Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 3.7K All Categories
- 3K The Midnight Age
- 757 Announce posts
- 125 Newbies
- 6 Class Guides
- 804 Harpy's Head Tavern
- 57 Echo Canyon
- 310 Self-Affirmations
- 163 Town Crier
- 135 The Exchange
- 167 Sparring Grounds
- Combat Guides
- 30 Combat Logs
- 188 Idea Box
- 9 Classleads
- 578 Roleplay Logs
- 107 Aetolia Development
- 5 The Void
- 744 Miscellaneous
- 9 Announcements
- 417 OOC Chat
- 217 Tech Talk
- 47 Scripts
Looking for more active discussion? Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/x2s7fY6
Announce post #3136: Question Thread
Autoposter
BotBot
9/23/2020 at 2:19
Tiur, the Gnosis
Everyone
Question Thread
Communication!
I've altered some of the ways I approach communication, and am looking at making a role akin to Imvra for being the community manager. I could certainly use the help!
But until then, I'd like to go ahead and clear the air of any pending questions, concerns, etc that you have that might be languishing. For whatever reason, I haven't answered you, so let's get them all out and move on from a neutral spot instead of carrying them along.
For the next 48 hours, the thread attached to this announce post will be open to fill with questions and concerns. Then I'll close it and do my best to answer things. Sort of a "Big Questions" thread. Almost a townhall, but not quite. We'll answer everything you put in to the best of our ability, (I switch tenses, because sometimes Raz/Keroc/Volunteer might be better suited to answer) though I cannot promise the answer will be satisfying.
For questions, please keep in mind:
Phrasing a question in an attacking manner is going to just get you removed from the forums.
For example, "Why is Mining still not here." vs "Why haven't you been fired for Mining still not being here."
The first is easy to answer, the second is the same question but made to hurt my feelings.
Please keep questions to the sorts of things that have answers.
For example, "Storyline events have been scarce this year, what gives." vs "The game feels slow lately."
The first is a totally fair question, the second is similar, but I might not understand. It could feel slow because our ISP has been giving us trouble.
I acknowledge that I have dropped the ball lately with communication, and didn't well enough explain the changing ways I'd be doing so. This is my attempt to both make amends/clear the air, and create a more productive system for communication going forward.
Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 11th of Lleian, in the year 490 MA.
Tiur, the Gnosis
Everyone
Question Thread
Communication!
I've altered some of the ways I approach communication, and am looking at making a role akin to Imvra for being the community manager. I could certainly use the help!
But until then, I'd like to go ahead and clear the air of any pending questions, concerns, etc that you have that might be languishing. For whatever reason, I haven't answered you, so let's get them all out and move on from a neutral spot instead of carrying them along.
For the next 48 hours, the thread attached to this announce post will be open to fill with questions and concerns. Then I'll close it and do my best to answer things. Sort of a "Big Questions" thread. Almost a townhall, but not quite. We'll answer everything you put in to the best of our ability, (I switch tenses, because sometimes Raz/Keroc/Volunteer might be better suited to answer) though I cannot promise the answer will be satisfying.
For questions, please keep in mind:
Phrasing a question in an attacking manner is going to just get you removed from the forums.
For example, "Why is Mining still not here." vs "Why haven't you been fired for Mining still not being here."
The first is easy to answer, the second is the same question but made to hurt my feelings.
Please keep questions to the sorts of things that have answers.
For example, "Storyline events have been scarce this year, what gives." vs "The game feels slow lately."
The first is a totally fair question, the second is similar, but I might not understand. It could feel slow because our ISP has been giving us trouble.
I acknowledge that I have dropped the ball lately with communication, and didn't well enough explain the changing ways I'd be doing so. This is my attempt to both make amends/clear the air, and create a more productive system for communication going forward.
Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 11th of Lleian, in the year 490 MA.
5
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
1) I have only been playing for about 1 year now but the story also appears to be unfolding slowly, is there a reason for this that you can share? Is it a lack of numbers, or are other things simply pushing it back? Or are you trying to stretch things out?
