Shattered Kingdoms

Exploration

I agree with the OP's complaint against unguessable conditions for entry to neat areas or interaction with quest NPCs. Owyran is one of my favorite quest areas, just because it's so self-contained.

In addition, exploration is a solitary activity, as opposed to leveling or item-hunting. (Consider that in any group, only one person can move without creating chaos.) Putting lore descriptions on keys isn't going to help the average explorer. Likewise, quest areas that require groups are just annoying. Once I decided that Dashre Monastary required a group's skills to solve, I quit an otherwise interesting puzzle. Dragging people there to try things was just too painful. Owyran only works because the group activity comes after the exploration.

Pets and Combat

Some classes are designed to require pets. That's fine, and even fun as ordering adds tactics to the game. The problem is more:
* Physical classes being so fragile they need a front row pet.
* Recall potions making escape easy while pets are targeted.

The first problem is unfun because it makes physical characters seem weak. I'd like to see physical classes get more disabling skills targeted against melee-users. Or as mentioned in another thread, getting combat bonuses for being mounted on a pet would be a nice incentive not to hide behind one.

The second problem is really that recall potions exist. Giving instant recall to every class is a not great idea for a PK MUD, or even an RP MUD. It's hard to get excited about adventuring when you can retreat almost at will. I'd even be inclined to take Word of Recall off priests and shamans and give them something else.

Give shamans bash, give priests backstab or charm person depending on their armor type.

The group thing is something I noticed. Wandering around the MUD, I often thought to myself, "This must have been a pretty happenin' place, and this area must rock if I could group up with some friends." But, many times when I log in, it appears there aren't even enough players to fill up two full groups to go against one another in a world with dozens of potential affiliations.

It feels like the item-based aspects of the game are balanced around having groups, which when combined with limited item availability and a low pool of potential helpers, implies that the rarest items will be held within cliques. I said implies, not that it happens.

I wish there were more areas like the Chancel, places with neat things available to smaller groups right off the world map, instead of obscure puzzles that you can only solve by being handed the knowledge by someone else and in a sizeable, well-balanced group. (I'm looking at you, Abyssal Tower.)