MalKalz wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:48 am
stuuuuff
I think while a lot of this was very well-said, it faces a lot of logic fallacies and arguments that can be proven wrong through facts and not emotional appeal.
The main reason I came to post in this thread was to express the sheer confusion and disappointment I feel in creating a whole entire area for the race, making it apart of the server's lore, and then hitting them with the hard remove as opposed to changing their reward tier. So I chose to respond to this post to kinda clarify I respectfully disagree with a lot of what you had to say, though I don't really plan to (or necessarily have the mental energy) to tackle all of the points I don't believe to be true.
I will quickly address the HARD removal: No, this isn't a trend with proven evidence. In my experience, the "rotation" has for literal years now been a shifting between the greater and major positions for higher tier award races. Dragons and liches (because there was one, and I have been on this server long enough to have once wished for a 5% to play a lich) have faced complete and total removal. Being removed from the rotation, as far as I have any real information to base this upon, means that half giants have just been removed entirely. With little fanfare, or justification actually given. Of late, this idea of the "server's direction" is honestly being used to back a lot of genuinely abusive attitudes towards players seeking answers.
In history of Arelith, we have seen the removal of areas, yes, but certainly not the one you listed. The Banites didn't lose the temple as you suggested, it was merely moved and upgraded. What we have lost is every place in the Underdark to hang out besides the Hub. But honestly, even if the big summer surge hit, we would never have enough Underdark consistency at the moment to justify multiple Underdark settings.
However, the Surface has clearly, and for a long time, not abided by these rules. Sure. we've lost a few. First, we lost Benwick to the machinations of Vippin. Second, the destruction of Wharftown was a result of in character hostilities that drew upon the wrath of a nation. Third, Guldorand was turned into Westcliff which is more like a town or demi-settlement under the rule of the city-state of Guldorand, but that was the one time Surface history a settlement literally lost its settlement system to try and force players to a city that remains largely dead to this day. What was the solution to this? There wasn't, we just added literally more places on the Surface to spread ourselves thin. Edit: I'm neglecting Myon. Moved, but still a settlement with special portals. It's realistically done nothing to change their isolationist nature.
Too little too late, we already have Jotunhold which hosts a great deal of history on the server. The idea that they don't fit into the server's lore just sounds like a poorly backed justification for what is beginning to feel like just the latest decision in a series of sudden and aggressive changes that no one has any actual say in. Even our opinions are being suggested to not be read. In-fact, if the person who recently said not to read the feedback forums for two months or so after changes is sticking to their own advice, they will never see this thread. Thus making people's thoughts and feelings completely irrelevant to them. In that, I suppose I could just ramble forever because whatever I have to say now means literally nothing.
But I digress.
Jotunhold is not gone. Completely removing a race from selection is historically a death warrant. This argument and idea of "the server's lore" becomes completely ridiculous when firbolgs are justified for some reason that is truly beyond me.
If the "server's lore" is something seperate from "normal lore," then we should stop making sudden and drastic decisions based upon normal lore and instead reflect upon what the devs and the players together have made the server into.
Sadly, and especially with recent harsh comments from a certain staff member, it just seems like these decisions are being made based upon desires now and are coming across to me as often almost spiteful. The half-giants are even oocly one of the best parts of the community. Any suggestion that putting them in the same hole as dragons is only temporary lacks any reliability or feelings of relief, putting aside the fact they should have just been made a major.
The half-giant community doesn't deserve this to be done in silence, nor do they deserve the sheer disrespectful comments they've gotten of late. A simple one line post of their complete and total removal (as I see it) is like a gun shot to the back of the head.