Reflections on the Writ: Respect

The rules at the heart of who we are, that make us Vigiles, are of prime importance to every one of us. It is the concern of every Vigiles to see they are upheld, and the special duty of the officers and Council to ensure that this is so.

The official summary of the OOC rules is posted here, and was drafted to be as concise, readable, and clear as I could make it. It was also drafted to fit neatly inside a player-written book in game, so that it could be posted publicly in our guild spaces, and shared with our members easily.

The entirety of the ooc rules can be reduced down to our driving ethic: act with love and justice for your fellow players. 

Or, as Wil Wheaton so eloquently puts it, Don't be a Dick.

From time to time, it is well to expand on a matter in greater detail.
We are surrounded by a world that regularly fails to promote love or justice, and we carry with us all the many wounds from that. Within Vigiles, we strive to re-imagine the structure of our world, together. We do this through our collaborative creative fiction - our role-playing - and we also do it in the community that we have built among us, the humans behind the stories.

We are human - and we will have conflict, and we will all fail to embody the ideals we strive for.

It is not a matter of if, only "when" and "how".
Learning how to move through the tense and uncomfortable places to become better versions of ourselves is an essential, beautiful, difficult, and necessary work. It is of vital importance that we work together in this process, to check in with one another and remind each other of the ideals and friendship that bind us together.

Respect the players. 

That means you.

Every one of us, in joining the Vigiles, has sworn to uphold the Writ and Rules, without exception. You have the same right to a safe and healthy storytelling gamerspace as every other member.

Any insult or harm you suffer is our concern - and at the same time we, the officers, cannot act to resolve the situation if we do not know it exists. We are human, and Real Life comes first. Not every officer can be online and attentive to every channel at every moment, and it would be injustice to expect that from those who serve out of love.

We actively work to build a community that acknowledges the danger and injustice of structural violence. We refuse to allow anyone to seed such harm in our space.

Just as within the Amicae no character is permitted to attack another Amicae for their race/gender/religion/class, no such insults in real life will be permitted among guildmates. Swearing is permissible, but language which has its basis in denigration or oppression of any group will invoke discipline.
Likewise, no discrimination based on account level will be tolerated.

Oppressive language has some obvious examples: slurs and insults, gross generalizations and stereotypes, violence and threats.

These are the even-con, aggro monsters of our world, outlined in bright red and easily seen from a distance for what they are.

There are also subtle, insidious kinds of oppressive language, which cloak their oppression in the veneer of other things. Taken alone, one comment may seem trivial: as part of a pattern, it becomes malignant. Violence may masquerade as reason, or humor, or even concern.

It is important to remember that your inability to see or feel the harm does not erase its danger and hurt for another.

These are the quest npc's that become epic raid bosses, these are the invisible vampires that wait for you in dark corners.

We do not often see such things arise among us, and what does slip through quickly becomes an opportunity for growth. We all carry some level of privilege from our Real Life into the storytelling space, and it is our responsibility to endeavor always to check that privilege.

When we overlook some part of that, we are asking our Amicae to check it for us, so that we may grow. The officers of the Vigiles Amicae have sworn to this duty, to monitor what they hear, and to hold safe space for Amicae to bring their concerns. When that happens, an officer steps forward to remind us all about our rules, and we open a public discussion of what those rules mean in application.

We in the Vigiles believe that this public discussion is essential to the health of our community.

There is a time and place for public and private discourse: privately approaching an officer will of course remain a private discussion between you and the council. Generally, official complaints are made in private, even though frequently they concern public actions. Public reminders also frequently lead to private discussions in greater detail than is feasible in a public forum.

That manner of private discourse is good and healthy.

Reminders are delivered publicly, because we all need to know them. If even one person is unclear as to the application of the rules in practice, it is certainly true that more than one harbors similar confusion. Successful conflict resolution brings us closer together, and actively builds the world we seek.

We of the Vigiles strive to incorporate the practice of Nonviolent Communication, while at the same time working to identify and disarm any structural violence we carry with us from the outside world.

Responding to gentle reminders and critique as though it is a malicious personal attack is a terrible thing for everyone, and actively undermines the health of our community.

