Lack of Players?

Tibitha

Sarapis said:

Jacen said:

I read some book about a kid playing a MUD, googled the term, and Achaea was the first result. I know its a long stretch, but expanding to other medias seems like it'd have a decent shot of succeeding. Books, comic books, tabletop RPGs, boardgames, etc. I have no idea how much of an investment any of this would take, and I imagine you've probably already though of and dismissed these ideas, but it seems like a good way to reach out to the type of people that would enjoy a MUD game.

Not doable for us I'm afraid, and super unlikely to drive many players here anyway. Consider that we have a MUD (Midkemia Online) that's literally the only official online game property out there for a book series that has sold over 15 million copies and it's still our least-popular MUD.

------ Ah crud, I made the mistake of backspacing, now I'm stuck in the quote box again, on mobile.

Easy fix, rename it to Aamidkemia Online. In our world of alphabetised lists its not surprising there's a distinct correlation between how early your name is listed and its popularity. Just take a look at the names of the muds in the top ten. We see the same correlation in our company. 

Cooper

Sarapis said:

Cynlael said:

Was released in Q3 (august specifically) of 2006. Note how it's not even close to when WoW's subs were at its peak? Your comparison is failing, mate. Believe what you want, a LOT of people will agree that Vanilla isn't close to as good as people 'remember' it as. Just go play on Nostalrius (most popular vanilla private server, and most bugfree) if you want proof of that.

A lot of people consistently remember the time they started playing a MUD/MMO as the best time in it ever. Everything was fresh and new to them then, and of course the game at the state it was when they started playing is why they started playing.

Not just a problem with MUDs. Happens with most games and some IRL activities too.

Valkyn

Between multiclass, the ship overhaul, the renaissance and the year 700 events... I'm not surprised we haven't seen any major stuff lately, give it time!

I'm very pleased with all the changes lately, and happy to wait for more big flavour events while this stuff is sorted.

Szanthax

Daeir said:

Feature-wise and mechanically, Achaea's probably the best it's ever been.

World narrative advancement has dropped off sharply in favor of smaller interactions though - there's very little world event stuff that happens anymore, no more prophet yelling, no god conflicts over shouts, no zap battles, no tritonic legions perishing in battle via deathsight. The best thing we've had in that regard post-Worldreaver was the Umbrinite plague stuff and the associated Borak stuff, but it was there, and it went for a long while and had an excellent ending that still hasn't been expanded upon.

On top of that absence of stuff, the Cauda Pavonis has all but vanished completely, there's been no word from any of the Azatlans (publicly at least), the wall on Meropis still remains as inscrutable as ever.

Things are very static at the macro level. There's no conflict being introduced anymore, only being made natively by the structures that already exist in the game. That is fine, but there is no true "lose" condition to ever advance these to a fever pitch. The absolute worst thing that could possibly happen at the moment to a city is the full wipe of their guards and coffers to replace them.

The little things are nice, but a lot of us did not start playing Achaea for the little. I loved the Worldreaver event and that whole period thereafter where everything was in huge flux and there was a lot riding on the line. It seems though that once the honeymoon ended, any sense of that vibrancy the world had before went with it.

I'm finding it very difficult personally to keep an interest in Achaea anymore because of it, and it really makes me sad.

I'll agree with valkyn here. They just finished cleaning up all the cities, everyone's a faction... Let the age of factions begin!!

Saeva

When you consider how many big overhauls have taken place on top of the fact that there are so very few divine, I'm frankly surprised they have gotten most of these things done -and- focused on the Adryn event and now the year 700 games. The stale feeling can be, mostly,  attributed to the players and their need for hand holding .

Sarathai

We could always have another undead invasion.

Or Slith.

Aesi

Oooh zombies! Zombie invasion!

Gamden

Daeir said:

It isn't really about hand-holding and more about the absence of any real focus on a grand narrative in favor of these smaller seasonal/interim events. I get why they do it, and they're definitely doing it very well (y700 looks pretty cool for instance), but I personally am just a bit disappointed that there's been less focus on the overarching story over the years.

Don't get me wrong. Loved the shit out of the Gauntlet and the Fayre and all the other stuff they've done thus far. Just want me some of that sick world-building from the Divine end, too.

+1

Everything he said

Trevize

What's funny is when there were more overarching stories and less individual flavour stuff, I heard regular complaints about that dynamic too, with people asking for what we're seeing lately.

Khel

Well yeah. Different people like different things.

