Hospitallers -- Players Helping Players

Discussion in 'New Player Welcome' started by Elgarion, Apr 10, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    1,291
    Likes Received:
    6,525
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    San Antonio, Texas
    Hospitaller weekly voice meeting minutes
    Sunday at 11 AM CDT, September 19, 2016
    Attended by about 8 people.

    Discussed:
    • Future for the Weekly Hospitaller Voice meeting - many small projects have spawned from the weekly meeting, e.g., sotawiki support, videos, in-game help, sotahelp.org. The weekly meetings can still bring together "reports" on what these groups are accomplishing. There could be two separate meetings (In-game focus, and out of game focus) with some cross-over between them. The idea is to keep up with conversation and interaction where people know where/when things will be discussed. Even with only a few people and few topics each week, the meetings are very useful and good ideas are created.
    • People in the initial New Player Initiative can stop using the private conversation thread that started the project. Take all discussions to the public forums in multiple places. There are forums for video creation, player help books, events, suggestions for new capabilities, in-game help areas, etc. Suggest we all use the public forums for all our Hospitaller and New Player Support ideas.
    Not many detailed discussions this week. Most things are happening daily in game and in discord or teamspeak chat among community members.

    @Elgarion, some permanent Discord invites are here and can be searched by keywords - https://discord.me/servers/1/shroud of the avatar

    Here's a thread about permanent discord links and searchability too:

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...lds-groups-public-search-in-discord-me.60623/

    Thanks!
     
  2. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    You'll notice on SotAHelp now, the resources menu features direct links to the Live Chat on the Official Shroud of the Avatar Discord Server (#hospitallers channel) and to the Hospitallers (Help) voice channel.

    Also of note, I added a handful of FAQ's today, as well as many website links to the resources page. Thanks to @Rinaldi , I discovered quite a few resources I didn't even know existed. Many thanks to @Rinaldi as well as the content creators that were linked to!

    I noticed @Mekong 's Shroud of the Avatar Help Center Discord Server was not listed at https://discord.me/servers/1/shroud of the avatar -- @Mekong , you might want to add this to the list using the information posted by @Winfield above as instructions -- your server is a fantastic resource, and I'm no longer listing separate voice servers at SotAHelp and am instead listing a link to https://discord.me/servers/1/shroud of the avatar which merely uses Discords live information to show all public SotA Discord servers (Yay! One less bit of info I must keep updated directly).

    Thanks to all! Long Live Shroud of the Avatar!
     
    Winfield, Acred and Time Lord like this.
  3. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Did you know you can embed the main resources page at SotAHelp.org right on your website? By doing this, it allows us all to work together to build a fantastic resource page as a community, bringing together our efforts to compile a single, interactive resource of resources!

    Instructions on how to embed the Resources Page for SotAHelp.org on your fan site!

    An example of this resources page embedded on a site other than SotAHelp.org is at RPOTA.COM. You'll notice that the embedded content takes on the styling of your site.
     
    Winfield, Acred and Time Lord like this.
  4. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Corrected some out-dated links on the main topic of this thread, added link to instructions on how to embed SotAHelp resources on fan sites (not sure if @Berek would approve allowing the actual script to embed the content to be posted on the forums, I can adjust later if that is acceptable), added permanent links to the SotA Hospitaller Discord Channels (both Chat and Voice) right at the beginning of the topic for quick/easy access.
     
