06-22-2020, 11:27 PM
long post time? maybe. this has kind of seemed to merge with other discussions on the suggestions.
The large appeal to Eternia, is and has always been really, the lack of wiping periodically. I don't think doing that would help the game at all, or looking at it as some episodic set of books that have a concrete conclusion. That takes away from the factor of the players shaping the story in a largely sandbox RP. That also being said, timeskips periodically are not a good idea either really. Frankly in my opinion, in the case of e1, which is where I started playing for a good number of years. The announcement of spires and its related timeskip for it, all but killed peoples energy to really drive any further plot or change it, it ruined the plans that people had as well as just led to an abrupt end to a game that still had a lot going for it in terms of story and such. Cinderfall v Nostvale is sort of a decent example really. Despite the fact that they were a rebel town, they were starting to have a come up and posing as an actual threat to Nostvale at the time, people had certain things planned for in it)which I frankly don't remember off the top of my head, but people were doing things) but ended up just dropping it all once the end was set in stone.
Spires, I don't really think ended on a bad note. The last arc it had, with the Demi Angels and such, was not particularly well liked. While I personally found it neat and thought more could have been done with it, It was what it was. There didn't seem to be much of a way to go after the big bad guy faction(Dawn/Dusk at the time) was all but destroyed. It's remnants had either done what Osrona is doing now, found their place amongs't the other cities, died off, or just left Agartha. It felt like it more of reached some kind of conclusion in a way. The most that really could have been done on that front was more spire stuff, or just introducing some big threat for the remaining cities that coexisted with each other to fight. But it'd probably have seemed a bit forced at that point.
As for e3. I just feel like it's lost a lot of it's energy as a game. Especially when it had a timeskip as early as it did, even if it was sort of one to continue Esshar's plot and revamp some things. It's fun to RP and interact, which is good. But I feel that there isn't much to keep myself attached to the world and the things outside of cities. The cities had their interesting quirks, Theria was sort of like that lawless city, you could do whatever it is you wanted really with very few restrictions and it was quite lively until recently with IC events turning a lot of people away from it.
Osrona struck me as that city that ruled with sort of an Iron fist. One that held a lot of standing and power that whipped people into shape like a large kingdom should, or at least try to, when people stepped out of line. It even had things sort of accurate like nobility and peasantry and a hierarchy because of it. The nobles looked down on the peasantry and the peasantry hated the nobles. Pre-timeskip the peasantry was treated poorly by the 'police' of Osrona that were a separate branch from the military, which caused a divide between the peasantry, the police, as well as the nobles even more to an extent because they sometimes had a hand in the actions.
Myllenoris was the city that tried to keep some form of balance, but wasn't afraid to put it's foot down and kick someone's ass, or help do so if someone threatened such a balance, i.e Osrona, Theria, and Ilburg during the whole witch drama that's since evolved into a nationwide problem. Or at least was.
I frankly never interacted with Ilburg to much, but it kinda struck me as an even less strict, more far out Theria, with it's own little desert charm and banditry thrown in.
Back onto the main point though, as some have said, e1 had lasted for 7 years, I played 3-4 of it. Even if the map wasn't as large and even if it didn't have some of the features we do today, I feel it was a better iteration of how the game could be. Especially with our current features. In my personal opinion, it was more free and open to do things you wanted, to bring changes and events that impacted the world that were interesting a lot easier. There was side plots and things to get yourself involved with often, world events that happened that brought the whole server together and just more creative freedom with how you could do and earn things as well as how you could shape things.
I feel like after e1, that was toned down and stripped a lot, for better or for worse, I think that is up to ones personal opinion, but I think it was for worse. While I've had good memories from across all the games, my fondest ones are from e1 and most things don't much hold a candle to the things that happened in e1 in terms of world building and events. People were always out and about in e1, running into each other in the wilds and causing meaningful conflicts for characters and giving people subplots to focus on, even if it was just some revenge plot, or making some kind of relationship or friendship with someone you met roaming about and involving yourself with their character more. Roaming around outside the city was still dangerous, but just outright being a murder happy person that killed a person on sight, even if they were the worst person to exist, was frowned upon heavily. While it still is, I don't see it enforced as much really or spoken about.
