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Re: The one year wipe 06/22/2012 12:19 PM CDT
>>Truth be told, if your running a script while your reading these boards, its no different than afk scripting.

Except the fact that I can walk and chew gum at the same time. Trust me, I'm not missing anything by reading the boards as I hunt mobs. Those plain vanilla dodge messages don't require much interaction so I can watch them as I read/write.



"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2
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Re: The one year wipe 06/22/2012 07:20 PM CDT
>>A limit to xp gained after 18 hrs of gameplay is incredibly reasonable. If your playing for more than that - Your scripting. Plain and simple. Truth be told, if your running a script while your reading these boards, its no different than afk scripting. If you run to the toilet. Guess what. Gotta go to the fridge to get another soda? Answer the phone? Yup. The only difference between that and firing up a script before going to work is "response" time when you get script checked by a GM.

>>Scripting isn't against policy. And it is different than AFK scripting. AFK scripting means you're being unresponsive to the gaming environment. While it is possible to be considered AFK while you're reading the boards because you're not responding in game to things, reading the boards does not equate to AFK scripting by default.

This. Thank you Issus. Also, some of us are bigger geeks than others and run multiple monitors. So reading and playing at the same time for me causes a delay in response of seconds. It takes minutes of verifiable unresponsiveness to breach policy.

>>I'm talking about being able to come in and enjoy the game thats been built. Being able to get involved with the important events that happen. I'm -not- saying I'm for 24/7 scripting, thats why I suggested a daily XP cap. I'm talking about being able to script while your working so you can attempt to enjoy the game when your not. My driving reasoning is for anybody that wants to be relevant in ANYTHING going on within the first 2 years of their characters creation. Without scripting its going to be DAMN hard, unless you are able to be at your computer for the majority of the day.

>>There's no circle/skill requirement for events. Plenty of people get involved without being anywhere near the top tier skill wise. You're imagining there's this high rank mecca where the world opens up and you're the best forever. It doesn't happen, to anyone, ever.

And this. The problem is not involvement, but your notion of what it takes to be "involved". If your idea of involved is be the hero of the event and/or wipe the floor with anything that might choose to invade, yeah, it's gonna take you more than a year's effort.

>>Actually, several of them have bought characters - Which were scripted. Your right tho, they've scripted for much longer than a year.

So every 100+ in the current game was either bought or AFK scripted to their place On High?




~The Prydaen~
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Re: The one year wipe 06/22/2012 11:21 PM CDT
While I understand where SGUMIKE is coming from, and have had my own share of experience, extreme enforcement (I've ran my self-terminating scraping script which I expected to end about 5 minutes total and stepped away halfway through for the restroom, came back and barely responded to some "fire ants" in time in the "RESPOND NOW OR YOU WILL BE LOCKED OUT" spam), I've also had series of multiple AFK script check/report harassment/day over the course of a week when I clearly have had no one tried to at all interact with me that eventually forced me to give up the hunting areas and move to somewhere else and all of the sudden, no more script checks.

Despite that, I understand that some form of enforcement needs to be in place. A lot of your suggestions really don't solve the problem if not outright destroy the game for everyone.

>> My driving reasoning is for anybody that wants to be relevant in ANYTHING going on within the first 2 years of their characters creation.
>You're imagining there's this high rank mecca where the world opens up and you're the best forever. It doesn't happen, to anyone, ever.

For a while, I believed in that as well, especially during the Xersyth/Iszanua event series where it seemed like a certain 100th+ ranger prydaen was the only person in the spot light. I won't say skill had nothing to do with it, but you really only needed to be able to survive adan'f through one means or another for that particular event and actively trying to pursue and participate in the event. I was surprised when my character got kidnapped by Iszanua. It was probably my first direct GMPC interaction so I wasn't quite prepared for it, but it happens as long as you're actively trying to participate.

Another case was when I was introducing a friend to DR. He was playing a paladin, got to 5th circle I think and I was beside him at the keyboard and helped his way to Shard for a quest. "Huh, that's strange, I could swear Lady Snow is supposed to be in this room.." and a courier ran in about some kind of package, I think it was leading up to her engagement or something? I didn't bother prepping my friend's char with gweths yet at the time we literally had no idea what was going on. But yeah, sometimes an event can find you out of the blue.


I was also surprised to find a lot of the thieves "in-the-know" deep in their super secret events were by far less skilled than mine and mine was maybe only 40th-50th circle at the time. I think this was before Teaching 2.0 and someone whose event logs I've been following was listening to my class and I was like "Wait what?"

It is also my impression that a certain bard had been very deep and active participant with Zoluren events/politics even since the teens or low 20's.

Of course, some of these are unfortunately dependent on if the player is ready for it, if the GM thinks this player is an RPer. It's not a really intended to be preferential treatment as it is the reality that, I believe a GM once expressed, a lot of reaching out attempts usually end up ignored or poorly interacted with because the person just didn't want to be bothered training or was afk scripting.

