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TreeLord

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About TreeLord

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  1. Depletable resources and multiplaying

    I think that the question of multiplaying can't be taken out of the context of the question of depletable resources. If resources are depleted from a common pool and multiplaying is legal, you are competing for access to resources to be able to level your skill of choice. High level tailors, for example, would be using up lots of coal and red roses to level making dyes, making those resources scarce for beginning players trying to make a couple of fire essence or iron bars.
  2. Depletable resources and multiplaying

    Several concerns: 1) One of the best things about EL, in my opinion, is that it is so versatile -- a player can choose to do one thing or many, a player can choose to be in a guild or play solo. Also, a player who only has time to play a couple hours a week can still have an enjoyable experience, as can those who are able and choose to play for several hours a day. Making resources depletable means that those players who play for many hours a day have a clear advantage in that they will have access to more resources than a player who only plays an hour on Saturday. 2) New players who don't choose to train a/d will likely find resources unavailable to them on safe maps, giving a clear advantage to people who train a/d. This makes a specific skill set more valuable than the others and in a way removes a lot of choice from the development of a character. One of the advantages of EL is that, while there isn't a cast system, people can choose to develop what they like and to what extent they like -- EL shouldn't play favorites with skills. 3) While I have no problems with families, or guilds, or any other social parts of the game, allowing legal multi-player and giving multiple characters to a single player gives a distinct advantage to people who play in a group or withing some sort of social context. I am part of a guild, and enjoy that, but much of my time is spent doing my own thing. Some guilds are very active and close-knit, others are more loosely associated. I think that that variety is a good thing. Allowing multiple characters would force people into guilds, just so that resources could be pooled and large tasks could be undertaken on a competitive level with people who have many multiple characters, as only through large numbers would any significant amount of resources be available to the player. 4) As to trading of resources, unless people are simply going to harvest whatever they can find, gold will be the exchange medium of choice. For lower-level players, practically the only source of gold is harvesting and selling. If resources are already hard to come-by, they will not have the gold to purchase what they need. I am not opposed to making resources harder to come-by, however, I don't think it would be fair, particularly to infrequent solo players and new players, to have to spend a great deal of time just to find a resource that is not depleted. If perhaps a player can only pick so many of a particular item from a given bush or map, but could go on to another map or bush somewhere else, I think that would be ok, as players could still know where to go and not have to spend time trying out bushes on different maps just to find one that is not depleted this hour but might be depleted when they log back in next week. While it is good to explore, one should not have to constantly be looking for something new once they become acquainted with a given set of maps. So perhaps per-player or per-IP harvesting limits, with each map being separate in terms of limits imposed (one could harvest say 500 iron in DP before it was depleted, but could then go to EVTR and harvest another 500). This would allow new players or players who choose not to train a/d to have always have access to "safe" resources, but would allow people who are willing to take more risks the ability to harvest more/faster. Casual players could still easily find a place to harvest, as any bush/mine would have some resources from them, and they wouldn't have to search every map, spending most of the hour they may have to play just trying to find a place to harvest and not having time left to make essences or whatever it is they are trying to do. As for multiple characters, perhaps a hard rule or 1 character per IP. If you have a legitimate reason for more than one character from an IP (family play, multiple people behind a larger gateway, such as a school, cafe, etc.), there should be a stream-lined process for white-listing given players at given IPs. Only after a player is white-listed on an IP should they even be able to log-in. (I'm not sure how player creation works, but a new character should be able to be generated, even if the IP is not white-listed, as an existing character would be needed for the white-list.) Perhaps audit such an account off and on to verify that the actions of the characters are somewhat independent (trading among a family is fine, but no one character should spend all of its time harvesting while another is always reaping the resources or simplistic goods). Bottom line: making resources delpetable from a common pool gives an unfair advantage to hard-core gamers, social groups, and people who run multiple characters at once. It would make the EL experience much less enjoyable for the casual player, and much harder for the new player to gain a foot-hold. Multiple characters is only something pursued by serious gamers as well, and even if they are made legal, it will only further the gap between the casual and the hard-core gamers. One's skills and resources should come not from how much one is willing to dedicate to the game in terms of multiple players and hiking all over, and joining a guild to monopolize given resources, but should come from the time and effort one is willing to spend building their character, harvesting resources, mixing, etc. All players should be on an equal footing. Thank you for reading through my thoughts. ~TreeLord ------------ EDIT: A few typos and rephrasing a few things to attempt to make it easier and clearer to read.
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