Exercise your imagination

[dst]

Let's do a bit of work out. Let's assume you (you=general you=any MD player be it new or vet) are given MD to manage. Also you have unrestricted access to coding (let's assume you can either code  yourself or have someone 24 hours at your discretion to ask to code stuff for you).

 

What would you do? What would you change? What would you add? What would you remove? What roles would you create? What roles would you remove? Things like those.

And I want exact ideas like: I would add chasekhalazdad spell as a wish in Wishshop, I would create a colored version of angien that would do the opposite of current ones (aka instead of losing ve while attacking, they would be gaining the ve of the crit they are attacking).

 

Don't think about the lack of money or players.

 

Also if it's too much to write about maybe it's better to focus on an area: for example battles or spells or the influence of the sun on the mind of the noobs..I don't want to see overpowered items/roles/whatever just for your selfish you. I don't want to see  "Mur like"  ideas like: I am making this role for this person because I dreamt of a black cat last night.

 

Basically what would you do if you were given a dieing game like MD and you'd want to revive it?

[Ary Endleg]

If I get to have MD to manage with tons of money and devs, trust me it wouldn't be MD anymore, it would be unrecognizable. Better question is what would be left of it after my imaginary revamp, I'm pretty sure everything except artworks would get scrapped.

[dst]

If I get to have MD to manage with tons of money and devs, trust me it wouldn't be MD anymore, it would be unrecognizable. Better question is what would be left of it after my imaginary revamp, I'm pretty sure everything except artworks would get scrapped.

In this case it would not be MD so it would really be a waste of time and other resources to give you such a job/power/role.

[Ary Endleg]

Pretty much.

[Aeoshattr]

Hm. I am fairly convinced that my ideas would be unpopular, but since this is an imagination exercise, I'll give it a shot.

 

I would add more clues to the lore of the world within the world itself (for the sake of clarity, I mean add more clickables with clear, plain information rather than just bits and pieces and riddles) - research seems slow (due to lack of players that actually know the truth) and due to very little things to "grasp" or to base your research upon. I have not done this extensively, so I may be wrong, but this is the impression I got so far. Of course, it shouldn't be something everything should do, but knowing a bit more about the truth, about the lore, rather than hypothesizing would be better.

 

I would implement different ways of playing a character - yes, I know you can technically play however you want, but the way I see things, I would like to see the ability to choose (or have the choice "made" for you during story mode) of either becoming a creature fighter, a spellcaster, a simple human, etc etc. 

 

I would -completely- remove "mixed" admin/player type characters. People who have admin or LHO rights would have separate accounts whose sole purpose would be to perform the admin / LHO / coder / etc function, in other words "Player X and Admin Y" not "Player and Admin X".

 

I would add (unpopularity nuke incoming) stat caps for each MP level, or at least rework MP5 and superior levels (by adding another limit which I cannot think of at the moment). MP5 is much too varied, from nooby players (me) to completely overpowered players and this seems to contradict the "balance" brought about by separating MP3 and MP4.

 

I would increase access to scenes for players; even if for a grotesque amount of AP, players would be able to access any location without needing special help.

 

I would remove and utterly obliterate and mutilate and destroy in the most painful way possible the concept of viscosity and I would also keep the AP cost of scenes other than those which would obviously be difficult to cross to a low amount (in other words, paved roads in the East shouldn't cost 80 AP, IMO, but locations such as gates, bridges, etc, might cost even more).

 

Add more ways through which wishpoints can be gained - though I remember this was already in work for A25.

 

Increased advertising?

 

Ran out of ideas.

Edited August 10, 2014 by Aeoshattr

[Assira the Black]

Random thoughts that are just spewing forth

Battles:

 

For an addition to the battle topic, A few npc's similar to the armors in GG, could be made for specific mp's that randomly move around md. That people of the same mp level can fight. This could be used during head contests to gain head counts. But the more heads you have then the stronger the npc fighter gets. Or if the npc's going around were there consistantly out side of hc then they could get stronger as the player fights them. Once reaching the last fighting npc it would reset to where all the npc's returned but even harder than the last. But once beating the last npc minion, you are teleported to Champion's Challenge. You would have the option to fight a 'boss' for a higher reward or take an item. But that if you lose against the boss then you do not get anything and have to fight the new stronger npc's to reach the Champion's challenge.

