What should the new Event Team do?

[danolt]

The problem as I see it; there is no factional/national relevance to the current conflicts concerning OP's. I think that adding some event/developmental interaction to the mix would add a lot to the overall experience. However, it does need to be meaningful. Something that advances the goals of either faction/nation. The factions have relinquished the most lucrative resources for nothing and that is not consistent with the lore, story, or fundamental design of the game.

I am gonna do a quick aside to address the language thread from the general forum, as I think it ties into the lack of story development. When players take control of something, it is quite possible they can really screw up timelines, plot lines, and game reality. How do we know there were ever four ancient, separate and unique languages on Atys? How do we really know that homins have been on Atys for longer then 100 years or so? What if we are clones with imprinted memories, prisoners who have been mind- wiped and genetically altered and dumped on some penal planet. There is so much we do not know and so much of what we do know that may be wrong.

Back to Outposts, they are now and always have been a completely player controlled commodity. What I think would be worth looking at, is making them significant to a larger purpose. Make them a part of racial wars or some sort of factional development, give them storyline and contextual meaning. It might be worth considering something as simple as a "factional/racial" reward on overall goods created from the OP's that can then be used to distribute to nonOP-holding followers. As in, if your faction and citizen status owns so many OP's you can pick up so many stacks of cats from the NPC "our faction rules" office on a daily basis. For those who are on the losing end, they can do a mission from "our faction will rule" NPC and get something to level the playing field a bit. I just think players need to be reminded, continually, that the factional powers are powerful instead of being arguably the most irrelevant pixels on Atys.

Why not make OP's sole ownership of the nations/factions and allow visiting citizens to trade for supplies, allow them to be upgradeable by supplying materials and of course conquerable? Take guild ownership completely out of the formula, making the guilds vassals of the state, to be rewarded by the state for successful engagements. This is just an idea, something I am throwing out there.

The allure of the factional conflict for me was the fact that there were two very realistic and competing ideals of political and religious thought. I liked how the developers designed the game to attract certain personalities to certain aspects of either faction. Whether it is there intentionally or not, I see a lot of design manipulation within the mechanics, lore and (when we had them) events of Atys that fed and shaped these two competing ideals. It is what kept me in the game, and it is my lack of faith, that these ideals will return, that keeps Pero out now.


My hope with this thread was to give the event team some of my ideas and let them know that at least one player would like to see the factions rise from the ashes and do something. If I get really lucky, maybe prod someone else to post who has even better ideas.

I am asking for "divine" intervention. A purpose, something to 'fight' for.

[elthunim]

As far as the original question asked by the thread, regular email/RSS updates are key, to bring folks up-to-date when significant events are about to occur. EVE is really good at sending regular email news updates about what's going on and what's been achieved, without being obtrusive. RSS feeds for both minor and major events would be key to send information more regularly, to the lurkers and active players alike.

I'm glad you intend to make changes that give a greater sense of direction. We're all eager to see something of your vision.

[dracolych49]

As far as the original question asked by the thread, regular email/RSS updates are key, to bring folks up-to-date when significant events are about to occur. EVE is really good at sending regular email news updates about what's going on and what's been achieved, without being obtrusive. RSS feeds for both minor and major events would be key to send information more regularly, to the lurkers and active players alike.

I'm glad you intend to make changes that give a greater sense of direction. We're all eager to see something of your vision.

Regular email for the major events coming and past, but for minor sub-parts, use in-game e-mail or maybie in-game guild forum messages. I don't need to know every little thing going on in game, that would just make me depressed that I can't get on at that time. That is where the in-game email would come in.

Maybie make the IG email be land-specific, and the forum messages be put up if there is someone from that guild in the region the message originates from (probably be easier to send to all guilds, in that case)

[danolt]

Regular email for the major events coming and past, but for minor sub-parts, use in-game e-mail

I really like this idea. I think it would be simple, effective and immersive.


I also want to make sure that Aapeli and any readers of this thread were absolutely positive that I, perosonally have little to no concern of tangible, lasting bias from the event team, now or ever. I strongly urge, upper management to risk allowing the event team to use their own judgment and give them the flexibility to add more shape and color to outlined events. Any real inconsistencies, if they appear, can be later worked out and adjusted for. Real politicians and leaders misspeak, they get misunderstood, they even claim to have never said or did something when it turns out to be unpopular, daily. It is all very “fixable”. Please, support your team and allow them enough freedom to make some “mistakes”.

I do expect (and hope) that I will have differing opinions on lore interpretation and what I think is really going on in Atys. As a player, I have only had a partial view of what is going on, but it would be very helpful to know if previous events, characters, etc are cannon, meaning will future appearances and events that touch on subjects that have already been introduced take into account previous history.

I am assuming that the return of one of my favorite NPC characters is a clear signal that history is fully intact but it would be very nice to have confirmation of the importance of previous event storyline.

I’d also like to know if the future storyline is going to be more sci-fi or fantasy based.

In closing, it appears to me that the future event plan is the most ambitious and complicated I have ever seen for a graphical MMO. If yall can bring the tabletop to the graphic based MMO, I will be forever grateful.

[suib0m]

I really like this idea. I think it would be simple, effective and immersive.


I also want to make sure that Aapeli and any readers of this thread were absolutely positive that I, perosonally have little to no concern of tangible, lasting bias from the event team, now or ever. I strongly urge, upper management to risk allowing the event team to use their own judgment and give them the flexibility to add more shape and color to outlined events. Any real inconsistencies, if they appear, can be later worked out and adjusted for. Real politicians and leaders misspeak, they get misunderstood, they even claim to have never said or did something when it turns out to be unpopular, daily. It is all very “fixable”. Please, support your team and allow them enough freedom to make some “mistakes”.

I fully agree with this. My thought is that the differing regions will, and should, have varying Events, for the simple fact of availability. It would be great if the Event Teams had an overlying outline of what needs to happen, with specific points laid out that need to be worked with, but with the exact details being left up to the team itself. That way, events are not tied down with a kludgy script that the Team and the players have to work around. The Events would be much more dynamic, and it would give more to play with as new plot directives come out.

Trying to figure out how an incongruous piece of a story can fit into the main architecture can lead to some really nice surprises.

Anyway, just some thoughts and agreements..
Peace,
- Sui