Kinaed claims, "A reminder of the OOC Chat Pact: Regardless of what we discuss, we understand and truly believe that everyone on TI does the best they can, given what they know at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand. We will be respectful of this and each other at all times."
Kinaed says, "Today's Agenda is:
- Staff Updates
- Player Heartbeat
- Player Topics
Is there anything anyone would like to add to the agenda to make certain we discuss it today? If you register a topic, please pre-write it so you're ready to present it when called upon."
Kinaed claims to Temi, "Since the gift is to comemorate Norrig's story, can we save a gift for him? I think they'll show though, just a bit late."
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Kinaed claims, "I'm guessing no one has any particular topic they want to register for today? If not, happy to jump into staff stuff, and if anyone comes up with a topic - please send me a tell."
Jiraiya says, "I'd like to discuss the mage balance issue if possible"
Sparkles says, "I can give it to him if you like."
Kinaed states to Jiraiya, "Okay, adding you to the Agenda"
Kinaed claims to Jiraiya, "Please pre-type an introduction to the topic and hold it until called."
Kinaed wonders, "Anyone else?"
Temi has transferred Kimaris. [OOC]
Temi gives a tree-shaped mobile strung with little hung candy soldiers to Kimaris.
Kinaed claims, "Okay, with no one else putting up a hand with a topic, I'll kick off staff updates."
Sparkles wonders, "We could touch on my topic from last week to see how it's playing out?"
Kinaed nods at Sparkles.
Kinaed claims, "Okay, so Staff Update. "
Kinaed says, "We've had a bit of low activity lately, so I met up with a marketing friend of mine and have attempted to arrange a staff get together regarding potential advertising. I've e had trouble shceduling that, so wrote a few notes to staff, and Staff have taken a round roster of 'running small events' on a semi-monthly basis (but the schedule isn't filled out)."
Kinaed states, "Beyond that, there were no policy things."
Kinaed finishes abruptly, "On my desk - the neverending Turf Wars stuff :)"
Kinaed states, "That's it for me. "
Kinaed claims, "Any staff member particularly want to go next? I know Niamh and Az were IAW making sure the bids calculates are correct."
Temi says, "Happy to jump in if they're too busy."
Kinaed states to Temi, "Go for it"
Temi states, "Okay - I am going to be gone for a little vacation for the next week starting tomorrow, so please grab me this evening if you still need anything urgent."
Temi finishes abruptly, "And I've been preparing for a couple of events in November - first up will be the Royal Wedding - players are doing a lot of the prep for that but have to get the NPCs ready at the very least"
Raspberries declaims to Temi, "Have a good trip!"
Temi says, "And the second is the Daravi Border Weekend - I've posted the rules on how we're planning to handle that, so hopefully people will find that enjoyable. I'll open up for people to self-nominate to attend or create NPCs to go once I get back next Sunday or Monday"
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Kinaed has transferred PraiseTheBolt. [OOC]
Lans states, "Thank you for your work Temi."
Temi finishes abruptly, "We'll want a few people to volunteer to be leads for that event - the ones who will officially put in the orders, hopefully ICly appropriate and from a few different timezones"
Lans says, "I believe I will definitely be attending to slay the infidels."
Deedee claims, "Looking forward to it. I need to go over the explanation again, think I was too tired to follow it"
Temi finishes abruptly, "Feel free to ask questions if you don't understand anything after reviewing again - but ordinary participants don't necessarily need to understand"
Temi claims, "On the forum where I posted the rules would be great for those questions"
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Kinaed smiles.
Kinaed says, "Thanks for all of that work, Temi :)"
Kinaed queries, "Az, are you able to go next?"
Azarial claims, "Not much this week, really. RL sucks."
Raspberries nods at Azarial.
Kinaed says, "But we have confirmed that, on next boot, the bids calculations that strongly favored nobles will... well, still favor nobles, but not as overwhelmingly."
Kinaed states, "In line with real voting numbers."
Kinaed states, "Niamh did the start of that work, and Az resolved it from my understanding. Thank you both."
Kinaed muses to Niamh, "Did you have an update? :)"
Deedee says, "I have to admit, I kind of liked it how it was. Stirred up some interesting RP"
Kinaed nods at Deedee.
