34 replies to this topic

[Slam]

With drop rates being low in most cases. A few suggestions to look into.

 

Tk drops Mithril shard why not instead a Time Shard and say 5 Time Shards Turned into Time God = 1 Blade of Time

 

Bodyguards same concept except for still shard be mithril shard and turn into andrew for a mithril sword how every maybe 7 of these shards need to be used due to spawn

 

malok Emerald Shard and probably 5 for an Emerald Dagger

 

i think most bosses should have these options for nulls and other more useless nulls such as patron shield iron gauntlets and such removed from the bosses

the bosses should still drop the main item at a fixed rate not just shards all the time and still think the drop rates need raised a bit

 

we have all seen many people quit because of drop rates and lack of item drops on the game due to lvling items and what not and i propose this as a fix for it as

some type of relief towards the reward at the end of the tunnel

 

after awhile of doing bosses you have got to be tired of getting nothing or something next to nothing 20 times with no reward

[Terron]

main could use this. (tbh i think they should lower the drop rates by 50% and make the daily bosses spawn every couple hours.  key bosses should have faster spawns and slightly higher drops) either way it sucks trying to acquire mass amounts of any item.

 

would be irrelevant for 1 alt. we already have stacks and stacks of these items collecting dust.  what 1a needs is a use for boss drops. leveling system/coin system/hell even turning em in for exp reward. anything is better than nothing. 

[Slam]

main could use this. (tbh i think they should lower the drop rates by 50% and make the daily bosses spawn every couple hours.  key bosses should have faster spawns and slightly higher drops) either way it sucks trying to acquire mass amounts of any item.

 

would be irrelevant for 1 alt. we already have stacks and stacks of these items collecting dust.  what 1a needs is a use for boss drops. leveling system/coin system/hell even turning em in for exp reward. anything is better than nothing. 

the problem with drop rates on main is doing a boss 20 times with no drop even if you make them spawn more often youd still go days without anything so to cut in half itd be the same scenario as what is wrong with it now honestly

 

i do agree 1a needs to be revamped bad in alot of cases it should be almost its own game due to being 1 alt

[Terron]

in the current main needs higher drop rates.  Its a simple numbers thing, the game isnt appealing starting fresh at all.  

 

1a on the otherhand, has been overthought by implementing staff.  trying to be "fair" to everyone is just hindering the games progress and has since it started.

 

what i mean by this, is main had plenty of additions that made massive accounts even better(especially platinum coins and sovereigns), while on 1a they just avoid it. accounts have dozens of bots/eds and there is literally nothing to do with them to better your game experience.  items with no use is bad design.

 

whats left for me is a choice of either playing multi and needing 1400 malok/banshee kills in which most of the time the boss isnt in or play 1a where there is nothing to do but put on exp which ends at crits that are capped and next to nil on crate items(i need approx. 300 drops to level most of my characters because they are high level. if i play 1 hr a day everyday i get about 5 drops a week).  atm it seems as most people have chosen option 3: dont play!

 

1a really needs a boss drop leveling system.

[Slam]

that would be intresting for 1a to actually get to use their items for something like main does i agree with you fully

 

also agree 1400 boss kills just to lvl up is tedious and shouldnt be that hard to accomplish

[Gaddy]

For 1-Alt: I have no idea.

 

For Main:

All classes that have a major boss drop to level have multiple options. Each boss is a 10% or higher drop.

So, at most (and refusing to use alternate items), you'd have to kill a boss 200 times to level a full-single-class-party.

 

Yes, that is a huge, grind-based task and it gets old and frustrating. However, people have been advised against making 15 zerkers or 20 thieves at once. It is KNOWN that you'll hit a bottleneck. So it's kind of silly to demand the entire game be changed due to a bottleneck created by 2-4 players suddenly doing what everyone knew was unsustainable.

 

 

I tend to agree with improving boss spawns and/or drop rates. However, I get frustrated seeing such exaggerated complaints.

I previously suggested 10 of the Time Knight alternate drops to craft a Blade of Time to eliminate some of the randomnesses of playing the game. That would effectively double his drop rate (along with a few other bosses).

 

I think doing much beyond double the rate of items into the game would be leaning towards just throwing out any sense of economy.

Maybe that is fine already, but I'd rather see it tested at something like 10 to 20 alt drops to craft main drops before seeing drop rates and boss spawns increased by more than double.