2)To add ontop of my previous question, sort of, is Aetolia open for ideas that could be considered to be implimented in some shape or form...even if only certain aspects are taken? For like say an example, mini-story events that could or not be directly linked to the main one? I know there is the idea box on the forum, but I'm not sure if its more for additions/tweaks to the game itself rather than anything story / event related. I only ask cause I know a post on Achaea says that they take such ideas but you have to mail one of the admins directly.
3) Is there anything we can do on our side as players to make Aetolia more enjoyable for the admins and/or the Divine/Celenis?
Thank you.
How do you propose ANOTHER shell to monitor would fix this?
It seems more likely even MORE information would get lost - that or 'community management' would get put on the shoulders of a volunteer and - I'm sorry, I love our community - I wouldn't wish that on anyone unpaid. I don't think 'community management' should fall to anyone bar the Producer, who shouldn't need a shell for that at all. That role helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the community and Aetolia isn't big enough to justify an entire - potentially unpaid - 'department' to it.
To expand, what are YOU doing, not the entire team.
Does the community offering help have any value to the investment of helping advance the game or is it falling on deaf ears?
Why has the primary focus of Aetolia appeared lately to have been solely on promotions, where we held the reputation as the roleplaying game with great storytelling for the longest time, your position as Producer has been perceived on how much money you can make instead of how can well your staff can tell an amazing story, is this pressure you take from your boss or are you just not interested in that facet of the game?
The following features are currently present in the server-side curing system of Achaea, Aetolia's largest (by far) internal competitor, but not in our better coded game:
- Configuring whether to FOCUS before or after eating for a focusable affliction.
- The ability to configure specific scenarios for when to touch the tree tattoo. This includes specific afflictions, the state of curing balances and an affliction count.
- The ability to upkeep virtually all defences present in the game, whether one-and-done or to be re-deffed whenever they are stripped.
- The ability to manually add a specific cure to your curing queue above other pending cures.
- Automatic handling of mounting and re-mounting.
The above list is not entirely exhaustive and there absolutely are workarounds for some of these discrepancies, though many of them introduce additional latency to the equation. The above deals with specific server-side curing commands.
In my opinion, server-side curing is an excellent way to make the complicated IRE combat system more accessible without reducing the skill ceiling in terms of game mechanics. Players are able to deal less with client systems and more with learning the complex mechanics of the game. In addition, a more comprehensive server-side curing system can make sweeping mechanics changes (such as the ones we saw earlier this year) easier to digest. We would all like this game to be larger and (in my opinion) player accessibility is a huge part of that.
My question:
Can you explain in more detail why Aetolia is unable to handle the server-side curing features of other IRE games? Is it a matter of IRE corporate-provided system resources? Developer priorities? Something completely different?
Q2: Why do you believe that a 100% slower cycle (6months compared to 3months) is the correct cadence for changing items related to combat?
Q3: Is anyone actually paying attention to the Nalus shell? I sent a message on 8/19/20 asking for thoughts on a report/classlead change and its impact since it was changed and have yet to hear any response.
Q4: Should I expect a response if I send you (Tiur) a message? I sent a message on 8/11/20 asking for clarification on artifacts and how they affected something and haven't gotten a response. If not, should I issue myself for clarifying questions instead?
Q5: Are there any plans to change the foci system? We've had basically the same lesser/major system for 7-8 years now with minor changes, unless I'm missing changes from before the last 5-6 years.
When I think about what I'm ultimately here to do in Aetolia is to play in/engage with a story, the same way I would a D&D game - the game style that MUDs align with in many ways. And tabletop is having a serious MOMENT, so you can't tell me people simply aren't interested.
I don't care about milestones, or the newest minipets, or story-agnostic events like Year 490. I don't want to spend what little online time I have grinding dailies like this were WoW....and frankly I'm still a little upset that Skinner boxes were the "solution" to an economics issue, but that's another subject.
I mean, half the time someone says something on CT these days is to remind you to do your production dailies, or check your farm. Thanks, but I'll pass. (sorry @Stine lol).
