Facilitating finding RP with a small playerbase

[Yelinak]

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

[Kavrick]

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

I've pointed this out a few times but the idea of people not being able to play the clan they like seems to cause a fair bit of upset. The game world is very very clearly designed for 50~ players, rather than 20 on a good day on on-peak. Consolidation is the only way you're going to manage to keep the game feeling 'alive', but I dont see it happening.

[Armaddict]

I've pointed this out a few times but the idea of people not being able to play the clan they like seems to cause a fair bit of upset. The game world is very very clearly designed for 50~ players, rather than 20 on a good day on on-peak. Consolidation is the only way you're going to manage to keep the game feeling 'alive', but I dont see it happening.

The game had only a few less clans back when prime-time was usually between 25-30 players.  The difference was that they were mostly city-centric (i.e. We have a lot more tribal/wilderness groups than then).  And being an indie was a lot harder, due to storage space issues and a whole lot more randomness and big baddies in the wilds.  So there was a LOT more variety in terms of 'I'm a warrior, who do I wanna fight for?' within the city, and whole lot less of 'I don't like cities, I'm just gonna avoid 'em'.

I am always a proponent for people being able to choose as much as is practical with an online survivalist rpg.  But I still think the problem is that we moved more opportunity to roles that more based on personal goals than clan-centered ones.

[LindseyBalboa]

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

I've pointed this out a few times but the idea of people not being able to play the clan they like seems to cause a fair bit of upset. The game world is very very clearly designed for 50~ players, rather than 20 on a good day on on-peak. Consolidation is the only way you're going to manage to keep the game feeling 'alive', but I dont see it happening.

"More choice" isn't the problem in my opinion. I don't think it would consolidate anyone to close things, because the game world is so huge; at most it could make some regions empty of PCs from time to time.

I don't think shrinking the game world is the solution, either, as that's just cutting away parts around the problem.

There isn't any reason to play in centers of civilization, where PCs would typically gather and interact. When there is - like the RPT today - people from literally all over the game world show up. 20~ PCs in and out of a bar over the course of a few RL hours. There's obviously a desire by players to have reasons to congregate.

Cities need to provide mechanical perks for players choosing to be there. Re: Allanak specifically, I still really think there's a need for a central, 'safe' ish spot for rinth/city/outdoors to meet, a la the Den; it needs to be reachable without over-concern of violence, and 'safe' inside because of in-game reasons and motivations that keep players policing players from doing anything there. It also needs to be a fixture.

Actually, I'm going to put in that request again.

[Tranquil]

I believe DeseretT mentioned that only 2 or 3 people came to the RPT in Allanak, which took place around the same time as this one. Yet ALOT of people went to the RPT in Luir's.

This goes to show the disparity of clans and the general malaise with city play RN. I'm willing to bet most of the Luir's folk were tribals or indies, which is where most of the playing population is right now.

[Kavrick]

I believe DeseretT mentioned that only 2 or 3 people came to the RPT in Allanak, which took place around the same time as this one. Yet ALOT of people went to the RPT in Luir's.

This goes to show the disparity of clans and the general malaise with city play RN. I'm willing to bet most of the Luir's folk were tribals or indies, which is where most of the playing population is right now.

I can only talk of my personal experience but I think Luir's is just overall a much more desired location. It's a spot that pretty much welcomed everyone. From northies, to southies to tribals and even Thryzn, you don't have to worry too much about prejudices, at least not to the same degree as going to allanak.

Also I kinda just prefer Luir's in every way. It's more condensed, easier to get around in. The markets and bazaar in allanak have been a headache for me ever since I started playing. Also the "vibe" as kids these days say is much nicer. Being in the gaj and seeing the Nth echo about piss/shit/vomit/violence is appropriate, but not my favourite thing. Storms end in comparison has a nice spice lounge, balcony and the fancy tribal room which is a personal favourite of mine.

At least from my personal opinion and subjective taste, Luir's just kinda wins in every category.

[MarshallDFX]

[Welcoming, clean, great lounge and balcony view]

I feel like I just read a TripAdvisor review.  10/10 post.

*Edit typo

[whengravityfails]

That's definitely one of the draws to Luir's for me as well, Kavrick. Not only do I hate being in Allanak for the general headache of "I wonder who is going to fuck with me out of the blue today and make life a hassle" but also the disgusting air about the place. I admit, I'm a squeamish germaphobe and the overwhelming atmosphere of shit/piss/puke in Nak - and especially the Gaj - is outright nausea inducing. The Den wasn't the cleanest place but it didn't have an oppressively disgusting miasma about it, either. Luir's, on the other hand, is positively a palatial resort town in comparison.

I don't know where I was going with this other than I agree with Kavrick and maybe people need to get in the habit of using Red's or something.

[whengravityfails]

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

Maybe close some of all these clans. It's a ridiculous amount. Ruins the game, frankly.

I've pointed this out a few times but the idea of people not being able to play the clan they like seems to cause a fair bit of upset. The game world is very very clearly designed for 50~ players, rather than 20 on a good day on on-peak. Consolidation is the only way you're going to manage to keep the game feeling 'alive', but I dont see it happening.

