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Re: Absence

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 11:50 pm
by Skragna
Is this game more like Crusader Kings/Europa Universalis or more like Heroes of Might & Magic? Or even more like Mount & Blade?

Re: Absence

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 4:14 am
by Delia
Dom4 is a turn based 4x strategy game with a huge emphasis on mages. You choose an era and a nation and create a god for that nation and set the god's dominion attributes(do your sacred troops get extra benefits, will the land flourish or decay and die under your influence, etc...)

You cannot control the fights but you can influence them by setting behaviour for your troops and their battle formation. This is something that usually makes or breaks your fights as your fire mages will happily unleash their thing even if friendly troops are in the way ;)

A nice game with a horde of choices that the player must struggle with :)

Re: Absence

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 4:39 am
by fernao
Skragna wrote:Is this game more like Crusader Kings/Europa Universalis or more like Heroes of Might & Magic? Or even more like Mount & Blade?
Mount Blade Warband in the ACOK (A Clash of Kings) Mod. *grin* Thats the thing to go for all you Game of Thrones fans!

Re: Absence

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 12:58 am
by Delia
Dom 4.01 is now up and the manual can be downloaded from the Illwinter site :)

Re: Absence

Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:48 am
by Delia
I fear my absence might turn out to be a prolonged one as there just seems to be too much stuff going on at requires my focus right now. Also, carving a bloody path towards godhood during my spare time does not help much.

Anyways, feel free to PM me should you feel the urge. Infact, should you send any mail to my character please send a PM so that I know to respond.

Lurking, not completely gone
poDelia

Re: Absence

Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:11 pm
by tanriel
Hello.

This is less of an absence-note and more of an "eventual-come-back" note.

I have tried to return earlier, but it seems a bit difficult - when one
problem is tackled in reallife, another one tends to crop up, which in
general means that time gets sucked away by reallife obligations rather
quickly.

This makes playing not so easy as I would either have to neglect my
reallife obligations, or passively allow them to affect my playing in
one way or the other - because I may OOCly have to constantly assess
whether I have enough time left to solve any issues in reallife, which
makes it significantly harder to concentrate on roleplaying.

The coming week will be rather busy for me so it makes little sense to
want to return during a busy week, but on the other hand it is soon 3
months since I had to make a break due to reallife.

The Middle of November 2013 should be a little less work intensive; December
may become harder again; there is at least one full week in where I can't
play during December, and a few other assignments, so it seems easier to
want to try and return during early November 2013 - otherwise it may well
happen again that I could not return during December due to a lack of time.
A somewhat similar situation existed for me ~a year ago. And if I could
not come back in November, I most likely may be unable to come back in
December, which means that I would be unavailable for at least 2 more
months to come, and perhaps even longer.

So, 5 months away when it was not intended to do so for quite that amount
of time. Hmmmm.

Now this lengthy note should explain why I write here - I try to force myself
to not omit windows of opportunities, otherwise I would become a casual
"visiting" player in that I could play only for like some weeks, before
I would then have to make months-long breaks, which is not ideal to have.

It is definitely easier to play without making a long break.

Returning from a hiatus is not always easy, much more so when one tends to
play only semi-regularly; imagine how difficult it is for old returning
players who come back after years. Upon their return, changes that were made
to the game in between can significantly alter how they play or how much
they can enjoy a game. On a side-note, it is also rather clear that a
game can not work well at all with only casual players alone because in
the end a MUD is solely defined by active players. So the game needs to
first cater towards those players that can both contribute to the game
and allot sufficient time to it at the same time, while of course not
excluding the casual players at the same time.

So I try and force myself to set a date when I could return, and possibly
will. I think after Friday 7th November 2013, ~evening times it should
be possible or at the very least on the weekend there (8th / 9th November).

Without setting a date it seems that reallife would just always have
higher priority and then the months would just whittle away. So I'll try
it with setting a specific day instead - once when someone is "in the
flow" again, it is usually much easier to get going and continue playing.

