<April 2013 - These rules are subject to small changes over the next couple months while we figure out what is needed, and what is not.>
The staff at Shards of Dalaya pride ourselves on the fact that we have more direct communication with players than your average for-profit MMORPG. The Game Developlemt forums are one of the main ways we allow people to come to us with suggestions about the game or to have a discussion with developers about balance issues or new features in the game.
It is important to remember that the staff here are completely volunteer. We have lives outside of SoD and do what we do here because of our love for the game and our part in the community. The Game Development forums are a privilege extended to all players, and is not a place where a player can "vent" onto staff about some perceived injustice. We get that game changes can be frustrating - but no player is entitled to be an ass to staff in a free, volunteer based game. In years past, we have let people talk uncivilly when talking to staff about issues and it ended up making staff simply not want to participate in discussion or to actively develop the game. That sort of situation does not make anyones experience with SoD better.
If you do not think you can discuss things about the game, and possibly your character, in a civil way then you should not be posting in this forum.
Failure to follow the rules will result in the loss of access to the Game Development forums, followed by possible Forum Bans, and in game jails.
So that being said, these are the rules of Game Development:
Loot and the bitching thereof
Anyone who does a blanket "your entire zone sucks" post or "all loot in this zone is terribly unbalanced" post without providing specific, concrete examples to back what they're saying up will be banned outright from the game development forums. We are interested in constructive criticism, not shitting on anything that doesn't provide you with the exact amount of hp and mana that you feel you deserve. If you think the loot in a zone is too good or not good enough, provide specific examples, detailed comparisons of the encounters to ones that drop comparable loot and in general sound reasoning instead of this general bitching and whining and crying because your hp isn't big enough / someone else's hp is almost as big as yours / your e-ego is stung.
I support this product and/or service or "I agree".
Stop posting this and variants of it. Every other post is crap like this, and it does nothing except take up space. Contribute your own opinion as to why a suggestion is good, instead of posting a catchphrase or a two word "I agree".
Personal Attacks/Tone
Personal attacks, direct or veiled, will not be tolerated. In order for this forum to function as a conduit between the players and the developers there must be a basic level of decency, patience and understanding present. The quickest way to get a thread trashcanned (and yourself a forum break) is to be a dick.
Seriously, we have a very low tolerance for people who shit up serious discussions with tinfoiling, insults or snide comments. We will be removing access from Game Development to those who are repeat offenders.
Think Big and Broad
Almost no change in a game like SoD is doable in a vacuum. Increasing the power or utility of one class will inevitably decrease the relative power of competing classes. If you want any argument you make on this thread to be taken seriously, you need to directly address balance issues it may have, and why that change in balance is warranted. Saying "I think it would be cool to give Necromancer's ports" without spending a substantial amount of time explaining why we should step on Wizard and Druid toes will just get your thread trashed.
Stay On Topic
As important as it is to look at all relevant things for balance, it is also important not to change the subject or bring in things that are not pertinent to the thread at hand. Post a new thread if you think something is pressing, do not try and bring it up in another active thread.
Developer Schedule
When something is brought up by a player or developer, posting "There are more important things to do" or "Devs should not waste time on this when there is X Y or Z to do" is counterproductive. First, players are not good judges at how long individual changes take. When changing a single tome around takes an hour, complaining that we should be working on some unfinished quest that would take 70 hours is not an appreciated or very legitimate argument. Foremost, developers are volunteers, and making changes that are exciting or interesting is the reward that we get from our unpaid SoD jobs. We spend tens of hours per week working not only on obvious things, but also on important back end changes and upgrades that the players do not see. Do not assume that you know the most efficient order for us to do things.
Think something needs doing and are in generally good standing and reputation? Send a detailed Dev application to Slaariel.
Class Addition Requests
Contrary to common belief, there are in fact items that do not correspond to the common class combinations, or that can only be used by one or two similar classes, and are actually supposed to be that way. So unless you have a better argument for why an item should be <my class> usable than "This here other class that shares armor type/casting stat with mine can use it and I can't!" please do not post a request to have your class added to it. If you do post without a good argument for your class to be added to it, the post will be trashcanned.
