Llir

Hello all,

We want to outline the plan for the warclaim postponed from last weekend between Oren and Norland. First off, I want to personally apologize for the delays and technical issues last weekend, and more importantly the lack of communication about what was going on. Collectively, a lot of time was wasted, and we did not deliver the kind of experience that we had hoped for. This post aims to remedy that, and be fully transparent on the plan for the battle and the technical details. 

Test Fight

A number of identified issues have been already resolved in the queue system and war-server, and work is continuing to be done to assure any remaining issues are found. We are planning to host a full test this coming Thursday, at 6 PM EST. For this test, please be on the main server at this time with gear ready, and a broadcast will notify you how to join. Technical staff will be in https://discord.ggo/lotc during the fight to discuss details further. We’re hoping to have a good turnout, so that any issues can be resolved before Saturday. Note: inventory will not be lost on death on the war-server, so do not worry about losing gear.

Battle Plan

The battle will be taking place on Saturday, May 22nd at 4 PM EST. Players are encouraged to rally at 3 PM EST, and the war-server queue will begin moving players in at 3:30 PM EST. An uncapped fight will be attempted, with a close eye being kept on performance metrics such as TPS, ping, and lag spikes. If it is found that the war-server can not handle the expected turnout (evidence of excessive rubber-banding, packet loss, general unplayability), then PVP will be turned off, the death tracker will be cleared, and all players will be sent back to the main server.  Should performance be acceptable, the fight will proceed as normal, and a winner will be declared when the other side has been eliminated.

Contingency Plan

Should the uncapped fight have to be called off, we aim to start the contingency plan by 4:30 PM EST. For all fights Saturday, inventory loss on death will be disabled so that if a reset is required, mass refunds do not slow things down. Further, removing item drops will reduce server lag. The contingency plan will work as follows:

• A 50v50 fight will be set-up, with players being pulled to the war-server by the queue system based on their position in the roster as configured by their leadership (this has already been done, though may be modified until the fighting begins Saturday).
• The PVP will occur until one side has eliminated the other.
• The victorious side will be sent back to their spawn area, and their roster will be replenished up to 50 players from those waiting in the queue. The losing side will have up to 50 new players brought onto the war server, based off the roster rankings
• Players who die in one fight may not participate in a subsequent one.
• The above process will continue until one side has no players remaining to replenish their roster. The other side will be declared victorious.
• Should the 50v50 fight also be unplayable (determined during the first fight), we will reset and scale down to the same process but with 25v25, though this is a worst-case scenario, the server should be able to handle 100 players without significant issues.

Fortifications

Finally, a note on fortifications since I have been seeing quite a bit of questions surrounding them. I have clarified with Moderation that fortifications in warring nations are almost entirely acceptable, with the exception of tiles that are actively being disputed (as in, warclaims have been scheduled). In these disputed areas, fortifications can occur on existing structures, up to the day before a siege (none of which are currently planned for this war), though excessive PVP modifications may be removed. Also, as a general rule, if an area is actively involved in a war or note, builds must meet our Build Standards.

A personal note...

I really hope that things go over smoothly this weekend, and that we all have a fun time. I wanted more than anybody to see a the war server function as intended, a lot of work has been done on it since last summer, and it was heartbreaking to see everything fall apart on Sunday due to what at the end of the day was around 3 simple (though critical) bugs. I understand many of you were disappointed and upset, rightfully so. Proper testing and more clear communication could have avoided many of the headaches that occurred, and that's on me. I could go on and try to make excuses about how I ran out of time, but even with that, other things could have been done such as a smaller main-server fight, or postponing it before everyone wasted their time Sunday. At the end of the day, communication is key, and that was the real issue last weekend. Though it's not productive for me to dwell on past mistakes, all that can be done is to look to how things can be improved in the future. Once again, I want to sincerely apologize for these technical and communication issues, and assure you I am working on improving technical communication and getting both myself and my team more organized. I hope that this post addresses many of your concerns, and that we're able to showcase how great this community can be this weekend.

On a completely unrelated note, the Tech Team is currently recruiting Java Developers. If you know anybody who may be interested, please send them my way.

Cheers,

— Llir, on behalf of the War Team

p.s. Against the advice of my colleagues I am keeping this post unlocked so that people can ask questions about the test fight, the plan for Saturday, or any other questions about the war server. Please don't make extra work for the Moderation team, they're busy enough.

I'm excited we're able to shift focus here to new plugins and fixes that the community wants, I'm really looking forward to turning a new page with the Tech Team and the server.

Hello Lord of the Craft,

Following up on our announcement last week, I am now happy to announce our newest addition to the Administration. 

Please congratulate @ScreamingDingo (GrimReaper98), who will be taking over as Story Admin! ScreamingDingo has been a member of our community since Aegis, and has been instrumental to many of the major event-lines and lore projects throughout the years. He is currently a member of Story Team Management and World Team, and has been on Moderation and Community team in the past.

Thank you so much to @Riftblade for guiding the Story Team for the past year! We're all sad to see him go.

Cheers,

Lord of the Craft Administration

Hello all!

Many of you have heard that @Anore and @Riftblade recently announced their resignations from Moderation and Story Admin (thank you so much to both of them for all the work they've put in!). That, alongside the recent vacancy of World Admin, and the outstanding lack of a permanent replacement for our last Community Admin, the Administration is an interesting state - we're horribly understaffed but have a great opportunity for change. With that, today I will be announcing two new administrators to help lead the future of Lord of the Craft.

Everyone, please congratulate @ImCookiie on his promotion to Moderation Admin. Cookiie has been a Moderation Manager for quite some time, and has shown is passion for moderation and dedication to the team. He was the obvious choice for the position, overwhelmingly recommended by his colleagues, and now to be friendly and compassionate to all those around him. We look forward to him continuing to uphold the standards of Moderation team, and being a friendly face on the administration.

Furthermore, please congratulate @Heero on his promotion to World Admin. Heero has been a member of the World, Moderation, and Story teams, and a longtime member of our staff and community. He's a veteran of the server, having been involved in the development of many of our past maps - and known for his passion for issues that effect the server as a whole. We look forward to him leading the World Team in a new direction, and driving wider change on the server.

We will be looking to fill the vacancies for Story and Community administrator in the coming weeks, and look forward the new perspectives that four new administrators will bring to the server.

Cheers,

LotC Administration

Hello!

Today we'll be opening up the availability of Soulstone pillars to the general public, rather than just Nation capitals and settlements.

At spawn you will find 'Soulweaving Tomes' for sale. Once a tome is purchased, you can hold it in your hand while looking at a redstone block pillar and typing /ss imbue <pillar name>. This will consume your tome, and grant the pillar a certain amount of slots. A pillar can have up to 100 slots if all four soulweaving tomes are used, additional tomes can be added to your pillar by holding the tome and typing /ss study.

Further, pillars can be now be relocated with /ss relocate for a fee of 100 mina. If a nation or independent settlement needs their green pillar moved, have the PRO make a /areq at the new location and we can move it for you.

Finally, for those that purchased green tile pillars under the old system, you will have it converted to a red pillar with 40 slots (epic tome).

Tome prices are as follows:

Common Tome: 250 mina

Uncommon Tome: 500 mina

Rare Tome: 750 mina

Epic Tome: 1000 mina

Each tome can only be used once on your pillar. Do /menu, and hover over the golden apple icon to see which tomes you have active already.

Cheers!