EA: volunteers?

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Mithreas
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EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:41 pm

First up - I really appreciate that some of you are active in updating and maintaining the wiki, to ensure that it remains a useful resource for the community.

Are there any budding historians out there willing to do the same for the Encyclopedia? I'd at least like it to have a record of major events (DM or player driven). Some of the records stuff in the Cordor Council Hall (years, councils etc) would be better positioned living in the EA.

At present, the EA is totally divorced from the game. But I'd love in future to be able to pull content direct from the EA to the game - the more that's there, the better.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Hunter548 » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:48 pm

I'd be more than happy to add more recent events to the EA, but the current EA is so screwy code-wise that it's a crap shoot whether you can update an entry or not, add an entry or not, whether an entry will stay updated, etc. Half the time I approve an entry change and nothing happens, or I can't approve a change despite mod powers. Fireboar used to talk about how we were going to overhaul it from the ground up, but I don't think that ever happened.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by The Pretty Prince of Parties » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:49 pm

I've still got Librarian status - but isn't the EA kind of... broken as heck, right now?

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If Valor Were Inches
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by If Valor Were Inches » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:49 pm

I volunteer!

Unless, like my picture, there is a height requirement.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:56 pm

If you can get me clear issue reports (ideally reproducible ones) then I may be able to fix them. I wasn't actually aware of there being issues, but it makes sense!
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by IndifferentPerson » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:00 am

Unrelated to the original question but is the EA IC or OOC stuff?

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Mithreas
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:38 am

OOC.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by InTheFlesh » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:41 am

I humbly volunteer.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:03 am

Thank you - the link is at the top of the screen ;)
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:44 am

I'd love to. Sign me up. I live and die history.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by dragoneyeIIVX » Tue Sep 09, 2014 6:13 am

I'm going to suggest a bit of a change to the way that the EA works, if it's going to be mainlined into the game.

Make the whole thing IC. Fill it with four types of things: people, place, events, and things. Then have those bits as "topics" that can be written about by a character (ideally, if it's linked, from your vault), but that don't overwrite, as they do now.

So if you want to read about an event, or character, you can read about it from the perspective of themselves, an enemy, a historian, or whoever else has decided to write about them. This keeps it all IC, let's characters have differing views on the same historical incident, and creates a dialogue around the server's ongoing history in a way that can be directly implemented IG (if you so chose). All those books people ask to be permanently added to the server? Perfect place to put them.

If it's linked IG, imagine going to a library with an NPC that could pull directly from the EA.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Dunshine » Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:03 am

A reproducible bug I know of is that it fails to update entries when the text is too long. Not sure what the maximum length is, but there is one.

Also, it's not entirely seperated from the game, well technically it is ofcourse, but one of them Tinkers seems to know a lot of stuff that is written there. ;-)

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by MongooseGod » Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:29 am

why not so something like guild wars and have it all on the wiki. Both IC and OOC, this way its all in one place.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Realoms » Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:32 am

I'll happily work on it/update it/whatever. I've done multiple entries over the years and I'd be happy to help out how ever I can.

Though last I tried- I couldn't upload entries and all entries were getting extra characters added at seemingly random places that I at least couldn't edit out.

And then for a while it just wouldn't work at all.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:17 pm

I'd love the EA to be wholly IC, though that will take a fair bit of editing effort. Still, we seem to have plenty of volunteers - who wants to take the lead on the project?
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:15 pm

Point me in the right direction.

DE- would you include everything? There are a lot of IC books that have no historical or Arelithian bearing. Do you include those?

I'm of the opinion you fill and file everything written into a Vault or Archives, that has a myriad of sections, and is not meant to have a single purpose or trajectory but is meant to contain the literature of Arelithians.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by CragOrion » Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:28 pm

Whoever is working on this, please make sure you are being respectful to those who were involved in what you are writing about. I came back from a 2-year hiatus to find someone had edited the entry on my main character and added in things that were not true. Please make sure that whatever you add, you know for a fact that it did in-fact happen the way you're writing it.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by dragoneyeIIVX » Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:55 pm

Seven - I forgot that there is a Beastiary as well. What about "Phenomena" for the rest? That would be able to include information about magic, plants, gems, etc. I'm not incredibly stoked about that phrasing though, have a better idea for a tag?

