Shattered Kingdoms

I have never once seen an item restrung.

There's no flag on them when you see them restrung. Have you ever been a PAR and asked for one? I'll be honest, it's more an instance of people being too afraid to ask than it is people being denied too often.

I have, in 10 years, had PAR a number of times. I've never even thought to ask for a restring. I was not aware that was a thing people did on SK.

That's pretty much how it always goes, honestly. People are too afraid to put their character's weight into a request like restringing. You'd be amazed how little it happens, and how accommodating your imm-staff is around here. Obviously, the armor of [Fancy Name Here] won't be renamed to your speckles of fairy dust, but if you have an enchanted hematite ring you want restrung into something fancy, and your character is a PAR or has some good RP weight behind them...

...the worst that'll happen is someone says no, but rarely are the IMMs even given the opportunity to do that. For all that I've interacted with and known, they really, really are great at helping you in these ways and reinforcing player RP.

That's kind of where I'm coming from here, in a lot of ways. A lot of these things people seem to think are super incentives and would go a long way...they're sitting there in the corner, unused, gathering dust - already waiting to be taken advantage of. That, or they're in use and no one recognizes their influence because it's minimal.

If you look at my three bullet-pointed proposals, nowhere will you find an XP diet. You will also see two are completely unrelated to the mentor system. One represents an expansion of the mentor system only in that it relies on the existing mentor point mechanic to reward RP (which means it requires less new code work, which means it stands a reasonable chance of actually happening). I honestly don't understand how you think rewarding good RP with mentor points on top of XP would not be an improvement over the existing system. Who wouldn't want the chance to earn more attribute points? That's a very real reward, unlike XP beyond GM level. At the very least, this would start to address the problem that SK bills itself as a MUD where RP is rewarded, but the current system of rewards is largely meaningless; at the very least it's an improvement. If it gets us gains in the RPK department by fostering more character development, that's a great bonus. If not, it's still better than what we have now. At worst it is a positive change for SK.

Did you just admit to being a mudsexor?

Yes, yes he did.





You've mentioned both. Look at what mentor points have provided us so far: a mentor system that is absolutely nothing but a gateway for free skill training, and very often only the barest modicum of interaction and true "mentoring" takes place. It's like being trained at a fast food job: "here's your uniform, here's the spatula, any questions?" There's no real taking-under-one's-wing mentoring going on. I love your enthusiasm and passion. I want you to keep posting your ideas here. I just really disagree with the reinforcements you suggest using in the instances you noted, and I'm hoping to get you outside of that box to see what other ideas you have. That shop one you agreed with is a good one.

One of your first posts in this thread indicates you want a long-term paragon system that requires they give rewards to keep the flag. The only difference between what you have and what we have now is the HP boost - and if it's so insignificant it won't affect PK, it is useless. If it is significant, it's a PK reward that's counter-productive. Truly, the system you asked for is in place. No one is saying it's an adequate resolution to the problem - but it's in place. You even mentioned my character and incentives to stay around. Trust me, no one wants me to stay around long-term more than me. SK is free and it's a good creative outlet. Keeping paragon long-term is an achievement, certainly - it's just a very enticing one, given the responsibility and stuff you have to put up with.

Your third bullet point is one I will whole-heartedly agree with. It's one I've been hawking since we JUST dropped below an 70 player average days years upon years ago. Looking at the raw math, you need around 80 players on average to have a healthy membership of every player organization and a fair number of unaligned personnel (people leveling, those who are truly neutral, etc). That's about 7 characters per organization, with room for 10 give or take. We haven't hit those numbers in a very long time. We need dual membership, or re-integration, and I'll stand by that with you until the day it happens.

I may be wrong, but I think this could be done by a NPC. This goes back to the idea of a special shop with customizable equipment. Instead of a shop (or in addition to a shop), it could be a NPC that you hand a piece of equipment who can restring it however you want (according to whatever restrictions the staff puts in place). No immortal involvement would be needed. All you would have to do is qualify by way of having gotten X rewards (whatever is deemed appropriate). If need be it could also have a nominal monetary price or a limit on use so that people don't just go spam restring everything under the sun.

I agree that the majority of mentor interactions are hollow, but I will also add that some small fraction of them do lead to meaningful interaction and quality RP. I think to dismiss them as "absolutely nothing but a gateway for free skill training" is a disservice to the system, and no less hyperbole than opey's assertion that all paragons are mudsexors. However, that is neither here nor there for what I propose. I am just suggesting that RP rewards represent a second method by which mentor points can be attained, because everyone would like to be able to get more attribute points. It actually has nothing to do with mentoring and everything to do with bootstrapping on existing code in order to give an award to good RP beyond the hollow XP award.



My opinion is not set in stone. It changes with the thread as more information and ideas are brought to bear. The bullet-points I made represent my most recent opinion on the matter. I don't have a very strong opinion about the PAR system, except that I strongly believe that right now it is not great. Almost any of the ideas proposed by anyone so far in the thread would represent an improvement. The 2-for-1 idea, having PAR be retained month-to-month and based on cumulative reward total and give a gameplay benefit (though I now like the GM+1 idea better), or whatever. As it is now it rewards people with a chore whereby they are supposed to dish out meaningless rewards so that someone else can also enjoy the opportunity to engage in the same chore next month.


I would prefer reintegration over dual membership.

I understand, I just wanted to make sure you were aware where I was coming from when I was talking about those things. I'm past them now that I know that most of what I disagree with about the xp dieting is off the table.

I know you see it as hyperbole, but realistically a blue moon occurrence does not change an all-encompassing statement like I made. The times that truly mentor-ish interaction is cultivated are rare and usually in spite of the mentor system as opposed to being nurtured by it. If one out of a hundred mentor sessions holds a true mentor relationship for a character's life, then my statement isn't really hyperbole - it's just bluntly-stated truth. It's entirely fair to call the system like it is. If you think it deserves more credit than I give it, then we'll have to respectfully disagree on the matter. I wouldn't be opposed to mentor points being used as a reinforcement system, in a perfect world. I simply feel like we have a finite level of resources and focus to be spent on this endeavor, and that finite resource should be spent headed in a direction that hits closer to home on the core of the issue. It's like having three shotty shells left in Resident Evil 2. You cherish those #&*$ers.

My opinion is rather fluid, itself, but it's also been molded by lots and lots of experience and I told you so moments. I'm open to discussion - I just need some good #*&$ to persuade me.

I, too, would prefer re-integration over dual membership. I only leave dual membership on the table simply because, code-wise, it's most likely a FAR easier task to accomplish and I'd rather have something than nothing. Also, should there ever be a retro MUD renaissance, the system is honestly a great one with the players to support it. It should be easily flipped on/off.