It’s about Excellence, not Access

In line with the post prior, what happens if all we have from the platform is a combat style? Let’s explore that. I trust at the end, this post will demonstrate how I am flexible in whatever approach we’ll ultimately decide.

Outside the first generation of training, control on the access to this combat style will be futile. Moreover, it may as well be an implicit guarantee that for whomever is elected to have stewardship of a rare style of combat, he or she will necessarily share this feature with his or her electors. Such a statement is decidedly true for every campaign, and in my case, there is no difference here: Those who donate obviously receive priority access to such a combat style, and the order in which people receive such a style relies solely on the practicality of game mechanics allowing it to be shared. For instance, none can say, ‘so-and-so receives the style first,’ if the game unexpectedly throws up a need for the target character to meet some unknown demand(s)—for example, a preceding mastery for a skill in shield use and one-handed weapons.

Access to the combat style above, for reasons already disqualifying above, and for more reasons not worth visiting—such as issues surrounding proximity, security, etc., are reasons already enough to say access isn’t the focus—access to the combat style is not foundational to this platform.

Excellence, the ability to develop this combat style, that is what is important to weigh in on. We can, of course, celebrate our history as being a server-wide origin of the skill. We can also commemorate our origin with making player-groups—groups like knightly orders who shepherd acolytes flocking to acquire this combat style—but these are all ideas, at their core, about skill access that, as mentioned, inevitably falls out of control within a generation.

So, more prudent than urging a vote for this platform that is based on a group name for these combat style wielders, let’s look at how, over the lifetime of the game, sowing excellence in the first days with use of this skill serves the community of NA-W better than clinging to an idea that shudders as more people are drawn to acquire entertaining combat styles like it.

The answer: develop a flexible community involved in the pliable use of any leverageable combat skill—which is to say: we build a community that values and uses all combat styles for styles they’ve prepared themselves in knowing best suits the job.

In that section just above, that sounds to me in that system above that we would be building and leveraging one of the greatest attributes of our class of players—our flexibility as adventurers.

To give some structure to what I’m suggesting, we promote the heck out of any combat-savvy group in our circle that wants to be promoted. These combat savvy groups would then be plying their knowledges and their technical skill to learn this flail & offensive shield combat style, in addition to using their resources to acquire knowledge and skill of more, and more combat styles. Provided the interest we now have in people who do not just enjoy flail & offensive shield combat, we’ve just created and emboldened a community that values all combat. They, in their works, and given direct support, will be able to study the combat styles, test them against one another, create useful and transferable other players on what styles counter what styles, and how any can better from combinations of other styles and qualities. This, to me, sounds pretty darn good, and your votes would be an indicator that if you feel all combat should be valued, then it would be a prudent decision to vote any opportunity for a rare combat style lands at the right place, like we’ve shown the management of this campaign to be.

So, I’m not writing about this just aspirationally. When I say I’m a veteran gamer, I am referencing years of failures and successes in managing in the attempts of unique and engaging ideas. Over five years ago, for instance, I played quite a niche game with a complicated or better yet—convoluted—style of combat. The learning curve was steep there, much like I expect a steep learning curve for the depth I expect we see in CoE. To negotiate the difficulty of this type of game’s combat, I worked up this calendar in partnership with a group starting up at the time, called, “The Warring Society,” which was a group of people who had excelled so much at combat, they found it was their time to return to the community all the knowledge they acquired.

The calendar looked like this:

Ultimately, there were snags we discovered. We found reasons for which the premise suffered critical flaws—one of which was the passion wasn’t there—namely the game and its community had been hobbling for years and faced difficulty with player-retention—one of the few example issues that we will not have, come time CoE’s launch. I can go on and on about this failure that never really took off, but the idea here is that I’ve grown up gaming by taking risks, and I know that if we are selling our ideas short, with concept and styles of play that are routine and unimaginative, we will strikeout at the same walls and at the same pace of others following these very same traditions that are inflexible and unadapted to unique challenges.

I hope you can trust me to help take this combat style and other rarities like it, toward excellence.