Lashing out with violent language at an officer - publicly or privately - for issuing a reminder is a serious transgression: it is disrespect for our rules, and our officers.

Likewise, arguing for exceptions to our rules for any reason whatsoever is an act of violence against the Vigiles, and will be handled as such.

Once, will earn a formal warning, and redirection to review our Writ and Rules for later discussion. Refusal to comply will be considered a second violation.

Twice, will earn a formal rebuke, assignment to review the Writ and Rules, and report to an officer for further discussion. Refusal to comply will be considered a third violation.

Three acts of violence against the Vigiles, IC or OOC*, will result in formal charges of treason, and may invoke a sentence of Exile.

There is a time, place, and manner in which to bring your concerns and questions to the council, and learn about our Writ and Rule. Take time to center yourself, and approach the issue with clear language, and without value judgments. We, the officers, have sworn to uphold the Writ and Rule, and also to educate the Amicae in it. Come to us with any questions or concerns you have.

Your feelings are yours, and you have the right to feel them.

Notice your fear, your anger, your sorrow: these arise within you to tell you valuable things about your experience. Respect yourself as a player, as an Amicae, and speak up. Trust that you will be heard. Your officers are there to help you process your feelings and experiences among us, and to take action in the community when necessary.

Not every character or player will feel comfortable in the space we have created. Our work is sometimes exactly that: work. We believe that even - perhaps especially - in the context of a game and storytelling space we all love, that this work is good, and right, and rewarding. We invite you to remain with us in this good work, but we accept that the difficult road is not one all souls may walk.

We, the officers, have sworn our time and our hearts to the work of holding the banner on that long and difficult road.

We welcome you among us:

stand with us, and our strength and wisdom together 

shall be greater than the sum of all we had alone.

---

* Yes, in-character treason and exile is a story you can write. Those plots are deeply complicated, and require excellent out of character communication to play out, while guarding the health of the players.

In-Character Introduction Letters

Are you a new member of Vigiles Amicae and still needing to interview in-character? Are you a current member of the guild, but have a stable of alts that you would also like to introduce and role play with? We only require interviews for new players, not for every new alt, but this post may still help even old hands.

An excellent idea for introducing a new character is writing an introduction letter. It's by no means required, of course, but it helps prepare you, your character, and all the characters and players involved in introducing your character to Vigiles Amicae. A letter of introduction can include anything you want, but will likely include things like your character's motivation for joining Vigiles Amicae, what they want out of it, and what they feel like they can contribute. It doesn't even have to be written by the character in question if another of your characters or a throw-away NPC if it would make more sense.

Ultimately, an introduction letter is most important to you as the player, as it allows you to nail down details of how and why your character is joining the guild ahead of time without feeling any pressure to figure out such things on-the-fly in the middle of live play. In my personal experience, I often do not find a character's "voice" to play them well until I have written something for or about them outside of live play. Even if you never publish such an introductory letter and no one else ever sees it, it still might be useful exercise for you as a player.

Below is an introduction letter written for my new wood elf channeler alt, Hissaelien Rowanbough. Note that it is not actually written by Hissaelien herself, nor is it technically addressed to the Vigiles Amicae, but it alludes to what personalities, histories, and conflicts have led her to the guild. It also details what her current skills are and how she might hope to build on them.

******

To Whom It May Concern:

As one of the foremost institutions of magical research and education in Norrath, the Concordium of Magi of Qeynos formally requests to transfer and highly recommends Hissaelien Rowanbough to the tutelage of the training division of a duly-licensed militia or mercenary company.

Hissaelien recently came to the Tower of the Concordium seeking to expand her magical knowledge. Unfortunately, though she meets most entrance requirements, we feel that her background, prior education, and natural talents are unsuitable for our stringent academic standards, and seem much more suited for the kind of hedge witchery common among small villages, militias, and mercenary groups. As such, we are passing her along to an educational environment where we feel she will better fit.

