feedback

[Chance]

I've been ruminating recently, and these are just random thoughts I wanted to have written down.


1.
Organized conflict needs to have a beginning and an end, rather than fizzling out - previously, it has done so because the other side was perceived as being too weak and that felt unfair in the moment, but this isn't good storytelling. Defeating another faction should have direct consequences and a set number of battles that are hosted regardless of circumstances, unless the war is called off ICly. Never stop short.

Map changes / removal of spawns, or in Osrona's case, the destruction of districts and/or heavy damage to them. Visible change and player impact is important and it needs to show, because that's half of the fun in a game like this. Gathering the group and the momentum to make that change should be the only challenging part, other than the IC resistance. I think we have struggled a little with factions not going all the way or slowing down half-way through, but it does need to be made clear that end-game goals are possible (because they're quite literally the most memorable moments from Eternia / Spires) and that any plot armor is minor at best. 

2.
The map, as is, is much too large. Half of it is giant forest filler. A smaller map with iconic, recognisable areas would be good (& a return of Spires' region descriptions). To accomplish this, we really need more people than just Milly helping with mapping, and maybe we need to do some things to encourage people to mess with the tools (a guide on mapping? A contest?). The map editor is better than it's ever been and it's very easy for someone to add a headquarters for their group, spruce up their house, etc etc. It's a bit of a shame to not see it be taken advantage of.

3.
Refunding openers shouldn't be an event reward, since I've seen a lot of these requests pass through and they feel a little menial / chore-like. If someone takes a different path IC, such as holy magic/occultism, then they can have the option to re-spec a tree. If someone has royally screwed up their build (and this is plainly obvious) then an admin needs to give them that option. The same extends to stat points. Flexibility is fine so long as the reasoning is good enough.

4.
More dynamic, sandbox-y features wouldn't be terrible. Custom in-game building, crafting stations, camp fires, tents, chicken coops / barns, etc. I think things feel a little more organic when you have this, but it needs to be done in a way that meshes well with the map. Maybe not a super big deal, though.

5.
More leaders, less followers. If someone is: Making posts in the IC forums, causing visible impact, has a group of followers or is a part of a group, and is active on most days, empower them. This can be done with hidden spells or even just direct communication/guidance, but it does more good than harm to lift someone up (within reason) who is ticking all the boxes. Also, encourage people to DM / speak to an admin about their goals some way, since that line of communication really does help and experienced advice and suggestions go the distance.

[Dreamspeaker]

1. I think that's more needed than anything else, because it feels like you could impact something greatly and there's little overall change - as it stands, Esshar also feels incredibly static, and any move left or right is more difficult to do than it was in Spires. That being said, I want more direct consequences for each raid, so it doesn't become the endless cycle of Jianghu again, i.e "5 or so players survived, month later it's big faction again". Please, not this again. If you're done, you're done.

2. Rather than making map smaller, I'd rather see more special stuff on each portion of the map, or them being given a purpose. I like big maps that have different areas with interesting content - I don't like maps that are big but have no content.

3. So long as it's not going to become abusable and people trying their best to metabuild as much as possible. Probably limit it to once per 5 or even 10 IC years of a character - if not lifetime limits at all.

4. I think custom building back would be good, HOWEVER these have to be given via admin perms (like it was passable at late spires), just to prevent ugly structures. If you want to fill small niche with cute, interesting content? I'd support you. If you want to plop down just random hut in the middle of nowhere? Go away.

5. If you want more leaders to "spread out" in different directions like this, it's only possible if you empower them in any way possible (which is what your post states), however I don't think that should be resembled in hiddens or any combat power. Maybe cool IC stuff, or something thematic (if admins find it interesting), or any IC fluff - but please, no instant powers of rather powerful hiddens. That actually creates a dangerous zone of being suddenly killed by someone who received such powerup out of nowhere - and it will definitely lead to a lot of salt.



These are my thoughts about all of this, at least.

[Volatile]

I think if someone only goes attunements to reach advanced trees that these attunements should be refunded.

1. I agree. People need to not be afraid to wipe out enemy factions, OOC, its just a game after all.

2. More caves and ruins of other settlements. Maybe branch out sudbury and Messaris elsewhere, make them towns under the Esshar empire with their own draw to show there's an actual empire than just 'castle town of hyrule'. Having nobles who act as the effective leader figures of these other settlements. Baron/ess, Duke/Duchess, Counts, etc.

3. Blake died with 15 rpp wasted in a water attunement they no longer used. I went water for Blood when i lost my occultism. I was demotivated that I needed to do a menial event to get rid of it, so I had the rpp for the hiddens I wanted. SO I kinda just threw her into danger when I could to lose that apathetic feeling.
Metztli has a wind attunement because I went sound. I had sound refunded for shadow. I don't want her to walk the same path of me getting apathetic because of 15 wasted rpp.

