Got ideas?

[Jorquin]

This thread is here for players to suggest change ideas.

I'll read everything posted here, feel free to think as big or as small as you like, basically anything you'd like to see changed. Try not to be hyper critical of each other and keep things civil, even if you think someone's suggestion or idea sucks.

[gulca]

how about another thread that ask

what will make me play again?

getting ideas might be good or might be bad or different, but the end goal is to have a more active player base. why not start with a more direct question?

we have already seen some players just want stuff from last wipe which means they don't necessary need changes to happen to hang around.

for me, it's the following unlikely things:
1. allow botting on single char.
2. be part of the combat architecture panel without needing active mortal.

neither old content or new content is going to encourage me to dust off my mud client. but developing ai like script to bot, and or tweaking the combat system are something I'm willing to spend time on Arctic.

[Alecto]

Gulca
Could you transform that idea into creating better mob AI, rather than better bot AI?  I think for you the challenge is building a better mouse trap, and there are a LOT of gameplay mousetraps in Arctic that aren't working very well.

[Alecto]

I have suggested it before, but I will reiterate:

Looking at the stat files from the last 20 years there is always a decline in player hours over the summer.  I believe the reason is twofold: 1, the wipes are generally in the fall, so the game has dwindled down to just the hardcore addicts; 2, there are lots more fun things to do during the summer (travel, cook out, acquire sunburns).

Because of this I think we should have a designated chaos wipe every year from June through August.  Three months of no-holds-barred botting, pk, and multi-killing, with a real wipe with enforced rules at the beginning of September. The only punishable rule would be you can't intentionally crash the mud.

I believe that a regular wipe calendar will allow the casual player to schedule their time in advance for the big wipe week, and the reduced summer wipe will let people (like Gulca above) bot and multi-play to their hearts content, with the hope that they can get it out of their system and play "by the rules" for the regular part of the wipe.  Also, summer chaos wipes allow 35/36s to play with ideas for gameplay (like -15% pk damage, or making every weapon 1d1) in a sandbox that doesn't have the permanence (and thus the griping) of a regular wipe.

[gulca]

Gulca
Could you transform that idea into creating better mob AI, rather than better bot AI?  I think for you the challenge is building a better mouse trap, and there are a LOT of gameplay mousetraps in Arctic that aren't working very well.

I have proposed this before. instead of relying on the underlying code to perform mob AI, why not let users create bots that might behave like mobs?

the bots will adhere to a normal char rules controlled by players, except all the interactions are defined by player scripts.

this allows a lot of user contents to flourish inside Arctic, without the need of creators or code admin to even tweak a single line of code.

for example, I can create a few bots that might auto level and farm coins around each cities. in sleep mode, these char will accept quest items defined by the script, and pay coins or perform spells on players that interact with them. and yes, since they are no different from a normal char, ppl are free to steal, loot, kill on these bots.

or a few tavern bots that hints specific info to any players happen to discuss it in the room.

I've even suggested that these bots could be special chars started by the server that auto login do their daily bot business and their AI script is from a mud client, not the game themselves.

a game that requires a couple coders to implement changes based on their free time is always doom to fail. a game that allows user contents to be added have a higher chance of success in terms of getting new contents in.

[Kronos]

This may not be the exact right place for this post, but I think a large emphasis needs to be placed on fixing PK. For those of us that remember the great wars of the 90's, something needs to be done to show players how fun a clan war can really be. I remember fighting 3-4 times per week, having sets swapped back and forth so frequently that it never bothered you by losing yours. Those were the most fun days I have had with Arctic. I think a lot of the newer players are just used to grinding and playing against the zones. Their gear is so hard to come by that they would never do anything to risk losing it. This game is about risk. You ever had adrenaline run with just text on your screen? haha I have and I miss that.

Once you get into a huge battle and win or even if you lose but have frequent fighting, a lot of people will see the benefit of the game. I can't tell you how much fun we all have coming up with strategies and figuring out how to trap another clan with different tactics.

Let's make Arctic Great Again!

[Kronos]

Make some sort of 4 room or larger arena where people can just sign up and fight whenever they want without loss of gear, or maybe even a betting system where each person can put up an item and let them fight to the death for that item.

I could see a lof of people using that and a lot of awesome logs.

"Meet me on the bridge, right now!" -Evil Tim

[Oligo]

For those of us that remember the great wars of the 90's, something needs to be done to show players how fun a clan war can really be. I remember fighting 3-4 times per week, having sets swapped back and forth so frequently that it never bothered you by losing yours. Those were the most fun days I have had with Arctic. I think a lot of the newer players are just used to grinding and playing against the zones. Their gear is so hard to come by that they would never do anything to risk losing it. This game is about risk. You ever had adrenaline run with just text on your screen? haha I have and I miss that.

