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Announce Post #3326: Roadmap for Lusternia
State of the Team
=================
Before we look at our roadmap, it is important to take a look at the team working on it as that is highly relevant to the entire endeavour. We generally never talk about our team size because that number rarely reflects reality. Our volunteers do the best they can, when they can. Sometimes that is 2 hours a week for one person, and 10 hours a week for another. Sometimes someone is gone for a month, or three. All of them, including Ealix, have full time jobs and a variety of obligations. Everyone contributes to the team what they can, and all their contributions are considered equal and valuable.
We have been through some really tough times in terms of numbers for the past year or so. You have seen it clearly - fewer events, fewer god roles, fewer interactions. There were long stretches of time when all we had to work with were the producers, one senior godmin, and maybe 3 Ephemerals. Those are not our actual numbers, but those were often the numbers we had to work with. As you can imagine, supporting an entire game on these numbers is a challenge. Still, we persevered and worked hard. We have been rebuilding our team and the delays you have seen here and there were because of that - because training new volunteers has been the highest priority and that training takes enormous amounts of time. As a result, we have a very eager, active, and skilled Ephemeral army and our godmin have thrown themselves into work, going above and beyond because they, like you, care enormously about Lusternia.
We have, however, recently stumbled across a significant difficulty when it comes to our coding capacity. Ealix has been rendered almost entirely unavailable by work at the start of June and his busy period is estimated to last until the end of August. Because of that he is stepping down to an Assistant Position for the moment. There is no one who can replace him at present which means that our coding resources are limited. That said, we still have coders on board: Orael, who you have seen knock out all the reports, Ais, our latest, Scout, who you know is finishing up his timeline project, and then our mortal coders and myself. What this means is not that no coding is happening, for it certainly is, but that the sort of big projects we want to work on will not happen overnight and that we need to make do with what we have right now.
While our team is eager to work and will be doing their very best work for you, please remember that they are volunteers. They signed up to do this work primarily in order to make your experience better and their dreams are big. But the enemy of every volunteer is time and guilt. Nobody is harder on them than they themselves. They do not need to be reminded that there's a letter they didn't answer yet, an admin request they did not complete, or a plot they did not tie up. They are not refusing to do it or ignoring you intentionally, they are doing the best they can. Be patient as it is very easy to drive godmin away due to stress and negativity, but it takes years to train them.
Ascension
=========
Last year we decided not to have an Ascension event due to desire to focus on rebalancing conflict events and alliances first. As a result, the story arc that usually accompanies Ascension was also put on hold. Ascension, treated as one package deal, is a facet of Lusternia that offers something for everyone. Those who play for intrigue, lore, and world-changing events enjoy the story that accompanies Ascension. Those who enjoy competing find Ascension trials to be the best challenges. And the final event provides a little bit of everything, including large scale conflict. It is a stage that offers something for everyone.
As such, we have decided to go forward with Ascension for this year and the associated storyline will be starting before long. We know that there are plenty of reasons not to do it: alliances and conflict not finished, some skills need work, alliances are uneven, etc. However, we believe that it is the best course of action for the game to proceed anyway because Ascension is Lusternia's biggest event and the exact thing we need to bolster our player numbers.
The shape of the final event is one of the things we have wanted to tackle for a while, but as mentioned before, our coding resources are limited. It is possible that it will remain as is with smaller changes, or by that time we may have more opportunity to make adjustments. Whatever shape it will take, the entirety of Ascension plays out over months, and is a forge and a challenge unlikely any other. We are dedicated to making it as fun an experience as possible for all types of players.
Coding Projects
===============
Although we made plans for many changes that would improve the game, as mentioned we were hamstrung by losing much of our coding support for a long time, through no fault of anyone's. As a result, there are two major projects that have been on our plate for a while now - Economy and Conflict (with Alliances as part of Conflict). We put in a lot of time into improving our coding capabilities, but we are not quite there in our ability to take on game-changing projects of that nature.
We do have coders on board, but they all have different levels of experience and skills, and can contribute varying amounts of time to projects. Implementing Reports, for example, is vastly different to tackling Economy. The first is by default broken down into dozens of tasks that only really require small changes. Meanwhile, Economy is a project that touches every single facet of the game, requires a deep understanding of the very complex and entwined systems at work, demands thorough documentation (which was missing prior), and half a dozen people at least to make sense of it and design a path forward. It is not something that a single volunteer coder can manage on their own, nor will most have the necessary skills to do so - skills that go beyond coding.
Having said that, both of those projects are still important to us and are seen as valuable for the well-being of the game. We will not take them on wholesale but instead will re-evaluate their scope and break them down into incremental changes. They will not be the focus that ties up all our coding resources though as we will be seeking your input into other systemic changes that are necessary as well.
Newbie Experience
=================
One of the topics that we feel needs looking at is the newbie experience and we would like your help in articulating the focus for this project, as well as, analysing the difficulties newbies face. To that end we will be opening a thread on the forums and would very much appreciate any and all concerns to be listed there. Among the things that are on our radar already are: adding race as an option to the Newbie Intro, full instancing of the Pools, a look at College tasks, and a centralised source of newbie-friendly information (a dedicated help section with bite-sized overviews).
Admin Requests
==============
The request system is a great roleplay and development tool, except when resources are limited. Our system has accrued 39 pending requests, some of which are very old. This is an issue across all organisations, not just specific to a few.
From this point onwards the request system is closed, with the exception of festival or urgent guild structure requests. We are going to look over all the requests in the system and plot a path forward. It is possible that some requests may be rejected, even if they have been previously approved, if we do not believe their current value to be equal to the amount of time it would require to implement them. We will be reaching out and keeping organisational leadership updated and involved in this process. We are also revamping current development clans to be more user-friendly and informative. Once pending requests have been completed, we will update the system to be less nebulous and more able to deliver in a timely manner.
One thing we will be looking at is developmental parity across organisations, most notably the guilds. We do not believe the new guilds to be on par with the old ones just yet, and access to various roleplay tools (such as rituals, quests, fully fleshed out tutors, etc) is still uneven. When analysing pending requests we will also be looking at it from that perspective, including for cities and communes.
