Posts made by PeachMcD

fascinating discussion about political choices and how the 'creation parameters' impact game societies!
@Farlander's experience is a pretty common one in any game. I've seen this trajectory many times:

• whale invests a lot of time/$$ in a game
• creates and runs an alliance/guild
• fails to delegate responsabilities due to control issues endemic in whalehood
• gets distracted and lets the guild slide, to the detriment of many players who'd coat-tailed on the whale's a$$ets & clout

In some cases, the guild/alliance dissolves and the poor folks find themselves a new place to coat-tail. In some cases, a fresh whale takes the reins.

My prayer is that Fractured has made itself less attractive to whales by being B2P rather than P2W... BUT how the initial advantage given to major investors will play out politically, in-game, has everything to do with the 'creation parameters', so discussing those before, during, and after this initial test of the cities element will be mission-critical.

Thanks & KUDOS to @Greenfire for starting this discussion, and to all those contributing thoughtful and constructive ideas around it.

Backstory for characters is fundamental, whether in writing or in theater/rpg enactments. Right now, our little toons have a 'virgin birth'

There's a minimum backstory supplied in the character creation phase, which should, logically, be completely discarded and re-created if someone did a lot of modifications to their ability profile. But taking a little time to consider how my toon ended up where she is, doing what she's doing, is something I'll do when the toon is going to last.

@Alexian I've signed up to help with Duath, and look forward to visiting Zenith!

I'd love to hear more about this idea - none of the examples you give is from a game I've played, so I have to imagine how this would work.

Right now, and checking the wiki, the only NPC orgs in Fractured are the temples of various religions. It may be that as time goes on other NPC groupings will emerge?

Player organizations will include guilds (so I'm guessing there will be guild halls), militias (will those have meeting places? I don't know!) and city governments (which will, no doubt, have town halls). Maybe people who run taverns or shops will decide to create an organization for themselves? Maybe 'workers' will form unions!

@Feralblaed hey pal!

Did you happen to run into my posts on the FB page 'GOTA - The Gathering?' Or how did you find your way here? I've been putting updates up there for some time hoping to group up with other GOTA refugees in Fractured.

I was a member of a few fine alliances in GOTA, including Royal Executioners. PC name was (longest) Raya Dune.. Would I have run into you?

For this A2T3 I'll be working with the Meridian guild and hanging out at a Port city called Duath run by @LilCassiopeia but my final 'destination' is Arboreus. Check links below for more on my hopeful guild fantasy.

@StormBug & @GamerSeuss - my toon will be joining the fun in Duath this time around too! Like y'all, I tend to be more the lone explorer than the city party-goer, and will be using the city more as a springboard than a home.

That said, a big part of the A2T3 is to get comfortable with and test out the brand spankin new city coding, so it will help ALL of us if we spend some time in town and build stuff and junk like that. @LilCassiopeia has indeed claimed a sweet spot on the map, so I'm thinking it'll be way fun.

Looking forward to seeing you in-game!

@Zori - I googled around to see if I could find the post archives, but they're in closed google-groups

Doing interactive fiction with some really fun writers kept me sane for a long time while I was in school. The Star Trek universe was convenient bc it's a place many people know well enough to be able to inhabit without a lot of prep (e.g., most Americans over 15 know what a replicator and a phaser are), but we took a LOT of liberties with the canon

All Hail our Fabulous Fractured Forum Friend @Specter

It's always so cool when a person gets the title of the work they've actually been doing the whole time. Now, let's get you paid for it!

I loved the idea of this competition, @Zori!

In a previous life, I wrote a LOT of fanfic with a group called alt.starfleet.rpg (they're still around - you can look them up!) Won in-group awards for it & trained new members. It was exciting to see the competition posted. Sorry the submissions weren't all you were hoping for

In case it helps for another time or another person considering this idea, my reasons for not submitting an entry were:

1. I already had a key
2. The Fractured world is still SO unformed I had no idea how to write a story about the world I hope to be inhabiting. I could write something fun about the game as it stands, I'm sure, but the real stories will happen once Arboreus shows herself to me and my toons have had some adventures there.

@Alexian @LilCassiopeia
I'm in w Duath and have applied for the Guilded Meridian site. Just want y'all to know my current PC isn't as strong as the box I hope to have once this game drops - running a second window behind the game significantly slows my fps, and opening Guilded on my phone taxes our rickety wifi, so most of my comm will be ingame chat or out-of-game when I'm not playing.

Hope that's ok!