Deedee says, "If a little too much OOC drama"
Temi says, "It is still biased - hopefully enough to get some of those tensions."
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Deedee states, "Sounds good"
Temi claims, "But we do worry that it was so strongly biased that people just wouldn't bother to try the next time"
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Temi says, "Which means no drama and just disgruntled people"
Kinaed trails off, "I think Niamh may be AFK/IAW. So... that's the end of Staff Updates for today :)"
Kinaed asks, "Okay, Player Heartbeat! How was the game last week, everyone?"
Deedee states, "No time to play, unfortunately"
Kimaris states, "A lot more active, almost leads me to believe that last week was a weird fluke, but still, I'd encourage the advertising initaitives."
Kinaed nods at Kimaris.
Kalana claims, "Still a little hard to find people when I've been around, a little, but chased some butterflies a bit."
Kimaris states, "Most active went from 18 hours to 40ish, for example"
Lans says, "It was kind of slow -- but it's alright. I'm patient."
Kinaed nods at Kimaris.
Lans states, "I slew some mighty butterflies with Isac in the Palace."
PraiseTheBolt says, "Still taking a break from playing"
Errisar states, "It's been very difficult to get on. RL has sucked these last two weeks."
Kinaed states, "We've been through slow times before and I believe it's seasonal along with things like midterms."
Kinaed says, "In addition to our having a few issues that I think genuinely put a few players off (like the aforementioned vote)"
Raspberries queries to Kinaed, "How are the number recently?"
Kinaed trails off, "But we usually recover. One thing I would ask is that - we see a LOT of flicker logging... that's when people log in, see the who list is too 'low' to feel like something is going on, and log right back out. If you wouldn't mind sticking around for a bit, that can reduce that. As for numbers..."
Kinaed states, "We're about half of our daily peak, and our weekly is about 2/3 of our normal peak."
Kinaed says, "Which means that we're definitely down, but not out. We have seen worse."
Raspberries nods.
Kinaed claims, "We have had some key players who are usually very active have serious OOC things like hospital visits and friends who have died, etc."
Kinaed states, "I have no reason to believe we won't pick up again."
Kinaed claims, "Meanwhile, for those of you sticking it out and hanging around - thank you. Without you, we'd probably feel pretty hopeless about the situation."
Temi nods.
Kinaed asks, "Any other questions or anything people want to share about how the game has been for them in the past few weeks?"
Temi says, "It's always more encouraging to see others care about us here too"
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Kinaed says, "We're super grateful that some players, when they noted the pbase going down, did things like offer to run stories and help with other staff chores."
Kinaed states, "It means a lot to us."
Kinaed claims, "And hopefully some of your ideas will bear fruit."
Kinaed wonders, "Okay, moving to Player Topics 
Geras? Won't you introduce your topic?"
Kinaed states, "Aaaand, sorry."
Kinaed states, "... I am super dumb today."
Jiraiya muses, "So mage RP is not in great shape. And I was wondering what could be done about that. That's about it. Some options discussed on the forums were a new mage guild and/or a new mage hideout, but neither proposal is perfect. Thoughts?"
Kinaed claims, "Well, we're happy to do the new mage guild. Tasker was putting together a proposal and we discussed it last week, but it hasn't come into our hands yet."
Lans states, "Voluntary pyrings."
Kinaed states, "I've also prioritized mage learning to be faster as per the forum thread."
Kinaed says, "That is, it's one of my top 4 code agendas."
Temi nods.
Temi claims, "I also added on the staff agenda to discuss a couple new spells that might help mage RP"
Kinaed claims, "Which are right now:
- Coverts (ONLY) being able to dual guild
- Unifying hide and sneak and resolving stealth code,
- Fixing steal code
- Adjusting mage learning to be faster."
PraiseTheBolt is super hype.
Kinaed claims to Temi, "I haven't seen those yet."
Kinaed says, "We really need to have that staff meeting :)"
Kinaed has just been making the list longer every week after OOC Chat.
Temi claims, "It was just the ideas mentioned, nothing written out"
Temi grins.
