Player/Staff Meeting - Saturday February 4, 2023 at 3pm Server Time

[Halaster]

Player/Staff Meeting in Discord on February 4 (Saturday), 2023 at 3pm Server Time.  We're hoping this time covers as many timezones as possible.

The agenda is mostly going to be a general Q&A from the playerbase.  Hope to see you there!

[Halaster]

Reminder this is coming up on Saturday.

[Halaster]

Log

Halaster:

https://tenor.com/bgnMv.gif

Hello, welcome to the 2023 Staff / Player Meeting.  This meeting does not have a specific agenda to go through besides a quick blurb about what staff are currently working on, or what is coming up soon.  After that, the meeting with consist of Q&A for its duration.  The meeting will last 2 hours, with the last question being taken a few minutes before that.

Any sidebar discussions on topics should be taken up in the general channel please, to keep the meeting and queue channels free for the meeting contents.  If you wish to ask a question, state in the queue channel "I have a question" and we'll @ you in the meeting channel when it's your turn.  Please also be considerate of other players wishing to ask questions. Ask one question, and if you have a brief and prepared follow up question, that is fine - otherwise, if you have more questions, rejoin the queue so we can get to as many as possible.

Feel free to join the General voice chat below if you wish to particpate with fellow players in the Peanut Gallery, mocking staff as you see fit, and having to listen to DesertT

So here's a list of everything staff are working on..
- A plotline that Haldol is running, the latest rumor can be found here:  https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,58818.msg1086818.html#msg1086818
- Another plotline that Halaster is running, the "Copper Stern Disagreement" recently was only the beginning
- Shalooonsh is working to expand distant places and put more mystery in to the game
- Staff are in the idea/discussion phase of combat system overhaul, details to come later as we solidify them
- Greater Merchant Houses (GMH) team with help from others are working on mercantile updates to make merchants less like a vending machine
- Shabago contiues to work on econonmy updates and balancing, specifically weapon prices at the moment
- New human tribe submitted by player being added to the game
- Katima adding some more polish to the Bashurit
- Upcoming Allanaki Senate meeting Recommended Playing Time (RPT) on March 5th.
- Calendar added to the General Discussion Board (GDB)
- New web-based character application created by Ataraxis nearly done, and about to be put in a beta test with some players
- A lot more ideas, plans, plots and updates being discussed or in the idea phase

So the queue is open to start getting line up for questions

@ThingsWithWings is First, let's hear it.


ThingsWithWings:
I posted this in the GDB thread originally because I wasn't sure I could make it, but I did make it.

There was a big change that I loved to sorcerers recently, with the reduction of combat skills in exchange for staff sponsorship and oversight and the opportunity to play manually advanced subguilds without the limitations of the branching subguilds. Psionicists are the only other 3 karma + spec app role, and they were presumably split up into sub guilds for the same or similar reasons. Would staff consider giving them the same, or similar, treatment in the future, re-opening the ability to play 'full' psions in exchange for combat handicaps and direct staff oversight and direction?  Has this been thought about previously?
(Or the ability to play full psions with some other caveat)

Halaster:
Good question.  Psionicists were converted to subguilds not all that long ago, so if we did something like that it wouldn't be for a while still.  But really, current psionicists just don't have the earth-shaking power that a sorcerer does.  The reason we did that for sorcerers was partially because of their power and staff needing to help guide that.  So far, the new psionicists haven't proven to need that kind of oversight.  That said, if we did bring back full guild psionicists, I could see them getting the same treatment, yeah.  But again, full psionicsts wouldn't happen anytime soon, we're not currently really considering that.

ThingsWithWings:
Is a small follow up question alright?

Halaster:
yeah

ThingsWithWings:
What was the reasoning for splitting up psionicist?

Halaster:
Several reasons.  Getting their 'full tree' was considered by a lot of staff to be a bit Over-Powered.  The psionicist subguilds were incredibly lack-luster, meaning they were just a psionicist and nothing else.  Basically all the same reasons mages got that treatment.

ThingsWithWings:
I have more questions I want to ask, but I won't be selfish, thanks!

