Greetings everyone,

I've been here a long time, and in that time, I've learned a lot about how these forums work. The most important thing I've learned is that the best way to get help here is to help yourself. There are a lot of stickies created for you benefit, and though you may groan at the prospect of reading through them all, they often will solve your problems faster than if you post and wait for a response. The search tool will also yield answers much faster than any human being can.

However, even though it seems like a no-brainer to try to help yourself before asking others to help you, some people don't understand this and will skip all the stickies and post anyway. As a result, people on the forum have to spend time answering their questions, even if they've been answered many times before. And to be honest, this just isn't fair: the people who spend time answering questions do it because they love this game and they love this community, but their time is valuable, and to have them wasting it because other people are too lazy to help themselves is unacceptable.

To help you find all the stuff you should read before posting, I've compiled a list of critical posts here. Use these resources, and read the stickies thoroughly!

1. A Guide to Troubleshoot Planeshift on Mac OS X -- Read this thoroughly and do what it says! It links to the rest of these stickies as well.
2. ATI X1600 graphics card work-around -- Fix for Intel users with the aforementioned graphics card and PPC users with Leopard.
3. How to Obtain a Console/Crash Log -- If all else fails, and you need help troubleshooting a crash, go here to determine how to get us the logs we need.
4. Forum search -- Used to search existing threads. Make sure to limit your search to the Mac forum. USE THIS!

To the helpful souls on the forum: feel free to not respond to any post that does not explicitly state that they read the stickies and searched before posting. These posts will probably be deleted before their authors can read them in any case.

If you think that I've neglected to include some critical information in a sticky, please let me know via PM. Otherwise, make sure you make a concerted effort to solve your own problems before posting. If you don't, your post will be swiftly and mercilessly deleted. Consider yourself warned!

~Cha0s
Edited to be nicer/less rantish

Hey everyone. I know a lot of you can't play, and rightfully, you are frustrated. Well, I have good news for all of you. I have made contact with dfryer (he was taking a little break from the computer, which I hope you can understand) and he's working on some fixes. 10.3.x players, he think he knows what's wrong for you guys. You should hopefully be seeing a playable client in the near future (as soon as he recompiles and the binaries are uploaded). Intel guys: hang on, he's gonna look into it. Thank you to those of you have been patient thus far. We are very sorry for all the problems; dfryer is doing his best to fix them. Thanks!

This topic has been moved to Technical Help: Problems BEFORE entering the game: Not a Mac-specific issue.

http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=24653.0

A mess. That's this forum right now. I don't want to be a rules nazi, but this forum really is a mess. There is a sticky with the rules in it. People need to read that sticky and abide by those rules. I am going to start enforcing those rules. Strictly.

I want to clarify a few things:
1. Things posted here *MUST* have happened in-game. You are posting primarily retellings, diary entries, etc. There is room for some roleplay to make things colorful, but the real story should be in-game. The roleplay here should be a side story, reflections of your character and a log of what has happened. The real happenings should be in-game.
2. [RP] tags should be used, but don't assume that any thread without them is an OOC thread. Look at the content!
3. Play nice. I said in the sticky I wanted no out-of-character arguing. I'm saying it again. Don't go there. I'm going to take this seriously; arguing is going to lead to deleting.

Now, about #1... I've decided that to make things easier, I'm going to give you an example. The following (2-post) roleplay recounting is from a Neverwinter Nights server I used to play on. The key thing about this tale is that it is a reflection on what was happening to my character in-game, not a brand new roleplay. It also sets up a means for my character to log things that happen in-game. I'm not saying you should all write books... that'd be a bit repetitive. However, keep the real roleplay in-game; just reflect on it and color it up here. Without further ado, your example:

[Any in-character messages may be put up here. This message board is in Hydlaa, so if your character visits Hydlaa, it is safe to assume that he/she saw these messages. Note that authorities may remove out-dated messages (about a month in real-time) or ones they find offensive (so don't be surprised if a message disappears, though I will try to PM people). When a message you have posted becomes irrelevant or outdated, please remove it (i.e. edit it and replace it with "[Removed]" ). This is a good place to post announcements about tournaments, wanted criminals, meetings, and anything else you might think of. Just keep it in-character (out-of-character announcements will be deleted). If you need to announce out-of-character information as well as in-character information, I suggest you post the in-character here and make a new thread in this forum for the out-of-character. If your message is not anonymous, remember to include your character's name. Now, go ahead, post those messages!]

[This thread is not for character-to-character interaction, unless you are posting public notices that are directed at a specific individual, and that individual is replying with another notice. This is a strange thing to do, but boards are free until someone cleans them up. Do not do your roleplaying in this thread. ]

You want to be part of an event? You want the event to be fun, rewarding, and meaningful to you? Good, then we're on the same page. Because that's what the GMs want too! We can't do it all, though. Following are a few tips to help you get the most out of the GM team, both in how to get into an event and how to behave while participating in one.

