Your concluding thoughts about SCoD!

[*Lost and not Found]

Server was put up 8th of April 2009. So it has been up for quite some time now. And I got curious, what have you thought of the server thus far?
[Plus, I admit that I wanted to start a new topic and couldn't think of anything else to make a topic about. :P]

|Test Box One For Your Brain Box|


Well, I for one have created quite a lot of characters. And if we don't count Mr. O's copy & paste replies I would seem to be dominating the Character Removal Request Thread, CRRT for short.

But I have managed to get my main character to a level where he might be able to defeat a Horned Devil Elite all by himself. Yay for me. :D

It has been a long road, and the build I got is certainly not the strongest prowling planewalker to be found in the Cage. But because of this fact, I'd say it is rather evident that you do not require that Pointy Stick as your character in order to manage in here. Although - I'll have to say that SR will help you a lot if you got somewhat dodgy saves.

And I just love that you can find a lot of exiting stuff from the loot lists.

[*Neli]

I'm kind of a new girl on the block, so I haven't had the pleasure to to see the server evolve much. However, the short time I've been here has impressed me. I have played NWN1, heavily, and after several bad experiences, I told myself I wasn't going to play NWN2. Boredom and a chance experience found me on your server, and for better or worse, I'm hooked again. Not many of you know me personally so its not likely that any of you would know what a breach of character this is. At any rate, I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

In my opinion, things that this server is strong in -

1> Presentation of setting - Planescape settings are real hit-or-miss with me. With so many possibilities at a DMs disposal, a Planescape setting becomes an incubator for the "weird". I don't think that happens on this server. I can expect PCs to be much more than what they are appear, but at the same time, there arn't any Retriever Demons offering me coffee. My hat is off for to the DM team for giving justice to the setting. The planes you can travel to do a good job capturing the areas they are supposed to represent - the swamp in Baator has that creepy fast green wind, the gray wastes are lonely and.....gray, there's a sense of "Do-or-die" that comes from being trapped in Casceri, it is raw chaos with the blood war raging in the Abyss...etc.

2> RP centered player base - I'm not sure what the working combination made this server such an attractive setting for RPers, but I have been extremely happy with the player base willing to RP. Anything from light banter, or complex cloak-and-dagger scenarios can be found here. It has been my experience that a healthy mix of either is a rare enough thing.

3> The presence of an economy - Allowing crafting has done all sorts of good things for the server. Not only do you get customizable goods, but suddenly you get people who are interested in making characters that do that for a living. All that hard earned jink no longer disappears in vanishing NPC coffers, and instead gets rotated between players in the game. I think it adds a new dynamic to the game that is not often considered

4> Freedom of Customization - I don't just mean with crafting (With I think is PERFECT mind you). I like the DMFI tool that lets you rename things. People have used that little tool for some creative RPs (*eyes Jach*) - the Admin team also seems to be somewhat flexible when it comes to ideas and concepts that other more conservative servers might not allow. I think the "Players-First" attitude that seems implied keeps the game going when there are no DMs around.

5> Dedication of the team - I know of only three Admins - Cryptic, Mr. O, and Reval (I probably misspelled your name again >.> ), and the three are ~constantly~ doing things to improve the server. I know Cryptic is pretty much the only guy who knows how to script. That's tough work! Especially if your the only one doing it. Mr. O does a lot of the building and helps with a lot of the day-to-day DM maintenance ( I think Ive seen Cryptic do some of that too, actually), and Reval is always staying up late and running interesting quests for everyone. Im pretty sure all three of them go out of their way to hand out XP for RPing. I've seen a sicking amount of servers that have DMs who do absolutely nothing but hand out special favors for their friends, and punish people they don't like. I haven't seen that here. I respect the three for managing the work load that they do and keeping a player base this size happy . If there are more DMs out there, and Im neglecting you- heh ^^* Sorry - As I said, Im the new girl, and I might of not noticed you yet.

Weaknesses of the Server

1> Its cramped! - I understand the way NWN2 toolset is made up it becomes difficult to make large, and complex areas - I know the Admin team wants to keep Sigil Main (And possibly the tavern) as the center hub for RPing. There are a lot of pros to this. When everyone is smooshed in one area, there's activity and RP by way of a "captive" audience as it were. Half the fun for me is exploring though, and when areas are rather small, I get into "Grinding" routines because there's nothing new to check out - it detracts from the fun. Moreover, you have to share areas with other folks who might be a drastically different level which makes for futher complication. Sometimes I'd like to just go out and adventure without worrying about bumping into 3 other adventuring parties.

2> Fast Leveling - The Epic "race" - The server make level gaining just a ~wee~ bit easy in my opinion. When you can make level 20 in a few weeks (or worse, days) epic levels sound a little less, well...epic. So much so in fact, I get the impression most people don't take their characters seriously until they hit those high levels (I'm occasionally guilty of this on fast leveling servers). One of the Admin team gave me a good reason for this decision, which I accept ("People spend less time grinding and more time RPing when leveling isnt hard") - its just a bit of a downer to know that skill and profession-wise, there isn't too much stopping another player from making a "clone" of a real good idea. There will be no such thing as a "Skilled-fighter" a "Master Craftsman" or a "Powerful Wizard" when everyone and their uncle is level 20+

3> Too many Indians and not enough chiefs - I think the DM team's got too much on their plate load. Aside from Reval, there is little to no events on the server. I'm not complaining that the current team isn't doing there job, in fact, just to opposite. I think they are doing all they can, which is why they have little time for events. I think the server would benefit greatly if two or three more DMs could be found to take up that mantle.


