@Celina: No one is really saying that Aetolia, Imperian, or Achaea is Lusternia. We established that Lusternia is different in a variety of ways. Achaea focuses on traditional fantasy archetypes, Imperian focuses on ideology (similar to Lusternia) but in a different way, and Aetolia is the White Wolf of IRE. Lusternia's lore (as far as skills go) is based loosely off of religious ideologies, religious symbolism, etc. Case in point: Wiccans having three Avatars (Rule of Threes). Highmagic and Judaism/Kaballah.
However, what lore grips someone is really subjective. Some people play Achaea for the lore and some people play Aetolia for the lore. It's not just 'vampires vs werewolves'. Vampires and werewolves don't even really have any conflict at all in Aetolia, but I understand that you were using it as an example.
The same can be said of where people want to fight and zap people. I can do that in Achaea, sure, but maybe I enjoy how combat mechanics work in Lusternia more. Maybe I enjoy the concept of influencing in Lusternia more than just having to kill stuff.
Borrowing mechanics from any of those games isn't a question of lore or whatever. It's a question of: 'this has been tested in a controlled environment. It's a mechanic that works. We should employ said mechanic and adapt it to this game as well'. This is why you're seeing serverside curing, as an example, as it was introduced as an early concept in Aetolia and then released as full-on serverside curing in Imperian. What it did for Imperian was enormous. A huge barrier to entry for even small people to help make an impact in their organization was provided. They wouldn't immediately melt to someone just hitting them paralysis and fumbling for ten seconds just trying to eat bloodroot so they can cure it.
Doesn't mean that every mechanic should be adopted, but people are really resistant to adopting good ideas for whatever reason because they get defensive about their games. I've commented on this mentality before and I don't really get it, but it's whatever. Proven, workable, good ideas should be utilized. Saying no to them as a matter of pride or ego is silly.
If autocuring is supposed to be working, it's not. Maybe it works for some people, but I've tried it on several characters and it won't even sip health/mana/bromides.
Obviously removing orgs is problematic, but so is a very thinly spread player-base with constantly empty orgs. Everyone I have referred to this game has been dismayed by the absolute emptiness, and, after playing a bit, I sadly have to agree with them. 1-2 people online is dismal, and that's essentially 90%+ of my play experience. Other IRE games have cut out orgs - it sucked for a bit, but overall it helped ensure the game had activity.
Obviously I don't want newbies gone from dead orgs. I want the orgs consolidated.
Good to hear about skill balance. Like I said, I've been out of the loop with that aspect for a very long time. That said, 1 report every month doesn't sound particularly stable. In fact, that sounds rather unstable - constant changes every month? That's pretty much what I remember, and it was crazy. Players do not and should not need to adjust to a new meta every month. That is an insane demand for TOP players, much less for mid level or newbie.
None of the Aetolian/other IRE concepts I mentioned had to do with vampires or werewolves. I was discussing newbie training processes. I have no desire to change Lusty from what it is - but that does not mean the game can't benefit from snagging some nice QoL and newbie options that other games have, especially since Imperian and Aetolia have basically been used as a test bed for new processes.
The autosipping part of it works. It is just needlessly complex to set it up (have to turn on multiple things / flags). Definitely needs to be made easier, because it can't really help newbies if they cannot figure out how to enable it.
I will add here that envoy reports usually aren't so dramatic as to promote any kind of 'meta'. Things that don't work might start working, and other things will work less so, sure, but as someone who hasn't seriously looked at an envoy report for...probably 2 RL years, I can safely say that the impact of this on my life has been absolute zero. And no, I'm not explicitly a non-com, I just play at the closest thing to a 'meta' that a game like Lusternia* can have - acquire friends, press two buttons. Envoy reports don't bog me down.
* echo previous comments of overcomplex systems and skill spread, etc.
Crumkane, Lord of Epicurean Delights says, "WAS IT INDEED ON FIRE, ERITHEYL."
