Log of OOC Meeting 7/05/2014

[Dice]

Ariel states, "Okay, loggin'."

Kinaed queries, "Okay, today's agenda is as follows:

- Staff Updates
- Player Heartbeat
- Player Topics

Does anyone have anything they want to add to the agenda right now to make sure we don't forget to talk about it?"

Kinaed nods at Ariel.

Ariel claims, "Mail."

Kinaed claims to Ariel, "Noted. I also had a pboard with a question from Ereketh."

Kinaed queries, "Anyone else?"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions once we start"

Zeita von Zarrova has lost link.
Zeita von Zarrova has reconnected.

Kinaed claims, "Okay, with no other agenda items registered, I'll kick off staff updates:
In the past week, I've written a lot of bug board posts, a few advertisements on TMC...

By the way, we are two votes from the top 10 on TMC. Please visit http://ti-legacy.com and vote at the links in the upper left corner if you have not already done so

today to help raise our visibility to prospective players."

Kinaed smiles at a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin.

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Please feel free to raise anything you like."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin nods

Kinaed says, "Next week, I intend to review our priorities. We have a lot of things on our plate atm. I think I want to get the pevent system in next, then places,

then ranged combat."

Kinaed claims, "Nevermind, I'll need something else for next week since I just did that."

Kinaed claims, "That's my update. Azarial, you're up."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin queries, "Is ranged combat in now?"

Nedyra gives a commemorative silver coin inscribed 'Regency 362' to Samantha ab Vortina.

Azarial pontificates, "Mail!"

Azarial shrugs eloquently with more tail than shoulders.

Azarial says, "What else needs saying."

Kinaed states to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "No. Throwing is specced out for implementation, but ranged combat (bows, etc) is not yet in."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin snaps his fingers

Damian von Black has lost link.

A sturdy-seeming woman with frizzy yellow hair states, "The new mail, though, looks amazing. Good work, guys, even if it isn't fully polished yet."

Kinaed claims, "Yeah, Az has been very busy with that and is still working on it."

Kinaed claims to a sturdy-seeming woman with frizzy yellow hair, "There's a heap of bug posts we're wading through "

Kinaed says, "Apologies for all of the bugs folks, but you are our favorite play testers ever."

Nedyra states, "That's a risk with any new system when it goes live. But when it works, it'll rock your socks."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin agrees "I love finding bugs and typos. it makes me feel special"

Kinaed claims to Nedyra, "I think you're up, Nedyra."

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "We need excuses to give out QP, so do bug and typo your heart out."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "Oh I do lmao"

Kinaed beams happily.

Nedyra states, "The website has taken the majority of my focus last week. Few broken pieces that needed squishing, largely with older blogs who's themes were

apparently removed but who didn't handle the change well."

Kinaed nods at Nedyra.

Nedyra states, "Related: as the title says, I give QP out for blog posts. Requests for a character blog go ont eh request board. And there's a help file."

Kinaed states, "If anyone here is interested in a character blog, please read Help Blog."

Nedyra claims, "Few minor building projects got handled. Other than that, documentation."

Nedyra claims, "Lots, and lots, of documentation."

Kinaed nods solemnly to Nedyra.

Nedyra says, "That's all from me."

Dagerian claims, "Hmmm"

Dagerian says, "I might make a blog, wouldn't that be amusing to read"

Kinaed wonders, "Okay, that wraps up staff updates. Next is Player Heartbeat - how is everyone today? And how has RP been this last week? Is there anything staff could

be doing to support you?"

Kinaed smiles at Dagerian.

Ariel says, "RP has been... interesting."

Samantha ab Vortina says, "Rp has been ok"

Kinaed questions to Ariel, "Is it all secret, secret? "

Kinaed nods at Samantha ab Vortina.

Ariel states, "Some fun Regency Quest stuff but a lot of people who seem to be less than interested. *grin*"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin declaims, "I CAM NEVER FIND RP! "

Kinaed questions to Ariel, "How is the quest going?"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin stomps around angrily

Ariel claims, "Not a lot seems to be happening."

Kinaed exclaims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Oh dear, that's no good on an RP game!"

Dagerian states, "I have returned so, expect meanie Charali and nasty looks and my horse farting in your face and stuff, typical Dagerian RP"

Kinaed questions to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Have you been using the 'where' command, then 'travel' to get to where RP is?"

Damian von Black has reconnected.

Dagerian states, "Well, for some of you at least"

Samantha ab Vortina claims, "Yeah the regency quest thing seems to bit a bit blah this go around, more of a mechanical, oh we have to do this, than a 'oh let's do

this'"

Ariel nods at Samantha ab Vortina.

