Update on the racial rebalance project

[TaranGoatWalker]

Not *everyone* should be in sparkle...

[Thalric]

To clarify, I did mean for just a month or so.
To give everyone an easier access when the changes arrive.
A lot of people will be needing those services.

[Budwise]

To clarify, I did mean for just a month or so.
To give everyone an easier access when the changes arrive.
A lot of people will be needing those services.

The suggestion has already been made by a dashingly handsome elf.

[Cherek]

Once you get finished with this...

Do you intend to make the transmutation guy stay in Palanthas, or perhaps move a copy to Sparkle?
My idea would be a temporary room below the church.

Either way, can I suggest you make his room a safe room?
I would hate for a ton of people to show up, just to be assaulted and slaughtered by someone who likes that.

He is already only 3-4 minutes from Sparkle., I think that’s quite central as it is. Moving him might be confusing/frustrating for players who missed the news, and creating a new NPC with the same functionality and a new backstory would be quite a bit of extra work for us and be a very small benefit for players.

As for making it a safe room, isn’t it more exciting if it isn’t? Especially now that you’ve planted the idea of possible assassinations there

Seriously tho, yes more people will visit him for a while, but he probably still won’t be nearly as popular as many other locations in the game, like Karkadelt and most rooms in Sparkle, many bosses, many popular grinding areas, etc. If you want to kill someone specific, or mass murder random players (which is almost unheard of) I can think of a lot of better places with higher chance of success. So, nah, I don’t think heightened security is needed.

[Thalric]

So when I go to this one-exit location to change my character to some new way, which it sounds like you're forcing me to do, and I have to stand there for a while and try to figure out how all these things are affecting my character for ages to come... you won't offer me the courtesy of making sure I am not slain..?

This sounds a bit like.. "Take a chance, live a little, be a man, fuck you, not my problem."

And you'd be right, it's not your problem.
Since I have sort of already left, me leaving won't be showing twice in these statistics.

[Cherek]

Thalric: When I said that not making it a safe room is more exciting I was obviously a joking, hence the smiley at the end.

We can certainly discuss it, but let's do so calmly. Tell me your own arguments / why my arguments are wrong instead of playing the "I am leaving if you don't do what I say"-card.

Personally I believe we sholud be really restrictive with safe rooms in Genesis. Once, long ago, we used to have a lot more of them and they were constantly used to avoid consequences when starting a fight with someone. Pick a fight, run to safe room, repeat. It wasn't great, so the safe rooms were either removed or changed so they don't stop combat that has already started.

Now there are some obvious safe rooms that make sense, like the Sparkle church (to prevent repeat kills after death / killing of new players). We also have a few more in Sparkle, making Sparkle a reletively safe zone, but it's _very_ rare with safe rooms outside Sparkle, and I think that's good. I think we should have as few as possible "path to safety room" options outside Sparkle. I know some disagree, or think we should have PVP on/off, and similar. That's a much bigger discussion, though. Right now, Genesis is a free PVP game where you are rarely 100% safe and I would like to keep it that way.

Now, when I replied yesterday I didn't think about the "wait in line" thing for the Palanthas palace. That system does take care of my biggest concern about making the Thaumaturgist a safe room. Since you have to wait in line, it's harder to "path to safety". So, that is a valid argument for making the Thaumaturgist a safe room. However, what I said yesterday still applies. Why the Thaumaturgist specifically? Like I said, there are plenty of rooms (including one-exit rooms) that are NOT safe rooms, and that people visit more often. Why aren't they safe rooms? If you want to kill someone I'd say there are much better places to camp at than the Thaumaturgist office after the global race change, where the person you want dead is likely to go _once_. I mean, even the Palanthas airship would probably be a better place if you want to have a bigger chance of scoring a kill on your enemy. But there are much better options than that too.

It's certainly very easy to make the Thaumatrugist a safe room, but that goes for a lot of other places too that people visit way more often. I don't really understand why the Thaumatrugist office should get a special treatment?

If you think I am wrong in my arguments above, I am open to discussing it. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there is something I haven't thought about, but please don't resort to the "you're wrong I am quitting the game"-argument. That's not very helpful for anyone.

[Thalric]

The reason for me to think it should be a saferoom - again only for a limited time like my idea of moving him to sparkle - is because EVERYONE will need his services. I don't know if the NPC can handle more than 1 person at the time, or if we all have to stand in line to wait for the guy before us to try 30 different stat focus combinations...

The last part is why the safe room. Because this isn't a "I go into the room, see nobody, find something or nothing, and then leave again" location.
This thing isn't that simple.
I used the guys services after having spent perhaps 30 minutes or more deciding how my stats should be changed, and trying a lot of different combinations.
If everyone knew I would be going there, and they wanted me dead, I most likely wouldn't have noticed someone sneaking/walking/crawling/invissing in the room... I was too busy trying to figure out how to best spend my money.

And I am not giving you a "if you don't do, I go away" card.
That would only be relevant if I was actually playing a lot now, which I am not.

[Budwise]

The Thaumathurgist should get safe status, at least while everyone has to go there, exactly because everyone has to go there and this is an extraordinary event brought upon us by this change.

Call me a cynical elf, but I can easily imagine everyones favourite griefers going "Hold my beer!" at the news.
So wiz up and make it safe during the transition? Talking about other safe or unsafe rooms is just whataboutism IMNSHO.

After everyone gets thaumathurgitised (is that even a word ) change it back to unsafe by all means.

And sticking a branch in church basement sounds like a perfectly good idea. Already a safe room
in the church so I don't see why a safe basement for a while is going to bring the game down.
Or put it in the unused boardroom in the Tower of Realms. Or open a bar in there. Been empty far too long.

And now I shall excercise my player rights. Hribbit!

[zelie]

I agree that it should be a safe room, during the window we get for free changes. Thalric has already explained it well, I think. Loads of people will be going there, and it won't be a quick stop. While they're in there, they'll be preoccupied as all get-out. It'll be almost like knowing where someone is going to idle.

[Cherek]

Ok, ok. You've convinced me. We'll make it a safe room for a couple of weeks when the new racial system goes live.