I think the lack of some of this is one of the glaring problems we have now in all honesty. There's little reason to leave cities anymore, nothing that makes the world outside of the city an attraction, at least not often. We had things like the hunts, but those didn't last long. There's a few world events happening now, which albeit I'm a little sad they haven't really been at a time that I can participate, but it's a step in the right direction from my point of view. We could do with more of those, on a smaller scale. Have a dedicated DM or a few hop around the world and look for scenes happening, while it might be a little bit of an interruption to whatever is going on, they could have a little mini event with small scale material rewards, that are either just completely random happenings, or related to whatever someone is doing in that scene, for example, people farming Daemons, have something happen where a bigger and angrier one comes out and attacks them for killing numerous daemon. Let them get an increased reward of the materials related to the thing they are farming and such. Something easy to manage but still engaging, as well as something consequential in the world for their actions.
I think another reason that cities are quite quiet right now as well, is the recent plot happenings, they've quite divided people icly, Theria losing people like Rinn, Magne and co. for example and Osrona getting wiped has driven people away. Their attachments to the area are gone, so they have little reason to stay there or frequent the places anymore and if they do, it's for a very specific reason and they don't do anything there other than that. It just turns around to them sitting around in houses or buildings and RP'ing with a select few, having mostly private scenes, or just being afk. Things still haven't entirely settled down after the end of the recent plot arc, but I think thing will be lively again at some point, without wiping cities and settlements clean off the map.
I've kind of rambled mostly in this post though so a tldr.
Make the world more engaging, small scale events and improvements to existing things(Like the Corrupter in the mines, he's easy to avoid and doesnt do or give much, if anything at all). More leniency when it comes to subplots and events, more avenues for people to pursue such events and more ways to include people outside of a factions inner big boy circle. Encourage people actually going out and starting relationships with other characters in some way, whether it be a friendly or hostile one(ik this isn't easy to push and probably more of a pipe dream suggestion). Make the fact that just killing on first meet caps or without much of any development be frowned upon more and display that message more. There were frequent announcements about it to remind people in e1 and I think it helped. Just do things that improve the quality of life for the game and it's RP in the world really. I do agree with some others suggestions, Like some of peeps, so I don't feel the need to restate everything others have said.
The large appeal to Eternia, is and has always been really, the lack of wiping periodically. I don't think doing that would help the game at all, or looking at it as some episodic set of books that have a concrete conclusion. That takes away from the factor of the players shaping the story in a largely sandbox RP. That also being said, timeskips periodically are not a good idea either really. Frankly in my opinion, in the case of e1, which is where I started playing for a good number of years. The announcement of spires and its related timeskip for it, all but killed peoples energy to really drive any further plot or change it, it ruined the plans that people had as well as just led to an abrupt end to a game that still had a lot going for it in terms of story and such. Cinderfall v Nostvale is sort of a decent example really. Despite the fact that they were a rebel town, they were starting to have a come up and posing as an actual threat to Nostvale at the time, people had certain things planned for in it)which I frankly don't remember off the top of my head, but people were doing things) but ended up just dropping it all once the end was set in stone.
Spires, I don't really think ended on a bad note. The last arc it had, with the Demi Angels and such, was not particularly well liked. While I personally found it neat and thought more could have been done with it, It was what it was. There didn't seem to be much of a way to go after the big bad guy faction(Dawn/Dusk at the time) was all but destroyed. It's remnants had either done what Osrona is doing now, found their place amongs't the other cities, died off, or just left Agartha. It felt like it more of reached some kind of conclusion in a way. The most that really could have been done on that front was more spire stuff, or just introducing some big threat for the remaining cities that coexisted with each other to fight. But it'd probably have seemed a bit forced at that point.
As for e3. I just feel like it's lost a lot of it's energy as a game. Especially when it had a timeskip as early as it did, even if it was sort of one to continue Esshar's plot and revamp some things. It's fun to RP and interact, which is good. But I feel that there isn't much to keep myself attached to the world and the things outside of cities. The cities had their interesting quirks, Theria was sort of like that lawless city, you could do whatever it is you wanted really with very few restrictions and it was quite lively until recently with IC events turning a lot of people away from it.
