Jubaris

Principles weren't capped when the tokens were implemented. Because of this, it took a considerable lower effort to counter players with high stats brute-force wise.

Okay but why it wasn't done at least in raw format? Last html5 announcement was 5 months ago: http://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/3049 What's the problem with this implementation, does it require a lot of time, or it was postponed because of lack of motivation?

I agree that it doesn't have a reference to other problems that you can focus on, but that's not really my fault. There is a communication problem, there is not a list of problems provided where we vote and discuss on what will we focus on, everything is kind of arbitrary. Yes, you made a new forum topic about what we think should be done, but those events are rare and an exception. We as a community are ignorant of the timeframe you or any coder provides for MD on an average level, and what can we do to help you guide it. Out of that ignorance comes a big interest in some bugs or features that are realistic to be taken care of. I think voting such as this is a good method to bring that community-coder channel, and I would hope you to use it. Point out its weakness wherever they are so we can make the communication channel stronger by improving those gaps. And all this because I do think you care for the community opinion. If I am mistaken, and you prefer doing things left alone and such, no problem.

@Kyph: "Not a priority" option was intended to be covered with voting option number 3, the example I've made there has basically the same context as "not a priority" - yes for the wish, no for doing it now. I believe the voting poll has covered all meaningful options, please correct me if I'm wrong, because it concerns me Chewy says the topic is leading, I'm not sure in which way. @Chew: Hmm. I think I didn't imply this is the most important thing in MD to be done. It's an annoying bug (that 'thankfuly' attacks only the older players) spotted before, for which we already had a solution on how to deal with it since long ago. When I spoke to you, you said that this is on the "to do" list anyway, but it's been a long time since this is a problem so I inquired when is this planned to be done, are there some factors that influence this, hopefuly, factors that the community can help with. You responded that you are not sure why am I confused and told me the list of reasons that make you code, that I mentioned in the original post. You weren't exactly helpful with the clarity in that conversation, so the only natural conclusion that I gained from you is that this will be done if people agree that this is an active problem that needs to be solved, which is what is being done here. You imply that working on this solution will halter other activities, can you please explain if this is true?

Problem - like with the original creatures page, too many creatures slow down the game because of the huge loading process. Solution - Using HTML5 as an optional way of loading the creatures when building a new ritual will make it very fast. At first, the feature may be raw and "click for this slot" kind of thing, rather than "drag and put on slot you want", but it is practical anyway. Style-ing it can come later. Why this topic? Chewy stated things make him code are fun things to code, public support for an idea, and Mur replying on emails, so please vote on one of the options. This is a good sign of MD's activity in general as well.

I don't know why would you say such a thing. I am happy to see community discussions and development of its ideas. I am pointing out the ambiguousness of some of what you said. The problems people address and you respond in post #9 asking for more info are already known, number of features require a closure. In that post you ask for concrete details, but that puzzles me - You periodically ask for feedback, opinions and such, which is good, and that makes you aware of many things people issued as a problem, but many times it seems to me you just let people provide info that you will lock up in some pile never to be seen again, because same questions periodically appear with you saying they weren't addressed before, or that you misplaced them. Do you honestly think we should move to the next stage, or the announcement was just meant to provoke a discussion? If the latter, why provoking rather than asking straight-forwardly "we are at crossroads, what do you want us to fix" etc.? I know you and other admin figures have problems with schedule, and can't focus on MD, that you are here volunteraly, that you guys have RL stuff, etc. I respect that, it isn't a problem for me, and I'm sure it's the same opinion about it with all the other players. Nobody has demands that you work harder. That shouldn't prevent you from just keeping things straight and clear for everyone, where are we going, why certain things aren't finished and what can WE do to help about it. Working too many things at once creates chaos here, I suggest focusing features one by one. Tell us what are you up on working for, focus on that, and tell the whole community what data you require, where can we help. We lack clarity majorly. We can start with the combat system, since a lot potential is there and it is a big part of MD's gameplay. Just a suggestion. For instance, if the combat system gains an official focus, cool thread such as Ary's combat talk would gain an initiative, and all the problems and cool ideas would be processed straight away, it would mean something. Whenever a problem is spotted and it gets addressed, if we can't find a final solution, we find a temporary default solution that will do the job (like the windys becoming eligible for drach premium boosts, a temporary solution) rather than keep things pointless or buggy. At some point, we covered a big part of the system, and we can move on and not trip every month or so on the same stuff because of the chaotic multitasking. In regards to the html5 - what data do you require for healing, can the community help with that, or is it something in inner admin relations? Regarding the ritual html5 - why does it have to be dragged, make it click based? Any practical improvisation is good, so the people with lots of creatures can use it fast, and that's currently the majority of MD. If you're willing for us to take care of it, let's discuss, if not, tell me to abandon it for now and I will, just don't use tricks to change the subject and make it hidden under the rug. With that approach, because it's clear and straight-forward, I would be very happy about MD's progress, even if we aren't doing anything :)) We would know what are we about, and where can our help be actually used.

