New Facets

[Agony]

One thing. All of the energy as of date has gone to new players or holiday quests (The quests are saved files).
Ok.. End game players.. We simply run around and scoop up the stuff in the hope that someday what we are doing will pay off in some form of advancement. This may seem weird to newer players, but for us end game players, maybe throw in some extremely hard to kill monsters somewhere.. The loot doesn't matter.. just throw in a Paragon Ice Wyrm somewhere in Fel. I promise we will flock to it. Simply for the challenge. What could it hurt? Sorry if this is off-topic
*edit*
I'm not talking about loot. Maybe just add a demonic angel somewhere in the lost lands in fel with 10000000 hp... No good loot. Just the challenge simply because it is there... I do not know about others, but I'm a fool for these kinds of things. For those who aren't into it, who cares... It's just there for the kill.

[+Nyx]

I'm not sure what you mean by our quests being 'saved files', but it sounds like you're implying they're generic or downloaded plug and play quests from runuo. Generic would be a matter of opinion I suppose, but I don't really appreciate the suggestion that we've simply installed quests someone else made. The quests and events V and I hold are entirely of our own making and from our own imaginations. They take quite a bit of time to make, and yes we will often design them to be run more than once - why would that be a bad thing, anyway, since folks can't all attend every time - and we make them to keep the creative juices flowing as well as for the enjoyment of it.

I'm sorry if you're bored with the game while waiting for the facets to open. I do understand. But there's not a whole lot we can do to make you happy at this juncture. If we open an event, it has to be 'for everyone' (barring folks under punishments or etc of course). So, making an event just for vets wouldn't be allowed. If we then made it all super tough mobs but then gave temporary gear to the newer players, then I'm sure we'd hear you or someone of like mind getting upset that the younger players were able to get the same stuff, making the use of y'all's gear meaningless. We can't alter the current lands or areas of them to be insanely hard, because they're largely used and the staff have previously decided it was best to progress with new content rather than commandeer old content and make it harder. Otherwise we'd end up with newbs expecting to go into RandomDungeon_01 and getting stomped, losing their gear, getting mad and quitting. This has happened with Sgail/Umbris.

Basically, there's just no winning with y'all until those facets are open - and believe me I'm a realist so I realize that even then it won't be enough for quite a few of the players - so really, explain to me why we should bother? Every event I've done this year someone (sometimes multiple someones) has caused enough drama or made enough crappy remarks that it makes what should be fun and exciting activities for us into a stressful, depressing, relatively thankless job. Every. Single. One. And now it's that our events are 'saved files'?

Agony - I say, with good humor intended and with a fair level of affection for you as a player - one should check themselves before one wrecks themself. And for those not enveloped in American pop culture - I'm saying that you're doing a lot more harm than good to your cause with your statements and delivery.

[Agony]

I'm not sure what you mean by our quests being 'saved files', but it sounds like you're implying they're generic or downloaded plug and play quests from runuo. Generic would be a matter of opinion I suppose, but I don't really appreciate the suggestion that we've simply installed quests someone else made. The quests and events V and I hold are entirely of our own making and from our own imaginations. They take quite a bit of time to make, and yes we will often design them to be run more than once - why would that be a bad thing, anyway, since folks can't all attend every time - and we make them to keep the creative juices flowing as well as for the enjoyment of it.

Sorry about that remark +Nyx.. Yes you guys have imagined up some pretty awesome quest events. I have yet to meet someone who can out do your quests in this game (talking about shard hopping.. I always end up back here). I apologize for that. just wondering if you guys could throw a 10000000 hp wyrm that spits 9k hit dmg fireballs somewhere that yields no loot somewhere. Do not even say where or even if ya'll even spawned it... We will find it.. Trust me.

*edit*
At this level, there really isn't much to do. No need to be sorry, there is a cap to everything. At this level, I'm not logging into the game for gold, ed or prestige. I'm looking for a thrill. I, and speaking for a few others, are looking for a thrill of killing something much more powerful than anyone on this shard could solo. The loot is meaningless. At this level, all we do is recall or run to spots at certain times to scoop up the rewards. I'm talking about challenge. A challenge that will not hurt anyone in the game for not doing. Something that yields no game rewards for defeating. Something that is just there... No loot., no prestige.

