Muratus del Mur

Yup, much earlier than i was expecting. Finaly 100k accounts since the game was started. A lot of them are no longer active and i will do a cleanup soon, but 100.000 accounts is a number that still counts. I still remember when i counted players like 200, 500, 1000! ) I am curious what number it will be in one year from now, and most important how many players will have over 1 year activity, ..actualy there are a few right now.

having that situation just for the lvl2 avatars is more acceptable than for all of them. i think lvl1 should be instant buy (1 credit) and lvl 2 should be more ..competition. I wish i could supply an avatar for each player but thats obviously not possible so you have a few options, - to have the avatar gallery most of the time empty - to have a lottery for all avatars and then people will lose interes when picking an avatar the 100 time - to have avatar gal empty like now (instant buy), without lottery but offer the lvl2 avatars as a bid over a number of days. I dont see many other options realy. Having a lotery for avatars is the same as asigning one randomly just that its more cruel. With 1000 players participating and 10 avatars in gallery you will have a very slim chance to get one ...first time its ok, you lose, but what about after several times when you start to feel the lottery is 'stupid'. I realy dont like having items priced over 1 credit in mdshop. The incresed value comes from how deep the item is placed in the shop, but given the current situation i seem to have no choice, the lvl2 avatar mdshop item is not deep enough to limit players from instantly getting a lvl2 avatar once one is up. About custom avatars, i consider this as an option, will probably have a different fee as a normal avatar, fee shared with the artist creating the avatar, but i dont see this to happen before the new rpc admin is done and that will take a while. As future developments its possible to use wishpoints as bidding currency or price for custom avatars (i will pay an equivalent to the artist) but again, these are long term plans, for now we need a solution to the empty avatar shop. Also there is an other issue, currently avatars are payed and considered the same, even if some are much more dificult to do as others, having an auction system for the best avatars will allow me to reward the artists better for the better avatars. Your optinions are very usefull, and i dont want to argue lightsage, but we have to be realistic even if not all of you afford an avatar or bidding for a lvl2 one.

looks to me the option is clear. level 1 avatars will remain at 1credit and level2 will be auction. THere will be about 1/10 lvl2 avatars, or less. This is avrg..sometimes will be more lvl2 sometimes none, but in general thats the ratio. lottery system could work somehting like more players submit for one avatar and only one is selected, however i fear things will be tottaly random and somehow the first come first served is better for lvl1 when you see an avatar and instantly get in love with it an get it. Hoping for an avatar and then losing it by bad luck its not something i like to much.

i am a bit confused, dojo is part of the university, its the university itself? lets talk a bit about this. To have a university in game with teachers on all kind of matters is something i will fully support, but this university should not be about game related matters. I think dojo should be training school for game related matters and the university should be about more real matters. I plan to add a personal doc special or the university that will allow teachers to prepare their lessons. Also the university should be located in MDA but with offices in other lands too. I think shifting the lessons place or organizing conferences on different matters in different locations is a good ideea. A special set of powers could be creted for university members to allow them better organizing of such events. Dojo on the other hand should be like second level LHO and help players learn how to fight but also prepare them for the role playing. The interface support for such a thing (both university and dojo in an organised way) involve a lot of changes and finalization of the archives doc system. I am willing to focus on that because i think that if this game evolves towards this university thing it will be simply amazing. However, university should remain an isolated group of schools. players shold want to get into the university and not find it everywhere like a group of fanatics trying to teach things to people that do not want to. Entrance to the university should be sort of a quest and target, in that way players will fight their way in and have a lot more respect to the teachers. The new voting system i finished recently could be used to mark the teachers and not the student. the students should not get marks, but the teachers should.

game bases are not in any myth you can possible refer to. the use of certain elemtns from other myth legends or real situations is because those elements build the world outside the game as we know it. Fiction, if you can say this, is also part of our reality. I consider important the feelings and the results of a certain fictioal element , not only its truth. Real legends and fact about magic things are long lost, moth of the things we know today are told by people at the edge of sanity, cultists, sick writers that bend truth so that they present their own version. The true legacy that carries on is both in real legends and myth but also in the EFFECTS of some fictional works...i am talking about the effects on the human imagination and understanding of this magical world we live in. Magicduel itself is part of this in a way. The creatures used in the game are fictional, however some represent very good well defined states of our spirit. Features in this game and the final EFFECT it has on players, makes this whole magicduel legend a tool to teach people about a special part of their existance. When i used that sign i was thinking about this. I might have done a mistake doing it, i am not sure yet if so. Your reactions to this matter a lot. I am a maniac in having original work, i spent a lot of time in doing research and carefully study all implications of the land names used in the game, the principles, and many other things, and to have a spot of "copied material" like that seal, is unacceptable unless i hoped to achieve a certain effect with it, one of the effects desired was to have peope researching some things in that direction. i turned this into a poll, please vote and spread the link to those that care about this. I dont think its important enough for all players so i wont post it on main news log. thnx

