Shattered Kingdoms

I've been thinking to make this post for over a year or so and always postponed due to the time required to compile it. So, I've decided to just make a list instead of a long analysis, reasoning etc for each issue.

This is a list of things that I consider MAJOR flaws in SK world throughout my personal gaming experience.



1. First of all, in fantasy games characters are supposed to be Heroes and I find it very distasteful that high level characters have to hide behind pets to survive random encounters or they will simply die. Allowing all characters to defend themselves in melee against a spider or even a tiger, doesn't seem all too insane.

"The sense of danger" should be induced in a different manner than "belittling the hero's confidence".

As an addition to this, PvP tactics for survivability literally forces -all- into hiding behind pets which makes it worse, at least RP-wise.



2a. After exploring most of the world and trying to unlock secrets in long forgotten places, I've found myself to a dead end far more than I expected.
Keys with no description or without use within a 100 leagues radius, ultimately locked doors giving no hints, sealed walls etc etc. This only promotes OOC use of knowledge IMO.

At this point I should note that asking ICly has little difference, at least to me. Even though I've tried it and sometimes I got the answer I was seeking, it delivered no satisfaction and it seemed little to no different than OOC reveal of the answer...Over 95% chance that the character with the answer got it through YiM or from another of his characters = OOC.

So, most of the times it was a waste of time since there were no hints or any other kind of help. Those few times that persistence won and I've managed to solve the "riddle", I was excited...and then 2b comes.


2b. So then, you discover a place, a room, a NPC. You've done it on your own and feel very very excited. You've been wondering for so long and it only fed your curiosity, so now it's the time to get your reward...To only discover null. An empty room, a naked NPC or worse an old half-made area truly long forgotten and probably screwed.

I got this feeling so many times, all around the realms but kept going...Until 2c!


2c. One day I've discovered the Wastelands!! A place of dreams...or not.
A place comprised of only 194 leagues.
A quick count came back with 65 -different- and -Unique- NPCs and I'm sure I've missed some.
Unbelievable amount of equipment, beautifully detailed items, imposing armors, treasures, legendary weapons and so much more...Each losing their uniqueness due to their crowded placement, NPCs and treasures alike.

It may sound ridiculous but walking that road felt exactly like going for shopping therapy in the shopping mall. If something seems interesting, there is no need to even walk into the shop, just 'pick' it with flamestrike.
That would of been truly elite in real life, though in game is rather decremental and disappointing. If only that place -exploded- throughout the realms, the world of SK would of been much more rich and rewarding.



3. The third issue is also exploring and newbie-friendly related. It has to do with:

3a. Time the sun sets. Night time in SK can be rather annoying and that is due to the light radius.

-Increasing the visible leagues during night to something more appealing.
-Simply decreasing the night time.
-Add slot for light source.

Venturing the realms of Shattered Kingdoms in daytime is a nice experience; A detailed map, distinctive colors and legend make it so. Why not promote it's beauty instead of causing frustration more than often?!


3b. Shops
-Shopkeepers and the closing of their shops was a dissapointing addition in general. If there has to be a feature like this, at least it should of been more carefully implemented.
As things are now, shops have different working times, others open for only 4 hours etc.
If there is a will for change, there are many and easy ways to improve this, so I'll rest my case.

-Shopkeepers should give an idea of what each item is. Tremendously helpful to both old and new players, directly improving merchantise friendliness by 500%.



4. A list of a few additions that will positively affect gameplay:

i. List Art, Move, Mana trains somewhere in the score sheet.

ii. Allow weapons and armor parts to be removed while blind.

iii. Crimes are erased after a set amount of time (eg. 7 weeks) or/and set max time in jail.

iv. Command to cease combat. I never understood why there is not one already.

v. Addition of a toggle command that allows "look" to return with "consider" feedback.

vi. Addition of a toggle command to disable Hungry/Thirsty messages that sets itself to off in every log in.

vii. Look/examing command should return with size details on PC/NPCs.

viii. Allow a stunned creature/Player to be looted by "get all XxX"

ix. Familiarity drops with time but not below 'familiar'.

x. Enchanting should follow guidelines based on material/level of item. Reduce randomness.

xi. Finally, the weigh of materials should be looked at. eg-Water cannot be heavier than iron.

There are many other issues that I've noted down throughout the years and I might make another post at some time. Regrettably though, a lot of those have to do with reckless additions or unnecessary wimping during the 'reign' of some old immortal and his/her personal view of balance and improvement.

Usually an error is harder to correct than prevent.


At this time I got really tired, so I will end this post with the bestest idea 3v3r.

-When two players casting rift at the same time targeting each other, the space is warped into creating a single rift from one to another. (Now the good part!)
There is always 1% chance the rift will implode and suck both characters to Lord Achernar's office for further accommodation.

Cheers.-

I agree almost completely.


And another small (I would think) change. Get rid of this "Nothing happens" message when enchanting. It doesn't DO anything, I'd honestly prefer if the thing just blew up, instead of wasting my time/mana on nothing happening.

And oh my god, yes on the hunger/thirst thing. It is so annoying to be like inducting someone, and be getting spammed with those [REDACTED] messages, and eventually it's like, "I can't take this [REDACTED] anymore, hold on while I randomly pull out a drink and some food, sorry."

And yes on the list mana/move/art trains. I usually have to waste an alias slot to keep track of that stuff.

