Every now and then I get that small urge that tingles in the back of my mind. The old nostalgia of carrionfields (maple.can) and you miss the skull no matter what happened in the past. So I roll up a char or two to see if it has the spark still. I must say I found a lot of things interested and yet many more sad.

Just a few things:
Playerbase. This is what struck me as the greatest hit to CF. I know there are a dedicated handful who play, but to have at its MAX 30 players...that makes it very very hard. Now this is also something that can not really be helped on the Admin side, as it is a result in todays gamer where they have so many options both online and XB1/PS4. (and a gluttony of so many visual MMO).

The player base also affects many of the different other areas of the muds which seemed to have never been addressed or changed. One of these is areas. While an ever expanded mud was great when it hosted 120 players daily, this vast world for 30 people is a bit much. You can go literally days without seeing anyone while walking around. It makes it hard to interact and find anyone to hunt/kill. However short of removing areas there isnt much to be done. The only other option would be to group areas in a region (where command), but leave summoning to that direct area. *shrug*

Cabals: It is nice to see some of the old cabals still around and the spawn of old cabals..but they really need to be looked at in terms of playablity. You have many of the cabals where you have to spend hours and hour of real time to just have a CHANCE of pking a person to allow you an interview. I understand the need to be selective, however it takes away the fun when you have only 24 people on and as you rank solo you never once find anyone to kill. You spend 20 hours and your interest wans and again...the game isnt fun.

A lot of cool little adds, and additions to classes and such...however this game is still a huge time investment to get anywhere. I guess thats one of the reasons I left because no longer can you just pick it up and have fun for an hour or so. I know my opinions mean shat but its just some observations

Ah well, enough of a ramble and such.
Good luck

>Every now and then I get that small urge that tingles in the
>back of my mind. The old nostalgia of carrionfields
> ( maple.can) and you miss the skull no matter what happened in
>the past. So I roll up a char or two to see if it has the
>spark still. I must say I found a lot of things interested and
>yet many more sad.
>
>Just a few things:
>Playerbase. This is what struck me as the greatest hit to CF.
>I know there are a dedicated handful who play, but to have at
>its MAX 30 players...that makes it very very hard. Now this is
>also something that can not really be helped on the Admin
>side, as it is a result in todays gamer where they have so
>many options both online and XB1/PS4. (and a gluttony of so
>many visual MMO).

This sounds about right.

>The player base also affects many of the different other areas
>of the muds which seemed to have never been addressed or
>changed. One of these is areas. While an ever expanded mud was
>great when it hosted 120 players daily, this vast world for 30
>people is a bit much. You can go literally days without seeing
>anyone while walking around. It makes it hard to interact and
>find anyone to hunt/kill. However short of removing areas
>there isnt much to be done. The only other option would be to
>group areas in a region (where command), but leave summoning
>to that direct area. *shrug*

I assume you mean IC days. I suppose it's plausible that one could go days (e.g., an RL hour, let's say) without seeing anyone else at 3AM or if you were deliberately trying, but really, I think this is an exaggeration.

A smaller world might not be such a bad thing, I'm just not convinced it's necessary or worth the effort it would take to (properly) make happen.

>Cabals: It is nice to see some of the old cabals still around
>and the spawn of old cabals..but they really need to be looked
>at in terms of playablity. You have many of the cabals where
>you have to spend hours and hour of real time to just have a
>CHANCE of pking a person to allow you an interview. I
>understand the need to be selective, however it takes away the
>fun when you have only 24 people on and as you rank solo you
>never once find anyone to kill. You spend 20 hours and your
>interest wans and again...the game isnt fun.

Again, I understand where you're coming from here but I have to call exaggeration. I don't have hard numbers neatly laid out in a spreadsheet I can cite, but I do try to keep an eye on this and I'm very confident asserting that the vast majority of people in Fort/Battle, at least, did not spend much time at all waiting for that one PK.

Now, if you're just coming back from a long stint away from CF and your game knowledge, PK chops, etc., are rusty, then I imagine you might have a more difficult time than others. I can see why that might be frustrating, but I would also expect that after that much time away (or as a newer player) one would welcome the new challenge as well as have plenty of other things to occupy their time.

>A lot of cool little adds, and additions to classes and
>such...however this game is still a huge time investment to
>get anywhere. I guess thats one of the reasons I left because
>no longer can you just pick it up and have fun for an hour or
>so. I know my opinions mean shat but its just some
>observations

I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I think you're wrong that a person, at least one of the right mindset, can't approach CF very casually and still have fun. Now, maybe that's harder if that person is familiar with CF and used to a certain level of success / achievement. I can only speculate since I haven't been a player since those early days (maple.can), but I feel pretty confident saying that it's been a very, very long time since CF existed in the way you're describing, to the point where I'm curious how much of your nostalgia is selective memory. I have my own memory of the "good ol' days" and I'm occasionally reminded by other people that what I remember isn't always how things were. Part of enjoying CF in the present, I've found, is not trying to reconcile it with the past. Who knows?

>Ah well, enough of a ramble and such.
>Good luck

All that said, thanks for the observations and feedback. We hope you find a way to enjoy CF, but if not, we're glad you enjoyed it while the fun lasted.

