Hosting a PK event which requires at least 4 people from each circle to participate is probably not a good idea when our population is as low as it is now.
THINK, SETTARGET(and presumably CLEARTARGET and TARGETLIST) and SETALIAS(and pressumably CLEARALIAS and ALIASLIST) are all subject to stupidity currently. SETTARGET and SETALIAS still break channels. Since these commands have 0 impact IC but ARE potentially important for how a player's combat system works, could we flag them immune to these effects?
The following commands are now immune to stupidity: QUEUE, THINK, SETTARGET, ST, CLEARTARGET, SETALIAS, CLEARALIAS, ALIASLIST, AL. The following commands have been added to the list of "safe" commands and will not interrupt channeled commands: SETTARGET, ST, SETALIAS
Does Vanilla have a functionality that could allow posters to respond to posts/threads, but ONLY admin would be able to see those posts? I really do want to mostly stop using forums, or at least, I want to stop using them publicly for most topics that could be controversial, but if say... there is a thread where some guy is saying "man, bringing back XP loss is a great idea" I could either decide to wade in publicly (in that particular instance I think I would), OR, I could say something like "please don't do this, I will feel like I am being pushed out of the game if you do", but only admin would be able to see it if I chose to post it "Admin view only".
E-mail works very, very well for certain things. But it's a different kind of communication. It just isn't the same as making a remark within the context of a conversation and it's also something a player won't want to do very often if they're at all aware, because when I send you an e-mail, I am hoping for some kind of direct response that shows you actually read it and considered it. With a forum thread, it's more... I hope you are taking it all in, and once in a while you might chime in on certain conversations.
I think with something like this, where people could give input only YOU see, you could possibly get a lot more direct input from people who would otherwise not touch the forums for anything. They'd have to understand that it is actually an option of course.
No, nothing like that exists. You'll have to use forum messages, in-game messages, or email. Sorry.
Also, as a gentle reminder: Even though several of us DO use the forums, and responses from one or several of us are not uncommon here, remember rule 12 from Da Rules (viewable at http://www.imperian.com/the-forum-rules): Forums are not a way to contact the game administration.
There is no guarantee that any specific member of the administration will read every post or every thread, for a variety of reasons. We try to keep lines of communication open here, but it's a lot easier to handle the other methods we already have (support email and in-game message).
So, we have a ton of ancestral races. And while some of them have some clear mechanical advantages, they overall add a bit of cool variety to the game. I've really enjoyed all the lore that's been adapted for them so far, too. Instead of just asking for another batch of sales, though, I wanted to pitch a couple of ideas.
First, ancestral seasons. Since we have so many, you could safely get away with releasing a handful for sale one month (or few months, however you want to do it), then replace those with another handful. It would give players something else to look forward to alongside new promotions each month or so, and give newer players with some credits or actual cash something to spice up their character with.
On the subject of new players/characters, I think it would be sort of neat if we could somehow add a little extra incentive to spend your retirement credits in Imperian. Basically, the first character that you transfer retirement credits to in the game would receive a free premium reincarnation option to change into any one of the ancestral races. This could also be subject to the aforementioned seasons, if you wanted, but I think it could be an interesting perk.
On the subject of new players/characters, I think it would be sort of neat if we could somehow add a little extra incentive to spend your retirement credits in Imperian. Basically, the first character that you transfer retirement credits to in the game would receive a free premium reincarnation option to change into any one of the ancestral races. This could also be subject to the aforementioned seasons, if you wanted, but I think it could be an interesting perk.
I think about this a bit and see if we can do something.
I'm just going to throw this out there, because I don't know where else to put it-
Obviously we need more players, obstensibly newbies(although theres alot of talk about a finite population with IRE games, and the only way to get more players HERE is to cannabalize off another IRE game. That may or may not be true, but I digress...)
One of the best ways to get newbies is to rank up in the topmudsites rankings or whatever site it takes us to when we vote. Higher rank, possibly, more newbies. What other reason do you have to want us to vote so much?
So, my thought is, why not give people some motivation to vote. My thought is give them a couple lessons every time they vote. Like, 5 or less. Nothing extravagent. Nothing thats going to kill your profit margins by any means. Just a nice little "thank you" for voting and helping the game in general. It would give almost everyone a nice amount of motivation to clicky clicky and spend the few seconds to actually do it. If you dont want to give them a lesson bonus, well give them a truefavour for an hour. Just a little something, in game, to say thanks.
