HRPT - {RANT}

[__Torax__]

Well, first off I'd like to express just how disgusted I was with the HRPT today. I planned and waited for a week for something that only actually lasted 45 minutes. I was rather disgusted with the lack of RP during and after the HRPT. The story line was great, I was looking forward to it because it was something ungodly cool. Now that I've experienced this HRPT, I'm leaning to not wanting to do another. The amount of disorganization during the HRPT was just...Christ I cant even express it...My PC was in *edited by Myrdryn*  during the attacks which I found very boring due to the lack of challenge. I figured that this RPT would be a very gorry one, due to a...

*edited by Myrdryn*

I watched nothing but spam from PCs asking questions that were answered just prior to their question. Orders were not followed, no one listened, the attacks were to simple. The crashes were a bit annoying, though that cannot be helped sometimes and I am not going to complain about that. But since I am probably either A) Going to get some harsh feed-back for this, or B) Probably banned in some way or another I'll just end it here.


-Torax-

[Armaddict]

I didn't like it either.  I agree...the danger level was way too low.  You could be an innocent bystander and be -right there- without any worry.

I mean...weren't these built up to be actual -threats-?  Or were they both intended to get completely squished?

[Ayashah]

You know, you are giving waaaaaaaaaay too much info out on the board. Some do not KNOW what is going on yet.

*pokes*

[__Torax__]

You act liked they missed anything? Jesus christ, I'd would have rathed just not logged in and be called a twink instead of waste 6 hours of my day and listen to nothing but non-stop bitching from my folks for sitting at this computer for it. This was my first RPT and I was figureing it to be something I'd remember for a long time. Well, I'll remember it alright as something I dont want to do again.

[__Torax__]

And I'm sorry if this has upset anyone or if anyone disagrees with me, but I am completly pissed and disgusted right now I can hardly think straight.

[Ueda]

I was kinda mad like an hour ago so I actually hear you on this one but guess what I did that made me feel alot better I made a new char' I think you might notta died but, who knows it could still be going right?

[Clegane]

You have to expect a great deal of chaos, both OOC and IC when a playerbase is assembled i such dramatic numbers.

Nonetheless, I feel your pain for many reasons.

While I certainly respect and appreciate the amount of work and sweat that various Staff members put into this affair, I know a LOT of players worked very hard and very long to prepare for it.

And despite all the planning, work, participation, and sweat...the whole thing had a very 'foregone conclusion' feel to it.

I guess my real query is...had half as many people logged in...or twice a many for that matter...would anything really have changed? Or were we just following a script?

IN any event, thanks to everyone involved for their time and work. On many levels I really appreciated it. Just can't get over the feeling that nothing we did really mattered in the long term.

[Anonymous]

I just don't get it.  From the sounds of it you were right in the middle of it.

All I saw were some echoes about the horizon and the aftermath and I thought the staff did a fantastic job.  It was a very exciting time for me.

I think it was also apparent that A LOT of work went into this and being unable to recognize that because your PC didn't get the most cake is something I, frankly, can't respect.

[Anonymous]

You could have vented without including the IC details like that.

A big problem is EXPECTATIONs. You expected it to be fun, you expected it to be well-organized, expected expected expected. And then were let down because for one reason or another it didn't meet up to your expectactions.

I don't think this HRPT was any different/better/worse then any other. It was an event that involved many people, and was something different to do then sitting in a tavern or crafting, or training, or exploring for some people.

If I recall, the same type of feelings were felt during the last one. "This sucked, there was so much spam and lag and when the lag cleared I was dead. I was only in game for 3 seconds before I died, but I waited like 2 months for this. Wahwahwah, feed and burp me."

I personally feel if you just treated it as a normal day of playing, instead of a day where something exceptional was supposed to happen you might have more fun with it. I came on, late and forgetful of the day even being an HRPT, was shocked and excited and left doing something different and probably seeing things I won't likely see tomorrow or the next day.

It was fun and different. I don't care if it was semi-scripted or disorganized. Considering the scale that things were supposed to be on ICly, if it felt anything other then disorganized I'dve been disappointed. War/mass-battle is not organized and concise.

Anyways, that's all.

Oh and in addition. It started 2 hours ago and doesn't look anything close to 'over'. In fact it seems more exciting now then earlier.

[Dakkon Black]

Well, frankly I dont know what people were expecting. My char personally didnt see a single attacker or anything. Never got attacked never got killed and everyone they know is okay. Am I upset because of that? No, I had a blast today. I think that people switched an event that has a large impact with the world to an event that has a large impact on me because Im so important.

If nobody was listening to orders, well thats an IC thing to handle isnt it?

Finally I saw little of what the staff did and I still think that they must have done a great job. If you weren't entertained then thats your fault. Not thiers.

[Barzalene]

You're fucking insane. That was some cool shit.

[Mr.Camel]

I really loved it, though I hope some people would put more effort on rp in such events. It isnt encouraging to see people in terrible condition running around swinging thier weapons, especially when they scold other characters for trying to help them.

Thanks to anyone that put any effort in the HRPT.

[Ueda]

I guess my real query is...had half as many people logged in...or twice a many for that matter...would anything really have changed? Or were we just following a script?

IN any event, thanks to everyone involved for their time and work. On many levels I really appreciated it. Just can't get over the feeling that nothing we did really mattered in the long term.

Who said it was over?

[Clegane]

Oh, I'm quite sure that it is far from over on many levels.

