Shrinking the module - removing areas

[flipside43]

Orchome (start the orcs in Soubar). It's two areas with minimal use.
Merge and shrink the Highmoor into one area.
Trollclaws East (maybe move the dungeon?)
Kheldrivver if it's still in game. And the forest.
Greenest

[aaron22]

i would not want to shrink anything, but if we had to. the river walk and the plains area with the giant snakes could be merged into some kind of crossroads. triel and BG is under utilized this is true as well as the N.farmlands. i wonder how many people do things in the dragon forest area.

[metaquad4]

Unused guild halls. . .the game doesn't stop just because people stop playing! Such is the nature of persistent worlds.

An unused guild hall is a guild hall which has not been used for a meeting between (insert number of individual players required to form a guild hall, or "x") number of players for (insert arbitrary number as befitting for the staff, or "y") months. Meetings can be reported with simple screenshot(s) of the meeting, or something more elaborate.

For none-focal/none-cannon guilds:

Once a guild hall becomes inactive for y months, a warning is issued to the guild. The guild has 1 month to respond to the warning, declaring their intent:
a) The guild is dead, remove or re purpose the guild hall.
b) We are active, and are just in a down-time.

If "a" is chosen, the guild hall can either be repurposed or removed.

If "b" is chosen, the guild must then establish proof of activity. In game screenshots, indicating guild activity should be provided. Guild activity could include things such as recruitment or meetings of x number of players. Anything that involves congregations of players that involve the guild. Again, proof can just be provided with a simple screenshot of the action being taken in game, it doesn't have to be more elaborate than that. The guild has 1 month to provide screenshots of activity. If screenshots cannot be provided, then action from "a" is taken.

Note: Guild halls don't have to be destroyed. In keeping with a persistent RP server forming its own lore, guild halls can be used as event areas, hunting grounds, new cities or colonies (depending on their size), etc. They can be refurnished for such purposes, perhaps with an event involved, depending on what the server needs at the time. Of course, if they can't be used, they would be removed from the server to free up resources.

If it is a focal/cannon guild:

The same actions would be taken. However, instead of the guild being disbanded the higher levels of management would be taken over by a DM. That DM would recruit members, and act as a leader of the guild until the guild can "get back on its feet". Once guild members can submit proof of meetings of "x" amount of people, then the DM can leave and depending on the nature of the guild, a new leader can be placed depending on how the guild operates (voting, DM intervention, etc).

DMs would look over guild forums that are not often used, and provide calls for activity (which, I think they do from time to time) at the 3 month mark. Then, the process would start. It would not involve too much work, just a simple screenshot at the minimum, displaying that the guild is indeed active in game.

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Aside from managing guild halls, integrating areas might be useful. This has been done with near areas, where interior areas are made into one map instead of using multiple maps for different areas. This can be done for those interior areas that haven't been overhauled yet.

Additionally, larger areas could be made slightly smaller and some interior areas could be integrated (such as the small crypt in the fields of the dead. Part of the fields could be cut, and the smaller crypt could be made as an interior area). Larger areas could especially be cut, if they have unnecessary invisible walls, and interior areas nearby could be placed in these inaccessible areas.

And, of course, removing unneeded travel areas (some are useful, some are not) and making the server more compact would be a good idea. One example of this is the river area to Ulgoth's Beard. The witch could be moved to an isolated area in Ulgoth's, and freshwater fishing could be moved elsewhere.

Removing niche areas could be worthwhile, but we should be careful not to infringe on on-going RP, should it be present. Some people don't write or post screenies of RP on the fourms, some do, so this is rather difficult to gauge.

[Face]

Remove the UD.
*Waits for the flak to come his way*

[aaron22]

it would be a really cool experiment to shut down the surface for a month.

[Side]

Remove the UD.
*Waits for the flak to come his way*

Remove the surface.

To be fair, removing the surface would improve server performance far more than removing the UD.

That said there are a few UD maps that rarely, if ever, get used. I've only ever seen people in the ophidian tunnels about five years ago, and the south of the tarpits map is only used by people walking through to the mines. Both of these areas are pretty darn dangerous for their CR, so once you can handle them you're already moving on to other areas.

If it wasn't for the upperdark being added I'd say they could probably be more popular with higher exp to match the danger, or lower danger to match the intended CR, but now they just feel like flavor to make the UD seem larger. I'd love for more flavor space areas, but the server obviously has other ideas, so in my opinion these two areas are safe to cut.

[Calodan]

it would be a really cool experiment to shut down the surface for a month.

Can you imagine 75 players all mostly new PCs all in the UD for that month?

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Splitting areas against two servers doesn't solve the issue, as you can still cap up the count in a single area. What's on S1 will be on S2.

OLM was discussed as a potential use but canned given feedback from a majority that feels the experience / immersion disconnected without those additional areas.

[7threalm]

The problem is the trees, they cost so many resources, yes the areas look nice but they hog up memory. That was always the problem before i left the dev team.

Luna use to complain if there were more then 2 tree types, so if you have area with 30 its really bad

Before I left there was a reason why many of the exteriors lack trees or one or two of the same repeating trees,. Now there are a zillion of them, and each one pulls resources and memory.

gnoll area, the forest area.


I'm talking about the dynamic trees, not the static placeables which are fine to use.

Also no Idea if the devs are taking the time to painstaking cutting walkmeshes around areas and making them non enviromental and converting them over.

or no one got the memo.....



I blame the druids.....

[Aspect of Sorrow]

ENV flagged objects is represented client side (the compiled TRX/ARE, the lag would be client side visual/memory, not server network/memory considered). Non environment flagged placeable in the ARE are however server memory inflaters. Anything relative to speedtree has little bearing on the server (it's not a loaded object to it).

[mrm3ntalist]

Before I left there was a reason why many of the exteriors lack trees or one or two of the same repeating trees,. Now there are a zillion of them, and each one pulls resources and memory.

I'm talking about the dynamic trees, not the static placeables.

Also no Idea if the devs are taking the time to painstaking cutting walkmeshes around areas and making them non enviromental and converting them over.



I blame the druids.....

Which areas have a zillion trees? That could be useful information for the devs.

As far as i know, areas have been reworked with that in mind ( the FAI for example ).

[7threalm]

the epic gnoll area, rework orc place with the mushrooms, ultatron trail

Also pretty much with anything with an animation...

not sure about guild areas

If anyone wants to send me a new area, I can tell you if the cutmeshes were set up properly, and everything converted....

[mrm3ntalist]

the epic gnoll area,

Is this the reaching woods? I am certain the dev was careful on that area taking into consideration the tree types and leaf counts. It is the same tree type.

[7threalm]

no idea i do know there is alot of them...

[V'rass]

To be fair the amount of vegetation in the new sharpteeth woods area with the orc cave could be toned down some. It does make it feel more like a forest but there are so many plants which block out my screen that i have great difficulty going anywhere in that area and as such i no longer go there. Bad enough i cant see where i am going without having orcs constantly sneaking up on my ass lol.