Lost Spirits Series

[IceDragonDuvessa]

This tonight would have and probably should have ended in a total failure, However; since there was some confusion of battle and misunderstanding I am giving everyone on the series a chance to salvage some of it.

This is not an opening to argue whtether or not she should have been killed. She was near death when the group came to her the battle ensued and the one party member fired on her no less than 8 times after everyone else stopped attacking..she died and three people rushed to loot the body. Poor form.

What this is... is a chance to put your heads together and salvage at least in part 3 months of your hard work on this series. Feel free to pm me or ICQ or post here. I will be happy to accomodate.

[Guardian 452]

// this quest needs some thigns layed down at the beginning of the next / final session in my oppinion. If their is even a shread of this being anything but a complete failure.


Party size restriction.  for Two reasons.

1. The party is too large, and impossible to controll, impossible to keep up with convesations, impoissible to keep on track.

2. Many who have attended have no tie to this series, no clue waht is going on, no interest in playing their roles. and every interest in milking EXP and looting corpses of items their characters have no right to find at their current levels (which will lead to my next point)


NO LOOTING - Nuff said




One person to my knowledge has this entire series figured out and has for a considerable amount of time. Howerver due to being frustrated at what I beleive to be the above issues that person is not participating in the quest.




Enzo has been with this series since they actrivated the first book. He is not a thinker, that isnt his role. His role has been exactly what he as been doing.... shoot stuff..... He is good at his job and he knows it... those involved know it too and have asked him to stay on other session when the party was too big I tried to step out in order for it to be smoother.



I will gladly step out of this final session to make way for the thinking oriented players to attend.... that is what is needed now IMO.



End Rant

[jjkolb]

//This goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway:  the following is my opinion.  My perspective will almost assuredly differ from others.  First, let me say that this series had a fantastic storyine and I enjoyed it and most of the RP immensely.  However:
  I was concerned after a couple of sessions that the party size was getting too large.  I made my feelings known to Amaris and to the group.  Still, each week, the party seemed to get bigger.  There were people joining who had no idea what the quests were about.  It appeared to me that there were some that came along for the XP and the loot, and contributed little to the RP.  I'll admit that there were times that I was lost when the more senior players were talking, but I tried to contribute when I could.  Also, the party got so large that the major battles turned into a big steaming bowl of lag soup.  On one occasion, the lag was so bad that the action froze and when it came back, I and others lay dead.  Frankly, there were many deaths on this series and I was surprised that didn't deter some of the participants.  The sheer size of the party certainly took some of the fun factor out. 
  I can understand why people wanted to join--it was a great series.  And to be fair, there were no party size or level restrictions placed on the group by Amaris, she left it up to us.  Still, we as players must use discretion and a little common sense, and for the sake of the others, refrain from joining a quest series mid-way through.
  I think for the second chance Amaris is offering that the group should be restricted to those that were there from day one or at least have been on say, 80% of the quests.  (Some of us had RL conflicts and could not make each week.  I for one missed last night because I was in the emergency room for eight fun filled hours. (everything is OK)).  Besides, I for one caught a lot of flak from the wife over this series.  I'd hate to have it end like this, and I thank Amaris for giving us a second chance.
  There, I'm done.

[Guardian 452]

I sugest to any one REGUADLESS of player level to speak to Icedragon if you want to learn how to help save this series.
 
 She doesnt want all she has worked on for the past few months.... building levels, creating new monsters... making this story of EPIC proportions all fail.  
 
 She has given us this last chance and she is willing to help any that come to her in the days leading up to the final session.
 
 
 
 I doubt she will hand you the "easy button" to click we win. but if you are serious about this series and about events that WILL be altering this world. Do what you can to learn what has happened, and what if anything you can do to help.

I also encourage you asking other people in game about it.



 G-452

[aragwen]

Would it be possible for the people involved to meet sometime ingame to discuss and share information.
  I am on GMT time, so I am we can have some suggestions on times we can try and coordinate it.
  8PM or 9PM PST any evening this week will work for me. Any suggestions?
  Regards Aragwen

[Asmodean]

// sounds like a great idea aragwen.. I should be able to be on most nights this week around 8-9PM PST.  My schedule is quite crazy, so if anyone would like to post a date/time on the Player Calendar, I will try to make it.

