Sindome - Townhall 2015

+ |-------| o__ ###### _____ _ __ | | = = = | < __\<= ##### / ___/(_)___ ____/ /___ ____ ___ ___ |------\| = = = | ` ` #### |\__ \/ / __ \/ __ / __ \/ __ `__ \/ _ \ | [] [] \ = = = | |--####-| |__/ / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / / / / / / __/ | \= = = |_____| O## O | /____/_/_/ /_/\__,_/\____/_/ /_/ /_/\___/ | [] [] \ = = ||....| # | | = = = = | | |= = ||....|WW O O | | = = = = | A Cyberpunk Roleplaying Game | [] [] [] |= = ||....| |-----|= = = | | |= = |---|.| O O O |.....|= = = | *------NEW TO SINDOME?------* | [] [] [] |= = | |.| |--|..|= = = | * type 'connect guest' to * | |= = | |.| O O O | |..|= = = | * come in and check us out! * | [] [] [] |= = | |.| | |..|= = = | *---------------------------* | |= =|-------|O O O | |..|= = = | | [] [] [] |= =| [ [ [ | | |..|= = = | Signup on our website before | |= =| |O O O | |..|= = = | or after you create your first | [] [] [] |= =| [ [ [ | | |-----|= = | character. http://sindome.org/ | |= =| |O O O |__ [ [ |= = | | [] [] [] |= =| [ [ [ | =>/_L> |= = | Note: Adults Only, RP Required | |= =| |O O O ` ` [ [ |= = | | [] [] [] |= =| [ [ [ | | | |= = | Existing Players: | |= =| |O O O | | X X |= = | connect <username> <password> | | | | | "You've never had the urge to kill yourself until now." Drifting to consciousness, the event horizon of your mind spills past as the stark reality of your life rushes into view. NOTE ON THIS LOG: MANY EMOTES WERE CUT TO SHORTEN THE LOG. Sindome Amphitheater The Brobdingnagian structure encompassing you lends heavily to classical stylings from the Italian Renaissance, characterized by transcendent marble arches. Tens of thousands of seats comfortably furnished with the finest upholstery surround the arena in tiers, each laboriously designated with hand engraved golden plates. Sleek displays are available in front of every chair, appointed to relay information from whatever function the arena is hosting at the time in a variety of languages and an assortment of touch-screen options. The landings of each tier bear floor plaques lionizing the mega-corporations involved in the funding of the gargantuan building project, lending special thanks to names that only anybody who is anybody has heard of, fettered to the tongues of the unwashed masses. You would only have to wonder for a moment how such the revenue for such an exorbitant expense could be justified before being assaulted by innumerable holographic advertisements flickering into life along the rows, others being projected as gigantic slogans and logos in the air, the products owned by the largest and most influential corporations dominating the airspace by a huge margin. The advertisements blink out of existence just as rapidly as they had appeared, working on an annoyingly regular timer chosen by market psychologists to be as disorientating as distracting as possible to the average consumer. Recycling chutes located alongside every aisle hint promisingly towards a flourishing income stream provided by confections, fast-foods and consumer drugs. Overhead awaits a dizzying sight as anybody who were to look up would find themselves staring out into the captifying panorama of space. Long-dead stars burn fiercely billions of light years away from here, with a clarity unknown to your typical mudboy who has only seen the sky as a perversion marred by human pollutants. Lurid nebulas that cannot be seen by the human eye from here are as conspicuous as earthly clouds. Maia is standing here. Kurzen is here , he totally isn't on an extended leave of absence Slither Fengshui is looking happy for a chance. Cerberus, Builder Atlas, HardHat Johnny, Operator Glitch, Navi and The Buddha are seated in the large leather chairs on the stage. The podium is vacant. There are no visible exits. FENGSHUI'S OPENING Fengshui OOCly shouts, "there will be NO rp during the townhall. you can attend or you can sit in the void. sorry folks, but no RPing an empty city while others are discussing things OOC :)" Fengshui exits from back stage, throwing his hands in the air as his music hits. Fengshui waves to the crowd, "Welcome!" Fengshui walks down the ramp and up to the stage. Fengshui steps up to the podium and holds his hands out for silence. Fengshui says loudly, "Everyone should have read the Agenda, if you don't have it open, please read: http://sindo.me/m6ygWy" Fengshui says loudly, "To touch on the basics. When we open the topics to discussion you'll need to raise your hand to signal you want to talk. Lower it to withdraw." Fengshui motions to Atlas, "Atlas will be keeping tabs and telling you when it's your turn to talk." Fengshui says loudly, "Be respectful. Follow the don't be a dick rule. Don't insult anyone. Remember, we are all on the same team." Fengshui says loudly, "Keep your comments to a minimum out of turn or the scroll will get too difficult to follow. We are also logging this and it will be posted on the BGBB for anyone that isn't around." Fengshui says loudly, "We've got a loooot of stuff to cover." Vetsa waves to those people. Fengshui looks around at the crowd. Fengshui smiles, "I want to start out by thanking you all for joining us. For being a part of the game and the community and for taking the time. Fengshui says loudly, "We are going to start with some opening statements and then move right in to discussions and then closing statements if needed and then we'll put you back in game OR you can hang here and chat OOCly with GMs and fellow players until you want to go back in game." CERBERUS' SPEECH Fengshui motions to Cerberus, "The Head GM." Fengshui steps back from the podium. Cerberus rises from the plush leather seat that his rests on the stage. Cerberus steps up to the podium and adjusts the micropohone. Cerberus says loudly, "Hi everyone, for those of you that are new and might not have had a chance to talk with me yet, I am Cerberus and I lead the GM staff here at Sindome." Cerberus coughs into his hand, "Let's get this started then." Cerberus says loudly, "I took over as head GM late fourth quarter 2014 to lead a staff comprised of four GMs including Linekin, Cinnamon, Kurzen, and Glitch. Since then weve added three new GMs to the staff." Cerberus says loudly, "Since joining us Orlok, Buddha, and Navi have helped contribute to a running average of a hundred and fifty RP notes every two week period." Cerberus says loudly, "In addition to a high average note count weve had at least ten major plots running consistently, covering the various sectors and population segments of the game world." Cerberus says loudly, "In recent months the character population has shifted heavily from a topside dominated RP environment to being heavily biased in favor of Red Sector. Thus resulting in a heavily Red Sector focused environment for plots with topside tie-ins from the GM staff." Cerberus says loudly, "With a higher volume of GMs available the goal is to offer a wider variety of plots with more frequency and depth, spanning all sectors more consistently." Cerberus says loudly, "Weve taken measures to encourage more plots and more variety in the RP they deliver in the form of training requirement shifts in our GM promotion process. The desired result will be more GMs with more plotting experience, and more new ideas to build great RP around." Cerberus says loudly, "The players can help in this process by going out and creating their own RP, and their own player-originated plots, the best RP inspires the best reactions from the staff through the actions of NPCs. Your RP is the foundation we build from, and the stronger the foundation, the greater the experience will be overall." Cerberus says loudly, "Reactions arent the only thing you have to look forward to, weve taken note that with the rising population of the Sindome player-base that weve fallen short to an extent on proactive GMing practices." Cerberus says loudly, "We have every intention of making sure were getting the game world moving and shaking without being provoked by the player first. With an increase to proactive GMing efforts comes a greater sense of a world that is alive and full of random events that can affect all of our gaming experiences and our immersion in a positive manner. " Cerberus says loudly, "Your feedback can have a healthy impact on how and where we proactively add and animate the game so please always feel free to leave constructive notes for us to mill over to see where we need improvement. " Cerberus says loudly, "Please use the @add-note <subject> command to add notes that are attached to your character. Using notes to identify your characters experiences with RP, or their goals and objectives helps the GM Staff better provide you with more depth and detail in the RP experience." Cerberus takes a sip of water from a bottle on the podium. Cerberus says loudly, "For 2015, well continue to slowly increase our staff population especially as the player population becomes more diverse in the time-zone department.. Were actively seeking a " Cerberus says loudly, "Daytime Pacific Standard Time GM that can be available from nine AM to roughly five PM Dome Standard Time. You can email staff at [email protected] with your applications." Cerberus says loudly, "With continued increases in our available support well be taking a crack at a new method for plot and content delivery for the corporations of Withmore. Well be assigning GMs to different corporations to work against one another competitively from the role of Corporate Council representatives. I am pretty excited to see what kind of intrigue and drama we get in the coming months from Gold." Cerberus says loudly, "As the game-world expands so too will the plots