What will keep you in ALFA2?

[Xanthea]

Oh don't get in a snit, Zelk. Like I said at the time your DMing was perfectly fine. The group was just consistently too small to support the premise of the campaign.

[Ithildur]

Some moar thoughts:

A grand plot? (Pretty sure Heegz is well on top of this one in BG)

Definitely helps, but this is a tricky one. A lot of it comes down to execution of said plot as well as various other factors that aren't always predictable.

Sadly more often than not RL gets in the way of either a player or DM before a major plot can play out in my experience.

More stuff to do with my buddies without a dm? (See statics out of Ruqel in BG btw)

Posted thoughts on static content above; definitely a significant part of enjoyment of ALFA. Grouping up with like minded folks and traveling the wilds of TSM at low/mid lvls, tackling static content as well as taking in new sights/scenery while trying to survive taking on the uber Horde Orcs from time to time (some were static spawns added to areas during the plot, others were deposited by DMs), good times.

Does everyone know about the Infestation mechanic Zelk came up with? *Minsc voice* "Magik is impressive, but NOW, MINSC leads! Infestations for EVERYONE!"

A sense of purpose for my PC?
More dm'ing for my pc?

As much as I'd love both of these (I'm grouping them together as I'm interpreting 'more dming for my pc' specifically as 'solo DMing/focused on my PC' type of DMing), probably not a huge priority for me unless we suddenly find ourselves with '10 active DMs on BG and one of them has a high degree of interest in my PC' type of scenerio. i.e. It's probably not going to happen anytime soon That's fine, especially with my long term availability being unpredictable due to RL. I'm happy to take part in group stuff; if it has to be one or the other I would prefer to see groups of people having fun as opposed to one player hogging attention (unless again, we had a plethora of DMs or DMs that specifically prefer individual DMing).

Though there are times I dream... see below re: chance to make changes to server

Other players

Always a plus.

ATM I'm working on ideas to engage with other players in ways that result in Aglaril being a sort of 'quest giver' or at least 'IC motivation giver' to do stuff. Hopefully fun stuff, not too lethal stuff. And with some loots. Maybe.

A chance to make physical changes to the server (Burning down a house, building a palisade)

At one time had thoughts of some long term plans for parts of Wood of Sharp Teeth, possibly Cloakwood that could provide hooks for groups of mid/high lvl PCs (with appropriately high degree of difficulty in combat and/or negotiation/intrigue) but it would mean a lot of work for both DMs and PCs... so, backburner stuff atm.

More high level monster drops
More low level monster drops

Not sure what is meant by 'drops'... you mean loots? Encounters?

Having a highish lvl PC, certainly high level related stuff is welcome, though there's more interesting things to do at higher lvls than dealing with one off encounters.

-Insert your awesome idea here-

Couple of thoughts:

Renovate the process that's involved in getting new content into mods. Take exclusive permission/oversight out of absentee HDMs' hands. If builder X has stuff to contribute and ready to go that could be a great fit for say TSM or WHL. and Curm or whoever is HDM of WHL happens to be busy/afk for an extended period of time, one person's absence should not tie up the process; at least one other person should be able to give the green light (with the usual review, standards, etc).

At this stage in ALFA's history I think we stand to benefit from moving even further away from a 'every server is it's own kingdom and domain' model to something more like 'it's one big module/world that exists on separate servers' model. The former might work (to some extent, I never thought it was entirely healthy) when you have more or less full functioning/active staff of folks on each server, but that's not the case anymore, and likely will not be for some time.

It just makes sense; smaller pool of players, DMs, builders, EVERYTHING. Smaller pool means you share the resources that you have in that pool more than before. It means more trust is called for, and required. More cooperation. etc. etc. And it's not always a loss, doesn't have to be. A well run, tightly knit group of 6 players and 1 DM is not inherently inferior to a big PW with 200 players (or MMO with 200,000 players for that matter); in many ways that small group kicks the big PW's butt, hard, if done right.


