Day 1 Population Density

[FantasyWriter]

I'm curious. Where is everyone planning on spending most of their time as we step into season 1?

Please do not discuss where you are playing, as that would violate IC/OOC barrier rules.
The answer is not necessary your starting location or your origin location, but where you plan to spend most of your play-time.

[Riev]

The option not given. Probably Allanak.

edit: Allanak added. Chose Allanak.


I play the game for the social interaction, and I think at the end of the day so do MOST players, so the most of them will be in Allanak.

[FantasyWriter]

The option not given. Probably Allanak.

Fixed. Sorry, I had Allanak in the question blank.

[LadyScorpion]

Allanak! I have been complaining for years we have too many xenophobic pocket sandboxes. It makes for an interest read..it makes the culture feel real. But it basically knee caps people meeting and mingling because you race hates race a,b, and c. And your tribe/city hates tribe/city 1,2, and 3. Then your clan has an issue with three other clans so you end up playing with 3 other people and your miserable if your clan mates die off. Big cities should be places where people of all walks of life gather for trade. If they aren't they don't stay big cities. No one wants to play a game where they login and only see 2 people around (or less) the first few hours of game play. I hope we see lots of faces in public areas.

[Lotion]

I can't believe sewers are so underrepresented

[Dresan]

Once upon a time on a random night after the copper wars long passed, the game found itself having about 103 people logging in to play. Normal login numbers back then was around 60 to 70.

There was no events going on so people were scattered doing their own thing. And as night fell, people began to gather at taverns. Every single tavern from Luirs to tuluk were stuffed full that you could not find a seat. This included the small tavern in the tuluk tribal market. A number corpses began littering places as people died from natural IC causes as well.

Assuming no rpts and most of the map supported, I predicted that about 100 people logged in people was the cap for this game. After that things would become more chaotic and unmanageable from overcrowding as players would struggle to even find room to sit.

Thinking that cap number is perhaps around 70 now. Mind you, this would be good problem for the game to have. But it can also certainly now survive with smaller numbers too, slowly attracting new players overtime. I do see more density in the future seasons, with more buildings, alleys, sewers, rooftops and secret areas added or expanded if more room is needed.

[Roon]

I think we'll see whole new dimensions of play made possible when almost everyone is gathered in one place. Previously, when we were spread too thin, many things that should have been viable venues of roleplay were hindered by the sheer lack of players in any given place. This meant that aspects of the setting that should have been real were not. That can change, now.

[Usiku]

Loving this! I have big optimism and hope for the future of the game right now. But I will say that it is still very niche, it's hard to reach the right audiences. We have seen a good number of new and returning players for Seasons but I am determined to broaden our horizon. I think there are large communities of text based role players (and other role players) who still don't even know that MU**s exist. Mudstats shows about 10k people online generally playing MU** too, but we reach a tiny tiny fraction of those people via places like Reddit.

So if you know of any pockets of communities or you have any ideas about how to reach people or you want to actively help in that regard, then please do let us know!

Likewise, if you see a new player in game, do take them under wing, try to resist the urge to steal their boots, remember the learning curve is steep and they might need a helping hand! 

[zealus]

Likewise, if you see a new player in game, do take them under wing, try to resist the urge to steal their boots, remember the learning curve is steep and they might need a helping hand! 

Highlighting this, because helping newer players is a great experience, in my humble opinion. And often they turn out to be great fellow players!

[flurry]

So if you know of any pockets of communities or you have any ideas about how to reach people or you want to actively help in that regard, then please do let us know!

I know of another (free, a bit larger, non-RPI) MUD who's been making progress in this regard by setting up a Patreon for voluntary donations that are put entirely into Facebook ads. I'm not really expecting that to be an approach we'd necessarily emulate here, but if you want more info let me know and I can send it to you through the request tool.

Likewise, if you see a new player in game, do take them under wing, try to resist the urge to steal their boots, remember the learning curve is steep and they might need a helping hand! 

Well put!

[FantasyWriter]

Likewise, if you see a new player in game, do take them under wing, try to resist the urge to steal their boots, remember the learning curve is steep and they might need a helping hand! 

Why not both?

[Dresan]

But I will say that it is still very niche, it's hard to reach the right audiences.

Its a niche audience but not as niche as you may believe.

