"Something I would like to know for a true "What happens next" is... How are we going to bring in more players?" GreatPigeon


A few suggestions, of which some have already been mentioned.

1) Currently, from my forum lurking, I have noticed there are approximately around 30 players total on both servers at any one time. If each player recruits one friend, that immediately doubles the population. Most of us, if not all are DnD nerds at heart and I'm pretty sure we know one person in our circle of friends who shares the same passion for nerdiness.

2) Advertise everywhere possible online. All other RPG servers forums, be they MMORPG's, Xbox Live, DnD related websites with forum access, wherever. Just go on and make a post with the appropriate details to direct others to Amia.

3) Get in game. Nothing is more effective than seeing the server count saying 65/65 to draw people to our cosy little corner of the fantasy world. (Christ, in years past, I got to the point where I could cut up weed for a joint, scissors in the same hand I was continually clicking the mouse with, to try and get in. Talk about killing two addictions with one stone.)

4) Be nice to noobs, well not just noobs, everyone, both on the forums and in game(oocly). As Disco said, don't take each others heads off for having varying opinions on the forums. Take time for new players instead of going on that boss run or even rping with those one normally does.


Just a few thoughts.

Also, I am a bit daft since it's obvious I don't know how to quote people properly.

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"Ain't it like most people, I'm no different, love to talk on things we don't know about." The Avett Brothers

I'm not sure if you locked the previous topic because you wanted to avoid discussion like this, but since I wasn't around for it, and because I want to offer some suggestions to fixing a few issues (from my perspective) that I was talking about with Sune (and lord knows that if I don't post it, it's not like he's going to share it), here you go:

As an antediluvian player who pops in every so often to see how the server is doing, I can tell you one common problem I run into that usually results in me giving up for another year or so; I can't find anyone to RP with. Even when the server was full, finding people was somewhat of a challenge. I'll try at different times for about an hour, over the course of 2-3 days, but it's rare that I find someone else and RP with them.

I'll look around all of Cordor, Wharftown, Bendir, etc, most of the major towns and I just won't find anyone, sometimes even if I camp out and do something else in another window while waiting. This doesn't always occur, but when I do find someone, it's usually a 5-30 minute exchange and then I guess I bore them and they go to a different area.

Now, I'm not asking for the tools to kidnap these people, or to make them sit down and RP with me (unless you really want to), but my main problem is just the original point; I don't know where anyone is! RP hubs were, at one point, a bane for DMs because the server was full, and this large module was mostly empty except for the group of hobos sitting outside the temple. But at the same time, that did provide a point of interest for people winding down from beating up hobgoblins and such; you could almost always know that people would be in Cordor East, shooting the breeze.

So my basic suggestion comes in two flavors;
1) Make and promote a centralized RP hub again. I'm not saying encourage people to start campfires outside the Temple of Waukeen, but the most prominent example in my mind is from a different server a long time ago called 3kds. When I was active on that server, the population was much less than Amia in its greatest hour (maybe 40 players compared to full 24/7), but it felt much more active because there were only a handful of 'towns', and to get to them, you usually had to overlap and pass through another on your way.

It also had a player-run RP hub in the form of a big inn smack dab in the middle of all the town routes. People would meet there all the time, and it was a very engaging atmosphere, being able to talk to a bunch of different characters. Even though it had less players, it felt like you met more of them (30 of 40, compared to 12 out of 65). If you could make some kind of big attraction that people would gravitate to, that isn't difficult to reach, I think it would do a lot. For example, the reason Cordor East was so popular in the old days is because portal rods would drop you off there. The two factors contributed a lot to each other.

2) Excluding wilderness areas, have a web page listing the population of characters in each town. For example, if there were 3 people sitting around Cordor, it could say 'Cordor: 3'. At least this would give me a place to look, even if I have to go through the trouble of getting there and trying to find them. I wouldn't just be droning around random towns, quickly getting bored. Obviously, that's kind of metagaming, but sometimes metagaming can help more than it can hurt.

---

Now, I'm not sure this issue happens to anyone else, and I wouldn't be surprised if part of it was due to inactivity, but even back when I was playing a lot and heavily involved in DM events, the reason I stopped is more or less the same. I just wanted to give my perspective, something like 'you want me, a player, to log in and stay logged in, right? Here are a few ways that would help that.'

