[Kingsperson]

Hello everyone, I know you have been anxiously awaiting word from the staff team regarding what we are doing to fix things on our end so that your concerns are heard. We had been preparing an announcement since yesterday, as we had caught a lot of these concerns prior to this and had held a staff meeting to address some of them. Furthermore, we had held a meeting afterwards with the Faction Leaders and those support nobles that wished to attend, because we wanted their input.
                So, without further ado, this is what we are doing:


1.       Staff

I do not think it can be denied that we are a bit short staffed. With that said, we need to accept people we think will not abuse their powers and prerogatives, and we have been burned before when a choice has not panned out. The pool of people to recruit from is very small, smaller when a lot of staff get burnt out over time.

We need people to apply, but we also need the community to step up in how it interacts with itself and with staff. It is not conduct that helps us, or you, because it means that those qualified to take up the mantle of staff look at what is going on and outright refuse to subject themselves to the torrent of abuse that is inflicted upon staff.

Please remember that this is ultimately a volunteer position and people are sacrificing their time and fun to help you. To help you. I expected more from the community. You are all older now, most of us including myself are adults with full time jobs and I implore everyone to bring down the toxicity in general and create a better community.

As a complete aside, please acknowledge the time zone of any administrator you are in contact with. People should not be solicited to deal with administrative stuff at four in the morning.

2.       Staff Structure   

From now on we will be holding senior staff meetings every week%u2026 The minutes of which will be distributed to the admins and enforcers so they can be debriefed on what was discussed and decided.

We have also promoted Charon to the rank of Senior Administrator and are considering another senior staff member when we believe someone fills the suitability requirements.

This should get movement going on a lot of things.

3.       Mapping

As you know there's been little movement regarding mapping recently, and that is because Sage has been dealing with stuff. He has informed us he will not be able to handle mapping matters any longer, so please stop going to him for that. To fill the vacancy, I will be handling mapping affairs. However, as I am stretched thin, I am also looking for interested mappers. Please get in contact with me if you can.

I also intend to change the way  are handled so that more money flows out of the server, and so that craftsmen are more involved in building requests while simultaneously ALSO serving as a money sink. Finally, because of the two things there will be less need for a gargantuan amount of timber. In summation, building requests will need a combination of coin, processed raw resources, and raw resources to be completed.

4.       Crafting & Admin Merchants

Believe me when I say I can hear the craftsmen plight, and to effect some positive change in this regard we will be doing two things. The first, and simpler thing is reducing crafting hours to get to Tier 2 to 100 hours. The second thing is allowing the Vaegir EC quartermaster, and the Commune/Zendarian Merchans Union to purchase the goods craftsmen make at tier one for the coin cost (but not material cost). This would allow a slight money sink but allow craftsmen to quickly progress while only losing a little amount of coin. 

Charon: tier one and tier two crafters will be able to make use of this to gain crafting hours through tier one items.

As for the admin merchant, we have decided that when they come back, we will stagger them out more. We may even decide to come in with pre-determined goods instead of having orders.

5.       Fish

We are going to buff the amount of food fish grants you. I had been told awhile ago that it had been halved on another server. We will be returning it to what it was.

6.       No More Military Organization Acceptances for the Foreseeable future

For the next few weeks, at minimum, we will not be accepting any more military organizations. Passive organizations can, and will, still be accepted.

7.       Grand Storyline DnD Event on a Larger Scale

The Boyar should, hopefully, arrive tomorrow and with that there will be a great change in the way we handle events. For one, Ismirala will be used considerably more as what it was meant to. We have a few ideas, such as setting bounties on military targets, having spies sent forth to perhaps even act as saboteurs, recruiting and retaining bandits into our service, and a mixture of other passive and military events before there is a climax. One great idea I had is having a quartermaster be stationed in Ismirala to purchase raw goods from people.

Admins will now act as sub commanders, and will be allowed to lead men and assign them to tasks within the Vaegir area, though only Senior Admins will be allowed to lead incursions outside of the Vaegir areas.

We also are considering, and discussing, ways of motivating people to get on consistently on their ECs Without adding to gear inflation. One way that this could be done is perhaps by allowing those who are quite active as event characters to have an animal added to their main character as an acknowledgement and thanks for being on their Vaegirs and acting as miniature DnD characters even in the downtimes between battles/fights.