    Winfield, Acred and Time Lord like this.
  5. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    25 September 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Kazyn has found a large group of newer players and finds it interesting we're still getting significant numbers of new players. Has noticed a drop-off of new player support in the starting locations. Has seen a lot of positive experiences. Feels the Steam ratings are rising which might be be attributable to the steady influx of new players.
      • Temujin had two newbies fresh off the boat just this week--suspects the availability tag on SotAHelp is directing people in need towards her.
      • Justyn is finding the availability tab at SotAHelp is helping people find her since she's not in a starting location. Justyn will start a thread to promote the availability feature on SotAHelp.
      • Kazyn said that the raffle project has some confusion associated to it, especially due to a moved thread and a pointer to the old thread which has outdated information. He's worked hard to clarify any confusion. Lazarus linked a clarification post which might help: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-raffle-update-r33-and-r34.64043/#post-660486
        • Grimace suggested to @Berek to make the forum threads about the raffles main story articles on the main site.
        • @Berek said he'll try to put up something on Monday or Tuesday
        • Sydron asked where are the raffle tickets, Kazyn answered the Housing/Homes vendors. @Berek will update the description to include the purchase locations.
      • Winfield asked if there is any ugliness lately about the Hospitaller program.
        • Laz stated that some might not know what the Outlander tag is about.
        • Had two complaints about about a PvP flagged player tagged as a Hospitaller, Laz stated if he's helping folks as a PvP player, that is acceptable.
      • Kazyn indicated folks will need to be educated on the upcoming cooking changes and how food will affect regeneration.
      • Winfield indicated that R34 release notes should be very well reviewed by Hospitallers so that they can help new players more effectively.
      • Themo Lock mentioned that Decay is coming, and we'd best prepare for explanations.
      • Sydron Knight & Winfield discussed the possibility of having a 1 page PDF describing housing, permissions, basements, POT types etc. Need volunteers for this project--contact Winfield.
    • In-Game Support Locations:
      • Womby has offered up the space in the bookstores for Hospitaller storage and books.
      • Yellow Pages/SotAHelp InGame Support Locations: discussion about how to go about listing support locations took place. Undecided if we should proactively look for locations or location owners should come to us to list them. Also there is concern over listing locations without permission from the owner.
      • Themo Lock has a housing initiative for the homeless which can currently house about 70 players who do not have housing as of yet. Contact Themo for more information about obtaining lodging as part of this endeavor. The areas also features many RP locations such as bars and theatres and meeting halls. @Berek stated that it was a "crazy awesome" location and is very happy with its progress.
        • Its a water keep in Lockbrier
        • @Berek stated he can social advertise locations such as this
        • The place will go public once a last few changes to deco occur
        • Justyn offered stealables, Themo stated the mostly need wood for the project.
        • Gaelis expressed excitement and happiness with the project thus far.
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Lazarus has asked question about the events calendar, people claiming Kazyn does not have time to support it (at times). Lazarus has volunteered time to assist with the calendar. So has Justyn -- they will be working in a sidebar project to work out the calendar problems.
      • Lazarus had questions about the SotAHelp auto-notifications for the spam hungry volunteers. Elgarion stated the auto-notifications are a mess and is a piecemeal design that needs some loving.
      • Winfield suggested a breakout session for Hospitaller education once per month to ensure Hospitallers understand the changes to the game for better instruction to new players.
      • Elgarion explained the recent changes to SotAHelp to include German tutorial videos, additional web resource links, FAQ's and direct links to the official Discord
      • Justyn stated that the wiki is becoming more up-to-date and has lately noticed the information is more current. She offered props to the writers involved.
      • @Berek mentioned that when a support site is updated, to include a particular page on the Wiki, @Berek would be happy to tweet out a description of the change and a link to it.
    Round the Room:
    • @Berek:
      • Needs screenshots! Will pulling those on a weekly basis to put out on social networks. Plans on starting a screenshot contest in the coming week(s).
        • Grimace suggested using Steam Screenshots to assist with the community there.
        • The upcoming theme will be Halloween.
        • @Berek is looking for help promoting the contest
      • Plans to start his own weekly Livestream for Shroud of the Avatar -- stay tuned!
        • Hopes for help on this project, but details are coming. Hopes for participants so its not just him talking.
      • Asked for feedback on Hometown
        • Is it different? Answer: Yes
        • Started decorating his lots, but wants feedback for how the devs are doing on their rendition of decoration.
        • Notices he doesn't have the same decoration items that the players have yet, but hopes for it soon.
        • Plans on pinging folks about their decorations and temporarily stealing them so he can extract the item ID for it.
          • Womby offered that Starr has a list generated from a project he was involved with which showed an item ID list.
          • Justyn (and EclipseMaiden) offered a chest full of decorations to assist in this endeavor.
        • Stated there is an opportunity to utilize Hometown as a gathering point for Hospitallers/meeting place and to gather with the Developers. Let's try to dual purpose it.
        • Justyn suggested leaving a house or two as a community use location to help showcase the decoration system.
      • Loved all the positive attitudes with this project and is stoked about Hometown. Emotions were rampant as he began decorating then began realizing he hadn't checked UO for such a long time, a house which he owned for 15+ years. Unfortunately the last time he logged in, his house folded and was lost forever due to his absence. We all were distraught at this development, but this concept has refueled him in his Hometown endeavors and refocused him.
      • Doesn't always get the feel for the community's sentiment from the Hospitallers during this meeting each week to get a pulse of the people. Sometimes to gather the general feel from the forums can be difficult. So please, all -- attend this meeting if you have input on new player experiences and the overall game experience!
      • Expressed the importance of the Events forum. Please keep those events coming in!
    • Gaelis: afk for their turn.
    • Themo Lock: happy with the meeting, felt things are on track.
    • Winfield: thinks this group is great, loves seeing new attendees to the meeting and new player effort and expressed his thanks.
    • Elgarion: happy with meeting, thought the topics were stellar this time around.
    • Grimace: looking foward to introducing the new features to R34 to the new players.
    • Justyn: finds the new players happier than they have been in the past. Feels things are really looking great!
    • Lady Kate (Acred): finds we're all still very motivated, and expresses importance of being ready for the upcoming changes!
    • Lazarus: he "loves this ****" :p Felt the topics were great, and looking forward to R34 and commended @Berek for doing such a great job.
    • Scroda: things sound good!
    • Sydron Knight: first time attendee. Learned a lot about different things to include the lottery.
    • Temujin: learned he has a lot of homework to do for R34 with upcoming changes.
    • ToxicGoblin: expressed thanks to Themo for providing housing and is impressed by the projects.
    • Womby: is worried about Copyright issues with books since people have been copying his books and selling for a lower price. @Berek and Womby entered into a discussion about how the Magic Printer reprints items to include its tooltip which shows the original author. This should be changed to allow for the tooltip to change to the publisher, so it would show the original Author then the Publisher for the item.
    • WrathPhoenix: consistently impressed by the efforts and enthusiasm -- finds the general player experience is improving and people are becoming happier with the game.
     
