Log of OOC meeting 12/19/2015

[Voxumo]

Kinaed muses, "Today's Agenda is:

- Staff Updates
- Player Heartbeat
- Player Topics

Is there anything anyone would like to add to the agenda to make certain we discuss it today?"

Rimilde sits down and rests.

Kinaed states, "Okay, if no - I'll kick off the Staff Updates."


Kinaed says, "I don't think I did much last week, next week... I will commit to reading the help files the staff have been trying to get me to read for a few weeks."


Kinaed scuffs and looks shifty.


Timotheo just watches, saying nothing at all

Silrie sits down and rests.


Kinaed trails off, "That's all for me. Azarial is AFK at the moment..."


Silrie says, "Oh, I had something! I just remembered. It got lost in my million topics of last week."


Kinaed trails off, "Having a quick look, several bug fixes, including fixing embalming, we've added 'look objects' and I THINK 'look people' for those with screenreaders as requested last week..."


Kinaed states, "That's not tested yet."

Kinaed states to Silrie, "No worries, jotting you down - please type up your introduction to your topic in notepad or something, so it's ready when you can."

Kinaed has transferred Adison. [OOC]

Temi gives a pair of woolen stockings knit in a lightning bolt pattern to Adison.


Kinaed claims, "I think that's it for Az. Temi, you're up :)"


Temi exclaims, "Okay!"

Kinaed smiles at Adison.


Temi says, "I had lots of baking to do this last week.... but that's all done now! So back to work."


Temi claims, "And making some progress on the Vavardi helpfile sprucing."


Temi claims, "So I can add that to Kin's pile."

Temi grins.


Temi states, "And that should be about it from me, outside of the normal."

Kinaed nods at Temi.

Kinaed says to Temi, "Did you pick up something last week? Some sort of review and fix up job for something? I can't remember."


Kinaed states, "Oh, flags that ought to report on 'look around'"


Temi claims, "Oh, yes, the flags. I posted that up on the staff board, and I think we're good on it"


Temi claims, "Probably just needs moved to bug board if you're happy with Az's added explanations"


Kinaed muses, "Oh, did you provide the 'sentence' for each that's going in?"


Temi asks, "Oh, nope! Did you want that?"

Kinaed nods at Temi.


Temi claims, "Okay."


Kinaed finishes abruptly, "Okay, Takta - you're up :)"


Timotheo eyes all the people here with a smille


Takta says, "Sadly I don't have much to say either! Some Farin Foreign Quarter plot stuff - that is going to wrap up just post-holidays, I've decided, to ensure people will be around. My bugtesting indicated we may just be ready on the last skyway code, so I need to rig all that up."


Kinaed claims, "Cool."


Takta says, "Also will be working on the book project - bringing all existing library books in-line with religious theme as in the Erra Pater."

Kinaed nods at Takta.


Takta declares, "If you as a player would be interested in working on that, please do let me know. That's about it!"


Kinaed says, "Thanks guys :)"


Misune muses, "Does it have to be in an ic manner or can you work on it oocly?"

Kinaed states to Misune, "I think it's fine to do it OOCly."


Kinaed states, "You can make suggestions or fix things on the OOC boards, for example, or just let us know if you know of anything broken in any of the library books."

Takta nods.


Kinaed queries, "Okay, I think that wraps up Staff Updates. :) Now for Player Heartbeat - how's the game been in the last week?"


Takta states, "Fine to work OOCly, yeah."


Gretel's player wants to apologize for the noise made around the religious theme, it sometimes was very awkard.


Adison claims, "Not too bad just trying to get back in the swing of things after being gone for so long"


Kinaed claims, "I didn't hear anything about it, so it mustn't have vexed people too much."


Takta says, "It's okay. We just ask you remember we're unpaid volunteers and have a lot of work. ;)"


Estone muses, "How has plot development been?"


Temi claims, "Unfortunately, I think Elzenn is not around to update us on what she's been doing with the plot she's putting together."