I feel like a good chunk of these leaders and "passionate players," for lack of a better term, lose steam as a result. There's plenty that does get done, don't get me wrong, but I'm finding lately that I'm missing that feeling of being truly PLUGGED IN. Immersed. Hooked. And it doesn't take much, but it does take storytelling/DMing/game maker chops.
There's an amazing, untapped potential in your player base that is actively being ignored, or so it feels. (And as a side note, I'm not shaming anyone for enjoying the things I listed above - everyone deserves to have fun on their terms, so do what brings you joy.)
My questions:
What is the 2020-and-beyond vision for Aetolia?
What kind of game are we trying to be?
Why do we 'compete' with other Iron Realms games, when so many resources could be pooled and scaled, and solutions shared?
Finally, and to repeat my earlier and most pressing question, how can we make this a story that we're collaboratively telling, rather than being told - or worse, not told anything at all?
*How can players help with ideas, or even help writing up parts of mini-events that are not world-changing, to make the game a bit more fun?
* Are there plans for smaller events in the somewhat near future, (the rest of 2020 or 2021)?
* Also, while we are at it, many events happen at howling, which is not always a good time for all players. Is it difficult finding Celani from, for example, Australia, Southeast Asia or Europe to spread out starting times for events? What can be done to help those players who are not based in the US?
2) Will the Ashes of the Indorani faction ever be looked at?
3) And lastly Mining, I feel like I am just killing time in game waiting for it.
Does the Pools have scheduled meetings to check-in on what everyone is working on, or how everyone is doing?
Is there anyone responsible for pushing orgreqs through, or looking at the submissions and clearing them?
Can we revisit the timeline of activities that was scheduled for this year, and realistically look at what can be finished this year? This helps to keep expectations in perspective.
Are many Aetolia's perceived limitations due to a genuine lack of resources, primarily due to IRE leadership putting an almost concrete emphasis on Achaea versus all of the other games? If the answer is "yes", then my question would be directed to Matt Mihaly and Jeremy: Why should I play your other games, or more accurately: why do you bother maintaining your other games when they cannot get the adequate amount of resources needed to function on levels even remotely similar to Achaea?
I ask this because let us take a look at what Achaea has gotten in quite a short span of time: multiple new skillsets and classes released at a rate almost unheard of compared to the rest of IRE, a majority of their pantheon is currently active to my knowledge, ships in general (Aetolia has nothing equivalent), active Guides, and more. I expect the first answer to be: "Well, Achaea's population is larger" but this only serves to create a self-fulfilling prophesy. Of course Achaea's population is going to be larger when it gets most of the resources and attention.
I understand that my question is less for Tiur and co., but my largest grievances aren't really with the Pools. They lie with the people above the Pools and if we think that the staff within the Pools are silent, the people above them are even more so. The only time we presently hear anything from Jeremy is when it's promotion time.
1. I've had stuff sitting in bugs / prio bugged since january on and off wondering if people look at them still or not?
As an example 14248 was my prio bug for a long long time because the Leech Rune arti is weird and doesn't actually heal you for 5% of the damage you dealt as far as when I was testing it for a week showed, I held onto it for a good while after but never got a response even after sending messages and had to refund it taking a credit hit.
2. I sent a message to the Nalus shell shortly after it was announced and created because of something that may be due to a bug that is combat related. This is also my current priority bug but never got a response on the matter so no clue if it's a bug or intended still. Not listing what it is because if it's a bug it might be abused more.
For a game that's supposed to be THE heavy RP game in IRE, I really feel like it's lacking. Sure, we have a lot of personal character stories going on, which is great, but the thing that appeals to me more in tabletop RPGs? Those personal stories frequently get interwoven into the overarching story, or character growth occurs while accomplishing some kind of story goal.
So here are my questions.
Aetolia's world feels empty, and not really 'alive'. What kind of resources would be needed to be able to hold smaller events or plotlines that aren't the global, world-ending type stuff that's become so routine? Personal character stories are great, but they ultimately mean nothing more than an in-character fantasy chatroom or daytime soap opera if there's nothing going on outside of the characters' interpersonal relationships.
