I found a workaround to the slow load for xp home. Minimize the game screen and flash it on and off from the taskbar. Each time it flashes it will load a bit. i got it to load in half a minute with that method by flashing it as fast as possible.

Sorry, but I have to agree with Luzino. I am nearly an hour into the load screen after choosing char. and it is 3/4 loaded. Processor is running at 100% continuously, and the hard drive is barely in use. Windows XP home. service pack 3. Pentium 4 2.4, ati 320m graphics. I am going to wait it out and see if I can play.

I didn't vote.

Why not vote?     It doesn't matter. It is up to the dev's, who are actually making the game to decide what is needed.
Us player/testers are kept out of the loop on what is going on with the development most of the time, and I have not posted till now on this because I did not know the issues. I am not a programmer and cannot completely understand those issues anyway. I do what I can to help with a game that has proven to be lots of cheap fun.

Who am I?      As a player I may be one of the few that sits firmly on the fence between PL and RP. I PL as part of my RP, and you can read the story I posted to see how well I have done to that end. I disagree with RPing stats when there are none and also PLing alone is no fun at all. Put them together and it makes a game. A game I have enjoyed for better than a year. I cannot say exactly the date I started because of a computer crash that caused me to lose all data, but it is somewhere around a year and 1/2. That story I posted was on my original character, which I played for quite a while before posting the story, but it was in mind from the day of creation. Since then I have also started many others, as I also planned from the start, which is the reason I did not use a character name as my posting name.

How do I feel  about a wipe?      I fully understand the need at 1.0. Before that I do not understand full wipe without very large benefits, and not just from a programming standpoint. IF money needs to be wiped, then do so, while leaving the rest alone. If magic balance needs to be restored, then wipe magic while leaving the rest alone. If weapons need to be changed so that a bow and arrow do not have the same range as melee then wipe weapons., and yet leave the rest alone. There are many warnings about cheating. If cheating is an issue then there should be some enforcement. Wipe those that cheated and make them start from scratch. If some of the Trias got out to innocents, then so be it, they are innocent and should not be punished. Don't punish all for the sake of "maybe someone got away with something."

I have finally almost achieved what I wanted to achieve when I started this game. Would I start again from scratch? I cannot answer that yet. I guess it depends on whether the benefits of the missing bugs combined with a better system equals out with what was lost. Te dev's have ownership of the game, but I have ownership over the characters I have created, and affected this world with. Can I be replaced with someone else if I go? Certainly. If you can have 2 tester/players, why have only one? I honestly was getting bored with Planeshift, mostly due to the excessive time to level, to where I wanted to be.

Do I want the game to get better?      Of course I do. Updates and fixes are long overdue. If it can be done in stages while allowing people to continue doing what they have been doing, by only having partial wipes at a time I think it would benefit the community and game much better than a full wipe, though there will be complainers either way.

I don't post here often because of the flamers and those that just want to argue. I do appreciate that the dev's are getting input and ideas here before making a decision. There needs to be more of this positive constructive discussion, and less of the "you worthless (insert insult)'s have nothing to say." If this new attitude of actually helping continues, maybe we will get a better game, with more happy player/testers as a bonus.

end of 2 trias

I have been thinking about the guild system lately too, but was thinking in a bit of a different direction. More of the mechanics of the system could be changed to make a better RP long term, and more RL like at the same time. NPC guilds may have their place as well as the player run ones which I cannot see stopping.

1. Players should be able to enter multiple guilds at the same time. This would better enable both the alliance capabilities, especially in times of war, and the ability to RP a spy or evil character trying to corrupt the good, etc. Or a good character trying to infiltrate the the and expose the evil.

2. The guild affiliation display should be individually switchable so others can or cannot see it as determined by the character. A good character trying to infiltrate an evil guild (or the other way around) would be rejected if known even OOC to be the opposite.

3. It would help also to have your own name display switchable for the same reasons. Someone covered up wearing a hood and sneaking in shadows is readily revealed by the big name tag. Turning name tags off also could help with the role play understanding (should not need this I know) that not everyone you come up to is someone that is known and to be addressed by name. I should point out that turning off the name should not remove the name from the stats window when selected. this would enable a thief to be followed, etc. in spite of the possible computer glitches.

Multiple guild associations would allow the use of both NPC guilds and player guilds without removing the benefits, quests, or RP possibilities of either the NPC guilds or the player association guilds.

I did not research the forums, and maybe these ideas were already given in someone elses post. I just saw this post and though I would my 2 trias.

Not sure how to link to another post. This works for me. Though not ideal it does make it livable.

To solve the proble partly download these maps: http://planeshift.alphasys.nl

It worked for me wonderfully! It still is a bit dark but at least not pitch black anymore! One can move around 

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Furthermore, you really are seriously telling having a vague idea about what are you going to do with your char ingame within in the next few minutes takes you several of hours?
No one says roleplaying requires some strict plan to follow. Some do because they like it to set up plans, and some just go all spontaneous according to their chars, without giving many thoughts on whats up next.

What I am saying is not like going to sit in a tavern to RP but a larger event. Something like the caravan robbery mentioned in another thread. I have spent several hours trying to get people together for an event and ran out of time before I could organize it. Another example is the work Mouli (kudos to him for the work he is putting into it) is putting into the tournament. hours of hashing out rules and making a chart that has to be updated all for 19 30 second fights to see who is best fighter. A lot of work for 10 minutes and trying to get 20 people together.

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Since this subject is based on that ancient conflict "PLers - RPers", why not going for a trade-off such as moving the PvP-zone a bit off the Camp, since it seems obvious that duellers render that place, which was meant to have a Settings-purpose, useless. That way duellers can have their fun fighting each other and bring the mechanics to its limits, while still are close to that "outlawish environment", and the same time roleplayers could immerse into the Setting.
At least until the fighting system got improved.

Ok. You kind of caught me there. I started Plane Shift as my first computer based RP game not sure what to expect. I did a bunch of RP at first and decided I would not RP something my char. is not capable of doing, so I began to level. In that way I found out that leveling can also be fun. At least some of the time.

I agree that we should be trying to improve the game and would support moving the PvP area if it could help. A suggestion for that and IC reason would be if there is a "Rogue training area" somewhere near the camp marked out with stakes or lines or something making a small arena area that that lawless could use without going through the city. I am not against Improving the game and helping players, I am against throwing out an idea that has implications for the roleplay and economy of the game.

No RP reason?

How am I supposed to play a char. that has little fear of danger and runs into trouble without thinking if there is no danger?

How are the bullies supposed to RP their bullying without being able to bully? (Yes there are bullies everywhere)

How are those that want to RP protecting the innocent if there is nothing to protect?

What are the Sheeples for if not to bully? I guess there is no reason for them either? Lets ban them too!!!!


Maybe an OOC warning could be added to the tutorial for newbs, so they know the danger.

Leave the PvP there and later expand to the roads so caravan attacks, etc. can happen. Without that it is like the bandits asking permission to rob. Seems kind of silly to me. Just like testing strength of monsters, YES it will kill a few newbs..... Until they learn how to deal with it. Does that mean there are going to be 85 bandits gathered at every PvP location all the time? No. It will still be safe.....Most of the time.

If PvP areas on the road are a concern make safe walking passages with guards or something. Force the caravans with wagons or whatever means of carrying use the unsafe passages due to terrain and not being able to use the "safe passages" and mark them as such. Caravans are not likely to be populated with a bunch of newbs that don't know what they are getting into, but more experienced people to RP some kind of event. Advertised or not.