New to PlaneShift

[Vulcanic]

As the subject says, I am new.

I kind of, just ran across the game, and almost instantly became intrigued. I have started playing, and have yet to figure out what to do. But, as with most games, that happens.

I do, however, have some questions that may have been asked time and time again, but I'll ask them anyway.

> About how many people play this game?
> Who are the [developers] and how many of them are there? I see the game is opensource, but wondering how many actually [actively] work on the game?
> How many updates have came out in the past year and how long has the game been up and running?
> To build your character, do you have to be a hardcore gamer?
> Are you allowed to macro while you sleep in tradeskills, magic, etc or is this an active building stats game?

I hope to start interacting with other people in the game, but as of right now, have yet to see anyone. Hopefully it is because I'm in the 'newbie' stages of my PS life . I know in the last game I played, all of us higher lvl players never went to newbie zones.

Thanks for answering, and if anyones looking for a guild/clan member, who has many (MANY) questions *wink*.. I'd love to be a part of it. Thanks

[Karyuu]

Welcome to PlaneShift!

> About how many people play this game?

We have about 100-160 people logging on per day. Not always the same people, as not everyone finds a game this early in development interesting.

> Who are the [developers] and how many of them are there? I see the game is opensource, but wondering how many actually [actively] work on the game?

We have maybe 5-10 people active The developers are located all over the world, from Canada to USA to the UK to Italy to Russia. They are volunteers who do this in their free time, as a hobby. Some are professionals, some are still students.

> How many updates have came out in the past year and how long has the game been up and running?

PlaneShift has been in 3D form for about.. 5-6 years now? Before that it was a MUD. Currently the client is a version 0.3.015. We have had three major releases so far: Atomic Blue - 0.1, Molecular Blue - 0.2, and Crystal Blue - the current 0.3. The next major release will be Steel Blue, 0.4. We try to release minor updates with new content every two months.

> To build your character, do you have to be a hardcore gamer?

PlaneShift is aimed at roleplayers, where in the future quests and roleplay will be your main method of progression. This game isn't about having a character that pwns, but about building your character a personality and having fun in Yliakum. You can raise your stats fairly quickly right now, but progression is also not as fun as it will be in the future. Work in progress But no, you don't have to play night and day to progress.

> Are you allowed to macro while you sleep in tradeskills, magic, etc or is this an active building stats game?

No macros! You are supposed to take full active participation in the game. Your character won't do anything you are not controlling him to do.

Hope you enjoy your time here and have fun!

[ThomPhoenix]

1: 100-150 people are online at every given moment, mostly. The actual total number maybe around the 500-1000 range.
2: About 10 I think, with about 4-5 core developers.
3: About one update every 2 months, but that differs.
4: We hope not, but Roleplay with a capital R is the most important goal of this game, not powerlevelling, though we don't discourage that either.
5: No, we require you to actually play the game, all else is cheating
6: You will find more people in Hydlaa Plaza, or the Tavern.
    There aren't really "newbie zones" though.
7: If you want to join a guild, you can familiarize with some of them in-game and on the guilds subforum.

Hehe, Karyuu was faster (she always is  ), but I didn't feel like wasting my post

[Mirashi]

Thom you repeated exactly what Karyuu said.

[ThomPhoenix]

Yeah, though we made our posts seperately.
I guess if you spend loads of time on these boards, you kinda get brainwashed and you start to think alike.

Also: "All great minds think alike", may apply here 

[Vulcanic]

Wonderful.

I, for some reason, seem to keep getting runtime errors and many other problems that crash the game. Does this happen a lot during gameplay? It seems as if this keeps happening, I dont see how I would ever be able to play this game. I just got a error, and saved a "dump" file? It said to consult the online forum, so I guess I should do that right now.

[ThomPhoenix]

Yes, you should do that. Those errors aren't normal and can be fixed.
Just make a clear post with specs, explanation and the error code it gives and people will be able to help you.
But first! Make sure you read all the tech help stickies and you search the forums with the error code to see if other people had the same problem and to see how they fixed it.
Good luck and see you in-game!

[Akaye]

ThomPhoenix  seems to have answered your question with the same adivce I would give  Vulcanic. Great minds do think alike. Anyway, welcome to the planeshift community and I hope those errors get fixed for you. Oh and remember to read the players guide. Clicky ~~~> Players guide Here is another link that may help you. Roleplayers guide You will come to find that a vast majority of the community enjoys roleplaying in planeshift. That guide should help you with your first steps if you become interested. Good luck, and hopefully see you in game soon.

[Colinb]

There are problaly im guessing 20 guilds and about 200 people play in a day but remember the game isnt fully ready it will be in about 2 years according to what i heard. You may think its long but there are only 10 devs i think.

[Karyuu]

20 guilds? The Guild section of the forum will reveal at least twice that which are active. And some guilds haven't made threads there yet. That's waaay of an understatement :]

[DeathsAngel]

Welcome in! I hope you will enjoy Planeshift

[Peacer]

welcome and good luck... nice to have ytou here

[Szyx]

I see more than 20 guilds a day just by looking at peoples names...I hope you didnt just make those stats up, thatd be very inconvenient to others who need real info and not false...