Ivorak

I really wanted to stay away from this forum topic for a number of reasons but mostly because I get depressed when I talk about the "lack" of what MD seems to have lately. I personally don't see myself fitting into any of the major categories that people seem to be defining MD by --- RPers (I am really bad at RP) and stat grinders (this seems like mindless repetition and the few times I tried it I got so bored I had to take mini-vacations to want to do anything with MD).

I gave up on the MD fighting system when skill damage was introduced for having excessive losses. I understand it is my fault that I let people heal on my nutcracker and racked up 3K losses. (Which didn't ever give me a benefit) I even tried to reduce that and got it down to 2.4K losses but since GGG does NOT give victories in general (only against MP2s) even the mindless stat grinding doesn't help. Oh well, as they say no good deed goes unpunished. I still think a WishPoint shop item balancing out wins/losses would be a good addition (I had to add in something for people to complain about hehehehe).


At the same time, I really enjoy participating in other peoples quests and I also enjoy making quests and helping others make puzzles and quests.

I fully understand how people feel about being ignored and made to seem like their actions are meaningless. For the most part I just ignore people ignoring me and go and do something I think is interesting.

Here are some examples:

1) The astral plane.

This was initially just a way to make quests more interesting and interactive since there were so few locations which could be interacted with in MD. Now it has an inventory with items which can be used, combined, sold, bought, traded and some new interactive games will soon be linked in with this as well.

2) Fishing System

On the first of next month I will be releasing a fishing system for MD which will allow people to use different fishing poles, and lures (19 different ones at present with all new artwork) to play a new logic game I made based on minesweeper but with some new twists. For those of you who would like to try it out before then, there is already a way to play it if you go and find some materials which could be combined into a fishing pole. This will be released as a fishing tournament for people to compete in and will have a bunch of prizes.

3) The impossible maze

In coordination with Grido we have made a brand new labyrinth maze in the same location as the MDA labyrinth in the astral plane. This maze will open in the middle of next month (see Gridos announcement) and will have 3 WPs as quest rewards. It is a really tricky maze!

4) The anti-maze

I released this puzzle this week as a new logic interactive game for people to play at the stairs to the champions challenge. From what I have heard most people like it although it has given a few people actual headaches. I liked making this puzzle since it made me think in a way that our brains don't seem to like to work which made my brain hurt as well.

5) The jigsaw puzzle

I released this interactive puzzle a month or two ago at the berserkers challenge location in necro as a fun game for people to try. I actually made this puzzle at the request of an MD player who wanted to make a quest with a treasure chest you had to solve the puzzle to open. Although this quest hasn't happened yet, it might soon be released as a Loreroot quest since I just heard from that person about completing the quest and I have almost everything I need now to help him pull it all together.

6) The MD Tarot Card Game

I made this card game a few months ago with the major tarot arcana cards represented by MD players, but it wasn't actually that fun to play so I never released it. But another person just asked me about making a similar type card game for MD and when I receive the card images and stats, this game will be released as well now that there is a better play system than what I had initially come up with.

7) Puzzle Quest #2

I made Puzzle Quest #1 almost a year ago now and it was supposed to be very difficult. Only 2 people solved the first one and I know lots of people made it to the 3-4th leg. I got a little bit depressed with this at the time since an RPC lied to me about rewarding WPs for the winners, but it worked out in the end. I have most of the Puzzle Quest #2 pulled together and will be releasing that sometime in the next month or so.

8) Loreroot Houses

Since I am currently building a RL house for my pregnant wife to have a nice place to nest after giving birth to our child, I thought it would be nice to let others have that same experience in MD by designing and building their own houses in the astral plane where I can add any new content / locations I want. This project turned out really well with 2 of the 4 houses being complete and the other 2 are just waiting on some more scene images to be drawn. I really enjoyed making private chats for the houses with integrated doorbells to let people enter the houses and have a place to make your home here in MD. I have had MANY requests from other people to do the same in other locations and that is something I will move forward with when these four houses are all complete.

9) The new GG town / university

This is a concept the king of GG had which we will be developing over the next months. At present the only scene which has been released publicly is the Mt Kethella overlook which I think turned out really nice. There are plans to have a full university, town with shops and public spaces, homes and work sites. This town hopefully will have some really interesting interactive locations as well as maybe be a site for study and learning within MD for both teachers and students. The old MD university was a nice idea but it never had a real location to let people go be part of the university community and hopefully some nice new scenes with classrooms and whiteboards will move this "semi-dead" idea back to a more active state.



So why did I just detail some of the things I have been working on the last few months? Well I have a lot of respect for Mur and what he has created in MD, but he is only one man. There is enough freedom in the way MD is put together to make it into anything we as members of the community want it to be. I agree with many of the points people have made about what is wrong with MD. So I just settled down in a sanctuary where I wouldn't be hit with stat damage constantly and worked on things I was interested in. Maybe you don't have programming experience or know how to make a quest, but I am sure there is something you enjoy / are good at. Why not just jump in and do it.

