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Greetings,
I guess it's time to address the elephant in the dark room. And also
reply to some other things Goldbezie and Madmanmat mentioned.
Goldbezie and Madmanmat, you both suggested that Galen makes some
good points in his post, and I should listen to it. No thanks. I
have absolutely no interest in listening or caring one bit about
what Galen, and now also Laurel, have to say. I am always happy to
discuss things and listen to complaints and ideas for improvements,
but when people decide to just fling crap at me and/or my friends and
coworkers I will either just ignore it or throw it back. Laurel has
basically spent two decades (or more) just throwing crap at whoever is
in the admin, and it was a long time ago since I stopped listening to
what she has to say. I definitely won't reply to her note, and Galen
got the kind of reply he deserved. He set the tone, and I replied in the
same style. I have nothing more to say to either of them, and no wish
to listen to what they have to say, unless they want to have a normal
conversation without insults and wild accusations. Neither has shown
any interest so far.
Now, some replies to you both below.
Goldbezie: You said: "Also i do agree that the guilds that are harder
to get in should have more power than the guilds without a council where
no hardcore roleplay is needed..."
I am not sure who you are agreeing with here? This is certainly not
the opinion of the Keeper, Admin or AoB, and has not been for many
years, or even decades. If some guilds are better than others it is
because of flaws, bugs, or simply because we're amateurs as game
developers, not because we have decided to make specific guilds more
powerful than other guilds. Many of the big changes the last couple
of years have been with the goal of minimizing imbalances between
guilds, races, caster/melee, etc.
Madmanmat: The high-profile player was deleted for revealing alt and
personal info about other players in a public Discord channel. The
player had a year earlier been suspended for the same rule violation of
revealing alts, and been warned that further violations of the same
kind would result in a harsher punishment. The player was NOT deleted
for making accusations against the admin or using harsh words. I don't
think we ever have even _warned_ a player for doing that, but sometimes
I wonder if we should start deleting players who can't be nice... But
no, if you think that is why someone was deleted, you have received
the wrong information or listened to a false rumor.
Regarding the big global changes and darkness:
Yes, overall I am happy with the big decisions/projects I have been in
charge of, or been part of, since I took over as Keeper, but I have
definitely made some mistakes as well. Here is my own "review" of the
biggest changes to the game while I have been Keeper:
- The new EQ-decay system.
I am very happy with how this turned out. I think it's far better than
the old system and it's one of the things I am the most proud of when
it comes to big changes.
- Race changes and the thaumaturgist.
Yes, I am also very happy with this one. Allowing players to change
stats without going suicidal is great, and I think the new racial
balance is way better than the old, which was completely imbalanced. Is
it more bland? Well, in a way it is. I think that is preferable over
completely imbalanced, though. And, that people actually can play the
race they want without suffering big penalties may also make the game
as a whole LESS bland? Is seeing tons of evil/neutral melee goblins on
the who list more interesting? I mean, if you wanted to play the game
"correctly" you had less choice than now, which I think is quite bland.
Now, the perfect solution would have been an asymmetric balance, where
we keep the rather big differences between the races, but make it very
hard for players to choose race because they're all good, but in
different ways.
This would have been a much harder and riskier project, though. Something
even the big game studios struggle with, despite a big team of extremely
well-paid programmers/game designers, and an army of playtesters. What we
had in Genesis before was the worst kind of assymatric balance, where some
options are just considerably better than others, in every way. We had a
clear option for melee combat, far better than the other five, and we also
had a couple of races that were simply worse than the other options - at
almost everything. I think moving away from asymmetric balance was the only
reasonable option, as achieving it would have been more or less impossible
for a game like ours, and with the minimal team of developers we have. It
was not the perfect solution, but I think we're much better off now than
before, even if the race choice is more of a cosmetic choice now.
The idea that vampires benefitted the most from the race changes I
strongly disagree with, though. The races who benefitted the most was
of course the weakest ones, like hobbits and gnomes. When people say
that vampires benefitted the most, it feels like they only compare
humans vs goblins and forget about all other races and guilds. And even
if people think that humans benefitted the most (which they definitely
did not), I also think it's weird to say that -vampires- benfitted the
most. At least say humans then, there are tons of non-vampire humans.
I would love to hear any arguments for vampires benefitting the most
from the racial change, though. And no, Galen's post doesn't count. He
got so many things wrong about the racial system that I am not sure if
he is unaware of how it works or just lied on purpose to sell his
conspiracy theory.