  6. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    2 October 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Kazyn: decay seems to have not changed much, so hasn't seen much panic as of yet on any decay changes which might have occurred. Feels gold making is picked up a bit.
      • Elgarion: Shroud of the Avatar #Hositallers chat channel still seeing lots of question/answer activity
      • Justyn: brought up that SotaWiki.net is getting more up-to-date and is getting more praise as such
      • Roper DocHoliday: felt new players are more informed and well read than in the past
    • In-Game Support Locations:
      • asdf
    • New Mechanics
      • Outlander Guild Concept (Dallas' explanation on Page 5 of this Thread)
        • @Berek discusses his vision of multi-guild concept:
          • If you are a guild leader, you should have a clear set of rules to manage your people and which guilds to join/not join. These rules are not unlike any other rules a guild would have. If players do not like these rules, just like with any guild membership considerations, the player will decide to join or not join as usual. Stated that guilds by nature have defined rules.
        • New player will be prompted with info about this special guild upon joining right after new player start-up zones.
        • @Berek runs the guild, will establish officers to act as moderators. Criteria for these selections is unknown.
        • Once there is a mechanic in-game to support multiple guilds, everyone will be allowed to join the Outlander guild, but will be moderated to ensure they are not spamming, and truly are supporting new players.
        • A lot of discussion took place about the auto-invite feature for this guild for the new player. Generally, the burden of leaving the guild seemed insignificant and the opt out concept was generally agreed upon.
        • Upcoming Multi-Guild concept was discussed
          • General surprise in the room, most very happy or indifferent after the benefits were discussed.
          • Lots of ideas flew across the room, it was too hectic to take notes. No real focused idea was pushed to Berek, he just listened in on us arguing :p
          • Lots of back and forth about Alliances and Multi-Guilds, having both, one or the other. The room was a feel for the community as a whole, with lots of opinions on all sides.
      • Lot Deed Raffle (http://sotawiki.net/sota/Property_Raffle)
        • Kazyn: Feels the lottery turned out well for some. Some groups won lots of deeds for distribution to other players.
        • Lazarus: brought up that folks are upset about people stockpiling lottery tickets and hoarding property. Still finds folks confused by the process. 1 ticket, 1 raffle. Next raffle? Buy another ticket (or tickets).
        • Stryker: stated many bout these deeds for groups of people, so the ratio is skewed, i.e. if 1 person bought 10 tickets for his 10 person guild, it was actually a 1 to 1 ratio.
        • Elgarion: feels the raffle allowed for too much stockpiling of tickets and provided an unfair distribution to rich players who hoarded tickets. Strongly feels there should be a SINGLE lottery ticket per account limit per raffle. This is the only way there can be fair and equitable distribution of deeds. Otherwise, its simply a process that awards more deeds to rich people.
        • Lazarus: there might not be enough knowledge of new player base about claiming their free tickets in the banks.
        • Roper DocHoliday: brought up that the free ticket concept, and that if you've already received a deed through pledge or the add-on store, you were not eligible for the free ticket. This does not include if someone handed you a deed in-game as a gift, you are still eligible.
        • Acred praised welcome quest and brought up the importance of the New Player Handbook, which has a great summary of in-game concepts.
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Time did not permit to get to this topic.
    Round the Room:
    • @Berek:
      • Says the guild concepts are still very much up in the air
      • Collecting data to provide to the devs to show them the sentiment of the community, be sure to contact him with your opinions!!!
    • Gaelis: great discussion, happy
    • Themo Lock: Loves Alliance concept, chosen by guild leaders, not multi-guild concept selected by players. Feels there's not enough info out there to form proper opinions on the topics.
    • Winfield: loves how we hash out the ideas as a group
    • Elgarion: Loves Alliance concept, chosen by guild leaders, not multi-guild concept selected by players. Thinks multi-guild cbosen by players, destroys the political structure of guilds and alliances. Thinks we need more clarification on how the Outlander Guild will be administrated and how moderation of the chat channel will occur.
    • Ezekiel Cooper: thought meeting went well. Likes how the opinions flow. Loves Alliance concept, chosen by guild leaders, not multi-guild concept selected by players. Thinks the Outlander titles and Hospitaller titles could simply make access to a chat channel which is moderated.
    • Galiwyn: thinks maybe there should be a limit on the # of guilds in the multi-guild concept.
    • Justyn: happy that we all share opinions without arguing, loves the spirit of the concept, but not sure about the excecution (in regards to Outlander Guild/Multi-Guilds?)
    • Lady Kate (Acred): loves the investment, energy and really thinks we're ready to shoulder the New Player Support project.
    • Lazarus: thinks the Outlander Guild should be an Opt-In, not an Opt-Out, loves Womby's yellow pages.
    • Roper DocHoliday: how will the new Outlander Guild be run and how will moderators be selected?
    • scroda:
    • Stryker Sparhawk: a great cacophony of great ideas and opinions, still sorting through it in his mind. Likes Alliances, wants better tools for guilds.
    • Womby: new yellow pages is out! You can find them at Vyrin and Womby's bookstories in Central Britanny and Aerie. People can make copies.
    • WrathPhoenix: went well
     
