EM Event Royal Council Meeting ~ 10/23 ~ 8pm EST

[EM Barnaby]

Greetings all Governors and Citizens,

A meeting has been called for the evening of October 23rd. The nature of the meeting will be to discuss all concerns of security, military, and any existent threats to the Kingdom, or its towns. Please understand that this will be the only topic addressed on this evening.Particular attention will be paid to the reestablishment of the Royal Britannian Guard, though alternative forms of defense will be given their due consideration.

I ask that any citizen who desires to address the council first confer with the Governor of their town, and that said Governor call upon them to speak when the time is appropriate.

The King himself will not be present, as I will be presiding in his stead.

I hope this message finds you well, and may your journey to Britain be a safe one.

With Warm Regards,

Andrew Agathe
Viceroy to the King, Retired Knight of Britain

 

[Pandora_CoD]

As I have a vested interest in the topic above, I will be in attendance on BOTH my characters --- Marius, Imperator of the territories held by the Children of Darkness and benefactor of the Royal Guards, ~ AND ~ Capt. Kalmar Erikkson, Captain of the RBG, Umbra Regiment. My husband will be on hand on HIS character, Capt. Julian Lefleur, Captain of the RBG, Minoc Regiment. An invite to the meeting has been provided by Gov. Ariana Erikkson, Regional President of the Trade and Commerce Commission, Minoc Chapter and Governor of the city of Minoc. She is the daughter of Lt. Kinner Erikkson, killed in battle when she was just an infant, serving the RBG of Minoc in the War of Shadows. She is also the niece of Kalmar Erikkson, who raised her as his own, and granddaughter of Leif Erikkson who has proudly served the RBG of Serpent's Hold Naval Unit for over 50 years until his retirement. Her great-grandfather, great-grand uncles, and even one of her great-grand aunts served the RBG under the command of Lord British himself.

Miss Erikkson's entire family has had deep roots in the RBG for over 3 generations. Its a part of her, a part of Kalmar and Leif, that they are very proud of. You will find no better voice than hers to speak for the Royal Britannian Guards.

 

[Flutter]

Where is the king!
I demand that the kings health be proven!

 

[EM Barnaby]

Where is the king!
I demand that the kings health be proven!

He had a bad turkey leg and is recovering.

 

[Flutter]

Send the king my get well wishes!

 

[Bianca_CoD]

We just dusted off our old RBG of Minoc chapter and are getting it back into play... I'm hoping that player efforts are going to be recognized, yes?

Pandy, Ammy, Barnaby, and a whole bunch of us have thrown around idea on how to better implement the RBG on our shard. This should be easy for you guys to do.

Have ONE guildstone that is RBG... players can "request-to-join" the stone (but then couldn't be in other guild either) ~OR~ guilds could "request-to-join" the stone. Make them submit an "application" and go through "boot camp" etc. whatever you want. The King/Viceroy whoever, can approve or deny the request to join. Once they are approved, the players become members of the original stone, while the guilds become "allies" with the original stone. Players would then have "guild chat" to collaborate efforts, and guilds would have "alliance chat" to collaborate efforts. You can take over the already built RBG office in Lord British's castle to house the stone and "Quest NPC"s... they serve like Investigator Thorpe that gives players orders based on key words. Each town could have an Investigator Character that gives out orders in that town's own "RBG Office". Any guilds that wish to claim RBG allegiance can do so without having to join the stone, if that's their option. But the perks of joining the stone is you can add in systems like a "point system" for ranks, special "RBG" ceremonial armor, etc. things like that.

This is stuff that we can't talk about "in character" in a meeting but should be talked about, so I am doing that here.

~ Sue.

 

[Bianca_CoD]

The above idea was modified. EM Barnaby, please submit this to Mesanna --- while it may not be in the cards right now, maybe she will like it enough to put in in the near future.

We now propose to have a stone that functions much like the Governorship Stone does, except for the RBG; one for each city of the Kingdom. That stone would have a ranking system, the person of highest rank would be the city's Captain of the RBG. Ranks are awarded by point standings and points are granted by fighting and defending invasions in their respective cities or "linked" Virtue dungeons. These ranks award you special titles, armor, gifts, decorative items, etc. which builds INCENTIVE to participate.