I've had some experience playing in MUSHes where players can run some pretty elaborate and cool storylines. Has there been or will there ever be any consideration for creating a Builders-esque role or a shared shell like Hansel and Gretel where players can create and run little events or plots that don't have a huge impact on the overarching ongoing story of the game, but still provide some engagement for players?
How about polls or something to get player feedback on what kind of events or plots they'd like to see?
What IS the overarching story for the game supposed to be? Yes, the theme of the game is the Midnight Age, but the game seems to have shifted from city vs city to everyone vs the Albedi gods. What's the point in having four cities if the intent is to just have them all team up against Albedos?
Related to the above: what purpose are cities meant to serve if there aren't many avenues where each city can further its interests? There is no war system, and fighting each other over ylem is not meaningful inter-city conflict.
Also related to the above, it's been said in the past repeatedly that there's no room for neutrality in the game (at least in regards to Spirit vs Shadow), and yet...the game continually seems to be being pushed towards that with the rallying against the Albedi gods. So IS there still going to be an emphasis on Spirit vs Shadow, or is the stance on neutrality going to be revised in the face of the ongoing Albedos storyline? Because as it stands, there's been some very mixed messages.
In the past, there used to be 'mini Town halls' with the leadership of individual orgs where admins and Celani could talk with org leadership and talk about expectations, goals, and direction and how they're meant to meld with the game and overarching story. When I experienced these meetings, they were EXTREMELY useful. Why has this practice fallen off, and is it something that could be picked up again if org leaders wanted it?
It's been said over and over that there is no 'wrong' way to play the game. Unless you decide to go without a city or guild or both. The game is very unfriendly to rogues to the point where most players who find themselves in this situation just end up not sticking around, and while the game is not tailored to characters that, for whatever reason, decide to go unaffiliated, it's still a valid play style. Will there ever be any quality of life changes considered to make elements of the game somewhat accessible to people who decide to go guild less or citiless?
If there's a lot work needing done for events, classes, or skills, why hasn't part of that work been tossed over to Builders? Especially given that there's been precedent for it (working on event NPCs, items, rooms/areas, and even skill messages). Back when Shifters were revamped to include wereboar and werecroc, I was actually one of the people that worked on skill messages (werewolf and werecroc specifically), and it got knocked out in a month or two, and they were literally just writing messages for the abilities. Why can't Builders shoulder some of that work for, say, mirror classes?
In a similar vein, Builders have deadlines to meet. Do Celani or the administration have similar deadlines for projects?
Q2: Are there any plans or resources being applied to the "war system"?
Q3: Are rewards still being looked at for using the coins obtained from the previous war?
* In order to breathe more life into the game in a more general sense, would it be possible to prioritize creating good foundations for city vs city and guild vs guild conflicts?
* Would it be possible to hold a townhall where players are given a chance to provide ideas for discussion and immediate feedback, or is this best brought up in forum threads? If the latter, are forum threads with larger ideas going to be considered for implementation?
The ORGREQ system currently makes it possible for an Org leader to request cool additions to the guild for a sum of gold from the guild coffers, and the price tag is set depending on the work involved in implenting this. This system is also what makes the Divine Patron role something that can be selected based on what is more appropriate rather than who might be more active. However, with the lack of active deities it feels rather safe to assume that few of the roles are actually filled, meaning that there is a rather small work force who can help with these things. With the previous system of having an active Patron, it meant there was a quick link to someone specific, a name you could contact with questions, discuss requests and if they were even plausible, toss ideas regarding story arches to make sure they stay on the right track. This new system lacks that kind of flexibility and close connection, which could also aide in preventing misunderstandings or sort out communication issues, and some requests are left unattended for long enough to make them irrelevant.
* Would you consider options to the Orgrequest system to open up for better ways to hold a dialog?
Others have already mentioned that we have a lot of people in this community who are willing, even eager to help enrich this game.
* Is there a reason why there seems to be a reluctance behind making use of all that talent?
* Would you consider creating a position similar to Mortal Builder for people who are able coders to help with implementations or fixes that are perhaps of a more simple nature?
* Are there plans to make more use of mortal builders, for perhaps such things as smaller event plans?