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With a deep reverb, Contemptible Sutekh says, "CEASE YOUR INFERNAL ENERGY, ERITHEYL."
1
Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
edited January 2016
You missed the point with the werewolves vs vampire comment. It's a cultural reference of Aetolia. It's commentary on the cultural differences between IRE games when you're talking about mirroring concepts such as novice orientation from other games. It's not a "mindset" about a refusal to adopt a mechanic like serverside curing (seriously?).
Something such as a novice introduction is not a "mechanic," it has to be tailored to the cultural as well as mechanical needs. It's about making sure you are appealing to the correct culture of the game when developing player introductions. Not to say Lusternia's couldn't use change or improvement, but it's also not as simple as "I wrote this in X game, copy it here. Novices don't care about history lessons, etc." Culturally speaking, they seem to very much care about history and Big Story in Lusternia. it's one of Lusternia's greatest selling points. Maybe not in Aetolia, I don't know, I don't play it. Introducing players from conception to the correct type of game environment, to me, is important.
For example, I remember the old shallamar intro where you wandered around a mini area, you watched a story more than you did actual things, but you did enough to grasp the basics. It was a cool take on the normal MMO intros that I had not seen in Achaea and elsewhere. For Lusternia, it worked. Things have changed, obviously, and the application might not be as successful but the idea is the same.
I'd also suggest we don't have the data to identify what type of intro is successfully retaining players. Lusternia, in context of the other IREs, doesn't appear to have a population issue and it has been mentioned by big E that Lusternia does not struggle with sales like Imperian (and I think it was Aetolia) does. Ultimately, some ideas are universally awesome like serverside curing. Others, like what kind of intro retains players, is a more abstract concept and needs data to state it's "proven."
Saying it's a refusal to adopt "proven mechanics" because of pride and ego is a really ridiculous thing to say.
As far as envoy reports, it's design is for small incremental changes over time, no one rewrites the meta every month. I actually don't recall a report in recent memory that fundamentally altered how a class functioned. Maybe the minstrel report for an ego kill but even that's been marginally visible.
edit: For the record, you're right on the QoL changes that could happen. There are some great ideas we can pull from other games. I always liked that I could see every skill that I could eventually get in Achaea but in Lusternia I have to go to a wiki. Things like that are great QoL changes, though ultimately I don't know how much really small changes like that really do for retention.
Ensure that the webclient works well (it currently doesn't)
Make settings easy to create (currently it's some mess with java and perl). I'm talking drag and drop/point and click setting creation. Let a newb click "Create new alias" and select a letter/button for it, then a command, with a nice shiny save button. Trying to make a basic alias to execute a skill should not take an hour
Have functional autocuring (currently it's not even autosipping)
Cure skill bloat
Have clear and concise help files
Make the newbie process engaging and educational, not some zany LSD trip
Don't make newbies try to navigate insane city layouts (cough, Hallifax)
Make the Collegium engaging. Hearing NPCs lecture about historic shit nobody cares about isn't engaging. Give them a blaster crystal and have them fry enemies to a crisp to illustrate why crystals are cool, vs giving them an NPC reciting 10 lines of text stating why. Learn by doing!
Maintain a steady skill balance cycle, versus one that swings heavily each iteration (*note, I've not been a liaison for years, so maybe this has improved)
The first three points are really one issue. Lusternia (IRE) 'bought' m&m. With this move, I don't foresee any more work being done on the server side curing stuff, at least not in lusternia. That they want people to use m&mf
Skill bloat is here and there. A lot of the skills do have a number of useful stuff. Resilience could be rolled into combat (and I believe this was the idea at somepoint during the overhaul?)
Help files are dated, but you can suggest changes in the helpfile thread by Maylea.
The next points on newbies and the 'engaging' factor is hard. Because not everyone is going to like 'go kill this thing'. Some are going to like the history lessons. Each side of this is going to attract or drive people away. A balance between the two is need. (Just look at how many people play this game with minimal hunting done).