reach expand. Future plots will drag you to new frontiers and new locations providing the opportunity to establish new connections with new factions to invest your efforts in." Cerberus says loudly, "The GM staff and I would like to thank the players for their role-playing efforts and their support both on the forums and in the game. Heres to a productive and enjoyable cyberpunk experience for the year 2015 and on." Cerberus says loudly, "Thank you." Cerberus steps away from the podium. Cerberus walks across the stage and sits upon one of the large leather chairs. JOHNNY'S SPEECH Fengshui steps up to the podium and motions to Johnny, "The Chief Justice." Johnny rises from the plush leather seat that his rests on the stage. Fengshui step back from the podium. Johnny straightens his spacesuit. Cerberus applauds politely at Johnny. Johnny steps up to the podium and adjusts the micropohone. Johnny says, "By the end of this month, Sindome will be 18 years old." Johnny says, "She's had good years and bad years, moments of hilariously stupid drama (in hindsight) and some pretty epic roleplaying by player and staff alike." Johnny says, "This past year saw player characters make it to space under their own control, we instituted an admin voting system and we had to say goodbye to some old friends." Johnny says, "We made armor much more functional, markets much more complex, corpies more corporate ..." Johnny exclaims, " ... and sex more beneficial!" Fengshui grins mischievously. Johnny says, "Over the past 18 years, we've created some 2600 generic objects loaded with over 10,000 individual verbs full of 210,000 lines of code." Johnny says, "And thats just -in- the MOO itself. " Johnny says, "In the past year, we've changed or added code over 1900 times. At one point in the year, something was fixed, made better or created anew every single day for 61 days in a row." Johnny looks serious as he adds, "We're behind on our bugs though." Johnny says, "Over the past year, you've opened more than 515 bugs and we've resolved only 200 of those." Johnny says, "The good news is, a lot of those have been in the past few weeks" Johnny exclaims, "Linekin has transitioned from GM to Coder and has started tackling the bug buildup head-on!" Johnny exclaims, "Thank you Linekin!" Johnny exclaims, "You'll be seeing more code work coming from Linekin soon!" Johnny says, "Today we have active admin in a number of roles, across a number of timezones and from 4 different continents. We have GMs, we have Coders, we have Builders." Johnny says, "Today's administrator has a growing collection of documentation and guidelines, most of which we've written over the past year. These cover topics like approving histories, playing fixer characters or building things with certain kinds of objects." Johnny says, "With the administration policy originally developed in 2013, the new admin guide gets new admin up to speed and following a consistent policy." Johnny says, "These volunteers, these people ..." Johnny says, " ... they give up a lot of their time, their creativity, and their ego to bring you something special, something hard to find today." Johnny says, "They are human beings, wonderful human beings, and they put up with a lot of shit from above and below." Johnny says, "I'm ever so thankful they come back day after day and I personally want to thank them for everything they do." Johnny turns to face Fengshui, Navi, Atlas, Glitch, Cerberus, Buddha and Kurzen and says, "Thank you, fellow administrators. Thank you very much!" Johnny turns back to the audience. Johnny says, "We still have openings for a daytime GM as well as a Publisher by the way - someone who works on website pages, lore, documentation and help files. Daytime refers to 9 to 5 Pacific Standard / Daylight Time - AKA Dome Standard Time." Johnny exclaims, " Lets talk about the budget!" Johnny says, "Our infrastructure costs went up in 2014 over 2013." Johnny says, "This was primarily due to an increase in network fees from our hosting provider and our use of Amazon Web Services for our new website authentication." Johnny says, "We actually expect infrastructure costs to go down slightly this year however due changes in what usage qualifies for the 'free tier' of services, as almost all our usage is zero cost now." Johnny says, "We're also not paying anything for 5 other infrastructure services supporting the website and team collaboration either. If we had to pay for these services, we'd have to double our infrastructure budget." Johnny says, "When you make a donation, we always allocate that towards infrastructure, as thats where we feel your donation has the biggest effect -- keeping the lights on is more important than advertising for it." Johnny says, "Speaking of advertising, 2014 was our first year focusing on Facebook for promotions." Johnny says, "We budgeted about $2.50 a day to advertise our website on facebook to targeted demographics and each month I boost a selection of interesting Cyberpunk posts as a way to reconnect with those who've liked our page and to connect with their friends." Johnny says, "We're paying a rate roughly half of what it was when we were advertising with Google, and its the only way to really reconnect with people." Johnny says, "Now, our infrastructure costs in 2014 were just 39% of our overall budget. Straight promotional ads on Facebook were 30% and 'boosting' was another 30%." Johnny says, "And yes, that other 1% was the little bit still spent on Google ads in 2014. " Johnny says, "In 2015, we expect the advertising costs to stay the same or come in under our current projections." Johnny says, "Since we started accepting donations seven years ago, your contributions have helped defray these costs. Not only have they helped, but year after year, they've grown to cover more of the costs and we've been able to grow our services and advertise for more players." Johnny says, "Last year at the town hall, I told you that we had already made our budget goals for our infrastructure costs." Johnny says, "Well, by the end of the year, you donated enough to keep the server on for more than 3 years." Johnny exclaims, "You donated more than the whole budget including all advertising and then enough for a whole year of infrastructure on top! Thank you!" Johnny says, "This was an extraordinary year for donations and perma pad donations in particular" Johnny says, "All the activity drove me to code some features into the game to help keep track of these." Johnny says, "Since we started doing this 7 years ago, we've built some 40 different pads and each one has been the driver for new generic objects and things to do in the game." Johnny exclaims, "Entire neighborhoods are more fully taking shape as a result of this construction. Thank you!" Johnny says, "Honestly though, I don't expect this years donations to reach quite the levels of 2014s." Johnny says, "I take it as a blessing and I'll be thankful for whatever we do get this year. You've all been incredibly generous and I am grateful for that. Thank you." Johnny says, "So 40 pads. Thats a lot of change. Lets talk about some of whats changed." Johnny says, "It's been such an exciting year for new code and new parts of the game." Johnny says, "First off, we fixed that damn height bug that you all had been grinding your teeth over for years. I apologize for not recognizing the bug for so long." Johnny says, "I blame Jinx though, as the bug was introduced when we added the 'midget' height group for his old character." Johnny winks playfully. Johnny says, "The other big bug fixed was flying over the badlands." Johnny says, "For those of you who don't know, when you would fly up in the badlands, you couldn't find ground again, you'd just keep going down over the badlands forever." Johnny says, "Fixing this problem meant defining the sky. Defining the sky meant defining the limits of the craft." Johnny exclaims, "This eventually led to craft that can launch into orbit and outer space!" Johnny says, "Now we've got whole space stations forming and flying to FreeSky isn't like riding the metro train. You can even lose your gorram primary buffer panel on re-entry." Johnny says, "I am incredibly excited about what we're going to be doing in Space and the Badlands by extension." Johnny says, "Back on earth, the Corpies have gained a number of new features in the past year." Johnny says, "Budgets supply monthly funds for corporate business, expense reports let employees formally request the business pay for their costs, reimbursements show up in the employee's paycheck and requisitions let them order things directly through the corporation." Johnny says, "Coupled with fixes to the cred chips and business banking, corpies are finally ready for -business-." Johnny says, "Last year, I had hoped I would be able to say that admin and player notes no longer live in the MOO at -this- town hall." Johnny says, "They represent a good chunk of memory space I would like to use for the game directly." Johnny says, "Making this happen is a complex task involving ..." Johnny says, "a new database system for the raw storage of notes and events" Johnny says, "an application server (sddb.js) for performing actions on notes and events (create, read, list, search, edit, delete, etc)" Johnny says, "changes to the MOO to use sddb.js" Johnny says, "changes to the webclient to use sddb.js" Johnny says, "building a new website for players and admin to edit/view their notes (along with all the security / permissions such a thing would need)" Johnny says, "Right now, the database system exists, the application server is largely functional and the webclient has had upgrades that show admin