Herbor le Cruppe is idle.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin nods "yup. there's hardly ever people on. or they're like suuuuuuper slow to respond. or just afk. it makes me sad.

I can't even train solo because I have no xp

Ariel states, "I've had trouble getting people to engage with it."

Damian von Black says, "Likewiae."

Kinaed says, "That's sad to hear. The first one was pretty peppy."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "I'm always up for rp if I'm on. always. "

Dagerian has no clue about it IC, if that helps any

Kinaed nods at a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin.

Dagerian likely couldn't even spell regency so, he wouldn't know what it is either

Kinaed questions to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "So you're seeing low numbers online? What are your general hours like?"

Kinaed says to Dagerian, "Help Bids - it's how the regent is selected now that Cellan stepped down, and whatnot."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "It varies. generally either late at night, or the afternoon. work sucks. "

Kinaed comforts a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin muses, "Like now, 12 people on?"

Dagerian says, "Oh I know OOCly, meant ICly"

Zeita von Zarrova starts writing a note. (This is an OOC action)

Azarial states, "Hpoliday weekend stateside, too."

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "We've been averaging 22 active players a day lately, which isn't near the top side of our

numbers, but isn't particularly low either."

Azarial claims, "Normally we have temi."

Zeita von Zarrova finishes her note.

Kinaed claims, "I'm honestly surprised that someone has trouble finding RP at all except in the very wee hours of the morning United States EST>"

A young, auburn haired man. is idle.

Ariel says, "Yeah, both too late and during the afternoon are low times."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "I live stateside. but yeah, even when I first started playing. that's why I went on hiatus for a while. I

think we just need more players"

Ariel claims, "I think because of the silver-for-online-time thing people will idle online for long periods."

Ariel claims, "So we have people ON but not accessible and up for RP."

A young, auburn haired man. is no longer idle.

A young, auburn haired man. claims, "Well that may mean trouble for me then lol."

Kinaed says, "Well, in that vein, I reiterate my plug to request people vote at the links in the upper left of http://ti-legacy.com"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin agrees with Ariel

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "I vote when I remember. "

Herbor le Cruppe has lost link.

Kinaed muses to a young, auburn haired man. , "I hope not - but please give it a try and see how you go?"

Zeita von Zarrova states, "Is that amount of silver actually worthwhile? Barely notice it, tbh."

Ariel claims, "I know I'm guilty of logging on and leaving my PCs in inaccessible places, not for silver's sake but just... being on to be on."

Herbor le Cruppe has reconnected.

Kinaed asks of Zeita von Zarrova, "Hmm?"

Zeita von Zarrova says, "Same boat as Ariel."

Ariel claims to Zeita von Zarrova, "I know a few players who've said they do it for the silver, hence why I mention that."

Nedyra says, "I think part of the problem is people have the option of turning RP off, and so do... and then don't turn it back on."

Damian von Black says, "Same. I like doing what I can so we have at least more numbers online."

Kinaed nods at Nedyra.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "Silver matters at low levels. and lord forbid if you're a freeman"

Nedyra trails off, "Probably just being forgetful, but..."

Ariel nods at a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin.

Dagerian claims, "Psh"

Ariel states, "But generally I think there's almost always somebody on in a public location when I check."

Dagerian states, "Freeman rocks"

Kinaed states, "Well, everyone, here is a reminder - please turn whereRP on when you're available to RP. It seems that at least one new player reports having trouble

finding RP."

Kinaed nods at Ariel.

Orlando dul Cavallari claims, "I turn RP off because I'm often waiting to continue backlogged or paused scenes, or I'm traveling from one place to another. It's not

always malicious. What annoys me (and annoys is the wrong word) is when I see people with RP on, but they're all spread out, and some of those spread-out locations

include public places. I just don't understand that."

Ariel declaims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "And my alt RP'd with you just yesterday!"

Kinaed claims, "Yeah, we usually have players on 24-7, though this weekend is a holiday weekend and has been lower."

Ariel states to Orlando dul Cavallari, "Well, the problem is, who decides where all these people should gather? Maybe I want to sit in the Library because it'd be fun

to have a scene in the library, and not another in the tavern. Etc."

A young, auburn haired man. says, "Or at a forge working,"

Damian von Black has lost link.

Orlando dul Cavallari states, "Yeah, I agree. It's incumbent upon you to search things out, too."

Kinaed nods at a young, auburn haired man. .