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Characters:
Yurioji Azzara
Seto

PM me if you need something with them.

Whoa.

Hey, good to see you poke your head up.

I've told my friends to pick up the game, so far about half a dozen of them have taken up the game and atleast three of those are now rather frequent players. I'll keep tryin' my best to bring in some new people.

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Huzzah!

And I'm trying to get my friend that originally brought me to Amia to come back. I keep pestering him every now and then lol

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Yoss' new forum avatar keeps throwing me off, lol. I keep forgetting it's Yoss.

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Gerald Edmund
Discord: Metal Viking Guy #5433

DC taxation is theft!

He's the new Miss Amia. *Sage nod.*

On topic, though.... as has been suggested already, if we want to see Amia back to the full servers of yore, then we need more new blood. I think soriano_ had quite the good suggestion about how to make this happen.

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"I once took the high road and it took me straight to hell and I stood there all by myself." -Hank III

Debated not replying since I didn't want to spam up the topic, but shucks, it feels bad to leave you hanging. Hi there, Yoss!

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Characters:
Yurioji Azzara
Seto

PM me if you need something with them.

I like these suggestions.

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"Ain't it like most people, I'm no different, love to talk on things we don't know about." The Avett Brothers

Well the quick and dirty fix would be to open up Bendir Dale for all races and alignments. It's pretty much centered between a lot of the mainland attractions and it's already kind of the new meeting spot. Except lots of folks can't get in there.

Or just have some crazy really powerful wizard decide he wants to retire to start a nice inn on a remote island. He decided amia is a good idea, and builds a "small" inn, though in his eyes small is a interplannar way station that allows all races, religions and alignments to frequent it. This place is protected by powerful magic and the old and eccentric wizard is hardy ever seen, though some suspect the strange bartender is not what he seems.

Like that city in the epic level handbook but instead just a small inn one connected to the trivium & other places all around amia and beyond a HUB for all travel and "boasts" the best and most comfortable inn in all the planner-verse.

Could also link this idea in with the old and new lay-line events

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If i am not about when you are, but you would like to RP with Valkin, chose a time in red (GMT+8) / add character name PM me ICLY/OCC :http://teamup.com/ks662ccbfedda01eb0/

Ooooo me likey!

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Iim'mur'ss - Grandmaster Shadowdancer / Aaralyn - Diplomat / Oleander - Toxic Desert Flower

And make the world and its stories matter even less? Why should anyone care about anything that happens in Cordor or Kohlingen if they can just put their head in the sand and hang around some neutral adventurer outpost? If you can just ignore difficulties without inconveniencing yourself, there's no point in having the island ruled by a city that grants no free speech to adventurers and a city that tolerates nothing but spotless goodliness. PCs need to be forced to adapt and make choices, not given an easy way out.

That idea's been thrown around for years. I used to like it myself. But I was wrong. It would undermine story efforts at every turn. We have hubs that make IC sense, and we need to support their role with module design.

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Everything Iron said is 100% right.

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You dare mock the Tibbly one, catcherer of drowses?

The 'player numbers per area' thing would be great though. I could really do with knowing if the few players on are all in the Underdark, or Tarkuul, or the Grove. I don't think it'd lead to less mixing or be abused, but those with more experience might know that better than me.

And to agree with a previous point, a high number of people on the server does bring more. When brand new players search for an rp server, they go by ping and player count. It's definitely how I ranked potential choices back in the day.

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Gunthar Einarsson, Skald. Also brewer of Ale. Also drinker of Ale.
Marcus Tyrell, Druid of Mielikki.
Julius Tarl, Sorcerer.

I'd say the Triumvir pretty much serves that purpose already, thus rendering such a place more useless.

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Khaldun Menetnashte Khalfani
Victor Wilkinson

^totally not a lie or anything.

In my opinion you got this all ass backwards guys.

What should be addressed first, before advertising and recruiting new players, is how to keep them here when they come.

You have to put yourself in the various categories of new players minds and answer yourself what would keep them here (talking about the middle way that Amia supposedly goes for).

