Potential Site Wipe/Reset -- Community Poll

[Azoth]

Hello everyone, Azoth here.

It may or may not be immediately apparent but there is quite a lot of things around this Forum. There are various different rules, setups, and plugins that all work together in order to make the site run correctly and it's taking me a bit to get used to it all. And in order to really progress forward, I'd like to suggest something that is going to be pretty radical. Some others have mentioned it and I have already seen some back and forth over it, but I would like to suggest a Site-Wide level reset. Now, before you jump and take up pitchforks or cheer, there are plenty of pros and cons to this. I will list them all out and in response to them, I want to know everyone's thoughts. You do not have to post below if you do not wish to explicitly state the good and the bad, but it is suggested that you at least vote in the poll. I will be moving forward based on majority in the poll.

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Reasoning
Before I get to the pros and cons, I am going to put down my reasoning for why I believe a reset will be the ideal move as of this moment.

1. First: The first reason behind a reset is timelines. There has been quite a large gap between when some players have joined and when others have. This will always be an open and apparent thing, however, I believe that in this point in time I believe that this gap is too much. There are several old players from two years ago that may return and players from tomorrow that may join. With the changes I am proposing, there will be a massive clashing of Player Character timelines and Roleplaying with one another may be either too difficult, or strenuous on the players themselves. Some may be able to adjust, while others may not.
   
   
2. Second: Plotlines converted to dungeons is my second point. Due to a new plot line I am considering, Celestial Arms is being converted into a dungeon. Noblesse Oblige has also been removed as to respect the wishes of the previous staff. This may mess with peoples' timelines as well, and Character memories will be a mess. Players of old who went through with the plotlines will have to adjust quite a bit of their connections with other players to match these changes. That is work that can be avoided with a reset, when everyone starts with a clean slate.
   
   
3. Third: I suck with plugins. Just about an hour or so ago, I was attempting to figure out why I could not change the gold on a player's forum account when I was working on their claim. I went into the Plugin, made a quick change to give my account permission and removed the permission for the old staff, saved, and realized that I had wiped the gold on every, single, account, on the forum. This is a possible fix through mathematics and using a baseline to account for what everyone has in their wallet. The other fix would be to simply give out a flat rate of a certain amount to every player whether that just be a general flat amount (such as giving everyone 5k gold), or an amount based on level range. This is a solution because I was planning on giving the economy a revamp regardless, but I was hoping to base it off the gold everyone had available to them now. That is no longer applicable due to my slip up.
   
   
4. Fourth: With a new plot line coming, it would actually be a lot easier for me to write up the plot should everyone be around the same level. In addition, if everyone was a low level to begin with, everyone can progress together on even footing. Events would also be easier to plan, as rewards could be simplified for only the lower level characters.

Of course, much of the reasoning I have for the reset presented above revolves around my small mistakes across the Forum recently and in order to conduct some of the changes I would like to implement, having everyone restart will help me. I do understand that some people put in a lot, a lot, of effort into their characters so far and a reset may cause you to leave again. Yet I think it would be a good thing for the Forum, especially due to the fact that many of you older players have not been around recently and may wish to start over anyways. But moving on.. here are the pros and cons.

Pros

1. Everyone will start around the same level and timelines will coincide with one another.
2. Events and the Site's main plotline will be more easily managed and created due to all characters being the same level.
3. The economy will be easier to reset and implement.
4. New blood in the forum will allow for new crafts to be created and the crafting system will be reset to reflect that.
5. People coming back will have a free chance to restart their characters to better match what they planned for them.
6. Due to some old players returning and some not, relationships may not be consistent and some people may no longer be around. Due to this, a wipe will allow for old characters to fit in better with the new faces.
7. New gameplay concepts, like starter kits, will be distributed more easily.