[Terron]

i disagree, the bottleneck wasnt forced by 2-4 players.

 

it was technically forced by 20+ staff/game designers that left thief/zerk as the most EZ class to effectively use, train, and boss with for countless years. not to mention the only classes that benefit most from cobalt.

 

gamestats are right infront of you..99.999% of players want the best. ling this, dwarf that.  not very many people willing to put a fighter in party vs having a zerk which does more consistent damage by level 21 than a fighter does ever.  most classes were left crappy which isnt a players fault.

 

designers had over 15 years to balance classes for bossing specifically. i cant put the blame on players that after that many years paladins/fighters etc still hit 8s 12s and 16s on bosses with 45 strength. if you couldnt manage to balance it why isnt there 10-20 class only bosses per class so it doesn't matter

 

the real problem i have is that malok for example was killed 1.25x per day for 8 years which is 3650 kills factor in a 10 ish percent drop leaves about 365 daggers dropped. those items got bottlenecked into the same 10 accounts(gifts,quitting and 1alt) before they were even leveling items. veteran 1 has 85 thieves, 65 of his thieves were leveled for free with pre-obtained daggers or ones he bought. and now noob 2374 has to pay his dues and grind out 900 bosses.  its moronic.

 

the bottleneck can be looked at as the downside of wanting the best, but that is a veteran point of view. a new player or fresh starter has the opposite view 100% of the time.

 

if you started playing today and wanted 20 thief because you play only thieves on every other game, why should it be harder than 20 paladins that can purchase their leveling items?

[Slam]

yes your right there is more than 1 boss drop but seriously all the bosses you can suggest say for a zerker 1 you got tk 2 you got bc 3 your got cred

 

its not to likely to take a lvl 30 party through ttk that well so scratch cred tk ive seen him drop once in 3 years i know others have more luck but for the past month still nothing but shard and boots

then there is bolted chest seems to drop more likely than tk but still slow your more likely going to get a shard 20 times

 

theres your options not to mention and blade of time is your class weapon so why the hell would you want to use it to level

 

theives have alot of options including a boss that might drop 1 mithril sword in 1000 kills malok that might drop every 40 or so same with creds as the zerks and high priest then you got wait thats it

 

druids you have 2 bosses gc which can wreck and lvl 30 party but is doable and oh wait there it is creds again

 

fighters are fairly easy

 

a lvl 30 party taking on bd thats a laugh considering hed round most the party

 

and as another note the game should not dictate in itself what classes you can comprise your party of otherwise there would be a max of class you can log onto

 

point in case drops should be more often or alternate items for everything that can drop oh wait if the drop rates still suck your still down the hole

[Gaddy]

Your points are valid, as I said. However, the current requests are to x2 to x120 (literally) the drop rates.
I'm suggesting a measured increase to main boss drops, rather than flooding them into the game.

 

 

But summarizing, the things being said:

1. The bosses never drop! Make their nulls useful.  

Yep, I agree this is an issue. It can literally mean a year of grinding out kills on a specific 2-3 bosses to level a set of 15+ of the same class. Players can mitigate the issue by leveling more than a single class, but they should not be completely screwed and stuck. That's not fun, fair, or helpful to the game.

 

2. Make the gifts installed to replace null drops give the exact main drop after 5 or so.    

That would triple the drop rate. I think that is excessive.

 

3. Make the bosses spawn constantly (2-hours) and drop 50%.    

Potential 12 drop per day average. That takes something that can drop around 1 time every 10-days on average and makes it average up to 120-times in 10-days. I don't think this approach is healthy for a long-term game. I would love bosses to be spawned constantly, as boss killing is why I play. However, what is the point of hitting the bosses if they're in all the time and drop stuff you do not need? Scarcity is the only reason bosses are killed. It ruins the game long-term to make them a constant flood.

 

4. Now, bosses are too hard. They kill level 30s that need the drops to reach level 31.   

Yep...sometimes my alts die, too. If they never had a risk, why play? But the game was shifted to 1.5m-exp death cap to unleash players. You can venture out and hit things and experiement with classes, party mix, and mechanics (like macro systems, party order) with very low losses relative to the 1%+ lost exp of the past. Take advantage of the exp-loss-cap.

