Shattered Kingdoms

Regarding brewing and such, I'm going to generalize my interpretation.
Sounds like store bought vials can only hold a single heal? While limited/found vials can hold double heals?
Sounds like a scenario of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
When Syn runs out and finds all the high level vials for team lighty, team Darkie is going to have to combat the pest pvp'rs in the game with single heals?
I think it would be better if you were able to save up some money, buy vials, and brew until you have enough double heals to take on the rich.

Combat isn't any harder. Consumables don't effect "combat" really, they effect PVP. Of which there hasn't really been any in a few months.

TBH everybody running around with 20 'weak' double heal vials was pretty silly.

Get a priest/shaman in your group.

For the vial defense, in the recent years builders put several pre-made healing vials in several locations or items that make them. In fact if I can count right, you can have more than 30 pre-made vials some that are double heal and with other benefits. With the current size of the player base, that is very gracious.

I'm curious if you have data to support this conclusion, with the exception of your discovery of the hoarder flag and with this change to consumables? There are sometimes "feelings" we get associated with the current mood of a game or the trends of some of the most vocal in a community; and there are sometimes that the sentiment is based in reality. A lot of steps over the past few years have actually been taken to significantly ease a lot of the 'pains' in the game, so I'm curious if you feel this way because of the low player count and bad PR ("mood") or if it's because of actual code/ built environment ("reality") that has actually made anything tangibly more difficult?

I dont have any data like I think you desire. Just been playing mostly priests for a couple decades now and my experience from brewing all those years. Of course, our numbers have never been this low, so you may be on to something there. I agree there have been many steps to make the game easier in terms of gaining experience for a character and even outfit that character quickly given the right circumstances. Again, that involved your character learning about those things from other characters. I am loath to take a new character out and just start heading out and gatherinf things that I know about as a player but no way for my character to know.

Since the players are the main reality of this game, you would be foolish to seperate their "mood" from "reality" because their mood sets the tone of the game itself and determines how that reality is conveyed as a whole.

I agree with you- I separate them only in understanding what things I have the power to change. I know that if there are things physically broken in the game, or things that are actually not functioning properly, I have the power to either change them as a builder, or to try to sway Dulrik to change them as a coder.

But "mood" is driven primarily by players, often heavily affected by other players, and I've learned I have very little power to do anything to change that. When the "mood" turns against something, even if the built "reality" is completely opposite of what the "mood" claims it to be, I cannot do much to change that. Quite the contrary, when the "mood" turns in one direction or another, I find that efforts to either pacify it or to counter it are both as likely to make it worse as not. That's the realm of the player-friend, the fellow-PC, the PK-opponent who can help or hinder, but it's not my community to forge.

That's my reason for asking. If there are tangible realities that can be identified that I can address, either by direct building or influencing others on staff, then I'm eager to look into them.

I feel what you are laying down here. I have an idea that you do have control over, I believe, that I will put in the other thread about helping the game in general with low player count, because I think you are right and going to trust your assesment of it. As one of the few active priests around, I get asked far more often to brew now than before and Im going to go with your percpetion here that its harder because there are fewer priests, not because of game mechanic. Maybe my mood has become frustrated over low player count and Im just blaming the code of the game itself because I just dont really talk about it that much with others to work out where the thoughts are. Make sense?