Cons

1. All profiles will be reset if they are above level 10, regardless of activity and join date.
2. Players who have put months of effort into their characters will be forced to start from scratch.
3. Forum boards will be cleared of any activity and threads will be archived. Any actions which have occurred in these, whether they are positive or negative, will be nullified.
4. Effort put into crafting will be nullified.
5. Rewards from previous events -may- be taken from old characters. (However, they may become available again later on in future events)
6. It will take time in order to reset all active profiles, so updates may be delayed in order to adjust active characters.

There are many more Pros and Cons that you others may be able to think of that I will not, so feel free to share those below. However my main concern is effort. By wiping the forum and resetting things, I will be nullifying the time previous players have spent building their characters in exchange for the possibility of future success here on the forum. It is a risk that I am willing to take but some may not. Please share your thoughts, concerns, questions, and opinions below and answer the poll above this post. The poll will remain open for a few weeks and I will continue as I planned with the forum originally. Depending on the decisions of the community, I will adjust t match what is preferred. Should a consensus be made early, I will move forward with what was requested.

[Noctis Corvo]

These are my own thoughts on the matter so im just gonna put them out there. I can understand where youre coming from with the idea for a whole site wide reset, and while I can see the good that would come out of it, at the current place where it stands I dont think I could agree to it. There are a lot of people on here who are still active or plan to return and while I can understand the difficulty with such a playerbase being so vastly different in level and skill I dont think a full wipe back to zero would be fully fair to those who have put in the time or the effort to reach those higher levels. What I propose is at least a system where if they are higher than level 10, they are kicked down to level 10 plus a bonus amount of levels (just throwing some numbers out here to show my train of thought but something like level 10+ ((their level-10)/5). At least in a system like that, those who have stayed and remained active would still get some sort of recognition for their continued efforts and love of the forum without fully kicking everyone down all the way into the dirt.

Again just an idea but it might help.

[Haneroze]

I'd like to make a few suggestions about that.

1. I think that the quota for the reset to be done should be higher. The reset is indeed throwing a huge lot of work thrown away, and people that disagree might actually decide to just leave the forum if the reset happens. So I think it's a bad idea to reset if only a slight majority agrees (like 55% vs 45%). 

2. Threads should be archived in a way that they can easily be found again. Many people will still want to be able to access their RP threads, and most likely reuse many stuff from older threads (like the template for their trackers). 

3. Even if we reset, the problem of the level gap will certainly eventually come back again. I think it would be a good opportunity to think of something that will solve the level gap problem.

4. Similarly, there is also the problem of some people leveling up way too quickly. Back then, we had Saber that rushed in no time to level 50+, and then he had no one to RP with around his own level. We had Neun that was the first to reach level 90, and then she left because there was no content for her level. I think it would also be a good opportunity to get something in to limit the speed at which one can level, to avoid that kind of scenario.

[Midori]

It is difficult, but if you want a smoother transition for a new plot and storyline, it will be better if everyone started off on a (mostly) equal footing. I remember having to adjust events based on active participants' levels and that was why many of my events utilized a level sync option. There are those of us who have been around for a while, however, and thus have gained a lot of AP from activity. If I might give an idea on higher-level members, you could potentially reset everyone and then give them something like a special shop where they may buy startup perks with their prior AP. Someone with 500 AP = 500 points to spend. Think of it like a New Game+ mode that's common in many RPG's endgames.

Examples of stuff could be say:

- Start with X gold per point spent here: 1 point
- Start with Lv5 armor in your inventory = 10 points each
- Have a random Lv5 weapon in your inventory = 10 points each
- Choose what type of weapon = +10 points
- Customize it yourself = +10 points
- Reforge it = +20 points

- Start with an AP boost potion (multiply thread AP gain by 10% for a week) = 20 points each
- Start with crafting materials (may be used to create starter gear as a crafter)

- Carry over and start with your guild unlocked (for potential group bonuses)
- Carry over and start with your house unlocked (for probably in-RP flavor; housing bonuses are not set in stone)

- Start at a slightly higher main class level (2-10?)
- Start at a slightly higher crafting class level
- Start at a slightly higher roleplay class level