And on org layouts - the vertical nature of both Hallifax and Continuum is what makes it interesting. The mostly '2D' layouts that everything else is can be kinda boring.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
For the record, Achaea also "bought" svof which was maintained by Vadi as well. They have serverside curing. I highly suspect serverside curing development and the mudlet system changes are not related.
Also Ayisdra said what I meant in far fewer words. Some people do like history lessons. I personally suspect Lusternian newbies tend towards the "like history lessons" because of the type of game Lusternia is.
The autosipping part of it works. It is just needlessly complex to set it up (have to turn on multiple things / flags). Definitely needs to be made easier, because it can't really help newbies if they cannot figure out how to enable it.
I enabled everything, and had vials, and it still wasn't sipping. I gave up and wrote an autosipper in cmud. I doubt a newbie would bother doing that.
Ayisdra said: The first three points are really one issue. Lusternia (IRE) 'bought' m&m. With this move, I don't foresee any more work being done on the server side curing stuff, at least not in lusternia. That they want people to use m&mf
Newbies aren't going to download a separate game client and a curing system on top of this. It's like a novel - you have 30 seconds to capture someone's attention. When the html client is wonky and all you see is walls of text, why would your attention be captured?
@celina - I'm not saying "Copypasta Aetolia." I'm saying "Here is an example I created of a newbie experience that taught newbies skills in an immersive manner." I think there is room to improve, with the Collegium tasks - interaction and involvement are key factors in retention.
I actually like the collegiums, far more so than the garb tutorial beforehand. Sure, the history bits are kind of textwally and lame to a lot of people, but I'm surprised how often I come across them again in passing and think 'this should be more of a thing, I like this, why didn't I log this'.
Crumkane, Lord of Epicurean Delights says, "WAS IT INDEED ON FIRE, ERITHEYL."
-
With a deep reverb, Contemptible Sutekh says, "CEASE YOUR INFERNAL ENERGY, ERITHEYL."
I'm just giving my impressions from someone rolling a newbie and a returning player. Yall want to know why your retention is bad - I gave some suggestions. You guys seem more inclined to shoot that down. This game is, simply put, hard to play and offputting to many new players. The thread asked how to improve getting newbs. I answered. I am not knocking ANY player who helps out newbies. That's a great thing to do. However, I've tried making multiple newbies and I've poked around on this toon - it's just HARD to play, compared to where other games are these days. it's not 2005 anymore. If players were helped to play, via help files, tutorials, UI, innate client, etc, it'd be a lot stronger.
Whoa, let's not play retaliatory defense here. No one is disagreeing with your general statement, just poking holes in some of the specifics you mentioned. We all should understand there is a steep learning curve, gods know I struggled enough myself before finally pushing through and keeping a character after 2+ years of rolling throwaways.
The problem is that not everyone is going to agree on whether or not each individual piece of the puzzle is a big contribution to the problem, because they were or were not problems to us personally. That's all.
Crumkane, Lord of Epicurean Delights says, "WAS IT INDEED ON FIRE, ERITHEYL."
-
With a deep reverb, Contemptible Sutekh says, "CEASE YOUR INFERNAL ENERGY, ERITHEYL."
See, people get all sorts of defensive when they aren't immediately agreed with 100%. That's pretty offputting.
None of your suggestions are going to happen overnight. Serverside curing/web client etc are all long haul projects and other things people do agree with (I'm totally down with blowing up orgs and guilds to spread the population less).
As pointed out, some people love the history text (a lot of people actually, I'm not one of them) so it's good to have something that fits the game. I don't think anyone really disagrees that things can be more engaging. I think the current intro is too spoonfed (path walk here, do this, path walk here, do that).
My apologies. I felt a more hostile/disagreeing vibe. I was trying to help. I could have phrased things better. I'm sorry. I'm kinda sassy. If only I were guy - I'd be a beautiful drag queen.
