from Druss 1/24/00

Druss is again becoming almost unplayable.

And these msgs are getting really tiring to write. I know I am sick of whining, and I know you all are getting sick of listenting to me whine.

I would like to reorganize The Source. And in so doing, make it so that anyone who joins, has to meet certain criteria, and has to understand a LOT of things.

Like

1. No buying vassals. Not now. Not Ever.
2. No advertising for Vassals. Not now. Not ever.
3. No liars in the Source. Not now. Not ever.

Hakeem alerts me to a new member advetising on the harvestgain msg board "Please msg me or Druss to join."

Um, No. Thats not how it works. Not this persons fault that did this - but we need to have stricter guidlines for who joins. And when they do join, they have to be aware of what we are. No one gets to join who does not understand what we stand for. No one gets to join on a whim. The only people allowed in are people who we KNOW and have adventured with and are on a lot. No one gets in who is going to get vassals, and never play the game again.

I get a msg from a new member. I help him. He msges me again in 5 minutes. I help him again. He asks me if I have a nice sword I could gove him. I meet him in Yanshi and do so. I get msged by 10 more people, quit, and play another character I have that no one knows about. I meet this SAME VASSAL on monounga hill. He is wearing a PLate Mail Hauberck. I ask him where he got it (he had JUST msged Druss not ten minutes ago asking if I had good armor for him too.) He says his other character is a level 67 guy. Um, the highest guy right now is level 60 and YOU just asked me where the portal to Shoushi was... He continues to spin tales like - the armor was off an olthoi noble he killed with his other guy.

Who let this guy in?

He could be telling the truth - but somehow, I doubt it.

I would like to reorganzie with the previous and following suggestions.

I only want two followers. Mizu-No and Caessa II. My Bride and my assassin.

Under Mizu is some High level Mages

Under Caessa is her Body Guards. Miko K-sun, and Mutt.

It just fits for role playing.

And only two vassals per person means a couple things. Greater ranks for everyone (some people think thats important) and people do not get too divided by their vassals.

No More Mules in our ranks. I am as guilty of this as anyone, but, well, it artifically inflates our ranks, and thats not good. Its not honest.

I am looking for comments and votes on this idea and additionbal ideas to foster it.

thanks

Jamie

from Druss 1/24/00

As I have said countless times - I do not care about rank.

And also what needs to be said - I do nt have any plan on who aligns with who. I suggested mare and mizu, because Mare is My bride, and Mizu was the first person to msg me about becoming part of my alliance. Doria and Miko K-sun are my best friends in the whole world (other than Mare of course) and I would like to have them under me.

But I would like to do this as two per person. Or maybe 5 persons? or maybe three?

Someone help me on this.

We need ideas, and we need input.

All the fighters on one side? All the mages on another? All the archers under one fighter?

Hmm

Me

Caessa and (Hakeem, Gar, Cronson, Rhodry or Khali?)

under Caessa - Miko and Mizu - The beatdown twins - even thier names are similar?)

under miko - two more fighters - Joshua I or Simone, and a swordsman or axe person) Under the mage side - two other mages, and down the line? UNder Mizu - all the archers

Thoughts?

thanks

Druss

from Miko K-sun 1/25/00

I sat by yesterday and watched the thread that Druss had started about reorganization and said nothing as I was busy play AC.. well it is time I said my bit..

Let's start with the simple one....... remove all mules from The Source, so Khali may get the tree done right.... This does not mean active characters, like Mutt of Niska and Muttfyre... It is ok to have 2 characters, but the mule need to leave..

I remove mine last night and dismissed all pledged to me..... my side of the tree goes like this: Mizu-No is tied to Druss..... Simone & Imoen are Mizu's only vassals.... I don't know Imoen's vassal..... Miko K-sun is Simone's only vassal.... Miko's vassals are: Ping, Mutt of Niska & Muttfyre... Muttfyre has no vassals... Mutt of Niska has Ra'nork that he has not heard from lately.... Ping has Beryl and others that I don't know.. this should help khali to tie up that line of the tree....

Ok next simple one..... out leveling your patron.... just because you become a higher lvl then you patron there is no reason to switch the order..... example of this: Khali is lvl 15 Miko K-sun, his vassal, is lvl 13... they both log on and play from 7 to 9... Miko hits the folthid cellar and hunts limestone golems for 2 hours, making lvl 14.... Khali goes out hunting matties for 45 min then some friends log on.... he goes back to town and chats with them and they all go out and talk and hunt matty.... In this time Miko picks up 75k xp while Khali gets 45..... at this rate Miko will pass Khali in no time...

Now the problem with the switch is that it would be rewarding Miko for power leveling and punishing Khali for having fun with friends.... both had fun why should Khali have to worry about losing a vassal just because he is not a leveler.... No vassal should switch patrons is my opinion.

Let's now address the real problem in The Source........ I am opinionated so this first statement you can agree with or not but it will happen............... NO VASSAL IS GOING TO LOSE THERE PATRON.... Joshua I is always going to be Druss's vassal, Imoen will be Mizu-no's vassal and so on Rhodry/Garurumon, etc. ........ Why??????? because this is not the problem with the group...................

The problem lies in recruiting new vassals.......... Stop recruiting and stop your vassals from recruiting right now...... anybody who picks up a new vassal while we are tying to work this out is in jeopardy of being dismissed from The Source........ If the number of followers increases over the next few days, instead of decreases, I will be very upset....