    Winfield, Rada Torment, Acred and 2 others like this.
  7. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    updated main thread to include this information:

    To sign and out as as a Hospitaller in Discord, type the following commands
    in one of the SotA Discord Server chat channels:
    !signon
    !signoff
     
  8. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    9 Oct September 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Galiwyn showed a player around who was looking for a Hospitaller.
      • Roper DocHoliday: one of his friends took 5 people out and around showing them the ropes, and he escorted 2 people around to include a quest mechanics tutorial and a guided tour to get to the Hidden Vale.
      • Lady Kate (Acred) is finding fewer new players than before in Multi-Player, so she's wondering if they're playing more in Single or Friends Only mode more often.
        • Elgarion stated we might be at the tale end of the "We're Now Persistent" effect, and wonders if @Berek can provide insight to new account activation numbers to see if we're actually seeing a drop off in new players to assist.
      • Bad New Player Experiences:
        • Galiwyn still seeing new players find guild recruitment during Hospitalling is discouraging
          • Lazarus said these types of occurrences are rare but highly publicized. He's experiencing positive effects of the program overall.
        • Justyn stated we shouldn't be looping back to the old conversations about the negativity on the project/new player helper concept. We waste too much effort looping back and focusing on the negative. Elgarion mentioned that one of the conclusions of one of the meetings was, "We can do nothing about the negative aspects since we cannot enforce anything, we can simply only do one thing -- smother the program with kindness and positive efforts to effect an overall positive outcome for the Hospitaller concept."
        • Roper DocHoliday: a PvP flagged member was luring people into a Shardfall using the Hospitaller flag. He did not report this member, Justyn and Winfield footstomped that they can be reported, and to let the Devs sort out what is a conflict with terms of service.
      • Rage Quitting:
        • Roper DocHoliday: reported a few folks rage quitted for the following reasons (all related to finding quest items)
          • 1 was trapped in the starter scene for "various reasons"
          • 1 complained about finding a dagger and couldn't find it
          • 1 complained about finding an small item in a huge scene
          • 1 will come back, the others might not
          • Elgarion brought up that we can only review the starter quest 1 time in persistence as bug testers, and need to use QA to continuously review the progress of improving the first new player experience.
            • Winfield says he remakes a character every month to redo the starter area to report problems with the new player experience.
            • Womby said some folks won't want to start as an archer for the more complete starter area
            • Justyn suggested that the pop-ups could provide hints occasionally that might be time based -- something such as, "Perhaps you could learn something if you speak with..." etc.
            • Winfield suggested "escape routes" for unfinished areas which are prominently and noticeably available, another mention of making it possible to bypass the starter scene when all else fails might be prudent (especially for the starter scenes deep in design).
            • Grimace said a lot of this is about managing expectations for a game in design. Get the people past 1 month, to notice what happens during an Update, and the level of improvements that are occurring.
            • Womby said a tutorial video right on the start menu could be highly advantageous to the new players.
            • Grimace mentioned there could be commentary audio during starter areas that can give insight into the state of the starter areas and some relative hints to get passed the ones more heavily under construction.
    • In-Game Support Locations or Concepts:
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Berek stated he's being VERY supportive of social media retweeting, posting etc. Be sure to ask!
      • Justyn explained one way to use SotAMap is by merely zooming in on the location so it shows roads and ship routes.
    • Code of Conduct for Hospitallers:
      • Elgarion will post it prominently on the main Hospitaller thread.
    • New Tech:
      • Let the journal keep track of which town criers have been already visited.
      • POT Idea Forum Thread, go here for brainstorming new features for POT's.
        • Gust Ball Field is one idea for a new Deco item ;)
          • Lazarus mentioned that WrathPhoenix was able to make a Gustball field with a small # of items simply using dynamic town deco with no lot required.