 

5. It's all the staff's fault! Classes are not balanced. Leveling is done poorly. Bosses and drops are done poorly. Staff are morons and veteran players are jerks.   

I don't really get the point of that commentary. It seems to be Terron's regular cop-out to helpful suggestions, and it makes it to where I struggle to take his input seriously.

Staff are volunteers trying to make the game better. Main only has Stig now, and he does a great job, but his job is not to completely remodel the game.

Old players don't want to see everything turned into an easy, quick-fix. I think the beauty of Nightmist is that a simple, text-based game can have 10-years dropped into it without everything being accessed and finished. I also think that is a testament to how well admins and staff planned and developed the game.

[Terron]

lol i wasnt complaining about staff at all.  i purely said after 17 years "bossing" in specifics, isnt balanced.  

 

the problem lied in the fact a 26 thief can hit consistent 250s with a cheap vamp item and expert zerks can hit well over 300 easily(with spells).  meanwhile i can take my 45 strength level 39 paladin to hedge lord and do devastating rounds of 22 8 16 miss 54 10.

 

im pretty sure all of you(developers) just accepted it and never tried to change it.  I feel as if viable boss damage was left so blown out of proportion there should have been 10-20 bosses per class  to make it less of a problem. (class specific bosses/class restricted ones/or dual class partnership bosses) theres barely a sprinkling of this idea available.

 

be that as it may, the characters have had pretty decent additions to keep them pretty diverse, however its obvious that most players didnt give a nuts.  they would still and always will level berserkers and thieves. rangers would take over if vamp items were realistic.  multi alt isnt a very well designed idea for a personable system of alts.  most players only cared about various "account" statistics or their select few "mains".  mostly mains that were bought because of statistics/high hps making them that much less personable to begin with because they weren't trained by the players that use them.

 

now, dont take that all the wrong way.  i absolutely love the character progression and items that are available on multi alt. I do wish tthey were available on 1a where the characters are much more personable in my experience.  but only the minority of players will ever care because zerks are better.  

 

min/maxers have ruined most of the gaming world, nightmist is no exception.  most games however dont have classes left to be abused for so long.

 

 over the years ive had nearly 100 of my friends play this game.  i can count on 1 hand the number of them that cared about diverse parties and using every class in them for bosses. especially the ones that tried multi alt.  theyd just ask to use my mage or borrow an extra cleric or 2 to help their thieves.  about 15 of them didnt care about party at all they just picked their 1 class and played that in combo with a healer(before 1a was released). these are also the ones that disliked pking.  30 outright couldn't stand text based.  20 or so cared only for duels so theyd use whatever to have good duelers. they all used thieves to make gold/items. the last 45 wanted the best party and used zerks/thieves.  most of these players quit because the game wasnt about bossing for them it was a constant gold grind to afford balts/dotws.  

 

 

edit: as per number 5;  i do think stig has done great albeit flawless on multi alt.  as far as the "testament" that's an opinion gaddy. it really depends on what you want to achieve. if your goal is 16 zerks and 4 clerics it doesnt take 10 years at all. if u want to outfit all 9 classes perfectly then sure itll take 400 years currently. i only have 1 cop-out and thats jlh obviously never picked a staffer to fix anything.

Edited by Terron, 22 August 2017 - 04:37 PM.

[Slam]

Lol old players had better drop rates and that's proven the drop rates have been toyed with and are way lower than they used to be I'm not going to say it was intentional cause really don't think it was but it is what has happened I have now 24 kills in on to so that 1 in 10 days is way flawed following old standards I'd have already gotten 3 to 5 6 if lucky maybe more
Oh yea and that's just this month

Edited by Slam, 22 August 2017 - 10:03 PM.

[Gaddy]

Yep, not much could be done to help with the unbalanced classes. Dragon's Breath is probably the only attempt to make a class viable after years of low value. When you look at what modifiers had to be put on to make a fighter reasonable - it's pretty clear that the basic class design is flawed.

However, staff would have caused a riot creating an item like Dragon's Breath years ago. Cobalt Bow comes the closest, and people still flame about it being overpowered or too difficult to craft. Stig was given hell for creating Armlet of Enlightenment because stat modifiers were extremely controlled a decade ago, and wisdom was the least worry aside from charisma.