Even with my complaints, I still give the server a 9.1 on a 10 point scale and am very happy with my experience here. I want to thank both the DMs and the players for putting forth a fun and interesting place in which we can share and enjoy.

[*LittleMissWonderful]

5> Dedication of the team - I know of only three Admins - Cryptic, Mr. O, and Reval (I probably misspelled your name again >.> ), and the three are ~constantly~ doing things to improve the server. I know Cryptic is pretty much the only guy who knows how to script. That's tough work! Especially if your the only one doing it. Mr. O does a lot of the building and helps with a lot of the day-to-day DM maintenance ( I think Ive seen Cryptic do some of that too, actually), and Reval is always staying up late and running interesting quests for everyone. Im pretty sure all three of them go out of their way to hand out XP for RPing. I've seen a sicking amount of servers that have DMs who do absolutely nothing but hand out special favors for their friends, and punish people they don't like. I haven't seen that here. I respect the three for managing the work load that they do and keeping a player base this size happy . If there are more DMs out there, and Im neglecting you- heh ^^* Sorry - As I said, Im the new girl, and I might of not noticed you yet.

I exist, honest!

>.>

Just on a bit of a hiatus due to personal stuff.

[*Ravel's Heart]

I would just like to echo what Neli said about the setting and the server.

I think that cryptc, Mr. Otyugh and their team really do a terrific job making a place that looks and feels like Sigil and...well...the rest of the multiverse. I know I gushed a lot when I first arrived here, and now, in typical Cager fashion, I look around and say, "Everything's amazing,"--ho hum!

I probably ought to gush a lot more. I think you guys really have done and continue to do an amazing job, and we ought to say so more often.

So thanks you guys! :wub: Well-done!

And I miss you, LittleMissWonderful... :( Come back soon!

[*Neli]

5> Dedication of the team - I know of only three Admins - Cryptic, Mr. O, and Reval (I probably misspelled your name again >.>  ), and the three are ~constantly~ doing things to improve the server.  I know Cryptic is pretty much the only guy who knows how to script.  That's tough work!  Especially if your the only one doing it.  Mr. O does a lot of the building and helps with a lot of the day-to-day DM maintenance ( I think Ive seen Cryptic do some of that too, actually), and Reval is always staying up late and running interesting quests for everyone.  Im pretty sure all three of them go out of their way to hand out XP for RPing.  I've seen a sicking amount of servers that have DMs who do absolutely nothing but hand out special favors for their friends, and punish people they don't like.  I haven't seen that here.  I respect the three for managing the work load that they do and keeping a player base this size happy .    If there are more DMs out there, and Im neglecting you- heh ^^*  Sorry - As I said, Im the new girl, and I might of not noticed you yet.

I exist, honest!

>.>

Just on a bit of a hiatus due to personal stuff.

Oh! I recognize the handle! I don't think I worked with you before, though. Hope I get a chance to see you in action...unless its your job to punish people, in which case its probably good that I don't know much about you.

[*cryptc]

Just a minor note on the levelling. We did sort of make the decision that epic isn't that epic, and that 30th level should be comparable to 20th (atleast compared to pnp), and I've set the xp script to start dropping drasticly after 25th level, so the last few levels should atleast be pretty hard. (not that I would really know how well it works, my highest is 22)

[*Lost and not Found]

And I presume that the level adjustment is taken into consideration. Thus a tiefling with 24 class levels would be a level 25 character and get hit by that script.

And the leveling speed is quite dependant on how quickly you can kill monsters - or - how quickly someone else can kill those monsters for you. For example; I had some 2600-2700 experience points remaining for the "11th Ranger Level". From experience I could determine that it would take a couple of hours to get that amount all by myself.

But there was this chap 4-5 levels lower than my character who wanted to tag along. And that chap was pretty good at butchering things, it felt like I got the remaining experience in some 10-15 minutes. Not that I'd be complaining. :D

[*Pashan01]

Nice comments Neli and much of this I agree with, new kid or not, you are fast becoming an oldtimee..heh

Your comments about 'events' however, I think the intention was that things should be often or not, player run, who needs a DM to get a group together to go make up a reason for exploring or doing something socially? I've plans for sensates faction that will include all, that I hope to get off the ground in and from January, DMs can get involved if they wish, don't mind, rather you all just bring your imagination along with your characters. I am a noob, barely know planescape/Sigil really even now and only been RPing now 2 years or so but if I can do it, so can the rest of you!

:)

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Thanks for the props :-) always good to hear after all the work put on it all. Only reward we'll get anyway.

And great video Ravel, so true also ;)

[*Dedic8ed]

2> Fast Leveling - The Epic "race" - The server make level gaining just a ~wee~ bit easy in my opinion.

I'd agree with you on just about everything else, Neli.... but this one, I'd have to say they got it just about right.

Yes, those people who have twelve hours a day to play and care to do nothing but grind can fly to epic... but for those of us who play less than half that, and spend considerably more time in the inn or wandering about the bazaar, it makes it nice that it doesn't take two weeks to gain a level. (Not to mention the fact that there are considerably fewer of those here than on other servers I've been part of)

Also, the leveling is (wisely) considerably harder if you try it alone, which does prevent the "log in and grind for eight hours = level 20" that I've seen on some servers, not to mention the fact that the better magic items are either so expensive as to be unaffordable, or require actual RPing with others. And the monsters are weighted extremely well, having a good mix of powers and spells to prevent abuses such as "gerbil-ball the level 1 character so he can go kill monsters that will earn him 5,000xp a pop".