Shattered Kingdoms

There is actually a mentor command that attempts to match you to people of similar class. You can probably type help mentor in game, but what you do is go to a newbie school or capitol inn (the one that gives you the rest bonus) and type mentor. You can do this until journeyman, and any skills that you get before then can be trained by any mentor who is superb or better at those skills. This is the best way to learn the languages as well as some of your more important skills.

The mentor system is in, just be in an inn in your home country and type "mentor" and someone will answer your call sooner or later.

The PE "Penalty" isn't so much a penalty, as you don't have a whole lot when new.. A lot of major cities will sell you a horse which will let you get a lot further with your limited PE.

I was thinking about this and I believe Dulrik's response (don't quote me) was something along the lines of PE math has not been downgraded and it used to be okay in the past (if anything, I think PE gains have been front-loaded so you get them earlier in life than you used to).

But a big picture view seems to me that we're generally encouraging lowbies to travel more than ever now. Wilderness travel - which saps so much more PE than moving within a city - is instantly required as soon as you start RECALL'ing to outside the city (an act which itself halves your PE). Add to that the the familiarity improvements that remind you to move on to another area when you're wasting your time where you currently are, too.

The thing about newbies and PE was as D said that due to a bug that he fixed, newbies got stuck with speed run(or jog) while appearing to be walking. Other than that, I like the addition of cheap horses in every major city, it helps a lot.

Back on subject. Dulrik and many more, has made that he wishes to have as few communication channels as possible. It -is- indeed a bit intimidating to ask for help as a newbie, but keep in mind that this is an extremely newbie friendly player base and most people will do their best to help you.

I believe that most of your questions are already answered Kurelum, I would just like to welcome you to the mud in turn and hope that you will enjoy this game as much as we do.

MUDs are a niche class of games to begin with. I have a feeling they're all suffering some decline by now. And as people abandon ship they all just start flocking and grouping towards the most crowded MUDs, and sadly, SK is not one of those MUDs being flocked too. Why that is, I can't really explain. How did people find SK to begin with? I really have no idea. It's hard to get introduced to this sort of thing, they don't really advertise themselves, and most people aren't naturally open to the idea of a text-based game. You kind of have to know what you're looking for. Because the numbers have taken such a hit, the problem kind of makes itself worse. New players come in and see a small pbase, assume the place is dead/dying, don't continue their characters. Old players see the same thing and don't want to come back.

At the very, very beginning... how many people played this game anyway?

Can't somebody just find a huge collection of DnD nerds somewhere and make them play this game??????

Everyone seems very bitter, pbase blaming the imms, imms blaming the pbase, pbase blaming the pbase. I'm sure some combination might be involved, but mostly I think what's happening is natural and inevitable. It's a shame, but that's how it goes.

If you changed the systems, rules, added new areas, who would actually know? How would anybody new really know or appreciate it? Would it be an attempt to get back older, "Golden Age" players? Those players have largely moved on with their lives at large, it seems. What the game needs IMO is a network of individuals who are able to fill the world, and RP. RP/interaction is the only legitimate selling point for this MUD, and when it doesn't exist, the MUD doesn't exist. People, and maybe I can't speak for all people, but most people that play this game don't stay because they really really want innovations on text-based group combat. Or because they love behaviorally addictive, super tedious RPG leveling. They stay to play in a living, breathing, bustling world that constantly evolves and tells its own story. You can't achieve that without numbers and RPers. We've been losing RPers left and right and its killing the whole thing. How do you find that network of RPers (because most of the "advertising" of this game is just friends telling friends)? Not a [REDACTED] clue. But it's the RPers you should be selling this game to and the RPers you should be listening to. I hate to bring up CRS but it seems like the RPers spoke their peace on that. I wouldn't call it the ultimate catalyst for destruction. Arguably everything was in slow and steady fall when CRS came into play; maybe that's why I think it's it's been somewhat natural. However, no amount of additional code is going to bring those RPers back. If there's anything that should be understood about them, it's that coding is entirely counterintuitive to what RPers want and represent. It is coded limitation. And I think that's, in summary, the main RPer objection to CRS. This little world was a lot richer when it was more free-form, wasn't it? That's what everyone seems to say anyhow. Not that you should turn this game into a chat-room or something. This place is built, it's expansive and impressive. But you could cut this world in half, it'd still be good if you could get a good pbase. You get a good pbase by selling to the RPers. You can get a huge, [REDACTED] pbase if you sell out and put in all that ridiculous stuff (continental shouts, super easy leveling, ridiculous powers, constantly accessible storage dimensions, blahblah). You tend to get screwed if you go halfway. This is the last thing I'll say about it, since I know it gets you guys all defensive and sensitive, but CRS felt like a sell to the Everwar kids. It was pop, commercial. And that's probably why so many people got turned off.

I'd like to see a revival but I'm a pessimist. If you want my advice, go find some nerds somehow, a big old group of them, and their friends, and just keep finding them, and help them get used to this place. Give them bread and circus. Put them into a story; a real story. It's hard, especially with this Adam and Eve bare [REDACTED] population we've got left, to immerse people in the world. Ultimately the people are what creates the immersion, and in that regard the imms have both all and none of the control. This place used to have less than everything it has now, and yet it was happier. Maybe it's because the imms used to fart around with the mortals a lot more, Old Testament style. Maybe this game only had one or two real influxes which lasted years, and are simply now dying. Maybe it's just too much crap too account for. It's very tricky.

So it's all easier said than done. Not my job. Good luck. I like to call it a natural decline but if you look at how long some of these players have been here... that's also in the nature and potential of the game, I guess. If you can make it that good for more people then you'll always have a pbase, but you have to generate it all over again, and that task is somewhat beyond me. I feel like there are plenty of people who would be overjoyed to play a game like this, you just have to find them. Go post on a fantasy forum or something.

Just my 2 cents.

E-e-enishi!

Good to have you back.

Except plenty of muds exist, including new muds made in the last couple of years, which have hundreds of people playing them at all times. Acting as though this is all a natural progression to no pbase is disingenuous.

Maybe they're so popular because they've come out so recently? Or because of PvP focus/RP laxity/global channels/WoWish [REDACTED] this game cracks down on?

Granted I don't know much about the wide world of mudvertising. As well, I was never trying to say that the current state is purely nature taking it's course... there are the other factors

I just think people need to vote

You know, all this talk about how our PB is declining and how its the Imms fault and whatnot made me go to different muds to try out. I really like Carrion Fields (being as how we're suppose to be similar to that one), and the PB was on average at 30 the week I was on. We're in the same boat people!