Various Observations

[Korhil]

Just a few observations I've made. i've played a few MMORPG's before, I also play many single player RPGs and i'm a D&D player, so I hope my experience will be useful. I'm not saying ay of my suggestions should definitely be implimented, the game is great, these are just things i've noticed that could perhaps be improved.

 

I wont go into obvious things like character customisation as I'm sure you get that ten times a week, i'll try to stick to what I hope are more obscure things, and will endeavor to add my opinion on a possible solution. Please don't think i'm an arrogant git, i'm just trying to help

 

Enjoy:

 

 

Harvested items: they seem to be in infinite supply, which seems strange. Maybe they could deplete and take a few hours to grow back? only last night I amassed over 800gc in less than 20minutes by harvesting thousands of Lilacs from the same place. While I agree that everyone should be able to make money this is tantamount to giving it away.

 

The trade and menu windows obscure speech, this can be a problem when talking about items to trade, maye the menu and inventories could appear in the lower part of the screen, of maybe opening the inventory could shift the speech to an unobscuredd part of the screen?

 

The level system seems frightfully easy. In D&D getting even one level is quite an event and actually means something, whereas in EL (most RPG's are guilty) it seems that five minutes work gets you a new ability. I'm not suggesting that you make the game harder, but rather make level ups more of a long term thing and make the rewards greater, though I suppsoe the system that's in place now can't be changed so easily.

Ultima Online had a system whereby, instead of getting levels, simply performing the action (be it fighting, mining or whatever) made you better. I know you have this in place now but in UO if you didn't practice said tasks they stated to go down again after a set time. Maybe that could work to keep people sharp?

 

The script seems pretty long-winded in certain places, specifically the tutorial NPC, it's not exactly helpful when he gives you coordinates for the flowers but doesn't tell you the names, that would be so much more helpful. In general the script could use trimming a bit.

 

The maps seem a little poor with regard to acuracy, Portland flower shop seems to be way off, for example. Also, it might be nice to name all the little dirt tracks through the forests, as when I want to meet someone by a forest road i'm reduced to making rather poor descriptions of the local topography. Simply giving these little roads names on the map would help immensely.

 

The temples seem a little spartan, but that's no big deal, though it would be nice if they were masive and awe inspiring.

 

The shopping system is quite unwieldy, selling and buying are, in general, a pain. All the numbers and no graphics make it a chore.

 

Numbers in names? >.< I met a guy recently called Pimp_Daddy_2000 (or something like that) I don't wanna spoil anybody's fun but what sort of name is that? Why allow numbers in names at all?

 

Those are things I think could be changed but I have to say that this game is great.

The mods are very, very helpful, the community is, in general, great. I've yet to meet a downright unfriendly person.

I love the fact that I can play on my crappy work PC and there's no obvious slowdown or lag (hope you keep the same system requirments) and it's smooth as silk on my home comp.

Although i've only met one other Role Player, in general I don't see too many people speaking in noobish or talking about anime or other real world things, this is very good .

 

Also, the system for donations and paying for characters is wonderful. I have a thing for elves and so have no reason to buy anyhting with real money yet, but as time goes on I will almost certainly be splashing out on various things that come up for sale in real money. Hope this system doesn't change.

 

As for ideas that could be implimented, I'd like to see some actual adventures, long, big quests where you have to travel the length and bredth of the continent (maybe to collect rare spell ingredients for a magician? that could be re-done and re-done by everyone) I like a bit of grandeur, and right now there don't seem to be any long term goals.

 

Race specific equip wuld be nice. mybe big axes for the dwarves, light, fast swords for the elves, heavy qrmour and equip for Hmans, spears? Lances?

 

This leads me to - mounts. I'd love to charge around on a horse, in a big suit of armour carrying a lance O.o

 

obviously the world is going to get bigger so i don't nee dto mention that really...

 

Shop opening and closing times? That would add a whole new element to the game, if certain places closed at night, making it impossible to buy their potions or whatever it might make you have to plan that orc hunting trip into the valley of the dwarves more carefully. Obviously places like taverns could stay open all night though...