notes from sddb.js and let them search it somewhat." Johnny says, "We call this mode 'Uber-Client' as opposed to the 'Player-Client'." Johnny says, "So, progress has been made, but I've still got a lot of work to do. I really hope that next year will be the one where I get to say that we've reclaimed all the space and devoted it towards the matrix." Johnny says, "There were a number of serious security threats over the past year. SSL, the little lock you see in your browser that tells you something is secure, was hacked several times." Johnny says, "POODLE, HEARTBLEED, FREAK and more attacks were being found every few weeks. We kept on top of the security situation and thankfully were able to patch the server and regenerate our certificates as needed." Johnny says, "This was the cause of our big server outage a few weeks ago, as we were forced to upgrade our version of Node.js to close some security holes that couldn't be patched away." Johnny says, "The last big change I want to talk about isn't about code." Johnny says, "In November, we decided to institute a voting system for administrative decisions." Johnny says, "Admin may have up to 3 votes:" Johnny says, "a vote of participation for $creator level and above admin who have directly contributed in the last 30 days" Johnny says, "a vote of responsibility for admin with official titles" Johnny says, "and a vote of experience for admin having been admin for 2 years" Johnny says, "In the event of a tie vote, the holder of the 'Arch Justice' title will cast the deciding vote." Johnny says, "I am now the Joe Biden of the Admin Team." Fengshui chuckles softly. Johnny says, "The voting system will come into play" Johnny says, "when we bring on new GMs (here only 1 vote from each admin)" Johnny says, "change fundamental elements of the game (i.e. like a UE Cap)" Johnny says, "new community policy" Johnny says, "new admin policy" Johnny says, "changes in expenses" Johnny says, "significant IC precedents (should we let someone do X for the first time)" Johnny says, "Before I finish, I'd like to end with a personal thank you to Cerberus." Johnny says, "Cerberus joined the admin team almost 9 months ago. We had lost our head GM a few months before to real life and not yet replaced her." Johnny says, "Cerberus joined us as a GM and quickly found himself not just a GM, but the Head GM." Johnny says, "He's guided us since then and I have been incredibly pleased with the variety of experiences he's helped bring to the game and those we're still working on." Johnny says, "I can make some cool places, but with his guidance on the story, they become so much more and I really am thankful he's around to make that happen." Johnny turns to look at Cerberus and says, "Thank you Cerberus for all you've done for Sindome and for me." Johnny says, "Finally, I owe a thank you to everyone of you seated here." Johnny exclaims, "You bring this world to life!" Johnny says, "You give it the heart and soul and you love it despite our shortcomings." Johnny says, "Thank you so much. Thanks for Sindome. RP forever." Johnny drops the mic or something. Fengshui continues to clap as he makes his way up to the podium, stopping to give Johnny a hug as he passes him on the stage. Johnny steps away from the podium. Johnny tenderly gives Cerberus a warm hug. Cerberus tenderly gives Johnny a warm hug. Cerberus says loudly, "*speaking english* No homo." Johnny walks across the stage and sits upon one of the large leather chairs. Johnny says, "not that theres anything wrong with that." Cerberus says loudly, "Of course not." FENGSHUI'S SPEECH Fengshui waves and smiles out at the crowd as he steps up to the podium, Some of you know me as Slither. Some as Fengshui. Some by some of my alt names. I have held various different positions on staff over the years. Currently I am one of three Justices, along with Johnny and Jinx. I am also the Lorekeeper. Fengshui chuckles, It is, what it sounds like. I keep track of the lore. Mostly its all in my head. Id love to get it all out of my head, but thats a time consuming process. Ive been playing Sindome for 12 years. Ive been an admin for almost 9 years. There is a LOT in my head. Fengshui says, "*speaking english, in an a stereotypically asian voice* If there is an admin or a player who wishes to become an admin, with a focus on being an encyclopedia of Lore, I would love for them to reach out to me." Fengshui waves a hand through the air. Fengshui says, "My goal for this year, as lore keeper, is to get one page faction sheets, for every faction. Sheets that can be updated as time goes on. A straight forward, info dump of the pertinent info on a specific faction, for the GMs. I think this would make a big difference in getting everyone on the same page and in training new GMs." Fengshui looks over at Cerberus, "Wait.. hold on." Fengshui says, "I'm being told Cerberus did this last night." Cerberus says loudly, "So hard to find good help around here." Fengshui says, "VACATION TIME MOTHER FUCKERS." Fengshui grins and holds his hands up, "In general though..." Fengshui says, "I do want to do a larger info dump of as much of the SD history as I can. It's a lot. I've been around for awhile and there is a lot of stuff that is ONLY in my head, due to characters dying, players leaving, admin retiring, etc." Fengshui says, "I'm looking for one or more people to sit on the phone with me a few times a week, be it an existing admin or a new admin, and listen to a bunch of old lore and turn it into longer form histories of factions, NPCs, etc." Fengshui says, "If that interests you, be you an admin or a potential admin, reach out to me: [email protected]" Fengshui place my hands on either side of the podium. Fengshui exclaims, "Our GMs and our players do an excellent job sticking with the theme of our game and taking the history of the world into account. Its what drew me in to the game and its what has help me here for as long as it has!" Fengshui smiles and wraps the knuckles of his left hand against the podium, "Thank you and keep it up." Fengshui says, "We are going to do a bit of discussion now, to break up the speeches." Fengshui says, "Discussion on the state of the Mix." Fengshui says, "If you want to speak, raise your hands. Please try to have your responses queued up. We have a lot to get through and only a limited period of time." BOUNTY HUNTING IDEAS MOVING FORWARD Fengshui says, "The first topic is: Bounty Hunting Ideas moving forward" Mello raises his hand. Fengshui says, "Who has ideas on bounty hunting? Improvements, etc." Fengshui says, "Remember, no IC info! If you are wondering if something is okay to talk about, xhelp" Zohar raises his hand. Atlas points at Mello discretely. Fengshui says, "Stand up when it is your turn to speak and sit down to signal you are done." Atlas [to Mello]: *speaking english* Stand please. Mello stands from their seat in the sixth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Mello asks, "perhaps something that let's you track people by the proximity to their SIC? Like SIC alias radar?" Johnny says, "I can say that there are means to do some of what you ask." Mello says, "ok then, my fault for ignorance, don't worry." Atlas points at Zohar discretely. Zohar stands from their seat in the first row and easily moves away from it. Johnny says loudly, "Devices, both handheld and installable, that will let you get the right info." Zohar coughs into his fist discreetly. "There's a big shortage on info on available marks. No mugshots, even of well known criminals, no leads. Just a name. Could a system be put into place to offer more?" Johnny says loudly, "the bounty system could probably use some love" Johnny says loudly, "there supposed to be some sort of description I believe, but its based on the information being collected" Benjamin lifts his hand up. Johnny says loudly, "if the information isn't collected, we're not going to do it for you because that wouldn't be IC information potentially." Zohar says, "Perhaps it could involve PCs, on anything from gathering info to presenting it to the population of the Dome." Fengshui nods and says, "Okay, so, more info on marks. And everyone interested should look into SIC tracking through IC means." Atlas points at Benjamin discretely. Benjamin stands from their seat in the sixth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Cerberus says loudly, "Please have your questions ready, as in typed out." Benjamin says, "*speaking english, in a deep and masculine, almost rumbling voice* Okay, it has admittedly been... more than a little while since I was last active in the game, so there's a very good chance this has changed already -- and if it has, Slither can feel free to smack me with a spaceship for my silliness. Anyway. The bounty lists at least used to be dominated by player characters, and I am now suddenly wondering how much/often NPCs are added or at least planned on being added into the bountie by GMs? I feel like that might provide some nice variety to the scene and decent storytelling opportunities. Again, pardon me if this is going on already. Smack as necessary." Johnny [to Cerberus]: *speaking english, in a clear, distinguished baritone voice* I think this is a question you might best answer? Cerberus says loudly, "We've had our fair share of NPCs at the high end of the bounty lists recently. They just get collected. " Cerberus says loudly, "Of course, we'll always look at making sure it stays populated to some extent." Manuel raises his hand. Atlas points at Manuel discretely. Manuel asks, "*speaking english, in a baritone, heavily-accented Spanish voice* On that note of adding NPCs to the boards and lists, are there