What to do with Tuluk

[Fredd]

I'm pretty sure peak hours of play sees higher than 30s to 40s. Added to this, while it's true that the general peak isn't as high as it once was, the off peak hours are way more populated than they ever were before. Go back 10 years or so and it was a pretty Americentric game. Now? You wouldn't believe the number of players I've met who live in Asia, to speak nothing of our Aussie and Kiwi players. The quiet hours where the who list generally would say 7 on a good day, I've seen it reach around 25 now! That's nothing to scoff at. So even if the who list doesn't say 70 on a Sunday night at 10pm server, I think the overall number of players isn't quite as low as you may think. Filling all those clans you mentioned doesn't really have anything to do with the highest number of players to be found at 10pm. It has to do with the overall total number of players.

I understand your point. A couple things to consider though:

There are 2-3 different 'peak' times that players play. This is true. But the players of one are not exclusive to the other. There are many that play across all peaks. So these aren't exactly complete pools of fresh players.

I was mostly using the average I see. I'm not taking detailed statistics.  And the math was simple to show an example of what I meant. Opening a whole city, and having to open a second set of branches in clans, and doubling up noble clans.Isn't the best option available. Simply opening 1-2 older options can give people what they seem to want (Places to get away from past friends, so they don't have to see the heartache there death caused, or have to constantly hear about themselves)

[ghanima]

I agree with your sentiments, Fredd. I think reopening Tuluk as is (with all the clans it had originally) would thin things out. Fast! But there are a number of experiments which could be performed to see how they take. One would be opening a specific section of the city and leave the rest in its currently NPC state. Try it for 4 months, see how things go. For example, what if it was 100% for militia PCs only? And what if the sole purpose of this opened aspect of the city was intended to target its enemy, Allanak?

Anyway, I'm just throwing ideas out there, not saying that this must be done. The only thing I think at this point is a definite need is to give Tuluk some sort of closure (by destroying it IC, opening a part of it, or transforming it).

[Aruven]

After reading through this thread again with the best of intentions I must say, i'd rather just see the staff decide what happens with Tuluk. I'd honestly just be happy if they released a 'coming soon' story to explain it all, and give some closure to the people who actually roleplay and want to know how the northern saga turns out before it just becomes some kind of Kung Fury sequel. A 'coming soon story' would cover everything, and give future northern rolled PCs the ability to flesh out their character history moving forward.

Additionally, if the staff/playerbase ever bounces back 40-50 people again they can stop running NPC villains and open it to players again. The NPC thing is an option if they just release some stories via staff announcements or something.

What was our playerbase prime time when we had tuluk/allanak open back in the day? 90-100 players? 70-90? I don't remember. But if we're talking about game player depletion at 40-50 it must have been at least double, right?

[nauta]

What was our playerbase prime time when we had tuluk/allanak open back in the day? 90-100 players? 70-90? I don't remember. But if we're talking about game player depletion at 40-50 it must have been at least double, right?

Tuluk closed in Spring 2015.  You can compare the numbers of unique logins, so, e.g., week 10 (February) 2017 is 197; week 10 (February) 2015: 260.  So it's not double, it's more like (math people fill in the blank).

[evilcabbage]

it was like a 20% drop, really. we averaged, what, 50-70?

so 20, 30% at the most. not double. not even close.

[Riev]

After reading through this thread again with the best of intentions I must say, i'd rather just see the staff decide what happens with Tuluk. I'd honestly just be happy if they released a 'coming soon' story to explain it all, and give some closure to the people who actually roleplay and want to know how the northern saga turns out before it just becomes some kind of Kung Fury sequel. A 'coming soon story' would cover everything, and give future northern rolled PCs the ability to flesh out their character history moving forward.

I feel like at least my point, Aruven, is that I want to see staff ACTUALLY DECIDE what happens to Tuluk. Its been years now that we've had to roleplay around an entire culture in the game many of us have known is there. They're a stored Fale noble and we've been trying to throw a proper party for years.

[Fredd]

After reading through this thread again with the best of intentions I must say, i'd rather just see the staff decide what happens with Tuluk. I'd honestly just be happy if they released a 'coming soon' story to explain it all, and give some closure to the people who actually roleplay and want to know how the northern saga turns out before it just becomes some kind of Kung Fury sequel. A 'coming soon story' would cover everything, and give future northern rolled PCs the ability to flesh out their character history moving forward.

I feel like at least my point, Aruven, is that I want to see staff ACTUALLY DECIDE what happens to Tuluk. Its been years now that we've had to roleplay around an entire culture in the game many of us have known is there. They're a stored Fale noble and we've been trying to throw a proper party for years.

I think we all agree with that.

SOMETHING, ANYTHING, needs to be done.

[evilcabbage]

i couldn't give less of a fuck if "anything" gets done with tuluk. i never cared about it, i don't see why everyone is so up in arms that there "has" to be something done with it.

[Synthesis]

After reading through this thread again with the best of intentions I must say, i'd rather just see the staff decide what happens with Tuluk. I'd honestly just be happy if they released a 'coming soon' story to explain it all, and give some closure to the people who actually roleplay and want to know how the northern saga turns out before it just becomes some kind of Kung Fury sequel. A 'coming soon story' would cover everything, and give future northern rolled PCs the ability to flesh out their character history moving forward.

I feel like at least my point, Aruven, is that I want to see staff ACTUALLY DECIDE what happens to Tuluk. Its been years now that we've had to roleplay around an entire culture in the game many of us have known is there. They're a stored Fale noble and we've been trying to throw a proper party for years.

I think we all agree with that.

SOMETHING, ANYTHING, needs to be done.

