English

Well, first: thank you for giving me another sleepless night.

I - with the help of Google translate - had a look at the French forums, where the protocol of the latest Avalae assembly was posted. There I could read that the cat is out of the bag and that the termites will be used in all countries, if we like it or not, because it simply is part of the Rangers plot. Fine (for the Rangers at least). I only wish the team would have told us right from the beginning that everybody else will be a mere bystander, an extra at best, without any chance to influence the preceedings, to change the history of our world, so to say, with every effort and involvement - apart from gaping and applauding when someone holds up the sign to do so - unwanted. Then none of us, no Zorai and no Matis, would have tried to find alternatives. We still would have been frustrated for various reasons, of course. But Rodi di Varello could have told the Nobles that they have to accept the experiments right at the beginning, and something similar could have happened in Zorai, and that would have been the end of it; we would have sat, quietly, and had waited (at least) a full year until that bloody termite thing is finally through, counting our fingers and toes in between (as probably the Trykers and Fyros did since they agreed to the experiments). That was not done, though. Instead we were left in the illusion of the possibility of participation, even of a chance to do something much more in harmony with the mentality of the Zorai and the Matis, and we fully embraced it.

So now we know we were wasting our time. The Matis had the humiliation of a Karan ignoring them and doing business with the Rangers directly; the Zorai still await something of a similar indigestible diet, I dare to guess. The meeting with the Karan, when it finally came - far too late - was so weird that we probably (as players) could have smelled a rat. We decided to believe in a glass half full, though, and now learn that our optimism and our hopes were vain, and that right from the beginning there would have been no chance to get involved and to contribute ideas and that every investment of time and thought was just a waste of it. The outcome of all this is a seemingly foolish Karan you can't trust, an idiot Botanist, and scheming leading Rangers, not to count sleepless nights and frustrated players.

In the end, I can only speak for myself, of course, and for my character. If I had known from the beginning, I would have simply kept Salazar out of all this; he would have ignored the whole termite thing, never wasted a thought on it and never spoken a single word about it. He would have minded his own business and only be seen at the Yrkanis Assemblies, but not at the local ones, nor at the meetings of the Rangers. I, as a player, would have just waited until the toothache is over, so to say.

If it would have been told to us in between, at the meeting with the Karan, when all the milk was already spilled, we just could have dropped the whole Rotoa plot and the deceitful hope for a "good ending". As far as I'm concerned, Salazar would not be in the very uncomfortable situation to have agreed to return to the Chamber of Nobles recently, for he would not have been returned to it at all - in fact, he would not have been at the meeting where he was asked. So I urge the Event Team to look for a German Matis player who could take over Davae, please - not that that player has much work to do there.

While Salazar has lost all his trust, I feel like someone who got beaten for petty crimes he has not done. Worse, I don't find pleasure in the game anymore; the delight of being part of all this is gone. I'm all numb and unsure if the excitement of so many years will ever return.

Having said all this - and I had to say it, for my heart was full and I could not find any sleep - I have no idea how the other players feel, and I mainly talk about the Matis players and Zorai players, although everybody is welcome to voice an opinion. That the Rangers feel pretty comfortable, though, should be obvious.

Deleted my obvious trolling there about burning the trees down :)

Thank you Salazar, for this information.

I have to say this is a shock to now find out that the Rangers are going to use the termites in the forest.

Now we know why the Rangers have been running around the forest looking at the kitin mounds and sending reports.

The Nobles should of been told this information, why did we vote?

I now feel that as Matis Ambassador for Natae, has just been wasting my time.

I am now asking. His Majesty Karan Stevano for a meeting on this matter.

Ozwomen "Matis Ambassador for Natae."

Well, Oz, this obviously is a situation which can't be solved by a meeting with the Karan. As far as I could decipher from the French protocol, the Nobles there were just told that there will be no other solution to the Kitin problem but the termites. That's it. The Karan, as an IG character, won't say it as bluntly, and how could he? We would have another meeting (and the last meeting we asked for was a pretty painful one, I think), and the Matis entymologist would be just the same as last time. He would favour the Ranger's solution, probably with the help of a few other scientists we never met before, and most likely Perinia, the botanist, would say he was over-optimistic and so on ... The Karan would then, in the interest of the Matis people, make his decision, or probably ask the Nobles for their opinion. But this time the Nobles will agree to it, for the players know now that every other vote would a) be useless, and b) mark their "toons" as stupid.

