As a player that has been around since the late 90's I feel that I should throw my hat into the ring considering these massive changes coming to Arctic.
1. Who is the MUD pandering too? Hardcore players or players who play a few hours a week? With reducing the group size, you are drastically hurting the hardcore player base. As it exists, the current purpose of a major clan is to create the best 10 man you can if you want to finish end game and be dominant in the PK arena. So, our clan is consistently spreading out the equipment to everyone in the clan and helping each person become a better player to compete in PvE and PvP. Having 10 people in your group allows for leaders to see more of their clan at one time and identify and fix play problems. Having 5 reduces that.
2. I have been in many clans and with many different leaders. Leaders that equip 2-5 members of a clan and leave everyone else with fodder is a poor way of playing this game. It creates dissension, jealousy and does not help anyone progress in game knowledge... and that is exactly what will happen with 5 player groups. Every clan leader will realize that having 5 characters with all their elite eq will drastically increase their chances of winning pk and finishing end game. A 5 man "elite" group would be created in every clan, and ranking/xping/equipping them is all that will be important, leaving all the progressing players and newer players sitting in the cleric guild of every city hoping someone from the elite group has to rent. "I'm next in the group and %1 is after me." Take a number because that is how the top level clans will exist.
3. Typically the top 2-3 leaders in any clan are friends and want to zone together. Those three people are not going to spend the entire wipe separated running three different groups. It won't happen. Even if the mult-group idea worked in clans, imaging having 10 people in a voice chat that were in separate groups. Each group with their own agendas and be prepping for fights. It would be mayhem and eventually you would have 2-3 different voice chats one for each group. That is not how I want to play this game. WE have a lot of fun all being together in one chat, all working together to accomplish one goal. I can see your logic, trying to give incentive to players to start new groups and learn zones. But as you said, the player base is getting older. (Some of us) have jobs, children, wives or spouses. Having a ten man group allows for someone to log on, join the group for a zone or two and get back to RL without having to scour for a group, shout for a specific needed member or lead when they don't have the time.
The way I see this playing out is you would have a bunch of 5 man groups leveling as fast as possible, running just XP zones...not for rank/gear, just experience. Then when everyone is level 30, come together form a 10 man group and blast through high level zones. Even if you created a MASSIVE negative bonus, we would all still want to zone together....splitting up takes all the fun out of the game.
Honestly, from what I have read I feel like the game is going down a slippery slope. I understand things change and the game needs to evolve but what is causing the need for change? I honestly feel like the code is strong, PvP needs to be tweaked, for sure, but other than that I do not think it's the code that is making the player base shrink. And I do understand that when there are 30 players, this idea is probably a good one...but we start the wipe with 120+....Where do all the players go? They do not leave because of group sizes, that's for sure...its something else entirely.
All of these changes are scary in a game where balance dictates enjoyment. There are just so many moving parts to consider....This seems like this is a pretty massive change, I think its bigger than most of us realize.......can you be sure that your loyal players will be here once the dust settles and the game balances once more....
