Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 7:41 PM
Welcome to the March 2018 Player/Staff Meeting. If you have a question, type "I have a question" in the #queue channel and you'll be called on when you're up to ask a question. The queue opens up at 7:45PM and will close around 9:30PM or when all questions are answered. (All times are server time)
Up first is MarshallDFX, ask away.
MarshallDFX - Last Saturday at 7:48 PM
Hi staff, thanks for holding the meeting. As a player who has become much more off-peak, does staff have any ideas up their sleeves for making the interaction between on-peak/off-peak sponsored and regular roles easier? RPTs are always a difficult area too, of course.
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 7:50 PM
First of all thanks for the question. I should have made it clear. The agenda for tonight is to talk about sponsored roles, with things like what the players want from sponsored roles when Rping with them. What sponsored roles want from staff. Those types of things.
This question is right on point though!
Calavera - Last Saturday at 7:51 PM
Can I ask for a bit of clarification @MarshallDFX? When you say 'make interaction easier' how exactly do you mean? Like adding additional code features and such or...? Just trying to see if this question is more of a coder wheelhouse question than something I should dive in on. :stuck_out_tongue:
MarshallDFX - Last Saturday at 7:53 PM
Well I left it fairly open ended. The generic problem is a peon's playtime not lining up often with their corresponding sponsored role, or vice versa. Code features could be possible. Such as additional message boards? Just spitballing.
Calavera - Last Saturday at 7:55 PM
Unfortunately playing in a non-USA time zone or working unusual hours does tend to lend itself to missed connections with leader PCs in game. But I will note that one thing we've been taking into account recently is that we have actually discussed going out of our way to ensure multiple time zones are covered when we're picking new people in important roles like templar.
Now that we have more players clustered in one city it's a lot easier to keep an eye on that sort of thing.
Also if there's an area in the game that you think could benefit from an ingame message board please let us know. We don't really have plans to add any additional features solely to facilitate offline communication but we can definitely make sure the tools we do have are deployed in areas where they're the most effective.
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MarshallDFX - Last Saturday at 7:57 PM
Okay, thanks! The main point was whether there was any good ideas I haven't thought of actually in the pipeline, to assist coordination across time zones
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 7:58 PM
Next up is can i not be bullyd pls!
Sratch that, next up b0urgeoisie!
moontug - Last Saturday at 7:59 PM
@b0urgeoisie
b0urgeoisie - Last Saturday at 8:01 PM
any plans for adding sponsored roles to either of the available desert elf tribes? they seem like they could use it, and often the sort of "ic recruitment" approach seems to result in a lot of dead players and up/downs in player populations.
Rathustra - Last Saturday at 8:04 PM
We have in the past! Usually when an RPT shines a spotlight on the Tablelands that requires an eager cluster of elves to carry stories forward. However, it's not something we do on the regular, like with Byn Sergeants or GMH members - we only really do it with these roles because they server particular OOC functions in their clans and in the game. With the elven tribes we don't really see them as having a particular requirement or OOC function. But that isn't to say there isn't a precedent for this - we used to have Role Calls for the Akai Sjir.
Which is an addled way of saying while it's not something completely unusual, it isn't something we currently have plans to do. We'd have to think what the role is that such sponsored roles would be. The Akai Sjir dealer, for example, was a sort of GMH merchant role - would that be what a Sun Runner sponsored role would look like? Or would they have a Sajahain/Sergeant role? What would that role do?
As they are, the tribes are free-form and permit players to dip in and out and play in them as they want.
Ok, I'm done rambling.
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:06 PM
@Aloyii, Lady of Wieners asked: How much communication is there among the staffers of designated clan and how do they communicate? (one question at a time)
The answer here is a lot. There is live communication on our staff channels and everything is logged by clan on a board for the team and clan staff to discuss. It's one of the ways we try and keep things as consistent as possible. We don't always succeed at that but we try very hard!
Aloyii, Lady of Wieners - Last Saturday at 8:09 PM
nodnods
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:10 PM
@Ppurg asked: When is Tuluk going to reopen?
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Rathustra - Last Saturday at 8:12 PM
Tuluk is incredibly important to me as I had some of my most memorable experiences in Tuluk as both a staffer and a player. For Tuluk to re-open we'd need to be satisfied that our player levels were such that we'd be able to support two viable populations of players - roles, unclanned, the whole shabago - in Tuluk and Allanak.
Alongside this I also feel that staff would need to be in a stable and ready state - ready to tackle bringing the city back to life, adapting it to the current state of the game with the most cutting-edge techniques. We have a unique opportunity to polish up an entire city - all at once and not using the usual piece by piece approach we use for updating and adding to the game world.
