Ideas

[Pyrok]

How about this. 1 RP point translates to two crystals, and crystals can be converted to ores. There, a use for RP points and circumvents the financial issue.

[Chyren]

Wouldn't that mean that people would give a great(exceptional? whatever) rating every few days, then trade in the points for ores? More easily abused than crystal transferring.

[Joscelin]

No offense, Josc, but I'm whoa not a fan of that. This means that once you get sick of an alt, you can transfer the crystals to them by quitting your guild, etc. "But that's illegal, and no one will do it!" People will do anything for anything.

In addition, it's a lot like IRE muds where you can just spam quests to learn more. Personally, the crystal system that's set up is my favorite way to learn, one that I've used in most of the muds I've stuck to.

Instead, maybe there should be a way to change your crystals into something else, as I know many are omni-unsurpassable. Maybe each knowledge crystal could convert into 10 copper (your example amount) or whatnot, though I do agree with Chyren that there's too much gold circulating around.

It's just a fresh idea. :/ We can implement many measures to circumvent alt abuse. Besides, it's no different than people giving gears, gold, and equipment to their alts already. Oh right, and "knowledge" too. *coughs about alts reading the bulletin boards of other cities*.

"Instead, maybe there should be a way to change your crystals into something else" I think an idea like converting 100 knowledge crystals into 25-50 power crystals would definitely work. But definitely don't agree with the idea of converting knowledge crystals into gold or experience. Some of us crap bricks of gold and can level from 90 to 100 in less than a day. Another means to money/exp making would be redundant...

[Pyrok]

Wouldn't that mean that people would give a great(exceptional? whatever) rating every few days, then trade in the points for ores? More easily abused than crystal transferring.

You forget, most rp rewards are monitored and logs must be produced if they are in question.
So if someone regularly awards another for rp, and it seems suspicious, there's already something in place to deal with it. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it .

Also, the 'harry potter' entrances you spoke of. The idea already exists, try going to the Dungeon sometime, something similar to what i'm thinking happens.

[Joscelin]

You forget, most rp rewards are monitored and logs must be produced if they are in question.
So if someone regularly awards another for rp, and it seems suspicious, there's already something in place to deal with it. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it .

Also, the 'harry potter' entrances you spoke of. The idea already exists, try going to the Dungeon sometime, something similar to what i'm thinking happens.

Honestly I don't see how you can abuse crystal transfering/whatever with alts. :/ Can only have one character on at a time, and you can only earn so little every hour to produce anything meaningful enough to transfer to your main. Even then, they do have a record of where items go and from where. Like I can't give my longsword to an alt cause they have a log of characters logging on sharing the same ip address.

But yeah... the rp reward system is monitored and logged as well. Maybe you can use it to award people with the knowledge crystals you already have, and then wait for a guide/divine to do the transferring of crystals for you. Can't get any more strictly monitored than that, if a higher authority manages the transfers and the players can only do the petitioning.

[roeshak]

Agreed.
New guilds are great.

[Dimetrius]

Agreed.
New guilds are great.

Sorry, are you saying the current new guilds are nice, or you're wanting more?

It took AGES for the three newest guilds to come out. People were twiddling their thumbs and waiting around for them [well not specifically THEM, but just a new set, y'know?] around the time I started playing. And that wasn't too too long after the merchant guilds were released.

But anyways, to my point. There are a lot more things that could be worked on instead of new guilds. Like...maybe some more intricate quests? Or just more quests period. Eighty percent of the active playerbase spends their time sitting around talking, because questing and bashing have become so routine. And hardly anyone needs to bother anymore, most people having capped out their level months [or more commonly, a year...or a handful of years] ago.

The little events that have come up recently are fun, yeah, but instead of improving on things we already have, or setting out for more guilds, I think a main focus should be to just add MORE. Even a handful of little rooms thrown off the beaten path will grab someone's interest, especially if there's something handy for them to toy with, like a quest.

I'm always up to do a bit of writing, I'm just begging someone to give me an assignment.

-nudges Zyc-

And add my temple in already, dammit! :b

[Xinia]

Sorry, are you saying the current new guilds are nice, or you're wanting more?

It took AGES for the three newest guilds to come out. People were twiddling their thumbs and waiting around for them [well not specifically THEM, but just a new set, y'know?] around the time I started playing. And that wasn't too too long after the merchant guilds were released.