As @Kyraic said, we are not allowed to "buy votes" this is why there has never been a "thank you for voting here is " in our games. If we do this, and are caught doing so, we will not be allowed to be on TMS.
Just made a character for the purposes of testing something in Mudbot and realized that the caravan announcements on city are kind of awesome from a novice perspective. Gives you an idea that there is some sort of city-wide mechanic that is visible even to newbies. It's a shame nobody bothers with them anymore at all. In lieu of actually giving the system some sort of real worth beyond the few shard upgrades it contained, up the prizes on it a little? Random xp, slightly more gold, inks, new shards(with a low drop rate), herb caches, maybe even an odd giftbag stone or two?
Imo, there is probably a point to which you could tune up the prizes where it'd be something cities might do again, even if you didn't make it so valuable that people felt like fighting for it, that would be one less thing for a novice to ask about and hear "just ignore this, it hasn't been relevant for a long time." Things like that contribute a LOT to the feeling of Imperian being barren that causes the game so many problems.
I hate the caravan system. I hate it with a passion. I'm still yet to be able to do one because nobody is ever interested due to the effort and coordination involved.
I feel like a small patch to the mechanics to make it somehow doable without prismatic or yank-bashing would go a long way. Not sure what the change would have to be though? Maybe just having the horde mobs split aggro somehow, relatively evenly among everyone in the room(maybe not the easiest code, but I'm not familiar enough with Rapture to know)?
The problem with caravans is that Imperian PvE mechanics are basically non-existent outside of the boss fights and this makes caravans extremely boring. Right now, there are three practical ways to kill a caravan.
1) Barrier tank it. This is boring and it requires an artifact, a Wytch/Druid/Berserker, or somebody with enough metagame knowledge to get a temporary lyre. Also this is boring and everybody hates it and it's amazingly susceptible to PvP. If you break the barrier it's almost a guaranteed wipe.
2) Icewall off the caravans and yankbash them. I've never done this one myself, but I assume it is possible. This is also tremendously boring and man-power intensive(1:1 basher/yanker ratio).
3) Icewall off the caravans and use Predator lure to pull out a guard and kill it. The guards keep moving back into the caravan, so you really have to spam lure, but you can eventually kill all the guards this way. A Predator can even solo them this way; Shou did it all the time.
Every single one of these options is boring and miserable and completely unfun once you have done it a few times.
I feel like they would be MUCH better off if they dropped the boring guardswarm and instead had one boss/miniboss level elite guard per wagon. Big enough to take some time to kill and delay caravan capturing, but also something that any reasonable few people could handle. And it would be way more interesting and involved than the boring guardclots. There's more than enough existing boss mechanics that you could repurpose and randomize amongst various elite guards to ensure that no two caravans were identical. Could even put temporary artifacts or the like in the caravans.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
I think it would be interesting to remove the aggressiveness from Caravan mobs. They would only become aggressive if the trader is attacked or if they were icewalled in. That way it gives people a chance to try and get the caravans by themselves.
Can we also change the caravan crop? Decreasing the balance cost is pretty lame. Perhaps it could be changed to slowing the caravan's movement if my idea is added. Another idea is to sometimes give you an extra plunder when plundering.
Perhaps with the addition of the Special Shards, we can add one that can be gained from plundering and one from winning the arena queue.
My only experience with caravans since their last change is occasionally being insta-killed while standing outside somewhere when they walk in. That's it.
The fact that I'm nearly as tanky as you can get makes me see them as so ridiculous that I've never so much as read the help file to figure out how they work these days.
This may have been mentioned before already, but I was wondering if there was any chance that title tokens could be made so that you can trade them in for a credit like most other promo items? There are a lot of them sitting around, and they tend to pile up and clutter your bags/inventory once you've gotten the titles that you want.
I take art commissions on request! Visit my website for commission info and more art!
Can we also get a tradein value of at least one on map pages? I really don't want them or to use them. its kinda silly how they have a value of 0 but are in almost every phylactery ever opened by me.
Comments
(Ring): Lartus says, "Then it exploded."
(Ring): Zsetsu says, "Everyone's playing checkers, but Theophilus is playing chess."