1. Roleplay all the time. You should be doing this anyway, but if you want to be in an event, roleplaying is a good way to get you there. Why, you ask? Well, roleplaying often brings you into contact with other players. The future of events is that GMs will simply find a likely group of players, and then start an event with those players. Roleplaying in group of good players not only gives the GMs a pool of people to work with, but convinces them that you will roleplay well during the event.

2. Don't go out-of-character to accept an event. If your character would not participate for any reason, he or she should not participate. Little good can come from an event where your character does not belong.

3. Don't forget NPCs! While it's true that they aren't very intelligent most of the time, they get a bit smarter during an event. Remember that from your character's point of view, they are normal people in the world.

4. Improvise. There's something your character would do but the GM "wouldn't like it" if you did, so you don't do it, right? No, wrong! The purpose of GMs is to provide a realistic environment that can respond dynamically to the players (unlike the NPC AI). When you do things, we respond. Don't hold back; whatever your character might do, try it. Even if it would be impossible with the current game mechanics, do it with a /me! Limit yourself only by your character, not by mechanics.

5. Be patient with the GMs. The GMs often have to look after multiple NPCs, items, and players. There's a lot to do. If you don't get a response from an NPC or one of your actions is apparently ignored, send a tell to one of the GMs running the event. They'll make sure that it gets to the right person and that a GM takes care of it.

6. Roleplay and have fun! These are the two primary objectives of the game. Keep these in your sights during events and I guarantee that you'll have a great experience!

Welcome one and all to the in-game role-play board. The purpose of this board is several-fold.
First, this board serves as a way for the Game Masters (GMs) of Planeshift to communicate with the players of Planeshift.
Second, this board serves as a place to announce major upcoming events and discuss previous events (out-of-character).
Third, this board serves as a place to post in-character role-play summaries of upcoming events and past events. Do not put full roleplays here. The roleplay on this board serves to add color. The meat of your roleplay should happen in-game. This is just a place to log and reflect on what happens in-game, not a place to start new roleplays.
Fourth, this board may also be used to post in-game regulations and notices. A sticky will be created and labeled [RP] for any such regulations/notices.

With these things in mind, please read and abide by the following rules:

1. As with all other boards, decency is important. No profanities, cursing, etc or the like. I'll say no more about this. However, unlike some other boards, there will also be no out-of-character arguing here. That's not the purpose of this board. Suggestions and criticisms are fine, but they are not to be argued over between players; the GMs will do that.

2. Keep your posts in the right threads. Do not post out-of-character posts in in-character threads (except in small bracketed [] footnotes/headers-these footnotes and headers should not be the majority of the post and should not be used to criticize or argue about other posts). Do not post in-character posts in out-of-character threads (including threads marked "[Event]" ). All in-character threads should be marked "[RP]" at the beginning, i.e. "[RP]The Evil Sorcerer." If you have a problem with someone's post (i.e. it is out-of-character when it should in-character or it uses profanity, etc), do not post. Send me a PM detailing the problem, and I'll address it.

3. Some threads may be reserved to GM posting only. If a GM asks you not to post in a thread, please observe his or her wishes and do not post there.

4. In the feedback/quality assurance (QA) threads (labeled with [EVENT] tags), we want you to speak freely and criticize on where you think we can do our job better. However, you are not permitted to flame GMs under any circumstances. Keep your posts civil and we will listen.

5. Finally, if you participate in an event, you are encouraged to post an in-character follow-up. This could be anything writing in a diary, or chronicling a history to quietly contemplating what you've been a part of. To make things easier to understand, we request that your first post include the character in brackets on the first line alone like so, [Selaros Anari]. Anyone else who contributes should note their character in their first post as well. You may post about anything that occurs in-game, even if a GM is not involved. Feel free to keep an in-character diary with entries for every day if you wish. This roleplay is not judged in any way. It serves only to help players keep up to date with what is happening in Planeshift in a general sense. However, all players should beware of using out-of-character knowledge in-game. Some of these posts may be public knowledge or public notices. Others may be private. Be careful to distinguish between the two. Finally, do not feel confined to posting in an existing thread about an event if the context of that thread differs from the context of your post. For instance, a diary entry and a retelling on the same event belong in separate threads. I expect to see a lot of threads that are just one post. Use the context of the post (present context: how your character is communicating what happened in-game, not the context of what happened in-game), to decide where you put your post.

I hope you enjoy role-playing in Planeshift and I hope this forum and the GM team make your role-play experience a ton of fun!:) If you ever have any concerns, feel free to post them here. For concerns relating to a specific GM, however, please direct all inquiries directly to that GM through a PM or to myself. Thanks!

Thanks to all that participated! Please post your comments here (and your account name if it differs from your forum name). I\'ll try to get up screenshots and a summary later. Also thanks to josePhoenix who helped run the event. It was a lot of fun, especially with such a good crowd of role-players. I look forward to running more events in the future (and coordinating them better)!