SoulTear

You certainly do have a one track mind cryxus, don’t have anything to say about the rest of my post? What’s your problem? Can’t tolerate dissent? That first paragraph was only there to explain why I’m posting again and what my impressions on the war are without going into specifics. If I wanted to discuss why I believe it was wrong I would have done so in another topic. I may not have been playing for about a month and a half now but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what happened. Also a lot of the problems that led to this war were already there when I was still playing. I don’t want to talk about it because I’m not playing now and given the circumstances posting on it would do more harm then good. Remember you brought this up by insulting me, I really wanted to avoid saying anything. You called me a hypocrite and bully but did I: -Issue an ultimatum to GG to have Yrthilian step down as ruler or else and that any future ruler they choose requires my approval? -Spread vicious rumours about Yithilian and Grido? -Send Tarquinus to take over the MRD Fraternity, kick everyone, then demand that all MRs and MSs that want to come back agree to the rules he imposed on them? -Expect Tarquinus to be trusted after that and even honoured as MR Fraternity leader and for GG to carry on as if nothing had happened? -Carry on a war that tore apart GG because it didn’t conform to my ideals? -Doing all this under the assumption that I know what is best for GG and then blaming them for making me do it? If I didn’t do any of those things how am I a hypocrite? If I didn’t make or issue any demands to anyone how am I a bully? Moreover and this was the point in my statement I think that if I were around I could have helped Raven win. I think an alliance with Necrovion against GG for instance would not be implausible considering their history and Raven was perhaps a bit too pessimistic in his assessment of Loreroots fighting capability. There is more to this issue then this silly war or what happens to CoS. This all sets a precedent for a certain kind of tyranny by established players in MD and I would not like to see MD being dominated by a clique of established players who believe it is their right to monitor and control everything happens in it ruining everybody else’s fun, especially since there is only one instance of the game world. Edit: Oops ended up posting right after King Manu, took me a while to post as usual, I need to be less of a perfectionest about what I write. [color="purple"]MOVED from Game Reset thread -- Grido[/color]

Well after some time away Yami emailed me recently about this War between Golmeus and Loreroot (as some of you may remember when I left I gave Yami my Aqune account so she could still make weather when needed for roleplay etc.). That piqued my curiosity so I decided to check out the forum to see what was the cause of all this. Well other then finding this very interesting thread I didn’t like what I found or how things turned out for Loreroot and while I won’t comment any further to prevent more heated arguments on the forum suffice it to say the Self-Righteous Golemus Bullies were very lucky I wasn’t playing when they declared their war and have neither the time nor the inclination to do so now (no I’m not coming back yet) since I would make them sorry for what they did (and yes I know all about they’re misguided paternalism to save LR from itself, must be nice for you to be so all wise and benevolent isn’t it guys?). Anyway I’m still shocked by all this but that’s not why I posted here, back to the topic at hand. While I think Manu’s ideas about how to maintain a game world indefinitely are fascinating (but will it work?) though as usual the exploit toadies (oops I mean ‘bug finders’ ) feel their worth is threatened by any change in game’s paradigm (if there is some truth too what he says it could defiantly be worth something to the software industry, adaptive AI without Neural Nets? Are you using Genetic Algorithms?) I think a full reset would be good for the game and would be unavoidable in a ‘normal’ game. Of course I don’t mean now but eventually when critical improvements to the game engine need to be made (which will take time) and would in any case necessitate a full reset and advancement to an MD 2.0. As far as the inevitable losses in the MD community is concerned MD already lost nearly all of its really old players (who started 2006-2007) the ‘old’ players now are those that started mostly in early and middle 2008 and personally I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the currently ‘old’ players leave never too return if I ever get back. There will always be new players that come in as long as enough advertising is done and a new and yes maybe even better community will develop. This is the alpha after all and we all knew it would end eventually so we should not be shocked when it does. After all do you play this game for fun or just to show off? I think it would be a lot more fun if some serious changes were made to the way the game works (especially now that its creator knows how people react to some things). If you just play to show off something you have worked hard for (‘grinding’) then I would suggest you save that sort of desire for real life where there are plenty of opportunities for it in making a career for yourself. I suppose given the last post I made on story integration my opinion on this topic is not exactly unexpected but I just want to say one more thing. Remember sometimes its better to cut your losses when something has become too unwieldy rather attempt to save something that really isn’t worth saving anymore otherwise you end up obsessively working on the same thing forever. One final suggestion I have that ties in to what was said about how hidden algorithms are being built behind the combat system displayed by the combat log and that is to eliminate the combat log entirely leaving only the animated creature fight. For those that remember the combat log was originally put there when the combat system was being tested so that players could judge from it whether it was fair and balanced and operated correctly and report it back to Manu (this was back when he read all pms, yes it was a very long time ago) which they could not really do from the animated screen alone. It was not supposed to be accessible by the players indefinably only the animated creature fight was (at least that is the impression I got) but like many temporary features it became all too permanent, now it is central to combat and the animation hardly anyone bothers with at all. Of course the animation doesn’t show statistics as well so it prevents the kind of number crunching the combat log allows which is what we want The idea being that that the character only observes their creatures actions and learns from that rather then from analyzing the values in the output screen.

