A Land Far Away

Getting new blood to ALFA seems to be hard at moment, so after talking with some old friends, this is a thought, Incorperate a "OAS" a small area that part of a alfa server, be it a small village area etc, but this little begginer place you cant leave that area through the ATs unless you have a token or other thing given by DM, this way new people that come can ask question to players, and dont feel their in a empty area, also there is damage control as the bad ones cant leave the "OAS" area till aproved, also DMs can be on a real server and at times take a peak on the beginner area, without leaving... i hope that made sense...

If getting DM coverage for the OAS is one of the issues affecting player recruitment, this seems like a good compromise.

The other might be to abandon the OAS, at least until we can get better DM coverage, and have 1 day a week as a well publicised open event on TSM.

We discussed that extensively here.

There has been motions to host OAS DM's and announce them on NWNConnections. We are looking into this but the current PA elections mean that we can't make much progress for now. When we have a new PA we can move forward.

/me slams head against the wall

Yes, its much better to plod on with a system that may not be working, than to consider alternatives.

I'm not seeing how the current system "isn't working" in any particular way that trying to accept members from inside a Live server would address. Technically, it's a much larger burden to download all the haks and a full sized, gigabyte-plus PWC file. We also have to give them the password, or drop the server's player password entirely. Further, OAS2 DMs can't be players on that server anymore, and/or if Live DMs would be authorized to work with applicants, they'd have to drop whatever they were working on for members in order to guide the applicant (or risk the impression that they're "ignoring" the applicant. You've got a major technical problem with how to keep non-members from moving into Live areas, and a tough question as to whether members with Live PCs should be able to enter the application area. What happens if an applicant PC kills a Live one in CvC? The character and player databases would also get a lot of bloat from onetime visitors who never return, increasing lag for everyone else. Current members could no longer roll new characters to help orient applicants without retiring their current Live PCs. Entirely new content would have to be developed, tested, polished and prepared to be aimed at applicants (all effort that is unnecessary, given that it's all been done quite well with the current OAS2 server). The hosting requirements for OAS2 are considerably lower than those of a Live server, so it doesn't necessarily "waste" a host which could be used for another Live server.

The counterargument? As far as I can tell, we need more OAS2 DMs, because sometimes people log in without being DMed. Don't see how this justified all the problems listed above. This has been discussed at length among admissions and more generally. Those discussions can be renewed (yet again) once we have a new PA, if necessary.

as someone who basicly went through both the application system and tried (and succeded) in using the OAS2, i will throw in my 2 cents.

I think the OAS2 is good for players to get a feel for the world, let them make characters of their choice and explore. Then when they are ready let them submit an application for a DM to assess them for ALFA Approval. If players are serious enough then they will be able to wait for a DM application to go through, with a scheduled time, possible with a weeks notice or so. Have a range of suitable times listed on the application for the player, so the DMs can work in times, based on global location of the applicant.

This way a DM can orginise a time when there are a few applicants and review them all at once, cutting the need for dedicated OAS DM's who are waiting around for serious players to log in, and players can have a reasonable timeframe for selection.

Just so we're straight, I think the topic here is OAS1, not OAS2...last I heard OAS1 is by appointment only, while OAS2 is not...I might be wrong, please clarify Yav.

Vendrin, no need to bang your head against the wall unless you yourself are on Admissions, giving everything you have, and looking around and wondering where the crap everyone else is...you aren't in admissions...are you? If not, and you're worried, get with Jayde and join up!

"Yes, its much better to plod on with a system that may not be working, than to consider alternatives." And it's also better to assess weather the system is or is not working and THEN post, than posting before you yourself are sure.

Given all of the problems AL lists...OAS dms is the ultimate solution. I know oas1 was set to appointment only because it rarely got any traffic during my own Tenure as Admissions Head...I had scheduled times during that period in which only one person ever showed. So I didn't require the team to have an oas1 and oas2 session, and confirmed oas1 by appointment only so that oas dms wouldn't be sitting around on an empty oas1 each week. I still think the best way of handling oas1 is by appointment...but I also made the stipulation that if ever the oas1 traffic picked up substantially that it would be moved from a by appointment status back to regularly scheduled session status. I and others have just spent too much time making, creating, trying to pilot the OAS2 project without much help with the majority of the community seemingly concerned about admissions but not lifting a finger to help out in any way for me to see OAS2 go down in flames like that...if needbe I'll jump back onto oas2dming before that happens...at this moment I'm taking a break from the last two years I've spent in Admissions and letting someone else step up to bat.

DAniel