Support

[Dalmeth]

i've always thought that staff shouldn't be focused on running their own plots for us but instead on making the world real for players trying to do their own plots.

Or for characters just walking along in the desert.

The staff plots I've seen have scented of being forced.

To be honest, I've had several instances over various characters where staff have done just that.  Sometimes, it was forced, but I still enjoyed it.  The forced feeling won't go away just because the staff is serving your wants instead of theirs.  It's a game with limited code, and I can live with that.  So long as the staff is providing good fun, I don't mind where exactly they decide to spend the bulk of their efforts.

[glasswright]

As far as PC leaders of merchant-type organizations go, I'd love to able to access the master list of loadable inventory available to that organization, and be able to actually load it. I'm sure loading items is a massive chore for you guys.

Yes, please.

[Bebop]

I am in complete agreement with mansa.

Especially about the clans.  I want to see clans live and die by what the PCS do.

[mansa]

I really like the 'Request Tool'.  It's probably one of the best additions to the game.

I really like the bio command.



I wish when I use the 'wish' command, it saves whatever I said in a log file so that Immortals can check up on it later.  Much like a 'request'.  In fact, if you could incorporate the two into one, that would be awesome.


I wish that there was an OOC bio entry for each character, where we can enter information about what we want to accomplish, and problems that we are currently having.
i.e. Expand the 'objective' to be a bigger file.  And multiple entries.
Wishing up would automatically make a new entry about this in our 'ooc file' as well.  We could edit it and make it more than just 255 characters in length, to help immortals realize what our problems are.



Personally, I'll use the OOC Bio Entry to send in my weekly reports, since I hate email.
If I could add to the OOC Bio Entry from the website, you'll be able to send the weekly reports in there, for people like Gimf who doesn't like/no time to do 'accounting' things inside the game.

This removes more email from your immortal inboxes.

Mansa is so smart this idea rocks!

[Reiloth]

1. I think the ultimate goal of staff support in a MUD, in general, is to make sure all the cogs are greased. That code wise, not so much 'game world' wise, everything is moving smoothly IE: fixing bugs, adding new code, removing old code, making sure code for new characters is functioning, etc. Secondly, I think it is the staff's goal to make sure there is a progressive storyline, over a massive amount of time. This is to say, that characters SHOULD be moving this storyline forward, over many generations, but in the short term, should be in control of ALL plots. I do not believe there should be any short-term IMM run plots, ever, or if there are, they are started and encouraged by PCs.

2. Things you don't do and shouldn't do: X-D's post, as I have seen this many times. To be specific yet vague, almost every assassination attempt I have made, or seen other PC's make, is instantly found out by NPC's around the area, and assumed that my character or another PC's character are responsible, even after clothes are changed, blood is not on the character, and weapons are ditched. As X-D said, I understand that a person might be important to THEIR(Immortals) plots, but that character dying might be important to OUR(Players) plots. It is discouraging enough that I have not decided to make an assassin until recently, and with the advent of the game closing, do not really care if NPC-Uber-Sorceror-of-Doom / Templar-of-omnipresence finds me and kills me because I killed some pet project of <insert fanatical IMM name here>. I believe that if someone is Assassinated, skillfully at least, it should fly RIGHT under the radar. Who cares if your Clan's NPC mindbender saw it? Does it really itch you that much to kill this Assassin PC who might -further- game conflict, as opposed to keeping it simple and smooth?

3. Things that are unnecessary: Making the game more player friendly. Through IMM run plots, (Although also PC plots, admittantly), I have seen this MUD through the last year turn from a harsh, desert planet to a friendly, air-conditioned, hand-holding love fest. It is not so much that people are holding hands; it is that they are AFRAID to cause conflict between Noble Houses and merchant Houses, because an IMM might step in and squash them, and their entire house, for screwing with them. I -won't- go further into that, as I will divulge IC information, but several players that I know are privy to knowledge that SHOULD get at least two IMMs off staff, PURELY because of this.

Also unneccesary: manifesting powers in PC's just because they are in your clan, and it'd be cool if they got <insert cool power here>. If they didn't do anything to recieve that power, or put in over a RL year's worth of time into discovering it and training it, I think you are twinking.

Ignoring the checks and balances between Houses, and Templars. When I see a Noble House / Merchant House go "Oh, yeah, we found out you're a <crazy class you shouldn't be>, but we're just going to let you go and live a happy life.", when the docs say if anyone ANYONe anyone finds out you are this <crazy class you shouldn't be>, they would fucking rip you apart, and a mob would pee on you. I mean, either change the docs, or expect players to become irritated when this kind of situation happens.

4. Things a staff member do that I think I should be able to do myself:

Start a clan, codedly, without any IMM support. If I make a gang in the 'rinth, I want to be able to create it, invite people into it, stake out a territory that is my 'gangs', and start a bank account with Nenyuk for a fee.