I have put this here for lack of a better place, so mods and admins, you can move it if you want. Well I have decided to take a break from the game, maybe permanently or maybe not I don’t know yet. However I have attainted something of a position in the game and am something of a quasi-RPC so I want to let everyone know without having to message a lot of people and that is what this post is for. I have played this game consistently for a very long time but even I have my limits. I have given my Aqune account information to Yami no Sakura so that if the Storm Maidens powers are needed by Manu or whoever else for something she can just log on and use them for me. Also just before I leave I wanted to relate part of a conversation I had with Manu about the game that may prove illuminating about where MD is headed (I got his permission to post it for those that are wondering) : ------------------------------- RE:RE:RE:hi there Haha, well yes, but you would have nothing to be ashamed of if Muratos del Mur fell behind Aqune since that isn’t even your first character and I started my Aqune character before you even created him and were still going around as King Manu. Anyway before going there is just something I wanted to tell you about the games direction. This is just my opinion mind you and you may be happy with the direction it is going in but I really just wanted to tell you about it if only to make you aware of the situation. I think that sadly my favourite aspect of the game, the story (I am referring to the official story in the story mode not to the one in the adventure log) has lost its importance in the game world. This explanation is somewhat long and I know how you don’t like to read long pms but bear with me cause I think it is important and you might find some valuable insights here. When I first started playing about a year and a half I was always impressed by the story the most and thought it would come to be the most important part of the game but since that time it has not progressed and has really become irrelevant to the rest of the game. I think if you took stock at how many of the options are used in the left hand menu you would find that the story icon is clicked on the least. Chapter 3 has yet to come out and you were even already saying it was going to come out soon when I started playing! However more importantly the story doesn’t really make a difference in the game, rather then weave all other aspects of them game together like I thought it was supposed to its become just something people try to get through that gives you some stats but nothing you get much more of from fighting later especially at the higher MPs and the ‘roleplaying’ in the game has become completely detached from it as well. In fact the story has absolutely no role now in determining a players character or what happened to them in game with the exception of some special access given which can be circumvented by other means anyway. I thought at first that eventually the story choices would determine among other things what land you get into and so what kind of character you become so if you die you end up in Necrovion and get access to it and its creatures and items, if you end up helping Marind then you go to Marind Bell and have similar prerogatives and if you make some other choices then you would go Loreroot or Golemus and so on not having access to the other lands at least at first, everyone would have access to No Man’s Land of course. This would allow players that made similar choices in the story and so have similar characters start out together when they get out of story mode the first time which would create four different communities based on the four different lands rather then the current two communities based on either fighting or roleplaying. Those four communities would each having access only to their own creatures and items and go through their own quests in addition to the No Man’s Land ones and so would each develop their own unique fighting styles and ‘feels’ in isolation based on their own unique strengths and weaknesses then they could face each other in No Man’s Land and think of how interesting that would be!!! Four completely different communities fighting each other. I think this is what you had in mind originally didn’t you? And then later changed your mind as the game direction changed. Now the super number crunchers dominate the whole world with access to all creatures and land access has become a kind of special privilege you get from other players rather then something determined by your characters nature and role. I don’t see this as a positive development. Both roleplaying and fighting have become something like an appendix to the game itself having separate special interest communities and no real relation to each other or to the other aspects of the game, which are comparatively underdeveloped. This has made the game feel ‘disjointed’ at least to me, serving two special interest groups focused around specific gameplay activates rather then something in the game world. You have the fighters who treat the game as a kind of chess match playing with stats and skills and monster types and the roleplayers that treat it as pencil and paper type RPG or MUD in the chat hoping to get official recognition from you for their self-created personas. There is a complete disconnect between these two things (though a player may participate in both aspects) and the broader game as well. I think the key toward making a good roleplaying computer game (as opposed to just a set of graphical chat rooms where people can roleplay like they could with pencil and paper) is to make it so that a person’s character is formed through the game mechanics as people work within them so that for example if they say pick on the weak and in so far as they do so the game would recognize them as opportunistic scoundrels (the honour system as it was meant to be! but now as we both know honour has become just another stat people work to build up). With such a system fighting and roleplaying would become naturally integrated rather then disintegrated as they are now and even people that are not particularly interested in making a role for themselves when they start out end up having one ‘formed’ for them in the end by the game based on their actions and choices in the game world. As it is the roleplay is something done on top of the game mechanics at best and beside it at worst. Now the design challenge here is in making a mechanic like this that is fool proof (or we could say dst proof!) so that everything that you can do in that game world would be recognized by the game mechanic and change your character and even lead you to some game role. Then the game feels like a real world you are having an adventure in and not just like some stat building chore you have to do so that you can show off to other players in PvP later or your RPC status for consistent chat roleplay. Now this isn’t easy since exploit artist types will always try to find ways pumping up their stats crazy in an imperfect game mechanic but that’s why you have to work at perfecting it as exploits occur otherwise the game world becomes disintegrated (I guess you could call it the principle of entropy). Perhaps this is just my way of looking at it since I tend to be a very passive roleplayer and prefer to let my character form naturally (even unconsciously) over time as I play the game, try things and interact rather then create some persona before hand and then try to act it out. I had no idea I would be playing the ‘storm maiden’ when I started playing this game and chose that avatar simply because I liked it the most of the golden ones then available and just somehow ended up here where I am today (you could say the role found me rather then I it). I suppose that after all that criticism I should give you some suggestion on improvement but unfortunately I don’t really have any suggestions for you as to how to change this trend since it seems that short of a drastic game system overhaul, an advancement to the ‘beta’ test phase or something like that it would be very difficult if not impossible and that also its likely to really anger the current player community who have established themselves in the current environment. Then again you did once say that since this is the alpha phase players should be prepared to have their accounts deleted when you restart after going to beta phase and that that was one of the risks associated with participating in alpha test so you may want to bring that up. I’m sure you learned a lot about MD game design and development from want has happened in the alpha already, what works and what doesn’t and that’s what alpha testing is all about. Well hopefully I have made some sense in my lecture here and have given you something to think about. I having been keeping these thoughts to myself for a while now but now that I’m leaving I figured I may as well tell you. It might be a good idea to get the player community’s opinions on this too so with your permission can I post it on the MD forum? *From: .Muratus del Mur. (ID:1028) *sent 1 day and 6 hours ago RE:RE:RE:RE:hi there Hi, yes you are absolutly right, i know of the situation but i ant d much about it at this point. The story is like a paralel things going along with the rest and thats not the way it was supposed to be. ...but to develop the initial story turned out to be much more dificult and slow that allowing players to deveklop their own stories. A lot of things changed since the story and if i were to create things from scratch now i would proceed differently. I can opny hope that in time this will be fixed. One other main reason why story is not done yet is that major game parts , like creatures or area functioality is not done yet, so it would be strage to unlock angiens in the story yet have none at all. I will probably launch it like that since its anyway not so important anymore sadly. Anyway i am not going away from that path, i am just completing other things and eventualy all will come to gether i am sure of it. Thanl you for your opinion on this, you can post it on the forums, but just that you know, i wont be watching it to much, i have little time to check the forums. Thank you