    Round the Room:
    • @Berek:
      • says the Outlander guild is like being placed into a waiting room -- compared it to a doctors office, and you're not quite sure which doctor will see you. Doctor is a guild in that analogy.
      • thinks the negativity about Hospitallers has calmed down, happy that we continue to push forward
      • Sentiment Report to the Dev Team (asking for input from Hospitallers and explains what's on report he makes for them)
        • Top 5 General Discussion on Forums
        • Top 5 Issues/Concerns (on forums):
          • Game Population Concerns (explains that Port hasn't been actively marketing yet)
          • Excessive Spawn Rate in Verdantis Mines
          • Lady Kate: suggested people are creating in-game events yet aren't getting the attendance they hope for which may dampen their decision to continue with in-game events.
          • Justyn: Lace said she had encountered a problem with simply trying to post an event which received negativity.
          • Winfield: new player experience is still daunting (interface, starter quests)
          • Temujin: demoralization of players that wanted property, but were discouraged that some people won LOTS of deeds.
          • Womby: notices more connection issues, Roper foot stomped this and Lady Kate did as well.
    • Elgarion: liked how we focused upon specific negative items and not going down the rabbit hole of generalized negativity
    • Galiwyn: enthusiastic about newbie guild
    • Grimace: thinks there's a lot of great ideas, the brainstorming for game improvements never ends!
    • Justyn: found this to be one of the quieter, less negative weeks for Hospitalling. Emphasized that we shouldn't feed the trolls on the forums.
    • Lady Kate (Acred): good meeting, keep up the enthusiasm!
    • Lazarus: found the meeting productive -- loves the Gustball Field deco item idea. "Loves this ****!"
    • Merrik Dragon: found the meeting great, loved the ideas!
    • Night Fury: came in at the tale end, nothing to add. Wants a bumper sticker from Laz :p
    • Rada Torment: great meeting
    • Roper DocHoliday: found the meeting to be productive, stayed on topic, stayed moving forward with little arguing.
    • Temujin: busy on Discord answering questions of late :)
    • Winfield: appreciates getting ideas out on the table, feels that way we're moving incrementally forward in a positive direction.
    • Womby: great meeting
     
    Winfield, Acred and Time Lord like this.
  9. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    16 Oct September 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Kazyn described the experience of a new player experience for a streamer
        • Said this person is focused on utilizing only in-game resources with no out-of-game add-on purchases to prove the game is or is not pay to win. Thus far, he's acquired a vendor, a village lot etc and is becoming successful utilizing solely in-game resources. https://www.twitch.tv/saladid
      • @Berek stated the population has been fairly consistent, but will be adding population concerns to the weekly community sentiment report to the other devs.
      • Roper thinks that since the game isn't full capacity its likely due to the existing players getting disinterested due to the lack of content and are waiting for more content to become available. Stated that all there is to do currently is to grind.
      • Selene Noctua stated that it would be cool to see more player stats being published aka leader boards.
      • Lots of discussion about availability of content (low amounts).
    • In-Game Support Locations or Concepts:
      • Event announcements are hard to notice, general talk about using Twitter, forums etc -- multi-faceted approach to announcing events.
        • @Berek stated to let him know of events, he will retweet events on the SotA Twitter account (available to everyone!)
        • @Berek stated he'll soon start using the MOTD more strategically to advertise events about to occur.
        • Minerva stated to make event ads short and concise, not verbose.
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Elgarion: mentioned RPOTA.COM has a new Collections module to help people organize their book collections
      • Elgarion: stated that by subscribing to particular new player frequented forums, a Hospitaller can quickly respond to their questions due to email notifications.
      • @Berek said that the Steam community interface has a lot of resource options people can build for SotA Players
    • Code of Conduct for Hospitallers:
      • Elgarion posted this above in the main Hospitaller topic on the first page. (The Law, The Motto, The Oath). The purpose of this was to promote selfless use of the Hospitaller tag/title. Reminder to all seeing the tag being abused to report it to Portarlarium and let them determine if its acceptable.
    • New Tech:
      • @Berek has an update about the chromatic cycling dye and other motion related add-on items, soon the add-on store will feature other videos BUT Berek needs help -- 10-15 second videos featuring emotes! Send links to @Berek. Here's an example: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=9085 for the dye.
      • Lady Kate (Acred) stated that the ability for new players to be able to build their own quests would greatly assist with creating content for the game. Stated there are LOTS of requests for custom quests etc. and to please listen to those creative ideas on the forums.
      • Roper DocHoliday stated the empty POT's would greatly benefit if empty lots (other than Row) should also receive placeholder homes to make the empty towns better depict the potential of how the town is laid out and how vibrant it can become.
      • Lady Kate (Acred) stated that the NPC barks are cluttering up chat logs and makes it difficult for new players to spot text from actual players who are offering assistance, hoping that the barks can be refined and less intrusive.
        • Kazyn stated it might be a learning curve for new players, to learn to adjust their chat filters.
        • Winfield agreed, there are several NPC's that tend to fill up his chat. Roper also mentioned this, thinks the triggers when someone walks by the NPC even in a different instance the bark can be heard.
        • Elgarion stated that default chat tabs could be introduced so new players can instantly filter for common chat settings, such as a tab for: ALL, COMBAT, NPC, W/P/G (whispers, party, guild) etc.

