There's only one reason to request new tools; The EM's want to be able to build more impressive events and environments and orchestrate their events without taking too much time from the Game Masters and sacrificing quality over limited time. There are only two possible avenues to have this possible : Hire more GM staff to assist the EMs or grant the existing EM's more Powers, Hiring more EM's will only help the system by supplying extra LIMITED help, so I won't even talk about that.
The easiest route would be to hire more GMs. This no doubt be the most costly and may not really solve the issue with making events more immersive and complex - it would just allow the GM's to rotate their time. Unless the GM's work together simultaneously, the time limitations will continue to exist, thus the constraints on events will continue to exist.
Granting the EM's more powers is the most cost effective way to improve on the events, and save the GM's time (whether there be one or more) Empowering the EMs with new tools will allow them to prepare their events in advance, play-test their event ideas in the real-world before it goes "Live" so that anything that doesn't feel right can be changed before the event. If a GM showed up for the event which is allotted for an hour and a half, things could go quicker if his task was to double check the setup and fix or create anything out of the EM's range. Events themselves could last longer with setup cut down. Furthermore, if earlier events run short, then there won't be a cascading delay if more then 2-3 events are scheduled for the same day.
So, with that said I was asked to provide the following thing:
1.) What MUST I have?
2.) What reasonable Things do I want
3.) What things can I dream about, but really could use
1.) What MUST I have?
I understand it's due to the Japanese Demographics that we lost the ability to spawn and create many things beyond AOS, mainly, something like the Doom Bosses. Understandable that the bosses need to be reserved for the Game Master creation, however the following items have been removed, and they honestly need to be added back: Bag of Necro Regs, Firehorn, Necro Spellbook, Paladin Spellbook, Golems, Shadow Fiend, Spectral Armor Zealots of Khaldun. The Monsters there are very unique, and extremely useful in Monster-related events. The other items should be understandable why they must come back.
There was also removal of some more peculiar NPCs: Berserkker, Henchman, Mercenary, Paladin, Paladin Male and Female. These spawn blue, and accept items into their backpack. They are ideal for a few events I have planned, and now I can not spawn them - thus I REALLY need them.
So Basically, please return what we lost that isn't overpowering nor an issue.
Second MUST Have, the .lock command allows us to lock down anything we create. Our Spawn and Create list is quite nice, however there's a lot of things simply not in the list. There are also things we can buy off NPC's that would be great for set-up in events, or craftables, that we can NOT lock down - we require a Game Master. It would be great to have another Lockdown command (or improve ours) so that we can lock down ANYTHING. This will greatly serve the purpose to allow EM's to set up for events on their own, fixing things set up, and tearing down setup instead of requiring more of the GM's time than is needed.
Third MUST have, "nouse" feature given to use for things we create. Food, Drinks, Potions, Bedrolls, Lanterns, Torches, and other 'useable' items become UNLOCKED when used, therefor our current list of spawnables actualy is less usefull unless we can set it to 'Nouse'.
2.) What reasonable things do I want?
I want anything that allows me to do my setup on my time, where I can be more creative, more elaborate, and more involved - without taxing the efforts of the Game Master that is assisting us for the event. I have only done 5 Events so far, and halfway into the events or during the events, I realize that I rushed setup and wish I did something different. It's too late to change much - if I had the power to do more setup, I would be able to set things up far in advance (in setup areas and unused areas) and fiddle with them for days.
The big thing I see as being a reasonable request is more things we can create or spawn. Now, I expect some apprehension on this request, so let me suggest that maybe these be listed as "Extended Creations", where we point where we want it to spawn and it's automatically LOCKED DOWN, so that there is no chance of an accident and rares getting out. Must be important that DELETE OBJECT works, as I'm positive mistakes are going to be made and/or revisions. m
I know the following list is long, it honestly can be longer, however I know
for a fact I would use a majority of these for my events and I bet other EM's
would love them.
Braziers. Item # 3633 and Item #6570
Pentegrams Item #4074 (the type that don't need to be in a house)
Sign on Post #7977 and allow us to label them.
