Shattered Kingdoms

Why would a cloth-wearing sorceror be able to take on a beast? There strength is in the magical arena, not the physical. I don't care if they are the greatest genius in the world, if a tiger attacked them, they'll have the everloving snot knocked out of them if it were not for their magic.

(Insert "not sure if serious" picture.)

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"Auto reciprocate"

If Dulrik was able to put in a command for just not responding in combat, I think it'd be best as an "auto" command. just like "auto assist," make "auto reciprocate" which could be toggled off in the circumstance of a fight one doesn't want, and then a command that if two parties weren't reciprocating they could end the fight - perhaps as an addition to the "stop" command. It would be useful. As long as it doesn't evolve into any sort of calming-winds-end-all-combat-immediately sort of deal.

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I think the idea of being able to bribe store owners to wake up in the middle of the night is brilliant. Useful game-centric functionality, also maintains in-character themes.

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I also really like the idea of money instead of items on elite drops. Assign item material, enchantments, and type a value and if it doesn't spawn use that number, based upon economy, to add a significant amount of money to the NPC's inventory.

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I think the caster melee gripe isn't merited. Casters have spells like petrification, magma spray, finger of death, as well as blindness and other such tools at their disposal that make them own those tigers. The only problem is they can't stab one to death with a dagger or sword. It's an invalid assumption that they should be able to, in my opinion.

However, Salandarin brought up a good point about pets in general PVP being over-emphasized. I put forward dropping all pets HP at or below 75. It should only take a sneeze to kill one, and I think there should only be a very small set that should be able to protect from bash or backstab. Either gimp HPs completely, or make a flag that separates storebought pets that can join a group from pets that can't join a group. And there should only be 2 or 3 that should be able to join a group. Pets, in the current system, gimp one-on-one PK way too much. They completely shut down bash, trip, backstab in one go, destroying the concept of a PK jump. Before tribunals and turtle-emphasis went in, it was a necessary balance. Right now, it's just a major inhibition that's not needed.

I think cutting their HPs significantly, and implementing a hide on some of them that still make them usefully guarded against NPC damage but not player damage would be my answer. All people need is a word vial and a pet and they don't have to worry about getting jumped, ever. I think the only classes that have a right to be able to shut these down with any decent potential are the casters.

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I am very, very interested to hear about all these "nulls" and "no information available" areas. When I first played the game there were rooms with 2 line descriptions and NPCs that had none that had epic gear. At that time I had significantly less problem finding out information IC than people here are intoning with their posts about time now.

The way the mud implements the typo/bug logging gives the players no excuse if they feel there is a problem with an area. It logs all relevant information to the point all you have to type is "typo Yeah, this door here has no f'ing clue anywhere on how to open it." The builder can then do the rest rather painlessly. This system is damn amazing, and if you are continually burned by something that has no hint, it really is your fault. I'm not sure you guys truly understand just how active your patrons are in this system and it's one of the most under-utilized tools if you feel this sort of thing is a problem.

Nonetheless, unless recent building has just completely violated and mangled the chain of information in some impossibly vast way since I last played, I think this point is being over-emphasized. From what I've seen playing around now, it doesn't seem like that. I really hope players aren't expecting blinking pink hints with the steps holding their hands through the process on 'em. The building standard has been ridiculously higher now than it's ever been when the playerbase was bigger and had less (vocal) problems finding things.

I can only think of a very few rare handfuls of things that truly had no answer, and those have been fixed. Granted, my game knowledge is now dated.

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I heard this idea and liked it: code an extra equipment slot, a "light" slot, that would allow users based on the level of the light item extended vision at night. Perhaps make this fun by adding room echos to the items that go to the next door rooms, and the stronger the light the more rooms away you see the echo.

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I'd like to see the disabling of leadership for all tribunals, knocking down cabal front doors and front guardians and saying "Go". Make it a large RP event and use it as an ability to get feedback from the players on how it affected PK. Make all the pet shop owners close up for the duration. Make it two or three weeks long, and see how it affects PK, and how people take advantage of it. Those are the changes I'd like to see go into the game, but I may be the only one. If people aren't fearing PK, they aren't playing at the top of the game. I personally don't think there was anything more exciting in this game than the spontaneous jumps and PKs that just don't seem to exist the way people talk.

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If people are finding the Wastelands just too easy and too great, pull the proper philosophy of completely overshooting expectations. I don't believe treasure troves should be separated: they should be toughened. I did a few (shoddy) examples in Iron Citadel of daemons with group-combat scripts. Put 6 daemons in a group, with three warrior classes, two caster and one adventurer. Get them healing eachother, dropping holy words and call lightnings like nobody's business. I really, truly believe that the wastelands (and to a much greater extent Iron Citadel_ should only be traveled if you are already fully resisted-up and at the top of your game. It shouldn't be gone to in order to get to the top of the game. It's for ridiculous people wanting to get more ridiculous.