I personally will be happy to work with / pay artists who want to make new scenes to expand MD. I have like 30-40 scenes in mind already and many others already drawn just waiting to be implemented.

I will be happy to help anyone who has a quest / puzzle idea. There are lots of WP rewards sitting idle with the Kings and if you have a creative idea want to make something new in MD, come talk to me about making it happen, I know the Kings would all be happy to support anyone who has an interesting quest idea.

So if you want to do something my advice is to just do it. I have been impressed by a bunch of people doing quests lately ladytwin, Bloodprince, MasterB, Burns, tara, Granos, Indyra, and others I can't seem to remember at the moment.

I guess my point is just because Mur doesn't seem to be doing anything new with MD and has abandoned a bunch of project while only semi-complete, that doesn't mean that we as members of the MD community can't do stuff ourselves.

It would be great if the AL were resurrected, but look at Awiiya's Oak tree stories, there will soon be more there than the whole AL combined.

It would be great if the tribunal were finished and not just a ghost land.

It would be great if ... fill in your own pet peeves.

So how about this as a direction to head, if you want to wait for Mur to complete everything and get his batteries recharged, fine, but in the meantime why not do something in MD yourself?

I would be happy to help.

Cheers,

Cutler

[quote]PS: did someone noticed that rants come from ''profi' rp;s? or their group? .. what can i say..in the end that profi rp ends...leaves nothing to do more and it simply end...it limits you[/quote]

Guys! Can you seriously not see it? You just can't resist to take a pop at the 'others'. MD being divided? That is EXACTLY the problem. MD is broken down into little clans of friends and divisions between 'grinders' and 'RPrs'.
Yes, people do need to start doing more. Yes people can try to make things more interesting. BUT, how the hell can they, when there always seems to be someone that wants to jump up and down on them because they don't agree?

I've seen the dojo pulled cos people didn't like it, now we want the ggg pulled. I've seen quests condemned because we don't like 'story' quests or whatever bloody thing it happens to be.
I've seen people shot down for attempting to offer to help out.
Its going on ALL the time.
Division of lands? Half the bloody people in alliances in different lands are alts. How the hell can you divide them when its the same bloody people involved? How can you have Alliance A at odds with alliance B, when Johnny is in both of them? Then what?
I've seen conflict erupt WITHIN MD over matters OUTSIDE of it.
Without getting into a debate on RP and what is good or bad, it seems that some people are completely incapable of distinquishing me (Barry) from Firsanthalas. And it seems that this inability in general is the cause of a lot of problems to boot.

There ARE problems with MD that need to be resolved by MUR. There are ALSO problems that WE, as players can resolve.
EVERYONE is seeking to blame someone else, or find fault with one area or group. It is NOT that simple. Its a multifaceted problem. It won't be fixed overnight.

FACT: the AL has been dead since September.
FACT: it does not represent player actions. If that is not the intention, then perhaps something like Yrth's suggestion of a PAL should be looked at.
FACT: Combat does have serious issues and you can't get away from the fact that there is an issue with losses and stat loss for some.
FACT: Quests are a mess. I have a load of WPs to give out for quests and there are almost zero going on in Loreroot right now.
FACT: The torch competition in its current form is grossly unfair. If you want to have any contest between lands, then it has to be based on some principle of fairness. Right now it is not.

I'm not sure what you expect kings or anyone else to do right now to be honest. Lets talk about people whining about lack of tools and abilities shall we.
As king I can make a person a citizen of Loreroot. I also got a bank of WPs to distribute.
That is it. I get requests from people for various things, which I have no control over. Before the ring was given I got continuous requests for citizenship and even complaints as to why I had rejected their applications (applications to a form in the side panel that doesn't work and therefore never got seen let alone rejected).
It go so annoying that I asked to have an announcement made to say that kings couldn't make people citizens and didn't get the applications (as was the case at that time).
I may be king of a land, but I am only one person at the end of the day and there is only so much that I can do. Perhaps I have fallen down in some areas (I know of one thing I have not done for a certain person). I need other people to help to get things moving too. Right now it just seems to be extremely difficult if not impossible. There just seems to be a general malaise about the place.

Items. I have a list that I'll be sending to Mur later on. Personally, I think this is a total can of worms. Some people refuse to trade items, or if they do, want crazy prices. My personal opinion is that people are going to be unable to get hold of items they suggested after they are given out randomly. And then yours truly here is going to be listening to the whining afterwards.

I am personally demoralised. It even seems that even when I try to keep doing things that I am 'too involved' or something. If I do nothing, then I am lazy, if I do something, I'm too involved. What do I do?

