Ask away.

Fortress has warred with Battle in the past, what's your IC and OOC opinion on this?

More broadly, IC thoughts on cabals other than Fort? Which ones do you feel more kinship towards / would accept a follower from?

IC: Ignolmeer is an elven magus so magic is very much a part of who he is and believes it is a tool for to be used for the betterment of the world. Not everyone uses it for the betterment of the world and so they do need to be stopped. So the village could be of use, if only they were properly vectored.

Tribunal: Law and order has its place, but the letter of the law must be tempered with judgement.

Outlander:
- Wardens attempting to make the world a better place are fine by him.
- Sentinels judged based on their actions.
- Reavers are destroyers which are antithetical to Ignolmeer's ideals

Empire: I think it's obvious.
Scion: I think it's obvious.

For any follower, Ignolmeer's focus is on finding those that want to make the world a better place, cultivating that, and expanding their ability to lead and grow others to also make the world a better place. That being said, you don't have to want to be an Ambassador to come to Ignolmeer. Priests who have a righteous goal that is thought out could be given the power to follow their path.

I hope that helps?

So one doesn't have to be good-aligned to follow, then? I mean, a lot of neutrals probably also want to make the world a better place.

Does Ignolmeer set standards on what is "better"?

There is potential to have a neutral character, who wants to make the world a better place. It's athin line. Don't expect to go leveling with duergar in darsylon or the plains and get anything but my wrath though. Actions have consequences.

Specifically the third paragraph, a word



May I ask what it means?

No joke here.

nt

I did my best to address the questions that have been asked so far, but the purpose that I so poorly spelled out, was to open questions in regards to Ignolmeer, the religion/philosophy, and the like. Not just take random questions that are above my paygrade and/or not meant for non-staff consumption.

Sorry for the lack of guidance until now.

I'm curious what you're looking for in Squires and Scribes for promotion. The process feels drastically slower and more opaque, compared to when Baerinka was around, but that's probably not a fair amount of activity to expect from any imm. Whatever clarity you could give to this would make it less frustrating from a player's point of view.

Across the board I want involvement, integration, interaction, initiative, demonstrations/discussion/adherence of morality & ethics from the perspectives of your characters. I want to see growth of the character you're playing that says, 'I've been tempered by the fires of war as a squire/scribe and I'm ready for more."

Specifically in a Maran you MUST be more than an autonomous EPK machine with zero RP and 40 kills. You can't win a war alone, strength the line, build up the forces. Share your knowledge on how to work as a team. Be a comrade-in-arms.

Specifically in an Acolyte I'm looking for you to temper the souls of the Maran and be hand of resiliency when they die. Protect them against evil as well as themselves. Stand beside them in battle and see them through the day. You are more than just a missionary for the light.

What I'm NOT looking for; needlessly throwing yourself in to no win situations, players carrying over previous character baggage or senses of entitlement, people who are more cared about gear than their alignment, people who make choices that best for the player, but not what the character would do.

Ignolmeer will push your to be your best, always.

What are your most active times for Religion conversations? (Not able to log in right now so I cant see your Wizlist)





If you had a leader character in fort that logged in once a week, which was a drop from when they were not a leader, and a non-leader character in fort that was around 4 or 5 times a week, are you more likely to leave the leader in his place or switch the leader to the more active person?

I try to log on when I get home from work after 6 -7 p.m. CST. Not 100% of the time. Realize, like most of us with families, during that same time I'm helping with kids, dinner, and managing chaos. Also, some weeks I have a crazy schedule where I work through the night.

A note in game or email to schedule a contact will be worked 100% of the time and we should be able to knock something out in a day or two at the latest.

When I may get to log in at a random time, I try to observe as many people as I can, but especially my followers so I can get a feel for them.

Does that help?

There are two schools of thought here, first always keep the position filled no matter the quality, and second hold the spot for someone good.

I lean towards the first because of my background, but I hope for quality to be available from the options.

Now as to play times... In my short time with the staff, I have see that absent leadership is removed leadership. Before anyone spouts that it doesn't always happen see my many comments re: time. When leadership starts to wane we're looking to replace to keep the process moving.

Another problem as I have mentioned is the intrinsic reward of the player... Sadly, some, upon getting a leadership position hit their roof for tangibles and with no other goal or reward in sight stop showing up other than 30 minutes or less and are unproductive with that time. Which put it upon us IMM to vector, if able, but we are not always going to be there to intervene and remotivate.

Edited for clarity...

I'm going to make one reply for both of yours:

First post about play times:
Its totally cool. I was just wondering and not angry or anything to that aspect.

