A shaft of scintillating light suddenly pierces the ceiling and strikes the ground next to you. The beam of light then explodes in a shower of sparks and Carraig is standing in its place.
A shaft of scintillating light suddenly pierces the ceiling and strikes the ground next to you. The beam of light then explodes in a shower of sparks and Llearyn is standing in its place.
A shaft of scintillating light suddenly pierces the ceiling and strikes the ground next to you. The beam of light then explodes in a shower of sparks and Smite is standing in its place.
A small furry skunk appears out of nowhere and wanders up to you. With a sly skunk grin it begins to spin around like a small furry top when suddenly a giant cloud of smoke fills the room. As the smoke clears, Von is standing in its place.
Krash exclaims, "Good evening folks!"
Carraig says, "Evening everyone."
Krash says, "Thank you very much for coming by this eve, let me introduce the GM's that are present this eve"
Krash says, "Llearyn is here, our head honcho on the CE side."
Smite applauds.
Llearyn waves.
Von lets out a cheer!
Krash says, "My partner in crime Carraig is at my side"
Smite turns to Carraig and cheers!
Carraig cackles!
Llearyn applauds.
Krash exclaims, "The smelly skunk Von is here to freshen the air!"
Von snorts.
Smite sniffs at Von.
Smite winces.
Krash says, "If you haven't encountered Smite, he's the SGM on the development side, he's with us this eve as well."
Smite raises his fist defiantly.
Llearyn gestures and a shaft of scintillating light from somewhere above pierces the ceiling and engulfs her. When the light recedes Llearyn is no longer there.
Krash says, "This forum is presented to give the players an overview of what we've done this year....."
Krash says, "along with talking a bit about our plans for the remainder of the year."
A shaft of scintillating light suddenly pierces the ceiling and strikes the ground next to you. The beam of light then explodes in a shower of sparks and Llearyn is standing in its place.
Krash says, "We'll also have some time to answer questions from you all as well."
Krash says, "For those of you unable to join us for a beer at Simucon....."
Krash says, "Smite and I chatted about the roles of CE and Development in regards to events."
Krash says, "We each have our individual responsibilities...."
Krash says, "but work together as a team in order to provide the events."
Krash says, "I'll going to let Smite start, by chatting a bit about what some of the events entail from the development side of things."
Smite says, "Heh, sure, pass the buck."
Krash passes a buck to Smite.
Smite says, "Ok, for those that don't know, I'm GM Smite, and head up the Development Events team"
Smite says, "Basically, since we're on the DEV-side of things, we are responsible for mechanics of all the major events you see."
Smite says, "Everything from concept, to design, implementation and coding, to quality control and testing."
Smite says, "This also includes building areas that are specific to quests and events, such as Ebon's Gate, the Oleani Festival, and the History Hunt."
Smite holds out the buck and says, "It stop's here!
Smite says, "Basically, we work in conjunction with CE to see that everything runs as smoothly as possible when it comes to these events."
Smite offers Krash his buck.
Krash grins.
Krash exclaims, "ok!"
Smite points out that Krash didn't take 'the buck' and it must still stop with Smite.
Krash says, "on the CE side of things, we are the folks that are responsible for the brunt of the merchants and alterers....."
Krash says, "organizing the events, both big and small......"
Krash says, "and on my end, trying to find that balance that will keep things interesting for you all."
Krash says, "I do have some numbers and information I'd like to share with you folks in regards to some of what we've all accomplished this year."
Krash says, "While it might be hard to believe....."
Krash says, "from January to July we've had nearly 800 different events"
Krash is obviously the brains of the operation.
Krash says, "now of those events, about a third or so were in platinum, but we've had over 500 in prime alone already..."
Krash says, "August is going to set a record for us."
Krash says, "we expect close to 150 different events to have been run this month"
Krash says, "some of you are probably wondering...."
Krash asks, "exactly what is an event?"
Krash says, "If Von walks by you in his skunk suit...."