I don't care much about Tuluk--one way or another.  Never did, really.  It could stay there as a black box forever and it wouldn't bother me.

On second thought...forever is a long time.  I'll leave open the possibility that it could eventually bother me, but it seems unlikely at the moment.

[sleepyhead]

I'm up in arms because (some) PCs can go to Tuluk but you can't know anything about what they saw. That is just awkward as hell.

[chrisdcoulombe]

I'm opening a cracker factory in Tuluk...

[WarriorPoet]

Everyone agrees we need more players.

Recruiting drive, pls.

[Cind]

You could just open the Legions and one noble house to begin with. A thinking soldier presence would be needed to keep the place from being overrun with pickpockets and 'naki spies who have no fear, and would add an opposition to Allanak again. The noble house would bring a sense of completeness to the city. You could choose whether your Templars will have support or not (be from the active noble house) if you're interested in hard mode.

You don't need three noble houses open to create conflict. People will find it if you only give them one or two clans to join. Oh they'll find it, be like white on rice.

[Arabian Nights]

I played some during the occupation of Tuluk and I played later on when it was its own. I enjoyed both. I have enjoyed playing in Allanak, Luir's, Red Storm, tribals, and Tuluk. To tell the truth, I understand wanting to consolidate the playerbase, but I am saddened to see Tuluk is no longer an option. I liked to change back and forth with my characters, avoiding those I may have recently been involved with in one area and avoiding plots I may have already been involved with. It helped to make each character a new and different experience from the previous. I hope it is reopened in some form one day.

[satine]

This could be an overly simple solution, but why not just start rumors of some horrible epidemic in tuluk? a plague?

[Riev]

This could be an overly simple solution, but why not just start rumors of some horrible epidemic in tuluk? a plague?

I feel like the issue with that is simply that its something we COULD verify or not, in game, but the area itself is just closed.

We just don't know whats going on, despite being told that "virtually, people can enter and exit the city no problem".

[satine]

if the city is quarantined, then people wouldn't be able to go in or out, and they wouldn't want to.

[Riev]

if the city is quarantined, then people wouldn't be able to go in or out, and they wouldn't want to.

It'd be a nice start, I agree, but I don't think if someone said "this entire civilized city has a dangerous disease inside and nobody can go in or out" that people WOULDN'T want to confirm or deny it.

Though, that kind of mishap in Tuluk DOES have precedent. I'm lookin' at YOU, Dasari.

[theexecutioner.01]

Or, I guess, just close Allanak to play and open Tuluk -- I'm one of those who didn't find it /that/ weird of a place in terms of docs.  The only problem I had with it was that it was pretty sparsely populated by PCs.

I also think that closing Allanak and opening Tuluk is a good idea, 'cuz I am starting to like Tuluk. But, Allanak is more populated by PCs. I think that closing Allanak would take a lot of work for the staff.

[evilcabbage]

closing allanak would probably almost literally end the game.

[ghanima]

closing allanak would probably almost literally end the game.

Yup. Definitely.

Any time someone proposes closing Allanak I think to myself ok either a) this person just doesn't know, or b) they have a self destructive streak.

I might even go so far as to say this was one main reason Arm 2 never came to fruition. It's good to shake things up, remove some things and add others, but tearing the entire foundation out is just asking for ruin.

[The Lonely Hunter]

Just because you don't know of a story that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist. If it does (regarding Tuluk or anything else) you are not entitled to know what it is for some reason. Most people are not all-knowing but many like to presume that they are.

Allanak /is/ the base of Armageddon. It is the foundation. To close Allanak would cause further damage to the already fractured base of the world that we all enjoy. I believe that many of those fractures come from people who did read the Tuluki docs and played mostly there but came to Allanak when it closed and didn't bother assimilating to the new city's culture. I digress.

New-Tuluk was a neat idea but not very fitting with the overall theme of Zalanthas, imo. I believe that it failed, in part, because the documents were often misinterpreted. A neat idea but we failed to pull it off.

I think new-Tuluk closing was the best thing to happen - and it opening in the first place was one of the worst. Tuluk during Allanak occupation was a neat niche place.

[GithMaster]

Turn Tuluk into the legitimate bad guys / threat. Maybe have some elements escape/get incorporated into the merchant houses. Have one die hard wandering tribe of rebels against what Tuluk had become.

[Harmless]

When Tuluk was closed there was not unanimous agreement among the players that it "failed," just to clarify that. A lot of us were content with Tuluk and wanted to see how much further it would devolve into totalitarianism in its final months. I enjoyed having played a character who was exiled during that period. I enjoyed playing a gemmed magicker after that who fought with Tuluk forces and succumbed to a psionic attack. There were things happening. It was not dead.

The staff at the time felt it should be closed. Whether or not Tuluk was a failure at all is a complex question with no definite answer.

[Rokal]

When Tuluk was closed there was not unanimous agreement among the players that it "failed," just to clarify that. A lot of us were content with Tuluk and wanted to see how much further it would devolve into totalitarianism in its final months. I enjoyed having played a character who was exiled during that period. I enjoyed playing a gemmed magicker after that who fought with Tuluk forces and succumbed to a psionic attack. There were things happening. It was not dead.

The staff at the time felt it should be closed. Whether or not Tuluk was a failure at all is a complex question with no definite answer.

This is how I feel, and why I am excited for the day the staff do bring Tuluk back.

it doesnt need t obe nuked off the face of zalanthas, and I feel those that are saying that aren't looking past the exterior.

Tuluk was my arm introduction. My first character was there. I had a blast, and it was by far the best experience ever that kept me playing the game, and i was recommended by helpers to start in allanak, yet I still went to Tuluk.

I didn't regret it.