We want to do all our Tuluki players - past and present - proud with the Tuluk that returns to the game. There's a lot of player history there that we are unwilling to forget or waste!
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Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:14 PM
@Deskoft, Lord of Noobs Your up!
Deskoft, Lord of Noobs - Last Saturday at 8:15 PM
When one plays a sponsored role, it is sometimes hard if from an OOC standpoint to know if you are satisfying staff's requirement when they first threw you into the game. Someone could say, don't worry about it, and focus on the IC action -- but the helpfiles themselves state if: "When staff look for a sponsored role, they are looking primarily for stability and structure for the game. Again, there is room for personality and character quirks--those just need to be inside the confines of what staff expects." Now that you are a staffer, what are the best ways you recommend for someone in a sponsored role to know, 'Okay, I am doing a good job from an OOC standpoint?'
Renenutet - Last Saturday at 8:17 PM
That's a great question. I think there are expectations for sponsored roles generally. Playtimes, being a part of it. Willingness to involve others is probably the hugest thing. Time doing the things intrinsic to the role.
But if there's more than that. If there is a specific agenda that we want filled that is usually right there in the role call, or communicated really clearly.
If no one is asking you to get something specific done, then just enjoy the role. Try to give people stuff to do, or even better make trouble. Get people to go out murder, corrupt and betray.
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Calavera - Last Saturday at 8:19 PM
And if you're feeling uncertain about anything, please just ask.
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Staff aren't omniscient. If we don't know you're struggling or want direction or want feedback, we don't know to give help in those areas.
Draugr - Last Saturday at 8:20 PM
I'd agree with @Renenutet if you're keeping things moving around you in a way that is consistent with the game world? You're probably doing a good job from an OOC standpoint. Also per @Calavera just ask in a report.
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:21 PM
@Vermilion Zelda The floor is yours!
Vermilion Zelda - Last Saturday at 8:24 PM
Oh I saw my question got posted in #queue before @MarshallDFX asked a similar one, but I thought I should post anyway since it's slightly different:
Would it ever happen maybe to have more than 2 slots for most of the special roles, maybe three? I was thinking especially if one was left for EU times, it would hugely improve the game, when you look at play times like this
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?iso=20180405&p1=195&p2=179 The yellow areas are most peoples' free time and they're hard to match up, and it really comes into factor when there's RP plots, it would make the world feel a lot more alive for a lot of people I think
It's actually come up a few times in discussion in the main chat and a lot of people seemed supportive of the idea :smiley: I don't think 2 is enough for most of the merchant/noble houses when there's time zones to factor in, a lot of the time there will simply be no one around, and some people can play without seeing any of them
The World Clock Meeting Planner - Results
Results from the Meeting Planner that finds a suitable time to call or meet with people from around the world.
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Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:25 PM
Thanks for the question. As stated before we can
err.. can't and don't want to ask players, even sponsored ones, to play at certain times. After all this is a game and people have wildly different schedules. What we do is take into account off peak players when choosing sponsored roles depending on the usage.
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Alright, next up is @Mirudus
Mirudus - Last Saturday at 8:28 PM
One of the parts of playing a sponsored role, especially something like nobility, is that there's often largely little direction given to them. That's quite fine for self-starters and proactive, experienced sponsored-role players, but two problems very frequently arise: 1) players new to sponsored roles (especially nobility/Templarate) don't know exactly how far their reach and power goes, so they wind up either getting bored or trying to do something too 'big' and getting told no, or 2) new and even experienced players get frustrated because they get staff approval for something, but getting it implemented can sometimes move at what feels like a glacial pace. It's often frustrating to ask, for example, "Can I hire X to do Y for me," and by the time you get a response, the plot has moved on beyond it being relevant. Basically, to help minimize this linked frustration - are there any plans to make small changes (room desc changes, item loading, plan approval) 'easier' or quicker to get implemented, or perhaps just on helping these roles recognize the things they can/can't accomplish without outright stating 'do this,' or leaving it to trial and error?
Calavera - Last Saturday at 8:29 PM
Great question!
I'll take point on this one since I'm staffing nobles at the moment, though I'm sure other staff will chime in.
I would always encourage players to shoot for the moon, however you have to understand that if you shoot for the moon, your thought process shouldn't be: 1. Have idea. 2. Go to moon.
If players who play sponsored roles or heck any other kind of role have a plan for a big change or a big plot they absolutely should go for it, but I'd encourage breaking it down into smaller stages so that progress is easier and you don't find yourself frustrated by things beyond your control.
