Your actions speak volumes...

[Doubtful]

Hmmm..

You know, if we did have a server reset and time jump I'd much, much prefer to see it go back in time.

Being around in the desperate struggle to found a nation, with all the exploration and petty politics that goes hand in hand with such is so much more appealing to me that variations on the established theme.

[MyNameIsDave]

I'm all in favor of a server wipe. I feel like so many things are off limits because there are existing player stories (even though those players have long since left) that have established lore.

I also vote for the exploration theme. I think tracking and exploring the new frontier would be a grand way to get adventurer's out and about.

[roguethree]

We don't have anything close to the builder resources needed to accomplish that kind of setting. Forward's the only feasible direction.

[Sparkie]

While going back would be cool, I'd also like to see where the Valley's at in a decade or two- how's the Sundarian Banite war gone up to this point? Either side won and now there's a rebellion movement working against them as they work to lock down their rule? That interests me just as much as the explorey theme that Doubt brought up.

[ManUtd4Ever]

Vault wipe is a great idea IF it solves the problem. If it is merely a presumption then I anticipate players who invested a lot of time in their characters will feel disenfranchised. The player community was small before this became a chronic problem... For those encouraging a vault wipe - I sure hope you log in to play with those of us left behind.

If it is done to solve the problem then anyone who wants to continue playing here (raises his hand) will be able to start fresh and on equal footing. Tough call either way. ��

[roguethree]

If we asploded your characters, we'd soften the blow somehow. You'd each get a Skype date with me or something.

[OnyxTigress]

Only if you cosplay as Mordekaiser.

[Kaybrie]

Only if you cosplay as Mordekaiser.

Second'd

[Sparkie]

Okay, I'll be posting my findings here, and edit this post as things go on: (Times mentioned are in Atlantic Time Zone)

Sunday, August 30th: Rep Down
Monday, August 31st: Rep Down (checked 9 pm)
Tuesday, September 1st: Rep Down (checked 6:50 pm)
Wednesday, September 2nd:
Thursday, September 3rd:
Friday, September 4th:
Saturday, September 5th:

Will be checking after reset for now on as well, because I seem to remember it working immediately after reset. We'll see about getting a general time scale between when it's okay and when it gets borked.

[Doubtful]

We don't have anything close to the builder resources needed to accomplish that kind of setting. Forward's the only feasible direction.

Psh, coming in here with your practical thinking and common sense.

It could be done with a bit of creative wielding of the area scalpel, but it would mean loosing a lot of the great areas we already have, and yes... I guess it'd be hard to play the exploring angle if we can't summon up some mappers..

[roguethree]

If we wanted to explore Sundren's past, we could create one-time adventure dungeons that capture some critical moment in Sundren history. They would be OOC from a character's perspective, but they could still award XP, items, etc. That's tangential, though.

[Kaybrie]

On an aside, would it be possible to backup the character vault, wipe, then test it to see if it fixes the server issue?

[jarlexel]

still though, that is not the issue, server would still be dead, twenty years into the future, keep your old toons but they all would be senior citizens . . . wait vampires don't age, nevermind.

[Memnoch1962]

doing a server/vault wipe and keeping our characters wouldn't work. I suggested keeping one. Write all the stats down and get with a DM after the wipeout and remake that character back to its level prior to the wipe. Some of us had some good storylines going with Dm's and would like to continue them. However, if it was decided to move in time one way or the other, then it wouldn't be practical to continue with old storylines.

I've always left the storyline up to the staff and played along with my main as best as possible. I've made a few suggestions over time. So if its decided to wipe the server and we all start over 20 years in the future, thats cool with me.

I know some may not agree with that. So in their interests it may be good to back up the vault. Then if its found that wasn't the problem, the old toons still exist somewhere.

[Requiem]

still though, that is not the issue, server would still be dead, twenty years into the future, keep your old toons but they all would be senior citizens . . . wait vampires don't age, nevermind.

Server is only dead because people are playing other games or other servers. Don't think I haven't seen you on Engines of Ascension you traitor!

Seriously though, the rep issue has scared off players, there is no denying that. Much of the gear and role-play was centered around the factions our PC's are in. When you log in and your faithful companions/terrified slaves suddenly decided to murder you, it creates problems both mechanical and narrative. Still, the server has bounced back from low/no population before, usually when fixes were implemented. That is the rationale behind even considering a vault wipe: thus far, nothing else has fixed the problem so big guns and what not.

It would also do a fair amount of tidying up the narrative, as some of you pointed out. We have a fairly tangled snarl of plots and characters and politics, so burning it all down would certainly unfetter the story a bit.

The hope in discussing this at all is that we want players to come back and enjoy themselves again or even snag the errant RP enthusiastic who bought NWN2 on GoG summer sale. If we had to purge the vault, I would miss my old characters but I would hope to find ways to see them (and all of your's, this isn't favoritism) woven into the new story. Maybe we could even NPC some as antagonists, with player permission and input.

As an aside, I agree with the comments about going back in time possibly being more fun and interesting, but also with the comments about how impractical that would be given our staff and available manhours. I really liked rogue3's idea of slapping together some flashback adventures, though I get wary of time travel hooks as I was deeply wounded by WoW and Warlords of Draenor. Still, the idea of sending adventurers back in time has a certain charm, and would be fun to run...especially because the end result of the adventure is fixed in time so you pesky players can't undo all our wonderful prep!