But yeah, hopefully with the PIRP (which I hope will eventually work account-wide instead of just your main), MYCHAR, and various tools it would be easier for non-regulars to get better involved with events.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/22/2012 11:51 PM CDT
I meant to include this in my last post but missed it on my last edit:

the 100th+ ranger wasn't so much there in the center of events because he's 100th+, but because he's been consistently participating in those events and somewhat of a player guru/representative for Prydaens. Sure, his digital numbers were really high, but so was his Lore-fu.


While some degree of skill is required and some guilds have it easier than others, when it comes down to it it's just how much effort you're willing to put to RP and keeping up with events. Being a loremaster isn't required when starting off, although it may make for some embarrassing conversations if you're asking your provincial leader "Who are you?" but how many Americans know their own senator etc. anyway.


Also, for fresh players/characters who are superb RP'ers, they could always solicit for a local paladin escort/guard in invasions with my favorite PROTECT ability.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/27/2012 11:05 PM CDT
The vast majority of roleplay is done by people under 100th and especially 150th. I think you want to play with the big boys in PvP without putting in the time. If that is the case (which is fine) go buy a character.

Madigan
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Re: The one year wipe 06/28/2012 04:16 PM CDT
Woah this thread exploded in a way I certainly wasn't expecting.

My original idea was simply that instead of dealing with the never ending rat race -- let folks get to the cap in relatively short time just like any other MMO on the market and then focus on end game content. For some games that means raiding or PvP - for others like Draognrealms it could mean a strong focus on events like quests, invasions or wars between provinces, etc.

Obviously none of this would work if there wasn't some kind of crazy expansion to the events team - you would just have a lot of capped characters sitting around hoping for something to do should things remain as they are currently.

Again, I was simply offering a suggestion which would provide a shift in focus from a never ending training regimen to something more event focused.

--
Messenger Boy: The Thessalonian you're fighting, he's the biggest man I've ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him.
Achilles: That is why no one will remember your name.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/28/2012 06:34 PM CDT
I agree with Divinewind as a game design philosophy, but DR has (20?) years of history and player base and deeply ingrained expectations and of significant population size that this isn't something a systematic rewrite and redirection can do.

I do think the social dynamic created by it is a good thing to keep around for prime, though, to have mentors and experts tutoring newbies and what not and let people get the feel that commoner (not the game mech one) or big name, high or low level, people can all be part of the big picture.



However, I do think the mainstream MMO model of rapid growth to circle cap and focus on "end game" content/events is a worthwhile direction for DR Plat. The player base is sufficiently small to ensure a total buy-in, you are guaranteed that the players there are there to RP and enjoy events. (as opposed to Prime, where people's motivations are all over the place)

Furthermore, if Plat pursues the rapid circle cap model, it could potentially entice more Prime players who've "settled" to RP in Prime for various reasons to justify the cost.

I can't solo-analyze every thing but definitely worth Simu staff to consider and discuss internally.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/29/2012 07:11 AM CDT
>>However, I do think the mainstream MMO model of rapid growth to circle cap and focus on "end game" content/events is a worthwhile direction for DR Plat.<<

We already have that. It's called The Fallen. Plat is for RP heavy folks who adhere to the letter of the law regarding RP, scripting (supposedly), at least that's what I've heard and understood (never played Plat). TF is for rapid growth to circle cap. There was a time when TF was lawless and there were clan wars, killings, and lots of violence. In the last several years, TF has become a place of rapid growth to circle cap with people maximizing their scripting abilities. I don't think anyone wants to turn Plat into TF.

Elvis has left the building.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/29/2012 09:22 AM CDT
>>However, I do think the mainstream MMO model of rapid growth to circle cap and focus on "end game" content/events is a worthwhile direction for DR Plat.

You effectively said the exact opposite of how Plat is meant to function.

>>The player base is sufficiently small to ensure a total buy-in

Except for the people playing now.

>>you are guaranteed that the players there are there to RP and enjoy events

I've never been to a Plat event so far where I went "damn, if only I had a ton more ranks in X"

In fact, Plat is generally better at accommodating a wide range of skill, because it's easier to tailor things to 4-8 people and still keep them all entertained versus trying to tailor something to 50-100 people. Plat also has enough players who are comfortable with their characters not being walking bazookas, and will gladly defer to the big guns to do the heavy lifting.

Hell, a lot of my invasion-based experiences amounted to roleplaying the fact that my Gnome wasn't godzilla and deferring to a Paladin to protect her. It worked out fine.

>>Furthermore, if Plat pursues the rapid circle cap model, it could potentially entice more Prime players who've "settled" to RP in Prime for various reasons to justify the cost.

Oh good lord. Just say you want to be 150. Don't drag Plat into this.



"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2
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Re: The one year wipe 06/29/2012 10:43 AM CDT
The GMs in plat are pretty good about matching invasions to the characters on-line at the moment. So there is no need to be an uber character to participate in invasions plat-side. Therefore, its not necessary to have TF-style scripting in order to faciliate participation in events here.