During the release event of the Archivists and the new curing, the Sciomancers were attacked by the Heikathi and there were accusations thrown around claiming there was a spy somewhere, but this was never sorted or resolved in any way. I believe there are more events that have been left hanging without proper closure, mostly due to the constant shift of volunteers.
* Are there requirements for documenting plans and their execution, and are there records kept on what has been done with orgs in the past for other volunteers to pick up on or for staff to check after a volunteer steps down to ensure the ball is not dropped?
I want to end on a positive thing, so here goes:
There has been quite a bit of work done lately with areas that have had inaccessible rooms that still counted towards explorer rankings. Rurthina and I have worked rather hard with lists and such, and it's great to see some movement. My question regarding this is: who is/are the awesome person(s) responsible for this? They deserve a proper thank you!
As a customer and player, I have an increasing level of concern about the stability of the combat environment in Aetolia and feel that moving to semi-annual reports is not a wise decision. I feel our community cannot really handle semi-annual; the pace at which we 'break the game' is already faster than quarterly reports could handle and you end up creating a frustrating environment if something egregious exists longer than three months as is. The environment would just be starting to get stale by the time reports were coming around; larger games have better content cycles and Keroc's quarterly updates replicated that in a great fashion Is there a reason why you have changed to semi-annual classlead reports? As a follow-up, are you open to revising this back to quarterly? Do you plan to use that development time in other ways to shake combat up? How do you feel about revisiting Hunting Ground items on every off quarter and just recycling some of the older effects in from time to time to make unique environments as a compromise?
I can only name two major story events this year: Omei's return and Bamathis' march on Skythrone. Slyphe and Dhar returned with very little fanfare compared to Omei's rebirth, which was an event that consumed the whole council to some degree. This lack of frequency is unfortunate, because events are often a good way to build PK-oriented friction between individuals or communities - not to mention the ways they can spiral off into storylines or continued character development. Is the slow pace for world events intentional, despite us being a roleplay-oriented environment? Why have story events been in such short supply over the course of the last year or so? Events and roleplay are part of why I bothered to come to Aetolia, but they have seemingly vanished the last year or so - why? Are you considering getting resources to fix this - i.e a dedicated story admin?
Conflict drivers are few and far between without events, actually - this means that we are often left following a vicious cycle where we are consuming our daily driver (foci) constantly with no variation and it is broken up by orerry once a month. Sect is an alternative, but only to the extent that it provides fighting with no consequence and no roleplay investment whatsoever. Without events or active, antagonistic deities, holy wars are few and far between - and anyway, the system isn't exactly fun. It is a bit draconian as far as layout and design. What happened to that statement about looking over all of our conflict systems? By all accounts, foci are getting sort of dated (see above, Stine's post); are you open to a refresh on what is one of our largest daily activity drivers?
It feels as if a lot of projects are projects of passion for your volunteers or paid staff. The rate of content creation has really decreased lately, forming what I would call a 'depression' in Aetolia for activity, etc. What do you do on a daily basis to ensure that these projects stay on track? As a Producer, you have conveyed to us that project management is part of your duties - where do you think are some opportunities for improvement in this field?
This is another concern close to my heart: mirror classes. Despite making my feelings known in the thread dedicated to this exact topic, I figure this is a better place to ask directly. Mirror classes represent a tantalizing expansion and contain several things of interest to me that I'd rather not bankroll on my sect alt; it would also drastically lower the toxicity of our combat environment due to the opportunity it presents to delete the fence that makes the grass look greener on the other side. It would be a tremendous step forward for classes held back by boogeymen and napkin math, as the opposite tether would finally have access to them in a live, organic environment that lets them understand the class kit in a better way. You folks have even acknowledged this fact early on in that thread. Due to this, I want to ask: why does it feel as if a stated desire for mirror classes to be prioritized is falling on deaf ears, especially when multiple players have publicly volunteered their time across a six page thread? Especially when doing so might alleviate frustration for your community? Are you aware of the resources available to you that players are offering to speed up this project?
