Movement in the realm

[Mallos]

^{_{while I could try to use a lot of words to describe how I think the game mechanics are not helpful towards community activies I would have to sum it up as:}}

Movement doesn't reflect what it used to very well before all of the action point changes were added/applied... In some instances walking through a land could take hours, for example MDA, the East, or even Loreroot, as most of what we had to fight was viscosity and that required us to walk in groups. I don't think it needs to take hours to do things but the practice of us needing to combat viscosity and work together to get somewhere was very rewarding.

[Fyrd Argentus]

I've been against the high ap costs of exploring remote places from the beginning of viscosity.  Pickles were a first small way to fight that.  Others have cropped up over the years to mitigate the damage viscosity causes.  It forces people to congregate together at GoE for any social interaction and makes hanging out together in smaller groups with common interests in relatively remote places less likely.  It is potentially the death of alliances and exploration for fun - when we should be encouraging more diverse activities instead.

Summary: viscosity bad, community activity good.

[Mallos]

You may remember a time when several groups would congregate around the GoE, MDP, Wind's Sanctuary, willow's walk and other locations daily, and you also may remember a time when it would take a long time to walk through the realm for which you seek pickles as a remedy, but that time was a long time ago and since then the exact scenario you describe, "It forces people to congregate together at GoE" is something that is not forced anymore, and yet it still remains constant. Viscosity or not the activity of doing anything around the realm is minute, brief, you can walk to the gate of the bored and back to GoE in a few minutes and anything you needed along the way comes back with you. There is no reason to stay, and outside of events like the MD birthday you don't see people congregating in locations other than the GoE nowadays. Even in times where I can coax a few people to sit at the marble dale park the "sparring" location for a month or two for the easy daily loyalty, the xmas tree comes around and before you know it everyone is idle at the GoE again. This is the problem I am describing. That there is no need and little want to do anything outside of the GoE. 

Viscosity at least brought people together if only by force. I don't want viscosity necessarily but I would like to see real reasons to explore and inhabit a space in the realm.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Mallos

[Fyrd Argentus]

I am trying to develop the Cafe by the Maple as a site for role-players and help for newbies.

Chewett is working on an economy based on resource gathering and usage in each land.

If we get my GWI project rolling, and eventually get a wave of newbies in, the role of training sites like MD Park and the old GGG become viable again.

Ungod and I are working on a series of quests (same scope as my Lost Path/Shadow Army work) that would have people running around more.

Some of my best clickie work is in the far east (pre-viscosity), and I bet a lot of people never found it due to the difficulty to go there.

As leader of Legend Speakers, I strongly encourage ideas to breath life into the realm, and will help as I can...

[Mallos]

Ok well what do you think players like me can do to help advance these ideas along?

"Some of my best clickie work is in the far east (pre-viscosity), and I bet a lot of people never found it due to the difficulty to go there."

I think most established players knew of your "look" quests and viewed them as the harder to hardest things to do in the game, and I even struggled to complete a lot of it. The one problem I have nowadays is quests like this are often gated by availability of the player running it, if you need to activate your clickies every 15 days, of course some are more permanent but we need a large base of these quests that are permanent along with being more visible. I mean Burns' and Jubarius' tutorial quests and the sorts (I have one made by Ungod that I fail to constantly upkeep), we have so many clickies that are underutilized as is.

And we definitely need more game mechanics that require you to do things in the land, to stay there. Even the diamond maker, it takes a month to process, but while it does you wander elsewhere. My uncle faceted gems for sale, and I have spent many hours watching him do this and a few doing it myself. It is not an automatic process and we don't even have machines do to it, not like manufacturing a car and even these processes require humans to operate the machines. We have nothing like this in MD.

If my tone sounds negative as I think it does it is a result of not dissatisfaction but a lack of optimism.

Edited July 17, 2021 by Mallos

[Fyrd Argentus]

I've suggested we get together workshops on quest making - group discussion sorts of things.  Maybe the forum is the place, probably not though.

Clickies with passwords stay in place indefinitely.  You only need refresh "surface" ones.  Hence the attempt to normalize "LOOK".

Ungod & I are working on a series of big but mercifully easier quests located in LR & GG.  Very much story-based, and expandable.

Chewett has many projects on his list, including updates to the "permanent quest" list and the big resource sink/treasury stuff that seems to fit some of your concerns.  He has told me that should the maker be gone, he/admin will honor the prizes offered therein as well.

I'm pushing the GWI revamp so we get more players in.  I find joy in exposing old things to new players - perhaps you will.

I've created my own personal quests - Fyrd wants there to be more wreaths so gathers flowers, and also makes bushie wine - very intensive.  He's also collecting RP items in character.  Bongo wants to accumulate food, Ssclorp wants lots of water for his health.  TestPilotB is trying to learn all about balloon handling.  These are all done for the challenge rather than the prize.  Perhaps we can have people set their own personal challenges and then celebrate their completion publicly.

I think that the only thing that is going to draw people to stay in other lands for extended periods is the company of other people; nobody wants to self-impose exile.  Develop groups with common interests (dare I say "alliances"?  No need - call them "interest groups" instead)  that meet regularly somewhere other than GoE.  I'm trying to do that at the Cafe by the Maple.  Problem now is not enough people to split into groups, so we're back to the GWI revamp followed by supercharge.

Bottom line advice is try lots of things, see what works, push those on a culture level.  But keep throwing them out there.