thanks for removing PvP

[Bonifarzia]

to name the issue more on a "cause" level: PlaneShift lacks rules developers
...
without someone dedicated working on rules, there sure won't be a perfectly balanced system anytime soon.

You are right, of course. I admit such a discussion is not very helpful.

perhaps allowing a one swing option with the present combat functions so that the game mechanics could be used in a turn based aspect.

Considering the "one swing option", you can easily lower your characters health to just a few hit points by doing some nonsense-research in your spell book. The character must still be able to inflict more than zero damage for this trick, though. Anyways.

[novacadian]

to name the issue more on a "cause" level: PlaneShift lacks rules developers
...
without someone dedicated working on rules, there sure won't be a perfectly balanced system anytime soon.

You are right, of course. I admit such a discussion is not very helpful.

The discussion may be more helpful if one ponders why there is a lack of someone. This point has been made for the GM team as well... that they can't handle something as mundane as name changes because of the small staff.

This sounds valid on face value. Yet my experience has shown that there is a deeper problem than lack of those stepping forward.

In August 2011 a member of the GM staff approached me to apply to the GM team. Being very active at that time their offer was excepted and the appropriate details submitted. Two month went by and the GM was approached to see what had happened. It was explained that they were trying to arrange an interview with the GM team and myself.

Two more month went by and again the same answer given. At the six month point the GM explained that they had had to go through such a torturous wait themselves.

It is now 9 months. My daughter came into creation in the same time frame.

It is madness to complain that help is needed and then expect help to await such slow movement in decision making.

Unless new blood is readily and happily brought into a project we will witness what we see now. A snail crawling pace of development and new players moving on without new blood being brought in. Instead just bad PR generated which fosters the continued spiral.

My experience of coding on a MUD for a number of years was very similar. A large hierarchy  was created during the peak period of activity and then when things began slowing down that hierarchy killed the mud. Wizards would code great projects only to have things languish awaiting the Quality Control department to clear things. Many just threw up their hands and walked away.

Today the MUD is still there with the occasional wizards logging in their player characters to do some player killing with each other. The rest of the time the MUD lays empty. One wonders how many of the PCs we see active on PS are in fact GM run PCs and that the same sorry fate is underway on PS.

- Nova

[_sly_]

to name the issue more on a "cause" level: PlaneShift lacks rules developers
...
without someone dedicated working on rules, there sure won't be a perfectly balanced system anytime soon.

You are right, of course. I admit such a discussion is not very helpful.

The discussion may be more helpful if one ponders why there is a lack of someone. This point has been made for the GM team as well... that they can't handle something as mundane as name changes because of the small staff.

This sounds valid on face value. Yet my experience has shown that there is a deeper problem than lack of those stepping forward.

In August 2011 a member of the GM staff approached me to apply to the GM team. Being very active at that time their offer was excepted and the appropriate details submitted. Two month went by and the GM was approached to see what had happened. It was explained that they were trying to arrange an interview with the GM team and myself.

Two more month went by and again the same answer given. At the six month point the GM explained that they had had to go through such a torturous wait themselves.

It is now 9 months. My daughter came into creation in the same time frame.

It is madness to complain that help is needed and then expect help to await such slow movement in decision making.

Unless new blood is readily and happily brought into a project we will witness what we see now. A snail crawling pace of development and new players moving on without new blood being brought in. Instead just bad PR generated which fosters the continued spiral.

My experience of coding on a MUD for a number of years was very similar. A large hierarchy  was created during the peak period of activity and then when things began slowing down that hierarchy killed the mud. Wizards would code great projects only to have things languish awaiting the Quality Control department to clear things. Many just threw up their hands and walked away.

Today the MUD is still there with the occasional wizards logging in their player characters to do some player killing with each other. The rest of the time the MUD lays empty. One wonders how many of the PCs we see active on PS are in fact GM run PCs and that the same sorry fate is underway on PS.

- Nova

nods


I remember a time when you were able to find guys doing friendly duels outsite the arena.
I have to say, some weren't all that friendly... .
However, thats long gone. A certain aspect of the game that was used for years is no longer present. I have to say that i do not subscribe to the 'coincidence' theory. I heard players claiming to be happy about this.

Arcon Styles aka Sly wishes the remaining players a lot of fun.