    Round the Room:
    • @Berek: appreciates the participation!
    • Elgarion: good/productive meeting
    • Gurney: needs actors for Zombie film, contact Gurney or Themo if you would like to participate ;) https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f.../actors-and-zombies-wanted.67476/#post-681035
    • Lady Kate: thought the meeting was good
    • Minerva: thinks the community is diverse, and enjoys all the points of view that get added to the community
    • Roper DocHoliday: thinks the meetings are getting better
    • SeleneNoctua: Yay meetings! :p
    • Winfield: wants to figure out how to get more participation for the Hospitaller meeting. Thinks maybe it can be tweeted out then retweeted by Port. Elgarion stated he'll tweet out the link to the minutes each time from now on.
    • WrathPhoenix: thinks things are working in a productive direction
     
    Winfield, Moiseyev Trueden and Acred like this.
  10. Winfield

    Winfield Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    1,291
    Likes Received:
    6,525
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    San Antonio, Texas
    Reminder: Hospitaller Meeting on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    23 Oct 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    In Public Rooms / Hospitallers room
     
    Berek likes this.
  11. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    23 Oct September 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Lazarus: still finding new players pretty regular, but no major complaints, just typical questions
      • Themo Lock: getting help requests from new players asking about his guide and he said he needs to update it, perhaps with links to new player help sites and threads.
      • Temujin: had some complaints about public gardens/greenhouses and that people can steal their plants. Laz spoke up that the permissions as you place your pots in shared areas are crucial to ensure that others cannot steal your plants (other than the property owner). Winfield wondered if there was a video for permission explanation, Themo said he'll likely make a separate guide.
        • @Lace 's Video on Permissions:
      • Themo Lock: says there are videos stating that SotA is unplayable in multi-player and players are complaining that they get better connections in Single Player and Friends Only.
        • Temujin stated the game seems more stable in Single Player and people like single player so they can farm resources by themselves.
        • Themo Lock stated that with people not fully looting items, bodies pile up and it affects respawn and lag, this has also encouraged people going to Single Player (not to mention people stealing kills and the last hit on the mob gets credit for the kill)
      • Roper DocHoliday:
        • Following items copy and pasted from TS3 Chat
          • spread out walked a couple of new players really lost by verdatis took them to soultown.
          • the worst thing i hear atm is not being able see the world map without having a sepearate computer to pull up a map out of the game.
          • game really has been extemly hicupping in multiplayer or with a large group in friends onlin
          • i personally have a hard time stacking glyphs cause the game pauses for a second
          • yes i stay single player 90 percent of the time or friends online due lagging badly or just easier not to fight for resources.... add in the fact that mines do not respawn as fast in friends on line mode vs going in the mine by your self
    • In-Game Support Locations or Concepts:
      • Minerva: 1 on 1 or small group training sessions for crafting, skinning etc.
      • Themo Lock: due to multi-play problems, is trying to bring people to Friends Online to provide 1 on 1 support, also is having more trouble finding new players needing help. Has been helping people on raffle questions.
      • @Berek: event comment/questions
        • Wants people to give him event info so he can put in the update or calendar, also tweet it and include the SotA Twitter account so he can retweet
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Elgarion: nothing to add about SotAHelp -- no design changes. RPOTA.COM has received a lot of polish of late.
      • Lady Kate stated that we need to pay attention to forums who are asking for help.
      • Themo said we can help on Steam discussions but beware, its toxic. Gotta be thick skinned to help on those forums.
        • @Berek stated that there's more effort from Portalarium in Steam, encourages all to use Community Hub which is a link from the Store Page for Shroud of the Avatar and to become involved in the Steam community. Steam SotA Community Hub: https://steamcommunity.com/app/326160
    • New Tech:
      • Themo Lock stated that town decorations are not privy to private deco permissions, so all stewards can take the town owners deco items. This could be a new addition to the permissions system. Roper DocHoliday agreed, saying the high dollar cost of these town deco items need to be protected and stay belonging to the owner/purchaser.
      • Pick Pocketing:
        • Themo Lock stated PvP zones are having trouble with events due to pickpockets and horribly high ransoms to get items back.
        • Winfield: perhaps there can be countermeasures to thievery/pickpocketing. Themo stated that its easy to defend against it unless you aren't paying attention, it most greatly effects people who've gone AFK.
        • Minerva said there is a current countermeasure, filling your bags with garbage to offset the chances of getting something nice taken.
        • Roper said people simply avoid events in PvP due to pickpocketing.
        • Themo Lock stated that new players don't even realize they can have their pockets picked. Temujin stated he knows people not even going to PvP events in PvP zones due to the pickpocketing.
        • Winfield said a Pickpocketing guide could be prudent.
        • Selene stated that there could be simply a comment added to the PvP warning when you enter a PvP zone, that you can be pickpocketed.
        • Minerva stated a special button/icon in the Oracle interface could help people realize they have items to claim for ransom.
    • New Idea: Winfield proposed having a second hour to this meeting to include community projects outside of the new player experience.
      • Elgarion said the break-out session concept seemed to be working, so people can choose to stay behind for further discussions about other projects. People can announce these breakout sessions ahead of time.
      • Lady Kate suggested we could designate each week for a different topic (i.e. 1st Sunday is about New Player Experience, 2nd Sunday is about another project) etc. so that way these discussions can be advertised ahead of time.
      • Lady Kate said there could be a meeting just for people promoting their projects.
      • Roper DocHoliday said we can advertise the meeting minutes etc.
      • Selene said these meeting sub

