Log from Server Meeting on Sunday November 4th, 2018
DrDreadlock
If you have a question, I will be unlocking the channel for people to ask their questions and so long as things stay on topic, all will be able to comment on the question at hand.
Please PM your questions to Rei-Jin, he will be organizing the questions so we don't have multiple questions at a time.
Please do not blurt out questions. Wait for Rei-Jin to say your name before you put your question up.
If you have a question and don't want your name known, you may also PM Rei-Jin that and he will post it up.
For this first server meeting, we will likely be capping it at 2 hours in duration as I'm sure we would all rather be IG anyways.
We will try to have this type of meeting monthly, so if your question doesn't get answered this time around. Next time it will. If you feel it is very important and we are out of time, please forward it to Rei-Jin and the team will do our best to get you an answer.
If you are uncomfortable with your question/concern being submitted to the DM's, they can be submitted anonymously through a PG as well. motions to the PG's
MojoJoe
I heard rumors and speaking of a possible item purge, pretty much any items that do not fit a proper criteria of 15 points and under or have rediculous effects will be removed, and may or may not replaced. Just rumors? If not please elaborate!
DrDreadlock
Alright. There are several aspects to this.
First. We are currently reviewing item power levels. We are trying to assign a point value to each and every item property to make it more across the board in regards to what power level of items DM's will follow when creating loot.
How this will affect characters.
So far it will only affect them if any items they have contain a banned property.
The full list of banned properties is not complete yet, so I can't answer every question in that regard just yet.
If your item has a banned property, the item will not be "purged".
It will be changes a bit is all to remove the banned property and replace with something not banned.
However, for DM's, this new ruling coming into effect will have a different purpose.
All DM PC's will now be limited to a maximum of 15 point items for their PC's to stop any and all favoritism complaints in the future in regards to DM PC item power levels.
15 per item that is.
Sciolist-Caling/Keira/Aoife
Can we have a Suggestion Box? Something that's a single place to send things to as Ideas etc? A thread in forum is ... publicly visible... and the old narfellstaff@gmail address is apparently the worst contact method - so... Something that's easy to submit to - and easy for you lot to discuss. Not necessarily Player public visible - spoilers "Wouldn't it be cool if Kara Du Monte was secretly teh big Evil! lol !!!!"
DrDreadlock
Yes, the staff email is not always checked. However, a PM can be sent to any DM at anytime as well. However, if you wish a thread for some less secretive things, that can be arranged.
darkspyr
In regards to permanent storage. I heard a rumor that due to a brazillion things being in storage it lags things. Is it possible to revamp chests so that they are 1 screen instead of 20 and limit individual storage to be able to spread it to more people?
DrDreadlock
This has been discussed recently. We are looking into it. Several options have come up in the discussion. I do not know if we can actually limit pages. So we have thought of other ways of doing it, based upon trust. Having players use only X amount of pages.
We have also thought of making Droibo like places in Norwick and Oscura.
It is being discussed and we would like to find a happy medium in regards to server resources and opening it up for all players.
What that is at this moment. Still undecided.
darkspyr
Housing....again I know it is a sore point and I know it in the discussion list. But any hope at all on this one? A time frame for a decision even on anything being done?
DrDreadlock
Yes. I would like to see more "apartment" type housing. Like in Peltarch, but in all the towns. But again, our devs are strapped and doing server wide matters so I won't force the issue at this time.
But it will come.
Hen|Sneaking
Does the DM team have any plans for the future magic level of the server in terms of Item magical power?
DrDreadlock
We are implementing a cap on magical item power the same as mentioned above. Though the point value between DM PC and player PC cap will see the player PC on the higher side.
We have done six months of work in spreadsheets regarding this, trying to track all point values for each property.
So we can come up with a proper magic level that will be across the board.
Hen|Sneaking
What is the general consensus behind enchant for gear over earn the gear, I for one am finding less and less useable items (after not enchanting at all for myself) dropped by DM's and the answer always being 'Enchant if you want it'.
DrDreadlock
Item drops are always dependent upon the event you are in. DM drops vary is all I can say.
I encourage enchanting until you get those drops after participation in events.
SuspectDuke|Sven|Fenris
A bit of a tough one but; What does the near future of Narfell look like, over the next 3-4 months - what can we expect?
DrDreadlock
As with always, we are constantly working to make more maps with more dynamic spawns and more reward for the risk PC's face. We are watching Beamdog closely and any changes they are making and we are really looking forward to things such as auto-hak downloads to improve many things on the server.
Again though, we have three devs currently and they do great work but we cannot have things to appear in a hurry.
We work on their schedule.
St.Croix
The Edge has asked for an internal remodel...... the masters for potions and stuff... and three new rooms which can fit... gold is not an issue. One room for an enchanter, we have enchanter on board and two new workers at least
DrDreadlock
Has the .erf for the changes been submitted?
St.Croix
okay will get theaon to re-do it he did the first work
DrDreadlock
Then send it to us for approval and be patient on getting it imported, as with anything. Server wide changes first on the list for our hard working devs.
St.Croix
thank you
Anony-mouse
I have heard that cleric/divine character RP is being cracked down on? Can you comment please?
