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Inactivity as of late - Feedbacks!
I'd actually like to bring up guild wars 2 with this (Surprised it hasn't yet). Basic information. Waypoints are spawn points so to speak. You die, you pick one of those and it spawns you there, or you can instantly teleport to any waypoint in the world so long as you've discovered it.

Why would I bring it up? Cause more often then not they end up captured by a NPC hostile force and you have to retake it. You also have to defend them now and then if you still want to use them. In short, there's a constant shift and war over certain points so when you log on you might find x point that you need to go is taken over and you need to help capture it first! It's freaking entertaining to have to retake and defend some places.

So why not do that here? And it's not just assault/capture that happens either. Thieves come in and try to steal all the supplies. Without the supplies, the place can't run! So you have to either stop the thieves, or if you didn't, get more supplies! War is a constant shift, so why not?

Also as a side note, a smaller thing. I know we might of had it before (I can't remember the specifics) but maybe we should have the GM team form into two parts. Forum moderators who deal with the forums such as all the PDs that take up a lot of peoples time and Game Masters who deal with the game side of everything who assist with Events, spawn places for rp, assist people ingame. Just a thought. It may have been thought over before but I see no hurt in bringing it up again!
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The dividing of GM duties has been tried before. We even went so far as having specific "Builder" GMs. In the end, that system collapsed in on itself since it makes it so much more dependent on singular individuals rather than the team as a whole, which leaves some people bearing a bigger burden than others since all the other GMs have to go to that GM too for assistance in certain areas.
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And people had to work together. That was the big issue. No one wanted to do it.
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Hmm.. Then why not something akin to the Forum Helpers. You trust the forum helpers enough to let them approve profiles, so why not allow something like an In-Game helper who assists with events. They can't spawn stuff, but they can move stuff, make taverns seem more real, help with event moving and such. It would lessen the workload on the GMs on the Ingame side and make it easier for the GMs to focus on other things.
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I remember when we had originally talked about doing something like that, but what it came down to (at the time, it might be different now) was that those jobs are specifically what GMs are for. Profile work, while it is needed, is time consuming and could be done by the forum helpers. Doing that was supposed to help free up time for GMs so they could do more events or help out in game. If the GMs aren't doing their duties, that is something else entirely different.
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(10-23-2013, 07:41 AM)Kage Wrote: Hmm.. Then why not something akin to the Forum Helpers. You trust the forum helpers enough to let them approve profiles, so why not allow something like an In-Game helper who assists with events. They can't spawn stuff, but they can move stuff, make taverns seem more real, help with event moving and such. It would lessen the workload on the GMs on the Ingame side and make it easier for the GMs to focus on other things.

Aye, I recall seeing this before and I'd be in favor of them so called Puppeteers. NPC chatter, move around, RP the world around you out and all. No idea what happened to that. Brought it up during the last M&G as well, it was once again considered but GM's fear being told off (or so they did back then.) A spreadsheet idea was brought up, wasn't made and the idea sorta just vanished once again.

I always loved seeing stuff move and chat around me as I was RPing, expected or unexpected. Suppose said Puppeteers can be extended to assist with events as well, perhaps make their spawn abilities temporary so anything they do vanishes after an hour. For prolonged RP's (smaller RP's) they could just respawn stuff where as during big events, the GM could spawn stuff and the Puppeteer just aids in moving the NPC's around with chatter.

It'd be a step in a good direction, not enough, but still a step.
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Honestly, all that is the reason myself and Reigen took the initiative with the activity spreadsheets and the polls. Then they got bogged down with criticism that we were looking in the wrong places, that events weren't at all what the server needed. We were looking for when people were online so we could start planning more effectively to actually do events and puppet the environment for people when they are online, since people usually aren't. That's the entire reason this Feedback thread sprung up in the first place.

I will shamelessly link them again. Here is the server announcement I made regarding it. Hopefully people will enter their times in the polls and spreadsheet, because that, like I said numerous times when I made them in the first place, would help us and other DMs tremendously. There's little point in trying to run any events when we have to play guess-games as to peoples' active hours of the day and plenty of those who wish to DM events don't have the time to sit around to wait and hope for people to show up.

EDIT: There's also this that I tried to gauge interest for and ask for peoples' available hours of the day. There's only so much we can do without getting input, and these are just a few examples.
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Ah, those where made during my own absence and while I did look at them, I didn't/don't exactly consider myself active enough to have events tailored towards. I'll fill them in now that I see them again.

