The Solution to Basin and Please Stop Monetizing DS

[Reyne]

That said, I don't know what the solution is. A good website that actually shows up on the first list when "wheel of time game" is googled is a start. I just tried it, and wotmud wasn't in the first three pages, with Kinslayer on page three! The web client is a massive benefit for ease of access and no need to download a client or map - someone finding us for the first time has the ability to say "I want to play that!", click a link, and be in the game. Someone smarter than me might have better ideas how to get the word out! (I realize the intersection of the mud community and Wheel of Time fans likely isn't humongous, but it's gotta be more than 20 people at any given time slot across the entire planet)

Off topic but yeah quoting because I agree (this was mentioned on the Discord a few days ago so I think staff is aware at least). We really need someone to do something with the website, even if it is just to go through and do minor things like remove the name generator if they don't want to do whatever needs to be done to fix it - although I suspect there's something minor causing the 403 error.

- Search engines tend to drop your rankings if you haven't made substantive updates in a long time. The bottom of the website says last updated July 16, 2018. The actual front page doesn't seem like it has really been updated for even longer. A link to the Discord showing how many people are on there would be good as well, just in case someone pops in at an off time and there's only like 3 people on LS. The Twitter link goes to an account that hasn't been updated since 2016.

The "Play the Game!" link shouldn't be Telnet, and besides I feel like a random new person is going to be extremely wary of running a random internet extension dll. Throw a link to Stark's browser client in there instead!

- When you search for it on google the website's description is: "No information is available for this page." That's not great. There's little tweaks like that which can be done to make the website/game more visible. There aren't really many Wheel of Time video games in general so if someone is reading the books and wonders if there is an associated game we really shouldn't be as hard to find as we are. Right now if someone isn't already looking for a MUD specifically then they're going to have a hard time.

This isn't a fix in of itself but again they are minor tweaks that seem like they'd require minimal effort. Filling in a few missing descriptions, fixing broken links/pages, and then telling the search engines to re-crawl the site is just maintenance really. Changing out the telnet link for a link to Stark's browser client should be as easy as replacing where the url points to.

[Lykan]

Shut up, Lykan.

Fair enough. Sorry.

[Kryyg]

I never understood how it was fun to kill EXPers.

Exp is like the worst thing on this game and you further make it worse by hunting them. So mean. It’s not even remotely useful, majority of the time they will sprint right in or they were semi afk. That kind of PK is what Razhak likes so he can get a kill but it never appealed to me.

Ganking SMOB Groups was fun back in the day because usually LS always had more numbers and it was a smaller group of DS going after a larger group of LS deep in the territory.

Either way I don’t see the fun in PKing people who don’t want to PK, who are possibly not good at PK, generally not optimally equipped or practiced for PK.

If we have reached the point that we are bitching about not being able to kill people who don’t want to PK then we truly have reached the end.

I agree with all points for increasing incentive to PK. I disagree with anyone saying they are scared to lose gear. The game has so much gear and even dung tier sets will give you 300 defense and high damage output, which is a good thing. Skill can play a larger role.

Some things I don’t understand and is the reason I think the game is dying is:

1.)the coding ban which essentially locks our game in 2004.
2.) how a text based game can lag more than more visually intensive games.
3.) no player outreach campaign as suggested above.
4.) no active interest in making starting the game easier I.e. continued use of the statting system etc.

Every game has cycles and they have to adjust things to keep players coming in. This game has the best skill based PK of any game ever, except maybe CS, but throw in the element of losing everything and it just wins.

Finally, seeing Lykan post warms my heart.

[Zangief]

People keep forgetting to mention that the basin door only lets players in on pop. Typically used during slowest times after scouting fd/tv and hitting scouts doesn’t yield anything. And one in every so many looks yields 1 or 2 players out doing something in the world, out of a wholist of 6, and the majority is the time finds nothing or statters.

Can’t remember who posted it but someone said without LS players ds dies. This was mostly used as a tool with the intentions to find pk, nothing more. If it’s perceived in this day and age to be a mega weapon then it is what it is and the mud will keep evolving.

But in the end it’s a double edged sword, the people who are victimized by the basin lose, and the ds who hit scouts and rent because nothing answered lose.

[Draz]

Can I just say the HUGE numbers of people statting on their phones I think would influence this

Although I just checked who and there aren't any on - but my typical playtimes see 4-5 statters and about the same number of people on LS

And..I just don't get the point

[Turg]

I have an idea on how to draw out new players
at least prbably from other Muds

""""
""
Wotmud demo version
Create playerfile that only lasts for 2 weeks?
But It could be
Master Fade
Master Gaidin
Master Channeler
Wolfbrother

Whatever people think are cool from the books.

With moblead etc. Similarry as Ive seen imms create testchar this and that for r9 etc.

With setups like combo/abs/dodge

Aimed at new players to get a feeling of pk (as most opposed will anyways be bonused)
Could get some new pk going on
etc.

Might be impossible, but given enough marketing/storybuilding I think we could catch at least a few new players since the pk still excells compared to lots of other games

Turg

[iria]

Like the idea, but not sure how well it would work. A newbie is still a newbie and will still get their teeth kicked in no matter how many bonuses they have. It could work as an introduction so they know what they can work towards, but going from a heavily bonused character to a regular trolloc/human might be equally demoralizing:p Depending on if the player has tried other muds, they might just be equally lost wether they are on a fade or a newbie trolloc for the first few days/weeks. I know it took me a couple tries(until I found the newbie guide on boards) to figure out how to get out of caemlyn and what stats were etc.

It could be a fun thing for new players, once they've gotten their bearings around the mud, to apply for a bonused character for a 1-2 weeks or a weekend, but might create an extra workload on imms. Fun idea nonetheless.

[Rodger]

Completely different idea on how to help new players here:

This is half player enforced and half could use immortal help.

It should be really hard to get to level 35 still, and then maybe introduce the scalps after that. I've come across several really very new people who are like lvl 40's. As a playerbase we should let any new players savor the leveling up to 20's at least. By boosting them up, they are immediately going to just enter the phase of the game where they die a lot.

I'd suggest more aggroes in statting zones except Caemlyn and Emond's Field - with the exception of the best leatherleaf loads 1 or more zone away from a city (so botters can go there and not be seen).

I'd suggest players not power leveling new players, instead get them into the adventure aspect of the game. Meet new people, travel around, etc.

My feeling is we have boosted the beginning of the story so that it flies by and they just get to the meat of the story which means a lot of death and losing everything, which means discouragement. The start needs to be a little slower and not so vicious, there is a lot of safety (perhaps the only safety) in being under level 20.

I could be way off here, but I've pked with and against people who were in the high lvl 40's who didn't have a firetrucking idea what was going on (which is something I've never seen before).

[iria]

Not sure if making EXP tougher is a good way, perhaps adding more quest type things for exp would be better, get x item to x place and receive x amount of EXP, certain smobs giving a level if you're in the room for the kill hit and you're sub lvl 25, encourage lowlevels and newer players to seek out smob groups, so they get a couple pieces of equipment as well as some exp, I think games such as WoW do this with dungeons?(haven't really played a video game in years). Or just things that will prepare you for the different game mechanics. I loved getting invited to smob groups as a new player, but again with a low number playerbase, the old "smob group forming Skywalk" is pretty rare.

I guess another idea could be to have a welcome thread, where new players post who they are and playtimes, and people can seek them out in game, I know most of us would probably go out of our way to help a new player get familiar with the mud and answer questions, maybe get them started in some clan or in the process to clanning somewhere.

[Fermin]

1/2 price hone/hardening compared to LS would probably be a nice bonus