This Post:

play times- I agree with this point. Absent Leadership is not leadership at all. Especially if there is not effort to make communication to your "underlings". It you are a leader that plays during a time when your people do not, then maybe you should be looking at making some missives to keep them focused on the task. Its RP and something I feel the Captain of the brigade, or the Cardinal would be doing. Marshall and Elder should be sending missives to the Cardinal and Captain to have sent out to the fortress, or just do it themselves.

Intrinsic Reward- Personally my goal for a successful character is Leader, Tattoo, solid at your job. I have deleted my fair share of characters including what I consider my most successful character, Throndin. If you are a well RP'ed, leader with a Tattoo it means your rocking in my mind. At that point it comes down to RP or Explore I guess.


Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

I understand taking away unnecessary grind, of course!

But it seems like the massive removal of most avenues for edge point collection was sudden and reactionary.

Yes, we need less edge points per standard character than we had before and we need less grind to collect them.

That said, are players going to have a chance to get more edges in the near future through other means?

For all the questions out there... if the answer or desired answers requires programming, it won't happen any time soon.

Hunsobo or Igbah.

He's still burning up the competition.

An axe wielding fire giant is the best sword spec.

Who do you think trained Drathgar? Pssh!

ZING!

Of course, I'm probably just being biased since I went to college with Igbah.

Just couldn't help but imagine two giants, fire and frost, being best buddies and doing college shenanigans.

Or does the rest of the mud just suck?

"Say my name again!"

Have their been some deadly assassins? Yes.

Is it the player skill, situation, class, cabal powers, gear, or some semblance of those? Yes.

Do I know more? No.

Assassins have been around as they are for forever and there have been some very deadly ones in history. As far as I can tell the complaints about assassins being OP were never in the multitude as they are now until the playerbase discovered how good the throw edge really is.

Just look at the assassin logs that get posted now. The great majority that aren't against a priest or mage are throw, throw, maybe throw again win.

I'd be curious to know what the stats have been over the last year for which masters edges assassins have selected. Is it 100% throw?

I still don't know more.

>Assassins have been around as they are for forever and there
>have been some very deadly ones in history. As far as I can
>tell the complaints about assassins being OP were never in the
>multitude as they are now until the playerbase discovered how
>good the throw edge really is.

What makes that edge so good is that it juices almost everything about throw: the success rate of both throw and ground control, the damage, the assassin's lag, and it heavily mitigates many of the existing anti-throw factors.

I toned it down once by adjusting a couple of those bonuses down a bit, but it should probably either be toned down again in the same way or made to only boost some of those things instead of all of them.

>Just look at the assassin logs that get posted now. The great
>majority that aren't against a priest or mage are throw,
>throw, maybe throw again win.
>
>I'd be curious to know what the stats have been over the last
>year for which masters edges assassins have selected. Is it
>100% throw?

Looking at that over time wasn't (and probably isn't) possible, but the handful of times I checked that edge was the hands-down winner every time.

But I chose Nage Waza....its just too damn good.

Thanks for looking at making it more balanced rather than taking it out.

And both times I regretted that.

Initiate of the Dark Moon

Trying to figure out what this does. Its a REALLY expensive edge. Does this simply reverse the phases? That seems like a lot of high cost for flair. I'm not sure turning the full moon when you have "the hunt" into the best time to heal really synergizes :)

Or does this bring UP the powers that are otherwise weak during those phases and leave the strong ones strong?

Does this affect skills like "The Hunt". Would it still only come at the full moon or would it come at the new moon?

That knowledge is outside my lane of expertise.

Just always wondered and this seemed like the perfect time to get more information. Let me know if you hear anything from your colleagues.

Pretty sure it just swapped the herb bonus new/full and waxing/waning. IIRC, hunt was still full moon only (which made me sad).

I get what Umiron's saying in that the idea was to catch your opponents off guard. However, it seems so expensive to fool them once with a sunray they weren't expecting.

I love it for RP reasons though. I feel like its an edge thats great as a reward edge and less as a giveup of one of your few expensive edges when druids have SO MANY options.

Secretly I was hoping for more since Initiate of the Deserts affects so many things (though deserts are limited now and no scion cabal)

Because dudes receiving hunt on new moon would be totally disoriented.

The theory was that there is a lot of advantage in being strong when your opponent(s) think you will be at your weakest. Whether it played out that way I don't know.

Also, I like your character. I could't understand half the things you were saying because they were too complex and erudite though :)

Balance is at the forefront of the processes I have been involved in.

