The month of January 2013

Razmael · February 2013

In Iron Realms this past month, we've been focusing hard on improving the game experience for newbies, as we prepare for a big advertising push to bring in fresh blood to our games. Aetolia is no exception to this!

Many changes have been made over the last few weeks, as we strive to make the game a fun and easy experience for people both new to Aetolia and MUDs alike. A lot of these changes you will not have seen, as they handle alerts and tracking that only Gods can see; some you will have noticed that were announced were vampires no longer burning in the sun immediately after they become one, allowing a newbie vital time to get the levels required to withstand it without immediately dying. We also introduced the PORTAL CITY and PORTAL GUILD commands, allowing a newbie easy access to their guild and city tutors. If you've made a newbie character lately, you may have also noticed some of our other unannounced changes.

We will be continuing to focus on improvements to newbies in the coming weeks, and I am interested in hearing any suggestions people might have!

One big problem we've highlighted with newbies is that often when they join a guild or House, there is nobody online (or not afk) to assist them. It is no secret that Aetolia's population isn't as large as it was five years ago, yet we still have the same number of organizations as we did back then. As a result, our population is often spread thinly between them. Not many people will like what I have to say on this, but it is a necessary evil: We will be reducing the number of guilds and Houses we have. The ideal figure I want is four Houses, and twelve guilds.

We will be introducing changes to Houses during February, resulting in Houses dissolving to clans if they remain a minor House for too long. The calculation used for differentiating between major and minor Houses will also be changing with this in mind. The Imperium will be receiving some changes to help make it more relevant, and we will be adding a novice channel to it. All newbies coming from the tour that select their class as Nightstalker will instead join the Imperium novices section, rather than joining a House. From there, newbies can join a House as they please.

Work will also begin during February on dissolving two of our guilds, to bring our total down to fourteen. This does not in any way mean the class associated with those guild will become unavailable.

Our fourth Delos Brawl was held again last month, this time featuring a new modification. The Brawl modification creates chaos in any room that has three or more people in it, making attacks have a random chance to hit another target. The first run went pretty well, with Daskalos managing to take on a team of five and downing one of them before falling himself. The next Brawl is due very soon, and several key bugs have been fixed with the modification to make it even better than before.

This month also saw a brand new event: The Iron Epicurean. This cooking contest was our response to the Brawl being a regular event that was only aimed at one facet of Aetolia. The event was overwhelmingly successful and entertaining, largely due to the effort put into the event by the Gods running it. The success of the event has guaranteed its return in the future, and we will be busy thinking up many new regular events like the Brawl and the Iron Epicurean that we can run.

The Sect of Blades has been released and blood has already been spilled several times since its release. We will be continuing to make changes to the Sect over the next few weeks, based on feedback and observation. The first set of changes will be a small "arena" Sect members can enter and fight to the death. Neither can leave until one of them has fallen, and the victor will gain double the usual points. Like a normal arena, your fight cannot be interrupted by the outside. However, all curatives will still be used up, and you will not be protected from death.

And lastly, work continues onwards with the huge project that is Albedos. To emphasize how huge this task really, the room count for Albedos currently stands at 14640, rivaling Sapience already in its enormity. Because of the huge scope this new continent represents, we want to help familiarize everybody with Albedos as we continue work on it. Haern, who leads our builders, has volunteered to write regular posts on Albedos, its areas, and all the lore and mythos surrounding it. The depth of Albedos is far richer and more cohesive than Sapience, so I hope everybody looks forward to learning more about it.

Paithan · February 2013

How is making new novice join the Imperium fair to non-imperium houses, especially considering the largest, is not in the Imperium.

Zun · February 2013

Sounds like a step towards making the Imperium more relevant, @Paithan, which Raz also covered. A real consequence for spurning the Imperium that doesn't involve mass-PK? Sure. I'm for it.

Razmael · February 2013

If they choose not to be apart of the Imperium, they lose the bonuses attached to being aligned with it. That said, it'll still be Kelende handling all newbie house inductions, and she'll still have the option of inducting people into non-Imperium houses. Imperium houses just get the advantage of having more influence and involvement with the newbies.

Menelaus · February 2013

Too bad the Imperium is a bunch of useless, novice molesting idiots. Everyone will still just join the Houses that actually pay attention and care, regardless of how you change the game.. you can't change PEOPLE...the players.

Axai · February 2013

The bit that interested me most was the part about Albedos, Can't wait!

ALSO these monthly updates are awesome, thanks to Raz for taking the time to keep us informed of whats happening behind the scenes

Menelaus · February 2013

Also Raz' are you going to change how Minor Houses are calculated? Because right now there are -no- Minor Houses.

