Something to think about... Long, but necessary in my eyes.

[Peilten]

It would seem that some have misunderstood what I wrote earlier in this thread. I never took what Kalypse said as a long proposal; It's just that it sparked something inside me that told me to write about my feelings on this situation. And I too want to point out that my post was not intended to be a proposal either.

Kalypse, at no point did I mean to suggest that you were doing anything wrong; in fact, I think you've done more than your share (In a very good way) for this community.

[Bror]

Yes it is a ghost town...

One of the reasons I have temporarily left...

Yes it is a ghost town....,
because I have temporarily left...


(replace "I" with the names of the ones who temporarily left)


The reason for the situation (from my point of view) is again the workload for the programmers. People take this game as ready developed, but it is still under constructions and many things have to be added, which takes time. The staff often sees the needs for improvements, but can't help it, since these require time and many things are needed desperately.
When Baldur left the project, it took us almost 1 1/2 year of development time (concidering that he waited one year, doing almost nothing, but still occupying the position server programmer - which is one reason why I want to give away the position as client programmer to avoid the same situation). Now Serpardum left as a server programmer and Shi'voc, who does this work too, is also programming a new client which currently takes almost all of his time (I suppose). After he finished with this client, some other persons will keep on maintaining it and he will dedicate his time again to the server.
Therefore we have said for years "we don't build buildings right now, wait for the mapeditor". It is the only proper way to do it, but it takes time and with these constant changes in the project team, almost no improvement is possible.
I myself wont do much changes to the current client, since it will be outdated as soon as the new one is ready, so I will soon invest my time in other aspects of the game (like actualy playing it after 4 years...). And I am no student anymore, which means, I have less time and I am often away from home for longer time periods for different courses without internet access.

One thing about my old Tibian times came up to my mind, when changes from the staff are requested to fight the boredom:
In Tibia (at least in those days I played) GMs weren't making any quests. One player had the idea to build a player run city somewhere - and we did, without the help of any GM. We had shops, housing areas, a castle and a lot more buildings. We build this city, not with any game options that allowed us to do it, we build it using our phantasy! Chests and boxes formed house walls, wheat was used as sand, animals were lured and traped in the houses to have watchdogs etc.. Parcels stacked together formed a throne, coins marked borders of plots, something was used to symbolize streets ....
I am not suggesting to do exactly the same in illarion. I am just implying, that many things can be done without support from the game, by imagination.


Just for information: I am send on a computer course for four weeks, so I wont attend this board nor answer emails (which I am very lazy about anyway...)

[Lasukie-Kai Elaski]

Hello Bror:

You know, you may have said something after I left or something...but WHY exactly did Baldur leave?

Illarion is stillin Alpha, I belive the client still has the popup....

Its a ghost town

a) Like Bror said, lack of resources ect ect
b) Well, aside from email accounting, and bad RP there seems to be little to do aside from the odd monster attack..

Solution:
Do what Bror's excellent reminder of how Imagination goes a long way, and make your own crazy quests to the unknown! or your own towns and houses!