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Pre-Steam Fireside 12/12/18 7DST

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Koi-Wish
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Pre-Steam Fireside 12/12/18 7DST

Post by Koi-Wish »

A Fireside Chat will be held on 12/12/18 at 7DST

It will be held in Discord #fireside channel.

Questions can be asked of a moderator who will be announced at that time.
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Koi-Cricket
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Re: Pre-Steam Fireside 12/12/18 7DST

Post by Koi-Cricket »

For your convenience, I am posting the logs from our Fireside Chat 12/12/18, in case that you may have missed it and are not part of our Underlight Discord.


Koi-WishYesterday at 10:02 PM
Welcome to the first Discord Fireside!

I will keep my piece very brief, and open things up for questions.

Ok first and foremost the big news as most everyone is aware is this Friday, UnderLight will be releasing on Steam.This will make little to no changes to most of you whom already play. You will still get in the game the way you always do. if you have Steam and logged in recently you may have noticed Underlight has already added to your Steam library.

There were some hoops we had to jump thru to make it happen, and even lots of mini changes to the client in order to accommodate Steams stringent requests.
Which is why you had to re-download, and then re-download two days later, again, and again...And you will have to again on Friday as we make yet another tweak.

Like a small example is we used to have a Donation button on the client screen - you will notice that is gone.They didnt want that there.
They also requested we make changes to the default key-mapping to match todays standards a little closer. 1997 wasnt exactly when standards were set in key-mapping - and most of us are used to our ways and we will obviously likely remap however we feel comfortable.They also requested joystick configs, so we had to fine tune that. Lots of little things.
We also had to LLC and become a legitimate company, they dont just let any one put a game out there without some sort of legitimacy legally.
There were all kinds of others hoops, legal mumbo jumbo... too much to detail but it took a lot of time from myself and JorKyrin especially as well.

After we release on Steam, JorKyrin will be taking a bit of a break - he has been working day and night alongside myself for a couple of months to make this happen.
But we are here, a milestone we knew we wanted to reach a number of years back.

Now, I dont have any high expectations. I certainly dont expect us to release on Friday and suddenly have 200 players Friday night. Or any time soon for that matter.
But this does open us up for some more players to definitely stumble across our little diamond in the rough. Key searches, looking for games, whats new, etc... will yield us on occasion in their search results.

And for every 10 players that wander in, 9 will likely wander out, as we all know this takes a special kind of player, a true roleplayer to fit into our world. 99.5% of MMORPGs, need to drop the roleplaying piece, as they are certainly not.WE are. With that being said, you all are now the real elders, at least at a level literal to the word.
Some of you, myself included have 20 years in this game.

The lore, the stories, the skills.... the everything, will come from you. You are the foundation for our future with them.
If we are to keep them, its not the GMs that need to keep them occupied with stories, events and what not's - its you.

Newly Awakened now announces dreamwide when a newly enters the City. This will be key to finding them, and really welcoming to our little world.
Our GM team will definitely be thanking in various ways players who assist new players. They are the key to our future. The old line is, the children are our future.
Well the children are going to start coming in, lets embrace them as best we can. Again, I dont expect a mad rush, but I do expect over the next 2-6 months we will see a few thousands new accounts made.
If we can keep just a small percentage of them - a City with 100 players or more every night is a living, thriving, awesome game world for us all to keep dreaming within!

We made a recent big change to teaching. There is a strategic reason for this.
It will help us take them under our wings, bond, and work with them in their early hours and days.
If they make it to 29th orbit, I believe they will likely stick around, and that's the end goal, hook them, keep them, and then roleplay with them ongoing.

We hope you will continue to be supportive of US ... In Character and Out, we know we aren't perfect. But we do try.
We might make 5 people happy and 2 people upset, this happens. We try to balance that. But we are human. But are here for you, and trying. Always here and always trying to build a fun environment. We get it wrong now and then, that happens, but please be supportive of us even when we get it wrong.

Ok I am going to open things up for questions, if you have a question please PM Koi-Hex -

MorigotoToday at 9:25 PM
will we be able to donate still or are you guys passed that now?
The costs for Steam and the LLC were not substantial but it did come out of myself and JorKyrins pockets - altho we did have some in donations still - so thanks to those who gave.
We will still take donations for sure, this helps with paying those fee's back - AND most importantly going forward to help us market and pay for key upgrades to the server. Maybe if we got a substantial amount, we could actually pay a coder to rewrite and cleanup the server so we stop storming! But thats big wishes.
Speaking of marketing!
I would absolutely LOVE it, if any and all of you could post a link to the Steam page of UnderLight on your FBs. Some of you have gaming friends! We would love to see them and meet them, not to mention previous ULers to come back and enjoy the changes!

