Char wipe q's

[falco1029]

this isnht to complain or anything about it, I just ahve a few questions for the gms.

1. Will our names file be able to be kept?

2. Will there be an email or manual update that will help us work with the new systems?

3. Is the magic system going to remain the same, and if not what will be changed (I dont expect this to be fulyl answered of course)

4. Will the priest magic be implemented right when the new client si released? Or wil lit be released later (I want to know because I am thinking of making my second character a dark priest).

that's all, please no random people saying "Just wait" or any crap olike that, the gms can do that if i am out of line asking these questions.

[martin]

Yes
Yes
Mainly the same
Probably later

Martin

[falco1029]

mainly the same? lol make it so the items arent as expensive, at leats for a little whiel; so a few mages can get started, and then after maybe a couple monsths, when money is back in circulation and u have masters at jobs, switch them back to the expensive items (yes im saying this so I can be a mage or warlock again )

[falco1029]

new question i remembered:

Though our names are automatically accepted, do we get to reassign stats if needbe? I was told you basically remake your character and the name and password are already logged as accepted or something....

[Cassandra Fjurin]

At the current state we are planning that everyone can took over 5 of his old charas into the new system, with his name, and stats (maybe you can adjust the stats or change them completely). This chars haven't to make the account or name procedure again and would be playable immediatly after they tooked over.

no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information

I can only tell what i hear.

[falco1029]

alright, i hope i can change stats i acidently left perception and i think willpower low because I was told they werent used, but i exaplined that in something else, so I wont bore you.

[Shi'voc]

you will have to choose the stats again.
you will only keep the name of the char (using the password to confirm you are the owner, maybe the email as well) and the race/gender.

old players may get a bonus to ease rebuilding their char... though that is not yet decided.

if you make the mistake again to leave out some stats because you think they are unused, you will propably not have a second chance like this to correct that mistake... so choose wisely this time.

though you can (propably) keep the name file (depends on if we release the new client at the same time as the new server) it will be useless, as the playernumbers won't be the same.

[Adano Eles]

So we'll basically end with having our old characters and maybe some basic skills, but none of our old items and without being able to recognize people we used to know.
Technically that's the best way you can go without completely restarting Illarion, but I'm currently wondering if a complete restart wouldn't be the better option.

Massive OOC exchange between players would be needed to maintain current ingame structures, as players hat to exchange their new charnumbers and !name them in manually to recognize those they are supposed to know. It's still easy for guilds just to call all their members to a reintroduce- meeting but more distant relations between merchants and their customers etc would most likely be lost and lead to some strange encounters between people who should know each other.

For short, I'm smelling some stinking plotholes here. And I'd rather ditch the entire plot then get some bad plothole patching that would ruin the experience. So maybe you should load the plothole torpedo and wipe everything when you're already on it.

[martin]

So we'll basically end with having our old characters and maybe some basic skills, but none of our old items and without being able to recognize people we used to know.

The vast majority of items will be gone, yes.
However, you will be able to recognize others (there is no technical limitation to that, but maybe the responsible persons decide to have a social one, I don't know; I see no reason why your character should "forget" his past...).

Technically that's the best way you can go without completely restarting Illarion, but I'm currently wondering if a complete restart wouldn't be the better option.

That would mean that everyone has to apply for a new account which would create too much work to handle.

Massive OOC exchange between players would be needed to maintain current ingame structures, as players hat to exchange their new charnumbers and !name them in manually to recognize those they are supposed to know. It's still easy for guilds just to call all their members to a reintroduce- meeting but more distant relations between merchants and their customers etc would most likely be lost and lead to some strange encounters between people who should know each other.

Numbers and Names will stay the same.

Martin

[Adano Eles]

Well, Shi'voc just said something different.

though you can (propably) keep the name file (depends on if we release the new client at the same time as the new server) it will be useless, as the playernumbers won't be the same.

[martin]

He was right, I was tired.

The playernumbers will change. You will have to reintroduce yourself to the ones you know. This is just a technical matter, no social one.

Martin

[Adano Eles]

It's only not just as easy regarding the complex social structures which did eventually evolve between chars which had been played for a long time. And with noone recognizing anyone any more we'll have to run around jelling "Anyone who knew "XYZ" please reintroduce" for days if not weeks. That's just silly.

[martin]

Sorry, but I think thats bullshit.

We considered total wipes and subtotal wipes. Latter ones are more of a problem from a technical point of view because you have to include and develop methods to save some of the things that should not be wiped out.

We talked to many people and discussed it internally in the staff and we came to the conclusion that a subtotal wipe might produce some (minor) problems like that reintroducing thing, but a total wipe might cause much more damage to the game. You'll get around that reintroducing-thing. You can even play it out in game easily.

This is problem creation for the problems sake.

Martin

[Adano Eles]

I admit I'm a bit uninspired right now but the only way to play this out ingame I can think of is the third thousanth variation of the "sudden loss of memory" plot which was already bad when it first showed up and didn't get any better with each repetition.