 

 

Items:

 

Have it to where there are locations that resources can be mixed to create other items (similar to how tea is made but slightly different). For example, if you have branches/logs/bark, go to a wood carving station to make a staff, wooden beam, rods, wood chips, collect saw dust, and so one. Just to have some preset choices that depend upon your stats as a woodcarver. This could be applied to herbs/plant collecting, bones, rock, metals, water, and other resources.

 

Storyline:

For newbies the storyline could be based on No Man's Land, giving a bit more history/lore of No Man's land. And go into a little bit about its connection to the other lands. Then once you join a land you can go through the storyline associated with that land. That the storyline will only open some locations to the person of that land. If you cancel your citizenship with that land then you have to start over with the new land you join on the storymode to go through that storymode. You could keep the opened locations from the previous citizenship or it could be reset where you do not have access to it.

 

As for the principles you gain as you progress through the game. Could still be associated with the mp level and the storyline. But certain principles are associated more with certain lands. So you may gain more points for them following a certain storyline. 

 

To make up for the decrease in the points gained through that storyline is where the principle points for creatures come in.

 

May add more later as more ideas pop up or if I think of a better way to explain something

[Eagle Eye]

 I would love to add a Scene for underground and Invite more Player to become Citizen of Underground

 

Additional: ITEM for underground like Mining (what tools can be use for mining?)

 

Additional: New Creatures for the Underground

 

Changes: Lowering AP so the newbies can walk easily and love to explore the Underground

[Chewett]

Items:

 

Have it to where there are locations that resources can be mixed to create other items (similar to how tea is made but slightly different). For example, if you have branches/logs/bark, go to a wood carving station to make a staff, wooden beam, rods, wood chips, collect saw dust, and so one. Just to have some preset choices that depend upon your stats as a woodcarver. This could be applied to herbs/plant collecting, bones, rock, metals, water, and other resources.

 

Thats sort of planned and implemented...

[dst]

Congratz Fang. You've wrote tons of gibberish that nobody will see cause I will hide delete that. I was serious when I asked the questions. I want concrete stuff not the hallucinations of a mad person.

Edited August 11, 2014 by dst

[Rophs]

I would code in ways to activate the Land Weapons and make sure that their effects are very noticeable. I would find some way to 'connect' similar scenes (eg, Wasp Totem top floor and Cannon Control room). Removing influence from combat and making tokens for visual effect only with a big combat rework coming "soon".

 

edit: and finish A25

Edited August 11, 2014 by Rophs

[rikstar]

Before reading this note that those are things that I want to change in my opinion. Those are based on some of the problems that I have come across. It could be possible that you think way different then I do. So if anything suggest wouldn't work or isn't a problem, please tell me and let me see it from a different viewpoint!

 

I would firstly remove all the unnecessary features from MD or the features that don't improve gameplay at the moment. I will remove the following features from MD (note some of these features could come back, but they get removed at the moment):

--The ability to make totems;

--Violition;

--Equipment. I've heard that it's never going to be extended, because the item system has taken over this one.

 

 

Then I would change the existing features that aren't completely done. The features that I want to change are:

--The first thing that is going to change are the resources. I woould remove all the resources from every scene. Then I would place them at the scenes they could be logically in and place them, so that some lands have more of some kind of resources then the others. Basically balancing the resources. (I do know that this is planned for autumn 2050. There was a thread about balancing them.)

--I want to change Bushies, because they aren't really fun or balanced. Firstly I want to change the scene they are in. Why are they even placed in No Mans Land? It doesn't make much sense from a game design point in my opinion. I would make more of those bushie plants and scatter them around MD, so that it would encourage players to travel a lot more. I would alse make more varieties of the Bushie. All the different kind of bushies give different kinds of abilities to players. Basically like candie and pickles, but you would get more of these stats from bushies. Because it's way harder to get those. Also something that is more important about the bushie. Let them take some time to grow, so you have to be around them. Because you just insert the right amount of water resources in them and you get your bushie. It isn't really exciting. It would be fun to see people using tactics to steal them from other players or protecting their bushies.