But anyways, to my point. There are a lot more things that could be worked on instead of new guilds. Like...maybe some more intricate quests? Or just more quests period. Eighty percent of the active playerbase spends their time sitting around talking, because questing and bashing have become so routine. And hardly anyone needs to bother anymore, most people having capped out their level months [or more commonly, a year...or a handful of years] ago.

The little events that have come up recently are fun, yeah, but instead of improving on things we already have, or setting out for more guilds, I think a main focus should be to just add MORE. Even a handful of little rooms thrown off the beaten path will grab someone's interest, especially if there's something handy for them to toy with, like a quest.

I'm always up to do a bit of writing, I'm just begging someone to give me an assignment.

-nudges Zyc-

And add my temple in already, dammit! :b

I agree and disagree. I agree that things have become far too routine in akanbar, but as for the fixing of that problem, your and my ideas differ. Adding new quests would just make things once again settle down to macros and aliases. At first, things would be shaken up, but it'd just be a temporary fix, one that players would incorporate into their routines within hours or days.

More complex quests I believe would be the same, though I don't know the level of complexity you're talking about. Flute-level? Or Realm-quest level? Either way, it falls down to "is this item available and do I have the right triggers/aliases". The realm quest itself falls down to small random chances on if all the realm quest items are available, which most of the time, they're not. Since Xinia was created, Elysium has only had all the realm quest items once and even that flopped when the scepter disappeared.

What I believe Akanbar lacks as a glaring problem is something that players can do in their free time that requires actual thought that can churn out some sort of profit for them, be it experience, gold or otherwise. I was thinking about this yesterday, oddly enough. Almost everyone has something that they enjoy doing to do: There are heaps of hunting grounds for people that like to hunt (albeit, a touch few lacking for those in their earlier levels [excluding novices] ). There are WHOA amount of quests for people that like to quest (I'd estimate it's over fifty). Heck, every city has decent people in it that if you're here for social interaction or roleplay, it's there for you too, at least as "there for you" as Gods can make it.

What we don't have is something stimulating that people can do, something that requires you to participate fully without having another game or hulu open.

[Aaridan]

I agree and disagree. I agree that things have become far too routine in akanbar, but as for the fixing of that problem, your and my ideas differ. Adding new quests would just make things once again settle down to macros and aliases. At first, things would be shaken up, but it'd just be a temporary fix, one that players would incorporate into their routines within hours or days.

More complex quests I believe would be the same, though I don't know the level of complexity you're talking about. Flute-level? Or Realm-quest level? Either way, it falls down to "is this item available and do I have the right triggers/aliases". The realm quest itself falls down to small random chances on if all the realm quest items are available, which most of the time, they're not. Since Xinia was created, Elysium has only had all the realm quest items once and even that flopped when the scepter disappeared.

What I believe Akanbar lacks as a glaring problem is something that players can do in their free time that requires actual thought that can churn out some sort of profit for them, be it experience, gold or otherwise. I was thinking about this yesterday, oddly enough. Almost everyone has something that they enjoy doing to do: There are heaps of hunting grounds for people that like to hunt (albeit, a touch few lacking for those in their earlier levels [excluding novices] ). There are WHOA amount of quests for people that like to quest (I'd estimate it's over fifty). Heck, every city has decent people in it that if you're here for social interaction or roleplay, it's there for you too, at least as "there for you" as Gods can make it.

What we don't have is something stimulating that people can do, something that requires you to participate fully without having another game or hulu open.

Elysium's realm quest is rather easy, we managed it twice when we tried........

Or instead of sitting here discussing what can help Akanbar people could actually log on and perhaps act like they follow the city ideals, then just maybe some type of plot may develop. I've found many things to do in my three-ish years of Akanbar, I don't play other muds because I put all my time into one in hopes that it'll turn out right. If everyone stopped treating it like a chat room and started to act out their players then conflict will arise and people will fully be able to act their roles.....unless of course you liked to be locked up in a room with one person for 2-3+hrs, but what exactly does that do for the game?