Halaster:
right on, you can hop back in the queue for sure

@najdorf has the next question.


najdorf:
Hey. What do you see in the future of the game, in 5, 10 years? What are your ambitions accordingly? Maintain as is, grow, shrink? Is there a consensus among you, and a shared ambition that still excite you, or a loss of motivation? It is natural as we all age. I appreciate your sincere thoughts

Halaster:
hopefully more staff (hint hint @Shabago @Brokkr ) answer than just me.  I think most of us would love to see it grow and get more players.  But we have a few things working against us for that...

1) Let's all face it, Armageddon doesn't have a stellar reputation among the mud community.  We have to keep working towards moving past that and not repeat mistakes of the past.
2) MUD'ing in general is a shrinking form of entertainment.  I think it'll be here for a long long time, but it's a very niche thing on the internet

That said, it doesn't mean we can't grow, it just means it'll be tough
Personally, I'm not -overly- concerned if we generally maintain our current levels, though.

Loss of topmudsites is gonna have an affect, we got a lot of people coming from there (I think that's the one with the voting that shutdown recently)

That said, I'm pretty optimistic about the game's future.  We've brought on @Ataraxis as a webdev, @Oleupata is helping code now, and staff's general excitement and morale has improved in the last 2 years since I've rejoined staff
(not taking credit, just an observation)

Shabago:
Mirroring Halaster, obviously having the game grow would be great to see. There are avenues we can (and have) pursued to this end, some of them brought around from player suggestions as well. At present, we have seen a sharp turn around in our numbers from six to eight months ago. We were down into the 30s for peak and have seen a steady climb back to 50s. - That is something we've learned from and actively watch as, obviously, those are the enticing bits to our player base and community. - Further, community itself is important and you all have seen a steady attempt from us to clean up issues within it, from those that actively look to harm it, how we conduct ourselves, transparency on certain posts and so on. All and all, I see the game continuing to keep to present numbers until word of mouth spreads that things have improved, and we continue to put out content to make players want to expand the game.

Halaster:
The problem we have right now?  Too many ideas coming from staff, we have a lot of fun stuff coming
That answer your question @najdorf ?

najdorf:
yes, thanks. I guess we all love to see you are happy & ambitious on the game, whatever what the future brings. Thanks,


Halaster:
@Lady of Long Dogs you're up


Lady of Long Dogs:
Hiya. First of all: thanks so much for this Q&A. 🙂 So after playing this game over a decade, being a responsible adult (,and thanks to my permanent move to Europe), I find myself having less and less time to play. This means less and less time and energy to grind and get myself a bit up to par with the average PC. Are there any plans for the playerbase to be able to, in example, gather XP depending on the age of their previous PC? Or can we use our karma points to a bigger extend than currently exists with the current skill bumps?

Halaster:
That's a recurring theme we get asked about a lot.  Over the past year-ish we've had several discussions around that subject, and so far haven't really come to any agreement what it might look like.  It's generally a question about The Grind, and it's hard to answer because everyone has opinions on it, even (especially) among staff.  Even Shabago and I don't really agree on even IF we should do it, much less what it would look like, heh.

On the one hand you have the camp that says, what you just did, that as we generally get older, we have less time to play and the grind sucks.  I admit, even myself, I went a year without playing ANY character recently because.. I couldn't be bothered with the Grind.


Lady of Long Dogs:
Its just part of the grief of losing a long lived and loved PC: having to start allll the way from scratch. Novice is just such a bitch. And the playerbase has been growing older. Given that this is admittedly a recurring theme, it would be nice if staff would consider it.

Halaster:
On the other, you have some folks who think it's already a bit "too easy" for a harsh desert survival world, we've already kind of made it easier with the new classes (compared to the old warrior, ranger, etc)
All I can really promise on this specific subject is "The talks are ongoing"

Lady of Long Dogs:
Maybe we should have a vote among the player base, like we had with the karma timer?

Halaster:
I'm not sure about a vote among the playerbase on that.  We'll see.  All I can say is that don't expect movement on this front soon.

