Viper3X

Hey guys, just a quick update. -Coal VIP has received a new, darker grey color (it's very similar to the Total Tophat group color). -Member has been changed from its ugly brown to Coal VIP's previous color. -New User has been changed to the same color as the Member group. -Old Hat has been changed to the same color as the Member group. -Old Hat's prerequisites have been changed from a minimum of 500 posts to a minimum of a year and a half registered on the forums; in order to make this transition, I must move all current Old Hats to the Member group and then allow the forums to automatically move those that meet the prerequisites back into the Old Hat forum group. This may or may not work as intended. -A new forum group has been introduced -- Old Fart! This one will be rarer than Old Hat, as you must be registered for two and half years to meet the prerequisites. The forum group color is the same as Member and Old Hat. -Introduction of a Nether VIP rank. More on this will be revealed soon, but I will reveal that only one person will have access to this rank at a time. Edit: A few new changes are listed below. -Junior Technicians are now known as Coders. -Senior Technicians are now known as Technicians Why? There's a huge difference between the two, and we wanted to differentiate them further. Junior Technicians generally code side projects, and they don't have access to console, OP powers, or other moderator privileges. Senior Techs, on the other hand, have access to all of these things and they code major plugins for the server. They are entrusted with much more power. Thus, they are now known as (server) technicians. Edit #2: New User renamed to New Member.

As many of you may know, we now utilize a new trial GM system. We needed a new trial process that would be effective and simple, and I can easily say that these changes provide just that. Under this new system, each new recruit is considered a trial GM for two weeks. During the two week period, trial GMs are tested, evaluated, and trained. Trial GMs will be restricted in some ways compared to a GM, such as limited access in-game (no Voxelsniper or WE usage is allowed unless permitted). Once the trial period is over, the trial GM will be either offered a position on the GM team or demoted from trial GM. The process is as simple as that. Trial GMs do not have a free ticket to GMship anymore. They will be supervised much more closely than in the past as well. In fact, the entire GM team will be supervised and regulated much more strictly than in the past. So don't feel discouraged if you succeed in becoming a trial GM but do not make the cut into GMship, as there's always a second chance.

While the reason of "contributes to elitism" was on a small scale (certainly not as much as we have seen spamming), it has been witnessed here and there. Yes, I realize that the Ex-GM joke is just that, a joke, but it wasn't the only case. It comes down to redundancy. We were starting to create too many redundant forum ranks that contributed little. If you want a small bit of good news, we will be introducing a new forum group, but the only requirement will be time registered on the forums.

It's comments like these that contribute to nothing and represents complaining for the sake of complaining. If you would elaborate, I will withdraw my statement and try to heed your feedback.