Blow up a building.

Rob a bank.

Rob a store.

5. How staff should support clans: Let Player do whatever they want. Sure, have some NPC's around to animate, maybe even ones that are above PC's. But ENCOURAGE PC's PROJECTS. If some Sallari wants to make a gladiator pit to test new weapons and armor in, that people can get paid like 20 coins to wear certain armor and weapons to test durability and effectiveness, LET THEM. IF there is the money to do it, and they have it in hand, LET THEM DO IT! The only thing staff can do that players cannot is CREATE in Arm 1.0. We cannot build a building, we cannot tear it down, we cannot do anything that the hard-code does not let us do. So I ask that the staff is hands-on in making PC's projects become a reality, and not nix them because it isn't in THEIR vision of the clan.

Encourage Player to PLayer conflict. Let Kadius assassinate that Kuraci Agent. Let that guy from the Shallows of Basal blow up the water-trade building. LET US STIR SHIT UP! It makes the world go round. Thank you.

I'd also prefer players do not respond to this thread, as it is aimed at Staff, though that probably won't stop any of you. Flame on.

[Gimfalisette]

If I could add to the OOC Bio Entry from the website, you'll be able to send the weekly reports in there, for people like Gimf who doesn't like/no time to do 'accounting' things inside the game.

This removes more email from your immortal inboxes.

Mansa is so smart this idea rocks!

I really want that. I think my characters deserve bios, but I just loathe taking the time to properly enter and format bio entries in game. I still think it would be necessary to send reports by email, though; email serves as a reminder that there's something to pay attention to. Well, also, email is an out-of-game tool that I can be working in while still playing the game. (Yeah, I multi-task when all y'all players are being slow to respond!)

[Rindan]

1)  I think the request tool could use an 'other' option.  I try and stuff my requests into some category, but sometimes there is none.  To make it a little easier to sift through the "other" option you could perhaps put a "high", "low", and "normal" urgencies on the "other" category.  Some times a request is a low urgency request or FYI, other times it is an "OMFG I n33d a r3z!11!!!".

2)  An in game "alert" tool might be nice to have to alert staff of events happening now or about to happen.  Let the alert tool be used liberally.  Two Byners getting ready to fist fight in the street would be worthy of an alert.  A gemmer threatening to toast a mundane fellow in the Gaj would be worthy of an alert.  Any event that might be quasi-important at that moment, especially a public event, could be alerted.  This way, people can let you know about things that are happening without touching the ever so intimidating wish line, and staff members can filter out alerts if they don't want to hear them.  Have the alert tell the staff who and where the alert was sent from in case they don't provide enough information.  I imagine the command to work something like this.

>alert OMG, these two Bynners are totally about to start throwing fists in the Gaj.
>alert I am about to make an assassination attempt on the Amos for stiffing me a few 'sid the other week.
>alert I am being raided by Blackmoon raiders.
>alert Fred the gemmer keeps saying loudly declaring he is going to burn down the bar.
>alert Me and Malik are about to have a secret meeting to set a price for Lord Inbreed's head.

3)  I really think the world could use more atmosphere reinforcement.  There are times when people do things that I personally think should come close to starting a riot.  Now, I can emote VNPCs, but I think it is generally bad form to emote VNPCs reacting in a negative way against other PCs, no matter how strongly I think that they should.  I would mind seeing a little more gentle enforcement of cultural values through imm controlled NPCs and VNPCs.  You don't have to beat someone with a stick of d00m.  An NPC jeering and laughing at the human merchant Amos for professing his love to a 'rinth elf would be enough.

4)  I wouldn't mind seeing staffers throw in a slightly more active hand in helping n00bs and bored players.  I don't think that the staff even needs to take all that active of a hand, they just need to give vets an excuse to help n00bs.  Something as simple as a Templar storming into the Gaj, pointing to a vet and a n00b (at random of course), telling them that they are hereby recruited into the Templars service, and that the two of them will travel to Red Storm to get Lady Crosseyed a cask of spiced ale on the double or be summarily executed, would work fine.  It is a good excuse to get a vet to show a n00b the ropes, and a good excuse for Lady Crosseyed to approach and recruit a dumb n00b to fulfill her n00b training quota (if she is willing).  You could even let players flag themselves as willing to do such work and even provide a context with an objective like command for how their character could be made to do it.

>change n00bhelper My character has made it known to the Templerate that he will rehabilitate criminals (n00bs caught trying to get exp off gate guards) by recruiting them for mining work.
>change n00bhelper If my character overheard that a n00b criminal was snagged by the militia, he would probably approach the n00b to see about terming up.
>change n00bhelper I am a Byn sergeant, I eat n00bs.  Give them tah meh!!!!
>change n00bhelper I would be willing to help a n00b if it made sense for my character.