Kinaed queries to Temi, "Do we know enough to give a tiny, non-spoiler update?"


Temi claims, "Umm, nothing more than last week, I think."


Silrie says, "Rp. Is. Epic. Wonderful things are happening to this character. She's a joy to play again."


Kinaed says, "Awesome to hear :)"


Takta states, "The plot skeleton is very well planned. Right now I thnk it's mostly timing."


Takta claims, "With the holidays and all, starting off something big can be a problem - a few people said "Nooo, wait til after the holidays!" when we discussed it before."

Kinaed nods at Takta.


Misune says, "Well it would be the most logical thing. Activity always goes down around this time of year"


Kinaed states, "I think the plot will be very fun. Elzenn has a knack for planning."


Estone nods.

Lueta is idle.

Lueta is no longer idle.
Lueta has returned from AFK.


Kinaed muses, "Okay, on this topic - has anything been bothering anyone or is there anything players want staff to have a look at?"


Estone asks, "Have had some janky combat, post update. I've been unsure of what are intended changes, and what is bugginess? You guys have any specific aspects of combat that you guys would like to have bug boarded when they come up?"


Kinaed states, "Anything that seems off, even if we come back and say 'that's fine' - let us know that you think it's off. From what I understand, throw and another command weren't in line with general cmote and that was fixed."


Kinaed states, "I'm not sure what else has been looked at - some changes in how combat reports to wiznet have happened, but that's more about what math is visible to staff rather than anything you'd see or any functional changes."


Kinaed muses, "Takta, you'd know more than I...?"


Takta says, "It SHOULD be good now."

Kinaed questions to Takta, "Do you know what specifically was fixed?"


Takta states, "Pay attention to your combat values in the combat command, and also any fights that are noticeably easier or harder than you recall."


Takta says, "Yes. Throwing weapons were using the base weapon skill."


Kinaed asks, "Ahh, no modifiers?"


Takta states, "So if you had throwing 60, but dagger 10, you'd throw a dagger as if you had throwing 10."

Kinaed nods at Takta.


Takta says, "Instead of throwing 60."

Estone starts writing a note. (This is an OOC action)


Kinaed says, "Gotcha."


Takta claims, "So there was a tremendous amount of rejiggering required, but last we checked everything looked fairly solid."


Kinaed claims, "Thanks :)"


Kinaed muses, "Any other queries on that or anything else that's worrying or concerning players?"


Lueta loves Kinaed's yellow-lipped smiley.

Kinaed has transferred Farra. [OOC]

Temi gives a pair of woolen stockings knit in a lightning bolt pattern to Farra.

Kinaed has transferred Tuan. [OOC]


Misune humms "I'm sure given time I could think of something..."

Temi gives a pair of woolen stockings knit in a lightning bolt pattern to Tuan.

Tuan strikes up a conversation with a giant stuffed teddybear.


Kinaed questions, "Hey guys, we were just at the Player Heartbeat and asking if anyone had any issues with the game that they want the staff to look at, know about, etc?"


Adison muses, "I dont know if it was covered earlier but what is going on with the possible merge of the knights and the order?"

Kinaed claims to Misune, "Hehe, that's fine."

Kinaed states to Adison, "We were going to announce that later."


Kinaed says, "(I mean, at the end of the meeting)."


Adison claims, "Oh"


Tuan states, "And the two shall become one."


Tuan grins.


Kinaed says, "Earlier this week, staff approached the Knights and the Order about re-merging."


Misune chuckles " Well... I know when that topic arises I definitly have something to say."


Adison claims, "Sorry about stealing your thunder"


Kinaed says, "There was one nay vote, two abstain/neutrals, and mostly positive responses, so we'll be merging them later today."

Estone finishes his note.

Farra has lost link.


Temi claims, "We did hear some concerns about how it was done last time which we want to address"


Misune trails off, "But... your merging still doesn't adress the stated reason you even considered the merging"


Kinaed states, "This is in response to a few issues - one of which is that we're on a major low swing in population due to the holiday season. Another issue that we didn't mention is that the Order at some stage stopped paying the knights (I don't know when), and they're practically bankrupt."