I'm just giving my impressions from someone rolling a newbie and a returning player. Yall want to know why your retention is bad - I gave some suggestions. You guys seem more inclined to shoot that down. This game is, simply put, hard to play and offputting to many new players. The thread asked how to improve getting newbs. I answered. I am not knocking ANY player who helps out newbies. That's a great thing to do. However, I've tried making multiple newbies and I've poked around on this toon - it's just HARD to play, compared to where other games are these days. it's not 2005 anymore. If players were helped to play, via help files, tutorials, UI, innate client, etc, it'd be a lot stronger.
This, so much, this. Players tend to forget what it's really like to be a newbie in a text game. They also tend to become "set in their ways".
It can be hard, but being open to change would be instrumental to player growth here. You've seen how you maintain new players with your current mindset.
And yes, Lusternia is very hard to play in all aspects when compared to the other IRE games.
You missed the point with the werewolves vs vampire comment. It's a cultural reference of Aetolia. It's commentary on the cultural differences between IRE games when you're talking about mirroring concepts such as novice orientation from other games. It's not a "mindset" about a refusal to adopt a mechanic like serverside curing (seriously?).
I was pointing out that it was an incorrect commentary and politely trying to explain that it's an incorrect generalization. No one is also talking about mirroring concepts because currently, IRE has the exact same introduction in all of the newbie tours. MKO might be different, but I don't play MKO so I don't know. Everywhere else follows the same pattern: brief introduction of lore, make the player choose a class, learn how to fight, make the player choose a city. Go try them at some point. You'll find that they're all literally the same right now and I've raised the same criticisms for each of them. The point about adopting mechanics from other games ties into the statement I made earlier was more tailored to how confrontational people can be towards serverside curing and yes, people in Lusternia were apprehensive to the idea of serverside curing. I can scour the old forums if you want. This tied into the statement that other QoL changes (outside of newbie tours and what now) that newbies can enjoy allow for retention and newbies in those games have confirmed that they're helpful and made them want to partake more.
Something such as a novice introduction is not a "mechanic," it has to be tailored to the cultural as well as mechanical needs. It's about making sure you are appealing to the correct culture of the game when developing player introductions. Not to say Lusternia's couldn't use change or improvement, but it's also not as simple as "I wrote this in X game, copy it here. Novices don't care about history lessons, etc." Culturally speaking, they seem to very much care about history and Big Story in Lusternia. it's one of Lusternia's greatest selling points. Maybe not in Aetolia, I don't know, I don't play it. Introducing players from conception to the correct type of game environment, to me, is important.
All of the games do this. Never disputed this. Don't think anyone was. We're talking about mechanics that are quality of life changes that enable retention. Serverside curing is one of those and was used as an example.
For example, I remember the old shallamar intro where you wandered around a mini area, you watched a story more than you did actual things, but you did enough to grasp the basics. It was a cool take on the normal MMO intros that I had not seen in Achaea and elsewhere. For Lusternia, it worked. Things have changed, obviously, and the application might not be as successful but the idea is the same.
They all kind of had this with Loom Island on Achaea and Old Caanae in Imperian. Lusternia's was slightly different because Lusternia has inherently unique mechanics to the rest of them and subjectively better writing.
I'd also suggest we don't have the data to identify what type of intro is successfully retaining players. Lusternia, in context of the other IREs, doesn't appear to have a population issue and it has been mentioned by big E that Lusternia does not struggle with sales like Imperian (and I think it was Aetolia) does. Ultimately, some ideas are universally awesome like serverside curing. Others, like what kind of intro retains players, is a more abstract concept and needs data to state it's "proven."