Next, I would like to add additional questions on the topic of compartmentalizing your community responses. Why does it feel like the admin stances on any given issue, combat or no, feel like homes built on quicksand? Do you feel that splitting up things between Becue, Imvra, Nalus, and etc is a successful approach? To me, it feels as if I don't know who I am talking to and thus there is a risk of inconsistency at any given time - is this a common concern you hear or something on your radar? Historically, getting reliable resolution that falls along the same line of similar situations isn't easy - is there a reason you make precedent an unreliable aspect of handling issues or arguments?
I might have more later, but properly wording them is difficult.
Since coming back, the first month was amazing. I was awe-struck at all the quality of life improvements that have been made. Milestones, leylines, quests, farming, new areas to explore, new classes and skills, new customization options - I was absolutely blown away and I greedily dove back into a world that holds a special place in my heart because, like some of us older players, Aetolia has been my home since I was 15 years old and a freshman in high school.
I have never, ever felt so starved for conflict-driven global RP than I do now. The world seems quiet, and that's something I've heard from more than a handful of people. Leylines are not conflict. They are competition. And with exp loss being laughable compared to yesteryears, there's nothing to lose - which don't get me wrong - is wonderful because it pulls new players in and is easy for them to want to engage in PVP. However, there doesn't seem to be any real major storyline going on here. Like, I get it - Albedos Gods bad, they're a threat and they could potentially rise from wherever like Godzilla and destroy all of Sapience. Okay, cool - but what else? I've had other players mention to me that the direction Aetolia has gone in has shied away from conflict to avoid people getting pulled into violent, conflict-driven RP that they didn't want to be in. Which, just.. baffles me, because I thought that was one of the best qualities of Aetolian RP was its uniqueness to RP that forced people to engage at least on some level. And hey, if you don't want to be involved in RP that causes you to have to make hard choices, maybe you should reconsider why you're playing a dark fantasy MUD.
Aetolia has always had the reputation of being the RP hub of IRE games and while I think there's absolutely no shortage of personal RP and storylines going on, the general mood is that there's very little going on in terms of world events. Which seems odd to me. If you look at the real world, how often have we gone without something happening on a global scale? Stuff should be going on all the time. I will always make conflict for my personal RP. That has never been an issue with Sryaen, and based off the reaction I've gotten from some small-scale stuff I've been working on this last week - the people I've interacted with have eagerly engaged. So you have a playerbase that is so hungry for meaty stories, but we haven't really gotten much (if anything at all) since I've been back for nearing 3 months now.
Mechanics and hard-coded stuff will come, I'm not so worried about classleads or mirror classes or mining or what have you - they'll be done when they're done and hold very little importance to me specifically, though I understand they hold value to others and I'm not downplaying them at all. These are all valid points being made here, but it doesn't take much to come up with some RP here and there to make your playerbase feel special. We like to be wooed and sent flowers and made to feel special, because Aet is equally special to us.
So my questions are:
Is there a general plan for where the storyline is headed?
Is there a rough timeline for any future events that aren't promo-related? Obviously you can't say specifically, but.. weeks, months, six months?
Is Aetolia going to be competition driven rather than conflict driven now?
There was mention of potentially hiring a storyteller - is there any update on that?
I'm not sure how sound this idea is, but I was thinking instead have like.. mortal storytellers who can come up with little RP events and they can go invis, mob possess, have access to some of the RP-driven commands that Celani/Gods can in order to facilitate smaller scale stuff. Any storylines would need to be approved via the Pools, so as not to interfere with any existing lore, both past and future. It's just a rough idea but we trust players enough to build areas, why not let them build stories?
Tell me how I'm doing!
How much tangible work gets done by the paid staff and the volunteers? Are the workloads similar? Are one or two people in the Pools acting as a "bottleneck" while others do less essential "busy work?"
When it comes to guild/city/order events based on lore, what is the process involved in initiating them? Who's in charge of quality control so that events don't clash with established culture, past events, or future planned events? Is the person in charge of overall lore quality control also a major coder?
The player base is hungry for activity, and I want to know the contributing causes behind the slow pace. Who's being overworked? Who holds too many responsibilities? How are the personnel being utilized?
