The Seers Small Council are essentially the devs for spells but they do it behind closed doors and are known to create Dark Spells. this way we can keep the metagame alive by launching patches without people already knowing how to counter the spells before they even go live. The Seers Small Council should be cycled regularly and if the spells suck they can be kicked out and sent to the Salt Mines. They should be somewhat independent from the Old Guard (making Spells AND running the forum shouldn't really be done by the same people, IMO), and should be well versed in the metagame. this idea wouldnt mean that Spells suggested by users in the Meta Forum don't get approved, rather, it would give more power to the players by having a dedicated group of people who Know What The Players Want.

This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2016 at 4:27 PM by Spritanium.

I think I've done 99.9% of the code for the spells so I'd probably have to be on this council (or in touch with it lol)

In general though I like the idea of spells just popping into existence without people knowing about them in advance. That's how we've been doing it so far as we're sort of just throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks.

In fact I think we could benefit from a small group of members deliberating with the admins to make all sorts of metagame decisions, as long as it's not totally separate. Maintaining all of this (coming up with new spells, studying usage statistics, cycling spells every 3-month season, tweaking existing spells, balancing, etc) would be a lot of work for the administration to do alone. I'd like to have a council like this as long as anything final still requires admin approval - and as long as I still get a say, since the spells plugin is my baby

This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2016 at 4:58 PM by God.

yeah i mean we would definitely need to have you as a permanent member of the Council. Any ideas that go through the Council would also definitely need to be vetted by the Old Guard but i would hope that the OG trusts the SSC's metagame analyses and vetoes rarely.

The positions within the council as I imagine them:

High Seer - Communicates with and submits Request For Comments to the Old Guard, makes final decisions when the Council is split/undecided.
Grand Maester - Spritey
Member of the Seer Council - analyses the metagame, designs and discusses spells
Bard - overlooks the artistic direction of the spells, works with the Grand Maester to implement spell aesthetics.

i think the Small Seer Council should also be in charge of developing the Skill Branches when that happens.

Push this idea.

Balancing shouldn't be a weird schizo mess of ideas thrown around at random by every user OR controlled by the same admins that control everything. Balance should be a group effort, but too many cooks in the kitchen, and one of the will shit in the soup.

I don't know... Sears already has a well-established structure.

when will mw sell king dedede drooling while eating-brand merchandise

I think the main plus for implementing this is that MotOG are spending too much time discussing meta changes when that time could be used for more important things. and because their duties are spread out so wide, it ends up being difficult to actually dedicate a lot of time to the meta. let's be honest; not many members of the Old Guard are Tier 1 players, so we're basing our meta around lower skill levels. this reduces the skill cap for players competing in the Pro Circuit. it isn't a healthy practice for the meta.

Make me the Spell Master. People always tell me "We have the best spells." And we do. Believe me. And I think with a little bit of Minus World ingenuity, we can make a spell list that works for everybody. I am a great spell-caster, always casting, using magic on posts constantly. We're gonna make this spell list huge, MW.

1. I'm uneasy about the idea of metagame development being confined to ideas set forth by a single specialized group; I don't understand why it's a problem to just discuss everything with everybody

2. At a certain point we have to be honest with ourselves; the Pro Circuit is literally a joke. The ideas which actually get implemented are those which won't cause huge amounts of controversy (with the obvious exception of the latest rally adjustment which set the decay rate higher than I expected)

3. If we implemented any sort of council for this, we require @"OracularRELOADED" for metagame analysis and idea formulation, myself for development, and @Draku to reign in the ideas keeping them from negatively affecting anyone's enjoyment. Everyone else should be elected via a poll.

At a certain point we have to be honest with ourselves; the Pro Circuit is literally a joke

1. I'm uneasy about the idea of metagame development being confined to ideas set forth by a single specialized group; I don't understand why it's a problem to just discuss everything with everybody

2. At a certain point we have to be honest with ourselves; the Pro Circuit is literally a joke. The ideas which actually get implemented are those which won't cause huge amounts of controversy (with the obvious exception of the latest rally adjustment which set the decay rate higher than I expected)

3. If we implemented any sort of council for this, we require @"OracularRELOADED" for metagame analysis and idea formulation, myself for development, and @Draku to reign in the ideas keeping them from negatively affecting anyone's enjoyment. Everyone else should be elected via a poll.