yes thats a problem indeed, but i cant fix that too soon, if at all. i sugest to sum all subscriptions in one so that you get the gold one permanently, you ale get a higher bonus like that.

well it seems ther wont be any fluffy bunny in game... too bad. ..i did received some sugestions, and they might be used but not in the way i intended to. Thank you all that tried to do something.

udgard, as i said before, even if the festival ends that does not mean you will have to give up on your role. Initialy i was plannning to reward just 3 ppl (read the contest rules!) but now i am rewarding a lot more...and the natural reaction is that that people are upset they didnt get a reward too ...its sort of normal. I hope the contest actualy learned all of you that participated how to play the game. The roles should be the way you play it, not something just for a contest....remember that. About the other players that do not enjoy role playing so much, well its a roleplaying game ... don't worry, the combat system will 'suffer' improvements and new creatures will be put into play. I wish i could work to improve both role-playing and fighting , but i cant do both at the same time...this period was for the role part...the same as the period when i made the head contest was for the fighting part. A lot of people dont like the head contest, a lot love it. ... it will allways be like that.

well its not vacation, i call it vacation because i will be away from the game but its not for relaxing, i simly go somewere else with other business for a few days. and yes, there will be more festivals like i said, better organised. and i am bored...you realy realy stressed me too much during the contest...too much...way too much ...true that its part of your role...but you are DANGEROUS )

First of all, the current festival was a chaos, but a very creative and useful chaos A lot of players got rewarded and some rpc's went very upset because of that and some regular players went upset that they did not get something too. I will not comment now why and how rewards were decided. There is a very very thin line between RPC (role playing character) and PWR (player with role). Some pwr have more abilities than some rpc's but they do not have the required age, or proven stability in game to become RPC yet. Some rpc were made rpc to see if they can do good, but they are under close surveillance, and other players were made PWR even if they should be RPC, but with a good reason. The main difference between rpc and pwr is the access to special logs. Only players that stayed long enough in the game can gain access to edit those logs. This whole pwr/rpc separation is new, i still don't have a very clear image on how to separate things well or if the current method is the right one to use. Its very likely that i will reorganize rpc/pwr roles soon. Initial reason for separating rpc/pwr was the access to some spells that could be easyly abused, BUT it seems that even the oldest rpc's abused them too, so , the current separation is only based on who has access to the logs and apears on the rpc list and who does not. I am giving spells based on how well that person can use them for their role, not based on loyalty or active days...not anymore. There are several ancient rpc's that are performing worse than some new pwr, and that situation will be changed soon. for now, my intention is to make all players with spells and quests as RPC, and keep as pwr all those that have only tag/description but no spells or quest, and also clean the current rpc list a bit. There will be a minimum age for rpc status and a limited number of active rpc's...that means pwr will take turns in rpc role from time to time.....dont ask me more, i have no clue right now myself...its just a thought...there are still a lot of things to figure out after this festival. The current contest proved to be an excelent way to see what players are realy capable of regarding role play. A lot of things will change and improve based on the things i learned from this contest and the festival. A new rpc admin interface is in work based on the things i learned from the festival, and much more will come during Alpha 7. Those of you that did not get rewarded during this festival dont give up. Keep your contest info on your page, and improve it. There are about 15 more players i want to reward but i dont think it will be possible untill tomorow (sunday) when the festival ends. Prizes for those players will continue to come after the festival but at a lower rate during the next month. A lot of new spells were created during the festival, these spells will be given in next festival also to other players that should get a similar abilities, they are unique just for now. After the festival there will be a cooldown period, i will be attending things i missed to do in this period, and you will probably go wild with your roles, or doing new quests Lets say i usualy have 150% ideas from the 100% max work capacity...well aftre this festival i have like 500% out of 100% i can do ...so i have to cool down also a bit to put my thoughts in order and see with what to start to make things better. My main target will be to make player promotion to pwr and rpc much more fluid. I also have new ideas of ingame quests/puzzles based on a new magic system i finished in this period and many many many more...but i have to cool down and start bit by bit, after a short break of course. The Artisans contest is also over, rewards/winners have been decided but it will take a while to dispatch them , after i finish with the festival first. Puzzle contest is complicated to decide. I've seen amazing quests, some very dificult some very easy but fun. It would be unfair to reward just the most complciated ones and ignore the easy and fun ones. Thats why i will delay, or even cancel, this contest for now. Eah player with a nice quest was reviewd for a rpc/pwr role anyway. Decision is not final on this, maybe i change my mind and pick a winner for this contest too...even if its so dificult to decide . well thats it ... tomorow things will get WILD..last day of the festival! Thank you all for participating

