Feedback on rent costs [Resolved - thanks Ely/Viv]

[Bryan]

Hey all - just popping in here. Good to see a few familiar names still around.

Anyway, I logged in the other day wanting to check things out and maybe run around a little bit. It ended up being that it was going to cost me 7k gold to rent - yikes! I ended up just idling until a reboot, though I don't know whether that still allows you to rent or not (so I might be naked now? Not sure.).

So I want to give some feedback that rent costs might be slightly excessive for a well-geared player. My gear was pretty top end (I think), including a shocklance, so this might not be the average person's problem (though as a rank 5 DL I think I get a pretty good rent discount). But, as someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to devote to gaming anymore, it's a pretty big barrier to entry and definitely makes me wary of logging in on any other characters.

It seems like the MUD's changed a lot over the years and doesn't have quite the population it used to, so might be worth considering from the perspective of someone who used to play but doesn't anymore. It's fairly uninviting for my particular use case. I spent countless, countless, countless days playing across all my characters years ago (there's probably well over a full year of gameplay logged), so WoTMUD and the community still have a big place in my heart and it's a shame to not really be able to play casually as time and life permit. I'd love to see it be a more welcoming to old timers dropping by every now and then.

Anyway, I'm not really clear on how active the imms are/aren't these days, but thought I would throw it out there anyway.

Cheers (miss ya all)!

[Shinobi]

Were a couple crashes that messed up with rent costs. Pretty sure any immortal online will pay off your existing fine, then you'll start from fresh.

[Bryan]

Thanks for the heads up, Shinobi. I did try praying for an Imm that time after some DSers recommended doing that (though I wasn't aware there was a bug with messed up rent costs), but after about an hour and a half or so I had to leave. Trying to catch an Imm has always been pretty hard, and I'm guessing it's still the same.

Any times in particular that an appropriate level Imm is usually around?

[Eol]

You are unfortunately experiencing a rare event that can only happen to players returning from a very long absence who had premium very rare equipment. I'm under the impression shocklances have a very high rent cost.

Most people have built up a very large rent credit by depositing and selling common items. As long as your rent cost over time ie. the price per day x the total absence never exceeds your total credit you will never owe any rent and your rent credit will never decrease. In theory we should all be burning through our rent credit and having to restore it, but that doesn't currently happen.

[Elyse]

First off, you and Jagang (back when he was still a trolloc) were the first two *Bad Guys* to kill me back in my ancient newbie days, so you'll always have a certain warm spot in my heart when I muse about the old days. So welcome back, even if it's just a quick visit.

Second, my understanding of things is the same as Shinobi's.

Third, most rares and uniques now have gigantic rent costs. So yeah, a complete set without a rare weapon typically comes in at around one's rent allowance, and to the extent that you do have to pay more, it's not hard to cover even only playing rarely. But with a shocklance costing something like 50 crowns a day, yeah, your rent costs will skyrocket fast. You can make a ton of rent credit quickly selling smobbed up gear to innkeepers, which can easily cover any overages for basic gear rental, but it is indeed going to be tough to finance hanging onto a rare weapon or unique if you are absent for months at a time, unless you put in some time building large rent credit in advance. But best of luck!!

[Elysia]

After the crash, we've had multiple players come back to ginormous rent costs. We've been compensating for those in addition to the "once-only-rent-cost-compensation rule".

If you want, we can schedule a time through mails and I'll be happy to help you out. I'm on right now, in case you're reading this.

[Mangler]

Maybe we could remove the super high rent costs on Shockers/Herons/Dirks/Maul/PoG/Knife Axe/OCG? They're so common now that I don't really think we need the inclusive penalty of high rent costs to 'keep them in circulation'.

I understand it for uniques, but not for rares.

[Elysia]

You forget the part where an item that is actually being used has a greater chance of degenerating into uselessness, or otherwise being removed from the game.

[Eol]

Were the high rent costs in place when rank 8 "chests" were created?

[Vivienne]

I believe the item that was costing so much was actually a quest item, so it was not meant to be rented, let alone rented for years.