Lady of Long Dogs:
Unfortunate. One more question: Will staff consider organizing RPT's for non american player timezones? Like with this Q&A? Its great to be involved and be heard, even though we don't make up for the majority.

Halaster:
Non-peak timezones are tricky because the majority of staff are North Americans.  If it's a player-created event, then they can schedule it when it suits them, but if the staff running it can only be available in certain timezones, then that's the unfortunate reality.  The only thing I know to do to address is have more offpeak staffers.  So y'all hear this?  Next staffing call, if you're offpeak, apply!

[Halaster]

@Patuk you're up


Patuk:
Hi!

I was wondering about the mundane/magic divide the game has. What numbers have been posted over the years report far more magical classes than I'd suspected back then.. And I can only assume the karma timer's removal has swollen these numbers. Has any thought been put into the play of mundanes being made more appealing?

Shabago:
We're creating a poison for all mage pcs to die, just like kanks. - I now return you to Halaster for actual reply.

Patuk:
🙃

Halaster:
So, IMO, this is a temporary 'fluke' because the karma timer was only removed about 90 days ago, so people who had 3 karma would just now have that regenerated.  In other words, I don't think it's been long enough for the dust to settle.  I believe that over time we'll see this settle down as people get it out of their system...

Plus, there's something to be said for people are playing what they want to play.  The fact there IS a lot of mages out there means a lot of people wnat to play them...
All that said, we've got a few ideas floating around kind of on this subject...

Patuk:
It was somewhere in the ~20% numbers even last year. It seems like rather much to me. This is, again, from before the karma timer was removed

Halaster:
It's kind of like the Grind question though, staff haven't really even agreed -what- the idea we want it to be.

I think we can and will address it in another 6 months to a year, see what the numbers are like then before we decide if it's a real problem.

Shabago:
Echoing Halaster (And Brokkr who isn't here) - each of us have held discussion on 'carrot', not stick (to save mages being worried over my joke post) - but, we feel a pent up want was present and, as awkward as that is just now it will balance out, or we'll take steps to help it along that way. Acting too soon on this is a punishment to a lot of players, akin to "Yes, you can play it, but not now, only that person can." - it's own issue, favourtism, etc.

Halaster:
We -have- had a conversation recently among staff about the idea of putting caps on them, but I can tell you that so far it's been a pretty solid "oh hell no" from the staff side (I think me and shabago are the only ones who would agree to a cap)
It's a good question, tho, Patuk.

Patuk:
I try. I'd just hope it gets a little attention, whatever that may be

Oleupata:
I would like to point out, also, that we've seen a notable bump in everyday active numbers since dropping the karma regen restriction. So the idea that there's some pent up desire which may be helping bring people back to the game (thus also helping earlier questions) has some very real basis behind it - and we don't want to disrupt any momentum for growing the game and making it more lively, even though we do recognize that 'playing a mundane in a sea of mages' can be its own problem.

Halaster:
@DesertT You're up sir


DesertT:
Hi Staff,

Long time listener; first time caller:

I can point out an attendance roster that was robust with new joins one month, then the leadership "went away" for whatever reason/s and the following month's attendance roster dropped by 2/3.

This kills clans that are restrictive and require active leadership to help keep players engaged, thus why the departure to less strict clans.

My request:  Can we have leadership role calls give TWO players leadership positions?  Like a Sergeant and a Senior Mercenary, or a Noble and a trusted bastard (for larger noble clans)?

Halaster:
Yeah, I saw that suggestion on the 'cities' thread, and I liked it.  I'll let other staff comment on that too, but IMO I like the idea assuming it makes sense and we have enough apps to do so.
there are times we only get 1 app for a role (GMH amirite!)

It's a cool idea, it merits discussion for sure among staff.

DesertT:
I should clarify, I do mean for larger clans like the Byn, militia, garrison, legion, Oash, Jal, and such

Shabago:
To ask a clarifying question, DT - is the premise that seeing you'd have people to join up with/RP with in itself a carrot to boost applications in the area?