 

 

Areas try to require other classes, such as needing a thief weapon and fighter/paladin shield to complete Tirantek, but that could only push players so much---they can still just carry gear, etc. (similar seen with areas that require Vortex Gate, heal-to-kill, invisibility, nourishment, forage, etc.).. No---it's not rampant and doesn't actually force diverse parties. It does exist though, and it makes a diverse party have a special capability.

I don't think staff ever wanted to prevent players from playing how they wanted. Staff do not become obligated to make aspects of the game easier because it suits certain players desires or playstyles though.

 

 

I'd say that your friends are pretty representative of the Nightmist playerbase experience. However, I don't really see what could or should be done to help with those issues. That is a pretty broad base of reasons to leave, and I think all games struggle with player retention for one reason or another.
Nightmist is far more limited than World of Warcraft, Diablo, or League of Legends (along with many other games that pulled players over the years), and they lose players even with full companies to run, balance, and expand them.

 

 

 

Yes, it might be easier to get 4 clerics and 16 zerks equip and setup, but I only see a few players who actually accomplished it. Perhaps that means we lost people who got bored with the path, but if that was what they wanted to do---they should not be stopped, in my opinion.

Sovereign Sword, Soul Ripper, and Twin Axes of Li Kwei have existed for a long time to try to provide a more diverse, less gold requiring, path for zerkers. It may or may not be effective.

 

For even that very specific example, what are ALL the things needed to engage and retain a player who wants to push through with 16 zerks and 4 clerics?

[Gaddy]

Lol old players had better drop rates and that's proven the drop rates have been toyed with and are way lower than they used to be I'm not going to say it was intentional cause really don't think it was but it is what has happened I have now 24 kills in on to so that 1 in 10 days is way flawed following old standards I'd have already gotten 3 to 5 6 if lucky maybe more
Oh yea and that's just this month

 

I am having trouble reading this. What boss did you kill 24 times this month?

 

I had a similar concern about Elder Treant because I wasn't getting drops, and Stig confirmed the drop rate had not been reduced. A few years ago, I had similar with Giant Chameleon while trying to get druid leveling item, but that was when Chameleon Horn was only a leveling item, not a weapon....so that may be too far back for reasonable reference.

 

Something that helped me to avoid getting too down about no drops was posting on the General Discussion - "Boss Kill Thread." That at least enables a little boasting and being able to track kills a little more consistently. However, it has fallen away quite a bit now.

[Slam]

ah its not just the zerks you pointed out dragons' breath how long and how hard is it to get mithril sword seems to drop once a year maybe twice and its a material sov sword with it to farm the amts to craft that fix for fighters youll spend a long long time just get get the things to make the fighter viable this isnt just about zerks and thieves its about all classes that might be aiming for something

that seems like theres no escape to obtain

[Slam]

i have dropped tk all month that would be the boss i was talking about

and was killing him the month before and several times before then

I have personally seen one bot drop in 3 years

 

but a boss not droping that many times of consecutive kills is stupid to say the least and very discouraging

 

you go to a boss to have fun explore and get loot not get left with next to nothing for your attempt

going to a boss to get nothing = not very entertaining when its time and time again

 

also im not refering to drops for just me leveling items are seeming to come along for me off and on i might get a little behind on them

 

but also stating the fact if a player really plays not just logs on and hits bosses and logs off that you run into the bind with leveling items and all very easily and quickly

it doesnt take long to level from 1 to 31 we have people that are on the game constantly im waiting for them to hit this wall of nuts and geuss what theyll be gone

just like the people before them tried and left

thats why at most normally there are just 2 active players

 

not saying its the only problem either though

 

there is a lack of staff there is a lack of moderation g is by himself and i do have to give him credit for hanging in there but there

 

but at the same time i know he will probably never get help in resolving any issues within the game

Edited by Slam, 22 August 2017 - 10:30 PM.

[Stig]

It's an interesting problem with some interesting insight.

My skills as staff are somewhat limited, since I can't actually change any of the fundamentals to the game mechanics.  I have tried to change a number of the null drops into consolation prizes at least, like the shard drop from the Time Knight.  There are a number of Nightmist mechanics that are outdated, such the roller, but all we can do is live with them.