- White hits changes and magic changes
A mixed bag this one. I think some aspects of it turned out very well,
but others did not. A while ago a wrote a long post about this in the
Keeper's Corner on the forums, so if you haven't read it, I suggest
you do. It explains why we did what we did, and (in my opinion) what
went wrong, and why. Here's a short version:
What I regret the most with it, and also what I regret the most during my
time as Keeper, was that the grinding speed went up a lot for a period of
time, allowing some players to grow very big very quickly. The goal was
actually the opposite, but we underestimated the players and did not test
enough before launching it. And when it was apparent it wasn't good, there
was nobody around to fix it, meaning players got used to it, and then hated
the needed adjustment back to "normal" when it finally came. So, no, that
wasn't good at all, and I do regret rushing that. Carnak actually wanted
to test it a bit more, but I convinced him to launch (more details about my
reasoning in the forum post I mentioned above).
However, the end result, and the game we have now I think is better than
before. The melee vs magic balance and white hits vs special balance I think
is better now. More guilds are playable, not everything is about DPS
anymore, more roles and abilities are useful, and there is no clear
winner between melee and caster overall. Both have some good and some not
as good options, but it's at least not "go caster and grind four times faster"
anymore. There are definitely issues still, but compared to how it was before,
I think it's better. Is it more bland now? Maybe. Is it preferable to have
some guilds and races to be much better/worse than others? I don't think so,
but I can understand that some people feel that is more exciting and fun than
"everyone being the same in a different skin". I struggle with this as well,
and it's not an easy choice. Again, perfect assymetric balance would be
awesome, but we've never managed that and I don't think we ever will. We've
opted for the easier kind of balance with some recent changes, and balanc-
wise I think it's defintely better. Bland? I can see and understand what you
mean, but we still have a lot of stuff in the game that isn't bland.
- Patreon project and club
This is what I am by far the most proud of. For the first time ever we have
an automated way for players to donate money to Genesis and we can run
permanent ads for the game, which is awesome. Also, for the first time in many
years our playerbase is actually GROWING (without the need for a worldwide
pandemic to help us out).
- Darkness mechanics
Darkness mechanics have worked the same since I started playing the game back
in -97. It feels like many players have suddenly decided to blame the current
admin for the whole darkness system, making it sound like it was something we
designed and implemented recently. Can we first agree that apart from adding
a few darkness items and fixing a few bugs with light-emitting items, not a
lot has happened to darkness since forever?
There has been no admin decision and there has never been any sort of
"grand plan" regarding darkness and light in Genesis as long as I have been
in the admin. As usual, things happen over time without anyone really keeping
track of the big picture since the admin members constantly changes. What has
happened is that, over time, decisions by different wizards have resulted in
darkness becoming more common. The first decision was taken over a decade ago
when the imbuement system was created, which included a darkness imbuement.
The second decision was also taken many years ago, when it was made possible
to combine stones. Over time, players have grown in size, and their purses
have grown in size, and their collection of stones have as well. All in all,
it's become a lot easier to aquire darkness through imbues. The auction
house and the improvements to it has also made it easier, for players of
all sizes, to get their hands on darkness items.
A new vampire guild also appeared a few years ago, which require their players
to use darkness. People flocked to the guild, which created a bigger need
for items generating darkness. I am not entirely sure if the golden stuff
appeared before or after vampires, but the lamp was definitely after. Both
the golden items and the lamp can generate darkness or light depending on how
they are used. Even if both were created specifically for the vampires
I don't really think that is problematic or wrong. The same thing has
happened for most new guilds. When SoHM/WoHS opened Arman created a bunch
of new staves and polearms made specifically for them. When FK opened
new knives were needed. When DO was recoded unarmed enhancers appeared.
Unless I remember wrong some new items appeared when EC opened as well,
and if we go further back, we can probably assume the quickwood hoopak
and the serrated halberd were made for SS/RDA. I am sure there are tons of
examples of this happening in the past, and it's perfectly normal.
Now, since I did not want Genesis to turn into vampire-MUD, I reached
out to Nerull about limiting the vampire population somehow, and he felt
the same way. Neither of us wanted the vampires to become the new mercs,
so he made it harder to become a vampire, and together with the "new shiny
guild boost" fading, the number of vampires went down. The new darkness items
remained, though, which has made darkness more easily obstainable for
everyone.
