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| Attracting New Players | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 11 2013, 02:02 AM (1,545 Views) | |
| Agony_Aunt | Aug 14 2013, 07:59 AM Post #31 |
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Get a Life
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Here's a thought as a one off event. We could announce it (via all NWN2 forums - social.bioware, nwn2db forums, perhaps nwvault, thieves-guild.net, etc) with perhaps a couple of weeks notice. New Character week! (Not a new idea though, we have tried similar things before) Everyone is encouraged to play new characters for the week, so no existing RP groups exist (and the advance notice gives players a chance to organize ongoing RP), and no level 30 chars lording it over others. Playing a clueless is also recommended, with EMs/DMs providing flavour characters who are residents of Sigil or planeswalkers who are there to act as touts or sellers of information. This also means EMs/DMs do not have to commit to big events, but small flavour events - but of course, big events could happen if someone wanted.... just try and avoid events which are exclusive to small groups. As part of the announcement we can also advertise what SCoD has to offer that most other servers don't. User Placeables, No Kaedrin's :P, Special Races *cough*, erm... other things. |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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| Er_Nano_Infame | Aug 14 2013, 11:12 AM Post #32 |
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EL NANO!!
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i think is indeed better that if anyone wants to call back past players, he/she may do so privately via pm rather than a large scale advertisement maneuvre of one mail to everyone, not because i think one mail is useless, but cause i think doing so will change the dimension and the way the will to get some more players will be perceived ( marketing, as mr_o pointed. oh wise mr_o! and marketing is not what we're here for. not speaking that given the volunteer type of work , making promises might just make things harder). downside of this is that not all players that may gladly peek back here will be reached, but again, if one doesn't check out the forums by him/herself every once in a while, guess it is cause has no time or interest to get back. But if he/she does, they'd notice the changes and updates, and decide to return, eventually. the best solution i think is continuing to develop the things of interest while keeping the RPs up as possible, knowing well each has their time and disponibility and energy and knowledge and skills. i may wonder , in regard of developements, how much the server is technically capable to hold and sustain new contents (areas above all), but i won't demand to pry on this point. as someone already noted here, it won't be only the special occurences engorged with events that will rise scod's health (although if anyone can direct events several days per week i'd be quite impressed), but with a more ''envinronmental'' care, which will require its developing , a clear access to informations and lore and chants to the new players, and indeed attention to the players' actions and reactions in and toward the world. the EMhood demostrated to be a valid solution, as it showed how players can grow experience in mastering even when they rarely/never directed, and how to properly make the worlds react to the players' actions. EMs , aside the directors of their own events, can be, are, intermediates between players base and DMs, in the sense that the more and more the PCs' actions (through either players or EMs RPs) influence the world the more an higher autority will be required to judge and chose how the world will react to the expanding consiquences. And we know there are currently more EMs active than DMs, so i think it'd be quite natural that the more numerous EMs stride the game world for RP hunchs and developements and ongoings etc, direct them as suitable and proper, and if they evolve to a bigger scale, DMs can be poked and directed toward the big stuff growing to manage them, if they aren't already or aren't busy otherwise. Or at least DMs may simply take note of the big changes that would sprout in the world by the RP of players and EMs, and ''enforce'' them, ''give the ok''. This mean changes to the world has to be taken into account, yes, and, well, the possibility that more EMs feed, pull and push (same) general, ''envinronmental'', ongoings from more sides. (not as much when is the case of actual defined plots and events. an EM wouldn't like another EM to barge in his planned story, unless willingly... ) (eventually a Master may chose to delegate the direction of something to someone else for whatever reasons and needs, i'd assume) All of this counting on the impartial decisions and actions from them ofc. I can understand ''conflicts of interests'', overlapping ''jurisdictions'', priorities, coherency, continuity or whatsoever-feck-if-i-know + etc might be a problem when managing the game world, but i'll leave this point at it. So well, with time and experience and proven responsibility players will eventually become new EMs, and EMs new DMs, and DMs...uh...older DMs? sure i dunno ![]() Now all this kinda start to remind me of modron hierarchy, lol ... which kinda needs numbers we lack right now *coughs* , but so good for delaying modronization and the march at least ![]() anyways , done with my debatable rattling for now; hope it was clear & sensible & not repetitive enough for a rattling. |
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Maewind:''That's still plant-hating! That makes you a plant racist!'' Lucelle Vand'hovar: ''Miss Maewind, i assure you, the plants started this conflict.'' Nienna: ''Razorvine is hardly a plant, in her defense.''
