New rooms / new regions

[Delirium]

What I think needs to happen is existing areas need to be reviewed and cleaned up.  There is some really old crap around that is for old plots, some of it makes no sense to even be there.

Great idea.

Completely agree. While the new/revamped areas are great, there are a lot of things missing from old rooms and/or quirks due the inevitable results of hasty/timecrunched building. Missing links, no air rooms, misleading paragraphs refering to things that are no longer there, etc. I'd love to see all that cleaned up and detailed out.

Heck, if there was a "builder only" position on staff, I'd jump on that in a hot minute.

[Saellyn]

Given some direction, I would be all for working as a builder with no other insight into the game.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Given some direction, I would be all for working as a builder with no other insight into the game.

Agreed.

[shadeoux]

While just saying we want new rooms give us some direction, how about brainstorming some and perhaps give some insight in what may be wanted by the playerbase...
Personally, I've AWAYS wanted to explore Steinal it would be a great area to add and would be another reason to go that direction (from nak). Then it would maybe open up the far far mountains into a more useful purpose than it currently is, plus there is already history behind it in the first place...

I would help in this endeavor as well if you would set expectations for us to follow in creating it.

Thanks

[theebie]

as a hunter right now, i know in all parts of the world pretty much what expects me, and if i can take it or not, or what things/events i have to be afraid of.

i think changes that would make that more difficult/thrilling would be great. i'm not exactly sure how to achieve this, but it'd be neat to have more unexpected moments.
and i dont mean just buffing up stuff, since that'd not change much in the situation, would just mean that where i can go now as 10day hunter, i could go as 20day hunter.

maybe it'd be possible to spawn in a great variety of tough mobs ? from very weak gortok to really really strong gortok ? (and i know that they aren't all the same even right now,
 but maybe have the variety be bigger ?)
or maybe some sort of travelling herds of something ? that aren't always found in the same places ?

[ditchhook]

I think lots of folks posting here could benefit from Prof. Richard Bartle's essay on Players Who Suit MUDS
(http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm).

To summarize quickly: he identifies four archetypes of player values/goals/styles: Explorers, Socializers, Killers, and Achievers. One can even go to http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology and take a test to see how one fits on his 2-D graph.

But Bartle's main point is that a successful MUD needs all four types of players, even though the different approaches will often compel players to demand different things from staff. For example: Explorer types want an ever expanding world to explore, while Socializers will be convinced we all need a small world which would force everyone into a small area and thus foster more role-play and social interaction. Bartle's analysis makes clear that a balance is needed: without new things to explore-- without happy explorer types-- the socializers end up without much to gossip about in the tavern: (who got killed/rich doing what stupid/brilliant thing) and without an audience of socializers, the explorers don't have anyone to come back home to and tell their tales of adventure.

The task of the administrators isn't to choose one side or the other, but to constantly keep their thumb on the pulse of the game, read the signs, and subtly encourage or discourage one group or the other when necessary, to keep the community in balance. Each player type needs the other types around to enjoy the game. If the game gets so out-of-balance that one type of player largely quit for other venues, the MUD is doomed to wide-spread player abandonment.

It's a difficult task for staff: the web is over-populated with literally hundreds of failed MUDs run by staff who don't get-- or can't achieve-- the balancing act.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Traveling herds are an excellent idea. I would love to see more mount varieties. I'd love to see rare but unstaff-animated super versions of critters, although this is already semi possible (*conjecture) now based on the way that NPCs appear to learn.

I think that adding areas to the further reaches of the world is an excellent idea, because I don't think it dilutes the playerbase at all, in any meaningful way. We're not adding livable locales - we're adding exploration. I think we should see more villages and outposts. These are places to visit, not live with any sort of real comfort - we're talking five-ten room places. Some shops with items that can be considered exotic, and a tavern/dorm. No apartments, no crafting stations ... these are the mid-points of RPTs or a stop in the trading route of a traveling trader.

I think development of features that already exist within the confines of our current world is a great idea. We're talking about valleys, canyons, mountains, etc.

I love the idea of a constantly expanding world that allows for true exploration. I'd even roll it out as the location was actively explored. Some ranger might discover the entrance to a valley hitherto undiscovered, leading to a race for resources. Some House might set up a camp site and dig for a RL week and uncover a massive old ruin. These areas would have been prebuilt, just waiting to be linked into the game upon discovery.

Or add areas without announcement, allowing people to truly be shocked by discovering it.

[FreeRangeVestric]

On a somewhat related note, I'd love it if somewhere down the line, the distance between the cities was upped quite substantially. Even if it meant copies of the rooms we have now being the 'filler' between them. It just doesn't feel right that someone can spamwalk across the civilized world in less than a day.