plans/already implemented NPC bounty hunters?" Cerberus says loudly, "adding NPC Bounty Hunters sounds counter to player interests to me." Fengshui nods casually. Manuel asks, "It'd be pretty intensive to work out, wouldn't it?" Navi says, "*speaking japanese* You definitely don't want us hunting you." Fengshui says, "We dont want to take away player jobs. There are NPCs that can act as bounty hunters as needed." Cerberus says loudly, "Not at all, but it's robbing players of the experience." Fengshui says, "This will be the last one for this topic. If further discussion is needed I suggest creating a BGBB post." Navi says, "*speaking english* You definitely don't want us hunting you." Zohar snickers sarcastically at Navi. Sicilia raises her hand. Manuel asks, "Is it actually taking jobs away? Wouldn't it be a challenge to get to the mark first?" RED ECONOMY Fengshui asks, "Red Economy is the next topic. Does anyone want to speak on that from the GM side?" Fengshui looks over at the GMs. Cerberus says loudly, "I can say a few things." Fengshui says, "If you want to speak on the Economy of Red, raise you hand." Rii raises her hand. Atlas points at Rii discretely. Rii stands from their seat in the fourth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Cerberus says loudly, "Red economy has gone through some highs and lows since I've become a GM, and right now is definitely a high moment. We've seen armor and weapon values go up by factors of 5 and 10, and we've got a healthy population of players moving gear around. Everything looks healthy from my perspective." Cerberus coughs, "That's all I had." Rii says, "With the current changes to gear and armor and weapons, I feel like the benefit from selling to NPCs heavily outweighs selling to players, and that just means either the rich get richer, or you sell at a deep loss to profits. In exchange for roleplay, I see it as a fine pay-off, but others might not agree." Cerberus says loudly, "I'm not sure I understand." Johnny says loudly, "so charge each other more." Johnny asks loudly, "how is this our problem?" Cerberus says loudly, "Yeah, profit margins are your bread and butter as fixers." Navi says, "It slows the start to newer players, and I'm worried it would feel like a grind trying to get their first big sell." Johnny says loudly, "I personally preach a policy of nickel and diming" Johnny says loudly, "upsells" Johnny says loudly, "reasons to spend more" Johnny says loudly, "I'll run it to you for only 500c more" Vetsa raises her hand. Atlas points at Vetsa discretely. Fengshui says, "Speaking as a successful Fixer of the past, and a successful business owner now, learning to Fix on Sindome equals being better at business in real life. I learned everything I know about business / running a gang, from Sindome." Vetsa stands from their seat in the sixth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Vetsa clears her throat. Cerberus howls out OOCly with all three heads, sending fear rippling down your spinal column. 'Please speak english.' shouts the center head of the giant beast, while the other two viciously gnaw on the dead of the underworld. Johnny [to Vetsa]: english motherfucker, do you speak it? :) Vetsa faceplams. Vetsa asks loudly, "*speaking english, in a sharp and silvery, slightly accented voice* Economy is a tricky thing.. Massive games like EVE online and WOW have staff economists with degrees for this stuff because its so friggin' complicated. That being said, the pattern of Sindomes econ seems hugely based on the 'shit just got real' principle. Where death and calamity is a major driver in convincing players to surrender their precious chyen hoardes. Since business deals appears to be a source of a huge amount of conflict and plot. Competing for it that is. Topside and in the Mix. I've wondered if this is something staff has considered when things don't seem to be moving or are 'quiet'. Or, if there are any plans to shake up things what with the costs of certain items rising to move PC to PC econ around?" Johnny says loudly, "I think another point here is your aversion to saying 'no' to your fellow players." Cerberus nods casually. Johnny says loudly, "You need to be willing to walk away from the deal." Johnny says loudly, "Barter it up" Johnny says loudly, "Raise the price when you walk in the door." Johnny says loudly, "Oh, you need it -for that-, three times da price, buddy." Cerberus says loudly, "I've seen some excellent examples of riding a price up through creation of mass hysteria, and that had nothing to do with GMs! Excellent RP from a player." Fengshui says, "Ebola-Nox? During an Outbreak? 500,000c." Vetsa nods agreeably and applies snake oil liberally on her way to her seat. WHY DO PLAYERS ENJOY PLAYING MIXERS? Fengshui says, "Okay, next topic." Fengshui says, "Why do players enjoy playing Mixers? Lead into the fact that topside having a lot of money should in no way impact a Mixers struggle, if anything it should make it more real -- the fact that topside is so close and yet so far away." Ray hauls himself to his feet, rubbing his eyes. Fengshui asks, "Who has something to say on this? Anyone?" Atlas points at Annaliese discretely. Annaliese says "I don't exactly play a mixer but, the appeal of it is because there are more people out and about in the mix world. It's hard to be a corpie when the corpies don't do much and you get to hear about all kinds of crazy going on in Red." Nion raises a hand. Niobe nods casually. Mello raises a hand. Atlas points at Nion discretely. Johnny says loudly, "Thats true, there is more true liberty in the mix, especially if you don't have an employer." Nion stands from their seat in the fourth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Johnny says loudly, "This is one of the key tradeoffs of the dual society we have here." Starr nods casually. Nion sits cross-legged on the floor. Johnny says loudly, "Corpies can still do bad things, they just have to be discrete, strategic and sometimes, ruthless." Johnny says loudly, "Think, House of Cards." Fengshui grins mischievously. Johnny says loudly, "Frank Underwood is a motherfucking corpie role model." Fengshui says, "Yes. Think all about that. RISE to power. Or die." Fengshui says, "He is my mother fucking hero." Sicilia raises her hand, understanding that there are two other people before her. Atlas [to Nion]: Go ahead. Nion says, "I'm not sure this applies to everyone in the mix however... for me at least a lot of it comes from the idea that down in the mix you have almost this monolithic symbol of economic oppression sitting above you and thus... an easy enemy should you chose to fight it... if you join it... well you've made a foe of the rest of the mix. the fact you could die the next time you turn a corner somehow makes each moment more valuable to me too." Conor nods casually. Johnny grins mischievously at Nion. Cerberus says loudly, "You bakas need to kill more corpies that think they can work topside and come down to the Mix like they belong there, and I mean PCs not NPCs. That's how I feel about Mix life." Rii raises her hand. Atlas points at Mello discretely. Johnny says loudly, "Look at them as rich targets. Blunt, sly, however." Mello stands up from the floor. Omara raises hand. Fengshui says, "Rii will be the last on this topic." Mello says, "Two things. Firstly I found it far too easy to become a corpie, perhaps this was just my personal experience." Mello says, "and sorry if my ill messages are spamming you all" Zohar shakes his head discreetly. Fengshui [to Mello]: Was that your second thing? Mello says, "second thing was that I would agree, PC's are far too nice to corpies in red." Fengshui says, "Get them queued up people. We are at the halfway point and we've got a lot of ground to cover." Cerberus says loudly, "It's not supposed to hard to become a wage slave, robot worker for a paycheck every 7 days, a sell out to your mixer friends." Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Sicilia says, "Couple of things. Firstly, this may be an IC thing, but sometimes I have trouble figuring out what's 'acceptable' in the Mix, mostly in relation to the corps. The Mix is supposed to be free, yet sometimes the social problems can be even more complicated than topside, which is both good and bad." Fengshui asks, "What does this mean from an OOC standpoint?" Atlas says, "Sounds like real life to me. A dance of social swords." Fengshui says, "Is there something in particular you find OOCly frustrating? The Mix is supposed to be a complicated place." Fengshui says, "Half the fun is figuring out what is -really- going on." Atlas points at Rii discretely. Rii asks, "The Mix Lyfe in my 8 months of experience has been incredibly thrilling. It's dramatic, it's intense, there's politics all over Red. But most of all it's the freedom. I can go and hang out with Joe Boy and Joy Girl and if we get into a disagreement. When you hear about something happening, it's happening in Red. There's this hint of danger you can die at any minute and that's fun and makes going to the bar in Red an adventure compared to others. I think most would agree a savvy Mixer can easily make more than a Corpie could in a weekly basis, would it be feasible to give the Corpie players more money to spend? Or are there ways for them to do that already?" NotJinxBot1337 says, "*speaking english* I could say that there is a lot of PCs involved in some non-thematic RP that confuse social relationships to the point of forgetting the theme of the game. That type of thing can be confusing but it's also RP you can lash out at and force your views on." Nion raises a hand. Cerberus says loudly, "I don't think