I can give you my own example how i almost left as a new player.

As steveb_uk said, indeed i got lured by good ping and huge numbers. While you can't do a lot about ping [or can you?], you can do something about player numbers. As it was mentioned before, people should just log in instead of lurking the forums. I'd go a step further - get rid of the Messenger from Amia Tools. Yes it's handy, i use it a lot myself, but what it effectively does is puts a lot of people outside of the game where they wait for their friends to log in, instead of logging in to check, and while at it might as well hit the mirror, no?

I brought a friend with me to play, it's always fun to discover new worlds with a companion. We focused more on exploring the module rather than role playing at first, because we're just that kind of guys - myself i never was an advanced role player who writes a 20 page long biography for his new level 1 ranger, i just go out and play, preferring to do the spontaneous RP in game. I have the approach where i value the IC RP more than the written stories, and i always do a great deal of lore etc research to be able to play better. You might categorize me as "Action RP" new player kind of guy, which incidentally is the "middle way"...

We had fun at first, but after a while the initial excitement faded, we started having doubts if this server really is that great as we first thought. Our almost epic characters didn't get involved in anything serious except interactions with others mostly during hunting, mainly because we didn't know where to look.

You might say "Well it's your fault that you didn't hit any DM event opportunities that are advertised on the forums". Sure, but you must realize that not a whole lot of new players actually begin reading forums unless they have a need for it, provoked by stuff that happens in game. I certainly didn't, neither did my friend.

Long story short, my friend left; he said that he simply got bored of the meaningless grind (the direction in which the module led him to) and he has no idea what else is there to do.

I had similar feelings, if i had also left back then i could even say that this server makes no sense in terms of consistency, that it's just a huge sandbox world with no meaning to it, filled with a multitude of fantastic PC's that mingle with each other, forming an insipid pulp. For a guy that came from a Middle Earth setting it was frustrating. There, everything was tidy and compact, PC's were more mundane as opposed to Amia's "everyone's super-unique (also has dragon wings, devil horns, skeletal grafts and is a goblin monk)". Orcs didn't go to Rivendell for tea, Elves didn't do picnics in Mordor, the world around was alive, filled with mysteries, dangers and a never ending lure to find out what lies beyond the next hill. There wasn't a single maxed out character on a level 28 cap (closest was 27, my own was 24), end game content, after finishing all the quests and campaigns that introduced you perfectly to the world and gave you a clear idea that ancient evil (Sauron) is awake and scheming, revolved around exploration (still, seriously; i.e. Moria was almost bottomless), seeking out agents and minions of Sauron, working towards uniting the races, rooting out agents of the Enemy - in short, preparing for the War of The Ring. There was a purpose to the world, and the module filled you in perfectly, giving you all the tools needed to RP your character.

Amia does none of this. That's why a large portion of new players won't stick around.

Luckily i did that, and here i am still. As a last ditch effort to figuring out what the hell is going on here, i made a drow character. What i found down in the Underdark was the opposite from what i saw on the surface. Hours after i created my character i encountered a "welcoming party" of high level drow, who did the module's job - revealed useful information, invited to their society, created immersion. Once i stepped inside Edonil i was sold. I knew that this is the place i want to be in, where everything simply makes sense, provides a rich experience and solid RP opportunities.


The key to having new players stick around is immersion.

Fix the module to do that (or at least the community), advertise, and you're golden.

My (yet another) 2 cents.

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Mark it zero!

Coming from a drow player I say the drow have it easy, though. Now, that is not always the case, but here's why: The UD is vastly smaller than the Surface and, given that, you easily run into drow when there are players active down there. It's a whole lot easier to have that 'community feeling' when everyone is typically in one of two places, Edonil or *shudder* L'Obsul. Course, when no one is active it's sad XD

Besides that, immersion is definitely a needed thing. Luckily, the smoke signals from the DMs indicate that is being addressed!

Also, I've said it before but I shall say it again: An RP hub is needed. Get some IC stuff done, someone, and free up Cordor a bit! Or else I might have to get Salema to speak with Xaviera about it. Or I might not. Lazy and all.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

That's actually wrong, the new player starting location for drow is L'Obsul, and i was visited by a host of players from Edonil that came there specifically to seek out the nugget.

