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[Review] Sea of Storms

Jstar

Exitus acta probat
Lore Staff
Good
Staff
JstarGames
JstarGames
Good
Honest opinion? I loved it.

It is clear a lot of thought and planning has gone into these campaigns, with each of the staff dedicating their own time towards these, so thank you all for that!
I felt that the story was fairly clear, with a lot of people at first confused but then slowly it growing into something bigger. The travelling, planning, and all the rest was there. The tension felt inside the mountain was evident, and it really added to the feel off the role-play.

I would rank this on par for likes with the Exodus, giving you a total of!

9/10 stars!
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
I think the event was... loosely successful.

I disagree with the planning. There were huge times in the event where everyone ran about like headless chickens. Certainly, having joined slightly after the event I had no idea what was going on for at least half an hour. The whole thing with Obsidian became pretty predictable. As in, right after he said who he was I could almost tell you what would happen next, and then after that, and after that. It's like all of Corrupted villains have the exact same mindset - you trap the opponents, you play with opponents, you do some classic psychotic thing then you let them go free having suffered a casualty or two.
Not as much player input as the organisers claimed to be entirely honest. It still felt as if there was a set plan that we had to follow or get put down.

However, negatives aside the assets were beautiful. Aside from le tentaclus I found the cloud above the Cathedral to be very pretty and the whole cave thing in which we were locked in turned out to be pretty awesome. Although confusing, the aesthetics of the event turned out to be beautifully executed. Props for that.
 

Baron

Sovereign
Retired Staff
It was intentioned to be confusing, since nobody was meant to know what was going on until it was too late.

And in terms of player input: You can go where you want and do what you want, and the event/storyline will be modified accordingly by your action. Obvious choices aren't made to appear because it'd spoil immersion and a lot of fun to say "You can do X or Y" blatantly instead of presenting "You can do A-Z, and there's some Greek letters in there too. Basically do what you want and the story will adjust with you."
 

IceandFire

The Alchemist
Staff member
Admin
Good
Pronouns
He/Him
icefire120
icefire120
Good
I think the event was... loosely successful.

I disagree with the planning. There were huge times in the event where everyone ran about like headless chickens. Certainly, having joined slightly after the event I had no idea what was going on for at least half an hour. The whole thing with Obsidian became pretty predictable. As in, right after he said who he was I could almost tell you what would happen next, and then after that, and after that. It's like all of Corrupted villains have the exact same mindset - you trap the opponents, you play with opponents, you do some classic psychotic thing then you let them go free having suffered a casualty or two.
Not as much player input as the organisers claimed to be entirely honest. It still felt as if there was a set plan that we had to follow or get put down.

However, negatives aside the assets were beautiful. Aside from le tentaclus I found the cloud above the Cathedral to be very pretty and the whole cave thing in which we were locked in turned out to be pretty awesome. Although confusing, the aesthetics of the event turned out to be beautifully executed. Props for that.
I have to disagree with this, I thought this was extremely well- planned. All normal clichés aside, I think the staff did a fantastic job with keeping things original and making the event fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the mind game Obsidian played, and most of what happened at the event was created by the players, not the staff. Ashen could have died, Shoreless could have died, and players didn't have to die. The staff left a shell for the event, and the players filled it, deciding the turnout of events. All in all, this was a fantastic event, and I am super pleased with it. Great job staff, and all involved. I can't wait for more.
 

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
I think the event was... loosely successful.

I disagree with the planning. There were huge times in the event where everyone ran about like headless chickens. Certainly, having joined slightly after the event I had no idea what was going on for at least half an hour. The whole thing with Obsidian became pretty predictable. As in, right after he said who he was I could almost tell you what would happen next, and then after that, and after that. It's like all of Corrupted villains have the exact same mindset - you trap the opponents, you play with opponents, you do some classic psychotic thing then you let them go free having suffered a casualty or two.
Not as much player input as the organisers claimed to be entirely honest. It still felt as if there was a set plan that we had to follow or get put down.

However, negatives aside the assets were beautiful. Aside from le tentaclus I found the cloud above the Cathedral to be very pretty and the whole cave thing in which we were locked in turned out to be pretty awesome. Although confusing, the aesthetics of the event turned out to be beautifully executed. Props for that.
Question in evaluation of critique - You would like to see alternate corrupted personalities show up?