I'm fairly certain IRE has the data that what kind of intro is successfully retaining players. I remember being asked to experiment and give feedback on the intros across IRE games awhile ago and I found that they were all pretty similar. The same criticisms I have for Lusternia's intro, I have for the others. However, the other IRE games have quality of life mechanics that make it EASIER for newbies in acclimating to the game that Lusternia does not have. Also, I'd argue that Lusternia has more resources at its disposal in terms of coders that other IRE games don't have. Mortal coders and I believe two fully paid coders. It took Aetolia MONTHS to get a paid coder and they don't do mortal coders because a mortal coder abused the position a long time ago and they've been paranoid of doing it again.
Saying it's a refusal to adopt "proven mechanics" because of pride and ego is a really ridiculous thing to say.
Except Lusternians, and folks from other games, get very confrontational when people criticize it or something about it. It's like console wars. Objectively meaningless to get defensive over, but people do. Sadhyra is even pointing it out and you have sort of mocked her opinions. I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one who observed it.
As far as envoy reports, it's design is for small incremental changes over time, no one rewrites the meta every month. I actually don't recall a report in recent memory that fundamentally altered how a class functioned. Maybe the minstrel report for an ego kill but even that's been marginally visible.
I think that's due to the fact that Lusternia is in the middle of a major overhaul in itself and no one is making large reports because they have no idea as to which way it's going to go in total. No one wants to suggest a grand, sweeping change of their class and then it ends up being useless as per the overhaul. The Minstrel change was large, but it fit the scheme of reports that were coming out because no one likes attrition mechanics and making someone incredibly drunk was a fairly painful example of one. I distinctly remember a time in Lusternia where things should shift in a near monthly basis of how strong things were. Sadhyra does too. She isn't a newbie to Lusternia.
edit: For the record, you're right on the QoL changes that could happen. There are some great ideas we can pull from other games. I always liked that I could see every skill that I could eventually get in Achaea but in Lusternia I have to go to a wiki. Things like that are great QoL changes, though ultimately I don't know how much really small changes like that really do for retention.
It's the little things. It might be hard for you and I to have that perspective because we know what classes are capable of, what the world is about, etc. To a genuine newbie who is learning the game, being able to read AB's and get an idea about other classes so I don't spend time and lessons putting effort into a class that ends up being not what I expected at all. I can find out early that there's a class in another organization that I'm definitively interested in based on what it can do and potentially do. If I buy credits, I don't end up blowing them on a class that I potentially won't be interested in and can put them towards skills I do want to learn. It's very common and my time as a guide both here and elsewhere (in the past) suggested that skills were one of the most common question topics outside of basic mechanics. There are other little CONFIGs like balance time used, equilibrium time used, how much damage I did to a mob, displaying how much that elixir healed me, custom prompts outside of M&M. These are examples of what I'm referring to.
People like @Rami drive me nuts. Lets log into an alt I never play so I can be negative on a forums for no real reason other than you can be.
I'm not against many of the ideas presented, I think things can improve and they are certainly valid ideas that would simplify things. But as far as player retention goes, take a look again at different IRE populations.
As of right now
Lusternia - 50
Aetolia - 55
Imperian - 28
MKO - 15
Similiar populations. So these QoL changes, engaging quests etc aren't really proven to be this great 'player retention mechanic' they are being touted as. We may be stuck in our ways, but you've certainly not presented any mechanics that have been proven to retain players any more than Lusternia already does. Maybe you should realitycheck yourself here before hating on us from anonymity.
"'Cause the fighting don't stop till I walk in." -Synkarin's Lament.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
edited January 2016
Wall o' text wars.
Jesus H Christo, it's not supposed to be a detailed thesis on the lore of Aetolia. It's a generalization about themes (vampires and werewolves are pop culture theme) and player attraction between IREs. You're definitely misinterpreting me, well misinterpreting (or incorrectly assuming. Ex: Mortals coders are not a thing in Lusternia) a lot of things, but it's fine and ultimately unimportant. I think we're approaching (or have arrived at) arguing for the sake of arguing and trying to be right about things that aren't important.
I don't disagree that there are opportunities for improvements! Especially in the quality of life area of the game.
