What's Most Important To You?

Sarapis

This is a poll run by Sarapis and Tecton to find out what you value the most in Achaea in terms of development resources. Where do you think we should be spending our resources?

Nim

Deleting veils. ;;)

Caoimhaen

Roleplay. Hands down.

Adioro

Poll is skewed! Several of the options are sub-options of other ones. For example, giving orgs more options effectively translates directly into increased RP potential.

Melodie

I waffled a bit on the same choice as Adioro, but went for the more overarching option. Houses/Cities/Orders definitely very important in that particular option, though!

Jurixe

I would also say that crafting directly translates to greater roleplay options, as well.

Tharvis

to be fair, "supporting roleplay" can be seen as the all-encompassing option here, pvp can be translated into roleplay, what you guys said can, newbie experience too. Hell, even hunting can be turned into roleplay

Nim

I personally read the roleplaying as them actually spending time roleplaying with players, rather than building systems that might encourage it.

Daeir

I think that there is a veritable gold-mine of possibilities in the crafting domain that are currently not being explored, with reaching implications across every other field mentioned in the poll.

I've had grand ideas of a forging/mining system where players go prospecting for different ore types in varying areas, which yield different bonuses when used in certain types of weapons a la a more advanced version of the Blademaster's bladequest. Forging chainmail from mithril for extra cutting protection at the expense of blunt, so on, so forth. Special techniques cultivated by individual Houses for crafting certain things that gives each city a unique spin on the sort of crafted items they are capable of creating, possibly even promoting inter-city trade in this regard.

Allowing forgers to spend ludicrous amounts of time painstakingly forging one, exceptional and highly customised item as opposed to spending hours afk at the forge, hoping for the RNG dream. Promoting a forger's choice of materials and techniques as skill, bringing a whole new realm of roleplay in for those willing to spend the time to learn the system and find out which materials in what configuration are optimal for a given task. Things down to what type of coal is used to heat the forge, what oil the blade is annealed in, so forth.

The one thing that has always bothered me about Achaea is how loose the crafting/tradeskills felt, as if they were an afterthought.

Jovolo

Absolutely PvP.

Achimrst

I voted supporting RP, although Crafting was a very close second for me!

People can think up some awesome things to do in Roleplay and although some of it is just lol, games are meant to be fun and Roleplay can lead to PvP, Hunting, and help to bring cities/houses/clans together to think up things to do collectively. Like currently @Bluef and I are thinking up some fun RP things to advance our clans and such and we have become good friends in the process of thinking these things up together. 

Also, crafting **Drooooooooollll** I need to make more clothing! And what ever happened to Bookbinding! I wanted that for years, come back and it's gone!!!

Sarapis

Unfortunately, this does kind of point to a major rift between "What do you want" and "What is good for Achaea?" (Insofar as there is an objectively correct answer - improving the newbie experience - to the latter question, at least). 

Quisse

Aside from ease of play, immersion and engagement seems to be the best way to keep people around. I voted for roleplay support. When Achaea is magic, it's addictive.

Faur

Where's the "Less Trolls" option?

Sylvance

RP all the way.

Must say, I'm pleasantly surprised that 98% didn't vote PvP.

Adioro

One thought I had looking at the poll results is that it seems odd that it feels like a large majority of administrative resources are spent on something that a smaller minority of players enjoy 'most' (that being PvP), but then after thinking about it a bit more it makes sense. PvP makes money. You don't buy $3000 in artifacts to RP.

Well, not usually, anyway.

Bluef

Sarapis said:

This is a poll run by Sarapis and Tecton to find out what you value the most in Achaea in terms of development resources. Where do you think we should be spending our resources?

I'm 100% behind roleplay as the thing that would best benefit Achaea, but what is not listed here is something for Rogues. 

Choice #7: Giving Rogues a better overall experience

Whether you're a newbie, a PVPer, hunter, crafter or a roleplayer, if you're a rogue you'll be left out of 99.9% of what happens in Achaea. People who argue, "Well you chose that path.." don't recognize that being a rogue is a choice in IC lifestyle, not gameplay. It shouldn't impact the overall Achaean experience as much as it does. 

This is why I've tried to champion a non-aligned deity like Raclawice making Her triumphant return now that Lord Hermes' essence was spilled into Creation by Bal'met. 

Such a deity would be a win-win because She (or He if it was Someone all together new) could promote roleplay and PVP,  could patron the clans who currently address the rogue newcomer needs and issues that arise post-level 21, and could create totally un-factional events and conflicts that engage rogues, so that we have something to work for and do as well in Achaea.

I'm sure asking for a new Divine is a far over and above what this thread is calling for though, so I'll just sum this up with: 

Please acknowledge that rogues exist and that they're not getting anywhere near the same game experience as everyone else. 

Jacen

PvP is also an enabler for a lot of RP, as well as vice-versa.

I have little doubt in my mind that giving cities/Houses/Orders more options is the best choice, though when I read "supporting RP", I read it as "denizen interactions and god interactions". I see the options that require less continuous admin involvement as better options, because money, big projects, volunteer interest, etc will always effect that. Once you code in mechanical stuff, it's there regardless of how much attention the admin can afford to pay you, and the players have more tools to RP the way they want to.

Antonius

Maybe @Sarapis needs to clarify exactly what he meant then, because people assuming these options are talking about small-scale denizen and God interactions confuses me. In every single context I've ever heard it used "development resources" has meant "coding and design time", so that would be new systems for people to use and take advantage of (like the changes to custom emotes and being able to customise certain actions), not one time denizen interactions by an admin.

Bluef

Rogues consistently make up the bulk of the playerbase in Achaea at any given moment in the realm. so as I've said before, it makes sense to me that some design and coding goes toward benefiting their roleplay.

