Shattered Kingdoms

If they are using zMUD, I have the mapper .zfg file configured and ready-to-go in the default settings for Shattered Kingdoms. All they need to do is the click the Map button and it will do exactly what you're describing.

It has been a while since I sent Dulrik updated settings, which include some compatibility changes for cMUD. If Dulrik is agreeable to it, I could include my map for SK with the next package.

It would take a lot of work, but a wipe of all characters would certainly bring about a huge number of people as soon as it ended, and I can see it increasing game population in general. Muds that work on a cycle system tend to see veterans of old return at after pwipes.

The reason why it would take a lot of work is that tribunal and cabal membership would all require a lot of imm interaction. But I bet a pwipe would be like pulling a shock-and-awe on the status quo.

I would definitely never play this game again if I was pwiped.

It'd ruin the already thin pretenses we have about OOC knowledge transfer.

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't stop creating characters because I lost interest. I stopped because I looked at all the time I'd waste, just getting a new character ready to do something fun.

The game doesn't necessarily have to be more casual. But it needs to wrap new characters in something more exciting than "k zakami". MUDs have a natural strength in story and exploration. Developed characters would be a great introduction into this, but the game discourages their involvement in much more than skill-mentoring.

Possible ideas:

* Reward cabals for recruiting. Maybe taking in a character gives a cabal temporary immunity from CRS consequences. Maybe taking a personal apprentice is the only way to get that top-level power. Anything to get factions out of the mode "You aren't ready for this yet." Involvement in a group is fun, even if you die more often.

* Make recruiting easier. For religions, any member should be able to invest. (For faiths with alignment restrictions, the command could be hard-coded to fail.) For tribunals and cabals, there could be a sub-leader rank with this authority.

* Change restrictions on power-leveling. If a veteran is taking a newbie into an high-level area, this is a good interaction for the game. (In comparison, solo leveling will not entertain many for very long. The standards for how much grinding is tolerable have changed.) A cap on how high-level a recent character can become, is more sensible in rewarding pro-SK behavior.

* For every hero tournament or similar power-oriented plot, there should be at least two that focus on challenges of character. A character of any level can participate in a test of desire. And unlike combat, these aren't plots that cabals can easily create for each other.

I don't disagree that this tends to bring people back short term and for me personally I think I'd shrug and get back to it. But my experience has been that this is a last gasp move that alienates more players than it attracts back in the long run. I don't think SK is desperate so I don't agree that this would be a good call.

As far as making the game more interesting before master, I would like to make a small suggestion.

Perhaps a bounty system that is a mixture between a quest and a 'boss fight'. You go in and accept the bounty and you are given a map along with information regarding the last whereabouts of that particular 'boss'. The reward will be coins and exp. However, finding and killing this 'boss' will be relatively rich as far as exp goes, and you could probably load some slightly better than shop armor/weapon onto these guys as a treat, or a special trinket that's not amazing, but certainly helpful for the player. If this were implemented, you would want to have a range of levels for certain bosses, so that my novice isn't fighting some dude that requires a veteran or higher to kill. I would say that expert and below would want to target more of a solo experience, though bringing others can have an added bonus to coins and exp for those involved, which will promote more grouping. (My old MUD has some areas that scale in difficulty depending on the number of players in that particular area so that it can be done both solo as well as in groups.) This approach could be taken all the way up to GM if the scaling idea can be figured out, otherwise I would say once you reach mentor, the bounties will be difficult to the point that you'll have to have group involvement. Maybe certain GM bounties could give LP as well, in small amounts if it is an exceptionally hard target. Just a thought... what do you all think?

P.S. I thought this post fit more with this topic than the original one I posted it to. Hopefully there will be more fleshing out/interest in this line of thinking. Keep in mind this was just a random idea that came to me as I was reading, so do not think it was planned out. I would certainly like for you all to help flesh this out and mold it to SK as I think it could have potential.

Here is the hardest part about this game. I've been playing the game since I was 13 and i'm 27 now. In HS/early college, I had a lot of free time, and I was poor. That meant a lot of nights playing SK. That meant logging everything, going back and making cheat sheet after cheat sheet on SK. It mean that I had an SK spiral bound notebook. I was an upper echelon player, I could lead runs to anywhere you wanted to go (except sea caves/necropolis. Never played a necro until right after the wimps for fun). There were very few players/chars I was ever afraid of playing against. I lead cabals for years.

Then I hit 21. I started to make money, I started to go out more. SK got put on the back burner until the last couple years when I got past the "Party" years. Now though, I have a full time job, a live in GF, obligations outside of work ETC ETC ETC. I have to seriously plan [REDACTED] ahead for a couple of weeks, just to be able to do something fun like a run through the Iron Citadel/Dreamscape because I don't have 4 - 7 hours of time EVER anymore. Muds don't attract a lot of middle school/high school gamers anymore, why? because they would rather blow [REDACTED] up on CoD or BF. This game and muds in general have to respect the fact that their PBase is getting older and has RL time commitments and the game can't be a massive timesink anymore. I have my current character that is almost 2 months old, and I don't even have 100 hours yet, because I'm LUCKY to get 2 hours at a time to login, and tbh you can't do anything in this game in less then 2 hours so if I don't have them i don't log in. If I don't have 2 hours to play I spend an hour blowing [REDACTED] up on BF instead or being a forum warrior.

I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that I am not the only one in this boat.

Well said.

The fact that the game is a time-sink has always made little sense and is directly related to rage deletion. Anywhere a person works to build something for hours or days only to have it be stripped in seconds will eventually deter people. A player wipe is idiotic. The vets will have a GM of their choosing the fastest, attain much more loot in a short amount of time because there will be no competition and generally screw the game over worse than many other solutions. What WOULD excite me to play, a new pbase. I grow so tired of people with the "win sk" attitude that ruin any chance of RP/ depth. PK trumps RP now more than ever. What passes for RP now is merely PK with a sentence attached. Safety is also an issue. There are few, if any, places characters can go and be safe from having all their time investing in their character stripped. So often characters are forced into RP dictated by the strongest PKer whether they want to be or not. In the end its just a game, nothing to get upset over in the grand scheme of things. What -might- excite me is to see more benefits for outstanding RP administered by a neutral and intelligent admin. It might also excite me to see more age-related improvement for characters. Having mercenaries get a third spec was an awesome idea, one that needs to be added to all fighter/ utility classes. (i disagree with this for casters because they naturally get stronger with age due to stats) My 2 cents