If I could make one wish for the future..

[Quantum]

Honestly, the "target the smallest in the group" mechanic use is very limited. Avoid those areas? And yes, Sparkle orcs is often a fine place to go with newbies. Seeker guards in Solace, minotaurs in Solace. And if you want it to be a little scary to the newbies, go to Pax Tharkas. Which is kinda dangerous to them, but not exactly lethal if you haven't broken all your fingers.

[nils]

I’ll admit “dictate” might have been a poor choice of word. “Decide upon, create, write, pass, execute, set to life, dream up a set of rules that govern a subject” was my intended meaning. If you claim no rules have been dreamed up by a group or committee that governs the limitations of what can be created, then I gotta get your dealer’s number cause his shit is on fire!

Moving on. I find it hilarious that you spend that untrue word salad based on your worst possible interpretation of what was written, only to completely lift off and exit reality by accusing me of another attempt at strong arming my will upon others.

Let me be perfectly clear: Mirandus’ contribution and work in Kabal is to my eyes beyond reproach. He has created at least two new, densely populated areas that are not only unique and popular, they’re working as intended and I obviously respect both his reasons, and ultimately decision, to pick the mechanics he did. I assume he wanted to make something harder, more dangerous for the players currently on the various leaderboards, and to that end both the cathedral and the saurians are a complete success.

You make it sound like I’m pissing on his and others’ creations, while what I am really doing is raising a question pertaining old truths vs current reality. What was “right” when it was made, may today benefit from some commenting out until a trend hopefully shifts. Cause I too am watching player numbers go down. I know why some are gone (that’s a discussion for another day) but for the others, claims are made we’re not getting enough new players and apparently we struggle to “hook” those few that make it through the tutorial.

Now I do what I can to persuade the abandoners to strap their arms and get that Gene juice flowing again, but I also realized the other day that I do very little to help “hooking” the newcomers. So I figured I should try and do my part by picking up some new-ish players, get to know them and help any way I can.

Again, I am awestruck by Quantum’s altruism and boy are we one lucky community if he represents the majority of our members, but through my misanthropic eyes it still looks like the opposite is true – hence my outreach. I’m trying my damn best to contribute, but unlike Quantum I’m not wasting my equipment, time and effort solely for someone else’s benefit. Basically, what I’m asking is simple and not at all shrouded in some agenda or manipulation attempts:

* Could reducing the hostility in popular areas be a way for me and people like me to help others without resorting to fruitless ant-swatting? If we can bring new players along doing what we do instead of giving our time away for free like Quantum and his herd of unicorns?

When I sift through your bile I find the answer to my question though, and I read “We’ve already viewed this from several angles, discussed it fervently and landed on a decision not to proceed. We disagree about the merits of the suggestion, and even if we did agree we lack the manpower to execute it. Perhaps we might consider gently guiding future content creators away from such mechanics, but ultimately we truly wish to keep a hands-off approach and ideally leave that decision to the creator”.

(For posterity, this is how how you shut me up.)

Furthermore, you bring up bots (inattentive scripting) and kill-stealing as a problem, claiming neglect on my behalf while completely omitting the true neglect, that which lie in the lack of both random bot-checks and perceived improvement to the infuriated players’ situations. You and I both know a looming threat of consequences tend to keep offenders on their toes and oppositely a lack of them only serves to increase the problem. A couple weeks of bot checking known suspects (cause duh, of course you know who they are) and I am positive we’ll all be a couple problems lighter. If you’re looking for a “bot-police force” you can consider me a volunteer!

I’ll end this farce by conveying my disappointment. You belittle me, twist my words, assign me some self-aggrandizing agenda, and when you try to be bigger I find more hostility than ever displayed in the Thanar Cathedral between the lines. To me it seems you’re hell-bent on tooting your own horn by trying to make me look bad, so in a poor attempt at staying impartial I asked an AI what such people are called. Not surprisingly, here’s what it had to say:

“People who make themselves look bigger by making others look bad are often referred to as "bullies" or "toxic people." This type of behavior is generally considered to be negative and harmful, as it involves putting down others in order to elevate oneself. Some people also use the term "narcissist" to describe individuals who engage in this type of behavior, as they may be driven by a need for attention and validation.”

I can appreciate a heated debate, but being bullied to silence? Really?

[zizuph]

Furthermore, you bring up bots (inattentive scripting) and kill-stealing as a problem, claiming neglect on my behalf while completely omitting the true neglect, that which lie in the lack of both random bot-checks and perceived improvement to the infuriated players’ situations. You and I both know a looming threat of consequences tend to keep offenders on their toes and oppositely a lack of them only serves to increase the problem. A couple weeks of bot checking known suspects (cause duh, of course you know who they are) and I am positive we’ll all be a couple problems lighter. If you’re looking for a “bot-police force” you can consider me a volunteer!

When you use random bot-checks regularly, those that wish to avoid them, end up having enough information to script against them. I realize at first glance it seems like an obvious solution, but it is not that simple. This is another topic that we also discuss upstairs, one I have worked on, and have been trying to find a workable long-term solution to solving.

If you genuinely want to help on this, or other things, you can mail us in game and we can have discussions there. As I alluded to in my prior note, your current approach for discourse is having the opposite effect.

As for the rest, I don't care to feed the trolls.

[Tapakah]

If we talk about Saurians in particular, AFAIR they are not aggressive until you attack one of theirs. Therefore for a true newbie train, they are actually not dangerous, since the newbies can't attack them and can't thus become targets of the other Saurians.

But I may be missing something, of course.

[Tapakah]

Also, the suggestions for good-looking story lines of large mob areas where "you just killed one of ours, but we don't care" (besides undeads) is the integral part are still very much welcome.

[Nerull]

There are atleast 2 ways to protect newbie areas, or areas designated for players within certain sizeranges:

1. Ensure that monsters dont give xp to players with avg size over x. This can be binary, or analog like regular mmo's handle their mobs.

2. Players over x average can't access y area.


We can employ either if we want. Maybe for future content?

[Thalric]

Personally I will prefer having no access, compared to the mobs running away. That is just horribly annoying.
Not getting xp will still make it a imbuement farming ground, and will take the mobs from the small ones.