Okay so here is the issue..

[Cherek]

Here's some ideas Bendis, something I've written down here before, and something I always wanted to code myself, but never have.

IDEA 1

An "assault / defend" repeating scenario. In short we have a city / fortress / something that constantly is attacked and defended by two NPC factions. Good and Evil. Players can join in on either side. Every battle lasts around 1 hour, if your side succeed in holding the city / taking the city depending on which side you are helping you get not only XP for the stuff you kill, but also a considerable XP bonus for accomplishing the mission. When done, it resets and can be attempted again after a little waiting time. Who holds the city and who attacks it changes depending on how the battles go. If you decide to help the evil side attack, and succeed, then their side will now hold the city until a goodie team assists the goodie NPCs and wins, and then they hold the city. This will be an endless repeat with one army inside the city where you can "sign up to defend" and another army preparing an assault outside the city where you can "sign up to assault". The battle starts within a few minutes after at least one player has signed up for one of the sides. Anyone can then sign up until the battle ends, and if succeding they get XP based on how much time they took part.

This could be interesting from a PVP standpoint too. We could decide that people can join both sides in the same battle at any time, so players will fight not only NPCs but also others players. If you get killed during the battle you dont die, but is instead rescued in the last minute by some NPC and carried off the battlefield. You lose only your EQ. That could be a fun PVP ground too, with little risk.

But the main idea is to make it fun grinding, and if we dont want PVP we can simply allow people to only sign up on one side at a time. So if a battle is underway you can only sign up for the side that already has players fighting for it. That is probably how we should start, since the main idea is to make grinding more interactive and fun, and if you manage to complete the mission the XP boost will be more rewarding than the usual grind. It also gives those who only play for an hour or two now and then a chance to make some decent XP, and having fun at the same time.

Obviously a team of players would increase the chance of completing the mission, so it also encourages interaction.

IDEA 2

Another idea to make grinding more fun is some type of mega-boss + minions, that also gives a considerable XP boost for the team that kill the boss. The boss would have random resistances and attributes each time it reboots, perhaps some type of changing demon. Sometimes maybe it is extremely magical resistant, sometimes it hurts ALOT, sometimes it has HUGE con and heals itself, sometimes it attacks random people in the team, sometimes it spews fire, sometimes all of this, etc, etc...

The demon probably have a few minions you need to fight your way though first as well, and these minions are similar but smaller than the boss so they give hints about what you need to fight the boss. So each time you fight him need to adjust your tactics, making it "new" every time, sometimes he might be easier and a small team could take him down, sometimes he's extremely hard to kill requiring a bigger team of people with different skills.

So in short, a randomized "Balrog" with a considerably XP reward for slaying him, a reward big enough to give more XP for the time invested than you would get by grinding for the same amount of time. Themewise I think some type of "neutral" demon would be cool, something from another realm that is neither good nor evil, but threatens the entire world of Genesis, that way both good, evil and neutral players could fight him, and it would make sense doing so. When defeated the demon retreats to its own realm for awhile and is then reborn in a new shape, and again crosses over to our realm. maybe its a donut eating demon. (joking:).

I think both of these suggestion would be really fun, the second probably easier to do. Both are something I for quite some time have wanted to do as a wizard, but well... stuff got in the way. Coding skills, motivation, time, the usual. If it's something that interests you Bendis I'd love to see it done, and I could help with background story, if you wish.

[Bendis]

Cherek,

Your ideas are awesome ! Thank you so much for posting them.

The reason I liked the idea of a city is that I can see the project materialized based on the coding experience that i have. You are right, probably we don't need more areas.

One thing I noticed is that the game, after the newbie area, is still a bit "uppity" . In the sense that once one is in Sparkle, things start to get hard. If you didn't play the game before it is quite confusing.

Your suggestions are awesome, however they appeal to the "base", folks like us that have been here for 10+ years. Sparkle is outside my "realm", do you/anyone else have any suggestions on how to make the "first experience" more palatable? My litmus test would be: could an 8 grader play the game based on the info on the website and the info in the game? Then we have the question: what is our typical user? 8th grade and up or college and up?

I had two aims with the new city:
1. To be fun - this is why I asked for fun ideas
2. To be at the 8th grade level - the quests and the story are "flowing" so an 8th grader could follow it.

This being said, I plan to wait for a bit until we gather ideas from most of those who would like to contribute and then make a "priority" poll, to see which of the ideas presented until now is the "hottest".

I do have a bit of a "pet" in the city idea, however it is more important that we, as a community decide what is the best

Everyone, please keep posting ideas !

/Bendis

PS Do we have an "official" place where we record these ideas?

[Tive]

You could add some random npcs walking around Sparkle and chatting to new players.

For example: A new player walks the street in Sparkle and there is a group of NPCs whispering "Is this the hero who killed that ogre last week?" "I'm not sure, but he looks a bit like him.." or something like that. Don't make this a flood of text though, but rather delayed conversations so it seems more real. And that could start some quest for new peeps.

Make those whispers visible to players below certain age (or make them different for older people?) not to spam those who run through the town too often Those conversations could point them to existing quests in other areas.

Definitely add more npcs who respond to tons of random 'asks', try to make answers funny even if completely pointless, but they could encourage players to go and explore.

These things are easy to code so I'm sure even Cherek could do that

[Bromen]

How about a charming elf or human that teams with the newbie and brings them to a newbie grinding area. This npc will notice if the newbie is low on health, make suggestions in combat, and perhaps give him/her a task for qxp. He could provide a magical heal or herb and maybe give the newbie a non trade able imbued weapon. This npc can reply to mails, give directions, and even tell the newbie which people are online to team with.

Back in 93-94 when I started playing, it was the other players who were around my size teaming with me and role playing that brought me back time and time again. I used so many free aol cd's to play I think I installed 2 dozen total to telnet into the game. Growing together and racing to the next level was what took hold. To team with a great adventurer or veteran was an honor and you didn't speak up unless talked to etc.

The role play aspect of the game needs to be taken advantage of and if you can't rp with a player, an npc should do.

Just my 2 cc.

-B

[gorboth]

It is a great idea, Bromen. I had a similar idea that I was developing a while back - that you would be given a "familiar" when you started your play in the real game. The familiar would be a little pet companion that would take a form appropriate to your race and follow you around, assisting you with combat a bit and giving you generally friendly and helpful advice. Think of "Navi" from the Zelda game on the Nintendo 64, basically.

I still like this idea and will look into seeing if I can get it going again.

G.