Logan Marquis - tag: Observer of Wills - custom description - +10k max vit - +10k max vp - spells: locate, earfocus - custom spells to see player movement and filter out chat messages of a target player allover map

Penelope LightMoon - tag: Moon Priestess - custom description - +10k max Vp - +10k max Vit - in work: custom ability regarding moon phases affecting entire game world. - 20 credits

Limbertok - tag: The Collector - custom description - +10k max vp - +10k max vit - spells: acousticremains - custom spell to view full chat log in a location. spell also comes with a curse/negative effect.

i love this. The first post in "School of Thought" posted by someone else and its a damn good one. Thanks Morrel, and all participating in this.

Aqune - tag: Storm Maiden - custom description - +10k max vp - +10k max vit - spells:weather - storm, mildrain, sunny, heavyrain, heavyclouds, snow - custom ability to modify weather, further ingame integration comming soon.

All around you are big and small things. Thye are big or small because you compare them to eachother. Take two things you want, one big, one small, then try to see things comparing to them in such way that they will look exactly the oposite. For example, (i love small things) take an ant, and a car (i suppose you dont have an elefant?) Look at the car ..is it small or big? dificult to say, because you have to compare it to something. At first , the most natural answer is the car is BIG, and the ant is SMALL. But look at the car in such way that you will realise how small it is. Compare it to the surrounding buildings, to the sky, to anything large enough to make that care be insignificantly small. Then take the and. I dont know how your imagination can work on this, but if it cant then pick somethig a bit larger than an at . Force your mind to think on how the and could possible be HUGE. Try to imagine its world, the dust grains it steps on, the little life forms that live even on that tiny ant. Sounds absurd at first, but training your mind to see things from an "oposite" point of view will make you understand things better around you, much better. This simple example can be expanded to much more complex situations. Take a man that is smashing his fist in your face and for one second imagine his reasons (regardless if they are wrong or not) and place yourself in his position. I am not saying to forgive him, i am just saying that understanding things from their opposite direction, will give you a huge advantage when balancing a situation, and the ant-elefant things is not an example, is an actual training material.

when reaching the limits, amazing things can happen. Imagination is a playground for our mind, and sometimes the thoughts never stop. The simple fact that you try to keep you mind tottaly clear of all thoughts is more challanging than it might seem, and its achievements are far greater than you realise. I have a very strong imagination, i could solve complex geometry problems without knowing anything about how to do them mathematicaly, just because i could imagine the figures and actualy do the measurements in my mind. You will think that a strong imagination, or a smart mind has nothing to do with the sort of meditation i am talking here, but its not quite so. Managing so "silence" your mind will make you "hear" the things you usualy miss. Usualy your brain computes multiple tasks at the same time, but depending on person you can focus on one of them at a time (i can do about 2-3 totaly independend paralel processes). When you clear your mind as in this experiment, you actualy shut down the first process you can focus on , then the next comes in, and so on. The deeper the processes are the more confused they are and dificult to understand, thats why they look like fragments of thoughts. If you manage to close down ALL of them, a 'terrible' thing can happen, you could remain without a point from where to start, like a total shutdown. In this case, you will be instantly dreaming completely losing consciousness for several hours. Mostly this does not happen, because if you are capable enough to do this, then you are also capable of entering a state where your mind "thinks of nothing, but still thinks"...some of you might be familiar with "ZEN".. Keeping your mind empty _and prepared_ (so dont fall asleep), has enourmous potential. Think how it will be to focus all that free brainpower that stoped thinking on background process just on one single task. After achieving that mental state, with practice, you could repeat it in any conditions, even in a loud party room you could still enter that special mindstate in seconds...but that requires A LOT of training.