While this undertaking is in progress, and also in general, remember that you do not require admin requests or even admin oversight to conduct the vast majority of guild development. Rituals and rites of passage that were a part of the old guilds almost always started out as roleplay. Repetition is how they became tradition, and then also how they became actual codified features. Similarly, if you are struggling with the guild tasks system, you do not have to use it. Just because it exists does not mean it has to work for your guild. This is true of many codified aspects of guilds - you do not need code support to develop guild identify and mechanics should not limit you. We understand many worry about making changes and being overruled later, but long as you are staying within the parameters of your guilds and not trying to change their fundamental nature, you are just developing identity. Asking us to codify something is where lore review is involved and when requests may get rejected, but outside of that it is the individual member's vision that drives their guilds and builds their roleplay.
=================
Before we look at our roadmap, it is important to take a look at the team working on it as that is highly relevant to the entire endeavour. We generally never talk about our team size because that number rarely reflects reality. Our volunteers do the best they can, when they can. Sometimes that is 2 hours a week for one person, and 10 hours a week for another. Sometimes someone is gone for a month, or three. All of them, including Ealix, have full time jobs and a variety of obligations. Everyone contributes to the team what they can, and all their contributions are considered equal and valuable.
We have been through some really tough times in terms of numbers for the past year or so. You have seen it clearly - fewer events, fewer god roles, fewer interactions. There were long stretches of time when all we had to work with were the producers, one senior godmin, and maybe 3 Ephemerals. Those are not our actual numbers, but those were often the numbers we had to work with. As you can imagine, supporting an entire game on these numbers is a challenge. Still, we persevered and worked hard. We have been rebuilding our team and the delays you have seen here and there were because of that - because training new volunteers has been the highest priority and that training takes enormous amounts of time. As a result, we have a very eager, active, and skilled Ephemeral army and our godmin have thrown themselves into work, going above and beyond because they, like you, care enormously about Lusternia.
We have, however, recently stumbled across a significant difficulty when it comes to our coding capacity. Ealix has been rendered almost entirely unavailable by work at the start of June and his busy period is estimated to last until the end of August. Because of that he is stepping down to an Assistant Position for the moment. There is no one who can replace him at present which means that our coding resources are limited. That said, we still have coders on board: Orael, who you have seen knock out all the reports, Ais, our latest, Scout, who you know is finishing up his timeline project, and then our mortal coders and myself. What this means is not that no coding is happening, for it certainly is, but that the sort of big projects we want to work on will not happen overnight and that we need to make do with what we have right now.
While our team is eager to work and will be doing their very best work for you, please remember that they are volunteers. They signed up to do this work primarily in order to make your experience better and their dreams are big. But the enemy of every volunteer is time and guilt. Nobody is harder on them than they themselves. They do not need to be reminded that there's a letter they didn't answer yet, an admin request they did not complete, or a plot they did not tie up. They are not refusing to do it or ignoring you intentionally, they are doing the best they can. Be patient as it is very easy to drive godmin away due to stress and negativity, but it takes years to train them.
Ascension
=========
Last year we decided not to have an Ascension event due to desire to focus on rebalancing conflict events and alliances first. As a result, the story arc that usually accompanies Ascension was also put on hold. Ascension, treated as one package deal, is a facet of Lusternia that offers something for everyone. Those who play for intrigue, lore, and world-changing events enjoy the story that accompanies Ascension. Those who enjoy competing find Ascension trials to be the best challenges. And the final event provides a little bit of everything, including large scale conflict. It is a stage that offers something for everyone.
As such, we have decided to go forward with Ascension for this year and the associated storyline will be starting before long. We know that there are plenty of reasons not to do it: alliances and conflict not finished, some skills need work, alliances are uneven, etc. However, we believe that it is the best course of action for the game to proceed anyway because Ascension is Lusternia's biggest event and the exact thing we need to bolster our player numbers.
The shape of the final event is one of the things we have wanted to tackle for a while, but as mentioned before, our coding resources are limited. It is possible that it will remain as is with smaller changes, or by that time we may have more opportunity to make adjustments. Whatever shape it will take, the entirety of Ascension plays out over months, and is a forge and a challenge unlikely any other. We are dedicated to making it as fun an experience as possible for all types of players.
Coding Projects
===============
Although we made plans for many changes that would improve the game, as mentioned we were hamstrung by losing much of our coding support for a long time, through no fault of anyone's. As a result, there are two major projects that have been on our plate for a while now - Economy and Conflict (with Alliances as part of Conflict). We put in a lot of time into improving our coding capabilities, but we are not quite there in our ability to take on game-changing projects of that nature.
We do have coders on board, but they all have different levels of experience and skills, and can contribute varying amounts of time to projects. Implementing Reports, for example, is vastly different to tackling Economy. The first is by default broken down into dozens of tasks that only really require small changes. Meanwhile, Economy is a project that touches every single facet of the game, requires a deep understanding of the very complex and entwined systems at work, demands thorough documentation (which was missing prior), and half a dozen people at least to make sense of it and design a path forward. It is not something that a single volunteer coder can manage on their own, nor will most have the necessary skills to do so - skills that go beyond coding.
Having said that, both of those projects are still important to us and are seen as valuable for the well-being of the game. We will not take them on wholesale but instead will re-evaluate their scope and break them down into incremental changes. They will not be the focus that ties up all our coding resources though as we will be seeking your input into other systemic changes that are necessary as well.
Newbie Experience
=================
One of the topics that we feel needs looking at is the newbie experience and we would like your help in articulating the focus for this project, as well as, analysing the difficulties newbies face. To that end we will be opening a thread on the forums and would very much appreciate any and all concerns to be listed there. Among the things that are on our radar already are: adding race as an option to the Newbie Intro, full instancing of the Pools, a look at College tasks, and a centralised source of newbie-friendly information (a dedicated help section with bite-sized overviews).
Admin Requests
==============
The request system is a great roleplay and development tool, except when resources are limited. Our system has accrued 39 pending requests, some of which are very old. This is an issue across all organisations, not just specific to a few.
From this point onwards the request system is closed, with the exception of festival or urgent guild structure requests. We are going to look over all the requests in the system and plot a path forward. It is possible that some requests may be rejected, even if they have been previously approved, if we do not believe their current value to be equal to the amount of time it would require to implement them. We will be reaching out and keeping organisational leadership updated and involved in this process. We are also revamping current development clans to be more user-friendly and informative. Once pending requests have been completed, we will update the system to be less nebulous and more able to deliver in a timely manner.