Halaster:
With that said, if you have specific ideas on the topic about how it could be done, or the details, please send in a request with your ideas.  Basically it's such a freshly suggested idea, I don't think we have tons to say about it.  Yet.

DesertT:
My reasoning is for continuity of play for when a single leader disappears for whatever reason and halts clan play

Halaster:
Yep, makes total sense, and I agree

Gynesis:
Chiming in for atleast the Byn portion - the lack of applicants has been seen there as well.  I have in the past atleast twice brought in an heir and a spare (haha) who were the only two applicants and then I have extended rolecalls due to no applicants.

Halaster:
so.  @DesertT you better app for the next Byn rolecall or it's your ass

[Halaster]

@Sulaez you're up


Sulaez:
So a little bit of guestimating in this, but:
I've noticed there has not been a templar role call in a while. While I do not fully know the situation in their numbers in both cities, is there a move towards less templarate in the cities, or have I just been missing those present?

Halaster:
We obviously just had one for the north, so Oleupata will answer for south

Sulaez:
Yes, I missed that one, so strike it for the north 🙂

Oleupata:
I can speak for the south. We haven't had templar role calls because we haven't needed them. We have enough active templars to serve present needs. I obviously can't get into those details because that's find out IC territory.

However, there has been a recent discussion about the merits (and drawbacks) of the templarate role and what we expect from PC templars and how to appropriately communicate that to templar players. (This is not driven by any specific problems, just the kind of discussions we have sometimes to help keep things fresh and interesting.) That is to say that while there are no plans for changes to either templar numbers or position, that's also not to say there will definitely be no changes.

That's kind of a long-winded way to say nothing, and I'm sorry for that. I hope it's illuminating nonetheless.

Halaster:
the lack of current Allanaki rolecall so far is intentional

@demesne you're up


demesne:
hi, thank you for the opportunity to hear me out! ❤️ i've had nothing but good staff interactions thus far which is very refreshing.

as someone who has a history in roleplaying on forums and even discord servers, i'm used to both slow-paced and fast-paced collaborative writing. i love armageddon even when it makes me frustrated to all hell and i would love for it to scratch my roleplay itch that i've had for some time. are there plans to improve the writing/character interaction aspect of roleplay? such as increasing the emote/tell/etc. character limits, implementing a reward to encourage more in-depth character development.

Halaster:
There's not any specific push to do something with character limits at the moment.  If I recall, there was a discussion recently about the emote limit being increased, and the consensus was basically a 'not needed'.
The 2nd part of that, 'reward to encourage more in-depth character development' is a good question.  I'm not sure, off the top of my head what that could/would be.  Maybe what we need to do is resurrect the discussion about staff using character's background?
Like, if you have a really cool, in depth background with a lot of plot hooks built in, that could be a great way for staff to "do something" with it

Shabago:
Related, but not specifically to char limits, is the fact that we need examples for players to learn from or be inspired by. This can be had by submission of logs, staff animations or players themselves taking a risk. That risk, is giving people a scene at risk of their own PC in some situations, which is where something of a spiral happens and the worst is assumed. I've seen, personally, twelve kudos in the past 4 months that have specifically stated "This player RPs so well it encourages me to up my game." < We need more of this, imo. We should all be striving to supply our best effort to other players, and the trade off/expectation is to get the same consideration in return. We've come a long way from where we were and I believe re-extending that trust to your fellow players will pay dividends.

Halaster:
Oh yeah, kudos go a long way for many players to encourage them to "keep up the good work"
I'm going to regret saying this...
but isn't this Valenkudos or something like that?

Here's something else I'm going to regret:  @Betweenford you're up


Betweenford:
Is there any plan to make branching for a certain specific heavy merchantile guild any less painful to branch their skills? (Dune Trader, I am speaking about Dune Trader)

Halaster:
As of right now, no.
Because I'm not sure we were aware there's a problem?
I should say, I'm not

Betweenford:
It is a very particular pattern I have noticed where Dune Traders in Tribal Clans have an incredible difficulty to actually raise their skills in the wilderness. As the wilderness heavy crafter.

