Coin-less skill improvement system

[Ilrahil]

Agree with Laurel. Stop trying to fix things that aren't broken. And the new mercs, might not fit what your vision of thematic mercenaries should be, but it fits Gorboth's, and since he coded it that's kind of what matters. The guild is quite popular and no quite a few mercs use things other than swords by the way. I can name 3-4 off the top of my head of active members. If you don't like the mercenaries structure then perhaps join a different guild?

[Rhaegar]

I did mention that it was just my personal opinion. Never said it has to be changed or anything like that.
And I really admire the work Gorboth did on them, the adaptation system is awesome but I believe it should be limited to fighting skills only (all weapon skills, def, parry, thc, blindfighting) and perhaps the general ones rather than all skills (leave magic and thief skills to the guilds belonging to non-fighter class).

What I dreamed of to be introduced in Sparkle instead of old mercs:

Generic fighter guild, possibility to join as LAY or OCC.
OCC:
all fighting skills (without blindfighting) - 75
appraise enemy - 70
mattack - 100
adaptation - 100
LAY:
all fighting skills (without blindfighting) - 50
appraise enemy - 50
mattack - 50

Generic magic guild, possibility to join as LAY or OCC:
OCC:
spellcraft - 90
form skills - 60
element skills - 20
herbalism - 60
language - 70
knife - 70
defence - 50
Spells like: fireball, lightning, blur
Bonus: in the future could add LAY options, spread across all realms granting you a specialization, like necromancers, conjurers, enchanters, abjurers, illusionists etc. Effectively turning it into OCC+LAY magic guild with a theme, unique spells, titles, emotes and structure (you would have to be accepted into specialization by the masters).
LAY:
spellcraft - 50
form skills - 40
element skills - 20
herbalism - 50
knife - 50
language - 50
Spells like: magic missile, magic armour, identify

You would be able to freely switch between lay and occ options.

This way you have covered the core stuff for fighter and magic with 4 possible combinations and which could serve as a focus point for balancing all other guilds in terms of power level and coding standards.

But that's just my wishful thinking

[Cherek]

I know its just your opinion Rhaegar and thats fine, my optionion though is that there has been way too much meddling with guilds back and forth lately and I am not sure we have gained so much from it.

Mercs is one of the guilds that works very well I think, they are pretty popular, and gives you a tons of more RP options since you can be merc and RP your layman. Elementals, Pirates and a few others seem pretty happy about that. Yes they can adapt alot of skills and its powerful, and they can switch weapons, also good, but they have drawbacks as well. Like a special attack that isnt fantastic (or so people say). They also have no other "cool" extra abilities like most other OCC guilds have. I find them pretty nicely balanced actually.

Anyway I think more meddling with guilds wont to much in attracting or keeping new players, so if I could dream I dont wanna see any wizards working on guilds at all until we got a bigger and more stable playerbase again. Most guilds are fine if they just a had a bit more players in them. Obviously those that arent up to date like rangers, SS, PoTs, and maybe a few others(?) should get their update first of course. Once the recode started it's no going back now.