Bring in New and Old blood to MUD

[Melat]

Game has to remain non profit Mel, as per the agreement we got from RJ in that letter.

I have some familiarity with non-profits, and they can receive donations. They can even hire people when funds are raised or donated and still remain 501 (c) status.

[ecthus]

The larger issue is whether those new coders would have anything to do. As in, whether they would or would not actually receive the go-ahead to change anything.

My understanding is that the three coders brought on around 5 years ago quickly completed their tasks and disappeared when they were given nothing else.

[Kerryk]

I played long blades when I first started playing the mud (1998) and all I could get was a long thin sword. I still played them even though it sucked because long blades are the most bookish weapons. I agree that they have been over balanced the last weapons update, but I also think they should be the main weapon of choice because of the world we play in. Just don't nerf them back to before when they never got played unless you had a heron marked blade.

edit--I also remember the main weapons complaint back then for years and years was the fact that long blades sucked

[Benjain]

As someone who plays mostly Dota2 these days (past 5 months or so), some observations/comparisons to Wotmud:

1) When I go to play, I know I'll get to play. You can sign on to Wotmud and search for PK in vain, waste an hour and sign off. On Dota2, I wait usually 5 mins for so for a game to queue. This is probably the biggest single reason I almost always opt for Dota.

2) Even if I find PK above, often it would be just 1 person. Dota is 5v5. 1v1 is just so boring. I realize thats a personal opinion as some people love 1v1 for some reason but for me its --boring--.

2) Dota2 is at least as toxic as Wotmud and I would argue that it is significantly more toxic at times. People can talk to each other, they don't even have to take the time to type out their hate. Can you imagine? Things that would get you banned from wotmud occur regularly in dota 2 chat. They do have a mute button however in dota 2. Very useful. So I don't really think its the "drama" on Wotmud that is causing people to leave. At least not for me.

3) Its not the "overpowered" stuff either. Dota2 is a game where people can snowball hard and you can get totally owned and sometimes there is virtually nothing you can do about it if your teammate in another lane feeds the right player. That is frustrating - at least as frustrating as having three fades beat on you with herons. The only good news with Dota is that every game starts over with everyone on equal footing.
But of course, there are always better players than you who feel "OP" or bad lane matchups (with 100+ heroes to choose from) or bad teammates or you just play poorly and get owned....

4) In general, good group PK on Wotmud is an awesome experience. A nice side of Wotmud is pking with people I know/trust/like. Many of the people I know on Wotmud would keep me coming back to play. Of course, a downside of wotmud is pking against the same people over and over. Without a doubt there a certain Wotmud players that caused me to groan when I saw them enter pk But I would say in general, that I've enjoyed certain Wotmud group PK sessions more than any dota 2 game I've played to date. The problem is that its so darn hard to find.

5) Variety. I would argue Dota2 has more but perhaps that just because I'm newer to it.

6) Balance. Tough to call as I've only been playing dota 2 a short time compared to Wotmud. In general I would say that Dota 2 has some answers to OP heroes, for example Lockdown. So even if one player snowballs on the other team, if you can coordinate well enough you can take them down with dust, chain stuns etc. Whereas in Wotmud, an experienced troll stabber or WB who understands how to survive in Wotmud and refuses to get low is perhaps the most annoying single thing in the entire history of gaming.

[Mantorok]

Sounds like a good example of when people could alt to make pk happen more.

[Lord Pe]

I think you are steadily flogging a quite expired gray palfrey.

Let wot live out its last little bit with some dignity.

I help new playerrs when i see them and im not negative to them... But in my heart i think "you poor bastard dont get addicted to tge mary celeste of gaming".

Anyway. The only thing thatd fix this game would be to add graphics... A storyline...and well ... Everything must go hah

[pial]

Problem has and always will be mismanagement of the game. That's been the source problem and always will be. I've never seen a group of people hamstring themselves and then whine about being volunteers more than the group that runs this game. There have always been people willing to put in work on the game but the people in power have been too concerned with holding onto power and or haven't actually let people help. Flash not letting people actually code on the game when there's been plenty of trusted players willing and able to has been slowly ruining the mud. Add in how some of the staff have run things over the past decade and a half and you get to the point today where people don't want to waste time on something that the people running it obviously don't care enough about to make it work well.

[Zeeb]

I think it would be a great boon if there was LS Rank 8 bonuses/remort or even the promise of such things...

I play on DS because even the possibility of eventually one day fading is kind of fun. On my LS master I have no such thing and the road of creating another master doesn't really seem fun.

As example, take fades...a lot of people are active working up to fade achieve the goal and are not active anymore. Put a handful of cool remort options for LS and you would see an influx in LS pkers (and DS seems to have a pretty steady amount and would definitely have more if there was more pk).

That is my 2Cents...

I mean even as basic as issuable heron for 100 qps at rank 8 would probably work...

[Relaes]

Problem has and always will be mismanagement of the game. That's been the source problem and always will be. I've never seen a group of people hamstring themselves and then whine about being volunteers more than the group that runs this game. There have always been people willing to put in work on the game but the people in power have been too concerned with holding onto power and or haven't actually let people help. Flash not letting people actually code on the game when there's been plenty of trusted players willing and able to has been slowly ruining the mud. Add in how some of the staff have run things over the past decade and a half and you get to the point today where people don't want to waste time on something that the people running it obviously don't care enough about to make it work well.

I mean, the bluntness of the former 13-year-old-gonna-make-myself-an-mc-and-kill-stuff-lolz-crowd has hurt this game just as much as what you describe. Despite these dipshits, people stayed and played. Not because of them. Some were fostered into the community and grew up. Others just said "firetruck you, I'll do/say what I want" and went to town in forum discussions and in game (breach of RP, cheating and whatnot). I would never call my hours played a waste of time. Obviously, any shortcomings on staff level didn't occur due to a lack of caring. The way people present ideas is sometimes less than polite and I'm willing to bet that the animosity between imms (also players mind you) and players stem from the sometimes horribly immature individuals who have graced this game with their presence. In turn, this might have led to a situation where people aren't interested in playing, helping out and adopting seemingly no-brainer ideas. It's kind of like the petitions for age-restricted servers on world of warcraft. Only that game isn't free.

[Orino]

I have enjoyed reading this thread.

I have really enjoyed the ideas of loosening (lessening?) the requirements for clanning. I have been around for a while, off and on. One thing that would be neat would be to try out some of the more elite or hidden clans. I have never had a chance to play some of the elite clans because of my lack of "coolness" or ability to impress the right people. Also, I just cannot commit the time needed to petition or join those clans.

I would probably play more if I got to try raken, wolfbrother, gaidin, ko'bal etc.

I miss big group pk. (That's all I will say about that)

I love playing multiple chars and styles. It keeps the game fun. I play a whole bunch of different characters on all sides, classes, setups.

Right now, I have been enjoying the simple fun of abs/bash on my ghar (especially when other ghars are on). I sometimes log on my SS to ride around on a torm. It is very hard to find SW pk right now. It would be neat to have a quick access route to the north for my Torm. Or the ability to send torm home after pk is done. It sucks riding back to falme. I rarely play my MC, FC and LS alts.

Orino