I ask these questions because burnout is real. With the players as demanding as they are, the people running the show ought to have the structure in place to handle it all, within reason.
Question #1: Volunteer Retention Rate
Volunteering is meant to come with a modicum of secrecy, and volunteers are given NDAs before they can work in the Pools. That being said, we've all been playing this game too damn long and lots of us know who's upstairs and when they come back.
It is my perception that the turnover rate in the Pools is currently unusually high, with volunteers coming back faster than normal. This may just be cognitive bias at work ("oh I know them - weren't they just up there?"), so I'm willing to admit my perspective might just be flawed.
As someone who is still interested in volunteering again some day this question is quite important to me: what is your opinion on the retention rate of volunteers, and what things do you think you might address to keep them interested in contributing to Aetolia?
Question #2: Familiarity with Aetolia
I know a lot of players have beef with you, and that's on them to hash out or process, I don't want to be another wagging finger. The only nascent concern I have with you as a producer is related to a number of comments you've made in the past:
I don't consider cherry-picking a few snippets of conversation to be a completely comprehensive breakdown of someone's arguments; rather I want to convey that these are the sorts of comments that make me concerned about your familiarity with Aetolia.
I personally would not design a game without playtesting it, and were I put in charge of a game, I'd want to make sure I at least understand how it's played, and why things work the way they do. These are questions with answers that are non-obvious - someone put directly into the Producer's chair, given a codebase to learn how the game works, might not completely understand the bashing experience, or realize that illusion spam was deliberately, for the most part, phased out of the combat meta.
I'm starting to ramble and lose my point, so one last bullet point, and then my question. A lot of players might not remember, but Varian - as in the guy who continually played the admin shell Varian back in the early/mid-2000s, not Jeremy in disguise - used to roll newbies and spend a few days joining guilds, leveling up, trying out guild advancement and generally "feeling" out the game. It was instrumental in helping him point out issues that he couldn't see at the time, such as a notorious event in which he demanded that guilds with brutal advancement requirements had to commit to easing up their rules (that might have been Galleus, it was a long time ago).
The question in essence: have you considered doing the same? Are there any company policies or rules that might prevent you from trying it, or any personal reservations you might have against touring the game, as it were?
Super Sneaky Question #3: Forum Moderation
hi i edited this in
Would you ever consider reinstating forum moderators again? The quality of discussion on this thing has taken a serious nosedive.
Message #1891 Sent By: Tiur Received On: 3/23/2019/2:43
"(Mass: Toz, Emir, Iazamat, Mjoll, Fezzix) Hello! I'm looking at putting together a sit down to discuss issues of bias in administration, and whatever leftover bad feelings might be there. Let me know a good time, forward this to whomever would be interested, and I'll try to set the time. Or, if you're note interested, let me know that too."
When I received this message, I was actually very relieved. Our frustrations were being heard and the Producer decided to take the initiative to ease them. Pretty dope move, seriously. I messaged back, said I was interested. I don't have an actual copy of my message because I no longer have access to Emir, but I did say I was interested, I also have:
Message #3497 Sent By: Mjoll Received On: 3/23/2019/4:02
"(To Tiur): I'm interested in attending and am free a lot of the time during the week. Whenever the others are free I'm probably free as well. (Working from home perks)."
Message 1413
Sent By: Iazamat on 23 Mar 2019, 04:04
"(To Tiur): I'm interested. Let me know what time is ultimately decided on, as I work from home and can set the time aside for this!"
Fezzix said he responded with 'half interested', and Toz had ultimately left the game by the time the message was sent.
A majority of the recipients had expressed interest in having this sit down, whether you count Toz or not. We heard nothing for almost 2 months, before asking you what had become of it.
Message #2061 Sent By: Tiur Received On: 5/16/2019/1:27
"Oh! It ended up cancelled because only one or two people were willing to go. Blech."
So my first question is, why did you flat out lie about something that was your idea to begin with?