Krash says, "that doesn't count"
Smite snaps his fingers.
Krash says, "Basically, an event can be a merchant.."
Krash says, "invasion..."
Krash says, "odd messaging that goes on for a long enough period of time to make an impact"
Krash says, "storylines chapters..."
Krash says, "festivals..."
Krash says, "games...."
Krash says, "anything in which a group of players can be involved for a reasonable period of time"
Krash says, "simply seeing a snake crawl out from under a bench is not an 'event'"
A snake crawls out from under a bench
Krash exclaims, "hey!"
Carraig says, "Well, it may be for the snake."
Krash grins.
Krash says, "I want to mention some of the neat stuff we've done this year so far"
Krash says, "It's been a pretty darn good year event wise, why don't I let Carraig mention some of what we've accomplished"
Carraig says, "We've manage to hold several, what we consider to be large, events this year."
Carraig says, "Those include, the Rivers Rest Fair, the premium auction, the Snowflake carnival, a plat celebration, the founders festivel."
Carraig says, "The Butterfly festival, the Oleani Festival, a Plat auction."
Carraig says, "The Hunt for history, the Goat Festival."
Carraig says, "Plus, a number of area openings."
Carraig says, "Which also had events attached."
Carraig says, "The Abandoned inn"
Carraig says, "The Stone Valley Stronghold"
Carraig says, "The Thrufel Island saga"
Carraig grins.
Carraig says, "erp, Thurful"
Krash exclaims, "he's insane I tell you!"
Carraig shivers.
Carraig says, "Now I'm dead."
A long black tendril creeps along the floor and begins to wrap itself about Carraig's ankles.
Carraig mumbles something that you don't quite catch.
Krash says, "I think he missed the opening of the Solhaven zoo as well"
Carraig says, "Oh, of course, the Zoo opening"
Carraig grins.
Krash says, "We also had some pretty neat events attached to some of the spell changes as well"
Krash says, "We all read the boards."
Smite coughs.
Krash says, "We have a pretty clear idea of where we can still move forward, and some of the issues we've had in the past....."
Krash says, "Unfinished storylines has been a huge issue for us"
Krash says, "We are very aware of that and probably the biggest reason is simply GM's started a storyline...."
Krash says, "then moved on. There was no documentation....."
Krash says, "or worse...."
Krash says, "the storyline bore no resemblance to any history that made sense with prior history."
Krash says, "We've nipped that in the bud."
Krash says, "While we can't cure the unfinished storylines that can't be concluded for those reasons..."
Krash says, "we can be sure new storylines are fully documented and qc'd prior to even beginning."
Krash says, "Another concern that is evident, is that we don't have enough storylines working."
Llearyn just left.
Krash says, "I"m rather proud of what the GM's have accomplished with the Thurfel saga....."
Krash says, "but clearly we need to augment that with several other quality storylines that will involve a good number of folks."
Krash says, "We have several plans in the works...."
A shaft of scintillating light suddenly pierces the ceiling and strikes the ground next to you. The beam of light then explodes in a shower of sparks and Llearyn is standing in its place.
Krash says, "and you should see at least two of them in the near future"
Carraig nods.
Krash says, "and that isn't RSN"
Krash says, "They will occur"
Krash says, "Another concern is the apparent lack of large merchant events..."
Krash says, "such as the jug or spitfire or such"
Krash says, "The amount of merchants and alterers popping up all over is way beyond anything that ever happened prior...."
Krash says, "but they aren't popping up in one central spot for two or three days...."
Krash says, "so the impact isn't nearly as great...."
Krash says, "We do realize those big merchants are well......"
Krash exclaims, "fun!"
Krash says, "Rest assured we have something in the works as well for this year big merchant wise"
Carraig nods.
Krash says, "One thing that we think you folks like...."
Krash says, "and I'll peruse the boards to be sure...."
Krash says, "is the mid-size merchant events such as the butterfly fest or the wagon train that rolled in this past couple of days....."
