I've been recommending the game to people I trust and not the usual "Other mud" attitude. But I'd also like if we had more players that would play a trolloc, aiel, whathave you.
Can people post their ideas at how to increase the playerbase without just trying to steal people from the other WoT based mud? (I say that, because we don't want their attitudes here, really. The ego's are a nightmare and we just want to have fun here.)
I'd love to see active clans, quests, new people coming and staying. There is so MUCH here because of the hard work the Staff does to make the game so fun to just explore and experience the Wheel of Time lands, even going so far as to be able to roll Oracles (Like Min), Wolfbrother (like Perrin) Dragon is rumored to be possible (Rand!!) And of course channies. We also can slowly train our bladeforms and have our characters become much stronger but not overpowered. I like the balance in a character a lot.
Then there is nobility, whatever is in store for that. Not the guy to ask! But I know it's there and has potential.
But at what point to we say "hey, we've got enough people."
I really don't know. I love when we get 10 or more people on and have 4 imms at the same time. It's a blast to play when there are so many people to interact with in this massive world.
But how do we draw good new people?
How big a playerbase do we need?
Moderator: Builders
Re: How big a playerbase do we need?
Go back to basics and make the game work.
Right now the best thing about this mud is the rooms.
Huge towns, huge roads, etc....
The equipment is lacking, hard to use, sparse and hard to find solo. This has been a problem forever and honestly should be fixed within every clan at the very least. (Guessing WS still havent had thier eq fixed, Trollocs need their master eq set).
The clan system, while working, is just TOO BIG, whittle out the crap at least. We have so much stuff thats half ready, half working.... just confuses people.
The PK system, well.... you figure out who wins out of a 700hp Trolloc and a Channie with forms. Only time i have a chance is against someone skill-less or by using lame traps to draw morons to their deaths. Even against just abs and forms..... DEAD. Without fades, trollocs are useless. But first.....fix equipment.
Theres just little or no information to go on for the mud.
Different Imms at different times have left half finished stuff everywhere, with little or no notes. Im sure theres plenty of places i just dont know about because sharing information here is like sharing the family secret.....
More details on mud, once equipment has been "fixed". People, NEW people, need to be able to find stuff..... i remember when i first got here it took me a week and a half to leave Andor. Because no-one would give me any warning or help about where to go. Then my first char got on a boat to Cairhien and wilder event kicked in and i blinded the boat captain. Fun Times.
Fix the Equipment. (I pity the fool that tries to take on this job, i say WIPE THE LOT and start again, but thats me.)
Fix the Clans that are active. (Eq, rank gifts, leadables)
Fix Trollocs/Fades. (Trollocs dont have master eq, cant group, dont get talents, dont get forms, dont get any special type of hit at all. Only thing between me and that almost 600hp human with forms and talent, is my 700hp. Its not enough 1 on 1, let alone the way you all gank me whenever i enter Tar Valon. (Note me coming all the way there (not you coming to me in my town where i have a SLIGHT advantage) just to get air binded, blinded, vert'd and then hacked apart by whichever old, semi-retired warrior is walking past is well.......boring.)
As for nobility....
Theres no template for it..... ie, one noble gets an estate, one gets a room.... one gets some "family gear", one doesnt....all based on which Imm you talked to and how much you can sweet talk them. Ive had two now and other then give you a couple of rooms and an item or two. Its pointless for anything but RP. Although Borric Riatin had a servant, (ie a leadable mob), could never remember how to find him, and neither could anyone else cause Tular did all the noble stuff
Anyways, this is all by no means a bitch and whine, although rereading gives me that impression
You asked the question.
As for not being able to become overpowered..... well, thats just not true
Blade-forming Channelers are VERY overpowered against anything 1 on 1. Even after the changes to weaves. Which, honestly i miss the old way.
All it did was mean i couldnt walk in, spam 100 fireballs and leave before getting raped by the mobs in the room. Doesnt stop me from walking in and blinding everything and only spamming 20 fireballs at the thing. Or using 50 other ways to get around all the damage. Went from being able to solo smob quite easily to barely being able to grind out some eq. In any case, i thought the plan was to stop PvP being so one sided, ie channie roasts trolloc, game over. But this didnt stop that, all it did was make smobbing solo harder.
Right now the best thing about this mud is the rooms.
Huge towns, huge roads, etc....