The main starting location for goodies on A is Cordor. Go figure who has it easier.

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Mark it zero!

That wouldn't make much difference. You can just log into character selection screen and check players there without having to log in. I do it a lot of the time.

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Khaldun Menetnashte Khalfani
Victor Wilkinson

^totally not a lie or anything.

Considering how there's rarely any drow online, I'd go for the surface.
The drow don't have it easy. If anything, I'd say you were lucky. I was online for several hours a day and rarely ever saw any drow online, and the underdark is far more dangerous than the surface where you get a linear sense of progression as far as danger's concerned - the farther you step from Cordor, the more dangerous things become. In L'Obsul, you have dialogues that take you to god knows where. And the only way to exit? Dialogue. Which doesn't work when there's angry ogres trying to club you to death.

Not to mention that reaching Edonil is still a long walk, without any direction. So if you're new, and (as it's more likely to happen) there's 0 drow on. You're pretty much screwed.

In Cordor you might at least see someone rushing towards the market hall and ask them for directions.

The underdark is by no means easier than the surface. You leave Cordor and there's level 1-3 monsters. You leave the underdark to a location and area you have no idea where is or how powerful it is. Granted my builds are squishy, but my max level character is in threat in mid level dungeons due to the high AB and AC or special abilities if the enemies. Then what do I get as a reward? Honestly my 1xp isn't far from the characters in that level range as they get maybe 10-15 if they survive. This is why most UD characters go to the surface to hunt, and most UD players just make a surface character.

I love the underdark, the society and challenges that you face but I don't love THIS underdark. Most players avoid l'obsul because it's overly complex, the starter area is mislabeled and takes a new player hours to find and many deaths, and there's no real draw there. Edonil is a little better minus having zero geographic labels that, while OOC, come in handy! Like say in Cordor and you're starting out after four years in a drow and don't know where the courier quests are. Well here's all these directions everywhere helping you out.

Have I mentioned the ambushes of no return? On the surface you get thrown off your cart in a safe location where there are no spawns only a short walk from your destination. Bummer. In the underdark you get an area that probably doesn't have anything to do with where you were. You can't leave, because it's dialogue based and the frost demons are already chewing on your corpse before you realized what happened. Then there is zero chance of anyone ever finding you. Ever. That's a quick way to lose all you've been working for on your way back to town.

Now if you just sit around all day, or you're a player that logs in as a drow once every few weeks and has never truly experienced the dangers and maze aspects of the underdark I can see how there might be some misinterpretations.

In the old underdark we were right under the surface and had a lot of surface guests that just stomped around like it was their playground picking on our new players. Folks didn't like that, and now we have the opposite extreme that's supposed to deter surface folks from coming in, and it usually does, but we are kind of trapped and can't find our hand in front of our faces

How the hell does me saying that drow have it easier to have a sense of community mean that I said they have leveling easy? I never said that, do not put words into my posts, people, and certainly do not infer that sort of thing. I never once said the UD is easy, it's harder than the Surface in terms of spawns, yes. I stated that drow have it easier.

Plain and simple, if there are drow online (which my original post did say if none are on then it's harder) then you can more meet them. On the Surface there are at least twice as many places for someone to be. Hunting aside, in the UD there is typically two spots to find drow. And yes, as a drow player I'm aware you start in L'Obsul. However, it is painless to send a tell to someone with a drow-like name and see if they would be up for some RP. Hell, I'd welcome a new player, or just a new drow player, doing that.

And for the record, Midnight, I have been there with both of my drow characters, moreso the first. I started them both when the drow population was nil, and so unfortunately I had to group on the Surface to level. But I still explored, usually under stealth or invisibility, and typically gauged things based on how quick my summon would die in a spawn. If it was fairly matched, I would join in.

Now, I am also all for making things easier in the UD. I do not mean the monsters, but at least the initial getting around should be more player-friendly. The sort of thing like in Cordor, where the spawns around are generally in range of a new character. Perhaps something, or someone, directing things a bit. It could even be a slave-type NPC tasked with explaining things. That would make some sense. I know that new players typically shouldn't make a UD character the first time around, but what is someone really likes playing drow (or another UD race) from past experience? Why not make L'Obsul more new-player friendly?