- Unlock another subclass (I presume there will be ways to gain more subclasses in the future system, but this will give them a headstart)



Depending on what the circumstances behind the reset are, I could even suggest other bonuses:

- Memory, assuming a timeline reset (retain some aspects of memory from the previous timeline: you remember everything that happened in Elder Tale before things changed - might give you in-RP advantages to knowing where things are)

[Deleted]

If the problem is that there's a level gap, a reset would not help. Just as it did since the forum's establishment, a level gap would still form. Not only this, but a reset would be a major blast to the motivation of many users with developed characters. Nobody likes having their progress reset, especially when that can mean literally years of character development and hard work. If the forum were closing its doors and forbidding new users, then I could understand the idea behind evening our levels, but as new users join a level gap will inevitably form.

Personally, I would propose a system that nurtures and assists low-leveled users, so as to make it harder for a level gap to form. Perhaps the EXP (or AP in our case) bonus potions that the newbies got in the series, or just a general AP boost for players below a certain level.

[Noctis Corvo]

One suggestion that was proposed in the C-Box was the possibility of opting-out of the wipe instead for being level-locked from participating in plotline related quests. Personally I would be comfortable with tgis suggestion as,while i would technically not exist until the plotline caught up to where my level was, I could at least find a way to explain it in character (already thought of a fairly reasonable way to explain it). If we were given tgis option as players, I and many other I would assume would at least be grateful that our characters and the development that took place in their creation is not sullied but allowed to continue thriving in another form

[Princess Ozma]

Oh. Oh boy. Ok, this is one of those moments where you aren't going to be able to win for losing.

The level gap is and always will remain a problem. Resetting will only help temporarily. The fact of the matter is there are people who are much more hardcore invested into leveling than others. That's never going to change. Now, this is the part where Biyomon is going to get yelled at and probably brow-beat into a corner. Please note that when the Biyomon says these things, she is basing it pretty much entirely on what it was like when she was here last. Which means the general atmosphere and what she took away from her experience the last time.

I hate the gap. The gap is not the fault of the staff. The gap is entirely the fault of the players, and there's basically nothing wrong with its existence. The fact that the gap is a problem we have to have a vote over now is the fault of the players. You know what sucks? Starting on a nice new site that focuses on leveling because it's part of the system, and having no one to play with because all the high-level players won't play with you and all the low-level ones are too focused on leveling to write with you, because everyone wants to grind to that max cap level. It's not the system's fault. It's really not. And if you want to play with the high-level players, the ones with the really good storylines that are super fun, they all want to get on alts to do it. This is fine. Alternate characters are bread and butter to roleplaying sites. But that thing where to roleplay with a higher level character requiring another high-level character? That's a bit much for an RP site, isn't it?

Oh. Snap. Biyomon called this a roleplaying game. Holy quiznak. That means she has these strange expectations of people... oh, dunno, roleplaying. With each other. As a community. Holy crickets.

And now everyone wants to kill the Biyomon because she's said awful things, she did have a constructive point to this.

Reward. People. For. Helping. Low. Level. Characters. Give them stuff. Emphasize the mentoring system. Rework that sucker to not just 'oh, let me teach you the ropes' but make it so that there is an actual reward for playing with people not in your level bracket. Bridge the bloody gap, because you can reset this site all you like, the problem will be back in maybe three months or so. The level gap has always been a problem. So maybe it's time to focus less on levels, which Biyomon is aware is a giant pile of heresy, and more on fostering roleplaying. Log Horizon wasn't about the levels. So why in the blue bloody blazes is this site so focused on them? Reward people for playing well with the other kids in the sandbox. Give thread MVP, vote for player of the month, character of the month, thread of the month, whatever. Give high-level players a reason to play with low-level ones and vice versa. Hand out EXP like it's candy at Halloween.

Biyomon has had her opinion in public now. Now we see why Biyomon keeps her opinions to herself, yes?

