A Land Far Away - A New Hope

[boombrakh]

Just now, I wrote a reply in this thread in which I suggested a new direction for ALFA.

1. Remove all but two servers. Have one server act as the main server and the other one as a World Server, acting as a host for exotic far away lands and locations.
2. Remove the ban on DMing where you play. ALFA is a campaign world today, let people have fun together.
3. Remove the 2 PC rule.
4. Remove Permadeath for level 1 (and maybe 2), allowing new characters and more importantly, new players, to get a feel for how we want things around here without being scared away.

... I'd suggest scrapping all the ones we have currently and focus on a hub (both IC and OOC) of sorts, such as Waterdeep.

Below are links to both threads of mine where I proposed both Waterdeep as a server in ALFA and the Worldserver.

• Waterdeep
• Worldserver (Dorn used to work on this one, doing an amazing job as is seen here.)

Now, they are both a bit outdated, but the general idea still remains. If we by some miracle were to move ahead with this, Waterdeep and the surrounding areas are great for any kind of game, as well as dungeon crawls. You have both city and rural areas, wilderness and civilization, mountains and valleys.

[CloudDancing]

I do see many of those problems that you stated. I think we have to recognize that as the player base has "grown-up" as adults we have less and less time to sit around and construct persistent world style RP. Looking back to 2009, things are entirely opposite of where we are now.

Then we had endless hours of player to player RP and were visited by a DM once or twice a month for just a few hours. Now we have scheduled DM sessions that allow players to login and have a DM guided adventure which both guarantees D&D party style, table-top style, gaming/rp whatever AND guarantees you will have other people to play with during that time.

I see you are talking about consolidating all the players to just two servers. I can see the allure of getting everyone onto one server. I always thought it would be interesting to have a Sword Coast server that included the Moonshaes, Baldur's Gate, and Waterdeep/Skullport. Its entirely possible someone could put that all into a module and run it as a server such as BG:TSC runs.

What I can't see is our HDMS giving up the years of work on all our current servers to switch over to new projects.

And I can't see us changing the pillar on permadeath. Though, I must admit that permadeath hits like a bloody hammer on our new players egos and great plans for Alfa rp. MMO style play has pretty much become an acceptable style of gameplay in MMOs and even in NWN2 PWs. And so far the only thing that prevents death of low level characters is dedicated party play. There really is no other way to grow in strength, but to be attached to a campaign and a group to protect each other. I don't think we make that clear enough to new players. It is just how the current ALFA is running now. So instead of preventing players from dying at level 1, DMs should be taking the time to provide content for level 1 plays, encouraging them into tidy groups, and players themselves should be reaching out to them.

[boombrakh]

I see you are talking about consolidating all the players to just two servers. I can see the allure of getting everyone onto one server. I always thought it would be interesting to have a Sword Coast server that included the Moonshaes, Baldur's Gate, and Waterdeep/Skullport. Its entirely possible someone could put that all into a module and run it as a server such as BG:TSC runs.

The reason i'm suggesting Waterdeep and not Baldurs Gate is because there already is one out there, which is (in our small community) pretty well established.

What I can't see is our HDMS giving up the years of work on all our current servers to switch over to new projects.

Everything is a stepping stone, not a final destination. So, what you are saying is that it's basically egos that keeps people holding on to the old? Just because you've wasted/invested/spent time in something doesn't mean anything unless you do something with the experience you've gathered during your time.

It is just how the current ALFA is running now.

Comments like this makes me lose all faith in ALFA. It screams "Anti-change".

So instead of preventing players from dying at level 1, DMs should be taking the time to provide content for level 1 plays, encouraging them into tidy groups, and players themselves should be reaching out to them.

How about instead of just placing the workload on people who at this point are not reliable, we build a platform that doesn't crumble in the lack of either. If players are able to be online, active and entertained, they'll stay online. And if they stay online, others will stay online, people will play more and that'll create a base of inspiration for DMs to create.

