The Althanas Suggestion Thread

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I love a good competition, but I'm going to second Otto's suggestion. Running competitions and events one right after the other kind of kills the fun of doing them.

[Fox Owen Xavier]

Would like a vignette that doesn't have the word Doge in it... Seriously, the current vignette really should be replaced with something that more people are willing to write something for.

Also, might be nice to work out "The Peaceful Promenade" so it actually does a better job of being newbie friendly or at least has more opportunities for new people to jump in. (Or something... Right now I feel like it's completely useless)

Also, any way to improve the silver pub chat to allow for something more than a flat 35? Maybe allow the judge to give a bonus if she or he thinks it is worthy of more?

[Enigmatic Immortal]

A few extra ability points for level 0's. 3 has been felt to be a little too limiting. I get the point, but can we increase said points?

Also, random question: I have previously broken the curve on Jensen with more than 10x the agility and speed. I have had that established in previous levels before the cap at ten, and paid the carefully considered ability point cost to have such things. But now that I am capped, did that mean I had even more ability points to spend on increasing other abilities or adding? Or was that a kind of....S.O.L. situation. Not griping, but curious.


Can weapons and enchantments also not be worth so many ability points? Maybe like...half what you currently estimate for now? Obviously, certain items need way more consideration, but some weapons people have are for flavor and to have that flavor they are diminishing the other things they could do with their characters.

[Astrid Whitepeak]

I was wondering if maybe we could do something like have a random "event" every month for each region of the world that would generate bonus XP for threads that dealt with it. It could be really generic or very specific as the mods have time for, but I think that might be a good way to give the world a bit of chance and provide a good way for people who don’t want to do competitions to get some extra XP, almost like a vignette. Not a ton, of course, because we don’t want to force people to write about something that doesn’t interest them, but enough to catch their attention. Also, if a given region isn’t terribly active, perhaps we could give it a bit of a boost by offering a bigger event / more rewards?

For example, say one of the prompts for Salvar is "Potato Blight hits the countryside." Writers could take it or leave it, but those who found a way to work it into their threads (maybe character tries to help a starving village, or another is chasing down a necromancer spreading the disease) could really feel like they’re developing the lore of a given place. Additionally, the prompts could build off one another; Potato Blight is followed by Hunger Riots is followed by Mass Exodus / Migration.

I think it offers a way for people to interact with the world in an interesting and open-ended way without needing a ton of oversight. However, I’ll admit I’m a bit foggy about how judgments would work on the issue. Would the thread need to be finished before the end of the month so we aren’t swamped by “OK, this was started in April but ended in May…” etc. It seems like it would be easy enough to slip into the rubric as part of the last category, “Wildcard.”

Anyway, just a thought.

[Max Dirks]

Well, I discussed this briefly with Otto and Luned in the chat BaBE, but I disagree. Whether or not there is a competitive element, events are going to initally draw a massive amount of attention that will fade as the event musters on. In fact, I assure you this planned Dragon War will not finish nearly as strong as it started.

What I see is a problem of scope. Today, Althanas events are massive. They are designed with vague or limited backstories to allow all types of characters to participate and are actively promoted to capture the interest of all active players. Moreover, as Otto noted, whether or not someone is truly interested in the event, they will participate because they feel obligated to do so. Well, this wasn't always the case. In the past, events were tailored to specific interests. There were multiple small events going on at one time as to not pull too much attention from one event to another. Even with a smaller memberbase and correspondingly smaller staff, I see no reason why we can't narrow the scope once more. We can run tournaments continuously, but limit registration to 8 or 16 players on a first registration, no alt basis. Other events can be limited as well. Instead of a war on Eiskalt, a Misery Business v. Ixian Knight clan war can involve a 4 player tournament with the best members represent.

Basically, the mindset for years has been do stuff that everyone can join in. But why? Why not do tailored RP with limited availability to increase demand? You want to affect canon, fine, secure a quest with a CM. You want to participate in a tournament, sweet, but you better register before someone else does otherwise you're waiting. Instead of big super events, lets just do continuous small events, each with their own unique rewards and perks for participation.