Krash says, "five to ten merchants, all with a variety of goods, games and such."
Krash says, "My personal goal is to try to put one of these together each and every month if possible."
Krash says, "we'll rotate towns...."
Krash says, "rotate merchants....."
Krash says, "be sure its weapons one month, garb the next, food the next, etc"
Krash says, "try to come up with something for everybody...."
Carraig nods to Krash.
Krash says, "Another issue we have sometimes...."
Krash says, "is that nobody knows when we have events."
Krash says, "The event verb was pretty good....."
Krash says, "but we've improved upon it"
Krash says, "We now have a full blown tool you can use. Let me allow Llearyn to chat about this, we're all pretty excited about it."
Llearyn says, "Hi folks."
Llearyn says, "This month we released the event calendar system."
Llearyn says, "I wanted to go over a little bit about it, then talk about some of the stuff coming up that it will offer."
Llearyn says, "I know you'll really like it."
Llearyn says, "I'm sure you're all aware how it works."
Llearyn says, "Basically you can pull the calendar up from anywhere using a browser."
Llearyn says, "YOu can also pull it up using the PC Wizard."
Llearyn says, "We are currently working on adding a link from the Macintosh."
Llearyn says, "Those of you who have websites devoted to GS3."
Llearyn says, "You may not be aware that you can link to the event calendar from your site."
Llearyn says, "The calendar is actually a public page, which means no log in is required to access it."
Llearyn says, "We're also about to release information on how you can use the event calendar to add a "today in GS3" section to your site."
Llearyn says, "Using Java script your web page will access the calendar and will be able to show a list of the days events on your site."
Llearyn says, "No link required."
Llearyn says, "We currently schedule 1/2 of our expected events on the calendar."
Llearyn says, "This month, for instance, we expected about 90 events."
Llearyn says, "So we posted about 45."
Llearyn says, "Of course, we had about 50 events we didn't anticipate this month."
Llearyn says, "So in the end we had 90 unposted events."
Llearyn says, "and about 45 posted events."
Krash exclaims, "You won't see invasion times and places on that calendar!"
Llearyn says, "In the future the events calendar will also list events that HAVE occured."
Llearyn says, "That's right."
Llearyn grins.
Llearyn says, "SOme things we want to suprise you with."
Llearyn says, "Listing events that have occured will allow you to keep up with the news of the game."
Llearyn says, "That way you'll all be aware of every suprise merchant you miss."
Llearyn winks.
Llearyn says, "I know you'll LOVE that."
Llearyn says, "The mid sized merchant events that Krash spoke of ... that will include a number of merchants together (mini festivals)"
Llearyn says, "Will be scheduled every month."
Llearyn says, "So you can all be sure to catch them."
Llearyn says, "In addition the technology we are using for the event calendar will be used to offer other items you'll enjoy."
Llearyn says, "Some months from now we'll be able to use the system to post changes to the game."
Llearyn says, "Every bug fix, every improvement, every new system will be listed."
Smite winks.
Llearyn says, "We'll also be able to use this system to offer mailing lists to you."
Llearyn says, "If you'ld like the latest news on the events and releases we're offering."
Llearyn says, "You'll be able to join a mailing list and get the news as it occurs."
Llearyn says, "We're all very excited about what this new system can do."
Krash exclaims, "Thanks Llearyn!"
Smite grins at Llearyn.
Krash says, "So expect to see some exciting things before the end of the year......"
Llearyn smiles at Smite.
Krash exclaims, "Ebon's gate is fast approaching!"
Smite gulps.
Krash says, "We have another large merchant event planned as well this year....."
Krash says, "and we have a few um....."
Krash says, "lets just say surprises as well"
Krash says, "We're going to try to answer as many questions as we can for you folks this eve....."
Krash says, "so without further ado."
Carraig nods to Krash.
Carraig takes the lid off the question box. Use ASK to submit a question.
At this point, a power failure knocked Simutronics completely offline, thus ending the forum.