A partial rewrite of the invoker class page is up. The main goal of the rewrite is to explain why this class is cool and why you should play it to CF newbies. Have a look and offer constructive commentary.

I don't consider replacing the class/race pages to be nearly our most important marketing task, but it's the part I feel uniquely qualified to do, so I'm doing it.

The requirements listed were:

Extra Experience Cost per Level: 0
Empowerment Required: No
Alignment: Any
Ethos: Any

Where's race?

The invoker is referred to with female pronoun, even though his gender is not known. According to English grammar, person of unknown sex should be referred to as 'he', which is same as the masculine pronoun. The invoker's sex is not defined, so he should be referred to as he. The pronoun she is reserved for females only.

Pretty neat otherwise. I guess some of those chapters could be generalized to all magi.

Modern academia.

Most of it takes the form of attempts at gender-equality in speech. Impetus is mostly from modern linguistic philosophy.

Best example is 'woman' and 'women' being used as adjectives rather than nouns.

I'm a bit of a bleeding heart liberal, but institutionalized ignorance annoys me. Language should not be that malleable. At least not language that is used in formal speech (i.e academia).

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

I really like it, and it's extremely comprehensive, which I believe could really help newbies to start thinking in terms of ALL their options and powers in-game, but, from a writing standpoint, perhaps you could just put the flashy superfantastic stuff at the beginning, then have the skill list, then put in all the other points. Example:

At the top, have "Invokers are walking engines of destruction! They use the elements, and have more spells than anybody! They do tons of damage, are valuable allies, great explorers, yadda yadda"

skill list/spell list

Then, they have tons of mana, so it's good for cabal powers also, can use staves/scrolls/wands, drawback is lots of time learning/other side is you always have something to do, etc.

Put the most fundamental, important, exciting stuff first, perhaps? Then go in-depth after they've had a chance to look at the skill/spell helpfiles, I'd say.

It's quite a nice summary of how new players can expect the class to both feel and behave overall in the game. On the other hand, a little more brevity may be preferable. The key strength of a text-based game is that it allows its players to fill in the proverbial 'gaps' with their own imagination and creativity, which in turn tends to spontaneoulsy generate role ideas and the like and thus the first notions of involvement. Because of this, it might be worthwhile to intentionally leave such 'gaps' here and there in the class descriptions in particular. The racial helpfiles can certainly stand to be very specific across the board, but for the class pages, less may prove to be more.

This of course is just a single opinion.

Either way, I'm a proponent of having the class helpfiles being rewritten by you, as you arguably have a more or less unique insight into the game mechanics of this game for a number of distinct reasons which you should be able to easily translate into 'fatherly advice to the most junior member of the family', for the lack of a better comparison.

It was stated in another thread that Heroimms should work on some sort of advertising and stuff. Put those people to work on projects like this one! Any dummy (myself included) could do something like that.

Overall, the page looks good. Didn't read it all, but it looks very informative and indepth.

Honestly, the volunteering of other volunteers on this kind of thing is a bit offputting.

It's a topic you care about. Why not take a shot at providing some text and speeding the process along?

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Which is why I keep mentioning this. It's called motivation, and trying not to duplicate effort.

Editted to add: Just because I'm saying contest doesn't mean any actual prize need be given out, just a place to accumulate ideas and offer criticisms and whatnot.

I asked about helping out with this sort of thing a while back, and was told it was for staffers only. Has this changed?

We don't plan on turning over any sort of direct access to people not on staff, or anything like that. Other than that, we've always wanted suggestions on website content-- hell, most (but not all) of the stuff discussed below has been on our internal boards for years.

The problem has been getting staff with the technical know-how and the desire to write copy. If people provide text, Nep and others are able to make at least simple changes like the new invoker change.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

You or someone else of the well-known and respected imms. Contest or whatever. Also, if you want players to be involved, may be expose more of the Imm effort on that front to the players? E.g. create a new Marketing forum and encourage Imms to post there as opposed to posting on the internal forums.

I'll go make a contest, with a caveat.

We have a large number of threads (recent and otherwise) full of talking about talking. Everyone wants to have a contest, form a committee, or encourage other people to write material.

Critics and pundits are cheap. Creators are prized.

What we really need is content. Meat. That's always been the issue in our marketing discussions.

So let's dig in our claws, with an initial goal of replacing the content of our class pages by Sunday. I like how the invoker page turned out, and I think a talented/motivated person could turn out one per day. With many hands on the project, Sunday should be easy, especially if all Daevryn and associates has to do is paste and format well-written entries.

A small step, but goal #1 is to improve the website before we invest a lot of effort sending people to it. I think the website does a passable job if we're sending veteran MUDders to it, but it's not going to hook random D&D players or whatever.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I'll leave content creation to the native English speakers :-P I have donated a bit though.

nt

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

Now, this is the kind of post I can get behind.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Things in all caps I would think would be helpfile linked.


*****************************************

Druids are priests of nature, in tune with the cycles of the earth, the moon, and the weather. The denizens of the wilds aid Druid's in their lives, and even the earth itself will strike against those whom the druid battle. As a Druid learns the mysteries of nature, their power grows. A druid at the height of his power causes fear in any whom are not at one with the wilds. Druid's require EMPOWERMENT under one of the SPHERES in order to walk their wild path in Thera. Because of their adherence to the cycles of nature, druids must remain NEUTRAL in regards their moral choices in Thera. Woodelves are aspecially adept with the secrets of druidic lore.