Kinaed nods at Orlando dul Cavallari.
Ariel nods at Orlando dul Cavallari.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says to Ariel, "Perhaps. idk. I think your noble fined me once. fucking sucked. only income I have is being a

gentry. can't find work ic. another thing that annoys me"

Nedyra says, "A rule I use is, if your character's got a reason to go there, then go there. If enough people take an interest in it, you won't have any trouble finding

RP."

Ariel claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Pretty sure I never fined you, but if I did, sorry on an OOC level - but nobles HAVE to uphold the

theme."

Kinaed states, "Yes, you do need to use where and travel to locations. Being on where is an invitation to other players to join you if they conceivably can find a

reason to do so."

Kinaed says, "So you won't be intruding on anyone who is visible there."

Ariel claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Finding work ICly, I'ds trongly suggest you consider seeking a guild. As a newer player it's a

good way to start."

Orlando dul Cavallari says to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "I'm sure that you can find work. For one, guilds. For two, 'help roster'."

Nedyra states, "If they're visible and you can get to them, then they're findable as long as your character would have a reason to go where they're available (if

you're gentry, probably stay out of Southside, for instance)."

Zeita von Zarrova eyes a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin for a moment and then grins, "YOU can come be by apprentice."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "I'm trying to rp a path for him to take. refer to "no rp" complaint lol"

Karrina ab Vazien claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Knights and Reeves are good. Crafting jobs do take a bit of time to get going on."

say If that path includes a guild, seeking will help get you RP.

Ariel says, "If that path includes a guild, seeking will help get you RP."

Azarial studies a piece of mail.

Dagerian questions, "At some stage of RP i heard Merc's were back in, that isn't a coded guild though right?"

Azarial studies a piece of mail.

Ariel says, "Mercs aren't... really back in, I don't think."

Ariel says, "And they're definitely not coded."

Zeita von Zarrova states, "That was something the merchants were discussing with the regent under the last GLs."

Kinaed says to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Thank you for sharing you concerns about that - I think we're all in agreement that we don't want

that to be anyone's experience, so we've offered some tools to address it - and players now know you're looking for someone to RP with, so I'm hopeful that you'll get

more action shortly."

Azarial says, "Don;t see them returning, though i thought someone was looking to buy up the old guildhall"

Kinaed trails off, "That said, we're about half way through, and have some topics to discuss..."

Zeita von Zarrova claims, "It is something that the merchants will be taking up with the new regent (mercenaries)"

Dagerian states, "Gotcha, k"

Dagerian shuts back up

Damian von Black has reconnected.

A sturdy-seeming woman with frizzy yellow hair fist-bumps dag.

Azarial gives a piece of mail to Kinaed.

Herbor le Cruppe asks, "Kinaed could I speak to you after chat about an idea I had?"

Dagerian eats a sturdy-seeming woman with frizzy yellow hair's fist.

Kinaed states, "Okay, so before we jump to Ariel's mail topic, I'll quickly go over the personal board message I got from Ereketh who essentially requested that the

first mail profile be free like phomes are."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "I considered being "bounty hunter/merc" but the bounty system seems exclusive to the brotherhood"

Azarial states, "Well, some fo the code changes may imply next to free if the header and such do not change."

Dagerian states, "Ohhhh, that's right, I forgot that the idea to merge them way back in the day"

Kinaed says to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "It's definitely not, though they often fulfill bounties and have more power over the system than

the average character. (IE, they can strike bounties they don't like and see more information about them)."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "That's what I thought. but there was one just to deliver some books. couldn't find any info on it at all. "

Orlando dul Cavallari says, "BCG is to bounties as Troubs are to rumors."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "I used every syntax that made sense. helpfile or otherwise"

Kinaed claims, "To address Ereketh's question, that is not intended at this time. Everyone in the world is expected to have a home or somewhere they lay their head -

that's pretty standard. Not everyone is expected to have personal stationary or a secret alias - and it should not be required for you to purchase a profile for your

own name, you can just mail with the default."

Kinaed trails off, "Now that that is covered..."

Kinaed questions to Ariel, "Would you care to introduce the Mail Topic as you wanted to discuss it?"

Ariel states, "Sure, I just had a specific detail to discuss."

Kinaed nods at Ariel.

Ariel states, "So a custom header costs 1000 - but a seal only 200."

Ariel claims, "That seems backward, and also the header cost seems huge."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin wonders, "1000? "

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin boggles at the concept

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Customized stationary."

Kinaed says, "I did just throw something in there."

Ariel states, "Customized stationary should probably be cheaper than a sealing ring and the wax for it."

Ariel claims, "1000 is a bit of sticker shock. *grin*"

Kinaed queries, "How much would you say is reasonable for each?"