Axai · February 2013

He said they would be in his post :P

Sarita · February 2013

Will clans be able to stay pledged to the Imperium if they were before getting demolished and that sort of thing to prevent newbies from having to adjust from houses shifting around, or will it be that once four houses are "selected" so to speak, that's going to be a permanent change?

Razmael · February 2013

It'll be a permanent change. Once a house is dissolved to a clan, it can't go back.

Sarita · February 2013

What about clans and individuals getting to stay in the Imperium, though?

Razmael · February 2013

Yeah, we can give them lesser membership in the Imperium until the find themselves a new House.

Erzsebet · February 2013

Making things more reliant on the Imperium not being a bucket of fail is not the way to go, I don't think. And while I'm fine with Imperial Vamps having some kind of perk that non-imperial houses don't get (like, oh, say, the veto voting power on new houses it already has, or even something it doesn't), it shouldn't be that they get to have all of the novices automatically only go to them, whether or not the non-imperial Houses are major (Which, oh-look, both of them are, and at the top of the list). Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

Damonicus · February 2013

Remember, he said down to 4 houses. Perhaps all of them will be in the Imperium.

Shinji · February 2013

Is there a set list for whom will and not be dissolved down or is it just picking four random houses and jamming everyone in them?

Mastema · February 2013

I hate the idea of losing houses, I know that Bouchard for one, it is a huge part of my RP and if it vanished i would be pretty upset IC wise and a little OOC wise too. Otherwise I love these updates.

Erzsebet · February 2013

My guess, is it's going to be the first three to drop to minor long enough to poof back into a clan under the new system.

The change to Imperium, sounds to me like they're just giving a subtle screw you to those houses who aren't Imperial, in order to elicit the destruction of the necessary Houses.

If we're denied the novices from the tutorial, it's only a matter of time. Forcing us to choose between being Imperial Houses and house roleplay--in Ve'kahi's case, RP that has been solidly established for in-game centuries, isn't at all fair, nor, in my opinion, is it good for the game.

Edit: Grammar fix.

Veritas · February 2013

Guys, I know this is a pretty big announcement, but I'm baffled why the majority of you are taking information you received here in this discussion and applying it directly to the game IC'ly.

Yes, we understand that the changes in the works may not sit well with some of you, but that still doesn't give you any reason to treat forum information as IC information in the game. That's just bad form.

So maybe go easy on doing that a bit, especially when the greater details of what is going to actually happen aren't even available to you yet.

Azrael · February 2013

Personally, I wouldn't be opposed to all houses reverting back to clans, at least we wouldn't lose 10+ years of news posts and history like we did with Voltaire and Ve'kahi merging. That and given the fact that Lunare houses individuals that by no means should ever have been allowed into an Undead house (in my opinion)...referring to Yeleni's and their little Shaman. And yes, I realize that my views on Yeleni are outdated compared to others views. Just seems as though they've outlived their worth.

That being said, if a House were to end up falling back into Clandom, what would happen if an individual were in the House and all of their clan spots were already taken by other organizations/clans? Would they automatically be kicked out of the House/Clan or would the individual gain a temporary extra clan slot so that they remain a member? Also, will the revert to clan stay in place once there are 4 houses left or could this eventually lead to all houses reverting to clans, permanently?

One update to the newbie intro that I'd like to see is if newbie decides to join Bloodloch that they already be Undead, since BL requires its citizens to be undead.

Haven · February 2013

Erzsebet said:

Making things more reliant on the Imperium not being a bucket of fail is not the way to go, I don't think. And while I'm fine with Imperial Vamps having some kind of perk that non-imperial houses don't get (like, oh, say, the veto voting power on new houses it already has, or even something it doesn't), it shouldn't be that they get to have all of the novices automatically only go to them, whether or not the non-imperial Houses are major (Which, oh-look, both of them are, and at the top of the list). Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

I have to disagree with you. It's my understanding that Houses that are not aligned with the Imperium are considered 'rogue' Houses. A change like this will further establish that role and I think it's a role Houses like yours should embrace more fully rather than reject. An example of one of the many options you could take:

Make it your role-play to be better than the Imperium Houses, grow an ego (as a House image) based on your standing compared to the other Imperium Houses, stealconvert their novices, pull people into your realm of influence, etc.

Erzsebet · February 2013

We shouldn't -have- to steal other peoples novices to avoid destruction. We should have the same access to novices as everyone else does.

Milvushina · February 2013

I'm really nervous about the House changes. I wholeheartedly understand why this will be implemented and ultimately agree that the number of Houses needs to decrease, but many Consanguine characters consider their bloodline and House alignment very seriously in their RP, mine included. Like Erzsebet said about Ve'kahi, there are indeed Houses so old that their traditions are engrained in their long-standing and very loyal members, or in general Consanguine lifestyle. It's going to be extremely damaging to them if their Houses are inexplicably stripped from them.