[Max Dirks]

Would like a vignette that doesn't have the word Doge in it... Seriously, the current vignette really should be replaced with something that more people are willing to write something for.

I understand your frustration, but it's just a month. A new vignette will be posted for May.

Also, might be nice to work out "The Peaceful Promenade" so it actually does a better job of being newbie friendly or at least has more opportunities for new people to jump in. (Or something... Right now I feel like it's completely useless)

A training forum is always something I've been interested in, but frankly it is one feature that requires a steady supply of new members to maintain, which we don't have at the moment. The best way to build the Peace Promenade itself back up is to RP there, even if it's only simple paragraph interactions.

Also, any way to improve the silver pub chat to allow for something more than a flat 35? Maybe allow the judge to give a bonus if she or he thinks it is worthy of more?

Not at the moment. RP there is designed to be posts between posts.

Also, random question: I have previously broken the curve on Jensen with more than 10x the agility and speed. I have had that established in previous levels before the cap at ten, and paid the carefully considered ability point cost to have such things. But now that I am capped, did that mean I had even more ability points to spend on increasing other abilities or adding? Or was that a kind of....S.O.L. situation. Not griping, but curious.

Althanas no longer recognizes 1x, 2x, 3x, 10x, etc. That shit is meaningless. If your agility and speed have been capped based on your tangible description, it means its reverse bunnying. Reverse bunnying occurs when the only way for an opposing character to dodge something is to bunny themselves.

Can weapons and enchantments also not be worth so many ability points? Maybe like...half what you currently estimate for now? Obviously, certain items need way more consideration, but some weapons people have are for flavor and to have that flavor they are diminishing the other things they could do with their characters.

It sounds to me from reading this that you're unclear on how enchantments affect power levels. Enchantments only mean anything if they boost abilities, which is written clear as day in Hysteria's ROG FAQ.

I was wondering if maybe we could do something like have a random "event" every month for each region of the world that would generate bonus XP for threads that dealt with it.

Sei does something called the featured region where RPing in that region during a month will net you bonus EXP. Each region should have a mission board that you can complete, which is essentially a random event (particularly if it's noted as reoccuring). I'll have Zook point out the mission boards when he announces featured regions in the future!

[Enigmatic Immortal]

I was told my character could not have higher than 10x a stat. If what you say is true then I don't have to asign any numbers and just describe the action in my profile?
I mean...seriously, if it means diddly shit and is no longer recognized, then how can one gauge a power level for it? I'm just not as smart as people think I am. Spell it out in crayon, like im a retard, in big letters. Cause what I'm interpreting seems exploitable and way to up to interpretation.

You say that in regards to weapons and enchantments, but I do not feel like that's what Is currently happening. Maybe it is just me. If you say its all good, I have no reason to doubt you.

Also, can we not have level caps? It seems more than ever people are getting up there. Just a suggestion.

EDIT: Apologies dirks, I think I get the first part now. But reverse bun ying is still weirded out for me. Not 100% sure what you mean.

[Max Dirks]

Okay, that's easy. It's because you were the first.

When you posted your profile update, we did not yet have a written description for APL 10 agility and speed, but knew we did not want it to exceed 10x under the old system. So we told you to limit your character to 10x speed and describe what that meant because we were going to make it equal APL 10. Frankly, you could have written anything you wanted to become APL 10, even if it really equalled 30x under the old system, because we just needed a base description. Then, after reviewing what you wrote, Hysteria determined YOUR DESCRIPTION seemed reasonable to act as the upper echelon for allowed speed and agility. Now, in the future, we won't have to tell anyone else 10x is the maximum because we now have YOUR DESCRIPTION to compare their attributes to

So basically you (and other higher levelled characters like Abomination and Hysteria) were used as guinea pigs to set APL10 attributes. I hope you feel dirty.

[Enigmatic Immortal]

Nope. I feel like a pretty princess. Thank you! Sometimes I just need it spelt out.

[Max Dirks]

So just as an FYI to other higher levelled characters, if you see us referring to numbered attributes in your profile, it's probably because we're trying to set a base for something. Eventually, we'll have the base for every level. When it's all said and done, all we really care about is your description.