Mith - I'd love to assist as I'm able, though I know jack about the code to make it happen. For those volunteering, I'd say we kick off a Google Doc to consolidate everything that's happening. Something like this, if it's useful? https://docs.google.com/document/d/12-g ... Yf9f0/edit


Edit: Crag - That's precisely the reason I'd love it to be IC. There's no "Objective Truth" about most of what's happened on Arelith, and the EA shouldn't be a place for competing OOC egos. Just IC ones. :D

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:57 pm

Good idea - use google docs for now, I'll aim to get the code fixed up.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Izaich » Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:52 pm

I would be interested in taking this project up again. When I initially started it, I actually started a companion project IC with my archaeologist gnome, William Melphele. The aim was to translate some of the information (discovered in game) into books and publications. Nelehein Afsana and the Knights of the Road also did a wonderful job of translating events into IC records.

The main problem would be ensuring the published information remains circulated. Books come and go from the item matrix, and player fixtures have a tendency to blow up. If it's possible, I'd recommend setting up a basement or adjoining area to the Library called the Archives. The bookshelves would have dialogue options that would let players sort through events, names, etc. Particularly notable events and people could receive paintings / statues, and notable items and monsters could receive models or stuffed animals.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by ArcanaFTW » Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:15 pm

I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE.

..but srsly, sign me up.

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by dragoneyeIIVX » Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:19 pm

Anyone who is interested, just follow that google doc link, put your name in, and highlight yourself with a color. We can make a big list from there that should be pretty straightforward to work with.

Hi Izaich :)

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:31 pm

I was thinking you could separate those sorts of things (monsters, gems, plants, what have you) in a "Compendium" which could perhaps be a little more objective.

Everything else, could be in a "Historum" which is where things get totally subjective and extremely un-definitive.

But on the idea of objectivity and definitive-ness, I think it would be great if we could actually have some DEV interference as to what is "canon." I hate that word, but Arelith's past is hilarious in terms of how far its evolved. There used to be monsters as Cordorian Guards.

If we're looking into histories, now would be a time for a very honest discussion on re-evaluating Arelith's history, and perhaps making some executive decisions as to what should be altered, and what shouldn't be.

(I've always been bothered Arelith doesn't have some sort of "lore" wiki where we can all waste more hours of life reading about all the cool stuff that's happened. Other MMO's have it!)

edit: also, DE, the google doc says "view only"?
Last edited by Seven Sons of Sin on Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by dragoneyeIIVX » Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:37 pm

We're (re)creating the lore wiki! :D

Obviously this is up to Mith, but the reason I think it's good to keep it all IC is because it creates a better RP narrative for the server. There's nothing definitive thing that we should be writing about for, say, the vampires in Mourne, but having a topic where someone speculates on the nature of the beasts within? Awesome. The only truly objective stuff is the stat sheet. Leaving everything else to characters encourages that vague uncertainty that drives so much interesting RP. Again, personal opinion on things. In the end, whatever Mith&Co wants to happen, we'll go with!

Edit: If anyone wants to stay in touch to do some brainstorming, just find me on steam.
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Edit II: Fixed the permissions, sorry!

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Re: EA: volunteers?

Post by Mithreas » Tue Sep 09, 2014 6:39 pm

Izaich wrote: The main problem would be ensuring the published information remains circulated. Books come and go from the item matrix, and player fixtures have a tendency to blow up. If it's possible, I'd recommend setting up a basement or adjoining area to the Library called the Archives. The bookshelves would have dialogue options that would let players sort through events, names, etc. Particularly notable events and people could receive paintings / statues, and notable items and monsters could receive models or stuffed animals.
See, the joy of doing things in the new website, is that I'll be able to pull directly from the archive into the game. So for example, we could have an interface where you search a library for information about a keyword. The authors of the articles flag information as common, uncommon, rare or very rare, and the PC's search check determines what articles they might find. The game then serves up a random article from that pool.

Boom, IG research becomes a thing.
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