Candy Coated Chaos

Inanna · Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:56 am Conference of Monarchs

http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=47339&firstunread=yes#firstunread

Ok, Opinions, what would you like me to bring up? What concerns you? If you want to send me PM's with your opinion, or talk to me in game that's fine. :)

But since I"m representing all ya'll, you better give me something to say, otherwise who *knows* what will come out of my mouth?

evil evil evil evil evil

ara · Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:10 pm

possible topics....

1. pauling's bilge experiment and if it might be implemented soon as an alternative for us pirates with poor eyesight.

2. the ability for pirates to sit and for pets to lay on furnature - ie. sofas. it's really annoying to have these furnature items that in life could be sat on and to not even have knees to sit on them!

3. the graphics of the large cat - to be honest - they look like shit and could really use some improvement.

4. hmmm it would be nice if i had suggestions for the shop puzzles that are not puzzle-ified, but i don't. =(

5. support 3-headed kracken babies for sage!!! (as sea monster) hely probably even has a pic that someone made of it (or korr might. /me shrugs)

ok, i'm idea'ed out

Pauling · Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:27 pm

Quote: possible topics....

1. pauling's bilge experiment and if it might be implemented soon as an alternative for us pirates with poor eyesight.

2. the ability for pirates to sit and for pets to lay on furnature - ie. sofas. it's really annoying to have these furnature items that in life could be sat on and to not even have knees to sit on them!

3. the graphics of the large cat - to be honest - they look like shit and could really use some improvement.

4. hmmm it would be nice if i had suggestions for the shop puzzles that are not puzzle-ified, but i don't. =(

5. support 3-headed kracken babies for sage!!! (as sea monster) hely probably even has a pic that someone made of it (or korr might. /me shrugs)

ok, i'm idea'ed out

As for "using" furniture- the idea has been proposed ad nauseum, but usually put down quite quickly because it would add tremendously to the amount of artwork that would be required. Tons of different poses for each outfit, both genders, each type of furniture... and honestly, I'm not sure what it would add to gameplay. (I believe the usual refrain is "I play this game to pretend I'm NOT sitting in a chair doing nothing") Probably better to let the artists work on features that enhance gameplay.

As for the bilge experiment- oh drat. I forgot to hand out prizes for volunteers. Sometime midweek, after this double-urgent draft review is done. It's hideous. But results were mixed, especially for very experienced ults who had trouble adapting. I'll talk to them some more and see what happened with that.

Mainly, the "conference" is a nice idea to see- a focus on changes that affect gameplay, politics, stagnation, and "large-scale" goals for players, while bringing in people from all oceans. (The ringers have commented before that they rarely hear from people outside of midnight) That's probably the best place to focus these comments on.

Also- regarding shopkeeping, they've definitely hinted that they're worried about the balance between making shops/stalls accessible vs worthless due to over-competition. So that's something to ponder as well.

As for sea monsters? I'd kind of like to see a broader category of "changes that make each ocean unique" to encourage players to mingle- different sea monsters with different modes of action on each ocean would be kind of cool. Midnight has gems (which aren't that exciting), plus little monuments and bits of history. It would be nice to see other oceans get similar customization and personality; remember the "sheep for Sage" campaign?

Prakamos · Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:16 pm

- /me totally agrees with Pauling on the customizations and bits of ocean history comment.

- Something that's been affecting me quite a lot lately is stagnation... Naturally the Holidays + School start period reduce the number of people playing the game, but perhaps a few more tourneys and OM events would be a nice idea to start shaking things up...

- Also, MORE BAKEOFFS!!!! As in, a LOT more =P And longer ones at that, so far Fast Puzzlers have been much more beneffitted (sp?) than Slower, Steadier puzzlers...

- More flag-related activities. As in, flags doing more than just blockade for island ownership and war each other. I have absolutely no idea what can be done in this department, I'm not really the creative type :P but it'd be nice if flags became bigger than blockades, would bring fresh goals and different paths for the flags, as well as contribute to (at least temporarily) end ocean stagnation.

- CHAT CHANNEL MUTE!!!! (like /mutevessel... muting everyone aboard that wasn't an officer... I'm sure it's doable since the ship already recognizes those with officer position + badge)

That's all from me for now :)

Gwiddon · Thu Sep 28, 2006 2:34 pm

what about chat filters for damn and crap? [and any others i may not have noticed]

i know that most of us aren't bothered by them, but i just had a friend banned for saying "damn" on the docks <.<
personally, it doesn't seem right for anyone to get in trouble for something so simple that the programmers haven't bothered to block

**edit: there was more to it than that, i guess no one bothered explaining it to him at first
still, sensitive people are always like, "no swearing on my ship" or whatever, so, bleh

kusje · Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:45 pm

Gwiddon,

It's either a mistake or your friend is lying. They don't ban people for saying damn.

conflicted · Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:43 pm

Am I late for this? Some interesting topics.