Suddenly notices that this is in OOC and drops...
*deleted* *censored* *expurgated* ... Gods of all Stars! I started this response before Zendae posted, but her post only makes me more angry.

As you can tell from my posts in Letters to Wilk Potskin and in my private journal entries and in my public posts to all homins in Atys who might care to read them.... I have been following the apparent failure of the rotoa. (Please note my emphasis on 'apparent'.) I was hoping that there might appear a natural resurgence of the roots of the rotoa, a possible enhancing action (rp event with castings of Root) to reinforce them, or even the application of some potion to the mounds (extract of termite perhaps?).

I'm Ranger all the way ... but we have to deal with game mechanics and some extra roleplay. That being said, this action smacks of total, and I mean TOTAL, lack of imagination on the part of the Event Team. I can conceive of no reason why introduction of the Ranger Faction requires that termites be used in all four Nations. I could see a meta-reason for Ranger innovation to come into play. (The average success rate of Cuiccio Perina is low, for one thing -- only undercut by the "success rate" of Daeronn Cegrips.) However, we Rangers (aspirant) are supposed to be cunning and sensitive to the needs of the Nations. As you can see above, there are other options that could even enhance the reputation of the Rangers without totally trashing the roleplay that the Matis and Zorai have put in.

Since this is OOC I can tell you that I am going to aim this comment at the event team via email as well as here in the forums.

-- With the utmost respect for my antagonists (RP)

--- Bittty

No, Zendae, you are right in saying that a path chosen by players not neccessarily leads to success. But I don't regard the "Ranger solution" not a wise choice, to begin with; it's a little bit like expecting the Zorai to erect electric fences around their villages, like the ones used by the Karavan, or to order the Trykers to only drink tea from now on, and the Fyros fruit juice. It wasn't the happiest of situations, so to say.

At that point, though, there was a grudge, but no real harm done. The offering of an alternate effort was inspired, though, for it gave the Zorai and Matis something to do, and something much closer to their hearts.

The real problems came with the Karan's uncommunicated agreement, obviously neither shared with his counsellors, nor his herald, nor the nobles, and the painfully long latency until he met up with the nobles, answered - if at all - half of the questions thrown at him, and in the end made a decision which at that point was absolutely irrational. Thinking about it, the sheer madness of this decision was what gave the nobles hope. All other harm was already done. The Karan might have trust in the Rangers, and obviously much more in them than in the nobles, but the nobles have no longer trust in the Rangers - nor in their own Karan.

If at that point we would have been told that the Ranger solution has to be applied, for better or worse, I still would have felt cheated, but would have - like a Boojum - softly and suddenly vanished away, not because of the facts but of the way they were brought to us, and all the things which went terribly wrong along that way. I certainly would not have taken part in Erminantius' study group, which now becomes pointless, because we can bet that only Rangers have scientists of note, while other countries have bloody fools meddling in the field, so that in the end Erminantius will have to ask the Rangers anyway. Probably more importantly I would not have wasted a thought about the responsibilities of being in the Chamber again or to have to run a village. I had never accepted a seat in the Davae hierarchy because village politics don't interest me at all.

As a future Ranger aspirant, I AM uncomfortable with this. Of course, I have been working hard to raise my fame with all the people of Atys while patrolling to inspect the progression of the Kitin Mounds... But it was only to keep the population of those lands informed so they could travel safely ! I was not aware of any scheme to advantage the rangers and I too, hoped that the Rotoa would work so the problem would be solved...

At some point, I even thought it HAD worked because there were no more Kitins of the Depths in the Cities of Intuition and I could explore the mound's "mouth" from very close ( from inside, even, collision detection bug, maybe ?). I don't think it was the aspirant rangers players will to impose the termites in Forest and Jungle. We watched the Rotoa results with scientific curiosity and are probably as disappointed as the Zorais and Matis that it failed. It was not to "make sure" it failed but to see if it worked and make sure the kitins were REALLY gone... but they aren't.

(sorry in advance for my poor english but i want to say something)

I think the reason is the futur transport system, and that's only for gameplay equality that we don't have choice.
But it's mean that we will never have real influence on this world if we have to be exactly the same in each country (and it's against the road take with the politic assembly which are all different and act differently in each country) whatever roleplay we play or choose.

