Another videocast

[Raesanos]

I'd like to do another videocast (like this one) but this time I'd like to do it a bit differently.  I'd like you to suggest topics / questions to answer in this thread.  You can also suggest badass titles for my sweet videocast.

[najdorf]

hey, first time seeing you.
you look like sylar

[FantasyWriter]

A few 2.Arm spoilers would rock.

[manonfire]

Yeah, talk about Arm 2.

A few spoilers aren't going to hurt anyone, and it might electrify the playerbase a bit. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I think about Arm 2, I simply roll my eyes.

[FantasyWriter]

Yeah, talk about Arm 2.

A few spoilers aren't going to hurt anyone, and it might electrify the playerbase a bit. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I think about Arm 2, I simply roll my eyes.

More-so every month that goes by without so much as a peep on the blog.

[FantasyWriter]

Stories of the old days are good too.  the werekank story was interesting.

[RogueGunslinger]

Talking about our newer code implementations would be cool. Hearing more about what the staff think of said updates would be interesting. Hearing what the Arm staff are working on in the current game that isn't clan specific is cool too.

Hmm...

[Delstro]

I would like to know how the races are evolving codedly?

Is everything set in stone for the various new races?
Anything interesting happening?

[mansa]

How you keep the staff from getting bored and not logging in?  Answered!
"Staff don't get bored, rather they get overworked and stop volunteering their time" - Raesanos

Any anything about code, be that the game engine, or the tools that are used to create npcs, items, rooms, etc.

Active ways to collect new players, and to keep the game fresh and exciting?

[FantasyWriter]

New races stuff, definitely!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

New races stuff, definitely!

Amen. Matter of fact, any stuff about 2.0 would be good to hear.

I would also love to hear about 1.0, considering the slew of recent changes.

[jcljules]

As a relative newbie I'd like to hear stories about the old days. I loved the old videocasts, and I'm so happy you guys are doing more. Know if Sanvean is going to do any more?

[Raesanos]

I'm actually doing this soon, let me know if you have other topics / questions that weren't suggested yet.

[Thunkkin]

Amen. Matter of fact, any stuff about 2.0 would be good to hear.

I would also love to hear about 1.0, considering the slew of recent changes.

This!

And yay!

[Cerelum]

Arm2 timeline in details. (Where you are, what you're doing, who's doing it, how long till completion, how many segments in the whole)

Percentage done or at least done to the point you're going to let us play.

Will Karma be enforced from the get go, and if so, will our karma carry over?

Are the horrible rumors I've heard of Arm2 being pay for play ever going to come to reality?

Can you update the request tool to show when items are viewed by staff, so we can follow up to said staff member instead of staff as a whole?  Like, "Special Application request viewed by Nyr on 12/25/08)"  Right now all it does is approval and submitted dates.

JaRoD

[mansa]

Synergy of Staff, if there's a difference between Saturday Downtimes, and a day that isn't devoted to staff changes and world updates.
I'm curious if there's a difference between the closeness of the staff since there isn't a day fully devoted to one's work, and where you can update yourself on the other staff members works.

Has the IDB fixed any problems that may have occurred, and actually helped keep track of things, in replacement of Saturday Downtime?
Answered!

I don't really think so. People still log in, and the people who don't are the ones who would just log in to do their saturday only work, and so no conversation is really lost. (The loss of Saturday Downtime) doesn't effect staff communication, (The loss of Saturday Downtime) is really only a benefit. - Raesanos


How do the staff feel about Armageddon 2.0 missing target, and how the staff view the game in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years in the future.

How to increase the playability of the game, increase the fun of the game, while keeping the gave a roleplay intensive game.
Answered!
How do you increase the playability and fun while keeping it rp intensive? WIthout being too pragmatic and boring, which is how I work, it is an optimization between realistic and fun. We want to focus on the realistic fun things, but not implement poop code. A lot of games focus on unrealistic fun things. Sometimes the tradeoff is right: sometimes something isn't THAT unrealistic, but it adds a lot to the game, so we do it. As long as we keep in mind that 100% realism all the time doesn't make a good game, but favoring realism makes Armageddon great, we can keep that in mind as we make our game design decisions. - Raesanos

Maybe some plot ideas that didn't go as planned by Immortals.  Stories of hilarious mistakes by players, that totally disrupted plots.

