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Yes, we made a few mistakes, as is bound to happen the first time you do something new
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Absolutely. This was a trial run really; to see what it would be like, and give us an idea of time frame to get set up and going. Mistakes were expected. That's how we will learn to hone things up.
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I should have explained that we were "Same Guild" warred, for blue healing.
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Ummm, yeah/php-bin/shared/images/icons/tongue.gif
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I dont think we are going to allow the "good guys" to use Pets anymore.
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No kidding. Talk about over-kill. Besides, the idea is to role play, not pull and "OSI" and use a bomb where a fly swatter could do the job (IE: Publish 16 Bard changes /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif). The faster they kill us off, the faster the even is over with, and the shorter the fun for everyone.
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4. Expecting the Elves NOT to attack on first sight was probably a little naive, in hindsight. Even though we did tell them not to. *chuckles* I think, for Tram events, that it might be a good idea to use a "blue speaker" who is effectively invulnerable, so that we sort of FORCE the other side to not kill us and let the RP go through. It worked out in the end for us, after the massive waves calmed down we were able to play through... but I think we can prepare better.
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Having some Blues on our side acting as healers wouldn't be such a bad idea either.
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5. Preperation took a long time. Perhaps too long. I think I am going to setup resources on all the Alt guildhouses and try and organize "depot days", where players come and get guilded on all their characters and get "gear", from armor and weaponry, some training gold, skill jewelry, town runes, and so on. Of course, first we have to COLLECT all this stuff on various shards as well. Once we move to our permanent (website) home I'll do a shard call, asking for donators for typical orc, savage, mage, and townsfolk gear. Weaponry, armor, etc. Then we'll arrange a time to meet on each shard and pass it out to our newb alts. From there, those willing to train them on their own can do so, and we'll provide contacts on each shard to "experienced players" who reside there for further support.
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Yes, preparation was way too long. Over an hour. We lost a few participants in that time because of the long delay.
I'm not all that well equipped on Catskills anymore having changed shards earlier this year. But I do have a small house and guildstone. The only characters on my stones are mine currently, so as long as people don't mind being on a stone for "The Amazons of Naiades", I have no problem adding people to my stones on Catskills and Atlantic.
I have a GM smith/miner on Catskills, and I could go out mining ingots for chainmail armor, but I don't really have the place to store armor as the house is almost at full capacity lockdowns (small tower). But I can certainly help craft it and if there is someone with a house that has more storage, it can be kept there.
Again, the same situation on Atlantic. I have more room on Atlantic, but not nearly enough to keep dozens of pieces of armor in secures.
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6. After tonight, I am totally sold on us making semi-permanent characters in the various "obvious" classes. As I see them, we can use 4 slots for an:
- Orc (with Ork Kin Masks, we can use the spawns as extra fire power)
- Savage (with savage paint, we can do the same)
- Undead (even BUYING necromancy will give us enough points to transform into wraiths/banshees/morlochs)
- Multi-Purpose Human (Pirate, Bandit, Mage, etc.)
- Open slot for specific roles.
Now I don't expect all of us to have the time to train up 4 new characters, but we can at least provide their standard gear for them ahead of time, so that all we have to do is show up and get gated!
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I know I don't have enough time to work up more characters, and I really don't have the desire to work up more skills either. I'm burnt out from skill building actually. But I don't mind being a weak newblette/php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
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7. Quest Coordinator Duties should be delgated further. I think I took on too much doing the equipping, gating, plot description, and running the main speaker. In the future, I'd like to see us ask for delegation of the responsibilities.
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It is alot of responsibility for one person, absolutely. I'm amazed that you took it upon yourself to do all that yourself.
I don't mind helping to co-ordinate. I work shiftwork though, so once a month, for 8 of 14 days (including a weekend), I'm working evenings until 11:30pm, so it's entirely possible that I won't be available for some events /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif
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8. We were probably too close with our setup point to the deployment area. A more remote location, and gating the troops in at the last minute, would be a better choice. Less "casual traffic" that is RP breaking.
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Close.... far... really made no difference. Gating works well from either distance /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
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9. We need designating ressing areas. By mistake res killing is bad! hehe... though I don't think anyone really got their feelings hurt.
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Yeah, we needed a designated healing area. And as I said earlier, some blue healers on our side wouldn't have hurt either.
And yes, rez killing is a bad, bad, bad thing, and it happened to me 3 times /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif. I wasn't even doing anything. I was in the game chat trying to find out what was going on and who we were supposed to be attacking because all I saw was a sea of green....guildmates. And each time I saw monochrome, followed by a rez, and after I got my stuff, I tried the chat again, only to see monochrome less than a minute later.
