if you really need to talk to somebody that bad you should hgave an outside source and dont argue the admin point because all of the stupid admins have their graal emails

Would be cool. But no one ever uses AIM, MSN, or Skype anymore. I have a buddy list over 200 people and maybe 20 have logged on within the last 2-3 years. (example: Rice2K, he never uses aim and I havent seen him in a few months).. And it's not just talking.. me an experience 10 year veteran to gk cant even tell who's idle or not imagine the fragile minds of the delicate noobs.. Yikes!!

i ****ing hate how long we've played graal bro

the only reason i dont completely regret it is because of two particular people i've met because of it. life long companions

I don't. I met a player nammed Nox King.. he kinda started teaching me a little about hacking. Then because of that stuff I grew intrest and met a man nammed Trooper (R.I.P.).. he tought me to make my own trainers in delphi (first programming language i learned) without using TMK.. and from there it just kinda grew my skills.. I learned to program other languages, I learned to script.. It may have been a gray/shaddy past for me but I am proud it got me where I am today where I can be a productive member of the community and lend a helping hand. Everything I have learned will stay with me ya know.

And with that being said, I think I am GK for life. Always loyal.

I feel the exact same as you Scriptless. If the Graal hacker (Won't say any names) I knew wouldn't have helped me on how to code websites and server information using the tools he told me (Won't mention anything about hacking Graal, since I've never done it.) I probably wouldn't be in the job I am today. I knew nothing, but as soon as he started talking code speak, I knew I had to do something to learn this strange new world and it made me super interested. I now code for a company that sells computer parts and if it wasn't for that one person, I probably would have never learned how to code and the capabilities of it.

On a side note, I still have no clue how to code GS1, 2 or probably even 3 when it releases. Just to many problems with it. xD

Hiring System
 

Definitely we need to change the hiring system. Most servers hire players based in intelligence not only in hours. Nico told me that i need at least 500 hours? but why if i can only afk and be an idiot or an unactive staff.

We are not going to improve this server if we keep hiring unactive staff...

Also its really sad that faq admins already have a waiting list, if a faq quits automatically a person takes that place, i cant really believe that.

Please people lets change this!!!

Same with me for graphics :p

My opinion
 

Well just found the Graal kingdoms page on Facebook and it reminded me of this, future development, I read earlier having old players come back but new players would make the server more filled and the server being empty is what made people leave in the first place I believe.

Because with the few players that did play, kingdoms were empty, empty kingdoms have less motivation to hold kingdom events so the kingdoms became just a place to have a house to hold your items.

So to improve the server you need to have the new not the old come back.


Shops
Shops should be redone to be more static as opposed to how they are now, the randomization means traveling to them all in hopes to find something you want.
There should be a clear distinction so you can see what you want, and work towards getting the item instead of hoping you’re lucky enough to see the item and chances are someone else who already had it buys it and sells it for more.

Such as one of the shops that sells amulets, if there was a constant amulet of sustenance there people could see the price and work towards getting the money to buy it instead of new players not even knowing it exists.

Money

Money is worthless; when I was playing diamonds were the currency because you didn't really need money for anything unless you were going to AFK in shops for the re-spawn of items and hope something popped up.

There needs to be more diversity in what you can pay for worth money to make it worth something, and take away the weight, the weight is what kills money the most as its damn heavy and why carry 10,000 plat when you can have 20 diamonds, say it's worth the same and use that instead.

• Armor
• weapons
• boots
• gloves
• bracers
• helmets
• shields

These don't get sold you have to make everything, but they could be sold and add to the economy, if the statistics were sorted out for each armor to make it worth it.

You could say in alchemy<- (or a system more accessible to new players) that allow for these items to be improved. with recipes from dungeons as a reward.

Dungeons
I think more dungeons would help this, even if it was just recolours, thought that's hoping the recolours would get changed eventually.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf317ece3.png

The only real dungeons are the haunted houses and they are for low levels, though not too low a level, there needs to be more and they should be interesting, maybe a back-story to each one, with puzzles as opposed to just killing to mix it up as it stands after beating Bomy's till you can go in the haunted houses and beating the haunted house so that it isn't a challenge, there's nowhere.

At that point lords and the crypt are too strong for you when you struggle like hell that lords aren't a challenge, then you have nothing, level 90 and I can’t solo the crypt even if it let me.

You could have different areas in the dungeons that rely on 1 or more people with puzzles every few rooms to reflect this with every room.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5cb9851c.png

This could lead to dungeons having more re playability and encouraging community.