This is not a 'poor me', this is simply how I feel and how I suspect many people here feel. There are a lot of people that are running quests or trying to be sociable in general in MD. But it just seems that people are all too quick to find fault with everyone else (and yes I'm sure I am guilty of that too).
People around here seem incredibly keen to jump on and point out the bad things. You never really see anyone applauding the good.

One final point.
Regardless of whether or not you want to go around fighting or RP, MD needs interaction. Even if its just a simple chat. I can walk about MD most of the time I am on and there is bog all chat and interaction. I say hello to people and nothing. I can paint someone's head green and get no response. I'm not going to say that is the grinders fault, because to be honest, its daft. I can talk to people anywhere, the problem is they ain't talking back.
There is currently talk of removing the GGG. Can I say simply that you seriously need to consider stuff like this VERY seriosusly. MD really really needs focal points. Places where you can go and expect to find people to talk to. Sanctuaries don't really fit the bill it seems. If you remove all the focal points, then you will really have a scattered and divided landscape. Every community has a focal point, it is part of what makes a community.
And I have to say that some people that speak a lot on this forum don't seem to actually say much of anything within MD proper. Just something to think about.

Good points all, Burns, and I could raise another big issue which, in my opinion, killed 90% of the story in the game. But I don't want to point fingers or feed back on negativity, which really only perpetuates more negativity.

I am an alcoholic in recovery. We in recovery like to talk about our problems, yes, but the more experienced among us note and repeat (as many times as we must) that focusing on the problem only makes the problem bigger. What helps us, who used to feel ourselves in a hopeless state, is to focus on what might be the solution to our problem.

So let us focus on the solution to MD's woes: story.

Right now I am re-playing one of the best games I have ever played: [i]Mass Effect[/i]. This game is a shooter. I hate shooters. So why do I like [i]Mass Effect[/i] so much? Story. The story is amazing. It's well fleshed out, deeply researched, and solidly written.

Those of you who have played other roleplaying games and enjoyed them will notice a common feature shared by all of them, which is story wedded to the mechanics of a combat system. This kind of quest is a thing I had hoped to introduce to MagicDuel as RPC, but was too lazy really to implement in time to make a difference. But it can be done. It will take long hours of work, cooperation from at least six people who are willing to be online nearly all the time, and/or who have reliable understudies to take their parts so the "actors" (non-questing characters) can keep the quest running constantly. And it will require a good story.

A good story doesn't have to be original. A novel way of presenting a story can be brilliant, but it's just not necessary. While playing [i]Mass Effect[/i] and games like it, I navigate through one over-arching story and encounter dozens of mini-plots along the way. The elements of the over-arching story are familiar: [x] is going to destroy the world/galaxy/universe, and our hero is a rugged, rough-and-tumble outsider who rises to the occasion. Meanwhile, in addition to the corruptions, seductions, and betrayals among the story's principal characters, minor characters are also reporting, and need help resolving, small betrayals, corruptions, and kidnappings in their own minor spheres. Everything's broken; everything needs a hero. You're he (or she). Where you go, change comes, and history is written in your trail.

MagicDuel prides itself on originality, and originality is good where it keeps a story going. Where there is no story, originality is interesting for a few moments, and rarely more. Don't want to click to advance? Fine. Learn how to excel in this dueling system, manage the maze of conflicting personalities in MagicDuel, and forge your path in a complicated situation fraught with obstacles and ambiguity.

If you don't have the time or inclination to write a story-based quest yourself, create a small one and get some other players to help you. Just remember the three essentials of a good story quest:

[list=1]
[*]Use the fighting system. All stories require conflict, and in a roleplaying game, conflict must have a system of arbitration. Yes, some people can "roleplay" fighting pretty well, but there is no structure to keep players "honest", reasonable, or in proportion. Solution - take advantage of the existing system.
[*]Be true to the setting. Many quests in MD are cool but don't have anything to do with the "story" of the game world. That dissociation, in addition to a generally arbitrary level of difficulty, prevents most quests from seeing many participants.
[*]Use existing characters and situations as a springboard. Characters and events that don't happen "in game" don't interest the average player. We want to interact with characters we know and things we care about. Here's the acid test: does a person who solves a quest have an interesting story to tell? If not, the quest is going to be of academic interest at best.
[/list]

There are lots of players hungry for story who will be glad to help you, and there are several who can code clickables to help automate parts of your quest. Here is my challenge to the MagicDuel community: write a quest that people want to play [i]just for the fun of being part of the quest[/i], where rewards are nice but a secondary consideration to having a fun, memorable experience.

Good night, and good luck.