Ariel says, "200 for seal doesn't seem ridiculous. "

Ariel wonders, "200 for header too?"

Ariel says, "With 100 for aliases, a fully tricked-out profile is a nice round 500."

Zeita von Zarrova says, "Perhaps it costs people more for each mail if they have a seal and letterhead (+1, +1)? Rather than a setup cost."

Kinaed eyeballs Ariel, "I don't think everyone and their dog should be able to afford a special setup. The point is partially to make it precious."

Ariel states, "Right, but 4 gold is actually a LOT for most people."

Karrina ab Vazien states, "Can I get transed out please? I'm getting ready to roast hot dogs."

Ariel claims to Zeita von Zarrova, "Thaaaaat makes sense."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin queries, "Wouldn't fancy paper cost more than an iron ring and wax back then?"

Karrina ab Vazien has been transferred out by Kinaed. [OOC]

Azarial claims, "Paper period was expensive. parchment was more common."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "Exactly "

Kinaed queries, "I really think 200 is too cheap, but I am willing to lower the costs. Maybe 500 per header, 500 per seal?"

Ariel claims, "I think we can assume mail is written on whatever is easiest/cheapest ICly even if it's coded as paper, right."

Ariel trails off, "500 header/500 seal doesn't lower the overall cost much at all..."

Azarial states, "The changes to papercraft will adjust costs, making parchment the prefered material."

Kinaed says, "It takes 200 off."

Ariel trails off, "Well, I think 10 gold for stationary/seal is still a lot of money, but nobody else is saying anything, so..."

Kinaed says, "Okay, rather than argue for a very long time about this, I will 1) reduce the costs and 2) review it with the staff after this to see what we think is

appropriate."

Ariel nods.

Kinaed asks, "Does anyone else want to chime in with any thoughts or concerns on this topic though?"

Zeita von Zarrova says, "I think I mentioned this to Kinaed already, but throwing it out more widely: I'd like to be able to have guilds make a header that they can

then share with all of their peeps."

Kinaed nods at Zeita von Zarrova.

Kinaed states, "To zeita I wrote that down."

Zeita von Zarrova claims, "Expensive, but I also think it shouldn't be an 'everyone has' thing."

Samantha ab Vortina claims, "Yes i actually have one thing actually"

Azarial states, "That is planned for when the guild roles go in."

Zeita von Zarrova claims, "Cool."

Azarial states, "Right now it is a bit tedious to share it out."

Damian von Black has lost link.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin muses, "Wouldn't it make more sense for each guild to have their own seal?"

Kinaed wonders to Samantha ab Vortina, "Please, introduce your topic?"

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "They can/will under that system when it comes in. The current guild setup makes profiles a bit...

hard."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "Gotcha"

A sturdy-seeming woman with frizzy yellow hair has been transferred out by Nedyra. [OOC]

Samantha ab Vortina says, "It is about personal mail headers. in the past it cost qp to have a personal header made, unless it came with the position/rank, Does it

still cost qp to get a personal header made, because if so then i agree the cost is high, however if it doesn't cost qp anymore to get said header than i think the

price is fine"

Zeita von Zarrova states to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "It could be either the paper or the seal. Traditionally, seals are more easily

personalised, so people tend to put their personal deets in the seal and have a more standard header (because it previously was difficult to change). But, may need a

new way of looking at such things re: standard behaviour."

Azarial claims, "No qp anymore for it."

Kinaed claims to Samantha ab Vortina, "No QP now, you can just create your own header."

Samantha ab Vortina claims, "Well that is good to know"

Zeita von Zarrova wonders, "Do I sense an ASCII project in my future, Sam? "

Azarial states, "In fact, i had forgotten the player headers. i'll hvae to find them in the code and allow the ehader command to take them for free."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin nods at Zeita von Zarrova

Zeita von Zarrova trails off, "I need to start selling ASCII art as an IC service..."
Kinaed queries to Azarial, "Why not just remove it?"

Kinaed nods at Zeita von Zarrova.

Azarial says, "Might as well save the strings."

Kinaed states, "You totally do - signage, seals, other designs."

Azarial claims, "The seal command can take the seal string off of a seal object."

Samantha ab Vortina shakes her head at Zeita von Zarrova "I find personal mail headers a waste, afterall if a seal can't accomplish it... then why need a header. and

zeita you should do what daphne did, have said character rp being an 'artist'

Kinaed states to Azarial, "Oh, I see what you mean - but I don't think anyone's purchased a header for QP in years."

Nedyra says, "That is also in the updated announcement, for the curious. Re: seals and their former objects."