What doesn't help is that statistics is a cruel mistress... if something has a 10% drop rate, there's about a 12% chance that you won't get anything after 20 attempts, which is not outside the realm of possibility at all.  Having a feature that "remembers" past drops would be nice, increasing the chance with each null drop, but is risky in itself because if players know a boss has recently dropped, they may decide not to fight him.

I'm always open to input though and will try to find time to consolidate all the thoughts and ideas.  I'm in a difficult place in real life currently so there's only so much I can do at present.

[Terron]

gaddy there isnt much that can be done for those players.  outside of pvp or some sort of event or ranking you pretty much have to hope they care enough to enjoy mediocre classes.  the ones that care still log on, the ones that dont aren't here no more.  

 

the only things that could have been implemented to keep diverse parties interesting for everyone would be class events, ranked duels, diverse bosses requiring you to use all classes and the #1 thing would have been a limited alt number per acct(so using 20 thieves might leave you without room for a mage/paladin to hit other area bosses) and ofcourse registered user per account.  its obvious its too late for those type of changes.

 

stig i understand nm is old, has a pretty crappy core design, and you are left with making items, areas(with admin help), monsters, and editing of current items, monsters.  with those powers alone dozens of crappy areas could have been revamped and made interesting. so many areas.and monsters are worthless/inadequate in the scope of the game.  the biggest change you could make is removing "armor" from bosses so fighters and paladins etc can hit to.   

[Gaddy]

.... with those powers alone dozens of crappy areas could have been revamped and made interesting. so many areas.and monsters are worthless/inadequate in the scope of the game. 

 

I honestly only have Orc Caves and Dendenya with Hedge Maze come to mind for poorly setup areas. However, I don't really know how one might improve them - they were heavily used for years and years, particularly when the server was highly active.

 

I'd like you to put some thought behind your criticism. It's easy to claim an area could be made good or useful, but to actually do so is complex and challenging - before even actually spending the time implementing changes.

How should any single area of Nightmist be redesigned?

 

 

Note - This is not intended to be mocking or argumentative. I'd like to understand how you see the concept of area design, and I imagine a well-developed concept could actually be tested.

[Terron]

mt. fenowasty would have been my first choice tbh. a bunch of low pod mobs that are almost the same monster repeated 4x over.  ancient ridge  mmm griffins and granite beasts sparatic orc and asp for 450 game squares.  areas like these lost all purpose when 30+ opened and the pk avoidance became less of a factor.

 

the layout of the squares is more or less irrelevant to what is actually on them. mt fenowasty for example is a 250 square bridge to RG(and new multi server area) with 2 cinder beast on it for roses for the most part.  maybe add an ant hill thats been exposed to mana ore radiation explaining their size.

 

sarka could use a repattern of monster placement and more furniture options aswell as a pod revamp. perhaps a leaderesque form of couch or something. also possibly a necromancer or something taking advantage of the siege and resurrecting fallen warriors as undead to add another heal area to the game and possible boss(es).

 

in summary:

diverse mobs make the areas more appealing especially on 1a. 1a has alot of mod weapons which helps aswell.

as far as multi, its a mute point really. it would have to be top end gold or exp or a decent heal area for players to use it if a "boss" or crafting item wasn't added.. 

 

 

one area i have beat to death is barracks.  ive always wished it was a better progression with alot more going on.

 

ive always thought it should have some patrols scouting the area. 1 patrol of 3 soldiers meandering out to the 4 way in large forest before it disperses.  demonic squires added as a weaker form of soldier.  demonic eye's(very low hp/high dex)  patrolling around the camp that when they hit you they disappear and sound the alarm spawning 2-3 soldiers (2 soldiers 1 sergeant on 2nd floor).   a patrolling demonic knight boss and his demonic warhorse that drop a key to portal room.  portal is beyond demonic general which offers a VG to a demonic realm area with progression to kill an actual named demon boss.

 

just a few thoughts.

[Rodeo]

Alot of reason's why Nighmist has failed.

1. All game staff/vet players have squashed all idea brought forward in the past on any type of change and have the mentality that you have to "pay your dues" like everyone else.

2. Multi vs 1a. Split playerbase on a already very small game. If the leveling system was swapped around this would fix alot of the issues that most everyone has.
Multi has definitely seen more love than 1a.
If a small group of players on 1a achieve something great it then gets fixed aka nerfed.

But anything else said is moot cause the only people who have any control whatsoever don't really want to make a dynamic change.

