Cherek wrote:Instead of hijacking the other threads about this very popular subject. Here's my view.
I think punishing those who dont play "the right way" is not the right way at all. I dont know how much game design experience the admin has, but I do have some, and punishing players to get them to playing the game in a certain way is a perfect setup for a miserable game that nobody wants to play in the end.
I'd like to apply that reasoning to a rules reform in football/soccer and see with what we'd end up
Or even the laws of society at large
But ok, to get specific, let's throw out some thoughts, it's very very hot here so my brain might not be the sharpest today but here goes...
I agree that the basic problem is that the game rewards grinding with power but punishes it with boredom, which make players want to grind while eliminating the boredom, which leads to botting.
Possible solution? Remove the need for grinding, by removing xp and money and smith item quality and everything.
But whoah, where's the reward system then? What are the goals for players now if they can't work long-term to get richer and stronger?
Money-wise, today in the game there are obvious limits when more cash does not get you any further. For stats, there are diminishing returns, but you can really always get a bit bigger. Perhaps here we should consider making high-level stat improvement even slooooweeeeer, to just make it so boring that not even botting will help you. Or just slap on a STATCAP (boo!) at, say, titan level.
Also, it's a perception thing of course. It's been said before but I'll say it again: Notice how the insane power grinding took off when they changed the mortal titles, and people were no longer content with being a champ among champs.
But to go further than that, let's see...
An advancement system dependent on milestone quest solving, age (ouch idle-grinding warning, no can't have that...) and hmm what else..?
Could be made to work. Will it still be the same game? No, but it might be fun. Now, designing a different kind of mud is an interesting proposition, but I prefer Genesis as it is (though perhaps with more players in it).
Also to bear in mind, every game has its rules and need of regulation. Even World of Warcraft
What about roleplaying? What about harassment? Let anything go there? Want Genesis to sound like a Counterstrike game?
PvP, de-regulate that too? This means choose between free-for all pvp or pve only. Or zoned pvp like in WoW? I don't know if any of those two solutions would appeal to players.
I think Genesis needs to stay with roughly the same rule set, or it's going to be another game, a game that possibly has no niche anymore.
And I think anti-cheating measures should be in place, but also they should not be too much overkill. Definitely let everyone know the rules and punish them effectively if found cheating, but better to free than punish in case of reasonable doubt. I prefer to live with some players cheating than to be repeatedly harassed myself on suspicion.
Alright, to conclude this slightly messy post, and to stick my chin out - I think the easy solution is the STATCAP. And don't put it too high, titan is fine. And keep the rules, but don't overpolice.
EDIT: I just want to add, on a side note, that what I really enjoyed in the Morgul Mages was that an important way to increase my offensive power was to roleplay and work hard for the Dark Lord and thus increase in rank and get better spells. It felt very RP and in-theme and was a lot more fun than only killing scores on npcs for advancement.
Perhaps some kind of quest-driven advancement in general in the game could offer the same thing. What if we reform to make quest xp the biggest part of your xp, with more big in-theme quests, and a cap on that xp so that you will not do all but rather choose those that are most fun for your character?
)
trying to change something for some people and then trying to depreciate what one of those people say about it?