@Zori said:

@Specter said in Would we be able to use housing blueprints on the next test?:

@Zori I've asked Prometheus and nope, they won't be available in the upcoming test.

i just want one good news this week tbh

<<HUGZ>> I feel that, hun. Sorry this wasn't your happy news, and calling all angels to bring you SOMETHING joyous real soon. Keep us posted when that shows up, ok?

even if this test lasts a month or more, the amount of gold required to build a manor will take some serious goblinslayin'! I'm just as happy to wait on that until whatever I build will stand up, and not disappear once the test is over. Maybe that hope of permanence to come will help take the sting away?

@Specter & @Prometheus - KUDOS once again on the quick response

Good job y'all! Keep up good posting!

a lot depends on the game, too. I played Game of Thrones Ascent for almost as long as the game was live. I loved that game and would still be playing, but the devs cashed out and are now doing something more lucrative.

GOTA was a 'freemium' game, and like all freemium games it was run by whales with more $$/time than most folks. People with lots of $$ & leisure time have a certain demographic, if you catch my drift. That privileged demographic ensured that the forum was dominated by people who had predictable major conniptions if a tweak was made to balance gameplay after they'd invested THEIR MONEY in the exploit the tweak closed down.

I didn't spend much time in that forum. This one is different bc the 'pay up front' demographic is different. I hope it stays this way.

My point being that 'fanbase' is an ambivalent term. If the main representatives of the fanbase are a small, vocal, and arrogant cadre they have less to complain about if their needs get balanced against the needs of the players as a whole.

@Alexian @Bardikens
I'm working with @LilCassiopeia on the Arborean city of Duath. For this next test, tho, I wonder whether y'all have seen this post? https://forum.fracturedmmo.com/topic/11241/claim-your-town-for-a2t3-now/2

I'll check back tomorrow to see whether y'all need some more folks to log on and help claim a larger town.

@GamerSeuss - don't get me wrong, please! If you look back at my posts, you'll see I have often commended the devs for responding quickly to hails and questions. My minor quibble is that they are usually reactive rather than proactive.

In this particular case, the expectation was set up in a road map they published a while back that crowed about the next test being ready to roll in June - way earlier than they'd expected to be ready to roll out the city feature. As things have happened, a June test wasn't possible. No foul there! We all want it done right.

The smarter thing to do, though, would've been to post about this when they knew it to be the case, instead of waiting until the Fractured Forumites started wondering aloud 'when exactly in June did you mean?' See? Proactive, rather than reactive.

Dev & Mod responsiveness is GREAT and I am not complaining one tiny bit. My (hopefully constructive) suggestion is to take that next step and communicate what they can before folks start wondering.

Hi @He! You're just in time for a major test - should be starting up within a few weeks.

It'll be really interesting to see how players who have come in just since the open play test will like the cities, in comparison w players who have played in the mostly cityless environment for a while already....

He - during the next test, would you be willing to start a thread esp for feedback from total Fractured 'virgins'? I know I'm not the only one who would follow that thread closely.

@Amuck has a good point re keeping the comm line open, especially since the devs are crafting a major chunk for this next test, and I hope y'all agree w me that we'd rather have it done right than have it open up NOW. (kinda like COVID response, non?)

Thanks, @Specter, for confirming what's become pretty obvious what I think players would appreciate is a little more proactivity in that kind of communication.

We get it, devs are busy & the staffing doesn't stretch to a Public Info Officer (yet). Nonetheless, waiting until the wolves are howling before tossing a bone isn't the way to do it. Those of us who are trying to recruit for this game are ambassadors, and want to be able to assure potential investors and guildmates.

Communications from the devs have generally been pretty much reliable and accurate - aside from wacky obstacles like COVID19, if there's a reason for delay, we've heard about it here. It could be better tho - just get ahead of the howling and feed the doggies regularly.

@Agnoir solidarity from Tacoma WA

Looking forward to the upcoming A2.T3 and some city living

This gamergrrrrl turning 61 years old today doesn't have much use for stone tools, but does agree that credential-waving can be counterproductive if the goal is to invite someone into a new way of understanding. There's a line btw pedagogy and pedantry that's easy to cross, so it's important to be aware of it, right?

That said, refusing to acknowledge the value of another person's way of understanding - and being dismissive about it, to boot - isn't a sign of wisdom either. Dismissiveness is, imo, unattractive at any age but esp. in those who are old enough to know better.

Like any art form, game creation has folks who are natural talents & also those who spend years studying the history & technique involved in their medium, in order to make a living at it. I am just an end user, having fun in my own ways, but I find learning about the theory to be fascinating right up until the point that my eyes glaze over my profile turned out like this: