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Where Are All The Areas?
I was browsing the facebook group and saw a complaint regarding the development focus being placed on artifacts rather than building new areas to expand Lusternia. I wanted to take the time to address the issue from my personal perspective since, as players, the administrative side of Lusternia is largely a mystery and I can't expect you to know if I never tell you.
From my personal experience, artifacts are generally pretty easy to create. It took me about 5 minutes each to do the damage type whips I made (I'm not sure the coding time that went into them). The manse mob generators I did took me maybe 10-20 minutes (again, I don't know about the coding time) and some of the admin probably did them faster.
Conversely, a "pocket" style mini-area I did took me about a month to do. During that month, I was probably working on it 10 or more hours a week. A full area I did took me just over 3 months, working 20-40 hours a week on it. There were some weeks during that time where I was online programming the quest more than I was sleeping. For reference, the Night Market, a pretty middle of the road area, took around 5 months and that was with 2 admin working on it. We currently have some areas that have been in development since before I became an ephemeral.
As you can see, the development of an area takes an extremely long amount of time compared to artifacts, and that is what really influences why players see new artifacts more than they see new areas. Add in the fact that many admin also handle administrative duties (issues, bugs, the library, the website, crafting design review, bardics and artisanals, training ephemerals, patron requests, etc.) as well as being volunteers who work, have friends and family, and other hobbies, leads to a generally slow rate of new areas being released.
All the admin love areas and I'm really excited for all the ones we currently have in progress. I wish we could create and release them more frequently, but I hope this alleviates the concerns some of you may have had!
#justmy2cents #pooroverworkedadmin #applytobeanephemeral
From my personal experience, artifacts are generally pretty easy to create. It took me about 5 minutes each to do the damage type whips I made (I'm not sure the coding time that went into them). The manse mob generators I did took me maybe 10-20 minutes (again, I don't know about the coding time) and some of the admin probably did them faster.
Conversely, a "pocket" style mini-area I did took me about a month to do. During that month, I was probably working on it 10 or more hours a week. A full area I did took me just over 3 months, working 20-40 hours a week on it. There were some weeks during that time where I was online programming the quest more than I was sleeping. For reference, the Night Market, a pretty middle of the road area, took around 5 months and that was with 2 admin working on it. We currently have some areas that have been in development since before I became an ephemeral.
As you can see, the development of an area takes an extremely long amount of time compared to artifacts, and that is what really influences why players see new artifacts more than they see new areas. Add in the fact that many admin also handle administrative duties (issues, bugs, the library, the website, crafting design review, bardics and artisanals, training ephemerals, patron requests, etc.) as well as being volunteers who work, have friends and family, and other hobbies, leads to a generally slow rate of new areas being released.
All the admin love areas and I'm really excited for all the ones we currently have in progress. I wish we could create and release them more frequently, but I hope this alleviates the concerns some of you may have had!
#justmy2cents #pooroverworkedadmin #applytobeanephemeral
17
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
As I alluded to in the Facebook group, this is a complicated resources and staffing problem. In order for Ephemerals to succeed, they need training and commitment and a certain degree of non-negotiable skill at finishing some pretty complex work before they're allowed into the Divine clubhouse. After that, it's hard work - not only are there administrative systems, but there's training before we let people touch the issues queue, the design queue, and many other facets of behind-the-scenes work. Then there's areas - while you may get frustrated at how long they're taken, it may be worth considering how many moving parts are in them.
With a very few exceptions, each and every mob, room, and item is unique or based on a unique design. Each area requires not only that, but some fairly complex and involved scripting (which also requires training - most Ephemerals don't come up to Havens knowing how to prog (script)) that takes a lot of focus, a lot of work, and a LOT of debugging both before and after an area of any size is released.
Imagine this on top of a 40 hour workweek or midterm papers, or grad school degrees. All of this is a labor of love - an unpaid and very complex labor of love that goes on top of the administrative sausage. And I'd like to say: Zvoltz's time estimates are about on the nose for what I've seen for development.
As for #applytobeanephemeral, I'd have to have five of them at once and Estarra won't allow that.
(On an unrelated topic, I finally clicked on Isune's profile and now I see her picture is not a my little pony looking-thing that it looks like when tiny. My life has changed.)
Hope there's another call soon, I think I'm ready to apply instead of just typing everything up and sobbing over it for days on end!
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Some pockets that come to mind: the beauty salon in the Presidio, bookwurms, the plant baby, Waystations, the Mahalla organ, the lucidian statue, and the Kelpie Maiden.
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If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
Is there any chance that positions will open (or are open) for mortal builders, NDA agreements and all included? PvE content and design is something I absolutely adore, but I'm not done with Mork and the world around him to put him aside.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
Other than that, thanks for linking the help file, just incase other people are curious and want to take it on board. :-bd
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
You have received a new honour! Congratulations! On this day, you have shown your willingness to ensure a bug-free Lusternia for everyone to enjoy. The face of Iosai the Anomaly unfolds before you, and within you grows the knowledge that you have earned the elusive and rare honour of membership in Her Order.
Curio Exchange - A website to help with the trading of curio pieces in Lusternia.
If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?
This is a somewhat pervasive attitude, but it is just not feasible. I love when we get new areas (even if some just seem weird, like the wyrden river quest that we have all promptly and intentionally forgotten about). There are so many little areas witg NPCs that you can stumble across and offer you things to do, and it is great.
PS: Bets on Estarra reading the first sentence and taking it as serious?
Screw areas, I WANT MORE ARTIFACTS!!!
You have received a new honour! Congratulations! On this day, you have shown your willingness to ensure a bug-free Lusternia for everyone to enjoy. The face of Iosai the Anomaly unfolds before you, and within you grows the knowledge that you have earned the elusive and rare honour of membership in Her Order.
Curio Exchange - A website to help with the trading of curio pieces in Lusternia.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
#qualityoverquantity! #noblandareas! #morezvoltztweets!
IMO lusternia has an plenty of artifacts and areas already. Although normally I am all for change I would simply just like to see more focus put on utilising what we have and utilising the game play.
My most memorable times in Lusternia are god interactions and spur of the moment competitions (often organised by gods so possibly falls into the first category). These are rare, rare events though. Since Morgfyre left I have not seen a god in Magnagora and even then the interactions were rare.
This is not a criticism either just an opinion. I guess what I am saying is I would prefer less development by gods and more interaction with gods. There of course needs to be a balance but for me the balance seemed too skewed to the gods being builders. I constantly hear from the old timers how Fain and Morgfyre would interact regularly with their followers and members of the city......honestly I would find this quite enjoyable.
06/30/2014 19:37 Silvanus channels the power of the Megalith of Doom for you, stripping you of your Vernal Ascendant status.......bastard!!
I'd much rather have a visible divine who, for lack of a better term, "hung out" with mortal often than one who was constantly around making things for us but constantly invisible.
The following isn't meant to be a rant, but Valtreth's order is in the latter part of the above paragraph. I -know- he does stuff, he's customized his his artifacts and given his order two emotes. He likely works his ass off on stuff, but we never, ever see him. I'd prefer if he showed up pretty often and had a presence (as well as establishing some actual rp) as opposed to simply being in the background.
TL;DR - we know you're all up there, and you want to make us want to stick around. We want you to want to stick around too. But instead of giving us shiny things, BE the shiny thing.
Sorry, forgot hashtags.
#aesthetecrew #canihazmoargods #ripiosai