What you players think?

[MtainEer]

Haven't played this game in quite a while. I think the one thing everyone can agree upon is that we will never see big numbers of players consistently playing like in the past. So, if you want a PVE/PVM server than no worries have fun and that can be fun.

But, if you want PVP how about either A) do away with all guilds or B) have the devs make 1 new guild in each faction BUT if you have guilds than you gotta do a cd key lock only allowing that key access to join the guilds in whatever cities are friendly....otherwise the stink of the past will creep upon the server again.

NOTE: ONLY REPLY TO THINGS DISCUSSED ABOVE and please do so.

MtainEer

[DM ~Etho~]

[DM-Mac-]

Is that a means to limit one CD key per player for guild use, so they cant dual or tripple log for PvP?

[Iron Cat]

I think if you do away with all the guilds and their accumulated equipment...most will leave.

[Iron Cat]

If you really want to know what players want..the few that are left..it is this: A)In areas that are stupidly and pointlessly difficult ,players do not do them for xp but for drops..why is the drop rate so bloody pitiful ?? you need a party of 8 to 10 and you get no..or little gear ... what is the use of these areas ??
B)Bosses should always drop some gear ..maybe not full drop but something of their unique collection..players play for fun,not fun if you do a boss 8 times and get SFA !!
C) Some of the areas are so hard to get to, they exclude many players..my wife and I play till about 2 AM our time..but most people cannot do this..why make it so hard to get to these places ?? You need a specific party mix ..impossible for a few players..we often play as a 2 person server party..so some new players give up when they get bored and cannot get to these good high areas.Do you want people to play here or not?
D)Players want to have FUN pvp or pvm...every pointless nerf..every barricade to enjoyment = players leaving..so if you want people to play here do not nerf to please some whinger who has left..make it better for those that are here..so they stay and bring others here..make it more fun..new low level areas ..different gear..anything POSITIVE...stop driving players away !!

[Iron Cat]

and if you think I am a noob..I have been here before the last server wipe..I just could not be bothered joining the forum.My first post was used by the DM's to make stupid and pointless insults, without answering the post..I hope this receives a more adult response.By the way..who would be in charge of running the new guilds..it takes a lot of time and effort and knowhow..it just does not"happen"!

[Bargeld]

I left, and I would bet some of my cohorts as well, because of blatant cheating in PvP. The exploit of warping back to preset areas during raids by a few AORK players just made the server no fun. This had been going on for at least a year, and really started with Zunicorn doing in isolated instances, but as the DM's and policing in the late hours of the night (EST) diminished, those players who did it became more and more bold about it. I notified DMs and Devs and got some responses. I even googled it for quite some time until I found exactly how it was done, and provided that information to the powers that be. The cheating continued, so I gave up.

There was unsportsmanlike play from certain players, nothing 'illegal' just battlelogging in PvP, parking in cradles, then returning 15 mins later to tap and run (this had been happening for about 3 months).

Also, the fact that the AORK team was overusing the G1 head trade for +4 books with the DMs didn't encourage us much either. At the time, you had maybe 40 dedicated players across the entire server at all different times. 5-10 of those were AORK playing in the same time zones, at the same time, and dual logging to assist their efforts. No other team on the server was able to put this type of group together, so it turned into an AORK exclusive bonus. I'd be curious to know the actual number of books gleaned from this... regardless, perception often motivates and guides people more than fact, especially if the facts aren't readily available.

Not sure if this is the reason for others from my faction, or the rest of the server, but as a tightly knit group of friends/players in MASL, if a few core people stop, others really have no incentive to play without a group, so there is a domino effect.

Want to get people to play? I agree with Cat, the top tier places should drop more. Nerf that damn +3/3/3 AO token, people have been bitching about it since day 1 (and MASL lost at least one good, dedicated player directly because of that job bonus being unfair). Monitor the PvP more, so there is (ideally) no cheating.

[DM-Mac-]

Cant help you personally on the Dev end of your concerns.

Yet I can help with keeping an eye on the flock to insure they play fair. Barg if you would, please pm me your findings concerning the above mentioned exploit.