[b]Edited to complete a sentence [doh!][/b]

Just as an example, my char Czez has used [b]Cedar B[i]ark[/i][/b] in an adventure-quest, which generated several unique items and could have easily included this one. Later, she received as a gift a [b]Cedar [i]Plank[/i][/b], which is considered a "Raw" item. Do I really have to spend a WP to make [i]Bark[/i] from a [i]Plank[/i] (which is sort of implausible) in order to keep this item in my char's inventory?

[quote name='Aeoshattr' date='08 February 2010 - 08:45 AM' timestamp='1265611550' post='54057']
And what about resources, the items needed for crafting? don't you have to 'browse' for those?
[/quote]

As I said, post on the forum, ask around, put up fliers, search items pages. The owners list is hardly the only method avaiable for finding items, it is handy though, but due to extortionate prices, it might as well not be there since nothing gets sold as a result.

I can add an mdscript to some clickables that serves the fucntion of an advertising board if someone wants it.

As Rhaegar said, it was just a random idea, but I'll humour you

[quote name='Chewett' date='07 February 2010 - 11:56 PM' timestamp='1265579775' post='54015']
So how do you tax trades?

unless you revamp the system, how would you make people pay these taxes? unless you work it from every X coins traded you have to pay some, it wont work since how does the system know every time you "trade"?
[/quote]

2 ways:
Either each transfer of silver has the tax percentage withdrawn, therefore the receiver gains a perentage less (as with age on creatures)
Or you pay VAT (value added tax), in other words, you pay the percentage in addition to the amount, so to give someone 10 silver, you must pay 11 in this case.
Payment would be defined as any time you send someone silver. Trade can't be defined fully, since we can barter with items not tangible in MD, such as information or even artistic works.

[quote name='Shadowseeker' date='07 February 2010 - 11:58 PM' timestamp='1265579937' post='54016']
And even then, there are ways to circumvent that..another reason for alt abuse. Say every 10% is tax, so you make them pay you in 9 silver on alts you name. No tax then.
[/quote]
Alts can no longer transfer creatures to eachother, do the same with silver, or make them pay heavier taxes.
Any amount that makes the tax less than 1 silver, is either free of tax, billed a flat rate of 1 silver, or even deducted by some other method like VP decrease.


Anyway, this doesn't solve the item hoarding, it was an idea in response to Metal Bunny's post regarding the devaluation of money.

I believe we got bored of your posts and of the hole subject, that's why you do not get any answer (and I am merging all your posts).

Actually, I wanted to point out a new issue:it seems there are some players that grab the items put in Wasp Totem then never return them. And you IAB are one of them.
I even seen a player that actually doesn't play (just logs in for his active days) that have 2 of the items on him. Why do you people keep the items after you use them? Let them go so others can try them! Shish!

Asterdai sprinted up the stairs to the Hall of the Sun Balcony.

“Innocence!” he gasped, his sides heaving. “dst has been taken prisoner by the Blue Meanies and is being held in the Land of Joyless Text!”

“So?” Innocence replied, arching his faun’s brows. “And hello to you, too, Asterick.”

“We’ve got to help her!”

“I’m sure she likes it there. Sounds like a job for a mercenary, anyway.”

“Where… who… what do we do?”

Innocence sighed with exaggerated patience. “I haven’t done a place in, oh, I don’t know, feels like a long time. As for whom I do, that’s none of your business.”

Asterdai spluttered, starting to protest, but Innocence held up a hand.

“What do you do? Send out a notice. Offer a wish point or a useless creature or something silly. Have you thought about asking asterisk?”

Asterdai blinked. “Ask myself?”

“No!” Innocence cried. “asterisk, not Asterick!”

A very short, moustachioed blond guy wearing a winged helmet bounded up the stairs. “Je suis arrivé!” He shouted, sweeping off his helmet and bowing elaborately. “Astérix le Gaulois, à votre service!”

“No, no, no!” Innocence snapped. “Not Astérix… [i]asterisk![/i] Please.”

The little man’s shoulders slumped and he shuffled back down the stairs.

Asterdai blinked. “Well, if that’s not asterisk, where do we go to find him?”

“Him?” Innocence demanded. “How do you know it’s a he? Isn’t that just a little sexist to assume asterisk is a he? Or that Dusty wants to be rescued by a male?”

“O-Oh,” Asterdai stammered. “Sorry, I…”

Innocence laughed. “I’m just kidding. asterisk is totally a he.”

Asterdai flushed with embarrassment. “I… I see…”

“We go to the editing room,” Innocence told him. “All the punctuation marks hang out there.”

Asterdai started to speak, but Innocence brushed past him and swept down the stairs into the Archives lobby.

Passing into the empty room in the east wing of the MDA, Asterdai frowned in confusion.

“This is the editing room?”

Innocence ignored him and clapped once loudly. “Dot, Sticks, Queerie, Curve… C’mon out!”

