Shattered Kingdoms

I don't see why scripts aren't put in place to allow one to just keyword to any stone from any stone.

People in Ayamao already can.

Counter-productive, I think. If you're doing an XP incentive, I think there should be a base XP modifier of 2.5 that exists at 0-3 players online that are in your aura bracket (gray/%align%). Then at 4-7 it goes to 1.5. At 8-10, 1.25. Exceeding 10 player in your aura bracket online, your XP goes to default 1.

Honestly? I'm easy. I'd be incredibly happy being able to get a #$*&ing resurrection at 5:30am (since I work 4am-12pm and usually play during these hours). I think having a 3 tick of exp/death penalty for being on when no one else is just #$*(ing sucks.

Then as we go to excessive activity, lead in to jhorleb's suggestions for high activity bonuses.

There's no chance that Dulrik will ever put in any advantage for people not logging in: Rewarding low playercounts with auto-rez or extra experience is just that. The point of the game is more to interact with others than to farm the expees, can you imagine wishing that people weren't logged on so that you could "play the game" more ably?

Well, then I'm really glad no one's talking about putting in an advantage for people not logging in, right?

Who gets rewarded that DOESN'T log in? Reading that just made my brain explode from cognitive dissonance. You're encouraging people to log in when no one else is on because you get perks, until other people log in. That...makes people log in. It doesn't encourage them to not log in. Wishing doesn't mean jack: if people are competing to be online for the perks, you win. You need something to counter the whole, "no one's on so I'm going to log off" mentality of the off-time players, like me. I have turned to Minecraft more than once at work because the idea of waiting 4 hours for a rez, or giving up 3 ticks of hard-earned experience, sucks. And there's no one to RP with.

Did you know exp taken away from breath of life/the oracle counts against area familiarity? You can be completely familiar with an area, and have netted not one point of exp total if you fail enough. When there's no one on to level with, and no one on to rez you...why would you bother being online?

I get exactly what you're saying, and I understand that losing experience doesn't return familiarity.

The point of a MUD is to play with other people, though. If you don't have anyone to play with, it sucks: Back when SK was down a couple weeks ago I actually logged into a very old mud just to reminisce, and there was -one- other person online. It sucked; That's the nature of MUDs, though, and not really worth changing if you ask me. Trying to implement any bonus for playing without anyone else online is in complete opposition to the "M" in MUD: It encourages people to play when there isn't anyone online, which isn't just a bonus to those: It's a punishment to people who don't log in at "off hours." Why should someone who grinds NPCs from 4-5 AM get experience faster than someone who grinds NPCs from 7-8 PM? Even then, will that really make more people play in the off hours? I highly doubt it.

Placing any sort of bonus for playing when few others are online seems like some sort of last-ditch life-support move that would just put the nail in SK's coffin because the point isn't to play by yourself.

What about just the auto-rez, Edoras?

I think the auto-rez is silly as whole: that said, it definitely should not be set because of low player counts. Taking the penalty of death out of the equation of SK and eliminating resurrection RP is not a good reward at all, especially for low playercounts (Hey, so no one's playing SK? That's alright, who needs priests anyway, auto-rez!). Increase XP rates like a bonanza for the reward, if you ask me, but the auto-rez thing makes death nigh meaningless for solo-players, and also annoys the crap out of people who are trying to explore a dangerous place where people die and need to be resurrected on the spot (You have to resurrect before they are auto-rezzed or they're stuck at the stones naked while you have their corpse.)

If you find yourself dying a lot while doing stupid stuff, then stop doing stupid stuff when there aren't priests online.

This was corrected almost immediatly after before you auto rezed there was a portal you could go through that prevented the auto-rez from happening, or you had to pass through the portal to get the auto rez, I forget which it was.

Maybe I'm just brain-blocked today, but only one thing you say doesn't run through my head as 1+1=3, and that's the "why should someone who logs in earlier get xp faster than people online later" question.

People at 7pm-8pm have people to rez them, people to group with to lower familiarity, people to get them gear, people interact with, etc, so on. The argument could be made that those who want to play the game in the off-hours would not actually be leveling faster at all - this change would just mean they aren't being punished for staying on when no one else is on. It seems like the case, now. And the fact that argument could be made makes the change worth visiting.

Alternatively, if they do get an advantage, why shouldn't they? They're enduring to wait for people to log in so that the MUD is populated. They're doing the mud a favor and the game should do one in return - because, I promise, if you're online with 2 people logged in, you are doing a huge favor. It's not a privilege or a bonus to be online with that few people on, and if you would like to think the ability to rez without wasting an hour of your time is an unbalancing bonus - try it for a week. Any and every form of leveling in certain brackets can be considered stupid. So you want me to not play when priests aren't on? That's beneficial to the game.

Respectfully (and I mean that), the rest of what you say is just 1+1=3 to me. If people are encouraged to play when people are offline, that's encouraging people to play. You're exactly right, the "M" means "multi" - and if no one's online in a period, why should anyone play? Why should we tell people they get to suck it up and deal with no interaction, a harder leveling environment, and no resurrection capacity that doesn't suck up more hours of their time in the game, just because they want to log in during off-hours? Patronage should be promoted, no matter what the hour. Plus having people on the who-list always looks good.

Also, are you seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY telling me that you are trying to force people into resurrection RP when A PRIEST WILL NOT BE ONLINE FOR 3 HOURS? Come on, now. That's just dense. This isn't some 20 people online people autorezzing bit. This is, it's 2 people online, there's NO ONE THAT CAN REZ OR GIVE LIFE IN ANY WAY, so if I don't want to give up my time spent xping I have to waste more time. If players are less than 5, and != priest, autorez activated.



You're exactly right. It's why we should take a step to encourage people to play when other people aren't normally on, and to make the time for those who are alone easier until people are. Does it have to work? No, not all the time. But some of us don't have time to play during busy hours, like me. It's a very fine line between me playing this and me playing another game, and it just as often tips to the other game as doesn't. I'm putting up an idea that would keep me on and active more. I don't propose to say what's in other peoples' heads, but if you want people like me around (and a few others have agreed with me, so them too) more often, it's an idea worth listening to. It's just one perspective and open to being shut down, and some points you make are good, but - and I mean this with the utmost respect, as I'm not really here to just talk trash, I'm just abrasive sometimes - some of what you say seems blatantly detached from the correlating logic. Bonanzas wouldn't exist, GRPs with rewards at the end wouldn't exist, etc. It's bribing people to participate, by your terms, which seems to be equated to some death adder. Bonanzas are the same thing. So are rewards for high activity. Horrible for the game? I call it making the game fun.

This is a game. Don't forget that. Encouraging people to play with fun quirks is never bad. It's not unbalancing or unfair.

The logic behind this change is meager benefits that self-scale and become invisible in even sub-optimal circumstances. It impacts a limited targeted audience, in a short-term but noticeable way, and makes things entertaining.

I also advocated for auto rez for low numbers and the exp bonus as a reward incentive to have more players on. Hand in hand thing if that didn't come across right.