Shattered Kingdoms

Maybe you should work out then or something, just sayin'...

This conversation is getting rather circular and I'm pretty sure I'm not adding anything to it anymore.

I honestly don't know how much time I spent enchanting this current set of armor but it was indeed painful. I've played other (melee) characters and not spent much time enchanting. My primary concerns with them were the same ones I've been stating all along - petrtification, sleep, and charm.

It's a pretty big logical leap to say the decline in SK numbers is a direct result of enchant armor randomness.

What about the rise of other games? The seasons? Increasingly lower influx of new players? School schedules? An aging mud population? Other responsibilities? A super-crappy economy system (this more than anything else makes me want to quit sometimes)? An inactive coder? Lack of new features?

Anyway, pudgy out.

I just now put two and two together, and it's far more enlightening. Yes, a large part of the problem is your sleep staff, and I'd love it to be hit with the nerf bat (or be removed completely in favor of an item that makes more sense for Mira).

But that's not the issue. The issue is that enchanting is a mind-numbing timesink... no, make that time-blackhole. At least with a sink you get rewards.

Here's the real heart of the dilemna for me: there are three elements that separate the great PKers from the mediocre ones. Those aspects are a good battle plan, fast and accurate reactions, and a good suit. The first two are born of skill, the last from the endurance to waste a ridiculous amount of time on a text-based game. I honestly don't think that even creating "ubersuits" is going to change the elite, but it will give the mediocre a better chance to learn -- and then you can swipe their stuff if you need it.

No. There is only one element that separates great PKers from mediocre ones.

That element is Greatness.

Everything is is just auguries and excuses.

Enchanting is the great excuserizer, something we can blame instead of our inferiority in a skirmish.

grep, when I get taken out of the battle in less than four combat rounds, a poorly enchanted suit is not an excuse, it's the reason.

And greatness, in my mind, should not be dependent on the love child of random statistically improbable luck and massive waste of time.

Look, if I roll up on you and you're SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, who's to blame?

Your now smexy ripped shirt, or me, giving love a BAD NAAAAAAME?


That's what I thought.

But, I agree. Greatness should neither come from having a lucrative account at the knowledge bank nor from a lack of a life, but both are important factors in PVPing with the other people who do.

I just feel like blaming it on enchanting is the easy way out scapegoat. Hit the nail on the head: let's recognize that enchanting is a boring thing to do, and we only do it when we must. That is the problem, and it could be fixed by making enchanting less boring. The time element is one thing, sure, but the fundamental nature of this game's mechanics is to reward time investment regardless of quality of submissions. It's true from the bottom all the way to the top. Let's try to work within our framed canvas, instead of raging against the establishment.

I'm not raging against the establishment: I'm proposing a simple change (increase the quality of success) that strikes a blow right at the very core of this fundamentally flawed proposition, namely, this:
No, it's really not. This statement is only true of leveling and enchanting. The amount of time spent productively leveling is acceptable; and a player's skill and wisdom influences that curve dramatically. With enchanting, on the other hand, it is a matter of pulling the lever, and I've seen no legitimate argument why this should remain so.

You know what?

It would be cruel of me to disenchant you. I still haven't forgiven myself for seeing the light.

I'm pulling out of this one. Good luck, I sincerely hope this comes to pass.