Sure Is Quiet!

[*Tomekk]

You don't have to talk to a merchant. You don't have to set up shop. Quite simply, that's NOT something the staff wants to happen.

They aren't mutually exclusive, y'know? If you want to merchant, you could offer discounts to people actually bothering to show up; And it makes selling things easier for the layman who doesn't have 3 hours to sit around in the bazaar each day... or someone who lives in a timezone with very few players... and so on. The benefits seem to far outweigh the negative, and I'm sure most merchants would love automation. :P

[*Rayanne]

Regarding the focus on factions above everything else:
What about those who are not native Sigilians?
It's my impression that most factions have 0% relevance outside of Sigil. Nobody gives a shit if you're a bleaker or sensate in Baldurs Gate, other places already have their own rules and enforcers so your Harmonium or Mercykiller isn't really required nor wanted. Just because your Defier or Godsman is safe in Sigil, doesn't mean some vengeful god isn't going to put a smite on you to prove a point as soon as you leave the city.
For me, I've always felt the factions were overly specific and rigid in their motivations and philosophies. Of my 17 alts, I can't think of a single one that would fit into one of Sigil's factions, except possibly the Anarchists, which assumes they even care to get involved in Sigil politics in the first place.

I'd like to get involved in more roleplaying, plots and events myself, but too often I just feel like a commoner relegated to be an audience as the real superheroes(you know who you are) take care of everything with their deity-level displays of power and magic.

As for loot drops and merchants(or the absence of such), I feel like a lot of it could be alleviated by making a decent crafting system that can compete with drops and npc merchant gear.
Greater focus on player crafting, less focus on epic items from drops or npc stores.

[*Ariella]

The staff is always happy for new suggestions on how to improve the server. A couple of issues that have been raised here are things we are already working to address. However i am going to break down this topic a little bit so its easier to keep up with suggestions. There is no guarantee anything will go in but we will see whats suggested and discuss it.

Factions

Loot, Crafting, Merchanting

Xp

[*rapsam2003]

You don't have to talk to a merchant. You don't have to set up shop. Quite simply, that's NOT something the staff wants to happen.

They aren't mutually exclusive, y'know? If you want to merchant, you could offer discounts to people actually bothering to show up; And it makes selling things easier for the layman who doesn't have 3 hours to sit around in the bazaar each day... or someone who lives in a timezone with very few players... and so on. The benefits seem to far outweigh the negative, and I'm sure most merchants would love automation. :P

Well, if you can convince Ceremorph, go right ahead, man... :P

[*Am Not Here]

i think low level items (+4 ) are abudant, really, the problem is that dropped weapons +4 are most often of iron, which isnt good in the planes, perhaps you should add to the list cold iron and silver weapons with plain +3 +4 +5 .
or maybe reduce the amount of silly enchantments in the randomly generated drops. like...ac or bonus attack vs races...or saves vs specific things (elements, alignments, etc)..cut those, no one really use them.
damage vs races is already more reasonable
and maybe insert some skill bonuses, because those are not present yet. i'm talking very few points here ofc

were the less used armors improved in their stats? if so, good, if not, consider doing it

and another point is not that rares drop too rarely , maybe more that it needs luck that it drops the ones you need

and perhaps rise the gold mobs on death give a bit , even just 10 golds

The Amount of player Homes, one of the many taverns, off-sigil cities (and their taverns) never truly localized a common ground where most could meet. Yet, I must also say, we had good days. Where the bazaar would be packed, folks everywhere. Gathering up Carceri runs. Browsing the many shops, etc.

some people complain of the central bazar bar, some of the delocalized bars. if people want, they will go where the larger group will get to if the latter doesn't mind being reached by others, happens when enough people go at the arena, or some tavern in the clerk's or lady's. And those who don't feel like staying in crowded places, thanks gods there's variety of places , or it'd get more boring faster.



how many use the chants and darks thread on the forums to actually start looking into things? just curious


i agree with masuman here:
there're not really that many overpowered items, that can't be bought, at least. i wouldnt worry too much over grandfathered characters that have epic relics, because those are usually illegal. it's just that they could hoard more of the items currently obtainable. and besides, such items would be result of events or rp, so nothing too randomly given



for rp xp, perhaps there is something to fix. right now i dont remember if the xp you get daily on log in also includes anything gained while ''talking'' with people, as in rp without t he intervetion of a dm xp wand

