lost ark unannounced change

[Irongron]

I am certainly unaware of any staff member getting special upgrades to their Vessel from Action Replay, who I must stress - DOES NOT PLAY, and thus has zero investment in any faction, and certainly no reason to hand out favours to developers. I've worked with him for many years and never seen any sign of that behaviour.

Of course our staff is large (aound 50) so updates will sometimes hit stuff that is developer controlled.

I would urge anyone concerned that things like this are happening, and that we have devs seeking to enrich their own character's properties through their connection to staff please do report it to me or the Active Admins. It will be dealt with.

As an aside, I often have no idea which ships are being referenced in these threads as most have been renamed since I made them. I've also only got a passing knowledge of ship to ship interaction mechanics as the system is now very different to the one I originally devised.

[helitron]

Removed

seriously, people here need to be more careful with accusations thrown out like this. this just makes this entire game not fun for anyone involved. please avoid making such assumptions.

[Irongron]

So I've already talked with AR, who said in both cases he was approached by players seeking an upgrade to their ships, following RP and massive gold investment AR made the changes - on a temporary basis. He didn't know them at all.

Neither of these players were staff, AR has no idea who they play with and was just being supportive as he tests out and plays with new features for his system. I have unfortunately heard that at least one of the players received a ton of hate and accusations following the upgrade.

I'm surprised Action Replay has any patience to work on ships any more following such a depressing display of entitlement and mud-slinging but apparently he does, and said of course he'll address imbalance issues as he moves forward.

For myself I'm actually, and uncharacteristically, rather pissed. I thought as a community we had moved past this Discord conspiracy and unpleasantness but apparently not. Maybe take time to appreciate the volunteer dev team rather than this endless harassment and genuinely insulting notion their just in it for themselves?

Clearly I've been burying my head in the sand.

[Kythana]

Okay, so if this is all above board, why wasn't it announced or spoken about?

Could have avoided a reaction like this if there was simply a "sencliff ship update" announcement.

[Zae]

Removed

Honestly, can we stop this sort of assumption ? This is not helping at all, and maybe that's better to lock the thread and leave it to the team.

[quick hand movement]

Okay, so if this is all above board, why wasn't it announced or spoken about?

Could have avoided a reaction like this if there was simply a "sencliff ship update" announcement.

This is the main issue, I think. Huge red flag.

[Beary Nice]

Honestly, can we stop this sort of assumption ? This is not helping at all, and maybe that's better to lock the thread and leave it to the team.

Locking the thread when the thread is about unannounced changes by the development team itself is a very bold move that I'm sure won't foster any distrust of whatever's been happening

[Irongron]

Okay, so if this is all above board, why wasn't it announced or spoken about?

Could have avoided a reaction like this if there was simply a "sencliff ship update" announcement.

It would be somewhat dumb to think if an update wasn't announced it wouldnt be noticed, right?

And frankly even if it was the same rumour would be floating around. AR's work has zero to do with Sorrowkitten, he works largely independently from the rest of the staff, and maybe writes in our Discord once a month.

Far from what people think the staff are not a single group of conspiratorial players. Most of us don't play together at all, or even socialise.

As for why AR didn't announce it on updates? Likely he didnt think it was large enough. Unannounced changes go in all the time.

[quick hand movement]

I assume the only reason this even happened is because Sorrow is playing a pirate that was involved. I mean, I can't say for sure, but let's be honest here. No hate, just, c'mon.

Honestly, can we stop this sort of assumption ? This is not helping at all, and maybe that's better to lock the thread and leave it to the team.

I can happily make 'assumptions' if you'd like. What I said was actually just, well, a fact. I have no hate for the Dev team, I appreciate what they do. But when the server is ran like a MMO, you can't just do this and not expect some upset over it.

Why can't I do RP to make my character stronger? Why can't I give massive amounts of coin and time for a overpowered staff, or sword, or whatever else. Just seems a bit unfair. Again, wouldn't be such a massive problem if this wasn't a MMO environment. But this isn't Billy's 20 slot private Roleplay server. It's the main server of NWN. 100s of people. Why do some get advantages over others, just for being near Devs?

[Beary Nice]

Okay, so if this is all above board, why wasn't it announced or spoken about?

Could have avoided a reaction like this if there was simply a "sencliff ship update" announcement.

It would be somewhat dumb to think if an update wasn't announced is wouldnt be noticed, right?

And frankly even if it was the same rumour would be floating around. AR's work has zero to do with Sorrowkitten, he works largely independently from the rest of the staff, and maybe writes in our Discord once a month.

Far from what people think the staff are not a single group of conspiratorial players. Most of us don't play together at all, or even socialise.

As for why AR didn't announce it on updates? Likely he didnt think it was large enough. Unannounced changes go in all the time.

If we're trying to emulate MMOs, here, which seems to be the case, then with all due respect: why? Why do unannounced changes go in all the time? If our playerbase is playing Arelith, exclusively, over other games, and since we're competing against a slew of modern games - and even older ones, too - why do you think that even the smallest change shouldn't be announced? Even Blizzard does that.

[Irongron]

I assume the only reason this even happened is because Sorrow is playing a pirate that was involved. I mean, I can't say for sure, but let's be honest here. No hate, just, c'mon.

Honestly, can we stop this sort of assumption ? This is not helping at all, and maybe that's better to lock the thread and leave it to the team.

I can happily make 'assumptions' if you'd like. What I said was actually just, well, a fact. I have no hate for the Dev team, I appreciate what they do. But when the server is ran like a MMO, you can't just do this and not expect some upset over it.

Why can't I do RP to make my character stronger? Why can't I give massive amounts of coin and time for a overpowered staff, or sword, or whatever else. Just seems a bit unfair. Again, wouldn't be such a massive problem if this wasn't a MMO environment. But this isn't Billy's 20 slot private Roleplay server. It's the main server of NWN. 100s of people. Why do some get advantages over others, just for being near Devs?

So I can only assume you have not read my above posts at all. There was no Dev connection whatsoever to the ship change. This was a PLAYER contacting Action Replay to request a change.

That's it.

If this continues I'm going to ask that anyone naming and publicly accusing my staff of things, let me be clear - THEY DID NOT DO, and stirring up resentment against them here on the forums or on Discord to be permanently removed from this community.

If you have a report to make, about a player or staff member there are clearly outlined channels to do so - these posts are wildly inappropriate.