Akanbar lacks people who have drive and motivation......when I was a novice people actually got punished for sitting around doing nothing, but now it's a crime to even think of someone as being unproductive. I don't think I've ever fallen back on something so petty, I invest hours into a game for reason.....perhaps my reason is different than the next, but I will tell you this:

Before Akanbar, I was involved in a mud called Cardea for nearly 6+ years, but felt that perhaps I should explore some other options. That is when a friend of mine informed me about Akanbar, I decided to check it out...I started off in Ysallyra and the leaders at the time were very harsh and did a great job of acting their roles as leaders. Gms would question your desires to join their ranks, the leaders would make sure you're keeping yourself busy, and then of course there was the conflict of a war between Ysallyra and Elysium going on. The whole world was interesting to me, the no open PK was a different pace, but it still allowed people a chance to get involved via a war or challenges if they loved a good fight. I suppose what I am getting at is, I really enjoyed my novicehood and I just don't think that players nowadays are grasping the concepts.....it's just a lazy attitude that has carried on now for about a year, it has nothing to do with any changes that can be made because the changes need to come from the actual players, when the players start to act their role then things will open up.

Just my two cents on the matter.

[Ilessa]

If only everyone took their own advice. Akanbar would truly flourish.

[Malic]

I guess something cut a little close to the bone.

Great discussion otherwise. I would like to add that I've felt some greater levels of interaction between the realms might help generate more flavour. I'm not talking about chatting at the crossroads, nor of war. But just making the other people aware of your current view of them and their faction, without having to resort to smacking them.
I spent a bit of time with a outrealmer explaining why I didn't respect the leadership of their city. I tried to do it in a way that would allow them options on how to react, they could throw it in my face, call me ignorant, or they could take it away and use it to generate some intrigue of their own. At same time I'm reinforcing the beliefs of my own realm, as much as one mortal can do.
We can try and make better use of the greatest resourse we have, us, the players.

[Xinia]

I think she's more referring to the fact that it's easy to give advice but not so much to take it. AKA, the overly nice way of saying, "Don't be a hypocrite."

As for making the game better via us, I was pretty sure that's what's been going on. I might have missed a memo, though.

[Joscelin]

Sorry, are you saying the current new guilds are nice, or you're wanting more?

It took AGES for the three newest guilds to come out. People were twiddling their thumbs and waiting around for them [well not specifically THEM, but just a new set, y'know?] around the time I started playing. And that wasn't too too long after the merchant guilds were released.

But anyways, to my point. There are a lot more things that could be worked on instead of new guilds. Like...maybe some more intricate quests? Or just more quests period. Eighty percent of the active playerbase spends their time sitting around talking, because questing and bashing have become so routine. And hardly anyone needs to bother anymore, most people having capped out their level months [or more commonly, a year...or a handful of years] ago.

The little events that have come up recently are fun, yeah, but instead of improving on things we already have, or setting out for more guilds, I think a main focus should be to just add MORE. Even a handful of little rooms thrown off the beaten path will grab someone's interest, especially if there's something handy for them to toy with, like a quest.

I'm always up to do a bit of writing, I'm just begging someone to give me an assignment.

-nudges Zyc-

And add my temple in already, dammit! :b

Yea... the routine stuff drove me nuts. :/ Sorry, but if I do one more village quest run for 12 hours straight... I'm gonna check myself in with a psychiatrist.

[Pyrok]

Dimetrius - Even a handful of little rooms thrown off the beaten path will grab someone's interest, especially if there's something handy for them to toy with, like a quest

A room that popped into my head was purely just a gag room, a fun house in Ischla'Os
where you pull a lever and one of three things will happen: A fake affliction, a random creature showing up or lastly the trap door below you opening up and getting stuck in the maze below.
(ideally with the maze it'd be beneficial if you could not gate out of it but could gate in, and was randomized like the Dungeon.)
Of course the down side to the random creature appearing is that its something you can't handle, but that's part of the fun in my mind, that element of chance.

[roran]

A room that popped into my head was purely just a gag room, a fun house in Ischla'Os
where you pull a lever and one of three things will happen: A fake affliction, a random creature showing up or lastly the trap door below you opening up and getting stuck in the maze below.
(ideally with the maze it'd be beneficial if you could not gate out of it but could gate in, and was randomized like the Dungeon.)
Of course the down side to the random creature appearing is that its something you can't handle, but that's part of the fun in my mind, that element of chance.

That's he best idea yet.