QUOTE(Desitrus @ Oct 16 2007, 05:37 PM) 450533
I chuckled when I read it, because I figured it was fairly obvious to most people that it was in the extreme side of flaming and mocking the posting style of "hard-knocks facts relayed with gusto." People wanted to be offended, so they were. Satire is lost on people when their hackles are up, usually. People hear envoys bitch about the system sometimes because that's how things go down. .0000000000001% of customer service calls originate with the intent to praise the establishment. What you don't hear is that on a monthly basis we are continually tuning up :censored: that would take a full year on other (Imperian) IRE muds.
Now, recently, people are crying about the envoy system being invisible because they think the envoys hatched some heinous plot to bring about DMP to destroy their beloved MUD, which is ridiculous. DMP is a "good thing" because it provides a baseline to balance against. People don't seem to get that. That's a problem with making the envoy system public, people will fight to keep what they have regardless of the balance issues surrounding it. Also, I don't know a single envoy that will refuse to tell you what is being envoyed currently and take suggestions on what to envoy in the coming months. Insofar as the guild I envoy for goes, we are still unable to create projects tagged to Tahtetso (feel free to help us with that, any imm reading this!
), so I can't establish an information stream just yet.
Conflict... Where to begin? I've been mudding since before Achaea came out, exclusively PvP oriented. I've been on design staffs, coding staffs, and balancing staffs for a lot of MUDs over the years. I've played PvP servers in every single major (and some unknown korean) MMO's to date. Won several competitive FPS tournaments, console tournaments, and general gameplay tournaments. I've griefed the innocent, griefed the griefers, and been griefed. Forced people to lose years of work by dragging their corpses under dragons until they rotted on a week long timer, looted castles with months of items stored in them by stacking tables, locked down the whole Light side in Caemlyn with one Circle-based thief class, and stayed up until three in the morning to crush a city that took two months to build by hoisting centaurs over the walls. There's a definite rush in making people bitch about you, and I'm afraid that that is what a lot of people are after. It's the notoriety, not the victory, some people relish. Raiding is not a competition. Neither is defending.
I think some people are also confusing griefing with bee-hive kicking. On Prime, that's killing guards until someone comes and stops you. Granted, yank-killing every single guard in an org is the opposite end, but a lot of times people will kick/kill denizens in order to create conflict if none is happening. This is where the self-control geb mentioned comes in.
I like to think I've grown up a bit, and just prefer to fight because the fighting itself is fun. To that end, I have the following suggestions:
Limit griefing, maximize combat exposure, and create tangible rewards. Lusternia is by far the best combat IRE mud in my opinion, it just needs a little more rumble room.
Now, recently, people are crying about the envoy system being invisible because they think the envoys hatched some heinous plot to bring about DMP to destroy their beloved MUD, which is ridiculous. DMP is a "good thing" because it provides a baseline to balance against. People don't seem to get that. That's a problem with making the envoy system public, people will fight to keep what they have regardless of the balance issues surrounding it. Also, I don't know a single envoy that will refuse to tell you what is being envoyed currently and take suggestions on what to envoy in the coming months. Insofar as the guild I envoy for goes, we are still unable to create projects tagged to Tahtetso (feel free to help us with that, any imm reading this!
), so I can't establish an information stream just yet.Conflict... Where to begin? I've been mudding since before Achaea came out, exclusively PvP oriented. I've been on design staffs, coding staffs, and balancing staffs for a lot of MUDs over the years. I've played PvP servers in every single major (and some unknown korean) MMO's to date. Won several competitive FPS tournaments, console tournaments, and general gameplay tournaments. I've griefed the innocent, griefed the griefers, and been griefed. Forced people to lose years of work by dragging their corpses under dragons until they rotted on a week long timer, looted castles with months of items stored in them by stacking tables, locked down the whole Light side in Caemlyn with one Circle-based thief class, and stayed up until three in the morning to crush a city that took two months to build by hoisting centaurs over the walls. There's a definite rush in making people bitch about you, and I'm afraid that that is what a lot of people are after. It's the notoriety, not the victory, some people relish. Raiding is not a competition. Neither is defending.
I think some people are also confusing griefing with bee-hive kicking. On Prime, that's killing guards until someone comes and stops you. Granted, yank-killing every single guard in an org is the opposite end, but a lot of times people will kick/kill denizens in order to create conflict if none is happening. This is where the self-control geb mentioned comes in.
