Jeanne and Moon Kitty

I've decided to move my journal to a different location and so this journal is now archived. Once I finish settling into the new location I'll edit this entry with where to go and I'll hopefully post more often.

Everything on this journal should be okay for as long as LiveJournal is around but if you have an entry or picture you like I recommend saving it.

There are these the impressions I get from the GMs. This is negative so please excuse my ranting. I'm just frustrated and confused at this disconnect between the players and the GMs.

1. The GMs don't seem to be playing the game so you have Slartibartfast saying Wetlands is balanced when anyone who spends even 15 minutes there knows it's not. He can point to his spreadsheets all day long but it's clear to me he's not interpreting the values right or doesn't understand how they all go together to determine who difficult an area is. Maybe if they played Clan Lord they'd have a better understanding of how the game works.


2. There's also an attitude I'm picking up from the GMs. Somewhat of a "I'm working on this game on my own time so you should be grateful I'm doing anything at all for you so don't criticize what I do or ask for more because I could just leave and you'd have nothing." I'm grateful to them for their hard work, probably without pay, but that doesn't mean I can't give them feedback about what I think they're doing wrong as well as what they're doing right.


3. There's very little communication between the GMs and the players. We have no idea what long-term plans they have for the development of Clan Lord, the direction the game is playing, or what they're working on right now. This makes the changes to the Mushroom Hut even more confusing. Don't they realize how much they're hurting Clan Lord?


4. When the GMs do talk to players I sense antagonism from them. They seem to think either the players don't know what we're talking about or are trying to manipulate the system to get unfair advantages so the GMs don't have much willingness to view us as people they can talk to and work with for the betterment of Clan Lord.

People don't hunt Wetlands. People are not going to hunt the Mushroom Hunt. People are going to hunt the Foothills less often because of the decrease in coin.

Do GMs want people leaving the library at all? Do they want Clan Lord to succeed? Do they have any idea of what direction they want to take Clan Lord?

Sometimes I think to myself "Hey! It would be fun to add another slot to your account so you can make a ranger and have fun while Jeanne is busy getting the ranks to make her an effective Bloodmage. I know you don't have much money but it would be a way for you to connect with other people."

Then the GMs do something so stupid I really wonder if I want to give Delta Tao any of my money. I wonder if Clan Lord will still be around when the ranger has enough ranks to be fun to play with. Heck, I wonder if Clan Lord will still be around when Jeanne finally has enough ranks to be a good Bloodmage, because right now she is barely stronger than a regular fighter. I just hope the ranks she's putting into Bloodmage skills aren't going to be wasted.

What did the GMs do this time? They not only nerfed the Mushroom Hut, they made it practically unusable. This was the one place where 3rd and 4th circle fighters could effectively get experience outside of the library to have a hope of catching up to the folks who've been around for years. Slartibartfast can go on and on about how Wetlands is balanced for the difficulty but he's wrong and no one goes there because it's too dangerous for the experience it gives out. I don't go there on Jeanne because she barely survives there and the place gives out no coins anyway.

First Eldon removed the ledge in the Mushroom Hut. This was so people couldn't put a healer there that they have on a second account so they could hunt there in the first place. I know Fafnir/Gustave used to do that quite often but he would invite anyone who wanted to go with him so it wasn't just him benefiting from his healer it was a lot of other fighters (and maybe even mystics) as well. In addition, if a real healer wanted to go with him then Fafnir would not use his healer because that was only a last resort. By removing this ledge, Eldon punished everyone who wanted to hunt there but couldn't get a healer to come with them. It didn't encourage real healers to play more often, but real fighters to play less often.

What Eldon did was wrong and punishing people who use healers on a second account is bad for Clan Lord. I think the GMs believe that people who have a healer bot is the reason for people to not play real healers and for real healers to stay in the library. Therefore, by punishing people who have healer bots and removing the ability to use them they will bring back real healers. I believe this is wrong and that people only use healer bots because they can't find real healers and would use them in a second if they were available. By punishing the fighters, the GMs are removing any incentive they have at all to leave the library and if fighters don't leave the library there are even fewer reasons for healers to be around so they don't leave the library and you have what we have today. A game which has 70 people on at one time only if there is an event such as a planned invasion or a trip to Trillbane and has about 20 people otherwise. A game that is slowly dying.