You didn't call a meeting on asking people on what should you work on you, you ask them to provide arguments to your wish to move to the next stage. The fact is that there is plenty enough of material on what do people want fixed/coded, on the forum and I'm sure in personal messages as well. You play the game yourself too (highest number of activity days btw), so you're also aware of a number of shortcomings. What's exactly worrying you? In regards to HTML, it's not about it being more cool, it's exactly what I already said there, the creatures page is not completed (just click on it and see the description, you had it written), and it can be used for choosing-creatures-for-a-ritual interface as well. I think that was your idea anyway, sad you didn't see it through. It is not something I say it should be our main focus, it's just a small feature, but that's one of the rare things that marked this stage. Uncompleted/abandoned like most of other things. I think we can get a huge stimulation for MD with just a couple of tweeks rather than new features, it's probably not easy but it doesn't require experimenting and huge creativity, etc. It might go slow, probably will because of lack of time, but let's start. Fixing buggy stuff, modifying the combat abilities of creatures and such, things like that.

If number of announcements is what counts, then just make an automated system "incremenet stage upon 600 announcements"... I'm not sure what is going on, Chewy you made an announcement how you think we should move on to the next stage, asking of others to provide reasoning, all the ones that voiced an opinion so far are against moving on to the next stage, then you ask why not? :)) For me personally, it doesn't matter if it takes too long for something to happen, the fact that a stage lasts too long should just be a reason more for us to work on MD. Something that marked stage 12? Using HTML for creature pages, very cool, faster to load, but still not a complete feature. If it gets completed, made usable in the ritual interface as well (which is very slow for me and I guess for others as well), it would be something to boost of. Most of the other cool stuff, such as the AL were just briefly present, and it can't be said they marked this stage.

Happy birthday man, hope you will see this topic and return to active MDing :)

Ah, good! Missed to read those several topic digressions from combat talk. Although I expected that ideas for usage of windys are nothing new. Anyhow, there you don't mention this option, you're focusing on gg drach boosting the windy, premium drachs aren't mentioned. I am interested to see possible solutions, but I think that at the very least it should be allowed for premium drachs to boost windys, if some alternative doesn't come to fruition. I think you didn't discuss this option there because it doesn't bring much changes to combat rit potential, other than windys not being a 'waste'. I guess people will want windys to have a different role than that of other drachs, and I support brainstorming in that direction, but why not make this suggestion a default state for now, until the brainstorm brings concrete conclusions and agreements, rather than keep windys not interesting?

Like the title says, why not? Right now, as far as I know, windys have no practicle value. I'm sure a lot of people would prefer to use them than GG drachs. Why not change that? At high level fighting, it will make no impact-worthy stats difference.

Roudolf - 6 gc

Yes, you were a Savelite less-briefly than Z. It seems Loreroot is a 'dirty' past of many vets :)) Pamplemousse, former master archivist(?), and Jester, also an archivist, becoming Necro leaders, is interesting to me.

Here's a thread for all of those who wish to share an interesting detail from MD's history, that many would find hard to believe. For a start: Shadowseeker was in Children of the Eclipse Zleiphneir was briefly in the Savelites

While you are logged out you can get teleported, and abilities can be used on you (for instance kill items), by the way.