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| Agony_Aunt | Aug 14 2013, 12:16 PM Post #33 |
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Get a Life
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Probably still plenty of room for new content. Thanks to the tricks that were used when setting up the server and some of the building/scripting rules that were put in place, new content (eg: areas) doesn't cause much in the way of overhead. I'd guess the biggest limitation to performance is (not surprisingly) the number of players. More players, more actions happening, more grinding and therefore more monsters appearing, etc, and of course, more bandwidth being gobbled. I don't recall any serious problems with performance from a client perspective, even those times when we were getting close to 30 players... but not sure how far it can be pushed.
Changes to the world are always tricky. Not every EM/DM can keep up with what is going on in the world, especially if its things that relate to individuals. However, EMs can always post about things that have happened in the EM board, and players in the IC boards, so people know what is going on.... just a question of whether people will read. We have had the discussion many times about making actual changes to areas to reflect events. It has happened on occasion (destruction of Smoking Hammer Inn, destruction of the Under Sigil Temple.... why do players like destroying things so much? Can we get a construction event???), but it is rare. In addition there is the question of who actually makes the updates to areas to reflect events? There are quite a few of us with the ability, but often the motivation is lacking to make the actual changes. For a big event, maybe one of us can be prompted to make the changes, but its got to be something significant and involve a decent number of players to get a builder motivated to do it. Its not like we would be willing to tear down a building every time one got blew up (and besides, if we did that, our Sigil areas would be now empty! ).Another negative point (sorry) is that when something changes, people want to see those changes happen, the sooner the better, but there is always going to be update lag. Firstly a builder needs to make the changes, and then they need to be submitted and approved, and finally it needs to wait for an update, which are usually no more than once per two weeks, usually less frequent. Ok, ok, so that's all rather negative.... what can be done? If you are an EM or DM (or even a player), and wanting to see changes to areas or NPCs, or whatever, then your best bet is to either: a) Make events that involve more than just a couple of people, with results that can be fairly simply expressed in terms of changes to areas (no running Faction War events and expecting us to completely change the lore to post-faction war and all convos and faction related stuff). And then harass a builder to make the changes. Out of active builders that's probably Mr_O and me, and possibly Ceremorph if she is willing. In terms of area making skills, Mr_O and Cere are both far superior to me, but i can hack things together if necessary. or b) Learn a little about modifying areas in the toolset. We don't hand out the keys to the module to everyone who wants to contribute, that's more dependent on contributions made first, but we could be willing to export areas for modification, make the changes, send back for us to check out explaining what has been changed, and if it looks ok, we can import it back in. Do some of that and make good quality changes, we may even grant full builder rights. Even so, you will still have to wait for your changes to be uploaded to the module before you will see it in game. Another possible: Like the SIGIS idea from the RP competition, there may be other things we can do that enable players to feel a sense of achievement and provide some sort of persistence with regards to their achievements. People will be able to write about what is going on in the in-game SIGIS and other people will be able to read in game and IC. Maybe something else can be thought of that can also provide a similar effect. |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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| Kiuna | Aug 14 2013, 02:34 PM Post #34 |
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Cutter
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As a new player, I just want to say, I've felt very welcome. I read the lore, but still felt it safer to join as a clueless hermit-in-training, until I get a better feel for the world. The lack of players was a bit discouraging, but the lore and the world is very intriguing, so I came anyroad. Just a big thank you to all the players who welcomed me and played with me
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| Agony_Aunt | Aug 14 2013, 06:08 PM Post #35 |
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Get a Life
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Nice to hear |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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| Mr_Otyugh | Aug 14 2013, 06:17 PM Post #36 |