One thing we will be looking at is developmental parity across organisations, most notably the guilds. We do not believe the new guilds to be on par with the old ones just yet, and access to various roleplay tools (such as rituals, quests, fully fleshed out tutors, etc) is still uneven. When analysing pending requests we will also be looking at it from that perspective, including for cities and communes.
While this undertaking is in progress, and also in general, remember that you do not require admin requests or even admin oversight to conduct the vast majority of guild development. Rituals and rites of passage that were a part of the old guilds almost always started out as roleplay. Repetition is how they became tradition, and then also how they became actual codified features. Similarly, if you are struggling with the guild tasks system, you do not have to use it. Just because it exists does not mean it has to work for your guild. This is true of many codified aspects of guilds - you do not need code support to develop guild identify and mechanics should not limit you. We understand many worry about making changes and being overruled later, but long as you are staying within the parameters of your guilds and not trying to change their fundamental nature, you are just developing identity. Asking us to codify something is where lore review is involved and when requests may get rejected, but outside of that it is the individual member's vision that drives their guilds and builds their roleplay.
2
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
See Discord discussion in posts below. Appreciation pulled out here.
Appreciation
Qistrel —
Thanks for the roadmap, I am going to sleep now cause it's past midnight, so won't participate in the Q&A but, I do want to say, the Listeners guild is in a good place as we have a lot of things other guilds don't, like a mini-epic guild honours quest filled with stacks of lore, some great coded ritual things, and a path system. So I will focus on making the best use of what we already have and maybe make up some educated guessing 'folklore' to fill out some less explained things, and if it gets contradicted later, well, folklore often end up being wrong so it's fine. Thank you for all the hard work the team does.
Tikki —
I'll chime in and say that, even when things are slow I appreciate the hard work that the team is putting in. Juggling real life and game work is a task and a half, so my thanks to all of them, you included of course, Uilani, for all that you do and are trying your best to get done.
Aeral (They/them) —
Not a question, just a thanks to all of you for continuing to work on Lusternia. I know I come and go at this point, playing a lot for a period and then going inactive, but the fact that I can always return to Lusternia is a very very important thing to me and warms a part of my heart that nothing else can.
I'm not sure what legacy mode means, but I assume that means that those games are no longer being worked on and all staff is effectively terminated. I would be heartbroken if the same were to happen to Lusternia but I know it is the reality of MUDs.
So much appreciation to you all.
Selia/Loretta —
Are you me? I popped in to say the same thing. I come and I go on a timescale measured in years. But each time I do return, I'm glad for a while, and appreciative of the sustained love that's poured into the Basin. That takes its toll on those who contribute; can't pour from an empty glass and all that. So chin up, y'all, and keep on truckin' -- within the bounds of your emotional capacity to. ❤️
Appreciation For Grimr
Freja —
I feel like Grimr does a really great job at [interacting with players]. He's talked to me many times, when I don't panic and run away.
Yinuish —
Grimr is lovely and that's actually what prompted my question. I had a little interaction with him recently and it was enough to make me think FINE I'LL LOG IN MORE THIS WEEK THEN because it felt nice to have that effort there.
Uilani —
We'll forward the praise to Grimr.
Avatar made through Picrew
Copy of Discord conversation, with some reordering. Admin Miska was facilitating to ensure all questions were answered.
Uilani —
Hello everyone!
To keep things orderly and make sure to cover all the topics, we'll be going through them in the order that they are outlined in in the roadmap itself. So we are starting with the State of the Team section. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!
State of the Team
Arch-Ephemeral Roleplay and Mob Possession Interactions
Yinuish —
With the team being what it is now and the fact a lot of people feel like everything is 'dead' will the focus be moving back towards allowing our current ephs to interact with players more on a free-form basis instead of it having to be a whole 'event'? I've noticed over the years that the regular mpos has virtually disappeared.
Uilani —
They have and they do. There is a period during which they require supervision, but are more independent later. They have specific tasks that push them to practice the skill of mpos. Even when they are not fully independent, all they need is to tell someone what they'd like to do and get that person to keep an eye on them so they can help if they are cornered with a situation or question they don't know how to get out of. You are not seeing much regular mpos not because the Ephs are not allowed to do that, but because even though they are, they are often not doing it and are focusing on other tasks (some find it very intimidating), and we simply did not have enough staff all over that engaged in mpos.
Yinuish —
Yeah, that's what I meant with my question - will that be made a priority again instead of trying to push out events and coding that take longer to 'see'? 🙂
Uilani —
Yes, player engagement is a priority and I hope the various tidbits of gossip available in the gossip system have shed light on what sort of things have been happening all over, even if some people don't necessarily see it.
Team Numbers and Capability
Llani —
I really like how Aetolia's celani are more visible - something like that might be nice with ephs.
---
Ayisdra —
Knowing how many active (let's say was around and able to do something in the last 2 weeks) admin/ephs you guys actually have couuld be useful to know. When you did the eph Q&A, there was ~8 ephs and you just finished an eph call (plus the 8 ish full admin as per HELP GODS).
I know they have different amounts of free time, but when we see you have ~10 on list, but only to be told 3 of them are around (plus only ~2 full admin) are very different things. It is often a perspective that things are dead despite having a double-digit team. I know many of us think 'any day now, we will get new gods as ephs finish' only to be told 'sorry, we barely have 5 people' hurts.
Uilani —
The reasons you are stating for wishing to know are part of why we do not make the numbers public. Numbers never translate to our capability. Yes, we have been running on fumes for a good while, of people actively present and able to take on tasks. But that doesn't mean there are no other admin around, or that they cannot suddenly be around a week later. I spoke frankly to the state we had precisely to illuminate why we have been facing difficulties and things looked dead. What was is no longer relevant though because what you see in the roadmap is the current state of things - we are rallying absolutely everyone, and we have a looot of Ephs mobilised and trained.
On Transparency and Contributions
Freja — I do wish there was a way to know/see what the admin are working on because I feel like if we don't see it, we don't know things are being worked on.