We need to set up rules for recruiting and work out a plan to weed through what we have for people in The Source.... I like the rule of no under 10 and no one has more then 2 vassals...... This should be grandfathered like every new law.... anybody with multiple vassal and under lvl 10 already is ok..... no since in making people unhappy losing patrons or vassals...

We need punishment for people who break these rules.... anybody breaking these rules can be dismissed.... a warning should always come first because we all make mistakes..... things that can carry the dismissal penalty:

* Mass recruiting just for numbers
* Not taking care of your vassals, so they @m to get answers......... by the way this is the problem that is making it hard to be Druss for Jamie
* Getting vassals that you know nothing of, just to have vassals Recruiting an under 10 vassal

Another answer to the problems is to have counselors for when a vassal needs help...... I have offered to do this before and still offer..... Druss should be able to tell person X im busy please talk to Miko K-sun, he will answer your questions.... I will do this and I know that more of you are willing

ok I started now run with this............... LET'S GET IT DONE

Miko the mouth

from Mizu-No 1/25/00

I agree Miko
After Reading the messages the consensus seem to be this

• Drop Mules From The Tree
• Do NOT reorganize The Source
• Put Restrictions on Incoming Members
• And Forget about the whole Vassal is higher than Patron thing. I remember a time when both me and leggs were Higher than Druss
• Put Rules in Place For Messaging the Monarch 1.) Don't do it

Mizu-No

from Caessa II 1/25/00

Hi Everyone,

Just had to add my two cents in on this discussion. I agree that we need to focus on keeping The Source a tight-knit group of friends and GOOD people to adventure with. After all, that's part of what makes playing AC so much fun.

I went back and re-read Druss' original post on this. It seems to me that there are two problems. 1) some nights he spends most of his night responding to people and not getting in very much play time; and 2) the issue of vassals.

I think both of these issues could be quite easily addressed with a suggestion that has been kicked around a bit here. I think we need to spend the time to put together short by-laws (for lack of a better word) for The Source. The by-laws would include things such as: 1) state our directive/code of conduct; 2) tell how one can join The Source and the requirements for doing so; e) explain the chain of command and how it should be used (i.e. the last person to have joined shouldn't be bothering the monarch when their patron is available -- and each vassal should have at least 2 people they can message for help -- not just their own patron); 4) explain the vassal system (i.e. how many you may/or may not be limited to, no buying vassals, etc.); 5) set the rules for punishment for breaking the directive/code of conduct and the grounds for dismissal from The Source.

I think it also makes sense (from a role playing perspective as well) to have a governing board (and maybe a "round" table :-) -- so that, for example, on the off chance someone has broken the code of conduct that the dismissal will be a decision made by the governing board and not fall solely to the shoulders of our Monarch. Majority vote will rule (this way no one can say it was "personal").

My own personal opinion is, that I don't necessarily think we need to reorganize the structure (but I also don't have a problem with going with majority vote on this). More importantly, I think we need to make it clear to everyone what is expected. A lot of these new people that message druss don't really understand that he has so many people under him and many people that message him at once.

And, as Monarch, Druss needs to learn to say "NO/I am busy right now" (and learn to have people that need help contact one of the rest of us when he is swamped)! I realize that is tough because you don't want to tell your friends "no/I'm busy". But there is no other way. And, if each of us spent a night in Druss' boots, none of us would blame him for saying no/I'm busy right now (not that any of us would anyway, but to experience it is to understand it).

Regarding number of characters allowed in The Source, I vote for 2 as well as long as the second character meets the requirements to join. Not only does it give people a change of pace, but from a practical standpoint, it allows us to have a lower level character that can adventure with lower level vassals/potential vassals. As some know, it can be hard for a low level character to adventure with a high level character -- for example, my xbow is getting to the point where it can take several things out with one shot -- but a low level character might not be able to actually kill that same creature yet -- not much fun for the lower level character if they aren't getting the kill now and then. But if I was adventuring with my own lower level character we could work on that same creature together equally and would be more fun for both.

Ok, and to wrap it up with a couple of fun things:

I know this goes without saying, but I LOVE playing AC and really enjoy the camaraderie of The Source. Time for another group adventure don't ya think :-)

I also want to give Chris/Khali a STANDING OVATION *clap* *clap* *clap* for all his hard work on the web site. Its a lot of work and he has done a great job. Thanks.

Also, it would be nice if people introduced new vassals (weekly on the board maybe?) to the rest of us so we have at least heard the name if we run into them. Speaking of which, I have a relatively new vassal Ashlar Al-Kazzam. A great guy -- he has worked hard and is lvl 17 already :-)

Ok, time to go play AC :-)

See you in Dereth,
Mare a/k/a Caessa II (and Sister C up and coming)

from Druss 1/25/00

Ok,

I also have to agree. Very well thought out post Miko, and very well done story Mizu. GREAT reading.

Reorganization of the source is on hold for the time being.

I agree with just about everything Miko says.

People should not be punished because they are role playing not power leveling.

Drop Mules

No one should lose a vassal

No one joins the source from now on until level 10

Grandfather clause for those already in

Miko is exactly right. The organization isn't the problem. Its new people joining and people going on membership drives that we do not know about.

Thoughts?

Druss