But what about the use of war mechanics? Excessive petition and /complain spamming? Labor alt armies?

One issue that should be raise is the OMs intervening in player conflict and jumping on the ban stick without proper and full disclosure of all information and facts. Yes, it's nice that the OMs are trying to make an effort to reconnect with the playing community but this isn't one of them.

Another is related to that of above, which is that players can whine, bitch and spam their way because they're idiot losers or can't handle that they're not as hot as they'd like to believe. Cleaver did address this saying if a large number of people feel "grieved" that they have a right to complain. It shouldn't be if it's an issue among and between the players. It only should be addressed by OMs and devs if it's a continuing and carrying series of events of "griefing".

That's just a couple for now and will not get into the trending of marketing focus and new game features that's aimed at babying and attracting more whiney self-entitled asshats, or kids rather.

Inanna · Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:23 pm

Two days left guys, tell me your thoughts or it will be too late :)

Pauling · Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:11 am

Game design:

-Crew/flag property
-Make oceans distinctive (maybe even different blockade boards/ changing obstacles per ocean, to limit Rockstar portability?)
-Releases focusing more on content- new puzzles, sea monsters, titans, etc; new types of pants and a talking rat just don't add much to gameplay
-200% taxes on upgraded palaces is an idea I like. Mwuhaha.
-Titan difficulty and attack probability should scale with how overbuilt an island is

Politically based:
-Minimum fame requirement to hold an island, say 1-2 notches below requirement to take it
-...And crack down on use of "shell" flags to hold and defend an island by returning a wardec without fighting a war (Infested, YB, and Ice Cold all had this ability on behalf of other flags governing Blackthorpe, for example). This completely neutralizes the consequences of war that act as a balance to making a blockade sinking

Other:
-Clearly specify when action on a "hot topic" is being considered behind the scenes rather than leave people speculating (ie BAA's recent "hot girl" forum contest where the response came in two stages, high-profile ban appeals, etc)
-Articulate policies resulting from recent bans

Inanna · Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:01 am

The more non-gd things I can bring up, I think the better..

arlith · Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:07 am

I didn't see it in the logs from the other ones....

But the broken fame would be nice to be addressed.

For most people, in order to be able to blockade a large island, you either need to grind out the fame required or become a greenie mill. This may be more of an issue on Midnight (where there's more large islands and few smaller ones), but some sort of change to the system would be nice. Its keeping a lot of people from being able to make an attempt at getting themselves an island. Perhaps a change to it would stir up the ocean a bit and let the island's change hands a little more often?

Inanna · Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:01 pm

Yeah leif said he tried to bring up fame and got cut off by the end of the conference..

I think in general, fame doesn't really achieve what it set out to do.

immo · Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:58 pm

One thing i would like to see is some way to practice brig bnav without taking out your own brig...(a navy mission would be ideal)
This way, navers can practice against the 3 move AI as well as the 4 move in a sloop

The big thing is that it seems like the ocean has turned into an ugly loop, the only way to get lots of jobbers for brigs is if you consistently run large pillages with good poe on brigs (luigi, scarymuffin, etc...)

Yeah you can get some greenies, but you need sailors for moves so that you can nav well...

This isnt too important, just thought i would put it out there...

edited: another thing i would like to see is more variation of ships, the ships now are great and all, but all anyone ever uses are brigs and frigs in blockades.
Maybe they could let out a few more, such as a brig-ish sized ship with 4 moves and 4 shots (medium cannonballs)

PS dont shoot me im just the messenger, ideas may be stupid but still...

Pauling · Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:10 pm

immo wrote: One thing i would like to see is some way to practice brig bnav without taking out your own brig...(a navy mission would be ideal)
This way, navers can practice against the 3 move AI as well as the 4 move in a sloop

The big thing is that it seems like the ocean has turned into an ugly loop, the only way to get lots of jobbers for brigs is if you consistently run large pillages with good poe on brigs (luigi, scarymuffin, etc...)

Yeah you can get some greenies, but you need sailors for moves so that you can nav well...

This isnt too important, just thought i would put it out there...

edited: another thing i would like to see is more variation of ships, the ships now are great and all, but all anyone ever uses are brigs and frigs in blockades.
Maybe they could let out a few more, such as a brig-ish sized ship with 4 moves and 4 shots (medium cannonballs)

PS dont shoot me im just the messenger, ideas may be stupid but still...

I think all the ships now do get used. Sloops are common pillage instruments, cutters and merch brigs for cargo runs, war frigs and brigs for blockades, and the rest for storage of supplies (floating warehouses) or showpieces. It's just a matter of finding all the niches.

And if you'd ever like to practice bnav without risk, have you tried the game gardens bnav simulator? I don't see an option to handle brigs yet, but that would be a good addition to recommend to the players who wrote it. http://www.gamegardens.com/gardens/view_game.wm?gameid=43