Wall Signs : #3023 and allow us to label them.
Candle : #2843 (the small candle can not be used, as it wants to be 'held')
Chest : #3708 , #3649, #3710 #3644
Barrel : #4014 #3703
Canelabra : #2854
Teleport Tiles : #6184 for example
Stone Face #4349
Switch : #4239 #4236 and the ability to make it teleport users or open doors
we create.
Iron Maiden :# 4684
Fire Pit : # 4012
Cauldron Over Fire : #2421
Bottles of Ale : 2466 2461
Jugs of Cider : #2445
treasure : 7018, 7010, 7001 (there's a large range of treasure tiles)
bone pile : 6928 6923 6922 6921 6927
refuse :7090
Fire :L 6571
Log Post : 325
Mushrooms 3347 3346 3350 (and whatever other mushrooms exist)
Log Tables : 4574 4572 4573 4575 4576 4577
Candle : 4168
Fire Column : 14089
Switch : 4241
Lever : 4245
Floor Traps : #4549 #4512 #4524 #4412
Things without a code ingame : Pile of Skulls, Bones, Spider Webs, Gravestones, Wall Torch, Broken Furniture, Broken Bookcase, Ruined Bed, Ankh, portraits, blood, statues, All sorts of walls, Doors, Sarcophagus, Decorative Wall Hangins (Shields, Swords, Tapestries, Trophies, ), Alter (Abattoir), Glowing Runes on Floor,
I realize that is a long list of 'new' things. However keep in mind there are areas in dungeons and unused dungeons that are perfect for hosting events - however some are so large that asking a GM to set it up is very unlikely, due to the size of the area and the amount of setup desired.
Here is one of the SMALL dungeons that are unused at this moment :
This "Small" unused dungeon is built, and empty. An entire event can take place in this area, however the setup and decoration involved will no doubt take a Gamemaster hours. The amount of craftable and spawnable on the current Tool can only do so much, with the stuff I have requested you can use your imagination and see how an EM can spend an hour of THEIR off-time to create an impressive spread in an existing unused area of the map.
Case in Point :
Greypawn ran one "pirate" event that involved Zilo customizing a very small area of the unused map.
This is the unused portion. I believe it took Zilo an hour of his time to spiff the room up for the Event - and event that no doubt will not last over 2-3 hours. Greypawn did want more in the room, however the time was limited. With the items listed above for addition, it's easy to see that it's more cost-effective to allow an EM to create their own setup and require a GM for less setup.
An hour or so later.
3.) What things can I dream about, but really could use
As I said before, my aim is to make the GM's job of actual setup little of a necessity as possible. Locking down anything is very helpful. Creating items that are very unique and highly useful for creating a fun and immersive environment would do a great deal for us. However, we do have limitations. First, there is only so few places to host events before we must recycle. Second, there's only so many 'unused' portions available before we recycle. The public wants and desires fresh and new material constantly, we all know that.
Well, it would be possible - if EM's were given a portion of green acres turned over to them for full customization.
.
This is a seriously toned down picture of how much unused (the green area) area is in Trammel and Felucca ALONE. I won't even touch Ilshenar and Malas, as the amount of unused space in Trammel and Felucca is impressive!
A lot could be done if the EM's get a clean slate of a dungeon, a cave, wilderness, etc and have the powers to build their own areas. Imagine empowering the EM's with the ability to make server specific dungeons and areas that do NOT have to be shut down after the event - it could become a permanent fixture, and on a regular basis the lands of Trammel or Felucca (or Malas and Ilshenar) continue to grow, giving the public something new and exciting on a regular basis.
Conclusion:
You want the EM's to be able to help facilitate the Company-Fiction, and on the side operate unique and customized quest to entertain the public. We can easily do that with the tools we have now, however time has already shown that things can and do go longer than normal, many desires for the environment of the event fall short of the EM's desires, and the lone GM for all the EM's could use some help.
The most economical help is to empower the existing EM's with more aesthetics to create, and as crazy as it sounds, the ability to create their own environments.
It's quite a lot to ask, however if given to us, we can give back more than you may realize.