"More choice" isn't the problem in my opinion. I don't think it would consolidate anyone to close things, because the game world is so huge; at most it could make some regions empty of PCs from time to time.

I don't think shrinking the game world is the solution, either, as that's just cutting away parts around the problem.

There isn't any reason to play in centers of civilization, where PCs would typically gather and interact. When there is - like the RPT today - people from literally all over the game world show up. 20~ PCs in and out of a bar over the course of a few RL hours. There's obviously a desire by players to have reasons to congregate.

Cities need to provide mechanical perks for players choosing to be there. Re: Allanak specifically, I still really think there's a need for a central, 'safe' ish spot for rinth/city/outdoors to meet, a la the Den; it needs to be reachable without over-concern of violence, and 'safe' inside because of in-game reasons and motivations that keep players policing players from doing anything there. It also needs to be a fixture.

Actually, I'm going to put in that request again.

There's gotta be something to make Nak more appealing to play in to get people to play there. Shutting things down would just make me play in whatever is open that still isn't Nak.

[Kaathe]

This is pretty complex and above my pay grade. In the mean time, I will watch for players in bars in the Late at Night hour and animate, prioritizing solo idlers.  Be the change and all.  Let's collectively keep an eye on the clock and make a point to find an IC reason to hit the bars at night.   

Allanak has a special meeting place that crosses castes that nobody uses.  Morning devotions!  We could also try to get that going as a habit and meeting place since Nak has so many bars.  Thoughts?

[Kavrick]

This is pretty complex and above my pay grade. In the mean time, I will watch for players in bars in the Late at Night hour and animate, prioritizing solo idlers.  Be the change and all.  Let's collectively keep an eye on the clock and make a point to find an IC reason to hit the bars at night.   

Allanak has a special meeting place that crosses castes that nobody uses.  Morning devotions!  We could also try to get that going as a habit and meeting place since Nak has so many bars.  Thoughts?

I think allanak has a lot of potential but suffers a little from people not really wanting to do solo rp. Like you could 100% go to morning devotions, but when someone sees that no one else does it, not even Arm of the dragon characters, it's hard to want to do it yourself.

I do think one thing that would be good for drawing people together, and it's been brought up before but, public sparring pits. People can rp taking bets and the like, and would draw people away from just sparring in their compounds, because compound sitting is a bit of a problem.

[Kestria]

I personally attempted to campaign for things within Allanak during my time playing there last, that I saw needed changes to make it more of a 'people attraction'. 

I repeatedly suggested creating a public fighting pit in Allanak, and kept getting told 'there is one in Yaroch'.
Which yes, there is, but no one ever uses it unless it is for a Festival, and next to no one ever uses Yaroch apart from pitstops when hunting/grebbing.  More to the point, no one clanned, such as the Talons/Byn etc would be allowed to just, take off to Yaroch for the night to go and sit in the 'fight club pub'.  But this fell on deaf ears. 

Part of what made the Den attractive was the fact you could spar upon the stage, it made it a social place where people could punch each other.  The majority of the player base tends to lean more toward combat orientated roles because there is more selection to merge skills around with them, so everyone has a little basic understanding of weapon skills, which made the idea of a fighting pit in Allanak all the more attractive to me to encourage activity in the city.  Hopefully staff will see this keep cropping up and rectify it in the future.

Then there is Red's, which everyone complains isn't really utilized, again, something I attempted to campaign for was to have more soliders patrolling, because, at night there is -none- sometimes.  Or one off duty.  Part of the reason why people do not use Red's is because it is a pk hotspot, everyone knows it, because there are so many blindspots, and so little in the way of guards.  Yet people then pout that nobles/aide/templars/GMH's do not go there often, if at all.  Again, these pleads fell to nothing, I was instead told 'there are lots of virtual people that come and go there that haven't been killed'.   

[Cordon]

I personally attempted to campaign for things within Allanak during my time playing there last, that I saw needed changes to make it more of a 'people attraction'. 

I repeatedly suggested creating a public fighting pit in Allanak, and kept getting told 'there is one in Yaroch'.
Which yes, there is, but no one ever uses it unless it is for a Festival, and next to no one ever uses Yaroch apart from pitstops when hunting/grebbing.  More to the point, no one clanned, such as the Talons/Byn etc would be allowed to just, take off to Yaroch for the night to go and sit in the 'fight club pub'.  But this fell on deaf ears. 

Part of what made the Den attractive was the fact you could spar upon the stage, it made it a social place where people could punch each other.  The majority of the player base tends to lean more toward combat orientated roles because there is more selection to merge skills around with them, so everyone has a little basic understanding of weapon skills, which made the idea of a fighting pit in Allanak all the more attractive to me to encourage activity in the city.  Hopefully staff will see this keep cropping up and rectify it in the future.