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

I was merely expanding upon your point based on my own personal experiences. Drow are a rare sight these days. If you're new and there's no others on, you'll go exploring. And you will die.
Also, I disagree on the whole "community feeling". Okay, I accept that drow are usually pretty welcoming towards new folks, but once you join a cliq-.. sorry, a house, your options will become limited. Plus, I think we all know the ooc reputation that drow earned themselves over the years, and it's not the "Oh they're so nice!" reputation. I mean, just look at the Personnel page on the sidebar.

I understand that, but it wasn't part of my point.

That said, the 'community feeling' was merely a touch upon the fact that you are all in one relative place going 'hey, we are drow and we freaking love it!' As for the House thing, I get that but I haven't experienced it. Mostly because, well, my drow is not in a House And my OOC interactions with the current drow players have all been good, so... eeyup.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Same here, removing the messenger wouldn't do much other than to take away a convenient tool for cross serve communication, or prodding someone you need to have a word with while they're in game and you're not. I love the messenger.

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Gerald Edmund
Discord: Metal Viking Guy #5433

DC taxation is theft!

I would very much like to see Amia allow characters to have more job points somehow. It fits for a lot of charaxcters, Im not sure how to balance it, but I do think it would be a very valuable addition.

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The Peacock wrote:

[GreatPigeon] is better than me.

My only suggestion for that would be to mechanically limit the number of master professions a PC can have to one maybe two, then the journeyman to x number and apprentice to y number. That way you can't be a master at many things. Because that's unrealistic for the average adventurer.

Or make additional jobs based on stats? It's more feasible that a highly intelligent person can be skilled at more jobs (ie like skill points) and therefore it maybe can be formulated out? Or maybe just let people use unspent skillpoints to gain more job points. I have no idea if that's possible, but it likely isn't and is silly anyways haha.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

I still want a custom bardic class ability for Amia, jack of all trades. One rank in every job skill!

Something I had liked was the variants classes. Not sure if its remotely possible to use on Amia because of scripting and the hassles. But things like,

Urban Ranger
Non-Divine Ranger
Fighter X Style,

etc, etc

Meanign different skills, abilities.

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The Peacock wrote:

[GreatPigeon] is better than me.

As an armchair NWN developer I would think there would be too much coding and content making involved to make it feasible, sadly.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

I've looked at developing a system like this in the past and the best way to do it (that I found) is using the subrace field... but that won't jive with Amia's actual custom subraces.

I was thinking say for No divine magics ranger and/or paladin..

Widget that makes casting divine spells or using spellbook impossible. The widget also gives other benefits that would be needed to make it "correct" .

Not a dev but Im pretty sure it would be rough.

As for Glim's comment I thought that a "token" could be given to change a subrace or to add a template? Could that work to make it jive?

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The Peacock wrote:

[GreatPigeon] is better than me.

Rise of the Lycans is what happens next <_<

As long as someone hot like Kate Beckinsdale is involved....

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Earylith Ju'ein- ”Never let your guard down around dhaerow, their natural impulse is to kill you”

L'chuno d'Vilrath- ”Usstan orn xun jal dos quarth ilharess”

I like PRC.

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PM me with your setup. I recently had to deal with this issue and dont mind using my currently limited "sitting" time to help you get sorted.

I might not physically be able to play right now, but i want to make sure those that want to can.

There was someone last threat with similar issues that never got in touch with me either.

So this goes for the lot of you. Quite a few if us are more then willing to help if there are mechanical issues preventing play. Let us know.

If im not directly on, pm fabian glim and/or Jes. They know how to find me

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A little update: uniforms and banners. I think that you should kill each other in style, so I have been creating some new stuff for this.

A DM can make two teams and assign one of these four color sets to each. He can also pick race and alignment for each team. So you could make a red and purple team, set both to 'evil' and 'elf' and you can have a nice Drow massacre in the UD.

I awill make a widget that allows you to adapt your current suit/shield/helmet to the team colors, while storing the originals so you can revert after a scenario.