corpies need more money to spend, I think they need to spend what they have." Cerberus says loudly, "They need more ways to spend it, if anything." Rii says, "That is interesting, thank you." Fengshui says, "Corpies could be hiring mixers or lower corpies to do everything from their work, to their driving to their drug retreival" WHAT WE ENJOY ABOUT PLAYING A MIXER Fengshui says, "Okay, next topic." Atlas says, "Sorry we're on a bit of a time crunch here everyone. I don't mean to not give everyone due time to be heard. Make sure you type your question/comment out so we can get to it quicker." Fengshui says, "I am going to suspend the line for a moment and we are just all going to, where applicable, shout out what we enjoy about playing a Mixer. Then we will mvoe on to OOC discussion." Fengshui says, "So go ahead, no line, just shout." Fengshui says, "Or speak. whatever." Annaliese says, "THE SENSE OF DANGER" Vetsa shouts loudly, "HOODIES FOR ALL!" Zohar shouts loudly, "GETTING AWAY WITH FUCKING BALLSY BAKAS UP" Fengshui says, "I enjoy being able to be a manipulative sociopath. Something I would feel bad doing in real life." Johnny shouts loudly, "BATMANLAND!" Renna shouts loudly, "*speaking english, in a quiet, roughened and smokey voice* ADRENALINE." Sicilia shouts loudly, "IMMA KILL YOU FOR STEALING MAH BEER!" Vetsa shouts loudly, "CLOCKWORK ORANGE ULTRAVIOLENCE!" Zinna exclaims, "*speaking english* Everything Rii said!" Cerberus says loudly, "I enjoy killing all you motherfuckers." Rii exclaims, "Brotherhood!" Jadyn exclaims, "*speaking english, in a sultry tone with a vaguely accented voice* Turning you all into my minions!" Cerberus eyes his surroundings warily. Renna grins mischievously. Sicilia says, "Being able to help newbies." Cerberus exclaims loudly, "LAME!" Cerberus coughs Yumi grins mischievously. Zohar shouts loudly, "BEING ABLE TO FUCK UP NEWBIES TO TEACH THEM HOW IT'S DONE" Fengshui says, "Okay! And we are moving on. Good job everyone," Vetsa exclaims loudly, "Forcing newbies into dumpsters with threats ofviolence!" Valeria says loudly, "*speaking english, in a sultry, slightly hispanic accented voice* The variety of different entities present in the sector, with which one can become involved or join." Sicilia [to Zohar]: That too. DISCUSSION OF TOPSIDE/STATE OF TOPSIDE Fengshui asks, "Discussion of Topside! Discussion of the state of Topside. Who wants to go first?" Annaliese raise hand. Manuel raises his hand. Mello raises hand tentatively. Atlas points at Annaliese discretely. Zinna raises her hand. Annaliese says, "I just want to say, one of my fave additions has been the Strategry game on Red. I'd like to see more social games topside." Jadyn raises her hand. Cerberus says loudly, "A lot of corporate PCs are on leave from the game currently." Cerberus says loudly, "And I've banned a lot more." Zohar raises his hand. Atlas says, "Well, no answer? Moving on." Cerberus says loudly, "So it can feel a bit empty right now." Atlas points at Manuel discretely. Manuel says, "How soon in the future is lockpicking/other breaking and entering measures going to be implemented? We've talked about it in context with 'apartment sitters' before." Cerberus says loudly, "We've discussed how we'd like to implement it, but no work has started as far as I know." Fengshui says, "That is also a topic for the Code section. Not the Topside section, really." Johnny says loudly, "there are 2 levels for corpies" Johnny says loudly, "3 if we count blue" Atlas points at Mello discretely. Johnny says loudly, "while they have fewer rooms individualy than red" Mello says, "cereberus has answered me already" Atlas points at Zinna discretely. Zinna says, "I can get pretty out of the loop on new things. I'm not much of a self-starter and I'm not likely to provoke fresh RP willfully and openly. What I do know is I don't hear about any 'Red light district' fun topside, and it often seems like I don't have enough to spend my various Chy on as a nice person." Cerberus says loudly, "You're not the only person with this problem, however. You really need to just get up and get out and find the RP if that's the case. We can't make the RP come to your house, and if we do, it's not likely to be positive for you ICly." Johnny says loudly, "well" Johnny says loudly, "someone did mention lock picsk" Cerberus says loudly, "Ha." Johnny says loudly, "lockpicks too" Fengshui chuckles softly. Johnny says loudly, "I mean, thats what you'll get if you really want RP to come to your house." Atlas says, "One way to get inspired is to look at our inspiration page. You came to play cyberpunk, let's play cyberpunk! The thrill, danger, corporate reach arounds. " Cerberus says loudly, "Also nice people don't exist in Withmore, you must be lying to us." Atlas points at Jadyn discretely. Jadyn says, "a comment in agreement to piggyback Annaliese's and Zinna's comment. More topside appropriate bars/strip clubs. Classier joints so corpies don't have to muck around with all the dirty mixers. But still have the intrigue of the Red district." Cerberus says loudly, "Korova has naked women serving milk from their breasts." Fengshui says, "have a poker game and invite corpies. then invite a wealthy mixer as entertainment." Johnny says loudly, "Korova has had strip shows too." Atlas says, "Truly. There's also several other bars." Johnny says loudly, "naked milk baths." Cerberus asks loudly, "Plenty of ways to slut it up topside. We don't need a strip club in the suburb district to reinforce that, do we?" Atlas points at Zohar discretely. Johnny says loudly, "we need some new NPC groups on green" Zohar says, "I'd like to thank the GMs for their continuing work in this area. There's some interesting ways to do business topside that people need to seize. I feel like there's not enough actual businessmen topside and I'm wondering if more mechanics could be implemented related to higher level politics, such as the stock exchange shifting with IC events, and the public side of the council dealings. I look forward to having GMs playing corporate council representatives. I'm wondering what level the action that will make possible will be at." Johnny [to Zohar]: thats part of why I'm excited for GMs running the corps. Sicilia raises her hand. Cerberus says loudly, "You'll see one GM plotting some actions against another corporation using PC assets, etc." Cerberus says loudly, "It'll get pretty interesting I think." Zohar walks around the front of the rows of seats and picks one out to sit in, and lowers theirself into it. Navi says, "*speaking english* So don't suck." Johnny says loudly, "the needs from that RP will drive what new places / services end up showing up." Johnny says loudly, "We try to grow the world organically, we think it give it that lived-in feel. ;)" CORPORATIONS Fengshui says, "On the table for discussion right now: Good things going on with corporations that we want to see more of OR bad things with corporations that are sources of OOC frustrations. Also on the table, backstabbing and politicing." Valeria raises her hand. Cerberus says loudly, "Not enough backstabbing and politicing." Atlas points at Valeria discretely. Valeria says loudly, "I just want to make note of my appreciation for the various additions to Topside living, as someone who usually plays in that realm of the game. We've seen a lot of very interesting additions in terms of businesses, code, and opportunities. They have brought to life a very realistic interpretation of Topside life, and corporate life in particular, generally without requiring NPCs to utilize any of it. Some of this code even integrates with things like player apartments and homes. A lot of interesting developments since I first made a character there, and much hard work well implemented. There is a good deal of asking for more, but I believe it also deserves acknowledging how much has been added from sectors which were previously lacking in comparison to Red." Cerberus says loudly, "And I don't mean the moosex kind of backstabbing, we've got enough moosex going on." Atlas says, "Thank you, Valeria." Fengshui casually nods at Valeria. Johnny nods appreciatively. Jadyn nods in agreement with Valeria. Atlas says, "People should use their MOOsex for evil." Sicilia raises a hand. Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Fengshui says, "Moving on after Sicilia." Sicilia says, "GMs running corps is a really really cool idea...as long as it doesn't turn into the GMs playing with themselves. RP should always directly involve PCs, imo, because that's the point of a game. There should also be the very slight chance of a PC being able to rise all the way to the top in a corp." Cerberus says loudly, "That won't be happening." Johnny says loudly, "I refer to that as two-person masterbation." Cerberus says loudly, "And the GMs goal is to orient PC assets against other corporations." Cerberus says loudly, "A player can't be a CEO because theirs too much OOC riding on the decisions at that level." Fengshui says, "Rising to the top is a lofty goal, and one I encourage. But it is potentially game breaking. It's the kind of thing you could possibly achieve-- if you then retired your character." Fengshui says, "At least, that is how I personally feel about it." Glitch casually nods at Fengshui. Cerberus says loudly, "You can become an executive level person at a corporation, but you're not going to become CEO of NLM or SK or VS, etc." Fengshui says, "You would wield way to much power and that is just not fair to other players. Consider it like a UE cap for corporate players." Fengshui says, "With that, moving on." OOC ISSUES: GMS DEALING WITH PROBLEM PLAYERS Fengshui says, "OOC issues facing the game. We're going to start with GMs and the problems we face dealing with problem players." Fengshui says, "So that we are all on the same page." Fengshui asks, "Who wants to start on the GM side?" Cerberus says loudly, "We actually haven't had many OOC issues with problem players as of late. I'm very happy to say that after culling some of our problem players from the community, the player-GM interactions have been much more enjoyable." Fengshui says, "Excellent." Fengshui says, "Of htis, I am glad." Johnny says loudly, "I would like to say that I was really sad that we had to make that decision." Fengshui says, "This is part of our updates to the rules. It's possible for a player to be harming the game OOCly without breaking any of our general rules." Navi says, "The last thing we want to do is make you think we're competing against you as GMs. If you think you're being bullied and targetted by an NPC it's because we like your RP. We think you can handle it. " Nion nods approvingly. Fengshui says, "Be it complaing on OOC-Chat, local OOC, the BGBB to the point of it ruining the experience for others, or giving such a biased version of events that the GMs can't defend, that we lose other players to it." Fengshui says, "Again, Cooperative Competition is on this list. We are all on the same team. We want to have fun and enjoy the game. We shouldn't lose sight of that." Johnny says loudly, "Cerberus has to do paperwork everytime he kills one of you, so he's not out there doing it for fun." Zohar chuckles softly. BRIEF BGBB DISCUSSION Fengshui asks, "BGBB code of conduct. Does anyone want to pose any suggestions for general rules for the BGBB?" Cerberus says loudly, "And I write very long notes." Johnny says loudly, "imagine a police chief saying that IRL. O.O" Buddha says loudly, "*speaking english* Well, we're digital now, so paperlesswork." Johnny says loudly, "I think the stats Cerberus told us about the notes speak to how much paperwork they do." Fengshui says, "The BGBB is a place to vent and discuss. But it can become posionous and bad for the game when people go on rants that divuldge IC info or when they just had something bad happen to their character and experience bleed and get angry OOCly." Zohar raises his hand. Zinna raises her hand. Navi points at Zohar discretely. Zohar says, "I think the update to the rules pretty much covers it. There's plenty of ways for players to screw things up for all of us and it seems like a waste of time to make up specific rules for every case." Zohar says, "We're supposed to be a mature community, after all. I think the offending players of late were pretty aware of the consequences of their actions." Sicilia raises her hand. Fengshui says, "Some of you also have more specific questions about RP and how to do it and how to start it, there will be time after the meeting to socialize and ask questions of your peers and the GMs." Johnny says loudly, "Some motherfuckers just want to watch the world burn." Fengshui nods casually. Cerberus says loudly, "I just want to watch you guys burn ICly, not OOcly." Fengshui says, "Okay. I think we can move on then. After Zinna." Zinna stands from their seat in the fifth row, and edges their way out of it into the aisle. Zinna asks, "I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to put in, but would there be any room for consideration for a checkbox when posting a reply to put it in a moderation queue, so GMs can see it before the players do and look over it for things that are too IC?" Johnny . o O ( we do plan a flamethrower ... ) Cerberus says loudly, "That might be a bit too much." Cerberus says loudly, "Police State censorship." Manuel . o O ( Are there energy weapons yet or is it pretty much all ballistic? ) Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Johnny says loudly, "I do think its time for mod tools." Johnny says loudly, "Not a queue, but a way to edit/remove IC posts." Atlas [to Sicilia]: Go ahead. Johnny says loudly, "I will make it clear when something is removed or edited, have the moderator put a reason why it was moderated." Sicilia says, "I want to start some kind of....for lack of a better term...out-of-character SD-related therapy sessions. I get worried sometimes because this is a really intense, really emotional game, and because of the strict IC/OOC barriers, there's little way to vent ALL of your feelings out, so it seems." Fengshui says, "This is called decompression." Mello agrees with Sicilia thoroughly. Fengshui says, "It's a fairly new thing in the LARP community." Fengshui says, "And I am 100% behind it." Cerberus says loudly, "I'm 100% against it if it's with other players." Nion nods agreeably. Cerberus says loudly, "This is a good opportunity where you vent about IC frustrations with another player and they glean IC information." Nikas says, "I like therapy. Therapy is nice." Fengshui says, "It can be done successfully without breaking IC/OOC rules." Cerberus asks loudly, "With who verifying it stays that way?" Fengshui says, "It's not about therapy so much as distancing yourself from your character so you do not experience bleed." Nion looks to Fengshui on this. Zohar raises his hand. Cerberus says loudly, "You should be doing this on a personal level and outside of the SD community to prevent conflicts." Sicilia says, "What we /really/ need is someone who gets Sindome but doesn't actually play, and who has training in, you know, therapy stuff. Food for thought." Cerberus says loudly, "Yes, you can pay a therapist to provide this service for you." Fengshui says, "This is a topic for the BGBB. I am open to discussing Decompression sessions and how they work IRL and what they are used for versus what they are not used for." Sicilia casually nods at Fengshui. Johnny says loudly, "moo bash." NEW PLAYER RETENTION Fengshui says, "Moving on. New Player Retention. Anyone have ideas on how we can improve this? I know we put some IC measures into place in terms of making it someones job to look out for newbies. I like this idea." Nion raises a hand. Johnny says loudly, "this is why we gather IRL sometimes, meet each other. Make the other person real." Rii raises a hand. Fengshui says, "I like the idea of a MOOBash. And I am open to hosting it if we need a place." Jadyn raises her hand. Nion . o O ( whats moobash ) Atlas points at Nion discretely. Benjamin . o O ( There's an ocean in my way... ) Johnny says loudly, "MOOBash is an IRL party :)" Manuel raises his hand. Hafu_Guest raisesses hand. Nion says, "ok... i admit it. I played another moo/mud recently (Boooo). What they had though before playing is an ooc zone in which you can test most of the essential functions like poses, movement and combat. it really helped. sindome is cooler but... y'know" [OOC: Atlas says, "Last question/comment on this topic after Nion, Rii, Jadyn, Manuel, Hafu_Guest. "] Atlas says, "We have the emote/posing tutorials" Atlas says, "Which allow you to practice with a mirror and several NPCs." Fengshui says, "We have @tutorials thanks to this awesome guy on staff who made them" Nikas raises his hand. Fengshui says, "Who was that... oh, me." Fengshui cheers! Cerberus says loudly, "He does like one thing in 6 months and he's gotta clap for himself." Johnny [to Nion]: we need more tutorial thingies Atlas points at Rii discretely. Fengshui says, "Tutorials are BabbleOn Scripts, so anyone can write them. Just saying." Rii asks, "I think it's important to make it clear, and easy to orientate new players, and help give them a shove in the right direction. Let's be honest, Sindome has a big confusing stat and skill system, how can we do this without betraying the games principals?" Atlas says, "Writing Babbleon Scripts is easier than it looks. There are a few examples. " Johnny says loudly, "we've started a scripting guide that is player accessible, but it needs extensive work." Cerberus says loudly, "I don't have an answer to that question, take people under your wing ICly if you want to teach them." Cerberus says loudly, "Every one learns ICly." Rii says, "Good point." Atlas points at Jadyn discretely. Fengshui [to Rii]: I think you are asking the question this topic is about. It's up to every player to find creative ways to help newbies while sticking to the theme Jadyn says, "I know when I first started Sindome, there was a PC that handled newbies...walked them through various in game mechanics in an IC manner and helped set them in contact with jobs and such. Maybe that can be something started again..if it's not already in play. A newbie Fixer, basically." Johnny says loudly, "we've got a new page on the site for what Rii mentioned." Cerberus says loudly, "It's already in play, and can be ICly pursued." Johnny says loudly, " http://www.sindome.org/about/experience/" Atlas points at Hafu_Guest discretely. Hafu_Guest says, "An 'Introduce Yourself' section on the BGBB for newcomers to introduce ourselves and be greeted and offered friendly non-IC-risk tips by current active members, etc. This can help new players get to know active players and vise versa better and have easier integration into the player community." Cerberus says loudly, "That's something you can start on the BGBB at any point." Cerberus says loudly, "And I believe there's already a few of those posts out there." Johnny says loudly, "We'll make sticky threads possible." Fengshui nods casually. Johnny says loudly, "And stick those motherfuckers to the top." Hafu_Guest says, "as a newbie, I honestly have no impression of that taking place. I would if there was a section specifically for it." Atlas says, "Anything Really is a good place to look." Hafu_Guest says, "a newbie