MaGoHi

Inspired by my own misadventures. 

Mixed feelings. Gotta be strong. This is how I think most people will gather resources now:
before, you'd get 3 pickaxes, get to the quarry and swing them, coming back every 10 mins and making sure you don't deplete or go under the land's (determined) number; you needed someone to enforce that, but you could time your gathering with a fair estimation
now, you have to get tools for the resources specific for that land; on one hand, it binds you to a land (not gonna mine in GG and go for bark in LR), on the other, it diversifies your gathering (can't mine ore only, also getting tools will require visiting multiple capitols); the timing is also going to be off, although there isn't that much of a difference in cooldown for several tools
So, to sum up, gathering is getting more specialized and more diversified at the same time, with efficient ant-like gatherers going MIA. It sounds like a good change for the gameplay, so I'll just bid sayonara to the days I went with three buckets/pickaxes in GG because there was nobody to pick up those tools anyway (my excuse for hoarding).

I completely disagree that the paper cabin entrance was dependent upon players, it was only encouraged for LHOs to take part in the new player experience, there was nothing you needed of any player to advance.
I don't think it has relevance to the island but I am of the opinion that the paper cabin story was much more compelling to me wanting to play the game, and the island is lacking of a story of any sort. Maybe the island could benefit from a story as has been stated in this thread.

Let me make something of an analogy: I used to run a minecraft alpha server with a pretty steady 10-20 people on it at any moment and a bunch of regulars. It was mainly freebuild and spleef, which drew all the attention, but had some other interesting game modes as minecraft added more commands being zombie or lava survival, CTF, and mazes. As I continued to explore new options for the server I had the idea to make an adventure mode. The premise was that you would start in a purgatory underground area and face some rather trivial challenge to escape to the earth layer, where you would face two stairwells, one up to heaven and the other to hell. Heaven would be the freebuild area where I hoped the players would create an ever expanding landscape made by the players of which could become the quest hub zone. Hell would be the true quest area you are sent to in order to face the main challenges that would constitute the adventure.
While these are all seemingly good ideas, the mistake I made was to remove the main landing page of my server which garnered the attention to begin with. It was to be a temporary decision on my part in order to facilitate the building of the new areas which would later make up the quests, but the players interest in the new areas was immediately depleted since it deviated from the standard set by the server and the norms in other servers, as well as my interest in continuing the project would disappear due to lack of available tools and commands from minecraft to complete my goals and in the end I would stop hosting the server. I should have kept the main entrance to my server open and allowed the players to opt into the new mode in order to retain the main crowd. The analogy immediately evident to me upon opening of the purgatory style Gateway Island and closing of the old Paper Cabin entrance to the game was the closing of my server's main entrance in favor of the new adventure opening.
There may be more similarities to discern between the two scenarios of my server and MagicDuel, but the main takeaway is I would suggest to at least allow the Paper Cabin opening to be chosen and preferably be the default. I don't think, at least so far, that starting on the island has a higher player retention rate as it is much less populated, and we are a community game if anything. This actively reduces the amount of people a new player will encounter and perhaps more importantly it currently requires established players to act as shepherds to the newbies, reducing the population available on the mainland which is the main allure to the game. I don't think the allure of starting on the island to get to the mainland is better than starting on the mainland to have an extra island to discover considering the island is really only a husk of what the mainlands have to offer.

Lol, I just glanced at the forum randomly after months, thinking the exact same things dst has expressed, on the very same day!
Can't believe dst and I agree on something after so many years
I miss you all as well.