Playing a game for years on end and grinding for countless hours for nothing sucks.

[Terron]

Multi vs 1a has torn this game apart since 2002(long before the 1a server even existed), jlh never squashed the bug so to speak. removing the party limit of 30 and making a computer max of 20 alts didnt do nuts lol. 30v30 clan duels in grassy meadow got erased, sgh 1v1s became the new "in".  this left most of nightmists active years seeing implements based on 20 alts.  problem is 80% of new players(and most players in general) always wanted 1-3 alt max, not to mention, they play online to interact with other people.  not talk to the fly buzzing around the room as they roam the earth on 19 deaf/dumb/mute thieves and a catman.   

 

wayne, the number 1 reason nm failed is forums. its been left here as a lie. "we read whats here".  sure they do.

 

jlh is inactive right? would he pop on if staff made a 33 bd sword? probably not  how about a 52 ac chest plate? still nope.  would he care if the leveling systems were made better? he wouldnt bother.  yep there you have it he dont give a gd what staff do.  and hey at worst he does care and has to log on.  its better to ask forgiveness than permission.  all you have to lose is a staff position on a dying game with next to no players left.  its your time, DO or DIE!

Edited by Terron, 28 August 2017 - 01:12 PM.

[Rodeo]

I agree piddy nothing left to lose. Why not do it right.

[Element]

I agree piddy nothing left to lose. Why not do it right.

If they start listening to the actual people who still play the game how will they still have power over the players?

Games dead stuff. Killed by staff that thinks they are the only ones with any knowledge of how game design works and by not listening to the community. This game has gone so long without input / changes it would take months or even years to get it on par to actually appeal to new players.

Everything starting with character creation (rolling for a week to get a useful character? Horrible design) to leveling (the fact you level on the same npcs exact npcs for years to reach max level? Lol come) to end game ( where you need a team larger than the avg player base in a month to complete). Only the last 2 are on the builders but come on.

This game will never have a "new" player again it just is what it is. The chance to save the game was missed long ago enjoy the shell that it is and thank the staff that were too stubborn to change for killing it.

[Gaddy]

This went in a really negative direction.

Railing on against lack of staff effort or open-ears for decades is not going to help. Stig is on his own, and venting frustrations comes off as personal attacks without any actionable requests or input. 

 

 

Terron, those suggestions around Sarka, Demonic Barracks, and Mt. Fenowasty make some sense, at least for 1-Alt. 

 

What kind of descriptions would you apply?

Are there comparable monsters for damage/attacks, or would you suggest something new?

Anything special that would make these standout or draw players to areas that are currently just pathways or key focused?

[Terron]

i think a decent mixture of monsters is what gaming in general is missing.  most game's outside of a select few first person rpgs (which increase in difficulty as you gain levels)have set difficulty of monsters for entire areas. for the most part nm is also included.  however if there was a mixture of smaller hp lower damage monsters aswell as tougher monsters the areas can be diverse and areas wont fall into the "waste of time for this class" category.  enabling areas to want to be used by most level characters and capable players would be a giant help.

 

it is bad to keep a low level user training on the same 2-3 areas until level 20 or so.  and even worse so to keep high levels hitting crap pod/monsters for 12000 kills. im not against a little grinding but this game is a grind at every corner and 1a is extremely bad with this.  most of the concepts on both servers are a better fit if they were actually implemented on the opposite server.

 

everyone acknowledges that relative hit points of characters are far to small.  ive always thought characters should start out with +100 life and mana at level 1, but since jlh isnt around, lowering monster damage overall would help alleviate some of this(especially on heinous unavoidable magical attacks).  these magic attacks are often , so powerful that melee characters are forced to avoid them completely. roughly 70-90% of your content should be non restrictive, unless the game is intricately designed to be completely restrictive. ive seen this done 1 time ever. its like a completely different game for each class.

 

randy and wayne you guys seem to blame staff for everything on here. most of which were only "hired" to do 1 thing, add an area or run events for players. choosing staff from a player pool isnt wise but it worked for a decently long time nevertheless.  i know you think ember is the bee's knee's or whatever, but its playing out so similar to NM1a its crazy. I played the game, but i can definitely see the similarities. ember has newer features of most mmo's, it has most importantly builders/coders, and players. however its core is still designed around leveling and waiting for the appropriate number of players to hit a boss for loot. a boss that spawns on a timer, a folly nm has changed for the most part because of players like me. once ember is out for a bit more and all the common/uncommon gear is obtained by everyone.  what's next? then when the rareish equipment is obtained by every dedicated player? yeah it leaves you two options: wait for a god party to obtain an exquisite artifact or start a level 1 and repeat what you've already done multiple times.