From what she has told us of her background, she joined a caravan of vagrant entertainers following some minor political squabble in her home of Kelethin. Her earliest training was as apprentice to the caravan’s fortune-teller and medium, and she was with the group for some time. Hissaelien claims no family in Kelethin or otherwise, and with no-one else of sufficient rectitude to vouch for her, the staff of the Concordium feel that she will not have the support she needs to meet our demanding academic standards.

In regard to her training and talents, though she seems adequately capable of the most basic elemental magic, her talents strongly favor, and in many ways are dependent upon, spiritual and necromantic aspects, and as such, cannot be encouraged or developed by an honorable arcane educational institution such as this one.

As Hissaelien did pass the Concordium’s entrance examination, and we at the Tower bear her no ill will or prejudice in our rigorous admissions process, we have presented her this letter of transfer and recommendation to the training division of one of the many well-organized militias and mercenary companies we have contracted with in the past. We wish her luck in her future educational endeavors.

Augurer Rho Hippnal
Associate Dean of Admissions
Concordium of Magi of Qeynos

A Question of Time

In the Vigiles, we rely on the concept of Soft Time in our role play. This means the passage of time is flexible, and determined by narrative and the agreement of the players involved, rather than any particular fixed formula.

In dialogue, this means we usually refer to time with quantities like "some", "many", and "lots"*. We tend not to talk about firm dates more than a week or two in the future when we're in character,

But, When did things happen in Norrath?

There is great disagreement about the timing of historical events in the Norrath of Everquest 2. By design, the world of Norrath is slightly broken, and there are places where no time passes at all, time runs backwards, time runs faster... you get the idea. No powers in EQ2's Norrath have ever had much success agreeing on the time of day, let alone what year it is!

But-! There's a date when I type /time!

Yes, and in the original release of the Shattered Lands, it was standard practice for roleplayers to use /time as a reference. It was simple, it was built-in, and nobody had to do very much math to figure out what time it was in Norrath when it was Happy Hour here on earth.

You say that like it's not true anymore.

Just now, I ran the /time command and was given the year 3923 - which is only 212 years after the "official" date of the Shattering of Luclin. This corresponds to no method of Norrathian time equivalencies that I know of - but what is worse, I have logs from 7 years ago that have a /time artifact of 3950 and later.
So.
Although /time is still a built-in command in the game of EQ2, the answer it gives you is no longer reliable - or even the same from player to player. It's still a neat feature to add some flavor to your rp, to run a quick /time check and site your character in the month and season it gives you. After all, no matter what time format other players are using, you can't be more than nine days off on the day of the week, 2 on the season, or 11 on the month. Being "wrong" about the day according to someone else's way of measuring time also gives you an instant story hook - where did you - or they! - lose that time?

So... what year is it? The game came out on a certain day, so can't we just count from there, even if the game counter is bugged? Should I bug report it?

We don't know, not for certain, and don't bother with reporting it as a bug. Even the original development teams couldn't agree on how time should work in EQ2, and rather than resolve the dispute, they built the game around all of the approaches at the same time. You can count from launch day, if you like, but there's more than one way to do it, so don't expect other role players to be using the same measuring stick.

When in doubt, use soft time.

Well, I'd like to know what time it MIGHT be. If we started from launch day, and counted each day/night cycle as one day...

It can be done. The math is interesting, because one full day/night cycle now runs 72 minutes long**, but with a decent knowledge of spreadsheets, you can calculate the exact game-clock date of any time stamp you care to try***. This odd length of time allows even daily players with a set earth-time for playing to experience every time and season of Norrath in their playtime. There are a few world events which still rely on the Norrathian time to determine spawn rates, though in the years the game has been running most have been removed or set to a base timer of 15 earth minutes or less.

A Norrathian week is 10 days long, a month is exactly 3 weeks, and each of the three seasons is 4 months long, for a 12 month year. Like our own Ancient Greeks, Norrathians group their years in Quatrains, but in Norrath each year has an elemental association and unique weather influence. For example: if you're in Freeport during the year of the Triumvirate, you'll notice it's always raining, whatever the season is supposed to be.

That's nice, but what day did the game start, so I can start number-crunching?

