Graal Suggestions...My experiance...

[DARKVILLIN]

So here I am....DARKVILLIN...20 years old...I believe I started playing graal when I was about 12 or 13 you know when you could play for free...The good ol servers like Auroria, Dolphina, G3k, and I am sure there are more...which you all would agree upon.
I guess you can say I've had the full graal experience--Using the loadlevel glitch ages ago, learning to create levels, music, and graphics, working for Graal2001,Kingdoms, Babylon, Sanstrata, and many more...Watching friends come and go as I have constantly debating whether or not graal is really worth staying and playing again...and again...and again.
No doubt, I've had tons of fun...sadly with my Hell son "Crono" and many other graalians--riding a boat with Unixmad on GK and listening to him talking about pillaging villages and eating everyone...and drinking coffee...yes kinda interesting it was... and lastly getting constantly critiqued by Konidias. So where does all this take me over the past 7 or 8 years...To the current graal.
I recently came back again to work with my good friend Konidias. But I was kinda let down seeing as Graal is at an all time low in the player count. I mean what gives? I know Cyberjouer doesn't count on money from Graal to strive its company...AND YES I do realize this topic has been gone into thousands of times but if I must do it again then who knows maybe Stefan and Unixmad will finally understand...if it just is swept under the carpet like most of the concerns of graal...then I guess well I dont know.

Anywho...This Thread is not about bashing graal or anyone else it is about constructive critism that could help the "big guys" bring back players to graal. Feel free to share some of your experiences as well to help bring back those memories ya know...
First off...Why not let the classic servers be free again...to everyone...I mean okay yeah the servers are nice but we really shouldn't have to pay...this isnt World of Warcraft or Starwars Galaxies. You know and if we do have to pay at least lower the price like it used to be. We all know Graal makes most of its money from Private servers anyways...I mean look how many there are...Its ridiculous.
Also, Just a suggestion but could we get some active Globals...I mean some of them are good but back in the day was the best. They were always on and always available. Even though alot of people don't agree or liked Nemesis he was always on. If you don't like that example I can go with Snake Eyes...or Lyndzey when she had more time. Snake Eyes was probably one of the nicest guys I knew...Always willing to sacrifice his time. I mean that is what you globals should be doing...you are globals for a reason.
Lastly, The forums...Just my thought...I think they should be opened back up to anyone with a graal account. Trial or not. Yeah spam might increase but its sad having a forum community this small. There are thousands of ideas out there that could help graal grow and playerworld production increase as well...
Limiting all these things to try and convince players to upgrade is not entirely working in my book. Its just taking away priviliages that we once had and pushing us away from wanting to pay. I found it kinda disturbing that to get Christmas items on Kingdoms this year you had to upgrade your account. Honestly that is just low...
I mean I don't care about VIP or "GOLD" accounts but at least let the regular accounts be free again...If you're worried about "hackers" and people abusing accounts...let your globals do their jobs like they used to. I mean you could allow some months be free... Just please help get our graalian population back up.

Thanks for whomever reads this and feel free to share your experiences and suggestions as well,
DV

[konidias]

Your words are not falling on deaf ears... or is it blind eyes?

From what I've heard, some of the suggestions you mentioned are going to be taking place. I don't really think this thread was necessary. Stefan knows what is going on and they are working to change things. Give it some time.


noob.

[DARKVILLIN]

You're the newb. Noob. You could have said, "Thanks for mentioning me Dark, I heart you too"
Buuut nooo you must always stab me in the face. Row row row your boat...Grr

[konidias]

The only thing I have to offer to this thread is that I think Stefan/Unixmad/management shouldn't keep their plans secret. I've heard some interesting plans for Graal but I had to get the information from someone who isn't management...

If you guys have big changes coming you should let your players know what is going on. I know there is the chance that people will disagree with what you have planned... but it's better to know who doesn't like your idea in advance than it is to go and make it all happen and have everyone hate it.

There isn't really any reason to keep changes to Graal secret. It's not like you have competitors coming here to steal your ideas or anything. It's not like surprising people has really worked in the past here. Most surprises have been disappointing from what I've gathered. Just let people know what is going on and what you guys are planning. It would ease a lot of stress.

[DARKVILLIN]

Agreed.

[Shrimp Okonomiyaki]

Hello Darkvillin. :o
Long time.

[Demisis_P2P]

Remember that time you scammed $600 from people on Era by saying your dog needed an operation? Haha, yeah.

[Crono]

"Gone" already DV? lol

No doubt, I've had tons of fun...sadly with my Hell son "Crono" and many other graalians

LOL Sanstrata rocked man. For those who don't get it, on Sanstrata you go to heaven or hell when you die and simply step on the warper to go back to Earth. I think it depended on your AP.

DV pretended to be the king of hell one day and I pretended I was the prince. We ran around pretending we owned the place XD. Good days...