These are basic questions as to how to remain a cool Dungeon Master for all us players, basically.

[Only He Stands There]

Will Karma be enforced from the get go, and if so, will our karma carry over?

Are the horrible rumors I've heard of Arm2 being pay for play ever going to come to reality?
JaRoD

It's been said time and again, though many of us dislike it, that karma will not be in place for the first six months of the game, and that they will reevaluate the need for karma at that time.

It's also been expressly stated that Arm and 2.Arm will never, at any point, be pay to play.

[Nyr]

Will Karma be enforced from the get go, and if so, will our karma carry over?

Are the horrible rumors I've heard of Arm2 being pay for play ever going to come to reality?
JaRoD

It's been said time and again, though many of us dislike it, that karma will not be in place for the first six months of the game, and that they will reevaluate the need for karma at that time.

It's also been expressly stated that Arm and 2.Arm will never, at any point, be pay to play.

Three months, actually, per the original post by Sanvean.  If there was a more recent post, that may invalidate that.

[Lizzie]

I would like a text transcript of all the previous videocasts, and one of the upcoming one. As someone who has no ability to hear the webcasts, I feel very left out of things. I see people on the gdb making references to things on the webcasts, and all I can do is skip the thread and hope that whatever they're talking about isn't important. Because whatever it is, I'm not following it, because I never heard the original point.

If anything on a video cast is something players -should- know about, then I really feel it -should- at least be summarized in text.

-She who pouts sadly every time a staff member says "click here to watch a video of me talking about things you all want to know."

[AmandaGreathouse]

I would like a text transcript of all the previous videocasts, and one of the upcoming one. As someone who has no ability to hear the webcasts, I feel very left out of things. I see people on the gdb making references to things on the webcasts, and all I can do is skip the thread and hope that whatever they're talking about isn't important. Because whatever it is, I'm not following it, because I never heard the original point.

If anything on a video cast is something players -should- know about, then I really feel it -should- at least be summarized in text.

-She who pouts sadly every time a staff member says "click here to watch a video of me talking about things you all want to know."

This.

My soundcard has been fried.

[manonfire]

I would like a text transcript of all the previous videocasts, and one of the upcoming one. As someone who has no ability to hear the webcasts, I feel very left out of things. I see people on the gdb making references to things on the webcasts, and all I can do is skip the thread and hope that whatever they're talking about isn't important. Because whatever it is, I'm not following it, because I never heard the original point.

If anything on a video cast is something players -should- know about, then I really feel it -should- at least be summarized in text.

-She who pouts sadly every time a staff member says "click here to watch a video of me talking about things you all want to know."

Oh yeah, I see that happening.

[Cerelum]

I would like a text transcript of all the previous videocasts, and one of the upcoming one. As someone who has no ability to hear the webcasts, I feel very left out of things. I see people on the gdb making references to things on the webcasts, and all I can do is skip the thread and hope that whatever they're talking about isn't important. Because whatever it is, I'm not following it, because I never heard the original point.

If anything on a video cast is something players -should- know about, then I really feel it -should- at least be summarized in text.

-She who pouts sadly every time a staff member says "click here to watch a video of me talking about things you all want to know."

This would take a ton of time and someone who knew shorthand probably.  Do we have any court reporters in the house!?

JaRoD

[musashi]

Arm needs its own stenographer.

[Raesanos]

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-dSelHYc_g

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iuCeUapun8

[Raesanos]

Rough transcript available on the blog: http://www.zalanthas.org/blogs/brideofson/

[Thunkkin]

Awesome, thanks.

[Raesanos]

Doh, it is cut off, sorry this isn't the whole thing.  Fixing it.

[mansa]

oh man i feel special

[Raesanos]

Enjoy this while the full version uploads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrTKp3qsoXg

[musashi]

It said removed by user when I tried to look!

[Raesanos]

Sorry for the fail, here they are for real:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-dSelHYc_g

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iuCeUapun8

[FuSoYa]

Thanks for these.  I really enjoy them.

