Future Talk: Introduction

I was approved to write this section by Turril, as an area where we can have controlled discussion.

I've stated before that I have a "codex of ideas" which detail what my ideal vision of GvM1 is. My ideas are not all finalized, and by no means are any of them final. I don't have any certainty as to whether or not any of them will even be considered for being implemented, so never take these ideas as final.
Don't fear knocking on my ideas, I don't take it personally, because the entire purpose is to get your brain juices flowing and find out what the community wants.

So to start, balance. It's often referenced, but what does it really mean?

We've come to refer to "balance" as exact equality between things. This promotes thinking of "class X should have [this] since class Y also has it", or "you cannot add talent X to class A because class B would be left behind", these are rough examples, but you should understand what I mean. I propose "balance" in a more traditional sense, equilibrium and harmony between the classes in a more "rock, paper, scissors" sort of match with hundreds of variables.
Perfect balance with so many variables is impossible, especially when the human factor is added, say: "player A can play class X much better than player B could even with the same build and items, simply because player A is better."
Let me use the example of chess; where the Queen is the second most valuable piece because she can move in just about any direction, the only piece that can kill her without being threatened itself and therefore needing other pieces to guard it is the Knight. The most valuable piece is the King, without him you lose the game.

I realize that perfect equality is not possible, but with community feedback and perpetual and responsible development I believe we can strive for it.

We're aiming not to have the same old GvM1 with new areas, so what exactly is the goal?

Don't be alarmed first of all. The main goal is to to achieve some equilibrium. We want balance.
This is starting with item redesign, the goal being to lower the magic level. A lower magic level allows for more power to a build than its items, and it gives us room to increase the magic level without having to go back and lower everything else. The guidelines for items are still being finalized.

Some players, myself included, have said they're tired with random areas popping up that don't exactly "fit" with the Lord of the Rings theme. We are, after all, a LotR module and people read the name and some come to us expecting to play in what is essentially Peter Jackson's movie trilogy; others are more creative and imagine it in ways they picture from readings. We can't provide that kind of visual quality with the Aurora Toolset, but using some imagination we can.
Currently we have some very strange areas, such as Issendor. Let's consider that drow, illithids, duegar, beholders, driders and etcetera are all Dungeons and Dragons creatures, which were derived from Lord of the Rings. There are some huge incongruities; for example: In LotR fallen/tortured Elves are Orcs; in DnD fallen Elves are Drow or Driders.

A great resource for quick LotR references if you're interested: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/

We still want to preserve and encourage the parts of GvM1 that were awesome and we are reputable for. The Player Versus Player combat, the action, drop-rated items, and.... the quests? (Okay, I'm scratching here... I think the first is the most accurate) whatever else you can come up with. I've heard from many other players, and from the player that brought me here, that our Player Versus Player causes "shivers" or other words for an adrenaline high from PvP. That excitement is what keeps this server alive; I sincerely doubt anyone gets the same feeling from killing Shelob or Faramir.

Summary

So those are the general goals: Preserve what's good, rebalance, redesign for LotR theme.
Many questions remain I'm sure, but one I'd really like to address is the following. I've been asked several times "What is the point of doing this?" In short, I think it's worth it. I can see this community failing at the seams if we don't do something drastic and do it gently. There has already been much concern over topics such as a server wipe that make people want to leave; people say our community is dropping at least 1 member every week due to boredom. My goal is to ease this all on gently and make it what the players want, so that we keep them. You'll also notice that there are still a lot of people that play Neverwinter Nights, and a lot of their favorite servers are dying - so they go to the numbers. We've been getting so many new players lately I hardly recognize anyone anymore. To me this is encouraging, and proof that we should start rethinking what makes our module good and how can we make it better.

I hope you read all that,

Rade