I've looked, but I can't determine what time of year the game clock was started. But, since there's some wobbliness about time in general after the Shattering, even the year is a but of guesswork.
For every date in the game-clock method of time progression, you'll have to give or take about 500 years, since no official, extended universe, nor fan-created timeline agrees with itself or with any other. However: most NPCs which are/were involved in the main storyline which launched with the game on day 1 informed your character that the Shattering was 500 years ago****. Official lore suggests the explosion of Luclin happened around 3711.
Therefore: launch day might be reasonably assigned as coinciding with:
Moorday, 8 Blossoming of the Growth Season in the Year of the Triumvirate, in the Age of Shattered Lands 4211.

But that means more than 60,000 years have passed! Everyone who was alive at launch should be long dead -!

It's an easy mistake to make, if even one number in your progression is incorrect, or in the wrong order. This kind of math sortof... bends your brain, if you're like me, but once you have the formula correct, it's very satisfying.

Years the game has been running...	9.33
...multiplied by days...	3,405.83
...multiplied by hours...	81,739.99
...multiplied by minutes...	4,904,399.20
...divided by 72 minutes per Norrathian day...	68,116.66
...and 12 Norrathian months...	5,676.39
... and 30 days in a Norrathian month.	189.21

By this calculation, about 189 years and most of three months have passed in Norrath, as of today. That means the year is roughly 4400, and although most humans and other short-lived races alive at launch might be dead, the Shattering would still be in living memory for most elves. If the game clock started at day 0 of the year 4211, then we can calculate today's date as follows:

Norrathian year at launch	4211
Norrathian month	1	Deepice
Norrathian day	1st of Deepice	Feastday
Norathian year now	4,400.21
Norrathian month	3	Stargazing
Norrathian Day	14th of Stargazing	Soulday

or, if you think the clock may have started in the Year of the Triumvirate, the result is still very close:

Norrathian year at launch	4211.33
Norrathian month	5	Blossoming
Norrathian day	8th of Blossoming	Moorday
Norathian year now	4,400.55
Norrathian month	7	Scorchedsky
Norrathian Day	14th of Scorchedsky	Soulday

Either seems roughly plausible, with the following catch: in that scheme, our experience of Frostfell - and other holidays! - as players bears no relationship whatsoever to the ingame year or season.

Can it sync up at all as designed? 

Short answer: No.

Because the Earth year is not 360 days long (to the eternal torment of those who would prefer the poetic and mathematical ordering of days), no, it can't. Over the course of a single earth year, the Norrathian calendar would repeat the quatrain every 72 days: a little more than five times.

Can we "flex" the Norrathian calendar in a particular month to make it sync artificially?

Yes, if you want to do the math fresh every year, you can stretch four Quatrains over the course of one Earth year, and force at least ONE holiday to fall correctly in both calendars.

I don't recommend it, as it made my head hurt.

What about that other method you mentioned? Does that "fit"?

Short answer: Not quite as designed, no.

In the Concordium Tower in South Qeynos you will find a book titled, "The Norrathian Code of Trade Standards". We have a copy in our Library and in our Guild Hall. In that text, the ordering of the months, seasons, and quatrains is explained. Each year of the Quatrain corresponds very clearly to our four Earth seasons, and in the description of the Year of the Triumvirate it is revealed that the last month of the year - and therefore, the quatrain - is a time of feasting and celebration, when Norrathians give gifts to one another.

Ah ha! That's Frostfell!

It is, and the Frostfell event occurs every year for some number of Earth days to either side of December 25th*****.  So! If you discard the rigidity of 30 days to a month, OR, you create null-periods at the end of every quatrain to absorb the extra days, you can stretch the Norrathian quatrain over one Earth year.

What's the catch?

The coincidence of Frostfell in the Deadening of Triumvirate with Yuletide in December in Winter only works for the Northern Hemisphere. EQ2 is played all over the globe, so any scheme which shows favor to any group of players based on geography is a Bad Idea.

Furthermore, if only one quatrain passes each year, then only a little over 37 years have passed since launch. That's very little time for the epic events of Norrath to take place in, although it does mean that the Shattering could be in living human memory as well.

Well, 200 years isn't very long either.