If you feel this was a fine answer, consider looking over more of the Q&A content. Go To →

This thread is part of The Big Three series. If you want to see what positions I've establish in these other article-like posts, check out the other pair here:

2018.12.23 Casino or a Contest? Do We Want Either?

2018.12.23 Can a Vote Serve Unity in Ashland? Solidarity Across All Elyria?

If you feel you have questions of your own, post them here. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact Vaku#4884 on Discord, regarding any personal topics you want to discuss. And if you’d like to donate your Ancient Coins now, you may make your donation to: Vaku through the Raiders of the Lost Vault page.

Merry Christmas Eve. Hope you're giving and getting a lot of love and gifts.

Substantive write-ups will be delayed over the next two days here. Nevertheless, if a question comes to mind, don't hesitate to ask it and I'll provide a response in due time.

Bordweall Broadcasting Company Announcement

I’m glad to announce that our hard work is showing progress.

December 26, Wednesday @ 6PM EASTERN / 3PM PACIFIC, I will be appearing as a guest on the great Bordweall Broadcasting Company Twitch Stream prepared to respond to and be asked very tough questions.

In addition to seeing me as a guest, you’ll be able to view OCE Candidate: Preacher AKA KingOfTheSouth whose platform may be read about here: Event - King of the South

Sure to be an interesting guest, Preacher has already received full support from the existing Monarch Title holders on OCE in his bid for the Grand Prize for OCE: a Monarch Title over the abdicated realm of Sokara. View a previous interview on Preacher’s bid, clicking: OFM Interview with Preacher (KingOfTheSouth)

We will also be able to hear from the NA-E campaigning personality, and an impressive artist: Bombastus.

Read about his organization, The Knights of the Unwavering Light in advance to hear him talk about their Quest for the Sunstone.

Remember, December 26, Wednesday @ 6PM EASTERN / 3PM PACIFIC observe Dleatherus & Nosilim, hosts of the Bordweall Broadcasting Company conduct the CoE interview of the season.

Curious about what topics I may cover? Prime yourself with knowledge on my platform by exploring my Big Three Articles below:

2018.12.23 Casino or a Contest? Do We Want Either?

2018.12.23 Can a Vote Serve Unity in Ashland? Solidarity Across All Elyria?

2018.12.23 It’s about Excellence, not Access

If you feel you have questions of your own that you want answered now, post them here. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact Vaku#4884 on Discord, regarding any personal topics you want to discuss. And if you’d like to donate your Ancient Coins now, you may make your donation to: Vaku through the Raiders of the Lost Vault page.

What’s Less Dire Between Light and Fire?

I’ve decided to elaborate on this one of many points in a backlog of things that seem a little untenable on ideas put forward in other campaigns.

Consider a temple that acquires the Sunstone and is managed by a Cult of Karcion, revering the Qindred deity, Daemon—whose portfolio, in sort of D&D terms is over fire, and not Light. Consider further, Daemon is recognized as dead. Even further, consider Daemon is son of Luna and Sanguinis, the Qin of Darkness and Death, respectively. So, as surrounding and established knowledge is illuminated around this idea, it looks appears as though a temple as described is poised to serve as a group for religious antagonists. Good, bad? Seems incongruent with a lot of for what several NA-W kingdoms stand for—most of whom regard fewer antagonistic ideals than the Qin Daemon is positioned to represent.

Angelica is the Qin of Light.

The relic for which we’re competing is a sunstone—Elyria’s sun is even named Angelica. And in another example of lore to consider, Anara Starsong is a follower of the Light—very likely a follower of Angelica who cries out, “I will do what must be done to prevent the Awakening!”—an awakening that suspiciously seems to fall toward plot involving Daemon and destructive kind.

If across the aisle, my fellows in Ashland wanted to better mesh their initiative with Elyrian lore, they'd make their temple with this sunstone feature to be a Temple to Angelica. Given what I’ve pointed out above, about established lore and reasonable inference, I'd prefer we not get a groundswell of support to an initiative basing its reverence on a misinterpretation. Going farther, we find more complications when we actually consider the implications religions have in Elyrian societies.

