Believe it or not, this post contains no rants

First a short intro to me the player, if not interested skip this paragraph: I'm an average gamer. I don't play games that much, but I do tend to get stuck on a single game and play the hell out of it for a long time then stop gaming altogether for a while. I started CF in ~2002. I started with assassins, moved to thieves, then started necros trying each class numerous times until I 'got the hang' of it. Actually I did pretty well with thieves, I was one of the first ones in the Galadon thief guild to make the list (whatever that's called). I've never heroed but I've had a hand full in the forties. I used to rage delete a lot, but now only in the teens if I mob die. I know one barrier location, two aura, one shield, one haste, one stoneskin. I can lead (evil) groups ranking up until the mid/late thirties and then I'm pretty much stuck on Kiadana if I need to lead.

DIVERSITY
One of the things that always killed me was the growth of CF. Here I am trying to figure out how to protect myself from bash and the immstaff is creating new areas, changing the few areas I actually knew, and moving preps around. The thing that really got me was the thief revamp. Playing thieves, I could never again realistically 'get the hang of it' because there was such a large diversity of options at my disposal. Compare this to the invoker mini-vamp for affinities where the spells didn't really change much, simply practice time. I stopped playing CF for unrelated reasons, but I have recently returned just after the ranger revamp was announced. Once again, a relatively simple class has been converted into a class that I will likely A) never get the hang of, and B) have absolutely no idea how to prepare for menatally (I have no idea what they might throw at me). At first I was disappointed by this fact, but after some consideration I've come to a different conclusion. I assume (probably a mistake) that I'm at least on par with the average CFer when it comes to intelligence. If I have a hard time retaining enough knowledge to really be able to effectively prepare for the myriad of ranger tactics, it's likely other players do as well. Old stogeys around here who have been around forever might also have a difficult time with this. What does that mean for me? They still have much more advanced area knowledge, but they're just as unlikely as I am to be able to know all of the ranger skills well enough to completely prepare for what a ranger might do (assuming they've never fought this particular ranger before). Now that I've come to the main point after a long winded intro, here's the question: Is this the intent of the immortal staff? Is part of the goal of the increased variety within the classes to diminish the advantage of old players? Do you fell this is an unintended side-effect? Do you think it actually happens at all, or am I just an idiot?

ECONOMY
One of the things I really have liked is the economy changes. At first I sort of stuck my nose up at it but now that it is a more mature system (noting changes to shop prices and such) it has actually made a lot of sense. Food weights are much better too, although my secret hidden/quest free infinite bread stash is now useless because I have to eat 50 loaves (thanks a lot ).


IDEA FOR QUESTS
It still frustrates me how difficult it is for me to locate and/or complete quests. I know the solution to half a dozen quests (mostly newbie). I think what bothers me is that if I don't happen to be lucky enough to walk into the right room at the right age/class/race/ethos/whatever I will never have that mob ask me to do whatever. There's a billion or so mobs in Thera, it's difficult to kill each and every one looking for a note they might carry that starts a quest. That was the great thing about that guy in Dagdan (before TLB fuxord it up). I could just go ask him for a quest and he'd give me (a mini-) one. Obviously, the solution to quests is supposed to be elusive in nature, but is the beginning of it necessarily supposed to be? One suggestion might be to have a jobs listing place in Thera (perhaps in Galadon or some other major city). You could go there and some (relatively low reward) requests appear on the list appropriate for your rank. Just a list like:

Help wanted:
Bhsajgal of Udgaard - warrior, built tough, needed to gather things for my stuff.
Joshua of Galadon - Mage needed, seeking insight into invisibility.
Bill in Hamsah - Trying to learn to play harmonica, please help!

Just stupid little things like that (maybe even less information) can point us into the beginning of the quest. Maybe it could be set up so that if you'd proven yourself to the 'contracting company' that they will hook you up with higher risk higher reward quests.

Anyways, I'm sure there's other ways to do it but I really want to try the cool quests you guys work so hard to put in. I want to put in the time to solve it on my own without TLB, help on OOC channels, etc. But I can't even FIND the quest to begin with. Throwing me a bone would be appreciated.

Also, could the level of exp for various quests be looked into? Solving a quest initially is a reward in its own. I feel, perhaps unjustly, that once I learn a quest I deserve to be able to come back and pull from that pool with every character I play afterwards (assuming the quest is available to them). However, if I have to spend half an hour finishing this quest only to get 2k exp that's probably not worth it compared to practicing or ranking. So while I'm excited about solving the quest I probably won't do it ever again unless I'm having a hard time finding a ranking group that day and I'm playing a class that is poor at fighting mobs solo. If I come across any more quests which have a particularly low rate of return I'll e-mail/pray about it.

