Shadows of Isildur: Laketown RPI

But it -is- a brief spike due to recent news. Nothing has changed, and this isn't the first time that they've promised that things are about to change. If you believe promises, I have some Warcraft code that was being finished a couple of years ago I could show you.

It's not a fact until it happens, but it's much more likely to be brief than it is to be long. Because nu-SoI development so far (from the outside, and I'm sure I can be proven to be in the wrong here) has felt like it's going on forever with extremely little to show for it - at least, as far as improving on the old game enough that it justifies completely abandoning it. We traded a functioning - not perfect, but functioning - game for promises going back almost four years now? And it's the same deal every time: something is introduced, activity soars for a little while, game stagnates again, activity dwindles. Rinse and repeat. And throughout, both players and staff have rolled in and out. I don't feel like there's anything new here. Rishte leaving and the forums reopening are nothing but the very minimum that was needed to get a pulse.

Don't get me wrong, though. I love SoI and I want to see it breathing again as much as you do. And there's a case to be made on whether it'd be more helpful to log in and do something than it is to bitch on forums.

Good to know RP and players are picking up.

Just to be clear, I didn't really incur Kite's wrath. He incurred my wrath, for a number of his (and his wife's, and his friends') abuses. The rest's history at this point.

I don't begrudge you for placing value in his words, though. Totally your right.

If SOI3 can get some proactive RPAs to run engaging storylines without their hands being tied, and can create some new content and progress in a fresh direction that returns power to the players, I've hope that it can return to being a small-but-playable game that's an overall positive experience.

I'm always skeptical, and only because I know that running an RPI well is always grossly more challenging than it sounds like it is, and the community's shrunk quite a bit over the past half-decade. Hopeful and skeptical. Keeping an eye on this thread with interest.

The good:

• There's a ton of people on (I've seen up to 18 on US evenings, and there's usually 4-5 even off-peak)
• They're trying hard. Everybody's style may not be your cup of tea, but nod/smile/grunt + speedwalk is not a problem.
• Most people are inclusive, even if they have to stretch for IC justification. Several still need you to initiate for them, but it's very rare to be rebuffed if you do initiate RP.
  
• Staff have discovered common courtesy and a strange new ability to handle constructive criticism without explosions, whether they agree or disagree.
• There's a new dark-side human race, so something new to try if you're sick of orcs & Utterby. For those who quit long enough back, some of the light-side human variants may also be new.
• It's a lot easier than it used to be to get your own shop, if that's your thing.
  

The bad:

• A lot of skills and craftsets are badly broken. Other craftsets are heavily interdependent. The learn-by-doing system has fewer entry points than it should. None of this is obvious when you're picking skills in chargen.
• Despite being riddled with gaps and often outright broken, the crafting system is also horrendously bloated. Expect piles of rotting ingredients, rooms with stacked with a dozen or more containers, and fruitless searches for rare or out-of-season items. Or items mistakenly left in 8.box instead of 11.box. Or a codedly accessible node for a river that you can walk right into, but not fill a pot from.
  
• The documentation is all over the map (helpfiles, a wiki, an in-game "culture" board only accessible from the pre-commencement area), and frequently inconsistent or confusing. Many, even most, players don't seem to be following it, and there's no way to tell when deviations are intentional and meant to be responded to IC and when they're OOC oversights. (Cultural rules include such atypical ideas as no bowing and little to no use of sir/mister, so it's a good bet that at least some breaches of the supposed IC etiquette are accidental.)
  
• The light-side RP center is still Utterby. It's still godawful boring. There are very few rival organizations - there's only one bar in town, for example, and all the restrictive AU rules remain in place. There are often a number of people holed up in god knows what clan-restricted or private area, whether spam-crafting, mudsexing, idling afk, or just RPing with someone cooler than you.
  
• Several generations of PCs have been grandfathered in as the racial documentation and rules have shifted and morphed, so you'll meet quite a few "exceptions" to those rules in-game.
• The dark-side sphere is severely underpopulated, even with the new race available.
• The scent code needs work. Scents can't be washed off items, and a bizarre variety of items absorb them. Just strolling past the outhouses will give you a shit-scented character. Bathing is wildly expensive.
• Half the town is walking around in "blood-drenched" clothing. You can find huge streaks of blood on the ground outside that have miraculously survived multiple thunderstorms. Otherwise fancy characters have dirt-encrusted gear just because they forgot to type "clean all" after walking outside. The "should I RP this or ignore it and get on with the story?" question rears its head again and again.
  
• Did I mention Utterby? Let me mention it again. It's boring.
  

Neither or both:

• Some of the most popular and influential PCs in game are melodramatic dramawhores, attention seekers, and worse. They're much more accessible and less cliquish than the fancy people were in previous incarnations of the game, which is great, but they're not a ton of fun to play with if you're not the kind of player who's interested in other people's magical hangnails. Long story short, there's tons of PERSONAL rp in-game, some of which involves magic and much of which is far less "secret" than it used to be. But I haven't seen much RP that goes beyond the scope of the merely personal to larger conflicts and dramas or that reflects the existence of a world beyond one podunk lumber camp. (To be fair, I'm not trying to insult these players - to each his own and many of them are quite good at what they do - but SoI's long period of RPA neglect does seem to have led to a concentration of one particular type of player in high-level roles.)
  
