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Maxine

Some personal suggestions to help improve this game

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As many of you by now have noticed I dont play EL anymore. After 10 years of trying to make this a better place I have given up. When I logged on for my weekly WTF my friends pointed me to the discussion in ch 6 from this past weekend, which I have summarised below:

2016-08-14 18:29:24,286 [Erebos]: If you don't want to listen to people who speak out (which you definately do not care) why don't you listen to people that play differently, I'm sure maxine

2016-08-14 18:29:45,303 [Erebos]: has tons of imput, as well as the other players that do not come to channel 6 and rant.

2016-08-14 18:29:55,832 [radu]: oh?

2016-08-14 18:30:01,436 [radu]: input such as?

2016-08-14 18:30:09,542 [Erebos]: Not my job to find out.

2016-08-14 18:30:18,149 [radu]: I am going to ban you now

2016-08-14 18:30:24,354 [Erebos]: You put game updates in, where do you get the info?

2016-08-14 18:30:36,063 [Erebos]: who do you ask? the noob that just created?

2016-08-14 18:30:41,467 [radu]: you have reallty big balls to come here jsut to flame me

2016-08-14 18:30:52,376 [Erebos]: It's not flaming, its chatting.

2016-08-14 18:31:12,292 [Exodus20]: I think he's just giving you feed back of the game

2016-08-14 18:31:13,093 [radu]: OMFG!!~1! u muted Erebos!

2016-08-14 18:31:20,198 [radu]: if he trolls again, I am going to ban him

2016-08-14 18:31:53,523 [radu]: he has really huge balls to come here, tell me I don't listen to sugestions, then I ask him suh as what, and he tells me it's my job to know

2016-08-14 18:32:14,640 [Exodus20]: if you don't want to hear truth and ban the good advice when you do hear it how is your game going to grow.

2016-08-14 18:32:16,241 [radu]: well, asshole, if you don't know of any sugestions, how do you know I don't listen to them??

2016-08-14 18:32:50,607 [radu]: exodus, good advice such as?

2016-08-14 18:35:21,148 [DeepDragon]: he said maxine has tonnes of input, wonder if maxine would provide it

2016-08-14 18:35:45,967 [radu]: her advice is to go kill myself, more or less

2016-08-14 18:35:59,006 [radu]: probably the only thing that would make her happy

2016-08-14 18:36:26,874 [Exodus20]: dude you're the owner of a sick ass game.. chances are everybody's advice for you is to go kill yourself. You are better than that man. arent you?

2016-08-14 18:37:12,120 [Exodus20]: you are at a crossroads. you can make this game bigger and better by listening to your die hard fans of something you created.

2016-08-14 18:37:35,438 [Exodus20]: or you can be close minded and ban everybody for stating their opinion?

2016-08-14 18:39:24,328 [radu]: I listen to those who: 1. Know what they are saying. 2. Give the info in a polite way

2016-08-14 18:39:54,251 [radu]: should I listen to maxine now, who has always hated me?

2016-08-14 18:40:07,861 [radu]: who wants me to make EL like a NSA thing, and log every single thing?

2016-08-14 18:40:23,073 [radu]: she was bitching at me for (literally) not logging every player step

2016-08-14 18:40:55,176 [radu]: I did play it. And how do you know when I play?

2016-08-14 18:41:16,692 [radu]: if it were up to Maxine, you'd have no privacy, just to prevent a few small abuses

2016-08-14 18:41:47,434 [radu]: you really want me to listen to her?


For the record:

- I have asked to be removed from the moderator staff in the beginning of July since I could no longer share responsibility for the moderation of a game where where the griefers are encouraged and the ordinary players are slighted and ridiculed. I did not make this public then, but do so now.

- I have made many suggestions for improvements in the game, usually with evidence and arguments to back it up, since I am a (PhD) scientist by training and profession. Only one of these suggestions, to remove grapes from the global, ever made it into the game.