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Say 'no' to JSBF!

Oh thank God, no having to spend a half on changing them back and forth XD

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Change takes time >.< and from what i have seen there has been a lot of talk by the staff and a lot of new threads opening up with suggestions that are all being fairly positivity received by the staff. I have seen a lot more dm interaction, adventure quest and storyline i have seen more dm assistance i have seen more dm involvement in almost all areas. Sure there are those who are still "stuck" in the past, and issues that crop up, but it is all part of the process.

I think that dm are taking the IC actions of players more into account is great it makes it RP just a little bit more fun and dedication to your character even better.

I love that the staff is letting us open our minds and hearts and discuss changes to lore to rules and to just about anything. But a lot has been said we cant all expect it to change overnight >.<

I am yet to experience such, but i am told that requests and rp approval has not become "lax" but become less aggressive and more friendly in dealing with problems in such requests. Instead of "your a fucking idiot" its "why don't you try this" or "read a little more of the lore and rp some more first".

if even half of what yoss original posted gets seen to and changed the server will be far better than it is now.


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About the only thing not mentioned is more rewards. yeah i said it, a little more "equally" spread dc rewards, perhaps allowing staff hosting quests to reward characters with items below a certain level of power "even epic" i mean how many of us don't want to boss hunt and would rather wait and RP and RP and RP and work hard for some kind of neat reward item as apposed to endless grind monsters.

I think it be nice to feel the excitement of going into a quest and knowing i could get a nifty magic item or spell or discover a new potion, perhaps something might happen to my equipment and it needs to be repaired or it gets imbued with something strange, maybe i pick up an item and its cursed ? i know dm can create items as per requests, what if they were allowed to create some stuff for any quest they did, and others items/spells or the like that are to powerful could be requested on the dm forum pending staff approval to ensure nothing overpowered is put into the module, could make a excel document that shows whats ok and whats not.

I love the DC rewards, but it be cool to get rewards that are unexpected, not something requested or self directed but rather a reward of chance or mistake ? something different perhaps ?

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If i am not about when you are, but you would like to RP with Valkin, chose a time in red (GMT+8) / add character name PM me ICLY/OCC :http://teamup.com/ks662ccbfedda01eb0/

Interesting. The thought of DMs in my timezone is a scary one.

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Plays:

"I'll think of something once Amia:EE drops."

Galenson for DM.

You heard it here first, people!

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Metalien Sikth Wiki Page: http://amiawiki.shatuga.com/index.php/Metalien_Sikth

Such a thought is a laughable one. I lack many of the required attributes and my player record is not pristine.

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Plays:

"I'll think of something once Amia:EE drops."

Amia really needs a good spread of DM times (Aussie and early GMT/EU zones) and like old times a specific DM who deals with player complaints, this used to be Nekhbet. I think that the DM team also needs a senior DM, regardless of what has been said, and I would fully support Yossarin or Axelo for this role.

A proper complaint system would be good too. If a player has a gripe they don't have a system to support their complaint, or even take their complaint properly.

I think that's about all I'll suggest for now, I could go on for ages with suggestions but who wants to read a huge wall of text?

I've returned to Amia after a long break due to moving and getting my life in order and I'm very shocked at how quiet it is now. I know the game is 10 years old and like all old things people grow tired or find newer toys. I do know though that this server has depth of history/lore and commitment from the DMs and players alike to keep going for at least another 5 years or more.

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Metalien Sikth Wiki Page: http://amiawiki.shatuga.com/index.php/Metalien_Sikth

I know the thread has been locked but I thought I'd reassure the Aussie's that we're actively looking for the right player to fill in your time zone.

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... and don't start again, please.

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Say 'no' to JSBF!

It might be possible if you custom scripted tokens for every race and subrace and class combination. But that sounds unnecessarily tedious and to cumbersome to effectively use.

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Gerald Edmund
Discord: Metal Viking Guy #5433

DC taxation is theft!

The problems I see-
1. Too many maps, and not enough focus on particular areas.
2. Epic Loot and Solo Bosshunting.
3. Too many factions, and too many gods to isolate individuals because of religion.
4. Too many NPCs- Not being able to really do things when an NPC is in the area.

