Announce post #3136: Question Thread

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.
AzaraeRebraNeomaDrystinAceMazzion
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Comments

  • Are the rules posted in the discord channel for everyone? It seemed like you kept your mouth shut when people wanted to be rude. IRE seems to have a long standing habit of showing bias to other players. What has been done to circumvent these actions?
    Tetchta
  • Since I have more than one question, I do not expect them all to be answered. I hope that I am conveying myself properly here with these questions.

    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.
    SibattiGalileiMazzionOonagh

  • 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!

    Communication with the community as a whole is incredibly important, and probably the most important part when it comes to player-facing/customer interaction. Small games, big games, mid-tier sized games, none of them are above their communities and hearing them. From what I've been observing / reading / hearing over the last few weeks is a lot of disgruntled customers / peers when it comes to handling enquiries, concerns, opinions - and the conflict of differing opinions - monetary values, ideas and general questions.

    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.
    OonaghNaosEleneDrystinTeaniBulrokTsarra
  • What does a work day in the life of Tiur entail? If we have a similar definition of a full-time job (40 hour work week), what does your daily 9-5 look like? 

    In most jobs I have held, I am required to show tangible results for the time I’ve invested, and then subsequently been paid for. Obviously there is an extreme lack of faith at this point in time, and I see you now trying to remedy that. To that goal, would you be willing to provide weekly updates? Show us what you are doing behind the curtains, where your hours are spent, what code you’ve done - rather than only hearing from you at the start of each month?

    To expand, what are YOU doing, not the entire team. 
    OonaghSryaenXavinBulrokXenia
  • edited September 2020
    Why has there been no feedback on the Mirror Classes, is it not intended to be an addition that will enrich players and stop tether tribalism?
    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?
    NaosXavinEydisAce
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    Are there any major global plot events being worked on? And a rough ETA on when they'd be coming around?

    Galilei
  • edited September 2020
    In the last round of classleads, report #2858 (documented here: https://pastebin.com/sERds7Ye ) was rejected (per my understanding) due to the impact of server-side curing on 'game lag'. However, it was said by yourself on 2020/06/19 (documented here: https://i.imgur.com/xccosY9.png) that Aetolia is the best coded of the IRE games, good enough that IRE's newest game was built upon Aetolia's foundation.

    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?
    NaosStineSryaenOonagh
  • Q1: Do you feel qualified to change items that are related to combat? If yes, what experience do you have with the current landscape of Aetolia combat (1v1/sect or group) to make you answer this way?

    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.

    SryaenOonaghMazzion
  • Also, I've been playing for some time. I would like to know how IRE plans on assuring new players that they don't lose money needlessly. I was forced out of a guild for not forgetting horsemanship for 22 lessons. I issued it with no response. How is IRE going to assure new players that their issues will be heard and not blown off like mine and many others?
  • I agree with much of what @Sibatti wrote. The cities and guilds are quiet. The World is quiet. And I know there are many people with ideas on smaller guild/city/order events that could put a bit of flavor into things. It doesn't always have to be world-wide major events that will change the world forever, or events that result in you winning things (which people still manage to complain about because they are not worth as much as they hope because obviously free isn't always good enough). So my questions are similar to Sibattis:

    *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?
    SryaenOonaghAzarae
  • 1) In explorers any chance of making the western wilderness accessible without going through the syssin guildhall? Maybe through Windchaser.
    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.


    LinOonaghRhineTetchtaSryaenMazzion
  • edited September 2020
    What is the extent that builders in Aetolia are used for? Given the large amount of work that event organisation (especially gamewide ones) will take, I feel like builders could be utilised far more to help take some workload off - like getting them to write areas for your needs, filler denizens for certain events, etc.

    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.
    GalileiTeaniSryaenMazzionQelres
  • IpzIpz
    edited September 2020
    Also, why should I care about your feelings when you dont care about the money I've lost from admin like yourself showing bias. It's fine that people are rude and try to hurt others feelings in discord, but we're suppose to care about your feelings.
    XavinLinEleneTetchtaTaiyangOonaghValeriaNisaviRhineSeurimasIesidSryaenRihrinEydisAceAmaritaAzarae
  • I'm half asleep and I know I have more but can't think right now.

