lets talk about seanchan

[medina]

I loved hanging out on seandar from the day the zones opened up, but I still think it was the right decision to close it down. As mentioned it could have been done nicer though. At this point I think the side have been so abandoned that either it needs someone to invest time into it to make it more playable or shut it down. Hopefully the first. That being said, I did try and start playing the side again some time ago, but didn't last very long.

Firstly, make it easy to start on Seanchan. I feel like even though its easier get good stats than on LS, LS also has some crazy stat friendly zones like south Caemlyn. South Caemlyn is so sapling populated I regularly find people botting as you can't even clear the saplings in one room they respawn so fast. Most recently I found a level 28 botting on saplings. While in contrast you have the eye of the world or the road east of falme which is not stat friendly. Perhaps create an area (maybe even inside falme near that tower or hunter prac or even a small zone north of it) with Caemlyn level sapling hormones in the rooms.

This could be arranged fairly 'easy' by stocking the eye of the world with normal saplings and their repop system instead of the current ones. I also see quite a few SS statting south Caemlyn, and have never heard of any trouble with that.

So my second (yes, only two!) suggestion would be to look at increasing the amount of rent space people have or even potentially looking at a community quartermaster that all Seanchan can access (probably in the too hard basket though). Its very tough to re-equip when you only have space for one set of equipment and there is zero chance anyone else will be around to help you smob. I feel more people would log in if they could access equipment without having to alt equipment from LS. I also some how picked the only clan that does not have a clan rent (they told me this after).

This is the first reason why I stopped investing in my alt on the side. On LS and DS basic eq is so abundant that you can always pick up a decent kit after ripping while on SS it's a huge hassel if you run out of spare kits. Especially as 'new' players to the side will start without the acces of clan chests.

Could also think about putting in a small outpost with a rent some where. I think there is a vast array of options to consider here but I have to completely agree that it would be a waste of time if only to benefit one person being myself.

This is the second reason why I stopped. At least during my play-times it's always a gamble if I can find PK (regardless of side), but on ls/ds I can at least figure out if that's the case pretty quickly. The amount of time I need to invest on SS before I realize that there's only statters/non-pkers around is just too much with limited playtime. Having a rent closer to the action would help this.

[Rig]

Maybe if trying to clan wasn't such a pain in the ass. Last year I think I spent like 3 months trying to get into torm with 0 masters ever on! Successfully clanned IA on a shitty rogue though...

[Firimei Lang]

I can't even see them implementing the Aiel with numbers as they are, we might get an influx of happy oldbies for a bit and then nothing? Yes I am cynical!

[Isha]

The problem is the same problem that it's always been. The zones are too big for the playerbase. That won't change, because the playerbase is only shrinking, not growing. I log on my SS and go EF, then Caemlyn, then FD, then blight. The only pk there is now is north pk because it's quick and dirty. The zones are condensed. SW zones are just far too sprawling for there to be any viable pk at this point in time. The only solution for saving SS, if the staff even WANT to do that, is to convert them to LS, in my opinion. I just don't see any other way.

[Elysia]

If SS were to be changed to LS via coding, e.g. if the chats and narrates would be in order instantly, it might be doable. Perhaps the ability to group and send tells would have to be included. However, doing it manually is just more than, let's be real, I can handle.

-changing race is a 104 command, I'd have to do every character individually. If a person were to return later, they'd have to wait until I could do the homeland change.
-I'd have to change all SS mobs so they wouldn't aggro human and would aggro Empire wanted.
-This would probably mean SS would lose Kaf support, since there's no neat coded flag that would allow those to aggro.
-SS mobs like Suroth and Silvak would probably have to aggro everyone not in the IA, DW, torm and raken, lots of coded aggro replaced by moboled aggro.
-All in all, this would take a huge amount of time, mobs would be forgotten and create problems. It would get worse before it would get better.

Note that imping Aiel hasn't been on the table at all, it was a choice back then: Aiel OR Seanchan. -Players- like talking about implementing Aiel. Imms don't talk about it, since it requires coding and there's better items to spend coding time on.

All in all, yes, ideally Seanchan would be turned into humans with samesiding tendencies in the south-west and the ability to fight Shadowspawn if desired. But it's just too much work.