The spreadsheet I was referring to was the one where people opt in/out of world interaction events as I was told that implementing a .puppet on / .puppet off was quite some coding work when it was still an idea that floated around. (Who knew. Coding is all magic to me.) In a way, what you two have started is just that, albeit feels more for bigger events.
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I'm not sure where I stand on the idea of "Puppeteers", but I will say this: I primarily RP a paladin, who leads a charity organization. A large bulk of their work would be helping the average everyday people with their lives; that is to say interacting with the given world. Without a large player base who can RP the common everyday masses, having a more immersive/interactive world to engage ourselves in would be excellent, and save some paladins from falling into @Xigo 's patented "Baby kissing monster slaying glory hounding super badass".
Your stories will always remain...
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... as will your valiant hearts.
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(10-23-2013, 07:02 AM)Kage Wrote: I'd actually like to bring up guild wars 2 with this (Surprised it hasn't yet).

But it has!


>:
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(10-23-2013, 12:17 PM)Wuvvums Wrote:
(10-23-2013, 07:02 AM)Kage Wrote: I'd actually like to bring up guild wars 2 with this (Surprised it hasn't yet).

But it has!


>:

That was ten pages ago and I didn't know D:
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I have a very physical reason why I haven't logged on to CotH, lack of internet and than a dead computer. But I still have been afflicted by this feeling of just not wanting to log on. And I can come to think of quite a few reasons;
  • Lack of continuity - in June and since it seems that there's just been too much rotations in the characters that are played. I prefer to dig myself into one character and focus on that one for a few months, something that is simply impossible now due to lack of people.
  • General lack of people - this offers no stable RP environment for characters to root in and evolve nor attract new characters, instead it's a select few players that keeps pumping out new character and ideas all the time that fade away or given up on since there is no "audience".
  • Only events offer activity - this is a phenomena that I started noticing even before Cataclysm, and that is that a lot of players only log on to attend events but never stay around for post-RP or is found online for pre-RP. For me as a DM this makes it very hard since I need my players to establish the characters outside of the storyline as well. I don't have the time nor can find the room in my events to thorougly offers a character all the time and sitaution that is needed. We need stable guilds, stable centers of RP.
And despite what it seems like, I'm not saying that the GMs need to start a guild that is rooted to one area because I don't think that will work. The population is so small at the moment that the RP needs to boiled down on a more personal level to start to flourish again. I can't remember those horror events Rigely used to do, but something along those lines focused more on a select few is what we need.

AND WE NEED TO GET MORE PLAYERS! I've done my best to advertise CotH to friends that are okey with the private nature of the realm but hearing that we use Cataclysm with almost no functioning quests nor dungeons has so far turned everyone away. And I can sort of agree, when I'm in a playing mood I end up on Molten so I can enjoy the core game.
(02-24-2012, 10:15 AM)Piroska Wrote: Conspiracy. That's all it is; Kret's afraid that your pure, digital awesomeness would crash the server if it were allowed.
(06-14-2013, 05:42 PM)McKnighter Wrote: Bovel, Lord of Beards

Character About Involvement
Causticity Blackbreath Goblin Alchemist -
Telaah Draenei Anchorite Writings of an Anchorite

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I have an idea that addresses all the major complaints I keep stumbling across, including IC stagnation, non-conflicting RP, "drifting," the "inner circle" syndrome and possibly even low server population.

I'm not sure how many people were around on retail for the release, realm attunement and opening of Ahn'Qiraj. It was a huge, huge, undertaking requiring a concerted effort from not just one guild, race or faction but the entire server. Goods were donated to the war effort, quests were undergone, checkpoints reach, artifacts assembled through world boss drops.

I understand we have nowhere near the production value as retail, nor the population, but would it be so large of an undertaking to plan an event like that? An edict is issued for something, even a trivial something, that the Horde and Alliance must work together (or against each other) to accomplish across the period of weeks. Not like... "Oh, there's an event every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and no matter if 1 person shows or 38, we're progressing the story," as so many events do, but rather forcing activity to get to the next point.

Each guild who wishes to participate would list their 'assets,' pick a 'major focus' and a 'minor focus,' through guild based RP the guild progresses their focuses, aiding the war effort. Human noble guilds might donate gold, whereas the Silverfang might loan soldiers and entertainment. (I use them by name because I am most familiar with them.) As the days go by, the assets accruing value, the event is progressed to the next stage. Saying "Okay, well, we have enough bandages, rations and wagon wheels to push another kilometer." or whatever the case may be.

