[Harloff]

After long hard considerations I have decided to speak my mind about Layo, the main reason it has taken so long for me to decide to do so is that, I am counting on being banned for doing so. But now I have gotten to a point were that simply doesn’t matter anymore, I just think there is to many problems with the server and it bugs me greatly, so I have decided to try to alter things one last time or leave anyway.

But because, I am counting on being banned I will start out by saying goodbye to all my friends on the server mainly the old orc team (including Harlas of course) and Raven. And I have saved a quote from LOTR for this moment, it sums everything up pretty nicely I think:

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." --Bilbo Baggins

But back to my view on Layo, as I see it the main problem with Layo is that it is so poorly managed, which is clearly seen in the updates. For as long as I have been here there have been bugs on balancing and problems with some of the prestige classes, e.g. Spellswords with useless feats and Skalds with illogical feats that are equally useless (15 Fort. save or die for a level 10 feat which you can get on level 18 or so “the fearsome but utterly useless broken wail” *shakes his head* “what the hell is that supposed to kill”). But instead of fixing such problems we have gotten flowers, scrolls we can write on, horses to ride, and last but not least the “farming craft” (which is implemented on a server that is scheduled to be shut down, my guess is that it will never really work before the server no longer exists). I know that these things are all nice RP stuff and it is of course a comfort when you have an absolutely useless class that you can walk around in Hlint and give people flowers, at least that I something to do when you are unable to adventure. And yes I know this is an RP server *puts flowers in his hear on jumps around on a meadow looking joyous* but I for one don’t belong the group of players that think that is enough.

Balance... Well... D&D is by its nature unbalanced and that is fine, and by making a low magic world you get even more unbalance, BUT to make the unbalance complete specific summons for all gods were introduced making some of the priest much more powerful than others and making some of the spell casters more powerful than they were in NWN. If I remember correctly druids get a summon on level 16 that has a challenge rating of level 23 or something similar.

Furthermore, from day one I have found the strange secrecy on the server ridicules, the secrecy level would make organizations like CIA, NSA etc. jealous. But the truly amazing thing is that there is absolutely no reason why everything is so secret, I know that many discussions about the plot, players breaking rules these sorts of things have to be secret. BUT why is it a secret what will happen to the characters in the transition to NWN. (I assume that the team knows what is going to happen but seeing what takes place on this server in general makes me think that this might not be true after all). Why can’t we get the info we need in order to RP, like the history about Krashin that is secret according to recent posts, or why can’t we get info on the relations between the gods I simply cannot see any good reason for such information to be secret. Unless of course someone somewhere feels important having information that no-one else has... AND why doesn’t the team ever ask the players what they would like to have implemented, why this “we know what is best for you attitude”? None on the team are my parents and they don’t even know me so how could they possibly know what I want? As a player you are constantly asked to donate for the server but why should a player donate? The players don’t have any influence, they aren’t even allowed to say “I think this is an awful idea!” the only thing allowed is to march at the same pace as the team wants you to. And if you get out of step and state you’re mind you can be quite sure to have a DM will give you a very impolite answer, or you might get lucky and see ORTH’s drama queen act. “When I read something like this I just don’t know why I spend so many hours on this project...” I really like that one, always gets the tears in my eyes, quite Shakespearean actually...

Rules... yeah well there are more rules on Layo than the team will ever be able to control. But one of the worst rules is: These rules don’t apply to all players... for instance if you are a GM everything goes, e.g. Storm and Pan were allowed to break the rule about not having a noble/famous bloodline. I have never heard of a GM being denied to become epic. And it is a well know fact among the players that Pan has run “level-up exp” quest especially designed for Storms Eldárwen Hilliaraname. This just isn’t good enough GM’s should be above these sorts of things and shouldn’t take advantage of their position. On a side note Pan it doesn’t make you cool that your character has a high hide check, it just shows that that hide is one of the few skills that you can get many skill points from equipment. Oh and it doesn’t make you cool to write everything in orange either any [orange]idiot[/orange] can do that, in the beginning I found it quite intimidating but my current theory is that you are compensating for something...

In conclusion I will use a quote told to me by a theatre instructor who had been working at a harbour in his youth.

“When a fish smells, it is from its head, and if you want to remove the smell you cut of its head!”

Not that I want L removed but the root for all these problems lies in the GM team and the only way to change things is to make some changes there.

*Picks up his axe and walks out the door, in the doorway he looks back over his shoulder with a sad look on his face saying a last goodbye to world he used to love. He pulls himself together and walks out into the world trying to find a server that respects the players and appreciate their opinions.*

Harloff