Arctic Veterans what do you think?

[kanu]

I'm going to push back on the idea that "back in the days" pk was exciting and fun. It was a pain in the ass. Some trash mage with charm person had a decent chance to pkill almost any character on the mud. Very few people were immune.

What made Arctic fun for me was exploring new zones and learning new strategies for dealing with tricky situations in zones I already knew.

Being pkilled by some asshole with 3 charmes Knights of the Crown was never fun.

[Kadaj]

Young Adventurer x3 : check.
Haste spell: check.
Brass voulge x3: check.
Level 21 mage ready to take on the world.

[Gnua]

Back "in the day", 15 or so years ago IIRC, nothing was really all that hard, but PK was a regular risk.

Yes regular PK was a risk but zones were very hard back then.  Mem times were huge (even at 23 int a cleric could not mem a single heal in a resting tick), level 30 tanks could have under 500 hit points, level 30 tourney winning mages could have less than 100 (after permanent hp loss from repeated delevelling), clerics could have around 250.  The same group that won this fight http://www.normstorm.com/logs/aug10_98.txt against the shriners barely took down Aegis and Walcanar and burned all their heals (some of which were looted from shriner corpses). They also massripped to glymmer numerous times. Nowadays people 2man Aegis and Wally and I'm sure some people have soloed it. Groups used to go to Shayds and some would die to stun in nomagic rooms but now people solo it.

[Gnua]

Young Adventurer x3 : check.
Haste spell: check.
Brass voulge x3: check.
Level 21 mage ready to take on the world.

the only redeeming part about those days was the possibility of hitting back...
fol Albert; #action {^(Mai flies in|You follow Albert)} {bash mai}

[pasta_whee]

l

[Gramm]

Gear hoarding is the very essence of what makes nerds learn new zone in this game. that will always be a thing... but honestly if you ask me, the worst and most painful change i have witnessed arctic go through, is the pure RAPE, the pure hatef$%@#ing of every single nice item in this game.... The items in this game that people have learned to covet over the years have all at the same time, almost overnight been "indiana jonesed" crystal skull style, i mean just looking back, group size changes sure sucked, maybe was necessary to equal out what was apparently making the game easier across the board in other ways...
sorry i begin to ramble and divert from what i was attempting to get at...
THE worst idea amongst all new changes, which i would place money down on as my bet for what is driving the most players to quit, is changing the weapon stats, being able to go into a little zone like pigmies for that bone sword offy which was honestly pure garbage BUT at the same time a "3d5" option.... was awesome, or the 3d5 +2 hitroll trainer offy in deepmines on bours was awesome for sharpen and mend, or the nv fang from tot for a druid/mage was... AWESOME.
I could sit here all night thinking of awesome items, that are now pure garbage with a +crapsmear for stats

I personally believe that is one thing that certainly contributes to seeing fewer on the wholist.
the mass "generalization" of all weapons sucks... so sit down whoever is in charge of changing the stats, smoke a huge joint... read the lore and look at the weapon names, and decide... should an item named fang of the shadow beast be 2d4 +1 hitroll... or should i actually be creative instead of just severing all that is good and holy from this sweet item name... (not JUST that item...)
If for some reason its too much work to restat all of the items that really need some fixing, why cant we just go back to previous item stats? is there really THAT much of a difference that its worth pissing in ALL OF OUR cheerios?

wouldnt it just be easier for both the people doing the item raping and those feeling the wrath of the mass item whifflebatting to just forget it ever happened... and restore previous weapon stats? i for one am TOTALLY willing to let heals be stupid strong again even on mobs, in exchange for the bone sword being turned into a 3d5 offy from pigmies again... knibb high football rules.

I dont actually know if any of that is even related to this thread at this point.. but if you ask me what i think, its the weapon stats changes that did the largest amount of hemorrhaging to our average # of players online for this wipe. This might be the first wipe ive actually seen game changes, do more damage than warring clans raping neutrals to the playerbase.

That is probably a bastard thing to say, but I am drunk and allknowing and powerful right now, so uhh fix the stats eh.
Or I will douse you in maple syrup and set the wild beavers loose upon ye. If you fix it... they will come....! If you dont fix it.. they will dota2 instead.... and dota sucks, so we really shouldnt be contributing to their playerbase so just fix it gods!