I was just referring to the day's events, rather than the epic plotline itself.

[Callisto]

Torax, go edit out the IC information in your post.

You just ruined my whole experience, I had no idea what was going on in the rest of the game world other then vague rumors of conflicts going on in other centers of civilzation, it was fantastic. It was like the world was coming apart, rumors running wild, and people on the fritz over the whole event.

There goes the whole feeling of "Are we the last center of civilization left? Is this just the start? Who's the one who brought this down on us?"

I hope you lose karma for that post, you stupid prick.

[Naephet]

I'm happy to hear any constructive criticism, so feel free to post and let me know what you thought of the HRPT.

To address a few points raised:

Duration:  This varied depending on your character's location and involvement.  From my perspective, the HRPT lasted about three hours, with about another three hours of cleaning things up.  I was glad to see it didn't run into the wee hours of the morning.  Did other players think it was too short?

Disorganization:  This was more of an IC issue.  There isn't much we can do about people not following orders, etc..

Violence/'Difficulty':  At a rough count, some 20 players died during the RPT, out of a peak of about 160.  That isn't as high as some HRPTs have been in the past.  But in the past, one of the biggest complaints is that it was impossible to get involved in an HRPT without dying, so we did try to avoid making active involvement impossible.

One of the things we did to this end was spread players out more.  Hopefully, players were able to follow what was happening, and didn't have to just dive into a heap of spam, lag, and death.

The Outcome:  The outcome of the HRPT was without a doubt affected by players, although I think the player who had the biggest impact on things still doesn't realize what they did.

Naephet

On the staff boards we're having a follow up discussion on the quest, as
we try to do with any large project.  If you have feedback, good or bad,
please send it off to mud@ginka.armageddon.org where you can provide
as much IC information as you like.

-the Shade of Nessalin

[Myrdryn]

I've edited some of the content in the first post.  Please remember not to post IC details, it's fine to discuss what you don't like and what you think could have been done to make things better.

For those of you wishing to have a refreasher course on the rules of this discussion board, they are here

Thank you,
Myrdryn

[Wintermute]

I personally thought the HRPT was quite well done.

The efforts on behalf of the staff to deliver a more enjoyable RPT based on player feedback from previous RPT's was obvious, especially in the efforts to 'spread things out'.  This alleviated many of the problems such as individual PC's facing individual NPC 'units' (10+ NPCs).  My best solution would've been to remove NPC units altogether and have them fight virtually in the background, bringing in individual NPCs per number of 'enemy' counts/ratio.  Although we still had units in the game, they were much more in the background of the action and it seems more like a true battle to me with people facing off with their enemies, sticking to their units (ie. not invididuals in a unit facing off against entire other units on both sides).  I think it also definitely helped with the spam/lag side, though these were still apparent when we had fights involving gate guards who are automatically scripted to attack.  Must've been such a bitch to coordinate and execute though.

All in all, I had a great time - thanks to the staff for all the sweat and toil.

[Carnage]

I wasn't involved in the RPT, but I think I'd like to comment on some elements of what Naephet posted:

Duration: This varied depending on your character's location and involvement. From my perspective, the HRPT lasted about three hours, with about another three hours of cleaning things up. I was glad to see it didn't run into the wee hours of the morning. Did other players think it was too short?

I'd much rather be involved in a HRPT that's too short than too long. When it's too long it tends to be problematic to get log out and so on. Short and sweet, in my opinion, would be much better than having something that's way too dragged out.

Violence/'Difficulty': At a rough count, some 20 players died during the RPT, out of a peak of about 160. That isn't as high as some HRPTs have been in the past. But in the past, one of the biggest complaints is that it was impossible to get involved in an HRPT without dying, so we did try to avoid making active involvement impossible.

I'd like to see player death in a RPT be more of a 'if you do something stupid, you will die' sort of thing. I'm not exactly 100% sure of what happened and the circumstances of deaths, but I'd rather that those 20 people died because they tried to take on a group of you-know-whats than being the first ones targetted by a massive creature, like what happened in the sewers RPT in Allanak. I believe a fully rested and armed half-giant was killed in one or two hits, before they even had the chance to flee.

[Ueda]

I'd like to see player death in a RPT be more of a 'if you do something stupid, you will die' sort of thing. I'm not exactly 100% sure of what happened and the circumstances of deaths, but I'd rather that those 20 people died because they tried to take on a group of you-know-whats than being the first ones targetted by a massive creature, like what happened in the sewers RPT in Allanak. I believe a fully rested and armed half-giant was killed in one or two hits, before they even had the chance to flee.

I think thats a little to IC. But he wasn't the only one:( Thats another thing I think we should adress uber buff PC's but I would probably just get lost in conversation.

[buzz]

I've seen a few of these and this is the first one I've been directly involved with.  It was personally very, very hectic on my part.  But I got to play a side of my character I had never expected to fully explore, considering that he'd supposedly be awfully good at it.

I was happy not to see a room full of 50 PCs at any time (well maybe once) so there was never overwhelming lag.  I was happy to see some challenging fights, but nothing that was utterly unwinnable.  There was enough information based on echoes that you knew when it was time to act in a certain way.

I had fun, and it'll be fun cleaning up afterwards.  Thanks much to all the staff for their efforts.

[mansa]

The Outcome:  The outcome of the HRPT was without a doubt affected by players, although I think the player who had the biggest impact on things still doesn't realize what they did.

Naephet

Who was it?  Was it me?  Was it me?