[DMOE]

While I wasn't on the quest I was involved in the sidelines and I'm slightly more involved now so can I be inlcuded in the discussion?   If only so I can wait until you've all finished sharing information and then shout at you!

Unfotunatly I'm GMT so 8-9pm is like 3am for me so I'd settle for a discussion with someone who was there so I know what is going off!!!

[Dorganath]

// I'd like to make a friendly suggestion, if I may.
  // This quest series is not just some long-running event but is actually a plot-level series, as was announced at the very beginning. This means the outcome of the series can and will affect things in the world far beyond the quest series itself; it's not just something fun to do each week.  As such, it may be a worthy idea to consider not limiting a discussion to only those characters on the quest but rather to leave it open to other folks who might have some additional perspective to offer.
  *jumps down off of soapbox*

[KageKeeper]

//I would love to meet and discuss ways we can salvage this one. I would hate to see it end in a total failure. Ice has put such a huge amount of work into this and it has been so totally enjoyable!

//Unfortunately, during the week, I go to bed around 9:30ish PST as I get up real early for school, so if we met at 8 PST, I could be there for at least an hour or so.

[jjkolb]

//I too can make it at the times Aragwen has posted.  Just choose a night.

[aragwen]

//For what it is worth... I have added an event to the calendar for Wednesday evening 8PM PST. Anyone seeking information or having information they would like to share is welcome to attend.
  http://www.layonaraonline.com/forums/calendar/event-view.asp?eventid=1419&year=2005&month=11

[Sahala]

A little background before I spout some opinons:

Sahala (the cat lady) joined in on the last 4 or so of the quests, after she had heard about the possible rise of a new god.  As she's still behind the curve on knowledge of the surface and its events (she's drow), she takes all opportunities to learn more information.  She's previously been involved in the world plot quest involving Carocsa, the Shark Lord, and the deal between Mist and Pyrtechon.

Realizing most of what they've encountered is beyond her (she's 10th lvl), she usually stands far in the back or behind a wall for cover, all the while invisible with random assortments of protective spells just in-case a loose area-of-effect spell hits her.  The only time she died was when Blood showed up last time.  She never looted anything.

That said, here are some thoughts:

The party has been freakishly huge, but then, it is a world plot quest, and by all rights, it's only fair that any person of the world have a chance to affect it.  It's not always the most efficent, wise, or safe way to go, but if every plot quest had only the most efficient team to solve the issue, only a few people would ever be involved in the major happenings of the world.

Before everyone gets on their high horse and starts verbally chastising people, namely, chastising the lower level characters (characters less than 15th lvl), for looting, dying, etc, realize that
1) many of the players of the lower level characters are newer, and some completely new to world plot quests.  They have little or no knowledge of the etiquette and assumptions we adhere to on a quest of this cailber.

2) Leadership in such large groups is a must, and as an observer, I saw little leadership, and more yelling and whining.  I'm not saying this is always the case, but it was what I saw in the last installment of Ice's series.  You say, "Wait!  How can you say that?  Rhizome and Rev and Rem were there!  They're always the leaders!"  Excuse me?  Just because I happen to know they are epic characters does not mean that my character Sahala recognizes that, so she cannot assume they lead simply because of their level (strength, knowledge, etc.).  What I'm getting at, is that there were so  many that assumed who the leaders were, there was never any RP to determine the spokesperson, combat leader, etc.  You say, "Well, if they had been on the previous quests, they would have known."  See my earlier statement about world plot quests.  For that matter, so many seemed frustrated at the size of the group yet they did nothing to organize it other than, "Stay out of the way and don't die."  Granted, that's IC for some, but if that's the kind of leadership that existed in the party, death should have been expected.

I'm not trying to say that anybody did something wrong or bad.  Rather, I'm trying to point out certain consequences of certain choices the party made as a whole.  The party acted fragmented, so we got fragmented results.  

Perhaps in the future, certain etiquettes will be explained, and more time will be spent in defining the roles of those present in the party. In essence, more time encouraging and working together and less time complaining.

[KageKeeper]

// awesome Aragwen. I will be there for as long as I can be there.

[Grid Blader]

This is a great quest, alot of people want to be on it.  I dont blame them.  It has been great.  Ice has put a lot of time in to this and we failed baddly but she has given us one more chance.  

(edited Grid)

[KageKeeper]

// Just wanted to bump this as a reminder this is this evening for all who wish to be there.