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Regarding the hierarchy matters mentioned by Er_Nano_Infame; This has actually been quite interesting aspect to me as of late since it tends to be divided to two schools of belief. There's the hardcore PnP belief which is the traditional division of "players" and "DM/GM", the roles are very straight cut matter and works very well for the environment it is designed for... PnP environment for the controlled small groups of friends or relatively like-minded folks. [babble] However despite my couple years of skepticism surrounding around temporal/guest DMs or as we dubbed them "Event Masters", I've grown to consider them quite differently over the time they've been out. I tend to think multiplayer environment just about incomparable to PnP environment... most of us aren't friends in the traditional sense, we haven't seen or shared past with each other, our cultures are very different, extroverts and introverts, different physical and mental states (not mentioned in degrading fashion, I've shared issues on both behalf in past most of them unshared with public). Then comes the other obvious differences that are a server is open 24/7, not just 2-6 hours once per week/two weeks as a PnP would be. Different timezones, working hours... it's just physical impossibility that the traditional PnP way could work in any real satisfactory way unless it was a controlled and shut group with schedualed matters... you know what, sometimes I don't want to wait until weekend for casual RP. [/babble] So after all of those long babbling paragrapsh... EMs to me are less of a "lower standard DM" initiative as much as alternative solution that is shattering the traditional views and borders of the RPing where just one guy is able to tell a story, and rather make it so that all can tell a story, maybe not the same time... but still able to. It could be abused, naturally... but one thing EMing doesn't have is progress, nothing you do really gets stored like a story would on a character, most events are divorced from one another, it's why EMing hardly will get as much popularity as simply playing yet the option is there. Perhaps just wanting to play an oddball one-off critter? Well EMing is great for that, since you don't have to invest any real time to just summon one and possessing it. As for DMing/Administrating, a whole lot of people tend to want to these positions, but I'd dare to say rashly so. And I can say any reasonable person will think twice, perhaps even decline first one or two times such position is offered and I can explain why. Those whom wish to become DM/Admin usually think "I'm qualified, since I want to make this, this and that change and I know how to make people happy." however the reality of DM/admin work is usually to be the bearer of bad news, a lot of people have great ideas and things they want to implement but which are simply implausible from time and compatibility reasons. And usually just "no" (and to some saying simply 'no' is the hardest thing anyway, saying yes to get smiles is much easier and more time consuming) isn't sufficient answer, you actually have to start to know why or guide people to folks that do know the reasons. Still interested? Alright, that's not once per day, that's most of your day and if they know your player account, that's your entire day while you just want to play. They know your skype/MSN, email or other IM address? That's your whole life beyond work/school. Alright you're starting to feel burned out since you want to satisfy everyone and be understanding, reasonable and polite, then you're going to have to start to bargain which is more important their or your happiness. If you choose theirs, you will burn out or start to snap, if you choose yours then you no longer manage to satisfy everyones needs and start to feel pressure and stress. Until you start to realize that there's going to be endless amounts of desires to be unfulfilled no matter how good your best is, you're expecting too much out of DMing/administrating. And I'm leaving out the troublesome personalities to be dealt with since those are whole another "fun" aspect Better yet, just about all of that stuff tends to be confidential so talking with others isn't an option.That's not to say you should feel discouraged from aspiring to making things better and nicer since it's not all bad, just rather than reaching the stars reach to the people. You may not make world better, but you can make it better for individuals and their thanks are the most satisfactory thing you can get in the end. There's no shame being EM or a player, you're no worse than DMs or admin and you have more time to aspire, invent and have fun when you don't have to think politics all the time. Not to mention you can always blame those on top and feel good
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| Er_Nano_Infame | Aug 14 2013, 07:26 PM Post #37 |
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EL NANO!!
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indeed what i meant with my previous post wasn't about the prestige of the title and quality class (myself for one always thought that i'd think twice or thrice before taking any other position than EM), but as you said, mr_o, EMhood can be an alternative solution to how rping is managed, although EMhood has less decisional power than DMhood, but this is for the best, will make so that more prominent exotic ideas and propositions won't become facts too hastily and carelessly , imo
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Maewind:''That's still plant-hating! That makes you a plant racist!'' Lucelle Vand'hovar: ''Miss Maewind, i assure you, the plants started this conflict.'' Nienna: ''Razorvine is hardly a plant, in her defense.''