My competitor's initiative is to exclusively setup a temple to Daemon in Ashland.

What happens if Ashland gets K1 or K3? Think about the necessary conversion effort it'd take to actually get Qindred to be viewed as an acceptable religion for Brudvir nobility to hold, when Faedin is the expectation of peer nobility and aristocracy. There'll be civil wars if the Qindred ideal is something to which we're going to stick. Certainly, we can expect no less when the population at highest offices do not reflect the beliefs of the population in all other aspects of kingdom life.

Consider reverence to Daemon in a Hrothi or Neran society, or even Waerd, and the dire consequences such would have when with a temple to the Qindred there’ll be promotion of a religion that isn't the strict Virtori or the shadowy Al'Tifali.

Adherence to such a Qindred temple limits locations Ashland can settle that makes the idea as presented feasible without causing massive internal strife—additionally, there are no locations guaranteed to Ashland that would be partial to To’Resk nobility. Further, a To’Resk Ashland is not an Ashland many Ashlanders desire.

If first half of this write-up becomes null by the vision presented by the competition is changing its temple’s reverence to Angelica and not Daemon, it still leaves the second half as a sticking and unavoidable point. Settling this early on a kingdom religion is a recipe for strife, a notion I don’t believe many of the idea’s supporters have sufficiently considered.

Maybe it’s just a little too nerdy a point to write on, and be this attentive to detail—but if it’s not the lore and prospect of a temple you’re voting on—consider, why are you supporting it—there are after all more holistic and deeply explored platforms all around the forum to consider.

Don't forget to read about an interview you won't want to miss: Read here about the Bordweall Broadcasting Announcement

Read this and feel you have questions of your own that you want answered now? Post them here. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact Vaku#4884 on Discord, regarding any personal topics you want to discuss. And if you’d like to donate your Ancient Coins now, you may make your donation to: Vaku through the Raiders of the Lost Vault page.

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I am a little surprised by what is going on in this thread.

I considered you one of the people that if they won the Sunstone instead of us over at the Temple of the Sun, the server as a whole would still benefit, and I suppose to some degree I still believe this. My only qualm is you seem to be attacking our campaign directly for some reason and I have a hard time trying to understand why?

Yes, we dress ourselves up as a cult of Karcion. Is that inaccurate for a Sunstone? Who is to say. The very premise of Cults in Elyria is a sect of a specific religion that does not believe in the standard guidelines set by the base religion. As such is it so crazy for us to say that the Sunstone was granted to us by Karcion, and we choose to spread it's light and warmth to others as part of our lore?

It saddens me to see you trying to pick apart our campaign when the essence of it basically has us trying to better Elyria for Everyone, and not just ourselves. In that spirit we tend to value our competitors that hold in their hearts the well being of all Elyrians, and wish upon everyone the best of luck in the contest. Someone that calls other's campaigns into question based on sophistry and semantics is not one that I would consider to be in line with our values, and as stated before I regret being unable to count you among those people.

Without getting too long winded, I simply wish you will hold what is truly important closer to your heart, and not try and attack your competitors simply because you want to "Win" the event. If you win either the Sunstone, or the Duchy, I simply wish for it to be for the right reasons, and intents, and not because you campaigned for others to lose.

@Nita, is that going to make sense for a Brudvir nobility's interpretation of Qindred religion,?

Qindred-Brudvir nobility is guaranteed to cause strife in such an arrangement. We needn't neglect the breadth of the lore available that can be applied for mechanical sense as well as RP sense.

Change it to Temple of Light, Cult of Haven, be devotees to Angelica, and start lobbying Ashland settles with To'Resk nobility.

There are easy enough fixes over suggesting I just don't point out flaws.

Posted By Labbe at 4:31 PM - Mon Dec 24 2018

It saddens me to see you trying to pick apart our campaign when the essence of it basically has us trying to better Elyria for Everyone, and not just ourselves.