Farewell

[Tessra]

I'm with you, _sly_.  I remember those days of dueling for hours outside the arena.  Dueling was one of the main things I enjoyed about the game.  If RP or OOC situations got too dramatic, it was nice to be able to run off and duel with a group of close friends.  Sure, there was some OOC drama with dueling, but it was still a nice element of the game.  You'll be missed.

[weltall]

to name the issue more on a "cause" level: PlaneShift lacks rules developers
...
without someone dedicated working on rules, there sure won't be a perfectly balanced system anytime soon.

You are right, of course. I admit such a discussion is not very helpful.

The discussion may be more helpful if one ponders why there is a lack of someone. This point has been made for the GM team as well... that they can't handle something as mundane as name changes because of the small staff.

This sounds valid on face value. Yet my experience has shown that there is a deeper problem than lack of those stepping forward.

In August 2011 a member of the GM staff approached me to apply to the GM team. Being very active at that time their offer was excepted and the appropriate details submitted. Two month went by and the GM was approached to see what had happened. It was explained that they were trying to arrange an interview with the GM team and myself.

Two more month went by and again the same answer given. At the six month point the GM explained that they had had to go through such a torturous wait themselves.

It is now 9 months. My daughter came into creation in the same time frame.

It is madness to complain that help is needed and then expect help to await such slow movement in decision making.

Unless new blood is readily and happily brought into a project we will witness what we see now. A snail crawling pace of development and new players moving on without new blood being brought in. Instead just bad PR generated which fosters the continued spiral.

My experience of coding on a MUD for a number of years was very similar. A large hierarchy  was created during the peak period of activity and then when things began slowing down that hierarchy killed the mud. Wizards would code great projects only to have things languish awaiting the Quality Control department to clear things. Many just threw up their hands and walked away.

Today the MUD is still there with the occasional wizards logging in their player characters to do some player killing with each other. The rest of the time the MUD lays empty. One wonders how many of the PCs we see active on PS are in fact GM run PCs and that the same sorry fate is underway on PS.

- Nova

maybe that's the gm team, as they have interviews, but i usually accept new programmers immediately as developers don't need one. only they never catch up with the email i send them... i wonder.. maybe I've a 3-headed dog eating my outgoing emails...

[Aramara Meibi]

weltall made a joke!!!

[knight_cz]

My two cents concerning pvp. Back in the days I played Ultima Online. That was the best designed MMORPG I played up to date. No other MMO managed to get even close to Ultime Online - concerning game mechanics, but graphics never was that important for me. And guess what - in Ultime Online PvP no fighter or archer stood any chance against a mage. There was free open pvp and the player killers were only mages and were killing other people with magic who could do almost NOTHING to prevent it - if they weren't mages themselves.
Now thinking about balancing regular combat against magic... The real life scenario where two people are stading 20 meters from each other and one has a sword and the second one can burn him in an instant is not very balanced either. Also, when you read fantasy the "high" mages are usually killed by a trick, by a slit throat from the back, in their sleep etc.

But back to Ultime Online - it wasn't balanced, so it sucked for melee fighters, right? No. Melee fighters could duel with each other with melee, they could go to tournaments and prove their melee skill - and even the combat system there worked in a sense kind of similar to planeshift, it was quite hard to master it actually. Melee was also prefered combat style killing monsters in dungeons.

Back to Planeshift - since pvp here is on demand, I really don't find any problems the magic vs combat is not "balanced" right now. Why the hell would this bother anyone in this game? If you want to duel properly with someone else and you are a melee fighter, just tell you want to duel with weapons and not with magic. Or you can check whether it is enough e.g. to restrict his magic to certain realm or to certain spells - perhaps it will be more balanced. If the one you are dueling with refuses, then just find someone else.

Hmm. One more comment about balancing pvp. I played a couple of mmorpgs. PvP was NEVER balanced anywhere. There were always classes that had advantage and after "nerfs" just the best class changed. It's kind of never ending cycle where whiners are whining and the game designers are trying to help everyone but in the end it just makes the game worse - but that is my opinion only (I think the major problem here are in fact player egos - and not only of younger players - they just want to win and hate to loose and when they loose they are looking for excuses - "that class is imba" is one of them).

[Bonifarzia]

I think Sly's point in this topic really was about immunity to physical attacks rather than details of combat-magic balancing. (yes, I already said that). I am looking forwards to the next rules update, where this problem will be addressed among others. Thanks for that, Eonwind.