4.GIVE ME BACK CHICKENS. Make Boars be able to be domesticated. Add cows! Make more houses/areas have farmland. Bring me my rune factory rp.

5.With the new rule that you can't scene lock in settlements even districts like Messaris, Players making motions to be leaders by antagonizing a faction cannot go into an enemy territory and start recruiting, bullying, and making a name for themselves. Leader-Characters who currently exist hold a lot of power. Others are forced to follow underneath them. Even if they are semi-inactive now. There's little room to grow as a leading figure at the moment. Having dmins go 'hmm this person has been doing a lot of work. Maybe we can give them a nice little thing' Like a fire+armed user being asked if they want blazing blade by admins without having to app for it is nice.

[TheHopscotch]

1. Dynamic map changes are cool, good idea

2. Smaller map is good, think back to Eternia 1 where each portion of the map was iconic. Small, with each area being really cool and having its own set name. Trystle Cave, Scarab Desert, etc. Good ideas.

3. I'm of the mindset openers should only be refunded via an application. (Say like you said, apping for occultism.) Avoids people constantly swapping their builds due to X being 'nerfed' or X not being 'strong enough.'

4. I like camp fire RP, but random buildings sometimes suck. Tents and so on, good. Pre-made buildings people can put down? Bad. Best to let stuff like that be added by mappers, or let people map their own stuff to add in.

5. Encouraging good and proactive leaders/RPers is always good.

My two cents, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[Avee]

I will reforge the world in my image, as if some kind of aggressive shitposting god.

Quake, mortals, for the time is nigh for Avee to return to the anvil and forge and beat this pig iron into beautiful sharp steel.

[Hated]

I will hoist avee on my shoulders and embrace the first and fifth bulletins.

Fear the double magi in a trenchcoat.

[Milly]

1. I agree with this. For example if Osrona had wiped out Moonfall - it would have been cool. EVEN MORE SO if some of the witches kept themselves hidden and operated from behind the scenes.

2. I AGREE. I know we already spoke about this, but looking at the actual map...



The red parts are just... Forest. There are a few cool things (i.e: The temples, and the ruined church) - but most of it is just uninteresting forest. I think we can trim this down a lot and add other interesting things to the rest of it. Whether those interesting things are just little waymarkers, dungeons, etc.

3. It really feels like everyone and their mom are having their events to refund their openers. I think there's nothing wrong with being able to app for it, honestly. It's what I did to get out of Occult on my Kitsune on Spires and it set her up for a really great character arc and stuff.

4. I can't speak to sand-box building since then we wouldn't be able to customize the map on the fly -- unless you don't mean in game building idk.

5. I agree with this as well. I think this was something you wanted to do - to reward players who were post 200, and perhaps couldn't afford additional hiddens, as a way to reward them? I'm not sure what happened to it, really - but I liked the idea of people randomly being rewarded for actually stepping up!!!

[Simple]

I've been ruminating recently, and these are just random thoughts I wanted to have written down.


1.
Organized conflict needs to have a beginning and an end, rather than fizzling out - previously, it has done so because the other side was perceived as being too weak and that felt unfair in the moment, but this isn't good storytelling. Defeating another faction should have direct consequences and a set number of battles that are hosted regardless of circumstances, unless the war is called off ICly. Never stop short.

Map changes / removal of spawns, or in Osrona's case, the destruction of districts and/or heavy damage to them. Visible change and player impact is important and it needs to show, because that's half of the fun in a game like this. Gathering the group and the momentum to make that change should be the only challenging part, other than the IC resistance. I think we have struggled a little with factions not going all the way or slowing down half-way through, but it does need to be made clear that end-game goals are possible (because they're quite literally the most memorable moments from Eternia / Spires) and that any plot armor is minor at best. 

2.
The map, as is, is much too large. Half of it is giant forest filler. A smaller map with iconic, recognisable areas would be good (& a return of Spires' region descriptions). To accomplish this, we really need more people than just Milly helping with mapping, and maybe we need to do some things to encourage people to mess with the tools (a guide on mapping? A contest?). The map editor is better than it's ever been and it's very easy for someone to add a headquarters for their group, spruce up their house, etc etc. It's a bit of a shame to not see it be taken advantage of.

3.
Refunding openers shouldn't be an event reward, since I've seen a lot of these requests pass through and they feel a little menial / chore-like. If someone takes a different path IC, such as holy magic/occultism, then they can have the option to re-spec a tree. If someone has royally screwed up their build (and this is plainly obvious) then an admin needs to give them that option. The same extends to stat points. Flexibility is fine so long as the reasoning is good enough.