Uilani —
[T]his one is difficult because we are never working on just one thing. Not as a team and not as individuals. And we come and go to projects to push them along as we can, becomes possible, or we are available. If you mean things like "admin in general", yes, we can do that with monthly updates if those would be useful.
Freja —
I think monthly updates would be wonderful, but at the same time I don't want anyone to become overloaded either.
---
Eiselle —
There is a general sense of secrecy around these things that seems outdated and no longer serves the player base. Not knowing the numbers, and who is working on what may make it appear like things aren't getting done. I imagine that there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes that people should be congratulated on, but since a lot of things are unseen I wonder if people don't get all the recognition they deserve which may also lead to issues or burnout. I wish there was more transparency, and a question into if secrecy around certain topis is warranted or needed.
Uilani —
This one is difficult because knowing who is working on what exactly is a double edged sword. When there is feedback for a new event/quest/interaction or even just changelog, all that feedback is funnelled to the person in question (if they are an Ephemeral and cannot see it themselves). If you wish to give recognition, it is always seen or delivered, even if you don't know who you are giving it to. They know and they appreciate it. Our team has always operated with some level of anonymity to protect the admin, not because we wish to be secretive for the fun of it. I can think of many examples when not knowing who was behind some change or project was very beneficial because it was getting so much negative feedback, it would have been overwhelming for the admin in question to be a visible target of that.
In addition, many projects do not have singular admin behind it so listing everyone on a changelog would be rather difficult. Imagine: bug spotted in queue by Goose, investigated by Skipper, fixed in code by Scout, reviewed and signed off on by Ais. To quote our own Ephemeral helpfile, "In Havens, we try hard to reinforce and believe that there is no single image of hard work. Every single one of us contributes to Havens, and all of those contributions are equal." If we start pointing out X did this and that, meanwhile Y was instrumental but not visible in a way you see, that undermines it.
We can absolutely do more updates, and talk about our Ephies more, even if generally. But naming names is a difficult matter and would be wary of that. Generally, we have always had our godmin engage the community a lot about the updates, projects, etc that we do. You might recall lots of posts on the forums from godmin! We just, as you now know, have not had that many around of late. This is changing so I am sure you will hear more from everyone.
On Ephemeral Tasks
Kennian —
Are the tasks set aside for ephs shared among partners or even the whole team? Or are they assigned to one player who then leaves a gap when real life overtakes them (like it does to all of us sometimes)?
Uilani —
Nothing assigned to Ephemerals is ever critical to development for precisely this reason. We may ask them to do a blog about their first projects soon because it is very hard to put into words effectively the amount of training becoming a godmin involves. Giving them anything critical to work on when they are struggling to make one item correctly would be unfair to their development and future success. They are given options to join and comment on more critical projects, but their own projects are always focused on providing the best training possible without undue pressure of delivering on a timeline for the game's needs.
Kennian —
I love that they don’t get overwhelmed with top level development items. I also wonder, given the statement that the things they do aren’t critical to the game, if you could give an example (vague if necessary) of the type of thing an eph would be working on that’s necessary but not critical?
Uilani —
Necessary is generally a criteria that applies to their development into godmin, not necessarily immediately necessary for the game. To do anything as a godmin, even if one wishes to become a coder godmin, one needs to learn how to operate the game's many, often nebulous creation systems and learn how to manage interactions (like mpos, and later embodying something larger than life which is what ArchEphemerals do when assigned to orgs - like Junzain and Grimr), events (designing them, building them, and carrying them out), lore (bootcamps, deep dives, not necessarily to know everything but also know where and how to look to ensure nothing is missed), and finally managing themselves as a visible member of the team (interacting with players in an OOC fashion too, like on Discord).
Kennian —
I understand. Thank you for taking time to answer our questions individually.
Admin Retention
Uzriel —
Given how lean the team has been, is there consideration of changes in the Haven's culture/otherwise that might help with admin retention?
Uilani —
We do our very best to ensure that the Havens team is happy and engaged. At our individual quarterly check-ins, that I do with everyone on the team, we discuss what's going on with them of late, what their goals are, what their obstacles are, what we can do to help them succeed. We do our utmost to remove stressors and obligations that are draining their time and willpower, and give them tools or assistance to move forward. We are constantly innovating with how we do things and also with Ephemeral curriculum to make sure it is as smooth sailing as can be.
Admin leaving is a complex subject with many triggers. I basically cannot remember a situation in recent years when someone left because of anything to do with Havens at all. Most of the time it is one of two things: life or, unfortunately, players. For the first one, it is most often just that. Family, work, health, kids, just general lack of interest in creative things for a while. It's the normal cycle of admin, people always come and go. We have been hit harder by it in recent years due to the obvious real world things happening. For the latter, unfortunately players can also have a large impact. As I mentioned in the roadmap, time and guilt follow the admin. They want to do all the things, but the number of things that they can do is limited. And they persevere and try hard anyway, often only to be met with negative comments and guilt trips that wear down their willpower to try again.
Uzriel —
Thank you for the detailed response.
What Players Can Do
Elysian —
What can we as a player community do? I don’t believe in there being nothing we as a community can’t do to try and help the various things from imbalance to managing some things on our own. What would help the most from the players to the admin team?
Uilani —
There is a lot the players can do! Players have an enormous influence on the game and engaged players make a world of difference. What helps the team is definitely patience and understanding that we simply cannot do all the things immediately. When admin do things, sending your raves definitely helps makes all the work worth it. The Havens does honestly survive on a diet of player raves, aspic (don't ask), and smurfberries. Sometimes seeing players enjoy something they* made is all they need. Engage with whatever events they are running, try out the new things they make. That's what they're here for.
As for what else players can do in general to help the game? Huge topic that we might honestly be too early in the discussion to tackle. We have lots of projects we will need your feedback for, we have lots of newbies that need your attention and engagement, etc. We have big plans and for Lusternia to succeed and get out of a rut, we need players to join us on board of trying to make it all happen.
---
Luce — And sort of combining both of those questions [from Elysian], has there been any thought in the direction of expanding or creating a broader pool of Mortal Builders, Coders, Reviewers, and/or Guides, or giving any of those limited access to some of the lore resources ephs have to allow them to contribute more readily? I know a fair few people who want to volunteer, but don't want or can't give up their characters.