The Captain would have special functions, much like the Governor does, which include upgrades to the city's base defense (meaning NPC guards) --- for 50,000 gold you get base level guards something like 5 let's say that patrol the city; for 100,000 gold you get level 1 guards that have a lil bit better armor and you get 10 guards; 500,000 for level 2; 1,000,000 for level 3; 5,000,000 got level 4; 10,000,000 for level 5 --- these guards would last 24 hours. Could be points too instead of gold! Like for every point an RBG player earns, the RBG stone for that city earns 1 point.

The most important part of this would be that ANYONE could participate without having to give up their guilds or alliances... like the Governor who does not have to give up their guild to be Governor, neither should the RBG characters that join. So guilds like PGoH can still keep their function as Protectorant of Trinsic and if their folks want also join the RBG stone (without having to leave PGOH or its alliances). Guilds like the RBG of Minoc or RBG of Umbra can participate without having to disband their guilds or drop their alliance with each other. So its respecting those that already have things in play, but allowing individuals the option to participate on their own.

This was hard for me to cover "in character" last night, so I apologize if I took too long to get at it.

~ Sue.

 

[Bianca_CoD]

Also about the RBG of Ter Mur...

We, the United States, have military units in foreign lands with the permission and support of those regents/presidents/prime ministers/etc. The same could be said for Britannia. There is no reason we cannot have an agreement between the two monarchs which gives way for them to establish an RBG office. The guy that Pandy met on Kalmar, came to his headquarters in Umbra, and he has the tag for RGTM I think. We cannot exclude him, that's awful to do. Has to be something we can do...

For Zento as well with the Empress (what is her name?) LOL

~ Sue.

 

[Thom]

I would rather that they not submit this idea to Mesanna honestly. I don't see a reason to have a separate stone in order to run RBG regiments. The cities have a hard enough time getting donations in to manage trade deals with the governor stones, much less having an entirely new stone to have to upkeep as well. Even if you don't use gold it's still going to cause some sort of problems. I don't want to exclude anybody either, but I don't see a reason to make a complicated new system that requires developer time when we haven't even explored any other option.

 

[Kodoz]

While I could say volumes about how astronomically difficult a task this seperate stone you're asking for is, instead I'd like to address the roleplaying ramifications of some of the things you are speaking of regarding the Royal Britannian Guard.

I could be mistaken but I believe that Queen Zhah has caught flak regarding cooperations with the human governments from factions inside her own power base; Do you think it would go over well with them to suddenly invite armed guards to her realm? I would think that RP wise it could end in a revolt against Queen Zhah. The Gargish society has been welcoming of others, but they also just went through an extremely serious infection due to their kindness at welcoming foreign remnants onto their soil. After being stricken with a plague that threatened to finish the last vestiges of their society off, I for one do not think they would welcome a foreign presence operating on their soil...even one that is commanded by one who was instrumental in the cure.

As for Zento, There are absolutely NO relationships hinted at, mentioned, implied, or ever spoken of regarding the Tokunese Empire and the Britannian Governments interactions. The Tokunese leader, Empress Arikiko (I believe that's the name she held?) is a mysterious entity who is rarely seen and seems to be entirely complacent.

Regarding Malas, it's been years since I read the original fiction...but weren't the two cities of Luna and Umbra diametrically opposed to the point that they barely kept from slaughtering each other over the years? Would the citizenry of these cities really be okay with someone else trying to subvert them into playing nice with each other and their new 'guards'? I honestly don't know here, and would need to go back to the fiction to try and have a better position to present on this topic.

However, fiction wise, the biggest problem lies in the Regency as it stands currently. A large portion of the populace is still apprehensive and fearful about King Blackthorn, due to the stain on our history that was the imposter put in place by Exodus (according to recent lore). Many players continually express their doubts and mistrust of King Blackthorn, and that he's merely biding time to do something terrible. If it were me, and I were already apprehensive...the sudden stationing of armed forces in areas that are outside the jurisdiction would be a grim portent of things to come. Were I a gargish citizen of Ter Mur, I would take offense to a Britannian Guard unit operating outside of Britannia in my own homeland unrequested. It would be an insult to pride, honor, and dignity. Likewise, I would see this is a warning shot across my bow...bow to our leader or we'll send an army.