So, see you all at about (after?) 07.11.2013.

PO Tanriel

Re: Absence

Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 10:10 pm
by Akulli
I have a new job. More hours. Lots of pain and soreness at the end of the day. Once I get use to it and I'm not a quivering pile of uselessness by the time I get home, I promise to be around more, and more aware when I am. In the meantime, I'll console myself with hot tea and hot baths and lots of books.

Re: Absence

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:59 am
by Rudolpho
Sorry to the three people who would actually miss me in game. My internet has been down and it may be another few days before it's back up and running. See you then.

Jackson.

Re: Absence

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:48 pm
by luminier
Thank goodness, I thought you had died again.

Re: Absence

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:12 pm
by Akulli
I feel for ya! Going without internet is awful :/
(Internet addiction? Pfft....)

Re: Absence

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 1:17 am
by tanriel
Hello again.

Sorry for having been unable to login - I thought I would manage but
it did not quite work out that way. Time management isn't too easy
right now for various reasons.

I am sure I'll eventually manage to sneak in as soon as things get
a little less stressful in reallife - after all I did manage to do
so in the past ~2 @years as well. Until eventually then!

PO Tanriel

PS: This is a snow squirrel I think.
Image

Re: Absence

Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 1:56 am
by Cuetlachtli
I'm in the same boat as those struggling with scheduling. Haven't really found a good rhythm yet with my new job. So far it seems to be only weekends, which isn't completely bad.

Eh, probably better for Mage-type chars to be less often seen anyway. ;)

Nice squirrel, Tanriel. :P Despite my character being a serial-squirrel-murderer in the game, they are one of my favourite animals IRL.

@Rudolpho: I feel for you.

Re: Absence

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:27 pm
by Aturshus
Giving Geas a rest. Details are IC, mostly, though I have been getting pretty busy lately. I expect to pop in now and then, but I don't expect to be fully back any earlier than Christmas.

Have fun guys, I hope the game picks back up again!

Re: Absence

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:07 pm
by Akulli
tanriel wrote:Hello again.

Sorry for having been unable to login - I thought I would manage but
it did not quite work out that way. Time management isn't too easy
right now for various reasons.

I am sure I'll eventually manage to sneak in as soon as things get
a little less stressful in reallife - after all I did manage to do
so in the past ~2 @years as well. Until eventually then!

PO Tanriel

PS: This is a snow squirrel I think.
Image

Image



Also, so I don't get off topic. I've been moving around a bit, so my play time is erratic at best. Also, my internet is slow. Super slow.
But I miss you guys, so I'll try to get on as much as I can.

Re: Absence

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:23 am
by tanriel
Hello. I have been trying to come back but despite announcing so
several times and despite trying to do so as well, I failed. :(

I feel stuck in a repetitive loop in reallife, like a hamster on a treadmill -
like that poor little fellow here

Image

Once you are in this routine, it can be rather difficult to break out again. You
can't too easily slow down either because that treadmill is just going to trip you
over if you try to stand still (Hamsters obviously have it worse than squirrels in
reallife, you don't often see the latter in such a treadmill).

The being 'unable to stand still' is the main reason why I did find it impossible
or at least very hard to 'just play' - in my current reallife setup, committing less
time wasn't easily possible because I might trip over in that hamster treadmill of
mine. And being a casual player is also difficult as long as one is occupied with
reallife issues. Because you think about what all has to be done and it handicaps
your ability to play.

So the treadmill goes round and round and round and round ...

My current schedule in February 2014 is similar to this one here - wake up early, trot
to work (through fog and coldness ... the weather has been awful lately), work
for about 7 hours, trot home (no fog, but it is dark and cold after work), fall asleep
when home (optional, but that is how I am feeling usually after work, or perhaps I just
fall asleep during work which may happen sometimes), enjoy about 5 hours of non-work
time at best per day, go to bed, repeat the above. I assume that this is valid for many
other people as well, naturally, but I also feel as if there is a diminishing return for
the amount of time I spend and did spend in general in the last ~2 years - not necessarily
related to work alone, but more in particular in regards to the availability of my free
time and being able to decide what to do with my own time altogether.

