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There has been some discussion on the forums about a desire for more information as to what an event is about so that an individual can decide whether to attend, what gear to bring, or if you have enough time to see the event through to the end.

There have also been some good points made for not giving out *too much* information; indeed! Also, we don't always know beforehand how many will attend an event and how an event will go -- they sometimes end up very different from what was envisioned -- and sometimes it is desired to keep a certain element of surprise.

So, how to balance the need for information and the information that can be reliably given? Of course the information given should be as accurate as we can make it, yet if it is too vague the information is useless...

We thought about this and came up with a way to, perhaps, give out the information with the least disturbance for the "hardcore RP" type, while still useful for the "will there be fighting?!??!1" crowd :)

The method we have in mind would include a line at the bottom of every event announcement like this:

Content hint: <status>/<activity>/<estimated duration>

The meanings of the fields are:
status = official/unofficial/player
This specifies whether it is an official Ryzom event, an unofficial event from the Events team, or a player run/organized event.

activity = low/medium/high
How "active" the event is; low would indicate a low degree of player participation, for example, "sitting and talking", while high would indicate a high degree of participation, like intense fighting.

estimated duration = short/average/long/unspecified/n.a.
An indication of the time we expect the event to last. This is difficult to reflect accurately as most events depend on how the interaction proceeds and how well the participants react and organise. "Short" events are expected to last less than 30 minutes; "average", 30 mins to 1 hour; "long" over 1 hour; "unspecified" means that there is no way to predict the duration with any accuracy; "n.a." means a self guided or persistant event.


At this moment, this proposal is just that; a proposal. We are interested in what you think of this and if there is anything we can do to improve on this system.

I do like the idea about both these forums and hints for events.
Question: It says in the sticky these forums are open for roleplay discussions and feedback for forums. Maybe add [discussion] or something to the threads that are just an RP brainstorm, or an RP discussion so that ppl that aren't intrested in these posts know it.

I think that sounds like a fairly balanced approach.

Another thing that has come up in discussions with friends and which might be worth considering is further use of the forums for smaller "events" / sequences. (I'm thinking those which are just a small amount of dialog lasting only a few minutes)

While obviously we're supposed to be playing a video game here, it's not always worth several people scheduling their lives around a 10 minute long event where all they have to do is read a few lines of text and answer a couple of questions. In those cases it's perhaps better just to use the forums.

[some government forum assembly required]

I think this is an excellent idea.-Kil

Hmm, I think you've got a pretty good balance there. :)

Ofcourse there's always a danger with specifying anything that may yet change. There will always be somebody who complains if it doesn't go exactly as you announced. You may need a permanent "Disclaimer: this is an estimate, events may change considerably based on player actions during the event" after your specifications :P

But I see a lot of disappointment now when players' expectations that they based their decision to attend or not on turn out to be completely wrong, both when they attend an event they didn't want to be at and when they miss an event they did want to be at. So I think the pros would outweigh the cons in this case. I say give it a shot.

Though 'activity' should be 'action', I think. And also some questions:

What does it mean when an event is an unofficial event from the Event Team? That it came from them rather than from the devs? So the first category basically says if the event was initiated by the devs, the event team, or the players?

Not quite clear on what 'self-guided or persistant' means? Like an event that is continuously going in the background for weeks, like building the guard camps?

An official event is one that follows the story arc of Ryzom, is developed by both the Events Teams and the developers for all servers and affects the history of each server. Unofficial events do not affect the history, lore or story of Ryzom and may or may not be present on all servers and are entirely developed by the Events Teams.

Self-guided events are events that are run with minimal or no live event aspects and players can participate at their own leisure within the time the event is running, the mektoub races last year would be an example. A persistant event is a long running event that is going on in the background, the tower deliveries is an example.

+1 new gripe. :p - Using two different time zones/references in the same post.

I don't wanna sound anoying but what about giving us some "event content information" on this new event, or is this only to be done for new event lines?
I do have idea myself from the last exploration into the kittin liar but could be usefull for others , my guess is: "official/high/long"