Move cadets and academy to Sparkle

[Mirandus]

I think part of the reason we find the Cadets in Gelan is to encourage travelling to other places.

Genesis is a game of exploration. Giving people an incentive to travel to another realm is important. The guilds are also both
very heavily tied into the folklore and mythology of the realm of Calia. To move them would do a disservice to the wizards
who created them with that specific tie-in in mind.

I think if there were suggestions to make it easier to find them then that is something we might be able to
look at. My feelings around them is that they belong in the realm of Calia and specifically the city
of Gelan.

[Dakhor]

I think part of the reason we find the Cadets in Gelan is to encourage travelling to other places.

Genesis is a game of exploration. Giving people an incentive to travel to another realm is important. The guilds are also both
very heavily tied into the folklore and mythology of the realm of Calia. To move them would do a disservice to the wizards
who created them with that specific tie-in in mind.

I think if there were suggestions to make it easier to find them then that is something we might be able to
look at. My feelings around them is that they belong in the realm of Calia and specifically the city
of Gelan.

I understand and would agree if it were any other guild.

Take my own example way back in the 90s when I was a new player, it took a a long while before I even got on a boat.
Someone bigger and brawer had to take me with them and act as a guide, the world was big and daunting and I felt safe in my starter area with my own folk (all races had different starting points back then).

That said my main point is to further streamline the new player experience. Wizzes dida a great job on the Novice -> Beginner Tutorial Island part. How about doing something further with Beginner -> Wanderer in the real world, something that gives an incentive to new players to team up, a threat to the Cadets that needs to be dealt with for instance, orc or kruger? bands invading Gelan occasionally.

DaC

[Arman]

The code for both those guilds are heavily linked to Gelan. Moving them out of the city and putting them elsewhere would be a massive piece of work. I'd probably suggest coming up with other solutions to the issues raised than that one.

Interestingly, Calia used to be just south of Sparkle... You'd get to the Callan guild by going south from the crossroads outside of Sparkle. I wonder if it's worth considering bringing back a land bridge to that domain?

[Dakhor]

Interestingly, Calia used to be just south of Sparkle... You'd get to the Callan guild by going south from the crossroads outside of Sparkle. I wonder if it's worth considering bringing back a land bridge to that domain?

I think this could work, as stated before there is nothing NE of Sparke. However this would change the donut.

Perhaps an early quest with Carlsan the Sparkle Town Crier about Gelan and the Cadets would be easier.

/DaC

[Kvator]

but there is such quest already i believe

[Dakhor]

but there is such quest already i believe

If so this is good - I speed through certain things as I have done many low level things many times before.

My point is that it is harder to "catch" peoples attention today, we need to make the introduction and start into our realm a bit more streamlined than I personally would like it to be.

If we can give new players a real taste of what our world could be like at best of times then the chance is greater that they stick arround a while longer.


DaC

[Hathol]

but there is such quest already i believe

Kvator is correct. Carlsans (The guy 1 south from the Sparkle church) like fourth tour is to find Xorfin and Xania.

[Cherek]

Honestly I think we do basically all we can to direct people there.

When you enter the world Carlsan (the town crier one south of the church) basically forces tours on you. His dog even grabs hold if you to force you to listen to him. He sends you to Calia, and as you know a while ago a second ship was introduced to make the waiting time to get to Calia minimal. So I think what you are asking for already exists.

Sure, we could do a portal instead, or invent some land bridge to Calia but... I don't know if that would make it much easier. I would argue it's easier to go to berth 9 which Carlsan tells you to do, than find a land-based road there. And a portal, well "Go to the portal behind the Inn" and "Go to Berth 9" is pretty much the same isn't it? I guess we could eliminate the walk from Calia piers to the guild itself... but... with the magic map that can't be that hard?

As AoD I can say for sure that moving Cadets/Academics is not going to happen. Sorry, coming up with ideas is always good, but I do not think this one is realistic. As Mirandus and Arman has said there are a number of reasons not to do it, both thematic and technical, and ultimately I think we can spend the needed manpower better.

Making Mercenaries harder to find.. I don't know. Is it really bad that many newbies join them? It's a pretty good guild for players of all sizes, and it's free to leave if they find another guild. I understand you want to make them harder to find in order to make Cadets/Academy attract more members, but in order to take on a pretty time consuming project like that we first need to establish that getting the majority of newbies to join cadets/academy makes them stay longer. We probably need some statistics first to see which guild our new players actually join first.

That is something we definitely can improve. User behavior statistics etc. Right now we basically can listen to what newbies say on the ntell and in the game, and try to see what their main complaints are. The main complaint I generally hear is that people are upset because they lose their equipment, and fixing that, like Varian suggested in another thread, would mean a lot I think. I am not sure moving around mercs/cadets/academy will have that much effect compared to the work that is needed for such a project. Or does people complain a lot about joining/finding guilds when they are new?

[Ody]

On the magic map in Galen south of the Academy and Cadets is a space labeled "Portal to Sparkle" perhaps this portal idea has already been done before? Or was in the works?

[Cherek]

On the magic map in Galen south of the Academy and Cadets is a space labeled "Portal to Sparkle" perhaps this portal idea has already been done before? Or was in the works?

Interesting. Don't know anything about that. If/when Petros returns I'm gonna try to remember to ask him, I would imagine he knows.