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Messages - Qia_Fask

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General Discussion / Re: Qia Fask and Ssar Aradyn

« on: October 30, 2008, 11:55:17 am »

Quote from: Vonor on October 30, 2008, 11:44:32 am

However, the decision to delete Qia was based on an overreaction, IMHO. You could instead have taken an hiatus, let things calm down and rethink everything before making a decision.

I didn't bring up the "why" of deleting my account, as I would rather focus on all the nice experiences I've had with PlaneShift, and I have no interest in flamewars.

For the past couple months I have had many negative experiences. Deleting my account was not something I did spontaneously, this latest incident was merely the straw that broke the camel's back.

General Discussion / Qia Fask and Ssar Aradyn

« on: October 30, 2008, 11:33:34 am »

Halo to anyone who bothers to read this!

For those of you who knew Ssar Aradyn and suspected after she died a colourful roleplay death that Qia Fask might be controlled by the same player, you were correct. I really do not like OOC things affecting IC roleplay, so I made sure not to tell anyone, though some people figured it out (Birot, Atagal and Merina), and a few others had suspicions.

I have decided to stop playing PlaneShift and have removed Qia Fask. It wasn't an IC death, so I suppose it will have to be that she didn't manage to pass through the Death Realm, perhaps a god got angry at her and blocked her passage through.

For anyone who was unsure about how Ssar Aradyn permadied, it was several weeks of solid roleplay, but the briefest summary I could provide is the following:

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Ssar had always avoided relationships, as she was not good at handling strong emotions. She ended up having feelings for someone, who was about to get married. Then the person broke off the marriage, wanting to instead be with Ssar. Ssar felt *incredibly* guilty about this and ended up killing some people in a fit of rage, which furthered her guilty feelings later on. She ended up spiralling down into self-hatred, living in the Death Realm, punishing herself. After spending days in the Death Realm, a relationship started with a close friend of hers, who Ssar had secretly cared about for a long time. They had a binding ceremony after admitting to being in love with each other, using some dark magic which connected their minds, but would permanently kill Ssar if either of them removed their rings. Eventually this person was unable to deal with Ssar's constant negativity, and after Ssar wrote a suicide note, this person accepted Ssar's ring in a /trade, which permakilled Ssar.

Some weeks after Ssar died I was really missing PlaneShift and roleplay, so I eventually decided to make a new character, very different from my last one. Ssar had never had any history, I created Ssar years ago to try out PlaneShift. With Qia Fask, I decided to include a full history, although I told nobody about Qia's history, only what they could find out IC during roleplay.

Qia made a lot of friends, and even more enemies. Qia ended up in some roleplaying situations that were so bizarre that there is no way I could have come up with them on my own, yet I always kept it realistic and IC. The love triangle (well, more of an "X") with Atagal, Mrokii and Jiovanni was great fun, and had some really unexpected plot twists.

I am disappointed that I won't get to see Qia and Mrokii's wedding ceremony. They already got married in a very personal ceremony in the Death Realm involving carving an "X" into their hands and clasping them together. A GM had agreed to change Qia and Mrokii's last name (to "Conari", which they picked IC) during a formal wedding ceremony.

For those who interacted with Qia, and were curious to know more about her strange behaviour and back history:

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Qia Fask grew up in a small house deep in a forest, with her parents.

When she was twelve years old, a group of three rather sadistic people came to her house, torturing Qia and killing her parents. During this ordeal, Qia escaped in her mind through a rather severe case of dissociation (look up DID for more information, basically compartmentalising the brain). They attacked Qia with magic as well as cut her with knives. This was the source of Qia's debillitating fear of almost all magic, and of metal weapons.

The attackers found Qia's resiliance to their torture fascinating, and this is what kept them from killing her when they killed Qia's parents. Eventually when one of the attackers had stepped outside and the other two argued over who was allowed to torture Qia next, an opportunity came up and Qia managed to stab each of them to death. When the third person arrived from outside the house, Qia also killed him.