5)  In 2.Arm, I would like to see a good pondering over staff responsibility.  Even if all the clans are "player run", they will still need some support.  Regional support staff is a start, but if a clan gets particularly large and stable, dedicated staff support isn't a bad idea either.  It would be nice if as a clan leader in 2.Arm there was always one or two staff members you report to.  Regional staff members could serve to facilitate communication between other staff working in their area, deal with small clans/independents in their region, and act as the overseer to keep clan favoritism from cropping up.  This way, even if a staff member gets too caught up in the clan he is supporting, there is still a regional staff member to apply the breaks.

[flurry]

One area that comes to mind is around being recruited or promoted in clans.  Right now it feels like it involves support from the staff more than maybe it should. Here are a couple particular examples.

Scenario 1:  Amos gets hired by House Malik.  Player of Amos wants to create a new handle for House Malik's clan forum.  PoA emails staff (or uses request tool) to get new handle approved.  PoA uses request tool to get new handle added to House Malik's clan forum.  PoA uses request tool to request access to House Malik's documentation.

Possible Solution: Better integration between game accounts and gdb accounts.  Maybe newly clanned characters could automatically get the option to add themselves (possibly using an alias) to the appropriate clan forum.

Scenario 2: Amos gets promoted to Assistant Stablehand in House Malik.  But player promoting Amos forgets to give Amos the appropriate coded 'jobs'.  Amos's player rarely sees PC boss and eventually wishes up to get jobs added.

Possible Solution: Coded jobs are packaged with certain positions, so it doesn't require further coded action (or possible staff support) beyond the initial promotion.

A couple other areas come to mind.

GDB Moderation:  Some minimal moderation is probably a necessary evil.  If there were some kind of alert flag on posts that players could use for egregious ic-info posts, for instance, it might help with this.

Account Notes:  What if account notes were organized in a way so that it were divided into a part for player eyes and a part for staff eyes?  That would prevent staff from the need to go through and clean up the file before sending it to the player.

[Adiadochokinesis]

1)  I think the request tool could use an 'other' option.  I try and stuff my requests into some category, but sometimes there is none.  To make it a little easier to sift through the "other" option you could perhaps put a "high", "low", and "normal" urgencies on the "other" category.  Some times a request is a low urgency request or FYI, other times it is an "OMFG I n33d a r3z!11!!!".

2)  An in game "alert" tool might be nice to have to alert staff of events happening now or about to happen.  Let the alert tool be used liberally.  Two Byners getting ready to fist fight in the street would be worthy of an alert.  A gemmer threatening to toast a mundane fellow in the Gaj would be worthy of an alert.  Any event that might be quasi-important at that moment, especially a public event, could be alerted.  This way, people can let you know about things that are happening without touching the ever so intimidating wish line, and staff members can filter out alerts if they don't want to hear them.  Have the alert tell the staff who and where the alert was sent from in case they don't provide enough information.  I imagine the command to work something like this.

>alert OMG, these two Bynners are totally about to start throwing fists in the Gaj.
>alert I am about to make an assassination attempt on the Amos for stiffing me a few 'sid the other week.
>alert I am being raided by Blackmoon raiders.
>alert Fred the gemmer keeps saying loudly declaring he is going to burn down the bar.
>alert Me and Malik are about to have a secret meeting to set a price for Lord Inbreed's head.

Best. Idea. Ever.

[brytta.leofa]

>alert OMG, these two Bynners are totally about to start throwing fists in the Gaj.
>alert I am about to make an assassination attempt on the Amos for stiffing me a few 'sid the other week.
>alert I am being raided by Blackmoon raiders.
>alert Fred the gemmer keeps saying loudly declaring he is going to burn down the bar.
>alert Me and Malik are about to have a secret meeting to set a price for Lord Inbreed's head.

Good things, but isn't this the same as "wish all"?

[Agent_137]

the idea is in the differentiation between the two, brytta.

[mansa]

Agent_137 wrote:
the idea is in the differentiation between the two, brytta.


Why have two commands that do the same thing?

-- I guess if you were an immortal, you wouldn't want to have alerts every moment. So some immortals would 'ignore alerts'. You would need to have two commands for that aspect.


However, The idea behind the command is that - the players are telling the immortals what is up, rather than the players asking the immortals what is up.

It's a fundamental shift of the whole command and aspect of how players interact with the Armageddon staff.

Personally, I'd rather go with my idea as to how to keep the immortals informed at what we, the players, are doing. My idea is here:
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=306785#306785

[Raesanos]

I actually really like the OOC biography idea.  There is a lot that could be done with that.  People put so much thought into their characters and a lot of that information is ultimately lost.  Not only would this record it, but we could on the staff side have better dissemination of that information with things like a clan OOC bio page where all staff can see all recent updates for a clan on one page, rather than it being limited to the inboxes of the staff who received the updates.

