Updating existing areas

[Freya]

I was talking to a friend the other day about how to improve things in the game.

And what we agreed on was that there's soo much code in the game allready, its not really necessary to bring lots of new code in, but rather update some of the existing "ancient" code to todays standards.


Take areas for people to grind in for example, currently there's like 10 spots where everyone favours and the competion for these areas are rough.

While at the same time, we have plenty of areas in domains spread out all over, thats never visited anymore due to changes to xp they give or just cause the game has forgotten about it.


While I can understand no wizard really enjoys working on other people's code, they prefer to create their own vision of what they think the game could use, I think updating a few old areas to todays standards could bring in more old players to the game.

Also with more places for people to kill for a decent reward, I think people who rarely play cause they think "No point in playing X Y and B are on, all good xp grounds will be cleaned out" I'll just idle in guildhalls or logoff.

Well what if some old areas that have been forgotten could be retuned to appeal to the players of today?

Areas such as

Ribos, Goblin caves, LoD in Terel, all these areas are empty these days, nobody goes there.

Trollshaws, Fangorn, Goblin caves in Middle Earth.

Entire Kabal is a wasteland these days, people go there occasionally for questing or to fetch a
piece of equipment or two then leave.


I'm sure there's plenty of other area in the game that with a little fine tuning could be made into a popular flourishing area once more.

And yes I know I am generalising and assuming more killing grounds will fix everything (which I know it wont, but I do think it could get more people back to playing if they found it that they dont have to compete with others for xp all the time).

I still think Lilith's experiment with scaling npcs in Terel was an intresting one(and yes it was a wee bit unbalanced)but I do think that scaling npcs who cater to the entire game rather than just small groups is the future of the game. Of course some caps needs to be in place as to not repeat the issues Terel had while they did this, but I do think with the right control it could be a hit.



Oh well enough blabbering from me, just thought I'd bring it up and see what people think

[OgreToyBoy]

I go in Kabal and can verify it got very few visitors.
But that just means there are more skulls for me :p

[Rhynox]

From the point of view of a powerplayer, nothing better than being able to grind anywhere since NPCs would scale anyways. When talking with Damaris I told her the best way to get people in Khalakhor was to add some big NPCs, but she flatly rejected the idea, saying people would like to go there just for the roleplaying possibilities available. Poor dragon lady.

I would scale down every NPC to the size of hero, and choose randomly NPCs around Genesis to scale. For example, today the goblin in the Terel caves grow, and in 12 hours, they stop doing so and the auraks in Abanasinia plains start scaling for 12 hours. Then they stop scaling, and the kretans in Argos start scalings, then the orc babies in Cadu, then the drows in Faerun, etc. That would give everyone a chance of grinding and growing, while stopping the uncontrolled growth of nowadays' myths.

[Tapakah]

The problem with updating the new area is as following:

Often it is much less interesting and sometimes it is much more difficult to updates someone else's code than write your own.

T.

[Avatar]

I, for one, would LOVE for the NPC's in Kabal to be upgraded to todays standards.

I love grinding there, and it would be fantastic if they would actually give some decent XP again.

[Cherek]

Is it only me who see a problem with adding even more ways to grow huge? Havent we done that mistake once already...?

Do we really want to add even more titles after myth and more stats after Supreme? Its surely is going that way with the death recovery and the NPC giving more and more XP...

Flotsam and LOD used to be good killing areas. Talk about inflation in size since then!

No sorry, I dont think its a good idea. I will Increase the gap between power players and casual players even more...

Besides, is it really a huge problem? I never seen it as one. When I join the big XP teams who travel between mithas, ice wall and terel there is usually never any problem finding something to kill. People actually log off thinking all those areas are empty at the same time? With our low playerbase it sounds abit unrealistic and not something I have seen thats for sure.

I'd rather see we _downgrade_ some areas and make them newbie friendly instead. Or add a new if you really have too (even though I am too against adding new material). Real newbies is the future, and they need grinding areas.

[Anahita]

I, for one, would LOVE for the NPC's in Kabal to be upgraded to todays standards.

I love grinding there, and it would be fantastic if they would actually give some decent XP again.

Just because they're to little for YOU doesnt mean there arent little evil people who go there for exping. I spent a ton of time there when Ana was a smaller PoT.

I was just thinking of going back actually, for some perfume. Not everything has to be about killing all the time (at least for people who enjoy the flavor of the game as much-or more than-the grinding.)

[gorboth]

Thanks for this great thread, Freya!

I agree that the game does not specifically need a bunch of new areas. We've got plenty and to spare with that. What I think we need to do is to identify the sort of areas or features we actually do lack.

For example, we lack grinding areas for certain levels of the exp progression - specifically for newbies fresh out of the tutorial area. What would be really useful to me, as a design consideration, would be for people to list ideal grinding areas for each mortal level. If we decide that there just aren't very good areas for a given level, then that would be good information for we who can make changes in design.

My current project is to create a quest and exp grinding dungeon geared specifically to young players fresh out of the tutorial. I've got good progress on this, but would love to hear from players about the entire spectrum:

Novice: tutorial
Greenhorne: tutorial
Beginner: ?
Apprentice: ?
Wanderer: ?
Adventurer: ?
Adept: ?
Great Adventurer: ?
Veteran: ?
Expert: ?
Rising Hero: ?
Hero: ?
Titan: ?
Champion: ?
Legend: ?
Myth: ?

Please contribute your best knowledge and opinions!

G.

[Velicus]

While you're at it, can we have a Genesis 2 where the goal is to remove grinding areas and gain combat experience by defeating unique, challenging opponents?

[Cherek]

Sounds great with the newbie area Gorboth. Kinda assumed you had something like that in the works, but Ill keep flaming about it until its added. (And the basic facilites in Sparkle too..)

As for your list.

Novice: tutorial
Greenhorne: tutorial, Orc fortress
Beginner: Water krougs
Apprentice: Water krougs, Kretans(?)
Wanderer: ?
Adventurer: ?
Adept: Sparkle big orcs, Green Oaks elves
Great Adventurer: Sparkle big orcs, Green Oaks elves
Veteran: Gont, Sparkle big orcs, Krougs
Expert: Gont, Krougs
Rising Hero: Gont
Hero: Gont, Haradrims, Centaurs
Titan: Gont, Faerun, Neraka trolls, Haradrims, Centaurs
Champion: Faerun, Neraka trolls, Haradrims, Centaurs, Mithas, Terel trolls, Ice wall, Qualinost
Legend: Faerun, Neraka trolls, Mithas, Terel trolls, Ice wall, Qualinost
Myth: Mithas, Terel trolls, Ice wall, Qualinost

Thats all I can think of. And those I added for Greenhorne-Apprentice are pretty small areas. Dont know if newbies really go there either?