I'm more of a loner in the MD world really so I won't be actively joining you plus you seem to have a lot of prospective members already. However as a member of Loreroot if you need my storm powers for a specific task I would be more then willing to assist, it will be interesting to see at any rate what this Nature's Sword is and what it can do.

I think the 'being' that give you the cube at the beginning is Jack Willow who is trying to save you from the Shades from the House of Liquid Dust that surround you. He has become 'part' of those shades I think but still is able to maintain his own identity to some degree and perhaps sees you as someone that could potentially save Marind. The cube that he gives you is actually the wooden cube where you meet Marind and after you take it you get absorbed into it before coming out of it eventually in Chapter 2. Note that as in the story each of us still has the wooden cube in our possession, at least all the story choices I made ended up with me picking up the wooden cube and putting it in my pocket. Anyway thats how I interpreted the story when I went through it.

I was thinking about what Manu said about appearances and while I'm not sure if he was referring to my post it may be that Akasha did not turn into the Shade Sentinel but rather that her act of writing the Book of Principles caused the Shade Sentinel to form in Necrovion as a reflection or manifestation of that book (perhaps as a corruption of the real one?). Consider that Khalzadad instigated contact with the shades shortly after Akasha was writing her book(after which we did not hear from her anymore) starting The Shade Balance saga before Alche's quest for The Book was even complete. The whole act of Akasha deciding to write her own version of The Book of Principles may have started the chain of events that led to The Shade Balance as much as Wodin's creation did. Also Manu said that the Book of Principles was never found but didn't Alche turn into The Book when he touched the flame and evolved to a higher form? Cause I was under the impression that that is what happened though I guess I was wrong and the real book (a physical thing?) is still hidden somewhere. Another thought: the same player that plays Akasha may be the one the plays the Shade Sentinel too since as I said in my pervious post we stopped seeing Akasha around the time we started seeing the Shade Sentinel.