4.
More dynamic, sandbox-y features wouldn't be terrible. Custom in-game building, crafting stations, camp fires, tents, chicken coops / barns, etc. I think things feel a little more organic when you have this, but it needs to be done in a way that meshes well with the map. Maybe not a super big deal, though.

5.
More leaders, less followers. If someone is: Making posts in the IC forums, causing visible impact, has a group of followers or is a part of a group, and is active on most days, empower them. This can be done with hidden spells or even just direct communication/guidance, but it does more good than harm to lift someone up (within reason) who is ticking all the boxes. Also, encourage people to DM / speak to an admin about their goals some way, since that line of communication really does help and experienced advice and suggestions go the distance.

1. More direct consequences would be a welcome change, I agree. There has certainly been an issue with factions seemingly disappearing overnight. However, I feel a lot of that is because players have a tendency to give up when things don't go their way. Which is completely understandable, they don't find the situation to be fun to write and I've been there myself before, but I feel that it can heavily detract from intended story arcs. I'm not entirely sure how to remedy this issue either, but it is certainly present I think. 

2. A lot of the current map is filler and not at all utilized. I feel like we could go without those parts since people seldom use them for rp anyways. Not a whole lot of people roam in Esshar, which is another issue in itself. I fully understand the allure of having a huge map, but if there's nothing filling it and only 90 players online during primet-time... It definitely isn't productive. I've actually taken a look at the map editor, and I'm very open to helping out should assistance be required. I'm a quick learner, but the 'learner' part is certainly stressed. I'd need someone to properly show me the ropes, but I'd certainly contribute should I be able to gain a firm grasp on the editor. 

3. I fully agree with this sentiment and always thought the idea of sternly locking spells once you buy them to be silly. I'd like to think that mages are more malleable, though I understand if it could cause some IC conflict. If it's a brand new player who messes up their build royally I don't see the issue at all though, honestly. 

4. I think that this would need to be limited, should it be implemented. I'd rather not return to the whole 'flavor of the month' settlement debacle that we had throughout Spires. Player made settlements and buildings definitely add to the game, but I think it needs to be watched and moderated closely.

5. I wholeheartedly agree with this. As a long-time player of the game, I've certainly seen a trend within the leadership in the game. I feel that a lot of it is because the players who actually get the position are motivated and proactive, but there is definitely a revolving group of people who often lead those roles. I think if we were to get a mix of new, ambitious players who had proper guidance and support.. It would definitely add to the game. Which is the hard part, because I feel that Eternia is often difficult to sell to prospective players and competent writers. The whole Byond thing, when most would rather do casual rp via Discord. 

Spires was at its best when we had a lot of bright-eyed, ambitious noobs who were very proactive and advanced the plot. You've done stellar work with advertising, so I do have hope we can get some fresh ideas and perspectives eventually.

[Volatile]

To expand on Milly's map to make the map less... boring. I doodled borders of biome expansions? Would make things less boring forest and be easier to know where you are and what way you are going when traveling.

Perhaps expanding the dark woods around to encompass the area around Moonfall would really make the area stand out more. Especially since Demons now lurk there. ooo. Occult taint. Maybe even expand Moonfall itself to have more houses, a sacrificial execution area... maybe a properly built seperation of market and housing. IDK. Ideas. Maybe make demon NPCs appear here. unintelligent 'fellbloods'. I do think the dark woods DO need to be expanded on. If anthing

The orange is of course, expanding the swamp. Also having crellus in the swamp again would be nice. More enemies need to appear in the swamps.

The creamy like could be expanded to more desert Bring back Stinnox here. Having cool stone archways would also be neat. Maybe some ruined bandit camps... something cool.

The light Blue is snowy areas. Doesn't make sense that Theria doesn't have more snow surrounding it. But that's just my opinion.

[GrayHood]

2.
Map size is quite fine as for me. Making new map or performing large map changes consumes a lot of resources which can be used for improving existing one. I enjoy the current map

I have suggested earlier to reopen Academy, so that area will be visited sometimes (my suggestion does not involve creation of new faction, just reopen academy. A single large hall would be quite enough for beginning. It will also allow "arcane" tech and research arc).

I support adding mobs to a swamp, it will make swamps more interesting and challenging. Half of the caves lack enemies or viable loot, they are just mazes.

Make plains around demon tower "corrupted". Keep forest around Moonfall "natural".

Some important plants have two or three spawn points over the whole map, so a group of players have "monopolized" them (for example, luminite. It is found in a cave and on rare occasion - in corrupted forest). Rope root fits desert and plains biome, I think.

Forests north to Sudbury and east to Osrona are kept as reserve for future expansion (For example, I have idea of Sudbury common farms / greenhouses)