[Deleted]

I don't mind the idea of resetting the plot, but resetting character levels is not only a slap to those who still want to continue with what they have and the hard work put into it, but also likely to kill any motivation to return. Consider me, I have written almost 100 000 words worth of RP to get Jacoben to where he currently is now, to have that wiped away would not be pleasant in any way, and a reset will just result in a new gap in levels a year down the road when some people rush out those 100 000 words while others (like myself) plod along very slowly.

I prefer what Ozma said regarding higher level characters, give people reason to RP with those outside of their level rather than just reset, it'll make the problem of a level gap stop being a problem.

Besides, the setting is based on an MMO, there should be characters of a higher level around, even if we reset the site plot

[Haneroze]

Alright, so I've come up with a solution that could compromise with people that don't want to lose their character development progress, as well as the two last issues I've mentionned in my previous post.


1st, a slight setting change. In our current setting, and in the official one too, every single person got transferred at the exact same time. Except players join at different times on this forum, which causes many problems. Let's fix this.
In the post-reset setting, characters do not arrive in the world at the same time. One could arrive in the world on the day the server was created, while another one could arrive 3 months after its creation. That way, it is no longer strange for someone to be level 1 while everyone has already passed level 50. If you need a logical explanation, I have two ideas:
- Because having every single person get warped in Londinum at the same time would cause a huge overpopulation, there is a "waiting line". People that are in the waiting line are actually in a coma, and wake up one by one as people leave Londinum for other towns.
- Elder Tales' time actually passes extremely fast in comparison to real life time. Every hour that passes in real life is a month that already passed in Elder Tales. So someone that created his character 3 hours after the server was opened will arrive in Elder Tales with 3 months already passed. Of course, we can tweak the numbers.
In both cases, the IC players created their character at around the same time IRL, but end up inside the world at the moment the OOC player joins the forum.

2nd (optional), let's slow down the timeline. Something like, 3 days out of RP = 1 day in RP (so 8 months would have passed instead of 2 years). This makes it easier for people running late on the timeline to catch up. And honestly, threads don't take full days and usually take at least a week to be completed.

3rd, set a "level limit". Simple idea: we set a level around which the best players should be, and it increases every month until it reaches the max level. While under that level, you gain 100% of claimed AP. While over that level, you receive a penalty that doubles the amount of words required per AP. Every 10 level over the limit further increases the penalty. This will prevent people from reaching high levels too quickly, but also has a purpose for the next point.

4th. Pre-reset characters are "frozen". Players can bring back their frozen character any time. For the first month, only resetting to level 1 is possible, essentially losing all progression. Afterwards, you can also restore your character as if he was in this post-reset world since the beginning, and with the level up to the current level limit or the archived character's level, whichever is smaller. If your character level is higher than the current limit, you can choose to lower his level or to wait until the level limit increases. However you restore your character, you can always modify things so that it fits better with the events of the post-reset world.

5th. Because we also don't want players just waiting on their frozen characters, let's also include another feature. When they choose to restore, they receive a bonus according to the progress made with a fresh character. So while waiting for the level limit to reach their character's level, they can create a secondary character and RP with him. When they're ready to restore their old character, they can gain a bonus of, let's say, 10% of the level of the fresh character, regardless of the level limit and archived character's level.



So this is my idea for a reset that also compromises for players that don't want to lose their character and also fixes problems we are experiencing right now.

[Deleted]

Freezing higher level characters is neither fun nor fair,

If you want to force a level limit then the fairer way of existing characters going under it would be to say that they don't have access to any of their levels above the limit until the limit is raised.

But really, if we have a solid mentoring system to allow the higher level characters to fairly play with the lower ones, why bother? As several other people have pointed out there will always be a level gap and it's only a problem if we make it one. It's as much the case with MMOs in real life too.

