Playerbase Jump

[jstorrie]

Wow, has anyone noticed that the playerbase has been consistently higher on a regular basis every since the last HRPT or so? I'm used to seeing 35-40 people during peak non-RPT times, not 50-70. Influx of new players, or is everyone just logging in more often?

[RunningMountain]

Its people logging in more often.

[Halaster]

Both.

[spawnloser]

I know I got at least one player back to the game, so I'm doing my part.  Still trying to hook a few more people, though.

[Akaramu]

I came back roughly around the HRPT, but not because of the HRPT. It was the concept of my new PC screaming to be played.

[FightClub]

*dips head* I came back right when it was closing up.

[veryalien]

i'm leaving. "reroll self" is just too weak a character customization tool. this game would be perfect if you spent a pool of points on your attributes and skills.

[Cenghiz]

... maybe because stats really don't matter when you're 10 days old? My strongest mages all had average or above average wisdom...

[Akaramu]

i'm leaving. "reroll self" is just too weak a character customization tool. this game would be perfect if you spent a pool of points on your attributes and skills.

But the game is not about stats or skills, its about roleplay  :wink:

p.s. They also added stat ordering. Maybe you missed that change?

[flurry]

It definitely does seem to be more lately.  Would it be possible to somehow keep track of the max peak in the weekly update?  

e.g.

Most playing at one time (excluding immortals) this week: 89

i'm leaving. "reroll self" is just too weak a character customization tool. this game would be perfect if you spent a pool of points on your attributes and skills.

Do you know you can order your stats?  

Besides, with the different options for race, class/subclass, and (above all) roleplay, I don't think Arm is lacking in character customization.  I'd hate to see a player go for that reason, but to each their own.

[veryalien]

Yes, I know about ordering. It doesn't really fix the issue though.

You could roll pretty low on everything and have this massive muscular brainiac approved by the staff. See the problem? Only way around it is to mail the mud account and that just feels wrong for a diku mud.

No other complaints from me. Just very bad character creation. There are two other RPI muds I know of with a much more detailed one. The RP on all of them is pretty much the same. Some newbs, some niche guilds that rp well, and some people that rp mostly ok.

I'll still lurk in the boards for a while just out of curiousity.

[Beux]

I'd like to point out, that I had a char in the past, who had bad stats for what she was....so I sent a request to the staff about changing this...and was able to exchange stats on other areas to boost the stat she needed...it wasn't a very fair exchange, and I lost out lots on the not-so-needed stat, but it can be done.

If your playing a super macho warrior and you roll bad on strength (very unlikely if you put strength first), there are always ways around it. Plus you can always RP training lots, then send logs to the staff via request for the stat to be upped as well. There's always a way.

[Quirk]

You could roll pretty low on everything and have this massive muscular brainiac approved by the staff. See the problem? Only way around it is to mail the mud account and that just feels wrong for a diku mud.

I see the problem, right enough. Most of the problem is that if you think a roleplay concept should rely on physical ability, it's possible you don't have a great handle on what roleplay is. It's not about pretending to be a mountain of muscle. It's about reproducing the mental and emotional state of someone from a very different culture.

No other complaints from me. Just very bad character creation. There are two other RPI muds I know of with a much more detailed one.

I'm pretty certain you mean Harshlands and SoI? I was imm/coder on one, and was briefly an imm on the other in the very early days when Traithe was setting things up.

It's been some time, but unless the character creation's been changed wildly from my day, and it doesn't look to from the HL website, it isn't better; it just has different aims.

There's a set pool of points you draw from, and your stats are randomly assigned out of it from a weighting you give them. Fair enough. However, this severely limits diversity in PC abilities. In Arm, you live with the luck of the draw with stats; you get what life gives you. Arm doesn't claim to be fair in any sense save that it's equally unfair to everyone. The other muds have fairness as an aim, where Arm aims for diversity.