 

ill post a list format so it isnt so extensive lol

[Terron]

Monster changes

• randomize area monsters by adding a selective aspect with small medium and large monsters in unused areas introducing a playability factor for more levels
• change some spawn timers so that mobs cant overwhelm characters

1.  example is 3rd floor museum on 1a, after the arrowhead buff awhile ago, its seemingly impossible to kill them without either a ranger(hypno) or a GM zerk with cobalt. paladin needs to heal 2-3x per regen and druid cant heal itself with balt fast enough and if you hit and run they spawn so fast you have 2 on you before you can finish a kill. before you ask my paladin is 39 and druid is 38. (this entails black knights aswell in forest of silence and dust devils but thats a seperate issue)

• reduction of monster damage to allow classes to use a majority of the content
• more pod   

1. especially on crap like owls 10 pod and badgers 20 pod those monsters are avoided entirely because of garbage design.
2. bosses shouldn't see under 125 pod ever.

• reduction of magical attacks(non-boss)

1. this is only needed because magical absorb doesnt affect monsters, if that could be changed i dont think this would matter as much

• reducing drag chance on 1a, raising it on multi-alt
• adding a patrol(moving around) effect to alot of monsters

1.  this would help make areas more lifelike and harder to bot

• less "armor" on bosses making for some classes to outright suck on bosses in general

 

Player advancement changes

• small quests added in which NPC gives an http format textline that links them to a map on wiki. in which they can explore and complete the quests and learn at the same time.

1. this should be added to most early stage area's and obviously not jungles tundra's and deserts because they dont typically remain the same are near impossible to map on foot

• High exp reward quests available
• Progression and advancement should not stop regardless of the classes you pick or whichever server you play
• revamped leveling systems(in server changes below)

 

Server Changes

 

• Multi-alt

1. introduction of crate system like 1a's so players can steadily advance without bosses(remember advancing without bosses still doesnt get them equipment so its truely a win win for the server longevity)
2. area/boss additions based on tandem class participation
3. boss areas with mandatory party setups in order to progress (by making players have to set different alts to lead at different times and or need forage/vortex gate and/or items to progress makes the requirement of diverse parties.  making area l2l and the start of area keyed entry forces it)
4.  more l2l areas to limit camping
5. raise bosses spawns to atleast every 3-4 hours so more players can enjoy them (find a happy medium with drop rates)

• One Alt

1. ​tandem class areas/bosses
2. addition of gold sovereign coin system with other dailys and boss drops added  (change the 2 str gloves to 1 str 1 wis for 1a)(add amulets to system for each type of stat)
3. leveling system added based on high end boss drops like blade of time/emerald dagger
4. revamp crate system so all classes can actually use it easily(some crates need changed around or swapped out based on difficulty or impossibility to succeed)
5. this last one is probably a no-go but 1a characters need absorb to work on monsters, i know this isnt staffable but it would really help make alot of the content 1a has received in the past few years viable and wanted.

[Element]

I understand I come off as negative but it's more about passion for the game. It's pretty sad to see it die a death like this when it could have been avoided somewhat by staff willing to listen to the players.

I understand stig is on his own but that's even more reason to listen to your community. In not going to feel bad for someone who has zero respect for his player base because he thinks only his opinions matter. There were plenty around here with great ideas that only wanted to help the game. The unwillingness to listen to the community was its downfall plain and simple.

That said it would be nice if he started listening now but will it really make a difference? the amount of work to turn this thing around after decades of neglect is very high.

As for ember yes I appreciate it. An active coder with staff who put the community ideas first as well as 40-60 active on at once. It's what nightmist could still be if it wasn't for stigs closed mindedness. Sorry I can't and won't feel bad for him ruining the game. Sometimes you gotta own your mistakes...