Since dungeons should get harder as you go through, you should try to add an engaging storyline to each one so even if they can’t progress they want to level enough so they can and get to the end of the story so they can have closure on it.
Even better would be having people who are over leveled for the dungeon going in just for the story in it.

so you’d have so much of the story going through yourself then it would end implying that you need to go deeper into the dungeon for the rest, as I said would encourage community, this ends up making people stay as otherwise they leave their friends.

This should be tested with different leveled accounts with at least dungeons for

• 1 - 5 <- something specific for new players to get to grips with the combat system
• 5 - 10 <- improve the haunted houses
• 10 - 20
• 20 - 30
• 30 - 40
• 40 - 50

You would have progress to work towards and the dungeons should end with a pay-off in money, and as I mentioned above recipes for improving armor and weapons,

E.g. iron armor could be added with a boss item from a previous dungeon to make it, Iron armor of (Last bosses name) giving +2 ac.

If it was an ice dungeon with the added coldness, you get fire resist, and the next dungeon could be fire that could help you out. Adding progression.

bosses

Graal was originally inspired by Zelda so why isn't there any hard Zelda style bosses, at the end of dungeons there should be a boss that has patterns and needs some amount of strategy to beat, a conclusion to the story you went through in the dungeon.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1a53de08.gif http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb985b5f0.gif

Item statistics

Taking away EA's and IWD's is fine, but the armor that you can get already needs to show improvement, and more armor should be readily available.

3 types of armor I can remember you can get and they're all the same except maybe a +1 AC difference? Armor should scale be brought or be harder to make and be something you can work towards getting. (Having no set goal in an MMO you need to enable people to set their own)

Same with weapon, thing the broadsword you make is like 9 DMG, and that's the highest, with everything else being next to the same even daggers are like 5 DMG making it not even double, (this is if I remember the stats correct)
But there is next to no difference, and now with IWD's being rare you're going to be screwed against anyone who has a 9/9 IWD'd weapon.

So items should have a scale getting harder to make/more to buy and stronger as you progress to help you progress.

quests

As someone said before the quests need to be better, they are generally not at the MMT just annoying to do and there needs to be a better questing system, though if there were more dungeons as I'm suggesting then it isn't going to be the biggest need as people will have something to do.

Being skimpy on this one because, as they are they get you to explore and seek out all over the maps so they're not bad, just they need something more to stop them from getting stale.

kingdoms

The kingdom islands have nothing going for them, build your house store your items and **** off...

Stefan I believe didn't want too much there to detract from main I feel it was a bad choice on his part as they are boring and no one cares about them, they need themed monsters it they could hold dungeons, mines for specific materials, something to get people wanting to travel and diverse to more the bomb trade.

Zeppelins can be built on them to help you travel, but any form of weight makes them useless, so the weight should be removed and you have a form of transport never being used, being used and amazing new players, with each zeppelin looking different like ship sails.

Reset

IT IS NOT NEEDED!

Having the people who are already strong gives people a challenge to work up to, you what's needed is to make it plausible for them to get there, back in the day there were more people the grind wasn't so bad, it is now.

A reset as it is, will eventually lead to the same situation AT BEST. More likely the older players still playing will be pissed and leave and no-one would play. So you need to stop thinking of it as the magical quick fix that will solve everything as it won’t it would very likely be the death of kingdoms.

classes

There is no difference, there should be some structure to how they work there is the old triad system (Mage beats fighter who beats archer who beats mage)

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps865e24c9.png

We don't have that we have (fighter beats mage fighter beats fighter who beats archer)

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...psfb67cb46.png

something that would help is a spell that could be cast instantly blows fighters away giving the mage time to cast, not affecting archers as they are out of its range and arrows not giving knock-back so fighters can beat them,(this is also moving the ranged weapons ability over to agility instead of physical to separate them)

This is a simple thing that would add some diversity to how people would play.

Having max stats for the different classes would diverse those as well, fighter can get a max of 20 strength whereas a mage can only get a max of 14, even with potions

taming

You can level personality and tame monsters though there is no system in place to make it worth it. Have horses wild and need this to tame and ride, have other monsters that are findable be able to ride, some maybe fly like a zeppelin when rode.

Some could do a digging animation and if you have a shovel dig and get a bit more money.

Have a leveling system for them so even if you don't personally fight you can level your pet to fight in your stead.

end note

My ideas and opinions, take it how you will :) . If there's anything I've said that has already been said I couldn't be asked to read through all the pages <3

There are definitely some very good, and some not so ideal ideas but frankly i believe for the most part Shaco is correct. Though as challenging as some of them may be to work out, development wise, we should really consider them.