- The statements radu has made in the blurb above that I copied from ch 6 logs are insulting and untrue, but typical for his behavior towards me in the past 10 years. He has never shown respect or listened to input from me. Due to these actions I have lost respect for him as well, yet have continued for many years to try and contribute to his game (and his wallet) in spite of that.

- I have spent the majority of the past 10 years trying to make EL a good place for all players, including fighters, which already got all of his attention. I have received nothing but aggravation and insults in return.

- Since Erebos obviously could not tell radu what suggestions I would make, I will list a few below:


* Sell hydro rings for $1 in the EL store, this will not make hydro harvesting profitable compared to buying bars at NPC, but at least provide an alternative for all those stashed s2e-s.

* Make a potion of tailoring

* Have a real summoning daily (and other skills as well), that are quick (5-10 minutes) but do require the appropriate skills and nexus. To be done in the summoning arena right next to Maia or some other appropriate location.

* Change Joker to be less predictable, once I knew all 125-130 spawns finding him became a tedious job. If wanted, I could produce a list with about 100 new locations, since the last time they were changed/added to was 27-may-2013. Totally random would be even more fun.

* Start using the test server again for real testing of changes to the game, get the bugs out before they go life on the main server.

* Make a pk-instance like we discussed 5 or so years ago and actually tested then (and yes, I was having fun pk-ing then). This should preferably be a closed economy with chars and items only used in there, so it is a true test of skills and not p2w. The aim of the game is to have fun and test your skill, not to get rich. Wizzy's contest was a fun example of this.

* Provide some new, temporary, challenges to earn badges. Some of them might be associated with extra xp earned, but there could also be items or just a ranking on a webpage as reward. The NPC in WS Castle could finally be put to some use in this.

* make instances for levels 0-40 (just for fun and to learn) and 40-60. These are no-drop for players and only have gc and special items drop from the mobs. No more bag fests such as the 40-60 invance. On death there should be a penalty, but not a rosto required.

* Fix the problem with the number of channels available, so you can actually see the fourth channel, and preferably a fifth and sixth too (for a fee).

* Make spawn times and numbers more flexible, so that for instance the boar daily is not so boaring ;)

* Make the flowers for Xaquelina be different, again taking away some of the predictability of the game

* Allow items to influence walking speed, not just with horses. This could come at the same cost as speed-hax, just a different mechanics.

* Take the burden of moderators to see if players are afk in invances and make the xp earned depend on activity (sorry gatekeeper) rather than a/d level. The a 5 minute afk because the doorbell rang wont be reason for a player to leave (THIS was what I asked for, doesnt sound like NSA to me, but oh well).

* Bring back the def xp to invances and instances.

* Do not ban people for having a different playstyle or different opinions but listen and discuss with them based on arguments and facts. This game has the potential to attract a much bigger audience because of its unique nature, but has been surpassed by many new kids on the block, like for instance minecraft, which obviously is not such a big success because of the great detailed graphics.

* Allow more people to contribute to the content of the game, not only ideas but possibly some actual coding as well. The players of this game are an incredible resource that goes unused.


I have posted many more suggestions over the years, often from others than myself. I will gladly return to EL to help with implementing these or other ideas.


Right now I have stopped playing this game, the company of many friends not longer outweighs the aggravation I experience. I will continue to do my weekly WTF with friends and, if the game continues its inevitable decline, will donate the remainder of my EL goods to the raffle next year. I already donated the ones I got this year back into the prize pool.

This is of course, if I dont get banned for stating my opinion ;)


Before you reply to this post, I suggest you read http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html. If you response is in any of the categories up to DH3 please dont post and waste my and other peoples time.
Edited by Maxine

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FTR (I've been sick and a bit dizzy since yesterday so being able to respond is limited atm)

 

 

- Joker: I've actually discussed getting some new locs for Joker with Acelon. I even offered to take over adding new spots since he was the one supplying those, as he's been too busy with real life, taking myself out of future Joker hunts (something I wasn't really doing anyway). I don't think he's gonna be able to get around to it though, so I was planning to ask radu for the okay to do that myself and submit new spots. Been too busy with Learner the past week or so though, getting some awesome scripts for testing maps put together.

