What would you like to see??

[Vhrael]

Okay, so after a couple of recent conversations I've had and a couple of forum threads I've read over, I decided to start this thread asking what the players want to see.

A couple of comments before you start threadjacking:
- This is meant as a serious idea/brainstorming thread. Please, no bullshit.
- I'm not looking for flames of other ideas once they're posted.
- If you make a choice, please try to post and expound upon your decision (validate it - why do you want X?).\

What I'm looking for here is what you, as a player, would like to see more of in the future. What do you, when you play your main character(s), wish there was more of in the game?

Thanks in advance.

[Eloret]

I say Racial Legacies because I really enjoyed the Minotaur dual wield any axe and the horn charge with the swinging axes while they are in the air if you have two axes on. It is fun and as much as I hate finaly reserve it is pretty cool and it is a reason for me to play a dwarf berserker sometime.

[Ergorion]

I would normally have gone with the new race/class option, but since that seems highly unlikely, I decided to go for the slightly more conservative more racial legacy option.

Reasoning:

The reasoning was partly process of elimination. I think there are enough items in the game to keep people pretty busy, but then again I'm no pip, or cliffy, or someone who knows where everything is and what it all does.

If we had more players I would put more emphasis on getting more ranking areas/diverse ranking areas, but as it is there aren't too many times when people are competing for the same monsters. One point for more diverse ranking would be so that the grind to fifty would be somewhat fresh, but I feel the newness of new mobs would wear off pretty quickly and not be worth the effort.

Regarding the RP items, I again think the effort put into making them would be wasted. I haven't seen people make much use of RP items or pets. I think maybe once the current options are being used fairly commonly, then would be the time to add more options, but right now, I don't think the current RP items/pets are being used enough to merit making new stuff.

Revamping areas. While this would even the playing field for a little bit at least (what I mean by this is Pip wouldn't be such a godly tracker for about a week) I personally like the setup of Thera for now. Adding new mobs might be interesting, but I don't know how much this would be appreciated by the general playerbase.

More imm involvement/visibility. More imm visibility would be nice, but I think would be a more aesthetic touch to the game than some of the other options. And a similar point with cabal leadership. So long as the cabals have fairly healthy membership, I think things are alright.

Regarding the current amount of cabals and coteries. I think the number of cabals is pretty good right now. I think adding another cabal would dilute the cabal scene too much with our current playerbase. If another cabal were added, I think we'd either see cabals with 2-4 members consistently or cabals with 5-6 members but filled with players not experienced enough yet for cabal warfare. One way I could see having another cabal without affecting the membership of the other cabals is having some sort of secret cabal that doesn't show up with a tag in the who list, or in the players list on the website, or on MOTD.

I would have put new races/classes, but as I said at the beginning, I decided to vote for something I thought would be a little more likely to be implemented.

Which brings me to the racial legacy category. I think something like this would maintain enough of the spirit of the game as it stands now, but add enough of a fresh take on some of the options to give the vets some new interesting options. Like, possibly having some kind of gnome warrior racial legacy.

[Master]

I haven't gone nearly deep enough into the game to really make much of a judgment, but I'd say that all we need is a bigger player base. I've heard about and read logs of back when AR had a fairly large pbase, so...

[bassball]

I voted for the racial legacies also. Much like Ergorion I did it as a process of elimination. I figured that the others weren't as important to me, or tried as best I could to assume they weren't as important for the pbase either. Not that I think racial legacies being added is important or crucial, but I think it would be very fun and add a bit more spice to the game. The problem I see with racial legacies though is that it might sway the balance of things and make some race/class combo better, or maybe it won't but will still result in there being a lot more of that certain combo then of any others. Also, the more racial legacies added maybe the less special racial legacies are as a whole. Hate to use this as an example but it works, if you've seen the Incredibles, it might end up being something similar to having everyone be super, then no one is..

[Thorgoth]

I vote more active cabal leaders/imms - the only thing in the list that I considered was the pets option. I think it would be cool to have bears or trolls following me around to help beat ass, and maybe a panther that sneaks for drow/elves.