No, it's not, especially since the climate has stabilized gradually after the Shattering. The siezmic and astronomical events which shaped the Norrath we know and love were truly, unimaginably catastrophic. Remember, in the original Shattered Lands, there were only a few pockets of survivors, worldwide, and magic was unpredictable and incredibly limited. It takes time for those kinds of things to stabilize again.

Recently the moon has even been fusing itself back together...

They could be gluing it back together with magic. Or the Gods could be doing it. Norrath doesn't have to use REAL physics.

All good points - but from the beginning, EQ2 was designed to bring Norrath to vivid life, and in order to do that, the designers worked to create a plausible and consistent world for us to move in. The intention was to incorporate real physics, real geology, real materials and textures in a beautiful, magical, exciting world which didn't ask us to suspend too much of our disbelief to imagine our way through it.

But Norrath has time travel, with Chronomagic.

Right. So we may not actually be in the year we think we are, by any count. 

Chronomagic was envisioned as a way to revisit old content without necessarily needing to make the monsters trivial or have a low level group member with you. The way Chronomagic was woven into the main storyline added further ripples to the strangeness of time since the rebuilding of the Spires back in 2006****** and was never resolved. 

It has been suggested that as a side-effect of stasis-magic used in the City wards, that time may pass significantly more slowly in the two largest cities, Freeport and Qeynos, than is does in the rest of the overland world. Consistent with fairy lore in our own world, it has been suggested that time also runs more slowly in most of Faydwer.

It has also been suggested that time does not pass in any measurable way in Neriak, Odus, Sky, Ykesha, or for obvious reasons, Ethernere.

So... what time references can we use to relate to guild story?

As part of our effort to integrate our own stories into the world of Norrath, we of the High Council have developed a perhaps idiosyncratic method, which you are welcome to adopt or not as you choose.

In the interest of brevity, we do not track the days of the week in Norrath. We may run a /time to harvest the "current day" for flavor, at the most.

Instead of referencing Earth seasons of winter or summer, we refer to the years of the Quatrain.

Xegony	Decay	January	Deepice
	Decay		Grayeven
	Growth		Stargazing
	Growth		Weeping
	Growth	February	Blossoming
	Growth		Oceansfull
	Harvest		Scorchedsky
	Harvest		Warmstill
	Harvest	March	Busheldown
	Harvest		Lastleaf
	Decay		Firstchill
	Decay		Deadening
Fenin Ro	Decay	April	Deepice
	Decay		Grayeven
	Growth		Stargazing
	Growth		Weeping
	Growth	May	Blossoming
	Growth		Oceansfull
	Harvest		Scorchedsky
	Harvest		Warmstill
	Harvest	June	Busheldown
	Harvest		Lastleaf
	Decay		Firstchill
	Decay		Deadening
Rathe	Decay	July	Deepice
	Decay		Grayeven
	Growth		Stargazing
	Growth		Weeping
	Growth	August	Blossoming
	Growth		Oceansfull
	Harvest		Scorchedsky
	Harvest		Warmstill
	Harvest	September	Busheldown
	Harvest		Lastleaf
	Decay		Firstchill
	Decay		Deadening
Triumvirate	Decay	October	Deepice
	Decay		Grayeven
	Growth		Stargazing
	Growth		Weeping
	Growth	November	Blossoming
	Growth		Oceansfull
	Harvest		Scorchedsky
	Harvest		Warmstill
	Harvest	December	Busheldown
	Harvest		Lastleaf
	Decay		Firstchill
	Decay		Deadening

We number each quatrain progressively in relation to the Age they belong to, which is pretty easy to do off the top of your head without even needing to look at the chart. The Age is whatever the last expansion was, the quatrain number tracks how many January 1 have passed since the expansion's release, and the Year name corresponds directly to every third month of the year.

A chart of the ages and their earth dates has been prepared in case you want to look up any given month, year, or age in our little corner of Norrath. These are the dates we use on any of our IC "official reports" and archives, if they have them.

This is all too much. Do I have to memorize all this wibbly-wobbly time stuff to role play with you or join the guild?

No, certainly not. Remember, we rely on "soft time" in most of our stories. All of this is just for your own interest, as a tool you may choose to incorporate, or not. 