Say every few goals there's a time limit, if it's not met, lose a step. Suffer a penalty. Make it seem real, flowing, challenging. Have spontaneous flash events, recognize that there are 4 people tarting about Silvermoon when a warmage flashes into the room, "The front line has been breached, we need reinforcements!"

Believe me, I know this is no small undertaking, but it seems to be what people want. An event that's run in the background, even non-event RP is progressing the event, in some way, but an event that has substance nonetheless. I dunno, that's what I've picked up a lot.

And before you say, "No, it can't be done," believe me, it can. More complicated things have been organized on a much shorter schedule, like the big bang or the battle of Goose Green. The planning stage would be relatively quick, find an objective and reverse engineer way points back to the start. It would seem the trouble would come from organizing the guilds. And there would need to be a bit of trust that what a guild says was accomplished in RP actually was (nothing a screen shot can't prove!) and more-so on the individual level. Perhaps small custom items in the vein of currency could be rewards for observed or screenshoted tasks, which are then turned in to the guild leaders for conversion to 'assets'.

Spit balling here, but let me know.

How this addresses problems:
Spoiler:
IC Stagnation - Roleplay is at times stagnant because there is no underlying objective outside of staged events. Even in events, they're often not true "Pass/Fail" but rather "Pass/Postpone the Inevitable Pass". By having a 'background' event that you can actually lose, it places a sense of urgency on the tasks. It gives you a reason to want to fight back and get out there to do your part. Knowing full well the whole realm may not succeed due to lack of individual effort could be a hell of a motivator.

Avoiding Conflict - I'm not advocating everyone goes around with a chip on their shoulder looking for a reason to throw down, but by golly miss Molly, I need every spare copper I can scrape together to afford more rations for my brothers and sisters on the front lines, and you have the audacity to charge me six copper for a loaf of bread?! Adding a reason for characters to be fiscally responsible may put it in players minds that adventuring isn't an endless wellspring of loot as retail makes it out to be. Give people a reason to be thrifty and they just might. Give people a legitimate, known, universal reason to be a bit on edge and we might get a bit closer to real interaction.

Drifting - Ever just wander from roleplay hotspot to roleplay hotspot? I've done it. If people know they need to be somewhere for continuity's sake, it might just inspire them to stay somewhere for continuity's sake. I've never seen this as a big issue, in a world with portals and flying beasts, but I doubt the battlemages would be too keen to open a portal so a soldier might go home to retrieve his teddy bear.

"Inner Circle Syndrome" - We'll need a cooperative effort to succeed! If my group of Farstriders is going to war, well we'll have to hunt down an armorsmith and a fletcher, now won't we? If a noble wishes to purchase supplies to send to his cousin on the front, he might just have to wander to the market and haggle with a farmer. In a world that's constantly changing, even slightly, people will have to seek out others possibly outside their normal circle. At least they'd be more likely to than if the world remained ever unchanging.

Low Server Population - An event like this would truly be something to brag about, something to advertise. "Well have you heard of our annual two-week event? It's an amazing open world event, everyone on the server contributes, some big, some small, but everyone has their part."

Shutting up Landashua/Liridon/Arntae - By reading this post and offering actual constructive criticism and feedback, you're taking words out of my own mouth. And who doesn't want that?
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I suggested something pretty much identical to that through PD and the likes, Landashua, and it got a no.
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(10-23-2013, 11:20 PM)Zhaei Wrote: I suggested something pretty much identical to that through PD and the likes, Landashua, and it got a no.

A big problem on CoTH is the lack of desire to implement anything deemed "Too complicated."

I hate to say it, but when it comes to being a GM, it's sort of an every man for themselves type deal, and it can get really hard to manage something alone, which I'd think would still happen quite a lot.

The GM team may have friends among eachother, but one thing we all forget---a lot of times them being on is inconsistent with eachother. It's hard to organize anything too large with only yourself--and can get even worse when divvying the work up among more people. There's more room for error, and more room for mis-communication. Doesn't work good for anyone.

So, in the long run---yes, it's a pain that the GM's say "We can't handle this", but experience has taught me they are right---it's something that if it can be simplified should be, and rather than making it too complex could still be fun while toned down.

ON THE OTHER SIDE, though. I can understand how people would say "Well, I don't know why they can't handle it", because it's hard for us all to see what workload the GM's take on.

I'm going to be blunt and say when I was a GM most of the work I did was forum stuff, and now the forum helpers do it. Not trying to demean anyone, or say that I know anything, but it can appear like there's not an over-burdening workload when it comes to GMing on CoTH.

Nor am I saying it should be a huge workload.






I am typing this up while deathly tired. I could be writing in Greek for all I know.
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