I've been a part of this site with varying degrees of activity for two years and I've only just reached level 50 on my main class, in another two years there's going to be just as much a gap as there is now in character levels just based on the amount of RPing people do. If levels are being reset to fix the difference, then it's just a bandaid on what the real issue is, and that's the thought that people are unwilling to RP with lower level characters, which I've never actually seen personally on this site. When I was a low level I was RPing with level 90 characters, and now at my current level I RP with people who are lower than I.

Hane's first point would be a good fix for new players just coming in though, and like I said before, resetting the plotline isn't a bad idea.

[Azoth]

--Attention--

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It has come to my knowledge that some people believe that they are allowed to have One Vote per Account. That is incorrect. You are allowed to have One Vote per Person. Thus, the following people are being revoked of their voting privileges and are asked to remove their votes from the Poll. Should those votes not be removed, I will assume their vote depending on their suggestions, whether that be towards the "yes" or "no" votes will be up to my discretion, and their votes will be removed at the end of the poll:

-Eleri (@eleri / Aldred the Grim )
-Dumah (@dumah / @lyssamanya / Zyoto )

[Saskia]

I personally believe that it would be extremely ill received to have some of our hard work and progress that some of us poured into our characters to maintain. I know people on here that have poured a lot of time from their daily lives to contribute to this site and advance the activity levels in it's glory days. There are ways around the level gap, if I want to play with other players and be around the same level, I know how to change my class and still maintain all the progress I had from the class I was before. I also know how to conduct social roleplay and that usually makes up the greater half of my posts anyway. The mentorship program is definitely a great system. Like many others, I feel that leveling will be an issue no matter how you handle it. Mainly because everyone has different lifestyles and time that they commit to posting. We have a variety of different breeds ranging from people that posts in multiple threads daily and others who maybe post one or twice between every couple of days.

Even when multiple levels ahead, I took the time to balance myself and roleplay with others, even if I adjusted my personal level in said timezone.

I will try to contemplate suggestions in depth more later, I just feel very discouraged now about things to come and hesitant about whether or not I wish to be a part of it.

So as far as an idea to add to the table, what about for raids and other events that you mentioned, we have it be like games where higher level players have a temporary soft cap level decrease that puts their stats and skills at the max level allowed for the raid.

[Lamenta]

I am going to be a downright selfish on this first three line of this post.
If i think this on personal level, yeah i'd hate it to have my character reset to zero and got some of my stuff taken away due to reset. It gives me the feeling of my past effort to achieve this level is a waste and makes me lazy to continue. But hey it just my personal problem, we are a community, community couldn't work really well if the higher ups think on the individual problem, it would be most likely lead to a chaos.
---That's my selfish three liner--
Let's think the big picture here. Instead making a confusion in the future by adding a major changes such as plotline and other things. It would be much better to reset it and put the plotline together, so there won't be any confuzzle in the future. This goes with the crafting, there is several part of it that questionable, and we couldn't ask the crafter since some of the crafter have long gone. Admit it there is some part that quite messed up and reset is the only good option for it. Getting back to your initial level wouldn't be hard (this is my opinion, don't bash to much into it), there is plenty player to goes out with, spending your time writing a good and new stories.

reset=good improvement imo
Heck, at the current state it would be better reset than gone to rampage arguing to a single aspect of the game
Pardon my english and some line that may hit your nerves. But want to say what i want to say

[Deleted]

Note: You will be offended by the time you reach the end of this post.

I've said a lot in the cbox already but I want to take my opportunity to speak here, as well. I am entirely for a complete reset: story, levels, gold, all of it.

I think too many people are focusing on this being a LEVEL issue. This is a STORY issue. For varying reasons, there's conflict in the memories of our characters.. whether you went to Lune, or Scotland the first time or second time, or RPed with characters who simply never came back, there's gaps and discrepancies. Regardless of whether this forum takes off with this "second wind" I do not personally believe it will ever see the influx of members it saw in months gone by. Most of you will leave again, sadly, and the occasional new member will trickle in. There's nothing to interest people in LH anymore, no new anime, or light novel, etc, we ARE those people. Turn and shake the hand of the member beside you and know that the Log Horizon community is already here and will only continue to shrink. I don't mean this to be a negative notion but a logical one. The community here is, in reality, about 20 people, give or take 5-10 because of duplicate accounts so planning for this future rush of new members who will eventually be left behind is... kind of not all that important.

