How to make Arctic great again

[eddiex]

I have a couple suggestions for the consideration of the staff running the game.  I'd appreciate some feedback from the staff (as far as viability and potential issues).

#1) Soft PWIPE

What soft wipe entails is a complete purging of gear, coins, and purchased ranks on the mud.  All that remains is the lvl 30 character shell (legendary ranks purged), rank points, clan stronghold structures. The potential benefits behind this proposal are outlined below:

- May temporarily bring back players who have burnt out from the initial wipe
- Expedited rush process.  Excitement of massive gear loading w/ removed grind.  Will require less time investment from player base to enjoy (less time off work etc.)
- New opportunity (for those who may have missed rush or who are not rush specialists) to acquire highly maintained items which rarely recirculate into the game.
- New rush strategy and pk dynamics
- Incentive to continue playing later into the wipe (Those who play consistently throughout the wipe should have more highly ranked characters during the soft wipe)
- Potential for strategizing with Stronghold placement
- Allows for newer players who have difficulty progressing in the game to still have ample time to achieve goals

#2) Group Class Limits

There are often complaints about class balance and I'm sure it's difficult to get it exactly right.  Quite often some of the most exploited situations involve the over-utilization of a specified class.  Multi-tether stunning groups was this wipes rendition.  In the past multi-druid groups with in-gimped healing cloud entangling everyone and making sure 0 die.  Regardless if the immortals "feel good" where certain classes stand in the balancing process, nobody can deny the multi-faceted balancing power limiting the # of a specific class allowed in a group would have.  I understand restricting people from bringing whatever classes they like may have some drawbacks but at least consider the idea.

- Limit the number of particular classes in a group.  You can make it arbitrary across the board (i.e. 2 max of any given class in a group) or you can attempt a dynamic balancing effort.

Potential bonuses for class diversity:

-A group with one of each class can have an additional member (up to a max of 10) if the additional member is not the same class as one grouped.  1 of each class makes 10.

-Groups with unique class types gain increased dam reduction and saves in PVP

Example A (arbitrary class limitations):

-2 clerics
-1 shaman
-2 mages no more than 1 of a specific robe
-1 druid
-1 scout regardless of path
-2 or 3 warriors
-2 barbarian
-2 paladins
-2 thieves
-2 dark knights

Example B (dynamic class limits):

3 healing type (max 2 of any kind)
-druid
-shaman
-cleric

mages are unique so only 2

max 2 any tank type class

[gulca]

Some specific limits already built into some classes. Like shaman heal boost, dk impair, rescue

Many skills can be tweaked to have similar effect. Putting a limit for the sake of limit(like group size) can be a turn off for some people.

But I like the direction of your thoughts. Optimum performance should be based on variety , not single class zerg style attack.

[eddiex]

To clarify, it is not a limit for the sake of limit. It is a limit for the purpose of balancing. Attempting to fine tune skills for specific instances/vs when grouped is tedious and difficult to get right.

I think Jorquin mentioned in a previous post that nerfing individual character power is extremely unpopular and not good for the game in the long run.

While it can be argued any limitations can be detrimental to player attitude, balancing efforts that don't substantially reduce any one classes power, but limit the ability to abuse a particular class by sheer number (7 legend shamans with 35 amped spirits for example), I do not think is unreasonable.

There are alternate solutions but I  believe that this route may be the most effective with the least amount of staff effort for implementation.

[albarn]

If you want the challenge of getting rid of all your gear and cash and starting over from scratch feel free.

but zapping my gear so you can repop it isn't my idea of a fun "challenge"

[Gnua]

#1) Soft PWIPE

What soft wipe entails is a complete purging of gear, coins, and purchased ranks on the mud.  All that remains is the lvl 30 character shell (legendary ranks purged), rank points, clan stronghold structures.

What about spells and skills? if you dont keep those you might as well do a full wipe but make xp/ranking faster. but if you do keep spells and skills, then tanks get pretty messed up compared to other classes.

[octan]

You don't need a "soft pwipe" or anything like that, just start zoning and eq will load eventually.