Statics that are repeatable and have random elements. Patrols are always good, but maybe there's a way to add a random element (aside from whatever mobs might or might not regularly spawn along the way), i.e. depending on how the 'dice' fall, you get 'things have been quiet, the patrol should be routine though of course you never know' (i.e. easy road, no spawns or 1/8 CR spawns, etc) or 'hm... there's been rumors of activity X along the route. Be wary, maybe take one other person along' (standard difficulty, chance of CR 1 spawns) or 'there's been rumors of heavy X activity along the route. You're going to want to take a group along unless you're really good' (higher difficulty, CR 5 spawns) or maybe even 'Um... you probably don't want to go that way today. There's been rumors of xyz.... unless you got legendary skillz' (CR10, random chance of stealthed and hasted terrasque spawning as extra bonus), etc.

Going for that 'unpredictability'/un static feel I mentioned in previous post.

[Arianna]

I have only recently returned and have been lucky enough to find people to RP with which for me is the number 1 qualifier when there is not a DM around. But even this gets stale if there is no new imput to discuss, spread tales about etc. You can only talk about the goblins in the woods so many times before you run out of variations.

A DM dropping on once in awhile just to interact is great even if its not stuff to go kill or anything major, sometimes things need followed up on via one PC or another. Sometimes you just need help with a NPC for storage or Housing etc . Little things go along way toward keeping the PW alive IMO.

Campaigns are great except when they lock a player into set times of play. Only being able to log in on a Saturday night would suck for me. There is nothing wrong IMO with a good old dungeon crawl that has nothing to do with saving the world /town/ NPC once in awhile.

Its true now as its always been that a DM makes the difference in attraction of players

Its hard to further your character development, without DM aid it can only go so far


As far as long term goes ie beyond NwN its going to be hard to keep my interest if/when alfa goes to a pure fantasy setting outside of the ADnD structure . As a long time PnP player before finding Nwn/ ALFA ADnD was my primary interest due to its volumes of cannon material available to create a world/adventure from. I understand the legal standpoints on why it may not be possible to continue in that format however.

[Castano]

Someone volunteering to add content to MS (and actually doing so) will keep me in ALFA2. Otherwise I foresee this moving to a one server project (BG), which there are quite a few of outside ALFA that look just as nice with larger populations. I've sat and watched 3 rounds of static content added to one server, would be great if some of that was written for MS.

[Heero]

-Insert your awesome idea here-

A more lively chat to keep me entertained during the day.

[dergon darkhelm]

Would probably need both DMing and players in the "Euro evening/night" time slot.

[kid]

People.
Hopefully new and interesting characters to engage with.
Random dming/grand plot eventually.

But most of all, free time.

I still think alfa and it's peeps are some of the best rp I've found ifnot the best.

My main focus would be to increase the chance of people playing together.
I'd probably cap toons retroactively to level 8.
I would probably log in with my high lv if he was 8.

[Castano]

I would probably log in with my high lv if he was 8.

We can shave the XP off if you need it done.

[kid]

No. That won't help.
I would be still limited with the high levels.
The whole point is that everyone could play with everyone without giving up the hard earned pw prominence.
But still be easyly murdered by a giant. Fun.

[oldgrayrogue]

1. Story and others to play with, DMs and PCs alike.
2. "Adventuring" type static content to RP around that furthers the story.
3. Meaningful character progression.

I spent the past month or so playing on Baldur's Gate the Sword Coast Chronicles PW. The PW regularly has over 50 players logged in. At least 3 times I could not log on because the server was full at 75 players. I think BGTSCC is so popular because there is always tons of stuff there to do in terms of static content. There are areas always full of spawns to hunt, dungeons to crawl, fortresses to storm etc., etc. Many of the statics are also repeatable on reset, so yeah always stuff to do. What the PW suffers from is a lack of story. All story, during my brief experience there, is player driven. DMs support the players but don't provide any campaign type story lines to RP around. What drew me back to ALFA was the hope for story based RP -- the bedrock this community has always been built upon. However, I think if we incorporate some of the things that make a place like BGTSCC so popular, while staying true to our goal of story based RP, we can have double the players we currently have logging in regularly. Because we are a permadeath world we will never match them, but we can double our current numbers. We have the members we just have to get them to log in.