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Raspberries says, "Sounds promising"
Lans says, "Unifying hide and sneak would be a great boost for the thieves. I approve."
Kinaed muses, "I have a tell list coming in from an anon player who wants to speak on mage discussion points. Also, anyone want to react or talk further about the mage balacne as per Jiraya's stuff?"
Lans claims, "Fixing eavesdropping would help too."
Kinaed wonders, "I keep hearing it's broken, then keep being told eavesdropping is working. Can I get some more clarity on what's going on with that?"
Kinaed claims, "Another item is: One thing that needs to be peeked at is that a lot mage activities that occur via NPC don't count for 'active' RP or as RP."
Kalana says, "We have no reports on the eavesdropping problem"
Kinaed says, "This seems odd to me because, for example, astral RP should be counting towards RP right now. "
Temi questions, "I think it might grant rp but not rp activity time?"
Kinaed says, "That seems like a straight up bug"
Jiraiya claims, "Astral RP just isn't as impactful. And it doesn't count to rp activity,right. I bugged that on Ardan ages ago."
Kinaed wonders, "Is that the only problem - also, is it only astral, or can someone provide us a list of other things that should or do't work?"
Lans says, "I've heard from fire mage players that fire-apparitions don't accrue RPXP."
Kinaed nods at Jiraiya.
Lans claims, "Same for Void shadows."
Temi claims, "I think there's also shadows, not sure of the state of those"
Lans says, "And I believe both Ianthe and Aukanaii reported eavesdropping several times in the past."
Kinaed states, "Okay, I'll post a note on the anonymous board for mages to edit and put together a list for us please."
Sparkles says, "I will propose something I was going to add to the forum discussion for non-magical folks."
Lans glances at Sparkles.
Kinaed claims, "Is there anything else in there that we should touch on? For the record, Az says he is aware of the issue, it's long-standing, but he's tried to fix it and we're not sure where the problem is because it should be working."
Sparkles says, "I wonder if 'How I know X is magical' shouldn't be a cnote requirement."
Sparkles says, "Because I wonder if that might not cut down on some of the 'carry over' knowledge between chars that is a concern."
Kinaed says, "Honestly, I kind of think it should."
Errisar nods.
Kinaed asks, "Do any players feel otherwise or wnat to see something different?"
Kinaed says, "Because if we all agree - it's clearly a form of metagaming."
Kinaed says, "My only concern is how much players complain about cnoting as it is :)"
Sparkles says, "Because an issue is once someone plays a mage they are OOCly aware of the 'tells' of various things, instantly find things more suspicious but that doesn't mean a new character would have reason to know those things. And it requires a strong sort of choice to chose to not have a char know something that might be dangerous to themselves but ... it might be the only way for everyone to not over time because instant 'spot the mage' experts."
Jiraiya says, "I think mages need more ways to meet in prson without getting killed personally. And agreed on cnotes being a problem"
Kinaed says, "I mean, in a way, it's ALREADY in help policy cnote. It's just not as clearly explained as 'how does your character even have the faintest idea that is magic'"
Errisar states, "Agreed. It would be metagaming otherwise."
Kinaed claims, "I don't think cnotes are a problem, though. I wouldn't go that far. As far as I'm concerned, cnotes are absolutely invaluable."
Lans claims, "I don't mind cnoting."
Lans states, "And I agree with Kin."
Sparkles says, "Maybe that needs clarification then. And even 'because it's in the Erra' could be a thing, but at least it would encourage people to also get more into the lore/IC reasoning."
Kinaed nods at Sparkles.
Kinaed nods at Sparkles.
Raspberries claims, "This dude's not crushing his eggshells. seems pretty sus."
Kinaed says, "I think at least having to justify it means that justifying it is in people's heads which should make them pause and think about if they're metagaming or just assuming something."
Lans claims, "You can easily meet safely in person with a little creativity."
Kinaed claims, "So it's a fair call."
Kinaed says, "I just don't know if making it a cnote requirement will do much."
Sparkles muses, "Maybe just a reminder then?"
Kinaed states, "Honestly, some players are meticulous cnoters. Some are not."
Kinaed nods at Sparkles.