That's possible, but due to the flaws I point out, the success and follow-through of such a campaign hamstrings Ashland unless it chooses a To'Resk nobility or adapts the temple idea to suit all manner of situations, as I do in describing and demonstrating this platform of mine as highly flexible, even going so far as to suggest I would dissolve the title to maintain unity.

Completely ignore the opportunity to adjust and, as I've pointed out, instead of a better Elyria, and me pointing out flaws, you'll get NPCs wondering where are their Faedin rulers, wondering why there's a class of nobility that represent nothing they do.

The campaign you're arguing on behalf would benefit to drop the drama and just grow when feedback is presented.

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I'm certain we've both spent enough time leading in online settings to understand life is a poor analog to many game mechanics, and the story you're referencing won't be a mechanically sound position for putting a duchy of Ashland into a precarious position, and then to extend that strife internally for conversions is going to be a sour pill to sell to people who view stability in the face of hostile powers as more important than it is to salivate about Paul as analog to Qindred Brudvir.

An Exercise in Feuding or Value-Finding?

By Scott John Hammond, Robert North Roberts, Valerie A. Sulfaro - 2016

In the years that followed, spot ads became an integral part of the presidential campaign process. Campaigns produced biographical ads to introduce candidates to prospective voters and to highlight a candidate’s qualifications for holding higher office. Issue ads were produced to familiarize voters with a candidate’s positions on important public policy matters, and they also helped campaigns point out flaws in their opponents’ proposals….

There you have it from scholars, who aren’t giving it a value judgement of right or wrong, but letting you all know it is not out of the norm that in matters of Issue ads “campaigns point out flaws in their opponents’ proposals.”

That’s what I’ve done above.

That’s what I do here.

That is what I find completely acceptable as an action produced on the terrain of proposal-chatter—which is the current state of all our server sub-forums.

If you’ve not pointed out flaws in proposals, it is not something you’ve risen above, it is something your campaign has yet to do.

So attack, my feelings don’t get hurt. This isn’t a marketing meeting in which we’re all pitching to the boss to pluck out the best idea—that’s what it looks like in a corporation, when everyone is on the same team about making the company more money—this is a campaign, in which we’re fundamentally competitors if none of us has ceded their platform—so, just as a feature of the battleground, attack. The only thing that stands to improve at the chipping away of an idea is its beauty as a sculpture in the end.

Thanks for reading, and merry Christmas.

30 Mins I'll be a guest on Dleatherus, Nosilim & company's Bordweall Broadcasting Company's twitch stream:

December 26, Wednesday @ 6PM EASTERN / 3PM PACIFIC

Read more about it in the article below.

https://chroniclesofelyria.com/forum/topic/29890/your-choice-for-an-angelican-naw-duke?page=4#post328832

Thanks everyone for their interaction with the event, Raiders of the Lost Vault.

I've had the recent joy of appearing on the Bordweall Broadcasting Company's Twitch stream. Click the thumbnail below to hear about this condensed platform as it serves in the context of improving future events in SBS. Further, hear from the talented and motivational Bombastus and Preacher. Click either of their names to view their campaign threads.

This thread will be edited to make talking-points easy-to-find following the stream's conclusion. It will offer summary of events to aid in informing your decision on where you submit your ancient coins, and most importantly, be a tool for your use in joining the discussion on achieving improved events for our community.

Thanks.

“I Watched the Stream….

Posted By Malorn Dragonbane at 4:53 PM - Wed Dec 26 2018

You… said "Read my thread" a few times.

That’s correct. It is typical that folk will hear something out of context, make their judgement and not follow-up to research their position beyond this phenomenon. By my suggesting that folk “read”, it is a call that voters with due-diligence research and give context to the audio—and most of the context can be found with a careful reading of articles I’ve submitted to this thread.

Thank you for watching the video and coming to the thread to ask your question. I appreciate the interest and passion for Chronicles of Elyria that has brought you here in the first place.

Posted By Malorn Dragonbane at 4:53 PM - Wed Dec 26 2018

My question is why should anyone vote for you if your have 0 plans for the sunstone….

