Hey, guys.
I've got a little bit of bad news that I'm sure you're all aware of. The AnimaRO website has been down for a couple days now, and no one is more upset at it than me. We've been corresponding with various parties to see what needs to be done to get the website up and operational, but at the moment the webserver is in the hands of the provider to get some things done so we can bring it back up. Unfortunately the people I need to talk to only work normal hours, so it's been somewhat frustrating thus far to be helpless. Hopefully I can start getting things under way on Monday.
Since we can't do most of our other duties, we're busying ourselves running events in the evenings. A lot of you guys have had a lot of fun. In fact, I'll be running an event with L as soon as I get finished with this post.
We're not going anywhere, everyone. Thanks for your continued support!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Graffiti: Staff Accountability
Corrupt. Biased. Unfair.
These three words have something in common: they have all been used to describe staff members at some point in time.
On some rare occasions, the claims ring true. However, these words are often part of outbursts by emotional players who do not understand the weight of their (commonly baseless) accusations.
So, what is Staff Accountability, anyway?
Staff Accountability can be loosely defined as holding each staff member responsible for his/her actions or, as the case may be, inactions. In addition, if a particular staff member is supervises other staff, s/he is responsible for the actions of his/her subordinate(s). The staff operates as a team, and ultimately each team member bears a measure of responsibility for his/her teammates because of that.
Sure, you can define it. But can you actually implement it?
The main way that accountability is implemented in practice is by placing limitations on the staff.
Each staff member is reviewed every month to two months in a process called "evaluation." In the review, every single ticket response and forum post is read by another staff member from an objective perspective. Their work is critiqued in a number of ways, including grammar and professionalism. The reviewed staff member then receives an overall score for the timeframe. However, we do hold staff members to a certain standard. Staff members with overall scores or pieces of work that do not meet this standard are penalized. Even staff members who meet this standard are given advice and constructive criticism.
What you should remember is that no matter how "great" a staff member may be, he or she is always evaluated and always held accountable for any mistakes.
So what does this have to do with me?
You, the players, often bring up the subject of staff accountability. I've seen it mentioned in multiple forum posts, which is what inspired me to write this article in the first place. Accountability is a valid concern because it affects your opinions of the staff, your interactions with the staff, and ultimately, your gaming experience here at AnimaRO.
Here's some food for thought: Why is it that players who praise GMs often get called derogatory terms like "ass kissers," while the people who flame the staff are placed on pedestals?
The staff does expect a measure of respect from the players. However, we recognize that there is always room for improvement. However, many people take whatever failings they see (sometimes imaginary) and use it as material in their latest GM flamefest. There is a world of difference between "GMs power abuse!!/GMs can't do their jobs!!!/GMs(insert punishment here) my friend for no reason! Corrupt!" and "I believe the ruling on Case X was wrong because of reasons A, B, and C."
If you see a way the staff can improve, I'd love to hear it, either as a PM to my forum box, in a support ticket, or as a post in the Feedback forum. Just remember that even GMs are held accountable for their actions, so each decision made by the team is made with the utmost of care.
*Note: Parts of this blog entry were taken/edited from a post by GM Laeryn on the AnimaRO forums.
These three words have something in common: they have all been used to describe staff members at some point in time.
On some rare occasions, the claims ring true. However, these words are often part of outbursts by emotional players who do not understand the weight of their (commonly baseless) accusations.
So, what is Staff Accountability, anyway?
Staff Accountability can be loosely defined as holding each staff member responsible for his/her actions or, as the case may be, inactions. In addition, if a particular staff member is supervises other staff, s/he is responsible for the actions of his/her subordinate(s). The staff operates as a team, and ultimately each team member bears a measure of responsibility for his/her teammates because of that.
Sure, you can define it. But can you actually implement it?
The main way that accountability is implemented in practice is by placing limitations on the staff.
- Limitation Of Power & Access: The range of powers each staff member has is dictated by the needs of his or her position. However, powers and access are earned, not given lightly. In general, Sub GMs have fewer in-game powers, less access to sensitive information, and limited forum abilities. High GMs have a larger number of powers, both in-game and on the forums. They also have access to more sensitive information than a Sub GM. However, a Sub GM who has not proven him or herself may not get complete access to all the standard Sub GM abilities, much less the High GM ones. The same thing applies to the High GMs, as well. These limitations serve as a safeguard against power abuse, privacy violations, and general misuse.
- Limitation Of Responsibility: The different positions each have different responsibilities. The Sub GMs answer quicker tickets, help players in-game, mute street chatters and other rule violators, and forward item recovery cases to the High GMs. The High GMs have the responsibilities of handling item recovery cases, checking botters, punishing other rule-breakers, among a handful of lesser responsibilities.
- System Limitations: During our time as staff here, we have strived to alter the system so that rulings can be as objective as possible. We created the Punishment Guidelines and the Item Recovery Fees table from scratch. These are two posts that clearly outline what you can expect from us (punishment-wise, recovery-wise, and fee-wise) in the given situations. This is yet another layer of protection against subjective judgments.