Halaster:
We'd be happy to entertain your specifics in a request, though.  I never play heavy crafters so I'm not totally aware

Kaathe:
You mean tent making and lumber jacking yeah

Halaster:
Right on.  Send in a request @Betweenford please with your specifics, and your suggestions for fixes, ok?

Betweenford:
Kaathe's mostly got it on the head.

Halaster:
ok.  @Kaathe you wanna "champion' this?
We can chat about it, see whatup

Kaathe:
Sure with the analyze change I may actually play one next

[Halaster]

Halaster:
@Old Mother Serpent you're up (gonna circle back to Wings and najdorf since they each asked one already)


Old Mother Serpent:
Thanks. So, this was something brought up on the GDB and I'm unsure if there was any serious staff discussion of it. Mansa proposed the idea of a hard cap on x amount of different sorts of races/guilds/subguilds combinations to encourage more variety in the gameworld as opposed to large groups of one sort or another. Has this been considered?

Halaster:
That's similar to a question earlier...
Currently, there's no intention for any caps
Because, staff cannot agree even IF we need caps, and if so, what would they be.

Old Mother Serpent:
Yeah, about magickers. But I was curious about races as well.

Halaster:
That's not to say we'd never do it, but it wouldn't be soon.  We'd still have to talk a lot more about it
Same for those, However...
there IS more agreement among staff about caps specifically for muls and hg's.  Vs mages

Old Mother Serpent:
That was my main concern.

Halaster:
doesn't mean we'll do it, but it's more than just Shabago and I who are lobbying for mage caps 🙂

Old Mother Serpent:
I don't mind caps for all but especially so for the former.

Halaster:
@mansa dance for us, you're up


mansa:
I often wish there was an Out-Of-Character Reference Notes that I could write to on my character, (similar to the biography tool), that I can interact with within the game session.  I am currently using notepad files, but this doesn't work when I happen to play the game on another computer or if I was playing on mobile/tablet.


Things I currently use in an notepad file are:
* sdesc and history of certain characters my character has interacted with
* current quests my character is on, with references to individual request tool ticket #'s.
* spells and abilities that my character has learned, or planned abilities to branch out to.
* Item Orders from various players that they just requested, but I haven't had time to open up a request tool to submit it yet
* Characters that my assassin character has murdered (a killcount)


Is there an appetite for something like this to be created?

Halaster:
I can answer this as the coder producer.  Generally no, as that's honestly best done in a client.  I mean, I don't dislike the idea, but the amount of work involved to create that doesn't seem to be worth the work.
I know that the unofficial-arm-client has that capability! (or will)

@Bec you're turn


Bec:
Thanks, my question is regarding sponsored roles and their ability to leave the clan they are sponsored into. Would it ever be considered that a sponsored role character (depending on position) would be able to leave that clan/position without facing instant storage? Even if it meant certain criteria such as 'minimum time served'  had to be satisfied?

Shabago:
Huh. Neat concept.

Halaster:
Obviously traditionally we don't allow that.  It's hard to answer it generally though, as I think it would be a case-by-case basis...

Shabago:
Hasn't really been raised before (Tmk) either. usually folk that get the role want to grasp onto it as long as they can before :mantishead:

Bec:
I know generally that's the ruling, but when the 'lift' has been minimal and time 'served' has been..long, without elaborating too much, it feels a lot to be locked in without able to venture out and develop the character away from that position -forever-

Halaster:
I'm hearing about 5 staff in my ear telling me "yeah I think we should allow this and talk about it", so it sounds like there's an appetite for it

Bec:
That's fab to know. Thank you.

Halaster:
we'll talk about it!

@Zot go go go


Zot:
Some sorcs now are spec app, with a mandatory staff assignment and storyline.  Could this linking to a staff member and plot be opened to a role call for any pc type?

Halaster:
Like, same treatment but not a sorc?

