Typical reply, honestly. Which I expected. It's easier to point the finger at me for not putting it nicely, instead of actually listening to the built up angst of the players that has grown over the last 5 years. I can be the scapegoat, that's fine. This is just venting anyway, I've given up expecting for anyone to actually listen, history has shown the last thing the staff will ever give up is control. I can't change it from the outside, not allowed to try and change it from the inside. So every now and then this topic comes up, I air my frustrations, take a ban, and move on. Every year I keep coming back here I keep seeing the same things I predicted coming true. If less than a handful of key players in this game were to quit, this game would be dead. Hopefully I'm not the only one who realizes that. Luckily, for all of us, those players keep holding on for nostalgia or those brief moments where there's actually something fun to do in this game. My hat goes off to players like @Kyzarius @tassinvegeta @Trick who contintually dump insane amounts of their life into this game and create dynamic environments and interactions, you guys and a couple others are the real MVPs here and the only reason this MUD hasn't died already. Its the players who keep this game alive, remember that. Staff can shut it down, and everyone loses, but while this game remains alive on a server, its the players who give us all something to do.
New lore skill echo: have ideas?
Regardless of who voices it, there is a very strong argument in favor of having all imms run all cabals. One IMM to one cabal has never worked well.
There is also a strong argument for reducing the number of cabals.
I know I've personally argued both of those for years.
The argument for auto-promotion is weaker though. It is an attempt to address the spread between established and upcoming characters in terms of moderating the progression consistency. In other other words, offering a clear path through the mid game and up to the final tiers of PK. It is probably better than the current situation, however, the fix is a problem in itself and won't fix the underlying burnout and power discrepancy issues.
The real issue is that a tiny playerbase is divided into too many tiers. Each tier doesn't have a large enough pool of characters to make it interesting fpr PK. Again, consolidating the cabals will do a lot to fix this issue.
The second issue is that there isn't much to do outside of PK so the above situation results in burnout at any tier.
Again, none of this is new and has been brought up repeatedly in the past. As much as it pains me to agree with @egreir, he is right in that the staff cannot fix an issue they can or will not recognize. Until that time, the status quo will remain until the inevitable attrition of the remaining key players.
The real goal should be to expand the mid game. If there aren't enough players to make the mid game viable, either things should be added that don't require other players or skip the mid game all together. Consolidate the tiers and add things, and more importantly viable options, to supplement the main PK game.
You guys lost me in game 7! years ago, so you can't say I'm biased or reactionary to the current environment. You can say I'm pretty out of touch though 😛
I hear ya Cel. And you are right. This has been complained about by the pbase for a long long time. Many viable solutions, quick solutions, short term fixes, long term fixes, have been proposed. Nothing is done. now our pbsase is down to what 20 people. ALL tired of waiting. lol. It is literally the easiest ice breaker with a fellow FL'er on discord. "Hey got T yet" , "nah, still waiting, my kid will learn to walk first"
How does every suggestion on idea turn into an I'm the victim and deserve more argument?
42 minutes ago, Kyzarius said:
I hear ya Cel. And you are right. This has been complained about by the pbase for a long long time. Many viable solutions, quick solutions, short term fixes, long term fixes, have been proposed. Nothing is done. now our pbsase is down to what 20 people. ALL tired of waiting. lol. It is literally the easiest ice breaker with a fellow FL'er on discord. "Hey got T yet" , "nah, still waiting, my kid will learn to walk first"
CABAL | TOTAL ACTIVE INACTIVE
===============|==============================
[SAVANT] | 6 5 1
[WATCHER] | 6 2 4
[SYNDICATE] | 5 3 2
[WARMASTER] | 5 3 2
[NEXUS] | 4 3 1
[TRIBUNAL] | 4 2 2
[KNIGHT] | 2 2 0
[HERALD] | 3 2 1
so, 22 cabaled people are active. A lot of us have two or three in a cabal, so out of the 22 cabaled characters, it's probably more like 15 actual players. Factor in players who don't have a cabaled person and yeah, an actual active playerbase count of 15-20 sounds about right.
I'm sure Erelei could tell us how many unique IP addresses have logged in over the last 30 days or so.
Just now, egreir said:
I'm sure Erelei could tell us how many unique IP addresses have logged in over the last 30 days or so.
I'd be VERY interested in hearing that number.
You'd have to keep in mind how many of us play from home/work/another connection.
That would be an impossible number to get accurately. I alone have prob over 100 IP addresses easy on a list due to playing from my phone.
It seemed easier back before the promo tiers. You app'd, got in, and had all your skills/spells from the get go. E/L had extra skills/spells and were IMM appointed.
I can guarantee I never would have survived with my very first 50/caballed char past Inductee when facing Grishnak/Smash. They already took about 2/3 of that chars life between them. If I had no cabal skills/spells because I had to grind hours? Please.
It's a fine line, I get it. But when tiers were introduced, the playerbase was bigger and you had to prove to the cabal you were worth your spot by time spent/pks/rp. With a minuscule playerbase, we cant even fill up all the cabals.
Oops, sorry to continue the derail.
We definitely CAN fill up all the cabals. Just have 2-3 caballed chars at all times, no big deal. ^_^
On 4/13/2019 at 8:14 AM, Iusedtobesomebody said:
It seemed easier back before the promo tiers.
The promo tiers are OK.
The feeder clans are what sucks.