[staggerlee]

I think that idea is absolutely brilliant.

I feel bad about how far behind I am on my bios, but once I'm in game I usually get caught up in playing.  I'd love to be able to work on them and read them from work instead of posting on the gdb all day.

[Gimfalisette]

I actually really like the OOC biography idea.  There is a lot that could be done with that.  People put so much thought into their characters and a lot of that information is ultimately lost.  Not only would this record it, but we could on the staff side have better dissemination of that information with things like a clan OOC bio page where all staff can see all recent updates for a clan on one page, rather than it being limited to the inboxes of the staff who received the updates.

I would swoon with joy if there was a way to input biography entries via the website rather than having to do it in game. My character deserves biography entries, and I haven't done a single one because of two issues:

-- I absolutely cannot afford to use up my in-game time, idling, in the text editor, while I struggle with it.
-- I hate, hate, hate, hate the text editor with a burning passion.

[brytta.leofa]

I actually really like the OOC biography idea.  There is a lot that could be done with that.  People put so much thought into their characters and a lot of that information is ultimately lost.

I...put OOC stuff in my bio entries, anyway. 

And I, too, would love a way to enter these from the web.  Though I'd settle for vi-embedded-in-Arm.

[Southie]

I add OOC snippets to my bio now and then, but it'd be nice to be able to organise better.

The ".x" commands in the text editor let me sort of keep on roleplaying while I'm editing stuff. The one huge problem I have with the text editor is that it blocks incoming psi messages. For some reason, if you're in the editor, the code acts like you're barriered and no one can psi you, but they can still contact you. Several times I've had people think my characters were unconcious or something and get really worried, when all I was doing was writing a bio entry.

[Gimfalisette]

For some reason, if you're in the editor, the code acts like you're barriered and no one can psi you, but they can still contact you. Several times I've had people think my characters were unconcious or something and get really worried, when all I was doing was writing a bio entry.

Exactly. This drives me insane, because I am not able to just get in / get out with the text editor due to my very complicated hate-hate relationship with it, and I just don't see being able to take half an hour of peak time play to wrestle a bio entry to the ground, while people are freaking out over the possible unconsciousness issue. This is probably largely my own mental challenge here. But this is how it works for me.

[staggerlee]

The ones I've done I wrote ahead of time in wordpad, and formated so that I could cut and paste it line by line into the editor.  I then do it in the first five minutes of logging in, and if it's all prepared it doesn't take long.  That's the best I've got for a work around.

I agree though, it'd be great to have it added to the request tool or something.

[Fathi]

I want the rules to apply to everybody.

[spawnloser]

Please, don't use your biography as a notepad with OOC notes to yourself.  Sanvean said it wasn't supposed to be used for this.

[Southie]

I don't think it's being used for OOC notes to ourselves, but instead for OOC notes about the character to the staff.

Also, spawnloser, you aren't the bio police. I'm sure if the staff had a problem with somebody's biography practices, they'd tell them so.

[spawnloser]

I know I'm not.  I'm just saying that the staff said not to use bio as an in game notepad.

However, that aside, there are other reasons that you should not put OOC notes in your bio entries even if they are simply to staff.  It is NOT an OOC tool.  The request tool and email are sufficient ways to reach the staff.  Your bio should be things that your character knows/experienced/etc.  It is your character's biography, and in that way only a way to communicate to staff.  It is not an in game way to write notes to the staff.

[spawnloser]

I could have sworn that I replied to that... so I'll make it short and sweet...

I never said I was the bio police and couldn't care less.  No more are you the 'how people treat/think of gemmers' police, but look at the post you made.

There are reasons both OOC and IC for not using the bio in this way, and if you don't know them, I'll not tell you, as some of it is IC sensitive.  Ask the staff if you should use the bio as a way to send them notes instead of use it for its intended purpose, for keeping track of your character's past so that those that can read it know how your character has grown from the initial background.

[Shalooonsh]

Staff Stance:

^quoteI don't think it's being used for OOC notes to ourselves, but instead for OOC notes about the character to the staff.

Also, spawnloser, you aren't the bio police. I'm sure if the staff had a problem with somebody's biography practices, they'd tell them so._{end quote}

Please do not use the bio command for OOC comments to yourself.  Use notepad on your computer.

Please try to refrain from using the bio command for OOC comments to staff, from yourself, or at least be careful about what you say.  We would greatly prefer you use email to cover this sort of thing, but there are certain instances in which an OOC notation is absolutely necessary.

Oh, hey, there's the quote icon:

I like you.

Be nice, or I'll start letting fly with my views on you.  Southie's response was completely appropriate, and useful.  Yours was a jab.