Time has come to Speak of many things......

[DM_Kim]

Some may have noticed that we on the DM team is a little bit tougher in our actions against those who wish to challenge the rules. We know some rules are foggy or a touch on the grey side, these are being looked into and discussed then clarified.

You will find the occasional post announcing our conclusions to the discussions that are on going. Before 1.69 is released all these announcement will be compiled into our "Rules" area of these forums.

As far as our actions go.. we are getting tougher. NS4 has given a lot of latitude in game play where players can go without any kind of problem. Some have decided that this isn't enough for them. So they push it. You push, we will push back and in some cases with short vacations as a stern warning.

Most of the time we can catch an issue before it becomes a situation and have a "chat" with the offending PC. In other cases the damage is done and there is a price that will be paid, with verified proof of that damage by way of Screen Shots or by eye witness of a DM.

If you disagree with any DM's actions there are channels you have available to bring your opinions to. Use them.
If we DM's disagree with an thing your doing in game we have our options available and we will use them.

Thanks for listening.....

Happy Hunting....

[Terl]

Once these "rules" are established, will they be enforced evenly without bias to a particular player or faction?
Or are they going to be interpreted on a DM by DM basis?
There needs to be a consensus among the staff as to what will be a bare minimum punishment for any particular offense. And as long as there is a consistency in application everything should be fine.

[Amoenotep]

our policy always has been "fly off the handle and become enraged by any minor infraction...it creates fear. coddle and help when something major happens...it lets you be a friend"


all rules fall under differing lvls of infractions. reactions to different rules broken vary by dm, but as a whole we try to be as consistent as possible so that the community will know and can gauge what infractions are more or less serious than others.


also be aware that we don't make things public to you. sometimes it seems like someone is getting off scott free...when in reality they aren't. players never really know the full time or process the staff goes through for major decisions.

[SkotG]

our policy always has been "fly off the handle and become enraged by any minor infraction...it creates fear. coddle and help when something major happens...it lets you be a friend"

ROFL

[DM_Kim]

Once these "rules" are established, will they be enforced evenly without bias to a particular player or faction?
Or are they going to be interpreted on a DM by DM basis?
There needs to be a consensus among the staff as to what will be a bare minimum punishment for any particular offense. And as long as there is a consistency in application everything should be fine.

There are some rules coming as there are now that have an automatic action for a DM to take attached to them. Like disrespect a DM, curse and swear at them will get you banned. The question isi for "how long". That rests with the team and the individual's history.

I'm a big one for ban and boot for wrong attitude or disrespect when dealing with a situation. Yet the very next time or with a different player, the outcome maybe very different. No Ban. It has absolutely nothing to do with Bias, Favoritism, friendships of past or present, liked or dislike persons. It has everything to do with the situation and issues as they happen when they happen.

I can tell you now what bare minimum punishment is.. It's called a "chat" soft and smooth, warm and friendly, rough and tough to darn right scary and totalitarian.. that is entirely up to the DM who is in the moment dealing with the situation. The other extent of DM's tool available is to instantly Ban a player while the situation goes into discussion with the team to see just how long that ban will be. It will be a minimum of 24 hours.

You must realize as well, there is an appeal proses for players. It's there for a reason. One DM maybe a little more forgiving than then next. That does NOT go to Bias.

As far as interpretation of any rule goes. Here are 3 rules in regard to that:
RULE NUMBER 1
The DM is Always Right!
RULE NUMBER 2
In the event that a DM should ever be wrong, refer back to Rule Number 1.
RULE NUMBER 3
If your happy with the first 2 rules, PM me, if your NOT happy with the first 2 rules PM our fearless leader DM_Amoenotep

[Bargeld]

Back in the days of PnP when a player and a DM got into it, the DM would usually just say, 'fine, then you don't need me to DM.' This, of course, made all the oher players jump on the agry fellow and try to shut him up and at the same time, they would try to appease and convince the DM to continue. Mainly because this was much more evident that the game they were playing was 100% under the creation and control of their DM... especially on that mini boss that has ripped up the entire party, except the last fighter standing, who *just happens* to roll a 20 and kill the monster... even though you never heard a die roll

NWN has removed the need for DMs to play the mundane roles of game mechanics and a lot of the storytelling and players forget that they are playing a game that is graciously being run by another, or group of others.

Its a shame the structure of NWN doesn't follow the old days, but I guess thats the trade off in this digital age: save 99.9% of time on game mechanics, but lose 99.9% of the humanity in the process.

[Celorn]

NICE!

Well, once NS4 is 'FINISHED' and goes into autopilot, it will be nice to have a consistent set of rules and punishments.

I think there should be a 'JAIL' map where toons that have broken certain rules are put, will be stuck in a cell and you can't death express or cast spells. For things like; breaking pk rules, exploting and breaking relic rules...

[cRaZy8or5e]

Didn't they have a jail on 3.5?

[Bargeld]

YES a jail, where the other online players get to taunt the offender!

[$chase$]

[Gornickthy]

Ah a jail would be awesome. Instead of banning the account simply make it so any toon from that account can only log into the jail for the duration of their punishment. Maybe in the center of the crossroads. And ban them from the shout channel.

Hmmm... can we have a test run with Chase in the cell?

[Thorac]

rofl but sounds good indeed.

[chubbs]

Ah a jail would be awesome. Instead of banning the account simply make it so any toon from that account can only log into the jail for the duration of their punishment. Maybe in the center of the crossroads. And ban them from the shout channel.

Hmmm... can we have a test run with Chase in the cell?

hrmm can u ban one player from the shout?

[JesterOI]

CHUBBS!!!

The Jail idea is a good idea.
Especially if it affects all characters on a given account.

There's already a place that is sort of like a jail. The canyon on the west side of the map going north from the Archeologists Camp, towards AO.
Just beam an offending player into that canyon and they have no where to go. Just need to stop the ogres from spawning in there.
A purposely designed dungeon would be best though.

[Ajantis.]

No, they should be put in a crow's cage along the silver road so we can all taunt the offending player