Kinaed nods at Temi.


Temi says, "Like that it was an awkward OOC not really merger, and we're going to approach it more IC this time"

Tuan says OOCly, "Wow, the Keep is bankrupt... ouch."


Lueta says OOCly, "Tuan no this channel is too meta"


Hunapo muses, "Who will be the GL and 2GL? GI and EM?"

Temi nods at Hunapo.


Misune trails off, "I'd like to point out that I brought this up... at least the financial reasons sometime ago, and was completely ignored"


Temi states, "I believe so."

Kinaed states to Misune, "You were the only dissenting person in the general discussion, and I'm happy to discuss that, but I do not want it to derail the general discussion or announcement, so maybe we should talk privately further? As I said, in general, the move was supported across the group."


Hunapo hangs his head in shame for making a complete sentence in acronyms

Kinaed says to Misune, "We didn't want to stress the finances because it's an IC matter."

Kinaed grins at Hunapo.


Kinaed states, "The 2 GLs will be the GI and the EM."


Temi claims, "The Cardinal being an NPC now helps smooth things a little bit."

Kinaed nods at Temi.


Takta states, "And there are a lot of good reasons to do it beyond just the basic one stated."


Takta states, "That wasn't meant to encompass the -entire- situation."


Misune sighs "True... Though are we able to discuss what the ic approach you are going to take is?

Kinaed claims, "The other issue we have is that the Order and the Knights don't appear to be playing well together. This isn't intended as a jibe at the Inquisitors - however, it seems as if the Knights are being bypassed and they're arresting people outright, which they shouldn't be. That's not their role."


Rimilde blinks as she catches up, "So the positions of GM and AB will be figureheads or will they be encompassed or will all this kinda be explained as you guys more forward?"


Kinaed states, "We're sort of hoping that putting them in the same guild will give them some respect and care for one another."


Tuan claims, "If I wasn't going back to work in a few weeks I'd almost like to go for a Knight again."


Margaux states, "Knights should have the right to arrest Inquisitors that arrest people."


Estone states, "Order/Knight shared gnote sounds like it would make their things easier too.. speaking as someone who hasn't touched those guilds in a very long time."

Kinaed claims to Rimilde, "The positions of GM and AB will be up to the EM and GI"

Tuan queries to Temi, "Kinda like putting two toddlers in a big t-shirt?"


Temi says, "They'll be regular ranks, just not with built-in leader powers."

Temi grins.


Misune chuckles at Estone "Considering both the knights and order have 60+ gnotes seperately, it's going to be a mess

Temi grins at Tuan.


Takta claims, "Eh, it's probably still less than the Reeves."

Takta grins.


Estone grins. "True, that."


Rimilde nods.


Margaux claims, "Inquisitors and Knights crossing into the other's spheres has always been a problem, but I'm concerned that this change will muddy those waters further, rather than fix them."


Kinaed claims, "In general, I think gnote functionality needs an uplift."

Timotheo waves as he hurries off. "I'll see you around, I hope." He says, bowing as he turns

Kinaed says to Margaux, "Are you saying you're against the merge? As far as I could tell, they worked just fine together. THe last time we de-merged them, it was because of GL inactivity and the inability to track it and remove poor GLs."

Estone claims to Margaux, "In the past when Knights/Order were included they played well together."

Margaux says to Kinaed, "Against the merge, yes."

Margaux says to Estone, "Not from my experience."


Estone nods.


Kinaed claims, "As it is, the structure of the Order is also different this time than it was last - the Cardinal is now an NPC whereas before the Cardinal was an almost superflous check on the GI's power."


Silrie questions, "Will they still have their own headquarters and all that?"


Margaux states, "Also, some friction there is good for RP, rather than lockstep direction."

Kinaed states to Silrie, "I don't think we're getting rid of the Knights' Keep or the Cathedral, but we can certainly discuss merging them or putting them together, etc."