 

As for random, the maps in the current client are"cleaned up" well enough that how Joker is done in OL code (iirc Joker spawns on a random walkable tile on any random map, changing on new game day if not found) could work. Only anitora map has an exception, and that map could just be easily skipped. Though considering EL has a C2, Joker should probably stay in place maybe 3 game days instead of one when not found.

 

But no, Joker hunting is your thing, Maxine, you shouldn't provide the spots as it'll void you from future hunting. I can handle that if needed, as it was never my thing to do anyway.

 

 

- Test server does get used for testing new maps (long before the public testing did like last client release) so it does actually get used for that at least. But it's not right now, and probably won't be for a while based on my list of stuffs to do. The test server is otherwise incredibly outdated and could do with finally getting a complete copy of the Main server to get them on equal footing again. Now being a good time since other than "mod permissions" there's nothing on Test that needs to be different from Main.

 

But it would be a good idea for Test to get updated to being on par with Main first before it's used to test anything. It hasn't even had a server reset in over a year, and some Main stuff from years back still doesn't exist there.

 

 

- Xaquelina - I actually already have a list of potential spots to double her current options. It would just be a matter of writing texts for her to say for them. And knowing the maps I know they're locations that won't be different in 1.9.5 ;-) Wrote the list years ago but I just checked and I still have it. In these cases they are on the same level as the current ones, but I was diligent in including maps that aren't currently used in Xaq quests, and some harvs she doesn't currently ask for.

 

Also had a bonus idea: Based on Inorganic level of the player, Xaq has expanded her delivery to include "precious commodities" in addition to her perfumes and asks the player to retrieve things they are able to get with their Inorganic level. These would be high-bonus experience items in the way Bronze/Titanium stuff is for Daritha. Inorg 0 would have 2 higher-level options (both in PK since they're still the lowest level and anyone could get), and one bonus quest available for every item harvable only with Inorg nexus 1 up to 6. The bonus would go up with lowest on inorg 0 up to highest on inorg 6. Which gives an additional reason for having a higher inorg nexus than just dung harving, heh.

 

If radu gives the okay and tells me the exact info he needs, I can provide these. (The bonus ones may need time for recoding, but the normal ones should be easily added as they're no different than the current ones.)

 

 

- WS Castle NPC Orcelius - Acelon said he sent three "games" for that long ago, but they're just not implemented. (No, I have no idea what they are, and didn't ask. I need surprises too, hehe.) Was waiting to find out what those are first as I had an idea for it myself, but wanted to wait and see what the actual purpose of the NPC was first and Ace's games implemented before suggesting anything.

 

 

 

 

Too much on my own plate and too ill to respond to anything else. Just supplying input on stuff I have actual info on, or ability to assist with.

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Thanks for the extensive input Burn.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

With respect to Joker, since I am retired from the game, providing new Joker spots would not change anything for me. The only times I 'hunt' Joker these days is when he isn't found in a few days and likely is standing in one of a handful of out of the way spots only a few people know. I only find him to reset him , so others can hunt him again.

 

A few more (pk-) suggestions:

- Make WSC arena unlimited single combat no drop pk. After the opponent has been killed or uses a disengagement ring, the winner and ring-user cannot be attacked for some time. Only the dis ring user can re-attack the same opponent right away again.

- Apply the same limitation (not attackable for some reasonable amount of time) to all other single combat arenas

- reinstate the pk rooms in MM but make them mini pk no-drop instance rooms. You have all to join the same ch and then pay an individual fee to the NPC, for instance 10*(a+d), to get a combat room allocated to your team for a maximum of 30 minutes. When a player gets killed they respawn in the waiting area behind the rooms. At the end of the time limit, all players get teleported to the same area. Special days do not apply to these rooms, but players can buy private room-modifiers (for 30 minutes) with items or gc.