Brandon

[Is Friday]

Awsum. I enjoy them too Raisin-oes.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

These are always great.  Thanks!

[Cerelum]

Raesanos,

Hehe, you looked like you were getting a little sauced there while you did the video.  But it was a good video.

JaRoD

[FantasyWriter]

Thank you.

[musashi]

Heh, seriously ... I laughed at the beer.

[FantasyWriter]

Sam Adams FTW!

[jcljules]

Heh, seriously ... I laughed at the beer.

I think the "Don't worry about it, we'll never be pay for play." was much more reassuring with the addition of the beer. 

[musashi]

Yeah ... but I didn't laugh at the "We'll never charge more than $10 a month ..." 

Raesanos ... next time you need to work on your stand-up!

[Morrolan]

Raes' standup is fine.  Thanks for the good work, man.  Glad you're keeping on contact!

Morrolan

[Ourla]

Yeah, thank you, Raesanos!  I especially loved hearing about the mysterious unnamed race you talked about.  Having had (I think) a glimpse of them, it rekindles my interest in Arm.2 quite a bit.  Keep up the awesome work.

[Bushranger]

I am looking forward to the Halfling/Silt Horror/Kryl crossbreed race Rae is working on!

[RogueGunslinger]

Oh man, oh man, oh man!!!!


I'm famous!

[deviant storm]

Thanks for the update! I've got that little kid waiting for Christmas feeling, for Arm 2.

Sounds like Raesano's mystery race is going to be very challenging to play.

[Winterless]

lol

"These are all Mansa questions."

[Winterless]

Player Beta (err... Alpha) testing  2.Arm! Yay!

[Lizzie]

Thanks so much for the trasnscript Raesanos! I'm sorry I can't experience the "entertainment" of the actual video, but having the solid "data" in text makes me (and hearing-impaired people and people with fried sound cards) feel a whole lot better now.

[Raesanos]

Thanks so much for the trasnscript Raesanos! I'm sorry I can't experience the "entertainment" of the actual video, but having the solid "data" in text makes me (and hearing-impaired people and people with fried sound cards) feel a whole lot better now.

I'm not sure how entertaining an odd mumbly guy swilling sam adams can really be, so I wouldn't worry about it

[Raesanos]

Sounds like Raesano's mystery race is going to be very challenging to play.

Hmm, I hope not TOO challenging actually.  What I'm going to do is not make rules like "This race would never think of resorting to physical violence" and focus more on the idea of a mindset that considers violence tactless, risky, and shameful.  Like humans, sometimes individuals will resort to tactless, risky, and shameful things.  There are also coded aspects planned, like the town defending itself primarily by archers, and the unavailability of a straight up warrior class for PCs.

[deviant storm]

There's a reason I like to play the mundane roles. Give me a straight out fight for all the marbles and I'm your woman. Even though most often I lose.

However, a race based largely on the use of tact...it sounds interesting. I can't wait to see the docs on the races. To start planning character concepts.

Any hints on what this mystery race will look like, Raesanos?

[Raesanos]

Any hints on what this mystery race will look like, Raesanos?

Not just yet.

[Raesanos]

a mindset that considers violence tactless, risky, and shameful.

I should clarify.  Only outright confrontation is considered in this way.  A stab in the back, snipe with an arrow, or poison in the drink totally thumbs up.  If it works you could brag about how they never even saw it coming.  That is the part I like: You don't have to hide that you're a murderous vengful fuck.  Except from the person that you're taking out.

[Cerelum]

a mindset that considers violence tactless, risky, and shameful.

I should clarify.  Only outright confrontation is considered in this way.  A stab in the back, snipe with an arrow, or poison in the drink totally thumbs up.  If it works you could brag about how they never even saw it coming.  That is the part I like: You don't have to hide that you're a murderous vengful fuck.  Except from the person that you're taking out.

Wait so they are sorta like Tuluk in the way that they don't want their voilence to be outward and public.  But they will still shove a four in blade into my back in an alley while we are alone?

