Shattered Kingdoms

I agree with this whole-heartedly, and, as one of those people who still loves to play but can't more than 5 - 8 hours a week into a char, the game has become incredibly difficult. I know that some things have to be a time sink to be an "accomplishment", but there has to be some sort of balance. I do not have any answer on what we can do to make the game easier to be "log on and play competitively" but I'm sure there is something that people a lot smarter than me can come up with.

Yes, same here. I hate that I can't feel productive with my characters any more.

It seems like there are two dominant strains of suggestion emerging.

One group is calling for balance through various mechanical tweaks to fine-tune the SK experience, particularly in PVP areas.

Another is suggesting that SK become a more casual game in various ways, including mechanical tweaks to streamline gameplay by removing elements regarded by posters as unenjoyable timesinks.

There are also comments revolving around administrative issues.

Personally, I find that the way SK creates large gaps between the different kinds of players serves to alienate whoever isn't in the biggest group at any one time. When a bunch of COD PVP spit;'justice is served people are online, concept-heavy hipster roleplayers are left hoping they're the right aura at the right time. When the inns are full of tickling/drinking people with in-game families, someone who wants to explore end-game dungeons is left without much to work with.

Logging into SK is easy. Staying logged in presents challenges. Like someone said earlier, many playstyles actually suffer or assume risks by 'idling' in the game, and that means spontaneous interactions are all the less likely to actually happen.

The impression I get, personally, is that SK as a game isn't at all accommodating to the casual player and, in fact, seems to hold some kind of grudge against her by way of making portions of the game content inaccessible without playing the game in a very specific way that, for all its charm, doesn't have as many subscribers as it once may have had. In its defense, however, some of the ways in which this grudge manifests may in fact be backfiring, unintended consequences of attempts to make the game competitive and challenging for certain high-achieving older players. By growing with its playerbase as time has gone on, the mechanics may in fact have left behind some of the original kinds of people it drew from to make it.

I like the idea of mutli-class.

Also, perhaps make it to where truly new players get an automatic 20 loyalty tokens, or if it is a player that has not played in let's say, six months, get an automatic 20 loyalty tokens so they can try out a new race/class combo upon re-entering the game.

I know a couple of older players that tried to come back, found out about the system and simply did not want to grind a character to get the tokens to try something new.

Another thing could be make it to where certain spells/skills can be purchased on any character via loyalty tokens.

Yes, dehoarding storage characters would help.

Maybe start truly new players out at apprentice with all skills at very good? I know that it is far too easy to die when you are new on this game and if you know nothing getting back to life can be a pain.

My 2 cents.

I've thought a lot about posting this, and I think I'll risk it:

What SK would benefit from greatly is a "New Game+" system.

We have an account verification process through loyalty tokens.

Attach "achievements" to that system: if you do certain things with a character, future characters can benefit.

For example, if you GM a character, you have the option to have future characters start the game at master status: the idea is that you've proven you know how to play, so the game decides to not slow you down in doing so.

All kinds of ideas would be possible, such as the ability to have certain bonuses or non-traditional character races after beating certain in-game content. Kill Ephialtes? Your new characters can benefit from increased regen when they sleep. Just an example.

This would promote people to go after content and reduce the flat cost of complete characters without taking away from the skill and effort someone had to demonstrate to get there.

Let us earn extra money by power leveling other people's characters.

Newbie PoV: PK battles would be more enjoyable and newbie friendly if they were more drawn out rather than a fleeting moment. Also, all unnecessary combat spam should be removed. I am talking about things like archery in which one attack is three strings. Why? It should have one attack string just like any other weapon.

As far as hoarding is concerned... either crack down on it a lot more or increase the number of items allowed in the realms at one time. i.e. 3-5 ether wires vs 1. Cracking down doesn't have to mean add more hours to keep the items. I'm sure there are much better ways to follow it, such as an item inventory database. Which npc/pc has which items. How long has pc had the item, how active are they, is the equipment they hold something they can use, do they RP/have a history of meaningfully playing SK? A database would allow the staff to routinely check for hoarders on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and determine who needs a manual de-hoarding. I don't think any further action should be required other than the de-hoarding.

Advertise, advertise, advertise. And yes, a play now spot on the facebook page would be a good way to start, along with a note asking the new player to ask other players for help if they become frustrated with learning the basics. (Might need to explain how they can view and contact other players.)

Believe it or not, I think SK should support an information site. Giving information doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Oh, to address a multi-class system, you either need to be all in or don't even bother with it. My 10 years of mudding experience has all been based off of a multi-class system. The example OA gave made me want to gouge my eyes out. I honestly am not trying to insult you and I applaud you for bringing up the idea of multi-classing here. I haven't really advocated it much because the majority of the little things I've suggested have been shot down for one reason or another.

What I mean by all in is that if you allow someone to go two classes, they should be able to take full advantage of both classes. If you add a bunch of limiting non-sense to it, you're going to over complicate it and make it ugly. If two is the maximum you can multi-class into, that's fine. If three, or four.. good. That should be the first thing established: class limit. Currently the limit is one class. If you add a second, then character max level should be doubled. You shouldn't be allowed to multi-class until you reach your full potential as the first class you choose, then you have to complete some quest or do something to initiate the ability to multi-class. Nothing too tricky, but something rather than just 'multi-class'. All your abilities would then reset back to amateur and you would unlock them at the same level as you progress and train your new skills. Something akin to that at any rate. The way leveling is done would have to be changed in order to accommodate something like this though. Either that or double exp for each area so that leveling isn't unbearable. I'm not going to get too involved in this unless someone wants to know more about it. I've just touched on my own experience a tiny bit, it may sound worse without a better example. Like I said, if someone wants the full example, ask and I guess I'll take the time to present it properly.

It is my belief that a rigid class system helps make a rigid alignment system more believable, although if there were a way to quantify all commands on the same scale for calculating cost, I'm sure a classless system would be very fun to experiment with. Trying to express shrink in terms of third attack is perilous.

I've made this argument several times since I started playing. It is so unfair that "OOC info" is not allowed to be shared, but "veteran" players take everything they know from their previous characters to their new characters. SK really really needs a fully-updated wiki with all areas, quests, abilities and tactics. What we have currently are pieces of "leaked" info that is mostly incomplete or out of date.

The learning curve is too huge and I don't want to have secret chats with someone OOC to learn how to do a necropolis quest, or comb through logs to see what the path to the ToM is, then write it down so I can run it on my next characters.