I'd also like to point out the obvious here. This thread is very new, and yet there is 9 pages already. Before anyone feels left out or overlooked please consider this. Reading, considering, and working on the large amount of fair to good ideas will take time. Please be patient ^^

[QUOTE=Slade0Hiro;1723241]

taming

You can level personality and tame monsters though there is no system in place to make it worth it. Have horses wild and need this to tame and ride, have other monsters that are findable be able to ride, some maybe fly like a zeppelin when rode.

Some could do a digging animation and if you have a shovel dig and get a bit more money.

Have a leveling system for them so even if you don't personally fight you can level your pet to fight in your stead.

end note

Would love to be able to run around riding a Evil Bomy Lord <3

P.S.
Shaco: Very outdated statistics, gears, and locations but your in the right place. We get your meaning :P

Am I Shaco? feel like you're replying to my post but that's not my name xD

It's a right we've been denied for far too long :(

Was thinking what I know would be out of date i'm not the most active member of graal anymore lol. But I'm glad that the meaning got through :)

Casting really needs work.

Casting is currently interrupted when you get hit. Perhaps it should only be a chance of interruption based on your skill level in magic.

You cast a spell, THEN the casting animation plays. The casting animation should be playing while you're casting. Leaves way too much room for you to be interrupted and makes it rather slow.

Casting via mouse is really clunky. It needs to be worked on.

Damage doesn't go up with your magic level but MP cost does.

We have a lot of spells, but most of them aren't worth using. They either do nothing or are rather pointless. Different kinds of spells would be a plus too with various AoE's, projectile paths, effects, spell behaviors, etc.

Soon we will release a new treasure map. After that we are planning to release a new crypt. Treasure map after Halloween Events, and the new crypt hopefully mid november or beginning of December.

I agree, magic/alchemy needs some attention aswell. Which we will get to some time.
Do not forget that the staff on GK work for free and see all of that as some kind of hobby. So please be patient.

If you want to help, you can PM me anytime on GK.

To be fair this stuff has been broken for a long time

To be fair, Nico has only been Manager for little over 8 months and we have seen more development under Nico than we have since the server first came out. To be fair.

Yes he has, and I appreciate him trying.

Since may 1st :D 6 1/2 months

What's wrong with casting via mouse? Unless somebody touched it since I rewrote the wand system, then it should be working better than ever. Note that there were a few changes that are perhaps throwing you off.

to say it bluntly the entire way the spell system works is horrible.

Honestly, it's been worse in the past. Before it was revised, it was a total wreck and there were very few spells that actually worked.


The current magic system was a huge improvement back in the day, but even now it's still not balanced enough to be allowed in events like tournaments, and that's unfortunate for anyone who actually likes casting classes.

Even if the classes were separated (as some have suggested) most casters would be forced into sitting on the side-lines during events, and that's kind of sad. :frown:

It used to be viable for pvp now in the old system even if all it was was spamming chaos pool. Now it is not.

Any game that forces you to actively swap between keyboard only movement to mouse is horrible. Good game design would either make everything keyboard controlled or design the controls around always using the mouse for something while your other hand utilizes the keyboard.

Well right now magic is not the only mouse-required activity on GK. To use the inventory you must use the mouse. Also, to use the kingdom interface you must use the mouse. It's not ideal but these are smaller details in the big scope of things.

I think there are better ways to fix magic. Someone suggested deleting all spells and starting over. I really like that idea; right now most spells are just horrible.

If that means recreating the spell system entirely then the concerns regarding mouse use can be discussed. I think this is something Cubical could help with but I understand he's been busy with his own projects.

You want spell ideas? I got spell ideas for DAYS

This.

Yea, that's fine. Problem is I'm not sure if we have the resources to develop the spell system right now. There was a large discussion about revising the class system which seemed to just drop off.

An easy temporary fix would be to only freeze the player during the casting animation or just during the charging and any movement would cancel the effect. I had it setup on debug like that. I don't know if it's still there. I was PKing a bit outside earlier and with 2200kg on me and running at around 1.4 speed I was still able to catch up and cancel cast because of the insane freeze time.

Yeah, that's a very important subject to focus on. Continuing discussion on that would probably be a good idea.

That's how it was set-up before if you used hotkeys. I think cbk changed that.

It's more accurate to say I made it consistent with casting without hotkeys (e.g. via the spell menu). I did it at the same time I fixed the other bugs in the wands.

As I mentioned at the time, the effect was that casters were seriously disadvantaged and that Tig should probably consider lowering casting times or removing it altogether. I don't know if he ever did.