Zot:
Correct.  A mentor npc, planned background, plug into the current state of affairs, etc

Halaster:
I think if any staff wants to tackle something like that, sure!  But on a case-by-case basis.  If you have a specific idea, please submit it.
that said
It's a non-insignifcant time commitment by said staffer, so I don't imagine it would happen a lot
but if you ahve a specific idea, submit it, and we'll see if some staff step up

@Captain BeBop you're up


Captain BeBop:
Hi ya'll.  My question is kind of two  part.  How often do staff monitor people and how can players most effectively report?  Often times I'm left feeling like I've provided either too much info or not enough.  How can players keep a balance to make sure staff are up to speed on their characters and going ons without info dumping and important points getting lost?

Kaathe:
For me I'd say Discuss and tailor it to something you and your staffer are happy with

Halaster:
Definitely depends on who the staffer is.  I hardly ever monitor anyone 🙂  But staff who run specific clans do tend to monitor a good bit.  If I were you, I would supply a kind of overview and specifically ask the question "Would you like to know more?"

Shabago:
This is going to be pretty wide ranging for answers, based on the staffer. Personally, I'm not at all shy about reading a weekly report from a leader and being either A) Satisfied with what's present or B) Asking for further details. - Some enjoy paragraphs of details, others like bullet points. - Monitoring also ranges all over the place depending on play times/time zones.

Halaster:
https://tenor.com/view/starship-troopers-neil-patrick-harris-know-more-gif-5017155

Hestia:
and depending on what the PCs are doing when I peek in. Because - sometimes - I'd rather just not know 🙂


Halaster:
https://youtu.be/wdyP_vAgC0c  @Windy  your turn


Windy:
Hi, this is just a thought I'd had awhile back and I was reminded by a dwarf meme in general but Wisdom seems like an underutilized and underappreciated statistic.

I was wondering what your initial thoughts might be on possible additional benefits from having good Wisdom, even related to things like combat, combat skill use, or leadership/leading a group? Being codedly quick-thinking/wise should have more benefits, IMO, than it currently does! Even regarding physical feats! Do you agree?

Halaster:
I agree that wisdom is the least used stat.
That said, it's super important to mages and psionicists...
the smarter you are the faster you learn things

Shabago:
It... has a good few reasons to be used that are difficult to speak to, as well - up to Halaster's answer via code stuff for clarity to that, if any.

Halaster:
Here's a 'trap' that a lot of players fall into
They play warriors and dumpstat wisdom with the thought "yeah, I'll be slower to learn, but I'm going to live a LONG time and make up for it!".
they don't. they die.
A warrior with a high wisdom is going to get better much faster
which might actually help you achieve that goal of living a long time 🙂
And there are a number of skills that are wisdom-based.  The higher your wisdom, the bertter your success

Shabago:
You're also less likely to get OHKO by a club because that big brain has padding. >.> (Maybe I'm joking)

Oleupata:
I'll say that wisdom does more under the hood than most people think. And that's all I'll say on that score.

Halaster:
I guess what I'm saying is.. wisdom gets a bad rep!

Windy:
Great points! But I do think mental acuity in general should still have more upside than it currently does, and hope it's considered someday. I'd be curious how often Strength was 1st in priority and Wisdom was last, but I assume it's often. Lol.
Thanks for answering.

[Halaster]

Halaster:
Ok, so that's it for the queue questions, we're gonna try to answer stuff brought up on the GDB

WarriorPoet writes "Whats up on a new era of Tor Scorpions?"
@Hestia you able to answer that?

Hestia:
Tor Scorpions are currently closed to play. This ties in to the "what would attract city players" in part (more)
I would love to re-open the Scorpions, and the Borsail Wyverns, but we need more city people.
So for the time being, they're closed.
Also! And importantly..
These clans need a noble to run them. So - if there's no interest in Borsail nobles, there can't be an active Wyvern crew.
That's it from me 🙂


Halaster:
From Pariah on the GDB, "Would it be possible to have jobs with actual production results expected?  IE a job as a certain type of crafter who you trade say jewelry with an npc who then trades it and pays you per your production?  Right now I can just get a job and do hardly anything and get paid weekly.  It would be nice to have jobs that drove you to produce tangible items or labor (similar to the rock buy, poop buyers)"
That question started a discussion thread on the staff IDB.
Hestia thought it was a good idea, and staff are now talking about it.  That's really about it so far

Shabago:
I will point out one added thing @Halaster

Halaster:
yep

Shabago:
To reassure the player base, if any action is taken there, it will NOT be done in such a way that "Time played = advantage." - Casuals should not be punished for the simple sake of 'Player A could make 40 things because they have 4 hours a day and player B has 1."


