Re: The New Ooc Room Rule

[*ewe]

I don't think giving the discord over to the staff is a good idea... we don't need more rules on the discord. NZ is doing a fine job moderating.

[*Sinlinara]

Of course, I don't think anyone has a problem with people spending a bit of time to mentally prepare before going In-Game. I know that I personally like to walk around Sigil a bit before actually engaging in RP. As long as it's not an unreasonable amount of time and you eventually make your way in-game, I don't see cause for concern there.
If I had to guess, I would suspect that the people who should be concerned about this rule effecting them are those who spend hours idling in the OOC room without ever actually going in-game.

Also, I have to admit that I really appreciate the cordiality and understanding, McBlight. I cannot express enough how wonderful it is after all that has been said.

[*DM_Slimy_Doom]

While I'm not going to go into too much discussion here, I'd like to make a bit of clarification. We're trying to discourage idle loitering, not so much valid reasons to be OOC. Helping new players, dying hair, planning a character, outfit customizing, lore... Even like McBlight said, artistic preparation, these are all great reasons for the OOC room, and this isn't what we're trying to prevent.

What we are trying to prevent is massive OOC parties involving large amounts of props and spell effects, and players spending upwards of multiple hours in the OOC with no clear intent to go in game. Players with lower end computers do honestly have difficulty loading the area when there's lots of things going on in game. NWN2 isn't the most stable beast to begin with, and our server doubly so.

We're not trying to tell you to not do what you need to do. We're just saying that we're not having any more frat parties in the house since you won't clean the chocolate sauce off of the curtains when you're done.

[*rapsam2003]

I don't think giving the discord over to the staff is a good idea... we don't need more rules on the discord.  NZ is doing a fine job moderating.

I think that 1) it's NZ's choice AND 2) on any server where the staff don't moderate the Discord, it turns into a clique-fest. "Oh, well... I, the owner of the server (who isn't a member of the server staff) don't like X-person, so ... screw them." I've seen it happen often enough. Nothing says people can't start their own Discord servers (it's free) for them and their friends. The beautiful thing is, since Discord is free and is relatively light on resources, being part of multiple servers is easy.

We're not trying to tell you to not do what you need to do. We're just saying that we're not having any more frat parties in the house since you won't clean the chocolate sauce off of the curtains when you're done. 

So...frat parties in-game are cool? :P

Pssssttt! Sensates, throw more parties. Y'all's factol is basically a Hedonist anyway!

[*ewe]

I guess as doom put it, the rule is so loose that I don't really understand why it needs to be a rule? Like who are the few people who spend 2-6 hours in the ooc room hurting?

Can't we just pull the few people who are doing that aside and tell them to politely not do that rather than impose confusing, vague server wide rules on the mass majority that don't do this?

[*Vesper]

No spellcasting in the OOC room. and On login, your character is invisible (Even to those that can see invisibility) for 15 seconds.

I believe that this accomplishes that which I was proposing even better than that which I proposed. Well done, sir.

[*Gazoo]

I just read the announcement:

Upon logging in, please make your way to the portal as soon as you are able to do so.

What's all the uproar about? Seems pretty common sense and simply urges not loitering.


Really....does this require any code?

Also, half of Sigil has always been "someone with a secret" - whether identity or some backstory...so just shrug and let them have their story IC.

[*rapsam2003]

So what am I suppose to be afraid to log in now? Because I might see someone unshifted and then get accused of loitering? Logging in should be fun not stressful.

Why would your character know, without being told, that a shifter is really X person?

[*Mick64]

I'm not going to repeat every point said already, the whole community-building aspect has been explained much better then I can do already, and is definitely a very important thing, even if you, personally don't form bonds with players this way. Other people do. Other then that...

I don't think this is a good rule, because...

1. It will either not solve the problems it was made to solve, or there are better ways to solve those problems.

The two reasons I've heard for this rule coming into place are...

1 - Excessive spells in the OOC room. This one is easy. You can disable spellcasting in the OOC room with a single line of code. This is done automatically, by the server. No DM time needed to enforce the rule.

2 - Shapeshifters wanting to hide. Now I personally think this is a non-issue, and that if shapeshifters cannot trust their fellow players not to metagame then maybe SCOD is not the place for them. But if it is and issue, then this rule will not solve it. People will still see shapeshifters log in, either after a crash, or being in the OOC room for a legitimate reason, etc. (Not to mention the countless other ways to detect a shapeshifter).

And again, scripted solutions can do better then this rule can, without needing DM time to police or having side effects...

2. It will have negative side-effects for the server's health.

On top the community-building being hurt mentioned above, I want to touch up on a very important point mentioned briefly by Mr.O. That is, players attract players. One of the few primordial things for a PW's health is to have players logged in. Anyone who's been on a dying server (And I'm sad to say I've been in a few) has seen it in it's most extreme form. Player count is at 0, therefor people don't log in (They don't want to play alone), therefor player count remains at 0. In a less extreme form, people are more likely to log into the server if they see a higher player count. Players in the OOC room count, therefor players in the OOC room are better then players not logged in at all.

I also can't count how many times I've helped a player out in the OOC room, either with a rebuild, answering questions or offering advice, discussing character/plot ideas, greeting a new player and helping them get a handle on things...

So, for the rest of you folks, gimme some alternatives, give me some middle ground. I'll take what you come up with back to the team to discuss. Just be realistic in your suggestions. Massive coding and area building likely won't fly.

Going to recap here, but as I mentioned to Ariella yesterday on Discord I can easily make two small script changes that will address the main issues that this rule (tries) to address without the negative side-effects. These are -

No spellcasting in the OOC room. and On login, your character is invisible (Even to those that can see invisibility) for 15 seconds.

[*Sinlinara]

Would the Invisibility prevent people from seeing "So and So casts Alternate Form"?

With regards to advertising the Discord in the OOC Room, I would suggest that we make changes to make it more official before we did any such thing. In particular, designating a member of the staff to run it and better structuring the roles of certain members and the powers that they possess.