Greetings and Happy New Year! I wanted to kick off the beginning of the year with an update packed full of promising changes, and I have been working tirelessly for the past week in order to do so. This update consists of additions, changes, and removals, which means that some will be equally liked and disliked. Nonetheless, I highly encourage you to consider these changes and hold off on the feedback threads until we give them a go. With lots of thought and consideration, I present to you today, the first day of 2014, the very first news announcement of 2014! I recommend reading through the list of changes thoroughly in order to minimize the wave of questions that are guaranteed to arise from this large update. I will not be providing a TL;DR, as all of the information is important and should be read. Without further ado, here’s the New Years update! Change #1: We’ve heard your pleas, your cries, and your feedback regarding the reimplementation of the Lead Developer role. We have weighed the pros and cons, and I can safely say that I believe we have eliminated all cons associated with this role. How so? Read on! Who better to promote to Lead Developer than someone who has had past experience with this position? That’s right! Shiftnative will be reprising his role as Lead Developer here on LotC. He will be promoted to administrator promptly, and he will begin working on the development of the server once more as soon as he gets situated. But it doesn’t end there! In order to eliminate the biggest con of the Lead Developer role, we have decided that the Lead Dev will not be the person to go to for the final say in any and all situations. Instead, each administrator will have the final say in their own assigned area of focus on Lord of the Craft. With that said, we will still be working closely together in order to make LotC the best that it can be. The main difference now is that each admin has their own specific area of focus, rather than each administrator being a general admin with added responsibilities depending on where they help out. This is intended to give more direction to each administrator so that they know exactly what they should be doing and what they are expected to achieve. Again, it still doesn’t end there! We are also introducing an entirely new role that has never been seen before on LotC. With this update, I will be assuming the role of Lead Administrator (or Head Admin, whichever you prefer). My new role focuses on staff and community management. It will be my duty to oversee every staff team (much life before as Advisor of Teams), and I will also be working closely with the community in regards to server changes and ideas. It will also be my responsibility to oversee the administration team as a whole. What does this mean? No, I will not have the final say in regards to issues involving the server. However, it will be my responsibility to ensure that each administrator is kept in line and succeeds in their assigned duties. If an administrator is found to be, for example, slacking or abusive of their administrative powers, then it will be my duty to reprimand them. I would like to make this very clear. The Lead Administrator position is not what the Lead Developer position previously was. For example, if you have an issue with server maintenance then you will still go to Tythus, if you have a lore inquiry that must be elevated above the Lore Masters then you will still go to Rittsy, and if you have an issue with a team leader or a staff issue that must be elevated above the appropriate team leader then it will go to me. However, if for example an administrator is found to be abusing their in-game powers, then (and only then) will you bring it to the Head Administrator. Change #2: Continuing on with the responsibilities of the Lead Administrator, starting today I will be taking charge of the GM team. Urasept has willingly handed the team over to me so that he may focus on the 4.0 antagonist development and other areas that he is required. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the Global Moderation team, you may take it up with me. The GM team can expect to see new quotas, expectations, and responsibilities outlined soon. To clarify, as Lead Administrator I am Head of the GM team and also Head of Team Leaders. I deal with all issues regarding staff management. I will also be taking charge of community management, much like Danny did as our player relations administrator. All community issues will be elevated to the Lead Admin should the need arise. These two sub-roles will be known as Staff Manager and Community Manager. Change #3: We are promoting a new Team Leader for the Media Team! Lanader will be taking over Haelphon’s role as director of Media here on LotC. For all of you Haelphon fans out there, take comfort in knowing that Hael will still be participating in the Media Team when he has the time, but he will no longer be responsible for the team’s leadership as he has resigned from the position. Lanader will be undertaking a two week trial period that I have established for him. During this time he will prove his capability as Team Leader. A few individuals were considered for the role, but ultimately we decided to give Lanader a chance at the position. Lanader has already proven his moderator capabilities, so the transition should be fairly smooth for him. Please take the opportunity to congratulate him (and shiftnative!) on his new position. Change #4: While I did say that the SM team would be sticking around for the foreseeable future, I made that statement before there were plans for me to become Head of the GM team. I have decided that it would be more beneficial to the server to remove the SM team and implement the new trial GM system in its place. The new process will function much differently than the previous system that most would argue failed. In short, new GMs will be labeled a trial GM for two weeks. During this two week period, the trial GM(s) will be tested, evaluated, and trained extensively. At the end of the two weeks, the GM recruit will either be promoted to full GM or demoted from trial GM, depending on their success or failure. No longer will new GMs be tossed into the scary world of moderation with little training and direction. Expect to see new GMs join the team as we progress into the new year! Change #5: In order to cut down on forum spam and elitism, we will be removing the ex-staff groups on the forums and Teamspeak server. In addition to this, we will also be removing Total Tophat, Fancy Fedora, and Brilliant Breezer from the list of forum groups. This is a small change, but likely the one that is going to draw the most negative feedback. I realize that people don’t like things being taken away from them, especially because they are “achievement” groups, but I want to try to cut down on redundant forum groups and useless TS ranks. Sorry guys! Change #6: The ability to lockpick and forcefully break into chests is now disallowed outside of raids and war. Lockpicking LWC (locked) chests rarely ever creates RP for individuals other than the thief and the GM overseeing the theft, and it creates more trouble than it’s worth at the moment (especially considering the number of modreqs this creates). The creation of a plugin for lockpicking might change our stance on this, but until that day lockpicking/breaking into chests is not allowed outside of raids and war. Doors are still up for debate, so at this point in time you are allowed to lockpick/break down doors. The general consensus is that lockpicking introduces more problems than it’s worth, and the removal of such a thing will increase the value of LWC. What’s the point in LWC if you can just lockpick past it? With that said, you are still allowed to rob unlocked chests (though VA rules still apply) and other items not locked inside chests. One of the primary reasons we keep VAs is to regulate lockpicking and murder without motivation, and the removal of lockpicking will allow an easier transition to the removal of VAs if we decide to go that route. Change #7: Finally, we will be removing the signature restrictions that were introduced after the last GM meeting that we held. We wanted a way to make signatures smaller (as people were making outrageously large signatures), but the system that we attempted to implement didn’t exactly work out the way that we planned to (even people with small signatures were having to shorten/remove them). We have decided to do away with restrictions and instead simply have FMs and GMs enforce it on a case by case basis, so please be reasonable with your signature sizes. That looks like everything! I know some people were expecting either the magic plugin or the removal of VAs to be announced, but unfortunately that isn’t the case today. I can assure you that the magic plugin is being worked on tirelessly by Telanir, but hundreds of spells can’t be coded in one day! Villain applications will require further discussion between the administration and global moderation teams, but I guarantee that we will address them soon. We need to more thoroughly weigh the pros and cons of the options presented before us, and we didn’t want to rush a decision. Expect to see the changes rolled out tonight and tomorrow! I’ll close with saying that these changes are the first of many within the year of 2014, so don’t expect any of us to be going into hiding after today! Happy New Years everybody and enjoy your day! -Viper3X and the rest of the Administration Team