Player numbers are also a factor in many discussions, but there is only so much that is attainable.

Resources (of which time is a critical one) are finite or scarce, so we make stride when/where we can.

Sorry if that doesn't answer the question to your liking, but that's all I have.

I am happy to hear that you enjoy my persona. It is intentional for a great and timeless magus elf to be erudite. It is not intentional that you walk away confused or unsure.

Was it the discussions themselves going over your head, or were the base tenants of Ambassadorship too complex?

I've said to myself: "No way I'm gonna follow the dude. I don't get a word."

N/T

I have a thing for those :)

j/k

Seriously though, perhaps those scrolls should be hidden, starting with one and then you unravel the others? That would be a multilayer-style religion which is fun to learn in the process.

Answer one: (It makes me happy to be sarcastic.)
I'll put the coding team right on that, oh wait...

Answer two:
While a great idea, it is a misuse of resources (coder's time) in that it is very much a multi-layer religion already, and each character will develope at their own pace. IC and OOC as well the tenants just scratch the surface and we start off the journey one tenant at a time. If the choose to go further and faster we'll conform.

Not everyone will go all the way to earning a tattoo, and they don't have to. Just because one goes to church doesn't mean they're going to be a deacon, or priest.

It was more like (since I put myself in my character's head when I play CF most of the time) Bron would think "Why tha' farg 'e jus' take twelve hours en four hunnert werds ter tell me 'Keep at it'".

Like, I understood everytime what you were trying to say. But sometimes I was like I was the "jock" and you were the "nerd", if you catch my drift. I liked that though! It's kinda how I imagine a god of knowledge would be, to be honest.

Good! That's exactly what I want to be felt and seen in character. I berate myself everytime I shorten a sentence and don't say it with "elven sophistication". Ignolmeer is the example of the true elven ways.

Is there any talk of building in incentive for long life. I find more often lately(last couple years) that people are able to power to hero & see if the rng loves them. Or if they like their range and if not they delete. Most of us I think can rank to hero inside 100 hours but a bonus for people who actually stick to a character passed 150 or 200 could develop more detailed in game story lines and such. I know there is a balance to strike between this and forcing those who feel it to roll more alts. Anyhow half drunk ramble over. I like Rp. I'm crap. But I like it. And more ain't bad right?

Incentive will vary for each person.

Some love the interaction of characters despite not getting the right form combo that fits their niche.

Others just want to pk and wish RP wasn't a requirement.

Some just want to explore.

The key I think is to find the intrinsic value that motivates the individual and cultivate that.

That can be done at the peer level quite easily, and mortals far out number staff in both numbers and free time.

Thank you.

I left that for the mortals and continue to put the little time I have into IC interactions and my area.

Did you know your name is an Anagram for Gnome Rile?

What are you doing to these gnomes?

N/t

You mean, that was the anagram to solve in order to blow the horn?

why do fort powers still suck so hard a decade later?

Evil will always win, because good is dumb.

really though, maran powers sucketh : (

Really? I'd argue Maran powers are some of the best in game... Acolyte on the other hand are alittle... meh, but I think thats by design. Cry teleport into a gank? Epic. Zeal? Damage is king. Mantle? Fly, Fire heals, damage reduc? Rad. Lightforge is situationally useful... Brand? Brand is freakin BOSS man!

In the right hands, Maran powers are a huge boost to certain builds.

I think lightforge scrolls and talismans are underused, but lightforge is inherently annoying because of the randomness and mana cost. That and things crumble. A 2% reduction in mana cost could be seen as a boost to the power.

Cry and Lightforge gave me never-ending heartbreak because of the mana costs + failure to use the skill due to low %.

For instance, my rage-delete log, I spent 550 mana on trying to cry in when Glik was hitting the Watcher (since I knew Naz was setting a trap for me) and I'm pretty sure if 1 of those had succeeded the log might have turned out completely different.

Phoenix brand as well. You can't really spam it and it's such a great power that failing it in PK with it's 2 round lag can kill you.

Phoenix brand a 2 round lag and sigil of pain a 1 round lag?

In our epic gods wars, I would love to exhange sigil of pain and phoenix brand with Destuvius at the same interval, but I am guessing that it had to do with balance i.e. Emperor and Dreadlord only ability vs. all Maran.

That is MY speculation and if you wish to discuss it further I will simply say, "by design", I don't know, or type gibberish. I have not decided which.

Don't go insane yet, the Fortress needs you.

Go Jorm!

I've got some ideas in my head that I've not put to a proposal yet.

You must realize the constraints of resources we have.

My number one factor is finding a non-programming solution.