Castano’s DMA Platform April 2013

[Castano]

Castano’s DMA Platform

ALFA needs some change, what it does not need is radical change. What it does need is that any proposals made be discussed, voted upon and implemented in a timely fashion. Things have gotten better lately in terms of player numbers and active DMs which is a positive sign.

One of our core behavior patterns as a community has been to debate issue X to death, then after the debate, implement something. We never play test anything. What I mean by play testing is discuss, debate, try the feature out for a specified period then if it sucks; get rid of it. If it works keep it. We do not have the luxury of other game developers to have a full on live beta system up and running populated by dozens or hundreds of beta testers where we can test tweaks or changes to existing game rules/systems. So we have implemented and prayed in the past. This leads to a crushing conservatism where any change is viewed with deep suspicion. The way out of this circle is to debate, implement for a test period, evaluate, and decide. We must still not test concepts that are crazy (like allowing running or filling our servers with repeatedly spawning monsters that allow for easy farming – ALFA is not an MMO in the traditional sense of run, kill, loot, advance) Testing these sorts of nutty ideas would cause too much harm and we already know the outcome.
So that’s my guiding philosophy.

My time in ALFA:
I’ve been a member since May 26, 2004, so says the website. I’ve managed the builds and built many of the NPCs, areas, items etc. for both of ALFA’s Moonshaes servers and served as their HDM for most of their existence. I’ve also consulted with Admin on various policies, as do the other HDMs, and been an active recruiter of DMS and toolset mentor to as many people as I could.
Anyways, actual concrete proposals:

I. In-game Population of Quality RPers

Any in-game population increase comes out of 2 pools – existing members and prospects. Population is every admin’s responsibility in my opinion and we all need to support efforts to increase it with quality players.

A. Existing Members
I want to support informal outreach to existing members who have left/are not currently active. This would include encouraging active member DMs (and anyone else, though DMs are the DMA’s area, and an invite by a DM to a campaign may resonate more) to reach out to their old gaming friends by email.

B. Prospective Members
For prospects I think we DMs need to advertise our campaigns to DnD groups (not necessarily computer gaming groups) and try to drum up new members. This advertising should include links to obtain NWN2, and instructions on how to install it and get in game fairly easily. We should work with LA to create a form post that can be edited to suit.

C. Open Server Access
Some have argued we should drop all passwords. I don’t agree with this, neither does a good chunk of the community. I do agree we need to partially drop the password. We have 4 live servers. One of these could be used as an OAS-type environment. The key standards would be (i) non members may log in and advance up to level 3, (ii) nonmembers may not leave the Open Server, (iii) after a period of some set time nonmembers are evaluated for full membership by volunteers led by our Admissions Team ( thank Storm for posting on this), (iv) DMs will have ample authority to boot and retcon any silliness, PKing etc. so as to minimize the impact on our regular members who may visit the server and mentor other players.
This solution allows prospects to experience a full live server environment and develop a PC that can be directly transferred into the game world.

D. 2 PCs
I support the PA’s continuation of the 2 PC rule and will continue to provide the necessary support on the DMA side. I also support an analysis of the new rule’s impact on PC density, number of DM campaigns, reduction in OOC travel, and any other impacts. Then the rule should be discussed and put up for an admin poll to be made permanent.

II. DM Resource Saving

I’d like to reopen discussion about a player rights and responsibilities statement with PA. This was discussed several months ago but has not moved forward. We all have responsibilities to each other and DMs need to feel like they are enjoying the game, without feeling like they are put upon to service a never ending stream of needs. There are also other solutions to ease things for us:

A. Technical Solutions
Part of the solution has been technical. We’ve seen in the past year, by BG’s HDM – the introduction of scripted tailoring and by the TA, scripted crafting of consumables. What I would like to see is the DM team be the genesis for ideas and DMA propose those to TA and our other volunteers instead of supporting or blocking these ideas. DMs know what takes too much time in game, and if we can find a tech person willing to build it, we should get together and test out a solution.

B. PRCs – Increase RP, Decrease DM Effort
PRC quests are the bane of many DM experiences. They take a lot of time. They usually attract only one player. I’d like to change the PRC system to be more player-focused. A player should be progressing towards their PRC via in game actions, and should be keeping a journal of these. At the end, when they are close to leveling into the PRC (say 1 level before) they should submit an application like we do for exceptional PCs, and it can be discussed by the DM team and approved or put off for more PC development (or abandoned by the player their choice). This removes the need to hunt for a DM with time, which often involves moving PCs across servers, while preserving control over leveling into PRCs.

C. Player Error Self-Correction
I will ask tech to see if we can easily allow rerolling of PCs upon leveling so that if people accidentally take the wrong skill they can self fix this within a specified time limit (I’m thinking minutes here (like 5), not days - this would not be a "test my build out in ALFA then retool it system").