The equipment is lacking, hard to use, sparse and hard to find solo. This has been a problem forever and honestly should be fixed within every clan at the very least. (Guessing WS still havent had thier eq fixed, Trollocs need their master eq set).
The clan system, while working, is just TOO BIG, whittle out the crap at least. We have so much stuff thats half ready, half working.... just confuses people.
The PK system, well.... you figure out who wins out of a 700hp Trolloc and a Channie with forms. Only time i have a chance is against someone skill-less or by using lame traps to draw morons to their deaths. Even against just abs and forms..... DEAD. Without fades, trollocs are useless. But first.....fix equipment.
Theres just little or no information to go on for the mud.
Different Imms at different times have left half finished stuff everywhere, with little or no notes. Im sure theres plenty of places i just dont know about because sharing information here is like sharing the family secret.....
More details on mud, once equipment has been "fixed". People, NEW people, need to be able to find stuff..... i remember when i first got here it took me a week and a half to leave Andor. Because no-one would give me any warning or help about where to go. Then my first char got on a boat to Cairhien and wilder event kicked in and i blinded the boat captain. Fun Times.
Fix the Equipment. (I pity the fool that tries to take on this job, i say WIPE THE LOT and start again, but thats me.)
Fix the Clans that are active. (Eq, rank gifts, leadables)
Fix Trollocs/Fades. (Trollocs dont have master eq, cant group, dont get talents, dont get forms, dont get any special type of hit at all. Only thing between me and that almost 600hp human with forms and talent, is my 700hp. Its not enough 1 on 1, let alone the way you all gank me whenever i enter Tar Valon. (Note me coming all the way there (not you coming to me in my town where i have a SLIGHT advantage) just to get air binded, blinded, vert'd and then hacked apart by whichever old, semi-retired warrior is walking past is well.......boring.)
As for nobility....
Theres no template for it..... ie, one noble gets an estate, one gets a room.... one gets some "family gear", one doesnt....all based on which Imm you talked to and how much you can sweet talk them. Ive had two now and other then give you a couple of rooms and an item or two. Its pointless for anything but RP. Although Borric Riatin had a servant, (ie a leadable mob), could never remember how to find him, and neither could anyone else cause Tular did all the noble stuff
Anyways, this is all by no means a bitch and whine, although rereading gives me that impression
You asked the question.
As for not being able to become overpowered..... well, thats just not true
Blade-forming Channelers are VERY overpowered against anything 1 on 1. Even after the changes to weaves. Which, honestly i miss the old way.
All it did was mean i couldnt walk in, spam 100 fireballs and leave before getting raped by the mobs in the room. Doesnt stop me from walking in and blinding everything and only spamming 20 fireballs at the thing. Or using 50 other ways to get around all the damage. Went from being able to solo smob quite easily to barely being able to grind out some eq. In any case, i thought the plan was to stop PvP being so one sided, ie channie roasts trolloc, game over. But this didnt stop that, all it did was make smobbing solo harder.
Re: How big a playerbase do we need?
Thought long and hard before answering this - not sure if the answer would be worse than saying nothing at all.
But the original post was in the best spirit of supporting the MUD, and so deserves an answer.
For the most part, Velis is correct in a number of his observations.
Equipment: There is way too much of this and always has been. Wiping and starting over however is NOT an option. The backlog of work this would create in just recreating the bare minimums would pretty much make all the imms leave on the spot. There has been talk recently of streamlining things, but the immortal in charge of the project has been sidelined with RL duties for an unknown length of time.
Making things work: To be honest, much like Velis said there's things he doesnt know about, there's a lot we dont know about either. The issue is that most early imms didnt leave documentation of what they were doing. We either stumble across something ourselves and try to puzzle out what was intended, or have players locate such for us and then have to do the same. Most the pressure for getting things to work has been/will be on Niila. And he's worked like a dog constantly and without break since sometime last year doing so. He needs a break.
PK: It's my personal belief that PK will most likely never be balanced. This game wasnt designed with PK in mind. It's zones werent, it's combat mechanics werent. This doesnt mean PK cant occur. A lot of people have had fun doing it and are aware of the current warts with the process.
Nobility: Plans for an overhauling of this were underway by an immortal, but again, he was sidelined with RL duties and I'm not aware at this stage when he'll have time to get back to working on it.
With all that out the way.......
As for attracting new players: There's several things that need to be looked at here.