Buycraft is currently down so we are having to set VIP groups manually in-game (as well as on the forums as usual). I went through all of the most recent donation emails and updated everyone's rank accordingly both in-game and on the forums. Enjoy your new VIP status!

The maximum number of positive reputation up votes in 24 hours is currently defaulted to 10 as a member. However, ranks such as Aether VIP have an increased limit of 100 up votes in a 24 hour time frame. Ender VIP and below have a limit of 10.

This has never happened. Not once. We do not use any armor at all in fact.

Your forum ranks have been updated!

Everyone's group has been updated except for Origin_Lark, as I am waiting for him to respond to my private message. As a note to Hobolympic, unless you have donated $50 for both accounts, only one account may have VIP status at a time. I have set your account erlend0501 to Gold VIP, but if you want Hobolympic to have VIP status then let me know and I will switch it.

I'd hardly consider the halfling settlement a capital city. But don't quote me on that.

Before I begin, if you haven't read the thread yet please visit the following link: Click me! As I said in the thread linked above, I am only considering/reviewing the suggestions that actually had polls associated with them (or became a popular topic). I provided over a weeks worth of time for the community to gather their ideas into one place, and here they are. Thanks for all of the ideas everyone, and I sincerely apologize for the length of time that it took to get this thread up. I wanted to discuss all of the topics with the admin team, but sometimes that's easier said then done with everyone's busy schedules. Let's get started! Plug and Play Catapults Who Gets Access to the Magic Plugin & Whitelisted Subtypes Limitation/Removal of Many Aspects of Combative RP or the Need for it Eliminating Currency Plug-ins What to do About Villain Applications 4.0 Professions and Experience Gain 4.0 Let's Condense Roleplay Give us a Map 1. The Asulon Improvement Committee in, well, Asulon simply wasn't successful for many reasons, and I foresee similar issues occurning with this suggestion. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea on paper and I would love to see it work, but we tried twice in Asulon and it was never successful. However, I also do not think we will even require such a team in the near future, as I intend on solving that with the next big reveal I hope to make this week if all goes to plan. 2. This is a really neat suggestion, but unfortunately it doesn't really have a place on this server at this point in time. I can already imagine all of the trouble we will have to go through to regulate catapults and their use, as well as the damage they will cause if abused. Even if we felt they could be utilized on LotC, they certainly wouldn't be a priority for our coders. I took the opportunity to speak with Sporadic regarding catapults and he said that it would take much time and effort to code it properly (and lag-free). This would draw time and effort away from more pressing plugins like the magic plugin and Nexus (and I'm not referring to Nexus Combat, as I do not consider it pressing). Perhaps we can look into this again in the future. 3. We will definitely consider this (or a similar system) for the magic plugin if it is needed, but Telanir currently has a system in place for how this is going to work (no spoilers!). I'm not going to expand on this too much as I don't want to reveal anything, but know that the magic plugin is on its way. I have seen its progress -- and no, I would not be saying that if the plugin was still 6 months away. ;) In regards to the Whitelisted Subtypes thread, I believe this idea has already been somewhat implemented (or fully). Regardless, the Lore Team will be revealing numerous changes over the next little bit that will (hopefully) significantly improve the magic system. 4. I will be the first to say that combat roleplay isn't leaving any time soon. Discouraging the frequency of war on a large scale? Perhaps, but combat is a huge aspect of roleplay on its own and removing it would cause more harm than good. We have some changes in store for 4.0 that will hopefully improve our war/raid system, that's for certain, but I'm not quite ready to discuss that because a lot can change between now and then. 5. This is definitely a topic that would require even further community discussion. Why? In the end, it all comes down to shops. They are the primary reason we use a currency system currently. With the implementation of auction houses, non-physical currency can be used to purchase items even when the seller isn't online. This benefits members that play during the off-hours that otherwise wouldn't be able to purchase goods and items. If we didn't have a working shop system then I might be inclined to give it a go or investigate the possibility of a change, but right now everything seems to be functioning smoothly (at least from what I have been told). 