>I assume you mean IC days. I suppose it's plausible that one
>could go days (e.g., an RL hour, let's say) without seeing
>anyone else at 3AM or if you were deliberately trying, but
>really, I think this is an exaggeration.

>A smaller world might not be such a bad thing, I'm just not
>convinced it's necessary or worth the effort it would take to
> properly) make happen.

Actually no it wasn't an exaggeration. However my playing data is indeed only a small sample of the week I played, so it is possible it was just a bad time for everyone. I played approx 3 to 4 hours (or more if bored) straight and I ran around at least 10 different areas in the course of ranking without a single person. Now as I said, it could range from time of playing, day of week..etc. Just gets a little deflating

>
>Again, I understand where you're coming from here but I have
>to call exaggeration. I don't have hard numbers neatly laid
>out in a spreadsheet I can cite, but I do try to keep an eye
>on this and I'm very confident asserting that the vast
>majority of people in Fort/Battle, at least, did not spend
>much time at all waiting for that one PK.
>
>Now, if you're just coming back from a long stint away from CF
>and your game knowledge, PK chops, etc., are rusty, then I
>imagine you might have a more difficult time than others. I
>can see why that might be frustrating, but I would also expect
>that after that much time away (or as a newer player) one
>would welcome the new challenge as well as have plenty of
>other things to occupy their time.

Again, not an exaggeration. I played 3 characters up to 20-25 and took my time and solo ranked up. I did not see someone who I could PK until mid 20's as there was only the 15 or so on..and of them they were usually 30+ in rank. But as I said, it could have just been bad luck in all those times much like the RNG. It was a variety of times and days..but will chalk it up to bad luck.

>I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I think you're wrong that
>a person, at least one of the right mindset, can't approach CF
>very casually and still have fun. Now, maybe that's harder if
>that person is familiar with CF and used to a certain level of
>success / achievement. I can only speculate since I haven't
>been a player since those early days (maple.can), but I feel
>pretty confident saying that it's been a very, very long time
>since CF existed in the way you're describing, to the point
>where I'm curious how much of your nostalgia is selective
>memory. I have my own memory of the "good ol' days" and I'm
>occasionally reminded by other people that what I remember
>isn't always how things were. Part of enjoying CF in the
>present, I've found, is not trying to reconcile it with the
>past. Who knows?
>
>>Ah well, enough of a ramble and such.
>>Good luck

On this I think you are 100% correct. It IS hard playing from an old mindset in how things use to be, and not use to the new differences. However I played for 10-12 years up till about 4 to 5 years ago regularly. That was in the hay days of time consumption and right before the addition of % adjustment for learning and xp. And I can also agree to a small degree everyone looks at things in a rose glasses kind of way. However I will also say that people who have never taken a step back from something, can often over look how things have become. Because they have been so involved with the project, game, etc..that they just dont see it. Maybe it is a bit of both from both sides. Who is to know.

In your pk when quite a few log straight back out.

nt

Ranking is easier. There's a near-constant 40% bonus and, if you're into timing such thing, you can choose to do all your ranking when the bonus is even higher.

I'll echo his sentiments about it being hard to get that first kill. Not so much because the game has changed; there are just fewer targets. But I probably wouldn't say it's as hard as he makes it out to be.

One thing I wanted to respond to:

> a person, at least one of the right mindset, can't approach CF very casually and still have fun

I think this is technically possible, but with a lot of caveats. If you intend to participate in PK casually without being totally steamrolled then there are certain class/cabal combos you should really avoid. Anything heavily prep, gear or practice dependent.

I appreciate all that you do for CF, but there is one thing here I thought I would point out:

>Again, I understand where you're coming from here but I have
>to call exaggeration. I don't have hard numbers neatly laid
>out in a spreadsheet I can cite, but I do try to keep an eye
>on this and I'm very confident asserting that the vast
>majority of people in Fort/Battle, at least, did not spend
>much time at all waiting for that one PK.

I'm glad you are aware of this potentially being an issue, and are keeping an eye on the stats to find objective data to support your decisions. However, those numbers leave people out and do not paint a complete picture. It does show that it is possible to pk someone, but there is a difference between "is it possible" and "how easy/possible is it". For those numbers to matter, you really need some way of including those who try to find someone to pk and fail, and even those that don't attempt because they are dissuaded by the idea of trying to pk someone before getting an interview. I know someone personally who is #2. Anecdotal on my part, yes, but neither you nor I know how many people fall into these other two categories compared to those who are able to get into Fort/Battle easily. If 100% of the people in Fort/Battle got in easily, it does not tell us how many failed or don't try.

>A smaller world might not be such a bad thing, I'm just not
>convinced it's necessary or worth the effort it would take to
> properly) make happen.

Why I'm commenting, an easy way to make the world smaller without removing much content is to make the connector areas smaller, or add more accessible fast travel methods across continents and between them. The first removes some of the realism, but would have the bonus effect of speeding up the pace of the game quite a bit. The second leaves the realism in place, but actually may be worse because it would spread out the ways people travel and might make it harder to find people. In other words, hanging out around Galadon/Eastern is pretty effective if you're looking for people. If there were several more options for getting around quickly, you might run into people less.