    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.

    SryaenMazzion
  • PhoeneciaPhoenecia The Merchant of Esterport Somewhere in Attica
    edited September 2020
    Gonna echo a lot of things @Sibatti has said, since her comments kind of reflect why I've been playing D&D more than Aetolia. Aetolia, lately, has felt more like a chore in logging in rather than an enjoyable experience. A lot of tasks feel like really stiff competition for resources (Fishing, Provisioning, ylem, anything to do with comms), or really tedious tasks that need to be tended to everyday (Farming, ylem, credit milestones, normal milestones).

    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? 

    OonaghTeaniSryaenGalileiEleneAzarae
  • Of questions not yet asked, is finishing the racetrack setup and implementing the city vs city championship races still being worked on, or has it been decided not to be implemented at all? If it planned to be added at any time in the future, is there a rough timeline for it, or is it not even being considered till other things get finished?
    Galilei
  • Q1: What are the current resources being used to work on mirrors, if none please state that?
    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?
    StineOonaghHavenSryaenNeomaTsarraXenia
  • TeaniTeani Shadow Mistress Sweden
    I will be echoing something Phoenecia said: "the game seems to have shifted from city vs city to everyone vs the Albedi gods". There has been a lack of movement when it comes to the storyline lately, and most of what has been pushed out has been on a global scale so large that it has felt like the actions of one small character means next to nothing.
    * 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!



    OonaghSryaenAzarae
  • I find that this is not precisely an easy format to make myself heard. There are things I want to say that are not questions, but you are asking us to pose questions to get your communication. Due to this, I'll write my post and put my Questions in bold. In your position, I would appreciate the context that surrounds each of these questions.

    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.
    OonaghSryaenYedan
  • edited September 2020
    How many coders are in the Pools?

    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.
    SaritaSryaenEydisGalileiOonaghRhine
  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    edited September 2020
    tl;dr the actual questions are at the bottom of each section, if you just wanna skim. Thank you for your consideration!



    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.
    FezzixOonaghStineSryaenAloliYedan
  • Let me preface this by explaining that I am providing proofs to follow your (Tiur) lead in offering pure clarity on the whole of a situation. There is zero intention to be hostile.

    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?
    Copperhead of the Third Spoke says to you, "Intelligence matrix in moniker Bulrok reveals above average results when compared alongside proximal presence."
    LinSryaenOonaghZarniAceYedanXenia
  • AloliAloli Between Books
    edited September 2020
    Q1: How are emailed requests handled? What sort of method will be in place for documenting and tracking requests that come through issues and emails so they are not forgotten for 9+ months?

    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?
    Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. - Khalil Gibran
    SryaenOonagh
  • What is the point in making even more avenues of communication outside of the game? Especially when ingame avenues are so neglected as it is?

    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!
    Oonagh
  • When is Gaming going to get fixed? As far as I can tell, even the classlead of mine that was rejected because the solution was fixing a bug hasn't been fixed despite the round being done, and there are plenty of others.

    AceFezzixTeaniOonagh
  • edited September 2020
    There has been lots of small bits of content that were promised but were never followed up on. Examples are the Ashes of the Indorani, additional Proxy War wares/rewards, additional wares on the frog barge from the last celebration, getting to visit the culture exhibits cities made, Shifter factions, the Storytelling crystal from the last celebration (and/or the one before that?). I'd like to understand the priorities of where this game's understandably limited content creation resources are allocated and why. Is there a lot of pressure from on high to come up with new content instead of completing old projects? Is it a matter of volunteer turnover and, if so, are alternative solutions being looked at?

    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?
    OonaghYedanSryaen
  • TiurTiur Producer
    I've started writing answers, but the 48 hours are up! I'm not sure if we'll post the answer bit all at once or piece it out, but give us some days!
    KwanakeAzaraeAloli
This discussion has been closed.