(n/t)

"Do not merely practice Art, but penetrate to the very heart of it. For only Art and Science elevate man to the Godhead." Ludwig Van Beethoven

We're currently slowing down pure "expansion" a little. Looking at what will be happening over the next few months, it's a blend of updating and expansion. For example, the most recent area change was the harpy area being taken out, and replaced with a much smaller (and IMHO more useful) area. Other changes will involve taking an older, blah area, and re-envisioning it to better fit our modern standards. Still others are traditional expansion- adding new places where there were none.

You're correct that a bigger Thera means you'll have to work a little harder to find an experienced foe who is seeking cover. However, there are a few mitigating factors:

1) Different players look for different things in a game. Having new areas to explore is a draw for a lot of our playerbase- just watch the mad rush into any newly opened area.

2) More areas mean more opportunities for an experienced player to convert area knowledge into PK expertise. Whether it's something simple (knowing where a new piece of gear is, finding a faster route from A to B, etc.), or complex (amassing quest rewards, drawing people into area-specific ambushes, etc.) an experienced player can profit from the expansion, and maybe be a bit more fierce when they do find someone.

3) More tools are in the game for finding people these days, compared to a few years ago. Track the Wicked, certain current (and near future) cabal abilities, air forms, conjurerstuff, tracking-type skills, Locate Mark, etc. all add up eventually.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>Other changes will involve taking an older, blah area, and
>re-envisioning it to better fit our modern standards.

Can we start a pool?

>3) More tools are in the game for finding people these days,
>compared to a few years ago.

You forgot the biggest one: cb.

(Or maybe irc, for the cynics among us.)

Well, we already have a pool of sorts. There's a lots of "Under Construction" signs up all over Immland right now.

We're interested in phasing out and updating areas based on a specific book or books. It's confusing when we have a few areas based on Tolkien, a few more on Jordan, etc., and no canon is "official" in terms of how normal Therans see things. In other words, if you started talking about ringwraiths, well, there aren't any in Thera... but there is a Bilbo. So it's hard to say whether or not that's appropriate ICly.

We were interested in phasing out areas that were not written for Carrion Fields, but that's completed now thanks to a push by Uncle Shoky. I thought we were done a while ago (when the new Sewers and Glauruk areas went in), but it turns out that the Dylan who wrote Dylan's area wasn't the same Dylan that was an IMM on CF a while back. Very confusing.

After that, the other areas aren't really on the chopping block, except for a couple of very old ones that need updates. In most of those cases, it's more a matter of finding someone who has a good idea for updating it, and giving them the reins. There's some of this in the works as well.

If you have specific suggestions, please email them to me at valguarnera@carrionfields.com. Out of respect for the authors, I'd rather not have a "I don't like Area X." discussion on the forums, especially when tastes vary quite a bit.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>We were interested in phasing out areas that were not written
>for Carrion Fields, but that's completed now thanks to a push
>by Uncle Shoky. I thought we were done a while ago (when the
>new Sewers and Glauruk areas went in), but it turns out that
>the Dylan who wrote Dylan's area wasn't the same Dylan that
>was an IMM on CF a while back. Very confusing.

In fact, if I remember right, the Dylan who wrote Dylan's Area was male, while the Imm Dylan was female. I've been expecting Dylan's Area to go for years, since it's been in most lists of areas for eventual revision/removal for as long as I can remember.

Cool. But I actually meant "pool" in the sense that we could gamble over which area gets the axe next.

aww and here i was hoping for a 'pool' where we could lounge about in trunks drinking and go for a swim without fear of beasties eating us.
there we go Olin needs to put in a pool out back.
-jk

What areas do you want to get rid of?

Won't that make ranking/gearing/etc. harder?

What's to keep them from scheduling their time differently?

The older less interesting ones.

If you have problems leveling before 40 then you need to explore more.

Huh?