DrDreadlock
RP has been lacking of late it seems in regards to cleric/divine characters and DM reaction has been lacking as well in regards to enforcing it. We are all equally to blame perhaps but we will all equally be expected to fix the issue.
This is an RP server, you play a divine character, thats a lot of responsibility to hold a gods power.
This will be server wide.
Not against any one player.
We will work on an appropriate post in regards to clerical RP, to clarify expectations.
Sciolist-Caling/Keira/Aoife
Is it possible to have random loot drops in places like Orc Caves etc. so that there are some variable treasures for getting to the end?
DrDreadlock
We have certain chests around Narfell, the orc cave included that DM's stock with loot.
Problem I see is. We stock in based upon the risk vs reward of the area. Now when a level 15 character goes down and takes all the loot when it should go to level 8's, DM's tend to stop stocking them up with anything of too great of value.
Although, there have been discussions with the devs about random loot. If you open the chest, it reads the levels there and places loot that should be there.
AGAIN, it will depend on our devs time. Even if a chest is stocked by a DM, places like the orc cave is farmed a million times a day. So, might have missed it being stocked.
Anyways, random loot would be awesome and its on the table.
R0ninX3ph|Uly
Was just wondering whether the team has devised a system on how to decide what haks will be used once we have NWNSync fully operational, will there be a forum thread/voting process for everyone, or will it be at the discretion of the DM team?
DrDreadlock
It was mentioned I believe by Dorakhan that when this comes up, things will be implemented bit by bit and tested for compatibility with our server. As always, players are free to make suggestions, we will even put up a special thread for it.
The final decision will be made mostly by our devs and compatibility issues.
TheSpaniard*
Is there a way to make stacks go to 99 or something? or 999
DrDreadlock
From what I'm told, it is possible for it to happen. Though if it will or not, that will be discussed.
Dorakhan
Stacking sizes can be made to at least 999 if not arbitrarily large.... functionally. As DrD does not have a direct answer, you might note that DMs have not discussed this yet.
However, inventory space consumption IS a balance consideration.
Rei_Jin aka DM Skippy
Question from Voice Chat to be kicked around...
Whilst we have more players now due to the release of NWN:EE, server numbers are certainly down from the earlier days of the server when we had multiple settlements. Whilst losing a settlement can come with negatives, it could also see players brought into more contact with one another. Is there value in consolidating settlements, and if not, is there something else that can be done to help with this?
DrDreadlock
Jiyyd, Gypsy Camp. Removal of settlements has historically not turned out well for player numbers.
Also, to help streamline newer players. When someone creates a new character the only starting option is Peltarch. This helps newer players to the server as Peltarch seems to be the main gathering area at this time.
Other than that, there are no current plans for removing towns.
Rei_Jin aka DM Skippy
So to the other part of the question, other than consolidating towns, is there anything that could be done to help bring players together more easily, that is worth considering doing? Is there anything on the agenda? Are we open to suggestions?
SatansAdvisor
There is a GPS item in game if you are interested in that Avenue of consolidation. Aside from that we havent really discussed anything.
We will, of course, listen to any suggestions.
TheSpaniard*
Will it be possible to grant benefits for citizenship?
For example, and I may be way off in terms of degree, but like granting bonuses in shops. That way as NPCs you can can control the population, incur taxes, etc. Make citizenship a less passive endeavour. Give good and evil characters reason to fight against a deranged bureaucrat putting the squeeze on everyone in the city. Mine's more of a suggestion looking forward. Maybe even have different tiers of citizenship
DrDreadlock
Alright, we will discuss possible options for making citizenship more beneficial. If you have any specific suggestions, please feel free to send them along to a DM.
SuspectDuke|Sven|Fenris
What are the chances of bringing back the continual flame spell, I understand that it was previously removed to prevent items from being sold dramatically higher than their original value. Is it possible at all, to when; having Continuous flame cast on an object, it becomes plot and thus non-sellable. I understand there are a few hiccups with that idea due to the possibility of griefing. But surely we have a community that understands griefing is dumb.
In addition to that, things like poisons and Alchemist Fire flasks etc.
DrDreadlock
Items you can equip only for Continual Flame, flags it plot. Already done, as confirmed by Head Dev.
Alchemist fire is grenade like only. Poison duration has been talked about a bit.
Filfred/Carendur/Sabrum
Heyo. Dora spoke a while ago about an implemented but unused compromise to summons not being great, using a system similar to spell crystals. I don't exactly remember all the details, but is there any chance of that actually being used? Sorta vague question I know lol
Dorakhan
So both summons, the planar bindings, and planar ally spells are all pending DM/dev review. Basically the idea is that banned spells need to be tweaked so that they are not banned...
The hardship lies in getting balance accurate.
Also moderating resource constraints... for example, the last modification series to the summon system reduced it from 72 to 3 scripts.
We like to do these things without making a mess
But to summarize - under review and consider the thread "bumped."
DrDreadlock
Alright. Thanks for coming everyone, we hope to do this monthly.
We will look into any issues brought up and see what can be changed to better the server.
Thank you for keeping it all organized for the meeting too.
