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Well it's not just a lack of content, which Björn and I are still working on regardless of this (seemingly useless) thread. It's also a lack of technical support and support from harassment, as well as stopping hackers. Not only that, but there is one semi-active events master (Ravenblade)... that's it. The rest are gone/quit/inactive. It's time to hire some more events masters. Since Sam tends to dwell in the past, he can't really find anyone to add to the team, since everyone has done something wrong in his eyes. We need more entertainment. It's not only new content that will keep people, it's the ability to get something done, quickly. If a new person is being harassed they can tell just about anyone GK and nothing will get done, who would want to stay? Googi will probably disagree, because god knows Googi loves to disagree, but I'd like to push that FAQs merge with Events Masters in to a team together, and in the merge process, giving them GP rights and titling the position generally as, "Player Admin" or "Player Relations". This step would:
1) Get more interactive events going.
2) Allow players to have speedy, responsive advice and help.
3) Enable players to quickly get protection against harassment.
4) Provide a source of information for the entire community.
5) Keep players interested with the notion that there are actual staff on.
If you take a second to compare to any successful game, or even a successful Graal server, you will notice there are always a team of people for support that are able to do a lot of things for the players. Support is a giant contribution to a game. If you notice major games like: Diablo, WoW, EverQuest, etc... you notice they have "GMs" that are available 24/7 who are able to quick-fix problems, solve problems with harassment, etc. I think a more active staff team is a major contribution to the amount of players on the game. I notice every time I am on Zone there are about 3 people at least on staff tag... and while this COULD be obnoxious, as long as there are people available, people are happy.
I'd like to move GK into a more event-active community. More events should be planned on the forums, to get people using these more. How about an NPC server message listing places people can go for support, in case a staff member isn't on? How about allowing more people access to the support center. GK NEEDS support for the players, not just new content.
We have all been struggling these past few months trying to decide what we need, when really... it's everything. It's a complete tune-up.
Lets change the staff around,
Lets create new ideas,
Lets add new content,
but most of all, lets make things interesting.
I plan to begin working vigorously to bring this new "life" to GK. I will call this project "GK Revival: Alpha-to-Complete"
I am going to take as much as I can under my belt and try my hardest to fix this place. It makes me sad to see such a lower player count... We can do better than this. I see the state right now as nothing is going to get fixed until someone, like myself, decides to be assertive, and take it under my hands, instead of asking. This project called Graal Kingdoms can once again strive with 100 players.
I will be contacting friends with development abilities in hopes that they will help me. I will teach Ravenblade to graduate from a mediocre LAT to a great LAT, and I will provide my knowledge of development to the rest of the people involved in the project. All ideas can be run through me, and will eventually have to be approved by Stefan and Bjorn, but for now how about you give me your ideas and we can complete this, and then when it's all finished, we will do one major check by Stefan and Bjorn. That will solve the problem of a slow checking process.
Bjorn is doing a great job on GK, in my opinion. He's been here for years, though. Lets help him out. So anyone who is interested, help me help him.
In addition to the updates above, I plan to implement the following:
- Shop system that allows items to be purchased in other currencies besides plat (diamonds, rubies, sapphires, etc... giving a people a reason to farm for these items in the dungeons and the haunted houses [a reason to play]) Nice items may be sold for large amounts of each currency.
- Battle island point system: When someone dies on battle island, they will drop a trinket (depending on their kingdom [reason to upgrade > join a kingdom]) and the killer will be able to pick up the trinket. There will be nice items in exchange for the trinkets and since each person likes different types of fighting (some magic, some fighting, etc) some kingdoms trinket exchanges will be fighting, some will be protection and some will be magic, giving people a different reason to kill someone from a different kingdom.
- I plan to finish the Orcs that are so eminently in the mudlib, and some of the graphics are even complete. The orcs will have camp sites on a newer island that I plan to implement with mushroom houses and more interesting things. There will be an orc leader who respawns once daily who drops a trinket that everyone in your party will be able to pick up (like a lord item). The Orc leader will be very difficult to kill, and in turn this will give people a reason to:
~ Party
~ Plan an event together
~ Team together
~ Create a sense of relying on friends [which makes it harder for people to leave]
- New items will be released for house decorations (these are already complete) which will give people more of a reason to work for house supplies
- Newbie quests will be made for new players to be able to do quests in order to earn items and basic armor and experience.
- Other quests will be made as well that people will be able to repeat.
- New monsters will be implemented. Some of the graphics for these new monsters are already made and sitting on my desktop.
- Party-only dungeons and maps that will give more of a reason to play together with other people, so GK isn't just a solo game anymore.
- Horses will no longer fully protect people from being PKed. If you get hit three times really quickly, you will fall off your horse and you horse will continue to run a bit before it slows down.
- Extremely rare monster drops will be created, giving people a reason to sit around and kill things, besides just gaining experience.
- Spar rating, to give people a reason to spar each other, and will allow those PKers some more opponents. Special spar rating may allow you to gain entrance to some places others cannot.
- Instantly place upstairs and downstairs and move stairs around as if it's a piece of furniture in your house by using the event house scrolls. (Possibly a tile editor, not sure... will have to definitely discuss with Stefan/Bjorn)
- Horse armor ( which I already have the graphics almost done ) which will allow you to stay on your horse longer than 3 hits (with ac+ advantages for the horse)
- Market stands may be placed on main.gmap and items can be traded on them for things other than just plat (diamonds, event coins, anything)
-- I am already working on a new system for staff members too which will give the more and easier control.
-- New events can be made easily, and possibly even events automatically controlled by the NPC server (example: I am thinking of a number between 10 and 50) and whoever PMs the NPC-server with the closest wins after a few minutes.
- New jobs can be added like herbalism and fishing (so you don't just get fish for food) and supplies from herbalism can in turn be used for Alchemy.
Are you guys interested yet? That's just the beginning. Let's get to work! Contact me for more information (forum pm, in game, aim) or for any questions. Please voice your opinions on this, because I think it's the community who should really decide what happens to GK. All of this is easily with in our reach.
Also, I will open up my sound editing programs and start working on new sound effects for things like cricket sounds, etc. Could be interesting *pokes draxx!*
Edit:
- Will also go out there to say that we can add multi-layered dungeons with bosses in the bottom that only respawn once a week or so that drop very nice items, and require a party to beat.
- May also see about scrapping floating island, and moving battle island to an island to the side of the new island. |
11-29-2007, 06:39 PM
Hybrid Mode