Halaster:
From Nao:  "Have you considered switching to more of an 'report as things come up' model, with shorter reports? I remember there were some changes announced to the template for character reports that never made it to the request tool. "
I think that goes back to a similar question earlier from Bebop.  Basically "it depends on the staffer".  I know it kinda sucks not having a consistent way to do that, but character reports are such an open-ended thing that it really just works best when the staffer over their area handles them however it works best for them.  So, what I would say to Nao is, ask your staff if they're ok with you doing that.  They'd -probably- be OK with it
I'm not familiar with the 2nd part of the question about an announcement about templates. Anyone else know what they mean?

Shabago:
Our post regarding streamlining the request tool and taking out certain aspects or tackling requests in certain ways.

Nao (he/him):
this post: https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,58129.msg1077901.html#msg1077901
Request tool changes.

Katima:
I think it's a difficult question to give an x y z metric about, because what your staff need to see from you doesn't just depend on personal preference. It also varies role to role, clan to clan.
A Guild boss doesn't need to give me the same information as a Kadian Trainee Merchant or a Salarri CrewLeader.

Shabago:
Day 1 - 3 bullet points.
day 2 - reply, 2 more bullet points
Day 3 - 1 bullet point.
Day 5 - 1 bullet point.
Day 7 - yell at your ST for no reply so i don't have to and they call me a jerk. 😢


Halaster:
ok, this was asked a couple of times..
"What from the 'what would make cities more enticing thread' do staff like so far"
I'll let staff answer for themselves, but personally I like a lot of it.  I just hope I can do enough of it, heh.  Some smaller ones I liked were the idea of the 'psi' command not taking as much focus in taverns, lowering the prices of alcohol in taverns (tghey're just a RP prop)
definitely some of the bigger ideas too, like 'scripted' npc's that do things.  NPC apartments, etc.
I invite the rest of staff to answer too

Shalooonsh:
I think the idea of NPC apartments with having extra things for players to do is a big possible gain.  After we look at perhaps polishing this idea a bit, if the rest of staff agree it's a go, I think there's a few people who'd be excited to chip in on that

Hestia:
I want to move the criminals closer to the jails (yeah right, like that'll ever happen) - but also, I like the idea of making the main congregation point for commoners a bit closer to where the clans are located.

Shabago:
I'm leaning towards, once present projects are done with, creating new content for each city - hidey holes, updated desc's, new npc life, talk scripts - fancy the place up, and allow more ease of plot bleed through it.

Hestia:
Right now I agree that the distance between the GMH estates/the Byn/the AOD barracks is just - SO far from the Gaj - that usually folks will pick their compound and not really leave much. I want to make it easier for them to do both.

Halaster:
One idea Oleupata and I were tossing around is having PC templars get the sorcerer treatment, which means we don't just have one "for the sake of having them", but rather we have PC templars with a purpose, a goal, a plotline.  In Allanak for example, we could have one PC templar who's focus is mostly external, and another whose focus is mostly internal.  What that does besides making it more fun for the pc templar, is it gives them more stuff "to do" than just shake down the average person and stay more out of peoples' bussiness.

Oleupata:
that goes back to the earlier question @DesertT asked about templars and why the answer is "we currently have enough"

Halaster:
Maybe when that plotline is over we decide 1) do we promote/store that templar since their plot is done? 2) allow them to continue on with no big plots now and it serves as a 'warmup' for the character? 3) come up with another plotline for them to engage in next.  It's still a big work in progress

Sulaez:
(thatwasme)

Oleupata:
apologies!