@No one: "No jump" scene tags are good indeed, but are rare and in 'specific' locations'. I'm not sure where are they all are, so far I've seen one in Necrovion, and maybe somewhere else, so sorry, will need an update for this one, in the meanwhile, I'll assume they are hard-to-get-to. How can I get into Necrovion? If they are not hard to get to, then what's the point, someone can just walk towards you. Furthermore, they are static, they are fixedly in places where they were assigned, what we want is a dynamic system (I guess). I (generally speaking, not me specifically) don't want to go to a place so I can't be disturbed, I want the a place where I am now not to be disturbed. Some principles of both logic and magic are followed of course. If I am in an open location, I should be easily disturbed. If I am a Marind Bellian, and I'm trying to hide in Necrovion, a powerful Necrovion wizard should be able to easily get rid of me. But if I am in a high-viscosity rarely visited location, that I happen to have high identity relations with (principle of transposition), why should you be able to transfer me to GoE while being anywhere in the realm against my will? (since you don't have to be in the same location to cast teleport to GoE, plus, you can cast it on array of targets. Doesn't sound OP, really??)

week reset system, but rather than going in the capitol, keep it randomized as it is now? I like that system. What's the current cooldown of the book?

Jump to Labby link is an admin support thing, the mentioned spells are player spells. Admins have no problem providing help and ensuring an event happens undisturbed, but I don't think that's the point. I don't get it why does Eon's "I'll mess up every quest I can" attitude finds a lot of sympathies here. He should have an opportunity to do it, but his targets shouldn't have only three options as some suggested here, getting council protection, kissing ass to eon, paying for protection (this was the funniest one). Balance the power system.

I was against the overpowered teleportation spells before, and I am now too, so this announcement is the step in right direction for me. What I would like to see is that the teleportation spell casts be very valuable (because you have a few casts, because you have a huge cooldown, etc.) so that the caster needs to think good whether he will use it or not. I would more look towards the way of the player to defend against teleportation spells by some spell wards or location-based wards, rather than attack at the very teleport spell (other than limiting it a bit like with this announcement). Currently, MD doesn't have an interesting aspect of hiding and secluding, even though we have a lot of hard-to-get-to locations, because of the plentiful location and teleportation spells. I always thought about motivations for choices in MD to be largely hypocritical, so the fact that DD being the reason of this announcement may be hypocritical doesn't bother me at all, I am used to this. Objectively-wise, I think limiting teleportation spells is a good step, so I'll settle with that. Thumbs up Mur, don't let them get you :D

Chewy mentioned he, Mur, the council, etc. can't find a solution? Why? Because everything that made this situation was systematically made possible. There were series and series of wrong decisions by Mur (and perhaps to lesser extent by others after him, but that's less impacting, situation got more 'fair' and law-ish but not completely), that I'm certain he knew they were wrong, but used them as a sacrifice to achieve something else. That 'something else' tends to fail at points, and we get a double lose situation. I remember a lot of events, with kingships for example, how they started - everything about them was an improvisation and a sacrifice for the 'greater' cause, which seems not to be accomplished by the way. I remember wish points were gave out for ridiculous reasons to friends and loyal servants, not in any objective way, Dst tracked down some of them and made a forum topic about it. Did something happen to those wish points or the one who was giving them? No, it was a willing sacrifice, who cares about corruption if that makes us closer to autonomous parts of MD which makes it easier to run it. It was probably signalized to Dst, so she backed down of pushing the matter, stating how she is satisfied it will not happen again because she noticed it the first time... Gazillion of such instances. And something you all know about, the 'common sense' rule. I'm not sure when did the teleport to GoE spell origin, but I know it was used for regulating Heads contest for those hiding in restricted locations. So when someone was a good person to mod it, the player was given a spell, which was also a blessing because the player could use it elsewhere but "with common sense". I don't know if that's how it worked in that particular case, but I know that it is indeed how things are done here. 'Common sense' was backed up by presence of Mur that could arbitrary decide what's good and what's bad. What happens when we don't have a Mur? (and things weren't shining when he was here, I tell you) A number of people with a lot of OP abilities that are only backed down by 'common sense'. I respect the fact that people will do something I don't find proper as characters, but if certain abilities were given with accent on responsibility and they are 'misused' then that's a problem, and I don't see it as Dst (since controversy always follows her) to blame when she does something I don't agree with, I blame the system for allowing and encouraging the breach of common sense (no apostrophes this time) for a good game. This particular case showed us how overpowering simple teleport spells are, limited casts into consideration. Dst/Eon had their reasons to do something about the event, and it just happens they can do a lot more than Dark Demon can. Find a way to balance the system, yet don't mettle with "social issues" as the council puts it. The worst thing the admins can do is to do nothing, which I have a hunch they will do just that. A reaction, even a bad one, would be better than nothing. A lot of people left our game mad - not a social issue, a system issue. I never heard of someone leaving Minecraft angry at the 'injustice' inflicted upon the player. :P

Happy birthday Marind Bellian muchacos! May your wishes come true!