6. Hmm... what to do with villain applications. That is the question now, isn't it? Unfortunately, I can't give you an answer right now. On one hand, 50% of the community wants to keep VAs or change them, and the other half wants them gone for good. I'm here to tell you that either option really won't change that much in the long run. Does that mean that I don't think something should be done? Of course not. What I am merely stating is that I think a lot of people overreact when it comes to villain applications. Many people seem to think that villains will run loose if we unrestrict villainy, but why? Isn't it us who defined villains as a separate group in the first place? We made them a thing due to VAs. If it weren't for VAs, people would just roleplay how they wanted to. You wouldn't have people trying to be the most ultimate evil villain in the world -- not that we encounter that kind of situation frequently anyway. Point number six is probably going to contain a lot of my own ramblings, so prepare yourself. I'm going to be completely open and honest to you about my personal opinion on villain applications. I propose to you two options -- two different approaches to the situation. Here's number one: remove villain applications. However, I do not think solely removing villain applications will solve the problem. In fact, I think it will expand our current ones. Let's say we removed VAs, I wouldn't just stop there and say everything is fixed. No -- if we're going to remove VAs, we also need to remove a couple of other things too. What other things, you might ask? In a few short words, lockpicking and killing without reason. Don't misunderstand me, you would still be able to rob chests when raiding or during war, but /only/ during the conflict. After all, your items can't be entirely safe when they're locked up. I strongly believe that removing lockpicking entirely will solve many issues. In addition to this, players shouldn't be able to make up random reasons as to why they should be able to kill someone. For example, a psychopath walks up to you and tries to kill you because he's insane and the voices are telling him to do it -- STOP right there, criminal scum! We don't want that. Why? One, it causes lots of arguments and complaining, and two, there's very little RP involved and we simply don't want people trying to murder other players for no good reason at all. If we ban these two things, I strongly believe that removing VAs /could/ work, but it's all theoretical (after all, I could be missing something). The second option is to keep VAs but modify them greatly. If we were to keep them, I think we should simplify the process but still make obtaining a VA an actual achievement. Should they be hard? Certainly not. But they also shouldn't be a simple fill in the blanks and you're good to go. Perhaps a one VA per account system that would set you up for life. There's still some problems with this that I would like to point out, however. First and foremost, I greatly dislike the idea of forcing players to create /another/ application in addition to their whitelist application just so they can participate in "advanced" RP. Why? What's the point of it? The point is to weed out the bad roleplayers that would otherwise abuse the restricted evils. However, I'd like to say today that if someone is playing on the server to abuse certain aspects of roleplay, why should we have to revoke that aspect of roleplay from them and simply say "no more killing people for you!"? If they're breaking server rules, there's other forms of punishment for that *cough* suspension *cough*. I do not think revoking a certain RP privilege from them is an effective way of punishing someone. Either you take the toy away from the kid or you don't -- you don't break it up into tiny pieces, take a few, and then give it back to the child. Now you can't play with the toy without experiencing only part of the fun. That process just doesn't sound right to me. Now hear me out. I am not saying that I am in favor of removing villain applications on a personal level. In fact, either decision will faze me little as I am only here to make sure that LotC grows and improves for the better. But with that said, I am also willing to push for a certain decision to be made if I believe that it will improve what we have already built ourselves upon. What do you guys think? Will removing villain applications really cause that much of a problem if we implement the above proposed changes? I truly think that the only reason people are that worried about removing VAs is because they think people will start to abuse the fact that they can now kill others and steal without having to file an application in order to do so (which right now is a very easy one). But what if we restrict that entirely? I'm all for removing restrictions and barriers, but the two restrictions suggested a couple of paragraphs up will cause all arguments regarding the need for VAs to be null and void. Unless I'm missing something, I strongly believe it is a secure system. Now hear me out one final time; I want to make it clear that I am in no way pushing for VAs to be removed or kept in any way, shape or form. But in my position I must constantly be looking for ways to improve Lord of the Craft, and if I've done my research correctly I believe this might be an improvement if implemented correctly. With that said, I want to hear the community's feedback on this. I'm also prepared to get yelled at just a tad because I haven't really discussed this with the staff yet. 7. Unless I'm mistaken, I am almost certain that the winning vote in that thread was the intended option for a professions plugin already (or a combination of the top two). However, we'll have to wait and see when we actually get closer to coding our own professions plugin. 8. This definitely won't be a problem come 4.0. There will only be four capitals for each of the four main races in addition to the high elves and Kharajyr (don't quote me on the Kha). We won't be allowing a bunch of new kingdoms to sprout up all over the place, and only the main capitals will be regioned anyways. That's the plan, but things do change. 9. Most of you are already aware of this, but this wish has already been granted at the time of this post. If you haven't seen the new dynmap yet, you can view it here or click on the tab at the top of the page titled "Map." It looks like I've covered everything. I apologize for the long post, but I felt it was needed in order for me to convey my thoughts correctly. I expect this thread to stir up quite a conversation, so try to remain civil! Thanks guys. -Viper3X