Sure, I might be naive. But if being naive keeps me hoping that ALFA will survive, then I don't want to be "realistic"

[Xanthea]

I don't think an inability to die at level 1 will make ALFA entertaining.

It's more a lack of content and a lack of people to play with.

[Xanthea]

For a slightly more constructive post:

1) Drastically increase leveling speed to level 6 or so. Big level gaps are hell and do the server no favours. The sooner people get to a level where they can actually play with the rest of the playerbase the better. It's fine to keep the original rate after that.

2) Add more and better static repeatable combat quests. "There's a gang of goblins making trouble at the ol' ranch. Gather your party and go slay them all." The heart of any PW is interesting static content that gives people things to do when DMs aren't online.

[boombrakh]

I don't think an inability to die at level 1 will make ALFA entertaining.
It's more a lack of content and a lack of people to play with.

I'm not trying to appease our current membership, i'm trying to allow for new players to not get deterred their first time through the door. Maybe a tutorial then? Something at least.

[Xanthea]

I'm unconvinced that wandering out and dying at level 1 is a huge deterrent really. I suspect that the boredom at having no one to play with and nothing to do at level 1 that leads one to wander out and die alone is the bigger factor.

An OOC warning in the start area that travelling by yourself is likely to result in death wouldn't go amiss, though.

[Zelknolf]

Where exactly are we going to acquire these proposed servers?

The ones we already have aren't ready for live use by any measure. That's why they're not live. We can talk about all of the grand systems that could be that would remove this overhead needed for play, but someone would have to make that, too. Even then, one might look at the sorts of features being implemented on BG and in the ACR since roughly July of 2011-- we have been adding the features to make more of the game run itself; it's not enough, and we've known that for years.

[boombrakh]

Please do not take the lack of mentioning shortcomings as a sign that those shortcomings isn't noted. But just making a list of everything that could be better is hardly constructive. Like I said in the other thread, I am fine either way ALFA wants to go as long as it knows where it wants to go and knows what it is. This thread here serves as an option to discuss, one that I happen to believe in. Is it perfect? Probably not. But isn't one thread where we point out the faults enough? Can we please try to stay positive here and discuss possibilities, not more shortcomings?

It's hard enough to muster other people to enthusiasm about anything in this community without having naysayers helping.

[Heero]

A super server full of statics and other content not requiring a DM is a good idea. Put together a team and lead us to glory.

[boombrakh]

I found this on the vault. Got me thinking on how hard it would be to keep the map layer in the toolset and use it as a sort of helper to fix the terrain. Last i read about the Worldmap by Dorn was that he had accidentally built it upside down, so that might not be usable.

[Adanu]

So you want to consolidate everyone and lose everything built so far? There are people who would enjoy that I think, but I am not one of them.

[boombrakh]

So you want to consolidate everyone and lose everything built so far? There are people who would enjoy that I think, but I am not one of them.

Yes I do. And it gives us the luxery of cherry-picking what we keep/salvage from existing modules.

[Zelknolf]

There is a significant difference between "naysaying" and "pointing to past and existing efforts to measure the likely investment required for this proposal."

Assuming that we're going to crack everything out over a weekend (because here's this thing on the vault and/or nexus) is a pitfall we've stumbled into repeatedly. Integrating systems takes work and time, building servers takes work and time, and projects on the vault/nexus are generally a proof of concept. If you're planning on bringing in new or inexperienced people to make things happen, you tend to have to double your timelines so that folk can learn about the thing they're working on. If you plan for that, you finish; if you don't, you're in the same pitfall as people before you, probably getting discouraged.

[Heero]

Zelk is right on this one. Its not so much naysaying as it is pointing out its a crapton of work and not all that easy. If it werent so much work Idve had one of my many large build projects finished and live.

Where there is a will there is a way, though, so I say if you are passionate about this then put together a team of excited and motivated folks then make it happen.