Project areas

[TheStephen]

Another idea to potentially increase engagement in mainworld/moria building from commoners and adventurers.
As I understand it currently project areas are chosen solely by the build team.

Proposal is that when a project area is finished, the build team come up with 3 potential new project areas that are appropriate to be worked on. These are then put to everyone for a vote, much in the same way themebuilds work at the moment. Most popular project area is then chosen and planning is started.

E.g.
Pelennor is finished
New project areas are:
x
y
z

This would potentially give more people the desire to ask for plots in active projects they've voted for and therefore drive progress on the server forward. It would also give members of the server who are not on the build team more sense of involvement in how the server progresses.

There's no reason why this should conflict with the current formula of finishing regions first (texture pack permitting). Obviously options such as parts of Mordor wouldn't be appropriate, but there's still plenty of areas that would fit this: Unfinished Andrast, Belfalas, Chamber of Light etc as well as new project areas.
Thoughts on this?

 

[mapthor]

 

[Mershy]

At the end of the day, it's down to the build team and project leaders to decide what areas people want to work in. They have worked hard to get to that rank so therefore discussions are made regarding projects that way. I can't see a vote working due to a lot of projects starting not so formally. Swe's project was started based on ideas he had not necessarily planned to be done. Depends on the passion of the leader/builders that a project starts or not. People work on the things they are interested and a vote I feel would more so restrict the passion to make them feel like x project has to be done if it is voted on.

Unfinished Andrast - Requires forest update to finish forests around the area. Vegetation to be done with WE etc. Refer here - https://www.mcmiddleearth.com/community/threads/andrast-stage-3-vegetation.6207/

Belfalas - Sand Jobs, Forest Update, Vegetation/stream update

Chamber of Light - Cave rework (Voxel), re-plan of houses/streets, Shrine in middle. (Huge Project)

Indeed there are a few areas of interest in and around the server that can be done. But again it does boil down to who wants to do them. Placing sand down, or smoothing terrain might not be the most fun of jobs so, therefore, it's understandable that people do this over time. See building on the server isn't always about building the coolest castles and the best cities, there is so much more than not everyone has the motivation to do. Which is ultimately how projects are started/developed. Does x person have some inspiration and motivation to start this revamp/new project if so amazing we can get underway, but creating a vote based on some project ideas isn't the best way to proceed in my honest opinion.

The best motivator for a successful project is a leader that is motivated and happy to lead the project. They want to aspire to finish the project that they are interested in. Personally, I wouldn't want to do Andrast, I'm terrible at terrain so I look towards other interests within the server. I also think at the moment there is a good range of projects to get into to help with.

Andrast - Matt recently did work block mixing
Lond Daer - lots of plots
Moria - Upper West Gate with Daom
Pelennor Fields - Swe giving out lots of plots
Anorien - Terrain smoothing and colouring plots
Cair Andros - Tree plots and future building plots
Harlond - Rammas plots, Building plots, Harlond wall plots
Dead Marshes - Xmine handing out plots soon
Nindalf - Fish handing out plots
Anduin revamp - Maski handing out plots

All in all, a lot of ranging projects to help out in. It's hard to advertise projects because of course no one is forced to work in any area. But if someone wants to get started anywhere, it only takes a message to a project leader either in-game or discord. Can't always be the approacher so sometimes it's good to have initiative. Every project, everyone is willing to help each other and every project I have seen has good chemistry and has a good time. But there are limitations sometimes to work within projects. One needs a certain standard whatever the job would be so making sure builds are up to standard are also a fair argument.

What other projects would you also suggest that could be undertaken?

By no means is this a throw-down or a roast of your post Stephen because It is good to always suggest ideas. In this case, the opinion I outlined above is just a reason why I feel that this wouldn't work.

 

[ooitsbirdo]

Hello ooits here,
As additional information, this was discussed in a previous staff meeting , not sure if it was me or someone else who suggested the idea but it was unanimously declined by the staff as stated by the above reason provided by Mershy, projects require drive and determination, too many time have I seen that players loose interest in a location if it drags on for too long (DA is a great example of this happening). Hence why we use the current system where we look at locations we can work on with our current capability and a designer/foreman or even artist cam claim and project cause they are generally interested and have a full plan to carry it out. Cause at the end of the day, they will carry it not the general players who may be part for a short time and move on. This is my personal view based on past observation from Osgo1.0 & 2.0, DA, moria, misty, pela, og LD, linhir farms, Thomas Town don't know the name of it, Fornost, Annuminas, just to name from the top of my head.

 

[TheStephen]

Thanks for the feedback both, just a few points on what's been said as I think some of what I suggested may have been misunderstood:

The build team would choose the options to be voted on under what I've proposed - the whole point of the idea was the designers/foremen/artists retain control over what the active projects are likely to be, as there needs to be someone who wants to lead it in the first place.

Voting is then simply a way to ensure the wider community does feel more involved, but does also prevent too many projects becoming active at the same time and overworking people. I understand that the build team have worked hard to get where they are, but as Drao said in my last suggestion: commoners are relied on as workforce to build projects. So voting on options you guys come up with is a compromise between you retaining control + having motivated project leads, and motivating your workforce. It also gives you some indication of how likely you are to get help on a particular project area, as you're quite correct: some are far less interesting than others.

Therefore there shouldn't be any reason for lack of passion with what I've proposed, as the build team would be still be choosing and proposing the options that are voted on in the first place. Nor does this stop the build team doing planning for other things behind the scenes for future proposals as I recognise projects go through a lot of stages before getting to actual building on the main map. By "planning is started" I meant mainworld planning, as presumably to be voted on the person wanting to lead the project would already have done the necessary lore research and concept creation.

I'm not criticising the range of projects going on at the moment at all, as I agree: there are a good range of different things to do and I currently don't think anything needs adding to this. There's the perception the build team are stretched quite enough at the moment with all the projects listed, and the things going on behind the scenes, so I think adding more projects currently would be inadvisable.

This suggestion is more meant this as something for the future once some of these active areas become finished, as I'm sure other people on the build team have ideas on what they'd like to do in the future. This merely adds an extra element to how things currently work. There will of course be areas in which no one wants to work, which this proposal would be unsuitable for, which would need to be handled differently.

Mapthor does raise an important point: Gondor has hoarded a lot of the attention with revamps or projects. This was obviously necessary due to previous resource pack capabilities limiting where could be worked on with a good standard/outcome. In my view RP H now negates this argument.
I obviously don't know what plans are going on behind the scenes, which makes actually suggesting potential ideas difficult but I certainly don't think the other options are limited to Erebor, Lake Town or Gondor revamps. RP H gives far wider scope of choice, whether that be something new such as Dunland, the Upper Anduin, or revamps elsewhere such as the Shire, Tharbad etc. Given Lond Daer is active, something nearby would be a sensible proposal for something after that has finished. It would very much depend on whether people desire something new, or a revamp.