• The forums are open, but they're pretty dead. A lot of players have shifted to Discord.
• Don't expect staff to proofread your description for you. Ask a friend to look before your submit your app, or risk walking around with your typo stamped on your forehead for the next X months till another player finally tells you about it.
• Leveling skills, at least if you're not a code-savvy player, is slow and painful. Branching is over-abundant in some craftsets (where you will branch "new" crafts that any RL 5-year-old would have already been able to do) and too sparse in others. If playing a character that doesn't suck at things is important to you, bring patience. On the bright side, I haven't met any 12-year-old Master Stonemasons recently.
• Archery is still deadly. Combat commands and etiquette have a learning curve.
  

The bottom line (my opinion): It's got potential, but they need to get Laketown open, and they need to make more intrasphere-rivalry and conflict feasible. They need to get some long-running, slow-burning plots that affect and can be affected by the WHOLE pbase, not just provide admin sprinkles and fluff for personal, small-scale plots & ambitions. They need to create some more modern "grey" moral choices for characters to confront, rather than sticking purely to old-school Tolkien heroics.

Hey all,

Just a not so brief FYI in regards to current SoI status from my perspective. Mireen offered up some neat talking points, so I'll use that for the outline.

•There's a ton of people on (I've seen up to 18 on US evenings, and there's usually 4-5 even off-peak)

I think this has tapered off a little, after the initial surge. However, numbers are maintaining decently overall, and it's definitely night and day compared to a few months ago. Off peak times are fairly busy, with up to ten players online, and peak times seems to range between 10-15. Most of this however seems to be localized to the human sphere, with the orcs/easterlings being more varied.

•They're trying hard. Everybody's style may not be your cup of tea, but nod/smile/grunt + speedwalk is not a problem.

I don't know about trying hard, but I think people are having fun. Definitely great rp out there. Having a blast.

•Most people are inclusive, even if they have to stretch for IC justification. Several still need you to initiate for them, but it's very rare to be rebuffed if you do initiate RP.

Agreed. I find people are swaying toward inclusive as opposed to exclusive. While there are 'veteran' pcs around who tend to socialize more with each other, any one who throws out a say or emote will be drawn in, for sure.

•Staff have discovered common courtesy and a strange new ability to handle constructive criticism without explosions, whether they agree or disagree.

Agreed. The toxicity involved with being in communication with previous roster's spokesperson has been completely obliterated. Introduction of Discord has proved a success, in my view, and overall the relationship between staff/player is at an all time high, I think.

•There's a new dark-side human race, so something new to try if you're sick of orcs & Utterby. For those who quit long enough back, some of the light-side human variants may also be new.

It's an interesting addition. I'd say that currently, staff is also more open to special apps (should that be in the realm of the somewhat reasonable.) The rpp system is also being revamped to allow more options/spends for players.

•A lot of skills and craftsets are badly broken. Other craftsets are heavily interdependent. The learn-by-doing system has fewer entry points than it should. None of this is obvious when you're picking skills in chargen.
•Despite being riddled with gaps and often outright broken, the crafting system is also horrendously bloated. Expect piles of rotting ingredients, rooms with stacked with a dozen or more containers, and fruitless searches for rare or out-of-season items. Or items mistakenly left in 8.box instead of 11.box. Or a codedly accessible node for a river that you can walk right into, but not fill a pot from.

I put these two together. I agree here, once again. Certain craftsets, important ones really, are broken (weaponcrafting). I wouldn't go so far to say they're broken, but were planned to be altered and only half implemented. There are also craftsets that are dependant. You wouldn't want to pick weaponcrafting without woodcraft, for example. As to bloating, meh. I disagree there. It's certainly a huge crafting system, but IMO the more crafts the better. A lot of riddled, rotten, or lost objects in a room can be prevented by simple 'house cleaning' and the system does become easier to navigate with experience. A good perspective from Mireen on a new players perspective, but .. honestly, it does become easier. The whole bins and objects mess, that's on players though..not the system.

•The documentation is all over the map (helpfiles, a wiki, an in-game "culture" board only accessible from the pre-commencement area), and frequently inconsistent or confusing. Many, even most, players don't seem to be following it, and there's no way to tell when deviations are intentional and meant to be responded to IC and when they're OOC oversights. (Cultural rules include such atypical ideas as no bowing and little to no use of sir/mister, so it's a good bet that at least some breaches of the supposed IC etiquette are accidental.)

Agreed. I'm not a huge fan of restrictive and super in-depth documentation. But others are. I believe a former staffer is currently doing a whole reworking of the wiki and docs to help align everything and make it a bit more easy for players, but I personally think it will be a challenge.

•The light-side RP center is still Utterby. It's still godawful boring. There are very few rival organizations - there's only one bar in town, for example, and all the restrictive AU rules remain in place. There are often a number of people holed up in god knows what clan-restricted or private area, whether spam-crafting, mudsexing, idling afk, or just RPing with someone cooler than you.