Not sure if this was ever brought up: How about when you kill a creature, all of its effects/auras drop? For instance, you manage to kill a reindrach, from that moment on, his freezing aura is annulled, as well as his boost to the gg drach? Also, the III'' suggestion: Initiative giving lead has sense, but the ID portraying the 'fixed' age of a creature is also interesting to me, giving advantage to an older creature - since it is a matter about auras, and not actual attack, the whole spiritual level, it being stronger as it evolves, so makes sense to me that an older creature would unleash its aura first as it is 'stronger' in that aspect. This is a bit controversial since it overrides the 'age' stat of the creature, making its ID 'the actual age', but still...

Sanctity in case of Marind Bell is manifested only in the form of attitude of players towards the land, not in mechanics, which still keeps the situation contradicting to the one described at the gates. Protection against shades has already been partly discussed in the previous posts, Chewie's #3 post question, and my response on #11 post. The theme of other lands... I'm missing a "stomach" feeling about them to be engulfed in visions and 'surely this is it' feelings, which is why I postponed covering them from my perspective. Golemus and its interest in magic and technology I would like to see manifested in some practical and 'useful' abilities. Something that makes them the best in pure combat techniques for instance, practical solutions opposed to somewhat spiritual found in MB and NV. (those spiritual stuff can still affect combat, but just in a different direction rather than the one where Golemusian one goes) That old prot-freeze spell would be in that mood, for instance. We don't have to be held back on combat alone, I just can't find different associations at the moment applicable in our realm. For Loreroot, I would carefully step somewhere in the direction of healing remedies, herbs, lots of people I talked with are of an opinion Loreroot should have a good knowledge on the effect of various plants. Lashtal told me about his ideas for poison recipes. Maybe that would be Necrovion's reflection of Loreroot's knowledge, tainting the purpose of the one making the medicine into something more sinister. (suggestion for Necrovion to taint abilities of other lands, rather than host up a number of original abilities?) Since it is a forest, I would suggest us to ponder upon invisibility ability (it rhymes, therefore it is a magical suggestion :P) while in the forest itself. It seems very difficult for the implementation to be balanced straight away, if the intention is for the new features to be the soul center of magicduel's everyday life, but I think the brainstorming first has to pass that 'true to land' phase.

Precedent: When Ravenstrider disbanded the Necrovion sentinels, Jester had an option to revive them by spending one trust point. I personally don't think the Council should take 1 trust point off of Mya/whatever, good reasoning can be made as it was called for by the Council, but as a last resort, they should have that option, no? Personal reasons: Realm without alliances such as the Sentinels and GoTR seems much poorer. Ever since Firsanthalas I was never a fan of what GoTR was doing, but the hope for a better future remains, The activities of such 'main' alliances may be dubious, but their presence means something to me as a player, I like the symbolism of the Guerrilla, GoTR, Sentinels, SoE, even though the players somehow don't play as per my imaginary expectations, that includes myself as a SoEr I guess. MD loses a lot without them. If GoTR goes to slumber, I hope it will come back one day stronger, although different than what was till now.

I don't remember the exact details, I just know I lost a lot of fights with it from random rituals. I used 1% slider (just to have some regen, if they get killed so I don't need to heal them, lazy protocol). 4 aramors, soulweaver to grab some stats because I have squat if I meet someone with lots and to use as an all damager, and a snowman. Things changed to better when I swapped the snowman for a tokened chaos archer. Of course, such stuff can't do anything serious because it's vulnerable to a lot of things, freezes, VE, angiens... But on a lower level, for weaker mp5s, it should be alright for them to be able to fight with such creatures, between each other and use as such creatures a legit way to try to beat the training rits of grinders, at least. I'm way off what's going on in combat, so maybe that's already present, but what I want to emphasis the transition period of an mp5 player when he still doesn't have angiens, or stats, or drachs, etc. Giving more room to single-target creats as a means to enhance potential of that transitional period.