Zeita von Zarrova says, "I know Charmaine had one, and that... 3+ years now."

Kinaed nods at Zeita von Zarrova.

Kinaed says, "I don't think there are any alive characters with their own header. Not even really old ones like Marisa and Ariel? Will check though."

Ariel says, "I never bought one."

Kinaed nods at Ariel.

Zeita von Zarrova says, "I've always relied upon my guild header, but they seem gone now."

Samantha ab Vortina wonders, "So if no one buys one kinaed, why are they still around?"

Azarial claims, "Becuase I dind;t know no one was buying them. I'll be axing those here shortly."

Kinaed says, "The Guild headers are still around, we just need to set them up for the GLs, then the GLs can 'permit' them out."

Zeita von Zarrova says, "I expect we'll see people buying them now that they can be set more easily."

Kinaed nods at Azarial.

Kinaed nods at Zeita von Zarrova.

Zeita von Zarrova says, "I certainly will."

Nedyra says, "I have to wonder how many of the newer players knew that system existed before."

Kinaed states to Nedyra, "Probably very few, it was buried in a help file somewhere."

Nedyra questions, "Seals have their own help file (probably don't need it now), but did mail headers?"

Ariel states, "Nah, was in help qp."

Kinaed claims, "This system is more high profile because it's attached to a command most players will use."

Nedyra says, "I think it was just a list item in help QP."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "I think they did"

A young, auburn haired man. is idle.

Damian von Black has reconnected.

Samantha ab Vortina says, "And that helpfile was promptly stored in a wooden box and that box stored in a big warehouse with many other wooden boxes, never to be seen

again"

A young, auburn haired man. is no longer idle.

Nedyra sold that warehouse and bought a hotel.

Herbor le Cruppe queries, "Kinaed could I speak to you after chat about an idea I had?"

Kinaed says, "Sam pretty much."

Kinaed nods at Herbor le Cruppe.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin agrees with Samantha ab Vortina "just like most useful helpfiles lol"

Kinaed questions to Herbor le Cruppe, "You sure can - not interested in raising it here for everyone to hear though?"

Kinaed states, "We do have at least a thousand, probably two thousand, help files."

Azarial states, "Down 1997, looks like"

Azarial says, "Er, down to"

Ariel snerks.

Kinaed claims, "Yeah, 1997 is what I just found myself."

Samantha ab Vortina seems to ponder something and looks to Kinaed "Out of curiousity kinaed, how many active, awakened mages are there in play right now, if you can

answer."

Nedyra claims, "Challenge accepted."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "Christ on a cracker"

Kinaed says, "I can't tell you how many, but 25% of the RPing (ie, active) pbase are mages."

Ariel says, "That's a pretty good number."

Kinaed claims, "We do need more, if anyone is willing (and able) to make a mage."

Damian von Black states, "We have been having low amounts of mischief lately."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "I WANTED TO"

Kinaed claims, "We also have 10% active nobles, 19% active GLs, 1% latent, 3% children."

Ariel pontificates to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Well, here's your chance to roll up an alt!"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "But I didn't know what I was doing when I made my character "

Dagerian wonders, "19% Gl's?"

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin wonders, "Alt? I've barely started my first"

Damian von Black claims, "I could probably start up an alt to stir trouble. Free time is not my friend though."

Ariel states, "Probably that's people with the leader flag? There's a few more of those than on guildleader."

A young, auburn haired man. states, "I honestly thought about mage but as a first toon it seemed like a bad idea."

Kinaed says, "You have 39 hours of RP on that character, 89 hours online, Rylan... so you're RPing approximately 50% of the time you're on."

Samantha ab Vortina trails off, "Yes, mages can be difficult to figure our your first go around, since several of the processes are vague or not very well detailed...

Ariel says, "I do think the mage channel's departure was a loss."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin declares, "Because there's no one to rp with!"

Ariel claims, "In that regard. Also, magic helpfiles, whew."

Dagerian questions, "Are there new spells?"

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "I don't think that's supported by your stats, actually. Even highly active RPers tend to have

lower ratios than 50%."

Samantha ab Vortina states, "Yay vagueness, in regards to magic helpfiles"

Kinaed says to Dagerian, "I think there might be, as well as some fixes and expansions to old ones, since you were last around."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin muses, "I'm not on if there isn't rp. I play on a phone. no point in staring at it for nothing right?"

Ariel says, "I was writing new magic helpfiles but they got lost in the unreviewed void, I think."

Kinaed says to Ariel, "I haven't seen any on the request board."

Damian von Black has lost link.