Kimaris is idle.
Kinaed says, "I can definitely write a board post, and I can definitely clarify the help file. THere's no harm or negative in doing either."
Raspberries nods.
Kimaris is no longer idle.
Kimaris has returned from AFK.
Kinaed questions, "Beyond that, I think the board posts will be a better reminder than a cnote requirement (as it's already sort of a requirement, but I'll fix the langauge there) - but anything that helps, helps, and nothing there hurts. Any other suggestions from people about how to tighten that up?"
Temi nods.
Kinaed claims, "There's certainly a situation where I think (luckily) the current pbase understands - that whereas the story is kinda about mages and the Order going against one another, the game is a roleplay game and the goal is for everyone on all sides to ahve a rich RP experience, not just 'win'."
Temi nods in agreement.
Kinaed says, "I feel like we've had varying stances on that within the playerbase at large over time, and the best ones were ones where people saw even their "opponents" as players worthy of OOC respect, even if the IC was pretty deadly, etc."
Kinaed states, "Anyway, I'll post that reminder, update the help file."
Kinaed asks, "Anything else anyone wants to add on mage balance?"
Lans says, "Hmmmm."
Lans claims, "I think not, after what Galaxgal said in the forums. Thank you."
Kinaed claims, "Right now the todo list looks like: Kinaed will reach out to mages to consolidate the list of places where XP or RP time isn't counted properly. We already have something in the works about speeding up mage learning from other mages. Also a board post to remind people not to metagame about magic, and some rewriting of the cnotes."
Kinaed has transferred MAMI. [OOC]
Temi gives a tree-shaped mobile strung with little hung candy soldiers to MAMI.
Jiraiya questions, "Is there any feedback on my moonlock idea? lol"
Kinaed wonders, "I think I missed it, Jir. Sorry. Can you repeat?"
MAMI waves hello and takes a seat.
Kinaed claims, "(I get a lot of spam from wiznet, other channels, etc, during these meetings 
)"
Temi states, "I think that was on the forum post"
Kinaed claims, "If I haven't responded to something, please DO bring it up again. Don't be shy, it's probably just my ability to read quickly."
Kinaed queries, "Oh... I don't remember it then. Please reiterate? :)"
Jiraiya says, "So the idea was as a way to balance too safe hidey holes vs unsafe hidey holes, have an xblock-type mechanism that only works periodically. so different phases of balathumel would determineif the hidey hole is accessible to muggles"
Raspberries claims to Temi, "Any plans for a Hillman perspectives contest by the way? they're the last one missing I think. except maybe Daravi."
Temi says to Raspberries, "No active plans"
Kinaed claims, "I don't have strong feelings about it either way, it would depend on the implementation."
Kinaed states, "I tend to lean towards wanting to give mages spells and the sort of thing that gives them security with planning and so on"
Kinaed claims, "Less inclined to things that feel 'permanent'"
Kinaed states, "And most of our combat or 'win' mechanics are designed witht he idea of 'rock paper scissors' so that there isn't such a thing as a 'no way to get around anything'"
PraiseTheBolt is idle.
PraiseTheBolt is no longer idle.
PraiseTheBolt has returned from AFK.
Jiraiya asks, "What is the mage paper to mage ash rock?"
Kinaed claims, "The fact that mage ash is hard to get, decays, and is unrelable."
Temi questions, "Getting non-mages pyred so the Order's mage ash is fake?"
Temi grins.
MAMI states, "Hit first, hit hard and bring friends."
Kinaed says to MAMI, "That too :P"
Raspberries says, "Throwing mage ash can also fail"
Kinaed nods at Raspberries.
PraiseTheBolt says, "Mage ash = mash"
Kinaed says, "Anonymous comment: I have a thought on mage balancing but it's likely rather controversial. Questioning if the automatic mage rec level shouldn't be tied to ... casting spells every so often or something of the like."
Temi claims, "Seems likely good, but maybe not worth the implementation."
Raspberries says, "Sounds tricky to implement"
Kinaed says, "I kind of feel like mages... do cast spells. A lot."
Kinaed claims, "Just not grand showy stuff."