This game plays like an interactive novel and even a tiniest fraction of the audience that would enjoy the genre regardless of medium would completely crash the servers. This is really evidenced by the fact that until just recently this game has never really to needed to change or innovate. Most people did not leave the game because of game itself.

I don't believe this game has an issue with money, it is hard to explain in these tough economic times but some of us are doing quite well in life. The game just needs to be transparent in its reason and cost, with services like Patreon doing the rest. However some guarantees that the game won't get shut down and the code stored in a lockbox would be needed. Choosing the right direction for the game and a willingness to change are the hardest road blocks we often face.

Honestly, in this age of AI girlfriends, ai voiced skyrim npcs, and cheap offshore development, we should continue thinking out of the box for more inspiration. I think the game could do a lot more to modernize the experience while keeping its deep RP and storytelling elements. Finally regardless of what we do, i strongly recommend we continue to forcibly move away from any dark sun references in both lore and documentation until at least 2073 when dnd begins hitting public domain. It was unnecessary in the past but I don't feel that is fully the case anymore.

[val]

i strongly recommend we continue to forcibly move away from any dark sun references in both lore and documentation until at least 2073 when dnd begins hitting public domain. It was unnecessary in the past but I don't feel that is fully the case anymore.

Still almost certainly not necessary, as far as being inspired by Dark Sun (among others) goes. The fact that Arm received a cease-and-desist letter more than 10 years ago that wasn't acted on leads to a banger of a laches defense. I'd be more worried about the Diku license.

I won't play day 1 (Father's Day weekend and all), but you might see me in the general area of Allanak every third Sunday of odd-numbered months between 8:14 and 9:20 a.m., or whenever it is I get time to take a peek at the current digs. Allanak proper has always been my second true love.

[Dresan]

A lot has changed in the last five years.

A few too many elements in regards to creatures, defiling, sorcerer-kings and nature of dragons are present to just be called inspired. Honestly just few more naming changes to make the game setting more unique would suffice. But this has no effect on my enjoyment of the game, so i  digress.

[MarshallDFX]

the Diku license

diku was re-released under LGPL in 2020 fyi

/derail

exciting to see a busy city!

[val]

the Diku license

diku was re-released under LGPL in 2020 fyi

Indeed. So it's about exactly as likely to be an issue as someone from the Dark Sun IP riding out of the sunset with a fresh C&D and then putting money into lawyers to shut the game down. Which is to say, probably not much of one.

I'm not going to tell other people what to worry about, but if a person is like 'hey maybe I shouldn't start in Allanak for Seasons because the game could shut down at any time,' they're possibly losing sleep over something that isn't likely an actual issue.* ** ***

* This is tongue in cheek, by the way, I know it isn't what Dresan was actually saying.

** This is not legal advice. Nothing in this post should be construed as legal advice. In fact, I might be a cat with a keyboard and not an actual layer. Rawr.

*** You should start in Allanak. It's what the god king would want you to do.

[papertiger]

I can't believe sewers are so underrepresented

But I dont know how to get there.

[Lotion]

I can't believe sewers are so underrepresented

But I dont know how to get there.

If you put in your background that you live in the sewers and wish up politely from the starter shops staff will often let you start there

[FantasyWriter]

I can't believe sewers are so underrepresented

But I dont know how to get there.

If you put in your background that you live in the sewers and wish up politely from the starter shops staff will often let you start there

I would recommend learning how to get there IG first and knowing the... difficulties of living there before dropping in as a new character.
For example: That one torch isn't going to last very long.

[Mills]

So if you know of any pockets of communities or you have any ideas about how to reach people or you want to actively help in that regard, then please do let us know!

I'm not sure if there are constraints preventing it, but publishing Arm as a free to play game on Steam may help in advertising the game and pulling in new players.

[AKawaiiBear]

do we have a time (not a date) for what time the game opens

[CalmThyPalm]

Highlighting this, because helping newer players is a great experience, in my humble opinion. And often they turn out to be great fellow players!

And then there's me, who turned into a gremlin, nyehehe.

[Gimfalisette]

do we have a time (not a date) for what time the game opens

12 pm (noon) server time (Eastern US).

9 am Pacific (Western US).

[650Booger]

those sewers sure are dark, sure would be nice if you could see in infrared...

[papertiger]

those sewers sure are dark, sure would be nice if you could see in infrared...

*squints*