But there is another problem with this entire scenario; The Royal Britannian Guard's mission is to protect the realm of Britannia (Trammel and Felucca) from threats within and without. This is not done best by placing troops on every facet of reality, but by focusing on those clear and present dangers to King and Kingdom...and of all the regents we've ever had, King Blackthorn is probably the most aware of that. He has always held great respect for the other races of Sosaria, especially the Gargoyles...I -HIGHLY- doubt he would ever do anything to step on their toes or even seem as if he was.

These are only my opinions, but they are those derived from the lore and fiction of Britannia as has been given to us by the developers. I would be very interested to see your responses.

 

[Bianca_CoD]

I do not agree at all with your statements.

First off, the RBG would work with the governorship system. It is not to be "governed by" it. Therefore the governors wouldn't be responsible for anything that has to do with the RBG stones. We have many systems in place that are quite similar, such as the Library and Zoo and etc. etc. they are reward systems that work on points that can be used if folks want to use them. For some people it may be interesting enough for them to participate. For Devs it wouldn't take much doing as a lot of the stuff is just "re-usable code" as all I have mentioned is already in game in some way.

The cities having a hard time getting the funds to run trade deals has absolutely NO MERIT on going forward with such a system as the RBG stones for each town. That problem is something that needs to be addressed with the developers themselves. I agree it is taxing on the governors to keep up trade deals, but I as a governor simply chose not to engage in such an endeavor until trade deals are made affordable. You have that choice. For me it was more important to raise money and supplies to build our docks.

As for the RP, you and I both know that the storylines and arcs can shift and change many times over; hence our current monarch. I do not see a case for not having RBG presences in Zento and Ter Mur AT ALL; that can be easily storylined by the EM's/EA... easily. Matter of fact, I would assume that such an endeavor would be welcomed as it would allow players that value an affiliation with those cities a chance to engage in a system they can work towards rewards and titles through. With this system, there is no quarreling among the players, no tyrant coming in to dictate this or that (we've already seen that), and no one excluding players from the game play of the RBG. It is what it is; you either participate or you do not.

Which is my entire point: MORE SELF-GOVERNING INTERACTION AND OPTIONS FOR PLAYERS WITH INCENTIVES. And certainly the RBG should be one of those! It is the oldest, most revered, most player-involved, RP theme in all of UO across all shards... dating back to the Ultima series. It should be part of UO in a way that allows for all players to be involved in with a city they feel loyalty to, which ever city that may be. This system allows for both current regiments out there (in all the shard) to participate (they just sign up to the stone of the city of their choice) and allows for new folks to be able to just pick a city if they want to be involved. Its the best more fair way to implement the RBG without all the fussing and fighting we've seen tied to it.

~ Sue.

 

[Kodoz]

You are correct that storylines can change, but the core basis of an entire character who's been in existence for years tends to stay the same...as do the policies and tenets of an organization that has existed since the beginning of the entire game. To suggest that the RBG should just suddenly change it's mandate is as presumptuous as for me to suggest you completely abandon all of your previous roleplay to swap to playing my specific version of vampiric lore because yours just doesn't jive with mine. The case for not having an RBG presence in Ter Mur is clearly because it is NOT Britannian land, nor will it ever be; It is Gargish land and they hold sovereignty there. I really don't understand how you can even try to argue that there is any way for that to make sense that doesn't involve warmongering from a monarch who by all means seems to be aboveboard and very diplomatic.

As for being 'easily' changed, I'd guess that far more goes into the crafting of the storyline and overall arcs of UO as does any of the things we RP guilds do...for the sole reason that they likely would have to get every shard on board; get the development team working on the new in game things ahead of time; sort out the reasonable reactions of people, the populace, and various factions; Figure out where important characters are, their motivations, and why/why not to include them; Go back through previous characterizations to preserve continuity as best as possible; And check through all the things that previous events/storylines have done. It's not quite as simple as you're making it out to be.