>Literally a joke
Excuuuuse me, low-level. I'll have you know that I take this game very seriously.

Also I don't think the issue is in regards to discussing it with everyone as much. Even with a "council", discussion and ideas outside of that would exist. A council just filters out kneejerk reactions and ideas that get implemented because one old guard admin happens to like it. There is literally no downside to requiring group approval in any scenario.

This post was last modified: Nov 18, 2016 at 5:40 PM by Spritanium.

What about a setup like this?
- The council is led by a Grand Seer (@"OracularRELOADED") and a Lead Developer (myself)
- The Grand Seer and the Lead Developer both have the power to veto any ideas, including each other's
- The rest of the council is composed of 4 individuals who cycle each season, they can either be elected (preferable) or chosen 2 each by the GS and LD
- A 100% consensus among the 4 general council members can override a veto by the GS or LD
- An unbiased Old Guard member (@"wtl64") can veto any decisions or code changes made by the council
- The GS and LD can be replaced upon...public outcry? idk

Oh wait wtl isn't an admin anymore either?

can we get a Deers Small Council instead

call me a casual but I don't see why we'd really need this level of oversight before being feature complete
a lot of the perceived flaws will likely be corrected by adding more content (events, classes, items)

call me a casual but I don't see why we'd really need this level of oversight before being feature complete
a lot of the perceived flaws will likely be corrected by adding more content (events, classes, items)

Yeah that's the thing, people are trying to make a bunch of balance calls and making high levels out to be pointless etc when of course they are seeing as none of the features intended to make high levels worth it are made yet

What about a setup like this?
- The council is led by a Grand Seer (@"OracularRELOADED") and a Lead Developer (myself)
- The Grand Seer and the Lead Developer both have the power to veto any ideas, including each other's
- The rest of the council is composed of 4 individuals who cycle each season, they can either be elected (preferable) or chosen 2 each by the GS and LD
- A 100% consensus among the 4 general council members can override a veto by the GS or LD
- An unbiased Old Guard member (@"wtl64") can veto any decisions or code changes made by the council
- The GS and LD can be replaced upon...public outcry? idk

this seems like a good idea. if the Seer Council doesn't have any official powers and only exists to advise the Old Guard, that is to say if the Old Guard ultimately has the Final Say over what gets implemented and what doesn't, this arrangement shouldn't have many issues. of course, as @Fun With Despair mentioned earlier, this kind of system wouldn't change the fact that anyone else can contribute ideas to the meta, it would just help to formalise the process by having dedicated members whose responsibility is to improve the forum's mechanics.

What about a setup like this?
- The council is led by a Grand Seer (@"OracularRELOADED") and a Lead Developer (myself)
- The Grand Seer and the Lead Developer both have the power to veto any ideas, including each other's
- The rest of the council is composed of 4 individuals who cycle each season, they can either be elected (preferable) or chosen 2 each by the GS and LD
- A 100% consensus among the 4 general council members can override a veto by the GS or LD
- An unbiased Old Guard member (@"wtl64") can veto any decisions or code changes made by the council
- The GS and LD can be replaced upon...public outcry? idk

this seems like a good idea. if the Seer Council doesn't have any official powers and only exists to advise the Old Guard, that is to say if the Old Guard ultimately has the Final Say over what gets implemented and what doesn't, this arrangement shouldn't have many issues. of course, as @Fun With Despair mentioned earlier, this kind of system wouldn't change the fact that anyone else can contribute ideas to the meta, it would just help to formalise the process by having dedicated members whose responsibility is to improve the forum's mechanics.

If that's how this will go then I'm fine with the idea, I was worried that it would shut down the ability for regular members to make contributions and suggestions because I find those very valuable.

no matter what happens, it looks like I'll still be the official unofficial crash test dummy for all the damn level balance changes

you guys should just set me to 20 so I can REALLY feel the effects