Server Dead / Request Wipe

I am going to lobby for a server wipe. Currently we have 2 players that actually play everyday and I believe a server wipe will reinvigorate all the afk members and attract new ones.

What is the point of having 9 people that play if only 2 are actually running around doing stuff. I think if we wipe the afkers will no longer be the most powerful characters which may give them the itch to start playing and be a little more competitive and participate.

I would also like to propose that after said wipe we combine forts, or start out as ranzington citizens or something so we can RP well together and really create the eb and flow of this 2 faction server from RP. If you log in and theres always a group out rping and questing you might think twice about instantly going afk to soak xp.

Third idea is maybe some sort of script that checks if a player is afk. If not afk maybe we could add some xp to the hourly xp gain to help encourage activity as well. Moth it's been a long time since I've worked on a nwn module so I do not even know if that is possible or how much work it would take.

I really want to see this server liven up and we could use the companionship. After all Winter is Coming! I don't think we will lose much player base and it is not like the current players can play any less than they already do. If we lose 3 afkers and gain one active player I see this strategy as a win.

What do you all think?

PS: I have updated our server ip on most of the listing websites and am searching for more ways to advertise the server

PSS: Can we get rid of the snow?

OmegaChaos wrote:PSS: Can we get rid of the snow?

But...but...as you said - Winter IS coming!


In all seriousness, I've started removing it.
It's tiresome and boring work, especially changing the background in every window in every house in the MOD.

Maybe I'll start with removing it in one fort, leaving it on another.
We'll see.

-TheMothMan

LoL this man speaks the truth. I did my share of modding NWN years ago. The tediousness of it will drive thee INSANE.

So anyhow, Omega has a point. I'm never an advocate for server wipes, but I do see his logic. However, if you all decide to do it, please do it and be done with it. Otherwise, I'd like to not be paranoid wondering if tomorrow morning, everything I've done for the last week has been erased lololol.

I only just recently hit lvl 40 along with another Axfell... not to menchion the ats skills I've accumilated.
-And another player or a few want to take that all away because they're lonely and want others to party with?
 
We only JUST had a wipe when doing the transition from Felix to Rann hosting... so where were you when that happened?
 
If that wipe braught back only a number of players.. (involving a group that quit due to 1 of their friends being banned for exploiting etc) then why would another wipe bring back even more?
 
I already leveled up my character, a lot of it was afking due to my irl lack of free time... but what free time i had was solo-play and i did not feel compelled to whine about it despite prefering/missing group outings.
 
Imagine what a pain it would be if every few months a new/old player joined and makes a post about a server wipe... no one will ever hit and keep 40 for long.
 
Why should I or any one return to this server to play.. if we are going to let wipes occur so frequently. -And if we wipe everytime the server gets dead.. that might be a daily wipe if not weekly... This server goes through plenty of "down time" in terms of activity.

Ok, I officially agree with TheeVals now lol -well said.

I thought of something else which pertains to this topic of wipes...

Some updates we`ve gone through which deserved a wipe, a wipe never occured... leaving the player base with a certain few players with a small advantage.

The most recent one being... players who got to lvl up with the help/use of those `shade` vs no longer using them.. which is better... luckily most of those players/characters no longer seem to play so that advantage is not as active as it would be if those characters were still around.... (if that makes sense...)

So the only way I`d ever support the idea of a wipe is if there is a massive game changing update which new characters might miss out of something that old characters still have... gets implemented. Like another change of a spell which is popular... or another change of items both sold and found...

removal of snow is not a wipe worthy update though... Raven will figure out a server wide quest to explain the climate change perhaps?

I'm not really interested power balance, just want to build relationships and create a better rp community by combining forts and establishing more incentive to play. I can see you are offended so we don't have to discuss it. Just trying to be an active part of shaping the community and help move forward. Thanks for the input.

I don't know why people think a wipe will fix everything, the last wipe shouldn't have happened in my eyes. If I remember correctly the new temp host offered to host only if there was a wipe, even though no more than a couple of weeks earlier there was a vote against one.

Repeatedly wiping the server will just make things worse.

Here's my suggestion, bring back the old character vault.

Reference thread:

https://anphgenesis.forumotion.com/t787-thoughts-on-a-server-wipe

Pay special attention to the last post by Moth, that there shouldn't be a wipe unless the vast majority was in favor.

The vote? 25 people were againced a wipe vs 12 for one. 10 of the 25 saying they would leave if there was a wipe, now we want to wipe again?

Am I the only one who looks back and think that it was bullshit we had a wipe to begin with?

