Hey folks! I just wanted to take a few minutes and throw something out there for you guys. As I'm sure you all know, we as players and immortals alike all want to make Tempus a better place.

I just wanted to make sure that you know that we are always open to constructive criticism. I know that there are some of you out there that feel that we don't listen to the players, and don't care what you have to say. To a certain extent, this is true. When you say, "This sucks", or "I wish the auctioneer wasn't so spammy", or "It really blows that we don't have a way to WTB anymore", nobody is going to listen. We are all aware of most problems that exist. If they're not getting fixed, then it's either because nobody has a good idea of how to fix it, or nobody has time to do it.

When you start talking about how much some element of Tempus sucks without offering a solution at all, that shows how little thought you've put into whatever it is you're talking about, and is likely to just get you ignored at best.

So anyway, the point is, I appreciate your ideas, and I encourage you to use Realm or mudmail me directly and let me know about them. But please, make sure they are well thought out and practical. Don't tell me that mercs should have 6000 HP, that's just stupid.

Now please, do me a favor. Don't degrade the mud on public channels for god and everyone to hear. If you want to send a tell to a friend and tell them that everything I've done as grimp sucks and you think the mud should go back to the way it was in '99, by all means, be my guest. But please keep that kind of thing private. If a newbie comes and and all he sees is you guys talking about how bad this mud sucks, do you think they're going to stay? I don't.

Thanks, N

I don't understand why it wouldn't be ok to reply to this post, but someone asked the question.

Of course it's ok to reply, please do.

N

whispers into Nothings ear: mercs should have 6001 hp… and did you hear about that grimp.. boy does he suck… but enough about his good qualities…

Sly thiefs, swift monks, forest rangers, holy knights, wise clerics, fallen paladins, brutal barbarians, mystical mages, triggering psionics, scientific physics, rebel mercenaries, mechanical cyborgs, and musical bards.

First of all I would like to thank all of the immortal staff for the time, little or large, that they put into tempus. Each second spent on an idea is one building block towards a better multi user domain. Constant is the only change and I think we all need to be in full cooperation with Nothing and the rest of the immortals. As far as the players feeling that immortals don’t care, again I will have to agree with Nothing that to a certain extent this is true. After years of building, changing policy, coding, and conducting quest the last thing a immortal wants to hear is "This sucks", or "I wish the auctioneer wasn't so spammy", or "It really blows that we don't have a way to WTB anymore", or creating problems on purpose to really annoy other players, and most of all messing with newbies and taking advantage of new players. This is especially hurtful because once you spend a lot of time here it is more then just a game. To those who dedicate countless hours of their time it is a extreme disrespect to act like this. Just to suggest something about auction, I too like the old way however once all the bugs are fixed with the new way I think it will work just fine. When it comes down to it, players still have a choice to sell private. If you want to sell to public now there is a auctioneer which is convenient, no more running to arena all the time.
As far as not enough time and problems that need to be fixed, most of the time people do not give a idea to change it. When they do it is an outrageous idea such as adding a ridiculous amount of hp to a class that is not meant to. The most important thing to me is to keep each class unique and keep tempus as original as possible. In doing so also keeping players here with a newbie friendly environment, a good and fair pkill/psteal policy, and a immortal staff that is all on the same page. One of the biggest problems in my opinion is how busy and stressful some of the immortals are which leads to decision making in a state of anger. For example this is some constrictive criticism: Many players feel that immortals do not care because of there place of power and can make a decision to go the easy way out. Instead of checking there side of it and getting the opinions of others like a council so to speak one immortal will make a decision based on past accounts and sheer frustration with the individual. Mortals feel the same way when it comes to tempus after years of trying to make a character perfect it is more then just a game. Some things happen which are out of control of the player and many think the policy should change when it comes to this, others feel its just part of the game and to live with it. This is why I think realm boards is one of the best things we have here, lets use it and get input.
Things to keep in mind when talking about the elements of tempus and something you do not like.

1. Do not disrespect your fellow mudders. (aka using public channels to degrade the mud)
2. If you don’t like something, offer a thoughtful solution to change it.
3. Keep in mind it takes time to change things and have patients.
4. Don’t break policy.
5. If your action will hurt tempus to the point make players leave, don’t do it. (Of course this does not count pkill/psteal because that is part of the game, more or less if you have a problem with pkill/psteal by all means give a solution for the policy.)
6. There are only so many immortals and tools to use, keep in mind there is always a ultimate goal which is currently being worked on which takes time to finish. One shovel of dirt at a time, one building block at a time…

Your thoughts…

Thanks, ~I~

P.S. Maybe we could get someone to update the tempus home page. I would be glad to help in any way I can.

Correction for above… Change is the only constant. Better get some Zzzzz.

Just for reference, there aren't any known bugs with the auctioneer. He's working exactly as intended. If you know of a bug with him, please report it.

Just one thing to suggest. Some people complain about sudden and drastic changes (such as the pk looting change a few months ago). Knowing that you generally make these changes in small parts, is there any way you could give us a hint of whats to come from this change. Nothing path defining mind you, but something like "The reason for this change is we're trying to take PK in a new direction, in the future we will be adding on to this by doing X or Y."

We have found that, without seeing how it works or getting "the big picture", if we give any inclination as to what we are up to, the mortals freak out. They are, on the whole, VERY !change even if the change is for the good. The only exceptions are if a mortal happens to be a certain class and we add a class skill or spell (but all the other classes whine because they think their class is in more need or more deserving). No, the best way we have found to deal with change is to use the band-aid method, just rip it off real quick and wait for the initial pain to pass. We have tried, even recently, to talk about possible changes… next thing we know, there is a rumor of a definite playerwipe and people threatening to quit.

woo for !change

go TG!

Nevermore is absolutly on key.

Most players hate the idea of a wipe. However I think every so often a wipe is a great thing. It gives a chance to see what needs changed as players level and it also makes it very interesting. Many rumors always circle around but like I said, they are rumors. When it comes down to it, time is the destroyer of all things and there is nothing we can do about it. Except it, and keep on trucking. Once tempus is perfectly built, maybe we will never need a wipe because of all the zones and ways to loose eq will keep everyone always fighting and battling to the top.

Most people would agree that the big players stay big and the small players stay small aka the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There it seems there is never one probelm that can be fixed with one solution. We need to be team players and keep posting here on realms for anything to change. Tempus is a MUD which if you do not know what that means a multi-user-domain, us players are the multi-users and were the targets to grab to play. So the direction of tempus players want the mud to go in is how it will draw more players to it. Keep posting…