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Kinaed claims, "Which is probably very reasonable of them."
Temi claims, "I think the concerns is for ones that have essentially decided not to mage, and still get the benefit"
Temi finishes abruptly, "But not sure how many of those there actually are - I know it's a concern"
Kinaed says, "I also don't want to stray too much into 'treating mages like a second class citizen by giving them diffrent general requirements to play'"
Kinaed claims, "If that makes any sense."
Kinaed states, "Being a mage has its ups and downs thematically, but for the most part, unless you're known, being a mage is a bonus. "
Temi says, "I don't think the idea is that their other rec level would be affected, just that extra bonus for being in a dangerous role"
Raspberries states, "Sounds reasonable"
Kinaed claims, "I thought they already did, and if they get executed they automatically get 100 Rec and all their RPxp back"
Temi nods.
Temi says, "Right now that bonus is just based on being a mage"
Kinaed claims, "Wereas non-mages don't generally have as much reassurance of getting everything back on death."
Raspberries states, "That sounds good then"
Sparkles wonders, "Well anyone executed does, yes?"
Temi claims, "And the proposal sounds like the bonus should be based on regularly doing a little spell or so"
Temi nods.
Kinaed says, "Publically executed yes. I guess it's not just a mage bonus."
Raspberries queries, "Would that be a bonus on top of that?"
Kinaed says, "But anyone stirring shit."
Kinaed claims, "But anyone can die privately."
Temi claims, "There's a maximum of 100 percent back."
Kinaed claims, "And not get the bonus"
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Raspberries nods.
Kinaed claims, "Because spells can be cast over and over, it seems a bit hard to balance with regards to ongoing rec level."
Kinaed states, "I can see some spells that are pretty public and in your face maybe giving a rec bonus, but not, for example, listening to people's thoughts."
Deedee claims, "On the topic of rec level"
Temi says, "I mean, the mage one likely could be tied to casting the first spell, but that probably doesn't encourage the ongoing behavior that people are concerned about"
Jiraiya claims, "I think the rec levels for mages are a bit too high across the board personally"
Jiraiya claims, "The real investment in being a mage is time"
Deedee questions, "Could another QP sink be purchasing rec level?"
NotNaomi states, "I second Deedee's idea."
Temi finishes abruptly, "We already away QP and rec level with several things - doubling up on that seems problematic"
Kinaed claims to Deedee, "I think that's a reasonable idea. I'll add it to staff talking points to make sure there's nothing in that that could mess something up, but I like the idea."
Kimaris states, "+1 to deedee"
Kinaed claims to Jiraiya, "That's the same for literally any other character on TI. Everyone is investing time in buildign up their character, and anyone can die for any reason. I've had characters that were murdered for reasons that had nothing to do with magery, and they were just as active and had as much time as the next guy."
Jiraiya claims to Kinaed, "I'd suggest mages take more time to level though"
Kinaed claims, "Any other ideas for things people should be able to spend QP on? That's actually a staff agenda item we were hoping to discuss."
MAMI muses, "Qp to purchase into a higher level guild rank?"
Sparkles claims, "I'm not sure that's fair to GLs."
Kinaed trails off, "Wow. I think GLs would kill us, but... "
Kinaed claims, "It has some merit."
Lans says, "We would."
NotNaomi trails off, "That seems like a bad idea..."
Kinaed queries, "No reason a GL couldn't kick someone out though?"
Kimaris says, "The REC level thing is actually a very huge and very valuable sink"
Lans claims, "It feels like the investing player is cheated out of their QP then."
Deedee nods at Lans.
Kinaed claims, "I do think it's a bit daunting for a lot of older players to get back into the game with the thought of hacing to go through seeking, leveling, etc."
NotNaomi states, "It would be an OOC thing."
Jiraiya nods at Lans.
Lans claims to Kinaed, "A fair point."
Kinaed states, "But equally application characters are terrible for retention."
PraiseTheBolt states, "For the merchants it would be wack if you could just buy being a master"
NotNaomi nods.
Lans says, "I mean -- we already spend QP for IC money, but I think this is an idea that has a good intention but doubtful outcome."