Katima:
(I may be late) - As far as dynamic world goes, I'm all the hell over that kind of stuff. If you think a place receives enough traffic to warrant more dynamics (echoes, etc) or if you see an NPC get a lot of exposure and there aren't any dynamics, if you want to write up some of that content, emotes/says/thinks/etc you'd want to see an NPC throw around, I'm willing to take a player clan question request submission to throw the dynamics wrench on it.

I am not going to promise one day or even one week or one month delivery, because I do take on a lot of stuff as both Project ST who helps every team and an ST for a few of my own clans now.
But I love doing that sort of stuff, so if you're willing to meet me halfway by providing the content, we can work something out 🙂

Halaster:
Ok, we have enough time to circle back to the two folks who had a 2nd question
@ThingsWithWings is also wrong

ThingsWithWings is also wrong — Today at 4:55 PM
Oh sorry! Hello, it's me again about the psions, because I am willing to sacrifice my firstborn or a pinky finger for this.

You mentioned psions were cut up into subguilds for power reasons more similar to mages than sorcerers, but mages now have the possibility to become full guilds again given time and some method that isn't public. Would it be considered to do THAT to psions as well? Also, are psions low on the list of attention because of low play rate, or is this a matter of ' we need to wait and see how things turn out with them currently' since those changes were still somewhat recent.

Halaster:
2nd part first.  They're low on the the list because of a wait and see, and it's just not a high priority for us.
We honestly haven't had any talks, at all, about bringing back full guild psionicists.  There's just not an appetite for that, at the moment.  Maybe some day

Shabago:
Rounding us out, go ahead for your second @najdorf


najdorf:
Do you consider that moments of truths which result in player churn may come from staff interaction? Especially an emotional response by a staff who is in 99.9% of their interactions cool and amazing. However, that 0.1% is the killer. If you act lazy, neutral and somewhat professional across the board: I think it's even better than being a super hero, then, snapping at once. I know amazing players who have quit the game because of these moments. Do you agree / acknowledge this factor?

Halaster:
Yes.

Shabago:
Entirely.
It only takes one bad interaction to sour a player (or staff member) to the point of leaving.

Halaster:
-hopefully- if you've interacted with a staffer who 99% of the time is awesome with you and you get along great, and they have that moment where they snap at you... hopefully you're undersatnding that they're just people too and that's not normal for them.

najdorf:
yes, I now do, but when younger, most is grumpy and reactions are extreme. thanks for the response 👍

Halaster:
I think there's some truth to it too that "back in the day" staff were ruder because we/they were younger and more obnxious too, heh

I've read some shit I said in 2004 and cringed

Shabago:
Not me. I was always a delight. emote dodges lightning

Shalooonsh:
I feel tagged

Halaster:
That said, it's also on staff to think the same.  If a player you normally deal with is polite, a pleasure to work with, you get along great, and then they get mad at you about something, cut 'em some slack.  They're people (except mansa) too and have emotional moments like us.

Oleupata:
There are a lot of players who were, to be polite, less than ideal to interact with when they were younger. I was one of them. (I'm sure we all have our favourite not-fondly-remembered staff, too.) I'm glad to see many old names I remember have obviously matured and become valuable, irreplaceable members of the community that it would be a very real loss not to have.

Halaster:
good point.  We have a couple of people on staff who were absolute terrors as players 15 years ago, heh

Hestia:
<cough>

:EDITORS NOTE:
Mansa added the word "FLORIDA" in Emojis to Hestia's comment

Halaster:
I think that's a perfect spot to end this on.  Mocking Florida.

Hestia:
You're welcome.

Shalooonsh:
We, just like everyone in the community, grow and learn from our failures.  We've all come a long way from the edgelord days of --- well, whenever your particular edgelord cycle was 😉

Through it I think we've become a pretty solid community.

Oleupata:
And then there's Mansa. Never change, Mansa. Never change

Haldol:
Was I THAT bad?

Halaster:
Okily dokily.  Thanks for attending everyone, so ends the staff/player meeting.

Hestia:
I thought he was talking about me.

Shabago:
As @Halaster says - thank you all for coming out! Very appreciated, folks.