What I plan to do with the sunstone that would be conferred to any of our campaigns would be the result of a very intense landslide of support, or an equivalent injection of cash to turn into votes.

I doubt many of us are liquidating stock, or digging into savings for the amount of edge I’m aware is necessary to get the votes for the Sunstone.

To give context, in the Free Kingdoms of Elyria Results describes exactly 9,500 tokens getting sold for one server’s race to win a prize. Each token was sold at $10. That is $95,000 in competition for a 1st place Monarch package, 2nd - 7th place Royal package, and 8th - 151st Courtier package.

First place, alone, received 1,668 tokens, or $16,680 of support—and the money behind each campaign tapered down. This was for one server. Now we have competitions on all servers, in communities who feel that if they spend enough, they too have a chance. As there are already reports of $16,000 being spent from one individual’s pocket, you can get a glimpse of the lengths some individuals are going to receive their server’s respective Grand Prize.

Let’s suppose you want $10 per supporter in your campaign, you’d need 1,668 individuals backing your campaign just to match one zealous customer. The problem developing here compounds when we recognize that Vault Supplies, for every $10 spent give $5 Store credit. Those spending sums of at least $40 are recycling their store credit to gain an even 30 Vault Supplies to spend on the Raiding button. What does $16,000 on vault supplies allow with this recycling of store credit method—something like 8,000 T1 coins from one person? I hope this begins to illustrate how the only prevailing argument people have when I go into depth on this is their suggestion, “SBS needs money, and there is no other way of going about this.”

Well, there are other ways of going about this. That is what this campaign thread is about. This is a call for SBS to improve on their community events. This is what this campaign is about. It is about engaging players of all pledged rungs, and conjuring the support for new events that can bring in people foreign to something as amazing as CoE. The $40 spent to allow even the smallest donor to recycle the store credit of Vault Supplies, does not go toward getting an outside community member their own copy of CoE. It doesn’t do much but give you 30 tokens in the process described above, to spend like a lootbox for disguised failures and 1 item that goes toward winning 2nd and 1st prize.

Posted By Malorn Dragonbane at 4:53 PM - Wed Dec 26 2018

>

Your plan for the duchy is to melt it into ep, and your plan for the fighting style is to share it with Everyone.

That’s one plan I discuss.

This plan is for such an event that if I continue speaking in such a disquieted manner on this topic. As it happens one respected leader wrote to me, “You will never be a Duke of Ashland, plain and simple.” This is the result of speaking frankly and honestly and making necessary observations. If it happens that multiple leaders in Ashland continue taking issue with my reputation and involvement here, then to remain with Ashland, I am compelled to disolve the prize that is a barrier to continued service to Ashland. If it happens I am unable to find resolve with the leaders who’ve taken offense to me personally, and I am targeted continually by community members I respect, and devalued, it may serve to maintain the title, and settle elsewhere where honest conflict is held with greater value over quiet disharmony—as it happens, apart from niche communities, this is not a belief demonstrably held on our server—so I return to Plan A of dissolving the title, and working with the EP from the ground up to promote and incur value upon adventurers, who are a population experiencing an unfortunate barrier to access these events.

Posted By Malorn Dragonbane at 4:53 PM - Wed Dec 26 2018

Why are you even trying to win this competition that you hate so much, and constantly criticize?

I find tremendous value in honest conflict over quiet disharmony. This event has me disquieted. I have no choice but to perch upon the shoulder of the attention this event grants, to call for improvement for future CoE events. This platform serves a multi-faceted and fundamentally conscientious option as a protest vote that lets SBS know: at least these constituents saw this event for what it was and felt adventurer pledges and community-members-yet-to-join deserve better representation moving forward.

I mean no disrespect in making these observations. I do not require a dialogue with SBS. This campaign stands as record enough that as players and customers, we take issue choices where necessary.

I do not foresee myself running a protest campaign such as this in the future if there are no features II feel must be protested.

Thank you for your question, and I hope you will appreciate this candid and honest response from my vantage. I welcome you to deconstruct it, reference it, or expand on your original positions to get a little closer to what is valuable info to you.