I think the lower numbers on CF are just a result in a world of visual games. People have played with the wand system and prep farming for ages. So whats the real problem? I would say its time invested vs reward. When you turn on XBox or Playstation or play some MMO there is a sense of quick return on time invested. EX: Skyrim, a guy posted full skill learns (no cheating) at 200 hrs. 200 hrs is a huge number to achieve on a game in today's market. On CF though you might not have found all your wands, may not be in a cabal you want due to RP reasons and people just not interacting, may say one wrong thing and be anathema from Empire, etc etc etc in 200hrs. So instead of throwing it all away and starting a new how about this.

Make the game move a little faster? Make skills practicable to 85-90%? I know there is a +learning when 40+ people are on but build that in or leave as is if you make practicing higher? instead of spending 200 hrs to practice/perfect/explore/blah blah take that number down to say 50 or 90 hrs. Reduce char life spans if you want to match the increased play speed: 350hrs max instead of 650 or whatever. Leveling is fine, different ranges are always good.

Overall perhaps a quicker return on the players investment?

I was just trying to give an alternative to revamping the whole CF prep system. My first thoughts were "hell yea! get rid of that crap". Then i thought about it a while and looked back at how CF has evolved. Just my opinion but less skill/spell practice and more RP/explore/interaction would be fun and you wouldn't need to do massive changes to the wand system or preps or that stuff because people would be spending all those extra hours they used to be practicing skill/spells on exploring/RP or whatnot. Meaning actually playing CF.

just my thoughts......

And most people will still be after something with graphics.

That's why someone should put CF in Kongregate and possibly other flash sites. Preferably a heroimm or another imm. Gamers are a good target audience and it doesn't cost anything.

a

Splntrd

Who did the same. It appears that they have gotten 270,106 gameplays via Kongregate now since they put their games to Kong (done sometimes in 2008), 1200 of which have taken place during last 36 days, so they probably still lure a trickle of newbies in via Kongregate even though the newness of their game is completely gone.

CF would probably attract a bit less, but I think it too would get a good influx of newbies via Kongregate. A lot if they would put a badges for Fine Leather quest and Simon's quest.

I'd add, regular users of Kongregate are regular because they trust the content the site vouches for. Getting CF hosted on an established game hub would effectively legitimize it to millions of new internet pageviews - people who have never heard of MUDs before, in addition to the nostalgic old-schoolers.

Splntrd

And I don't so much mean it from a leveling perspective.

CF is just too big with too many areas to traverse trying to find someone to kill within roleplay restrictions. The past 5 weeks or so that I have played my character from level 30 to 45, it has been near impossible to track down appropriate enemies willing to fight.

I've always wanted some type of change relating to how where works or some tracking skill for all characters.

Rangers have track. Give that to druids.

Give mages some type of mana sensitivity spell to detect tendrils that relate to groups of races based on wisdom or their mana pool (e.g., casting it would indicate that a dumber race has recently passed through such as giants, duergar, orc, and felar). Hidden classes would still show up by this spell but the availability timer of sensing it is greatly reduced to maybe 2 ticks down from let's say 8 or 10.

Thieves/assassins can track via rangers but only on civilized terrain.

Orcs get some type of blood sensing skill but autodetects for elves.

Maybe priests get something related to sensing spheres or align.



That's one suggestion but others are still necessary.

Open up the where command to include adjoining areas where it makes sense.

Put a lag on teleport/word of one round or two so you don't actually recall right when the spell goes through but there is a period of 1 to 2 rounds of it taking place before a character disappears and then a 1 to 2 round lag of winding up wherever a character lands (some sort of disorientation/reorientation). And just like teleport is now, if you teleport and I reengage you in that one round of prep lag, you're not going anywhere (but no additional disorientation lag).

if the where command was also more restrictive on what it reported where appropriate. You could see people in connecting open areas, but in forests where would only work as far as you could scan. In cities, you could only see people on the same road as you. I think this would only really work if CF would auto-where people you've recently attacked as they traveled from one spot to another. *You spot Joe exiting the Galadon pet shop* Even with new tracking skills, I still think it would slow down pk but give more of a character experience to the game. Character experience is why I love CF. When I was a kid, I could get character experience playing Chrono Trigger or whatever, now CF is the only option for it. I think that is what sets CF apart from MMORPGs and even other muds.

I think it could add a little realism to the game, sight could become a new racial stat, climbing up to a high spot to get a look at the lands could result in a new venue for cabal battles. Still, CF is so big and this idea would really take looking at every room and deciding what a character could see from it. Sounds like a pain.

but it would reduce the worth of sneak and autosneak.

Half of the advantage of sneak is that it buys a lot of time as you double back on someone and they run the length of the eastern road in the wrong direction.