I think the servers should shrink a bit in order for players to encounter each other more often. So many areas get no traffic at all really, so I think many of these areas should be replaced with fewer maps. There are several places on B that I know don’t get any traffic, so I say the size of those areas should be reduced.

I think the epic bosses need a re-tooling so that a soloing character cannot defeat them, and I think a 100% epic item drop would make some players have more time to role-play. It can take someone several months of just bosshunting to get everything they want, and once they are on the path of trying to maximize their inventory, nothing is really gonna stand in their way. If it becomes easier to max a character’s inventory, then there is more time for role-play. Another suggestion is to just put the entire epic lootbin in an epic shop (but that’s not as fun, in my opinion).

As far as the DC system and the DM involvement, I can’t really say what I think will help that.

The number of gods is not going to change, so people will rarely find worshipers of their deity in-game (just a fact that has to be dealt with). The NPC thing will probably not change, but it just annoys me sometimes when things have to come to a halt just because one guard is in the area.

Cordor would be fun again if wands worked, and the Cordor Underground was accessible. I suppose that is all up to the players, but I doubt anyone will make an attempt anytime soon.

TL;DR: Mainly, I think my solutions of shrinking areas, and changing the Epic Bosses/Epic Loot drop a bit could help.

Easiset solutions for implimentation: Epic Bosses- Change the drop % to 100, and give every epic boss a huge Regeneration rate (like 50). Empty Areas- Delete several maps and replace them with one map. Level range- Change to 6 levels of differance instead of five, and maybe boost the xp for anything over to max level differance multiplied by xp% decrease.

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While I don't agree with your entire post, I actually like these ideas a lot. I don't think bosses should be soloable at all, no matter what the build is. That regeneration rate makes them much harder to kill. But the problem is that this will literally flood the market with epic items. Even with the rate of regeneration.

Not to say that I view tons of epic items as something wholly wrong. I just frankly think that we as a server don't need it. And the staff might view it as counter productive. We'll have a lot more people doing their boss runs every reset, and they'll be in groups. That part of the idea sounds neat. But I'm concerned that we might see a the focus shift from role playing to killing monsters for loot. It might give more people more chances to get nice things (Which I honestly like) but I don't know if seeing us turn into a "grind epics" server is worth it.

It's a slippery slope. Maybe increasing the drop rate to 20. But not to 100. I've had three epic drops since creating my character and I've been playing since close to June I think. But then I don't do remotely as many boss runs.

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Gerald Edmund
Discord: Metal Viking Guy #5433

DC taxation is theft!

Regarding Cordor I have a simple if perhaps slightly blunt point:

Earn the access back . Work with Yossarin (and the other DMs but Yossi's the primary Cordor contact AFAIK) , RP, and do what you have to do to earn every inch. Cordor's not an easy City to deal with but if you put the time and effort in, you can make things happen.

What happened in COrdor did not just happen for @#*$s and Giggles. It happened for a reason. Create a reason for the change.

Regarding the whole 'Oh I can't do something because a guard's in an area'. There's one thing that'll change that.. DM Supervision, if you can get a DM to handle the environment. If you can do that and they're comfortable.. then you can make things happen.

As for making Epic Bosses non-soloable. That'd be good if it can be done in a way as to not make them impossible to do for groups that aren't optimized for combat in the same instance. Recent events (specifically the final combat of the Quarut event series) have shown that custom mechanics can be used to make a boss interesting, and while requiring a good deal of preparation and a decent sized party, can still be done.

An increased Regen of say, 10 or 20 seems reasonable as opposed to 50, but numbers are malleable depending on the staff's experience in balanacing, Aside from this , maybe an increased rate in drops for the upgraded bosses but nothing like 100%.. 20% seems fair.

1. Kinda true. But just kinda.
2. There is nothing wrong with boss soloing. And there would be everything wrong with 100% epic loot chance.
3. Actually compared to the past few years on Amia, we have fewer factions than ever.
4. By "doing things" you mean doing something that would cause the said NPC to react? Even if an NPC is not nearby, you can never, ever assume that the said NPC would not come, unless there's a DM online.

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