That, and I think it would be f'ing fantastic to be part of a player group out there where the players have to be dropping earthquakes, fireballs, call lightning spells, flamestikes, color sprays with art trained and resists topped while healers spam heals and warriors spam bashes. It'd be slow but fun as hell, and if there's a way to make the experience ridiculously extraordinary, do it. Levelling for the elite. There should be a much better emphasis on grouped supermobs for those who think they're awesome to go grind their teeth on.

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I've gone on two breaks at work writing this and have lost my ideas. I'll put more up.

It's hard because half of it was serious. Actual good ideas include getting rid of CRS, bounty NPCs, final strike, shovels. Also nerfing circle stab's damage, buffing scout pets, and making it so you can't dispel elementals are all good ideas that are unbiased.

Putting me in charge of harlequin is a great idea, but it wasn't a serious suggestion.

As for the "there's too much reliance on pets, so we should make pets die instantly when targetted" argument . . . I mean . . . such a change would have a MASSIVE effect on game-balance, and it's not clear that anyone has put any thought into that fact.

I will also say that I have no problem whatsover with a necro not being able to beat the crap out of a tiger with his bare hands.

Pets aren't as strong as they used to be, but I would go along with any change that wimped pets further. I like the idea of adventurers being heroic, not needing lions or camels or whatever around them at all times.

Wimping pets won't change the fact that running around in the front row will get you killed.

I think he's starting to get it.

That's the idea, Turon. There is a lot to say about making life more risky in a game where PK is such a large aspect. It would pull people out of this "I have to be immortal and stay in my brick house forever and ever unless it's on my terms or else" mindset that makes them think they win PK because they're, for lack of a better term, sissies. There's nothing to say being very hard to kill is a problem, but the game shouldn't be building it in for you. It makes that sort of difficulty prestigious instead of every day nonsense.

No one is entitled to being hard to kill in the gritty world of SK, in my opinion. The sooner people think like that (players and designers alike) and loosening up, the better off the game is as a whole, I'd wager.

IMHO: You keep your pets, or you keep your keeps/guards. I don't think you should be allowed to have both. In my extremist opinion I don't think you should be allowed either.

If you want -that- to be true, then put a gate target 2 rooms from the Sith'a'niel inn like EVERY OTHER CITY IN THE GAME has. The only people I have had trouble getting into a fight they could lose are the people who sit in Sith'a'niel all day.

People are "hard to kill" in this game because of bounty NPCs, law NPCs and outer guardians, combined with the fact that they don't have to fight. Whether or not a pet lasts 2 rounds or 3 is one of the least consequential of factors in that matter.

The ironic part is how you took laez's idea of wanting heros to be more survivable and turned it into you talking about how it's annoying that people are hard to kill.

Irony: this word does not mean what I think you think it means.

I took my idea from a thread farther down the list, the one before this one came up, and am re-posting it in a thread along the same lines. I'm not sure what warranted that, but...thank you for playing.

I'd like you to note that I also requested the removal of bounty, law, and outer guardian NPCs. I like to think I'm pretty aware, though a lot of my information is dated. For a limited time, to test its effects - just like the pets.

Two or three rounds is rather consequential in a game with word of recall and a score of skills that can't be used with someone infront of you. People need to be more reliant or creative in getting that immunity instead of spending a plat on a pet. If I haven't made this explicitly clear already, let me do so: my ideas in no way reflect a majority, the whole, or anyone that matters. They are the opinion of one person with a certain philosophy about the game throwing other ideas out there for common usage and berating.

This is an idea to promote and equalize PK. This is completely irrelevant, and separate to the idea that sorcerors and clothies should be mauling tigers in melee combat. I have already noted my disagreement and left it there. In the end it is a change that would make players fit less into the "heroic" mindset put forth, primarily that they should be meleers despite the class, and shouldn't die so easily. If we are having a thread on an "SK review" with different ideas, let's have the whole conversation.

無駄

I was thinking more of naj/harpy/ousquip (sp??? lolol) and a few others I can't recall because it's been forever. If you're low on mana any of those can [REDACTED] your [REDACTED] up. Naj especially, jesus. It'd be fine if they just weren't instant aggro.

There's an command called "consider" which returns IC information about your target.

I expect that to be mostly true. I don't care much about this aspect of things being as there's way more important stuff going on in this thread, such as this:

I wish I could describe how steely-hard I got thinking about this. Absolutely, as Turon points out, pets are currently necessary for survival: because the game has been balanced around pets. The elimination of pets would mean that bashing and tripping classes would be significantly more powerful. The solution? More buffs and nerfs. It wouldn't take long to find good ways to bring things back to balance without using the crutches that are pets. The point of buffs and nerfs is to make the game more fun for everybody by achieving a more precise balance.

As it stands, balance in SK is dependent on a large number of conditionals. Classes aren't compared on a 1:1 basis, but on the theoretical level of what each class will be able to do when accompanied by a pet and by having certain spells and consumables applied or on-hand. There is only one word to describe this method of balancing: dumb. The place where this sort of balance analysis should come into play is in large group v group combat and in end-game PvE encounters.

I'll leave it there before I spiral too far off-course. Just some more thoughts on the matter. And nay, Syn, I'm not playing again. I'm all up in competitive Heroes of Newerth these days.