Random Achaea Thoughts

Aktillum

Stop accusing Gods of multiplaying, thats how we lost Chat channel

Herenicus

Eigen said:

@Herenicus: Do you think eliminating the top 25% of players would help grow the community or leave it bitter? Maybe temporarily compelling for the other 75% until they find that the game is either: boring, not competitive enough, or not pliable enough to be interesting.

No one is talking about eliminating anyone; if players walk away from invested characters because their day job or programming pastime no longer delivers Warrior RP the way it did, maybe the rest of the population will enjoy combat enough to compensate for the ragequits. As to bitterness, barriers to competition, and player fun - it's enough to say these arguments cut both ways. The numbers are against you and they aren't improving.  

Rip

Accusing Gods of Multi-playing???  You are joking right, @Aktillum? It was a "Random Thought"....I and REALLY really hope the Garden drops down to our mere mortal level to try and live and fight at our meager level...how else would they be able to balance anything?

Edit: for the "record" I don't think Bonko is a anything but grade A combatant...

Mishgul

Damn. this is a good change. i wasted 300 hours innthe past few weeks collecting aff lines but whatever. Gmcp aff tracking is good times.

Aktillum

Rip said:

Accusing Gods of Multi-playing???  You are joking right, @Aktillum? It was a "Random Thought"....I and REALLY really hope the Garden drops down to our mere mortal level to try and live and fight at our meager level...how else would they be able to balance anything?

of course it was a joke, I was fishing for likes (or the elusive awesomes) but nobody caught my reference. bunch of youngsters around here.

Eigen

Herenicus said:

Eigen said:

@Herenicus: Do you think eliminating the top 25% of players would help grow the community or leave it bitter? Maybe temporarily compelling for the other 75% until they find that the game is either: boring, not competitive enough, or not pliable enough to be interesting.

No one is talking about eliminating anyone; if players walk away from invested characters because their day job or programming pastime no longer delivers Warrior RP the way it did, maybe the rest of the population will enjoy combat enough to compensate for the ragequits. As to bitterness, barriers to competition, and player fun - it's enough to say these arguments cut both ways. The numbers are against you and they aren't improving.  

Sarapis said:

Well, we already ban automation in gold generation, kind of, so it's not as if there isn't a precedent there. Enforcing it is the only reason combat automation isn't banned. The occasional high-profile perma-shrubbing would certainly put a damper on peoples' willingness to do things like try to automate group affliction tracking though.

Austere

Aktillum said:

Stop accusing Gods of multiplaying, thats how we lost Chat channel

Of course some gods multiplay(not all). I watched a walk through on Achaea once, where Sarapis went to help the dude as NotSarapis. Even Sarapis posting the pic of the new html teaser, the stats on it were way lower than they should have been for any god.  I guarantee, when they look at reformating the introduction quest, they let divine test it first. That's not to say any of them actually put effort into it,  but if they have a novice character,  they multiplay. 

This isn't even taking into account when they control denizens. ..

Aktillum

Austere said:

Aktillum said:

Stop accusing Gods of multiplaying, thats how we lost Chat channel

Of course some gods multiplay(not all). I watched a walk through on Achaea once, where Sarapis went to help the dude as NotSarapis. Even Sarapis posting the pic of the new html teaser, the stats on it were way lower than they should have been for any god.  I guarantee, when they look at reformating the introduction quest, they let divine test it first. That's not to say any of them actually put effort into it,  but if they have a novice character,  they multiplay. 

This isn't even taking into account when they control denizens. ..

before anyone else takes my post seriously just readnews announce 771

Treyal

Aktillum said:

Austere said:

Aktillum said:

Stop accusing Gods of multiplaying, thats how we lost Chat channel

Of course some gods multiplay(not all). I watched a walk through on Achaea once, where Sarapis went to help the dude as NotSarapis. Even Sarapis posting the pic of the new html teaser, the stats on it were way lower than they should have been for any god.  I guarantee, when they look at reformating the introduction quest, they let divine test it first. That's not to say any of them actually put effort into it,  but if they have a novice character,  they multiplay. 

This isn't even taking into account when they control denizens. ..

before anyone else takes my post seriously just readnews announce 771

The best part of that is someone named Radagast complaining about bad RP.