Just venting...

My Suggestion is that we forget what happened after felix stopped hosting, and carry on from when felix was hosting, erase it from our history and forget it happened at all, bring things back to the way they were, maybe those 10 people who voted they would leave if there was a wipe would come back. It was balanced then was it not?

I understand all the points against a wipe and it makes sense. All I wanted to do was try and increase activity which is why I think some sort of system that benefits the ones who arent afk just slightly more than the ones who are might be helpful.

I understand the need for the hourly xp and it allows for the server to always have players who would otherwise be logged off. But I just think that everything has become complacent with soaking and we should try and brainstorm and improve the system to encourage activity. All I'm saying is we can do better if we try

Note to self: If you ever want to get people talking on the forums... mention a wipe.

sniqow has a poiint here.
A wipe could bring new player and old players back, if it's done once every 9-12 months or so.
Just wiping every months won't do anything, aside from piss people off.

When you are a part of the establishment, a wipe is very tempting.
I fixes many problems that's happend along the way and it's an excellent time to introduce new big features.

This doesn't mean you should wipe whenever.
You have to know when it's the right time and you want a majority of the active playerbase onboard with this idea.

TLDR; as a not-very-active-player/builder, I think a wipe right now is a bad idea.

-TheMothMan

Rann Cora wrote:Note to self:  If you ever want to get people talking on the forums... mention a wipe.

Hahaha..

New Thread Title: "SHOULD THERE BE A CHARACTER WIPE!?"

New Thread Content: "So we're looking at the possibility of including some new armor sets in the module. What are everyone's thoughts on this?".....

Sniqow reading is not for everyone... but I guess omega can`t be faulted for this.. since the posts hide within a long topic which does not indicate any relation to a wipe... but I thought I recalled his post sounding similar to someone else`s in terms of combining the factions..

https://anphgenesis.forumotion.com/t888p45-that-tumor-that-grew-on-your-neck

Avoid reading through all the drama...:

The result is obvious since Rann is back and no wipe.. you`ll have to sort through the off topic rant/drama posts to get the reactions...

As for the anti afking many old posts about that clutter this forum and nothing really got implemented to discourage afking, in fact the relic giving 350 xp when taken... encouraged afking on lower lvl alts.. I recall it even being done on this server (and raven`s) by the Unty crew... (which are now banned...) They`d go right away afk after taking the relic... without any defense might i add..
I also notice how this change of auto xp with the relics.. encourages certain players who play both sides to switch to play the character/afk the character on the side with the 350 bonus... which is annoying/sore loser-ish...
any hope of enforcing faction loyalties?

I do know one thing, the last few days I've been interested in playing. As my interest in GTA has peaked pretty much. And not many people are on.

Day one had server lag and I couldn't play to try for a relic.

Tonight same thing, back to GTA I guess.

TheeVals thanks for linking that post. I think I have a much better understanding of everyone's opinions and attitutes haha. And I'm not suggesting that we completely change everything to discourage afk. I think the relic system is brilliant and is filling the server with people that would otherwise not be playing at all. It also gives you a little boost that is much needed. However, I am saying that we should improve the system so the players who are not afk get a slightly better boost of some sort such as a shorter interval of xp bonus or a higher xp bonus. I just think that because a lot of the afkers are the most powerful characters here they have no incentive to play for an hour here and there, but if there was some more incentive maybe that would change. The 40+ level increase might also contribute.

Sniqow, I have notice a tiny bit of lag here and there but nothing to hinder the performance of the game and definitely not enough to make me not want to play. Is anyone else experiencing the lag to the depth that sniqow is? Where is the server hosted?

Anyone think a wipe would grow the player base? What about scheduled wipes?

I think we all think the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svF5Y_Riejc

Felix wrote:Anyone think a wipe would grow the player base? What about scheduled wipes?

I'd like to first ask... Specifically, why the request for a wipe?
(beyond the reason you gave 'grow the player base')

If moth is ready with the update for 40+ bonuses; this would be reason enough for a wipe.
-After updating and testing it with current lvl 40 characters of course.
This would be ideal to avoid unneeded benefits/disappointments from bugs... It always bothered me how past updates were rushed and some exploited.

Is it the lack of axfell players?
(causing the server to have a empty faction)

-How would we prevent it from happening again?, what is to stop players joining 1 side over the other, which causes an imbalance?

Has cleaven became as inactive?

I only ask because in another post you said there were still cleaven players who were active, there is even a quest. What else would keep activity if not an RP-dm? What is the cause of the inactivity, and can a wipe fix it?

