Why I Like Aenea (Among other reasons)

It's flexible.

I don't just mean the ability to customize the appearance of all weapons and armor, thereby allowing you to make your character look the way you think they should.
And I don't just mean the fact that the DM events are awesome, and the MotM abilities allow -players- to set up events with enough creativity.
And I don't even mean the fact that takes suggestions on the forum and actually puts them in the game.

I mean the fact that every single other server I've been on has had a WAY to do things, and they get pissed off at anyone who does it in any way differently. But when I joined here, I brought in a few friends, we did things a certain way, and we -established new traditions-. Silly traditions for the most part, sure, like not using weapons that glow and blowing up doors. But the fact that the social atmosphere of the server allowed deviation from existing norm, that when we had new ideas we didn't get flamed to death, is what makes this server great.

/flames Maeglin and Beuttleria to death and beyond!!!!

Buzz Lightyear's baby brother... Light Buzzkill.

I got to agree with the original post .... Aenea (from the players and the atmosphere, to himself) has a very "relaxed" nature in my mind .... it's a very open server.... it's called the "let people play and have fun the way they want to" attitude that really makes this this server shine.... ... go all PvP in the bloodsand pit (or anywhere that "innocents" aren't going to be hurt)... sit for hours in a room and RP to your heart's content with someone else that wants to discussing "that book"... ... go all hack'n'slashy in the hundreds of monster infested caves .... solo or party... ... optimise your build or "wing-it".... create/craft/sell/help/manufature/overhaul your PC is hundreds of ways, or don't..... ..... ...

I suppose the thing I'm trying to say here is Aenea has a "It's YOUR game policy ~ do want you want" ..... .... and for that attitude and acceptance of every play style we really owe something to the DM team, , and ultimately ourselves.... ... lets keep the griefing to a minimum, the problem resolving quick and fuss free, the tolerance levels up, and the fun flowing freely ...... .....

As yet there is NOWHERE quite like Aenea in so many ways, nothing else compares..... .... ... ...

True that, true that!

[quote="RustyDios". . . it's called the "let people play and have fun the way they want to" attitude that really makes this this server shine . . .Aenea has a "It's YOUR game policy ~ do want you want"[/quote]

Wow, I agree wholeheartedly, Jay. Well said! I'm at a life stage where Pen & Paper came "after my time." My primary exposure to Dungeons & Dragons was initially through the SSI Gold Box games and then single-player NWN1 (and 2, FWIW), so I tend to pursue a playing style that I suspect is very different from that of many others here. I truly appreciate the tolerance and humor of my co-adventurers in Aenea. A great group questing in a great world!

Caldor

One of my PCs lost her sword last night, because I didn't realize Drow weapons went *poof* in the sun. I was going to resign myself to buying a new weapon and learning from my mistake, but instead came along in-game and gave me a new sword.

It's that kind of thing that really makes Aenea (and its creator) awesome.

So, I've been thinking about this periodically.

How might we go about increasing traffic? I've been to inferior servers that don't get below 10 people online, even during off-peak hours. I'm just not sure why Aenea is usually empty or close to it anytime I log on.

I think part of it has to do with the downloads required. I ponder this question myself fairly often as well...

Other than that, maybe some of the occaisional lag has something to do with it?

Eh, lag is slight, and avoidable.

I think the downloads might be part of it.

Possibly. Of course, you can look at the flip side and say that the downloads act as a filter of sorts ... you've gotta have some dedication in you to download all these haks and give the world a go ... I certainly would love to see more folks around here, but I also like the fact that I know pretty much everyone here (or know of them, at least). I tried to play WoW once, and was, upon logging in for the first time, beset by an 80th level guild recruiter and a 30th level "hey, fight me" guy. Now, luckily, my laptop died, so I couldn't go back, but I don't think I would've if I could've - too populated for my tastes.