Not having the ranger transport system in forest because of player choice could have been good to, and help player to trust the old ryzom slogan "power to player" and would have give to player a real reason and motivation to play event with roleplay and not only for gaining something.

But the alternativ solution, even if it have to fail at the end, is also part of the game and worth to be play after all, and i aggre with Zendae.

One of the great thing in this game is the fact that each nation/land are different and not only a copy and paste, we don't have to be like other country just because they aggre to let ranger do what they want if we don't want it.

And if player want to take part to those change they have to play it, event team had aggre some change like NH position or pannel information because player had ask for it in a roleplay manner.

But since the merge most of the event are to much script without any chance for player to have a real impact and have to follow even if the event is a big nonsense.

I ofen feel like it's "shut up and listen !", we are more spectator than actor.

Some roleplayer had give up on the french side, mostly because rp on atys take the carebear way of playing and became flat without life.

I agree to Bittty so far that I am not happy at all with that outcome (and reject any suspicion that we would be content or satisfied with).

Still I hope for (and would ask the event team to think about) a more face saving solution.

I do not know the technicalities. But is there no chance that the rotoa solution might prove as only a partial success so that one, two or so mounds had to remain only to be closed using termites? Couldn't that be sufficient to install the Rangers' transport facilities (which would extend to places where never a kitin mound existed)? I don't know.

Granted that would force some restraint upon those having searched antagonizing and locking out the Rangers, and that defeat cannot be spared. So it might remain unsatisfactory for some, anyway.

Thanks everybody for the comments. I'm especially surprised that there were more Rangers commenting than anybody else, followed by Matis, with no Zorai at all (but probably they're extinct by now, with a few living in exile in other countries).

By writing "That the Rangers feel pretty comfortable, though, should be obvious," I didn't mean they're happy the Matis got beaten up (the surviving Zorai still await the actual experience), but that they went in and out of the affair mainly unharmed, although the "antagonising and locking out (of) the Rangers" Daomei refers to was nothing but a reaction to the way things were handled. It had and has consequences on the player level, but obviously none at all as far as the proceedings of events are concerned.

I have high respect for the effort to get the Matis players sort of on board, and the support of Erminantius' project mentioned by Zorroargh is the main example, but there can be no doubt the reaction came far too late. It's a bit like watching the passengers of the "Titanic" floating in the ice-cold sea for too long, and trying to save lifes after the exposure to the cold was so long that you can't be certain how many will survive. Some of those who do will be scarred for life, and some of the distrust expressed for the Rangers is nothing but a logical follow-up to this.

Osquallo said that the neccessity to enforce the termites on Matis and Zorai is because of the installation of a Ranger transport system. In fact, the way the termite problem was handled for quite a long time would, under normal circumstances, make the Noble and Circle players oppose any such a system. In consequence, we can already expect that a decision will be made for it, no matter what the Noble players think. They can either gnash their teeth and say "no" and then will be ordered by the Karan to follow his orders, or like a hypnotised bunny yield up to their fates and rubber-stamp it. They have to pay the bill with their pride, and the players have to pay with their illusion that they can move or change things on Atys. Bittty is quite right in saying that the Rangers "are supposed to be cunning and sensitive to the needs of the Nations". Some of the Ranger aspirants are, but higher powers beat the decisions through with a heavy, blunt club.

I'm sad that Zorro feels the description of my feelings, and the analysing of my reasons, to be subversive and harmful; I play Ryzom for eight years or so, and never had reason to express any sort of frustration with the game like I do now. Frustration with some players, of course, but I can deal with that. I like to believe, probably erraneously, that I always supported Ryzom as well as I could, in good times as well as in bad times, both as a player and as an IG character. To be perceived as destructive now makes me even more sad.

I reallly don't see why it should take termites to enable the installation of a Ranger transport system. I can't see a connection. Termites were used to seal the mounds which no longer exist in Desert and Lakelands. The only reason there would be a connection was if the old mounds were used as "shortcuts" to the Prime Roots... but they were sealed. And that would still not give us any access to the more dangerous (250) aboveground zones. Because, some might know (or not) that the Rangers' transportation system is not by teleportation rather than some secret passages that enable their members to travel faster, or so I heard.

I would understand why the Matis and Zorai would be less than happy if we used termites on their lands to create such "secret" passages...