Uilani —
Depends on the department. We can certainly use more Mortal Builders but to use them, we need to have projects for them. There was a long period of time where we simply did not, we were spinning 10 plates at once and trying to stay afloat, not tackle new building projects. For that, and for all the other things, we also need people to train those people. It doesn't just happen all on its own, especially not Mortal Coders. Just like with Ephemerals, all those positions need an enormous time investment on our end to train and set up. We will be opening a call for coders soon, however. Guides are always best trained as a group, again big time investment, but apps for that and pretty much everything else are always open.
Those are the ways in which contributions can be made for those not wishing to be staff, but being players can be equally important and helpful as being an admin. Being driving forces in your cities, communes, and guild is a huge factor that cannot be underestimated.
We are not planning on opening up lore resources to those who are not full staff, the sheer management of that would be daunting. It is why a role like Ayridion did not work out.
---
Xiran —
My comment is perhaps better for the last section, but I think players can help out by building and praising fellow players' roleplay too, so that less is on the admin. Also Lusternia's always been great at welcoming and helping newbies and easing them into this great big text game, and it seems we might have some coming in soon.
Uilani —
In follow up to Xiran, yes absolutely! Appreciating each other and playing off each other is an amazing motivator. Someone writes a book? Show everyone, pass out copies, talk about it, see if anything can be incorporated into roleplay from it. Fancy new design? Same thing. "Just" roleplay of teaching a novice? That is fantastic, applaud them. Divine roles are often see as the ultimate source of appreciation for players, but appreciation from GMs, CLs, or honestly whoever, is equally valuable.
On Admin Non-Influence of Alliances
Elysian —
The only follow-up question I would have, is, Is there any request that the admin team might make of the playerbase with regards to alliances, as that seems to be one of the easier things that might have a big impact. Lov ya guys and thank you!
Uilani —
Player choices are one of the best things about MUDs, to dictate alliances would be to remove that. It is certaintly a tough topic because whenever any interference has happened in the past, there was heavy push back against it. Whether it was interference through events (like with hai'Gloh Zemordia/Xion Initiative) or divine roleplay, there was unhappiness all around and blow back at the godmin. On the other hand, there have been recent requests for us to give roleplay justifications for changes, and equally heavy opposition to that from others who do not wish for changes no matter what.
That puts us in a bind. We will not dictate what players should do, but we can see about offering roleplay reasons for players to do with as they wish.
On Coders and Admins from Other Games
Triam —
I was wondering with Imperium and Starmourn going into legacy mode, if coders or admin in those IREs were being asked if they'd like to volunteer their time to Lusternia.
Uilani —
Those teams are going through some tough times right now, and many there are still deciding how they want to deal with the news or, frankly, are processing the news. They have the option of staying, after all, whether until legacy mode kicks in or even after that. We are not approaching them right now to give them space, and it is understood that those who volunteered there are free to apply elsewhere.
On Re-engaging Players
adrian (morik) —
Hi! So I've been in and out of lusternia here and there over the last few months, and although the player counts haven't been that low, the ... engagement seems to have been? it kind of feels like outside of a handful of grind style events like timequakes, everyone seems to retreat to their own little worlds. Can you talk about what kinds of things you have planned to try and get the player base re-engaged with each other?
Uilani —
This will lead us nicely into the next topic, but before we get there, it bears saying that engaging, or re-engaging, players with each other takes different forms for everyone. Everyone plays to get something else out of the world so some people are, in fact, perfectly happy doing timequakes and Grimkeep all day. We cannot force people to want to interact with each other and a large, large amount of interactions ought to be sparked by the world itself and existing within said world. Interacting with your guild members, citizens, enemies, etc. If players are only waiting for us to lead the roleplay, we will never have enough hands on deck to provide daily engagement reasons across all orgs. Players also need to engage other players.
On our front, events, interactions, and contests are what we are working on to give more reasons for players to immerse in the world and engage each other. Even something as seemingly small as the gossip system is there to pull people together into one room, and engage one another while there. All the gossip blurbs from various orgs are there to give players in-game reasons to strike up roleplay among themselves to find out the full story as well.
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Ascension
Assessing the Effectiveness of Ascension
Xenthos —
[R]egarding Ascension. Yes, absolutely, it's a huge part of Lusternia's thing. But at the same time, as things stand, it's likely to just exacerbate the population imbalance (which is what was said would happen the last time an Ascension was run, and is exactly what the end result turned out to be). Running something and investing that much time in it when it's already got a proven track record of not working for the stated goal seems... well. Not a great choice if there are no (or just superficial) changes.
Acknowledging that you have limited resources for mechanical changes, I would like to know what your thoughts are on how to make this "fun" to participate in - because if you try to push alliance changes, that's not fun for those who enjoy the current situation, but if you are just completely hands-off you've got a repeat of last Ascension.
Do you have another solution in mind?
Uilani —
The decision to do Ascension this year is in fact based on past data available to us that shows that player engagement, online time, and sheer players numbers are increased through the event. Please remember that Ascension is not just the final event itself, it is something that spans months and, as stated in the post, has something for everyone. Completing projects like, say, Economy, is a draw but for a subset of players. Ascension is a draw for everyone and this is what we are fighting for here. There is absolutely no saying ahead of time what this Ascension will bring, what sort of players and to which alliances, so guessing at the outcome is futile at this juncture. I have answered the matter of alliances previously but will reiterate that things must come about naturally.
This is a critical time for Lusternia, we must rise to the occasion. That also means players giving us the benefit of the doubt and participating rather than being negative about how past events or attempts may have gone. Worry is understandable, but this is the moment. We all have to try our best, engage, and do our utmost. On our end, we are working on the story, the contests, and the final event as well. We will see what sort of changes we can make, but as stated, we cannot promise the moon. Even so, this endeavour is the absolute best "trick in the book" that Lusternia has for the challenges we are facing.
On Alliances
Freja —
Population is hurting, we all know this. We have too many organizations than there are players. I've been saying this for awhile, its not a secret. Have the admin considered going back to 4 orgs? My logic behind this is: less orgs means the other orgs could seem fuller, conflict could even out. This could also help with guilds that need help being fleshed out and other creative minds working together.