And because we're geeks*******.

---

* tomorrow, next week, next month, next season, soon, someday, in the future, when x happens, yesterday, last week, some weeks ago, months ago, a while ago, long in the past, after x happened, before x happened, when x was happening, in ancient times...

** It used to be 40 minutes, and some are saying since the day/night transition started to have issues around the time ToV launched, that now the cycle is 90 minutes long.
I know. It's maddening.

Years the game has been running...	9.33
...multiplied by days...	3,405.45
...multiplied by hours...	81,730.80
...multiplied by minutes...	4,903,848.00
...divided by 40 minutes per Norrathian day...	122,596.20
...and 12 Norrathian months...	10,216.35
... and 30 days in a Norrathian month.	340.55

and with 90 minutes:

Years the game has been running...	9.33
...multiplied by days...	3,405.45
...multiplied by hours...	81,730.80
...multiplied by minutes...	4,903,848.00
...divided by 90 minutes per Norrathian day...	54,487.20
...and 12 Norrathian months...	4,540.60
... and 30 days in a Norrathian month.	151.35

We're going to use 72 minutes for this article as that was the length quoted recently by the EQNext development team in their poll of potential players. They wanted player feedback on the length the days should be, and one of the options was "72 minutes, like EQO and EQ2". So we're using that, for now.

*** Yes, Ari is developing a spreadsheet for guild use. Yes, it will be ported to the calendar. No, I don't know how to build a calculator widget, and neither does Ari. Yes, you can build one if you want, and if it works we'll put it on the blog.

**** Some roleplayers at that time, especially on the Qeynos side, started their personal story clocks by the Shattering itself, discarding the old calendar to place the end of the Shattering at Year 0, and their stories at or around Year 500. Since the Shattering was a pivotal event, causing massive climate disruption in a world which had already been undergoing the Rending of continents for the better part of a century, both catastrophies tended to blend together in the lore, and the clean slate posited by this method made - and still makes - a great deal of narrative sense. By this accounting, current Norrathian time is in the 1st or 2nd Century P.R. (Anno Post Ruinum)

***** In 2013, Frostfell began near the beginning of December and extended to January 9th - it varies every year.

****** The result for /time in Kingdom of Sky when it launched was Year 0, and still is.

******* Yes. Enormous ones.

How to: Keep logs

It wouldn't be long among the Vigiles before you started hearing about "logs" in the ooc channels. What the heck are logs, you might ask, and why do we use them? What are they for? Why do we bother?

I've been using and teaching people about logs for years, and it wasn't until I sat down to write this up for the blog that I realized this is actually a pretty broad topic. In the interest of brevity and clarity, I've broken it up over three separate posts. It seems to me the most sensible beginning is the what, and the how of their existence, and we'll get to the whys and what-fors in a little bit.

The Everquest2 game comes with the ability to log your chat history built-in. It's as simple as typing /log or selecting Menu --> Options --> User Interface --> Chat Window --> Log Chat text .
This means that whenever logs are active, the game will be writing ALL your chat to a separate .txt file under Sony Online Entertainment --> Installed Games --> Everquest2 --> logs --> [servername] with a name like  eq2log_charactername.txt .

But what goes in the log?

The game considers all text you encounter as "chat", but even at default settings you are presented with some visual distinctions, which reflect the kinds of text which are coded differently in the engine.

You can change the visual settings in EQ2 Menu --> Options --> User Interface. Once you have a setup you like on one character, you can easily copy the same settings to all your characters by typing the command /load_uisettings , which will pull up a dialog box with the names of all your characters. Select the one you've tweaked, and everything will adjust as you've designed it already.

You can also change what chat shows up in your log and on your screen by right-clicking your chat tab and selecting chat options.

You can also find these UI settings in the file system of your computer under Sony Online Entertainment --> Installed Games --> Everquest2 .
The file-name will be in this format: Server_Character_eq2_UIsettings.xml. Backing this small file up to an external or cloud storage system will make switching computers much easier, because tweaking your settings to suit your playstyle is always an investment of time.