Removing cast times sounds like an okay idea. Might require a few changes with the stats on wands, but I don't see it being a huge nuisance.

I would like to see GK totally broke down and redone. The problem is that each system is built to function on it's own. All or some of the each individual systems should rely on each other, and the system should be built as a whole.

Storyline:
- Add a storyline that means something. Put backstories on kingdoms.
- add FMV sequences to tell storylines (It is unattractive for new players to scroll
through only endless lines if text).
- Add voices to the texts option. Some people like to listen instead of read.
- Storylines also add more options for Rping purposes

Questing:
- There should be a lot of quests pertaining to the different Systems on GK. Quests for combat, Alchemy, Smithing, mining, crafting, searching, ect
- This brings in a lot of possibilities.

Skills:
- Rename current skills to abilities, or something of the sort, and add a leveling system to the current basic skills (mining, crafting, smithing, baking, fishing, ect)
- Each skill would level up. the higher you level the skill. The better stuff you produce.
- This would bring in the possibilities of adding new skills. Examples would be Hunting, Sailing, breeding (pets,) ect.
- Fot the crafting skill. You should have different ore's/items to obtain to craft certain gear. gear should be lvl based. crafting skill would work off of smithing and mining.
- Baking skill should be based on farming, so on and so forth.

Leveling:
- Make it so it is not so easy to get to lvl 110. You have 6 different skills. I shouldn't be able to reach lvl 110 unless I max out all or most of my stats.
- Make useful and interesting ways to level each stat. Something like quests for each of the skills.

Pets:
- Pets should actually mean something. X pet gives X buff.
- Rare pets are harder to obtain.

Armor/Gear:
- I addressed lvl based gear previously.
- People need some form of goal to work for other than getting lucky and winning events...
- Armors shouldn't hinder the player so much making most armor useless.

These are just a few suggestions. I hope you are getting what my goal would be. This is probably just wishful thinking. People in mmo's need a clear goal to follow with lots of options to keep busy.

Or maybe a whole new game built from scratch would be a better alternative...

We are waiting for Stefan to launch us on FB. We're not going to recreate an entirely new server.

In fact - let me be clear - moving forward, if you make suggestions so completely outrageous I'll simply delete them as spam.

GK operates with limited development resources - most of which are not just paid for but paid out of the pocket of GK management, namely Nico. I think you can understand why a suggestion like the one I've quoted smacks of ungratefulness.

Good luck.

Maybe I am missing something here but what about bow's and gambling ??

I still highly recomment in-game storyline being told. Somehow the phrase "tune in next week to find out what happens next" kinda makes me want to actually log back on the server.. and find out.. And you know I'm going to keep suggesting this until it happens.

+1

That was just a statement. There are some suggestions in there that are possible. I was just stating what i would like to see on GK like the thread said.
I wasn't saying That it should be done right away... but would like to see it done in the future...

I know how limited GK development is. Those are just suggestions. If Kingdoms on facebook brings in a whole new group of people. It will also bring in a whole new source of revenue. In turn, it should bring in more development opportunities.

revenue != development.

While GK is not entirely impossible to develop for, there are a considerable amount of factors hindering progress (i.e. mudlib and some inaccessibles / unchangeables) that make changing a lot of systems up nearly impossible (if not impossible).

Something as drastic as starting from the ground up will never occur on the Graal Kingdoms as you know it, and having popped in here and there occasionally since the start of it, I think it's for the best (albeit, I choose not to invest time in it...) -- but in contrast, Kingdoms Iphone has the ability to take advantage of several enhancements over the past 12+ years (ex: SQLite....) to offer better playability (character slots, more item dynamics, etc...) than PC / FB GK.

You guys probably don't even want me to start in on this again...
I have laid out many good professions to help balance the system and bring the community before. Slade has the right idea about balancing the system. It does not require a revamp of the whole system, but honestly it cannot be done properly until you find a way to make the trade and barter system self sufficient and self stabilizing, meaning every item would have to have a value to become something greater then itself. This is not something i just suggest lightly, it's something I was working on by myself for many months. When I suggest a detailed fishing system where you can level to catch better and more valuable fish with your increase in skill, it's a system i was building alone. I can lay it all out for you if you like but it's going to take some time because I no longer have a PC and I'm doing this all from my phone...

