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Post by Kortelan on Feb 15, 2007 10:25:44 GMT -5
I would say a comet but they seem to appear too often to be comets.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 15, 2007 14:33:50 GMT -5
We have discovered something interesting. The way this game is running now, it doesn't take very much time per existing player.
We are still spending huge amounts of time on the game, but when we analyzed it, we discovered that nearly all the time falls into these categories:
(1) Game development, that is, adding new things to the game, not running it.
(2) Helping new players get set up even though they are frequently never heard from again. (Possibly because our e-mail isn't getting through or is being marked as spam.)
(3) Posting role playing by members of the Imperial Council.
(4) Sending out e-mails to the play-by-email players
(5) Posting news items in an unnecessarily complex process.
The good news is that since most or all of these could be eliminated or greatly reduced at some point, this game may be more viable than we thought. Game development could reach a point where it either stops or occurs at a much slower pace because everything the players need has already been done. Helping new players get set up could be streamlined so that it is less time consuming. Also, we are seriously considering not letting anyone become an Ulor until they have played long enough in some other position to demonstrate their interest in the game will last beyond the first few minutes. We also are planning to change the new player start up process so that it includes posting on the forum and not just e-mail. RP posts by high Imperial officials who aren't directly interacting with players could be removed from our workload by making these characters player characters. The number of e-mails we have to send out and record could be greatly reduced by having all players focus on the forum rather than e-mail. News items could be posted on the forum.
We are thinking of implementing some or all of these changes and then increasing the number of playtesters until we find out what our maximum per gamemaster is.
Sorry for delays. We are currently focused more on game development than keeping the action going. Also, we took time off on Valentine's Day.
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Post by Kortelan on Feb 15, 2007 18:35:27 GMT -5
As much as us play testers may grumble about this to ourselves our job is to help you figure out the kinks. That being said I am glad you are figuring out how to make this game viable.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 17, 2007 22:43:23 GMT -5
Thanks for understanding. Speaking of helping players get set up and then never hearing from them again, we are now having that problem with Jade Green. Kortelan, can you find out what's going on? Did Jade receive my e-mail?
Possibly the problem is that the e-mail shows up as coming from Jonathan Gamer instead of "nations and empires". We're trying to change that, but that could be the problem. Or maybe Jade decided not to play after all. Can you find out what's up?
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 17, 2007 22:48:05 GMT -5
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 17, 2007 23:39:34 GMT -5
We have just corrected the problem about e-mails being identified as coming from Jonathan Gamer who new players have probably never heard of. Now e-mails will say they are from "Nations and Empires".
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Post by Kortelan on Feb 17, 2007 23:54:55 GMT -5
I will check with him the next time I can talk to him. He was hesitant in the first place so it is possible he changed his mind.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 18, 2007 0:19:25 GMT -5
Okay, good. I just sent him another e-mail now that it will be more obvious who it's from. He might have just thought the previous one was spam.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 19, 2007 8:01:51 GMT -5
I just got an e-mail from Jade. He says he changed his mind because it looked like it would take more effort to participate than he wanted to put into it.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 19, 2007 8:21:00 GMT -5
So, we're definitely looking for some more playtesters. We may even try something new that would involve players who don't hold high level positions but are running around doing a more typical RP, exept with this world as the setting. They may or may not interact with the regular players, but the world you guys have helped shape would be the setting for the RP.
For example, due to your actions, if they go to Aatan or Helmarie, they'll be leaving the Empire whereas without your actions they wouldn't be. And if they take up residence in Nassavix and any of them are Zekresh, they'll be subject to a special tax. Or if they try to start a revolt in Kajakan Tros, there will be no troops in the garrison at the moment. If they go to Kopixer it WON'T be in rebellion and chaos. Little by little, you guys are changing this world.
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Post by Nashlan on Feb 20, 2007 16:57:19 GMT -5
I have a friend who would be interested in playtesting but is reluctant to jump straight into controlling a nation. I wondered if I could appoint their character as my Ulor Ekanor to give them a chance to try the game and see if they like it?
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 20, 2007 17:16:15 GMT -5
Yes, absolutely. If you or your friend know enough about the game to suggest a character, you can do that, too. Or we can assign one. But if we make up a character for your friend, it would be a good idea for you to first tell us what qualifications you are looking for in an Ulor Ekanor so that your friend's new character will meet your qualifications. (Assuming your required qualifications are reasonable, otherwise you won't find anyone who fits them.)
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Post by Nashlan on Feb 20, 2007 17:25:02 GMT -5
Well, I think it would be best for you to assign him a character since he is reasonably new to this style of roleplay.
I am looking for an Ulor Ekanor who is Baaniferian or of another ethnicity that is predominant in Nassavix that is not Zekresh. He would have a local knowledge of the province and it's workings and would be educated to a reasonably high standard. My friend was interested in him having military experience, so perhaps an officer from my guard or the Imperial Army.
I have mentioned to my staff that I am looking for an Ulor Ekanor, so perhaps they could find him as a candidate.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 20, 2007 17:26:33 GMT -5
We have been doing a lot of game development work in the past two days, but none of it is published yet. All of it relates to reworking the game so that players are not all running countries or provinces.
You guys will be able to keep your positions of course, but in the future, we may not even allow players to start off running a province. Having them start in a lower position would weed out those who aren't really going to follow through. We might even just whip up some simple characters to give out to new players. That would make it vastly easier for us to get new players started. We would not have to set up each one as an Ulor only to never hear from them again.
If they start posting on the forums, then maybe we would give them more details about their character, but at first it might just be name, gender, nationality, age, occupation or something like that.
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Post by Gamemaster on Feb 20, 2007 17:27:40 GMT -5
We may be losing Clabbuk. He's not been responding for a while.
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