Now, I don't know whether this has been brought up before, but shapeshifters in my opinion should have some knowledge of when they're getting their next form. Consider that it's quite frustrating when you're waiting for one of your final forms and you don't get it at 44, or 45, like I saw one shifter (Illademn) get his at. You as a shifter should know when you're getting all of those forms. Maybe it'd take out some of the mystique of it, but I think it'd reduce player frustration and make the game a bit more fun if you knew you were getting form X at this level, etc.

Back when I was just a fresh-faced newbie imm, The Pico often did immortal promotions from rank to rank. Unfortunately, I didn't log the conversation that followed one of them, but it stuck with me a long time, and experience has only proved his advice more and more true.

Basically, the playerbase has two lists of needs- the list of things they tell you they want if you ask them, and the list of things their actions tell you they want. In some cases, these lists line up pretty well- for example, most players think they want the option of a lot of diversity of play experience (i.e., a necromancer plays very differently froma warrior), and their patterns of character generation reflect that.

One area where avowed preferences vary wildly from behavioral data, however, is how much mystery players want. If you comb our forums, you'll see plenty of posts like Gaenlin's- explaining how we should reveal as much concealed or random information as possible. Players routinely ask for maps of area X, what a Legacy "does", and the like. However, if you look at what people do, it's a very different story. People flock to undiscovered territory. They get excited about gambles, not successfully calculated risks. They ask for the spoon, but they want to find out themselves. I can't prove this is a quantitative way, but I've been an Immortal a good bit of time now, and I know I'm right.

What pains me more than the rampant spoon requests, though, is the fact that people answer them. It's one thing to help orient a newbie, and this is reflected in things like the new roadsigns, the semi-new Academy, our ever-expanding helpfiles, etc. It's quite another to try to play for them. It reminds me of overprotective parents- it's a good way to raise someone that won't fail because they never did anything. Sometimes, you have to let them fall off the bike and scrape a knee.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

.

I understand what Pico was getting at and agree. I remember the last MUD I played, necromancers had to master certain spells to get other more powerful spells. I know that when I didn't have a unofficial site to spoon feed me, I would literally spend hours trynig to master the spell just to see what I could get. It was something I earned. Unfortunately, I found the unofficial site and the fun ended. I deleted my necromancer the day after.

There is a common perception shapeshifters require very little brain to play and quite limited in what they can do.

So here is my idea:

Allow shifters to choose their final form in their major focus (minor stays random).

To Imms: Put restrictions on when/what form shapeshifter can choose - if you feel there is a need.

Also tweak final forms of the same focus to make them more or less even (weaken lion, strengthen panther, etc).

n/t

>Maybe it'd take out some of the mystique of it, but I think
>it'd reduce player frustration and make the game a bit more
>fun if you knew you were getting form X at this level, etc.

This is just part of the class. The two things you don't get
to know with this class are what specific level you get your
next form and what it is going to be. The window a shifter
can receive each form is is not huge, and if they can't cope
with the random aspect of the forms they realy shouldn't be
playing a shapeshifter.

Sevarecan

I've never really been a fan of random form assignment. Not that I'm totally against mystery, but some of the forms (even in the same focus) play vastly differently. See: anaconda vs. porcupine vs. crocodile. If I feel the need to play one over the others, it seems silly that I might spend 50 hours getting into the 40s only to be disappointed. Consider that other classes lack this randomness and are still popular and extremely playable. Warrior and paladin specs, legacies, thief paths. All are non-random and their respective classes are still fun and (relatively) varied.

The randomness of *when* forms arrive is so much less important than the randomness of *what* forms arrive that it's hardly worth mentioning.

>I've never really been a fan of random form assignment.

I know. You mention it whenever this comes up. :P

However, you can take it to the bank that players will never
get to know what forms they're going to get or have a choice
of forms or have a way to limit the subset of forms within
a focus. Consider that a ground rule for future evolution of
the class.

See you next time this comes up so we can repeat ourselves. :)

>The randomness of *when* forms arrive is so much less
>important than the randomness of *what* forms arrive that it's
>hardly worth mentioning.

I completely agree with that.

Ok, ok. So I'm a broken record. It's not a huge deal. (Shifter forms being random, not that I'm a broken record. The latter may in fact be a big deal.)

I'm just talking from my own experience here. I've had three hero level shapeshifters and all three times, it was frustrating whenever I got a form really late. However, thinking back, it would have been just too easy if I had known exactly what level it would be at. The frustration is just something that comes with the class. It's fun, cause here you are telling your group 'I might learn a new animal when I earn this next title' and it ends up being like three ranks from then. It's not like other guilds where your guildmasters have a set parameter for teaching you new skills. In the business of shapeshifting, learning to turn into an animal is tricky business and so in an RP sense, it has to be based on 'when you are ready' not 'when you reach a certain rank'. Again that's just the way I have looked at it, maybe someone else has a better explanation.