Then there is Red's, which everyone complains isn't really utilized, again, something I attempted to campaign for was to have more soliders patrolling, because, at night there is -none- sometimes.  Or one off duty.  Part of the reason why people do not use Red's is because it is a pk hotspot, everyone knows it, because there are so many blindspots, and so little in the way of guards.  Yet people then pout that nobles/aide/templars/GMH's do not go there often, if at all.  Again, these pleads fell to nothing, I was instead told 'there are lots of virtual people that come and go there that haven't been killed'.

This is something I seen IG and put some serious love and hard work into helping out how I could IC. Thank you!!!!

[Kavrick]

I personally attempted to campaign for things within Allanak during my time playing there last, that I saw needed changes to make it more of a 'people attraction'. 

I repeatedly suggested creating a public fighting pit in Allanak, and kept getting told 'there is one in Yaroch'.
Which yes, there is, but no one ever uses it unless it is for a Festival, and next to no one ever uses Yaroch apart from pitstops when hunting/grebbing.  More to the point, no one clanned, such as the Talons/Byn etc would be allowed to just, take off to Yaroch for the night to go and sit in the 'fight club pub'.  But this fell on deaf ears. 

Part of what made the Den attractive was the fact you could spar upon the stage, it made it a social place where people could punch each other.  The majority of the player base tends to lean more toward combat orientated roles because there is more selection to merge skills around with them, so everyone has a little basic understanding of weapon skills, which made the idea of a fighting pit in Allanak all the more attractive to me to encourage activity in the city.  Hopefully staff will see this keep cropping up and rectify it in the future.

Then there is Red's, which everyone complains isn't really utilized, again, something I attempted to campaign for was to have more soliders patrolling, because, at night there is -none- sometimes.  Or one off duty.  Part of the reason why people do not use Red's is because it is a pk hotspot, everyone knows it, because there are so many blindspots, and so little in the way of guards.  Yet people then pout that nobles/aide/templars/GMH's do not go there often, if at all.  Again, these pleads fell to nothing, I was instead told 'there are lots of virtual people that come and go there that haven't been killed'.

There's some strange taboo with sparring pits that I don't understand. They're a great way to bring people together but they always have strange rules and allowances. I had been told in the past, even when the sole combat member of a clan, that I could not bring outsiders into the sparring pit to train. I don't understand the purpose for the constraints on sparring pits.

[BadSkeelz]

There's some strange taboo with sparring pits that I don't understand. They're a great way to bring people together but they always have strange rules and allowances. I had been told in the past, even when the sole combat member of a clan, that I could not bring outsiders into the sparring pit to train. I don't understand the purpose for the constraints on sparring pits.

Part of this taboo is PC safety - Clanned NPCs can act strangely when a clanned and non-clan PC engage in combat within their aggro radius. This is particularly true of crimcode-enabled clans, and to a lesser extent crimcode-enabled PCs. When I was in the AOD it was lethally dangerous to bring non-clanned PCs in to our barracks, and I was always leery of sparring others in their estates lest they get stomped by half-giants immediately after stepping outside.

[IntuitiveApathy]

The only objections I've heard that I agreed with are:
  1). It might provide confirmation that Amos is not online instead of just barriered up and might lead to OOC hijinks.

My idea of how a PVM would work is that the contacter wouldn't notice anything different at all - they send their psi message, and they just don't get a reply right away (which can also be realistic in-game play).  If people don't like that, tie it in to the gone code and/or put in an echo that the recipient seems to be preoccupied at the moment or something to that effect as an OOC signal that they're offline or even idling too long (is there one built into the game already?) or linkdead which would help mitigate the OOC hijinks problem.

2).  Sometimes you don't want to get messages from certain people, and therefore when you are online, you are actively barriering up to avoid them.  "Hello, this is Lord Templar Amos. Contact me withing three weeks or I will start exacting my displeasure upon your underlings.".

Perhaps it could be coded in to be able to set your PVM have a toggleable barrier function, and then if someone tries to contact you it would still run a barrier/contact challenge to see if they get through?

3) Might especially suck for Merchant PCs, "Hey, where's my Horror Armor?!  I've been asking for my order for a month, twice a week.  I'm complaining to your boss and Lord Templar Amos for ignoring me, next."

Like IRL VM, could be coded in to be able to set a limit on how many way messages it stores?  Or have them auto expire after a certain amount of time, or some other limitation?

4) It removes the ability to overhear or Way-drop in on such messages and can move anything shared this way out of IG interactions. "Remember: it goes down next week.  And the target is Drucella this time.  The tressy-tressed man with tresses."

Perhaps a new Psion ability could be put in for them to be able to spy on people's PVM's, much like the bios?  Some limitations could be put on this if it's thought to be too strong or inappropriate.

---

I really want to see this finally put in - I really think it would help facilitate gameplay and new player retention, but especially so for the off-peakers.

[Cordon]

  Considering everything I have learned and the opinions expressed I will work on being one of the more involved players. I am normally one of the loner players that don't pull the most RP into the community. That being so, I have decided to revise how I write my backgrounds to push me towards the RP staff are tied in with.

Looking forward to what comes next. Still have a lot to learn.