I do love the traveling herds idea, as well. It would add to the variety in going out to hunt in a really positive way.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I wish the cities were farther apart too. Ideally, it would take two days of HARD riding with no interuptions to get from one gate to another, three days at a decent pace. Yes, this does indeed require rest stops. Hi, settlements, ruins, villages, etc. Yes, it does require either longer RPTs or successive days of travel. Hello, interaction.

Alternately, a stop gap measure is lowering movement points on both PCs and NPCs, including mounts. We can already walk a stupid amount of distance in the desert without stopping. However, this solution would hurt playability, I think.

So the ideal solution would be a remapping of the sections of the world between Nak, Luirs, the Tablelands, and Tuluk. You could leave those areas alone and redo the world mass around them.

[FantasyWriter]

I would love more of all of our wildlife to be made into MOBs, especially those animals that only exists virtually or only in selected places in the game but could/should exist in the wild.

Wild barakans, chaltons, escru, some kind of really shitty (codewise) but tamable mounts available near the cities. The ability to keep a herd of animals together other than having a breed/merchant/ranger "twinking" skill ride.

Also, different day/night habits for animals. Meks going into their burrows at night, bats and big cats coming out to hunt. Day animals "hide" at night and night animals "hide" during the day for those people who know where to look for them.  Predator animals would only chase after you during their active periods, but would still attack if you enter the same room. 

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Oh hell yeah.

[Delirium]

Again: detailing and fleshing out and fixing the world we have now before slapping on a bunch of extra stuff would be amazing.

As the ideas above illustrate, making the world more detailed and alive would go a long way toward combating "seen it, done it" boredom, even for explorer types.

edit: it would also fix some rather immersion-breaking stuff like - not being able to go 'down' from an air room.

[Narf]

I wish the cities were farther apart too. Ideally, it would take two days of HARD riding with no interuptions to get from one gate to another, three days at a decent pace. Yes, this does indeed require rest stops. Hi, settlements, ruins, villages, etc. Yes, it does require either longer RPTs or successive days of travel. Hello, interaction.

Having longer mundane RPTs would probably be a problem. Travel-oriented RPTs (where all you do is go from one civilized place to the next and keep someone safe doing it) are usually ideal because they take a predictable and easily schedulable amount of time. Increasing an RPT from 2-3 RL hours to 6-7RL hours would make them a prohibitive time sink.

Now if you were designing the world from scratch you could take care of this by putting important settlements in between, and stretching the RPTs out across multiple RL days (with stragglers having nice populated areas to play in when they log back on). And technically this is kind of what Luirs is, but that means Luirs at least needs to be a nice easily scheduled trip.

With the world layout we have, the only thing you could really realistically do without boffing Clan travel is to move Tuluk farther away from Luirs, or... make roads less cost effective stamina-wise to travel (which would effectively do the same thing).

[MeTekillot]

Maybe have a few little settlements pop up where you can get fed/watered, but not really cut out a decent living, so people don't decide that they'll live there from now on.

[FantasyWriter]

To further agree with what is being said, even as a primarily "explorer" type player, I would be more satisfied by new/expanding content than I would be new areas (not that I am against someone finding a new hole in one of the borders of the world that leads to somewhere new!).
I've been in the sewers and farther below, the far off mountain ranges, the silt sea, north of the grey forest. Give me REASONS to go to these places, and I think that is better than giving me somewhere new to travel once or twice just to tick it off on a list.

[Eyeball]

I'd like there to be more reason to leave the cities beyond grebbing and hunting.

It'd be great to see the Silt Sea be expanded upon and some new ideas of some sort built into it.

-----

I'd like to see the return of the days when PCs could buy small houses. Maybe give a housing merchant PC the commands to add rooms in one small area of a city. For the first room of a new house, he/she pays something like 10 large. 20 for the next, 40 for the next after that.

It could even just be one room, with the housing merchant PC adding enterable facades. For example:

A small, square mudbrick house slumps by the side of the road here.
A narrow two-storied building rises up near the turn in the road here.

And so on. House owners would have to go visit a Nenyuk office and register their ownership each year or the house becomes available for purchase again.

[Nyr]

I think lots of folks posting here could benefit from Prof. Richard Bartle's essay on Players Who Suit MUDS
(http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm).

To summarize quickly: he identifies four archetypes of player values/goals/styles: Explorers, Socializers, Killers, and Achievers. One can even go to http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology and take a test to see how one fits on his 2-D graph.

But Bartle's main point is that a successful MUD needs all four types of players, even though the different approaches will often compel players to demand different things from staff. For example: Explorer types want an ever expanding world to explore, while Socializers will be convinced we all need a small world which would force everyone into a small area and thus foster more role-play and social interaction. Bartle's analysis makes clear that a balance is needed: without new things to explore-- without happy explorer types-- the socializers end up without much to gossip about in the tavern: (who got killed/rich doing what stupid/brilliant thing) and without an audience of socializers, the explorers don't have anyone to come back home to and tell their tales of adventure.