JaRoD

[Lizzie]

Thanks so much for the trasnscript Raesanos! I'm sorry I can't experience the "entertainment" of the actual video, but having the solid "data" in text makes me (and hearing-impaired people and people with fried sound cards) feel a whole lot better now.

I'm not sure how entertaining an odd mumbly guy swilling sam adams can really be, so I wouldn't worry about it

<blink> You're Ozzy Osbourne?

[Raesanos]

Wait so they are sorta like Tuluk in the way that they don't want their voilence to be outward and public.  But they will still shove a four in blade into my back in an alley while we are alone?

Actually, it isn't like Tuluk, where society tries to hide the fact that anything bad happens. Everybody knows that murder, violence, and all kinds of bad things happen.  They're commonplace.  It is just about what form the violence takes.  It is more like Allanak, except instead of having pub brawls, you have someone following you home and taking you out in your sleep, then taking the head back to the pub to show what a badass you are.

[Nyr]

I've worked out the text for a videocast as well, inspired by Rae.  I should be putting it up over the next couple of days.

[Thunkkin]

Hurrah!  I'm really looking forward to this, Nyr, and I hope the staff understands how much we players enjoy and value these.

[Dalmeth]

There are also coded aspects planned, like the town defending itself primarily by archers, and the unavailability of a straight up warrior class for PCs.

If this race is really going to be so picky, I'd imagine they have a very secure place in the world?  Are they protected by good relations with other societies?  Is the terrain of their homeland too rough for a standard army?  I just can't imagine such a predilection developing outside of special circumstances.

Also, you mentioned that this race was going to be, "introduced," before the end of the current game.  Are all the races going to be introduced like this?  What happens to the old races?  I'd assumed the history would be edited to make room for the new races.  Won't keeping the old races that are Dark Sun property in the history still constitute using that property?

[Raesanos]

If this race is really going to be so picky, I'd imagine they have a very secure place in the world?  Are they protected by good relations with other societies?  Is the terrain of their homeland too rough for a standard army?  I just can't imagine such a predilection developing outside of special circumstances.

This is a good question that I've put a good amount of thought into.  The town is extremely easy to defend for some environmental and location factors.  They have walls and towers that would notice an enemy army long in advance, and a great number of trained archers that would hopefully deal with the threat before they even got too close.  They would be pretty screwed if these defenses were breached, but that is no more likely than being defeated by an enemy army to begin with.

This does limit their ability to attack and conquer other regions, but they would be more likely to try something like killing off an opposing neighbor's food supply, then move in when the enemies are weak and unable to defend themselves.

Also, you mentioned that this race was going to be, "introduced," before the end of the current game.  Are all the races going to be introduced like this?  What happens to the old races?  I'd assumed the history would be edited to make room for the new races.  Won't keeping the old races that are Dark Sun property in the history still constitute using that property?

Not all races will be introduced like this.  As for old races, we are not going to edit the history, but we will generally leave out Dark Sun property as "forgotten with time" rather than creating inconsistencies.

[manonfire]

I encourage more Immortals to do this.

I'm an old, jaded bitter bastard of a player, but these videocasts give me hope for an uncertain future.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Something Raesanos said made me wonder... are we going to be going into the whole race-based-class-availability thing in 2.Arm?     The fact we don't have that is something I really like about 1.Arm.

[Nyr]

Something Raesanos said made me wonder... are we going to be going into the whole race-based-class-availability thing in 2.Arm?     The fact we don't have that is something I really like about 1.Arm.

Since "classes" and "guilds" will be very much different from what they are in Arm 1, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Nyr]

I've worked out the text for a videocast as well, inspired by Rae.  I should be putting it up over the next couple of days.

I got the script of it worked out.  Now I just have to record it.

[musashi]

So we get to see what you look like now?

Are you really a small rabbit like creature by a glass of murky black fluid?

[Nyr]

Sadly, I left the bunny at the last staff meeting, and Sanvean bears it.

[Cerelum]

Nyr,

You have to be taking shots during this one to one up Raesanos.  You can't just be swigging a beer or you'll be following his lead.  I suggest Jagermeister.  The more you drink the higher the difficulty level gets on making the video.