Hutto

Flip side of not requiring a kill before Fort/Battle leader interview is that the leaders are constantly bogged down interviewing people.

This reply does strike me as ironic in a sub-thread about a shrinking playerbase. But, the leader can always designate other members to interview for him. Or have applicants talk to each other. Or help out with scouting or raids. There is flexibility in the process of the leader's induction, that can change and shift to match the current in-game politics and player climate. There is no practical flexibility in the requirements to be an applicant.

Hutto

True. With a smaller player base it might not be as bad. I can say that when I had fort leaders I was sorely tempted to adopt an "easy in, easy out" policy where I would induct anybody who had a kill and a rec, but be ready to boot them if they sucked.

I for example enjoy hiding in far away places and not getting myself bothered by the bloodthirsty whomever, busy with my own things. That's just that, I don't enjoy being hunted down. With a smaller world - it would be much harder to avoid that kind of things.

And large connector areas create so many tactical possibilities it becomes a fun game in itself.

>I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I think you're wrong that
>a person, at least one of the right mindset, can't approach CF
>very casually and still have fun. Now, maybe that's harder if
>that person is familiar with CF and used to a certain level of
>success / achievement. I can only speculate since I haven't
>been a player since those early days (maple.can), but I feel
>pretty confident saying that it's been a very, very long time
>since CF existed in the way you're describing, to the point
>where I'm curious how much of your nostalgia is selective
>memory. I have my own memory of the "good ol' days" and I'm
>occasionally reminded by other people that what I remember
>isn't always how things were. Part of enjoying CF in the
>present, I've found, is not trying to reconcile it with the
>past. Who knows?

I find the game, as time goes on, to be a worsening time sink, rather than staying the same or getting better. In fact if you want to not be lunch for every other player, certain things that are quite UN-fun are almost obligatory. It used to be if I had a half an hour to kill, I'd log in for that half hour and be great. I could pop on, do stuff, have fun and log out. Nowadays so much (prepping, skill training, etc) is taken for granted that when I was a lowbie with my most recent character that EVERY fighter class I grouped with would ungroup at 15 to dash off to the mists. Every. Single. One. I try and do as much of this stuff as I level as I can, and if I have a mage I'll sit and spam spells when I have nothing better to do, but that's when I'm RPing or having a conversation or something mostly. I just don't spend hours spamming up skills and ####, in favor of going on and playing the game. As a result, even in fights where I know I have the advantage, a good portion of the fight is determined by who landed more of their skills, and the difference is tangible. Admittedly a lot of my issues are typing related these days, but also a lot of the time it's skill or spell failure related, when half my #### lands, but the other person lands every thing, near every time. There's some of the fun taken away from you when you're performing in a sub-par manner in PK, because you're a casual player. The struggle is real!

I don't get why people work on defenses. Honestly, that's the least of the problem when it comes to skill % gamesmanship.

If you want PKs you want to spam up stuff like bash, trip, enhanced damage, 2/3/4th attack, key weapon skills like cranial, etc. Defenses usually aren't the big deal. Plus, they're the most likely to just go up on their own as you kill mobs for gear, for money, or for ranking.

Now I think that stuff can still be a problem. That is, people devoting a lot of time to spam those skills up at low ranks so they can steamroll other players who *just* hit that rank and have much lower skill percentages.

That said, I have a paranoid suspicion that the staff has accounted for this "angle" in the code. I find that when I first gain a skill it's much slower to improve than when I try working on it 2-3 ranks after the rank at which I got it. Maybe just my imagination working in overdrive.

I'll add: CF has always been this way. This isn't a regression.

nt

Things the relevant code takes into account:
- The skill "rating" (some skills are naturally slower to improve)
- Intelligence
- Whether you successfully used the ability or failed
- Your level (not relative to anything)
- Longevity (hours played)
- Where applicable, the level difference between you and your opponent

And then there are a handful of things that make it harder or impossible to improve. Examples include being drunk, the dopey flaw, the mob being immune, etc.

Lastly, there are some differences when the Nexus bond power is involved, though I don't believe bond can ever hurt you.

This may be too much detail to ask, but...

The thing with hours played: is it a straight up modifier to learning rate or a more complex system where, for example, there's a cap on the percentage you can achieve in a given skill based on hours played?

Something along the lines of "it's supremely hard or impossible to improve bash above 90% unless you have 75+ hours played"?

I'm guessing it's the former, if for no other reason than that the more complicated version would be a pain to implement, game-balance and maintain.

It's +??% per ?? hours played, with a cap (in hours played) that I doubt anyone but maybe a Lich could ever hit.

I'm just going to air all my crazy theories so you can shoot them down, since you seem to be game for that. Feel free to tell me to shut up at any point.

Another thing I always wondered about is whether there's some sort of "pool" of skill improvements that's capped based on character level or possibly hours played.

That is if I spam up "heightened awareness" then maybe I nerf my ability to learn "sword" because I've put myself over the max number of total improvements for my level/hours.

Sounds like that's not the case? (Does seem like it would be annoying to code).

asd