- remove pk-messages in 6 for bot kills and players under lvl 40 (or some other reasonable level).

 

Other suggestions:

- make Big Books of Engineering mixable by players

- Make Ivan visible after he has been killed.

Edited by Maxine

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With respect to Joker, since I am retired from the game, providing new Joker spots would not change anything for me. The only times I 'hunt' Joker these days is when he isn't found in a few days and likely is standing in one of a handful of out of the way spots only a few people know. I only find him to reset him , so others can hunt him again.

Still, people unretire all the time. As I'm going through every single map now anyway fixing hiccups, picking spots while doing that would be simple enough. Better someone do it who has no real interest in hunting him.

 

Though, getting the OL method implemented instead might be the better option anyway, would never get to this point again.

 

 

 

 

The MM battle hall PK thing might need some additional work... would have to remove the telepads in the PK rooms if they're to be invaded. Plus I believe the NPC in the back dining room has a necessary use at some point in some quest (this is me being vague, heh) and would need to remain accessible.

Edited by Burn

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Just a few remarks on my Site :) Maxine may not know this. but the Mercator Channel 6 Logfiles, are only available for a few people mainly moderators, and a few others that i have given access too. Just in case someone is wondering.

Furthermore i agree with about 90% of Maxines suggestions. And besides the MM battlehall rooms (where at least 1 room should be stay as way to the tavern behind) there is no suggestion that is really bad.

 

A few sugestion on my side.

* Change the reward system on Dorel. Dorels quest are a loose prospective. as it gives almost no xp for the resources put in. Especially if compared with Haidir and Daritha.

*Make some mix Dailys where people have to mix certain items in a school or other location that suites the skill in the way of workplace) that give good xp for few mixes. so people can get over the really annoying gaps that need to be filled in crafting and manu. till they get to the levels where they can make things. (And i say this as someone who makes a lot of his mixing gc with big books making)

* If people uses Haidir Pass. Please make it that the quest that you refused to take. is not Coming right again. Nothing annoys more then getting 3 times rabbits without any other suggestion in between. And that happens more then it should happen in my opinion.

*Introduce items for mixing like the Barricades and other items that have knowledge books but are not mixable.

* Make it possible for Players to connect one or more chars to an email account (same that is used in forum) and give people the possibility to change game passwords there.

* Make more statistic Values of a player viewable either per command or by visiting a npc

* Introduce new spells for suggestions there are a lot in the suggestion forum.

* Put some of Lennys KI into invasions and instance Monsters have them flee when they are attacked by stronger people, or attack in groups

* Change some of the NPC Prices in a way that they have at least a logical use of resources.

* Create an Game Online shop where people can select the goods that are buy able and put them into a cart. That way people can better see what exists in the shop what not. Best have an Shop NPC (or BOT) that can take coupons and give out a giftnumber, for the shop, and as a place to collect the goods one bought.

* take over as middle man in character (Player to Player) selling. take a few % of the buy/sell price to play middleman and make so the scamming less appealing. Nothing worse to a long player if they get scammed when they sell some goods for real money. and most would be happy to pay a say 5% fee if there would be an neutral instance to it.

* change the P2P coupons into something else.

Edited by vinoveritas

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I totally agree with maxine and vino, game will be more fun and interesting. More players are always good and EL is the best online game indeed.

i always agreed radu should take some % on character sale, people are spending thousands of $ and would easily pay for the percentage. There should also be an email verification tagged to char so when password is changed you get confirmation. So less scammers better game.

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*sigh*

I agree with Maxine 100%.

Just take a good damn look at radu's approach and behaviour towards his own players, people who feed him $.

How does he treat them? As dung.

 

You need to change your mindset and be less greedy.

Few people spent thousands of $ with you. And you did what?

Upgraded bow damage -.- seriously???...

If you want more money and more satisfied players- listen to them, dont send them to hell for their "stupid ideas" and spend some money first!...

 

Just start to be polite, not ignorant n00b as you are now.

And start to accept criticism from players. As of now, you do it 0%...