Misune nods to Margaux "I agree Margaux, friction is good for rp... but ultimately there were more voices that were for it than against it, so our concerns are nill."


Takta claims, "Friction is fine, but there comes a point where it's just non-functional."


Kinaed states, "The physical geography of the guilds had nothing to do with why we're merging them, so it wasn't considered and will have to be resolved as a matter of the output."


Takta says, "A little bit of friction sheds sparks. A lot of friction destroys the objects involved."

Kinaed states to Misune, "Your concerns weren't nil - they were heard out. :("


Lueta claims, "It also make sense IC that people would want to reduce that friction."


Tuan holds aloft his Mithty Sceptre of Bardic Powah! "Honestly- from experiejce witb Haidar and the Keep going through -every- imaginable transition possible-- a merger is a good thing at least for awhile. It's like triaging a trauma wound."

Timotheo is no longer idle.

Timotheo isn't idle, at all

Timotheo has returned from AFK.


Takta states, "And from when the guilds were merged before, I don't recall any lockstep obedience, that's for sure."

Takta grins.


Misune says, "They certainly didn't feel like it Kinaed. Staff didn't respond to those notes at all aside from the initial creation of them"


Temi states, "Well, Kin has been busy and the other staff didn't want to stomp all over her conversation."


Misune trails off, "And I can understand... it's the holiday season..."


Kinaed says, "It's not that - I wasn't too busy, and I did read."

Adison ponders.


Kinaed claims, "But it's clear from the notes and the responses that, overall, your fellows discussed with you, and the discussion was had. And overall, the PLAYERS in the guild agree to the merge."


Adison says, "I wonder if this will effect my alt in the end"


Kinaed says, "So I didn't feel I had anything to add."

Temi nods at Kinaed.


Misune queries, "My big question for this is will the merge be permanent, or will it have the potential to be undone like last time? "


Kinaed claims, "Everything on this game has the potential to change, even down to the combat code and who the royal family is."


Kinaed says, "The intent at this stage is permanent, but promises about that would be inappropriate."


Temi states, "We're not going into it with the plans of undoing it ever."


Margaux states, "I think he means, will the knights still exist as an entity (not a guild)? How will they be differentiated, since it sounds like this merge is more binding than previous."


Kinaed says, "However, we are going into it with a 'let's see if it works out, and if it doesn't work out, then we can undo it' - like most things. We strive to achieve greatness by working out what does and doesn't work over time."


Misune trails off, "The reason I asked it is because last time, it wasn't treated as an ic merging... this time it apparently is, and that changes the equation on whether or not it could be permanent, because something that is handled or changed icly is alot harder to just randomly change"


Temi claims, "We won't be retconning it."


Takta states, "The Cardinal could always decide it didn't work."

Takta grins.


Temi says, "Since it will be IC, if it changes, it would have to be another new development."


Tuan trails off, "It was treated icly last time..."


Misune states, "No it wasn't tuan"


Kinaed claims, "Yes, it sort of was."


Tuan trails off, "It was discussed between Haidar, the Cardinal, the Queen and..."

Kinaed states, "The thing is that the theme of the Knights and Order is that they work together. The OOC merge didn't impact that theme."


Tuan says, "Someone else... can't remember."


Temi states, "It was sort of an in between state on IC or not."


Kinaed claims, "I don't expect much difference this time other than the merge will include some IC commentary from the Cardinal to facilitate things - but again, as the theme is that they already work together, the big change is the OOC code."

Tuan nods.


Kinaed states, "But the IC commentary won't be 'we're merging the Knights and the Order' - that's unnecessary and not what is ICly being represented."


Kinaed says, "Okay, is there anything more on this topic? Silrie registered a topic she wanted to discuss."


Tuan states, "Ic... welp the Church robbed us so we had to take out a Loan with the Vavardian Iron bank then had to come crawling back because we couldn't afford it."