Heh, I'm not being negative just to piss anyone off. Believe it or not, I'm -trying- to help. Rami was my first real character here. Honestly, I've never been able to seriously play Lusternia because of all the previously mentioned problems. In saying that, I've always thought that Lusternia has a ton of potential and try to keep current with any changes that might happen in case they make the game more appealing.
Really, I don't think badly of you guys or Lusternia as a whole. It just needs a little attention to be all it can be. I'd love to see Lusternia grow.
I do play other IRE games, such as Achaea, on a more serious basis. I tend to keep up with all the others. You never know what might happen!
People like @Rami drive me nuts. Lets log into an alt I never play so I can be negative on a forums for no real reason other than you can be.
I'm not against many of the ideas presented, I think things can improve and they are certainly valid ideas that would simplify things. But as far as player retention goes, take a look again at different IRE populations.
As of right now
Lusternia - 50
Aetolia - 55
Imperian - 28
MKO - 15
Similiar populations. So these QoL changes, engaging quests etc aren't really proven to be this great 'player retention mechanic' they are being touted as. We may be stuck in our ways, but you've certainly not presented any mechanics that have been proven to retain players any more than Lusternia already does. Maybe you should realitycheck yourself here before hating on us from anonymity.
Player populations don't directly correlate to newbie retention. There's a lot of stuff you have to factor in outside of grabbing an example of who is currently logged in right this second. I know that you know that.
Population generalizations are probably the best indicator of player retention. Yes, other factors are involved, but it's a good measure.
Right, but the spread is a factor as well. When I was CL of Spinesreach in Aetolia, we'd have 10-15 people online every night in my city. I don't see those numbers in Lusternia. Literally every time I login it's 1-3 people. This is a problem. 6 cities doesn't feel sustainable for the population.
I acknowledged it's probably spread over more orgs in Lusternia. I've also said I'm game to blow up a few orgs.
The only point that really makes though is that Lusternia does a better job keeping players because they're maintaining similar numbers with more orgs (more spread out) than aetolia is.
I had a picture to post here but was told not to do it :I
Stop patting eachother on the back peeps
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My two cents: If it weren't for the story aspects I wouldn't have stayed in Lusternia, honestly. Elder Wars ftw. I hate frying things to a crisp and bashing and grinding, ugh. It's one reason I haven't enjoyed other IREs when I tried to stick around. Imperian, MKO, Achaea. Never found the right crowd to make it work for me. That's not a failing of the games imo, but rather just a personal preference. I felt less like MKO and Imperian and Achaea were bad IRE games, but rather that they just didn't hook me the way Lusternia's story did. I was stunned to learn Imperian had no Divine RP, for example, and I was disappointed with the family systems in other games.
For the record, I was also a true blue MUD noob coming to Lusternia. I had no idea what I was doing, and sometimes still don't because I have the attention span of a squirrel when it comes to mechanics. But I stuck it out because of the people, the story, theater mechanics, and bardics. Those hooked me.
The fact is that Lusternia, and IRE in general, has a high learning curve. You have to be willing to stick it out to get the hang of things. For some people, it's the combat. Others, it's the story. And others still, for the social atmosphere. When we talk about player retention, we are talking about all these things and all of these kinds of players. It is hard to do a one size fits all, though there are things we can all agree are awesome, like server-side curing. (Ty @Vadi.)
While it's easy to list that we need X changes to be the best game ever, it's also important to keep in mind that only so much can be done at any one time. Everything being discussed here is something that has been discussed before; the real question is what should be a priority for the admin to focus on right now. All we can do is voice what we think is important, while the admin try to determine what's the Most Important Thing to be working on. And some of that I imagine isn't even up to the Lusternian admin so much as it is up to IRE. (I suspect the reason all the intros across IRE have similarities is largely because of higher up say-so, for example. That's also why the Lusternian website changed, and the Lusternian forums changed. RIP, old forums. =(( )
That said, the combat overhaul is winding down. A lot of admin resources went into handling that and the changes that entailed for PVP and PVE. We've had a racial stat revamp too that has received mixed (but I think mainly positive) feedback. Despite years of thinking it would never be possible, Lusternia got classflexing (!) and the admin are seriously considering and listening to discussions on guild overhauls (!!). To me, these are big changes! So in my view, this is actually indicative of the playerbase's and the admin's openness to change.
