More things to actually DO?

[uzriel]

I've been playing this mud for a while, once ~2 years ago and now i've made myself a new character.. What i've noticed is that it's still alot of people that seem to reinc once every week becuase they get bored to fast..

So my question would be: what do you people actually DO except the endless killing for experience?

In alot of other muds i've been playing there have been alot of activity except for the killing, ex. player run ecomony, player run cities, player run clans and guilds, player run shops and inns etc., extensive player killing including guilds wars, city wars etc., ALOT of questing and different events, contracted killing, etc etc.

The quest system in Icesus is imho under all criticism with it's 25(?) quests and 2-3(?) events (except for the shadowdancers).

so i was wondering, wouldnt it be an idea to concentrate on adding this kind of features instead of adding/removing guilds? Does anyone have any good ideas?

I, for example, would really like for us to have 1 quest that you need to complete in each guild for each level, or 10 levels. And quests that actually gave you some experience.. perhaps events for all guilds, not just dancers? I have alot of other ideas, but this is allready getting too long

I'm sure i will get replies like: "well, there is no time". "Go code it yourself" etc. And sure, if i can i would really like to help.. but it can't be that hard for players to come up with a quest and then for a wiz to put a few new npc:s out and implement the "story" from the player, can it?

I also really liked the area building competition! very good initiative.

[idles]

I couldn't agree more with you. In fact, adding more widespread content has been a goal for quite some time. Just getting something useful and working in game has proven to be difficult (for example: taskmaster).

If you got concrete suggestions for new features please post them. A good suggestion would be something that doesn't require a year to code ("player run economy") and something that adds content for everyone.

[arkady]

So what can the players do that would add something beside the endless killing of monsters for exp. What can the wizards create for the players too: add content, not be too exploitable, be fun and not detract from what makes icesus great.

Trade items: wandering mob in atherton sells apples mob in graemore buys them at a profit?

I think that events that are not really contests would be fun too: skin bounties for multiple animals, same for fish, like all of a sudden they are worth decent money (like a hour or two of raiding gobbies)

place new npc's in zones that will ask you to get a medicine from some other zone same as trad items but you need more money or space to transport the item.

bounties paid for killing some named mob, "boy ereldon is mad at you derro sulking at snakeman bar" present skin to collect your blood money

reputation modification to many more mobs you killed a mammoth icesus knows of you...

so I give you two badish ideas, I hope you all take this and idles post as someplace to start from, I think that we have a great mud here and a nice community, I for one would like a less competitive atomosphere and I think that by making the game give out tanigble awards for even just moving items across the map would be interesting. if not too effective at removing boredom, though I think that that might be a deffect with the user and not the game.


though to be honest makeing quests a part of level advancement to me is a little frightening, I mean rue the day the guy works from level zero to level five and nobody on even knows what room he should go to to get to the puzzle... or worse yet level ten, I would never ever come back if that happened to me, no I don't know the password to the black market...

[artic]

Yeah, this is good thread. it is true that we got most wizards working on new guilds and more areas (and both are good- it would eb nice to one day see all 4 elemental priests, and new areas means new quests, but) theres one thing missing- PLOT.
The world seems way too static. The players have no effect on the world. As far as i know theres no wizards working on (what they call) 'unique quests'- great events that change the world. In my opinion Icesus has great potentsial for having a world that involves the player, capturing them completely.
but i quess, once all the quilds have been coded, tuned, re-tuned etc, there will be time to develop the plot.

[belannaer]

The problem is that we don't have enough active, coding wizards to run such things as they require quite a lot of coding and planning so it is better to focus all efforts to coding things that are lasting (guilds and areas for example) instead of massive one time events.

[uzriel]

Well, i wasn't really thinking about massive one-time events. I had some other things in mind, i'll do a post a little later when i'm not supposed to have lunch

[arkady]

I am a little frigtened about large scale one time events and their effect on game balance. If the reward is too big people who missed the event would notice that all their buddies suddenly got another five percent of share. That would bum me out. The flipside is the same, too little and the players hate you for the time wasted.

some more clairfication of my ideas.

delivery quests
take item that mob gives you to another mob the mob getting the delivery provides the reward

retrieveal quests
bring an item to mob that mob rewards you

assination quests for everybody
kill mob; mob that gives contract also gives reward


I am not to sure how to code these, but I think that it could be accoplished reasonably simply. It would nessitate the creation of items and mobs, but these could be tested on other mobs then moved to the shopkeepers and other static mobs, which would make it more then just selling loot by running to your fav. shop typing sell all from "sell" and being done with it, you would have to know that your bronze plate belt is something rassdeal wants and he will give you a brass buckle which theodorin wants and so on for exp and money.


P.s. Hmm, I was thinking that these 'quests' would be permantly part of the game after implimented.