[eddiex]

@albarn @octan

You seem to have completely missed the point.

A) The game population dies after about 1.5 months.

B) There are some players who are not virtuosos so need to grind longer to achieve their in-game goals.

To reinvigorate the lost playerbase while still allowing for players who need more time to achieve their goals, you can do a equipment wipe to potentially bring players who lost interest back.  As an added bonus people don't have to grind to 30 because doing that twice a year is dumb.

The position of just start zoning and equipment will load is not enticing for a player who had the best set in the game first and lost interest because:

A) they will have to grind again to replace it

B) it is highly unlikely they will be able to achieve a similar level of success due to small playerbase, isolated groups of players, less players altogether.

The response that an item is "mine" hahahahaha.

The response that just log on and grind hahaHahah.

Let's see how those reinvigorate the playerbase... Oh wait we already have. It doesn't work.

[albarn]

@eddiex excuse me, I didn't miss the point at all.

As a generalization, there's two populations at play on the Mud. 

A) People that play as a race to obtain gear and PK

B) People that play to learn new zones and for the value of the community

I'm going to assume that you're in population A, as your solutions are leaning toward a future where no one has gear anymore.  This way, you can race to load the best of the best and PK the rest.  You're right when you say that Population A gets bored and fickle after about a month and a half, and quickly abandons their interest in Arctic to go play Dota or whatever.

I'll also assume that you're not a member of population B, as you categorize them as

...players who are not virtuosos so need to grind longer to achieve their in-game goals.

 

I make it a habit to get fairly well equipped, and then go learn 2-3 new (to me) zones each wipe.  I try to really study, map, figure out the quests etc, and starting with the brief notes I have it can take me a long time.  There's a lot of folks who flourish during this time, not needing to PK, not especially needing to compete for gear, but rather enjoying the community of their clan and getting to learn new corners of old zones. 

If you really want to reinvigorate Population A, consider wiping the gear of anyone that's been rented for more than 10 days.  That would keep people from deep renting, and give newly-naked players a goal and purpose (lest they get PKed themselves).  Or - maybe - you can only keep gear and coins on (at max) 2 characters at a time (this would keep someone from having 8 fully-geared characters deep renting gear). 

Do whatever you want, but recognize that those of us in Population B are pretty active and happy right now. 

[Dagda]

Agreed. This point in the wipe is my favorite time, as I can play the game for what I enjoy. Learning parts of the wipe and killing mobs. I know this is a pkill friendly mud, but I enjoy the PvE rather than the PvP by leaps and bounds. I don't want it to become PvP flag, but I do think people need to understand that the pkwars do drive people away from the game as well, so do ensure you keep some balance in how you play the game.

[eddiex]

It may be Your preference from a personal stand point to have the game as it is now. But when it comes down to it this is a multi user dungeon. Not a solo adventure.

A significant portion of the mud (quite possibly the majority of players) quit playing due to burn out, disinterest, etc. within the first two months of the wipe.

Wipes tend to be 9-12 months.

To suggest that quite possibly the peak population of a thriving game should only play for 20% of the course of a wipe is not balanced at all.

I could have merely suggested wiping every six months. However, my idea is considerate of the entire population of the mud not just my own selfish interest.  I am proposing an idea that allows for players who desire long term character development to exist while potentially allowing players who burnt out a potential reason to come back during the duration of a player wipe.

In your scenario, you could care less about the population of the mud because it's beneficial to you.

You can try to generalize the population of the mud into group a's and group b's.

That will never change the fact that this is a multi-user dungeon by nature and a larger population is an indicator of the game thriving despite your personal preference.

[Dagda]

I agree with your suggestion. An equipment wipe would be great fun. I don't think it will bring back more than 30% of the 'rush' playerbase though, but I could be wrong.

[Gramm]

i dont want to write another page long essay so lets just say, self control in pk, saves vs stuns, and new zone material/creators to help out.

[gulca]

i dont want to write another page long essay so lets just say, self control in pk, saves vs stuns, and new zone material/creators to help out.

I'm not sure if I understand you. Can you elaborate a little more?