OOC Channels:
I don't want to reopen the flamewar below so I'll ask that no one respond to this section. I just want to let out some air. I go to irc pretty regularly. It's typically open in game. I often go in there and say something like "Quick, someone bitch rank my mid teens evil mage." I'm often actually playing a mid teens evil mage, but I can't remember any instances that it actually occurred. I probably wouldn't actually take them up on it anyways. I do share real time frustrations or excitement in that channel though. I may put in there "A Crimson Dragon is DEAD!!!" or something so that everyone can be jealous of my coolness after having killed said hefty mob. That's probably cheating, but more than likely only in a way that can hurt my own character. There were a few times (when I played before) that I would post someone's set after looking at them. This is something that I would NOT do now. The beauty of irc is that unlike a public forum there's no memory. Even if you leave your client up all day you aren't likely to read through the logs looking for some tid bit. If you don't happen to be in the channel at the exact moment someone goes TLB on us, you don't get any info and that requires no moderation. I don't have any special place in my heart for irc like some posters. I do love Dio's. I probably would stop playing without it. I'm glad the moderators there have made a good relationship with the immstaff so that the two can coexist in relative harmony.

MONEY:
CF is a not for profit right? Do you guys publicize where the cash from the PBFs and such goes? Obviously most (none?) of you get paid for your work. Can you declare your CF hours as a tax break?

MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Okay, seriously, what was up with Julias and Scarab being visible the other day. Inquiring minds want to know. You can tell me, I'll keep it a secret.

THANKS:
I'll try to keep this short and sweet, I don't want to look like a suckup. You guys make a great game. The only games I've played longer and for more hours than CF are the venerable classics like Mario, Tetris, etc. I love this game no matter how bad at it I might be. I wish I were a better roleplayer/explorer so that I could take part in improving the game. Not so much because I value excellent roleplay or exploration so much but because it's what you want me to value and I want to do my part to make the game better for you.

At first I was disappointed by this fact, but after some consideration I've come to a different conclusion. I assume (probably a mistake) that I'm at least on par with the average CFer when it comes to intelligence. If I have a hard time retaining enough knowledge to really be able to effectively prepare for the myriad of ranger tactics, it's likely other players do as well.

This is a pretty good summary. Even I, who was privy to a lot of the behind the scenes work on the class, don't really know everything the different combinations can throw at my mortals. I'd say everyone is on pretty even footing here.

Now that I've come to the main point after a long winded intro, here's the question: Is this the intent of the immortal staff? Is part of the goal of the increased variety within the classes to diminish the advantage of old players? Do you fell this is an unintended side-effect? Do you think it actually happens at all, or am I just an idiot?

There are a lot of reasons for revamps (and increasing variety within the classes); making the game more interesting for veteran players, increasing replayability of classes, increasing RP opportunities within a class, etc. I don't think revamps diminish a lot of the advantages of veteran players, though; sure, fighting that one class might initially be more of a challenge, but the core skills (area knowledge, basic game mechanics knowledge, etc.) that veterans have are still there.

ECONOMY
One of the things I really have liked is the economy changes. At first I sort of stuck my nose up at it but now that it is a more mature system (noting changes to shop prices and such) it has actually made a lot of sense. Food weights are much better too, although my secret hidden/quest free infinite bread stash is now useless because I have to eat 50 loaves (thanks a lot ).

More to come in this arena as well, but I'm glad you like the changes so far!

IDEA FOR QUESTS
It still frustrates me how difficult it is for me to locate and/or complete quests. I know the solution to half a dozen quests (mostly newbie). I think what bothers me is that if I don't happen to be lucky enough to walk into the right room at the right age/class/race/ethos/whatever I will never have that mob ask me to do whatever.

Probably 90% of the quests out there are generic enough for anyone to do. Some have a mob that provides the introduction (usually the more newbie oriented ones); others require you to pay attention to the storyline in the area. When you explore an area, approach it with that in mind; look at the mobs, and ask yourself if looks like any of them need something done for them. Not saying this will work for you all the time, but there are a few quests out there where this approach might get you started.

That was the great thing about that guy in Dagdan (before TLB fuxord it up). I could just go ask him for a quest and he'd give me (a mini-) one.