You insta ban/mute people for speaking their minds out.

And don't deny it at least.

 

You wonder why game is dying? Because of your behaviout/mindset and not caring about game.

 

I just hope this post won't get deleted as usual.

 

Maxine, I don't wonder that u gave up on being a mod. After 10 years you deserve any kind of appreciation, even tho radu doesn't like u, you do.

 

Peace :)

 

-StouXy-

Edited by TeeeMo

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The game has alot of stuff to be implemented ofc, but hey...it demands time and effort of all develop team and radu. He being a game creator and master developer cannot just add it or change or modify it..sample like that, because theres an whole engine behind each visual item and walkable stuff you see ingame, and obvious an artificial inteligence which takes time to test, adjust and implement and finally add.

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The game has alot of stuff to be implemented ofc, but hey...it demands time and effort of all develop team and radu. He being a game creator and master developer cannot just add it or change or modify it..sample like that, because theres an whole engine behind each visual item and walkable stuff you see ingame, and obvious an artificial inteligence which takes time to test, adjust and implement and finally add.

What development team? ...

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"Do not ban people for having a different playstyle or opinion" that's some crap right there you are spewing maxine... I remember when you and burn and raistlin tried to get me banned for serping people. Let alone you always jump on the bandwagon to screw stivy over for playing the way he does. Fyi it's a great idea to have someone suggest things or even take their comments seriously when they ban people just for saying their name ingame. Cough cough :icon4:

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"Do not ban people for having a different playstyle or opinion" that's some crap right there you are spewing maxine... I remember when you and burn and raistlin tried to get me banned for serping people. Let alone you always jump on the bandwagon to screw stivy over for playing the way he does. Fyi it's a great idea to have someone suggest things or even take their comments seriously when they ban people just for saying their name ingame. Cough cough :icon4:

Sorry but i disagree. The problem with someone constantly serping others, or making facet's of the games not worth to do it anymore, is in my book a form of harassing. That radu rules in cases like Stivy, where this harassment goes against almost all community equal is understandable. You can easy avoid it by just not hunting red dragon or make hydro bars. Or stop doing whatever he finds as possible to ruin next. The result is that this part of the game is ruined even if he stop blocking the paths or the hunt. At least for the people low enough or not skilled enough in PK. Where as serping of people and often the same people. is something that can be more easy viewed and ruled as harassment. and leads through that to more banning. Anyway this has nothing to do with the fact that I am very rarly in channel 6 because of the language there. and also because of the way i see radu talks to others.

 

He is the owner of this game and through its shop a businessman, whose income of the shop he has depends on the customers that is made up from the players of this game. A Businessman should not insult his customers. He should appear to listen to them, better yet listen to them, if he does not want less and less income.

 

The feeling People are having is that radu does not read this suggestion forum very often. Or with interest in it. Suggestions regarding the client are often done by the client development team and implemented fast. Sugestions for the game. most times uncommented by radu about what he thinks about it. and i do not have the statistics on it. but they are very very very rarely implemented. You want a a suggestion to come through you need apparently do it in channel 6 at a time radu is there and awake. And that channel is simply not one i could stand reading in it for a long time. so many people like me have not turned it on.

Edited by vinoveritas

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* Make a pk-instance like we discussed 5 or so years ago and actually tested then (and yes, I was having fun pk-ing then). This should preferably be a closed economy with chars and items only used in there, so it is a true test of skills and not p2w. The aim of the game is to have fun and test your skill, not to get rich. Wizzy's contest was a fun example of this.

 

I found it sad that the PK server (sort of the ultimate PK instance), which started so active and promising, was allowed to atrophy and wither to just a few hard-core players (who still prefer it over the main server). While a testament to it's stability, it hasn't had a server reboot in over 600 days, which means it's over a year and a half behind the main server in maps and features. So much potential squandered.

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I'll just comment on the "Stivy" part:

 

Afaik Stivy isn't breaking any of the game rules. That means we cannot do anything to stop him (at least not without inviting a ridiculous load of other problems).