Rip

Random Thought: Every choice being made is coming from Sarapis (and trusted associates)...He is ONE of the best MUD players to date (and flowing like water, reaches the depths of the deepest ocean)...If you didn't meet Sarapis before he started making his own worlds...you were lucky.  I am fully confident that Sarapis knows EXACTLY what he wants and expects from Achaea and IRE in general.  I have faith in Him as one of the best RPers around...and I have no doubt he plays characters...would he tell us?  Probably not, because that defeats the whole purpose.

Jules

Aktillum said:

Austere said:

Aktillum said:

Stop accusing Gods of multiplaying, thats how we lost Chat channel

Of course some gods multiplay(not all). I watched a walk through on Achaea once, where Sarapis went to help the dude as NotSarapis. Even Sarapis posting the pic of the new html teaser, the stats on it were way lower than they should have been for any god.  I guarantee, when they look at reformating the introduction quest, they let divine test it first. That's not to say any of them actually put effort into it,  but if they have a novice character,  they multiplay. 

This isn't even taking into account when they control denizens. ..

before anyone else takes my post seriously just readnews announce 771

Wow, that's actually really interesting.  And there was a rage channel?  What?  I do wish we had OOC rings.  Obviously something needed to be done, but now I'm wondering if this was the backlash that led Achaea to be soooooo anti-OOC.  I'd love to have Imperian's circle rings here.  In Achaea that would translate to each city having a very flexible channel not quite like PT, that most of the city's members were in (although you can quit the ring for a bit and then have someone invite you back if needed), and where most combat coordination, as well as random OOC chatter and banter could happen.  No one is "in charge" and there is obviously no rank on that channel, but if someone is a jerk people certainly let them know.  It's a great system, and I'd never quite realized what I was missing until I experienced it.  It's a great way to welcome people to your org and get to know the players in a low commitment way.  Usually, we'll invite newbies as soon as it looks like they might actually stick around. 

Jules

Rip said:

Random Thought: Every choice being made is coming from Sarapis (and trusted associates)...He is ONE of the best MUD players to date (and flowing like water, reaches the depths of the deepest ocean)...If you didn't meet Sarapis before he started making his own worlds...you were lucky.  I am fully confident that Sarapis knows EXACTLY what he wants and expects from Achaea and IRE in general.  I have faith in Him as one of the best RPers around...and I have no doubt he plays characters...would he tell us?  Probably not, because that defeats the whole purpose.

I wish they were playing as a variety of mortals, in varying circumstances more often, but I actually don't think they have been.  Maybe they will though. 

Aktillum

@Sarapis has alluded to wandering about on mortal characters in several IG posts. Legend has it one of the main reasons for gaining class through Certimene was that Sarapis' newbie alt had to sit through a 5 hour interview for the Occultist guild.

Rip

Random Thought: So so tired of hearing about other games from IRE and how it should relate to Achaea...

Edit: Group Aff Tracking has been around for "at least" two years...they built our own OOC clans to capture the data...really.  Maybe...everyone needs a WAKE UP CALL...?

Jules

Right (for Aktillum), I mentioned that very thing in this thread some posts back, but I don't think that sort of thing has been happening much lately, and I also don't think they're getting a variety of experiences (partly because it's time consuming).  When they do it at all, the focus is on the newbie experience (because it's so critical probably). 

Aminah

itt players that fight are the most important

Jules

Rip said:

Random Thought: So so tired of hearing about other games from IRE and how it should relate to Achaea...

I know I know, people tend to dislike comparisons between the games, and sometimes they're right.  There really are a lot of things that beg comparison though. 

Rip

I never played any of the other IRE games, and I really don't care too.  Bringing other games like WoW...FPS and IRE games into any conversation is so completely annoying....GO PLAY those games instead.  I really am not interested in any other Muds nor bending Achaea into them.  You are talking about and discussing "The BEST Mud on the planet" every time everyone tries to compare or bend Achaea into anything less is annoying to me.  : Random Thought

Edit: Also Chess...it's not even the same concept...leave CHESS ALONE!