That is something we can deliver.
 

Michcat

i'm the wench if you're the cake ;)
It was intentioned to be confusing, since nobody was meant to know what was going on until it was too late.

And in terms of player input: You can go where you want and do what you want, and the event/storyline will be modified accordingly by your action. Obvious choices aren't made to appear because it'd spoil immersion and a lot of fun to say "You can do X or Y" blatantly instead of presenting "You can do A-Z, and there's some Greek letters in there too. Basically do what you want and the story will adjust with you."

This, mostly.

Though, @MRPolo13 , I think a lot of the plot is unfortunately gathered throughout the campaign- Not just at the last event, especially if you arrive late. Perhaps this is something to work on to prevent confusion and loss of immersion/story?

Ultimately, I do my best to create a setting. The entire gods-business you were already somewhat aware of because I was forced to alert you of the removal of the server region you had perms in. The Gods being behind the entire elemental/corruption business was part of the setting from the beginning - How it came into play, was discovered, went about affecting the world was entirely customizable by interaction with the events.

I walk a very fine line between wanting to have a smooth campaign and needing to improv (sometimes most of the event entirely on the spot) to respond to the crazy things you guys do. All in all, I hope to get a bit less predictable with the plot- because you guys predict the plot.
 

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
I think the event was... loosely successful.

I disagree with the planning. There were huge times in the event where everyone ran about like headless chickens. Certainly, having joined slightly after the event I had no idea what was going on for at least half an hour. The whole thing with Obsidian became pretty predictable. As in, right after he said who he was I could almost tell you what would happen next, and then after that, and after that. It's like all of Corrupted villains have the exact same mindset - you trap the opponents, you play with opponents, you do some classic psychotic thing then you let them go free having suffered a casualty or two.
Not as much player input as the organisers claimed to be entirely honest. It still felt as if there was a set plan that we had to follow or get put down.

However, negatives aside the assets were beautiful. Aside from le tentaclus I found the cloud above the Cathedral to be very pretty and the whole cave thing in which we were locked in turned out to be pretty awesome. Although confusing, the aesthetics of the event turned out to be beautifully executed. Props for that.
I'm going to be honestly attempting to assess branching and divergent paths, at least with some events. As my roots are in D&D, I find myself having extreme trouble when trying to run things for groups over, I'd say, 8 people. Give me 8 people in an event and I can have diverging paths for each and every one of their actions. Give me more than that, and I have trouble keeping track of /everybody/, and besides, It's unconscionable to make server-effecting things with only 8 possible inputs.

So I'm going to be /trying/ to make events with divergent paths, but I'm not sure how well they'd go, because they might end up rather hectic.

What I /can/ tell you is that there are at least two /very/, /very/ important, whole-server-influencing things coming up for sure, and I have no predisposed opinion on exactly what happens.
 

Somnastra

Puppycat Herder
Events Staff
Lore Staff
Good
Staff
Retired Owner
Somnastra
Somnastra
Good
So... I said I was going to bed, but I want to type this before I forget. It has come up a couple times, now, and I've tried to explain it... to varying degrees of success. Som was more or less the kid-patrol for this event, and I intentionally RPed her failing at it. Let me tell you why.

I want to address two sides to this, and they're not directed at staff... they're more intended towards players (everyone, those who play kids and those who don't).

First, those who were oocly complaining about the kids being there, let me tell you something. These are folk's characters, and if they want to take their character to an event, who are we to stop them? This was an ooc decision made by them, and while we are perfectly within reason to pick their butts up and drag them bodily from the premises, that basically denies that player access to an important event. You see where I'm going with this? That felt like kind of a lame move on my part (besides, I wanted to participate in the event, too, and everyone was all "Som, get the kids out of here!" ... -.-), so I didn't do it.

