Thank you! It does get frustrating to see the complaints and it really does drive down your urge to work hard and put a lot of effort towards the religion and my area projects and all of that. Hearing that the work we do is appreciated helps though - reminds me that I don't do it for the haters, but for those who actually do enjoy and appreciate it. So thanks.

nt

Just because I don't like the way someone handled one thing, and voice it, doesn't mean I don't think they are a huge positive overall.

I would like to think that criticism can be constructive, rather than just "being a hater".

I think you misunderstand - I was talking about all the people who call me an idiot and far worse on Dio's where I can't even (and wouldn't even) defend myself. To me that isn't criticism. Saying I slept my way up through the levels and did no work for them also seems to fall short of criticism. Those are the people I refer to as 'haters'. Valg gave me some good advice the other day saying that if people complain like that it's a mark that I'm actually doing stuff - the more stuff I do, the more there is to complain about. It makes sense, but the obvious solution if you don't like hearing the complaints is to not do anything then, right? I'm too stubborn to take that path, but I can certainly understand why a lot of immortals take a pretty hands off approach to most things.

I also agree with you that criticism can be constructed, if presented correctly.

Saying I slept my way up through the levels and did no work for them also seems to fall short of criticism.

1) I pressed the button on Rayihn's promotions, and she certainly didn't sleep with me. If she's trying to sleep your way to the top, one of us is doing this all wrong. Again, as previously pointed out by Amaranthe, the "slept her way to the top" criticism has been aimed at every female staff member who made it past heroimm at some point in their career, and usually by the same couple of useless trolls. It's a cheap way to deride their accomplishments. God knows what they were saying when Yanoreth was supervising promotion discussions.

2) One low-resolution way for me to judge how much effort went into an area is to just cut out any custom code and measure how much text is in the file. By that criterion, the Seaport ranks in the top 10 areas of our 250+, despite a very low level of cut/paste/modify. (Other areas that score well there are Silent Tower, Hell, Feanwynn, Grynmear, Voralian, the Lyceum, etc.) Once I'm on my home computer, I'll punch up a more accurate list.

Seaport passes the higher-resolution tests of course, but those are more subjective-- I've read the area top to bottom, and I think it's a very good area.

2B) There's no way Nep wrote that. Go to Nep's areas and read the descs-- he has a very distinct style, and tends to run very concise. Seaport has an entirely different feel, and tends to have a lot of detail in each room.

He did write the code that supported it, though Rayihn chipped in with echoes and detailed specs. (The major custom code for the area has a very clever core surrounded by a lot of repetitive code which handles all the ship echoes, scheduling, and adventurer-herding, for example. That's one of those progs where the coder does much less of the grunt work, and the author does a lot more.) Scarabaeus also deserves credit for the original concept-- it's something he wrote up as a short outline a few years ago as an example to new staff of a project that would mesh well with existing areas.

The rest? Rayihn.

2C) There was another area in the queue around the same time. If the author of that area wants to contest that it was as ready as the Seaport and got unfairly pushed aside, I can post comparative samples upon that author's request. I claim they would support my decision that the other area wasn't nearly as ready as the author thought it was.

3) Rayihn's done a ton of other area work (and other work), credited and otherwise, both published and in the queue. Feel free to ask other staff who have asked for her help on something. Anyone claiming she is skating by on the minimum is beyond ignorant at the minimum, and much more likely intentionally lying to smear her name and further a grudge.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Our fifteen "biggest" areas-- a function of both scale (number of rooms, etc.) and depth:

1) Hell (*) (combined, since it was all done as one project)
2) Lyceum
3) Silent Tower
4) Grynmear
5) Feanwynn
6) Seantryn Modan
7) High Tower of Sorcery
8) Seaport of Hamsah Mu'Tazz
9) Underdark Sea
10) Thar-Acacia
11) Voralian City
12) Galadon
13) Udgaard
14) Hamsah Mu'Tazz
15) *in progress*

Out of those, only the Underdark Sea is really boosted by repetition. (Thar-Acacia's mists boost it some, but the city is the bulk by far.) Several have multiple authors or were built up across more than one version, as well.

Anyway, anyone who thinks the Seaport was an easy area to write is completely full of ####.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

> Thar-Acacia's mists boost it some, but the city is the bulk by far

There must be over 300 rooms in that maze. It is a freaking nightmare to navigate.

In all seriousness though, seeing stats like these is very interesting. It gives someone ideas and expectations on an area.

I am surprised that Kteng's isn't on that list. I would have placed Kteng's well above Galadon, infact I would have put it 5th on that list. The sheer amount of depth to it is second to none.

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
- Albert Einstein

I would have thought that too if I hadn't realized that I confused "bigness" with the amount of time I spent in there trying to figure stuff out. I still love that area.

Here's hoping I can get a week or two free in the coming month so I can play a char or two again!

==
You get 269938 gold coins from the corpse of Valguarnera.
==

The mists itself are 35 rooms. And yes, it is a nightmare to navigate.

Kteng's has depth, but it's rather small, and doesn't have a huge range of NPCs. Comes in at #31 in terms of the measure used above, slightly above just one of Hell's circles. Put two Ktengs' Labs together and you almost get a Grynmear!

Glad you and Catastrophic like it, though!

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Look. You need to calm down, and check your head.

It is patently absurd to hold Grynmear over Weald.

Plz have him do more areas.

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

Has he done any other areas? None I can think of have the same feel (maybe Oryx, but I know that was someone else), and I've never combed the areas list to check.

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

Those are the only two areas I've written, though I'm working on two more.

One is a "collaberation" between Sebeok, Thrak and I, that started at least four years ago (Sebeok), then got dropped, then picked up by Thrak, then picked up by me. It's a challenge because I really want to incorporate a lot of the thoughts and ideas they put into the area, but I have to tie it all together so it is more seamless. That's pretty hard for me, but I got really motivated the other day and knocked out a whole lot of it. It's a rewrite of an old favorite, but I won't tell you which area.

As for progs, I seriously doubt it will be anywhere near as complex as Grynmear, or require as much effort on the part of the coders as that area did. I might even try to write a few of them myself...

The second area is another rewrite that is conceptually fleshed out, but there's very little of the area actually written. I've got a deadline for that one as well, but I want to knock the first one out before I devote a lot of time to it. That one will drive the coders insane!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

nt

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

He's got (at least) another work in progress. I walked it a few months ago and offered my sage commentary, but there's still some significant steps to go.

Including progs. Kasty has promised it's going to be harder on us than Grynmear, and that drove me into a two year hiatus!

>He's got (at least) another work in progress. I walked it a
>few months ago and offered my sage commentary, but there's
>still some significant steps to go.
>
>Including progs. Kasty has promised it's going to be harder
>on us than Grynmear, and that drove me into a two year hiatus!
>

What crazy progs are in Grynmear? Is it "just" the quest, or is there some other whole aspect to it I've never seen? I definitely like Grynmear, though I've pretty much thrown in the towel on the quest.