While I got your attention, consider a drive by visit. Many of the old guard from NC have been seen, seams a shame that poor Asi is left holding down the Masl fort.

There is even rumors of a Defenders of the Relic event. Probably in April, just in case it turns out to be a Fools Quest.

[Lokey]

It's a process that mem hacks the client and does certain things. Version that Barg linked us to was ugly and crashy in a lot of ways, you'd probably be better off abusing the bugs in GoG's client version (some QA build, less crashy and fewer weird visual/sound problems though it's bad enough to be a deal breaker for me). Neither of these present anything weird to the server (everything looks like a 1.69 client and even if it didn't that's a trivial byte change anyway), excepting the cross-area move command, and catching that is possible but annoying (would have to feed special portals and grab dm movement into the general transition/door code).

I'd be careful about generalizing what players want, lots of them want some really weird things

[Iron Cat]

As one of the players getting the G1 heads,I would like to say we worked for them..getting the keys is hard for a start,and AO RK and Fury toons of a couple of factions were involved..the Furies get up at about 6 AM ,the European people are in their early afternoon and us..we end up at about 2 am...so we did the ground work,organised a group to go and used our keys until we finished, and all participants got a full set of gear.That is pretty fair.Not an ao/rk team overusing anything..one player not doing the G1 had heads from a few years ago..and the Chinese guys were not there due to lag or we would have a few more factions involved.Sounds like sour grapes to me Just like the AO token bit..remembering we had No token for years....and I am making an NC toon..their tokens are great..better than AO..better than RK...but I am not going to ask for them to be nerfed:)As far as what players want ,I am expressing the opinion of many long term players from most factions including Chinese from areas where play is possible( these have no RR or HNs or PWnD toons)Europeans ,Canadians.players from USA ,and Australians..Even Barg...it is a matter of effort getting a just reward for time spent.Nothing is more off-putting than getting a party organised for a boss ,,doing it..maybe takes an hour to get all there and do boss and get the right toons in the party for that boss..and (((..no drop!Nothing...such fun ..

[Iron Cat]

Sorry one more thing..hypocricy is alive and well...I have seen certain MA/SL players bug relics ,battlelog( believe video of this exists),chug pots in front of me..etc,etc. The dual logging thing as well..I have been accused of that..what a joke,my wife and I have no ability to do that..but we do have a computer set up to allow us to transfer gear to new toons etc.Dual ..in an action situation ??We are not that good,sadly.Wish I could take screen shots as well..cannot do it tho..no skill.It all comes back to the same old whines..people who do not build well want all players reduced to their level..go play on HOW then..or did you try that one ?These people do not complain when they have an advantage tho

[Delisha Zrazorian]

Fury's ideas in order of importance...

#1 - Most importantly, The Circle needs an outside Den. To this end, the reasons for the change , RP conversation to make the change feasible and the outside DEN area have already been submitted.

#2 - Allow players to submit new area runs. The this end, a new 10 area run (The Rise of the Lycans) meant to be in the scope of DE & Ely, is all created including all the new exciting creatures. All that is needed is for a DEV to scale the new beasts to fit the areas. No need to reveal any secrets
Also, I would put out a contest and allow the player base to design many of the new gear drops. Of course the DEVs would have the final say.

#3 - I agree that the drop rate seems a little low at times... indeed as the Iron one says... Tis brutal to invest three to four hours of intense gaming to come up empty.

#4 - Up the rate of unique drops.

#5 - Provide some where for us sell all the extra high level gear we find.


Thanks for all you guys do... we love it here


at your service,
Hail Fury

[Ajantis.]

Just a couple points -

I feel the guilds are largely responsible for keeping factional loyalty, resulting in the desire for relic raiding. I'm not sure there would be much incentive for a lot of pvp we see today if the guilds weren't supported. Seems to me the everyone these days have their own "personal" mules, so that guild membership and access to its hoard is no longer an exclusive benefit. Guilds are more than places to store their stash anyhow. They allow others with certain common threads to feel they have a vested interest in the game, and a place they can call their own. Having as many guilds that we do, have allowed anyone to find the guild of their own philosophy.