III. Leveling Rates

A. XP Gain Cap
I think we need to seriously discuss a cap to the amount of XP a PC can earn within a month. I would advocate for a rather high cap that chops off only the worst outliers, so we do not have level 6 being reached in a month. Absent agreement on a cap by the community, DMs are of course empowered to regulate XP gain of any player on their server. I plan to fully support such regulation. I would prefer a cap because it gives a hard and fast rule that everyone will be able to abide by. Our current rules on farming are cumbersome to use and require a gut check – I’d like that replaced by a bright line rule.
What is left of the farming rules would stay under meta-gaming – e.g. hitting the same orc spawn 1000x until you hit your cap is still not going to be ok, but not because you got too much XP for it, but because it’s meta. Meta versus the game environment is easier to deal with because it usually means talking to a player about why their PC would not do X and removing the threat of deleting XP/loot does much to diffuse the situation. We live in a pretend world – ALFA NWN2 is not dynamic enough to have monster populations react to being hit as hard as they are by our PCs. So no, the easy to kill goblin tribe won’t be there on attack 50 for you, but we want it to be there for others who are on attack 2.

B. Dimrets
If possible I would open discussions with the TA about a Dimrets system to prevent spawn farming. I am not sure if this can be done, I know it was proposed.

IV. Game Content

A. Campaign Creatures and Items
We are well on our way to replacing the current set of monsters with tested ALFA-wide campaign folder creatures. Servers are of course allowed to retain their own monsters. This makes revamping a server easier because builders are not faced with a blank toolset devoid of creatures.

B. Static Quest Creation Team
I’d like to seek a volunteer team to go round the servers and add static quests that are tied to the ACR quest system and not repeatable. Having some IC motivation to travel and then find an adventure along the way is a good thing.

V. Narrative Dialog

I fully support the writer’s project to create an FR wide narrative that covers the in game history of ALFA and adds plot hooks for future events. we can do this in a way that makes it optional for DMs to use the overarching story, weave their own story under it, or ignore it completely. I’m not into tying the hands of the volunteers who enjoy this community as DMs, but if we can help them, I think we should.

[Zelknolf]

What makes you more qualified than the other candidates and/or what traits do you have that they don't which will serve you if elected as DMA?

[CloudDancing]

Castano has some great talents to share, but the one great attribute he has shown to Alfa is CONSISTENCY. He has been here the entire time with no breaks since the Moonshaes has gone up if not before.

He has kept up with dynamically updating and building on the Moonshaes every day since then as well as participating in admin discussions as an HDM. He keeps the server up, watches his dms carefully, and is actively involved in the plots that develop across the server.

Much of the Moonshaes server was hand built by him and if it wasn't he was there adjusting and fixing our areas on his own time. He made a considerable effort to get the Moonshaes to be what it is today.

During this time he has gone out of his way to train new dungeon masters constantly and kept MS an open and fun place to learn to DM.

He championed subjects such as player housing and made it easy for players to have housing and storage on MS.

He fostered cooperative sharing between HDMS, something that had not been done before (where each server had its own entirely different set of assets before the Moonshaes was built.) Through cooperating with the other HDMs he implemented a tailor to MS as well as involved other great aspects of Baldur's Gate and Kemo assets.

He spent considerable amounts of his time as a dungeon master on the Moonshaes as well. And he is an active player with a long-lived character in Alfa.

So I just wanted to note this so folks can understand how his consistency and competence has produced the current favorite server of Alfa.

He's paid his dues, he knows the player base, and he has the results to prove it.

[Castano]

What makes you more qualified than the other candidates and/or what traits do you have that they don't which will serve you if elected as DMA?

I think all the candidates are qualified. More qualified? I have a good deal of real world experience managing large projects. I guess that helps here. But it's not really the point. I'm sure Thorin and Dan could manage the community office of DMA too. It's not as hard as it looks, so having management skills at a professional level is not really a skill set that is needed for DMA.

I make decisions fairly quickly, that's one trait. That's why I want the propose, vote (if necessary), test, and decide procedure for changes to ALFA. I don't want to make a rash change we cannot easily reverse because we promised everyone they could have it (see Warlocks (sorry Rusty)). If we at the outset tell people something is in a test phase and could be removed I expect they would be more understanding and regardless we'll have the authority to do so. Other projects have populated beta versions of their worlds up and running for test purposes. For example Eve Online has a populated clone of their entire persistent world running to test stuff out in, we do not have that luxury. Instead of hand wringing about the effect of introducing a new PrC I would, for example, suggest we build it in, have a volunteer play test it as their second PC, look at the results, make modifications etc. and then release it if it works.

I'm willing to work with (or support) anyone who does stuff. For example some of our new admin who have turned out super awesome and have made massive contributions to our content I was on my hands and knees praising them for it and begging for more improvements.
Also builders whose areas may not have been "up to snuff" so to speak, I've taken their contributions, edited them and put them in. This encouraged them to make more and more and more and now I barely edit much of their work. I would take the same position with anyone contributing to the admin side of things. You cannot sustain a project where only 4-6 people have the skills to do most of the work.

