The World of Dreams needs reorganization

[Agata]

Hello dear players.

As all of you know, we haven't heard from Laephis in a while. I've tried to reach him through e-mail but he hasn't replied. As he hasn't come back, I think there is a need for reorganizing things. The current problems are these:

• Nobody has full administrator access to the web server
• Nobody has full administrator access to the forums
• All player applications submitted through the webpage go to Laephis' inbox
• I have an editor account to the WoD manual, but I don't know who has full administrator access to it
• There is no host for the live WoD server
• The current staff is just me and GM Serenity
• Our player base is too small

From those, the first four would be fixed with a new web host. It would be a matter of purchasing a new web domain, maybe newworldofdreams or something, paying for web hosting with database, and creating a new WoD page. That would be the first thing to do.

We will get to the last three problems once have the web server and new page and forum up and running.

Does anyone have any proposals for the web hosting, domain name and such?

[rocko]

Thanks for your effort. I have been watching the forum and read what you guys posted.
In my opinion, the last issue is the real issue. Even if you resolve issue #1-6, it is hard to resolve #7. I would suggest to first collect how many people still want to play and really do play, before putting effort and money to resolve the other issues (which are more or less logistic). Otherwise we are not reviving a shard into a living being, but raising a zombie that walks but has no life in it.
Sorry for being critical, but that is the hard truth as I see it. If you look at even a few months back when Laephis was still around, I have logged into the shard at various times of the day, and I hardly see a soul.

[Lancelot]

Couterpoint to rocko's. "If you build it, they will come."

[Agata]

An old, outdated shard certainly will not be attractive. That's the whole reason for updating to High Seas client. In fact, I have been in close contact with the POL developers, reporting errors, requesting for new features and even programming and fixing stuff. So many overlooked errors have been fixed.

If you look at other shards, the ones with a good player base have three things in common:
1. They are constantly adding new stuff
2. They have an active and friendly community
3. They have frequent events

We had the last two, but the lack of new stuff decreased the population. Many have moved to other shards. You have no idea of how I was swamped with requests for new stuff they used to enjoy in some other shard.

Also, there was not enough promotion of our shard either.

[rocko]

Guys your points are well taken. I certainly agree with these points.
Here is my problem though: I do not think World of dreams back in its peak days, flourished because it has all the newest features and newest artworks OSI produces. Instead, it strived to differ from the norm, by offering its own custom features, designs and philosophies. Many features WoD had, was the first among all shards (OSI included), and it took multiple years before OSI or other shards started to pick them up.
Sure I agree it takes new stuff to attract people. But how does introducing features and artworks that OSI already had, and people are already very familiar with, make WoD any more attractive than other places?
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to take away all the credit Agata deserves. I really admire you for being so persistent and putting in so much effort, despite the difficulties and lack of a strong support from players. If you can't do it, then nobody else can. Still, pardon me for being skeptical on the approach you are taking to rebuild the shard. I think all the new graphics and features from later UO versions are surely good to have, but they are in no way differentiators. It takes unique and well through new game play design to make WoD the way it is. Otherwise it is just one of those many other shards out there.
Anyway, this is just personal opinion. The way I see it, in theory it is perfectly possible for WoD to stay in T2A era and still can be a better place than anywhere else.

[Agata]

First I need to get things working as good as old WoD scripts for 095, NEXT come the design decisions. I am not just adding the new stuff from OSI, there are plans for many other things, which require playtesting. There were many discussions between me and the seers about new features I would add. All you see is the surface and the preparations I am doing, not the meat of what is to come.

Also, FYI, I have been teaching game design to university students for years. I have a much clearer view than you think.

[rocko]

That's good, then may I hear what you have in mind in terms of new game features?
I am not doubting your capability, effort or vision. You come to a shard this old, has been down for a long time, and now you put in a lot of your time and effort, despite the lack of support; probably anybody can tell you have something in mind, otherwise why bother. But reality is you only have so much time to spend, and people only see what they see right now. I am just suggesting maybe you will get more support and interest to play if people know what you have in mind and see them in action.

[Agata]

Many features are still under discussion and playtesting, but one of the easiest and most fleshed out (not yet implemented, though) is the Crafters Guild or Crafters Order. Members will gain "fame" from crafting and repairing, and this will influence their title. It doesn't sound very great on the surface, but the truth is it will give non-combatant crafters a way to actually advance in title.

Another feature under discussion is the possibility of recharging the charged items. Fire resistance, cold resistance, poison resistance, and energy resistance indicators will be used to display the total number of charges left in your items worn. The different types of resistance charges, in case you don't remember, are fire resistance, frost resistance, poison protection, electrical resistance, and magic reflection. For the last one we might use the Luck indicator. I will not go deep in the workings of how to recharge the items, that's under discussion.

This led to some brainstorming about the Imbuing skill. Currently we have Benson with his potions of magical randomness. We talked about gambling more points for a "more concentrated" potion, but then we thought about opening this as a skill to players. This is still in a brainstorming phase.

Another, the data files have two octaves of notes for the lap harp, standing harp, and lute. We have been thinking about making some harpola and luteola or similar thing. We have yet to define the way to interface with it, but my idea is a gump with "punch-holes" to mimic a pianola's roll. We even considered giving the player a way to define a short tune for provocation, another for discordance, and yet another for peacemaking, and play them on a successful check of those skills instead of the normal sounds, but we don't know how that will respond with the amount of network traffic during combat.

Then there are some ideas about pet training, reworking pet AI scripts and stuff. Think of pets with more advanced battle orders, some regarding spellcasting and healing. This led to the idea of having spellcasting on henchmen too.

Also speaking of pets, the pet training and revamped AI sprang the idea of having the Giant Beetle not only as a pack animal, but as a mining pet. "Buggy mine", target location, beetle starts mining and storing the stuff into its pack. There would be a way to put the pet to train, preferably by paying gold to a pet trainer.

Those are the most fleshed out. I didn't give most of the details to them because they are prone to change in the future. There are some others, each of them related to the new artwork and features of the latest clients, but those discussions belong to the Staff forum yet.

[Lancelot]

As far as getting a hold of Laephis.

I got this from the whois:

theworldofdreams.com Private Registrant
theworldofdreams.com@proxy.dreamhost.com
A Happy DreamHost Customer
417 Associated Rd #324
Brea, CA 92821

If you were to mail a letter to this address would they forward it to him?

[Agata]

No idea...