“…What is it?” moaned a sleepy-looking question mark, who blinked uncertainly at Asterdai. “Who’s this?”

“Queerie,” Innocence said, “meet Asterick.”

The question mark blinked and narrowed suspicious eyes at Asterdai. “What does he want?”

Asterdai explained: “The Blue Meanies have taken dst prisoner and are holding her in the Land of Joyless Text!”

“So?” the question mark asked.

“That’s what I said,” Innocence muttered.

“It is no harm! Pay no attention to it!” roared an exclamation point, bouncing around vehemently.

“So… I came to ask asterisk for help,” Asterdai said, looking somewhat taken aback.

“dst hates asterisks!” the exclamation point exclaimed. “Pay no attention to it!”

A period looked askance at the exclamation point and advised: “Stop. Wait. Listen.”

“Oh, Dot,” Innocence said, shaking his faun’s head. “You’re almost as bad as Sticks.”

“On the other hand,” a comma yawned, “it is conceivable, though barely, that dst does want to be rescued, even if the solution is temporary, and would welcome your help, she would greet you with gratitude, but she might seem a little surly, she is very temperamental, while intellectually acute, and is not given to displays of affection, you may have to approach her with care,” and sighed.

“Why can’t I help?” the question mark whined.

“You ask too many questions,” Innocence said. “asterisk is the best punctuation mark for the job.”

The period said, “Wrong. I am. Period.”

“We know you’re a period, Dot,” Innocence snapped. “We came to see asterisk.”

“Well,” the comma continued, “I suppose the period is the most experienced of us, and could do a good job, he’s a bit blunt, or maybe I could, I am awfully versatile, and popular, cute, and technically useful,” looking at Asterdai hopefully.

“Curve, you slow things down,” Innocence told the comma, “and you do tend to run on.”

The asterisk somersaulted into the room and bowed to Asterdai with a flourish. “You need a hero; I am he. These other punctuation marks are insecure because of their youth and a certain desire to prove themselves.”

“Pay no attention to it!” the exclamation point roared.

“Exactly,” the asterisk agreed.

The period frowned at asterisk and said, “No. Not youth. You’re younger.”

“Nice try, Dot,” the asterisk rejoined smugly. “I am as old as writing itself, and at least two thousand years older than you. In the days of ancient Sumer, I was a glyph called a [i]dingir[/i].”

“Yeah!” Innocence said. “He was a thinger! Or a thingie." Innocence begain bouncing around with the exclamation point. "Hey, Sticks, a thingie!”

“And as for versatility, I am by far the most talented,” asterisk continued, smiling superciliously at the comma. “I am a query wildcard; I can be used in multiplication; I can indicate corrections, footnotes, and relative insignificance.”

“Do I really need a wildcard?” the question mark wondered.

“Shut up, Queerie,” Innocence suggested.

“It is no harm! Pay no attention to it!” the exclamation point roared again.

“Don’t you have anything else to say?” the question mark asked, shaking her head at the exclamation point.

Warming to the subject of himself, asterisk talked at a louder volume. “In the land of MagicDuel, I am even more powerful,” he noted. “I can turn text blue, denoting actions, wishes, and emotions. Clearly,” he told Asterdai, “I am the one for the job.”

“Well, I suppose so,” Asterdai said, looking at Innocence, who nodded with approval. “Come along, then.”

“The Land of Joyless Text is more a state of mind than a physical location,” Innocence observed as the three headed south from the MagicDuel Archive lands. “I think we’ll probably find Dusty at the Gazebo of Equilibrium.”

Sure enough, they encountered dst and Mur, who was clad in Roman platemail and clutching a long pole topped by an eagle and a placard bearing the letters SPQR. dst stared at Asterdai, Innocence, and asterisk as they approached, and Mur hastily concealed a copy of [i]Rome: Total War[/i] under his blue cape.

“Yes?” dst asked.

“We’re here to save you from the Blue Meanies!” Asterdai exclaimed. “We brought asterisk!”

But dst recoiled in horror. “asterisk?” she moaned. “He’s their best weapon!” She pointed at a group of people pretending to fight using text.

“Of course!” Asterdai said, slapping himself in the face. “The Blue Meanies…”

asterisk bellowed malevolently. “I have you now!” he crowed, leering at dst.

Innocence rolled his faun’s eyes and wandered away. Asterdai looked around for help. The little blond guy leapt onto the scene, swatting asterisk with the flat of his blade and turning on Mur, who swore and drew his Iberian gladius. Asterdai scurried away as dst set a drac-heavy ritual, and a huge fat guy with a red moustache and pigtails ran up shouting “Sono Pazzi Questi Romani!”* He and the little blond man ran away while dst’s ritual eviscerated asterisk, and dst sighed, relaxing in asterisk-free serenity.