[Jorake]

I agree with the ranting drunk canadian. Stat changes were fine, group changes were fine, even heal needing a bit of eq to be fully useful was fine. The rest.. well, pretty much just destroyed the game I've played for damn near 16 years. Kudos. Gives me more time to league and check out some other muds I guess.

[reed23]

I agree as well.  Most of the people who still consistently played over the past few years probably identified themselves with specific items/sets in the game that they coveted and wanted so badly.  Everyone who plays this game could answer this question:  What item does Grahm want more than any?  Ancient Green Sword.
The stat changes will most likely prevent me from playing anymore.  My RISE friends always poked fun that I am was the one that always hung around after our initial-wipe escapades, but when the items that we somehow loved over the past 15 years and identified ourselves with changed overnight to complete garbage, AKA aspre kilt 2charisma (I'm sure everyone could insert the OMG my precious xxxxx item is now apply 5 instead of xxxxx), its hard for me to want to go through every item in the game and somehow reconnect with a text based game of hunting dragons and wilds.  And to speak of high end gear: the changing of legendary items such as Humas, class-restrictions to dragon orbs, and other top 10 items in the game is rough.  Call us old men stuck in our ways, but that is what many of us are. 

[Chisul]

This is how I felt after reading Grahams post.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mGAwNV7WBIQ

Genius!

[Jorake]

That's all i have to say about thaat

[Gnua]

I'm not sure if this is related to weapon nerfing, but has dolphin bone staff been deleted from game? At first I thought some joker had deep rented all those things. But my clannies said that if anyone was going to deep rent all those things, it would be me.

[pasta_whee]

I'm pretty sure I see that item in the world merchant every day.

[Gnua]

I'm pretty sure I see that item in the world merchant every day.

Havent seen it in months. If you snag one and pm me, i be happy to pay you 10k coins just to know they are still around.

[jrrestad]

Thoughts,

Even with all the gear nerfs, I probably have the best thief set I've ever had.  Which is saying quite a bit.

I will do everything I can to maintain my set as well.  All of my limit 1 items I will try to keep all wipe, so you probably will never see them.  I won't deep rent gear, but lots of gear does get stored that way.

There is very little incentive for you to learn end-game zones for immediate benefits.  However, I am still seeing gear load in zones I've known for ages and didn't know such items existed.  So the things you learn this wipe translates into future wipes.
.
I can't even imagine, especially with recent changes, how impossibly difficult and frustrating it is for soloers or small clans right now.  Super secrets and lim 1 items are terrible.  I've always been a proponent of more gear less limits and restrictions.  The decay system is obscure.  In order to be competitive the game requires you hoard your super elite items, and foom them and reload before they decay.

It seems this game is catered and structured around the best of the best and not balanced for everyone.  I can't imagine why anyone would start playing this game from scratch because there really is too much work for too little reward.  Arctic needs more good.  More gear, more ranks, more options, less restricts, less nerfs, etc.

ramble ramble...

[Jorake]

Thoughts,

Even with all the gear nerfs, I probably have the best thief set I've ever had.  Which is saying quite a bit.

I will do everything I can to maintain my set as well.  All of my limit 1 items I will try to keep all wipe, so you probably will never see them.  I won't deep rent gear, but lots of gear does get stored that way.

There is very little incentive for you to learn end-game zones for immediate benefits.  However, I am still seeing gear load in zones I've known for ages and didn't know such items existed.  So the things you learn this wipe translates into future wipes.
.
I can't even imagine, especially with recent changes, how impossibly difficult and frustrating it is for soloers or small clans right now.  Super secrets and lim 1 items are terrible.  I've always been a proponent of more gear less limits and restrictions.  The decay system is obscure.  In order to be competitive the game requires you hoard your super elite items, and foom them and reload before they decay.

It seems this game is catered and structured around the best of the best and not balanced for everyone.  I can't imagine why anyone would start playing this game from scratch because there really is too much work for too little reward.  Arctic needs more good.  More gear, more ranks, more options, less restricts, less nerfs, etc.

ramble ramble...

Jrrestad for Overlord!!!