C. Housing - Every house on the server I play on is a big deal. If you got a custom player area that's a huge deal. You earn them through consistently rping well, being involved in events, getting involved in the various factions of the server, and becoming an actual important person. It's treated as something noteworthy that sets you aside from people who haven't worked that hard yet. Meanwhile Sigil has a hundred (hyperbole) abandoned houses whose players grinded to get a house and then left the server because they didn't actually establish a fun character. These houses clog up the maps, and just look sad. Having a house isn't a badge of pride anymore, it's just a badge of being willing to grind and sell things as a player merchant.

Perhaps. Note though that a player housing here can be left , entirely or only partly, as open to public for free usage, to give a social environment, with possible addition of functional workbenches

On Sigil, I can join an event, go out and solve a murder over the course of 4 hours, find out it's tied to a larger plot, and.maybe make some friendships. I'll get maybe 2000 xp out of it total, spread across multiple days and a need to grind. Or, I can spend 4 hours grinding, get 15 levels, have enough money to buy top end gear, and be super useful mechanically. On Sigil you do rp in addition to your mechanical leveling experience.

On other servers, I can join an event, go out and solve a murder over the course of 4 hours, find out it's a larger plot, find that the murderers dagger is an enchanted item j can use, track down and raid his resources as I find he's an assassin (gaining thousands of gold), and more, all while getting a good 6-7k xp for 4 hours of rp. On this server, I get my leveling experience from my rp.

interesting comparison, though i suppose the ''track down and raid'' depends on how much time the dm / em has .
how are the hunting areas of the server in the second scenario set though?


maybe an indepth brainstorming on which cases the lady and her dabus would actually intervene needs to be done? so we can know how far people can go? or we know already? if so, i invite who knows to make a topic to clear that in the roleplay section possibly?

[*Whitefly]

My personal reasons for not playing lately:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/ ... h-30-2017/

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/events/uprising

[*CheeseWedge]

My biggest reason for playing on other servers lately is pretty simple: RP matters more there. And I mean this in a ton of ways, and a lot of them are in fact mechanical.

[Snipped the rest because I don't need to repost the whole wall of text!]

I agree with pretty much everything KittyEmpress said in this post...

I also know someone mentioned having player conflict via factions and stuff would cause drama and someone getting butthurt that they lost after hours of work...

All I have to say to that is... ideally that doesn't happen if you're working with a mature playerbase. :P I know, I know. That's a high expectation to have for everyone.

I personally love the idea of high risk equals high reward. Sure, you could die and lose everything on your beloved character. But if you succeed? Benefits and rewards to make it all worthwhile. Even if you don't win, I find the RP to be worth it in the end. It's all about the story.

Dealing with the drama and butthurt is as simple as making people aware of the risks in certain plots and events. If someone really doesn't think they can handle something bad happening to their beloved character, then they need not apply to plots where they put their characters at risk.

Bring on the high risk, high reward plots!

[*DaftyXIII]

Dealing with the drama and butthurt is as simple as making people aware of the risks in certain plots and events. If someone really doesn't think they can handle something bad happening to their beloved character, then they need not apply to plots where they put their characters at risk.

Bring on the high risk, high reward plots!  

what is better high risk other than perma-death?

Go big or go home! :P

I'm more than willing to kill of any of my characters honestly, but lets make it good and worth the effort to bother. A Shakespeare performance between Light and Darkness should have causalities by the end. ;)

[*Graglarthedumb]

Rayanne, your point would be completely valid should the setting be in Faerun (Baldur's Gate), but seeing as it's in primarily Sigil where they control basically anything a government does it's strange to ignore them. You should also understand that unlike a government, say the one in Waterdeep, the factions have masses of people who conform with their beliefs in a universe where belief can change ANYTHING. Most of those people willingly and mindlessly follow the group leader like is common in modern day democracies, or religions it's something they feel very VEARY adamate about, and take even the smallest slight to the group as a great offense. (Tell your friends how dumb their religion is or how stupid their parties principles are... "friends".) Just about anyone in Sigil will be part of a faction, their perceptions and actions will be bent thusly (commoners don't have strong wills) and your actions with them will generally reflect on the faction who will generally take note of it.