An unfaced, robed being chuckles as he reads over the inflammable note. As he places his hand over it, the parchment falls victim to the cold and crumples from the frigid grimness of his freezing touch. He slams his chilling steel sabaton into the earth, twisting his leg while watching the note bury itself into the ground. The figure gazes up to the numerous individuals observing his actions, and begins to speak. "Would you be so foolish to believe the lies of this unknown messenger? He challenges you to bravely stand against the approaching darkness, yet he cowers in the shadows hiding from what he claims to be inferior? If the dragon is so weak and puny, then why hasn't it been slain? Why did you not end it at the battle of Greywynn? Surely none of you have ever been swallowed by a Shurr'dru, only to rupture its entrails and split it in two? Even the orcs mightiest weapons yielded to Death itself that day and fell to the unforgiving grasp of the North. If the Black Wyrm is as measly as you claim, then why has the Ascended themselves skulked in the far reaches of this world, watching from afar while the one that will mask out the sun purges the land with his gift? An entire order fell to the Drakaar many years ago... An order committed to the so-called purification of the dragonkin. And look what happened to them! They serve him to this day because he opened their eyes... he showed them their real purpose. It was them that needed to be purified. He granted them the gift of immortality, and with that came true power. And in return, all he asked for was eternal servitude. Is that not what you want? Mortals crave a purpose, they crave power. You are all fragile... the curse of flesh hinders you. You are the ones who are weak. You may stand against the Dark Master, but when your bones litter the earth and his chosen followers bury you beneath the ground, only then will you know who made the right choice. The choice only a fool wouldn't make. If you wish to begin a war, then throw yourselves into battle. But don't forget which side suffers the curse of inevitable death, and which does not."