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Send in a request to your staff and say hey, I have a long-term goal of doing this thing. Your staff will tell you straight up if it's something that we would never approve. Sometimes this happens. It sucks. But more often than not your staff will say cool, let me know how you plan to do this.
Draugr - Last Saturday at 8:34 PM
Yeah. That! And also understand there is a difference between your staffer discussing something with you, senior NPCs responding with yes/no/maybe, and actually being told "This idea is something we can or can not support" - And actually being able to move forward ICly.
If that makes sense.
Renenutet - Last Saturday at 8:35 PM
Just chiming in to say, if you can accomplish something in game, go and accomplish it. If you want to hire a guy. Hire a guy. Just report it so we know what's what. If you can do it, you don't need permission. Just a willingness to see it through and stand by the outcome. Accept the consequences. I think a lot of times instead of asking can I, you could ask what happens if?
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Calavera - Last Saturday at 8:36 PM
I'm also going to add a bit of a debbie downer bit to my answer but I hope players can understand it comes from a place of wanting communication to be better and overall hoping to improve the relationship between players and staff.
I see a lot of character reports that basically say "here is my PC's idea" and then some time passes and another report a few months later will say "I'm really frustrated no progress has been made on my idea" or "I can't believe X hasn't happened when I told you I wanted to do it" but without much if any updates in the middle on what exactly your character is doing to accomplish this goal.
But the thing players have to remember is that we aren't mind readers. If you don't tell us what you are doing toward your goals, we might miss it. Some of us are in weird time zones, some of us aren't online 24/7. If you don't keep us updated on what you're doing, then we won't know to have the world reflect the work you're putting in.
Renenutet - Last Saturday at 8:39 PM
Also at the risk of being negative, make this happen for me, build me a thing, isn't a plot. It's a request.
It's not that we won't build you things, or make things happen. It's just not a plot.
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:40 PM
Great question and replies, thanks! @Leudoberct you are up!
Leudoberct - Last Saturday at 8:40 PM
Are there any plans to introduce more offpeak leaders and or immortals? One example I thought of would be an offpeak Byn sergeant. Lots of new players join the Byn, and if they can't attend any RPTs due to all of the sergeants being peak, it might make them think that they just can't do any RPTs if they're offpeak. It can be pretty hard for offpeak players to attend an RPT without it being a weekend, and even stil, staying up late into the night.
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Calavera - Last Saturday at 8:41 PM
Fun fact, every year I have been on staff we've actually had at least five immortals outside the US, including now!
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Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:42 PM
Off the top of my head I can think of 5? TZs we have staff in currently, maybe 6.
Rathustra - Last Saturday at 8:42 PM
I'm the best British staffer.
All other British staffers are inferior to me.
Akariel, Lord of Rats - Last Saturday at 8:42 PM
Xalle is cool too
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Renenutet - Last Saturday at 8:42 PM
We've got at least four continents covered.
Calavera - Last Saturday at 8:42 PM
Yeah. We've had staff from all sorts of places and currently have Europe, Australasia, Asia, and all US time zones covered I believe. We've even had staffers in the Caribbean and a couple other time zones people don't think of.
As for the rest of the question, for the record most Byn RPTs are organized by players. Most of the time we try not to have Byn Sergeants be sponsored roles and we try to promote within the clan. This is just hard when Fehu and Ayomai keep killing them.
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Ayomai - Last Saturday at 8:44 PM
:frowning:
Nathvaan - Last Saturday at 8:44 PM
Heh. Alright, moving on! @Riev, the Salt King Reborn is your turn.
Riev, the Salt King Reborn - Last Saturday at 8:44 PM
Going along with something Iiyola was talking about, how often do staff check in on Clan-Specific GDB posts? Do staff monitor these GDB posts, as they often have questions for procedure or policy, relevant to all the clan members? What about for the Leader versions, like the Byn-leader board, that talks about contracts and who got paid what. Is this double-the-work, or is it fine to leave information there, and off any sort of Leader Reports? What is the expectation concerning the use of these boards, especially for clan leadership in lieu of being able to always communicate in game?
Rahnevyn - Last Saturday at 8:45 PM
I would say if you want to be certain we see something, put it in a character report request. We do follow the GDB forums, but requests are always there taunting us until we close them.
Draugr - Last Saturday at 8:46 PM
What @Rahnevyn said, though if you have a question that other leaders in the clan also need to see, a Question Request pointing out there's a clan-wide question in the clan GDB would be a good workaround
Rahnevyn - Last Saturday at 8:47 PM
It can just be a mention on your request, not a summary of the whole post, obviously.
Topic: March 23, 2018 /Player Staff Meeting (Read 5075 times)