The only remotely feasible option would be to have SS remain as is and to offer homeland changes to "deserters", since that would leave mobs intact and just change SS characters to LS homelands. We'd have to find a solution for people with qps though, since we don't currently allow people to switch clans with qps intact. Obviously this is all assuming that would get approved by Staff, I'm just offering ideas that work on the immortal end.

[varcoz]

I know SS can't be merged with LS cause of coding so that's out and I won't comment on it.

I love SS personally, probably my favorite side. It's more challenging in a sense where it's just you 90% of the time. But this was more around 6-12 months ago. I haven't logged as much lately. Simply no one around, LS wise well and SS wise to heh. It's quite frustrating to have to run to FD or better for pk.

Beyond the implementation of a few things for SS to help lack of base. (Unlikely) There is not much point to playing it if you have accomplished your goals. If you dislike being alone it's utterly pointless. Most people on this game like group pk/pking with others. You won't get that on SS anymore. Not saying it can't happen again though. Just needs help.

If nothing can done to merge etc there are other more simple band aids. Romoval of some zones completely in SW. S tf gone, berries zone gone. Connect tf to mugozish zone. E EF zone gone, whole SW of PM gone. E EF connects to bridge to pm area. Make pm zone and w lug literally half the rooms they are currently. Chico road north zone gone, east of elmora zone gone, probably shorten up path patty zone/connect to s misties. Shorten up DR to s misties.

Add a rent/base for SS near North cut/gorthel zone. Including a scalp turn in. This is for playability, it doesn't have to make rp sense etc. Change kill human to work on DS to include kill seanchan. 3 way pk is absurdly bad.

More outposts/mobs throughout the map like DS has. And or no channel spots heh.

Morat'raken ride to areas. Such as white bridge or cut. Personally would add more. But would rather have a base so SS can get DS pk better if no LS.

[Cosmo]

I actually don't mind the distance to find PK and it actually means areas closer to home are safer which some people were complaining about losing. I've found it pretty easy to find PK when there is PK to be had, including having a poke war with Puny around Tear. It is just pretty difficult when you have zero support in active zones like the blight/borderlands where you are most likely to find the PK and ain't no body going to bring their group of six Falme zone. Could also be interesting if patties like Ragan and commie became Seanchan friendly.

If people are complaining they've lost some sprawling area to explore and smob in relative safety I think they still have that. Any changes should really focus on getting people to play, providing an incentive to either start a new character on Seanchan or return to an old one. It's honestly a pretty good area, the smobs are great, the exp is good, the clans are interesting, you just need to play.

[varcoz]

Also clanning for the most part is easier now then before on SS. Barring some oldbies who never play there SS wanting you to jump through hoops. If it was up to me it would be very quick. Raken is non existent and you will need a high up friend. DW is fairly easy, easy as pie on my end, rest maybe not so much. Torm is easy now that there's a remotely active master though he sucks. IA was always really easy I thought.

[Maeglin]

Raken are closed because their bonuses can make extremely bad pk if given to the wrong type of player, similar to Ko. Then, even if you fly to scout a group or go past a single choke, you're suddenly the most pathetic mudder alive.

Deathwatch isn't hard to get into. The only time oldbies complain are when someone refuses to have any modicum of rp or understanding of how seanchan works. Just reading the Seanchan section of the Big White Book would give you enough info to pass that. Even DS makes sure you understand why each clan exists. I made the complaint, as I originally came back to play Maeglin, but quickly left. Clanning people to clan people won't fix the side or enrich the unique SS experience that used to exist.

[Elysia]

I doubt we'll be removing entire zones. The problem is, so many zones contain parts of quests that it just becomes troublesome indexing stuff and relocating it, changing the hints further up multi-part quest chains and so on. It's easier to leave in all rooms and just choke it up, create dead ends and so on. Which, incidentally has been worked on to some extent, but obviously is going to take some time. Right now, I'm intentionally leaving the recent changes sit so we can review later and see if people like the general concept before changing even bigger sections of the map. But yes, west and east Lugard, Caralain and so on are certainly solid candidates, heh.