Shattered Kingdoms

Just a good rp'er was all.

This whole discussion reminded me... whatever happened of Furil..?
On topic, tho, the problem with the current players' numbers is that you cant possibly hope to staff approximately 20 religions, 6 cabals and 5 tribunals and somehow manage to keep it enjoyable for everyone. Bonanzas helped at the beginning with attracting people, but now they just look like an event where you can advance fast in levels and fall to inactivity again waiting for the next event.
Although it's been mentioned already dozens -if not hundreds - of times, what I feel would greatly attract more players is if CRS was taken on a tribunal level and cabals given their old, rich lore and HQs. For me, that was the beginning of the end. Oh, and the appearance of slime on the realms. Give Yenko back plx.

Furil was awesome.

Drawing new players is tough, but *should* be doable. I've toyed around on a couple of the other Muds on TMS, and none of them compare, at least in my eyes. However, they boast numbers that we dont, and never have. I remember 60 being average, and spikes being about 110.

What about advertising? I know we advertise on TMS, but do we have google ads? Are we high on returns for search engine requests? Maybe we're just not out there enough.

There are actually 29 playergroups. 18 religions. Six cabals. Four Tribunals. And Heroes. We've kept them going this long, we'll keep them going indefinitely. If I thought that the hole were too deep to crawl out of, I wouldn't try. We've still got plenty of things up our sleeves.

First of all, as I mentioned, that was an approximate estimation off the top of my head while posting the above. I may be mistaken, but the playerbase tops at about 30 players on a daily basis, trying to run 29 playergroups. To me, this seems like barely holding on, rather than "keep going". Perhaps it's just the summer and people are flocking back in. I've yet to see this happening. But as I understand it, it's not just a seasonal effect and that is evident by the people trying to find out what's wrong, that's the original idea of the thread, anyway. If you indeed have things up your sleeves, I cant understand what holds you back. I totally understand that is takes huge amounts of effort and motivation to keep this going as you say EZE, which is commendable and by no means did I post this to belittle the effort of the Imms. Simply brainstorming in an attempt to find ideas that will further improve and popularise SK. I've no doubt everyone loves the setting, else they wouldnt try to see its potential flaws and provide ideas to improve it and make it an overall great experience.

P.S. I'm probably getting boring, but I'm going to sup up my thoughts on three points, again.
1. Try taking CRS on a tribunal level ( even ask the players how would such a change make sense to implement ).
2. Give cabals their old lore, HQs and allure that made them so very special.
3. Bring back the Maiden!

The only thing that will get Dulrik to move on that(?TRS?) is basically people demonstrating their interest and phenomenal excitement for the cabal version. While I know its not perfect, I've made recent improvements which do not make it as terrible as it is made out to be by many. I believe it can be improved and there are ways that it can become a properly exciting way to spend time in the game. I've recently tried to get involved in just that as a player, but it just seems like a bad way to spend some of the most valuable hours. So I've come up with a few brainstorms. Hopefully people like the looks of them. I believe there is a way to combine the need for a cabal to have an HQ and have a way to get lore back into groups. They need not be mutually exclusive.

However, I think that the historically secret cabal membership and aversion to head on conflict should be done away with. If people have membership, they should act like it. Too many people want to act like spies and not enough want to be soldiers. Leaders should be publicly known and active within their group. If you're saying that you want to preserve those old crutches, I don't agree. Factions are about conflict. I'm more fond of groups that stand publicly and boldly for their beliefs than hiding behind deception.

If I saw groups being more overt and less covert about things, I think I'd be satisfied with putting a greater effort into cabals. I know I'm generalizing, but I think that everyone can do better about making people actually RP instead of avoiding it, which is what secret membership means. There's nothing I'll ever do about someone being "outed". You should be out there, repping for your cause.

No way are we bringing back Yenko.

There are cabals ment for soldiers - Hammer, Midnight Council, Fist and harlies to an extent. There are also cabals that are designed to be covert - Druids and Crucible and again harlies to an extent. Even in the help files in eludes to the secret nature of these cabals. If that is not the case, the help files should be updated to remove their secrecy aspect.

This I agree with, usually. As Sattahr I didn't advertise my position as Arch Druid. There were active and clear members of the cabal and any concerns or questions were brought to him. He would find you, hopefully not with his bow.

Yeah, no half-drow, half something else gods, TYVM.

Cabal conflict should be primarily a conflict of beliefs. That's what the cornerstone of a cabal is, afterall. Trying to bankrupt each other or deprive them of their powers and claim to be successful will be boring in the end, in the sense that all that changes among cabals is the skill set; the mentality would be the same. I havent joined one in a long time though, so this may have changed.
Perhaps an asset like fame could be implemented, that would measure the approval of each cabal's philosophy from the people and influence over Pyrathia? The more famous each cabal is, the more powerful it would become. Just an idea, not even a hint of how that could be possibly coded.

Aside from that, another thing that would increase the influx of players in my opinion ,is something a good chunk of the current playerbase lacks these days: Player Courtesy. It seems there's a disturbing number of people out there that simply play to grief others, not necessarily - but mainly - via PK. Everyone should have fun playing this game. And everyone should consider that. So you are fond of PK? Make it so that both ( or more ) parties feel they've participated in an interesting session. Do you want do act consistently with your guinea piggy character? At the very least, do not clip the wings of anyone trying to approach your character and its concept from the very first encounter.

I think this should be a toggle option for any player who wants to see number stats rather than the text. I am mainly speaking for the Attribute stats. Knowing EXACTLY what your stats are would help people in buidling stronger toons.