The default settings for the chat which is "on" in each tab seem to be:

1. Main chat
1. Game Text
1. Default
2. Error
3. Status
4. MOTD
2. Chat Text
1. Nearby
1. Say
2. Shout
3. Emote
4. Yell
5. Narrative
6. NPCSay
2. Group
1. Group say
2. Raid say
3. Arena say
3. Guild
1. Guild say
2. Guild officer
3. Guild MOTD
4. Guild member online
5. Guild Event
6. Guild recruiting page
7. Guild recruiting page (other)
4. Private
1. Tell
2. Customer Service
5. Chat channel
1. Out of Character
2. Auction
3. Tradeskills
1. Harvesting
2. Harvesting Warnings
4. Voice Chat
2. Combat
1. Spells
1. (many kinds of combat)
2. Combat
1. (many kinds of spells)
3. Tab 1
1. Chat text
1. Non-Player Tell
2. Object Tell
3. Spam
2. Character Text
1. Reward
2. Death
3. Pet
4. Skill
5. Faction
3. Other
1. Money split
2. Loot
3. Loot rolls
4. Command 
1. Broadcast
2. Who
3. Commands
5. Merchant
1. Merchant Buy/Sell
6. Consider
1. Con -2
2. Con -1
3. Con 0
4. Con 1
5. Con 2
4. Tab 2
1. Any chat channels you have selected

A screenshot of the chat and menu windows,
with the Status/Narrative tab selected.

By default, you are subscribed to General, Auction, and your class channel. You may also be subscribed to any other default channels you may have chosen before, such as Crafting, or LFG, or any user-created chat channels which you've been in before, such as rplfg or homeshow.

Sometimes, on fresh installations of the game, everything in Tab 1 is also open in Main chat. As you can tell, it very quickly gets crowded, and difficult to follow.

In the Main User Interface settings, you can color code all these different kinds of text so they display

Another screenshot of the options and menu windows,
with the combat tab selected.

distinctly - by default most channels are dark green, chat text is white and/or yellow, group chatter is light blue, and so on. You can code each possible chat channel number to a different color, so that it's possible to follow conversations in multiple channels more easily... but even so, your chat window will fill up very quickly.

I recommend the following settings as a starting place for your chat windows:

1. Main chat
1. Game Text
1. MOTD
2. Chat Text
1. Nearby
1. Say
2. Shout
3. Emote
4. Yell
2. Group
1. Group say
2. Raid say
3. Arena say
3. Guild
1. Guild say
2. Guild officer
3. Guild MOTD
4. Guild member online
5. Guild Event
6. Guild recruiting page
7. Guild recruiting page (other)
4. Private
1. Tell
2. Customer Service
5. Chat channel
1. Very important User-created channels, turned off when in intense RP or combat
2. Combat
1. Spells
1. (many kinds of spells)
2. Combat
1. (many kinds of combat
3. Status or Narrative 
1. Game Text
1. Error
2. Status
3. Default
2. Chat text
1. Non-Player Tell
2. Object Tell
3. Spam
4. Narrative
5. NPCSay
3. Character Text
1. Reward
2. Death
3. Pet
4. Skill
5. Faction
4. Other
1. Money split
2. Loot
3. Loot rolls
5. Command 
1. Broadcast
2. Who
3. Commands
6. Merchant
1. Merchant Buy/sell
7. Tradeskills
1. Harvesting
2. Harvesting warnings
8. Consider
1. Con -2
2. Con -1
3. Con 0
4. Con 1
5. Con 2
6. Voice Chat
4. Channels
1. Any default channels you've selected, color coded in shades of green
2. Any user-created channels you've selected, coded in warm colors, bright for the main chat, and dark for the echo of what you said to them

Now, any and all chat you have selected to show in ANY tab is going to be written to your log file, without any of the helpful color-coding we use in the game window, and with a great deal of hidden code. As you might imagine, log files get very big, very fast, no matter your settings. Even simple .txt files tend to get corrupted and difficult to open at large sizes. 

So how do you organize all those piles of information?

It is recommended, therefore, that if you run logs, you regularly rename and/or move old logs to a new folder. Ideally, back these text files up in an external or cloud based storage system, as you would any other writing - both in their raw and their cleaned form. (I'll write about cleaning logs in the next article.)

