Shattered Kingdoms

Where's the +1 button?

I think the loss of fountain RP did to SK what the loss of meaningful GETS did to /b/.

I'm for making the game more casual.

One of the biggest problems with SK is that it is brutal to play. It takes a lot of preparation to go into the top tier of PvP via enchanting, brewing, gathering weapons, etc. Battles are nearly always won before they take place. And the loser risks losing all of that preparation because there is free looting allowed in the game. Players get discouraged when they have to put in a lot of work, but might get little in return for their investment.

Alright now. I just got done reading through all the posts on this threads and there are a lot of good ideas. I know a lot of my ideas have been shot down or ignored, but this is more of the area I've been wanting to hit.

I'll start with attracting new players.

Any kind of social media. We need to promote this thing like it's the best thing since sliced bread. (Because it kinda is. This games awesome)
Posts on reddit or imgur where there is a welcoming community would help. Once some people like it, others will see.
Facebook would be huge. But for some, liking the sk page immediately shouts "I'm a virgin nerd everyone! Look at me!" So it seems kinda tough to promote there.
But on the topic of Facebook, an embedded client would be outstanding. I wanna see that happen.

On the topic of keeping users once we've attracted them:

A test character/trial island would be cool.
I would think about a 2 day trial period for a character starting at expert or something. Give the user two options. A merc or a sorc. Maybe a scout too. Just let them dip their toes and see what this SK thing is all about. I say trial island because I don't want it to be abused by vets that will take the lvl'd character, grind to gm in a day and then pk for a day. But I want them to be involved in rp. So it would be nice to have then on the mainland. Perhaps if they did some simpleish quest or logged x amount of hours, their new character will have boosted exp rate for 2 days or something. This would help keep them from saying "screw this. I don't want to start out knowing nothing after knowing all these skills."

More quests! Easier quests!
One of the best training areas is valley of ashes. Why? Because you kill NPC after NPC, but you feel like you're a part of the war.
I think these type of quests would improve the leveling experiance. But the thing that would really be the icing on the cake would be a boss fight. A boss fight in each of the areas. A "giant mutated rat" under the sewers of exile, for example. The bard in the mid city intersection could give the quests for exile.

A thought on spreading knowledge to noobs:
If you're going to take someone somewhere, let them lead. Just tell them the direction to go. It might be slower. But the noob is gaining knowledge on how to navigate through places.

Now some misc improvements.

Marriage status.
If you gained loyalty points or had some sort of added bonus for getting married, it would have potential to improve rp in the game.

Loyalty points/achievements
They should be given out like candy. But the cost for things should be higher. And there should be more benefits that you can only access with loyalty points.
Killing the "boss" in each of the training areas would give one point each. Going off and killing radi kenga would result in five. It would influence people to group up more often and pretty much "run dailies," as wow kids like to call it.
Meeting 10 people could result in 2 loyalty points. This would influence more rp. Greet fifty people, 2 more LP.
Sk should (imo) begin focusing on farming loyalty points. And you can only get them by playing the game the way it should be played.
I like the idea of buying spells and skills and stuff using loyalty points. Maybe you only have a spot for five extra bought skills or something. Maybe it's a set that you could buy. Pk set: tracking, Ef, something else. Or rp set: detect aura, detect age. Something like that. I know you don't like the idea of it very much, D, but it has potential if it is limited so that a character won't be too OP.

The crs system:
With crs being almost bugged right now (because of stubbornness or one sidedness or whatever the reason), I feel as though winning or losing should be coded.
Relic runs should be rewarded with loyalty points. Perhaps it could be worth more to reobtain it and you could petition for an extension on the amount of time until the relic was returned and your coffers were docked.

One last thing, and I'm pretty hopefull about this idea because it will allow new users to learn a lot!
MAPS!!! We need Sooo many maps! For any quests or areas you want to explore or find, you should be able to buy a map. You go into menegroth to the "wiseman" or map seller, and he has a list of places he can tell you how to get to. You get the map, follow it out, and you have just learned more about the game without ooc help. There is just so much knowledge lost through the years or knowledge that isn't willingly passed down. I think this would greatly improve sk.


Thanks for your time and please let me know why my ideas are as awful as they probably are. Lol
Thanks,
Terak

I think everything you've said sounds fine. Actually, having a major geographical shop in each of the capital cities would be a wonderful idea. These maps should be very detailed and the shops should include just about every possible area that is available to the playerbase. If this can be done to include coordinates and what not and some time invested to really make these maps useful, I would say this might work hand in hand with the information sharing, yet be kept IC. The more exotic maps would be somewhat pricey of course.

Ardith, Grep, I'm not sure if I've said it lately, but I love you both.

That being said, I like some of the ideas being thrown around altogether. Some contradict others, but they all have some merit as far as I can tell.

Also, elves should get max charisma out of the gate. I don't understand the logic underpinning them having 1 point of charisma under maximum charisma, and then the need to be played for 2 years of actual time to get that last point of charisma.

Scribe and brew should not take more mana than casting the spell to use. I see heal commonly take 10% of someone's mana pool to cast, and then take 40% of a priest/shaman's to brew. This mostly translates to wasted time as someone waits for their mana pool to regenerate.

Item creation. Casters should be able to craft their own wands and staves too. It should be possible to buy a blank wand and stave from shops and then just put whatever spell you want on it.

In terms of the item creation, I think that would dovetail very well with tradeskills.

If you're at an inn, scribing and brewing are not very limited by your mana, as mana regen rates go through the roof in inns with trance classes. All that decreasing the mana cost of scribe/brew will do is make it so that you can just as easily do it hiding in your cabal HQ as in an inn.

If you're looking to make the game less brutal in regard to PvP prep time, then encouraging people to brew 20 double healing vials isn't the way to go. If anything, the effectiveness of having a bajillion healing vials ought to be curbed so that people don't feel like they can't compete with the guy who can spend hours gathering coin and spending time to brew 20 double heals. Also, your idea of casters being able to craft magic device is, again, only going to add to PvP prep time. Not saying it's a bad idea, but it seems to run counter to your intended goal.

If I were an imm solely responsible for dishing out punishments for bad RP and breaking rules. I would play A LOT. Alot a lot.