Cyber bullying has always been against the rules -- if that wasn't clear, it is now. Any form of harassment is punishable, but we are usually pretty lenient with this so long as warnings are heeded the first time around. Being annoying and trolling isn't against the rules by definition, but if it starts to cause severe problems then we won't hesitate to intervene. We aren't going to ban you for repeatedly asking questions on a frequent basis (even if it's annoying), but we will punish you if you constantly annoy and harass other players for your own enjoyment even after they (or GMs) politely ask you to stop. See the difference? The words "annoyance," "pest," and "nuisance" were used as descriptive/supporting words for harassment/bullying.

Just a quick notice: The dynamap is now linked in a tab at the top of the webpage labeled "Map." No more digging for the dynamap thread on the forums!

Greetings LotC! Some of you are already aware that we had a three hour long GM meeting today, but for those of you that aren't... well, we did. Anyways! Many people are already beginning to wonder what was discussed and what decisions were made, but unfortunately for you I am not ready to reveal much yet. Nonetheless, don't feel disheartened! We thoroughly covered many topics and ideas that the community has been pleading for recently, and we have definitely made some solid progress in regards to our final decisions on them. With that said, however, we are not quite ready to reveal them yet. The administration team needs to do a bit more discussing, but we will have answers before the end of Christmas break if all goes to plan. However, I do have something small to reveal. This won't affect many players at all, but everyone should be made aware of the following addition to the server rules. The new rule is as follows: Consistently depriving another player (or players) of their fun for your own personal gain or amusement, even after receiving appropriate warnings, is punishable if deemed necessary by the moderation teams. This may also be considered harassment. Essentially, don't be a troublesome player that only plays to annoy others or be a nuisance. Now, before you begin typing your impetuous rant about how this gives unlimited power to the GMs which essentially allows them to ban whoever they want, let me first say /no/ it does /not/. This is one of those rules that requires heavy discussion with the rest of the GM team before coming to a conclusion punishment-wise, and the admin team/an admin will often need to be consulted as well. The fact of the matter is that we are no longer putting up with players that dance around the rules, attempting to bend them as much as they can before actually breaking them. We want to improve the community, not pollute it with troublesome players. Thus, if we find players consistently guilty of being a pest, nuisance, or severe problem without actually breaking the rules, we will deal with them accordingly. With that said, I hope no one will ever have to experience anyone breaking this rule. As I said, this rule won't affect many of you, but still be aware of it. It will be updated into the rules shortly, but it is in effect from the creation of this thread onwards. I sincerely hope that many of you (if not all of you) understand where we are coming from and why we must enforce such a rule. It should have been on the rules page from the start anyways. And before some of you say it (as I know it's coming), this recent addition to the rules in no way reflects the current state of the server. It was just a suggestion that was brought up and it made no sense not to implement it. I'd rather not close on the above topic, so here is a condensed list of what was discussed/happened in the meeting. Not everything was included in this list, but this should hopefully give you guys an idea of what is going on behind-the-scenes. Team Reviews (SMs, ET, MT, FMs) VAs (their future) Rules (war, raid, forum, server) The Direction of Lord of the Craft Changes/Improvements to the Server and Potential Issues Media Lead Developer 4.0 Have a nice day!