The staff at Shards of Dalaya pride ourselves on the fact that we have more direct communication with players than your average for-profit MMORPG. The Game Developlemt forums are one of the main ways we allow people to come to us with suggestions about the game or to have a discussion with developers about balance issues or new features in the game.
It is important to remember that the staff here are completely volunteer. We have lives outside of SoD and do what we do here because of our love for the game and our part in the community. The Game Development forums are a privilege extended to all players, and is not a place where a player can "vent" onto staff about some perceived injustice. We get that game changes can be frustrating - but no player is entitled to be an ass to staff in a free, volunteer based game. In years past, we have let people talk uncivilly when talking to staff about issues and it ended up making staff simply not want to participate in discussion or to actively develop the game. That sort of situation does not make anyones experience with SoD better.
If you do not think you can discuss things about the game, and possibly your character, in a civil way then you should not be posting in this forum.
Failure to follow the rules will result in the loss of access to the Game Development forums, followed by possible Forum Bans, and in game jails.
So that being said, these are the rules of Game Development:
Loot and the bitching thereof
Anyone who does a blanket "your entire zone sucks" post or "all loot in this zone is terribly unbalanced" post without providing specific, concrete examples to back what they're saying up will be banned outright from the game development forums. We are interested in constructive criticism, not shitting on anything that doesn't provide you with the exact amount of hp and mana that you feel you deserve. If you think the loot in a zone is too good or not good enough, provide specific examples, detailed comparisons of the encounters to ones that drop comparable loot and in general sound reasoning instead of this general bitching and whining and crying because your hp isn't big enough / someone else's hp is almost as big as yours / your e-ego is stung.
I support this product and/or service or "I agree".
Stop posting this and variants of it. Every other post is crap like this, and it does nothing except take up space. Contribute your own opinion as to why a suggestion is good, instead of posting a catchphrase or a two word "I agree".
Personal Attacks/Tone
Personal attacks, direct or veiled, will not be tolerated. In order for this forum to function as a conduit between the players and the developers there must be a basic level of decency, patience and understanding present. The quickest way to get a thread trashcanned (and yourself a forum break) is to be a dick.
Seriously, we have a very low tolerance for people who shit up serious discussions with tinfoiling, insults or snide comments. We will be removing access from Game Development to those who are repeat offenders.
Think Big and Broad
Almost no change in a game like SoD is doable in a vacuum. Increasing the power or utility of one class will inevitably decrease the relative power of competing classes. If you want any argument you make on this thread to be taken seriously, you need to directly address balance issues it may have, and why that change in balance is warranted. Saying "I think it would be cool to give Necromancer's ports" without spending a substantial amount of time explaining why we should step on Wizard and Druid toes will just get your thread trashed.
Stay On Topic
As important as it is to look at all relevant things for balance, it is also important not to change the subject or bring in things that are not pertinent to the thread at hand. Post a new thread if you think something is pressing, do not try and bring it up in another active thread.
Developer Schedule
When something is brought up by a player or developer, posting "There are more important things to do" or "Devs should not waste time on this when there is X Y or Z to do" is counterproductive. First, players are not good judges at how long individual changes take. When changing a single tome around takes an hour, complaining that we should be working on some unfinished quest that would take 70 hours is not an appreciated or very legitimate argument. Foremost, developers are volunteers, and making changes that are exciting or interesting is the reward that we get from our unpaid SoD jobs. We spend tens of hours per week working not only on obvious things, but also on important back end changes and upgrades that the players do not see. Do not assume that you know the most efficient order for us to do things.
Think something needs doing and are in generally good standing and reputation? Send a detailed Dev application to Slaariel.
Class Addition Requests
Contrary to common belief, there are in fact items that do not correspond to the common class combinations, or that can only be used by one or two similar classes, and are actually supposed to be that way. So unless you have a better argument for why an item should be <my class> usable than "This here other class that shares armor type/casting stat with mine can use it and I can't!" please do not post a request to have your class added to it. If you do post without a good argument for your class to be added to it, the post will be trashcanned.