For instance, at the time of the Lyras event, my at-the-time 30th Barbarian was able to get in some hits on her, whereas in prime I would have been crushed like a grape. And for me, part of the appeal of plat is being able to have enough character slots to train a wide variety of characters. <right now I have one 100+ <necro>, 4 50+ <thief,barb,trader,WM>,2 40+ <empath,cleric>, 4 30+ <2 MMs,Bard,paladin>, and a whole slew of small characters.> And I have fun with all of them, and don't feel I'm "missing out" by not being able to afk them TF-style.

Admittedly there are admittedly times I wish I could do something the same as I can with my TF empath, Moon Mage or Prime Thief, who are higher circle. Or say to myself, oy,Not Rats again! for a newbie. But, if I concentrated on only one, for me, it would lead to burn-out. But if you put in the time, it really doesn't take THAT long to get some of the "good" stuff.

If you are only interested in watching the numbers go up, I really recommend TF. There is a community there, and they're pretty good about getting a newbie set up. You might have to take a bolt to the face, but after the "initiation", you're pretty much good to go.

/---
Oh and last one, DR at any given time has a population of weenies that will criticize at the drop of a hat, don't take things personally it happens to everyone.
Leucius
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Re: The one year wipe 06/29/2012 01:09 PM CDT
>>The player base is sufficiently small to ensure a total buy-in
>Except for the people playing now.

Achieving buy-in is a operations change management term for communicating with all affected parties or people with vested interest to understand their concerns and tailor changes to accommodate that. DR3.0, craft split, etc. took years to achieve partial buy in and retained zealous skeptics until release.

> wide range of skill, bazooka, heavy lifting, etc.
>Oh good lord. Just say you want to be 150. Don't drag Plat into this.

You're assuming letting everyone set at level cap necessitates them to be 150 with 1750 ranks and what not. That's not necessarily true which is why I avoided mentioning numbers. Design concept brainstorming does not make those assumptions and we can't meaningfully make assumptions of how to achieve an end goal without knowing what the GM's can do.

Furthermore, though I'm not a plat player so I can only speak base on its reputation, Plat's definition of "Wide range of skill" differs dramatically from Prime's "Wide range of skill". It's of course easier to accommodate smaller player base and a narrower-"wide range" of skill. I was proposing that if there exists an achievable circle cap, then there's no need to worry about skill disparity at all.


I'm only suggesting that this may be a desired direction to consider because over the years in Prime i've spoken with many good RPers (usually the particularly RP-nazi ones that lash out at the slighest OOC like someone who gwethsmash/thumped me for being anachronistic because I used a word that wasn't used until after late 19th century) that why don't they just play Plat? And the response is usually that they're not interested in playing by themself, not interested in starting a whole new character, etc.


Anyway, I threw the idea out there for constructive insights like the post that GERSTEINJ2 just made as to why or why not this would be necessary and I think more posts like that would be most helpful.
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Re: The one year wipe 06/29/2012 05:15 PM CDT
I think there is some merit to a quicker progression scale, just not in Dragonrealms. It's become a niche product, and the people who pay for that product by and large do so because it takes so long to get good. At least, speaking personally that is true. I get bored when I hit endgame.
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Re: The one year wipe 07/01/2012 01:42 PM CDT
I am just curious, how long do people thing it should take to get to 1750 ranks? I just checked on one of my tert skills, about 1140 ranks, 2.25 ranks after 4 days 15 hours for 24/7 being ML. Is that about 175 ranks a year? Even in TF with almost capped mentals, I am looking at about 4 more years to hit 1750 in that skill, and that is starting at 1140.

So the question is, how long do people think it should take to hit 1750 ranks, primary/secondary/tert? Personally, if it took a year or 2 that would be ideal, but it looks like it is going to be 5+. This is why people want to script in prime.
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Re: The one year wipe 07/01/2012 02:22 PM CDT
I can honestly say if it only took 2 years to cap skills I would have probably quit a long time ago.

People underestimate the effect capping skills quickly would have on a text based game. I'm personally fine with it being the way it is.



Individuals, families, countries, continents are destroyed at the heavy hand of Vinjince.

-GM Abasha
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Re: The one year wipe 07/01/2012 02:27 PM CDT
>I'm personally fine with it being the way it is.

Me, too. If it takes five years in TF to cap a tertiary skill, that means it'll take that much longer in Prime. Which means it gives people something to strive towards for a long time.

Elemental Lord Opieus, Master Warrior Mage of Elanthia
"For a bunch of radical empiricists, the Philosophers' system relies on a whole lot of faith." ~Armifer
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Re: The one year wipe 07/01/2012 06:13 PM CDT
>>I'm personally fine with it being the way it is.
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Re: The one year wipe 07/04/2012 04:01 AM CDT
>>Plat's definition of "Wide range of skill" differs dramatically from Prime's "Wide range of skill"

Our spread of ACTIVE players ranges from a batch of new blood in the teens all the way to 150th circle. What do YOU call a "wide range"?



~The Prydaen~
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