These and other things make the factions prominent. They may be quite obscure if a body's only experience is PLanescape:Torment and this server, they certainly are in my blindspot as a new player to this server, and I'm looking for them!

No offense, but as a DM I would think a Planescape character that didn't feel strongly about at least one of the factions is so thin as to be transparent. Perhaps if you take another look with a mind of what their about: A group of people trying to define the universe. You character is in a city where this is prominently talked of all over (I know not whether it's actually apparent to your character in this server, but that's the concept behind factions in the books. They're the mainstay of an average conversation.) and your character's like "Who cares about the universe, I don't even have an opinion, I just want to screw and amass treasure"?

Even for those characters: They don't care about anything except whats happening in the moment, that my friend is a Cipher. They don't think it can be defined or it's pointless to do so? Bleaker. They think the whole things foolish (or at least the other groups that pretend they know.) -> Free League. All those are crude and single perceptions but more or less so.

In a general campaign their influence and benefits (or lack there of) would be so large your character, prime or not, would not be able/sensible want to avoid it. Even characters that want to avoid someone atop them -which I assume is how all your characters are if anarchist is the closest to a faction they'd go- I would think they'd still have somewhat of an acceptance of at least one belief, a soft spot for a faction if you will. For instance having an utter dislike for an organization (or anyone) telling you what to do. In which case Free League sounds like it fits you no bosses or anyone dictating you just a loose group, Free League believe Freedom should be forthright, fought for, and the only thing worth living for, Freedom is the truth. Unless indeed you feel the other factions, and indeed ALL forms of dictation are what are hiding the truth, to get to the truth you need to destroy all the deceivers so everyone can finally see it clearly (everyone's being blinded, by the factions for one thing, lying about the workings of the universe only for POWER). You could sympathize with either but I suppose feel uncomfortable being tied to them. From my experience factions and their philosophies are broad and quite near to all encompassing if even only in minute ways.

However I've certainly had blindspots before. Perhaps your characters do have beliefs that are outside of the fifteen, perhaps even obvious ones that'll cause me to laugh aloud and be like "How did I miss that!" (from one perspective: there were originally quite a lot more factions -before the lady thought fifteen would be best- it's certainly possible.) If so I'd be really interested to know... Somehow I've never run into it.

If that sounds argumentative or telling me your characters beliefs are too far off topic PM me, if you would, I am quite curious.



--
With regard to the Lady:

I would imagine in this server the lady's used as a RP perma-ban for any reason the DMs find justifiable and necessary to do (if she's used at all). So probably just consulting the rules will do. As far as I recall she was never supposed to have interactions with the PCs besides maybe a DM going "Screw this"... (Though that did change as the setting aged.) Though as Mr Otyugh said, she's suppose to be an inscrutable plot devise. Defining her or her actions/reactions sharply diminishes that.

Don't pray to her, don't be a god in Sigil, don't try and dispost her... Those are all in the books and probably safe to assume present in the server, and known by most characters. Spoken perhaps by NPCs throwing knifes in the dark -if at best- who rattle their neck a little more that what's good for 'um..

As far as a basher has got the knowing or ear to hear it's the ladies cage, she can floth or flith it as she pleases. She don't go rastlin' about spilling her darks, even beards don't know 'um... They're black as a drow's under! Not even a "Hey lad, Bad dog, NO!" play the criss-cross with a lady's string and, no sooner than dart, a shadowy lass'l come floatin' by ya' and them's the ends. Where do those strings lie? Most bashers'll drop a line or two for you. Walk down the wrong rue and you might even bob a first-rower.

So as far as your characters concerned or can gather she should be this very powerful entity (within the cage anyway -and at that assumed the most powerful-), who can do whatever she likes and doesn't display herself, her motives, or her rules. But to hear tell of it, you mess up and that's it. Your characters pick up what she doesn't like by hearsay (or perhaps witnessing firsthand).

(Though that's all from the book, generic like, so it's just my assumption the lady functions that way in the server.)