    Round the Room:
    • @Berek:
      • wanted support finding any bug reports of mobs getting hit by your weapon etc, yet you do not hear the impact of the attack (or other sound problems)
      • great meeting, keep up the great work!
      • brought up weekly livestream initiative coming, less formal, in 20 minute segments with 3 segments.
        • 20 minutes of game news
        • 20 minutes of dev interview
        • 20 minutes of in-game tutorial/examples where @Berek learns how to do things
        • first one will be coming up this Thursday, streams Twitch only, rerun will be on Youtube shortly after
        • wants community feedback/suggestions for content
        • all items will be live, nothing pre-recorded
        • less formal
    • Gaelis: hopes the comments/ideas help Portalarium.
    • Minerva: thinks this is the coolest community on the planet, thinks that community effort is key.
    • Themo Lock: went well, nothign to add.
    • Winfield: good meeting,
    • Elgarion: thought the meeting went well, liked the discussion about pickpocketing, reminded folks about Reveal Hidden ability in Sun tree.
    • Gurney: feels the meeting is too rushed, feels the meeting dances around topics too quickly, for instance, the pickpocketing topic was closed too quickly. Winfield said we can have a breakout session on Pickpocketing.
    • Lady Kate: stated we should not rehash old items, keep moving forward and let resolved items lie.
    • Lazarus: Enjoyed the meeting, went well.
    • Roper DocHoliday: no complaints. Felt some of the topics tied more into general game experience than new player experience.
    • Selene: yay meeting!
    • Stryker Sparhawk: has been away for a while, glad to be back. Has been sponsoring a new group of people and finds they're in friends only most of the time due to the system performance differences.
    • Temujin: good meeting
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
    Numa, Gaelis, Lord-Galiwyn and 3 others like this.
  12. Moiseyev Trueden

    Moiseyev Trueden Avatar

    Messages:
    3,016
    Likes Received:
    8,439
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    California
    I need to get off my butt and start joining these. Hope to see you guys next week for it.
     
    Acred, Solazur, Winfield and 2 others like this.
  13. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    It'd be awesome to hear from you :) Lots of good discussion each week, and the more the merrier (and the more ideas and opinions to consider) ;)
     
    Acred, Winfield, Numa and 1 other person like this.
  14. Numa

    Numa Avatar

    Messages:
    2,891
    Likes Received:
    5,620
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Breaker's Landing
    Same here. Just have to get a major project in the POT i live in up and running before getting involved. Will keep a close eye on this thread.
     
    Acred, Solazur, Winfield and 2 others like this.
  15. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

    Messages:
    1,429
    Likes Received:
    3,477
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Pacific NW
    Ditto... I may not know much.. but.. I know more (i hope lol) than somebody just logging in the first time.
    In the hopes that we'll be seeing a lot more of that taking place I'm putting this on my list as well..
    In the meantime..I'm starting to go through the stuff on the website...lotta good stuff there.. Kudo's to all who put that effort in
     
  16. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Ah, no worries and I certainly understand, getting a POT ready is some major work! You're most welcome anytime you find the time in the future :)

    Thanks Solazur, much appreciated ;) Hopefully we'll see you at an upcoming meeting if time permits. You'd best be sure everyone gets a chance to chime in during the meetings, the format most assuredly makes a point of it :)
     
  17. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Hospitaller Meeting Minutes on PaxLair TS3 Server 43.245.163.15:10099 (ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!)
    30 Oct September 2016, Sunday 11 Central Time

    Main Topics:

    • New Player Experiences:
      • Lady Kate had a pleasant experience in Soltown, but still didn't know about Claim Rewards not putting things into Global bank status, that it doesn't put it all in their bags.
        • Elgarion reminded folks to take advantage of the Global status of the items as long as you can so you aren't ferrying stuff from Soltown or other starter locations until you're ready to claim them.
      • Justyin: slow new player support activity.
      • Temujin: some new names but same old questions.
      • Stryker: had a question about skills. If you can untrain items above a particular skill. Kazyn replied it can only be trained downward until it meets the prerequisite skill amount/requirement.
      • Kazyn received a lot of questions about agriculture. He will be creating an agriculture guide shortly to post in the forums.
    • In-Game Support Locations or Concepts:
    • Website/Out-of-Game Projects:
      • Kazyn: behind on adding 3 calendars to the master calendar, work is coming to incorporate those new ones.
      • Inquired to @Berek about Extra Life. It's a community charity concept that benefits the Children's Miracle Hospitals
        • Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre/WrathPhoenix for more information. (November 5th)
    • New Tech:
      • Lady Kate: big thank you to Lady FireLotus and did a new version of the New Player Handbook for R35, so if you haven't read it in a while, peruse it to learn of the changes.
      • Roving Encounters:
        • Temujin stated that they're getting dragged right to load points and people are getting pulled into Random Encounters right when they load, for instance leaving Britanny.
        • Elgarion noticed that the instances don't reset when being pulled into the same one twice in a row (for instance, Bandits twice in a row).
      • Kazyn loves that he can pump water from his well! Huzzah!
        • Water Wells cannot be used by other players if placed as a Dynamic Town Decoration, only the governor.
      • Lots of last minute discussion on Character Limits in published books. 8000 seems too small, all agreed in room, including @Berek :p