Next:
MorigotoToday at 9:25 PM
and will he be opening pmare up as a pay to play option?
No.
We are doing everything we can to keep UnderLight free, and this includes PMares. There is nothing in discussions at this point about any Pay 2 Play features.
We are committed to remaining free if we can. Its been our first rule of thumb ever since day 1.

DakkothToday at 9:29 PM
Question...is there any talks about future potential game remake in a more modern engine like Unity?
That has come up a few times over the years. The big catch has and will always be the man-power and technical skills to get there. Its not an easy task by any stretch of the means. We need the right person, with the time and skillsets to make that happen.
But is it a desire, yes. I also was pushing hard to get UnderLight VR at some point as well. Brent himself was willing to sign back up and code if that project ever got kicked off.

UthanatosToday at 9:29 PM
Is there a line into opening up character customization to any extent, such as new color additions or independent skinning?
This question I will sum up with most others when it comes to Development. Right now we dont have a true dedicated Dev team who are working on coding.
OpenUL is obviously a source of incoming potential changes.
But what we also anticipate with the release on Steam, is that talented folks are going to see us, perhaps fall in love with the concept, and have the skills to help us get over some of these hurdles.
A lot of things would require a complete overhaul of the client and/or server systems. A massive job.
But when that time comes, and I imagine folks will come knocking. We may see those things come to fruition.

PKChrisChanToday at 9:34 PM
For the Team: Are you all ready for more potential difficult players? Also, what are you going to do about cheaters. UL is VERY easy to be abused.
This will be a challenge for all of us. Especially and definitely OOC conversation.
But we all have been there, we all have seen a true newly wander in and start talking OOC. we will handle them as we always have.
We have a Rules Enforcement team, and some of you have had the unfortunate opportunity to have conversations with these people.
If the City grows, we will definitely need more volunteers on this side of the fence. From GMs, to GMMTs, to Rules Enforcement teams....
We will adapt as we need to. I am not worried about it. I think having a lot of players and keeping things under control will be a great problem to have.
Bring it on. :smiley:
Are there any other questions?

GambitToday at 9:39 PM
You mentioned teaching changes. Can you please elaborate?
Unless there's a forum post out there.
There will be a forum post, as well as in City scrolls in the Teaching areas. Our resident Akkadian is working on that stuff and will have it ready before Friday. Meanwhile, I think a number of players in the City have the details. I wont go into them too specifically here. But there will be an official post soon.

Macobas had some specific questions I will address as well here openly.
HIs first question was on the OpenUL support with UL and how players are to submit things and whether they will be implemented - that kind of things.
For example: Distress Call was created.
Distress Call is on the list of items we will be looking at deploying in January.
That being said, we will always be keeping an eye on OpenUL - but this does not mean that as we vote from our side that it will get in. And I also dont want to tell anyone working on OpenUL stuff to "not code that" cuz we arent even going to consider it.
We expect as OpenUL pulls in additional coders that someone might interact with someone on the official Koi Team as to a possibility of something being ever implemented.
We on this side, are still keeping our changes as Koi-Only, we are not OpenUL, we are just not closing the door on looking at various Issues as they come up.
That being said, we wont be committing our changes back to the OpenUL project.
As for a new account system, we had high hopes for one, for what... two or three years now.
It was our biggest delay for Steam
We wanted it done first. But as time went on, we figured if we wait for that, we will never be on Steam
So we take the risk as it stands now, as much as its hated, and needs an overhaul.
And his last question again had to do with modernizing the code. Again, we expect more coders to come out and want to tackle this. We really hope they do. Either thru OpenUL or becoming a direct member our of Dev Team
That should sum up his questions for the most part.

MorigotoToday at 9:39 PM
how many players before servers become a problem?
I dont know, but we would love to find out!
In theory, the servers SHOULD be able to handle thousands of players at once, but we cant truly test that.