 

Well, that's it for now, there may be more, though i'd like to know if these observations ahve been useful, if so i'l keep adding to this over time.

(Apologies for any bad grammar, it's 3:22am here, that's my only excuse )

Edited May 6, 2005 by Korhil

[crannog]

Ok - if i may add a few replies to your points

 

Harvested items: they seem to be in infinite supply

i agree - however, there have been suggestions for 1. random spawns or harvestable items and 2. depletion of said items as they get harvested.

It would be great of one of the devs could let us know if these will be implemented (but it would take quite alot of programming i think)

 

 

The trade and menu windows obscure speech,

these windows can all be moved, i admit at low screen resolutions its difficult, but rather easy once you get the hang of it.

 

 

The level system seems frightfully easy.

This is only the case for low levels - as you gain, it gets alot harder, and some skills are much harder than others.

 

 

if you didn't practice said tasks they stated to go down again after a set time. Maybe that could work to keep people sharp?

I dont think that would work in EL, because we have no set class - we have 9 different skills (at the moment) and this would be unfair to "all round" characters.

 

 

The script seems pretty long-winded in certain places

yes some of it is, but alot needs explaining, the good thing is that the importand stuff is kept in your quest log, to read at your leisure.

 

 

The maps seem a little poor with regard to acuracy

i must agree with you, i made some suggestions about maps - but it needs a person with a bit of skill, and alot of time to spend on them.

 

 

The temples seem a little spartan,

There is a reason for this, if you have used the map editor you will see that there is a limited ammount of "set" buildings of this type. Perhaps someone can make more models ?

 

 

The shopping system is quite unwieldy

Yes, and i believe this is being addressed (to a point) to make it easier

 

 

Numbers in names

The mods DO keep an eye on this, but its a hard job, chars with more than 4 numbers are asked to make a new char - and i believe in the future, it will be blocked at char creation.

 

 

I hope at least some of this reply is a help to you, and others.

 

Crannog.......

Edited May 6, 2005 by crannog

[Korhil]

It has, i should probably have read the "long winded" tutorial , then I might know how to move the windows around

 

It struck me last night that there don't seem to be any ranged weapons. Is this by accient, design, or are they planned for later?

[freeone3000]

Planned for later.

 

And you move the windows around same way you move windows around on every operating system I have used. You click and hold on the little bar on the top, and drag it where you want it to go.

[Lyanna]

With regards to the long-winded Tutorial, I fully agree. It's going to be rewritten eventually... however, because there are a lot of new systems being designed at the moment, it's a bit difficult to rewrite the Tutorials until after they have been tested.

 

Epic quests are on the to-do list. (Very far down the to-do list, but nevertheless... ) The main thing is that there is a shortage of good quest-writers, and the framework of the game's story isn't set in stone yet. The history is currently being finalised. If you think you'd like to help out with quests after that, let me know.

 

-Lyn-

[Korhil]

I'd be happy to help in any way I can - i've just PM'd you with an offer.

 

Something else I noted, the priest of some god or other in Trinwood Vale mentioned a god being neutral evil in alignment (i think it was NE) and I though it might be cool to allow players to coose an alignment for their character when they start the game. The usual D&D structure of Good, Neutral, Evil & Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic could work. The result could be bonuses and penalties in certain situations. For example:

 

A Chaotic Evil person could get bonuses to casting certain "evil" spells or could recieve healing from the attack god temple, whereas a Lawful Good character in the same temple would be attacked on sight, but that same LG character might get bonuses to charm or discounts in certain places. Maybe the alignment could update itsef depending on your actions? Killing a player more than 5 levels below you may slide your alignment towards the neutral, and then evil side. Whereas donating gold to a temple of healing could slide it towards good?

 

I also thought that maybe there could be a sort of tracking skill available to those who hunt on a regualr basis, like the ability to the the trails that animals leave as little footprints or something?

It would have to be quite an expensive skill though or else everyone would take it as standard and then the dedicated hunters would have nothing to mark them out.