[Terron]

i dont think you realize stig made more of this game than jlh. aside from the codeline stig alone for the most part has added everything.  as far as i see it only 1 implement directly chased a few players off, which was iron bombs but he was being fed a bunch of sh!t from super-advisor man. you can say that some of his standpoints negatively effect a player-base as a whole. such as not caring for pvp on a game that only drew a good 60% of its players from the pk/event market.  however, you can outright say this game was gone years ago without him.

 

as far as listening to players, most of them wont throw a good idea at you without some "reason" behind it.  your admin on ember have to sift through the bs. an example is 30 of your registered forum users want halflings to trample half orcs in melee combat... still after a whole year. its obvious you didnt listen to them.  Yet, this idea isnt a help, its  a min/maxers attempt to make a more well rounded race be better than a specialist. afterall overpowering, smashing, crushing and raping are significantly less brutal than farming, gardening, carrot smuggling and hiding behind a stump pissing your pants.

 

p.s. hobbits should die in 1 hit, its like betting on a toddler to beat an nfl linebacker, wouldn't happen. even in fantasy. lol  

[ice_cold]

i dont think you realize stig made more of this game than jlh. aside from the codeline stig alone for the most part has added everything.  as far as i see it only 1 implement directly chased a few players off, which was iron bombs but he was being fed a bunch of sh!t from super-advisor man. you can say that some of his standpoints negatively effect a player-base as a whole. such as not caring for pvp on a game that only drew a good 60% of its players from the pk/event market.  however, you can outright say this game was gone years ago without him.

I was strongly against iron boms before and after they were created, until the only person in my clan was killed by iron bombs multiple times, then I just returned the favor, to the tune of only 6 kills with them.

You yourself piddy used bombs to kill lower level players outside of the pk limit prior to iron bombs coming out and never voiced any concern about them until your side was on the receiving end of them.

Outside of iron bombs, super advisor man helped with

*boss and monster tweaks... so that they give appropriate exp (almost all higher), or became killable on 1alt for the first time or more regularly (antlers & herric), and recommended transitioning to 1a like bone garden and pyramid.

*make certain areas more playable, even if only slightly i.e. royal forest with drops

*heavily pushed for and helped with both leveling systems (even if I didn't agree with all parts i.e. black knights)

*have multiple areas in the game that were developed to require multiple classes to beat them (though they may have been toned down outside of my wishes on that requirement)

*pushed for training weapons to help certain underhitting classes (i.e. fighters)

*had boss drops that were completely useless sitting in accounts gain new uses

*had monsters follow rate reduced on certain mobs on 1a

*had bosses and areas introduced tailored to specific classes.

*had new bosses of varying times added (mage boss was supposed to be daily)

*had a couple quests added, some which may not of been found die to players not looking around and vague update messages.

*repeatedly asking for and being shot down on alternate leveling systems based on boss drops, high end gold, different crates/monsters, soloable bosses; as well as a slew of other things like 1a version of sovereign coins.

-man, that pretty much hits everything on your list doesn't it?

In leaving I will state ember has 2 things going for it, an active admin with staff and a player base. But it's doomed to fail if it doesn't change. There's no economy and nothing to buy ever, 'high end' drops are too easy to get, bosses are in general too easy to kill by a single person or on a direct timer so the last person who killed it knows exactly when to go back, the level cap is far too easy to get to, leveling is completely accomplished in a straight line through quests leading to no exploration, level capped characters never lose exp or are punished for pking when characters under level cap do... among other problems.

[Terron]

you can pull up old logs if u want but i can assure you i only bought 1 iron bomb.  it still sits in my ch.  

 

i have nuked quite a few lowbies with firebombs tho.  especially vs Ring of Steels gold holders. and as a joke to get my 7 str ling paladin some pks.  

either way it still took about 40 minutes on avg for a 40 damage item. 

 

iron bombs were 1200g at first. you could rob dessy and buy 80 of em in an hour. (approx. 60 damage vs 8000) everyone should be against free death

 

i dont think you understand what i mean.  sure you tickled some mobs and sort of hit what i said.  problem is it isnt outside the normal scope so it failed. didnt go extreme enough. still got those emerald daggers and blade of times piling up, but atleast i can sell a halberd... monsters still kill my level 40 in 5 hits. majority of the game has nutsty design. 1200 hp monsters that drop 50 gold and offer lower than avg pod? for example.

 

when it came to fixing this game you prematurely ej........