does not know that though. we would if we saw a section pointing it out." Hafu_Guest says, "its traditional for good reason to have a section dedicated to it" Johnny says loudly, "I know we literally link to one of the threads from help or @newbie" Cerberus says loudly, "A newbie can search the forums and read @newbie like anyone else. I think is the point." Atlas says, "The in-game channel xgame is the first place a newbie experiences other players. Other players can direct newbies to the OOC channels available. We don't tend to have a lot of introductions, for some people it's immersion breaking or they just don't participate. Read @newbie for help on communications." Hafu_Guest says, "i guess my point was, a dedicated section for newbies to get to know active players, vise versa in an easier and more - organized - manner." Johnny asks loudly, "I think the guest literally is spammed with links every few minutes, right?" Fengshui says, "Hafu, as a guest you don't get access to some of the stuff that a 'new player' would. once you go through character generation you are given access / told about a whole wealth of resources." MACROS Fengshui says, "Macros! Some of you use them. Some of you die. @macros is the command. They are straight forward enough though maybe a better help file needs to be written. When is it appropriate to use them? All my PCs and some of the NPCs I use, have macros for drawing and sheathing their weapons. For holding a sonic grenade, pulling the pin and dropping it. An example would be ~kat which would do 'open first sword' 'get first kat from first sword' 'close first kat' and another is ~skat which does 'open first sword' 'put first kat in first sword' 'close first sword' or ~med which does 'hold first med' 'stabilize me with first med' 'sheath first med' or ~draw which would do 'open first shoulder' 'get MK from first shoulder' 'close first shoulder', or ~dress which would do 'wear boxers' 'wear pants' 'wear shoes' 'wear shirt' 'wear first helm' or simply a go string like '~drometohome' which does 'go e e e e e n n n n n w w w w w s s s s e e e e e'" Fengshui says, "If you have questions, start a BGBB thread" Cerberus points at Zohar Zohar asks, "So there was an eighteen macro solution floating around *ahem ahem* for taking the lev between any two accessible sectors. You've given some good examples of how to use macros. How about how to -not- use macros?" Fengshui says, "Macro questions can go on the BGBB as it's a good topic." Fengshui says, "Should get everyone involved, not just those here." Zohar nods casually. Fengshui says, "xhelp and it's use are covered in the @rules if anyone has questions on that... what else..." QUESTIONS ABOUT RUNNING PLOTS AS A PLAYER Fengshui asks, "Questions about running plots as a player?" Fengshui asks, "No one?" Sicilia raises a hand. Zinna . o O ( Nobody wants to spill the beans on their secrets. ) Cerberus points at Sicilia discretely. Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Sicilia asks, "How established in the game do you have to be to start your own plot without getting yourself killed?" Fengshui says, "Zero." Zohar raises his hand. Atlas points at Zohar discretely. Zohar says, "I'd like to say that I think the GMs really do a great job at allowing that." Zohar says, "It's not about how much gear you have or stats." Zohar says, "It's about personal ability and experience." Fengshui says, "Anyone can run a plot. It's as easy as just doing it." Cerberus says loudly, "You should consider the risks against your experience, abilities and contacts." [++] New post to topic 'Some tips for everyone' in Anything Really [++] http://sindo.me/m67h52 Vetsa raises her hand. Atlas points at Vetsa discretely. Vetsa asks loudly, "*speaking english, in a sharp and silvery, slightly accented voice* Is there a scale which a player should take into consideration when trying to start a plot? Like. With rising to a CEO being game breaking, what constitutes a 'game breaking' plot arc. In general terms?" Fengshui looks over at Cerberus. Cerberus says loudly, "Well." Cerberus says loudly, "Trying to kill the entire population of Withmore with a custom homemade virus." Cerberus says loudly, "This type of thing." Cerberus says loudly, "Trying to go above and behind game mechanics." Cerberus says loudly, "Beyond*" Cerberus says loudly, "It's hard to answer quickly." Cerberus says loudly, "Make a note about it and it'll get our attention for a discussion over xhelp." Fengshui asks, "Sounds like a topic for hte BGBB. Vetsa will you create it?" Fengshui says, "I'd like to get others input on it as well." Sicilia raises her hand. Johnny says loudly, "precedents" Johnny says loudly, "firsts" Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Fengshui says, "Sicilia will be the last on this topic." Johnny says loudly, "crossing lines is always a big deal." Sicilia asks, "One last thing. I think we're gonna talk about this later, but if we want to start a plot, we should be thoroughly @noting it, right?" Johnny says loudly, "definitely" WHAT DO THE PLAYERS WANT FROM THE GMs Fengshui says, "*speaking english, in an a stereotypically asian voice* Next topic is 'What do the Players want from the GMs?' Please, begin raising your hands and preparing your questions." Johnny says loudly, "*speaking english, in a clear, distinguished baritone voice* It's impossible for us to help you if we don't know whats the what." Fengshui says, "or statements rather." Fengshui says, "Don't fall into running a plot without telling GMs because you think they will not allow it either. That's meta and bad all around." Atlas exclaims, "Let's see hands!" Mello raises a hand tentatively. Sicilia also raises a tentative hand. Atlas points at Sicilia discretely. Sicilia says, "I love the GMs and their plots, but sometimes I feel like a lot of the plot is way over my head." Cerberus says loudly, "*speaking english* Sounds like we're doing our jobs properly then." Zohar raises his hand. Atlas points at Mello discretely. Mello asks, "Uhm, might just be my bad luck but more readily animated NPC's?" Johnny says loudly, "What we need is a way for the past plots truths to find a way into IC paydata" Johnny says loudly, "but thats a rather mind blowing task" Mello adds "Also, I wasn't notifying GM's properly, so THAT was my bad." Fengshui says, "We do our best to puppet, guys." Fengshui says, "We all have lives." Zinna raises her hand. Fengshui says, "None of us are paid." Fengshui says, "Only so many hours in the day to get a nearly infiinite list of things done." Sicilia raises a hand. Atlas says, "*speaking english* Zinna will be last." Mello says, "yeah.. sorry I wasn't implying that. Forget I said anything it's ok." Cerberus says loudly, "Also, some of you play at ridiculous times looking for puppets at 3am EST, hehe." Cerberus says loudly, "or 6am EST." Atlas points at Zohar discretely. Zohar says, "I'd definitely want more GM involvement in player RP. The community is growing and we, both older and newer players, need to learn how it's done, whether we're just getting into things or our plots are getting deeper as we become more experienced." Fengshui exclaims, "Just be persistent and leave notes saying who you are trying to reach and why and we will do our best!" Zinna says, "While I realize it can be hard to tell at times, I would like to ask that if at all possible, we be informed if, for some definitive reason, we are not likely to receive a puppet when we seem to need or want one. Even something as simple as making the NPC give some indication of being too busy." Atlas points at Zinna discretely. Johnny says loudly, "There are times in the middle of the day, DST, where our GM coverage is very likely light or absent." Johnny says loudly, "This is why we're hiring for that time slot especially." Cerberus says loudly, "If you're not getting a response someone is likely not even around to give you a heads up that we're too busy." Cerberus says loudly, "Otherwise we'd do it." Fengshui OOCly shouts, "NEW WORLD RECORD: 47 PLAYERS ONLINE" Fengshui OOCly shouts, "NEW WORLD RECORD: 48 PLAYERS" Fengshui says, "Moving on." Navi says, "*speaking english* If you're clear and tell me what you want with a puppet, it saves me from looking a previous roleplay - and thus gets you a faster response." Hafu_Guest has disconnected. A group of gangers runs in shouting loudly and flashing gang signs before picking up Hafu_Guest and carrying it off quickly. Johnny laughs loudly. [OOC: Mello says, "rip Hafu"] Fengshui says, "We have a lot more stuff on the list that we are going to have to skip." Johnny says loudly, "I haven't see that message in a while." JINXBOT'S SPEECH Fengshui says, "JinxBot has some Quartermaster things to say." NotJinxBot1337 coughs. NotJinxBot1337 rises from the plush leather seat that his rests on the stage. NotJinxBot1337 maneuvers to the podium in robot fashion. NotJinxBot1337 steps up to the podium and adjusts the micropohone. Fengshui OOCly shouts, "MOST ADMIN ARE STICKING AROUND AFTER THE MEETING FOR A 'MIXER'. YOU CAN ALL CHAT AND TALK AND CONTINUE THE CONVERSATIONS THEN." NotJinxBot1337 says, "Hi, I'm robot Jinx and I have a statement to read to you." NotJinxBot1337 says, "Last year we updated and upgraded most weapons in the game, still some to be refurbished but none that are in use. After this work with weapons, were updating and upgrading armor." NotJinxBot1337 says, "This was a logical step as we first needed to know how much damage we had to protect the players from; now we know and can work into ways to prevent that damage from reaching the soft tissues of our beloved digital personas." NotJinxBot1337 says, "Several aspects