Aktillum

Random thought: Its 3:48am, I'm supposed to take a 6 hour trip to Legazpi in a couple hours, haven't slept yet and I'm searching through old announce posts for concrete evidence of @Sarapis being blackballed from the Occultists

Austere

Rip said:

I never played any of the other IRE games, and I really don't care too.  Bringing other games like WoW...FPS and IRE games into any conversation is so completely annoying....GO PLAY those games instead.  I really am not interested in any other Muds nor bending Achaea into them.  You are talking about and discussing "The BEST Mud on the planet" every time to try to compare or bend Achaea into anything less is annoying to me.  : Random Thought

Just because you are the best at something, does not mean there is not room to grow. While I don't ever want to see Achaea copy game mechanics from other games,  I would prefer us to be pioneers,  there is something in each of the IRE games that could benefit Achaea,  I think 

Jules

Well, let's put it this way.  I think Achaea would very much benefit from a pendulum swing back towards encouraging casual OOC banter between players, especially between fairly new players (or just ones returning from long dormancies) and established players.  It sounds like we had one a long time ago (and a rage channel, haha, WTF, but also hilarious/awesome) but it was apparently game-wide and at one point got beyond what admin wanted to deal with. 

Rip

@Austere, I agree that Sarapis and associates learned so much in the last 20 years...the one thing "They" complain about is new players...how running a a text based game is difficult..And I can see that...did you all know there is an Achaean Affiliate program?  Their huge source of new players it topmudsites...do you know HOW EASY IT IS TO START a website...a top site and the like...really it would take a month to get 1,000's of people here per day.  (before you fry me...I know I know...but if we all told everyone we knew...and used resources we have...it's just not, encouraged...)

@ Aktillum, So we can assume your news post will triple? ( hope you have a safe trip )

Random Thought: Love the new quiver amounts!  WOOT!

Aktillum

Random thought: The first MUD I ever played had guides actually follow around newbies, watching their commands, and help them on a 1-1 basis. It was a small MUD with like <20 players, but I always thought that'd be great in Achaea. Sure, newbies have the newbie channel, HNT, etc, but nothing beats face-time with someone who is helping you every step of the way.

@Rip if you type BANNERCODE in-game you get one of those nifty forum sig banners everyone has. I use mine (with a link to Achaea) on several MMO forums I browse

Rip

Wow...I do that every time I play Achaea...?

Edit: Again, everyone knows about the affiliate program right?

Tharvis

@Aktillum guides can already watch everything newbies do

Aktillum

Tharvis said:

@Aktillum guides can already watch everything newbies do

I know. I mean though, in this particular MUD, as soon as you created a character, a player-guide teleported to you and started following you around, telling you what commands to type and walking you through the first couple of newbie quests. Obviously not feasible or even necessary in Achaea (the current intro is very streamlined) but it stands out in my mind because it felt like you had a buddy the moment you started the game.

Rip

It's not just about Banner Code...there are 7.5 BILLION people on the planet and I bet a lot of them would love our little slice of heaven...we are just not going at it the right way.  I can think of at least 4 ways to help Achaea...but there is not much in it for me and I hope the Garden already does this.   But....anyways.

Random Thought: We want gold sinks...delete everyone's prefix and suffix and then make 50k per prefix and suffix...

Aktillum

Rip said:

It's not just about Banner Code...there are 7.5 BILLION people on the planet and I bet a lot of them would love our little slice of heaven...we are just not going at it the right way.  I can think of at least 4 ways to help Achaea...but there is not much in it for me and I hope the Garden already does this.   But....anyways.

To the best of my knowledge, IRE has been trying a handful of various advertising techniques in the past couple years, the problem is and always will be conversion. One example is when they had a high-profile ad on Reddit that resulted in thousands of visitors to Achaea but people ran screaming when they saw it was text-based.

I do agree there are still things to try, and Sarapis has clued us in on the fact they're always thinking about new ways to gain traffic (like the topic about livestreaming). Personally I think a great target would be fansites of fantasy novels, people who already love reading about fantasy worlds. I've seen quite a few popular fansites for Game of Thrones, for instance.

Amranu

There was a reddit ad? Damn never heard about that. Ah: http://www.reddit.com/comments/181aqf/achaea_one_of_the_worlds_top_muds_incredible_pvp/ Got torn apart apparently, not overly surprised.

Cooper

There was an event once where gods had mortal avatars and played with us. Can't remember how many there were, but rakshasa was sartan. had every major artie and access to more than one class. The good avatar was priest/magi/monk.