Qia's brain was severely fragmented that day, and after she cleaned up the house in her altered state of mind, she did not remember anything that had happened. She put her parents bodies in bed, and went on with her life like nothing was out of the ordinary. Eventually she ran out of food, and ended up foraging in the wild, for survival.

Qia spent years in the wilderness at this point, living like other wild animals.

Eventually Qia met a small group of people, lead by a menki. They were kind, offering her food, and over many months she came to trust them. Eventually she found out that they were using magic to share their thoughts, acting as a collective mind. They were all from different backgrounds, but shared their thoughts and feelings. The magic used to gain this ability required a vow of silence. Silence of voice, opening of minds. The final connecting of minds being performed with a ceremony involving the cutting out of ones own tongue -- the final gesture of silence.

For those who thought Qia was not speaking *because* she had no tongue, that was not the case. She avoided making any noise with her mouth (laughing, shouting, giggling, etc.) due to her vow of silence.

After spending years with this small group of people, they were curious about Hydlaa, having heard many stories about it, but never having been there. Qia volunteered to go to the city and find out more, then return later. Qia was eager to go to a city, as she had always wanted to train in martial arts. This is the point when Qia's character was created and arrived in Hydlaa.

Qia's first weeks in Hyldaa were full of great confusion and fear -- she had met only eleven people in her entire life up until when she arrived in Hydlaa. She was very scared these weeks, spending much of her time running away from people and hiding in panic.

Certain events that happened to Qia would induce memories of her past, and would put Qia in an altered state of mind (dissociation). Many of these alters would not remember what happened afterward, which often caused a lot of confusion, when other people would be telling Qia about something she did, and Qia would have no memory of it.

After months in the city, Mrokii and Qia got close, and Qia brought Mrokii to visit her home in the forest. This was a lengthy roleplay, which included a model house made out of RP prop items, in the middle of a giant empty field outside of the normal map area. During this time Mrokii learned that Qia's parents were dead, that Qia thought they were still alive, that Qia was sharing minds with a group, and figured out on her own that Qia's missing tongue was a result of this mind sharing magic.

A while after returning to the city, an event happened wherein Qia was cradling a dying Mrokii in her arms in the Hydlaa sewer, and broke her vow of silence to tell Mrokii that she loved her -- caring more about letting Mrokii know how she felt, than about her vow of silencee. It was right after this when Qia followed Mrokii to the Death Realm and they had their own personal wedding ceremony of sorts.

After that happened, some people may have seen Qia talking in a tongueless, slurred voice. Qia had already lost the connection of minds by breaking her vow of silence.

There was of course way more going on than this teeny synopsis of Qia, including far more details in her background history. I could fill at least a long novel with Qia's adventures. I would like to thank Mrokii and Jiovanni's players especially, for their continued interest and interactions with Qia -- it was fun, and always very interesting.

Thanks everyone for the great times!

Complaint Department / Re: no climbing anymore? Great :(

« on: July 06, 2008, 12:20:41 am »

Quote from: Parallo on July 05, 2008, 11:21:54 pm

Some of those look awfully familiar. I'm pretty sure that some if not all have been here a long time. Perhaps I'm wrong though and during the time I was away they were fixed.

These are all new bugs. I am very aware of interactions with the environment.

Complaint Department / Re: no climbing anymore? Great :(

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:16:23 pm »

You people just keep on going on about the removal of the climbing-steep-surfaces bug. That is far from the most major change with climbing! You can't even jump on a barrel now, without a great deal of effort and risk of getting permanently stuck. You can't jump over the waterwheel bars in the sewers. You can't jump over the railing in the Tavern. You can't jump onto or over numerous walls that used to be easy to climb. On and on the issues go, and none of those are related to the CLIMBING BUG. Give it a rest, you all sound like a broken record saying "It was just a bug removed, get over it". I for one am NOT discussing the bug that was removed -- fine, that can be replaced with a climbing skill. I am talking about all realism being taken away from us players in exploring the environments. A person in real life is not going to have any difficulties climbing on a waist high barrel!

I have been researching the new object collision system in *great detail* for several hours, and I've identified around ten distinct bugs/problems in it so far. I will be submitting bug reports with the screenshots I took, once I have time, maybe tonight.

