Sorry for the long post. Had some time to think.
What are some of the causes that have made you play less or not at all? *Firstly I don't like to play generic PC Amos. Usually I will have some sort of character concept in mind and some important background detail to give it an interesting history, and then if things seem to click when I am IG, I will fully flesh out a background for my PC, and its family history etc. Once I get into things I can get quite addicted and my play time skyrockets. With my latest PC I was averaging about 3-4 hours a day on work days, and my days off doing like 12+hr days in Arm. I was waking up, sitting at the computer, and then only getting off for bed, completely drained. This was mostly during the lead up to the War, but
I do find lots of enjoyment in the early days of a 'character sheet' and working on skills, as well as IC relations and building reputation.
The little hub we had going in Morrins Village was actually pretty fun, and I was constantly seeing PC's, and it was good to try and be involved in a greater story as it gave me some bigger purpose. I am a huge Tuluk fan, always have been, but I have to say it's been a little disappointing as the population 'seems' to have dwindled in the north since the war plot ended.
Why do we play Armageddon? I think the answer is different for everyone. I play because I enjoy making a fictional fantasy character, and getting to portray that person and make them as real as possible. I like to be the hero, or the notorious villain, or just someone who is unique and offers something special to people around him. I like to have a specialty, and be important to someone.
The more time I am playing my character, the more I can develop my skills. I'll be honest about that. I do get excitement when I see skills go up. Some skills are hard work, and its satisfying watching them go up. I much prefer it than the old days of not seeing any skill level. Once my skills are nearly max, all my time can then be shifted to other goals as my survivability goes up hugely with my skills. Being experienced at the game, I would say I know many ways to make coin and get rich once my character is skilled enough, although it can require lots of time.
What can be a turn off for me is if I am spending 3-4hrs a day on average, with also a couple of big days a week in the game working on my character, developing IC relations, and becoming rather wealthy, that I then have to wait RL months of time for certain things just because of what I can see as only an OOC staff trust thing, e.g. Player Created Clans warehouses and clan halls etc. I've more than got the coin to cover bribes, costs, I don't see any reason to have to wait.
I've played PC GHM merchants and I remember when requesting items not craftable and only being able to do an order 1/week, so I don't push merchants hard when waiting for quality wares, but a week is about my limit of patience, and if I am waiting to be able to spend my coin, I am less inclined to have a constant need to play and go mining, or foraging, or hunting, or crafting more and selling because it's coin going straight to the bank, and I can't spend it. I want more readily available money sinks in the game, so I have a constant need to acquire more wealth and spend it, which will encourage me to play more.
I may have burnt myself out with all the time I was putting in, but I haven't really played in about 3 RL weeks, and have been messing about in WoW again, and playing PUBG, so I am one of the people who has just suddenly disappeared, and that's part of my reasoning behind it.
I think staff need LESS red tape and have MORE freedoms. It's probably a scary thought for some, and in days of old such can lead to what appears to be favoritism to certain players as certain unique abilities or artifacts get bestowed and other abuses, but I just don't care, and trust staff enough to handle it not like the past. I want more fantasy, and more staff plots. I want a seasonal world plot focuses.
This season, come play Armageddon Mud and get swept up in the Horrors of the Silt Sea. Next season, we will commence the Awakened Dragonthrall, and following that look forward to the Mantis King.
Just google Plots and Adventures D&D and you can easily come up with hundreds of simple plot ideas or major ones. As much as I enjoy combat in Arm, I do get bored of killing generic carru #26, and scrab #205. If there are different, or unique enemies to potentially combat, and get rewards from, I'll be more inclined to be on, and trying to get involved.
Last thing for now as I am falling asleep at the keyboard. WAY back when I first got into playing RPI muds I much preferred FEM, HL, and SoI compared to Arm. One of these reasons was because I could easily distinguish the differences between gear levels, especially in armor and what was better, and as a beginner Arm was so much harder to understand. I wonder if other people found/find this difficult?
Typical medieval armor qualities are:
Plate>Chain>Scale>Ring>Hide>Studded>Leather>Cloth
Maybe some MORE transparency for such things, whether OOCly or skills IG that can determine what has better armor values, as it is a pretty important thing and as there have been many different standards and changes with staff over the years, armor values don't exactly match the descriptions, so the description makes it hard to judge from. Could even have a armor page on the website which more detail on armor values. If not an actual value, give it a low armor quality, mid quality, high quality.
Hide Armor - Armor value 10
Most common armor made from hide falls under this category. Chalton,
Carru, and Raptor are the main sources of Hide Armor.
Hope any of this helps. What I would like to put to staff, and I am not expecting any answer, but ask yourself, as staff, what would you like more of, and less of? What would keep you on your avatar and less on your PC?