Uilani —
I do wish to stay on the topic of Ascension, but there isn't really ideal room for this question in any other section until free form questions at the very end. Let us look at it while we are here.
Thread Link: Please see the forum thread Org Reduction.
On Varying Times
Ayisdra —
On Ascension and balancing - Are admin open to things like having events on weekdays or otherwise non-prime US time? Like if host an event now, IHC is likely to win. but if you held it in 12hrs, SL might win instead (see the recent flare). I guess the overall question is: Short of forcing some sort of alliance change, are admin looking to have events [the trials and the final event] when the most people can take part or for what would make the final event as balanced as admin can make it?
Uilani —
A visual aid. This is the schedule for Ascension 2021 [all in GMT].
Freja —
I do like when time is released before the events, that way I can plan for an event I want to watch or participate in.
Shango —
I need to know just so I can put in time off for it.
Uilani —
Those were all weekends, yes, but as variable time as we could manage. The 3pm GMT and 11pm GMT slots are generally the best times we have found that work across several timezones. 3pm GMT is: morning for the Americas, afternoon for Europe, and late evening/night for Pacific/Indian Ocean time zones. Similarly, 11pm GMT is: afternoon for Americas, late night for Europe, and morning for Pacific/Indian Ocean time zones. We can try to run one or more trials also during weekdays as well. And the schedule would be announce ahead of time so everyone can plan accordingly.
The final event itself is more difficult to schedule at unusual hours/not at a weekend because it requires a large number of people, including coders, to be available at that moment in case it is necessary.
Yes, we'd have the schedule set in stone. Generally for this, and pretty much any other contest, there is a person running it and then a producer as backup (or a producer is running it). Even if the person to run it could not make it last minute, a producer is there to step in so we can stick to the promised schedule as much as possible.
This is true of frankly every event as well, someone is always there in case urgently needed.
Comments
Arix —
What always bugged me about Ascension was when the hordes players would just crawl out of the woodwork to participate and then leave again.
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Malarious/Malayn —
I know there are concerns about coder power, but I personally greatly enjoyed the year where things changed. I would like to see tuning in things like chaos hamster throwing people to be less frequent, but the extra mobs for harmony and death and whatnot were a lot of fun and helped change the status quo!
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Luce —
Even with the points mentioned about event timing and populations being fluid, there is every chance this year's Ascension might end up weighted heavily enough that one side or the other simply cannot reasonably compete. There've been other times when this has happened and during one of them the summary newspost definitely Did Not Help Things, basically calling the other alliance at the time cowards. You and Aonia have much more tactful than Estarra could be sometimes, so it wasn't a major concern, but...well you pointed out that we're in a rut already, and Xenthos's comments made it clear that feelings about the last couple of Ascensions are still not quite settled, to put it mildly.
Feelings get hurt during Ascension because emotions run high. I just wanted to remind everyone on both sides of the Havens of that, I guess.
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Kalliope —
I'm pretty worried another ascension could be a gutpunch. When I started playing the wounds from previous ones were so raw and upsetting I was still feeling leftover hate and apathy, it had completely annihilated previous generations of players in my org etc.
Shaking Things Up
Xenthos —
One of the big problems with the game is the winner-takes-all of most of the game mechanisms. Ascension is that, just taken to extremes. There was one year where the administration team decided to change that - which is not necessarily a bad thing (I'm not going to get into the specifics here of how that turned out because it's irrelevant at this point). I think if you were to state in advance that there will be a winner, but a chance for a second, it would create more interest in competing amongst people who know they're not going to get 3600 points first - the outcome would no longer feel "pre-ordained".
That, tied with Malarious' suggestion of shaking things up minimally on the preceding events, would seem to give more of a window for a chance at competing / trying. Obviously this isn't something that would be a guarantee - a chance only- but is this something you would be open to?
Uilani —
I think it might be too early to answer this specific question. We do not have a decision yet for the reasons outlined (we do not know what coding resources we will be working with, and we are still brainstorming), but we would definitely appreciate ideas from players on what sort of things might help them feel like the final event, and the lead up trials, are worth participating in beyond the rewards already involved.
We will open a forums thread and would invite you all to discuss ideas there.
Thread Link: Please see the forum thread Ascension: Shaking Things Up
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Coding Projects
Overhaul versus Smaller Updates
Llani —
So I know there's been a lot of focus on overhauls - but they tend to take years. Is there any chance that the focus could be moved off of overhauls in favor of smaller, more regular updates to the existing systems?
Uilani —
Overhauls are difficult. No matter how urgently a project may in fact be needed, announcing it and not delivering on it creates a very strained situation and the appearance that no work is getting done. That said, one reason why we need overhauls is because we have applied endless bandaids to many features in the past rather than actually address them, and at this point there are no more bandaids to keep throwing on the problem. Sometimes things do need to be redone. So, yes and no. We definitely don't want to live in the era of endless overhauls and will, for the time being at least, try to break down the two beasts we are working on. However, some things may well need overhauls.
Coding Prioritisation and Feature Requests
Freja —
With the Econ Overhaul (was thinking this because mining and other things were mentioned) can other flavor things be added such as fishing to help spice up the game and have other things to do other than Grimkeep?
Ais —
I'm not going to address fishing or Grimkeep in question specifically, and will leave that to Uilani. However, I feel for all questions here we need to be realistic about Lusternia's coding resources. At this time, excluding Ealix who was mentioned in the newspost and I cannot speak for, we have three volunteer coders and a very small number of mortal coders. Of those volunteer coders, our time is extremely limited, and combined generally does not amount to a full 40 hour work week for a single person. In this limited time, we not only have coding duties, which themselves include not only implementation but planning, proposal writing, debugging, and managing shifting priorities, we have roughly the same admin duties as everybody else up here. Of the coding projects we do work on, the majority tend to be highly invisible to players due to them being support for other admins and systems that keep the game running.
Given this constraint, prioritization of what we work on is a major factor in what we do, with the exception of ephemeral coder projects which are often meant more for training. As such, we cannot promise any coding resources whatsoever until something is not only past the proposal stage but picked up by one or more coders. There are changes being made to how we prioritize, but this is our primary constraint. I felt it was necessary to make this clear before continuing, before we delve into a pile of feature requests.