The primary problem with the new system is the difference in how jumping is interpretted. Before, you could walk up steps while on the ground. For instance the foot and a half high steps in the Plaza. And more importantly, before if you jumped into the air and were within a foot and a half before the top of an object, your character would "pull themselves up", as if they were walking up a step. In the new version, you can no longer pull yourself up. Unless your foot CLEARS the top of the object completely, like an Olypmic high jumper, you won't make it on top. This creates painfully fake scenarios like jumping on a barrel, where your foot is around one inch below the top of the barrel, yet you can't get on it.

That is the most glaring issue, but there are tons more that I have identified:

Jump height is reduced the steeper the slope is until you can't jump at all.
Turning speed with keyboard is reduced the steeper the slope is until it takes 30 seconds to turn around.
When walking onto most angled surfaces, you walk into the object, which looks fake.
There are holes at nearly every map change place where you can fall out.
When colliding with various objects you will be teleported nearby, usually within 15-20 feet, sometimes down through the floor where you will fall out of the map.
Getting stuck by an object happens constantly now, and when it does /unstick will put you in the same spot every time.
When jumping against objects you will run on the spot in the air until you walk backward.
You can jump against any wall and stick yourself to it by moving forward. If you wiggle around while stuck on the wall, you can normally get a second jump, even further up the wall. It seems two jumps up a wall is the limit.
Related to the sticking to the side of things: sometimes you will get sucked upward on an object and end up on top, even though it shouldn't be possible to climb. For instance the hanging lights in Jayose's Library can be climbed easily and they are much higher than jumping height.
More....

All of these can be demonstrated easily by me .

Complaint Department / Re: no climbing anymore? Great :(

« on: July 05, 2008, 01:58:39 am »

I have re-read the forum rules again, twice, and see that my comments were possibly removed due to being overly aggressive toward other members, or because I posted multiple times without editing my original posting which could be construed as bumping the thread. As such, I have gone through my coments with a fine-toothed comb and removed any language which is hostile, and have combined the postings I still have into a single message. I have triple-checked that no rules are being broken now, and have adjusted all language in my posting to be neutral (in fact, substantially less agressive than many other posts in this thread). I believe am bringing up quite relevant opinions and complaints in my posting here, which is on the complaints forum. I apologise if I offended anyone. Thank you.

Quote from: Velh Krome on July 04, 2008, 10:07:06 am

You guys got used to a buggy behaviour, and even enjoyed abusing it - now you complain it got fixed? Bad luck guys, get used to it

Far more than that bug has been removed.

This is a *complete* redux of the entire collision detection system. The bugs are massive, widespread and many of them intentional by the developers. I fell out of the maps a half dozen times the first couple hours playing. I have been permanently stuck in mid-air because of trying to jump down onto a tree from above. There are invisible barriers everywhere, and when you collide with them in the air, you teleport... and if you are unlucky enough to teleport into a solid object, you are frozen. /unstick doesn't help those times, it just places you inside the same ojbect again without moving you. You can also teleport out of the map when running into these invisible boxes that are around objects. Even the barrels outside Brado's bar are off-limits -- I got stuck in the wall merely for jumping on one of the barrels.

The GMs have specified that this new system is in place to:

1) Reduce CPU usage for the people playing.
2) Reduce players getting stuck and requiring GM assistance.

I disagree with both of those.

For 1, putting invisible boxes around everything in the game, which prevents people from interacting realistically with those objects, seems like no solution at all. It is simply limiting the player's interaction with the world around them.

For 2, the current system is unimaginably worse than before. /unstick used to work 99+% of the time -- now it often does not work. Players fall out of maps. Players can now go to *tons* of places without any jumping at all, which they are then completely unable to get out of. The current state of things is a nightmare for GMs. They will be hounded with dozens of times more people who are stuck in the air, stuck in walls, dead after falling out of maps, stuck when dropping or walking down into a place with no exit, etc.