*Italian for “They’re crazy, these Roman(ian)s!”

*

That is my submission. It is a pointless (notice the lack of period at the end of the story above) and dumb answer to a quest of the same nature.

Awi

How it works-
1-Somone breaks rules
2-They get to have a lost words
3-They get banned
(is that good)

Step 2 of Evil plan:Complete

It seems that every time I happen upon something rare, I get these really lengthy private mails:

[i]Untitled - Wrong Label
Hi, are you willing to trade your ....?[/i]

Except that half of the time there is a spelling error in this one sentence. I can somewhat understand why these inquiries arrive and I am not really overwhelmed by the amount of them. But seriously, [b]if[/b] I wanted to sell something to just anybody, I would have announced it in the appropriate channels. If you are not going to bother making an offer, I am not going to change my mind either. I haven't had much time to play the game recently and I simply deleted most of these pm's, without replying, so I thought it might make more sense to make some sort of announcement:

[list]
[*]I am not willing to trade "Kafuuka's signet ring" EVER.
[*]I am not able to trade those special creatures on that one account I got as a reward, because technically they are not mine. Even if the probability that the last one will be claimed by it's rightful owner is near zero, I am not selling something that isn't mine.
[*]I will trade or gave away my pass papers once the changes to the items are more final. Yes I did say trade or give away: if I don't find anything that makes RP sense for my character to have, then I'll give them away to someone for whom it makes more RP sense to have the pass papers, ie. a citizen. Otherwise I'll use it to bargain with, obviously. Consider this weird/generous/opportunistic if you want.
[/list]

Oh no! Over my dead body maybe! The imagine of myself running around MD smooching everyone I meet...yuck! makes my stomach hurt! Although...if I haven't succeeded in alienating everybody so far then that would do the trick.

but how many had agiens? there are many more who have raw materials than those who had agiens, and the agiens still had value, they had age, age is value, they were more valuable than the new agiens, there isn't any current way of showing that our's was one of the old raw material, as there was with agiens.

The sheer rarity of particular "raw materials" is indeed a problem since no one is completely how to re-acquire the item once they have parted ways again. I do believe setting a standard and constant way of reacquisition of raw materials is the solution to these woes. I've read the previous posts and it seems we all share the same predicament as to how to treat these materials. In general, items are still a rarity and having one of anything is a source of some excitement. I for one believe it is better to have than have not, no matter the value or worth of the item you have in your possession. But like others have expressed a strict economic control must be applied to avoid flooding the market with raw materials while also maintaining the scarcity of said raw materials. To wrap up this long winded post, I just want to post some brainstormed solutions to this item problem. I don't necessarily agree with the points I bring up, but I believe they each bring about a fair balance to raw material acquisition. each bullet point is independent upon the other ideas:

[list][*]For the mining / lumberyard idea, with a specific place meant to gain wood/ore, anyone should be able to do this. The two caveats to this idea should be 1. The process of mining/lumberjacking/etc. should take the entire day, so you will not be able to move or attack (or be attacked?) while working, only live chat until you are done with working to get 1 wood/ore. Having an axe or pick would increase the amount of wood/ore you get per work day (say 5 wood or ore per work day).[/list]
[list][*]Make finding raw materials a luck factor. Just as the luck stat attributes to finding gold coins occasionally (in the form of value points), a (very) small percentage should be devoted to randomly finding a raw material. Also, what material you find is dependent upon which land you are in (example: you are far more likely to find wood in Loreroot, ore in GG, bones in Necro, fabric in MB) Having/crafting axes or picks or needles increases this chance.[/list]
[list][*]Have raw materials age like creatures, with some depreciating in value and some appreciating. Examples include:[/list] wood -> aged wood -> petrified wood -> rotten wood -> mulch,
stone -> hard rock -> cracked rock -> fragile rock -> dust,
coal -> dark coal -> hardened coal -> pressurized coal -> diamond

[list][*]Should there be a limit to the number of items you carry? And should this inventory system be weighted with each item carrying a weight value, or slotted with each item occupying one slot (coins not included in this inventory system)?[*][/list][list][*]To avoid alt abuse, a similar system as the trade advisor should be applied to the transfer of items as well.[/list]


These are just some ideas I wanted to share. I know I haven't really addressed the issue of tools like axes and picks, but without a set way of constructing purchasing these tools, I don't know myself. Like I said before, this is just some brainstorming I've done. I apologize if I have infringed upon someone else's idea and feel free to think these ideas are just dumb.

AZ

P.S - Is this even the right place for this topic?