Those of you who have become overly frustrated with cheaters should really find a way to move past it. Assuming some of the accusations listed above are true, that is truly disappointing that some have resorted to those tactics, but I believe in karma and feel they will get what's coming to them. Besides, this isn't a contest for those who can find the greatest advantage. I lived through the M.D. scourge and that was a time of overwhelming odds on this server, we know what happened to them. I just see people finding exploits to just be temporary until they are discovered. Hang in there, they will be exposed. Play the game how you want it to be played, be vigilant, and report abuses, but don't let the bad behavior of others bring you down. It's a big server, you can avoid them. I have. Besides, DM involvement is better than it has been in the past.

Lastly, I think some of the loot drop rates could be increased. However, the server drop rates have always been this way, I'm not sure why now there suddenly a reason to change that. I'm also not convinced that the equipment a toon wears truly makes or breaks the build. Pelor's armor isn't significantly that much better than regular IA armor... etc. I guess its just fun to find treasure, and despite as much I've accumulated over the years, I still don't have enough. If I had everything I wanted, would I just go in circles in dwarves for xp? Then would I get bored... and leave? Maybe. That's kind of the allure of EPW. Even if I get low roll, I know there will be another time, it keeps me playing and coming back. I play a lvl 40 and often don't get choice loot. I still enjoyed the challenge of the game play, and had fun.

[Frendel]

Haven't played this game in quite a while. I think the one thing everyone can agree upon is that we will never see big numbers of players consistently playing like in the past. So, if you want a PVE/PVM server than no worries have fun and that can be fun.

But, if you want PVP how about either A) do away with all guilds or B) have the devs make 1 new guild in each faction BUT if you have guilds than you gotta do a cd key lock only allowing that key access to join the guilds in whatever cities are friendly....otherwise the stink of the past will creep upon the server again.

NOTE: ONLY REPLY TO THINGS DISCUSSED ABOVE and please do so.

MtainEer

A) I'm very sorry for not seeing the point in doing away with all guilds. Server sanctioned guilds are neat and all with free guild dyes and a chest to transfer gear, but unofficial guilds are allowed too ie; SyN and =ALE=(<---shameless self plug...hmmm maybe I should invite new members?). These provide an "exotic" setting to fight the boredom of reconsidering the same old builds besides helping to put you into the mind of your enemy. They also help to buffer hostilities by making us work together on occasion with our sworn enemies for a common cause(pvp in this case, not simply gear). I'd like to see your reasons for doing away with all guilds before saying much more on point "A".

B) Personally, I'm fine with the idea of restricting your cd codes to only allowing official guild membership in 1 alliance. As I said before, I'm fine with allowing unrestricted unofficial guild memberships because it breaks the monotony of the same old routine, but this seems like a very minor fix to the larger problem of building interest in a larger player base. Worst case scenario is a "spy" type person building guilded toons in all factions to learn about enemy builds in a shady way. A good pvp player will be able to figure out most of what an enemy has going on in their build after only a few fights.

Honestly, I think making a relic war a once-a-year event (seriously overdue for 1) would at least give us something to encourage old players to come back once in a while, besides encouraging new builds and memberships. Also, holiday events would be a fun time to reel in older players if they know when to expect them. Lately the Holiday events have been just about xp as far as I can see. Maybe some unique gear or something else could be prized for winning.

[nagaguard]

I like much of the world just the way it is. I've had some suggestions that were met LOLs from both oldtimers and DMs. It was discouraging at first, but given enough time on the server I've come to realize why things are they way they are. However, polite and constructive feedback trumps "learn 2 play" commentary. Just think about this before publicly chastising posts on the forums. Some of my suggestions in the past included:

-Make it easier to sell IA gear. The planar store is now much more accessible to me than in the past.
But I had to wait until I built a toon that I could dedicate to this task.
-Please make the first few levels more enjoyable (more starting gold or an xp boon).
This would help curb the discouragement to newcomers when getting to know the job system and stuff.
-town shops should open longer hours or all day

I agree with much of what has been said so far, except for the guild system. It is currently doing well and it should only be tweaked in small steps. Revamping it would possibly dwindle the already thin player base.