Orlando dul Cavallari is no longer idle.

Samantha ab Vortina claims, "I just wish spell helpfiles for some were more blunt, instead of me having to guess what the spell does"

Damian von Black has reconnected.

Ariel claims to Kinaed, "I submitted them a long time back."

Kinaed claims, "I have one Help File review request for Casimir on the Request Board, but nothing else. They stay there until I've reviewed them, and I always tell

people what we've done, even if it is a reject."

Kinaed queries to Ariel, "Do you have copies?"

sayto kinaed I think they got 'acceptable after small edits'. Yeah, I think so...
Ariel trails off to Kinaed, "I think they got 'acceptable after small edits'. Yeah, I think so..."

Kinaed trails off to Ariel, "Then they should be in..."

Ariel says, "They never went in, afaik."

Nedyra claims to Samantha ab Vortina, "Some of the spell help files are intentionally vague. Because not much IC research or what have you has gone into the affects."

Kinaed claims, "... I've no idea where they are. Az suggested I check with Temi because she may have taken them to action."

Kinaed nods at Nedyra.

A young, auburn haired man. says, "That just means the mages need to kidnap guinea pigs.."

Kinaed claims, "Magic is intended to have easter eggs and require actual IC experimentation."

Nedyra claims, "I think that's a disclaimer in one of the magic help files, actually."

Damian von Black trails off, "By blood, yes, but..."

Kinaed states to Damian von Black, "Doesn't do much for RP. Anyway, we like to reward people for ICly exploring, so the help files give a vague idea as to the use, the

rest is up to someone to work out."

Kinaed queries, "We have five minutes left in the OOC Chat. Does anyone want to discuss anything else?"

Ariel claims, "I have been thinking about the Regency Quest, but I don't really know that I have any suggestions/recommendations about it."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "Ip"

Damian von Black queries, "Mages at creation are still available?"

Kinaed nods at Damian von Black.

Samantha ab Vortina rolls eyes "How the hell do you reward people for exploring magery? Hmm? I would love to know this."

Kinaed states to Damian von Black, "Yes, if you want to create a mage, just create a new character - but note: If you have a mage on your account already, the option

will not come up to make a mage."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin states, "You should be able to decide about being a Mage in chargen. not while making a name. so you can learn and

decide"

Kinaed states, "So you may have to liquidate an unused mage character to make a new one."

Ariel questions, "You can only have 1 mage, not 2?"

Damian von Black claims, "Okay. I will see about making one, if I can come by the XP."

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "I think that's a good point. I can action that."

Ariel thought it was 2 for some reason.

Kinaed claims to Ariel, "It might be two or even three."

Nedyra claims, "It's 2, Kin."

Samantha ab Vortina trails off, "It was two ariel, you can only have two mage on your account at the time... at least that is what i remember"

Ariel nods.

Kinaed claims to Ariel, "I just wanted to let people know why it might not show - basically, there's a limit to how many mages a person can have. Good to know it's

two, not three. "

Kinaed states, "Er, one."

Kinaed rubs her face.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims to Kinaed, "That's why I didn't make a Mage. I didn't know what I was choosing. and then I couldn't change it

without making an alt. "

Kinaed claims, "Anyway, thank you everyone, for attending this week's OOC Chat."

Kinaed states, "My action items are to review the costs to headers and seals (footers) on mail."

Ariel states to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "The reroll command should have worked."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "I don't know what that is"

Kinaed states, "Also, Ariel's agreed to repost his magic helps, so I'll have a look at those again. Once again, please accept our apologies for losing them, Ariel."

Ariel states, "Eh, no prob."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "I asked staff about it, but they said no"

Kinaed claims to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "We allow all characters who are cyan to reroll."

Azarial asks of a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Who said no?"

A young, auburn haired man. states, "Thanks for including me it was informative."

Kinaed claims to Azarial, "Yeah, that doesn't really seem like staff behavior."

Azarial really should not try to write code during meetings.

Kinaed smiles at a young, auburn haired man. .

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "I forgot who. this was a while ago. I think they said it would be better to make an alt later. since I was

new to ti. even though I'm good with rp on MUDs"

Kinaed says to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "That doesn't sound like TI staff behavior at all, especially as new as you are."

Samantha ab Vortina wonders, "Are you sure it was staff? perhaps it could have been an aide since people have confused the two in the past"

Ariel states, "It might have been a recommendation as well."

Kinaed says to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "In fact, if you'd like to adjust your character, even though you're not cyan, I'd be happy to throw

you back in chargen because of how new the character, generally speaking, is... and that you seem unhappy with your character."

