Category Warrior Mages -- The Warrior Mage Scrolls (22)
Topic Familiars (6)
Message Fams and stuff (2824)
By DR-SMITTY@PLAY.NET
On Sep 5, 2000 at 04:10

Hey there,

Bet you you folks thought I had forgotten about ya :) Well, let's take a quick moment to catch up on what's been happening. First, some may or may not know (since we do get new players all the time) I've been the keeper of the fam system for many years now. Some time ago I got moved up (over, under, not sure) to the SGM in charge of systems. Now, that means not one system, not two systems, but ALL systems in the game. Yup, I was changing my shorts quite frequently on that one. So, that's where I've been. In addition, we've added many (I mean a BUNCH of new GM's) that falls into the training, lots of training. And guess what, not everyone makes it. That means more hiring, more training, etc etc. Soooo what did we do with all those new GM's? For you old timers you might remember there were complaints over unfinished citys, quests, history, etc. You guessed it, we put many of them on "catching up" with those areas that had been left neglected or were taking longer than expected. This by no means addresses every issue or concern you the player have currently with us, but it was more of a FYI for those that were interested.

Now about them fams. Seeing as my workload was becoming quite full, I thought I'd put them on someone elses plate. Funny thing was, everytime I did, they would quit. (LOL) Ok, truly, if they left, it wasn't because of that, but it did make me think they were a jinx :) As such, time has gone by, and the people we hired a year or so ago are now coming into their own and relieving much of the "overseeing" I had to do previously. Feeling a little more relaxed about the state of the game you should see more work on fams in the coming weeks.

Now, I know you folks (grin) you love to blast us (me, shrug) when you get a little information and accuse us of everything from apathy to outright sabatoge of a guild. My advice, don't go for it. I could just have easily not said anything, put stuff in, and gone about my business without a post to any of the player boards. When I see a particular topic board become a "flame" board, then I simply turn it off and don't look at it for a long time. This is me, understand, and not stating that all GM's follow or don't follow this logic. So, if you're going to respond to this post, make it fruitful for both of us.

With all that said, here goes:

current tweaks/bugs being looked at are

amount (weight) that fams can carry per level comp bug that allows comps to carry more on return trip feeding comps bug where it sometimes wouldn't recognize food in hand (should be in pretty soon) more interaction with fams more training for fams with no "special" moves fams changing "color" comps being "mental blasted" out of rangers hands fams searching for cleric near area the owner is in (ie if in shard, don't go to crossing for help)

some things that AREN'T bugs:

movement rate between "rooms" - This is a technical issue. I can't reveal the exact code used to determine fam movement but I will say this; While YOU the player can go from room to room in the same amount of time (save for special obstacles) the rooms themselves can sometime represent only 10 feet of space to 100's of miles for each room. The descriptions of the rooms may describe the distance in each room, but the game itself still considers each room connected irregardless of what the description says. So, to overcome this restriction, certain fams can move a certain number of rooms in a certain amount of time. Obviously, turtles are slower than dogs, etc. What this means is that even tho you percieve the room next to you as just "a second away" fams don't see them that way. To them, it doesn't matter if the room is next to you, or 5 exits away or 500 exits away it moves according to its ability from point A to point B. No, it's not "realistic" but it works for a fantasy game.

fams "losing" things - Fams were never intended to be lockers. They were never meant to be secure. There are instances where if a fam leaves the game any item it was holding will be returned to the lost and found chest in the jail office in The Crossing. (No, I won't discuss what those special instances are)

I rolled up a new WM and my white dog is now spotted - not a bug

Those are the main things on my mind at 4am in the morning :P If there are posts to this or fams in general, I'll read them and may respond from time to time. No guarantees.

In closing, I'd like to remind those out there that would try to remind me that this is a free country and as such they have free speech rights and are allowed to respond in any vile manner they choose. You can't run into a theatre and yell FIRE! In addition, we have our own policies here on what is allowed and what is not allowed to be posted. Also, simply trying to flame me or Simutronics will not be helping anyone. For those that think "hey cool, I can get simutronics to quit reading this topic and mess everyone elses life up cause mine sucks" will usually end up getting their post deleted and their account possibly banned.

Be concerned. Voice your opinions. I as well as the rest of the staff here want to hear what you've got to say. No posts at all means you don't care. Obviously, that isn't the case and neither is it the case that we don't either :)

Senior GameMaster Smitty

ps: Yes, I know I added stuff about comps

pps: Like comps better than fams? Roll up a ranger, that's why you get multiple slots.

ppps: Yes, the new fams will be coming soon :)