[Galdor]

the dark lord unixmad's mind is set, it cannot be changed. you are wasting your time here darkvillin, flee while you still can.

[James]

I totally agree with you. As long as I've been here it seems I had the most fun when Graal was free. Just because of the fact that my friends didn't have to worry about shelling out $20 dollars every time their account ran out to continue playing. You can say what you want about this next comment, but it's only my honest opinion. Content of the playerworlds is a big thing, but the players/community is what truely makes a great atmosphere/playerworld. After awhile I just used Graal to communicate with my friends to play other games...yeah, sounds retarded, but it's the truth.

I mean, out of all my decent friends that played this game, they either don't play it anymore because it costs money, or they've moved on to bigger and better things because, hey, the game really hasn't really had any major breakthroughs the past few years, it's not necesarilly the staffs fault. But come on, Graal2001 did well, Kingdoms did well, Zone did well....I mean, it seems like whenever there is an effort to make a good server the Graal Online team does pretty good! I'm surprised they haven't made a thread asking players what type of server they want, because I know they could deliver.

But really, the people that really made this game fun to me had to of been IceHawk, Gabriel, Karsh, Lamer, Cali, Er1c, Geno, Kamuii, Merlin, Urashima, Gameo, Marla, IcePick (just because he was a jackass), Valder, Lugie, Woru, Vermain, Hiryuu, Zulithe, Dante, annr, Lycia (she was just fun to make fun of), Zorro, Brad, Alkaren, Fai, Torankusu, G_Yoshi....I mean the list goes on and on for me, and I don't even think 1/4 of those players even touch Graal anymore.

This game has always been pretty much community driven, so I don't completely understand why they don't get more input from the community.

[Devil]

Haven't seen you in a long time DV.

[Hawk]

But really, the people that really made this game fun to me had to of been IceHawk, Gabriel, Karsh, Lamer, Cali, Er1c, Geno, Kamuii, Merlin, Urashima, Gameo, Marla, IcePick

HAHA. IcePick = geek. Oh, and Lycia.

[James]

Originally Posted by Hawk

HAHA. IcePick = geek. Oh, and Lycia.

Oh, I forgot about you Hawk. Haven't seen you around in forever. IcePick amused me because he thought he was so smart, but he was the only one that seemed to think that. Lycia just kind of reminds me of Peach in a wierd way. They were both losers.

[Hawk]

yeah. I didn't know you were still active on this, it seems like everyone on this forum are newbies now.
You also forgot TrueHeaT =P

[James]

Originally Posted by Hawk

yeah. I didn't know you were still active on this, it seems like everyone on this forum are newbies now.
You also forgot TrueHeaT =P

Shoot, for some reason I thought I put him right after IceHawk....I was too busy thinking about all these old players names. But yeah, definitely troohate!

[Zorro]

Originally Posted by James

I totally agree with you. As long as I've been here it seems I had the most fun when Graal was free. Just because of the fact that my friends didn't have to worry about shelling out $20 dollars every time their account ran out to continue playing. You can say what you want about this next comment, but it's only my honest opinion. Content of the playerworlds is a big thing, but the players/community is what truely makes a great atmosphere/playerworld. After awhile I just used Graal to communicate with my friends to play other games...yeah, sounds retarded, but it's the truth.

I mean, out of all my decent friends that played this game, they either don't play it anymore because it costs money, or they've moved on to bigger and better things because, hey, the game really hasn't really had any major breakthroughs the past few years, it's not necesarilly the staffs fault. But come on, Graal2001 did well, Kingdoms did well, Zone did well....I mean, it seems like whenever there is an effort to make a good server the Graal Online team does pretty good! I'm surprised they haven't made a thread asking players what type of server they want, because I know they could deliver.

But really, the people that really made this game fun to me had to of been IceHawk, Gabriel, Karsh, Lamer, Cali, Er1c, Geno, Kamuii, Merlin, Urashima, Gameo, Marla, IcePick (just because he was a jackass), Valder, Lugie, Woru, Vermain, Hiryuu, Zulithe, Dante, annr, Lycia (she was just fun to make fun of), Zorro, Brad, Alkaren, Fai, Torankusu, G_Yoshi....I mean the list goes on and on for me, and I don't even think 1/4 of those players even touch Graal anymore.

This game has always been pretty much community driven, so I don't completely understand why they don't get more input from the community.

I really dont play much anymore. I should....I have been missing it alot lately. Graal is a great thing, and let it never go away. I guess graal being work just kind of got old after a few years. But yeah, alot of good people are gone. I wish I had a way to contact some of them.

[DustyPorViva]

Graal doesn't offer enough to justify payment plans. If Graal started offering something new every week as well as something more organized and structured for their players I think the p2p would work a lot better. Right now it seems they're depending more on loyalty then anything else...

[Admins]

This thread is quite pointless. The Graal player count is not at an all-time low, also there are a lot of updates on playerworlds if you care, and we plan to open things more like we have said before, with guest accounts and other stuff (we will not explain our full commercial plan here though, sorry).