The same thing is true of skills. On Arm you're forced to make big trade-offs, on the others you can mix and match, and it's possible to pick things up in game anyway. The problems of choosing skills because it leads to potential min-maxing argument is an old one, and I'm not sure whether I entirely agree with it, but again: Arm focuses on having diverse character types where the others seek extra customisability.

The RP on all of them is pretty much the same. Some newbs, some niche guilds that rp well, and some people that rp mostly ok.

I'll still lurk in the boards for a while just out of curiousity.

No, the RP is not all the same. I can't really speak for SoI, since I never spent much time there, but Harshlands certainly never had the same strength in depth in RP as Arm did. It had a few very good players at various points, but almost every very good player I knew there also played Arm.

I suspect however that your conception of RP and mine are probably different.

[veryalien]

It's not very different since we played the same games. Not having fairness is fine. Rolling stats and picking from random dumb luck on an approved character concept is just counterproductive. You can rationalize it anyway you want but "reroll self" shouldn't exist if you don't want people min maxing.

In fact I'd be happy to agree to disagree with you guys if you weren't so bent on "stats don't matter." Tell that to a two week old character who gets steamrolled by a wandering tembo.

[Kennath]

It's not very different since we played the same games. Not having fairness is fine. Rolling stats and picking from random dumb luck on an approved character concept is just counterproductive. You can rationalize it anyway you want but "reroll self" shouldn't exist if you don't want people min maxing.

In fact I'd be happy to agree to disagree with you guys if you weren't so bent on "stats don't matter." Tell that to a two week old character who gets steamrolled by a wandering tembo.

Stats don't matter

-Ken

[Marauder Moe]

Two week old characters get steamrolled by tembos no matter how good their stats are.

I have to wonder, though, why are you posting this, veryalien?  When I get tired of a game or quit because I don't like something, I just quit.  I've never felt a need to declare it publicly.

[veryalien]

in that case please give everyone extremely good stats and make all races have the same base stats. all i saw was half giants and muls farming animals that don't respawn on reboot.

i watched them do this over and over.

[Cenghiz]

I don't do this often. I normally hate people doing this...... But it's explained the stats don't matter in this game. We believe in luck. We believe in clearly separate guilds and roles. It's this kind of MUD you can play here. It's mentioned several times but you still insist that the MUD doesn't conform with your standarts.
So.. I'm flaming: Haven't you left yet?

[veryalien]

Two week old characters get steamrolled by tembos no matter how good their stats are.

No actually, Muls can take them down very quickly at inception. Stats do matter for survival. That's my point. At least survival around wandering mobs.

In any case you're right. I shouldn't make a big stink about this. I just thought this would be a good thread to vent in since you'll see your 60-70 max players on minus two next week. Maybe three if my friend joins us on another mud too.

Good luck.

[veryalien]

I'm flaming: Haven't you left yet?

Good way to increase your mud membership. I'm outta here and that'll be a total of three people. The last comment just made my friend here at the lab start a char on harshlands.

Keep going. Arma will be back to the way it was a couple of years ago. 20 chars on.

[Malken]

I'm flaming: Haven't you left yet?

Good way to increase your mud membership. I'm outta here and that'll be a total of three people. The last comment just made my friend here at the lab start a char on harshlands.

Keep going. Arma will be back to the way it was a couple of years ago. 20 chars on.

That's still 10 players more on average than the mud you're about to leave us for.  :lol:

[Marauder Moe]

No actually, Muls can take them down very quickly at inception. Stats do matter for survival. That's my point. At least survival around wandering mobs.

Well muls are different.  A mul with the crappiest stats is still going to be stronger and tougher than a human with the best stats.  The game isn't meant to have new characters (or even old characters!) neccesarily be able to solo wandering mobs.  

You've obviously made up your mind, though, so I won't go into further detail.

Good luck.

Good bye.  Have fun in Harshlands.  Thanks for playing.

[Halaster]

A rather sad showing from our playerbase with flames towards a new player.