Grasa · February 2013

Entirely OOC, I will be severely pissed if I find Bouchard dissolved. We've already gone through this in the past, and returned to House status from the ashes of clan hood with Kauller's actions. Yet now I rise to find people like vultures seeking to strike us down, when it seems it is OOCily driven to make the Imperium, of all things, a vital structure. How very nice....another case of history nullified under the argument of simplification, when the RP has allowed Bouchard to survive even talk of dissolution since our reformation into a House in the past, when losing House status was also called 'inevitable'. Rankings ebb and flow always...no matter.

What'd be funny is if this whole attempt just results in clans holding greater numbers than the remaining Houses because admins wish to negate RP through OOC motives...

You want the Imperium to matter? Have it so that they can able to DO something on their own that actually effects Consanguine, rather than a loose rabble of collective Houses, each self-serving to their own (which understandably, is expected in any event...)...rather than just seeking to limit the number of Houses involved. When has nerfing for simplicity done anything but kill games?

Haven · February 2013

Erzsebet said:

We shouldn't -have- to steal other peoples novices to avoid destruction. We should have the same access to novices as everyone else does.

Avoid destruction? I don't believe that's how it works. If you have a popular House with regular/healthy members (healthy being active contributors) then I think you'll be fine.

Choosing to be a rogue House/player/whatever is the same as choosing the more difficult path in favor of more freedom/creativity/whatever. Your House is choosing to separate itself from the general established Vampire community and this is one of the downsides.

Erzsebet · February 2013

And it's never had these consequences before, I shouldn't have to -change the established- RP, against the RP, to avoid screwing my house over.

Grasa · February 2013

House activity has always ebbed and flowed, for everyone. This has always been the truth. Bouchard has been very bottom of the stack as well as very top for extended periods of time for each. I'm sure all the others have as well. Using current values I hope will not be taken, unless weighed against lifetime trends.

Haven · February 2013

If I recall correctly, the consequences used to be there before as role-play disadvantages rather than mechanical ones. Rogue Houses used to be a very, very bad thing and were pretty much shunned. Then people realized the Imperium meant absolutely nothing and that there was virtually no difference between an Imperium House and a rogue House so the role-play gradually phased out among other traditions. Not the sole reason things changed but one of the factors I believe.

Anyway, what's wrong with having to come up with an alternate recruiting drive? That's something that should come with the territory of choosing to be a rogue. Will your numbers drastically diminish from these changes? I don't believe so unless I'm missing something. Is your House primarily made-up of novices? That's really the only thing I can think of at the moment that'd make this change lethal to a House.

Macavity · February 2013

Haven said:

If I recall correctly, the consequences used to be there before as role-play disadvantages rather than mechanical ones. Rogue Houses used to be a very, very bad thing and were pretty much shunned. Then people realized the Imperium meant absolutely nothing and that there was virtually no difference between an Imperium House and a rogue House so the role-play gradually phased out among other traditions. Not the sole reason things changed but one of the factors I believe.

Anyway, what's wrong with having to come up with an alternate recruiting drive? That's something that should come with the territory of choosing to be a rogue. Will your numbers drastically diminish from these changes? I don't believe so unless I'm missing something. Is your House primarily made-up of novices? That's really the only thing I can think of at the moment that'd make this change lethal to a House.

the issue here, and a valid concern, is that the Guilds wont have to worry about something like this as they will still have access to the Isle, where Houses will not. This could very well force a House to go under because as older characters tend to either create younger alts or just stop playing for whatever reason we still need the Novices that come in to help promote them up within the Houses so to keep the same standing. This is a revolving door much like the Guilds.

Erzsebet · February 2013

"Then people realized the Imperium meant absolutely nothing" <-- then why are we basing an entirely new in-favour-of mechanic for the Imperium? The Imperium hasn't been relevant in in-game centuries. When it was a clan, the only House still formally a part of it when it was destroyed was D'baen, Bahir'an and on-and-off, mostly off with Nebre'seir. The only reason they stayed part of it later, was because that gave them voice in if there were to be new Houses made. That's literally the only reason Voltaire stayed. And I know Bouchard and Lunare had a similar mindset, at the time we were all forced into it. Why push un-earned relevance on an organization that has not only been destroyed once for its complete pointlessness, but also one that has done -nothing- in the time since then?

I'm fine with being a rogue house having consequences, but having that consequence be something that essentially undoes the ENTIRE REASON to not be a clan is complete and utter nonsense. The ONLY real differences between a House and a clan, are the ability to gain rank via housefavours, the ability to gain novices via the intro/kelende, showing up on (and worrying about) one's place on tophouses/majorminor status and using HT instead of CLT to talk to people.