    Round the Room:
    • @Berek:
      • Will be at SotACon starting on Thursday, be sure to send anything to @Berek M-W that you wish to have promoted since they'll be out of pocket for SotACon. M-W is also good weekly routine because it gives time for them to prepare the weekly update.
      • Glad that everyone is having a good Release 35. Wants information about the overall community sentiment for this release.
        • Laz stated this Release received a comment from a player, "Best Release Ever!"
        • Kazyn received a lot of positive feedback. Didn't hear any complaints about encumbrance, and heard people enjoying the food changes.
        • Lady Kate stated that there was a lot more positive feedback.
          • Lady Kate stated that if you're not a steam user, the patch takes forever.
      • What was the feedback for the livestream this week:
        • Laz and Kaz agreed that this is the kind of thing needed in the community.
        • It's not on YouTube just yet, @Berek said it glitched a bit which while streaming so it's in 3 files on Twitch and will combine them and put them into YouTube.
        • Wanting to keep it light, impromptu, not heavily dev focused. Next week will have one of the new world builders on the show.
      • Stated that there are plans to store item locations in a house when you take it down, so when you set it back up your decorations will all be in the same location.
    • Elgarion: took the minutes, forgot to say anything ;)
    • Justyn: nothing exciting, status quo week, with fairly quiet activity on the new player front
    • Lady Kate (Acred): Lady Kate wonders if there could be a museum piece for each town on the forums. Good meeting, lets kee it rolling. Keep an eye out for people wanting to be Hospitallers.
    • Themo Lock: been busy with rebuilding his house due to a bug. The last two lotteries, his guild received a lot of deeds, and they're getting distributed to people who look like they're going to play. This deed charity concept worked well and made a few players very happy.
    • Lazarus: happy to be here. Good feedback this week. Thought there'd be some grumbling about encumbrance but didn't really hear much about it. Reminded @Berek that it might be prudent to remind the community that there'll be a very short release schedule in the near future.
      • @Berek reminded folks that with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, expect devs to be slightly out of pocket and less responsive during the holidays.
    • Selene: ya meetings!
    • Solazur: good morning, first time attendee. Hoping to help with the community. Pointed out that @Berek added a LFG channel on the SotA Discord Server.
    • Stryker Sparhawk: good meeting, busy week. Been spending more time Governing than Hospitalling. Had some interaction with a small number of new people this week. Bug testing lately.
    • Temujin: awesome that he's seeing new names! Seems this release has brought in a bunch of new players.
    • Womby: book publishing is taking off -- lots of new authors!
    • WrathPhoenix: good meeting, efficient. Been out of commission due to computer problems. Been publishing with Vyrin's & Womby's stores and things its working well.
    THERE WILL NOT BE A MEETING NEXT WEEK DUE TO SOTACON! SEE YOU ALL 2 WEEKS FROM NOW. ALSO, TOPICS OF NEXT MEETING WILL INCLUDE MOVING THE VENUE FOR THIS MEETING TO SOTA DISCORD TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE, AND POTENTIALLY CHANGING THE FORMAT OF THIS MEETING TO EVERY 2 WEEKS.

    JOIN IN ON THE FUN!
    LONG LIVE SHROUD OF THE AVATAR!​
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2016
    Grimace2, Acred, Solazur and 4 others like this.
  18. Raistlyn

    Raistlyn Avatar

    Messages:
    228
    Likes Received:
    479
    Trophy Points:
    18
    I didn't know this group existed, I have often helped out and showed new players around and enjoy it. Ill join the group when I can (if more hospitallers are needed).
     
  19. Numa

    Numa Avatar

    Messages:
    2,891
    Likes Received:
    5,620
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Breaker's Landing
    Believe me , they're needed.
     
  20. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,223
    Likes Received:
    9,292
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Always my friend! Simply don the Hospitaller tag and become available for help to others. We're not so much a defined group as a description of an activity, for anyone who helps others in-game are Hospitallers by definition. But there are weekly meetings that the Hospitallers discuss their thoughts, experiences and ideas and ALL are welcome :) Meeting details are in the main post but there'll be no meeting this weekend due to SotACon ;) It's fantastic to see that you are interested!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.