DakkothToday at 9:40 PM
Any worries of upper sphere stagnant role play if rushed by hundreds of new dreamers all needing attention?
This will be a concern for sure, but we hope you will be idles and gods amongst the new young folks - you will have your hands full hopefully with their new ideas and roleplays.
As well as considerable GM themed or developed RPs that we hope will keep you invested in a bigger storyline.
There is no endgame to Underlight, but we hope to always be able to entertain at some level no matter if your a newly or 9th sphere dreamer. Our GM team is wonderful, and they are full of ideas. Some you will love, some you will hate. But we are going to keep driving them.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 10:53 PM
I am unsure as to what you mean by upper sphere's stagnating because of lower sphere players? This would give you additional minds to involve in your role-plays.
Koi-WishYesterday at 10:53 PM
Right.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 10:54 PM
So additional players should increase your ability to role-play, not decrease it or detract from it.

cedarToday at 9:42 PM
Question for the fireside chat.. will the upcoming teaching changes also impact the mentor/apprentice process?
Additional question: What is the vetting process for importing in new arts from OpenUL?
Koi-WishYesterday at 10:54 PM
I dont believe it will impact that except in educating the process.
The process for new arts and importing arts from OpenUL is more or less as follows. Talk to us, if we like the idea, we will support it being posted on OpenUL, we, as we have done numerous times, will comment, scrap, remake, discuss... and review what the end result will likely be.
We will then vote and discuss on our side as well... and if it makes the cut and makes sense.
We will import.
Some things will make it, others might not.
I hate to see the coding effort be made if there is absolutely no intention of our team importing it.
But that is a chance that might happen. We will deal with that, as we hope you will as well.

KelosToday at 9:56 PM
Any thoughts on how and when the closed houses will re-open? perhaps it needs to bea slow process?
We will adapt to the population and caregivers and the like will handle those situations as they have always done.
Its hard to say what that will look like. I would love to see a time when every house is open again. But population will dictate that more then anything.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 10:59 PM
A means for opening houses exists, interest in houses and the like are observed and reacted to.
Koi-WishYesterday at 10:59 PM
What he said.
Are there any additional questions?

GambitToday at 10:00 PM
Any thoughts on making the Training Area live?
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:01 PM
You may have noticed the training area was removed from the Client
Steam testers found this to be more confusing then anything.
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:02 PM
We have considered an OOC area - but we have likes and dislikes for it.
We want to keep the environment as much as possible IC.
we have a training video being worked on
A fresh one.
we have discord, and forums for now.
If they dont work and we seen onslaughts, we might have to adapt.
And adapt we will

ArnayaToday at 10:01 PM
Are there going to be some GM created houses to ensure a reasonable balance of power and conflict potential?
I don't know that this is in the works, but again our RP team and leads will adapt as necessary. We have done that obviously a time or two in the past. But there is no discussion of that at this point.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 11:05 PM
I don't know what "GM created houses" means.
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:05 PM
I am thinking she meant like the POR one and KoES onces
Koi-LupineYesterday at 11:05 PM
Oh, no.
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:05 PM
Yah I didnt think so
Thats the guy who would know. <points up>
Koi-LupineYesterday at 11:06 PM
Unless we're talking about the bridge princess
But that's something else entirely
Koi-HexYesterday at 11:06 PM
She means with beliefs and goals set up by the GM Team, similar to how she was told the core Lyran houses were
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:07 PM
We have no desire to drive a GM pushed house at this point. But as the population shifts, and things happen, we might stand behind a cause because it makes sense. But again, Lupine and his team will handle that.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 11:07 PM
If you mean should there be a GM guide character in each house telling you how you are supposed to act within the confines of your house's belief structure...
Is that something players even want, is a better question.
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:07 PM
I imagine, they dont.
Koi-LupineYesterday at 11:08 PM
The game functions better when players aren't being dictated to. In my opinion.
Koi-WishYesterday at 11:08 PM
We would prefer as much as possible for players to control the houses.
Influence may come from outside of it, but we would prefer players to Rule and lead houses whenever possible
I would like to take this time to thank everyone who has ever been a part of UL. Whether it be you, anyone on our team, devs, gms... all of you. Your all a part of this family.
Are there anymore questions? Especially Steam related ones?

cedarToday at 10:11 PM
Will steam be the main login as of friday? Or can we still use the current client?
Keep on coming in with the Current Client.
New clients will be made available as they come out on our standard download page.... and on Steam
And again please please please share the Steam UnderLight page on your FBs
That in and of itself will bring us a lot of players.
Anything else?
Ok with that being everything then. We look forward to the days ahead! And UnderLight community..... Welcome to Steam!
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