Find a vey very quite place. close all communication ways to external world, internet, phones, door bell etc. Try to think about nothing, clear your mind of every single though in it, try to make it perfect. Now it all explodes - will your mind create ideeas and fill itself with remaining parts of daily routine and events? or will it remain perfectly empty? 1) if it remains empty, can you hold that for 5min? (without thinking of the clock!! dont cheat, think of nothing!) 30min?....how about 1 hour?! 2) if it starts to become filled with fractures of thoughts, how dificult is it to clear it, is it even possible? Try on your own risk

when saying such complex things in a few words you always have to sacrifice part of the ideeas behind it and you do that by filling the empty space with art, poetry, intelligent contrast of words. making a short , VERY short explanation, is much more dificult than writing novels about it, because you have to make a choice about what ideea to sacrifice and what part to put in front from that complex ideea. This is one aspect you all knwo in the things i initialy said, but the obvious is sometimes to obvious to be noted I was looking for a spark of genius, not a academic description of this. Gargant, your "article" is impressive, but as you can see i am teasing you with this reply, in an atempt to try to make you and others understand that complex thought are better described by much less complex explanations.

"reality is the song of my personality" .. i couldn't say that better.

thats so nice to watch your reactions i never said i was correct or wrong, i am just observing your theories. The simple fact of thinking about this makes the point of this "school" and having a little ammount of doubts makes your reaction more energic than simply agreeing with me ... i sooo enjoy this

put "busy" + "attitude" + "authority" together and you have a GOD. Stay enough offline and you become a MITH. Shout something after a long time on the chat and put it in red and you have a GODLY COMMAND. Lets not confuse your respect and admiration to me with religious and god-like beliefs...even if its kind of fun LOL

Personality means to view and act on things from your own point of view Realism means to view and act on things from everybodys point of view 1. is that right? argument 2. - if so, how can you be a realist person with personality - if not, how would you decribe personality and realism in just a few words like above note: i might not have the right word for realism. what i mean is a person that tries to make things very very objective and according to the general perceived reality without beeing influenced by personal feelings and habits. ---- This is first School of Thought "lesson". I wont teach you anything, i will make you teach yourselves. Anyone is welcome to open new topics in similar manner if you feel you allready get the point on how this works. One reply per topic from each player would be ideal to keep thoughts list clear.

well i know it sounds weird, but hear me out. I want to give a public page for a player, like a diploma, that will state my personal opinion about that player, and other important people too, such as shoeps or some main rpc/s. Example diploma will state about a player that he is for example a very talented artists, that he solved dificult puzzles and in what way, that he is a loyal player and its able to integrate well with others in collaborative play, and so on. This page will include a lot of personal information too, info about the player psyhological profile based on his activity in the game. I am not sure if i can explain it right, but i sure feel the need of doing this. I want this to be like a mark of a true MD player, because some legendary players will walk away with personal problems, others will simply give up in time, and important people will become lost in the history of MD without having something to remember them. This so called diploma, will be what I (and some others) will have to say about that PERSON not only about that player. I have no clue yet how it will look like, or if it will be connected to rpc roles only, probably yes, because it will be more easy to get a rpc role than a diploma , at first. You knwo those sites that you do a IQ test and then you can post a small image showing that score in your forum signatures, emails etc? Or the stupid sites that tell you "how much you are worth"? well i want that sort of thing ... lets call it a MagicDuel style IQ test...or TALENT test. I dont know what on the net can put all your abilities together and show them as an official record that you are that person. MD can gather a lot of such data based on your activity. I think the real MD game is actualy a test for all of you, from the simple activity days that show your loyalty and involvement (not only towards the game!) to the quests that you solve, or not. And a successfull test should have a diploma to should of what you are capable. I also hope that like this i will keep a strong group of people together even if they wont play the game anymore, maybe even have them communicate together in real life, why only the game. What do you say, will it work? what do you say, should i go on with this? you see it possible ? or it will cause a more elitistic community with new players rejected by older people with 'diploma'.

pleare remember the location has to be very VERY well integrated with the current drawing style and locations. we can talk about possible locations, or even a new map EAST... just dont do work without thinking about things because they are important if you want the location placed in game.