Lightside Needs Help

[Carn]

Hey Protus -- very long time no see!

It's been a long time since I played regularly... maybe 4 years? I've been keeping up with the forums every so often, and saw this post about lightside and thought about trying the MUD again. I've got a different job with some free time (and more in the summers, yay!). So I've been on for about 4 hours this week, mostly for the 2 hours before boot, on three different evenings.

When I've been on, there've only been maybe 7 people on all of LS. And I've played for an hour at a time. Only once has anything vocal been happening over narrates or chats. With that few people, there was only two person smobbing happening. I did get to join a small group for a brief while, which was nice, but still a whirlwind while I got used to playing again.

With only so few, I don't know much of what to do all alone. I never played this game for the pk -- I played for the group smobbing, RPing. If I ever pk'd, it was in a group, as solo I was crushed every time. For the 4 hours I've played, I have no clue what to do other than exp alone, and that's just not very fun. I've already explored much of the world, though there are some areas I'd like to get to still (IoMM for one). But, I never had the time I would need to invest to become good at pk, so that's just not an option for me.

So, to answer your question in your post -- how to help support LS, I have a few comments:

1. Be vocal on chat and narrates about anything and everything.
2. Post some ideas of what to do alone.

[Elysia]

To give you an idea of the imm time going to waste on workarounds...

I've been tinkering with a moboled way for zone sense. After trying various things over the past few weeks, which didn't work, I finally got my testmob to give some output:

(a silver hawk) You sense Porka nearby.
(a silver hawk) You sense Roxie nearby.

Obviously, the messages could be edited to leave out names. Having my mob give me names made sure it wasn't firing off mobs or anything like that.

Problem is... the only way to make it work results in the mob also triggering off being lead into any room, anyone arriving, fight spam and so on. It's also not 100% reliable for some reason, plus it would lag the mud like no tomorrow.

Work around #endless, failed. Several hours wasted. But still we try. Like I said, it's not like we sit around doing nothing. It's just that maybe only 1 idea in maaaaaany actually can be done with mobol and doesn't have negative side effects (like lag).

It's like trying to put a man on the moon with pre-WW2 technology, or something.

[varcoz]

As much as I personally love seanchan (shocker someone who's pro seanchan) it really needs to just merge with LS or something. I am not a big LS fan and even less a DS fan. It's so incredibly dead on that side and down south in general. There's simply not enough people left to support 3 sides. Maybe if something changes down the road. Like say advertising, more players this could be retracted. But as it stands its not a good situation down here.

I'm not sure on the dynamic of the change. But it would put some more players up north. (Barring the mob support/distance issue being changed with it)

[Elodin]

It's like trying to put a man on the moon with pre-WW2 technology, or something.

Does said man need to be in a man-sized shape when he reaches said moon? Is "life" required? Heartbeat, breathing, etc? I mean, I'm pretty sure we can work something out if you can be just a little bit flexible.

[Elysia]

As much as I personally love seanchan (shocker someone who's pro seanchan) it really needs to just merge with LS or something.

See this link on why that's not feasible without coding: http://forums.wotmud.info/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=2025

[varcoz]

Meh I know, just depressing to see the state of the game and so few players. LS really needs some help and players. Seanchan is just ugh to log on lately. Very lucky to log on to anyone oh who list or down south.

[Alayla]

Carn, thanks for posting. That really helps to see your perspective.

[Protus]

Just tossing out my observations from playing LS today.

I log on ask whats going on is 14 on LS

silence

I decide to take a stab at starting something. chat about starting a smob run. I get a tell from another saying hey im solo smobbing south and another saying he is solo smobbing also. We decide to all join forces.

55 minutes later we actually get together. I have now blown through most of the 90-120 minutes i had. Anyway, once we got together we blew through 5 smobs fairly quick. Donated all gear to caemlyn junk except 1 jagged sword, 1 pine jav and some misc abs. So 2 hrs later we were done and everyone went their own way. I took stock of what it took to get a group (3 person group), hit the smobs, and sort the stuff. Man it was a pain.

I am trying to decide what would of made me more happy on this trip. Not quite sure at the moment but it will come to me.

[Elysia]

Here's another time waster, for your entertainment.

Since before the crash, I was wanting a fix for the auction house. I finally think of one. I check the auction house, deposit items, bid on them. I write mobol that records all transactions so abuse can be tracked. I wait out the 5 days it takes for an auction to expire, updating the mobol and generally polishing it. I try every command. All seems well. Spent hours on it. I'm confident enough to announce the re-opening of the auction house.

Then I try to pickup the test items and... apparently when the auction house was removed, Eileen also removed the parts where it loads the items that one has bought or the ones which failed to sell. Ergo, it is useless and only a coder can fix it. Likely, only Eileen can fix it.

I'm currently entertaining gruesome thoughts. Axes. Servers. *hate hate hate hate hate*

Maybe I was being too generous when I said pre-WW2. I should've said pre-WW1.

[Eol]

That sucks

That all came crashing down faster than I would have believed