On a side note. I imagine most people use like notepad or word or something, but some sort of like...I dunno, sheet thing in game (sort of similar to the description system?) where you can add info would be great. I use the in game alias system to save information for my character.

This game has always been flawed. Very lil you can do in the scope of what a Mud allows or can even feasibly do.

In most games with a 3D graphical environment, classes that do range damage can see their targets from a distance and successfully Nuke while Kiting so not to get hit. This isn't possible in a Mud, so ranged PvE is a pipe dream short of standing behind a pet.

NPCs and Pets also seem to be on a higher power scale than players, otherwise most players wouldn't be hiding behind a pet with reach weapons or having a healer side kick by their side for a lot of areas.

Itemization is also a joke, since all items are limited in number, some even only having one available at a time. This fact also makes questing for gear or epic items a flip of a coin. Solving the riddles, conquering a boss NPC and finding his loot completely gone very disappointing and counter productive. Also doing it over and over again once you lost the item gets boring. Unlike WoW where regardless of what drops you're still rewarding for things or emblems you can cash in later.

Game also lacks any trade skills allowing players to do an array of things from crafting their own items by finding the materials to do so. Wish can make fighting boss NPCs more rewarding if they also drop materials for crafting, so that way you're not completely ripped off from the exploring and conquering aspect of a dungeon.

1) Someone walking around in cloth is going to get his head chopped off by someone wearing a sword and armor, or a really big spider with mandibles the size of your face. It doesn't matter how heroic one is, cloth-wearing mages just don't do physical combat. Someone with 11 constitution and silk clothing isn't going to fight off a tiger in melee. You have spells for that, and those are the only people who need to be behind pets to fight something like that off.

2a) Nearly everything in the game has its hint somewhere. Just because it's not in the same area sometimes only makes it an adventure. Back when I played a lot more I didn't have problems finding things IC, and I know IMMs since that point are one hundred million times better about area hints and cohesiveness. See: Craeftilin. Nearly everything relevant for the areas in the game exist. Take along your friendly bard or adventure further if you aren't finding it.

2b) Typo/bug log it. The coder isn't going to be coding things on the spot, but building errors noted using this system are very actively pursued and fixed. These spots really aren't prevalent much anymore due to this. Use it every time you see it and these problems disappear very quickly.

2c) Disagree. There should be a place of hell to go that if you can survive, you get decent gear. Not all the gear out there is really all that awesome except for in the Iron Citadel. I mean, maybe 10-15 pieces of really usable gear in that range isn't all that impressive. Iron Citadel is a different story, but Iron Citadel is also (last I played) much harder.

3) Full agreement. Some things need realism, but sometimes people have to realize this is just a game.

4) Agreed except for:
iii - disagree somewhat. max time in jail should, when exceeded, be reset to death penalty for the person.
iv - disagree. this would completely break pvp in ways other than it is currently broken.

Way to give out a boatload of IC info Syn.

I agree with some of these ideas: Namely "Familiarity drops with time but not below 'familiar'.", "Enchanting should follow guidelines based on material/level of item. Reduce randomness", "Allow weapons and armor parts to be removed while blind,"

As for the material weight, I have no problem with some water being heavier than iron. It's obviously magical water anyways, since water doesn't usually hold shape when someone puts a halberd in it, far as I remember.

To nitpick, though,

"Command to cease combat. I never understood why there is not one already."

That would enter into a completely new era of barbarian code abuse.

"Allow a stunned creature/Player to be looted by "get all XxX"
That would usher in even more law code abuse than already exists. Why kill someone when you can just stun them, fully loot them, then surrender and do it again without any fear of getting banished?

Crimes also don't need to be erased automatically. That's what parole is for.


As for your first point, the only characters that can't handle a spider on their own past level 30 is no one. The only ones who would even be more than slowed down are casters, and they shouldn't be in the front row anyway. I see no reaso why a sorceror should be able to out-melee a tiger.

Do you see my point though!?

I agree right up to (4). That stuff is either silly or detrimental or something that could be done with an alias, with the exception of mana/art/hp trains. It'd be nice to have something on the character sheet for that, please.

Big thing here: the wastelands. I kind of like having a "treasure chest" area, but the place IS just a little bit overloaded. Honestly, if you just kept half that stuff there (the better half) and dropped the rest into various locations, you'd get a better spread.

Honestly, though, none of this is terribly important. I don't see why we need any of it.

I've found it mind boggling that some things like tanso can compare better than addy or mithril armor, being that they're magical ores and such where as tanso is an incredibly durable, but common ore. To me it's mind boggling.

Another thing I agree with is the pet thing. The paladin help file makes them sound like warriors of light, the front row spell casting knights that fear nothing and protect the weak..But of co urse we all know that mostly, thats the mercs and barbs, regardless of the helpfile. They still have to hide behind a mount and sling spells. Imo that's a bit disappointing when -everyone- even some heavy armor classes like that has to hide behind pets. Just my 2 cp.

There are certainly places in SK that need additional attention for one reason or another. Bugs, code updates, and other changes may break quests and, for one reason or another, builders do sometimes forget to finish an area completely. Please feel free to report these areas, so they can get fixed as soon as possible.

This.

In all the MUDs I've ever played, not a single one of them held a candle to the beauty of exploring the world as SK does. Whenever the sun's at noon (or whenever) and I can see as far as I can in every direction, it makes my stumach warm and fuzzy, to know that that's the world I'm a part of.

I generally agree with most of what else was said, but I found it tough to focus after reading 3a.