And you are entirely right! It is the oldest RP themed interactive force within the UO-verse. That's exactly why it wouldn't make any sense to suddenly have chapters springing up in lands that have no ties to Britannia. It's right there in the name: Royal Britannian Guard. Why would chapters exist outside of Britannia? For that matter, roleplay wise, it's also a bit silly to have 'City-centric' RBG chapters. It's the Royal Britannian Guard...an all inclusive unit that is meant to transcend town affiliations to defend the King and Kingdom as a whole, not a specific town. That's why there are town guards.

Since you brought it up once more though, you also seem to think that coding these systems is easy and simple. I have no idea what kind of coding system UO is run on, but I have never heard of such an ambitious undertaking as what you are saying going through quickly and smoothly without a hitch. You're proposing to interface a completely unprecedented system into an extremely old and bug filled game, one that duplicates much of the utilities of the current guild system...but cannot actually duplicate them because you want it to be independent of guild affiliation. What you define as 're-useable code' is the farthest thing from, because this means for every similar/identical use it has, they have to completely find a new way to code it so it doesn't interfere with the current existing guild system. You're asking for something that I would guess would take the dev team several months of absolutely single focused dedication to implement, and presuming it's as simple as pressing a switch and having it ready. The only way you could re-use it is if this is just another rehashed turn in system for shinies and titles, which to me is a pointless waste of time...and only perpetuates that those who have billions of gold get whatever titles and goodies they want. Simply put, this is incredibly unfeasible.

If you truly wished to encourage town loyalty, the governorship system allows for this; Your citizenry to a town allows you a voice in who your governor is, allows governors to give titles, to display your city pride...and nothing prevents you from making your own guilds based around such cities, as both of our guilds are. So why implement a redundant system? For EM Recognition and shiny little items? Because that just doesn't sound like it's worth Dev time to me, and I personally would rather they bring us new content than give us fancy titles.

 

[Pandora_CoD]

You are correct that storylines can change, but the core basis of an entire character who's been in existence for years tends to stay the same...as do the policies and tenets of an organization that has existed since the beginning of the entire game. To suggest that the RBG should just suddenly change it's mandate is as presumptuous as for me to suggest you completely abandon all of your previous roleplay to swap to playing my specific version of vampiric lore because yours just doesn't jive with mine. The case for not having an RBG presence in Ter Mur is clearly because it is NOT Britannian land, nor will it ever be; It is Gargish land and they hold sovereignty there. I really don't understand how you can even try to argue that there is any way for that to make sense that doesn't involve warmongering from a monarch who by all means seems to be aboveboard and very diplomatic.

As for being 'easily' changed, I'd guess that far more goes into the crafting of the storyline and overall arcs of UO as does any of the things we RP guilds do...for the sole reason that they likely would have to get every shard on board; get the development team working on the new in game things ahead of time; sort out the reasonable reactions of people, the populace, and various factions; Figure out where important characters are, their motivations, and why/why not to include them; Go back through previous characterizations to preserve continuity as best as possible; And check through all the things that previous events/storylines have done. It's not quite as simple as you're making it out to be.

And you are entirely right! It is the oldest RP themed interactive force within the UO-verse. That's exactly why it wouldn't make any sense to suddenly have chapters springing up in lands that have no ties to Britannia. It's right there in the name: Royal Britannian Guard. Why would chapters exist outside of Britannia? For that matter, roleplay wise, it's also a bit silly to have 'City-centric' RBG chapters. It's the Royal Britannian Guard...an all inclusive unit that is meant to transcend town affiliations to defend the King and Kingdom as a whole, not a specific town. That's why there are town guards.