Either way, this is a roleplay forum and a community for writing and creating memories. The levels are a by-product of this and never, ever should have been the end goal. Regardless of whether your character exists or is of a certain level is irrelevant because you still have your real memories, your friends, etc. Those things won't disappear no matter what ever happens to this forum. Less than a week ago, you had all left this place (with few exceptions) and it was dying. On its death bed and set to close and few of you cared or even remembered about it, even less of you were willing to step up and do anything about it. Someone is willing to give this place another go and for so many of you to sit and feel entitled enough to attempt to heed their progress... it's outstanding, for all the wrong reasons.

This forum has a lot of issues, they are varied and they are annoying when viewed from the other side (as a mod), I can personally assure you of this. When you sit in the seat that Azoth is sitting in, you absolutely must do what is best for the forum as a whole and not think of what is best for the individual making the decision. I honestly beg of you all to imagine yourself in that position now. Please, think of the forum itself and not your character. What gives the forum itself its best chance of living? It is simply not continuing down the same beaten and stale path. There is nothing to gain by allowing this forum to continue to stagnate with its same issues but everything to gain by allowing a chance for new life, new stories and new adventures. Your fondness of your current characters will live on but you may even find you like the character you create in the reset to be better in some way, or even if you make the same character, you can relive and tweak things as you go, explore things with a fresh view and again experience the wonders of the world before you.

That all aside, I am okay with the idea of giving previous members a reward of some sort, provided it is NOT an AP or level reward. I think a limited edition item or trinket would be just fine. Perhaps access to a special area that only "pre-order" characters were granted access to. Your new character would be, of course, played by someone who pre-ordered the game, in that case.

I would, however, like to say that in regards to an eventual level gap... yes, that's possible but like I said before, I just don't see there being as many new people coming in at level 1 as there was before. By resetting now, everyone will grow together at the same pace (roughly), or at least in terms of plot events. There will be new people but they will be few and far between, I think, and not our main concern. I am not saying to screw them over, but to focus on the more obvious and likely outcome... the numbers of the new will never outweigh the old. However, I think that if a reset were to be done, the level cap should not be 90 but 10 or 20 and only the first town should be available. Through plot or otherwise, things will unlock. Level 30, new town. Level 40, new dungeon, etc. For those who reach the level cap, level your subclasses or simply accept that you've capped out.

Anyway, it's late for me and I think I've gotten enough of a jumbled mess written here but I'll ask again... please, please take just a moment... close your eyes and think of this is terms of what is truly and honestly best for the site. What gives this forum its best chance to be something again. Please imagine the fact that this forum was going to close only just a few days ago and that it has a chance now to live again. Is it better for the site to die, stuck in the past some wish to preserve, clinging to the memories of yesterday or to live again with a new future you can be apart of, where new memories can be made?

** I forgot to add, however, that I don't want to see anything deleted. I'd like to see everything locked and archived in a separate subforum for people to revisit, if they ever should want to. 

[Deleted]

I have to agree with Sugar, that it is certainly a "STORY issue", which is, however, the main reason I dislike the idea of a reset. The story in a RP is not only written by the mods, but mostly by the players. It's a slap to their faces to nullify every kind of character developement they have done and agreeing with Dumah on this matter it will not help motivating those satisfied or proud of their previous characters. Please apologize my harshness, but I am quite agitated. There are a few character plotlines I was very interested in that might now go to waste without an ending and without meaning. For a dedicated role player or writer alike it's not easy to just crumple their ideas and throw them in the trash can. For myself, I stored every post I made, since I joined two months ago, on my harddrive and I am not afraid to recycle them in a way. And if I make them dreams in Solo-Threads forcing my character to be the exact same as he were.
When a reset should occur, I propose making a folder, where ongoing threads may be stored, so that those, who have ongoing storylines of themselves have the opportunity to bring them to a satisfying end.