+1

[Willoe]

Love the arena with ante idea.

[lurker]

Arctic was born out of stealing ideas from D&D, the Dragonlance setting as much as anything else.

D&D 5th edition has a lot of interesting fresh ideas. Steal them.

[pasta_whee]

Bring back Tant. I think some players might wet themselves by this old zone being put back in the game. It doesn't even have to be exactly original but bringing it back would definitely make people happy.

I also wouldn't mind seeing a Newbie/Helper channel implemented in to the game for new players and vets to assist the new players. Something similar to what Aardwold mud has comes to mind. I think this game really struggles in bringing in new people and when we finally do get new people in the game they don't stay for long. To add further I think the solace newbie helper thing is awesome but we could do a lot more to make that experience even better.

[Kadaj]

I think the 'smite' ability would be something quite for the cleric class. I just leveled an evil cleric with an auto_extra_attack set and the full Emil's set with 28 strength. That was the most boring shit I think I have ever done on this game. Literally typing 'kill X' and just standing there waiting for it to die.

Cleric's are almost always portrayed as kind of a warrior/priest. Combining combat and protection. One idea I kind of like is allowing clerics to cast while not losing the combat round, much like Dark Knights and Paladins. One restriction could be that cleric's cannot smite while rapture is active.  Smite should work similar to strike, perhaps even like a Zap by ocean scouts. Have a chance to blind/hold/poison/fear the target for a short duration. 

Another ability that I think could help spice it up a little would be an ability they receive at a lower level, animate. Similar to the animate dead spell, it's just a skill that allows the cleric to animate one corpse for a short period of time. Perhaps 10-20 tics. Just something to allow the cleric to help along with exping solo or supporting the group with more damage.

I have no clue how hard these would be go implement, just throwing some ideas out because right now.....being a cleric is bapting awful.

[Super Tacoman]

how about raising rent prices by about triple?

this could help fight both deep renting and multiing, since the more characters you had the more it would cost to keep them equipped.
in my opinion the game is better when limited, fun items are in the game as much as possible.  not in the inn.

maybe there are a couple of 1 weekend a month type players who wouldnt like it, but as a wise man recently told me "casual players should have casual gear". 

[lurker]

I think the coin problem is one of escalation.

-Rent was reasonable.
-Ranks were added, and turned into a massive coin sink.
-Ranks were a bit too expensive, but instead of fixing ranks by making them cheaper, new zones were added that made farming coin even easier than before, and some old locations were buffed (for example, toede coin increased to ridiculous levels).
-Now we have enough coin to easily pay for expensive ranks, but as a result rent is insignificant

I'm in favor of a "less is more" sort of fix. I remember one wipe where swords cost 600 coins lore scrolls were 25,000 coins, then the next wipe everything was cut down 100 fold in cost, swords were 6 coins, lores were 250, and mob coin drops were 1% of what they were previously. The numbers are getting so high that maybe this needs to happen again, maybe not a 100 fold reduction, but reduce the cost and coin drops to 1/10 current values, double rent, and then we have a decent economic base.

Also, rent feels very arbitrary sometimes. Some store bought weapons from haven or solace actually have really high rent costs. WHY!? And then there is stuff with rent costs so low it might as well be free, but it's not. Some food items are 0 rent, some are 1 rent, this makes a huge difference if you like to horde large piles of food.

IMO, the whole rent system should be revised. #1 change: remove the "discount" for wearing or equipping an item. It's an idea with the best of intentions, but it just encourages storage characters and mixing of gear among alts.

Store crap, unlimited and sold in major towns- 0 rent. Is there really any good reason why scrolls of legend lore need to be norent, given how easily you can walk over to the shop and buy them?

Unlimited items not sold by stores- low rent, like 25, 50, 100 per item depending on power level.

Limited items with relatively high limits- 100, 200, 400, 800 depending on item power level.

Limited items with low limits (4 or less)- 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 depending on item power.

Unique items, limit 1- 25000 coins per day. They are worth it. If you can't afford the rent, just use them as norent items, repop them next time you play.

And then finally, remove the fuzzy math. You know what I mean "it will cost you 1000 coins per day you have 4000 coins you can rent for 12 days." WTF is that? If it costs X per day, charge X per day, if you have 1000 coins per day rent that should be 4 days worth of rent if you have 4k coins.

[Super Tacoman]

And then finally, remove the fuzzy math. You know what I mean "it will cost you 1000 coins per day you have 4000 coins you can rent for 12 days." WTF is that? If it costs X per day, charge X per day, if you have 1000 coins per day rent that should be 4 days worth of rent if you have 4k coins.

if just this was fixed i think it would be enough.

but i like all those ideas.  the worn item discount would work if storage characters ever got zapped, but they dont (unless hoss really doesnt like you) so it is pointless.