Kiet

And some people are simply bored of the game and would really benefit more from a break rather than more/less of x and y.

Sarapis

Daeir said:

World narrative advancement has dropped off sharply in favor of smaller interactions though - there's very little world event stuff that happens anymore, no more prophet yelling, no god conflicts over shouts, no zap battles, no tritonic legions perishing in battle via deathsight. The best thing we've had in that regard post-Worldreaver was the Umbrinite plague stuff and the associated Borak stuff, but it was there, and it went for a long while and had an excellent ending that still hasn't been expanded upon.

On top of that absence of stuff, the Cauda Pavonis has all but vanished completely, there's been no word from any of the Azatlans (publicly at least), the wall on Meropis still remains as inscrutable as ever.

Things are very static at the macro level. There's no conflict being introduced anymore, only being made natively by the structures that already exist in the game. That is fine, but there is no true "lose" condition to ever advance these to a fever pitch. The absolute worst thing that could possibly happen at the moment to a city is the full wipe of their guards and coffers to replace them.

The little things are nice, but a lot of us did not start playing Achaea for the little. I loved the Worldreaver event and that whole period thereafter where everything was in huge flux and there was a lot riding on the line. It seems though that once the honeymoon ended, any sense of that vibrancy the world had before went with it.

We generally agree with most of that, fwiw, barring the idea that "there's no conflict being introduced any more, only being made natively by the structures that already exist in the game." That's 90% of Achaea's history really - big events have only ever been the driver of conflict for short periods of time. 

@Trevize is right too though: When we were doing more big worldy stuff, we got complaints of people missing out on the individual interactions. It's definitely a balance.

In any case, there's no question that a lot of effort in this last 16 months or so has been focused on redoing things (the tradeskill redos, new knight skills, new other-class-skills, Renn, redoing ships, redoing bashing with Battlerage, etc) and this fall is extra-busy with events that aren't story-driven, due to the addition of Year 700.

You can expect to see a focus on the 'new' in all areas for 2016 though, from conflict systems to events that, like Bal'met, introduce new ideas, personas, and lore.

Klendathu

SHADDUP AND VOTE!

Sarathai

Aesi said:

Oooh zombies! Zombie invasion!

Maybe Ugrach finally got tired of somebody up top sending relics to him in the mail while broadcasting the relic locations to every adventurer and their mother. Who then subsequently come down and punch him in the face for them.

Trevize

Sarathai said:

Aesi said:

Oooh zombies! Zombie invasion!

Maybe Ugrach finally got tired of somebody up top sending relics to him in the mail while broadcasting the relic locations to every adventurer and their mother. Who then subsequently come down and punch him in the face for them.

Is this where he starts bashing Ashtan to get arties/gold/xp?

Hellen

I'll go ahead and add my voice in, why not?

Far as I can tell, Achaea's doing just fine in terms of mechanics. They've chosen to focus on a more novice-friendly approach, which is what will keep Achaea running for a long time. Furthermore, as was mentioned previously, they've mostly been reworking mechanics for this year. Multiclass was a big one.

Really, the only thing that I can think of that was lost was class identity. There's not a lot of focus on that any longer, which is both good and bad. Some concepts can be easily expanded to include other classes, but several other concepts usually require someone to do something rather than just know something. Like alchemy, or apostasy, or the forestal classes.

This lack of focus on these professions opens up a lot of options, but it also means that being a specific class outside of maybe Targossas and Mhaldor is more like wearing a jacket than anything.

Really, any other faults I find that Achaea has is more intrinsic to the nature of the game itself.

Batista

As someone who used to rag on the admins constantly back in the day (sorry for that, guys), I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with all the new stuff I see. Achaea seems a bit unfamiliar at the moment to me, but I'm excited to tinker around with the new toys.

Still miss the Maldaathi, though. Papa Xenomorph must be spinning in his soulcage about now.

Trey

Batista said:

As someone who used to rag on the admins constantly back in the day (sorry for that, guys), I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with all the new stuff I see. Achaea seems a bit unfamiliar at the moment to me, but I'm excited to tinker around with the new toys.

Still miss the Maldaathi, though. Papa Xenomorph must be spinning in his soulcage about now.

Knights could still use you, it's too bad you can't come back. We let @Cooper back in, ffs.

Batista

Trey said:

Batista said:

As someone who used to rag on the admins constantly back in the day (sorry for that, guys), I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with all the new stuff I see. Achaea seems a bit unfamiliar at the moment to me, but I'm excited to tinker around with the new toys.