(The fact that I know most everyone makes me comfortable letting my son play online, as well. I would not, under any circumstance, allow him to play in WoW or any other game ... simply because I don't know who's out there and what the world is about. Aenea, though; that's the good stuff.)

I have invited three people that I know in RL to come play in Aenea (greatskippy is one of them) ... none stayed on, for whatever reason. That's a little sad, but it's okay at the same time. Some come, some go. I think we have a good thing going here.

I look at it like this, too ... would I want to go to my weekly PnP event at my cousin's house, and have hundreds of people show up that I didn't know? Hard to build up a rapport with other PCs when the population is changing every week ...

I'm not saying we shouldn't campaign for Aenea; certainly, I think that as many people as possible should appreciate the world that has crafted. But I think that the way things are going right now, the DLs are the buffer that ensure that we get a quality playerbase, and not some trolls looking for a cheap thrill.

Bottom line of all this ... for me, the player numbers on the server don't make the player quality of the server. Aenea is great because Aenea is great, no matter if there are 2 PCs on or 20 PCs on.

'Nuff said.

I see the low number of regular players online at once stemming from several things:

1. hak file size: Not going to get a lot of passers-by since they'd have to download the hak files...and the size of the downloads (on top of the CEP) probably deters some people. I'd really like to have smaller downloads, but that could only really happen if Aenea only used default tilesets/icons/weapons/creatures/placeables/visualeffects/classes/loadscreens/skies/items/etc....and I really like having things in Aenea look better than the default game.

2. age of the game: NWN was released over 8 years ago. That's a lot of years of play time, and many players have moved on to other games and/or their time is now devoted to that "real life" thing. Plus, since it's technically no longer published/supported by Atari, it's vanishing from store shelves where new players can easily pick it up.

3. unwillingness to change: Many players have been on the same server for years (and years, and years), and aren't willing to try another after all the time they've invested in their current server. The only time such players go looking at another server is if their current one is shut down...and since many of those types of players might have never been on a server with the type of custom content we have here, they probably look at the size of the haks and write us off without taking a look first.

3a... Plus, there are some players that don't want to play in a world that isn't Forgotten Realms, that doesn't stress about role-play and staying in character all the time, that alters some spells, or does anything else that they might not already familiar with.

4. advertising: I don't spend as much time advertising Aenea as I could (I'm too busy with real life and with building and making new stuff for Aenea). I know that there are admin & players from other PWs that are constant posting online and trying to draw in players. I post occasionally on the CEP or BioWare boards, and I sometimes submit Aenean content on the Vault for others to use (and to get more exposure for Aenea...do you know any other PWs that have 13, going on 14 (and pretty close on a few more), hall of fame awards? ).

I would like to have more players online more often, but I'm definitely a fan of quality over quantity. And we've got the best players around.

True that, , true that.

I think that the 'span of Aenea across the world' has something to do with it too... ... Aenea has a playerbase from both sides of the atlantic... timezones can sometimes be a real problem... as can actual time on the PC away from real life.... ... I know that if I log in around 8-9pm GMT I'm likely to meet 'player group A'.... if I stay logged in untill midnight group A will slowly vanish, and group B will turn up... between 2am-4am is pretty quiet 'solo-play'... around 4am group C start turning up (and continue coming and going untill 7am) ... if I'm online around 8-10am, there is a strong chance of meeting .. ... ... ...

In all that time (what I call a 'full nights play').. I will see around 15 - 25 different players (some new, some old), plus usually all the dm's (bar and at current ), each with anything from 1-xxx PC's, however there rarely gets to be more then 5 online at any one time.... .... thursday 1am-4am has a strong group of players at current (around 7-12 per week, most of which I believe is the beutillians).... and of course any(most) DM events can easily reach 15-17 players... ....


Maybe as spends most of his time actually making new stuff, improving old stuff, bugfixing and generally too 'busy' being awesome to actually advertise the world WE as a playerbase can start spreading the word a little .... .... .... ....