[quote name='I am Bored' date='22 January 2010 - 11:13 PM' timestamp='1264198401' post='53260']
if we do impliment a way of gaining raw materials, then those who currently have raw materials should be compensated, because the value of them would drop a bunch
[/quote]
They were never meant to be valuable, but as soon as they were released, people saw the potential to corner the market and control the supply-demand ratio. From the start those people were asked politely to refrain from doing this and now you want to be compensated? For what? For thinking of the obvious plan everybody thought about but only a few decided their own gain is worth causing trouble to all other players? I wonder what is more sad: your sheer opportunism, that you think people are silly enough to agree with you, or that you not so long ago tried to see if the average MD iq is significantly different from 100 in a vain attempt to feel better about yourself but now seem to hope people are stupid so you can profit from it?

Besides MD is a perpetual beta game, things will change and there'll be no refund. You know that when you sign up.

My char Czez has a lot of inventory items. Many of them were created uniquely in response to RP events she was involved in, or are specific to her role as a navigator.

She also posses a number of 'Raw' items. Almost all of these were gifts from people as she was fortunate to celebrate her 200th AD the day many were introduced to the game. One of them I bought. They are not for sale or trade, and certainly not for profit. That is not hoarding. I've long wanted to comission special items for her role, and use some of the items she has in quests. Currently, she actively employs almost all of the items, [i]including the Raws[/i], in RP.

Why must I feel pressured to sell these to other people? I don't want to. I have plans for these items, and I do actually use them.

The only reason I am posting this is because I truly don't understand why MD seems to be heading more and more towards being all about punishment and trying to catch people doing bad things.

Surely Mur set the tone with the Festival of Pain, but is this really the direction we the people (I speak for everyone who thinks this is a sad direction for MD to go) want to support MD to head.

I know this is not what interests me at all in MD but I basically try to ignore all the c**p. There are so many positive and interesting things going on in MD. Even if this tone is mainly being set by veterans and people with longstanding dislikes of each other, you should realize that there might be a few new people around. Why would they stay if they can't respect the people who are here?

Not everyone in MD is as petty and small minded as these squabbles make it seem. It's just a shame I have to keep reminding myself of that.

So I am going to keep on doing my thing and try to ignore this sad direction MD seems to moving.

Not much Cheer here,

Cutler

Whether or not dst does in fact harass people, I don't know, and don't attempt to make a judgment on. She has never harassed me, but that likely says little about whether she harasses others.

I think it's incredibly safe to say that dst will not change her ways with a forum post by Fenrir, someone whose opinion I am sure she has little to no respect for. If one truly wanted her to change, a more effective medium would be sending her a private message, or engaging in a mature discussion, to which I've never seen her disregard and be unreasonable of. The only thing involving the entire community does is give dst even more motivation to hate people, and feel attacked. Attacked people turn hostile. This is a fact.

So, whether or not dst does harass you, there is only one viable option that you have in response to her behavior: ignore her. If you want to take away all of dst's power over you, do not speak to her, of her, or around her. If you want to increase her level harassment, do the opposite: start a forum board about how you wish her to change.

Fenrir, in my mind by making this forum board you are following the example you suggest dst has laid and causing turmoil and unhappiness in the realm. I think it's time that you take the advice you offered to dst. "Please change your ways." You have good intentions, and that is clear to me and others. I don't consider you a bad person. The reason that no one listens to you is not because you tell the truth, but because you assault others with your opinion. If you truly want dst to change, perhaps setting the tone with a promise to change your ways would do more to avoid conflict, and she would be more willing to take your entreaty as a serious and calm wish for change. At the moment you stand steadfastly assuaging dst as the solitary culprit, while the true issue is both players.

Awi

For as long as I can remember, dst has been just as much a nuisance to the general MD public as certain other individuals. The names Death Ray, and redneck come to mind. She may not be a nuisance in the same way, but she is still a nuisance none the less. I use the word nuisance as a kind substitute for other words which could be applied.

I would like to bring to light her constant hunting of "prey". Those she considers weak, stupid, or different. For no other apparent reason other than for her own self satisfaction that she is better than others. Whether or not she is, is up for debate. Not only does she hunt these "prey" she chomps down on their hind quarters until they can do nothing but limp on for months. If they are so lucky as to be able to walk after the initial attacks, she then sinks her teeth into their throats. For instance, her attacks on Shoeps. I do not care what he did, or why she attacks him constantly, but it is not acceptable to see these instances brought up every few weeks when she can't find another prey to attack.

She made it her life's ambition to see his game life ruined, and unfortunately, it appears as if she succeeded. That may or may not be the case, but the fact remains that her goal was to make Shoeps hated by the general population by making a personal conflict public because she could not win otherwise. Again, unacceptable. He is not the only one she constantly harasses. I have a list of people she makes regular attacks against, and it isn't right.

Her attitude towards anyone that does anything but tread lightly around her is deplorable. If you so much as argue with her, she will call you a coward. If you so much as win, watch out, for you will be put on her "black list".

