Re: Discussion Topic: Seanchan Race
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:39 am
I had a Lot of fun playing SS briefly sometime last year - in case it helps ideate, these were the reasons
disclaimer: i don't have any clanned ss / never played the side before / have almost exclusively played ls-Npk
1) easy to find pk and easy to figure out there isn't pk so you can save time and log off - so overall less frustration from waiting around / now knowing if there's pk or not etc. I felt I had more choice in what kind of pk i was getting into too - like do i want to go up against a channie, or stabber etc. Compared to ds pk uncertainty (whatever uncertainty there is after all these years ) so this added a different playing dimension.
2) the pk you find is usually with people who also want to pk and hence who are somewhat invested in back and forth pk -
overall, the pk experience was good and i felt like i was actually logging on to play a game where you win or lose but overall have a fun experience. often with ds/ls pk at that time it ended with people complaining about how the other side played, so this was refreshing and nice.
3) the roleplay was a lot of fun - almost all the pk was preceded by some RP which is again a missing dimension in DS pk mostly. It made for a fun change that you could be having this RP conversation while fighting.
4) x-race helping people out - there were some occasions where people were super helpful, like re-equing an ss lowbie, or helping out an LS statter etc, or else walking away after almost killing a very inexperienced player after some RP etc, just some variations that were fun and different from the usual N-pk stuff, and it added a slight storytelling aspect
5) More team-play.. at that time I had a couple of friends who were also interested in SS. It didn't work out so much because of time zone, but it was fun for the times it did. LS has all these factions so that feeling of unity isn't really there. Also unlike with DS we felt free to vary our RP - like not kill a zerk xper and instead try to show them how we're a great side they should join
6) sometimes it was like you log on and LS group is doing city head - not much you can do but log off really, but it didn't feel exactly hopeless. More like 'we need to recruit people'
overall - I felt like SS had a more friendly/chilled out and also RP orientation that I liked
THAT SAID, what wasn't working or could be changed
1) Apparently there was a group of SS running around who were basically giving SS a bad name by killing statters or some such. I think stronger RP standards (set by oldbie SS) for SS would be great. DS is already free to kill anyone, so SS could be a variation where you do kill LS, but you have to roleplay around it. (No one can force RP of course, but w/e - that would be an alternative). I can't recall the number of times my friends on ls/ds laughed at me for trying out SS because of those players - it became a real disincentive for newer/other players too to try out.
2) Some kind of auto-clanning process via quests like with dragonsworn for a more basic clan would be nice I think, with the option to be grandmothered (!) into a more bonused or w/e clan once you get to high rank (at the same rank) - I spent a lot of time playing with one SS oldbie who quit the game, and after that was just kind of floating around.
3) Some kind of a challenger thing that promotes low number pk - maybe kind of like blademaster arena with up to 3 players on either side (1v1, 2v2, 2v3, or 1v3 etc)
4) The boats (to'raken) were so great - whoever had written them, all the emotes etc were really good. Combined with the waygate, it was really nice to get to north pk. But I think a little bit of mob support up north would have been nice. Eol had suggested a ctf around west of moldy that door that no one uses - something an ss player could maybe solo clear and flip
5) Speaking of solo stuff, maybe a couple of chargeable smobs would be nice (besides singer).
6) I had no idea about where to do the stuff I do on LS like what can a solo person clear, or where to craft a weapon etc ..any mini quests etc. More of these and/or a kind of SS FAQ pinned to help forums would be good.
Of all this if I had to pick just 1 thing to change though, it would be the roleplay. If we have a strong roleplay side that also pks xrace, then I think you would get a lot of interest and that would address the numbers thing (whatever numbers are there on wotmud
just my 2 cents from my limited mid-tier playing experience of a few months in 2020
p.s - i forgot to mention the zones. some of the zones seemed kind of endless (admittedly i play without maps so there's that) - like to go from north road to that arad doman bridge area, you basically followt he road at the top edge with some curves - again apologies because i have no idea what used to happen there, but when i look at the wiki map there seemst o be a Lot of rooms below it but are they used? ( no idea, genuine question) - so it just felt like a 3-zone walk each way with nothing to stop there for. if they are pk zones or w/e maybe something could be added there so people hang around and end up playing there?
disclaimer: i don't have any clanned ss / never played the side before / have almost exclusively played ls-Npk
1) easy to find pk and easy to figure out there isn't pk so you can save time and log off - so overall less frustration from waiting around / now knowing if there's pk or not etc. I felt I had more choice in what kind of pk i was getting into too - like do i want to go up against a channie, or stabber etc. Compared to ds pk uncertainty (whatever uncertainty there is after all these years ) so this added a different playing dimension.