Not so sincerely this time
Ciriodhûl

Edit: Please do not take this post too seriously, I calmed down now. However, I do not want to take it back, because it still bothers me. As I said, do what is best for the forum. I should have made my point in a more diplomatic way.
Sincerely again
Ciriodhûl

Edit 2: In case it was not clear enough I want to refocus on something I mentioned in only one sentence. I did really enjoy the plots players made up for themselves so far. I did enjoy them so much that I didn't even need any official events or storylines to have fun RPing here. That might not be true for all, I get that. But having high-level characters on board, these character's or better their writers, have the opportunity to do their own little storylines, with which they can integrate new people. (It actually happened to me) By resetting the forum this opportunity no longer exists.

We are writing a huge anthology together. Whatever may be the future of this forum, let's not simply wait the mods or rather mod to push the main story forward. As long as we don't contradict it, let us be the ones writing the side stories!

[Sylvia]

This honestly sounds like a quick fix, but not a long term solution. It fixes the issues now sure but what about a few months from now, or even a year? With this revamp hopefully being used to scare up some new blood, are we going to hold level resets every time the active player base reaches too far too fast? I only have a level 11 character, so I can say that I really don't like this idea without sounding like I'm trying to be clingy or selfish for trying to hold onto my levels. Nah, instead I think we should focus on the cause and find a solution that prevents the problems from happening. For example, I really like some of the ideas being pitched around in this thread. A rewarding mentor system for example (as suggested by a few people) would be amazing as it would stimulate higher level players into RP'ing with new and lower level characters. They win because they get a positive experience that could potentially keep them playing for a long time. And the mentor wins because they are being rewarded for their efforts. New players would never be short an RP partner when people have to gain so much by being social.

Nah, instead of a level reset, why not do a 'plot reset'. Simply rewrite the history of the forum and change things to the way they need to be, and then ask everyone to adapt their characters to the change. I am sure that some players would rather ignore a thread they did in the past or pretend that the thread took place in a different area or time then have to ignore months or even years worth of work and effort. That should fix that space time continuum without taking away anyone's cookies. And while it would be easier to create plots if everyone was the same level, we could just have a level scaling system like GW2 in place where characters above a certain level scale down in level for certain plots/threads while keeping any skills they possess. That feature was one of my personal favorites for that MMO and it helped me enjoy low level content with a good many of my friends even when my character was already capped.

[apoc]

I take offense that returning players require a reset to figure out current rules. Today, I was about to start RPing again and spam post, but then I saw this right when I was about to start it caused me to stop. It took me awhile to figure out where my RPC was at and what current rules state on what he should have. Some minor details have changed, but for the most part the core stayed the same. I cannot find a few things that I believe I need when I start RPing my main class, but I was going to poke the CBox to see where it was or if it is no longer needed. Asking help should always be welcomed by members.

As for the story element, you are missing the major part of the site's story. That is personal RP story lines. Why are there a wide variety of story lines? Because, there are a wide variety of RPCs. I do not see how a reset will help with the story side of the site. Yes, you get the whole site to start fresh. However, what will you do when people try to RP after a reset and then decide to leave because they could get into their new characters due to the journey they already taken and then they chose to return in a year or so? Will you reset the site again when they try to get back into RPing with their character and you have the same issue as you do now? If you did it before, what stops you from doing it again? This is why site resets normally kill an RP site, the same reason character wipes on servers to start an online-RPG anew causes most game to go to the graveyard. Too many questions due to uncertainty that is created by doing something drastic. I urge you to not do the reset because the same reasons why you want to do this reset will always occur again.

As for some of the suggestions that have been made to take place of the reset to fix the issues. I like most of them. I would suggest looking into those instead of a complete reset.

