Now with Aethercraft released, envoys done or mostly done, and Nexus worlds (If they're being implemented, was there an official announcement of that? Anyway...) well on their way, I think this is a good point for starting to think of Lusternia's future.

I think what Lusternia needs now is something for newbies. Let's look at Lusternia's major attractions:

Bashing: Every MUD has it. Most people don't particularly enjoy the mind-numbing, soul-crushing repetitiveness either.

Combat: Every IRE MUD has it. Barrier to entry is ridiculously high in terms of time and money. Not universally appealing. Tends to be more frustrating than fun for a lot of players.

Politics: High barrier of entry in terms of time. Exceedingly unrewarding.

Influencing: Low-risk, low-rewards bashing with a higher barrier of entry.

Roleplay: Immediatelly available to everyone, but hard to find and hard to get into. Tends to be unrewarding because of the little effect it has on the game world.

Org conflict: Frustrating as hell.

Trade: Unrewarding. Some trades are more like time-consuming chores; some are unprofitable, but fun. Barrier of entry is usually something between 200 and 600+ credits, depending on trade.

Questing: Not everyone's cup of tea. Some are unavailable a lot of the time , some are dangerous, some are difficult and unrewarding. They're a lot of fun for newbies - If they know they're there.

It seems to me there's nothing for newbies to do in Lusternia except bash, and bashing isn't terribly entertaining. One of the reasons I have no alts is that Lusternia is only fun for estabilished characters - It has a lot of build-up before you can enjoy it. That's not good for the game, obviously - The more work you have to put into a game before it's enjoyable, the less people will be willing to play it consistently.

I don't really have anything to propose, right now, sadly. I feel that what Lusternia needs is some system or activity that has a low or inexistent barrier of entry; that has some depth and complexity; and that is interesting or involving for newbies, but not unavailable for older players. It should probably be rewarding in some in-game way, and it shouldn't involve people into org conflict.

This can be solved with more quests, of course - But I'd rather hear some alternatives, too.

As a newbie in Achaea, many years ago, I didn't find bashing to be repetetive and boring. This happens only after some months of killing things. Minia was cool and well-described.

This is not the case for Newton. It's only same old tunnels and more tunnels. Lolliprin is better.
But both places are still boring as hell, because EVERYTHING dies in one hit.

I agree whole-heartedly. If I started an alt I wouldn't have the time to focus on both characters. It takes a while to gain prestige and recognition.

Maybe a new newbie area--Achaea has two--might help. Perhaps a village with a lot of quests that can't be influenced. Heck, bring Ackleberry back as an NPC-only commune with a lot of quests that can teach people politics and where PvP is forbidden by the will of Avechna.

As far as the other stuff--since you're bringing them up Verithrax, what do the other IRE MUDs do right that Lusternia might be doing wrong to attract new people, if we use that for comparison. It seems the only one actually growing right now is Achaea, the others appear to be flatlined a bit--slow growth in general for MUDs compared to graphic MMORPGs.

I know I find it almost a chore to log in everyday into lusternia becouse there is almost nothing for me to do but BASH so I can do some of the cool stuff. I keep thinking maybe I'll get into a divine order but the divines are hardly around or Im never on when they are on. I was irritated that they implemented yet another cool thing that I have no possibility in getting into becopuse its just to expensive. Its a shame to becouse Im a relentless credit-whore, but with nothing engaging to do and as Verithax said the barrier-of-entry into the more interesting parts is just to high.

I mainly hang around to try and get level 80, because I've been stuck at 79 FOREVER. Also, I like the bardic competitions, because I can't afford credits.

Did you try questimg if you want to get gold so badly? It offers way better rewards than bashing while consuming less time.

There's a lot of Lusternian activities that everyone can get involved in. Aethercrafting, contrary to popular belief, is doable by everyone. You don't need your own ship - just get in touch with someone who has one and ask them to add you to the permission list. Ta-dah - you're the captain! Get a crew of like-minded people and you're good to go. You don't really need Master+Spec in Aethercraft to explore aetherpaths.

Most people in Lusternia actually ARE willing to RP. They only wait for others to start talking to them. You have to break the barrier - if you want to RP, or even to chat, don't wait for others to come, but seek them on your own.

Only two things that are related to your character's skill are PvP and trade skills. Others are dependant only on your imagination and/or dedication.

I don't think too much bashing is the problem, I think we have to little choices. For mid-range levels, you have a couple of choices: angels, and demon stuffie on cosmic. This hurts because respective orgs beat you up.

So... Astral, ouch pain not an option...

Elemental, could be some use, but the returns past fifty are not really there.

So we have Snow Valley, Merian, Aslaran, Krokani, Tosha. (I leave out spirit wolves because they don't really offer much past 40.)

Out of all of those, Snow Valley is the only one really usable by the 'don't kill sentients crowd.' For the rest, killing Tsoha gets you an enemy status, which someone is bound to exploit. Merian, while not giving you an enemy status, normally gets you attacked by the likes of our favorite Celestians.

Aslaran and Krokani are left, but wait the same people who would attack you for Merians, attack you for Aslarans to, which leaves Krokani. Now Magnagora is a little better off, but we aint talking about them.

Aetherbubbles are an option, but they are hard to get to.

Now I don't tend to care if I am attacked or not, so I will bash Merian reguarly, but that is because Aslaran and Krokani are rarely not bashed out.

Honestly, and I know the PTB do not want bashing, I think Lusternia needs more bashing grounds.

I'd love something like Imperian with the sewers and the big mobs down there. That was good bashing up to around 75-80... and even then it was good money after, and they poped often enough to not quite always be out.

We also need more non-sentient bashing areas. I think we have plenty of sentient, we just need more high and mid level non-sentient places to beat things up.

I'd say one of the big problems is lack of bashing, there's a deadzone from 20-30 and Toronada Tidal Flats is a bit too much of a jump from Newton, at least for Warriors novices. I know this has turned me off some of my alts because I don't really enjoy doing quests and I definately don't want to do pilgrims and such all day. I think newbies need another bashing area in addition to Newton as well as another 20-30 zone.

A minor boost in non-masterwork weapons (not making them equal to masterwork mind you) might also help, since the reason so many new warriors have trouble in tidal flats is they can not afford decent weapons to use there.