As a person, I'd really prefer the game not change at all mechanically. It's changed enough and it's fine, leave it alone. Only reason I play CF is because it's the way it is.

I understand that doesn't fix the numbers issue, but I don't think that game pace is really the cause. You can never make this game fast enough to compete with other games pace wise and still feel at all the same.

I'm sure there's something that can be done but this is the most undesirable to me, it's the last thing I'd try if I were making an effort.

I think more people would just roll more throw aways if they knew they only had to invest maybe 50 hours to get to hero with most skills perfected. (I don't know that more people would actually play because of this, I think it would just be that the people who already do would probably invest less with their chars since it is far less of an investment to create another hero- so you'll just have generally more heroes running around and less of a mix at lower ranks)

To me that doesn't really enhance the CF environment. I like that generally people will put some thought into chars and take time to develop them. Yes, it is more of an investment, but then again there's a reason I still play CF after 3 years and play pretty much no console games at all that I used to.

For those that want to, you can still power rank and work on your skills as you go or once you hero. Gnome shifters tend to be at hero by like fifty hours if they find good groups for example. You don't need every skill at 100 to be competetive. When you look at PBFs, no char has every spell/skill/song/commune at 100.

I have to agree that I like the pace of CF. I'd lose a lot of the accomplishment sense from CF if I could have my stuff perfected and be a hero in fifty hours. (I play the same char types over and over and I still enjoy the process of going from 1 to 51 and mastering stuff) Players have the choice now to prioritize what they want. Do they want to get to hero and screw around? (I did that with a minotaur sword spec and made it to hero in maybe 60 hours) Or do they want to take their time leveling and perfecting their skills and developing the char. Really, CF allows for both approaches, and I think that is part of its draw, that people can approach it to whatever play style best suits them.

I think I would probably stop playing if people could roll any char type and have stuff perfect and be a hero in 50 hours. To me that would just make the RP side of things wane in favor of the PK.

You do know that the "speed up" has already been put into play right? I mean you get +exp with low population and +skill learn with high population. Are you opposed to these changes? They by all means did not break the game but gave a little back to the player. I'm not saying cut the legs off of char. creation and make a hero in 50 hrs that was just an example. But take the gift already implemented to the next step. I know there are a few "hard core" players or "elites" who play 1 or 2 char. a year for 500+ hours but those are few and far between. If you can beef up CF numbers and get people back interested with a reduced investment time whats wrong with that? The overall balance of +% learn or +skill learn speed is totally up to the IMMs.

I also dont see how a reduce in the number of hours to perfect skills takes away from RP or game play. All people do is run scripts and watch TV when spamming skills anyways why not tone that down and let people focus more on the RP / char interaction part of CF? And seriously you cant say that having 6 people in your PK and you cant find a single one cause they are off hidden spamming spells/skills is what you look for in CF?? As it says here:

"The Carrion Fields MUD is a player-killing battlefield."
"Role-playing is mandatory here"

These are the 2 focuses of CF / again why not reduce the mindless spamming? I just dont see how that would take AWAY from the 2 things that CF is.

CARRION 'CARRION FIELDS'
The Carrion Fields MUD is a player-killing battlefield. Object numbers are
limited, so you will have to kill your neighbor for that nice sword. Players
usually join Cabals for protection and power, each with a home headquarters.
Each Cabal holds a precious item that it must defend from intruders. Role-
playing is mandatory here, which means that you are expected to play a
*character*, not just yourself. Expect to die, and don't take it too
personally. Enjoy your stay!
See: HELP ROLEPLAYING and all the help files listed on the MOTD

>>"I like that generally people will put some thought into chars and take time to develop them"<<

Isn't this done through RP? how does running a trigger or script for skills/spells affect char. development? Wouldn't MORE RP = greater char. development?

>>"Gnome shifters tend to be at hero by like fifty hours if they find good groups for example."<<

This is the leveling system, has nothing to do with spamming skills/spells. I think the leveling system is fine. So i agree with this statement.

>>"I think more people would just roll more throw aways if they knew they only had to invest maybe 50 hours to get to hero with most skills perfected."<<

I dont agree with this. More time to RP / cabal war / char interact and less mindless spamming I think would cause people to, of course, RP / cabal war / char interact more and therefore play a char. more. If you create a "throwaway" char. no matter what system you play under the char. was created as a "throwaway". Quicker development and RP / cabal war / char interaction might change that from "throwaway" to "oh I really liked how this chars. lifestyle came into play once I started talking to people and joined XXX cabal".

Unless you're an invoker.

Stop being a perfectionist and enjoy the game. You can do just fine without having everything at 100%.