Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I like what Steve said a lot of it at least.

I am currently trying to reestablish/establish my character and I find people to RP with and enjoy being around and if they are not around I try to find more and so far it has been a great experience.

Regarding the attacks on the DM team, I have to say that I still have yet to get anything denied, yes sometimes one needs to poke than not that is just natural.

Really feels like the problem is more you yourself than it is the server.

Thanks to everyone that has made this game and server so incredibly enjoyable for me in these past weeks, especially Aunrae, Lyra and Val'lyn who I've been meeting quite regularly and just enjoy playing with a ton.

And of course DM Dialectic who took me by the hand because I am not the experienced RPer that probably most people here are.

Snarf try to find the love for your character or as Steve suggested character + 1 Alt, I think that is the most important and get other people involved into them give them the chance to do so in a regular basis that was really solid advice from Steve and others in my opinion.

Cheers K'yon

For my part... mostly college. First it was having to go on campus every day of the week, which was disrupting enough in its own right. Then a bunch of projects and exams started coming up, which has made the last couple of weeks pretty hectic as I scrambled (mostly successfully...) to keep up with it. It's only going downhill from here, and by November or December, it's entirely possible that I might have to take a break similar to the one I had back during May.

(Then again, that break resulted in me creating a new array of characters when it turned out I did have a little time here and there... I'd probably unmothball some of my less-played characters this time, though.)

I think the ebb and flow of players from summer to fall is pretty natural. Some people are in school, some people have kids in school, and plenty of people tend to work more before the holidays.

I bet we’ll see more players online during the holidays as well.

I’m personally playing less right now because of my work schedule.

Also during the last few months, playing late at night with friends, I’ve had quite a few impromptu DM interactions where the world around us comes to life with NPCs and mini plot lines.

And even when it doesn’t, just hanging out with friends and playing is fun. Sometimes it’s sitting around the campfire RPing, sometimes it’s exploring areas we don’t know we’ll. Sometimes it’s mostly OOC chatter as we’re grinding an area we’ve been to countless times. I enjoy all of that for different reasons.

I've noticed over my many, many, many years playing here that there tend to be seasonal lulls, as Tanlaus describes.

Around the start of the academic year, things start to quiet down as students and parents get involved in various new beginnings. Working adults usually get pretty busy around this time of the year, too, as work ramps up and the holidays approach.

After the new year, things usually slowly begin picking up again, sometimes coinciding with the end of one of annual campaigns. Eventually reaching a high point in the summer months, before the cycle starts all over again.

Which is not to say it isn't unfortunate -- and for some people, including staff, worrying -- when our numbers go down, but it is predictable and regular, like the changing of the seasons. And it seems to hit the whole community, not any particular server, so I also don't think it's necessarily a symptom of anything having changed in a significant or negative fashion.

In any case, I'm not sure anything can be done to reverse it, short of actively recruiting new players during the lulls where many of our regulars get distracted elsewhere.

Now, though, during the quiet months, is the time to position one's self to be a plot steerer and a force to be reckoned with once it does pick up again, though. There's great power in name recognition! And in being the mentor/leader figure to the new characters who have come in while the old leaders were MIA!

N-not that I'm secretly Lawful Evil or anything ...

Doing anything beyond positive / friendly social RP requires a DM.
Sending a request to the DMs results in the "ask, remind, remind, remind, remind, remind, get told no," cycle.

Don't @ me.

K'yon Oblodra wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 12:47 am So yea my advice would be to engage with new people in lighter RP that would lead to heavier RP in the process and maybe you even want to try something new with the UD.

I actually do engage in lighter RP from time to time, and it's not horrible. But my main doesn't like new people, hence the reason I play alts, who are more likely to engage in small talk, or even go plunder a dungeon with a new player/lowbie(which I did last week). I have a UD toon, but he's a real odd-ball, and complicated to RP. Couple that with the fact that I am perma-lost in the UD(regardless of how many times I explore), and it gets old fast. Which leads into this...