Second, those who play kids. Please, please, please consider making an event character. I'm 80% sure this is within the rules (staff can correct me on this?), and it would make everyone's lives easier. If something ... more permanent had happened to Harleen, I think that several characters would have just fallen apart. And believe me, I know how tempting that prospect it. I really do. Now, I understand the IC justification for Harleen being there (it seemed like she had a pretty special bond with Shoreless), but she wasn't the only kid. She just ended up being the only one by the end of it. My point is more or less that the joke is that no one can play a decent guardian on the server, and [redacted] I've thought about this quite a lot. The problem with RP kids that have families is that there is no way to ensure that the kid won't be logged on alone, and then... everyone thinks they're abandoned and neglected, when in a realistic situation, they would never be left alone long enough to have that kind of freedom. And... it might not be a bad idea to more or less understand that when you play a kid who is under the age of, say, 12, you more or less sign away some of your autonomy over that character when it comes to things like... oh, I dunno, epic battles against elementals and the forces of corruption. Because not everyone is going to make the same ooc call that I did. That I did despite Som's overwhelming desire just to get Harleen the heck out of there.

... I gobed.
 

bettemus99

Roleplay keeper
I'm just glad that pretty much everyone survived and non of my chars went insane with grief and fear (Sheila especially). And I loved it when polo threw the pickaxe at fury xD..
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
I already made a thread about what I think about children. If you make a child character, you ought to bear with the consequences of it, including the fact that as a child you shouldn't even want to go to a battlefield. Adventure is one thing, fear of life and walking amongst adult strangers is another. Who are we to stop them? We are people who apparently want this server to be realistic, and then let a child wander off with a fully-armed army.

Also, the whole "claiming" thing was intended to mean that while there were obvious choices to be made, we seriously didn't need to be informed that what we have done will make an effect. It's like freaking Walking Dead. "Bub will remember dis!" God I hated that part of it. I can tell when I cause an impact, I don't need to be told.

And as for the impact idea, no matter how big our impact would have ever been, I doubt the end result would be any different. The whole point was to make at least Harateth corrupted. That's pretty obvious. We had no way of stopping it and I doubt there ever was any way of stopping it, because if there was I doubt the whole event would've taken place. I was informed as much as I should move out of the Cathedral, but why was never explained to me. And how can you call an event which revolved around the cliché of every other psycho-kidnap event original? That was done and dusted ten times over at least, including with Grief's demons, Jester's game, Corbenic castle (forgot the name XD) and the list just goes on and on. While I do not disapprove of this, I wouldn't say that originality is the word that truly comes to mind. Exciting? I can understand that to some it can be. Fun? Of course, it can be fun to be threatened to be brutally murdered but coming out safe in the end, gives that feeling of immortality. Original? Nupe. Not in the slightest, maybe aside of god getting corrupted. That much I must admit left me quite baffled. Props for that one :p

I do not expect every single person from 40 to be watched over separately. The Event was good at what it delivered. It was good to the extent of modern RPGs such as Skyrim - gives a great illusion which offers a load of fun. I liked it in that extent. But the choices we make can only very gently change the end result, especially considering that the choices we made didn't even matter in the end since the entirety of two hours was wasted in a big pit underground the organisers were fully aware we wouldn't try to get out of before we got bored and the actual event-changing things took place on like the other side of Altera. While I don't like it myself, I can respect people that do. It's entirely their choice.
But then there's the but. I understood the attempts to make it divergent, but that turned it into a mess. There were two kinds of events back in the day - those with clear outcomes which usually were your classical psycho events or your server events (which had to end in a single way. Always. Even now to some extent) and then there were those without a clear outcome, your races, your getting lost in the wilderness and so on. I can see mixing working out greatly if done correctly, but if not done correctly it can be quite chaotic.
 

roopot

The Great Leper
Legend
Retired Staff
I already made a thread about what I think about children. If you make a child character, you ought to bear with the consequences of it, including the fact that as a child you shouldn't even want to go to a battlefield. Adventure is one thing, fear of life and walking amongst adult strangers is another. Who are we to stop them? We are people who apparently want this server to be realistic, and then let a child wander off with a fully-armed army.

Also, the whole "claiming" thing was intended to mean that while there were obvious choices to be made, we seriously didn't need to be informed that what we have done will make an effect. It's like freaking Walking Dead. "Bub will remember dis!" God I hated that part of it. I can tell when I cause an impact, I don't need to be told.