[Devlin]

It's a touchy topic. We all want the best from the shard, or to enjoy the most from it. Many of us have been here quite a while,and while we don't feel as if we have ownership of the shard, or have the right to dictate how things are run... We feel like we're part of this and we just don't want things to go poorly. Even those who have just started playing tend to have strong feelings, despite maybe not having the best of foundations to root themselves in. But that's just a sign of how awesome this place is, no? I sympathize with the lack of content for end-game players, it's why I craft everything imaginable and sell stuff in [c.

I don't want to say just hold on, change is coming. It is. We haven't hit a plateau. But it seems this mountain has hit a flat spot

Hopefully Coli can find some new people to come script. I know a few people that are extremely qualified and hopefully they went and applied. Although we probably can't expect to be running insane content for end-game players (there's only so much they can do with the mechanics here,) but I have faith there are things to come. If this shard stayed up for another 15 years, I would be here in some form or another.

[Agony]

First off, fixxer1963, Again I apologize for what I said earlier. Your intentions for this shard are equal to everyone else''s, and I was wrong to treat your opinions as I did.
Second, with all of this said, what would it hurt to just add a 10000000 hp sheep that breaths 9k fire damage fireballs in a random location of felucca? The loot could be 3 wool and 2 lamb legs
*edit*
A sheep that casts chain lightning with 3500 eval int. Why not?

[Wil]

This may seem weird to newer players, but for us end game players, maybe throw in some extremely hard to kill monsters somewhere.

Like the grinders in the Halloween dungeon?

[Yoda]

I promised myself I wasn't going to post on this topic.. yet I failed..

I think its important to really stop making nagging topics like this.. All of the staff are doing a fine job, and donating their time. things will unfold as they unfold.

As a vet.. yes there are big chunks of the game that are unchallenging, but there are ways to make it moreso and social metagames, experiments and other things I can do to make my time here enjoyable. this is strange that it would find its way into a topic on a forum about a videogame.. but I am reminded of the wise words of my mother she would offer as a response to me saying "I'm bored" as a kid..

"That's because you are being boring"

There are ways to make your time here better. what bothers me to no end is how staff is repeatedly beat on for their choices, and repeatedly nagged. you won't get the best out of someone by berating them ever, either directly or passive aggressively. Think of them as your friends, because due to our mutual affinity for a near 20 year old game they are.

[Melkor]

I recieved a pm from +Coli stating that he is on the verge of just shutting down the shard.

I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm very fond of this "Alternate Reality" And I'd miss it and all (most) of you very much.

what bothers me to no end is how staff is repeatedly beat on for their choices, and repeatedly nagged. you won't get the best out of someone by berating them ever, either directly or passive aggressively.

Yes, it's not nice and honestly not in your best interest.

The thing that strikes me is, +Nyx is being very diplomatic about answering these questions. But the reality is, her and +V are the ones that want the new facets to come more than any of us, it's their babies. We all know how we feel waiting, it must be 10x worse for them. They did all this work and are now waiting (years is it?) just like us. All +Nyx has been saying for the last year really amounts to "I'm waiting too" The only person who can answer is +Colibri.

[Devlin]

There's a vet forums?

how many shillings must i put forth?

[Yoda]

[Pariah]

This may seem weird to newer players, but for us end game players, maybe throw in some extremely hard to kill monsters somewhere.

Like the grinders in the Halloween dungeon?

BAM! I killed one of those, you know what happened? It went away for maybe 10-15 seconds and a new one spawned. Which was...great! I just killed it to see what would happen...Also, have y'all noticed how many y'alls +Nyx throws around when she's getting feisty. Perhaps we should tell her when her Texas is showing... +Nyx and +Veritas (also known as Link), I appreciate all you do here.

Oh, and +Req and +Coli too.

[+Nyx]

you won't get the best out of someone by berating them ever, either directly or passive aggressively. Think of them as your friends, because due to our mutual affinity for a near 20 year old game they are.

This. SooooooOOOOOOOOoooo much this. Inspiring people to want to deal with the shard - let's face it, for the staff it's not usually sunshine and rainbows - isn't gonna be achieved by mistreating or harassing anyone. There's rarely a whole day I staff that there isn't some form of ... "junk" ... that makes me want to just log off and play something else (because, hey, not paid to put up with it). A lot of the time, logging on to answer pages or work on events is a question of "would I rather read my book, play some other game, watch tv, or do this". The more folks do to make it a pain in the rear to do our staffly work, the more often that question falls into options 1 2 or 3 rather than 4. When it's obvious we are not respected or appreciated by those who should respect and appreciate us the most here, it's just not worth it to log on for awhile - so we take breaks, as I recently did. But I think everyone should take that advice, not just for the game, but for life. You can't get the best out of anyone by treating them like doo-doo. Granted, that's not to say one should be a dishrag and take the mess someone may dish onto one, but when you're interacting with someone from whom you want or need something....yeah, there's a certain level of tact that becomes necessary.