This is changing. There aren't the same AU restrictions. and there are new, player created clans with increased activity from the traditionals. There is still a backroom bit of culture, but hey..you can't tan hides in the taverns, right? The one thing I'll say from my current experience, with the new sort of combat clan, is if they are backroom, they aren't just idling and are rping with clan mates. Sometimes, there is rp for just clanmates. But I do hear you on that. The rp is also getting a lot darker, and there are many plots going on at the same time. I love it.

•The dark-side sphere is severely underpopulated, even with the new race available.

I don't know about severly, but, I think they could use a few more active players. There were several times this last week however, where the 'evil side' outnumbered the 'good side'.

•The scent code needs work. Scents can't be washed off items, and a bizarre variety of items absorb them. Just strolling past the outhouses will give you a shit-scented character. Bathing is wildly expensive.
•Half the town is walking around in "blood-drenched" clothing. You can find huge streaks of blood on the ground outside that have miraculously survived multiple thunderstorms. Otherwise fancy characters have dirt-encrusted gear just because they forgot to type "clean all" after walking outside. The "should I RP this or ignore it and get on with the story?" question rears its head again and again.

Agreed. I think both ideas were neat in conception, but in practice are kind of silly.

•Some of the most popular and influential PCs in game are melodramatic dramawhores, attention seekers, and worse. They're much more accessible and less cliquish than the fancy people were in previous incarnations of the game, which is great, but they're not a ton of fun to play with if you're not the kind of player who's interested in other people's magical hangnails. Long story short, there's tons of PERSONAL rp in-game, some of which involves magic and much of which is far less "secret" than it used to be. But I haven't seen much RP that goes beyond the scope of the merely personal to larger conflicts and dramas or that reflects the existence of a world beyond one podunk lumber camp. (To be fair, I'm not trying to insult these players - to each his own and many of them are quite good at what they do - but SoI's long period of RPA neglect does seem to have led to a concentration of one particular type of player in high-level roles.)

To each his/her own, right? I don't really see the overt drama whore IG to be frank, but there are certainly instances of high drama. I'd say the bright part of this is there is certainly no longer RPA neglect, and there is in fact a variety of RPA styles IG now, so I think all players are well covered for their RPA needs and their own particular play style.

•The forums are open, but they're pretty dead. A lot of players have shifted to Discord.
•Don't expect staff to proofread your description for you. Ask a friend to look before your submit your app, or risk walking around with your typo stamped on your forehead for the next X months till another player finally tells you about it.

Pretty big fan of discord, and think its really opened up the playerbase and is an outlet to share code knowledge and build the community. I'd also say that currently, you're very unlikely to have an app rejected for a typo. So agreed.

•Leveling skills, at least if you're not a code-savvy player, is slow and painful. Branching is over-abundant in some craftsets (where you will branch "new" crafts that any RL 5-year-old would have already been able to do) and too sparse in others. If playing a character that doesn't suck at things is important to you, bring patience. On the bright side, I haven't met any 12-year-old Master Stonemasons recently.

I dunno about this. I guess it depends on the individual player, as branching/leveling is relatively easy IMO. However, I typically know how to get into the right clans, groups, craftsets based on my pc and area quite quickly. I think the opening up of knowledge on discord will help in spreading this kinda stuff.

•Archery is still deadly. Combat commands and etiquette have a learning curve.

It is. However, in the over 20 pvp experiences I've had over the last couple years, I've personally never seen a bow shot at the other side. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen...but I think there's a certain understanding that currently, archery isn't for pvp.

•They need to create some more modern "grey" moral choices for characters to confront, rather than sticking purely to old-school Tolkien heroics.

There's a lot of room for grey. Take a walk down by the docks and look for the Bastards.

Anyways, all in all, the game isn't perfect. But I'd say its leaps and bounds better, more fun, and more inclusive than three months ago.

And that's a good thing.

Hi Adam,

Send me a pm with some playtimes if you like and we can try and meet up IG. We've got a clan with a pretty nice leadership mix across the timezones, with Australia, Central Europe, and the Americas covered off. Not a newbie clan per se, but I personally like bringing on new players one at a time to get them settled into the game.

Oh, and props on actually taking a bath.

And I agree completely about the 'trickiness' of getting set IG as a newer player. While there aren't any automatically available clans, there are a variety of npc run shops that will hire on a player employee (if you're a crafter.) You can submit a ticket (help support) to see about getting hired on by staff). With the combat clans you're right about it being hard to insta-impress someone, and frankly, even if they do seem well polished, I usually wait a few RL days before taking them just because it really sucks to equip a pc and they never end up playing. You sort of got to see if the juice is worth the squeeze sometimes...which isn't helpful to the new player at all.

One thing I'll say about rolling a new combat pc, is spend that starting coin on some basic gear, so that there's less risk for the hire to the combat clan.

Finally, in regards to petitions...this has been eased up tremendously, and I no longer have any reservations about petitioning instead of submitting a ticket. But, petitions can get lost in the mix or passed by, so the ticket is still the best form of communication to staff imo.

Gobbo - I suggest contacting Nimrod.

Adam - Im curious as to a follow up post with current thoughts?