And as for the impact idea, no matter how big our impact would have ever been, I doubt the end result would be any different. The whole point was to make at least Harateth corrupted. That's pretty obvious. We had no way of stopping it and I doubt there ever was any way of stopping it, because if there was I doubt the whole event would've taken place. I was informed as much as I should move out of the Cathedral, but why was never explained to me. And how can you call an event which revolved around the cliché of every other psycho-kidnap event original? That was done and dusted ten times over at least, including with Grief's demons, Jester's game, Corbenic castle (forgot the name XD) and the list just goes on and on. While I do not disapprove of this, I wouldn't say that originality is the word that truly comes to mind. Exciting? I can understand that to some it can be. Fun? Of course, it can be fun to be threatened to be brutally murdered but coming out safe in the end, gives that feeling of immortality. Original? Nupe. Not in the slightest, maybe aside of god getting corrupted. That much I must admit left me quite baffled. Props for that one :p

I do not expect every single person from 40 to be watched over separately. The Event was good at what it delivered. It was good to the extent of modern RPGs such as Skyrim - gives a great illusion which offers a load of fun. I liked it in that extent. But the choices we make can only very gently change the end result, especially considering that the choices we made didn't even matter in the end since the entirety of two hours was wasted in a big pit underground the organisers were fully aware we wouldn't try to get out of before we got bored and the actual event-changing things took place on like the other side of Altera. While I don't like it myself, I can respect people that do. It's entirely their choice.
But then there's the but. I understood the attempts to make it divergent, but that turned it into a mess. There were two kinds of events back in the day - those with clear outcomes which usually were your classical psycho events or your server events (which had to end in a single way. Always. Even now to some extent) and then there were those without a clear outcome, your races, your getting lost in the wilderness and so on. I can see mixing working out greatly if done correctly, but if not done correctly it can be quite chaotic.
Castle Corbenic is the name you are looking for
 

Baron

Sovereign
Retired Staff
@MRPolo13 I'll admit the psycho character isn't super original, but that's because it is one of Grief's demons and is quite the one-dimensional entity. And, as you said yourself, it was almost two hours before people got bored, and they were free to escape at any time. The goal was to keep everyone distracted long enough for Ashen to destroy Shoreless - Mich herself said that Shoreless's chance of survival was unlikely at best, and everyone managed to foil the trap and save her.
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
@MRPolo13 And, as you said yourself, it was almost two hours before people got bored, and they were free to escape at any time
Oh no, you misunderstood. Bored enough. Getting trapped gets boring after quarter of an hour, but people are too scared of losing their characters or doing something that could potentially be a bad idea then being raged at (such as Darko, but quite frankly he was more justified than people that tried to kill him). Admittedly even I was afraid of striking at the tentacle, but then just decided that enough was enough (read it in Samuel L. Jackson's voice. It gets that much more fun :D)
 

Michcat

i'm the wench if you're the cake ;)
And as for the impact idea, no matter how big our impact would have ever been, I doubt the end result would be any different. The whole point was to make at least Harateth corrupted. That's pretty obvious. We had no way of stopping it and I doubt there ever was any way of stopping it, because if there was I doubt the whole event would've taken place.
...
Fun? Of course, it can be fun to be threatened to be brutally murdered but coming out safe in the end, gives that feeling of immortality. Original? Nupe. Not in the slightest, maybe aside of god getting corrupted. That much I must admit left me quite baffled. Props for that one :p
....
I do not expect every single person from 40 to be watched over separately. The Event was good at what it delivered. It was good to the extent of modern RPGs such as Skyrim - gives a great illusion which offers a load of fun. I liked it in that extent. But the choices we make can only very gently change the end result, especially considering that the choices we made didn't even matter in the end since the entirety of two hours was wasted in a big pit underground the organisers were fully aware we wouldn't try to get out of before we got bored and the actual event-changing things took place on like the other side of Altera. While I don't like it myself, I can respect people that do. It's entirely their choice.
...
There were two kinds of events back in the day - those with clear outcomes which usually were your classical psycho events or your server events (which had to end in a single way. Always. Even now to some extent) and then there were those without a clear outcome, your races, your getting lost in the wilderness and so on. I can see mixing working out greatly if done correctly, but if not done correctly it can be quite chaotic.
I would like to tell you the seventeen factors that were decided in this event. I really, really would - But that would be an egregious spoiler. The reason I don't just post what I have as event backmatter is to prevent OOC tendencies to shift the event in a certain direction (Instead of doing what their character normally would).
You were informed to move out of the Cathedral because, yes, it was planned for the corruption to spread to other beings that happened to be centered around the church. Yes, it was possible for this to be prevented, but I hiiiighly doubted it - and for the sake of a good campaign, planned for it.
During the event, I do believe several characters did die. The threat, in my eyes, was pretty real for characters (Characters who are god-like in their emotions and never fazed by anything, aside :p ).