Since you brought it up once more though, you also seem to think that coding these systems is easy and simple. I have no idea what kind of coding system UO is run on, but I have never heard of such an ambitious undertaking as what you are saying going through quickly and smoothly without a hitch. You're proposing to interface a completely unprecedented system into an extremely old and bug filled game, one that duplicates much of the utilities of the current guild system...but cannot actually duplicate them because you want it to be independent of guild affiliation. What you define as 're-useable code' is the farthest thing from, because this means for every similar/identical use it has, they have to completely find a new way to code it so it doesn't interfere with the current existing guild system. You're asking for something that I would guess would take the dev team several months of absolutely single focused dedication to implement, and presuming it's as simple as pressing a switch and having it ready. The only way you could re-use it is if this is just another rehashed turn in system for shinies and titles, which to me is a pointless waste of time...and only perpetuates that those who have billions of gold get whatever titles and goodies they want. Simply put, this is incredibly unfeasible.

If you truly wished to encourage town loyalty, the governorship system allows for this; Your citizenry to a town allows you a voice in who your governor is, allows governors to give titles, to display your city pride...and nothing prevents you from making your own guilds based around such cities, as both of our guilds are. So why implement a redundant system? For EM Recognition and shiny little items? Because that just doesn't sound like it's worth Dev time to me, and I personally would rather they bring us new content than give us fancy titles.

I've stayed away from this because I tend to be a little too brutally honest for some people, which gets me in trouble a lot. But I can't not keep my voice suppressed here, especially since we're the ones with active RBG chapters. I play Kalmar, the Capt. of an RBG regiment. Soooo this directly involves me. You guys are not involved directly with it! Bianca/Ariana doesn't play directly with the theme, either! So how about hearing from people that actually PLAY with the RBG?

Besides who gives a s**t where folks wish to setup shop as a "regiment" --- that's their choice. I just happened to know of one person, a gargoyle, that has a regiment according to him in Ter Mur. That's their choice!!!! Who are we to take that away? Why because the overall story arc may or may not "formally accept" that notion? Please. Let's remember that it was originally called the "Royal Guard" not RBG, that came later. The Royal Guard referred to the guards that trained in Serp's Hold, known as the Order of the Silver Serpent. Soooo technically that can definitely exist outside of Britannia.

For me... I do want to see a single STONE / QUEST (whatever, like the Zoo or the Library as Bianca mentions) that allows folks to join the RBG. Whether that's just one stone that is set up at sayyyyyyyy the Guard Outpost in West Britain Bank (cuz that just makes too much sense) or at each city, doesn't matter to me. We definitely need a FORMAL system that is governed by the Gods that gives us incentives to join the guard ---- rewards, titles, items, deco, etc. --- and that EM's can somehow interface with to send "Call to Arms" or special Quests or Missions.... yeah!

More content? NO THANKS. Like dude we have so much content already that we don't explore often at all. The UO world is hugeeeeeee. I want more "story-driven" systems like the RBG and more work done on improving existing systems like the Zoo or the Library or the Museum or Factions. Add more craftables too! Improve some of the skills, like hello taming needs more pets available; so tired of only GD's running around?!? Not more content. Last thing we need!

As for the programming.... trust me (its what I do for a living).... UO code is actually pretty simple when you basically can emulate an entire shard and host a private server. The code to add things in isn't hard especially if there is code already there you can borrow from, change the graphics a bit, tweak this, tweak that, boom, etc. The stone system is already in the game --- factions, governorships, zoo, library, museum, etc. --- its the testing that is a lil bit touchy, tweaking bugs, etc. I do not foresee this being something tedious at all.

/rant off

 

[Kodoz]

So essentially your response is "Screw the lore of the game and all it's history, I want to take the well known name and apply it to whatever I want, and since I'm a player I don't need to have any respect for what has already been written"? I don't see the logic. And you also believe that if I am not playing a character with an RBG tag that my opinion is worthless? That hardly seems fair. As for not being directly involved in it...Yes, yes I am involved in it. We play on the same shard and I for one -DO- care about continuity of the RBG. My problem with your argument is that it seems to say 'I'm a player so I can do whatever I want, regardless of established roleplay, but the EM's have to recognize whatever I do because once I've done it it's established roleplay.' This is a serious contradiction, and not fair or respectful to others. You are demanding to be recognized and respected for your choices and decisions, but seem to think that there's no reason to do so regarding others who disagree with you. While I agree that RBG units could be made interesting and appealing to people, I definitely do not think the way to do it is to establish them in places that make no In Character sense at all. You are also insinuating that the global fiction and shard fiction should 'simply change' to accommodate you...but why should it? Why should you not change to accommodate the already existent fiction?