I think we already have everything we need to accomplish 1, 2 and 3 above. As for specifics Rumple, I offer the following:

1. Every live ALFA server should have an ongoing global "plot" going at all times. This need not be a grand campaign style plot. All it needs to be is a global antagonist active in the area. Hell it could even be more than one vying for supremacy in the area. Heegz has done this very well with his gnoll war and his current plot. Ronan, did it in the past with his plots on BG as did Adanu with his trade war on WHL. In the past we saw JLM doing so with his undead on TSM. I tried to do it with my Sons of Obould War on TSM as well. Zelk's infestation mechanic (which is the awesomesauce) provides the perfect tool to foster such a global server plot. What this does is bring "life" to our otherwise empty and static servers. It makes them dynamic and random and improves immersion tremendously. It gives the PCs a context to RP around when no DM is on. It does not require too much work from DMs to further and it need not develop into some grand campaign to remain fresh and interesting. DMs are of course free to take it in that direction -- but they don't have to, at least not to keep my interest and to keep me logging in. Regular ongoing global plots of this type will keep players logging in. Switching them up regularly will keep things fresh.

2. DMs running more ad hoc style game play, along the lines discussed in Arianna's post. Run a dungeon crawl. Possess an NPC. If you can do so in the context of the global plot running at the time, then all the better. Lokan did this to great effect during Heegz last gnoll campaign. He would log on and run little mini sessions revolving around the overall plot. These sessions had little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but they gave PCs meaning and purpose in their lives within the overall story. They help to build the PCs individual stories and their relationships with other PCs. More ad hoc adventures. Page 44 and 45 of the DMG has a Table of "One Hundred Adventure Ideas." If DMs could log in and roll a d100 every now and then and just run the result (or some variation of it) I think folk would log in more regularly to play on ALFA PW style.

3. Make ALFA easier for level 1-5 and progressively more difficult and lethal over level 5. A low level meat grinder is frustrating and sucks. Character turnover after PCs have had a chance to develop their story is healthy and keeps things fresh and new. Making it to level 6 in ALFA should not be that hard. Making it past level 10 should be really, really hard.

4. Changes to our ruleset and build that remove obstacles to gameplay: 1) Remove or drastically reduce the wait time for travel between servers 2) allow for rest more times per day than once within 24 hours (how about every 8 IG hours? Seems more realistic to me?) 3) remove the 30 day wait rule for DMs or players rolling a new PC 4)Lower the price of consumables OR increase the rewards from static content 5) loosen up wealth restrictions 6) Do away with all "travel maps" to improve immersion and eliminate clunky game play 7) Add more monster spawns to areas farther from civilization of increasing difficulty the more remote you go to give high levels someplace to adventure add tons of very difficult spawns to our Underdark areas for high level adventuring. 9) Add working armor, weapon and hair customizers to all live servers.

[HEEGZ]

As of yesterday we are now trialing increasing XP awards to PCs up until they hit level 5.

We also are looking to drop portal timers to just 1 hour. Just waiting to see if anyone is opposed (so far none).

A lot of the things you mention are possible and happening, but we need a few more DMs. I can try randomly spawning little mobs and things here and there to challenge folk (in addition to the infestations).

I think we might benefit from shutting down 2-3 of our servers for now and trying to concentrate our improving the game we offer here.

[Ithildur]

This probably isn't the ideal place to post this suggestion, so, moved elsewhere.

[Rumple C]

I can't do policy changes.

[HEEGZ]

The best case scenario is for people to both play a PC in ALFA and to DM or build in ALFA. It is not hard to learn to either DM and/or build, it just takes some time. One of the biggest drawbacks to our community is that so very few people contribute, and instead their play is a drain on limited time committed by others. I would really enjoy being DM'd, but since they are in such short supply I typically end up DMing instead so that there is at least some game to be had. Honestly though, run some light and easy DM plots, it is a lot better than the nothing we have now, and also very rewarding. If half of our present players would take up DMing one night a week that would be enough.

[Rumple C]

Yeah, I think I got the idea. I was hoping for something other than dm'ing, but that seems to be what you're after.

Therefore, expect some very cool dm stuff sometime in the early new year. With... Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

Stay tuned

*sweeps up the dead horses*