Uilani —
Back to fishing and the like. The priority for economy is unlikely to be extra flavour, as much as helping sustain player economies. Especially when it comes to commodities and ability to obtain crafted* goods, even with a smaller playerbase. Which is not to say that some flavourful things will not be released at some point, or more endzones, and other challenges, but it would not be as part of economy specifically.
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Freja —
After I slept on this and thought about it, I realized this could have seemed I was meaning to mine and fish for commodities. I wasn't try make it seem for commodities, I just recall Orael stating mining for the econ overhaul and proficiencies of skills. This is more of a fun/different thing to do in the game (like questing, gathering pilgrims/bards/scholars etc).
Thank you for efforts you put forth in keeping this going.
The Endpoint of the Economy Overhaul
Luce —
Are you able to discuss what you want the 'endpoint' of the economy to look like? I'm not sure whether the economy overhaul is being considered as 'on hiatus' or not, but knowing that might help guide players the next time QoL reports are opened or ideas are asked for.
Uilani —
Frankly, no. Not yet. I have been involved in the original design but it has been a long while since I personally worked on the project. We need to look at it with fresh eyes, look at the game, and see what needs to be adjusted in the plan. Then break it down into managable tasks and see what takes priority. Tentatively, supporting players being able to obtain the goods they need (armour, furniture, tattoos, etc) is paramount but we also need to hear from you, the players, what you need since the landscape has changed since last economy was actively worked on. When QoL reports come around, we'll let you know whether some topic should stay off limits.
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The Newbie Experience
Unlimited POOLS
Xenthos —
Right now if a newbie runs out of POOLS, they cannot get back to finish the quests in the Pools of Remembrance. We had a newbie who didn't realize that, and was working on the honours quests there, thus getting locked out while still being well under level 31 (they were intentionally not getting xp, but using portals to quickly get around places to explore/look around/get stuff/check out parts of the game/just return to Glom).
Is there any reason for limiting the number of Pools any more, really? Access doesn't need two different sets of limits imo, just level 31 would seem fine. Note that this isn't related to allowing over level 31s access (that could be a QoL report), just... not locking actual newbies out of the newbie quests because they ran out of Portal charges.
Uilani —
This question showcases my earlier point about overhauls very well. Sometimes, unless you look at a feature from every possible angle and really go deep, you will not find the issues that need tackling. You only apply bandaids and some bygone systems stay in place.
Yes, agreed. The two don't have to be separate and it is not serving our novices. We'll definitely have a forum thread on that as well, throw any and all bizarre newbie experience things like that there.
Thread Link: Please see the forum thread The Newbie Experience
Established Players Reviewing the Newbie Areas
Freja —
Will we be allowed to experience Newton changes (if it changes dramatically) or will we need to make a new character to test it? Like with the pools, I believe old players were able to go through the quests to help newbies if Skein/Bobbins/Spindle weren't around.
Uilani —
Presently we are looking at instancing Pools entirely. This will result in less confusion for newbies should more than one be doing them (and run into someone else taking something critical), and also allow us to allow non newbies to do the quests as well.
Those areas are significantly larger than other things we have instanced*, in terms of items/denizens/quests, but that is the leading idea.
More Hints and Modern Quest Design
Luce —
So, I pointed out in one of the appropriate places that the Newton quests could probably do with more HINTs here and there, is there any thought being put in a direction of bringing them to be more in line with modern quest design principals?
Uilani —
A lot has definitely been done to modernise these quests but some parts, especially the honour quests, sometimes require such leaps of logic that it feels like they expect newbies to be clairvoyant. I agree, and have recently patched up one of such gaps. We can do more, and one of our newbie todos is to go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. Players pointing out these places will help too.
CGHELP and Other Support Systems
Luce —
And unrelated to that, we've had a couple of attempts at game-wide newbie support systems like Ashira and Alarin's BNA, but the players almost inevitably have real life Interfere. Are there any discussions or thoughts in the direction of having something like that as a non-clan, baseline sort of thing?
Uilani —
For the latter, the newbie channel/guides/players is really the intended hub but one of the ideas is to prepare bite-sized helpfiles that guide into the 'deeper mysteries'. These can be player sourced as well. We have not given thought to a bigger, more proper coalition of newbie helpers beyond the systems we are supporting right now, open to ideas being pitched.
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Esei —
Just thought to throw in a comment here, but aren't CGHELPs (generally speaking) partly "deeper mystery" initiation? then again, I suppose that's more of an org level. I know that we [as a game*] have help files on nearly everything, including things I didn't even know we had help files about, like individual areas or quests.
Uilani —
Yes, CGHELPS are intended to be it too. There is a disparity between how well they are updated, and what sort of information they have though. Something worth looking at as well.
Advertising
Uzriel —
While not directly part of the newbie experience, I feel like this is closely related to it. Part of the lifeblood of newbies is getting them in the first. Especially since the top mud voting site is down, is there any plan for advertising/getting new blood?
Uilani —
We, that is Lusternia specifically, are not involved or have the capacity to manage advertising in any way. That is in IRE's capacity rather than ours. Suppose we, Lusternia, had discretionary funds for such a purpose, we do not have the skills or time needed to run marketing campaigns. We can keep updating our social media, tweak with SEO of the website (though IRE does as well), and if we see opportunities to spread the word, do so. Players can frankly do a bit more on that end than we can, spreading the word in other communities that they are involved in as well, but "guerilla marketing" is a topic that is on our minds as well.
On IRE's end, SEO is something they* are always working on, and the biggest push right now is something I cannot talk about just yet, and the other thing is bringing Nexus to Steam. That's why, for example, you have seen a big push done by us to get icons on absolutely everything. It is to make the client as polished as possible before we get there.
Uncloaked Perception of Population
Eiselle —
Thank you! Just a quick question. Do you feel the gem of cloaking and privacy gem changes have benefited the retention of new people? Do you have any thoughts or data to share if there has been a significant effect?
Uilani —
It has definitely been beneficial and we have repeatedly heard that players can finally see and feel like someone else is out there. I do not think we are quite done there yet, as there are some bugs to iron out among other things. For example, there was a bug with the display in Nexus and it was not using the new mechanics for the tab. So essentially, Nexus was not benefitting from that change at all for a while.
