Why the Low Numbers?

[ManUtd4Ever]

As someone who plays a senior member of the Whurest faction, I too found myself outside of the informational loop that I felt my character would have known. Fortunately, the active faction members began publishing short recaps of actions in game so as to keep others informed, but not with any significant details so as to encourage metagaming. This helped me understand what we were doing as a faction even though I may not of participated in any EST events.

We all know Saulus manages the server. He has a staff of volunteers who work for him to provide us all a great RP environment. Some DM's have more time than others... it all ebbs and flows based on RL. I say this because my limited interactions with the staff have led me to believe that very little is random. They put a lot of thought into how they want the plots / stories to evolve with player help.

What I would encourage / suggest is that management considers a new staff position called "Story Teller" that is responsible for providing content on the RP forums for each faction that is consistent with the staff's intent. You already have "Project Lead, Senior DM, DM, and Developer..." why not add "story teller" to the staff and allow a volunteer the literary license to advance RP posts. These volunteers would not need any client or coding experience. They merely need to demonstrate they are good writers (as proven by their own RP posts) and be given access to staff instructions (macro vice micro) on what is allowable.

Just a thought.

Cheers!

[[DM] Grinning Death]

I'm hearing a lot of very specific things. Some of it is good, some of it I feel like is out of our hands. However, the one point that resounds with me in particular is that we need to advance the storyline in some way. How, that remains to be seen. But we'll be doing something relatively soon.

But, just for you all to note, the factions are not meant to be lead by NPCs. Their influence is, and should be minimal. This is why we have PC leaders, who are supposed to intelligently formulate plans and thoughts to express to the DMs, because it's easier for us to deal with one person on a regular basis than an entire faction.

Finally, expect to see some PC leadership change as well. We need people who are active, committed players to their factions in order to lead them. It's not just a mechanical title, it's an actual job to creatively push faction goals and other players.

[Memnoch1962]

For me personally, if I'm not online its real life things that I have to take care of. (Job, family, farm, etc.)
There are things on the server that I think may cause folks to shy away, for instance I submitted a character request about a week ago and I still haven't heard anything back from the staff. That's not a real big issue, I know you all are busy and things like my request take time and planning. Some people have said to me they get tired of playing because of all the PVP they encounter. To me if your PC is someone that is wanted, KOS, etc, then you probably should expect some PVP. As a whole I love this server and think the staff does great, however we players probably could step up and be more involved.


,

[Snowmane]

I am often afraid to try and start something because I am never sure exactly what is going on in character. I know the DM's make notes of happenings in their forums so they have a handle on things, but we players rarely know what's going on outside of our "campfire RP" sessions.

I'd love to have a thread listing the ongoing activities that are public knowledge in the valley so that we can all refer to it when we log in. Something like a Town Crier thread to which we can subscribe and to which only DMs can post. Then we player's would have an easier time supporting ongoing activities by being on the same page.

We started something like a Town Crier thread here, but unfortunately it kind of got orphaned. I'd love to see it come alive again.

[wangxiuming]

The City Rumors threads are a good idea of the general happenings within a particular settlement! See here:

Sundren City Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22667

Port Avanthyr Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22623

Sestra Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22618

[Barathos]

The City Rumors threads are a good idea of the general happenings within a particular settlement! See here:

Sundren City Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22667

Port Avanthyr Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22623

Sestra Rumors: http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22618

These are good starts, but perhaps some sort of primary knowledge would be nice for a faction.

Example: I joined the Left Hand of Mundus. IC, I know what that is, I know who they are, and I know what their plot is. OOC, I really have no clue what to do. I had to get told IC that apparantly the Helmites are inspecting all Mundus activities. The issue is, I should know these things as a Hand of Mundus, even as an initiate, but I kinda have to go all Gandalf and dig for information that is quite ancient.

I know we want to keep faction forums hidden away from people, because I know people will meta game that knowledge whether they mean to or not. But a little "Hey! You're part of X? Well, here's what you should probably know..." would be helpful.

[Farmboy2003]

Might I suggest bringing the faction meetings back again? And maybe have them with a certain amount of time apart?

Another thing would be faction dms? I'd think I would bother DMs more for info and ideas, if I knew who to bother with questions and ideas

[Atmosphere]

What do you mean faction meetings? A good chunk of players seem to make their own meetings. There are certain characters who seem to be constantly in them.

[Farmboy2003]

What do you mean faction meetings? A good chunk of players seem to make their own meetings. There are certain characters who seem to be constantly in them.

Awhile ago, DMs invited to faction meetings. I never took part, but I assumed they meant to be there to discuss faction futures, ask questions and get a feel for the faction. I thought it was a great idea.

http://www.sundren.org/forum/showthr...action+meeting

EDIT: ok, so a year ago...

[Laurk]

Im not sure faction DMs are a good idea. There aren't enough active DMs as it is, so one DM who can only devote to group A is bad, because it could be DM A is the only DM some players will ever see. It was like this on Myths of Atalan. On the rare instances I would see a DM on at my ungodly hours, the reply was inevitably: "Id love to help, but im the XYZ Faction DM, get ahold of "DM Who-I-never-See," he can help you.

[Valhalla]

And I do have a server wide event going.. . . people seem more interested in doing their own thing.... and I can't read minds.

Server-wide events are never universally applicable, though. Why would anyone heavily associated with Port Avanthyr want to take part in an event in Mirakus Post? Or someone heavily involved with Blackwood take part in one in the Port?

Likewise, it can be a bit weird being a servant of one of the State branches in an event with a bunch of randoms and mercenaries - because you have some amount of power over them, but it feels shitty OOCly to use that in a lot of cases (during an event).

As has been repeatedly brought up in this thread, the server has been heavily factionalized. There's a lot of tension between groups even on the same "side" - most of the compelling conflict I've been witness to recently haven't been Evil vs. Good. It's been Neutral vs. Neutral or Good vs. Neutral.

If there's going to be real server-wide progress for the plot and for most (or all) of the characters, then the DMs are going to need to be aware of the fact that some factions can't or won't work together willingly.

[Doubtful]

Conflict is good, be it good vs evil, chaos vs law or some other combination of clashing ideals, philosophies or personalities.

Having competing factions vying for glory in the same event, trying to grab credit or undermine the opposition even when they're allies is what makes things interesting. Without conflict there is no story!

Keep ooc feelings in mind, be friends with your other players and oocly chat about things if you feel your ic actions may cause upset, but don't give up on playing your character as you think they should be played, you do everyone a disservice like that.

Faction DMs are a big no no!

[Atmosphere]

Whoever said factions need to work together for server wide events? If I run something and both the triad and black hand show up, they can duke it out before we roll out.

[Atmosphere]

For me personally, if I'm not online its real life things that I have to take care of. (Job, family, farm, etc.)
There are things on the server that I think may cause folks to shy away, for instance I submitted a character request about a week ago and I still haven't heard anything back from the staff. That's not a real big issue, I know you all are busy and things like my request take time and planning. Some people have said to me they get tired of playing because of all the PVP they encounter. To me if your PC is someone that is wanted, KOS, etc, then you probably should expect some PVP. As a whole I love this server and think the staff does great, however we players probably could step up and be more involved.
,

if you haven't heard back from us, bump the request. we are only but human ourselves and threads sometimes get buried.

[Rekov]

if you haven't heard back from us, bump the request. we are only but human ourselves and threads sometimes get buried.

Filthy lies!

What do you mean faction meetings? A good chunk of players seem to make their own meetings. There are certain characters who seem to be constantly in them.

Weareratmen. - We are rat men.

Truly, did you think I wouldn't notice?