(Crap, accidentally edited your post, Bluef, instead of quoting it. Apologies! This is the only line I left, as I meant to quote this line.)

Wynedere

I kinda agree with Bluef. While understanding that the admin want to push players into orgs, there are countless reasons players choose not to be members of those orgs. There is a substantial number of rogues that play Achaea. Some resources should be given to improving their play along with everyone else.

Sarapis

Antonius said:

Maybe @Sarapis needs to clarify exactly what he meant then, because people assuming these options are talking about small-scale denizen and God interactions confuses me. In every single context I've ever heard it used "development resources" has meant "coding and design time", so that would be new systems for people to use and take advantage of (like the changes to custom emotes and being able to customise certain actions), not one time denizen interactions by an admin.

Correct. 

Sarapis

@Bluef Of the players online right now, less than 18% are Cityless, and an even smaller % are Cityless and Houseless. Sure, choosing not to be in a City or House is a valid choice, but so is playing without a class or playing as a pacifist - we're just not going to spend a lot of resources on those playstyles as they're not the focus of the game.

Achimrst

Sarapis said:

Antonius said:

Maybe @Sarapis needs to clarify exactly what he meant then, because people assuming these options are talking about small-scale denizen and God interactions confuses me. In every single context I've ever heard it used "development resources" has meant "coding and design time", so that would be new systems for people to use and take advantage of (like the changes to custom emotes and being able to customise certain actions), not one time denizen interactions by an admin.

Correct. 

Oh, ok. Well with this information right here I think Illusions, Shouts, emotes, and current crafting things are already on point and change my vote to Crafting. I need to make things look pretty and male slutty so I can drool on them.

Kyrton

From the point of view of a relatively new/returning player I would say at least for myself the newbie experience has been great and much better than I remember it being in the past actually.  One of the major improvements I noticed was loom being much more concise but still enough to get a newbie started.  I would also say that personally I have really enjoyed how much Achaea seems to have expanded with lots more areas for bashing etc.  I have yet to become involved in combat so I cannot comment on that.  I have yet to become intricately involved in the roleplay so I do not have the experience to comment on that either.  With that in mind I voted for hunting because what is very annoying is going to a location only to find it bashed out and having to wait for things to pop back out.  It's not nearly as bad as it was though because I remember newbies flooding nearly every area in the past.  Now the level is good, but it would be amazing to me to see new areas of Achaea developed for exploration reasons, bashing, and hopefully it could lead to interesting combat and rp as well.  Say you create a new area and Targossas claims it as a feif or there is a contention over it.  This may be an oddball out of the blue suggestion, but could organizations like orders, clans, cities, houses, take control of npc territory and claim it for their group and maybe gain some benefit from it (like access to a rare commodity)?

Sena

I was torn between hunting and making the newbie experience better, but went with hunting because it is a part of the newbie experience, as well as impacting probably most of the playerbase, and in my opinion it's one of the most underdeveloped areas of the game.

I haven't been a newbie in a long time, and haven't done any real research or surveying of newbies, but it does seem like the grinding required (for levels, gold, lessons/credits) is a turn off for a lot of new/potential players (and even for some who've been playing for years). If bashing was more fun (for more than the few who enjoy it as it is) rather than an obligation that you need to get through to do the things you actually enjoy, it wouldn't seem as bad even if the same amount of time/effort is required.

There are several ways hunting could be improved; making it more viable as a group activity instead of being largely single-player, making the "combat" more complex (having more things to do to a denizen besides just damage, maybe more things for the denizen to do to you besides damage and afflictions, making it more reactive than just setting a trigger to attack on balance, etc.), more variety in goals and rewards (instead of the only considerations being exp/time or gold/time; talismans are a good start here).

Mishgul

I really think that houses and cities need more depth. I think PvP is being treated quite well, roleplay is something each individual is responsible for.

Hunting probably could do with some variation, especially in regards to group hunting, making it more fun and challenging. I can't comment on newbies. 

I can't comment on crafting either.

Bluef

Sarapis said:

@Bluef Of the players online right now, less than 18% are Cityless, and an even smaller % are Cityless and Houseless. Sure, choosing not to be in a City or House is a valid choice, but so is playing without a class or playing as a pacifist - we're just not going to spend a lot of resources on those playstyles as they're not the focus of the game.

I read this as of the players online right now nearly 20% are Cityless. Perhaps it's just my skewed perception because I'm in that number somewhere, but I'm a little disappointed that 1/5 of the players online, who have chosen not to be part of a city, aren't worthy of some resources. Thank you for taking the time to respond directly to me at any rate @Sarapis.

Sarapis

I'm not sure why you think we think they're not deserving of resources. You can do virtually everything in Achaea without being part of a city - bash, craft, RP, PvP, run lotteries, be an assassin, explore, sail become a dragon, collect talismans, build a house, run a shop, etc et. Every single time we do something that isn't limited to city members, we're doing something for rogues (and everyone else)!  We're just not going to generally do things to specifically encourage people to opt out of the most important communities in the game.

Bluef

It's just been my experience that far more is limited to city or House members than is open to the whole world. In addition, not all rogues opt out of import communities in the game; in some cases, they are forced out and then have no option except to live on the periphery of things, ie.the Dawnstriders of Shallam who were shamans. If I had known the IC community I was apart of was going to be destroyed, and that I would not be welcomed into the new one, I might have made some different choices during the nearly eight real life months I defended New Hope. But like I said before, that may just be my perception of it as a longterm rogue bleeding through. Thanks again for the feedback on IRE's take on the cityless and unHoused. 

Caladbolg

Bluef said:

It's just been my experience that far more is limited to city or House members than is open to the whole world.

I felt this way too, but then realized how crappy it was not having a city to run in when 5 people show up pissed you killed some guy for mouthing off