Hopefully, this answers most, if not all, of your questions. I am happy to answer some individual questions, though please understand I may need a break and if need be you can redirect the questions to another member of senior staff.
 
 CKs
No one wants to stop meta-game like CK leaks more than us as the small minority ruin it for the majority that want to help the server, for now only senior admins can see and respond to CK tickets this limits the amount of meta-game intentional or unintentional and means theres less risk of anything being leaked.

Lastly we welcome your feedback we are listening and seeking to actively improve we only ask you make it constructive.

Thank you.

[Adams]

Sounds like a plan for a healthier environment for all of us!
Glad changes are being made.

[Tirtil]

As a tier 2 stuck weaponsmith for 3 months (344 hours out of 500) I don't think its possible for me to reach tier 3 ... 500 hours is still a lot, why not just 400? We are only spending from our own pouch to craft already, no one buys from craftsman cause there's gear/arm inflation.


Yeah for 156 hours I need to spend = 16 swords cost= 16x750= 12 000 DENARS...

I will never get that 12000 denars just to spend for getting tier 3 where i will be making my money back after minimum of 12 weeks.

That's a general craftsman problem for any tier 2, or future tier 2 if you seriously think about it.

Honestly I had ideas to make about how I roleplay my smithing and all but at this point i barely get customers and tired of making zero coin or trying to persuade customers to buy stuff from me, I'm just demotivated.

Reducing the required time for reaching tier 3 will DO help, also crafting costs are extremely high.

[Yoko]

Tirtil how u only T2? Not been getting orders or something? Also 2 months.

Good positive reply from staff!
Woop woop
Orders should possibly still be allowed as its a good money sink etc, just maybe not for every day items u could get from crafter?
Idk the price comparison neither though that could be given a look at to balance it out?

[OOC Fighter #3]

I’m happy to see a swift response
However I’d still suggest making complaints public, some of them are still unanswered and having them private creates a sluggish professionality when dealing with serious situations.

[habitual roleplayer]

I’m happy to see a swift response
However I’d still suggest making complaints public, some of them are still unanswered and having them private creates a sluggish professionality when dealing with serious situations.

seconding this

not only do we wanna see some JUICY gossip

but the accused party deserves the right to see what theyre being accused of and to be able to respond in their defence

[CheetaFRL]

Everything sounds good and all but there´s 1 thing I wonder regarding point 4, crafting & admin merchants

The second thing is allowing the Vaegir EC quartermaster, and the Commune/Zendarian Merchans Union to purchase the goods craftsmen make at tier one for the coin cost (but not material cost). This would allow a slight money sink but allow craftsmen to quickly progress while only losing a little amount of coin. 

As for the admin merchant, we have decided that when they come back, we will stagger them out more. We may even decide to come in with pre-determined goods instead of having orders.

Regarding the first half (purple text), I understand that the Zendarian merchant union is mostly admin sponsored and staffed with the architect and admin merchants and all as described here: http://calradia.role-play.community/index.php/topic,1231.0.html

But from what is written down it looks like it is entirely seperate from the admin merchant (as highlighted in red text) - This thing will kill the current Merchant Guild that we are running on the center isle.http://calradia.role-play.community/index.php/board,44.0.html

We will never, ever be able to compete with base standard cost items as low as the zendarian union can go, we cannot rival something like that and it only makes items cheaper and more easily accessable, lowering the price of the items and causing craftsmen to get even less orders because why wouldn´t you get them from the Zendarian Merchants union? It is cheaper after all and likely faster.


tl:dr I dont think this is fair.


Edit: After being given an explanation from Charon it works as followed; Admin merchant buys them from the crafters but do not sell the items afterwards, letting them disappear into the void and allows craftsmen to reach their next tier more easily.

[Tirtil]

Tirtil how u only T2? Not been getting orders or something? Also 2 months.

Good positive reply from staff!
Woop woop
Orders should possibly still be allowed as its a good money sink etc, just maybe not for every day items u could get from crafter?
Idk the price comparison neither though that could be given a look at to balance it out?

I made posters, I talked to a lot of people, gave huge discounts, tried to promote myself, provided ROLEPLAY, all I getting was 3-5 customers and 5 military sickles that I made for Valantford .... in whole 2-3 months,  LOL.

[Charon]

Clarified crafting hour gain through the new system.