Was all this some grand plan? No, one thing led to another, and here we are.
With darkness becoming more common, players who don't use darkness of
course also wanted better protection against darkness. This in turn exposed
some previously unknown (to us anyway) bugs in some items providing permanent
light. There is no darkness item that lasts forever, so that there should be
light-emitting items that last forever, without requiring any fuel, made no
sense to me and Ckrik. Holy armours are relatively easy to get and since they
prodvided light even when not worn, they never decayed in the new EQ system,
meaning you got 90 days of light, guaranteed. Obviously this was a side
effect of the new EQ system that we had not yet fixed, until recently. If
I understand things correctly, they would also emit light even when broken,
and if that is true, yet another reason to fix them.
The war gems lasted even longer. They lasted forever. Obviously not intented
either. They were intended to be inserted into equipment slots, nothing
else. It was very hard to lose this forever-light item, and most players
would likely be able to keep them for years or more. In time, every player
in the game would have at least one, and there would be no need for lamps,
torches, spells, or other light-emitting items in the game anymore. Obviously
this gem had to be nerfed. I wish we had found out about it sooner, but I
guess nobody was keen on telling us.
Some people seem to feel this was a move to make life easier for vampires,
and sure, it does make life easier for vampires and other people using
darkness. What's wrong with that? Sometimes we make changes that benefit the
vampires. And sometimes we nerf them, like when we introduced fatigue for
undeads or when we changed the nazgul. If we go back further, before vamps,
the nerf to Mittikna made it considerably harder to grind using darkness,
as seeing in the dark became a lot harder. Every change we do will benefit
certain players or guilds, and will be bad for others. For some reason it
has become popular to point out everything we do that in some way benefits
the vampire guild. I think the players of this game just have to accept the
fact that we will make changes that benefits the vampire guild now and then.
However, please try to remember the changes we make that benefits your guild
too, and also the nerfs to the guild you dislike.
Now, about darkness, am I happy with how things have turned out? No.
I think a series of unrelated decisions over a period of 10-15 years
(at least) has resulted in a situation where darkness is too abundant
and is a too powerful benefit when grinding, mainly for players below
myth. The imbalances of darkness are not new, and it's been one of many
things on my looooooong "things we should fix"-list for a some time. I
think the focus of the latest darkness discussion is a bit off, though. The
grinding benefit is for me the by far biggest issue with darkness. The fact
that it's mainly available to evil and neutral players creates a huge
imbalance in terms of career choice and growth for players below myth,
and that is a big issue, and always has been. More so now when darkness
is more common.
The other main complaint, which seems to be what many players are the
most unhappy about, is the PVP and/or annoyance aspect of darkness. As
I understand it, there is a fear that a team of players with 20 levels
of darkness or something will attack you in some sort of trap location
and kill you without you being able to see, and thus not be able to
escape. The other main complaint seem to be the annoyance of not being
able to use a shop or similar when the same team arrives, or simply
that darkness blobs mess up your grinding script. I think these issues
are definitely much less problematic compared to the grinding imbalance,
and I also think it's much easier to solve. If a solution is even needed?
I mean, it IS possible to just carry a bunch of lightweight torches and
have a trigger to light them when darkness arrives, and extinguish when
it leaves. I am sure there are many different torches and lamps around
that are quite suitable for the job without weighting you down very much?
But, sure, this aspect of darkness could probably be better designed,
but I must say I don't really agree that it's a huge issue that should
be the top priority on the list of all the things that could be improved
in the game. I can think of lots of stuff that is more weird/annoying/poorly
designed in the game. We can't fix everything, we have to focus on the
things we feel will have the most positive impact on the game.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on darkness. The grinding imabalance and
abundance of darkness is what I think we should fix first, if we make
changes to darkness. But when?
Well, I don't know. Right now, the priority for me and Ckrik is to
fix Death, which is a bigger problem in my opinion. I've thrown out
some ideas about how I think we should fix darkness and grinding to other
wizards, both before and more recently, and maybe one day someone will
find some inspiration and decide to have a go at fixing it.
I have a feeling some other issue will be the hot topic before that
happens, though, and then people will be upset that we fixed such a low-
priority thing as darkness, when we should have focused on <insert
hot topic here> :)
Cherek