This is just speculation mind you but has anyone considered that Akasha turned into the Shade Sentinel after she left Golemus Golemicarium since no one has ever heard from her since. After all they are both female, Akasha became more 'dark' after making her own version of the Book from the 6 pages and the Shade Sentinel somehow got the page to throw into the fire. As for the pyramids I believe there are 9 in total, 7 on land and the 2 floating ones. If each pyramid corresponds to a principle then the 10th is probably invisible or hidden somewhere.

Yes after making my map for MB I found that MDA is the largest and most complex land there is now so it is not surprising people get lost in there and yet it is the only one without a map.

Well since its going to be on for the whole day I will probably be able to show up if only for a little while. I usually stay at Maple Road anyway when I'm not at Willow's Shop that is. If I have some extra heat I will even try to create some nice weather.

I have to agree with Glaistig, MRD and dst (seems like we are always butting heads but I guess the occasional agreement does happen) on this. This sort of thing will turn the entire world into a kind of dojo for what? 5 alliances (GotR, CoE, CoS, GG and even the MRs if it includes them too) and really ruin the fun (for me at least) in fighting. I have played a number of MMOGs in the past and there are plenty where a Non-Aggression Pact makes sense for the parties involved but MD is not one of them. In all those other games there are always NPC type monsters for people to fight when there is no other player willing to or online but not so in MD where PvP is really all there is and the main point of the game other then roleplaying. Having to ask permission is a real inconnivance since time matters in this game and the other player may be AFK. It will also cause a build up of “can I attack you” spam in the chat or in personal messages. Personally I have no problems with people attacking me without ‘permission’ ever (which unfortunately for an MP6 protector is all too rare). If I win I get Xp, skills and wins for my creatures and if I lose then that’s good too since I get a loss which allows me to get more honour later on or even if I lose Xp that is good because of the dreaded cap so I don’t understand what the big deal is. I suppose there is the benefit of being able to set up rituals without being attacked but you can use the dojo for that and preparing adequate defences fast enough is or I should say was part of the challenge (or at least a dummy defence like most do now). So I purpose an amendment to the treaty which I also just posted on the Loreroot forum in the Diplomacy section: I purpose that the treaty be amended with the provision that by default you can attack the members of the other alliance without permission unless they explicitly say they don’t want you to. Like I said above I personally don’t mind being attacked without permission for those that can that is and I don't see why I should just assume that others do. While I would rather we not have this kind of treaty at all I would be satisfied with this provision and I think that it is reasonable since if you attack someone and they don’t mind it so they don’t report it and the treaty is circumvented anyway. If this provision doesn’t get through I’m afraid I will have to leave the Guardians of the Root (or at least ignore it until NelyaSetesh kicks me) and either remain independent or join a less restrictive alliance. I do miss the old days when there was risk and therefore thrill in the combat system but I already talked about that in my Valkyries of Violence thread. I can deal with the dojo since I just don’t fight there (and only go there to heal other players) but this kind of thing is just too much for me. As I say in my character description I prefer to remain silent for the most part. Paraphrasing Manu about alliances from about a year ago (in some ways what is happening now with all the LR and GG alliances is the same thing that happened with all the LR and MB ones back then with everyone getting all buddy, buddy and joining the same alliance): We can still be friends even if we fight against each other

So that is why I haven't seen Penelope around, I was wondering why I never see her anymore. Its sad to see her go I remember even recommending her to Manu after he made me PWR, too bad nothing will come of that now. I also thought that the Children of the Eclipse was going to be a sure thing but from what I have heard recently Manu doesn't want to make any new alliances right now at all so its not just you he is ignoring. I can't really talk more about that topic here (and if I did Chewett would probably just censor it anyway) but for those that have access to the Lonely Tree forum (dedicated to Bob at the Path of Loneliness) you can find out more there if you have access that is (it is a private forum).

[quote name='Death Bell' post='22651' date='Dec 18 2008, 11:08 AM']hey someone told me about a avatar searcher or sumthing.. is ther ea way to gather the people that have a avatar? so we can see all the avatars?[/quote] A long time ago there was a topic about this and it is possible to view all avatars. There is no avatar search or anything like that but the folder on the server where the avatar images are stored is public so if you know the URL for it you can view them all. I have forgotten the URL for the avatar folder unfortunately (really should remember to write stuff like that down) but I do remember they were listed by number rather then name.

If I happen to be online at that date and time I would like to attend but I'm not on much anymore. Name: Aqune

Must you always be so mean and arrogant? Why couldn't you have said "I would never talk about you behind your back Aqune" or just "I did not talk about you behind your back" or even nothing at all rather then that. But I suppose that would be too much to expect from someone as vain as you. You really shouldn't be surprised that people regard you as a villain when you act that way all the time and belittle them.