Tuan claims, "Wait... wrong setting."


Tuan silences himself.


Kinaed chuckles.


Misune sighs heavily "Nothing more from me... just going to try to be super optimistic about this..."


Misune states, "From this point forward"

Kinaed says to Misune, "I appreciate that."


Silrie states, "With all the leadership changes, the leaders of the church might not even know they need to pay the knights. lol"

Kinaed nods at Silrie.

Kinaed wonders to Silrie, "You had a topic to introduce? :)"


Silrie declares, "Yep!"


Silrie claims, "Safjlsjhfas'fa"


Lueta says, "Fascinating"

Silrie laughs.


Tuan says, "I need to get supper finished so, a-idling I will go."


Silrie says, "Everyone, meet my three year old."

Kinaed smiles.


Silrie claims, "Timers. Or reminders or something. Based on ic time. So, like ... I'm not sure, but, if I wanted to be certain to remember to do something every ic day at the same time, could we have that? A coded reminder system or something. I say timer as well merely because that might be easier, not sure."


Tuan exclaims, "You have one toooo!!"


Lueta declaims, "Hi!!!"


Tuan has a three year old he-demon.


Kinaed claims, "We had an events system planned, actually, that would fit nicely into."


Silrie declares, "Ooo yay! Awesome!"


Margaux claims, "Calendar alerts would be nice. Either set a date or set a timer (weekly, daily, monthly, yearly)"


Silrie states, "Mine's a she-demon."


Kinaed states, "I like the idea, but it probably won't get programmed as quickly as the 'look people' or 'look objects' commands."

Kinaed nods at Margaux.

Kinaed states to Margaux, "And either IC or OOC."


Gretel too, has his three year old (and one month) demon.


Silrie states, "Understandable"


Silrie says, "She's just announced the it should not snow in Florida because that would be very bad for soda."


Lueta claims, "Tell her she has a good point."


Kinaed states, "That pretty much wraps up the meeting's agenda - so we have time to discuss other things. Anyone have any shameless plugs? I do - I'd love for someone to write a review of TI on TMC and whatnot."

Farra is idle.


Kinaed says, "Also, please use autovote and vote for TI at least once a day to keep us visible, which helps us attract new players."

Tuan has gone AFK.

Lueta muses, "What's TMC?"


Gretel says OOCly, "The mud connector, a website about muds."

Kinaed claims to Lueta, "The Mud Connector - one of the bigger mud listing sites. There's also Top Mud Sites and a few others out there. If you write a review, you can submit to to various sites too."


Lueta says OOCly, "Oh! thanks."

Kinaed nods at Gretel.


Kinaed claims, "Good or bad, we will give QP for the review - for taking the time to write about us and raising our profile."


Gretel pontificates, "What I would love, is another article of kinaed in Imaginaries reality! "

Kinaed exclaims to Gretel, "I'd considered it, but can never think of a topic!"


Gretel wonders, "How to drive rp with code?"

Kinaed states to Gretel, "Oh, that's a good idea. Certainly I have some design principles I stick to with TI."


Silrie wonders, "How would you know which review was ours?"

Kinaed claims to Silrie, "People usually tell us they did it and point it out."


Gretel nods, because obviously, Kinaed (and maybe other staff) has some design principles to share.

Silrie smiles at Kinaed.


Temi states, "If multiple people claim the same one, we're going to be suspicious."

Temi grins.


Kinaed states, "Never happened."


Kinaed claims, "I don't really find there's much reason to be suspicious of it."

Silrie laughs.

Kinaed muses to Gretel, "Do you know when the next Imagined Realities article is going out?"


Silrie questions, "Do we need accounts on the voting sites?"


Silrie exclaims, "I tried and it was like, log in, woman!"


Takta claims, "On TMC, you do."

Kinaed states to Silrie, "I don't know."


Gretel would have asked the question to Kinaed...


Takta says, "Not on the others, iirc."