The task of the administrators isn't to choose one side or the other, but to constantly keep their thumb on the pulse of the game, read the signs, and subtly encourage or discourage one group or the other when necessary, to keep the community in balance. Each player type needs the other types around to enjoy the game. If the game gets so out-of-balance that one type of player largely quit for other venues, the MUD is doomed to wide-spread player abandonment.

It's a difficult task for staff: the web is over-populated with literally hundreds of failed MUDs run by staff who don't get-- or can't achieve-- the balancing act.

There was a thread about this a while back.  I still don't buy that Bartle's stuff suits all games (particularly a sort that is itself a niche/minority in the grand scheme of things), but I don't really want to beat that dead horse again--you can read that thread.  The task of the staff of this game isn't to keep the community in balance based on Bartle's theories, but to staff the game.  Seeing as how our staff contract covers all of this and goes beyond it into the realm of roleplay (which ties all of these Bartle types together), I think we're okay.

[Nyr]

It'd be great to see the Silt Sea be expanded upon and some new ideas of some sort built into it.

When near or on the Sea of Eternal Dust, the weather command will indicate the level of the silt, based on lunar effects.

Not that it's a ton of rooms being built or anything, but the silt does that now, so it's got that going for it.

[FantasyWriter]

It'd be great to see the Silt Sea be expanded upon and some new ideas of some sort built into it.

The Sea was expanded on (content, not space) a few years ago, and even a new "mineral deposit" added. I am not ashamed to say that I've spent a couple characters trying to explore this new content and haven't even scratched the surface yet. I would have done more, but I don't like making consecutive PCs in the same area/with the same goals.

>POINT RED STORM VILLAGE!!!   Hoo-ah!

[Delirium]

This thread reminds me that the quit safe rooms in the wilderness of a certain couple areas got zorched in the last few rounds of building.

Replacing those would be nice.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

It'd be great to see the Silt Sea be expanded upon and some new ideas of some sort built into it.

When near or on the Sea of Eternal Dust, the weather command will indicate the level of the silt, based on lunar effects.

Not that it's a ton of rooms being built or anything, but the silt does that now, so it's got that going for it.

That is such an awesome feature ... curiously, though, does the level of the silt actually change, or is that an atmospheric message? In other words, does a room entitled knee-high silt change to chest-high silt if the weather command says that the tide has risen? Does that, in other words, mean that there are times when insta-death Sea rooms are not insta-death Sea rooms?

[ditchhook]

There was a thread about this a while back.  I still don't buy that Bartle's stuff suits all games (particularly a sort that is itself a niche/minority in the grand scheme of things), but I don't really want to beat that dead horse again--you can read that thread.  The task of the staff of this game isn't to keep the community in balance based on Bartle's theories, but to staff the game.  Seeing as how our staff contract covers all of this and goes beyond it into the realm of roleplay (which ties all of these Bartle types together), I think we're okay.

It isn't my intention to "sell" Bartle's work as a whole to you or anyone, but rather to glean from it the idea that what one person believes is obviously exactly what ARM needs can be exactly NOT what another player believes is needed. I believe there can be an issue here sometimes where people insist that there is one and only one best way to RP, to run a MUD, to use talk/say, to emote or use socials, where actually it is the very diversity of styles and approaches that make a game like this more enjoyable.

[Jingo]

What I would like to see is a more meaningful solution for city based clans to explore the wilderness. For mundanes of course.

Because realistically you don't get to explore if:

You can't commit to three hours a day.

You can't find two or three other characters to commit to that same three hours.

You and your friends don't have the relevant skillset (I.E. A couple of bricks to fight the big mobs and a set of ranger skills)

Any retards in your group that are liable to get you killed.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I think this could be doable if camps could be produced by leaders that were defensible.

Now, I know this will sound off, but for all intents and purposes, it would simply be a tent object that led to a camp, complete with NPC guards and all of that. So you would RP having a crew with you, then drop and make the tent object, and make it the base of your operations for the next couple of RL days, or pack up and move to wherever you were going to go, and make it again. It could have different messages for setting it up than the tent object has, but it would do the same as the tent object does. Save in the room, and save objects inside of it.

Then you could have folks wandering somewhere, and then have the luxury of not having to have them all come back at once when they logged off.

[HavokBlue]

I think coded camps are actually an extension of the wagon code so that sounds pretty tricky to implement but I like the idea. Wagons kind of do this already for some clans, though there are obvious issues with romping around the known leaving your wagon codedly vulnerable for real life days at a time.