I had recently posted something about her comments of calling an individual a coward on the forum. What happened? She deleted and removed the post because she found it "insulting". As well as threatened to have my warn level increased to the point that I will have a Moderator review everything I post.

I was also demoted from my job of being a Section Moderator for the CTC Section. The reason being? I closed topics that were inactive, and merging posts without notifying the poster when they were spamming their topic with bumps. Why is this a reason for demotion when I had been faithfully maintaining the most active section in the forum for nearly 8 months?

I believe dst is once again at hand. The night prior, I was having a heated debate with Dmik King(If forget exactly what the initial topic was about but towards the end Dmik King was claiming I was claiming the Holocaust did not happen... when I wasn't talking about it. Tried clarifying it but he would not listen because he was so angry.) and a few others.

Dst intervened and started her usual act of trying to prove herself superior to others. I, in no way, claim that I am better, nor worse. When her arguments were being questioned, she resorted to her childish behavior of name calling and dismissing my questions about her arguement as being "stupid".

And as an attempt to attack me once again, she decided that I was no longer fit to moderate the CTC Section. (I really don't care if I am the CTC Mod or not. It does not bother me.) So, dst and Chewett, notified me several days ago that I was demoted for reasons still unclear.

I am here to call dst out. Make a valid arguement. Do not spew insults and insinuations. Make valid arguements as to why you seem fit to do this.

Anyone else is welcome to comment on it, after dst has responded.

[Mods: Please notice that there isnt a single insulting word, swear word, and this is not a heated response to something she did recently. I let a few days pass before I decided to write this so I could write it without being rash.]

When i was RPC, and we could edit other people's docs, for either offences, or because they asked us to do something, other people found it helpful for us to perhaps do something on the papers that they couldnt.

Now obviously RPC's arent around anymore, so there arent people that can help out with papers or whatever.

My suggestion would be to have somewhere where you can enter the name or ID of another player that you allow to edit your papers, this would be helpfull for players who want html on their papers, but perhaps dont know how to code it themselves. They would be able to add the name/ID of a player that does know html and that player would be able to work on the code on the papers for them.

This all make sense? Would other people find this a good idea?


LE: Suggestion would be on a tab like where the AL/Top lists etc are

Actually for me it has nothing to do with power. I never became a dojo staff member, but I used to spend a lot of time there to help out. Indeed at one point, before Jazira arrived I was often the only 'dojo'(even though officially I wasn't) person there. I have told you why I won't stand around there now, before. Under your current rules anyone can walk by and mash me and repeatedly so if they feel like it. Im not interested in any response along the lines of 'set a better def rit'. I simply don't see the reasoning or logic in being a target for people while trying to do a service.
Im sorry if you think this seems selfish or silly. I have no issue with people attacking me, but I really don't see the point in having a situation where people can decide (and they will) 'hey, I'll pop over to the sparring grounds and hammer Firs' every 25 mins. The fact is, for me fighting is not a big part of MD, but neither is stat loss. Because I don't fight as much as others it simply means that Im going to be heading for stat loss because I choose to try and help. Call me old fashioned, an idiot, lazy or whatever you want, but that is the way that I see it.
Im not looking for any special powers, but if you can tell me that people won't start attacking me and hammering away at me then I will go there and help.

So, you want to just get him the archers, and he'd have to pay you 15 credits, AND the credits for the tokens?

Bad deal. Real bad deal.

well, I was just goofing around, but, I think Mur said creatures are in your head... so it doesn't matter where do you recruit them, they don't simbolize the land (except maybe Lorerootian Archer, cause of the name but that's it...)

I proposed this to Akasha, cause she wanted to continue the work on calendar, but I got no reply, so I want to ask community what they think of this and will there be any voluenters (except me )

I would love to see that the calendar has dates of MD former events, anniversaries if you want, for example: that day and month - creation of Necrovion Sentinels, Crowning of King Lifeline, peace-treaty of whatever... Festival anniversary... anything really

so the goal is to have MD calendar full of MD events, not of RL mythology, cause what makes Greek mythology more important to realm of MD then, I don't know, Slavic? So calendar is a great thing but I don't like it showing events from Egyptian, Greek, Roman culture, I want use to make it MD-like

to be more specific, what I meant was not to post events like "dismissal of the RPCs" or any system feature, but something showing political state of the players in the realm, creation of organizations/guilds/alliances, wars, peaces, (ok, I'm repeating myself)

it would be perfect to "dig up" information about realm's history, where else will you find it? reading every forum post, MD archive article and yet still having to speak with other people?
like Rendril said, Master Core information would be stored also in a clickable...
to decide what goes into the realm, well, you should have objective people on it, to post every event that had great consequences, and to ask community (public vote) for posting others...
it can be worked out easily, we just all need to agree first to start this