Someone could have stayed behind. Even a group, or battle force- It was suggested by a character to leave a faction of fighters behind and I would have entertained that fully if it had happened. I gave continual updates on what was happening immediately outside of the pit, moving things along as time progressed.
For me, I honestly try my utmost to allow outside interactions to decide the plot. The next campaign doesn't even HAVE set endings, dude. Its gonna be hell to manage but I am definitely up for that :D

When I'm told that people feel like the choices made in-character don't affect the outcome, a part of the event clearly must have failed. I'm trying to get at letting those in-character choices decide events, and I would hope that much is pretty apparent. The corruption of other beings only had a %5 chance of being prevented - It was pretty much guaranteed - but I worked every single other factor to be utterly alterable.
 

The Living Ghost

Thing One
Retired Staff
I would like to tell you the seventeen factors that were decided in this event. I really, really would - But that would be an egregious spoiler. The reason I don't just post what I have as event backmatter is to prevent OOC tendencies to shift the event in a certain direction (Instead of doing what their character normally would).
You were informed to move out of the Cathedral because, yes, it was planned for the corruption to spread to other beings that happened to be centered around the church. Yes, it was possible for this to be prevented, but I hiiiighly doubted it - and for the sake of a good campaign, planned for it.
During the event, I do believe several characters did die. The threat, in my eyes, was pretty real for characters (Characters who are god-like in their emotions and never fazed by anything, aside :p ).

Someone could have stayed behind. Even a group, or battle force- It was suggested by a character to leave a faction of fighters behind and I would have entertained that fully if it had happened. I gave continual updates on what was happening immediately outside of the pit, moving things along as time progressed.
For me, I honestly try my utmost to allow outside interactions to decide the plot. The next campaign doesn't even HAVE set endings, dude. Its gonna be hell to manage but I am definitely up for that :D

When I'm told that people feel like the choices made in-character don't affect the outcome, a part of the event clearly must have failed. I'm trying to get at letting those in-character choices decide events, and I would hope that much is pretty apparent. The corruption of other beings only had a %5 chance of being prevented - It was pretty much guaranteed - but I worked every single other factor to be utterly alterable.
Mm, I did feel during the event there was a huge sense of consequence, and only by working together could it have been changed. Meaning, it wasn't up to staff to manage 40 odd people, but for players to work together to the best of their ability and accept what happens when they don't~

Also:
(Characters who are god-like in their emotions and never fazed by anything, aside :p ).
*watches as the event picks up Cloud with butter fingers, drops him, and breaks him* :p
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
When I'm told that people feel like the choices made in-character don't affect the outcome, a part of the event clearly must have failed. I'm trying to get at letting those in-character choices decide events, and I would hope that much is pretty apparent. The corruption of other beings only had a %5 chance of being prevented - It was pretty much guaranteed - but I worked every single other factor to be utterly alterable.
Again, going back to minors that wouldn't affect the final outcome. We're fighting the corruption here, and the lack of ability to defeat it without some god-knowledge (which often seems to be the general idea) misses the point.
 

Michcat

i'm the wench if you're the cake ;)
Again, going back to minors that wouldn't affect the final outcome. We're fighting the corruption here, and the lack of ability to defeat it without some god-knowledge (which often seems to be the general idea) misses the point.
... Oh come on the campaign hasn't even started yet! What makes you think that xD

Edit: Ahh. Re-reading, a looot of the backmatter and operations for this campaign seems to be being heavily assumed, and I was taking it as criticism. Apologies!
 

Somnastra

Puppycat Herder
Events Staff
Lore Staff
Good
Staff
Retired Owner
Somnastra
Somnastra
Good
Okay. I think it's been enough time for me to give an honest and thoughtful evaluation of Chapter 2.

I wanted to shoot people. Not the people who made the maze, the people who were in the maze with me. I think I did accidentally shoot at least one person. :D That maze was dastardly. That is all. :heart:
 
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