Last I checked, he's still there, still giving quests out (though the trigger might have changed).

One suggestion might be to have a jobs listing place in Thera (perhaps in Galadon or some other major city). You could go there and some (relatively low reward) requests appear on the list appropriate for your rank.

This has potential.

Also, could the level of exp for various quests be looked into?

I agree, there are a few out there that seem a bit low to me, given the level of effort involved. Shoot me an email if you find ones that seem unusually low, and I'll look into it.

All that being said, solving the quest really can be considered a reward in and of itself. We're not interested in making it so you can go from level 1 to level 20 simply by solving quests. The rewards (as far as XP goes) are intended as suppliments to other ways of earning XP, not replacements.

MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Okay, seriously, what was up with Julias and Scarab being visible the other day. Inquiring minds want to know. You can tell me, I'll keep it a secret.

Those two are totally still around, just not always interacting with mortals.

THANKS:
I'll try to keep this short and sweet, I don't want to look like a suckup. You guys make a great game. The only games I've played longer and for more hours than CF are the venerable classics like Mario, Tetris, etc. I love this game no matter how bad at it I might be. I wish I were a better roleplayer/explorer so that I could take part in improving the game. Not so much because I value excellent roleplay or exploration so much but because it's what you want me to value and I want to do my part to make the game better for you.

Thanks to you for playing. Our reward is making a game that people enjoy playing (including ourselves). That's really the yardstick we use to measure success, despite what some folks might think. Pretty much every change we make to the game has that ensdtate in mind; though some changes might lower the funstick for certain types of players, it's always our hope that those same changes raise the funstick for other types, and that we are able to achieve a solid balance that everyone can enjoy.

I guarantee you're not as bad at the game as you think you are. Remember (and I'll sound like a cheerleader here, but so what) you define winning and losing at CF; no one else does that for you. You may think that getting bashed down by a fire giant warrior means you 'lost', but if that gives you and/or them a chance to throw down some really solid RP, maybe you won after all. Just a thought.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

I don't have time to compose a full reply, but:

MONEY:
CF is a not for profit right? Do you guys publicize where the cash from the PBFs and such goes? Obviously most (none?) of you get paid for your work. Can you declare your CF hours as a tax break?

No staff member has ever been paid for working on CF, period. No, I'm not posting my tax returns.

We cannot declare our hours as a tax break. All money goes into hardware, maintainance, etc. If PBF/etc. income ever significantly exceeds costs, we'd probably have to have a conversation about how to re-invest it. We could develop an advertising budget and try to leverage the initial profits into larger ones, get more hardware, pay back some of the financial costs the staff (largely Jullias) fronted before we had a reliable source of $5 bills, etc., but I've never heard serious discussion of trying to pay the staff fair salaries. We'd cost a lot.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Sorry, I wasn't trying to suggest anything derogatory about the staff or any compensation anyone might have received. I just didn't know if there was a tax difference between charity and not for profit. Because if you offer your professional services to a charity they are claimable (i.e. anyone writing code). I know CF doesn't make enough money to pay a single coder what they're worth.

Yeah, but it might be enough to buy a couple of cases of beer every now and then. Just let me know when and where so I can crash it!

I was musing about this last night. It would cost about 1.7 million a year to fully staff CF (25 staff at 70K a year). Of course that doesn't include 401k matching, insurance costs, etc etc.

G.

Yeah but not everyone on CF makes 70k a year or would be worth that much (no offense). Lets not get greedy.

It's an estimate, granted. I could break it down and get all technical, but then I'd need charts and graphs, and possibly a power point presentation. Bleh. My geekdom only goes so far.


G.

He's right, Grurk. I think $70k is a gross overestimite, except for maybe our handful of decent programmers.

Most of us "work" on CF in a capacity that would best be described as "writing" or "quality assurance". Such people are notoriously paid peanuts. "Designers" are probably a step above that. And the majority of our staff would probably be considered entry-level, as this is a hobby for most of us.

And this is by my Los-Angeles-Area income point of reference, which is higher than normal too.

But hell, I'd be happy for minimum wage for each hour I've put into CF in my life in the past. That in itself would be a nice chunk change I'm sure!

You can also get 'more for less' by using investment methods such that, each person gets a portion of an investment equivalent to a timeshare portion where time per task (depending on complexity of task) relates to a % of an investment. In such a manner, over the long term, you can have a greater output from a smaller input of money. I'm not great with financials but there are plenty of people who can explain it better than me.