Each staff member is reviewed every month to two months in a process called "evaluation." In the review, every single ticket response and forum post is read by another staff member from an objective perspective. Their work is critiqued in a number of ways, including grammar and professionalism. The reviewed staff member then receives an overall score for the timeframe. However, we do hold staff members to a certain standard. Staff members with overall scores or pieces of work that do not meet this standard are penalized. Even staff members who meet this standard are given advice and constructive criticism.
What you should remember is that no matter how "great" a staff member may be, he or she is always evaluated and always held accountable for any mistakes.
So what does this have to do with me?
You, the players, often bring up the subject of staff accountability. I've seen it mentioned in multiple forum posts, which is what inspired me to write this article in the first place. Accountability is a valid concern because it affects your opinions of the staff, your interactions with the staff, and ultimately, your gaming experience here at AnimaRO.
Here's some food for thought: Why is it that players who praise GMs often get called derogatory terms like "ass kissers," while the people who flame the staff are placed on pedestals?
The staff does expect a measure of respect from the players. However, we recognize that there is always room for improvement. However, many people take whatever failings they see (sometimes imaginary) and use it as material in their latest GM flamefest. There is a world of difference between "GMs power abuse!!/GMs can't do their jobs!!!/GMs
If you see a way the staff can improve, I'd love to hear it, either as a PM to my forum box, in a support ticket, or as a post in the Feedback forum. Just remember that even GMs are held accountable for their actions, so each decision made by the team is made with the utmost of care.
*Note: Parts of this blog entry were taken/edited from a post by GM Laeryn on the AnimaRO forums.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Mythbusters: Does Heal really depend on ASPD?
I was really pressed for time with other things, so I couldn't test everything I wanted in this article.
Since the beginning of time, mankind has taken the assumption that his ASPD affected his healing speed. Verily this was the case long ago. In ancient times, Crusaders traveled across the land in full support mode, and took to their Peco Pecos. In order to conserve their meager ration of skill points, Crusaders took away their ranks of Cavalier Mastery. However, these support Crusaders found in horror that their heal speed had been slowed to one Heal every two seconds!
And it was thus that the reverse was found to be true as well. Priests of that time who carried a rod imbued with the power of Doppelganger Cards found that their heals were lightning fast, faster than a half second between each casting.
But time went on and many episodes passed. Many things changed.
The test:
I set up a bot healer, programmed to cast Heal as quickly as possible on itself. I equipped it with two dopp cards and gave it Berserk Pitcher to get it to 190 ASPD.
---------- Char Stats ----------
Str: 1 +42 #2 Atk: 293+0 Def: 58 +100
Agi: 1 +11 #2 Matk: 451~752 Mdef: 35 +127
Vit: 89 +11 #10 Hit: 249 Flee: 107+1
Int: 61 +66 #8 Critical: 3 Aspd: 190
Dex: 81 +73 #10 Status Points: 7
Luk: 1 +7 #2 Guild: None
--------------------------------
[Aug 25 04:25:05 2007.98] AI set to auto mode
[Aug 25 04:25:05 2007.36] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:06 2007.79] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:08 2007.22] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:09 2007.63] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:11 2007.56] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:12 2007.47] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:13 2007.91] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:15 2007.32] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:16 2007.49] AI set to manual mode
In this test, 8 castings of Heal are done in a total of 9.96 seconds. The average casting time of Heal is about 1.245 seconds. That's awfully slow for 190 ASPD...
Unequipping my weapon (an Evangelist) gives me 173 ASPD (the berserk pitcher is still going). Still, 173 ASPD is still 1/3rd of a second longer than 190 ASPD. If we do the same test, it should take much longer...
---------- Char Stats ----------
Str: 1 +32 #2 Atk: 33 +0 Def: 58 +100
Agi: 1 +11 #2 Matk: 266~458 Mdef: 35 +97
Vit: 89 +11 #10 Hit: 219 Flee: 107+1
Int: 61 +36 #8 Critical: 3 Aspd: 173
Dex: 81 +43 #10 Status Points: 7
Luk: 1 +7 #2 Guild: None
--------------------------------
[Aug 25 04:26:54 2007.80] AI set to auto mode
[Aug 25 04:26:55 2007.18] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:56 2007.60] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:58 2007.25] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:59 2007.33] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:00 2007.76] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:02 2007.18] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:03 2007.60] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:05 2007.25] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:06 2007.44] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:07 2007.49] AI turned off
Nine castings of Heal were done in this test, which took 11.26 seconds. Waiiiit... That gives us a 1.2511 (repeating of course) second casting time for Heal, even with ASPD that is two and a half times slower! We're looking at a difference of less than a hundredth of a second, which we can safely attribute to latency rather than to the ASPD difference - any difference in ASPD would yield much larger results.
Somewhere along the line between when it was discovered that Heal was ASPD dependent and now, the skill was changed. Is this for the better?
