User:Yendor/Elder

Yendor's Answers

Q1. For those who have never had the opportunity to interact with you before can you share a little about yourself, what you enjoy about ATITD as well as how long you have been playing?

I started playing just before the end of Telling 2. I was a prominent player in Tale 3, including become DP and leading the Architecture Monument. After T3 I took a long break, and returned soon after I learned that Plurbius had bought the game out (late T6). I've been playing regularly since. The two things I like most about ATITD are the incredible community and the wide variety of things to do. For example, if I work closely with someone to teach them everything they need to know about passing the Tst of Towers, they will have learned absolutely nothing about passing the test of Safari. Learn to be the best at crossbreeding --- but blacksmithing is utterly different. And so on...

Q2. Factions, which Malard introduced in T8 are quite divisive, we have seen players complaining about them and even quitting. What are your thoughts regarding factions?

I am largely skeptical. They have done a great job of getting players much more involved in research donation. But they have also taken a relatively small player base and spit it into even smaller pieces. The tribute system in particular has generated a lot of ill-will in what used to be friendly rivalry at worst. I'm glad Apophis is planning major changes in how Tribute works -- but the system as a whole seems to be driving more players away (and putting the current ones at each other's throats) than attracting new ones.

Q3. Elder is one of the Leadership Tests, do you want to just past the Test or you are running to help Hyksos faction prosper and grow?

I plan to persue serveral leadership tests. In T3 Yendor ended as Sage of Leadership (6 tests passed -- not Cartouche), and in T7 Yendor was Oracle of Leadership. I anticipate I will pass many of the Leadership tests in T8 as well. I have often said that the Leadership discipline has very little to do with actual leadership. In both T3 and T7 I had founded an aqueduct guild that passed hundreds of people before ever being elected as "leader" in a test. Similarly, I have helped establish zFree this telling, contributed to research, organized events, made suggestions on Discord, etc without needing any test passes to do so.

Q4. One of the Elder's powers is a power to Banish Apostates of Hyksos - people with negative stance/ red bar toward faction. At this time players can get negative stance only by teaching other factions. Would you consider using this power on people that teach other factions and if not, when hypothetically would you consider using Banish?

I don't think helping other factions with tech should cause a loss of faction (supposedly there is a feature in the works to allow the faction elders to make a joint decision about whether it should). So no I would not ban a player for becoming apostate. I would ban a player for deceit or griefing -- for example, if someone in a tribute guild shared strategy with another faction, that would be grounds for removing them from ours (Note than this telling "Banishing" a player does nothing except remove them from the faction -- preventing them from accessing our faction chat or learning from our universities)

Q5. Developers hinted that once factions have more Elders we will be able to make a decisions which will apply to whole faction. What is your opinion on:

   a. Cross faction teaching

As mentioned above, I support this.

   b. At which rank Hyksos citizens can build faction buildings like Banners or Chancery.

For Chanercies, I'd support anyone who wants them to be able to build them. It's kind of silly that someone who wants regional chat has to contact someone from far away to set up a construction site to get it. I'm mostly neutral on banners -- I like the idea of making it possible for more players to build more things but I also understand the desire to have some perks to use as incentive for donations / faction activity.

   c. Rewarding with faction points citizens which are not donating to Tribute Post or Research but helping us by for example organizing Events like Acro, Dig or Vigil.

While I absolutely agree with the idea that people can contribute to the faction in ways other than directly clicking the donate button, I'm a little leery of the proposals that allow elders to directly award faction points. What's to prevent the elders from giving their friends an undeserved boost? I would be in favor of more automatic ways of rewarding activities (gaining faction for teaching an accro facet is great!).

Q6. Beside Invite, Banish and Forgive what other powers, in your opinion, Elder should have?

Banish is a terrible tool for dealing with actual griefers. Perhaps if elders from different factions worked together, they could collectively ban someone from the game?

I also support the ideas above of giving elders more control over e.g. whether cross-faction teaching reduces your faction rank.

Q7. You are running for the Elder of the Hyksos Faction, please tell us what is your current faction rank and how you are helping with Hyksos research and weekly Tribute Post competition.

I was just promoted to member after being green-bared for three weeks. I have contributed both directly and indirectly to research efforts. I have not been active in tributes other than occasional donations to Abydos (sometimes I was the first to report their weekly demand) and providing mats to someone to retake Naqqada a few weeks ago.

Q8. As Elder you will have powers to banish people, do you share your account with others?

No other ATITD players have my current password. In the past I have occasionally asked other trusted players (each of whom had won DP elections in prior tales) to log me in for festivals or other timed Egypt-wide events.

Q9. In other tales elected leaders (DP) at the beginning of the tale leave before the game end. This leaves a vacuum at the end game when they are needed the most. What is your commitment to the game and how will you manage to last the entire tale?

I am a full telling paid player. I'll point to my track record in T3 and T7 of remaining at least semi-active through the entire telling.

Q10. Why should we vote for you? What do you bring to the Elder group?

In the discussion round prior to the election, I expressed my desire to lower tensions between Hyksos and Kush. Somehow the tribute system has turned into a cycle of revenge -- Kush gets angry we have taken Philae so they take Naqqada. We get angry they have taken Naqqada so we take Philae and meanwhile neither side trusts the other to negotiate an agreement even if it would clearly be advantageous to both groups. I don't know how many of my ideas are moot now that Apophis plans to revamp the tribute system entirely, but the old system is no longer a friendly competition and I'd like to diffuse some of the paranoia / hatred if possible.

Q11. What question would you like to be asked, and why?

One question that is sometimes asked is "Who would you vote for if you were not running, and why?". I like this because it forces the DPs to say nice things about their "opponent" and can give insight into both the DP answering and the DP they endorse. For the record, my answer is Cate, because she is friendly and helpful (particularly to new players) and isn't always recognized for her many contributions to zFree and ATITD.

Q12. Closing statement. 

Yendor makes paint!