For example, on the first of every month you might add the name of the previous month to the end of the log file names. For example: eq2log_charactername_month_year.txt , or you could rename the file entirely: Month_Bob_the_SK.The next time you load into the game, the program will be looking for the old filename - and since it doesn't exist, it will write a new one in the default format.

You might also start a special log when you know you're going into a long RP scene or intense combat, by typing /log filename such as "councilmeeting_march". You might consider turning your logs off when heading into a raid, or again, starting a different log such as "venekor_raid", simply because combat logs are enormous.

Don't forget to turn your logs back on, or back to default when you're done, by typing /log and watching your status test for the confirmation, which will look like:

Logging to 'logs/Server/eq2log_charactername.txt' is now *OFF*

or

Logging to 'logs/Server/eq2log_charactername.txt' is now *ON*

If you've ever played a PnP RPG, and spent several sessions on rolling your way through a single fight, you can imagine how much data is in a combat log. All that data makes the end log result almost impossible to read... so why do it?

I'll explain more in later articles, but the short answer is: to have your old RP's to look back on fondly, and to support a just and safe environment with the records of what you experience in the world.

Guild Charter, OOC v.2

The in-character concept of the Vigiles Amicae also applies to the relations between the players themselves: we're about watching each others' backs and putting the good of all ahead of the good of the one, or the few.

Below, in no particular order, are the rules for player conduct within Vigiles Amicae.

- Real Life Comes First.
Always, and forever.

- No drama.
It's just a game, and we play to have fun. Have as much drama and intrigue as you want (and fellow players agree to!) in character, but remember real life and roleplay are separate.

- We are a mature guild.
Players must be 18+. Both IC and OOC interaction often contains mature content: language, violence, sexuality, religion, political philosophy...
It is recommended for a full experience that characters be 18+ as well, though under-age characters may be brought in on civilian status if their age is clearly marked.

- Respect the players.
Just as within the Amicae no character is permitted to attack another Amicae for their race/gender/religion/class, no such insults in real life will be permitted among guildmates.  Swearing is permissible, but language which has its basis in denigration or oppression of any group will invoke discipline.
Likewise, no discrimination based on account level will be tolerated.

- Respect the stories.
Invite people to play with you, but don't force your character or story on anyone if they're not cool with it. Also, agree on duel methods ahead of time out of character. Roll method is recommended.

- You are responsible for your RP.
You have agency in your RP - don't let another player dictate your story, and don't rely on another player to write you into their story for you. The guild is not responsible for your RP - you are.

- Logs are a great resource.
By typing "/log" or "/log filename" You can turn chat logs on and off in game. This means you can have a record of conversations, fights, loot, anything! These are fun to read back over when cleaned up. Additionally, if there is an issue, an unedited selection of relevant logfile can be used towards resolution.

- The RP rules are there for a reason, and they are part of the concept of the guild.
If those rules don't work for the character you want to play, maybe that character's not a good fit for the Vigiles. The intention is to have a fluid, flexible structure that many varied characters and stories can flourish in, but your freedom ends at the tip of someone else's nose.

- Remember your actions IC and OOC will reflect on the guild - treat other players with respect whether they're guild-mates or not.

- Need before greed - that goes for loot and mobs both.

- Obey the EULA.

- Have Fun!

- - -

Note on long absences -
Please let us know if you can, just so we don't worry, but no one's going to be removed for not logging on. Be aware that absence during an active story may cause other characters to move on as if your character is Missing In Action. Checking in once a week is generally advised for RP purposes, but is only required for Officers.

Officers addendum:
Yes, you are held to an even higher standard of behavior. You are a walking example. Violations of rules in an officer will be dealt with more severely. You're also asked to actively provide training, guidance, and help maintain the fun, active environment through rp and hunting events.

- - -

Vigiles Amicae exists in similar, though divergent, arcs on both Freeport and Antonia Bayle. You are welcome to participate in one or both, as it suits you.

As of 3.12, the Freeport date is 20-odd years ahead of AB, time-wise, but the plots diverged at the point of the Freeport Citadel falling.