I've seen a few posts about creating racial instruments for a number of different races. Just wondering why dev time is being spent on this versus (insert any of the large number of Bard guild balancing and dev items). Is it for an upcoming festival? If so, I would request something else for a Bard-related shop. We certainly (as a game) have enough instruments to train performance (a skill that currently has no real use to train other than for advancement and TDPs) and if someone wants a racial instrument we have an alteration system.

-Derivan

GMs who can create items and do events are not the same GMs who can create systems. Evike is probably trained/cleared to work with the music system, but not create and rewrite the magic system.

Or: just because my building has a plumber and electrician on staff does not mean he's going to show up to accounting and temp for Sue.

I am familiar with how GMs are structured. We have Raesh and Evike as Bard Advocate and Bard Ally. Couple months ago Raesh stated that they were prioritizing their work due to the large amount of it and the small number of them (RL, jobs, ect.). There are plenty of Bard Guild events that haven't been completed outside of Racial Instruments. With that said I am against spending any dev time on new types of instruments until the performance skill makes instruments useful to train outside of TDPs and advancement. For the events side of things I would like to see time spent on guild events like the completion of the Aesry Guild and the storyline that was left unfinished in that vein along with the disappearance of the Ezruh, ect. rather than racial instruments.

-Derivan

>I am familiar with how GMs are structured.

Obviously not, since you insist on calling him a 'dev GM' later in your post.

Here's his quote for you.

>I don't code, I'm a CE GM

I'm as sad at the lack of 'code' development in DR as you are (no, seriously, I am), but Armifer and Raesh sort of hinted that there are only 2-3 'qualified' development GMs on staff right now, including themselves. Throwing hammers at Evike for doing lore and customer-experience work isn't really going to get you anywhere. It's not his job.

>>Just wondering why dev time is being spent on this versus (insert any of the large number of Bard guild balancing and dev items).

I believe this has already been answered sufficiently.

>>We have Raesh and Evike as Bard Advocate and Bard Ally.

Actually, Evike is the Advocate. I was only a temporary advocate (That ended up lasting a few years) due to unusual circumstances. Evike has far more knowledge of the guild than I do.

>>For the events side of things I would like to see time spent on guild events like the completion of the Aesry Guild

It's been said many times but the Sentinals were a massive project started many years ago. I would be shocked to ever see them finished - because the form they'd actually end up in has the same problem as some other long awaited things: The bar has been set so high by past promises and hype that the project would inevitably end in disappointment. (Su Helmas is another classic example of this).

Does this mean an Aesry guild is out of the question? No. But it also isn't a high priority - since it doesn't actually add much to the game, and certainly doesn't add any new mechanical functionality.

>>and the storyline that was left unfinished in that vein along with the disappearance of the Ezruh, ect.

Everyone involved in the Ezruh plotline is long gone from staff and as far as I know didn't really leave any notes.

I know what the planned end state for Ezruh was (And it's actually tied to Aesry), but nothing in between. I also know that our planned end point no longer makes sense with current development plans (The project he was going to be involved in has largely been cancelled for numerous reasons). What that means for the future of Ezruh I don't know. I'd like to see him resurface, but given that he went into hiding in fear of his life it's a case where I'm also kind of okay with him drifting off into the sunset.

>>Armifer and Raesh sort of hinted that there are only 2-3 'qualified' development GMs on staff right now, including themselves.

To clarify this, that was for people who are familiar enough with the magic system to do major work on it (Specifically plugging in Trader Magic).

If you're talking actual coders with a reasonable degree of Dev proficiency (As opposed to "I can read GSL and fix minor typos/bugs") the number is closer to 10 or so.

>>Here's his quote for you.

FYI, Evike is female.

-Raesh

"It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true." ― The Slow Regard of Silent Things

A few posts were hidden.

---

Aneka
DragonRealms Board Monitor

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at MOD-Aneka@play.net, Senior Board Monitor Helje at DR-Helje@play.net, or Message Board Supervisor Annwyl DR-Annwyl@play.net.