JaRoD

[Nyr]

I'll get this added to the blog later, but this has been reviewed/approved and it works well enough for what I was trying to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnFRYWAgA0A

Transcript (loosely based on the recording notes):

Hello everyone, I'm Nyr.  I'm a storyteller on Armageddon MUD.  I've been inspired by Rae's videocast, and I'd like to share a bit about what I do on Armageddon as well as some of the work that I do on Armageddon Reborn.

I've been a storyteller for many clans in the game so far.  Sometimes, people wonder if staff members have "favorite" clans to staff.  I can't speak for other staffers, but I tend to enjoy the different clans I've been over for different reasons.  Being over the Arm of the Dragon is a very different experience than being over Kadius.  There are different roleplay opportunities for each clan, and the same is true for staffers animating for each of those clans--so it's natural that a staffer may enjoy one clan for some qualities that another clan does not have, yet enjoy another clan for entirely different qualities.  For instance, merchant houses have goals that are similar to corporations in the modern world.  They want to make money.  The Arm of the Dragon, on the other hand, has goals similar to nation-states in the modern world.  They want to make money, too, but they are also interested in other things--putting down rebellions, going to war, etc.  When animating for a clan (or a metaclan, like the Tuluki Nobles with each House having different interests, goals, and secrets), staff members have to keep all of that in mind.  On top of that, each named NPC has a background that we draw on to frame their responses and interactions with other characters.  While it can't always be the case, I like to take a few minutes to "get into character" before an animation, thinking about how the character would think and respond to any possible interaction.

Something we've noticed as staff members is the tendency for players to take all animation as divine truth from the staff.  This is actually more false than you might think.  If you wish up for interaction with a soldier and ask him a question (and a staff member animates for it), there's no guarantee that what you hear is going to be the absolute truth.  I think that this comes from a pet peeve of some players--railroaded plots.  If you're not familiar with the term, it describes plots that are "on rails"--the staff or some players have it in their minds that a plot will end a particular way, and thus move to make it happen the way they intend.  The times that this has actually happened are few and far between that I've noticed, but it can be affected by both sides of the equation.  If a player expects a certain end to happen, they'll push hard for that end result, especially if it benefits their character in some fashion.  In the process, they might run right by other opportunities they could have taken.  Not every end result is inevitable.

Something I really enjoy doing on Armageddon is revealing history of the game that people don't necessarily know about.  My first attempts at this were not the best attempts, in my opinion.  I haven't talked much about what goes into these stories, so I figured I'd mention it here since I have the time.  Each story is based completely in the realm of pre-written, hidden history that has slender ties to the history page on Armageddon.  Usually, I put the date at the top of the entry and interested players will go read the history page to see what else happened around that time.  I did that for every story except one.  Interestingly enough, that one story got the most feedback.  More conspiracy theories than I ever expected, at least.  There are hidden things in each story.  I'll mention a few of them now.  The most recent hidden story within a story was the Valasurus tale.  You may have noticed that both city-states had magickers.  What wasn't so obvious was that Allanak had not gemmed their magickers yet at that point.  I'm not finished with the Valasurus arc yet, so I won't go into what he's experiencing.  Another hidden story within a story was the Lord of Storms plotline--the little italicized bits in between the story segments were not just a venture into poetic discourse, but the internal thoughts of the Lord of Storms.  I'll probably write more about him later.

Like I've said, all of these stories come from pre-existing knowledge on staff-side.  There is room for creative license, but the general history of it already happened in the game, and has shaped the way the game has developed as far as plots go.


Armageddon Reborn

Anyway, that's enough about Arm 1.  You all play it, you know it, you want to know about Arm 2.

I just started working with Morgenes on a project to put in templates for wear styles.  Morgenes needed some assistance from a builder, and I volunteered.  The gist of the project?  This is going to be the framework for all worn items in the game.  I'll let Morgenes blog about it since it's Morgenes doing the coding, but this is what determines what body parts worn items will cover and what they look like when you put them on, and all that stuff.  By the way, Belenos should be given the credit for getting items createable in the game engine, per Morgenes.

