Aeoshattr

May I clarify, as I feel there is either some inconsistency or some bad phrasing in the announcement. Consistency has been used to terminate Necrovion in 2016, so I am curious to know whether this is a new change or a mistake. Necrovion has been opened for an indefinite period of time, as per https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/4556 , which states the Necrovion guard is not to kill anyone during this indeterminate period of opening. There have been no announcements since that one to say the "new norm" is for Necrovion Guards to resume killing tresspassers. The most recent announcement states that after the MD Anni day (whichever it was), things will be "as per usual" https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/4980 The usual has been for tresspassers to not be killed. May I have this clarified, please, @Chewett, since Mur's previous announcement on the topic contradicts Anno 4980. Thanks.

It is unfortunate to see you go, Blackshade. I had kindly asked you to not resell the Imprinted Dark, as attributing a value in gold to it taints the personal nature of the item and the quest that was in place to obtain it. If you are departing the game, I'd kindly ask for the item to be returned - or passed down to one other that you deem worthy.

I'll try to keep it short and to the point: Gateway Guardians, RPCs and LHOs can (and IMO should) be different titles which a player may or may not hold multiple of. Gateway Guardians are like guides for new players, to introduce them into MD's universe from a lore and atmospheric perspective, as well as mechanics. LHOs in my mind were always like little helpers, people who could help you if the game did an oopsie on you (also fitting of the spells they get given) RPCs were established characters, players who became part of MD more than anyone else, but not necessarily related to the Gateway island. TL:DR - I don't think we should mix those 3 responsibilities into a single one, but players should be allowed to hold multiple of them if they can consistently manage them well. If anything, I think LHO should become a very official and strict title - a professional responsibility. More like an OOC title rather than anything that holds lore value in-game. Likewise, I don't think we should bind RPCs to the Gateway Island only, especially since at the moment it's pretty much closed to most of the playerbase (I think it's still inaccessible to old players?)

Thank you. No offense taken, was looking to have the problem fixed, not asking for an apology

Rudely bumping this, may we have this looked into? Regardless of whether Ledah and I are (yet again) alted, the situation cannot be resolved without mod intervention, to my knowledge... and it's been a week. @Chewett Is there anyone else who could assist with this when you are busy or not around?

*Syrian* and I appear to be alts... in spite of having not been alts for x years. May we have this issue fixed, as we are (dare I say obviously) not alts? Thank you. P.S. This is also an issue for me and Ledah but it's happened so many times I've given up on it.

Just to point out a slight discrepancy there. I slightly agree with NoOne here. If I may point out the obvious here and without meaning to be rude or disrespectful to anyone, I think the issue with this instalment of the AL is that it seems to be targetted specifically at a handful of people (I'd say 2-3) and while it affects the entire community it doesn't involve the entire community, or the involvement is superfluous at best. It feels like it's just to keep appearances up. I was there at the Red Service and perhaps I should have voiced my dissatisfaction at the time. I don't know how the others present felt, but to me it felt like it wouldn't have made any difference whether there were 2 or 20 people there, as the entire event was addressed entirely to Aia. It made the community involvement feel like an afterthought rather than a driver for the ritual. To whom it may concern, please consider I am not pointing fingers, I am trying to highlight what I find to be an issue with the AL at the moment.

I'm actually surprised by a lot of the answers. I'm leaving VR aside, since I asked for specific features, and I don't think that entirely changing the platform of the game is specific enough. Thanks for your contributions on the topic. Feel free to add more if you want, though I've had my question answered.

I'll try to keep it to the point. This is half me thinking out loud, half me wanting to find out if anyone else has opinions on this. Do you think any specific mechanical aspect of MD needs to be "revamped"? One thing I notice frequently about other games is that developers keep game features "rolling", they adapt them to the player base and the way the player base works - they keep moving, forcing players to adapt. It brings novelty from the devs, but also forces novelty from the player base. MD feels very stagnant in this sense, and at least to me, it appears that a good chunk of features is out of tune with the current playerbase, and a lot of new features appear eclectic and disjointed from the old ones. Off the top of my head: Principles - of minimal use, in conjunction with tokens. With the current environment, there is nothing to make dynamic use of principles. You max them and that's it, never touch them again. Combat - honor, balance, etc feel clunky and cumbersome in the current environment. Armor sets - Some are incomplete (I think?), it's a "set and forget" kind of system that I personally haven't clicked in probably 1 year. There are probably more. Caveats: MD is a very conservative game in terms of mechanics, so I'm aware "revamps" might just not be a thing here. Revamps are very likely far too much work for a single person (Chew) who already has to also do everything else. So... Does MD have any feelings about this?