This is not idle complaining. Climbing is a MASSIVE part of PlaneShift for tons of players. Look around at the thousands of screenshots out there by people looking down from some vantage point, which they got to by climbing. It is part of RP, it is part of the magic of PlaneShift, and it has been yanked away from all of us. There are entire guilds devoted to exploring, but what is left to explore now is almost nothing. More than half the places to check out in the entire game have now been removed.

I remember reading that the PlaneShift devs said to use one basic rule for players when they are interacting with other players, which was something to this effect:

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Use common sense and don't do things that would ruin other player's enjoyment of the game.

I see this as what has now happened with the removal of all aspects of climbing (they have removed way more than the glitch) -- they have now eliminated a huge source of enjoyment for *hundreds* of players.

I am one of the players that will be leaving PlaneShift if the intention is for this drastic new system to be the permanent state of things. I love PlaneShift and sincerely hope it is not.

Quote from: ThomPhoenix on July 04, 2008, 11:28:27 am

Let me explain this a bit:

What you called climbing, was actually glitching. You were able to reach places you should not be able to. Even with a climbing skill, you shouldn't have been able to reach those places. You can hardly call it "climbing", it was really glitching. This was possible due to some bugs in the movement and collision code, those bugs were fixed. This also prevented some situations in which you could get horribly stuck.

If you want to climb again, wait for an official climbing skill.

I don't agree here at all: they removed *way more* than that specific glitch. They changed the entire way that people interact with objects in the world, by introducing a system of invisible barriers, even around objects that would normally be WALKED ON before. Far, far more than glitch-climbing has been removed. You can't even jump onto the branches of a tree anymore, without being teleported away or perma-stuck. You can't climb on many of the barrels safely or at all. You can't even climb on the bottom stone blocks of the steps in the Plaza. etc. etc. etc. etc.

If they only removed the glitch allowing people to climb steep surfaces, there would still be hundreds of places that could be explored, even BEFORE any climbing skill was implemented. As it stands now, most normal places to go have been blocked.

And unless they do a really good job implementing the climbing skill, it is not going to give the hundreds of players who enjoy exploring and climbing much satisfaction at all.

Yet another thing that has been removed from the game:

The ability to *jump* while on an angled surface. Go to any angle over about 20 degrees, and you can not jump forward or backward. You *sometimes* can jump straight up, but only if there is no wall nearby you. This is broken and quite frustrating.

I wonder how these things slipped by PlaneShift's team of testers. Wouldn't they notice themselves falling out of maps, getting stuck when walking over one foot tall objects, getting permanently stuck when jumping against most any objects in the game, etc.?

Quote from: Dajoji on July 04, 2008, 05:21:22 pm

But then we'd hear someone say: "Why did you introduce climbing when there are other more important things you should do! Stop wasting your time and start working on things that matter!"

I don't see why anyone would complain when a new skill was implimented, one which numerous people have wanted for many years. Why would people complain about that?

People will certainly complain when things which are not considered to be a problem are completely changed with no recourse. I have never met anybody that found the grey fenki skin to be a problem, not one in the years I have played. I've already talked to more than a dozen people who dislike the new grey fenki skin and/or miss the old one and want it back, and I have played 0.4.01 very little, for only one day.

How was that a worthwhile expenditure of the artists time?

Wouldn't that have been better spent creating textures for things that didn't have them? Like golden shields (I've heard about three or four dozen complaints that other shields don't have their own skin), special weapons, etc.?

Quote from: Dajoji on July 04, 2008, 05:21:22 pm

Players need to understand that bugs have to be fixed. Whether it's a big bug, a small bug, a nice bug, or a horrible one, they all have to go.

Yet again I need to point out that the glitch-climbing bug is not what was fixed. The entire system of interaction with game objects was radically changed. They didn't simply remove the back/forward or sideways/forward bug that allowed players to climb steep surfaces.

Quote from: Dajoji on July 04, 2008, 05:21:22 pm

Don't take it so seriously. You'll be wiped anyways...