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| DemonAbyss10 | Aug 14 2013, 10:19 PM Post #38 |
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Namer
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Well, gonna be playing again off and on myself. Not sure if I will even have access to my old characters still. Yes, GW2 became meh to me like 4 months ago. And I finally got NWN2 to work on my computer (well, completely upgraded and kitted out now.). |
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Characters -Moriarcis: Lvl 20 Necromancer -Ordethus: Lvl 20 (21) Telepath Warlock/Alienist -Orionis: Lvl 8 Dirge of Tiamat -Zaed Nahalis: Lvl 28 Hextorite Blademaster -Skor Addamar: Lvl 22 Ex-Collector -Ven: Lvl 9 (10) Old School Assassin -Vai'aian: Lvl 18 (20) Zerth Monk
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| Mr_Otyugh | Aug 14 2013, 10:34 PM Post #39 |
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I gave the characters a bit of extension before they'd get archived, first one would've been archived this sunday otherwise. |
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Time Zones - Alignments - Name Generator NWN 2 Mechanics - PnP Mechanics - Dice Roller Character Builder - 2nd edition Monster Database - Monster Finder In-case of problems: Click Here | |
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| DemonAbyss10 | Aug 14 2013, 10:46 PM Post #40 |
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Namer
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That is good. I upgraded to win7 x64, had to work out a bunch of things. The most annoying being I had a digital copy of SoZ, and went through hell trying to re-activate it again. Just about to download the server stuff now. (Edit: keep getting timed out, and if not that, just freezes up on me. Gotta figure out a way to connect. Using the client extension currently.) |
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Characters -Moriarcis: Lvl 20 Necromancer -Ordethus: Lvl 20 (21) Telepath Warlock/Alienist -Orionis: Lvl 8 Dirge of Tiamat -Zaed Nahalis: Lvl 28 Hextorite Blademaster -Skor Addamar: Lvl 22 Ex-Collector -Ven: Lvl 9 (10) Old School Assassin -Vai'aian: Lvl 18 (20) Zerth Monk
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| Agony_Aunt | Aug 15 2013, 03:37 AM Post #41 |
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Get a Life
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Try without the client extension then. Also, check your firewall isn't blocking the game. |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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| DemonAbyss10 | Aug 15 2013, 10:13 AM Post #42 |
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Namer
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wasn't that. Was just connection speed at the time. Got it all sorted out and downloaded now. |
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Characters -Moriarcis: Lvl 20 Necromancer -Ordethus: Lvl 20 (21) Telepath Warlock/Alienist -Orionis: Lvl 8 Dirge of Tiamat -Zaed Nahalis: Lvl 28 Hextorite Blademaster -Skor Addamar: Lvl 22 Ex-Collector -Ven: Lvl 9 (10) Old School Assassin -Vai'aian: Lvl 18 (20) Zerth Monk
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| Agony_Aunt | Aug 15 2013, 11:34 AM Post #43 |
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Get a Life
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Super. |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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| Kiuna | Aug 15 2013, 08:48 PM Post #44 |
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Cutter
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As a thought to attracting new players, I always enjoyed player housing in the games I've played. It's fairly easily achieved (the actual housing, but then of course, there's the need to script an NPC to keep track of rent) with the person wanting a house simply making the area themselves - within the set limitations of their rent tier, and then sending the area to the builders. On the module side, things would be relatively easy as well. Lots of static doors that can be turned into entrances to appartments. Maybe even have some housing on the different planes, though that would require a lot more work. My skills with scripting are pretty rusty, having only done it for NWN, back before 2 came out, but I'd be more than willing to learn again and do my best to help with setting up something like this. Not as in, "Give me the reins to the module" but as in, "I don't mean to just dump more work on you" kinda thing ![]() Player housing is a pretty strong selling point when advertizing a server. Particularly an RP server, where people enjoy to see their own hand in things. |
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| Agony_Aunt | Aug 16 2013, 03:31 AM Post #45 |
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Get a Life
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You need to check the winning entry in the competition thread. We are taking a step in this direction, although not player owned housing, its a bit of a compromise. The staff have always been quite strongly against the lockable doors that players want with player housing. The last thing we want to do is gain a reputation as an "adult" server. While we do not ban ERP, we try not to do anything that encourages it. So, the winning solution is a compromise. It will add a number of new generic areas, some of which will be usable as player housing, boosting the number of locations we have on the server than can be used for such purpose (at the moment we have 3(?) houses??). The main difference for the new areas will be: 1) Variety. Not only generic houses, but perhaps an upper class one, a slum one, a wizard's tower, a merchant house or shop... you get the idea 2) To stop people accidentally crashing in on RP that may be going on in these areas, when a person attempts to enter, they will first get an OOC warning that the area is occupied. Therefore people will know if they can use the area without interrupting someone's RP. Of course, this doesn't stop people being jerks, but that happens anyway. To avoid people trying to sneak in under HIPS or Invisibility, players inside the area will also receive an OOC notification that a player has entered the area. Therefore, if this is IC spying, they players can discuss how it will be handled, with both sides giving fair chance and RPing the spying, rather than someone being a jerk and just hiding without giving clues and being a voyeur. |
| Stepped down as admin, but still lurking. | |
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and marketing is not what we're here for. not speaking that given the volunteer type of work , making promises might just make things harder). 

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Better yet, just about all of that stuff tends to be confidential so talking with others isn't an option.
exotic ideas and propositions won't become facts too hastily and carelessly , imo


12:29 AM Jul 11