You get to see everything we say or do in the game, so if you catch us raving and ranting in web, I'm sure that negatively impacts your perception of us - I can understand that to an extent, but I don't believe you should use that as an excuse to avoid us. I would be more inclined to use it as an indicator that something is wrong and it should be addressed. I understand you're trying to respect our privacy, however if you're going to use it as something of a crutch when creating your opinion of us, I believe we should have the opportunity to discuss our problems/concerns/issues with you openly. Sometimes, our surface complaints might be the stemming from something deeper. Keroc posted something somewhere however long ago - maybe his AMA thread - about how video game designers use the fact that people are upset about something to realize that there is an issue /somewhere/, even if the players are latching on to the immediate thing in front of them and are way off.
So that leads into my second question. "Clearing the air" this will only work if the conversation is allowed to go both ways; between X person/group and yourself. The impression some of us have, or the question we want to ask is a simple "Why do I get the feeling you hate me?" So my second question is this: Is there any chance you want to open a dialogue with those of us you've decided to avoid and explain why you end up ignoring people?
Q2: Is there a time limit on orgreqs to be handled? Can GMs and Org leaders be given a way to categorize their Orgreqs in order of importance? An RP orgreq might be more or less important than a request to fix a room on the map or move objects around. Smaller orgreqs like fixing small things tend to get lost under other requests because of visibility issues - are there any plans to better prioritize orgreqs?
Q3: Can guilds have two or more Patrons? Can the Patrons actually help with guild needs without having to go through the long process of orgreqs and waiting on them? A chosen patron should have the RP-knowledge and space to make these decisions, what is the reason behind them not being able to? What is the point of a Patron right now aside from the RP that a GM chooses to take from it and infuse their org with?
Q4: Are there any plans tie the provisioning skill to the trade ministry or any other ministry? Can a trade minister eventually submit a provisioning order for the populace to fill?
Q5: The mirror of the unknown articat is a nice artifact and helps with exploring but relies on outside sources. In practicality, it is an infuriating relic that does not take into account places that cannot be reached. Are there any plans to look into this or tie it to the games innate walking system even if with the introduction of tiered searches?
Q6: Are there any plans to allow city leaders to merge or reorganize city ministries and positions as needed? Similar to guild positions?
Q7: Requests for clarification on lore tend to go ingored, is it safe to assume that whatever direction I choose for my guild is just going to be -okay- and I won't have to face being told there were other plans in mind and I need to rewrite and redirect?
Q8: Are there any plans on making forging and enchanting less commodity-consuming when they remain to be scarce? For example, it costs 1 or 2 basic commodities to craft nearly anything from the crafting skills yet it costs 10-15 of those same commodities for forging. Can this be reduced to more reasonable demands?
Edit:
Q9: When will the mission boards/quests to get unenemied to the Ophidians/Mitrines function once more?
Are the admin and pools just biding time and making what last few amounts of money they can off of the player base before they finally decide to shut down the servers and say well Aetolia is dead? Reality is pretty much all players in the game are from older characters, and just trying to spruce things up.
what are the chances of a fully scale merger between Achaea and Aetolia. Do you think that a merger is a good idea to bring two player bases together as one and combining resources so that each player base feels like they are being paid attention too?
What can we do as a player base do to help things move along in regards to RP, Combat, and divinities? (aside from spending more money all the time)
I know i have received messages in the past saying Email me the specifics for record. Why do we have to go outside of the game for something ingame. The games built in system is adequate enough to handle things such as messages, and sorting messages. It would also bring back the admin and producer to strictly working within the game rather than jumping between emails and forums and coding program and the likes.
Lastly what are the chances of bring back the older classes like druid and priest's they were wicked fun and awesome classes to play. Though I do remember when Galleus said I HATE WORKING ON PRIEST CLASS it is so complicated. I would be willing to bet many people of those old guilds would love to have em back and play them again!
Related to this, I'd like to echo the question many others have asked. Aetolia has long been known as the rp-driven game of IRE. As of late, a lot of the content we've been getting involves dailies/minigames/cosmetics and a little (although I know my PK friends would say 'not enough!') conflict/combat stuff. Is this the content that will be focused on going forward? I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. Just, in the spirit of managing my own expectations, I'd cheekily ask...what kind of game is this suppose to be?