Cinta wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 1:18 am I'm really missing the "I'm an elitist and don't enjoy grinding/light RP" option here!

Which basically summaries that good and serious RP (at least in my case) requires a good rp reason to approach other people.
I had some ideas of how to generate problems that could be solved by player side rp alone, but these ideas usually failed because:
a) people I found didn't understood what I want with such kind of rp, or didn't want to get involved in rp that won't bring mechanical advantages

I'm in the same boat of "good and serious RP requires a good rp reason to approach other people". The problem I have with most light RP is that it requires me to break character, just for the sake of not being OOC'ly bored, so I can cross my fingers and hope that light RP doesn't turn into a "let's go hunt" thing.

Tekill wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:20 am It would probably make a bit of difference, if the players had more power to influence the server in different ways. Had a little more influence or power to see thier individual plot lines realized.

I think players have more power to influence the server, or see their plot lines realized, than they think. It's just such a monumental task to do so, and would require months and months of typing(cringe).

We are a bunch of overly sensitive immortals that find it hard to find stuff to do in a world homoginized by trying way to hard to keep everyone all the time from having hurt feelings or bruised egos/pride.

So true. I tend to not spare other characters feelings when I'm on my main, and boy... let me tell you, it sure rubs some overly sensitive immortals the wrong way. *Fights off hordes of monsters on a daily basis, gets rich doing so, sometimes gets clobbered*, "No problem, let's go again, bring it on!"... *hears one semi-sarcastic comment from my gimpy elf*, "OMg, I wil kilL U 4 SAying thAt!!"

Without the humbling effect of an occasional bruised ego/pride, hypersensitivity, pretentiousness and passive aggressive elitism grows while we all wait for the next DM event. Well naturally it grows in everyone else except you and the small handful of players that know how to RP in the only correct way that cliques for you.

Oh, it grows in me too. Player ego is a joke, and I tend to take the piss out of my main character more than anyone else does. But, I have about 20 players I like to RP with, and about 5 of them have been logging on the last month or two.

I'm not sure there is a "correct" way to RP(when I call myself an elitist, it's mostly tongue in cheek ), only varying degrees of RP on the personal enjoyment scale. That being said, there is, IMHO, definitely an incorrect way to RP(hint: it's the kind that is purposefully not congruent with the setting)... and it's been growing in popularity over the years.

Eventually it always boils over to the point where Im like screw it, I am just going to roll a Dwarf with a terrible scottish accent.

... now you know why I have 11'ish alts

Wade wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:05 am~snip~

I know, everything comes and goes in waves. But it's october already, and it seems like activity is slooowly recovering, but looking at how much of it I see in-game or on the forums, it's still almost nothing compared to Spring-Summer. I hate to admit it, but I feel like I lost a feeling of world consistency now. As if it became more of a session social game you share with some of your friends than an actual alive interactive fantasy world. It's easy to say it's my personal issue, but... player activity speaks for itself, so maybe it's not just my problem?

This thread was encouraging players to simply share their experience — I shared, I don't know how to solve this problem yet. The server will bloom again, I believe in it with no doubts, just... not tonight.

~snip~

Things did drop off significantly after the big meta-plot barrage, it's true. I'll wager that amount of DM work will induce a significant amount of burnout. But... yes, I also noticed several groups dropping off the map and out of existence since then. I suspect some players' enjoyment/capacity to maintain an IC presence is derived from the big plots. I can't really relate though, I've never been one to rely on DM involvement to keep busy.

As for the October thing, summer time lulls are a bit normal, but I can't remember if they usually drag on this long. Keeping a feeling of IC continuity when it goes quiet is always a challenge. I imagine players will be jumping back in with both feet once it picks up again.

Steve wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 5:46 am *gets Snarfman in sights....*

Yo Snarf, I mean, if you run around advertising yourself as an RP elitist, then surely many Players—and maybe DMs as well(!)—will go out-of-their-way to avoid you, thus your experience of an lulled Server?!?!

