I was just wondering if the immortal staff would share some of their long term goals with us. Sure, you might revamp a class, or add a new area, but you would be doing those things in order to bring about some end result. Some hypotheticals follow:

The playerbase is spending too much time at the lower levels. A response might be to raise the level at which key spells/skills are attained and/or increase the ease by which players gain experience (quests, ease of tanking, experience for traveling, etc.).

The playerbase is getting to hero too quickly, leaving the lower/middle ranks more sparse than you think is healthy. A response might be to make mobiles tougher, strengthen race/class combos which are typically killers in the low/mid ranks. (note: Strenghten does not necessarily mean change of stats, you could make a new immortal that only interracts with a certain race/class, make some gnome-only gear, etc.)

I've seen comments about how Voralian is just the first step in trying to tip the balance back towards good when it comes to sheer number of players. My assumption is that the trends seem to have too many evils at all ranks, and you're trying to tip back the other way.

What types of trends do you immortals see that you're trying to put an end to, and also from the players what types of trends do you think you see that you would like the immortals to look into?

>I've seen comments about how Voralian is just the first step
>in trying to tip the balance back towards good when it comes
>to sheer number of players.

More like "Voralian is a much-needed step that makes good more
appealing than it was, showcases new technologies, and gives a
big chunk of central real estate a purpose again." It's not
the beginning of some master plan to force people to play their
already-overpowered storm giants.

>My assumption is that the trends seem to have too many evils
>at all ranks, and you're trying to tip back the other way.

Same deal. It gives good some broader appeal in places that it
was lacking, but not so much we're expecting an alignment see-
saw effect.

>What types of trends do you immortals see that you're trying
>to put an end to, and also from the players what types of
>trends do you think you see that you would like the immortals
>to look into?

How about trends I support.

I'd like to make barter more effective by opening it up to
multiple objects and getting better uniformity in item
valutions (not just lowering). If it were "just less than almost"
as good as coins to the common man, I'd be happy. Outlanders
get the full "almost". Yes, that's gibberish. For the gibberish-
challenged, I'd like you to be able to trade sweet wands you can't
use for multiple return potions.

I'd like to make thief guild donations have an impact beyond
what roleplaying value we give them. Several guild leaders and
former thieves have given me a stack of material to go through,
so that's going to be a long term thing.

I'd like to get more quests into the quest command (without
breaking the quests) and expand the use of sayto (ask the acolyte
in the Academy how to unlock the door and your guildmaster about
his job). Heck, I'd like to build more quests. I want them for
all levels and to give out more than just experience (shout out
to members of the Third Brigade), and also adapt to previously
completed quests!

I'd like to root out the last bastions of forced spamming for new
powers and continue the evolution of variety within more classes.

I'd like to continue supporting the trend of better-late-than-
never transparency in helpfiles (just listing the invoker paths,
explaining the limits on defenses) and on the web site (we finally
got the weapon specs and legacies on the warrior page! ). Not as
cool OOC, but I'd like to see the expansion of in-game libraries
as well.

I'd like to continue supporting the players who have made a real
active effort to vote for the MUD, respond to newbie in a helpful
way IC and OOC, the ones who roleplay their hearts out, the others
that cut those same hearts out, and the ones here on the forums
who voice their concerns in a constructive way.

Of course there's the Immteraction too. That's a given.

Hope that gives you some insight into what I'm up to.

Qaledus
qaledus@carrionfields.com

Thanks for being 'the voice'. You make me almost want to mud again.

>Thanks for being 'the voice'. You make me almost want to mud
>again.

Come putter around the Academy! There's no harm in it!

.

Splntrd

--

nt

.

nt

Excellent post.

>I've seen comments about how Voralian is just the first step
>in trying to tip the balance back towards good when it comes
>to sheer number of players.

More like "Voralian is a much-needed step that makes good more
appealing than it was, showcases new technologies, and gives a
big chunk of central real estate a purpose again." It's not
the beginning of some master plan to force people to play their
already-overpowered storm giants.

I'll add that it was also a big step for Team Economy- there's a lot of pretty spiffy stuff there, including a number of things that are sneaky-cool and might not see widespread use until people have had chances to play with them. Putting decent stuff into shops was an experiment that really started with Team Udgaard, and has continued with major projects in a number of other towns.

And that, of course, was an experiment that started with the oft-maligned but completely necessary step of shutting down CF's various "Free money" routes. We had to first create value in currency (which we've done- people covet money now), wait for the population to re-equilibrate (i.e. all the characters with millions of copper have died off, pricing gets refined, etc.), and then create more uses for currency.

We now have a fairly extensive system for tracking where money comes from, and where it goes. Every once in a while, we poke through those records, identify weakness in the system, and adjust accordingly.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com