Darken...:

I personally think that a wipe would appeal to players who enjoy the competitive rush  of gaining levels, loot, ats skills. Like how Omega first requested a wipe it sounded like it was for this reason.

OmegaChaos wrote: I think if we wipe the afkers will no longer be the most powerful characters which may give them the itch to start playing and be a little more competitive and participate.

But as for the other issues this server currently has, which might have caused a few players to leave.. I do not understand how starting a fresh character might fix them.

I'm not even sure another post like This one could help.. unless things are done to fix the issue and the issue is server related.
-Too many afk players & not enough RP were more or less ignored at the time if I recall correctly. Also maybe the 'it's too difficult' -but I don't recall when the server was set to a lower difficulty... if it was after that.. then I guess that one wasn't ignored so much...

p.s. too many afk playerss is the exact same as 'not any/enough players', in case anyone starts to think preventing afking is the answer to gain more 'active' population.

Well, I must admit when I logged in this morning and saw this topic, I thought overnight a 2 page wipe topic had developed. Then halfway through reading I saw one of my own comments. Note to self: Check the dates.

What we need is someone that knows a lot of the older players to get them to come back, or at least see what they're up to, and then we can find an incentive. What would make you start playing Anphillia again?

I haven't been logging in to the client for some time now in an effort to help stability. In the past I would at least AFK. I love this game for the competitive nature of PvP. Nothing else out there gives you the same rush as winning OR losing in epic PvP battles on Anphillia. NOTHING. Because in every other game it doesn't mean anything when you die. You don't have the time invested into building your character and his or her relationships with other characters, you don't lose every last cent on your person, you don't lose any sort of experience... it just doesn't MEAN anything in other games, especially in PvP situations. Other games coddle you whereas NWN is a cold-hearted bitch. As a player and not a host, the population isn't there to provide what I want, and MOST of the people I used to enjoy playing with aren't around anymore. (Some of you guys that are still here, don't hold that last bit against me!)

As far as a wipe goes, I don't see it happening, unless it involves the old server vault coming back. Or perhaps we could combine the old vault and the new one. I don't know. I am at a loss of what to do to bring the players back. And by bring the players back, I mean the ones we want. I could unban some of the banned cheaters, but no one wants them back anyway. Perhaps if they could just log in and have characters ready to play, ready to raid the enemy fort, ready to go into the deepest darkest holes that this mod has to offer without the need to grind and level up with time they may not have, that might entice them to come back?

I DO NOT think a wipe is the answer here. Previously, the wipe WAS the answer. Several of the older players were excited to start anew and build a new team of in game friends to work together. I switched to Axefell. I've NEVER had a level 40 Axefell before. It was cool to see things from the other side.

In my mind, the ONLY situation in which we should wipe is if we go to 1 starting faction and let the RP build into 2. That type of storyline might be interesting enough to draw some older players back in because it is NEW. And even then, we might could do some sort of "partial" wipe and let you bank your existing character's experience and ATS points and trade in your gear for stacks on stacks of coin to go into a new character in the new Ranzington. That way, we don't have anything not making sense of why we're all a big happy family in Ranzington after being at war with each other, and no one has to start from scratch all over again. After all, why couldn't a level 40 mage arrive on a boat in Ranzington? Why does it always have to be level 1?

I played a little Path of Exile and what they do is have 3 or 4 month character vaults. After the allotted time all the characters from the race move to the standard vault. Then another race begins. This seems like the best of both worlds though it would require 2 servers to be run simultaneously. Alternatively we could just swap out vaults for time periods.

I forgot to answer TheeVals. I brought it up to see if its something that would bring some players back. I know first hand that once you have multiple lvl 40s and lots of loots things tend to get stale. I heard that there was a good amount of people playing after the wipe. Right now Cleaven has a few active players. Axfell doesn't really have any. The occasional Axfell will drop in but one is a lonely number.

For me, I say wipe and adjust the loot and special shops so the best items on the server are crafted. Just seems the mod has moved into a powergame looting/AFK race to lvl 40.. The down side is with the crafting some other items will have to be developed, bows and arrows and other things not in the existing ATS on the mod.
I dont care about 40+ lvls - not an issue if the progress to lvl 40 is slowed down by other changes (kick stale AFK connections after 30min)
Force a single class till lvl 10, then they can muticlass into a fitting second class and after 20 free to do a fitting third class (3 only) and mix it up any way they want up to 40..

fyi - I looked on a few NWN Server list sites and the ones that have Anphillia still have old IP and are listed as offline..