of the armor and how it works were taken into account, and while I cant disclose the details, but weve changed armor significantly. Armor is all about coverage and layers" NotJinxBot1337 says, "The most noticeable change is the layering rule that limits how many layers of armor one can wear. This is to balance the now very useful armor and to prevent people from over-layering armor." NotJinxBot1337 says, "The second most noticeable item are the armor stat penalties and bonuses. These are applied to armor that slow or impair movement and also to items that make you look good." NotJinxBot1337 says, "But the hidden treasure that most havent seen yet are how useful armor in the game is now. From simple element survival sweaters to WJF armor, all have been refactored into really useful armor that can and will prevent characters from harm." NotJinxBot1337 says, "Id like to thank all the tailors in the game and the people that help us on fix-it with descriptions for the several new items in game, from sweatshirts to new WJF armor." NotJinxBot1337 says, "As an expansion on the current armor were also adding a splash of colors to the current lines of armor in game." NotJinxBot1337 says, "Some fun numbers for those that like them:" NotJinxBot1337 says, "Total spreadsheet lines: 301" NotJinxBot1337 says, "Total new armor items: 36 and we still have more to come" NotJinxBot1337 says, "Total number of armor values set: 781" NotJinxBot1337 says, "Next in line are weapons again. Not a second pass but an addition to what was done. This addition is a skill called heavy weapon. That means flamethrowers, miniguns, and all that nice stuff." NotJinxBot1337 says, "And after that we will do energy weapons that means blasters, stun sticks, taser knuckles and gauss guns." NotJinxBot1337 says, "And there you have it." Manuel raises his hand. NotJinxBot1337 says, "Energy Weapons are banned on Earth by U.N Mandate. Go read the timeline." Fengshui claps loudly "YAY FOR TASER KATANA GAUSS BLASTER LONG BLADES!" NotJinxBot1337 returns to his seat. Atlas says, "JinxBot brought up something very briefly that I would like to address quickly." NotJinxBot1337 steps away from the podium. NotJinxBot1337 walks across the stage and sits upon one of the large leather chairs. Vetsa . o O ( Next stop.. Koi mounted flamethrower gattling autocannon.. ) Fengshui motions to Glitch, "Glitch would like to say a few words." Fengshui says, "Ah, Atlas has a few things to say first." Fengshui motions to Atlas and says, "Please." Atlas says, "Jinxbot mentioned the fix-it channel. This is a channel that allows players to HELP admin like me (a builder) with in game descriptions as requested by admin. You can join by" Atlas says, "Xhelping us to get added." Atlas says, "So, if you want to help write various room, item, NPC, etc descriptions for admins. Feel free to xhelp us so we can have you join us. All the description writing without the admin commitment :P" Vetsa chants 'one of us one of us' and goes quiet again. GLITCH'S SPEECH Glitch rises from the plush leather seat that his rests on the stage. Glitch says loudly, "*speaking english* I wanted to make a point of talking about GM support required for getting into positions that your character wants to get into, and that you as a player want to experience. I devote a significant portion of my GM-time into player support towards this." Glitch says loudly, "In my time as a GM I have seen numerous instances involving both myself as well as other GMs where we either individually or collectively as a group have invested significant time to leading a player into the position they want to get, only to have the player decide it wasn't for them within a short number of days or doesn't take the time to learnt he position before deciding it wasn't for them." Glitch says loudly, "In one instance the GM Team collectively spent six weeks positioning a player into a position they were interested in, and they suicided within two days of this happening. This is very disenheartening for us because we want to help players have fun and get to their goals where possible but it's hard to stay motivated in those kinds of scenarios. " Glitch says loudly, "Thank you." BRIEF CODE TALK Fengshui says, "We have just a few minutes to talk about code." Fengshui says, "Linekin is finally here." Fengshui says, "Everyone appluad his ass for being a coder now." Cerberus says loudly, "-finally-" Fengshui OOCly shouts, "50 mother fucking people on" Fengshui OOCly shouts, "51!" Johnny says loudly, "some late to the party LA types, you know them." Fengshui OOCly shouts, "someone get a screenshot and post to facebook please" Kurzen says loudly, "*speaking english* i got it" Fengshui says, "Thank you." Fengshui asks, "Does anyone have any code questions or announcements?" Zohar raises his hand. Atlas points at Zohar discretely. Fengshui says, "Go." Zohar says, "So you've talked about the new influx of bugs." Zohar asks, "What are you going to do about it?" Fengshui says, "Fix them." Fengshui asks, "Next?" Zohar says, "Fair enough." Jadyn smirks. Cerberus says loudly, "I'm gonna bitch and whine until drugs are overhauled too." Atlas asks, "No other code questions?" Manuel raises his hand. Fengshui says, "Go Manuel." Fengshui says, "Then it's closing statement time if we have any." Manuel asks, "Speaking of drugs, are you guys going to do 'drug emotes' or whatever like withdrawl does?" Fengshui OOCly shouts, "New record: 52 players online!" Manuel says, "As in, being high and doing things." Fengshui says, "This is a roleplaying game." Zohar exclaims, "Wooo! We're goin to have to keep taking screenshots!" Fengshui says, "Roleplay being high." Fengshui says, "Next." Johnny says loudly, "I have a request" Cerberus says loudly, "http://www.sindome.org/wiki/index.php/Drugs" Cerberus says loudly, "Use it." Johnny says loudly, "I'd like everyone to vote on The Mud Connector " Johnny says loudly, "http://sindo.me/mn5NL6" Cerberus says loudly, "Vote or we'll never let you leave here." Manuel [to Cerberus]: Yes, but some people don't RP the real effects or at all. Johnny exclaims loudly, "if 50 people vote for us on mud connector, awesome newbies will flow through the front gate like the spice!" Cerberus gets out his H&K Mk23-S. Fengshui exclaims, "Voted!" Navi absent mindedly pokes and fiddles with her WJF Enforcer II. Fengshui drops his SHITTY STUFF. Cerberus puts his H&K Mk23-S away. Cerberus gets out his H&K MP11. Cerberus hands H&K MP11 to Fengshui. Fengshui teleports SHITTY STUFF out. Fengshui teleports SHITTY STUFF in. Johnny blinks at Fengshui rapidly. Johnny says loudly, "thank you everyone :)" Glitch starts applauding politely. Fengshui says, "it's on all of us to RP the effects of the substances we take. If you need help with RPing the effects ask a fellow player or a GM." Fengshui says, "if you feel as though someone is not RPing the effects, let an admin know." Cerberus says loudly, "Or look at the link I posted." Cerberus says loudly, "It has descriptions of what the drugs do to you." Fengshui puts his H&K MP11 away. Fengshui gets out his generic severed head. Fengshui shouts loudly, "OR END UP LIKE THIS GUY" Rii asks, "You don't want to be generic do you!?" Fengshui licks the severed head. Fengshui puts his generic severed head away. [OOC: Johnny says, "careful, that might have a child now."] [OOC: Glitch says, "It does."] [OOC: Fengshui says, "so many childs"] Cerberus steps into his pair of bright white briefs and pulls them up. He reaches down the front of them and adjusts himself comfortably and settles the waistband around his waist. Fengshui asks, "Any admin have anything to say in closing?" Cerberus says loudly, "Yeah less moosex more RP." Glitch laughs loudly. Cerberus says loudly, "GG no RE." Johnny says loudly, "I'd like to say thanks for everyone coming today. I've personally taken some notes on things I'm going see about prioritizing." Atlas asks, "Unless the MOOsex actually gains something?" Navi says, "The reason I became a GM was because of the community. I love each and everyone of you, and stuff. " END OF THE MEETING Fengshui shouts loudly, "MEETING OVER! THANKS EVERYONE! WE HAVE A LOT TO DO THIS NEXT YEAR. AND WITH YOUR HELP IT WILL BE OUR BEST YEAR YET! YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO STICK AROUND AND SPEAK TO VARIOUS ADMIN OR EACH OTHER. IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE, XHELP!" Jadyn [to Atlas]: Does STDs count? Jadyn grins mischievously. Cerberus says loudly, "Also I really need a daytime DST/PST GM for 9am-5pm gming." Atlas [to Jadyn]: Yes. Yes they do. Go get some! Cerberus says loudly, "Someone that doesn't mind their PC being deprioritized." Jadyn shakes her head lots and lots at Atlas. Zohar [to Fengshui]: Check skype? Zinna says, "Plus I need to find a job." Cerberus says loudly, "Well, I need active people for Gming" Zinna says, "And I need to like... you know, not try to admin on EVERYTHING I enjoy." Cerberus says loudly, "Not casuals." Cerberus says loudly, "Pfft. Casuals." Zinna says, "Fair point." Fengshui [to Omara]: Whisper is an IC thing. Use xhelp if you need to talk to an admin. whisper can be overheard. Nikas asks, "what are we gonna do with the people who fell asleep here?" Cerberus exclaims loudly, "Bye!" Zinna asks, "Fondle them?" Cerberus says loudly, "We'll burn the bodies, don't worry." Rii shouts loudly, "FOURTH ROW TURF BAKALAKAS!" Zinna says, "FIFTH TURF" Fengshui shouts loudly, "SNAILZ TURF" Sicilia asks, "Screencap?" Zinna says, "SLUGZ TURF" ADMIN WERE ABLE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS AFTER THIS BUT, THE RECORDING CHARACTER LEFT THE MEETING. THANKS FOR A GREAT TOWNHALL!