Climbing and exploring are far more fundemental than a single character. I won't be significantly bothered when they wipe our characters, so long as everyone is wiped and people aren't allowed to steal old character's identities. Climbing and exploring are two of the big draws in PlaneShift for hundreds of *players*. Don't worry aboutt the characters, this is something being taken from the players. Being able to explore the beauty of the artwork created for PlaneShift -- and it is beautiful. As said, their are entire guilds devoted to exploring, and many more guilds whose secondary purpose is exploring. Exploring has all but been eliminated from PlaneShift, apparently permanently. This is not a good thing, in my opinion.

Quote from: Morla Phlint on July 04, 2008, 11:46:19 pm

Qia makes a good point. Without climbing it gets complicated to get out of some "uncomfortable" places.

Re what you said about getting stuck, their reason that this is to reduce GMs helping people get unstuck is rather misguided. It is unbelievably worse now for getting permanently stuck and needing GM assistance. There are endless places you can drop down into in the game, which now you can't get out of anymore. Even places that *didn't* require the glitch to get out of, you are now stuck in permanently.

I wonder if GMs do enjoy spending hours a day unsticking people, as I alone have already needed to be moved by a GM ten times in less than two hours of play time.

I am not going to stop trying to climb on small objects simply because I am supposed to be a good little sheep and do nothing but walk around the roads looking up at the beautiful scenery in the distance... I want to explore that scenery and enjoy its beauty, just as I do in the real world: I love to climb trees and mountains and even houses -- in real life. I see no reason it should be considered illegal or immoral to do it in-character in PlaneShift.

It was something that made PlaneShift truly unique over just about every other game I have seen:

Great RP, and great scenery which could be interacted with.

As Birot's example, going camping with his wife -- I have done the same hundreds of times. It is a wonderful part of RP. Camped out on a hill overlooking some beautiful landscape in the distance, having a meal and getting some sleep. Simple parts of life which are very enjoyable to RP, which we are no longer allowed to take part in.

Quote from: zorbels on July 04, 2008, 11:06:48 pm

Wow, history sure does repeat it's self. I believe we had this same topic almost two years ago when the "jumping bug/flying bug" as it was called was fixed. Word of advice from a former jumper that loved to fly ..... you'll get over it.

This is nothing like either of the flying/jumping/levitating glitches of the past. I certainly didn't complain at all when they removed the levitating glitch: It was a clear bug, out of character and out of Settings, and it was removed.

This is *not* just a bug removal. It is a complete change in game mechanics which prevents people from realistically interacting with the environment around them in an enjoyable manner.

I lost one or two other posts, but the above covers most of my thoughts on this issue. Thank you.

Complaint Department / Re: Change the new clamod-Fenki texture please (or at least improve it)

« on: July 05, 2008, 12:21:15 am »

I discussed this posting with Mrokii before it was posted, and we both agree on all points mentioned in the original posting.

I think it was a greatly misguided use of time for someone that knows how to do skinning artwork. They could have spent that time doing skins for the numerous shield types that are missing a unique look, or any of the dozens of items missing a proper skin, including all the special weapon types that look the same (e.g. a wooden sword appears as metal).

Instead they "fixed" something that wasn't broken.

I think the new skin looks *much* more cartoony/unrealistic than all the other races. It looks like something straight out of a Japanese anime. That is not to say I think it looks ugly in and of itself -- it doesn't, it looks *very* beautiful. But it doesn't fit in with the rest of PlaneShift at all. It looks cartoony and it looks almost human. The old grey fenki skin looked very feline and therefore quite unique in PlaneShift. The new looks very hand drawn, like it is blurred and painted onto the fenki. It doesn't look realistic like the other skins.

Also I agree fully that the skin didn't take into account the leg "wings", which are now just sitting there like it is a growth on the grey skin (I won't call it fur, as it is barely discernable as animal fur).

Also, the feet are now reflective and shiny... not sure what happened there. The top is also very shiny, like it is made from latex or another similar material. I like the shape of the clothes very much, but the reflective look of it is very disconcerting. Not sure if that is due to the skin itself, or the new lighting system.

I can post screenshots if anyone desires.

(Fixed some spelling mistakes)

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