In addition, I've recently started working with Shalooonsh on a project that's garnered some attention from the playerbase.  I say "working," but most of what I've done is just ask questions and be a sounding board for ideas for the cat-people race.  We have given them a reason to interact with other humanoid races that I think makes the most sense.  I'll let Shalooonsh blog about this since it's Shalooonsh's project--again, I just do a bit of help.

My real Arm 2 project is one I can't talk much about.  Similar to Rae, I'm working on a race.  The project was started by some other staffers, and I picked up the reins for it once I learned about it.

Three tidbits:

This will not be a player race, and may not ever be one.
This race will have a large impact on Armageddon Reborn.
This race will be an attractive alternative to the nemeses currently present in Armageddon 1.

Further information I'm not going to be able to release yet.  Suffice it to say that I do have documentation (courtesy of the first staffers to work on the project plus some additions I've made since I took over) that covers the race extensively.  I've got drawings, race locations, and the like also generally plotted.  I wish I could explain more, but it'll have to wait.  I imagine that it will be worth the wait, as well!

If any of you have questions, post them in the videocast thread, and I'll try to get to some of them for the next videocast.

[Thunkkin]

Yay!

[Zoltan]

Yay!

[mansa]

drink beer at 6:36

[Ourla]

ROFL!  Those pop-ups were hilarious, Nyr.  Thanks.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I have a question for the next webcast.

Why, precisely, did staff as a whole decide that elves, dwarves, giants, and half-elves could not be simply changed a little and remain a staple? Certainly those names are not DS related - they are, in fact, standard-fare fantasy. Why did the staff decide on a bunch of odd-sounding names instead? Have you folks considered that part of the serious appeal about Armageddon 1.0 was the flip-on-the-ear of stock fantasy races, and the lack of odd-sounding and unknown racial names?

[musashi]

Wow ... he has red hair.

Thanks It was fun to listen to.

[Winterless]

hahaha... the beer thing was funny. And as others have said the pop-ups were great too.

Man, you guys just keep trying to one-up each other. lol

Keep 'em coming!

[Bushranger]

Any hints on what this mystery race will look like, Raesanos?

Not just yet.

Does the new race look like this?



If not, why not?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

What the fuck is that?

[Krath]

What the fuck is that?

QFT

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Why, precisely, did staff as a whole decide that elves, dwarves, giants, and half-elves could not be simply changed a little and remain a staple? Certainly those names are not DS related - they are, in fact, standard-fare fantasy. Why did the staff decide on a bunch of odd-sounding names instead? Have you folks considered that part of the serious appeal about Armageddon 1.0 was the flip-on-the-ear of stock fantasy races, and the lack of odd-sounding and unknown racial names?

I think this is in fact a really good question.  Once upon a time when I was looking for a new MUD home yet again (before I wound up here obviously) I logged into a MUD.  And it immediately came up with a bunch of odd exceedingly race names.  I couldn't even figure out which were supposed to be human.  And then their website was extremely hard to navigate to find out where these races were (*cough* something very similar to how we have to do General Information -> Races when there are at least twenty other options on the screen also *cough*) So I threw up my hands, said 'fuck a bunch of this shit', and never even got to the point where I was trying the game.  It became crossed off my list.  Maybe it was a sweet game, I'll never know.

I think it's great to want to have people research the docs, but not everyone looking for a new place to play is going to want to research -that- much just to toss in a generic character to see if the syntax and environment of the MUD is going to work for them.  When you're looking for a new MUD, or at least when I am, I do not want to invest three days of research into any given place before even trying it just to figure out what the races are.

So this is something that's vaguely worried me about 2.Arm, too.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Oh.  And we totally need more product placement.   

[Dalmeth]

I've got a question for the next videocast : Can we agree that the properties of mounts in the game as it currently stands are pretty screwed up?

[Qzzrbl]

Will there be any thought put in to advertisement for the game?

Or will we always rely on players and mudconnecters to give us newb boots?

[Shiroi Tsuki]

It never hurts to tell us stories.  I'm one of those people that listened with rapt attention to Sanvean's stories about her Whiran, and then wished I got to hear more staff stories about when they were young code abusers 

[Archbaron]

Would the alpha release be invite-only?