I don't know how MD came up tonight in my mind. Maybe cause Christmas is close by and omg how I looooved MD's Christmas. Or maybe my haunted and tired mind needed a break from reality. Don't know..but the fact is that here I am once more to say hello and then fa  rewell.
I don't know how I drifted away from the game. I never thought it will ever be possible but you know :"never say never".
I miss the game, I miss the thrill, I miss the quests and mostly I miss my friends in here. It's been a very very long journey. I grew up with MD, I've learned with MD and I've evolved with MD. I've learned a lot about myself. I took that knowledge with me in RL and I expanded.
Life has been tough but defo kinder than for many so I am grateful for that.
I want to come back and I haven't given up the thought. I just wish MD will still be here when I decide it's time. Oh and do something with the horrible interface! It's how we say in Romanian "passion killer"
Hope you are all well and so are your loved ones. We are certainly living "interesting times". I will never again wish that to anyone .
Hugs and kisses until next time,
dst

While my opinion might be considered somewhat biased. I try not to be.
I think keeping GWi as spawning point for new players is better than directly to the main land. As has been said. At least GWI offers some single player activity. And it slows a player down a bit, though not much, before seeing how empty MD currently is. 
What it does need is an automated narrative/guide. Since there aren't enough active helpers to have a 24/7 presence. And follow up quests for the various exits. 
For someone actually stuck. Or old player just popping in. Sure port them out. (easy enough to make a clicky that offers insta travel choice to anyone above a set ad minimum)
 
@ Ledah. The rope is not hard to get. It is easy to miss though. (It's just lying on the ground somewhere  ) The Heads option is one of the oldest possible ways out. But it was disabled because there was no point. As you pointed out. Not enough people... And riddles... well they are tricky, some you get instantly and others you just can't figure out. But I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway. 

I'm writing this post because I assume some of you don't know this stuff, and it's educational and all, so why not.
I was reading a book today and I stumbled across ''chard'', and I didn't know what that is, so I looked it up. It's basically beet leaves, which is something I do know about. But since in the book chard was so lauded, I was baffled. From my previous research, the leaves of Amaranthea family contain oxalates, so why would you eat them (unless you had no other choice)? Whether it's spinach, beet or amaranth, the leaves will frickin' kill your kidneys if you eat a lot of those. Boiling them might take some oxalates out, but you still get the Ca binding ones, so don't. Spinach is lauded as a great source of Ca - yeah, but none of that enters your body. In fact, due to oxalates, your body loses Ca. Have fun with arthritis, joint pains and weak bones in general. And kidney stones, too.
So I googled something like 'oxalates in chard' and stumbled across a blog called carnivorous aurelius (lol), which is advertising...eating meat. Yeah, maybe eating spinach won't make you Popeye, but meat comes with its own set of problems. I mean, nothing is disadvantage-free. But, well, the guy's gotta sell dried beef liver, so...
Anyway, pay attention to what vegetables you eat, what vegetables you feed your kid and remember: nobody wants to be eaten.

@MaGoHi I have tweaked the combat fighting and replay, can you/others test this and report back the information?

I believe static erolin-orbs are already an option, but they remain such that their persistent animation, even when stationary, doth drain of one's portal rather rapidly.
I believe the solution for a mobile interface, at least initially, must be twofold - first, to remove the orbs completely, and second, to remove the animation of the compass-menu.

My Other vote is Make MD FF-compatible (I personally have no issues, but others complain incessantly) and/or make a magicduel.com/mobile page that allows you to fight and move (hopefully less intensive-particularly by making static erolin orbs an option)
 
Also my vote includes adding the discord button... but Apparently I have to work to get him to do that

there you go without and with ideas
needs some rework to include all combiners but i couldnt be bothered yet to do that

there you go without and with ideas
needs some rework to include all combiners but i couldnt be bothered yet to do that

REWARDS!!!!!! (sorry was busy)
 
