Hey all,
I'm a player who returned in August 2015 after not playing since September 2001 or so.
It's nice to see that a province was added on while I was gone, but one thing that has changed is that the outer provinces (not Zoluren) are inhabited even less than they were before.
When I left in 2001, there was a real community/culture on Aesry, for example. I actually didn't prefer the company of the people who "lived" there but even a culture I dislike is still another "culture"- another variety- so to speak.
I've been discussing some of this stuff with some other old-returning players and the idea we had was this:
Why not build an incentive for people to not only travel to, but spend more time in the other provinces?
Some ideas could be:
1.) make only certain sought after items available in the shops with each province perhaps specializing in something else. (My understanding after talking to several players is that Crossing seems to have almost all the best store-bought weapons now, with perhaps the exception of the big Noggin throwing hammer - this discourages travel and use of the other provinces!)
2.) Make a more creative critter unique to some areas of each province - maybe in terms of what it can teach - or what it drops. Maybe a skin that provides for some special type of bag or armor? Maybe a critter that drops more of certain types of scrolls or unique gems?
3.) This is more of a possibly annoying idea - but maybe even make it so that for a range of certain higher circles, circling can only be done at one of the foreign guilds (this one is maybe not so desirable, but I'm just trying to dig up ANYTHING to make the other provinces more populated)
MKSOLID
PRIMEQ
Re: Populating the "other" (not Zoluren) Provinces
02/01/2016 01:14 AM CST
First of all, welcome back! If you need any help, feel free to reach out.
I want to say that I hear your concern and empathize with it. A world populated with many different sub-cultures is an interesting, rich, and vibrant one, and I think most of us would enjoy that.
However, I want to try to break this to you gently but I don't know how. We just don't have the population to support that many different groups or cultures of people. Many of us have tried. We have groups that are dedicated to different provinces (Ilithi and Therengia in particular), we have a multitude of hunting opportunities and unique items in other provinces as you suggested. The simple fact is that we need a critical mass of people to gather somewhere for it to mean anything.
There are only a few real suggestions I could make at this point:
1) It would be amazing if GMs would reevaluate some of the gathering spots available, particularly in non-Zoluren areas. Right now there are a variety of reasons people don't gather in one place -- the mana isn't good enough, it's not Ranger friendly, it's odd to stand around in the rain in front of a gate, etc. Someplace with all the amenities might really help draw people together.
2) Full hunting ladders in non-Zoluren provinces may help by allowing people to stick around in their chosen province.
3) Players who want to start a culture elsewhere should go give it a try. Show up regularly in a spot and announce yourself as available there for healing, teaching, talking, whatever. Try to talk to others and build up some pride for your province. Host and attend events there, join an Order there, get some Moon Mages to rift people over. With some work, you might just make something happen.
- Navesi
I want to say that I hear your concern and empathize with it. A world populated with many different sub-cultures is an interesting, rich, and vibrant one, and I think most of us would enjoy that.
However, I want to try to break this to you gently but I don't know how. We just don't have the population to support that many different groups or cultures of people. Many of us have tried. We have groups that are dedicated to different provinces (Ilithi and Therengia in particular), we have a multitude of hunting opportunities and unique items in other provinces as you suggested. The simple fact is that we need a critical mass of people to gather somewhere for it to mean anything.
There are only a few real suggestions I could make at this point:
1) It would be amazing if GMs would reevaluate some of the gathering spots available, particularly in non-Zoluren areas. Right now there are a variety of reasons people don't gather in one place -- the mana isn't good enough, it's not Ranger friendly, it's odd to stand around in the rain in front of a gate, etc. Someplace with all the amenities might really help draw people together.
2) Full hunting ladders in non-Zoluren provinces may help by allowing people to stick around in their chosen province.
3) Players who want to start a culture elsewhere should go give it a try. Show up regularly in a spot and announce yourself as available there for healing, teaching, talking, whatever. Try to talk to others and build up some pride for your province. Host and attend events there, join an Order there, get some Moon Mages to rift people over. With some work, you might just make something happen.
- Navesi
GODKING
Re: Populating the "other" (not Zoluren) Provinces
02/01/2016 05:14 PM CST
>>3) Players who want to start a culture elsewhere should go give it a try. Show up regularly in a spot and announce yourself as available<< >>there for healing, teaching, talking, whatever. Try to talk to others and build up some pride for your province. Host and attend events<< >>there, join an Order there, get some Moon Mages to rift people over. With some work, you might just make something happen.<<
This often doesn't work very well since there are usually so few in the town anyway who need assistance at the times my characters are present. Many of the places are not very supportative to some charcters. It's difficult being a Ranger around Ratha. My cleric has often gwethed on the J gweth that she will clean altars for specific dieties in Rahta (since most Ratha altars require a clean altar for an orb) if requested, but usually no response comes. My guess is that most don't need an altar cleaned at the times my cleric is present. And often my characters have to go to the mainland since either there is no guild for the charcter around Ratha or most events are only happening on the mainland and little, if anything, is being done by the GMs to try to disperse the population of people to other provinces.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
Abraham Lincoln
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html#QHdX1KWUxuDHdcHr.99
This often doesn't work very well since there are usually so few in the town anyway who need assistance at the times my characters are present. Many of the places are not very supportative to some charcters. It's difficult being a Ranger around Ratha. My cleric has often gwethed on the J gweth that she will clean altars for specific dieties in Rahta (since most Ratha altars require a clean altar for an orb) if requested, but usually no response comes. My guess is that most don't need an altar cleaned at the times my cleric is present. And often my characters have to go to the mainland since either there is no guild for the charcter around Ratha or most events are only happening on the mainland and little, if anything, is being done by the GMs to try to disperse the population of people to other provinces.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
Abraham Lincoln
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html#QHdX1KWUxuDHdcHr.99
BADGOPHER
Re: Populating the "other" (not Zoluren) Provinces
02/01/2016 05:35 PM CST
>since most Ratha altars require a clean altar for an orb
I thought there was a longstanding bug where altars don't get dirty unless you look at them.
I thought there was a longstanding bug where altars don't get dirty unless you look at them.