The strengths of the druid include:

Druids are exceptionally self sufficient. They know the hidden trails of the wilderness, and this ability at PATHFINDING allows them to travel further and faster than anyone but a RANGER. They can find water anywhere with in the wilds, they can forage for food, and drawing both upon the spirits of nature, and their knowledge of HERBAL MEDICINE, they can heal themselves of nearly any disease or malady in the lands. As they grow in power, they can even call upon the wilds to provide their entire party with a HEROS FEAST, healing all they travel with.

Druids can call upon a variety of fearsome allies to fight alongside them. Druids can infuse a staff with the spirit of a snake using the ability SERPENTINE STAFF. They can awaken the slumbering spirits of the very trees to fight at their side using their knowledge of LIVEOAK. Druids can call upon a nearly endless variety of specialized forest companions including the nimble Pixie, the fearsome Wolverine, and the mystical Forest Witch to aid them when they invoke the CALL OF THE WILD.

Druids are very difficult to kill. In addition to their healing powers, Druids can cover their bodies in a tough CARAPACE, reducing the damage from some blows. They are protected againt all weapons made of metal, and against all forms of elemental damage. They can avoid many common forms of COMMAND DENIAL by causing an ARMOR OF THORNS to sprout from their flesh, and can avoid being TRIPPED with their ability to FLY. When the going gets tough, they can assume a TREE FORM, blending in with the surrounding forest, or utilize the secrets of the FOREST HAVEN to quickly escape their foes.

Druids are fearsome foes, any whom have been rended asunder with a spray of THORNS, burned with a handfull of FIRE SEEDS, or struck with a SUNRAY or MOONBEAM know this. But a druid's offense is not mere brute force. They can sap an enemies ability to move by ENTANGLEling them, or causing huge thorns to pierce their feet with SPIKE GROWTH. Druids can quickly sap the mental reserves of their foes by infesting them with maelidictive SPORES, and weaken and slow their opponents by planting a malicious seed in them using THORN HEART. Druid's can prepare the very ground they fight upon by causing a BRIARTANGLE to sprout from the earth. At the height of their power, druids can call upon the divine HUNT to smite their foes, denying them the ability to use any means of magical or divine transportation whatsoever.

Druid's are one of the most versatile classes in Thera. Their abilities wax and wane with the PHASES OF THE MOON, and with the turning of day and night. Moreover, they can choose how they wish to focus their power by FORAGING FOR HERBS. A druid can, by this method, near the raw destructive power of an INVOKER, have damage-reduction surpassing nearly anyone in Thera, heal themselves or their group with the effeciency of a Healer, or infuse their forest allies with the power of a CONJURER'S servitors. An intelligent druid chooses his method of battle, and is a match for anyone.

Druid's are one of only two classe who can shift their shape, and at the pinnacle of their power can FLY across the skies of Thera as a majestic CONDOR, or battle upon the ground in the shape of a mighty BEAR.

Though powerful and versatile, Druid's have weakness including:

Outside of the wilds, a Druid is denied many of his abilities. Additionally, as the MOON waxes and wanes, druid's abilities so to wax and wane in power. A Druid must choose the ground he fights on, and vary his tactics in accordance with the cycles of nature.

A Druid can at any given time do one or two things exceptionally well based on the HERBS he has FORAGED for. However, the other abilities a druid posesses will not be as powerful, and so the life of a Druid is a constant balancing act. He must choose between offense and defense, healing prowess and utility, never doing all things well, but at any time doing some things exceptionally.

A Druid's connection to nature means he cannot wear metal armor nor bear metal weaponry. However, given time to prepare such equipment, a druid may TRANSMUTE METAL TO WOOD.

Much of a Druid's power comes from the allies he calls from the wilds. Abilites such as PULL, DRIVE, SUMMON and NIGHTGAUNT which separate a Druid from his allies are exceptionally dangerous.

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

Might as well score a free PBF or two for your work. There's a couple tiny nitpicky things I'd change (mostly for brevity), but that's basically what I'd look for.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I was planning on buying some PBFs for people soon, so I don't need more to fill up

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

But I'm with others, in that it seems 98% of anything donated to the staff, who is not on the staff themselves, just gets rejected. People's (players) great ideas usually don't mesh with the upper echelons of the staff.





"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion; you must set yourself on fire."

>But I'm with others, in that it seems 98% of anything donated
>to the staff, who is not on the staff themselves, just gets
>rejected. People's (players) great ideas usually don't mesh
>with the upper echelons of the staff.

The Santa Zulg Forum blows your 98% out of the water. As do most of the contests where we ask players for things.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

(Weather in prompt.)

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>It was stated in another thread that Heroimms should work on
>some sort of advertising and stuff. Put those people to work
>on projects like this one! Any dummy (myself included) could
>do something like that.

FYI, I posted asking all the imms to write stuff like this circa April 2004. I posted all the (zero) writeups I received.

Lots more people (not just imms!) like to talk about how things need to be done than like doing them. It's just the nature of the beast in the volunteer world.

I like the greater depth, it does a much better job of explaining the class then the previous page.

For me what I remember from when I first encountered CF and the class pages was the short list of abilities that each page has. For some reason this list would get my imagination rolling (even though I did not know exactly what berserk or warcry was ). To that end I think what you did does a better job of capturing the imagination by painting a better picture about what it means to be an invoker.

The links to help files is a big plus. And more importantly the way you wrote the page I feel describes things in simple enough terms and with enough depth that I think even people with little mud experience would get the ideas.

Sorry not much negative to say to help refine anything