What still is affected by ASPD then?
For Priests, the main skills that are still ASPD-dependent are Holy Light and Magic Crasher. Blessing is too, but I doubt too many people really care about 190 ASPD Blessings.
For Monks, your combo skills are still dependent on ASPD, as is Throw Spirit Sphere and Dangerous Soul Collect/Call Spirits. Obviously Holy Light and Blessing are too.
For Crusaders, you still have Bash and Holy Cross. Shield Boomerang was one of the skills that I wanted to test but couldn't due to time. However, it does seem like ASPD does have a positive effect on the skill from secondhand statements made by Crusader and Paladin players. Obviously, Martyr's Reckoning is also ASPD-dependent.
Crusaders and Monks likely won't have too many recarding issues, but for Priests who only slotted dopps for heal speed, what do we slot in our Evangelists now?
Since the beginning of time, mankind has taken the assumption that his ASPD affected his healing speed. Verily this was the case long ago. In ancient times, Crusaders traveled across the land in full support mode, and took to their Peco Pecos. In order to conserve their meager ration of skill points, Crusaders took away their ranks of Cavalier Mastery. However, these support Crusaders found in horror that their heal speed had been slowed to one Heal every two seconds!
And it was thus that the reverse was found to be true as well. Priests of that time who carried a rod imbued with the power of Doppelganger Cards found that their heals were lightning fast, faster than a half second between each casting.
But time went on and many episodes passed. Many things changed.
The test:
I set up a bot healer, programmed to cast Heal as quickly as possible on itself. I equipped it with two dopp cards and gave it Berserk Pitcher to get it to 190 ASPD.
---------- Char Stats ----------
Str: 1 +42 #2 Atk: 293+0 Def: 58 +100
Agi: 1 +11 #2 Matk: 451~752 Mdef: 35 +127
Vit: 89 +11 #10 Hit: 249 Flee: 107+1
Int: 61 +66 #8 Critical: 3 Aspd: 190
Dex: 81 +73 #10 Status Points: 7
Luk: 1 +7 #2 Guild: None
--------------------------------
[Aug 25 04:25:05 2007.98] AI set to auto mode
[Aug 25 04:25:05 2007.36] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:06 2007.79] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:08 2007.22] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:09 2007.63] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:11 2007.56] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:12 2007.47] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:13 2007.91] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:15 2007.32] You use Heal on yourself : 388 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:25:16 2007.49] AI set to manual mode
In this test, 8 castings of Heal are done in a total of 9.96 seconds. The average casting time of Heal is about 1.245 seconds. That's awfully slow for 190 ASPD...
Unequipping my weapon (an Evangelist) gives me 173 ASPD (the berserk pitcher is still going). Still, 173 ASPD is still 1/3rd of a second longer than 190 ASPD. If we do the same test, it should take much longer...
---------- Char Stats ----------
Str: 1 +32 #2 Atk: 33 +0 Def: 58 +100
Agi: 1 +11 #2 Matk: 266~458 Mdef: 35 +97
Vit: 89 +11 #10 Hit: 219 Flee: 107+1
Int: 61 +36 #8 Critical: 3 Aspd: 173
Dex: 81 +43 #10 Status Points: 7
Luk: 1 +7 #2 Guild: None
--------------------------------
[Aug 25 04:26:54 2007.80] AI set to auto mode
[Aug 25 04:26:55 2007.18] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:56 2007.60] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:58 2007.25] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:26:59 2007.33] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:00 2007.76] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:02 2007.18] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:03 2007.60] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:05 2007.25] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:06 2007.44] You use Heal on yourself : 345 hp gained
[Aug 25 04:27:07 2007.49] AI turned off
Nine castings of Heal were done in this test, which took 11.26 seconds. Waiiiit... That gives us a 1.2511 (repeating of course) second casting time for Heal, even with ASPD that is two and a half times slower! We're looking at a difference of less than a hundredth of a second, which we can safely attribute to latency rather than to the ASPD difference - any difference in ASPD would yield much larger results.
Somewhere along the line between when it was discovered that Heal was ASPD dependent and now, the skill was changed. Is this for the better?
What still is affected by ASPD then?
For Priests, the main skills that are still ASPD-dependent are Holy Light and Magic Crasher. Blessing is too, but I doubt too many people really care about 190 ASPD Blessings.
For Monks, your combo skills are still dependent on ASPD, as is Throw Spirit Sphere and Dangerous Soul Collect/Call Spirits. Obviously Holy Light and Blessing are too.
For Crusaders, you still have Bash and Holy Cross. Shield Boomerang was one of the skills that I wanted to test but couldn't due to time. However, it does seem like ASPD does have a positive effect on the skill from secondhand statements made by Crusader and Paladin players. Obviously, Martyr's Reckoning is also ASPD-dependent.
Crusaders and Monks likely won't have too many recarding issues, but for Priests who only slotted dopps for heal speed, what do we slot in our Evangelists now?
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