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Stefan

This thread is quite pointless. The Graal player count is not at an all-time low, also there are a lot of updates on playerworlds if you care, and we plan to open things more like we have said before, with guest accounts and other stuff (we will not explain our full commercial plan here though, sorry).

Still not as fun as the good ol days though.

[Admins]

Originally Posted by Gerami

Still not as fun as the good ol days though.

More fun Think of the good new days

[Darlene159]

Originally Posted by Stefan

This thread is quite pointless. The Graal player count is not at an all-time low

I can't figure out why some are saying the playercount is at an all time low either. I mean, I see new people all the time on game, and a new account on the forums almost daily.

Originally Posted by Stefan

More fun Think of the good new days

*Waits patiently*

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Stefan

The Graal player count is not at an all-time low

It would be nice to see statistics of "active accounts".

[Spark910]

Originally Posted by Stephen

It would be nice to see statistics of "active accounts".

Graal.us says high 600's for players (like 670-690). That's a bit low, but not too much. I have never seen more than 700 frequently in the time I've been on Graal post P2P.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Hawk

yeah. I didn't know you were still active on this, it seems like everyone on this forum are newbies now.
You also forgot TrueHeaT =P

Hawk, aren't you the guy born the same day, month, year, and general area (BC's lower mainland) as me?

[Hawk]

Yup. You're the stalker i've been having nightmares about.

[pooper200000]

Originally Posted by Darlene159

I can't figure out why some are saying the playercount is at an all time low either. I mean, I see new people all the time on game, and a new account on the forums almost daily.

*Waits patiently*

you mean a new account as one thats been banned and is back or what?? im confused...

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Stefan

More fun Think of the good new days

The good days was running around servers like Xone, Sanstrata, etc pking people in the middle of main towns, huge guild wars on servers, server rivalries, new Graal Online servers (i remember I was excited about g2k2), tons of players.

Today isn't that bad though, now that I think about it (new friends, servers like Zone). I miss the old Graal too though.

[Darlene159]

Originally Posted by pooper200000

you mean a new account as one thats been banned and is back or what?? im confused...

Um, no....I mean new accounts. I am sure some are from people who have had other accounts. I just know that almost every day I see a new account signed up for the forums.

[Gambet]

When I checked the playercount it was at 666 -- no lie!

[Googi]

If buyable lifetime classic isn't fiscally sustainable then there's no way that free classic could be.

[Tyhm]

I'm outta patience. I'm not one for Nostalgia, but here's how it looks to me:
A few years ago we had Duplo blocks. Big, difficult to get lodged in the throat, simple cubes, mostly good for making houses, don't hold together too well for making skyscrapers. And we all said Man: It would be awesome if we could get Legos. Smaller, more complex pieces, we could make doors and windows and robot arms and baseball bats and everything with Legos.

Then we got Legos, and the Duplos disappeared. For a while we were too excited to notice the latter: Yay, we can make custom ganis! We can make custom weapons systems! We can - hey, Bombs don't work the same anymore...carrying doesn't work the same with these ganis...bows don't work the same on GMaps...well that's okay, we've got Legos, we can make our own bombs and carrying and bows and arrows! We can make them better!

Then, as always happens, the turnover came. The Workers of Old, who grew up on Duplos and moved on to Legos, left. A new generation came in who looked at the legos, blanched, and left. It's exponentially harder to get someone who can code the new Legos than it was to get someone who can code the old Duplos: With the Old Duplos, you lay down a Kull's Castle block, add some Baddy blocks and some Heart-Vase blocks, top it off with a Fullheart block, and you've got a quest. Now...
Considerably harder.

This is why I keep campaigning for Bigger Blocks. Not necessarily a return to the stodgy old days, just legos assembled into duplo-sized boxes. When servers can start out with Kull's Castle blocks, Baddy blocks, System blocks, Vase-Heart blocks and Fullheart blocks, Graal will finally have the best of both worlds - it will be as advertised, a game where any shmoe can get himself a server and make himself some quests.

The methodology varies. My current favorite theory is for a Server Backup/Server Restore function to be invented, then for the GST to build Template servers, back them up, and post the backups on the "Thank you for buying a server!" page.
In the meantime, Hell Raven's been nice enough to offer what scripts Classic presently offers...just as soon as the new system, baddies, etcetera are scripted...-_-;

*rant the second* I guess what the big problem is, is there isn't a definitive backdrop anymore. When Stefan coded the original system, the original bow, the original bomb, the original baddy, there was a common language - if(baddycount=0) hide; was universally understood. Now, no two servers - hell, no two scripters - are in agreement to what the line should be, what the system should be. If we had The Default, The Template, then we'd all know what The Line Should Be. We'd all hate it and make our own way and insist it's a million times better, but we'd all also recognize that the new kid we just hired to script is going to expect it to be if(baddycount=0)hide;