Kinaed nods at Samantha ab Vortina.

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin claims, "No clue. guess it doesn't matter now. only thing I'd really change is reallocating some skills and being a

Mage"

Kinaed wonders to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "Would you like me to trans you to chargen?"

Kinaed states to a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin, "There, you can reroll."

Kinaed claims, "We can also rename you if you'd like to re-allocate your xp and whatnot to a new character at this early stage."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin says, "I might just do that. gimme a sec to read some stuff"

Kinaed nods at a heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin.

Orlando dul Cavallari has lost link.

Kinaed states, "Okay, I'm going to wrap this meeting up. We'll move Rylyn to chargen."

A heavily muscled tall young man with caramel skin nods

Kinaed declares, "Once again, thanks everyone for your time!"

[Leech]

I'd like to throw out the idea, once more, that mages should be locked to newer players. Whether this is via a QP cost, hours spent in RP, or XP, I don't quite know yet.

We don't need more mages. 25% of active characters being a mage is a good, round number. What we need, from general discussion about there being no mischief (oh, the familiar places...), are experienced players willing to make that mischief in an enjoyable, thematic way. (P.S. I don't think our mischief needs to come from mages. You want mischief, make it yourself - this topic has been beat, literally, to death.)

We've had one mage player just recently rage quit after getting caught. Those scenes are the exact opposite of fun. From memory, there have been several mages who respond to torture by grinning/laughing/showing indifference - to a point, fun, but after that very, very annoying - especially when that indifference is given in one liners. It seems like our encouragement to have people play mages, and providing it at char gen, causes a lot of throwaway, expendable characters without much thought put into them - or new players who get disheartened at dying, the difficulty of the systems, etc and end up quitting, sometimes in very OOCly destructive ways.

I wouldn't bring up a subject previously dismissed so curtly and confidently, but recent discussion on the Order channel, and seeing this log, brought it back to the forefront. I realize that we have many players who played a mage from the get-go and loved it, but for each of those players we get two who are just, honestly, God awful. I suppose the same can be said about players in general, but in a role that is so monumental to the theme of the game (it's our namesake!), I definitely think some restrictions would make the whole thing a lot more enjoyable for everyone involved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another, different, controversial note!

If staff are taking suggestions for priority, I beg you to take a step back from rolling out any new systems and instead focus on fixing/updating those systems currently in place. I really don't think PEVENTS or Places are crucial to our RP (really, players can accomplish both of them without coded systems). Here are some things that I personally think are, and have come up more than once from sources other than myself:

1) Testing and fixing sneak/hide.

2) Updating combat to include ranged attacks and range fixes (I keep hearing people are still disgruntled with ranges. I haven't played with it, but player testing it and getting suggestions again might be worthwhile to make it a wholesome, polished system). Also, to include some of the things mentioned in the Community Standards Discussion. (Steps during combat and flee changes I think were mostly agreed on? Might need to revive that and check again.)

3) The storyteller system is a great addition to the game, but it hasn't gotten much love over the years. The addition of more STP commands and diversity would go a long way to improve this, as would having a range of vnums where STPs could create temporary objects, rooms, and NPCs.

[Dice]

Not sure how I feel about mages, but I can only give a hearty AMEN to the rest of this post. A lot of central mechanics badly need fixing and should be prioritized over new content.

[Kinaed]

We cannot leave mages to app-ins; we will have no mage population because the curve of play is that mage chars have a shelf life, and non-mage characters do not, so older players tend to have a main favorite character, who typically is a non-mage, and are quite settled with that character to the exclusion of creating new ones.

With regards to sneak and hide, that is on the agenda, but we need to do work to make it happen, which takes time and goes through several phases. It isn't happening as code at the moment because that work isn't completed on it specification side before it can be picked up for code. The same is with ranged combat, though the specification for thrown is complete. Thus, code won't be stopped whilst waiting for these things to come through specification.

So, it's not that these things are of lower priority, but that we're managing a pipeline of work, and it's not as simple as 'let's code this today!' especially with more complex game features. Please keep it in mind that these are some very complex systems we are touching and changing, so writing a specification isn't necessarily easy even when you know exactly what you want the outcome to be.

The storyteller system isn't used enough by players to warrant the investment of time that could go into new systems like pevents, ranged combat, and sneak/hide. I'd love to expand upon it - but if you want that, then we'll need to see more than one ST event every six to eight OOC months.