1.LAZARUS -5SC, Anni
2.AILITH -5SC, Anni
3.DEMONIC GOD -5SC, Anni
4.TROLA - 5SC,
4.MIQ - 5SC,
6.TISSY - 5SC,
7.STENO - 5SC,
7.CHEWETT - 5SC,
9.UNGOD - 5SC,
 
firstplace gets to pick one thing from reward pool then second and so on:
reward pool of tastyness:
One gold coin 3 random RP items Some spell stones ( i couldnt decide what so you otta see what chew will give you) 3 tokens applied to any creature (will need the IDs to add them) LR Archer next is TROLA and MIQ since they are on the same place i'll do an unfair first come first serve @Trola @Miq

something continues to decrease my VP while not doing anything, this was observed on other people as well

apparently i had some hidden growing powers
i had to turn the pots around, because the herbs started to bend towards the window for more sunlight
basil and parsley (hand for scale)
lovage and chives ( the chives finally start to get thicker)
 

it might surprise you but i did not write that xD
 

Just here to say hi again, for people who remember me
I woke up -- didn't think that would happen, but didn't make preposterous precautions against it by changing the password and locking myself out of the email this time, unlike back when I was Minty and tried to leave...
So yup, still a prisoner in this rat maze
you people are cool and shaped my formative years...no real escaping that
 

with this the quest is closed!
 

with this the quest is closed!
 

Suspended Grasan
stuff you need (edible):
Grasan chops with bones (bones are important)
Unidentified plants
Rock salt
Water
stuff you need (tools):
Heat
large spoon functionality thing
Pot
another pot or vessel half the size of the original pot
cloth (or any other filtration device)
 
Start:
Wash your filthy grasan parts and put them in the pot. Add water so it covers the parts.

 
Start heat (slow) and wait for foam to build up.  Then remove the foam with the spoonish thing and keep doing it until no more foam. Move the parts also.
 

 
Foam cleaned up? Add the Plants and rock salt.
 

 
Leave for 6-8 hours shimmering under a lid. Take pictures of the awesomeness.

Done drooling?
Now remove what meat you can and lay it aside to cool. Pour the remainder of the pot trough the cloth into another vessel. Scavenge the internals of the cloth for any meat and but that to cool also.

Pour the filtered liquid back to original pot (filtering it once more!). Leave the pot on low heat.
When meat has cooled so a man can touch it remove all bones and rip the meat to small pieces (including the skin, lard, venisons ). Put the boneless herbless meat back to the liquid. Have wife lick the bones.
 

 
Heat alittle and stir well. Move the mixture into what ever container you like (the filtering vessel would suffice but maybe use smaller and in multible)

 
Wait for it to thaw, store in cool. Serve with solid stuff like mustard, horseradish, vinegar. Wife eats it.

I don't know I would finish this quest. 
But a flash idea happened to strike me to finish this: Noodle of Dark MaGoHi
The ingredients are all sweet, sore and crunchy. It's the main flavor of the dish.  Usually it's eaten with ice cubes and  A LOT of peppers. So it's super chili while super cold, just like MaGoHi. 
1. Preparation: 
 - noodle made from black wheat (buckwheat, it's dark). soak it in water.
 - chopped lettuce, sliced cucumber and tomato, an duck egg.
 - chili oil. we use it very often. Just pour the hot oil to smashed peppers. mix the oil with sauce made from vinegar, sugar and a little soy sauce. 
 - I planned to put some slices of apple, pear and beef. But they were ran out of stock. 

2. Cook:
 - put the noodle into boiled water for just 1 min. not too long or it would be too soft. 

3. Finalize:
 - put the noodle into cold water several times. 
 - mix the noodle with sauce and vegetable. cut the egg into 2 halves and put them into a MaGoHi shape. 

 - now you could add some ice, pepper or raisin, whatever you like to make it better looking and more flavor. 

This is called Toad in the Hole, with chips, Cauliflower cheese and gravy.
Its super healthy so the bacon knight will like it.
 
First you cook up some batter and place the sausages inside it to cook.
While thats doing you put the chips on, and create a white/cheese sauce. Putting the cauliflower and that into a pot you can sprinkle more cheese onto the top if you wish.
Once served you pour a rather obscene amount of gravy onto all of it.