--
It seems to me the Communities walking on thin ice around itself. From the few threads I looked at it feels like everyone's walking on egg shells. If that's true then nothing will change with regard to things missing or drastic possible improvements, as they propose change in a community that's fearful to sail from the coast, untrusting of the ship. (The communities so that even the smallest waves are probably felt, so though I don't agree with it I can see where you're coming from it that's the case.) If that's all true and stagnation is happening then the server is indeed coming to it's finish.

As far as I can see their are two major, simple ways to rectify it (at least from the "this severs" as opposed to "this game" angle). 1) throw someone in a leadership position who will force the changes needed, wanted or not. 2) Instead of focusing on minimizing the negatives, accentuate and expand on the positive. Do what you do well!

Two is definitely the safe option, I doubt this community would be willing to put up with option one, or that anyone in this type of community who would take the role would do so for the servers best interest. (I don't think you're all cheats, rather all too... cautious.)

As an example: Planescape:Torment can be regard in some ways as the worst CRPG, in others the best.




Surely there are reason why those present even in this discussion continue to discuss, play, and/or enjoy this game. Hopefully it's not only investment and responsibility or this server truly is doomed. If it's the social aspect, interactions with the other players, then it lives only as long as the more interesting ones stay.

So far as lore goes, I personally feel as though some sort of decimation happened... Though I've only played little, perhaps it's just evaded me. However so far as new players retention first impressions are significant. For a player who's into Planescape, and only choosing this server (or perhaps even Nwn2) for that reason, to come in as I have and see little... The player who might have stayed with some commitment now leaves (Not all, me being an obvious exception, but even I would feel more connected and probably stay longer if it felt more like the Planescape setting). "Sigil" -relating to the Planescape setting- is the only reason I choose this server as opposed to Bladur's or Trinity, a larger player base just gives more opportunities. (and imposes a sort of "More people like it so it must be better" thought.) Perhaps lore is present to an acceptable level as one has suggested (or maybe they just said factions..). Even if that's so, a focus should be given to Lore for new players, using NPCs would be wise as they're always present (as opposed to events).

One thing I feel was done good (Surprisingly well, considering graphics, the eleven year old toolset, and the need to minimize for players with lower end gaming machines, and volunteering) was the areas. You'd expect more from a 2017 title surely (which may lessen my point for some -expanding player base-). The lack (small amounts) of NPCs in some areas just felt weird (I figure that's just for minimizing the unnessasary though). And strangely enough I couldn't find a NPC to join a faction at the headquarters, bizarre but just a little quibble. Otherwise all things consider I'd have to say I'm impressed, and it may be the only reason I personally am staying.

Such things also tie in well with a dominating theme of Planescape: exploration, vastness.


The last thing that comes to mind is the vast options for character creation, buggy (how could it not be) but it's still awesome from an RP perspective. If I had to guess I'd say this is the main reason people stay outside of personal connections (Social).'

The last two are actually of good quality as is. Fixing the bugs and adding NPCs probably won't make that grand a difference concerning retention (and depending on the multitude of areas currently accessibility) nor will adding more Areas and races/classes. Those two things I feel are of a quality or quantity to last someone quite some time. So the obvious answer considering all that is this servers MAIN attraction is it's freedom. That's definitely the reason I'm playing, when playing table top I love DMs who are like "I'll roll with it" (Pun intended).

Your main draw then (perhaps omitting things) can be summarized as freedom. Now just do things that emphasize freedom. Provide as many options as possible. Rework the quest to give multiple path ways (and throw in some lore while you're at it -A self-imposing and arrogant Graglarthedumb suggestion-). Make your events like wise as close to the antithesis of railroads as water is to fire (assuming they aren't already). Most importantly provide more than the apparent means (grinding) of leveling up. Don't throw out grinding, or anything that doesn't directly force action, Just add acceptable other means to a player ends. If one runs out of those possibilities then add new ends for the players. Make Sigil feel vast and full of possibilities, nonrestrictive and in that sense real.

So assuming that stagnation is present... That's what Graglartheforcerofunrequestedopinions has to say about that. Advertising as Theodoreicks suggested (and emphasizing freedom, but even alone) could only help with the number game at the cost of a little time.

[*DigitalDragoon]

Extremely nice points have been made by Graglar regarding the settings. I like this post and enchant it with a +1 bonus.