So spending even more time into that treadmill makes little sense. It is just like
a time sink without significant returns.

A couple of weeks ago, or rather since a much longer while, I decided to invest less
time into work/"career-buildup" related activities in reallife than I did (or did try)
in the last 2 years.

That does not mean that the amount of time spent into that will go down to zero, but it
will dwindle down to an amount I can more easily manage than I could in the last 2 years.
More specifically for me to not accept tasks/jobs that are above the amount of time I
am willing to spend in the first place, and there was more than than enough of that
in the last 6 months at least, which just becomes a recipe for burnout.

From my current standpoint there is no justifiable reason to invest more time into
work-related activities as the return-of-investment just isn't really there to warrant
that. Thankfully I don't have financial pressure so I don't necessarily need to work as
much either - I more wanted to assess the boundaries of my performance (awful idea, see
the burnout reference). And I think I can do just as well as I did at about ~1 year ago,
which was acceptable (I had more time back then than I have right now(.

My contract with the current team will end after February 2014, so right after
this very month now. \o/

After that either way I won't enter that treadmill too easily again. Of course there
will be moments when I will have less time available - April 2014 for instance. But
this will be only 3 days a week, afternoon. Other than that, I have nothing planned
for April 2014.

But I don't expect to for the forseeable future need to take off as much time again
from my available free time, and different to the past two years, I will very carefully
choose how much further work I will assign to myself. While this in itself does not
necessarily translate into more time playing games directly, it will definitely
translate into more free time for me in general, which will then eventually
translate into being able to spend that newly gained time in a less stringent way.

Ok, so why that lengthy note? Mostly because I feel bad because I am announcing
something that I fail to uphold and because my character stated before that he
will be back. So why announce it in the first place OOCly ... :(

Hmmm. I guess the opposite, being quiet, would not be much better because who
knows where I am! I am still somewhere! I'll be back too!

So basically I am stuck in the reallife treadmill but I will escape eventually,
at the latest end of this month, but most likely (really...) at least during
the weekends (I think), perhaps even during a day (but hardly for more than
cameo appearances during the week simply because of the work schedule - if I
have to get up early then staying up for too long totally would kill me).

PO Tanriel

Re: Absence

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:40 pm
by Delia
I completely understand how the treadmill literally sucks the living life out of you and makes you question the very reason for human existence. Honestly, sometimes I wish a humongous piece of rock, ice and metal would arrive from the great wide dark and nuke us back to times before time.

Anyhoo,
Until then,
Please do survive and visit Forostar someday.

Re: Absence

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 11:12 am
by Ottarr
Looking forward to your return Tanriel. Or Tanriel's return. :wink:

Re: Absence

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:19 am
by ferranifer
Gonna be away for the whole weekend. Spending a romantic time in Paris :) I'll hopefully be back on Monday!

Re: Absence

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:05 am
by Delia
I've been absentish due to grinding skills RL-style like crazy. Luckily it paid off with an improve or two atleast. Anyhoo, now that I decided to take some selfish time off and escape to the countryside, I think I will arrange time this weekend for D to make an appearance or two to take care of some RP stuff that has been left hanging due to my negligence. Hope to see you around!

Re: Absence

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:05 pm
by Blizt
Hey folks,

Will make this short. Last year when I last was very active and playing a lot, I suddenly become very ill quickly. I have been in and out of the hospital this whole time, but when I was out, I didn't feel much like playing if I even had the chance then.

I was released again a few hours ago, and am in a hotel next to Vanderbilt, because I still have to go back for a few other tests tommorrow. After that, I will be heading home again and since I am feeling much better.....I should be playing very often. Well, in about two weeks probably, just occassionaly until then.

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, still a bit drugged up.

See you around.