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Admin Requests
Involvement of Orgs in Pending Requests
Kailanna — So I have a two part question- the first part is "Clock" and the second part is "Tower?" We're two days away from the 6 year anniversary of this request, and while I don't begrudge anyone else their fun, it's getting pretty disheartening seeing stuff going up elsewhere periodically while we're stuck with 6 years of getting an hourly reminder that this is still missing. I get that resources are stretched thin and at a priority, but this has been outstanding for a while.
Uilani —
The answer to that is really a reiteration of what was said in the roadmap post. We are closing the request system precisely for this reason, hunkering down, analysing pending requests, and then implementing what we can. Orgs will be notified and involved in the process.
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Uilani —
I'm afraid if we start getting into specific details of every single request from every single org, we will never finish. Orgs will be involved in the process and things discussed then, so we will definitely tackle such questions. On the library front [inquired by Malarious/Malayn], no such request exists in the system.
While here though I would like to mention that I understand not having things done is extremely frustrating, and worse yet if you see other organisations getting something while yours does not. This is why this deserved its own section in the roadmap, and why parity is a big concern. That said, please remember that it is volunteers working on these requests 99% of the time. They are doing the best they can.
I could tell you I will personally build every single request for you to take this burden off them but that is not realistic. I am looking at a 43 item todo list right now, of which "finish customisations" is only one item. Yesterday it was 42, soon as I knock them out, more comes. That list consists of only urgent matters and 90% of it is something only I can do. So no, I will be involved and helping out every single patron team but the vast majority of work will be handled by the volunteers. Please be patient, we endeavour to make them reality.
Shango —
Just do your best, really all any of us can ask.
Personal Customisations Open
Uzriel —
This is a quick and easy one, is admin requests closing including personal customizations or is it strictly for org level requests?
Uilani —
Oh no, just org level requests - commune, city, and guild ones. With exception of festivals and anything deemed very urgent otherwise. Personal customisations are not closed and are being worked on. Should it be needed, we might close customisations for a month or so during Ascension as that is an all hands on deck situation and it will be more transparent that at that time we just cannot process additional things.
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Family Honour (Xenthos)
Over the years many, many reports have been submitted trying to tweak this in varying ways, but they just all get rejected basically saying "we don't believe this is necessary." From the player end, just judging by the reports themselves the consensus seems to be quite in favour of changes (and some were pretty drastic). I'd like to know if family honour, as it currently exists, is considered to be in an OK state from your perspective / not requiring changes?
And, if not, is there a way to get an idea of what changes you would be willing to consider so we can orient future suggestions to that? At the moment it kinda feels like we're throwing darts blindfolded on this one, so a bit of a guiding path would be very appreciated!
Crafts (Tikki)
Firstly let me say thanks Uilani and crew for being so patient with some of the heavier questions that were thrown about over the course of this! Despite anything, the fact that you're all willing to take time out of your days, your lives, to put forth the effort into trying to better the game does say a lot, whether we always agree on the ideas or not, y'all are trying, so thank you!
I wasn't 100% if my questions fit in any earlier segment, so figured it's more of a misc. sort of question, as it's sort of tied to RP and Crafting, in a way. Anyway, firstly! As it stands now, there's no real way for players to set precedents for expansion of design and the like. That's not to say that the new patterns and such that we get aren't appreciated, because as I'm sure as you've all seen they are. Is there any possible way, or would it be something that staff would consider, to expand on what players can do with progress in crafting? Be it things like going thru RP to invent a new type of dish or figuring out ways to make types of cloth that may not have been previously accessible?
There's been a lot of focus on questions leaning towards the more combat oriented side of things, so I figured as one of the resident non-coms, I'd ask. I'm aware a big focus of the game itself IS on the conflict at the PVP aspects of the game, I'm just hopeful that there could be more ways for players to leave a mark on the world outside of things like Ascension or player ran events. Something that can help players feel like their in a living, breathing world, and contribute to the beating heart of its growth in little ways.
My second question, which sort of ties into things is: can there be or would it be possible to have more transparency with the Charites? I think a great idea for that would be having a sort of, much like this, a roundtable thing now and again where players could discuss with the design board on expansions or appeal more broad rejections that don't really fit into the comment sections of a particular design. At times designing things can feel like walking around landmines because we're never entirely certain what's going to be okay one day and then suddenly another design of the same kind goes in queue, gets rejected, and then possibly gets other things retroactively nuked. So having some way to have broader, more open and transparent discussions about these sorts of things I think would be very beneficial. That being said I'm certain it's a time and resources issue as well, but yeah.
I think there is room for something like this but not on a personal request basis. Should the Charites, or someone else, have the time to run some sort of contest to try to invent a new material (or something else), we could make it happen. Then accept what makes sense and introduce it to the world. Any such idea/request for a contest should be posted to the Crafts board. A vast majority of design patterns comes from there and various adjustments have been made based on posts too. So if you have an idea for, say, a a new material contest or something, go for it. Post away and we'll see.
We definitely can't make it happen on a more personal request basis though. Whether the addition would be done in an IC or OOC way, it is bound to be problematic and tempers would flare - why this person's and not mine. The Charites do not stray from their duties because of difficulties like that. Most of the time they also do not have time for such extras, even if they wanted to, because designers continue to try to push boundries of the design system (most often attempts to 'see if you can slip it through' result in hours of work for multiple people). They handle endless flags, messages, contestations, reviewers, and lots of unhappiness on a daily basis.
This also covers the second question to an extent. I'm afraid the Charites cannot be hosting a roundtable. They make their decisions based on research and collaboration, and cannot answer rapid fire questions or challenges. If you would like to request something, you can post to the Crafts board. I assure you though that no decision comes down from the Charites without thorough discussions and consideration, and so is unlikely to be overturned. People don't join that department because they enjoy saying no. They want to make your dreams reality, but they also have rules to uphold and a system to maintain functional. Unfortunately, things do get through the system sometimes which shouldn't and have to be recalled. Leaving them in creates precedent that gets thrown in the Charites faces the next time it happens. Our design system is more difficult and different from, say, Aetolia's or Achaea's, but it is so because we maintain much higher standards of adherence to lore and theme of the game than are maintained anywhere else. And this does not apply just to crafts, but most everything else.