I'm still sitting on all the gfx work I did years ago in hopes that they would hire staff that didn't have their head up their ***, and actually wanted to bild a game that would bring the community together the way MMOs are supposed to be designed. With that said, more monsters, dungeons, loot drops, and holiday events would in no way entice me to return to go with its broken system. Restoring my hundreds of lost items would surely help but it wouldn't fix the game I love so much. Only newly designed content will do that. My fishing system for example would have around sixty different fish. The fish you catch would be based on the weather, day/night, location, and skill level of the player. You would start off with common and cheap fish, maybe enough to make a little cash but nothing more then that. There could be NPCs that would require you to catch a certain number of the rarest of these cheap fish in return for better fishing equipment, which would put you in a different skill bracket, allowing you to not only catch the cheapest fish but a few slightly more valuable fish. This would continue on up the line to master fisherman. These fish could also be used to create better foods you could use to make money, or keep your food meter up, even allow for some special buffs. They could also be used to trade to certain fisherman or scientist NPCs for study, which in return may give you a piece to an item that could become very valuable and powerful down the road. Same idea goes for the bug catching, plant farming, animal farming, fruit growing, wild play picking, detailed mining, crafting, and hunting systems I was working on alone. Every item would have a value to become something greater in one form or another. I should have continued this idea regardless of GKs standing but i honestly lost heart over the years, or I would have much of it finished by now.

I also had ideas for a house upgrade system tat would allow for larger levels, more floors, and custom wallpapers and carpets. A bank system that could store money and jewels as well as mail, and for a certain price recover that lost house for you (hopefully possible). A postal system that worked and not only allowed you to leave messages for people that were offline but attach gifts to them as well. Museum stands instead of shop stands that would allow players to see the rare items you have collected but never use, and maybe even tell a little backstory on said item. NPC menus that would allow you to choose specific topics to discuss rather then long lists of jibberish. Then you could tell a shop np you want to sell, highlight all items you want to sell, and sell them all at once, as well as a buy back option just in case you sold something of value by accident. And also class specific skills. I'm not saying a warrior shouldn't be allowed to steal but maybe a good thief can learn to hide in plain sight asking as he stays still. I have a long list of those skill ideas as well. All just food for thought I suppose but I'm glad to see people thinking again....

As for the gfx I had finished, I had some of the wild plants in different levels of growth, some fruit, veggies and other foods, a cow, a squirrel, a wolf, quite a few of the bugs in motion, and about 45 of the fish, all in different stages of development. Honestly I'm not the best GFXer so I have always welcomed assistance, but these are the type of things i personally would prefer to see i production.

Here's my thought on it:
Item A comes from mining and crafting, maybe high level skill maybe not.
Item B comes from collecting certain items and "alchemizing" them.
Combine item A with item B and get Item C (might be a useful item or maybe just a means to produce a useful item)
Item D comes from gathering, maybe bugs, maybe wild plants, and trading them to an NPC who's looking to study them in return for said item D.
Item E comes from making a specific food product, maybe from farming , or fishing, or fruit, or a combination and giving it to a hungry NPC in return for item E.
Combine item D and item E for item F, rather it be crafting or alchemy.
Togeher item. C and item F create a rare item worthy of some use.
This can continue down the line as well.
H+I=J
K+L=M
M+J= rare N
Then maybe G combined with N = inferno sword...

You get the idea. They all come from different professions. Maybe some come from hunting certain creatures (white wolf), maybe some even come from trading arras farm animal that you had to breed in a certain manner (black chicken, or a spotted cow). Every item has a value and each profession can make money or items in trade. This is how you build a self sustaining barter system.

Now I'm not just talking out my *** here. I'm not telling you to build it. I'm saying together we could build it. Yes it would take years of work, but upon it's release it would be far beyond any other MMO ever created. It would extend gameplay ten fold. It would bring in a whole new generation of gamers from all over the world. Imagine not only the six skill you have now but twelve to fifteen professions to specialize in. Everyone having no choice but to work together to really make progress in the game. A miner would have to supply a blacksmith materials, and the blacksmith would have to build better equipment for the miner (copper pick, iron pick, mining hat to prevent hose pesky monsters from popping out) even the baker could gather supplies to sell food with mining buffs to the miner (one less hit per rock). It would be a full community effort for once and for all. Bug catchers, and pet breeders, and jewelers, and farmers , and fisherman, and alchemist, carpenters, hunters, all working as one big unit...
Now it wouldn't fix the pvp system by any means, but it would certainly be a big step in the right direction , especially with the addition of class specific skills that could be used to balance the system like slade was saying.
You want a large community having fun and workin together for long periods of time? This is how you do it.

I merged your posts. Please do not spam the threads. Also please do not use bad language here.

Thank you.

:p
 

Thanks.
It wasn't easy typing it all on an iphone4, that's why it was in pieces. Sorry about all that. Also I didn't actually use foul language, I blanked it out myself, just making the point is all. Sorry about that too.