Hello all

This is really a post addressing three subjects but i feel they are sorta linked to each other.

Event announcements:
Let me first say I truly hope you had a nice time and it's great that people take the time to actually arrange events The following is not so much about the Levrus was found event - I don't know anything about what happened and the scale of it. But since its not the first time I hear about unannounced GM events, it was what triggered me to raise my concerns about having (semi) official events without announcing them via the proper channels - the forum and the calendar.

Considering the current state of the game (lack of active players) i find the approach not announcing the events public in a reasonable time in advance is problematic. When people learn there was an official event they weren't made aware of, may make people feel left out and not really welcome in the community. That's not exactly what PS need currently. Its hard enough being new to PS as it is ... or for (some) older players to keep the interest for ps. If things were like 7 or 8 years ago with literally lots of players online (100+) and 50-60 ppl online was considered a slow time, there were plenty of things going on all the time but now there aren't.
If you wish to keep an interested and committed player base you (the GMs) need to let people have a chance of participating in the few events there actually is. Also having more events listed in the calendar makes PS look like an active community which in turn may attract more new players.

I don't know the reasons for not announcing the event to the public in advance - I can only guess ...
And that's what I will do and it will lead me to the next subject:

GM events:
All who has participated in events or have just been in PS while a scheduled event was taking place, has experienced the amount of lag these events sometime create. I'm don't know if its the nature of the events or if it's the server having problems coping the amount of players online for the events. We have also seen how some of these events have ended up in a big mess with out actually reaching any goals set out for the event - the giant hunt for example. Perhaps for such events some sort of mandatory preregistering and limited number of participants may be a good idea?

Another thing about those kind of events: No offense, but I think of that type of events as follow-the-GM because they kinda resemble the kids game follow-the-leader. They don't really require much thinking and doing from the participants. Perhaps its just a result of the number of players attending ...

If I may, I'd like to suggest you perhaps think of another type of events which are not meant to be solved in one big group but either requires people to think for themselves or as a small group. I'd like to mention the treasure hunts made by The Way of the Hammer guild for their festivals. I really enjoyed those. They require you to either do all the thinking yourself or to team up in smaller groups (which could be dictated by the event - older players could be forced to have new player in their groups or new players could be allowed a couple of hints). You have people running all over Yliakum and usually not following each other footsteps.
Other things I'd like to see are competitions like in the good old days: Simple things like Race the DR or a race from Hydlaa to Oja. Perhaps, to avoid too much lag, its necessary to divide people into smaller groups and have them do a run. The best from each group will meet in the finals and race for the trophy.
I'm aware these kind of events usually don't appeal much to RP'ers, but I believe things like a treasure hunt could be given a twist of RP if you add some interaction with an NPC/GM/player to advance to the next clue.


Meet the GMs:
Every other Sunday there is a "Meet the Devs" event where on-going and future development of the game is discussed OOC. From time to time there are GM's at the meeting. But the dev meeting isn't really the place to discuss past, current and future IG events i think.
Would it be an idea to have a similar event "Meet the GMs" where events, ideas, gm related stuff and such could be discussed ooc'ly. It doesn't have to be every other week but perhaps once a month? Would people be disciplined enough to actually make such a meeting meaningful? And are there need for it?


- Kia
Elemental Light

I'd like to suggest a different approach to this type of problem: (I hope I didn't misunderstand  it)

To me it seems like the current approach is: "lets try to make something and see what we end up with and if it is acceptable."
In this case: Lets create a formula and see what crafting time it gives us and then we will decide if it is acceptable.

How about turning the question upside down and first decide for a goal (ie. what crafting time is acceptable at a given level). Then you can figure what parameters you can use in your formula and from that finally construct a formula that fulfill that goal.

Actually I think the above question is a part of a long chain of questions needed to be asked. First:
How long should it take to reach a certain level if you do it the most optimal way without interruptions?

I know it is a difficult question to answer because it may be an unpopular decision to make. But I think you kinda already do make that decision by testing what you have made and decide if it is acceptable. It is just a matter of the order in which you make the decision.

You may already have done all this. But then i think you need to give us some more information about the goal to work with before we try to give our opinion about a solution.

So, to sum it up:

• Set a goal.
• Figure what parameters can be used and/or tweaked to achieve that goal.
• Create the solution (here the formula).
• Test and see if the goal is achieved otherwise return to 2
• Profit

- Kia

There is quest referring to at least north.

Fholen says: You should exit from Hydlaa going north which is the gate past Kada-El's tavern next to the windowless tower.

Many quests mention East Hydlaa.

Anyway, why would North, South, East, West necessarily have something to do with a magnetic compass (IC)? Surely people in Yliakum will be aware of the relative positions of things and just decided to call directions these names. I'm pretty sure there has always been a need for being able to place something relatively to something else when you tell other people about it. N, S, E and W just happens to be the names we use in RL too.
You could compare it to, say, a hammer. Why do poeple in Yliakum call it a hammer? It might as well be named a sploink, but it has a name related to the real world too.
That you relate it to compasses and magnetism is just OOC knowledge.

- Kia

What about running it at Sundays instead? Not as many events at that day it seems ... except dev meetings. Also more people might have time to join if its not too late (European time) like 18:00GMT  (that's 20:00CEST).

- Kia

He he,

Well, no its NOT a trick photo. Im not that good with photoshop ... actually i stink with photoshop.

To make it work, VNC is your friend ;-)

But i think its cool anyway. But i wouldn't want to play for hours this way ... waaayy too complicated. VNCs refresh rate is just not good enough.

- Kia

Kaityra and Tuxide, would you accept a RP like the one i sketched in the first post of this thread? Yes or no. If no, why not?


Oh, and this thread is not meant for a new way of whining. This is meant to clarify things a bit, what is acceptable and what is not. I want to know exactly what i can expect of this game. Especially: what do those people that is just not regular players as you and I expect from this game.
I want to know if you can transfer RL events to this game. Both things can happen IRL, the theft and the assult, and there is nothing you can do about it.
The difference between those two events are the game mechanics let you ignore the assault but not the theft. You can't decline the theft if the door is unlocked for some unspecified reason.

If you read it as something else well ... then Im sorry but you are wrong.


- Kia

Hi everybody

Considering the last couple of days events i find it appropriate to announce that the relationship between The Outlaws and Elemental Light is now back to normal.

Izzabella and I had a good conversation about this issue and I think we both understand how each other feel and I think we both agree on that we have learned a lot from this.I just hope for that everybody else also did so this will not be repeated again.
I think i will leave it to Izzabella if she wants to go into any further details about this. As far as EL is concerned we are back on track with the Outlaws.

[edit]
Regarding those other people involved, like Thieves of Yliakum, nothing has been settled yet.
[/edit]

And to everybody else: bear with us if we try to steer clear of some RP events for a little while, please. Emotions got pretty high on this one, so we need a little time to settle down.

And to those who have expressed their sympathy with us: Thanks a lot. Its nice to know that we have a lot of friends out there. We really appreciate it. It has really warmed our hearts.

Have fun everybody.

- Kiaerulf
Ulber Tamer of Elemental Light

PS! Remember this is a game. What you do have to be fun for all parties

[edit: corrected a typo]