Nah no hurt feelings, just frustration and I was left with the sense of having wasted my time. I mean I spent more than an hour waiting to get going while everyone gathered and got outfitted. And that was ok...sort of. I would have liked it to have been less time. I'm not one for sitting still in game that long without doing something like working a skill or hunting. Then to go to the location only to stand there for less than 10 minutes without a clue as to what to do, and no one answering my repeated questions. It all added up to frustration and I finally just left and logged out.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the experience didn't meet up with my expectations. I think a huge part of it was the fact that I wasn't aware that we were guilded to the stone of the players we were to attack, and the frustration of not being able to get the answers to clear up the confusion.
But today was the first run, and like you said, mistakes were made and lessons learned. The next time and the one after that, can only get better as we learn what works and what doesn't.
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- What did you think of using the UO Chat room for coordination and communication? Did it work in giving an OOC channel for questions and direction?
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I hate the in game chat. The window closes when you die, and when you rez, you have to find the room again. It sucks. Not to mention that it obliterates a portion of your game window, even if made smaller.
As far as communicating with it? It worked great while at your house while we were getting equipped. But it didn't work in the heat of battle. I asked in chat several times who we were supposed to be attacking, and no one answered me....and while the window was up, I was killed. Plus, after typing in the chat window, your UO window isn't the active window and you have to click on it before you can do anything like type in game or pick something up. I much prefer party chat.
Speaking of party chat. I would have liked to have been in parties larger than 3. I don't understand the rationalle for having limited the number to 3 players to party. Had there been more, maybe I could have gotten the answer to my question and actually participated instead of just being rez killed repeatedly /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif
A party of 10, or a party of 3, it doesn't make a difference in the amount of lag. As for health bars, even with 3, on my screen, they were coming and going as players moved around the area. So again, 3 or 10, really wouldn't have made a difference, except perhaps to be able to communicate with more of our group.
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Were there any "pressure points" that you felt were lacking in this event?
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I don't understand what you mean by "pressure points"?
I already suggested that we should have some blue healers on our side. That we should have a designated healing area. That we should have more players in party chat to maximize contact with each other. And I think we should scrap the game chat as it certainly didn't work, at least in my opinion it didn't.
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How do you think, other then my previous list of suggestions, we could have been better prepared? Are there any suggestions you have on how to better organize, deploy, and maximise our effectiveness?
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Yes, don't gate, guild and outfit the day of the event. It takes far too long!
Start guilding and outfitting players earlier. Maybe set aside 1 hour to do that, a week in advance, and then a few days before the event, do it again for those that couldn't make it the first time. This would free up the day of the event to give instructions on what to do, and make the pre-event preparation for that day smoother and less time consuming.
After guilding and outfitting, have the player log at a specific Inn. Having all players logged at the same Inn, would eliminate the need for yo-yo gating. On the day of the event, they login and everyone is in one location. We can allow for a window of tardiness of maybe 15 mintues, then everyone present, is gated to the house for instructions.
We spent alot of un-necessary time waiting while you gated and shuttled people around. By getting the prep work done in advance and having everyone logged at the same place, there would be 2 gates; from the Inn to the house, and from the house to the location.
<font color=blue>Another idea would be to divide up into teams (IE: blue team; red team; green team; yellow team etc.). The game chat might actually be of use if we did this; kind of a command center. Maybe the party leaders could be Blue/unguilded, so they aren't attacked. These players (Generals) would be responsible for co-ordinating their "team".
The "Generals" could be in both the in game party with their team, as well as the game chat. The game chat would serve as a "command centre", and Tal and the "Generals" could be watching the event, and planning strategic moves, which the "Generals" would then feed to their troops via party system. (IE: Blue team: Circle around to the back of the building. Yellow team: Move north....etc.). There would be no need for the other players to be in the game chat as they would be communicating with their "General" via game party system.
It's hard in the middle of chaos to be paying attention to what's going on around you, what is being said in a party, as well as trying to keep up with a game chat window. Not all of us are good at multi tasking.
By keeping the Team Leaders blue, they are more able to focus on the event and assist those who are in the middle of it, which leaves those in the middle of it, able to focus on the goings on around them a little bit better.</font color=blue>
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While I didn't really have fun at this event, it's not a lost cause, and like anything worthwhile, it will take some time to get the kinks out, and future events can only be better.
I look forward to the next one. Practice does make perfect..so maybe next time I'll actually get a chance to participate because I know what to expect now...sort of /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
<font color=blue>EDITED: To add the blue content</font color=blue>
, I've set the barkeep to use phrases that will work in that environment. So, if someone casts Explosion (Vas Ort Flam being the key phrase), the barkeep responds with "There ain't t'be fightin' here! Take it outside!" 
