Guild Wars 2, not what we'd do) is temporary, short (~one month long) storylines which influences the world permanently. The way it's done in Guild Wars 2 is via quests, dungeons, etc - obviously, we ain't doing that. Obviously, Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG - we're not. That's exactly why I don't want quests, dungeons, magic loot 'n' rubbish like that, but instead, dynamic and unique events, which will revolve around roleplay. What I'd like to introduce is event-driven storylines - which is pushed forward by you guys, the outcome of which influences the world (regardless of how it goes). This wouldn't be a main storyline, this wouldn't be an antagonist. This would be individual storylines, designed to promote more group-based and major event roleplay. The way it would work is, the staff team and event team would work on a concept, up until the points it's ready for us to release. We'd make a thread in the Events forum that'd introduce this storyline, and also discuss the first event - a full blown RP thread that'd reach the ears of all denizens of Anthos. This thread would set a time, date and location for the event. Upon the event starting, we'd make use of a wee plugin we'd have written that'd allow more attractive event-style broadcasts, fancy things on certain names (e.g. an armour chestplate on the name of someone you're meant to be protecting), and things such as that. The event could go either way - you guys failing, or succeeding. The storyline would simply continue on from there. After a set amount of phases in that storyline, it'd come to an end - and we'd begin work on a new one, which'd be released after a small recess (we don't want these storylines coming in one after an other, every day). I don't exactly have any great examples of this, however, I've thought up one very quickly: We introduce a new island off the coast of Anthos. It's inhabited by NPCs (not actual players), and it's faced an infestation of the undead (not Aegis undead - simply mobs - skeletons, zombies). They request the assistance of the denizens of Anthos. You guys go across (at a set time) and are instructed initially to escort an Elder into the centre of the island's town (from the docks) to obtain an Ancient Tome, which the Undead must not keep control of. This would be a mob based event - but not all would be. So, you'd escort the Elder through the town (he'd have the fancy heart or armour icon on his name so you could identify him). During the journey, the undead would obviously attack and there'd be fights in the streets. Event Team actors would play 'Undead Captains' of sorts, and would be able to use less-powerful AOE spell-like things, mainly for cosmetic purposes, although you would need to defeat them. When you reach the Cathedral where the tome is located, the Leader of the Undead would appear, and you'd have to fight him. He'd be spawning minions, have buffed health and stats, and be all hardcore. Once defeating him, you'd reach the Tome, the Elder would collect it, and he'd tell you to grab whatever you can from the Vault. There'd be a chest - which you can only open once per player - which'd contain items exclusive to that event, e.g. a shread of the lich's robe, or something. Once you've done that, you'd then escort the Elder away from the town and to the safe haven campsite, where he'd thank you and tell you to he'd send word when he requires your assistance again. This tome would identify the cause of the Undead Threat, so the storyline would continue with eliminating it. If he died, then the threat would likely spread to Anthos itself, and the storyline would continue that way. The island would remain on the server, as an area you could go to, but it wouldn't be livable on, buildable on - or anything like that. It'd be ruins. Keep in mind the above is only an example - I'm not good with event ideas. We could do just about any kind of event with this, we aren't limited to evil, dastardly undead invasions - we could have festivals on Foreign Isles, sea journeys - anything. The beauty of this concept is that it isn't a main antagonist, it doesn't directly affect Anthos initially - so, if you don't want to participate in a mob fight event - you don't have to! The events would vary from non-violent events, to violent events, to a mix. This'd mean that there'd be events in each storyline that were suitable for every player who wished to participate. I understand that some people don't like mob fighting events, but they were vastly popular when we had them back in Aegis, etc. Back then they were a primary part of the server storyline though - with this system, we keep them on the sidelines - as an optional extra - but we also allow players to experience different flavours of events, rather than having them all just mobs. By introducing this into the server, we don't rely on an Antagonist itself to provide roleplay for meta-events, but we can do them via short and interesting storylines, that'll actually go down in the History Books, and can only occur once. The various storylines will become part of the server lore, extend it to other locations in the world where we're situated and allow for us to create a much more diverse experience. Like I said at the start - I ain't discussed this with anyone, even the staff. So I want to here everybody's views on it. Go ahead and vote, but please, do comment.

We don't have a map up yet, however, one is due to be added in the near future. We're stepping away from the horrid dynmap approach we used to follow, and the new one will be interactive, and much more usable.