Anyways, elaboration:

The fact is, people want to play in a cabal where they know they have a chance to move up. Knights has been so unsteady without the hand of an active leader (both Imm and mortal) for a long time now. I think everyone has their own idea of what something should be, but I remember when everyone had the same general idea - that is no longer present. By definition, a Leader can mean "to conduct by guiding and teaching". Having a leader to act as a solid pillar with this main principle can help preserve the meaning of the cabal, and keep a good hold on the way things sway. With that said, the constant lack of leadership and/or the flip flopping of leaders between rage deletes and inactivity has led to the smothering of the true meaning of Knighthood. So, my vote goes torwards more active visible cabal Imm's (besides Olyn) and the resurrection of what is being lost by the new generation.

[Xerties]

I voted for more imm involvement, by way of increased balance. In a game where pk is encouraged and required in some circumstances I find it pretty confusing that our balance situation is so dismal. I'm sure I'll get flamed, but w/e.

Also, more imm involvement drives player involvement, esp from the lower level imms. It's depressing when we have brand new imms that haven't done a thing. Maybe part of the imm application process should be presenting at least 3 ideas for events or improvements.

[Kedaleam]

I voted for Imm Involvement/visibility. Pretty much for the same reason as Pip. Just having them around guiding/teaching people helps plenty. Plus it's someone high up you can try to impress by whatever means. Obviously you all have lives and such so that may be hard to do, so it's hardly an upsetting thing for me. I don't get much into Cabals lately myself, since I can't put in the solid amount of time, by my own standards, to even bother, so I don't know tons of the politics involved with those.

[crazyhorse]

I voted for more players.

The list doesnt matter without a bigger pbase.

Though more lower imm involvement sounds kinda like wanting to point a finger and blame someone for the shitty pbase (IE blaming imms not being vis), I sort of agree with that also. Mortal leaders arent available anymore it seems. Lower ranks need someones cock to suck, in order to feel like they are getting somewhere.

At the very least, CABAL imm interaction.

[bassball]

Umm. Just wanted to point out that when everyone keeps saying cabal's mortal leaders aren't ever around. Well.. Corzen wasn't too bad really, he's gone now obviously, and he was less active at the end. But not bad. And uh.. Arvar is pretty stinkin active.
BUT I can't remember there ever being a time when there were cabal leaders around all the time. I don't even remember every cabal having a leader at the same time ever happening in recent years. It seems like one or two cabals is always missing a leader. As for Imms.. they aren't around that much besides Olyn. Vhrael more so now. But what do they do when they are around and visible? I don't see what having them around more often is going to accomplish?

[crazyhorse]

Lets say I want a Legionaire. Lets say Olyn isnt on all the time (though he is, and props to you for it buddy)... I havnt seen one Legion BESIDES olyn in days. why the fuck would I make a char that I have to stick at 40 for 3 weeks just to get inducted? That isnt worth my time at all. I could go, instead, with a cabal like Justice. Arvar is on every day pretty much. I am much more likely to go for a cabal with an active leadership staff than I am one with none.

Leadership means everything, because they mean induction, promotion, and backup.

[_Clifton_]

[bassball]

Valid points, both of you. Thanks.

[Nyub101]

I casted my vote for more imm visibility, leadership, etc. I know that when I play, and there are immortals about, I tend to stick around more often and RP a bit more. I also notice I am not the only one, as others have replied to the thread thus far. I also would like to see immortal leadership of cabals more, as the same said reasons as everyone else.

Other then that, more unique, RP pets would definetly be a nice touch, but my main vote casted I believe will also help towards a larger playerbase. More immortals, more ideas, more fun, more players, etc.

[Vhrael]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the predominantly constructive posts so far. Keep the explanations coming if you can, as I'm trying to get a good overall feel for what the playerbase currently is interested in, or what makes more people want to log in and stay logged in more.