The second thing the GMs did to the Mushroom Hut was add Large Death Vermine and reduce the experience the tiny mushrooms give. Keep in mind this place is supposed to be tailored for 3rd and 4th circle fighters and healers so adding LDV there is absolutely insane. LDV do so much damage that there is absolutely no way anyone of that level could survive there if even one of them spawn. Since they seem to go for healers first they'll fall before the fighters have a chance to blink. Even if they manage to kill the LDV the healers will likely be fallen which means they either chain them out or they call for a rescue. Since you need an Orga Eye and a Crowbar to get in that means they might have to wait quite a while. What was the point of this change?

Reducing the experience the mushrooms give out is another insane move. The Mushroom Hut was probably the best place for fighters and healers to level in the somewhat difficult 3rd and 4th circles and to essentially remove a hunting ground means they will have to go somewhere else. My question is where. Certainly not Wetlands because it's too difficult. Noids? Valley? Melabrion's Island? Acceptable but once you've cleaned it out they spawn too slowly to be able to stay there and if it's empty the only thing you can do is go elsewhere. The Mushroom Hut is one of the few low-level areas with a good spawn rate and good experience to make it worth your while.

Now there are even fewer reasons to leave the library which means the GMs put another stake into the heart of Clan Lord. Do they have any idea of what they're doing? Do they want Clan Lord to survive? Do they have a long-term plan they're working on or do they just do what's easy? Do they have any idea of how to balance areas and classes? Sadly it seems the answer to all these question is no.

Yesterday, a large force assembled to make it to Trillbane who is the final pathfinding trainer. He has 20 lessons and after you're finished you will have invested 190 ranks in the art of finding unseen paths and, hopefully, traversing them.

I was a little hesitant at the start of this trip. Not that those present were inadequate for the challenge but that Orga lands are very dangerous and a lot can go wrong very quickly. The orga are able to cast lightning bombs that land and damage everyone in the vicinity. They can also cast fire bombs which act somewhat like a Champion's Lava Cloak in that if you're on fire you spread it if you touch any exile. In the cramped quarters of the forest the fire bombs can spread rapidly before you have a chance to get out of the way and they hurt a lot. Plus, the larger the group the less likely people will actually listen to the leader(s) and when you have one tiny to go in and out of snells and lots of people it can be easy to have a blockade of exiles unable to leave.

However, I was wrong. The exiles present were able to mostly listen and while there were a few times folks were slow in exiting, for the most part their reaction times were good. With good coordination, there were few times when I thought the group would all fall and we made it to Trillbane in only one hour. I couldn't believe it myself. Have we really gotten that much stronger?

The only disappointment was when Angadol followed Creed through the wrong path in the area before Trillbane. There are a number of paths that are one-way and one of them leads to the Waterfall snell. It's great to use when you want a quick exit home, but not so great to use when you want to visit Trillbane. Those present couldn't be clearer that you wanted to go to the northeast path to go to Trillbane and that if you didn't know where you were going you could lose the chance to train with Trillbane. The path to go to the Waterfall snell isn't in the northeast corner at all so I don't know what Creed was thinking at all. Maybe she wanted to go home early and didn't think Angadol would follow her or maybe he wasn't paying attention to the directions but regardless, he missed out on his chance to get Trillbane. Fortunately everyone else got the training, the group didn't wipe, and we all walked home to town.

Best of all, I got started on Trillbane!!!

I tried. I really did try.

I thought people needed a place to talk to each other so Vagile made a forum on the Sentinel for us and yet, no one came there to talk.

I thought the SDC needed a revamping of the clan charter to simplify the rules and to encourage recruitment and yet, no one gave their ideas.

I thought if we brought in new folks from the Winds of Dawn clan then there'd be more activity and yet, no one leaves the library.

I thought we needed an event so I wanted to revamp the Newbielympics and yet, no one offered to help.

A clan is a group of people and I can't do everything by myself. I can't make people care if they don't or participate if they don't want to or leave the library if they have other things to do.

I just wanted to give them a reason to be involved but even with trying to be active and encouraging they just didn't take the bait. I can't do everything by myself. I can't do anything by myself.

I'm the worst clan leader. I can't lead anyone.

Even though I've been in the SDC for years and years, I think that after I pay them back for what I borrowed I'll leave. I simply can't handle trying to make something out of the clan only for everyone to shrug their shoulders and turn away. I give up on clans altogether. No one wants to do anything!