And to that I say... GOOD!!

Jokes! Sort of... (... to be continued Stevie boy. For now, I'm sick of typing!)

Snarfy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 12:39 pm
I actually do engage in lighter RP from time to time, and it's not horrible. But my main doesn't like new people, hence the reason I play alts,...

See my main character is a total bitch to most anyone, I've insulted and talked down to level 30 characters from his very start. He does bow down to female drows quite a bit cause that is like a character flaw from his origins.

I think creating a main that is really hard to engage with with new people is a tough nut.

My character actually struggles to get in touch with non-drow because he is super racist but he tends to treat them slightly better because he does see a tool in everyone until proven otherwise.

I am really thankful that basically all UD characters I've met have let me be the bastard with K'yon that he is, don't get me wrong he has had to swallow his share of humiliation but yea I find that these kind of things also bring a character forward be it fueling its rage and possible plotting to reach more power or whatever.

Point is that I really think even the most "hateable" character should have a clue build into it that allows it to engage people. You'll find people that you rather not want to RP with probably quite frequently even but you'll be able to pick up who might give you rewarding RP after a few tries.

Lastly I once more wanted to thank all the guys in the UD that let me play my arrogant ass hole character no matter if they could squash him easily.

Second lastly I find utilising the forum for little stories is an extremely powerful tool to just give anything you have played a little twist to make a plot develop way better and easier cause it allows you to change things just by seeing them from your characters perception or which ever perspective is needed to steer things in a more fitting direction for yourself .

Like my guy will just talk about how stupid everybody else was of something went sour or how great he was even if he might have done only little bits XD.

Cheers K'yon

I have been playing more than usual lately= obsessed with levelling alts.
I can say during this lull I have still had a lot of fun running around with other players I haven't previously played with. And have had a fair bit of randon dm experiences.

All the usual complaints aside even with a low server pop there is still fun to be had.

Everything else for me, really. I have the university, IT projects, I'm learning how to draw, I'm doing creative writing, playing other games that interest me for the time being. I'm still logged in on the server on a nearly daily basis, but nowhere near as active IG as I previously was.

Somewhat burned out, too, at that. It'll pass, eventually, for me.

The server does seem to be lacking in direction. It's also true that it's hard to get a DM interested in running any player plots these days (Considering the amount of them being done, which is nearly 0. At least to my knowledge), though I assume that's probably b/c of the Metaplot being really long. I don't chase for DM attention or events, though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I also think that the mechanical changes that were done to the server had an effect on our player population as well. Sure, we did quite a large number of upgrades and buffs in certain areas (Looting, exp earning, Barbarian buff, new classes) but we've also nerfed (sometimes even quite severely) some of the core aspects of the game which many people enjoyed. And several times (I'm looking mainly at bards and gishes of any type) over the course of years. The emotional backlash due to that is bound to take its toll, imo.

I guess the gist of it is that people find other places more fun than this corner of the world, right now.

Yeah. For me, the RP, it is a DM and players. The rest is secondary.

Technical systems are at the service of this DM-player relationship. But the beating heart of a server remains this tandem.

We need more DMs that's all.

chambordini wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:40 pm Can we address the elephant in the room? The server lacks direction. It's a ghost ship drifting away in a sea of options.
The only way to get people to show up is to do something that would infringe on the virtual red tape everywhere, holding everything together (or apart, rather).

I wasn't aware of this elephant you speak of... what direction are we referring to here? There are still big plots(albeit stalled ones) going on, we've got some new management(which is bound to be choppy during transitioning), a fair number of players still seem invested, and, mechanically speaking, things seem to be running smoothly server side... although, I will concede that this:

Ravial wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:35 pm I also think that the mechanical changes that were done to the server had an effect on our player population as well. Sure, we did quite a large number of upgrades and buffs in certain areas (Looting, exp earning, Barbarian buff, new classes) but we've also nerfed (sometimes even quite severely) some of the core aspects of the game which many people enjoyed. And several times (I'm looking mainly at bards and gishes of any type) over the course of years. The emotional backlash due to that is bound to take its toll, imo.

