Role-play and storyline.

[vutescu]

This only my oppinion, and - of course - I'd like to know what do you think about that. Just keep in mind that my english usually sux and you are supposed to understand the ideea of the post, not to missinterpret my words.

Since I start playing here I figured that you have to "dig" to know the story. But not in game. In forums, on site and so on.

Imagine a player, a n00b. He downloads the game, install the patches and starts it; creates a character and press play. Cool, isn't it? He knows nothing. He sees some helpers around a central building, he sees the quest window "Talk with X". That X tells him the basics, and gives him a couple of tasks. Fortunatelly, the newbie is smart enough to understand what he needs to do. The first refference at story comes when he visits the magic trainer, but that's all. "We are good, they are evil". Is he supposed to chew this just because he was told to? Guess so.
Let's move on. He reaches a decent level, he leaves the noob island, he's doing the first rite... just to learn about amber cubes. Nothing about story.
Soon he loses any interest in finding what's behind teleporters and tribes and goo. He becomes interested only in leveling and at a point gets bored and quits. End of story.

In my oppinion roleplay should be enforced a bit. Don't jump out of the chairs!
The helpers should tell a story to the player, and the player should not be able to go to the mainland until he proves his knowedge. In this way, the storyline is linked to game advancement. You can say "I'm a Fyros, I worship Kami and I hate Karavan" but if I come and ask "Why?" you'll shrug helplessly.

If the missions and rites and all the game advancements would be tight linked of the storyline and Atys, maybe all the things will get a better understanding and the players interes for the game will increase. Let me explain this a bit. There are mission mobs everywhere, but you are delivering an order from mob x to mob y and this does not make any sense for you.

Certain asignments should be triggered by players. Like player A is killed by the goaris, he respawns in Pyr, and the "deliver message" becomes available, because the message contains informations about goaris closing of the city. In the same way, if a player gets hurt by gingos but not killed, he can receive the "count animals" asignment ("see if are any gingos..." etc).

Also player SHOULD RETURN TO QUEST MASTER to receive the reward. You are told to kill X mobs, you do that, and in the middle of nowhere you receive money. That's not magic, is crap.

Rites should be way harder to acomplish. And the rewards should be really cool. Any idiot can finish them (well, I finished them and according to forum oppinion I am an idiot :P ) and the rewards are whortless. The advancement in game is unhurt, no matter you have the rewards or not. You should be stuck without a rite. "Only the best ones can finish the rites" If you ask me, only the lazy ones did not done them. They should require extended knowledge about Atys and lore. And this knowledge should become available to player with each mission he acomplish. Basically more missions -> more chances for rites.

I've done way too many missions (my fame vs all races is +100, -100 karavan +64 kami, vs all NPC tribes is positive exept a few). But all were mindless missions. You were grinding on levels, I was grinding on missions, hoping to understand the lore. I did not succeeded.
That's why I come and say: any brainless player can kill 2 gingos and craft 5 anklets. That not makes him - or her - a better player. Or an expert in Atys lore.
Every little aspect of the game should be redesigned and rebuilded acording to lore and game imersion. Game was designed for team play and grind. That's the truth and you cannot change that. But improvements can be made. Is a huge potential here, and we all know that, but is wasted. Is all I wanted to say. Now I'd like to know your oppinions.


*where the heck I put that fireproof suit?*

[raynes]

Every little aspect of the game should be redesigned and rebuilded acording to lore and game imersion. Game was designed for team play and grind. That's the truth and you cannot change that. But improvements can be made. Is a huge potential here, and we all know that, but is wasted. Is all I wanted to say. Now I'd like to know your oppinions.

While I do agree that everything in the game should be based upon lore and much more should be done to make it more central to gameplay, what you suggest will just make another year without updates.

This game could very easily be changed to a more rp/storyline atmosphere. All it would take is for the players to start acting on the lore and talking about it. How often do you talk about the lore in game over the chat channel?

[helbreat]

How often do you talk about the lore in game over the chat channel?

with recent events quite alot...

[mithamo]

you have basically perfect english, is it not your first language?

[rushin]

Don't jump out of the chairs!

Yep, i agree with pretty much all of that. The only danger i can see in making the game more centered around rp is that u scare off more casual players who might only be interested in killing stuff.

[micrix]

Ahhh.. i remember a nice story about a paladin. He seeked strength to protect the weak and his friends. By fighting a lot he obtained more and more strenght and skill. Soon he was a "crusader". But the true wish of his heart turned him into "grind" and he became bossy too. What did he wrong ? Well, probably he was to focused...

After a long time his best friend, an acolyte who healed him all the time, decided to go to the catheral to become a priest. The frist time the priest showed his new power the paladin started to think things over. He recogniced that he droped his duties just for getting better and better.

*** what does this have to do with the thread ? well, just nothing

I dream of a game without XP. The only thing that brings you forward is time.
I dream of responsible verterans who are able to give skills to the junger players. With responsibility i mean, not just cause its a friend or a guildy.
I dream of quests you do cause its your duty. Not for xp , not for money, not for items, just because its the duty of your role.
I dream of ingame laws with working guards and jails for those who broke the CoC/laws.

*** what does this have to do with the thread ? well, just nothing again

But i ask myself: why is Nevrax not compiling my dream for me. And you.. yes you !! Would you play and pay such a game ? Do you think such a game could be success ? A game where you for example go 5 RL days to jail when duelling in town ?

[vutescu]

And you.. yes you !! Would you play and pay such a game ? Do you think such a game could be success ? A game where you for example go 5 RL days to jail when duelling in town ?

I will answer here because you did not activated the PM feature.
I've played such game 4 yrs. Was a mud, yes, but the jail option was a permanent threat. Also execution with permanent stat loss or permanent death. Of course, there was XP, but after a certain point (after "ascending"), that leveling was ireleveant. There were about 40 main quests (used for ascending) and about 2000 optional ones. Ascending was not Immortality, just some boost of stats, just to make your life safer and let you focus on those optional quests. I was in this mud for 4 yrs, and because I was too addicted of it I lost 2 jobs.
So the answer is YES.

How often do you talk about the lore in game over the chat channel?

Atually a lot, even from beggining. I wanted very much to know the story and I spammed guild chat with a lot of idiotic questions about that. Evenually(TM) a non-guild friend - Sweety - answered a lot of my questions.

you have basically perfect english, is it not your first language?

Thank you. As you can see under my name, I'm not english, american or australian.