--I would add more npc's like the aramor. It's very hard for a beginning player to find someone to fight to. More wandering NPC's would solve this problem. It will also make players want to travel more.

 

 

The following features are new features that I would implement in MD:

--I want to make some things automatic, so real humans don't have to handle it. Like kingship for example. There is a voting after a certain time or there is never a voting. The current king can decide this. But the players can rebel against him. You can choose to join a rebel and the one that wins becomes the new king and gets all the tools autimaticly. The winner is the rebel who has 50 percent of the citizens. Though it should be harder to remove citizens from a land as a king, else the kind could exploit that feature.

--Make the alliances work exactly the same as the kingship described above.

 

The next list are small changes that would be made immediately:

--Give the option to choose how many resources you give to the other player. This would encourage to trade, because you don't have to give away all of one kind of resource if you want to trade it. Because he could trade 1000 resources for something, when you have that many stacked up? This features is added, because there aren't many ways to use your resources. So you won't decrease your amount of a given resource.

 

 

The last list is more development related:

--More openenss about development and letting players now, what the upcoming features are about in detail.

--Only bringing out features that are done. So things like violition and totems will only be added, when they have a real function in MD.

[Chewett]

Im sorry, i thought you asked what i would do, not what i would do if you were to judge my answer.

Thats what i would do. Its not the ravings of a mad man. Thats codeable and plausible.

Please explain how i am crazy by your standards, im sure thisll be worth reading.

 

Its not really codable or plausible Fang, thats the problem :)

--Equipment. I've heard that it's never going to be extended, because the item system has taken over this one.

Lies, people make stuff up.

--Give the option to choose how many resources you give to the other player. This would encourage to trade, because you don't have to give away all of one kind of resource if you want to trade it. Because he could trade 1000 resources for something, when you have that many stacked up? This features is added, because there aren't many ways to use your resources. So you won't decrease your amount of a given resource.

Read Murs post about reality of resources and this point, I would link it but iv no clue where it is. This is raised a lot :)

--More openenss about development and letting players now, what the upcoming features are about in detail.

That would work, if people like Murry were not working on MD. He could have an idea monday and tuesday half of it would be in MD and by tuesday next year it could still be the same place as it was after the day it was half added. I dislike this.

--Only bringing out features that are done. So things like violition and totems will only be added, when they have a real function in MD.

Again, this is a thing Mur does as he rapidly works on a project then stops leaving others to finish it. Its a tad frustrating and I have finished and fixed a number of these things. The problem is it takes twice as long as you then need to learn what he has done, understand it, and possibly change it to finish it (in many cases the original code requires changes and this is why it was stopped being worked on since it was hard).

[Lazarus]

I will shift my attention to this statement:

 

 

Basically what would you do if you were given a dieing game like MD and you'd want to revive it?

 

What I would to is I will focus more on the newcomers to have them feel the uniqueness of the game itself, like we did during the golden era of MD where there are actually players who exchange battles and roleplays, interact with each other and create activities for the realm. This is what a newcomer would be interested in and nothing else, given the uniqueness of the game (i.e. balanced battles, creatures, artworks) they will thrive to seek more experience as they continue to explore the realm, everything else to me is just secondary.

 

There are new people who join MD but never last two weeks, and if they do, what they're doing is they are trying to see if their impressions and expectations for the game is true and if it's worth their time, but it won't be in their eyes because the realm is almost abandoned. Like Rikstar suggested, having some automated NPC's would be nice to have (Willow's Shop Guards, LR Guards, Dark Slime etc.). I would also focus mine and my "crew's" energy, time and budget for advertisements and marketing, maybe some additional scenes just for the sake of exploration and discovery, also having more interactive permanent puzzles and quests. Having them occupied will increase the chance of them staying until they discover the message MD is trying to morse-code into their minds, and that is the metaphysical and logical aspects of the realm, which I believe the reason most of you stayed (if not just "hoping" things would go back the way they were).

