Lightside Needs Help

[Kordin]

https://sites.google.com/site/alayladesora/

[Alayla]

Ack! I just recently recovered my access to that site. It was still a work in progress back then, at least two years ago? Hopefully, if I have time I will be able to maybe clean it up some. Maybe a lot. I also never got to add armor/gear crafting. Maybe I can do that and the data can be shared on the wiki like most of my weapons crafting stuff was.

[Otoan]

So I tried to get back into the game. It just seemed kind of dull and I couldn't get into it. I pretty much have to wait on other people to do anything of interest it seems. When everyone is busy/afk/not responding, it makes it really hard to get into the game. There didn't seem to even be pk going on where I could just follow someone and spam dung. I haven't played this game in years and my zone knowledge was pretty abysmal back then so its even worse now and attempting solo pk seemed like a great way to die and not learn much.

[Otoan]

Also all the people saying stats shouldn't be/isn't a big problem...Every time I've logged in about 25% of the LS population were statters. Obviously these people want to play. They just aren't getting the characters they want.

[Choen]

Also all the people saying stats shouldn't be/isn't a big problem...Every time I've logged in about 25% of the LS population were statters. Obviously these people want to play. They just aren't getting the characters they want.

Of those 25%, you'll find (if you actually asked them rather than assumed) that most of them are established players. I might discover around 1 true newbie per week during my Australian (off-peak) playtime. If any established players aren't finding pk or smob groups, I encourage you to take your playtime and invest it into newbie helping. If you can spend 20 minutes with a newbie to make their experience better, give them some equipment, inform them of the wotmud basics (globals/pre-rolled stats/stats/clans/pk/-anything you would consider exciting as a new player) it goes a -long- way. I've spent the last 2 or 3 weeks doing this, and witnessed everyone pitching in and as a result we've retained 2 brand new players.


Maybe Otoan, try and initiate the fun that you're yearning. Advertise that you're looking for a smob group to join, or even initiate a smob group yourself. You'll find that even if you can't lead, someone else that wants to join can.

Refresh yourself with zone knowledge. It should be fun. I know myself that when the imms revamp a zone, I personally enjoy exploring it.

I don't know man, you seem kind of pissed off with nothing happening, yet you want to do nothing about the situation to improve it.

[Mantorok]

Thing is you gotta make stuff happen. People will log on, ask if there's pk and afk or rent if there isn't rather than go and look. Or you'll have a ton on one side and only a couple on the other!

LS chats are strangely quiet though. I try to make it more lively when I'm on but it often turns into me talking to myself cause nobody else responds, but that also changes depending on the time of day. What are you usual play times relative to the server (Eastern US) Otoan?

[Otoan]

If those 2-4 people on average are established players, why aren't they just playing their character/s? If they were to log on there'd be enough people to do something.

I don't see why you are saying I'm pissed off that there's nothing to do. I'm giving you advice as to why a returning player is finding it hard to get into the game. There are plenty of other games out there that can be played where there is no need to spend your gaming time organizing groups/events for a game you just came back to.

I've given you my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

[Paigey]

I've interacted with ~5+ true newbies the past week or two. Its really hard to convince a new player who wants to be a channeler to be something else which is frustrating because the learning curve is enormous compared to just being a ranger or hunter and the stat situation is daunting and demands they pick an appropriate homeland. The ones who set out to get good stats all seem to have eventually done so though at least two of the people I know got great stats have already quit from the looks of things. Don't know that, but the levels are changing and I haven't seen them on. People were generous with gear which is very nice. The tricky part is being generous with helping them exp. I suppose the little doves will eventually have to leave the nest that is Kintara. I exped a couple of new midlevels and eventually just gave up and started issuing pines. Pines are either the best thing in the game or the worst thing in the game. They make most other exp look crappy. I spent an hour leading a guy around a bunch of zones trying to mix it up and kill lions and bears and what not for a grand total of 1 level, but for 3 qps and less time he got like 4 more levels.

[Thrasymachus]

Statting is what a lot of people do, when there's not much else to do, or they don't really want to do the solo smob/pk or duo smob/pk thing that's the usual fare. I used to think that stating should just go away, everybody should get the starter stats that you can get now, and then get like 3 or 4 stat points (depending on class) to assign to your preferred stats. But I realized that if you did that, you're getting rid of a very necessary transitional experience. It's how new players get used to the basic interface, and learn the basic mechanics, and how a lot of old players transition both in and out of the game spend their time.

And you do have to put yourself out there if you're going to have much fun. If you're not comfortable leading, whether it be for xp, smobbing or pk, you're going to have a lot of waiting around (or casual statting) to do, until the people who will try to start some stuff get on. And then you can't wait around dilly dallying trying to make up your mind if you want to join in or not. I reckon that's a big part of LS's specific problem, that it's full of people (when it's full of people) not wanting to lead, and cautious of trying to start some stuff or join in on stuff. Getting players willing to lead to play LS more is one way to help out, but really, it's also about overcoming that reluctance to to "take responsibility" and lead other others around and take the lead in starting stuff up. And that's not going to happen without giving players better tools to lead more effectively, and more effective ways to bounce back from failed attempts. The barrels importing to Caemlyn's junkyard helps a bunch. But I still reckon the best thing for that is going to be a much better client than the choices out there now.

Creating a client is something those coders out there that want to help out could do without needing to wait on Flash or Viv or anybody else. And it simply can't be overstated how much a good client with a good map and good choices for keyboard layouts and customization could help make it easier to get in the game, get comfortable leading and playing in the game, and get back in the game after you move computers or spend some time away. Of course, there's also going to have to be some tolerance of letting the player who's possibly the worst leader in the group, maybe even on the side as a whole, lead for a while, even to the point of getting everyone killed and all their stuff DTed. But ya'll are cool with that, right?

[Choen]

If those 2-4 people on average are established players, why aren't they just playing their character/s? If they were to log on there'd be enough people to do something.

I don't see why you are saying I'm pissed off that there's nothing to do. I'm giving you advice as to why a returning player is finding it hard to get into the game. There are plenty of other games out there that can be played where there is no need to spend your gaming time organizing groups/events for a game you just came back to.

I've given you my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

Ever wanted to play another class? That's probably one of many reasons why they're statting. Who knows, ask them.

If I advertise for a smob group I generally get tells along the lines of, 'Hey, have you got enough for smobbing? Mind if I alt and join?'

There is nothing but negative feedback coming from you Otoan. I don't see how you think it's coming across anything other than snotty? The fundamentals of wotmud haven't changed. You've always had to wait for a smob group to form/travel to a smob group. Travel to pk, wait on or start pk etc etc. The only difference is the playerbase has gotten smaller. I've played this game for 12 or 13 years and can't remember a time when this was any different.