I (or possibly another member of the imm staff) will get back to you guys on this after there are more responses/votes and more feedback. I don't know what (if any) changes will come out of it, but let's face it - the whole game is nothing but a group effort. If imms each put in 60+ hrs a week of facetime (also read: their own non-playing, unpaid personal time) but nobody comes around to play or check out the changes, it's worthless. Likewise if people are filling the 'who list' but there aren't any imms to police problems or answer questions, then players get fed up and stop playing... a vicious carousel.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for keeping the replies in-line with the thread and being honest in their explanations. Good input will (hopefully) = good output.

[Ceridwel]

I voted for more Imm presence/involvement. When I thought about it, this choice can also bubble over to encompass more Cabal leadership too. Look at Knights for example. When I was playing Jaqr, Casden was around in the beginning of my Knighthood but then his playing time decreased. There was a short time where he was pretty inactive AND we had no Champions or Generals, so we couldn't even squire or induct. That got taken care of, but then he left and all we had was a couple of Champions. Finally Rosellin was made a General so we had someone to induct. With a mortal leader it was have been way more consistent and we'd have had a better identity. But its no good to make someone Executor just because we need one, so failing that having an Immortal around to be immortal leader of the cabal, like Olyn is for Legion, would have been awesome.

So that takes care of the cabal leadership part. For everything else, I agree with everyone else's points about why the want more Imm presence. It makes the game better because it shows the people who should care DO care by being around. Some immortals actually make the game more fun to play when they're online (Olyn and Resatimm for example, and of course Vanisse). This reminds me of a question I had - why do Knights have no immortal leader? Olyn is Legion, Groq is Keeper, Vanisse is Justice (I think?), why not make Res or Vhrael or Dav immortal Knight? When was the last time Jaran logged on?

An example of why it sucks when there's not an immortal online for days: I've been waiting to send a cabal application for days now, but can't because my description hasn't been checked in. Annoying!!

Whether this means the existing Immortals should be online/around more, or if it means we need some new immortal blood (I know of one character wanting to be an imm and I think it would be freaking awesome - you know who you are)...either way is fine with me.

More Immortal presence would mean:

- someone to check in descriptions and police names. Exekiel should never have been allowed past rank 15. He also shouldn't have been booted from Knights imho for a bad name, instead he should have been told to change it...but that's just me.

- Someone to crack down on cabal bullshit right when it happens

- Someone to crack down on ooc bullshit right when it happens (I know this is tough enough as it is for you imms, but just sayin')

- Someone to show new players that there is an immortal playerbase that really does care about the game, making newbies want to keep playing

- Someone to show existing/veteran players that imms still care about the game and making it awesome

- Someone to help newbies (though Mystics, Nobles, Patrons, and Heralds do pretty good with this)

The list goes on.


Just my 0.02 gold pieces!

-Io

[Davairus]

More roleplay is all I could think of... especially from the Knights. People being prepared to handicap their character to keep their roleplay going.

[Vanisse]

i voted more cabal leaders. i know it is frustrating on the player's side to not have a leader, but i also know that it's tough to be a cabal/coterie imm without a mort leader to help with administrative issues and to keep tabs on what's going on. personally, i feel like i haven't been able to put in adequate time for months now and there are lots of kudos deserved to cadarel, vaelyn and arvar for keeping justice running as smoothly as it did until vhrael came back. the knights and heralds are also gradually coming out of dire straits solely on the dedication of their players.

i think some of you may value imm cabal leadership more but i feel like mort leaders have a much stronger influence on what happens - they have the potential to interact with cabalmates and opposition far more (obviously, since imms can't pk) and in the process make things interesting for everybody.

although yes, i agree with everyone above. i should put in more hours. is there a shop where i can buy more hours in my day? maybe i'll olc one. (i'll try to be around more often in a week or so...but tomorrow i am on a plane for 14 hours...)

[Mandor]

more races/classes.

neutral clerics?

I have some pet races I made up too

[Dispater]

I thought this was a wishlist kind of a topic, so i thought id wanna see a naked Resatimm but this thread really let me down, so i guess id pick Racial Legacies as a substitute to Res.