 

That leaves changing game rules or mechanics in such a way that his actions aren't possible/allowed anymore. But that needs to be very carefully considered, esp. rule changes: at least part of what Stivy is doing was made possible by a rule change (allowing alt interactions). Before that rule change, playing like he does would have gotten him banned.

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At least would be a team, like here says: http://www.eternal-lands.com/page/developers.php

 

No worry, even web pages are not updated and you wanna get updates in game...

 

"The game has alot of stuff to be implemented ofc, but hey...it demands time and effort of all develop team and radu"

 

in my opinion there could be some real change in like... 5 years? is that long enough? :P

Edited by KoDdy

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Let's do some math: how many people quit within last year?

Around 10+ high lvl players who been spending not small amount of $ in shop.

And what was their reason? Stagnation of game and radu's behaviour towards them and not caring about game.

 

And why u talking about stivy? Lol

It's like...ughhh world is dying, how do we save it!?

Maybe stop the global warming? Save water? Noooo, leťs put smaller taxes ?? *sigh*

 

Talk about stuff that matter the most for god's sake...

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...

Talk about stuff that matter the most for god's sake...

Can you expand on this?

Can you give some suggestions for changes or areas where you think the major problems are?

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Can you give some suggestions for changes or areas where you think the major problems are?

 

This is hard, but let me try to (not really) answer the question with some random thoughts. All MMO/RPGs (and similar games) have to find their place on a game-play scale which could to something like this:

 

| - boring (too easy) - | - fun - | - challenging - | - grinding (too hard) - |

 

Different aspects of the game place a dot somewhere along that line. Average all the dots together and and you get an overall reading for the game. A few examples:

 

Big Books - too easy - they take all the challenge out of starting up a new skill

Quests - fun/challenging - they have some complexity to them and provide an experience reward (although some quests slip into grinding as they are too hard for the reward)

High Levels - grinding - mixing 10K of item X to get the next level isn't really fun or challenging, it's just mindless work

 

Now of course different people will view any particular action someplace different on the scale, but you get the idea.

 

So let's look at a practical example. Why do I find the PK server to be more fun that the Main server (given there's no longer any PK happening on the PK server)? Part of it is the community. But part if it is the different game mechanics:

 

No harvesting mini-events - they have no redeeming value, and the reason they were added no longer exists on main due to the rule change.

No cool-down - all they do is slow you down when mixing (grinding) moving you to the right on the scale.

 

Moving those two dots from the grinding range toward the fun range has a significant effect on the overall feel of the PK server, making it more fun for those playing there. (Note: I am totally ignoring the effects of cool-down in fighting/PK, but it does totally change the nature of that in the game).

 

While there are no doubt some big changes that can, and should be made to EL, I feel that there are a number of smaller game mechanics that if properly shifted a bit closer to the center (fun/challenge) on the above scale could go a long way to restoring fun to the game.

 

(Sorry for being so verbose)

Edited by bkc56

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...

Talk about stuff that matter the most for god's sake...

Can you expand on this?

Can you give some suggestions for changes or areas where you think the major problems are?

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I can't bother with this over and over again. I told him many suggestions and all he said was " it's a server thing", "it's a engine thing".

Then change these 2 stuff for god's sake...

 

Major problems?

For new players?

 

Hell no :D

Aint gonna give him advices for free when he didnt even give me discount on 20 inst removal stones

 

But all ends at 1 point: lazy/greedy/ignorant owner of a game who wont spend a dyime on his own game gg

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*Cracks knuckles* Let’s see if I can put this in writing.

 

First off I’d like to say thank you to Radu. This game would not be possible without all the hard work and effort you put in over the years. While it seems this has tapered off recently it still is an amazing accomplishment and I think you should receive the credit when due on what you have made happen.