2) the pk you find is usually with people who also want to pk and hence who are somewhat invested in back and forth pk -
overall, the pk experience was good and i felt like i was actually logging on to play a game where you win or lose but overall have a fun experience. often with ds/ls pk at that time it ended with people complaining about how the other side played, so this was refreshing and nice.
3) the roleplay was a lot of fun - almost all the pk was preceded by some RP which is again a missing dimension in DS pk mostly. It made for a fun change that you could be having this RP conversation while fighting.
4) x-race helping people out - there were some occasions where people were super helpful, like re-equing an ss lowbie, or helping out an LS statter etc, or else walking away after almost killing a very inexperienced player after some RP etc, just some variations that were fun and different from the usual N-pk stuff, and it added a slight storytelling aspect
5) More team-play.. at that time I had a couple of friends who were also interested in SS. It didn't work out so much because of time zone, but it was fun for the times it did. LS has all these factions so that feeling of unity isn't really there. Also unlike with DS we felt free to vary our RP - like not kill a zerk xper and instead try to show them how we're a great side they should join
6) sometimes it was like you log on and LS group is doing city head - not much you can do but log off really, but it didn't feel exactly hopeless. More like 'we need to recruit people'
overall - I felt like SS had a more friendly/chilled out and also RP orientation that I liked
THAT SAID, what wasn't working or could be changed
1) Apparently there was a group of SS running around who were basically giving SS a bad name by killing statters or some such. I think stronger RP standards (set by oldbie SS) for SS would be great. DS is already free to kill anyone, so SS could be a variation where you do kill LS, but you have to roleplay around it. (No one can force RP of course, but w/e - that would be an alternative). I can't recall the number of times my friends on ls/ds laughed at me for trying out SS because of those players - it became a real disincentive for newer/other players too to try out.
2) Some kind of auto-clanning process via quests like with dragonsworn for a more basic clan would be nice I think, with the option to be grandmothered (!) into a more bonused or w/e clan once you get to high rank (at the same rank) - I spent a lot of time playing with one SS oldbie who quit the game, and after that was just kind of floating around.
3) Some kind of a challenger thing that promotes low number pk - maybe kind of like blademaster arena with up to 3 players on either side (1v1, 2v2, 2v3, or 1v3 etc)
4) The boats (to'raken) were so great - whoever had written them, all the emotes etc were really good. Combined with the waygate, it was really nice to get to north pk. But I think a little bit of mob support up north would have been nice. Eol had suggested a ctf around west of moldy that door that no one uses - something an ss player could maybe solo clear and flip
5) Speaking of solo stuff, maybe a couple of chargeable smobs would be nice (besides singer).
6) I had no idea about where to do the stuff I do on LS like what can a solo person clear, or where to craft a weapon etc ..any mini quests etc. More of these and/or a kind of SS FAQ pinned to help forums would be good.
Of all this if I had to pick just 1 thing to change though, it would be the roleplay. If we have a strong roleplay side that also pks xrace, then I think you would get a lot of interest and that would address the numbers thing (whatever numbers are there on wotmud
just my 2 cents from my limited mid-tier playing experience of a few months in 2020
p.s - i forgot to mention the zones. some of the zones seemed kind of endless (admittedly i play without maps so there's that) - like to go from north road to that arad doman bridge area, you basically followt he road at the top edge with some curves - again apologies because i have no idea what used to happen there, but when i look at the wiki map there seemst o be a Lot of rooms below it but are they used? ( no idea, genuine question) - so it just felt like a 3-zone walk each way with nothing to stop there for. if they are pk zones or w/e maybe something could be added there so people hang around and end up playing there?