I listen to all ideas (except the we should be able to run everywhere proposal), sorry not happening .

I can't answer as to whether the other candidates don't have these traits or the same ideas I do or whatever, that's a little hard for me to evaluate. I suspect they would want the same things as I do for this project, they may go about them differently.

[Rumple C]

Is there anything from the other candidates platform that you think is a good idea and would adopt into potential policy should you win?

Where do you stand on (significant) xp for delivering mail?

Where do you stand on potentially massaging the flow of time in ALFA?

Do you strongly disagree with any of the recent decisions made by any admins?

How much will you pay me to declare you the winner regardless of results?

Pie or cake?

[Castano]

Is there anything from the other candidates platform that you think is a good idea and would adopt into potential policy should you win?

The standards committee is a good idea, so is the live DM training sessions.

Where do you stand on (significant) xp for delivering mail?

I'd like to see dimrets cut the xp down significantly. I don't care how often you deliver mail at all, hell roll a king's messenger who gets into all sorts of trouble on his route if you like, but leveling off it is too much. I do think that the vast majority of leveling abuse we see comes from running all the statics in a short period of time, mail just becomes the default once you have run the one offs.

Where do you stand on potentially massaging the flow of time in ALFA?

I support the current reevaluation of time passage. I do not like how the sun zips by while we RP. I also do not like the way spells work currently with regard to RPing while buffed (aka typing extremely fast and sparingly so as to not screw your party over) I think we should work up a proposed solution, test it for a month and let that data flow back to us and decide instead of having threads of death on it

Do you strongly disagree with any of the recent decisions made by any admins?

Not strongly. I do not like the un-retirement of older PCs, but that's done and is hopefully sunsetting. people and DMs move on for a reason, that said some DMs might not mind having their old group back. I think people should find a DM before un-retiring their high level.

How much will you pay me to declare you the winner regardless of results?

-600 I demand a salary.

Pie or cake?[/quote]

Cake, cake has icing.

[Darkmystic]

You been very angry lately and havent spoken highly about the playerbase. Will you use this role to change alfa just to get your way done or to make alfa better? Not a troll question, I am actually serious.

[rorax]

First time i agree with DarkMystic.

You seem like a very emotional person who rush to act, and often too quickly. From my own personal experience with you , here is what i have so far....

You wrongly banned me and kid from your server(realizing your mistake only day after) and ended our relations by saying the following line "Do me a favor, don't ever come back".

That's to a person who built quite few areas on your server and DMed in it.


I assume that for the DMA role it's expected that the person will remain cool and neutral. Do you seriously believe your capable of doing that? Last thing that ALFA needs is emotional person in senior position that would put the last nail in the coffin of ALFA decreasing playerbase.

[maxcell]

Please don't use the DMA platform threads to post your personal issues you have with another member in thinly veiled questions.

Ask questions that are pertinent to the DMA platform regardless of the candidate.

[gonz.0]

Castano, well said and well received. I should hope that you or anyone who takes the mantle of DMA should use your posted platform as at least some guide to what is needed in ALFA.

Not to be seen as an endorsement of any candidate

[vergin_sacrifice]

I would disagree Maxcell, I think that effort has been made to ask an honest question. I will reiterate it in the same way I did for the other two candidates.

"In a situation in which your anger is piqued in the execution of your duties as DMA, how would you handle it? What is your experience in the past with like situation, and how did you deal with it or learn from it?"

[CloudDancing]

If everyone in Alfa was censured for having emotional moments, there would be no Alfa. I'm really surprised people demand perfection when they themselves can't live up to that standard.

You try building an entire server, managing an active six person DM team, serving as an admin, updating that server constantly over a span of two years, and having a full time job as a lawyer and a family.

So here are my questions:

Do you know the issues affecting the active player base?

Do you have a working relationship with the tech team?

Do you have the technical abilities to manage the technical side of being the DMA such as coding, scripting, and working with the greater upgrades to Alfa?

Do you have the ability to develop a vision for Alfa that encompasses the needs of the current player based verses your own personal vision?

Will you be there when people need you, for six months entirely, with no burn-outs or disappearing entirely?

[Adanu]

If everyone in Alfa was censured for having emotional moments, there would be no Alfa. I'm really surprised people demand perfection when they themselves can't live up to that standard.

You try building an entire server, managing an active six person DM team, serving as an admin, updating that server constantly over a span of two years, and having a full time job as a lawyer and a family.

It isn't about they themselves living up to the standard; it's about what candidates are capable of. Those with authority who abuse it tend to be resented.

I've seen Castano lash out at people because of disagreements. It's a valid concern. if I ever lash out in anger, I apologize afterward.

[kid]

FYI HDM is not an admin and obv mental stability was never a requirment in Alfa.

[Rumple C]

Indeed. It helps having just a touch of the crazy.