But change happens slowly. As much as we'd love to solve everything on the forums, alas, most things take time and deliberation!
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
Comments
However, what lore grips someone is really subjective. Some people play Achaea for the lore and some people play Aetolia for the lore. It's not just 'vampires vs werewolves'. Vampires and werewolves don't even really have any conflict at all in Aetolia, but I understand that you were using it as an example.
The same can be said of where people want to fight and zap people. I can do that in Achaea, sure, but maybe I enjoy how combat mechanics work in Lusternia more. Maybe I enjoy the concept of influencing in Lusternia more than just having to kill stuff.
Borrowing mechanics from any of those games isn't a question of lore or whatever. It's a question of: 'this has been tested in a controlled environment. It's a mechanic that works. We should employ said mechanic and adapt it to this game as well'. This is why you're seeing serverside curing, as an example, as it was introduced as an early concept in Aetolia and then released as full-on serverside curing in Imperian. What it did for Imperian was enormous. A huge barrier to entry for even small people to help make an impact in their organization was provided. They wouldn't immediately melt to someone just hitting them paralysis and fumbling for ten seconds just trying to eat bloodroot so they can cure it.
Doesn't mean that every mechanic should be adopted, but people are really resistant to adopting good ideas for whatever reason because they get defensive about their games. I've commented on this mentality before and I don't really get it, but it's whatever. Proven, workable, good ideas should be utilized. Saying no to them as a matter of pride or ego is silly.
* echo previous comments of overcomplex systems and skill spread, etc.
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The first three points are really one issue. Lusternia (IRE) 'bought' m&m. With this move, I don't foresee any more work being done on the server side curing stuff, at least not in lusternia. That they want people to use m&mf
Skill bloat is here and there. A lot of the skills do have a number of useful stuff. Resilience could be rolled into combat (and I believe this was the idea at somepoint during the overhaul?)
Help files are dated, but you can suggest changes in the helpfile thread by Maylea.
The next points on newbies and the 'engaging' factor is hard. Because not everyone is going to like 'go kill this thing'. Some are going to like the history lessons. Each side of this is going to attract or drive people away. A balance between the two is need. (Just look at how many people play this game with minimal hunting done).
And on org layouts - the vertical nature of both Hallifax and Continuum is what makes it interesting. The mostly '2D' layouts that everything else is can be kinda boring.
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The problem is that not everyone is going to agree on whether or not each individual piece of the puzzle is a big contribution to the problem, because they were or were not problems to us personally. That's all.
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This, so much, this. Players tend to forget what it's really like to be a newbie in a text game. They also tend to become "set in their ways".
It can be hard, but being open to change would be instrumental to player growth here. You've seen how you maintain new players with your current mindset.
And yes, Lusternia is very hard to play in all aspects when compared to the other IRE games.
And people thought I was dumb in Aetolia. I AM CAPABLE OF BIG WORDS, OKAY? I DIDN'T JUST WAVE A DOUBLE-BLADED STICK AND GRUNT ANGRILY AT PASSERSBY.
Really, I don't think badly of you guys or Lusternia as a whole. It just needs a little attention to be all it can be. I'd love to see Lusternia grow.
I do play other IRE games, such as Achaea, on a more serious basis. I tend to keep up with all the others. You never know what might happen!
Player populations don't directly correlate to newbie retention. There's a lot of stuff you have to factor in outside of grabbing an example of who is currently logged in right this second. I know that you know that.