The first is there simply a lot less MUD players than their used to be. It's not a DOOM!!!11!!1 situation - there always be MUD players regardless of MMO's or any other form of entertainment coming out - but it is a factor to keep in mind. The best way to handle this is by word of mouth. Large scale advertising is of little use until numbers pick up (ironically). People wont stick around unless they think there's a constant player base of decent numbers.
Time Zones. This is closely tied to the point above. Someone logs in during a quiet period.....logs off. Not much can be done about this. It's been a hazard all the time I've been here.
Current player base: This isnt so much an issue as it used to be, but we'd frequently have players log on, check the who list, and log off if there werent any around. Of course, when everyone does it....it causes nobody to ever be around to make anyone stay logged on
There's not much that can be done about this in any case, and the timed cp's looks to have alleviated it slightly, if not a lot.
I know none of this is an answer to the original question, but I hope it at least sheds some light on the problems involved.
Velis is right, there's a lot to be done. It requires things by both players and immortals to get done. But no matter what, it's going to be a slow drag to raise the player base.
But the original post was in the best spirit of supporting the MUD, and so deserves an answer.
For the most part, Velis is correct in a number of his observations.
Equipment: There is way too much of this and always has been. Wiping and starting over however is NOT an option. The backlog of work this would create in just recreating the bare minimums would pretty much make all the imms leave on the spot. There has been talk recently of streamlining things, but the immortal in charge of the project has been sidelined with RL duties for an unknown length of time.
Making things work: To be honest, much like Velis said there's things he doesnt know about, there's a lot we dont know about either. The issue is that most early imms didnt leave documentation of what they were doing. We either stumble across something ourselves and try to puzzle out what was intended, or have players locate such for us and then have to do the same. Most the pressure for getting things to work has been/will be on Niila. And he's worked like a dog constantly and without break since sometime last year doing so. He needs a break.
PK: It's my personal belief that PK will most likely never be balanced. This game wasnt designed with PK in mind. It's zones werent, it's combat mechanics werent. This doesnt mean PK cant occur. A lot of people have had fun doing it and are aware of the current warts with the process.
Nobility: Plans for an overhauling of this were underway by an immortal, but again, he was sidelined with RL duties and I'm not aware at this stage when he'll have time to get back to working on it.
With all that out the way.......
As for attracting new players: There's several things that need to be looked at here.
The first is there simply a lot less MUD players than their used to be. It's not a DOOM!!!11!!1 situation - there always be MUD players regardless of MMO's or any other form of entertainment coming out - but it is a factor to keep in mind. The best way to handle this is by word of mouth. Large scale advertising is of little use until numbers pick up (ironically). People wont stick around unless they think there's a constant player base of decent numbers.
Time Zones. This is closely tied to the point above. Someone logs in during a quiet period.....logs off. Not much can be done about this. It's been a hazard all the time I've been here.
Current player base: This isnt so much an issue as it used to be, but we'd frequently have players log on, check the who list, and log off if there werent any around. Of course, when everyone does it....it causes nobody to ever be around to make anyone stay logged on
There's not much that can be done about this in any case, and the timed cp's looks to have alleviated it slightly, if not a lot.
I know none of this is an answer to the original question, but I hope it at least sheds some light on the problems involved.
Velis is right, there's a lot to be done. It requires things by both players and immortals to get done. But no matter what, it's going to be a slow drag to raise the player base.
"How the fades must gnash their teeth......."
Demandred of the Forsaken.
Demandred of the Forsaken.
Re: How big a playerbase do we need?
I think part of the problem really with equipment is I really don't understand how it works all that well. I know my %s in stats but I don't really understand what they're %s of. How can I have 120+% of dodge. What does that even mean?Equipment: There is way too much of this and always has been. Wiping and starting over however is NOT an option. The backlog of work this would create in just recreating the bare minimums would pretty much make all the imms leave on the spot. There has been talk recently of streamlining things, but the immortal in charge of the project has been sidelined with RL duties for an unknown length of time.
I know I want a higher percentage but I don't understand the formula or what it's based on.
Re: How big a playerbase do we need?
The actual defense value to see is the normal posture (no stances).
That maxes at 100, which I guess is where the % value can come into play. The actual max defense is seen at 100/100% when in normal posture.
That's a guess though.
That maxes at 100, which I guess is where the % value can come into play. The actual max defense is seen at 100/100% when in normal posture.
That's a guess though.