[Azoth]

End Results

Hello once more, everyone. Azoth here.

Based on the amount of people whom have voted and after letting a good chunk of you share your opinions, I have decided to close the poll and make my decision. We will be proceeding with the Forum Reset. Now I want you to understand that I did enter the poll with the hope that majority of you would agree that the site needs to be reset, but I did not 100% believe that a reset needed to occur. I also understood a lot of the points that were made before they were made, such as the fact that people have put in days worth of their lives into the Forum and a reset would simply make that worthless. I have stated it before and I will say it again; in order to implement the changes I wish to put through, a reset is not completely necessary. Adjustments can be made without the reset. However, by conducting the reset, I will be able to implement changes in the Site's Plotline much more easily. I will also be able to create the Reactive-MMO System that I am planning very quickly, and in this instance "quickly" means weeks rather than months. It will take a lot of effort on my part, but I'll be grinding it out for you all with the expectation that I can make a playable version of the new version of the site in just two weeks or less.

Those of us, like myself, who have put days into the site have enjoyed most of the times here. We have made friends both in character and out of character, we have built relationships with people out of the fun, and over the past two to three years we have all become quite close (depending on who you've chatted with often). Even for me, this reset is quite painful, however over the past few months I have watched this site slowly crumble in activity to just a few active posters. In my time, when the site first started, posts were happening every thirty minutes. Now it seems like it takes days and there was a point that the CBox was close to dead. Thus, I believe that most of you had already abandoned the site and upon reading my e-mail, you returned with the intent of continuing. Well, we will be continuing. That e-mail was to see who would respond and come back. It wasn't all to reignite your love for Elder Tale. I wanted to see who still remembered this place and to who still had interest. Now that I know, and now that I have asked how you all feel, I can continue with hopes that the post-reset Elder Tale will keep you all here for another span of time.

I have high hopes for this site and I wish there was a way to appease all of the problems and concerns, but this is one of those scenarios where I had to make a judgement. Either I keep things the way they are, make some changes, and hope for the best or I go all out and risk it all. Due to the state this site is in, and was in for the past few months, risking it all is a gamble I am willing to take. If it is not one you are willing to take, then by all means shout your hate and use the door at the back of the room, because like it or not; I'm doing what I believe will bring this site back up to its feet. It may never be what it was in its prime, but I'll be damned if I let it go without trying something.

In the coming days, I will put up another announcement stating what will happen when it comes time for the reset. I will be giving more details about my new systems and the happenings of the reset. For now, I wish all members to follow these procedures;

1. If you are creating a character, continue to do so. Finish your character and remain patient. I will be grading all profiles in the days leading up to the reset in order to prepare people for the day I flip the switch. Until then, I will not be looking at profiles. If you are approved by two other players, however, you may proceed with joining the current world. However, you will not be allowed to claim any AP.
2. Claim any AP you have lingering. A week or so before the reset, I will be closing the AP Board and no more claims will be allowed to be made. I will be going through AP Claims and handing out the last forms of experience to players.
3. If you are an older player and your character has multiple classes leveled, gather up the proof of all these subclasses being leveled. I will be checking these and if you do not show me where you have leveled a class, I will not hunt it down. It is your AP, not mine. Find it.
4. There will be a feature where you will be able to RP your "Pre-Reset" Character in a board separate from the "Post-Reset" Forum. If you wish to continue your plots for whatever reason, save your character sheet now. Once it's archived, I will not be responsible for what happens to your character sheet.
5. If you are crafting, I would suggest ditching your efforts for the time being. The way Crafting works will be changing. Claim your AP for these threads and hold your ideas for after the reset.

Many of you probably have questions about how the Reset will work and when it will happen. I will not answer any of these questions simply because I will be posting up a full thread about it in the coming days, so I ask that you hold them. Once I have the thread up, I will answer as many questions as possible with the thread.


Thank you,

--Azoth