 

and one more, i'll submit a drawing of this later, I though of a monster called a White Lion, very tough and aggresive, but if you killit with your bare hands you get its pelt as a cloak. It would offer no more protection than a basic fur cloak, but would look really cool and would mainy be a symbol of status, like:"Look, I killed a White Lion with my bare hands, I ahve teh sk1llz!1!1!!

[crannog]

I do not wish to put your ideas down, because they are good ideas but...

 

this game is supposed to be classless and without alignment, so that people can do everything in the game - however, that is up to the devs to decide - maybe they will consider it

 

i dont really see any use for the tracking skill, the maps are not all that large that you need it imho

 

as for the white lion idea, as with any drops in this game, only the high lvl fighters will kill them, then sell the pelts/cloaks so in the end, everyone will have one.

[Korhil]

about the class thing, I wasn't aware that it was atotal blackout on classes and alignments - tracking, have you ever been chasing a fox only for it to excape? I have and it's bloody frustrating.

 

The lion thing I was thinking would be worthless and have no armour or protection benefits, what would be the point in selling it? I dunno, I guess people don't care about anything except power gaming, which is really sad...

[Wytter]

We're always open to new ideas ;-)

 

Thanks Korhil. Keep them coming

[Ruln]

On the subject of tracking, a lot of the problem is related to the fact that you currently have to be very close to an animal or monster to actually attack. It can be a wee bit frustrating at times.

[Korhil]

Yeah I noticed that, what i was thinking though is that it would be nice if you arrived ina town, and could see th tracks of any animals that had been through there in the last ten minutes or so, it would help immensly and cut down on frustrating wandering around looking for something to kill.

[Learner]

One issue with tracking is that it would need to be implemented so that bandwidth usage doesn't go up very much. In 10 minutes a lot of tracks can be added. Just think what it would be like if someone talked through there followed by a herd of summoned rabbits!

 

You don't have to pay to play this game, so we do need to watch the B/W usage.

[Korhil]

good point...

 

I could suggest that it only be available for unsummoned animals, but it might be best to just pretend I never suggested the idea at all

[LabRat]

subject: animal tracks

I already have the code in place to show characters and animals on the map in the vicinity, if I disable the enhanced actors and only show the animals, wouldn't that be suitable, and require no extra server bandwidth?

[Learner]

You don't get the information about animals except those very close to you (slightly larger then the normal max view area). That means if you want to see anything from the last 10 minutes as you move to new locations, either that radius needs to be greatly expanded or special tracking data needs to be kept on the server and then sent as you move around.

[LabRat]

You don't get the information about animals except those very close to you (slightly larger then the normal max view area). That means if you want to see anything from the last 10 minutes as you move to new locations, either that radius needs to be greatly expanded or special tracking data needs to be kept on the server and then sent as you move around.

159665[/snapback]

I completely understand the distance issue, I was offering a compromise that is available now.

 

I can see the results of people following tracks 10 minutes old..

"post #this one+about 1000 or so"

{insert player name on forum here}subject following creature trails

I followed the trail on the map, and when I got to the far end someone had killed the creature and I was just in time to see the bag pop.  I hate this feature.  Whose bright idea was it.. I could have been silver mining for thae 10 minutes it took me to chase down the blasted creature

[Korhil]

ten minutes was just an arbitrary number, having an ability to see nearby animals on the map would be perfect if it was available as a perk or something, it would make a ranger or hunter a viable proffesiaon with real benefits. I would suggest making it quite expensive, so that only those who want to amke a real proffesion out of hunting buy it, at higher levels maybe that could see other humans on the map as well?

[trollson]

On the subject of tracking, a lot of the problem is related to the fact that you currently have to be very close to an animal or monster to actually attack.  It can be a wee bit frustrating at times.

159633[/snapback]

 

That could be how a tracking/hunting skill could be implemented -- increase the range at which one can initiate combat with a creature.

 

There would probably be some pay off between creature "level" and increased range -- can sneak up on a rabbit fairly easily, but a wolf takes greater ability.