 

Now for the hard part:

During my time as an animation student in college one of the hardest things that I had to do but eventually learned to love was the critique. You learn a lot about yourself and how others perceive you and your work and it can very much help you grow and mature as an individual, if you learn to accept and process the critique properly. So here’s my attempt online of a critique of Radu and Eternal Lands. It’s hard to do in this format for me as there is no back and forth and inflection and intent are hard to read.

 

1. Appoint or Seek out a Community Manager/Team

Radu, while you may be a great programmer your online interpersonal skills are….lacking. It’s a hard thing to hear for some and maybe you don’t care but the community of your game does. While you may not mean to offend or belittle someone and perhaps are sarcastic or feel your just speaking your mind it doesn’t always come across that way. Speaking your mind is one thing, alienating your community with your words is another. This is why I think you should seek out a community manager or team.

 

This team would help you process the information and advice the players are giving you in-game and on the forum and pick the cream of the crop for you to work on implementing. That doesn’t mean that in the end you do everything people ask. But having a go between of people who know you and know how you react and not publicly smashing people on @6 would improve some of the hurt that has been caused in the past. Then after you have talked with them on what you do and don’t want to do and perhaps why; this team could pass that information on in a processed manner that players would appreciate and respond to positively.

 

2. Develop a better system for user developed content

One of the things I had hoped when I first joined the ranks of EL was to help more in the development. I did eventually write several NPCs and a quest before I somewhat phased out but would have done more if I had known what was needed.

 

This could be as simple as a regularly updated forum topic. Lists of art, scripts, coding etc. that needs done could be posted or people to contact if you’re interested. IE: We need a new dragon skin. Contact Acelon for NPC scripts now writing Melinis etc. Perhaps the community management team could also help with this. Someone could claim a project and when completed submit it for review. If acceptable I would be added to game. If not tell why and repost or see if they wish to resubmit. The idea would be for you to get maximum content for the game with minimum effort by yourself and your mainstay dev team.

 

3. Provide the Story

EL has a rich story, but many don’t know it. There is a short novel written but most haven’t read it, as far as I can tell the few chapters that were on the website aren’t linked there anymore. Many of the NPCs reference and allude to this story but it is no longer available for most to read. There are official stories on the forum but some of this should be in-game for people to find.

 

Many games suffer from this problem not just EL. I even read a report on it once. Games develop either along a programming course or a story course. Programming course tries to include some story but it really doesn’t come across well. These games can be technically beautiful but in the end leave the user wondering what is really going on in the world. Story games on the other hand have lots to tell and give the play a rich content base, but generally have buggy game play and lack the polish brought by good programming.

 

Successful game companies generally find a way of meeting in the middle and blending the two together. EL started out with both and seemed to be on the right track but at some point the story died and the programming lived on. Not all the story has to be in-game it can be on forum or in video etc. but it needs to be accessible to the players. (See above for user developed content on how some of this could be easily requested then approved)

 

4. Where are you personally going with the game?

This is my final point. It’s something perhaps you do but you used to post on your development journal where you were going and what you were doing with EL. So I don’t know if you still do this or not.

 

Step back, Look at your game: Are you where you want to be? What are you wanting to do? Where do you see the game in 1 year? 5 years? Have you lost interest in your project? If so can you get back the flame you had for it or is it time to move on? If moving on what is the best course for you? For the EL community? Is your game providing you with satisfaction or is it a stressful thing? If stressful why and how can you fix that? If satisfying how so? How can you get more satisfaction out of it?

 

But I will say this in closing:

Eternal Lands has one of the best communities of gamers I have ever been privileged to play with and I have played many games. I have made lasting friends here and think that if change did happen many of the community would come back and enjoy it again. These players leave these comments and try to help you Radu because really we all want to see you succeed. If you succeed, you bring us joy with your game and in return we share our income and time with you so to show that we appreciate your work. Please don’t take the things said by the awesome community of gamers YOU brought together go to waste.

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I agree with Elf_Ninja. Radu doesn't have patience for dealing with player's suggestions and less for people criticizing/trolling him.

 

He needs a Community Manager who gathers the best ideas and suggestions from the players, so the best ones can be part of a future update.

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