Contrary to popular belief, we (meaning V and I specifically, but also the rest of the staff) are pretty darn easy to get along with. When I was a newbie staffer, I'd never spoken to +V before and I was afraid of him because he seemed scary and he far outranked me on staff. But manners dictated that I introduce myself to him, so I sent him a message on Skype when I noticed he was online. We spent that entire night talking, and that spark later turned into something very special, and he eventually moved from up north down here to Texas. Games like this can form incredible bonds between people, if given the chance. There are plenty of you who I'd enjoy having a beer with (except I don't drink beer so I guess for me it'd be some foofy drink, but I digress), regardless of whether we've had arguments or dramuhs in the past. It's all about how you present yourself to us, and how you handle potentially drama-llama situations. Be the drama-llama, and we will react accordingly. Be cool, and we'll be cool. It's really as easy as that.

But the reality is, her and +V are the ones that want the new facets to come more than any of us, it's their babies. We all know how we feel waiting, it must be 10x worse for them.

There's a vet forums??

Yes, we generally post when we're taking new folks into it, we broom it every few months to weed out inactive folks. It was intended to help V keep in touch with his Touria audience. But, as Agony pointed out in his original post, it's been dead silent there for quite awhile since there's been nothing new to discuss. I also have a discussion group for Elysium for the mid-range players, which is generally a bit more active (y'all may have noticed I tend to be a bit more active on the forums than +V ) but hasn't had a lot going on in the last few weeks, either.

Also, have y'all noticed how many y'alls +Nyx throws around when she's getting feisty. Perhaps we should tell her when her Texas is showing...

I actually use it a lot, regardless, so I suppose my Texas is always showing, lol I generally just don't use it much when I'm being more serious or dealing with a troublemaker/problem child. I know Agony went a bit beyond his intended message, but I believe he meant well and I didn't want to see the thread blow up into a cesspool of drama and his valid questions go unanswered due to it.

[Devlin]

Put me in coach, I'll poke the sleeping bear awake.

[Tacityl]

At this level, there really isn't much to do....

I've been incredibly time-constrained for a while, so I haven't had as much time to play anything let alone UOEX. Because of that, I haven't been feeling the pain of a lack of highend content. Plus, I'm by no means a vet. But I would offer a few points to think about in response to this:

(1) This is a general problem with any MMO and, really, any game that uses some sort of persistent-progress mechanic. At some point, players just reach the maximum power level. Commercial MMOs have large paid staffs and even they can't keep up with the relentless march to the current Vision.MAX_LEVEL.

(2) On this shard, developers are also admins. In any sane software development organization, these are always two different full-time roles precisely because they both take full-time people. They are also completely different skillsets. It's pretty remarkable that our admins handle the current day-to-day tasks in addition to events and such.

(3) All-volunteer organizations of any kind can rarely set firm deadlines. When they do, they're usually deadlines around a building project, email campaign, or something comparatively easy to predict. But expansions to an MMO are thought-work, which is hard to predict even when you're getting paid.

(4) This may or may not apply to Excelsior: Volunteers are frequently not experts in all the areas required to produce a final product. To produce something like Touria, it requires (at a minimum) coding, graphics, story writing, and familiarity with the RunUO architecture. Since this isn't a commercial enterprise, they can't just go to their bosses and ask for training. It's a lot of late nights spent doing research while dealing with angry players in rock jail

It's tough waiting for new shinies. I've been salivating over Touria for a while now. We're probably just going to have to be patient for as long as it takes.

[Layfon Alseif]

Good things come to those who wait is an English phrase extolling the virtue of patience. We have all waited this long. Waiting a little bit longer for something so amazing as new facets won't hurt anyone. I appreciate this shard staying open for as long as it has and hope it continues to remain open. +Colibri and all the GM(s) have worked super hard on this shard and still do. We should appreciate this and thank them for spending their free time doing so.

With that being said....