Kinaed claims, "I think it might depend on the pricetag and entrance requirements."
Kinaed states, "It's also something we could try and nix if it's really not working out."
Sparkles says, "I mean that sounds like older players don't feel like not instantly hitting the grid as more important."
MAMI asks, "How many qps are most people sitting on atm?"
Kinaed says, "Sec"
Kinaed says, "212 average QP"
Raspberries is not most people.
PraiseTheBolt states, "Thats a lot"
Kinaed states, "We have some accounts that skew that though"
Nor is Errisar. [Errisar]
Jiraiya claims, "I feel inadequate"
Raspberries queries, "Anyone higher than me atm?"
Kinaed says, "I know at least one player sitting on about 1500"
Kinaed states, "So they're skewing that up."
Raspberries says, "Ouch. yeah that's higher"
Errisar declares, "I have 23!"
Sparkles claims, "I did propose the ability to purchase custom asset resources as another possible QP sink."
Temi grins.
Kinaed states, "I have less than 200 :)"
MAMI says, "285 here"
Kinaed nods at Sparkles.
Kinaed claims, "That's on our list as well."
Lans muses, "A custom mage aura -- like, really custom?"
Lans claims, "Or avatar or whatever"
Lans states, "Mage thingies"
Sparkles states, "Something more permanent with Prestige perhaps."
Kinaed states, "I'll throw QP for purchasing into guilds at certain ranks onto Staff Talking points and maybe have further GL discussion seeing where staff sit on the matter."
Lans queries, "Maybe purchasing the second rank, but no more?"
Deedee states, "I think maybe whether that's doable or not should be up to individual GLs"
Lans says, "Squire instead of Page (which admittedly is not very exciting)"
Kinaed jots them down.
PraiseTheBolt states, "If i can spend qp to rename some parts of park street so theyre easier to travel to i would :D"
MAMI asks, "Deedee, that sounds reasonable. Maybe a kickback to the guild when it happens?"
Deedee nods.
Kinaed states, "I sincerely doubt we'd allow people purchasing into Guilds without some sort of GL review or standards being met."
Kinaed says, "But I do think it could help regain/retain older players who fall off when they die."
Jiraiya claims, "Advancing in a guild is pretty quick though. and we already have an application system"
Deedee states, "On that thought"
MAMI claims, "It has been a (not the only one mind) barrier to my returning."
Sparkles says, "I honestly think being able to purchase skill levels rather than grind would help with that more than the name of a rank."
Deedee questions, "How about purchasing into nobility with QP when it's closed?"
Kinaed claims to PraiseTheBolt, "If there's problems with Park St's naming, we can have a look. That's an easy, in-game fix."
Deedee claims, "(for new characters)"
Kinaed nods at Deedee.
Kinaed states, "Adding to the list"
Sparkles questions, "That kind of takes away from it being a specical Seneschal power doesn't it though?"
Deedee claims, "Only for new characters"
MAMI queries, "Allow mages to purchase out of element spells that they otherwise qualify for with qp?"
Kinaed finishes abruptly, "Probably would be easy enough to remove noble apps and require QP purchase (at least, codewise - might not be otherwise popular )"
Kinaed nods at MAMI.
PraiseTheBolt claims, "Its just theres a row of connected locations all named park street so traveling might not get you where you want"
Kinaed states, "Or rituals. Apparently a bugbear for all mages to get."
Temi says, "We can add a few Park Street by the X or such"
Temi states, "Rituals is already there"
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Kinaed states, "Oh, cool"
Kinaed declaims, "Okay, we're actually over time - whoops!"
Kinaed declaims, "Thanks for coming everyone!"
MAMI questions to Temi, "Park St by the Park? :P"
Raspberries waves.
Kinaed claims, "I hope you've enjoyed the discussion. I certainly have."
Temi exclaims to MAMI, "Excellent plan! Not redundant at all"
Temi grins.
Kinaed states, "Have a great week, and we hope to see you next week."
Jiraiya queries, "For rituals could we do my suggestion on knowledge nodesonly giving stuff you dont have?"
Jiraiya states, "Anjd have a great week"
Kinaed declares, "You too!"
MAMI waves.