... is a valid point. I've definitely been in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp over the years, and I'm not convinced that all the changes made have netted a positive yield. When I started playing here(8 or 9 years ago), there were, as far as I can remember, not very many balancing issues, or complaints about content. It was, quite literally, just one big RP-fest. Then, somewhere along the lines, power creep became an issue, and classes started to get tinkered with, then the content shifted... but not necessarily in that order. If I may be blunt, I feel like too many concessions were made to those players who complained the loudest, and whose characters were scarcely even impacted by whatever they were complaining about(I'm speaking of the "Class XX is too powerful, they face-roll everything, PLZ nerf" type of players). And where are they now? Not playing whatever was nerf'd, that's for sure.

The veritable yo-yo'ing between "things need to be more in line with PnP" and "this isn't supposed to be like PnP, it's NWN2" philosophies has also made my head spin a little. Honestly, I think less emphasis needs to be placed on introducing any more classes, or races, or feats(all of which require a considerable amount of testing, and upkeep... and I wont open that QC can-o-worms), and maybe a little more love needs to be given to stream-lining content to be more in tune with the setting, and to make areas more dynamic. For example, groups of high level monster spawning in areas is a step in the right direction(I experienced that for the first time ever, last week, and it caught me way off guard). Players need to be kept on their toes, they need curve balls thrown at them once in a while. Right now, we're all just swinging at slow pitches, thrown right down the middle... we just have newer, shinier, more colorful bats to swing with. To me, at least, it seems more productive to try and come up with some ideas that might bring the various server areas more to life, rather than piling in more toys for players to try out while running around circle-grinding the same 10 - 15 zones.

Can this kind of thing be done purely mechanically, and without reliance on DM's(whose focus, IMHO, should be on story-telling, and not to simply dump heaps of spawns on adventurers)? I have no idea. Not my area of expertise.

Agog_Fr wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:17 pm Yeah. For me, the RP, it is a DM and players. The rest is secondary.

Technical systems are at the service of this DM-player relationship. But the beating heart of a server remains this tandem.

We need more DMs that's all.

I half agree with you. RP shouldn't be dependent upon DM's, but our characters stories can largely be shaped through the larger narratives spun. Aside from my main characters first year or two here, if it were not for all the major events, and plots, and scuffles he has been in, he would have almost no point of reference for his memories on the Coast. I mean... no-one remembers that time they stood outside the FAI and shot the breeze with randoms. Except Isabella, maybe she remembers all kinds of wacky things. BUT, I digress.

IMHO, again, it's not the times we mashed content with that new spiffy class that make us look back, sigh wistfully, or smile fondly on our days here. It's the role-play and story-telling we shared with each other that we truly remember. Everything else is just ornamentation.

Personally, I am struggling with getting engaged in RP, and not interested enough these days to go out and find it.

On a larger scale.
Nerf-hammer or "balancing" over the years, I personally think the decline started years ago, old game, policies and decision making, losing key players of the community.

Progressive-Psy wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:28 am Personally, I am struggling with getting engaged in RP, and not interested enough these days to go out and find it.

On a larger scale.
Nerf-hammer or "balancing" over the years, I personally think the decline started years ago, old game, policies and decision making, losing key players of the community.

I feel you. The players that were QC'ers in the years leading up to 2019(2018?) were nearly the entirety of my favorite players, during that time frame. The "balancing" act has not been kind to us, and has given life to a rather unhealthy mentality. Attempts to level the playing field, as it were, should have been left in the dust... D&D is just not meant to be balanced. Alas, here we are, trying to make the best of it, while searching for that needle of RP-fulfillment in the proverbial haystack from time to time. What to do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Server wipe.