Things make staff priority by fitting into a section of chart like this:

First Quadrant - EASY TO BUILD, GOOD PLAYER INVESTMENT = High Priority
Second Quadrant - EAST TO BUILD, CRAPPY PLAYER INVESTMENT = Low Priority
Third Quadrant - HARD TO BUILD, GOOD PLAYER INVESTMENT = Moderately High Priority
Fourth Quadrant - HARD TO BUILD, CRAPPY PLAYER INVESTMENT = No way it's happening

So, if we were to place pevents somewhere, it'd be first quadrant. Sneak and hide, are Third Quadrant. Places are also Third Quadrant because of multiple player requests. And, of course, to some degree, staff work on some pet projects that keep us happy as staff.

This is how the pipeline is decided; and it takes multiple concerns into account.

[Geras]

The mages/villains thing has always been a tough nut to crack.

IMHO a fundamental problem has always been that your "shelf life" tends to end right after you pull off any big "win." It's really hard to play a villain that is both successful and has a long lifespan.

That's not entirely a bad thing. We don't want archmages wiping the Knights and Order over and over or Thieves wiping the Reeves over and over. I wonder if there could be more ways to have "small" wins for each side at lower risk.

[Oveon]

There are plenty of ways for mages to extend that shelf.life if one wants to if you stop to think. One major way to do this would be to disguise yourself when your off to cause chaos. And another way would be ro do minor things, and perhaps spread roumers of other groups causing what you cause, and to kill all witnesses.

[Kinaed]

I agree, but I find fear is sometimes as much a deterrent as actual barriers to acting.

[Geras]

That's probably true.

[Dice]

It's honestly not that simple - if you get physically caught, no amount of disguise will help. Killing the witnesses is 1) kind of awful to kill so many PCs and 2) exceedingly hard in practice - in any big crowd there's going to be at least one combat monkey, and mages are very rarely equipped to deal with that. Even if they are, it's liable to be 1 or 2 at most vs. a whole crowd, so failure is assured.

Sure, you can do minor things, but there's a limited tool-set to do interesting and entertaining minor things. People get blase about the same-old, same-old, especially as there're few real heart-stoppers for harassing people in relatively safe and reliable ways. We've had mages come through and persecute people with the spells that work from afar, and very, very quickly it gets boring. Not to mention, if you do enough minor things, you're still quite likely to get caught by people analyzing the patterns behind your victims/actions.

And all of this ignores the biggest question: the pay-off. If you don't inherently enjoy being the bad guy, you're being asked to do something you don't find fun that's also rather risky for your PC, with very little extrinsic reward. At BEST, if you can manage a long career of hijink after hijink, you'll get back 100% of your RPXP - but getting to 100% is not an easy task, as even the biggest of hijinks can only get you one recommend's worth at a time.

I really do think we have a limited toolset and limited options for baddies to do bad things, and more spells that emphasize creating RP/letting mages escape would be very helpful - as well as a more robust incentive program, not for merely being a mage but for actually using your magic against people. To some extent better spells would help with that, as they'd create better RP which induces more recommends, but I also feel recommends are insufficiently robust.

Giving people more bad guy quest PCs like the Hillbeast - a process where you app for a PC whose skills/stats are paid for without your own dime - might also be a really good way to reduce the potential loss, both in terms of emotional investment in the PC and actual investment. If you haven't had this PC for the time needed to get the abilities required to cause chaos... well, you're a lot less likely to be afraid to lose them causing chaos for the game. That plot had its problems but it seriously kept us busy for a while!

[Leech]

I think it's worth noting that the following, most definitely, is gathered as my own opinion, based on years MUDding, creating, and following games in creation. It is a way to address a personal discomfort that I felt at Kin's last post, and the direction of priority on a game that I've grown to love, and have loved to grow. It is by no means a personal attack.

~~~~~~~~~

So basically the pipeline works off of what is easy to implement and garners the most player favor instead of what potentially needs fixing and tweaking (hide/sneak, combat)? That seems a bit counter-intuitive, and a good way to add to an already thick backlog of complaints and bugs. When additions to the STP code were talked about, there was an overwhelmingly positive reaction to it, giving proof that if those changes were implemented we would see more STPs. We have a whole thread devoted to discussing changes to combat that many were excited about, and that would add a whole new dynamic to the system.

There were maybe six players, at most, in the OOC chat discussing PEVENTS that really were excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea, but like PLACES it is an optional system. Combat and sneak are not optional systems (whether you be on the receiving or giving end of either), and should be receiving priority in speccing and coding so that these two pillars of the game can receive the polish they deserve. From the way the spec/code process was described, it sounds like they must be connected - when in reality, they can both be done in intervals - and likewise stopped and saved at any time as priority demands.