Still miss the Maldaathi, though. Papa Xenomorph must be spinning in his soulcage about now.

Knights could still use you, it's too bad you can't come back. We let @Cooper back in, ffs.

A huge part of the reason I wanted to. But, since I can't, I'll just work on my promo skills to express myself. Like so:

Boz

Batista said:

Trey said:

Batista said:

As someone who used to rag on the admins constantly back in the day (sorry for that, guys), I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with all the new stuff I see. Achaea seems a bit unfamiliar at the moment to me, but I'm excited to tinker around with the new toys.

Still miss the Maldaathi, though. Papa Xenomorph must be spinning in his soulcage about now.

Knights could still use you, it's too bad you can't come back. We let @Cooper back in, ffs.

A huge part of the reason I wanted to. But, since I can't, I'll just work on my promo skills to express myself. Like so:

Did someone mention wrasslin'?

Batista

Boz said:

Batista said:

Trey said:

Batista said:

As someone who used to rag on the admins constantly back in the day (sorry for that, guys), I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with all the new stuff I see. Achaea seems a bit unfamiliar at the moment to me, but I'm excited to tinker around with the new toys.

Still miss the Maldaathi, though. Papa Xenomorph must be spinning in his soulcage about now.

Knights could still use you, it's too bad you can't come back. We let @Cooper back in, ffs.

A huge part of the reason I wanted to. But, since I can't, I'll just work on my promo skills to express myself. Like so:

Did someone mention wrasslin'?

If you think that's going to bring out my inner BATMONTER, I can't say that it won't.

Sylvaria

Kiet said:

Man I started playing at about the same time and people definitely raided because they felt like it.  How can you possibly say they didn't when Jarik was terrorizing Hashan for sport? Nostalgia is nice but let's not let it cloud the actual realities of things.

Ashtan and Mhaldor used to bum buddy and smash shallam on a daily basis. Once icons came in it was near impossible to leave an icon up, with there being a whole assortment of dragon ashtani/mhaldorians spamming choke/chaosrays for days...

Sarathai

Sylvaria said:

Kiet said:

Man I started playing at about the same time and people definitely raided because they felt like it.  How can you possibly say they didn't when Jarik was terrorizing Hashan for sport? Nostalgia is nice but let's not let it cloud the actual realities of things.

Ashtan and Mhaldor used to bum buddy and smash shallam on a daily basis. Once icons came in it was near impossible to leave an icon up, with there being a whole assortment of dragon ashtani/mhaldorians spamming choke/chaosrays for days...

Was it Mhaldor or Ashtan who camped out in Fish Street for several days before the admins had to tell them to leave? I seem to remember that happening once.

Kiet

It happened several times, usually a mix of Ashtani/Mhaldorians/rogues since no one cared about being picky with allies back then

Tahquil

Who was it that replaced all of Shallam's totems with their own? :pleased: 

Sylvaria

Tahquil said:

Who was it that replaced all of Shallam's totems with their own? :pleased: 

Jarik during his mhaldor stint I think, could have been caine though but jarik is the only prominent runewarden of mhaldor I remember

Aktillum

Honestly, Achaea's population has seasonal highs and lows, but I'm pretty positive the majority of us will still be playing from wheelchairs in nursing homes like 50 years from now. By that time, I'm guessing some sort of 5-sensory stimulation technology will have been invented, which means we'll be able to smell the fresh manure in the Great Plains, the hippie-stench from @Rangor, and our taste buds will be tingled by all the ludicrous player-described in-game food. It's gonna be pretty great.

Kasya

Aktillum said:

Honestly, Achaea's population has seasonal highs and lows, but I'm pretty positive the majority of us will still be playing from wheelchairs in nursing homes like 50 years from now. By that time, I'm guessing some sort of 5-sensory stimulation technology will have been invented, which means we'll be able to smell the fresh manure in the Great Plains, the hippie-stench from @Rangor, and our taste buds will be tingled by all the ludicrous player-described in-game food. It's gonna be pretty great.

As long as there's still no graphics.

Aerek

Tahquil said:

Who was it that replaced all of Shallam's totems with their own? :pleased: 

That was primarily Ashtan, plus Hashan/Mhaldor/Eleusis and anyone else with a gripe after Rho Excommunicated 4 of the 6 cities in bulk. I think that raid went on for like 12-24 hours. Cyrene worked out terms with Rho last-second, but even we had plans to raid if the hammer fell.

Kasya

Those were Good times.