The following commands have been added to the list of "safe" commands and will not interrupt channeled commands: SETTARGET, ST, SETALIAS
E-mail works very, very well for certain things. But it's a different kind of communication. It just isn't the same as making a remark within the context of a conversation and it's also something a player won't want to do very often if they're at all aware, because when I send you an e-mail, I am hoping for some kind of direct response that shows you actually read it and considered it. With a forum thread, it's more... I hope you are taking it all in, and once in a while you might chime in on certain conversations.
I think with something like this, where people could give input only YOU see, you could possibly get a lot more direct input from people who would otherwise not touch the forums for anything. They'd have to understand that it is actually an option of course.
Also, as a gentle reminder: Even though several of us DO use the forums, and responses from one or several of us are not uncommon here, remember rule 12 from Da Rules (viewable at http://www.imperian.com/the-forum-rules):
Forums are not a way to contact the game administration.
There is no guarantee that any specific member of the administration will read every post or every thread, for a variety of reasons. We try to keep lines of communication open here, but it's a lot easier to handle the other methods we already have (support email and in-game message).
First, ancestral seasons. Since we have so many, you could safely get away with releasing a handful for sale one month (or few months, however you want to do it), then replace those with another handful. It would give players something else to look forward to alongside new promotions each month or so, and give newer players with some credits or actual cash something to spice up their character with.
On the subject of new players/characters, I think it would be sort of neat if we could somehow add a little extra incentive to spend your retirement credits in Imperian. Basically, the first character that you transfer retirement credits to in the game would receive a free premium reincarnation option to change into any one of the ancestral races. This could also be subject to the aforementioned seasons, if you wanted, but I think it could be an interesting perk.
Obviously we need more players, obstensibly newbies(although theres alot of talk about a finite population with IRE games, and the only way to get more players HERE is to cannabalize off another IRE game. That may or may not be true, but I digress...)
One of the best ways to get newbies is to rank up in the topmudsites rankings or whatever site it takes us to when we vote. Higher rank, possibly, more newbies. What other reason do you have to want us to vote so much?
So, my thought is, why not give people some motivation to vote. My thought is give them a couple lessons every time they vote. Like, 5 or less. Nothing extravagent. Nothing thats going to kill your profit margins by any means. Just a nice little "thank you" for voting and helping the game in general. It would give almost everyone a nice amount of motivation to clicky clicky and spend the few seconds to actually do it. If you dont want to give them a lesson bonus, well give them a truefavour for an hour. Just a little something, in game, to say thanks.
Just a thought.
Imo, there is probably a point to which you could tune up the prizes where it'd be something cities might do again, even if you didn't make it so valuable that people felt like fighting for it, that would be one less thing for a novice to ask about and hear "just ignore this, it hasn't been relevant for a long time." Things like that contribute a LOT to the feeling of Imperian being barren that causes the game so many problems.
1) Barrier tank it. This is boring and it requires an artifact, a Wytch/Druid/Berserker, or somebody with enough metagame knowledge to get a temporary lyre. Also this is boring and everybody hates it and it's amazingly susceptible to PvP. If you break the barrier it's almost a guaranteed wipe.
2) Icewall off the caravans and yankbash them. I've never done this one myself, but I assume it is possible. This is also tremendously boring and man-power intensive(1:1 basher/yanker ratio).
3) Icewall off the caravans and use Predator lure to pull out a guard and kill it. The guards keep moving back into the caravan, so you really have to spam lure, but you can eventually kill all the guards this way. A Predator can even solo them this way; Shou did it all the time.
Every single one of these options is boring and miserable and completely unfun once you have done it a few times.
I feel like they would be MUCH better off if they dropped the boring guardswarm and instead had one boss/miniboss level elite guard per wagon. Big enough to take some time to kill and delay caravan capturing, but also something that any reasonable few people could handle. And it would be way more interesting and involved than the boring guardclots. There's more than enough existing boss mechanics that you could repurpose and randomize amongst various elite guards to ensure that no two caravans were identical. Could even put temporary artifacts or the like in the caravans.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Can we also change the caravan crop? Decreasing the balance cost is pretty lame. Perhaps it could be changed to slowing the caravan's movement if my idea is added. Another idea is to sometimes give you an extra plunder when plundering.
Perhaps with the addition of the Special Shards, we can add one that can be gained from plundering and one from winning the arena queue.
The fact that I'm nearly as tanky as you can get makes me see them as so ridiculous that I've never so much as read the help file to figure out how they work these days.