I like to think I've grown up a bit, and just prefer to fight because the fighting itself is fun. To that end, I have the following suggestions:
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AUTOMATED KLANGRATCH QUEUE
Believe me, this will solve a lot more problems than you think. This ties up good combatants and people can just keep on fighting. Give it autowargames and autoffa then let it rip. People will constantly use this, believe me. Ten people JOIN QUEUE FFA or JOIN QUEUE WARGAMES and it initiates a wargames/ffa. Really simple, really effective. I, personally, don't join Celest FFA's anymore. They are for the young. The people I want to fight are big names and typically from orgs where I can't fight in the FFA's. I love 1 v 1 and it comes almost exclusively in the arena. People fight harder and don't run because there is nothing to lose. This will tie up quite a few combatants. If you really want to throw a wrench in and make it super competitive, offer a prize. 5% of your current level, or something. It is an incentive.
Believe me, this will solve a lot more problems than you think. This ties up good combatants and people can just keep on fighting. Give it autowargames and autoffa then let it rip. People will constantly use this, believe me. Ten people JOIN QUEUE FFA or JOIN QUEUE WARGAMES and it initiates a wargames/ffa. Really simple, really effective. I, personally, don't join Celest FFA's anymore. They are for the young. The people I want to fight are big names and typically from orgs where I can't fight in the FFA's. I love 1 v 1 and it comes almost exclusively in the arena. People fight harder and don't run because there is nothing to lose. This will tie up quite a few combatants. If you really want to throw a wrench in and make it super competitive, offer a prize. 5% of your current level, or something. It is an incentive.
CODE
PRIZES FOR TOP COMBATANT EACH MONTH
The lists clear every RL month. Tighten the rules, police it for abuse, give out 50 25 10 credits for first second and third. I can't draw. I can write but it makes me feel girly. I CAN crush skulls. Another combatant-heavy option that will allow REAL winners, REAL losers, and a TANGIBLE benefit. Make the combat rankings mean something and people will start using them. Again, this would need some heavy policing, but I feel it would really help alleviate the stagnant nature of things.
The lists clear every RL month. Tighten the rules, police it for abuse, give out 50 25 10 credits for first second and third. I can't draw. I can write but it makes me feel girly. I CAN crush skulls. Another combatant-heavy option that will allow REAL winners, REAL losers, and a TANGIBLE benefit. Make the combat rankings mean something and people will start using them. Again, this would need some heavy policing, but I feel it would really help alleviate the stagnant nature of things.
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PK NEUTRAL ZONES (OFF-PLANE CONNECTORS LIKE ETHEREAL)
Put in some quests and make several bashing areas. Make one the connection between Earth/Water, Celestia/Nil, and vastly expand Ethereal. Add a control system that grants bonus exp. People will fight for objectives and jump eachother here. My personal desire would be that it is NOT CUBIXABLE OR PYRAMIDABLE OR HAVENABLE OUT OF. Make it that damn good to exp in. People will fight here and taste the tangible rewards again. No cheesy fleeing, no org to hide in. Make the entrance drop you in a variable location in the zone so that entrances can't be camped. In DAOC many people exp'd in the frontiers because that's where the good EXP was. Higher risk, higher reward, and chance of conflict.
Put in some quests and make several bashing areas. Make one the connection between Earth/Water, Celestia/Nil, and vastly expand Ethereal. Add a control system that grants bonus exp. People will fight for objectives and jump eachother here. My personal desire would be that it is NOT CUBIXABLE OR PYRAMIDABLE OR HAVENABLE OUT OF. Make it that damn good to exp in. People will fight here and taste the tangible rewards again. No cheesy fleeing, no org to hide in. Make the entrance drop you in a variable location in the zone so that entrances can't be camped. In DAOC many people exp'd in the frontiers because that's where the good EXP was. Higher risk, higher reward, and chance of conflict.
Limit griefing, maximize combat exposure, and create tangible rewards. Lusternia is by far the best combat IRE mud in my opinion, it just needs a little more rumble room.
I like.
QUOTE(Neraka @ Oct 18 2007, 01:53 PM) 451164
Estarra saying that she very much cares for Lusternia made me quirk an eyebrow. That she was very much involved in player experience almost made me laugh aloud.
You think I don't care about something I created and to which I devoted my life? Do you honestly think that? Though I didn't quite say I was "very much involved in player experience", do you think I'm so detached and uninformed?
Pretty cold, my friend. Pretty cold.
QUOTE(Neraka @ Oct 18 2007, 08:53 PM) 451164
Stuff
You sound like you need a hug. Come 'er I'm full of em!