Happy birthday! I managed to not miss it this year.

Half jokingly, half not, and addressed to all of you, not any particular side of the argument.

Some parts of it are historic or simply "up for debate", but I brought them up for the argument's sake. Unrelated to the topic so that will be the end of that.

On the one hand, taking combat away for 2 days/month forces people do do something else, even if that is nothing at all. It makes people try to find another activity. If there was something captivating enough happening in MD, players might focus towards it in those 2 days. This already exists deep within the wish-shop. I'd dare say too deep, but that's not for me to decide. Lore-wise, if my memory serves me right, DoT was meant to be dedicated to realm-wide Night, which never happened. Again, it's been a long time so take it with a pinch of salt or correct me. So it serves a purpose in lore, mechanics and gameplay direction. TL;DR: it's 2 days / month, the benefit of removing it (for grinders) doesn't outweigh the potential game-wide benefits for everyone else if something productive is done with it.

I have previously attempted this with very limited success; with even fewer players now than when I tried, I think you're up against a challenge... Regardless, should you find interest in the night, come speak to me.

No, Fang, we can't run around our lands if we do not have a land and keep in mind most new players and some veterans have no citizenship. I personally could just get 12 won fights for a burst, but people shouldn't have to need that after ever single fight.

If it is deemed suitable to be official documentation, I would be honored, that was how it was initially intended. May I ask it to be credited to me wherever it is added though?

If anything, at the moment Azull embodies the spirit of MD better than you, Fang, in spite of your efforts to act as a guide and guardian of the young. That's what MD is about. Being immersed into the world, not treating it as any other game where you can just quickly check the forums or summon a support team to fix things for you. They need to learn to put some soul in, put a part of themselves out there, even when dealing with requests for help.

Can we please have some kind of fix for some of the bigger issues though? It's been quite a few days and having your VE reset to 1500 every time you're being attacked is a bit annoying. Also stats not counting, combo counters not adding, etc etc etc.

Fang, you do not understand what a MP6 would mean to MD, or you do not understand all the ramifications of it. There can be no MP6.

MD-wise, most lands at the moment probably have between 2-5 active citizens (and I feel I'm being very generous here). Votes within a land are meaningless, since any vote can pass with 1-2 people agreeing on something. We're a very small community and because most of us have been around for so long, we've all got beef with one of the others at least (or are far too good friends with others, which in terms of democracy is equally bad). We'd never agree on anything, external voting would be abused to force decisions on other lands, try to direct game development in a direction that puts us at an advantage, etc etc.

Thought: Do we know that the problem with our playerbase is because of the login/early gameplay? Have we looked into this? It seems that a lot of work is being put into this part of the game, yet over the past 2-3 years the player base kept decreasing (or at least it feels like it has). It would be useful to have some numbers to illustrate when players leave, at what stage, etc - these numbers might be there, I am unaware and I don't think they've ever been made public. I don't think that MD's problem is that it's too difficult to register or that it takes too long to go through the tutorial, etc, thus I don't think that making a login via facebook would help. It could be neat, sure, a one-click way to login, but I doubt it would actually help. In other words, I don't think that players leave in the early 0-2 days stage, I think they leave in the middle phase (a few days into the game, before they reach 'end-game')... and that's an entirely different problem altogether.

I support the idea of spell-docs being more available since, as Chew said, only 3-4 are obtainable at the moment, at best. On the other hand, I see spell-docs as useless at the moment (and quite frankly I cannot recall any spell doc being used at all in years). RP is dead. Nothing is happening. Why invest time in something that has never actually been used and that is unlikely to ever be used in the foreseeable future? Correct me if I am wrong, but also, since spell docs are ultimately just fancy RP, why invest time and effort in them at all? Do they actually hold any objective power, or is it all down to someone just respecting what you do with a spell doc if they feel like it?

Just to clarify. Especially since it is contrasted with before, I understand that you will not "fix" anything since (in other words after) the agreements are made, so then they are technically null? Or is it just phrasing? I.E. it sounds like "I'm not going to fix anything before or after these agreements." Pointing it out mostly because it leaves a (gaping) window for interpretation which you may not have intended.

To my knowledge, MD currently has no remaining dedicated artists. All are either busy with RL or have left. There is, indeed a Night Keeper at the Fictionists' House whom you can ask.