Ruin Creek

9-10 years ago there was a discussion about Ruin Creek in Kharam Dzu. Is this still in progress or has it been scrapped?

https://gswiki.play.net/RuinCreek/savedposts

There are no current plans for that. It was scrapped in 2009.

@wyrom said in Ruin Creek:

There are no current plans for that. It was scrapped in 2009.

Thanks. I know it may be difficult to say, but is the game's geography basically set the way it is? I believe the last, newest place added was Briarmoon Cove for a paid event, that has since been scrapped. And before that was either REIM or Sanctum (I may be completely off).

Just curious what the state of the map is today.

oh Briarmoon cove is still there. They just won't run it because not enough profit versus time put in. (best event i have ever been involved in) imo

I mean they may run it sometime as a free event or in some other capacity I believe they said

@erous said in Ruin Creek:

Just curious what the state of the map is today.

This might help in terms of updates to the Continent.

https://gswiki.play.net/Elanith

@rohese said in Ruin Creek:

@erous said in Ruin Creek:

Just curious what the state of the map is today.

This might help in terms of updates to the Continent.

https://gswiki.play.net/Elanith

Thanks. I'm quite aware of the existing continent, what I'm looking for is the roadmap for how/if it's expanding. The reason I ask is for personal/subscription reasons. I'm about to cap, and according to the hunting grounds/maps/etc., I have touched every hunting ground there is except sanctum of scales. Every where I've been there are mostly grand lords/ladies scripting and botting in the capped zones, or, assisting in the occasional storyline. I like the storyline, but the storylines are mainly based on west coast time (i.e. not starting till approximately midnight eastern time or later during the weekdays) making it inconvenient for a working/family man to consistently make the events.

Same with invasions sadly. The timing of the invasions is just not conducive to the average, east-coaster Joe or Jill.

I see no reason to maintain a subscription to simply become a bot or continue to hunt the same creatures over and over. There are other, cheaper alternatives to this sort of activity. My enjoyment with gameplay is hunting new and exciting things, and sadly I don't see that in the cards for Gemstone based on feedback from the last Con and developer corner.

I really enjoyed BMC, as Beldannon noted, but Wyrom made it clear that that's not returning, and I really disliked this year's Ebon Gate. So, if EG style events are what's continuing AND there's no new content/areas to explore, then I really don't have a reason to stick around.

I know that was long winded. Just planning for the future.

@beldannon5 said in Ruin Creek:

I mean they may run it sometime as a free event or in some other capacity I believe they said

Correct, Wyrom said it wasn't returning in its current form.

I think what you're asking for isn't being conveyed properly with the phrasing of your post. Actual geographical growth of the game doesn't always mean new hunting.

Ruin Creek actually had no plans for hunting. It was going to be a satellite town for Teras Isle. From what I can see, the concept was started, but it never really got further than that. There was also talk about a place called Titan Fortress, which may have been in the same region, but that was just an idea that never went anywhere beyond that. Both of these were dead before I was even a GameMaster.

If you're looking for new content to explore without hunting, we build new areas every year. We have plans this year as well. Fleshing out the actual planet of Elanthia and even touching on the cosmology is a goal of mine, but one that isn't a very big priority. Expanding Elanith is something I hope will be completed sooner than later though. I'm not sure if this sort of content would keep you excited enough to play though.

As for Briarmoon Cove, this was just a small area between Icemule Trace and Pinefar. The event itself has a loyal following, but the overall response of the event was lukewarm at best. It strongly boiled down to if you walked away with something, which many didn't. And because the event was a short duration (weekend), it didn't pull as much weight as the time to develop it. Only 171 accounts went to BMC between two runs, some people went twice, but that is the unique number of accounts who entered the event. This is about 25% to 33% of the average participation we see at our events in the last 3 years. Not including any SimuCon Goodie Bag, the last run of Summit Academy had a participation of 347 (with Goodie Bag it was closer to 600). The amount of hours sunk into BMC was greater than the majority of events in the last 8 years (Ebon Gate and Duskruin being outliers), and other than limited ticket sales, it performed very poorly in terms of revenue. GameMasters earnings are a percent of the revenue brought in, which we just call shares (the infamous beer and pizza money [which, by the way, isn't the case. Top performing GMs can really supplement their income]). It was a creative event and one I know many GMs enjoyed working on, but it just wasn't a great use of their time. Our plan is to scale it into a free event down the road (likely 2019).

@Wyrom thanks so much for the detailed and candid response! My first question and the title of the thread was around a fun location addon, that's why I expanded it to the general map question. Really any new content, fun or otherwise, would be of interest to me. Timing of invasions and storyline events just isn't conducive to my schedule being on the east coast and I'd prefer not to bot the cap zones. So if something new was on the horizon it'd give me something to look forward to.