When you say a 'Royal Guard' can exist outside of Britannia you are right...A royal guard could. A Royal BRITANNIAN Guard could not. A Royal Guard unit could easily be stationed in Ter Mur and make plenty of sense...by having allegiance to the Royals of Ter Mur such as Queen Zhah. You've still yet to justify how having a Guard unit loyal to a Britannian King makes any sense other than as a threat in a land not ruled by that King. In the time period UO is set in, having armed knights and forces in another's lands without leave or invite was a SERIOUS transgression.

More Craftables, Skill changes, More Tameables...all these things are 'More content'. I'm not sure your point here where you say you don't want more content and then use examples of more content? My point was I have no interest in another turn in system that will instantly be used, abused, and ignored...because if you can buy your title it means nothing. It is just another shiny. (I will admit I didn't clarify what I meant by more content very well, so some of the confusion here is my fault.)

Speaking of this, many shards already have a system provided for RBG, where EM's run RBG specific events and keep tally of what players do, roleplay, and how they act...and they gain rank accordingly. Rank is earned by effort and contributions instead of simply repeating a turn in over and over from what I understand. (Perhaps EM Barnaby could clarify?) Not all of them are called RBG (I believe one is the Crux Ansata, and another is the Investigators? I'm not too sure) but there is already a formalized system in place according to players on these other shards...

As for those 'Private Servers' of which you are speaking (Which are still illegal), to my understanding (And I don't have a reference on hand, but I believe it's been confirmed by Devs in the past) they do NOT run on the same code and server basis as the legitimate shards and servers do. And if it is so simple, why don't you code the entire thing and then send in the finished code utilizing the proper program and format for them? I mean, it's such a simple thing after all.

 

[EM Barnaby]

Speaking of this, many shards already have a system provided for RBG, where EM's run RBG specific events and keep tally of what players do, roleplay, and how they act...and they gain rank accordingly. Rank is earned by effort and contributions instead of simply repeating a turn in over and over from what I understand. (Perhaps EM Barnaby could clarify?) Not all of them are called RBG (I believe one is the Crux Ansata, and another is the Investigators? I'm not too sure) but there is already a formalized system in place according to players on these other shards...

Of course. Responding to a call for a "system" of sorts that included ranks, and modeled off of a similar popular system, the great EM Adris introduced The Investigator System. As many hopefully realize, I have quite a phobia of "loose threads" and try to incorporate the work of past EMs into whatever I do. Therefor, the system was continued.

 

[Bianca_CoD]

Of course. Responding to a call for a "system" of sorts that included ranks, and modeled off of a similar popular system, the great EM Adris introduced The Investigator System. As many hopefully realize, I have quite a phobia of "loose threads" and try to incorporate the work of past EMs into whatever I do. Therefor, the system was continued.

That's essentially the same thing as we're talking about except in a more formalized, normalized, across-all-servers way. That's all. If it is just one stone in the city of Britain that's fine; that would be cool. I just know that to be dead honest, Catskills with only 1 EM now... the less we put on them to do the better. More systems that they are in charge of means less time for EVENTS and they are in fact EVENT managers. And what Pandy is saying there is no need to deny anyone a right to participate in the RBG from whatever city they wish to do so; which I agree. Its not such a big deal!

But yeah we should let the folks involved in their current regiments of the RBG for the shard speak up more, since it does directly involve them not Ariana or CoD really or PGoH really. While Ariana has ties to the RBG through her family, she has not herself enlisted. CoD may fund the RBG regiment of Umbra after the "Great Divide" (as we call it), but they do not involve themselves in the inner workings of the regiment. PGoH is an empire of its own, with its own city, with its own "King" and its own guard.

~ Sue.