However, as players seem to be quite concerned about this charwipe I thought it wouldn'thurt to bring on another point of view for the to consider.

[martin]

Our fear is rather simple, expressed as an equation it reads:

L=A * (sum_n a_n * x_n)

Where
L=Number of old players leaving the game
x_n=n-th wiped out thing
a_n=weighting factor
A=fitting parameter

Obviously the more things we wipe, the more people will leave the game at that point.
Starting from the beginning would wipe out all guilds, relationships, friendships, marriages etc., which are the most important things to many players.
Starting with a new character is an option for everyone. Just create a new character and that's it. However, if people decide that they would rather like to conserve their social status, they could do that.
This way it remains as a free choice for each individual player.

Martin

[Bloodhearte]

My only concern about a character wipe is the ability for some douche bag to steal the names of some of my fairly popular characters, claiming ownership over them.

And at least basic skills are kept, from what I hear.

The item wipe wouldn't be such a bad thing, because items can be replaced in a reasonable time frame.

[Cliu Beothach]

And at least basic skills are kept, from what I hear.

This ruins the whole point of the wipe then.

[falco1029]

By basic skills he most likely means something like you have the skills at maybe novice or even raw recruit level, as in untrained. Any other way would defeat the purpose. As for the names thing, you can look at the charlist, see how many peopel you should know are online, and base it on there, rather than randomly ask perople OOC if you know them. Also people can probably keep cvontact in OOC methods like forum pms and such to exchange character numbers for !name and the like.

[Sir Gannon]

Here is an EASY solution.

Simply use the #me command and use " #me Gannon picks and apple " May look weird with the "Someone (XXXXX) Gannon picks an apple" But at least people who KNOW you can recognize you and intro to you again and vice versa.

( Might also teach people to use #me more often )

Hope this helps

[falco1029]

thats a good idea, i'd give you a cookie if i had one.

[Nandus]

First: A new client is planed???

Second:
Wouldn't be able to make a storyevent, like a deamon that lets the whole island fall into a deep sleep and after that the people are confused and forgets the name of each other.

I mean not especially such a destructiv event, but a global valid event, for all players, so it would be easier for all, because not everybody has a other story, that doesn't fit together with each other.

[Brendan Mason]

I know that this isn't necessarily the place for suggesting such a thing, but meh.

The event could be global, like Nandus said, but the demon thing is a little clichéd.

If it's to be an over dramatic event, why not make it interesting? As we all know, the island has been a less than holy place over the years-demon worshippers, murder, and what not.

What if, the Gods deem that the island is unclean, and should be destroyed for the sake of the entirity of Illarion.

Being Gods however, they realise that take everyone's life would be wrong, so they simply destroy all knowledge of the past in the people's minds, as well as their abilities to alter the world around them for war and manipulation (ie, Skills).

Anyway, I'm sure that the story creating team don't need our help. After all, they are the ones who established the world that we shaped in our character's images.

[falco1029]

if it destroys their minds to the point to forget eveything, it means they arent the same people anymore and wont remember people, so ud be just the same with a new char. I think you basically mean knowledge of names of tothers or soemthing, I dont know....

[Bloodhearte]

And at least basic skills are kept, from what I hear.

This ruins the whole point of the wipe then.

To delete skills? Surely there's more point to a wipe than that.

[Cliu Beothach]

Ofcourse, but I didnt mean the skills itself, but the advantage some old players have over new. Lots of things will be better after the wipe.

[falco1029]

I do hope they make the skills easier to gain, so we dont have to do something thousands of times to rank up :-/

[Sir Gannon]

Ofcourse, but I didnt mean the skills itself, but the advantage some old players have over new. Lots of things will be better after the wipe.

Hm what you dont realize are the hundreds of hours players have put in to earn there skills and shape there characters. While that may seem unfair ( Sometimes it is ) Many have earned the right to there power and skills and should not be deemed unworthy JUST because they have played longer than someone. All that means is they have lived on the island longer. This talk makes me aggervated..

On another note. Maybe a good way to play this would be as Brendan said to find then island unworthy. Then maybe a plague was sent through and weakened everyone? Maybe changed some who were sensitive to it. ( For the ones who will completely re-build char's with the same name. ) Though I do not like the idea of destroying there minds. That is in a way pointless. Makes more sense to just resurect them than wipe them clean. Anyway

Hope this topic rages cause it will soon be upon us

[Gro'bul]

The vast majority of items will be gone, yes.

So this means some will still exist? Maybe like, gold ingots? At least if everyone liquidated their assets, then they would retain something from their long hours of Illarion.

[Cliu Beothach]

Gannon, I dont mean that skill...I mean some advantages that older players have: magic, druidism, so on. Not the aactual training part.

[Sir Gannon]

Yet again Cliu that has to do with being an older player. We did nothing special for those abilities aside from what the server offered and we still had to work for them. Just in different ways. Therefore it is silly to think we have any advantage other than time over you. Sorry