 

 

Right after everything above is taken care of, I would hire J.K. Rowling to fix the Pulitzer Prize-winning grammars and typographical perfections scattered throughout MD's literary works, because it is a major turn-off, though I understand English is not the primary language for most (that includes me), it is a big deal for most people. I've read the reviews from non-players outside MD and it was cringe worthy.

 

Viscosity decrease based on Activity Days is one thing I would do as well, I don't know how in the world Mur came up with this, then creating another called "Volition" to counter it.

 

I will appoint 5-7 active LHO's in different timezones to help the poor newbies so that they don't get ignored atleast for 30 mins to an hour, not just to help them, but also guide them as they continue their way.

 

I will also ban the word "soon" as it is synonymous with the words "after 5 years." Anybody who omit that word will be jailed for over a year with no food and water, no healthcare as well and will be forced to pick up soaps. Ofcourse, I am joking with this one.

 

Lastly and the most important one, which will be beyond my control even if I have enough money and influence to buy your ego, is your attitude towards someone / something you dislike (see attached). Attitude is everything, be it in MD or RL, no matter how good or talented you are, no matter how much achievements you reached, if your attitude is unacceptable, people will quit on you and something that you represent. Seeing MD as a business and a place to share valuable thoughts, it would hurt the game and therefore, is intolerable. Not pointing fingers.

[dst]

Lastly and the most important one, which will be beyond my control even if I have enough money and influence to buy your ego, is your attitude towards someone / something you dislike (see attached). Attitude is everything, be it in MD or RL, no matter how good or talented you are, no matter how much achievements you reached, if your attitude is unacceptable, people will quit on you and something that you represent. Seeing MD as a business and a place to share valuable thoughts, it would hurt the game and therefore, is intolerable. Not pointing fingers.

 

Actually you are pointing fingers but I will simply ignore the above paragraph (let's say I am in a good mood today - see the pos rep).

[No one]

There are many that could be implemented and I would like but not all that could still keep MD as MD.

What I'd go on first is to make the average internet player have something to do and for this I'd do this

1. add more items (see an old proposal of mine about personal items) - the sense of property in individual is really strong

2. add more recipes and ability for players to cooperate (see an old proposal of mine about work places / industry) - it gives something to do

3. add resource growing locations per alliance and a different one for player - it creates more resources allowing players without alliances the chance to grow for their own

4. add a location per player / alliance (or more if payable) so that it can add MD items in scene (something like decorations) - allowing players to work to decorate their own place

    - allow to make private (with list of allowed players) or public

    - allow to make "screenshot" like picture for profile

 

Having all of the above, it would be easy to create resource related automatic quests. Who knows, maybe this ways we could gain some of the xxxxVille / xxxCraft players.

[Rophs]

To raise funds I'd probably shut down the server for a week and extort funds from the helplessly addicted at whom I will not point fingers.

[Menhir]

I would

 

1. Make every resource and Item usable in an easy way and ...

2. would introduce ways of combining them into more complex structures like buildings and more complicated tools which ... 

3. would have an actual use in all parts of the game, fighting, exploring, lore, Roleplay ect.

 

4. reshape the "tutorial" so that new visitors would enjoy staying in the realm and come back on a daily basis because they need months to explore all of it

5. expand the possibilities of collecting in the realm - we already have creatures - I would expand that into other areas like items of history, books & many more

 

6. implement weapons (single & sets) & armor (single & sets) for the player and for certain creatures with additional stats and/or abilities ...

7. which would be common, uncommon, rare and legendary in their rarities ...

8 some of them as rewards for strong ongoing quests, some by crafting and others in certain areas as rewards for exploring and the most rare as special reward for special services or events

 

9. employ artists and expand the realm in certain areas but only if they would be filled with real purpose, we do not need more empty & useless, but beautiful drawn scenes

10. finish all unfinished loose ends of the realm ... creatures, features, story and all those things I´m not aware of at the moment 

11. pay those who work for the realm proper with real money  

 

I might expand the list later.