[felgand]

Eh, hosting a successful event doesn't mean that there needs to be a material award. Something simple such as a title or other recognition is always a nice bonus. In addition, a well-planned and interesting event would probably draw a larger crowd and praises than one that is hastily slopped together regardless of the reward.

[torvus]

Personally I would like to see a massive event but maybe not a one time thing eg.

The dark elves are attacking again and there might be several differant waves of them.

And maybe the bloodthirsty shadowdancers get hired by them?

Stupid but oh well I've said my peice.

[uzriel]

I saw a post about something simliar some time ago and i decided to give my thoughts about it in here since it would imo add quite alot of gameplay value: a clan system.

I've met alot of friends in the game, but one thing that bothers me a bit is the following scenario: let's say i am a shadowdancer. I get some good friends in the guild, and we lurk in Graemor quite alot waiting for templars to cross our path. We really don't like templars, and since Graemor is the only place we can finally strike down on them we have to spend alot of time there. This is fine for some weeks until 2/3 of the guild members has reinced and my old allies has become templars.

I would like to see more friendship and loyalty inside the guilds, ofcourse it would be unrealistic for people to stay with the same guild all their life, but you get my point.

I would like to think that a clan system would change some of this. Imagine the same bases as before, but this time me and my friends have the ability to start a clan (all clans would have to be approved and have a fitting background story etc. but more about that later), we would have a leader, member ranks, and so on. The rules of the clan are set in the background story that is handed over to the wizard/apprentice.

Here comes the more interesting part: the leader of the clan would have the ability to make alliances and start wars with other clans. This would allow a restricted player killing theme. The no playerkilling rules would still be strictly used outside the clans, if you choose not to be in a clan (or a peacefull clan that just likes to have hunting partys together) you will not be in any danger.

For a war to get valid both the clan leaders must agree to enter a war, if this is not accomplished no player killing would be allowed. A valid reason for starting a clan war could be if a clan of templars raid Graemor and kill the shadowdancer leaders. I know that it would really annoy me if i were a shadowdancer. With todays system this would go pretty unnoticed wich feels very bad, especially from a roleplaying point of view.

Clans would in this way also be a part of the world history, clan wars/ending of conflicts would be announced as game-info or in a clan-channel. Some clans would gain reputation as nice clans, while some would be feared and shunned.

In a later state clan buildings would also be a way to try and fix the "problem" with housing. Each clan would pay an amount of money for a building in wich they would pay another amount of money per room (max one room per member or something controlled) they want. This could be sleeping rooms with a chest for each player etc.

Each clan would have it's own economy, a bank account that the leader has access to beside his own, how the clan gets it's money or spends it is up to them. Maybe they charge a weekly fee from it's members, maybe they want a percent of the loot, or maybe it doesnt cost anything to be a member. All this has to be included in the application form.

Another thing that i've heard some people whine about is the lack of titles. A clan system like this would also increase the amount of unique titles since each clan would have it's own set.

Ofcourse there are alot of things that would have to be set in an controlled enviroment, poeple can't just spit out clans. It would have to cost an amount of money, have a good theme that fits into icesus etc.

And yes, time is allways a problem but it might be worth it if people gain something from it? I would really like to hear your point of view on this idea.

As a last thing i would like to offer a helping hand in quest creation and such things if that is possible. I'm an educated software engineer so i figure i would get into the coding rather fast. If that seems fair enough, feel free to contact me ..

ouch, this post got too long..

[uzriel]

and just to clear a few things out: a clan would not have any skills/spells or anything like that. It's a gathering of people who has the same goal or who value the same things in life.

[uzriel]

I have been playing alot of other muds through the years, but i fail to see how it can be more fun to allways sit for yourself in a corner? Isn't much of the idea about friendship, interaction, etc? And even if such a system ever would be implemented nothing prevents you from sticking to yourself.

[arkady]

I am all for claning and clan owned buildings, clan item depos and such since heck it would in incresses my exp/min rate which is good for me. I wonder if they could be implimented by the end of '05 if we all started now, thoses seem like huge ideas huge good ideas but, wow. I mean in the history of ideas the forum we have seen clans at least three times recently, economy a bunch of times and so forth, I for one hope that I am still playing often when these things happen.

I think the success of this mud is tied into the experiance it's users has and I think the seemlessness of the muds enviroments has a lot to do with that experiance. I think that since I can find no smaug crimson diku stlye areas here is freakin' great, I mean I have bearly explored a quarter of the world and I have wandered over most of it now.

basicly I think that the repititous killing of monsters happens at all muds and that is part of the reason some of us play them I like to think of it as a math boxing match. ultimately to add content to the mud just another way I think to make exping a little less dependant upon killing monsters.

...after completeing your fifteenth delivery mission... Arkady the deliverator