Kinaed claims to Gretel, "I've been working full time (more than) lately and have barely seen my own children let alone TI or TMC :("


Kinaed claims, "But I'll check that out and maybe write an article for Imagined Realities and TMC."


Kinaed says, "It'll be fun because there's a few hardcore RPI players/designers out there who would probably disagree with me about some things. :)"


Misune asks, "What does rpi stand for?"

Kinaed states to Gretel, "Excellent topic."


Kinaed claims, "Role Play Intensive."


Gretel says OOCly, "I know about time... Just wanted to say that I liked the articles I read."

Kinaed states to Gretel, "Aww, thanks :)"


Misune trails off, "Ah... also that reminds me, had something, very, very minor to bring up"

Kinaed nods at Misune.

Timotheo waves as he hurries off. "I'll see you around, I hope." He says, bowing as he turns


Silrie checks tim's pulse.


Gretel says, "That's why I tried TI, by the bye."


Misune queries, "On the main page for TI:Legacy, it lists the game as a MMO... I'm not sure how long it's said that, only just recently noticed it, but isn't that a bit misleading?"

Kinaed states to Gretel, "I hope it hasn't disappointed you. I'd love to hear about your impressions and how things are going for you."

Tuan has left the game.


Kinaed says, "It's the exact definition of MMO, albeit our pbase is a bit small."


Kinaed claims, "It was just put up that way to explain to 'modern users who have no idea what a MUD is' can relate and understand it."


Kinaed says, "The closest non-MUD game that we can explain it with is 'an MMO'."


Misune trails off, "Ah... well that makes more sense"


Misune states, "When you bring in the 'modern' aspect"

Adison is idle.

Adison is no longer idle.

Adison ponders.


Kinaed claims, "It's a bit asychronistic though. We're talking to non-mudders there, trying to explain what TI is - but we're not built well for non-Mudders to come on TI and play."

Adison has returned from AFK.


Kinaed says, "In fact, that's something I have been told by several play testers in various groups that I've asked to try it - they don't know what tabletop is, they don't know what a MUD is, and they log into this game where they're told it's a great story - and spend 20 hours making a character and reading room descs. It's a huge barrier to our advertising to non-mud players."


Lueta raises her hand. "This is only the second MUD I've tried, and I've found the game very entertaining!"


Kinaed claims, "I think it's what's kept us from expanding hugely. Not the quality of what we do or anything, jsut that we are built and have always been built to scavange players off the existing mud community looking for a better game rather than the non-mud community looking for a story telling game."

Kinaed declares to Lueta, "Thank you!"

Kinaed muses to Lueta, "May I ask what the first game you played is, if that's not too personal?"


Misune questions, "But is there really any way to fix that without making the game no longer a mud?"


Kinaed says, "Yes, there are."

Lueta says to Kinaed, "Not at all! It was called.... Let's see. Achaea, that's right. It wasn't RPI enough for me though "

Timotheo is no longer idle.

Kinaed says, "I took a course at a university on gamification and I've studied advertising when I worked in Marketing. We do need to do some switching, we just haven't gotten around to it. For example, setting up guest accounts or random characters so people can just jump in and try the game without the commitment of tailoring it too far. A list of 10 basic commands and a pre-gen character."

Timotheo has returned from AFK.

Kinaed nods at Lueta.


Kinaed claims, "A good friend of mine used to staff on Achaea, but it was years ago."


Estone declares, "Ooh, that could be very cool, Kin!"

Kinaed nods at Estone.


Kinaed states, "Basically, skip the arduous parts unless people want to do them, get them in the game and playing quickly."


Kinaed claims, "For us, that'd be a bit difficult. Firan did it very well, which is one of the reasons I think they grew to huge."


Kinaed claims, "But the downside for them was that they had a database of characters that were persistent even as players changed, and I think it created a disjoint. I think we need to give a database of unique characters that can just drop out or be fully claimed and owned."


Kinaed states, "Anyway, our time is up! Anything else before we wrap up? Thanks for getting me to talking about game design, as I obviously love it."