Osrona struck me as that city that ruled with sort of an Iron fist. One that held a lot of standing and power that whipped people into shape like a large kingdom should, or at least try to, when people stepped out of line. It even had things sort of accurate like nobility and peasantry and a hierarchy because of it. The nobles looked down on the peasantry and the peasantry hated the nobles. Pre-timeskip the peasantry was treated poorly by the 'police' of Osrona that were a separate branch from the military, which caused a divide between the peasantry, the police, as well as the nobles even more to an extent because they sometimes had a hand in the actions.
Myllenoris was the city that tried to keep some form of balance, but wasn't afraid to put it's foot down and kick someone's ass, or help do so if someone threatened such a balance, i.e Osrona, Theria, and Ilburg during the whole witch drama that's since evolved into a nationwide problem. Or at least was.
I frankly never interacted with Ilburg to much, but it kinda struck me as an even less strict, more far out Theria, with it's own little desert charm and banditry thrown in.
Back onto the main point though, as some have said, e1 had lasted for 7 years, I played 3-4 of it. Even if the map wasn't as large and even if it didn't have some of the features we do today, I feel it was a better iteration of how the game could be. Especially with our current features. In my personal opinion, it was more free and open to do things you wanted, to bring changes and events that impacted the world that were interesting a lot easier. There was side plots and things to get yourself involved with often, world events that happened that brought the whole server together and just more creative freedom with how you could do and earn things as well as how you could shape things.
I feel like after e1, that was toned down and stripped a lot, for better or for worse, I think that is up to ones personal opinion, but I think it was for worse. While I've had good memories from across all the games, my fondest ones are from e1 and most things don't much hold a candle to the things that happened in e1 in terms of world building and events. People were always out and about in e1, running into each other in the wilds and causing meaningful conflicts for characters and giving people subplots to focus on, even if it was just some revenge plot, or making some kind of relationship or friendship with someone you met roaming about and involving yourself with their character more. Roaming around outside the city was still dangerous, but just outright being a murder happy person that killed a person on sight, even if they were the worst person to exist, was frowned upon heavily. While it still is, I don't see it enforced as much really or spoken about.
I think the lack of some of this is one of the glaring problems we have now in all honesty. There's little reason to leave cities anymore, nothing that makes the world outside of the city an attraction, at least not often. We had things like the hunts, but those didn't last long. There's a few world events happening now, which albeit I'm a little sad they haven't really been at a time that I can participate, but it's a step in the right direction from my point of view. We could do with more of those, on a smaller scale. Have a dedicated DM or a few hop around the world and look for scenes happening, while it might be a little bit of an interruption to whatever is going on, they could have a little mini event with small scale material rewards, that are either just completely random happenings, or related to whatever someone is doing in that scene, for example, people farming Daemons, have something happen where a bigger and angrier one comes out and attacks them for killing numerous daemon. Let them get an increased reward of the materials related to the thing they are farming and such. Something easy to manage but still engaging, as well as something consequential in the world for their actions.
I think another reason that cities are quite quiet right now as well, is the recent plot happenings, they've quite divided people icly, Theria losing people like Rinn, Magne and co. for example and Osrona getting wiped has driven people away. Their attachments to the area are gone, so they have little reason to stay there or frequent the places anymore and if they do, it's for a very specific reason and they don't do anything there other than that. It just turns around to them sitting around in houses or buildings and RP'ing with a select few, having mostly private scenes, or just being afk. Things still haven't entirely settled down after the end of the recent plot arc, but I think thing will be lively again at some point, without wiping cities and settlements clean off the map.
I've kind of rambled mostly in this post though so a tldr.
Make the world more engaging, small scale events and improvements to existing things(Like the Corrupter in the mines, he's easy to avoid and doesnt do or give much, if anything at all). More leniency when it comes to subplots and events, more avenues for people to pursue such events and more ways to include people outside of a factions inner big boy circle. Encourage people actually going out and starting relationships with other characters in some way, whether it be a friendly or hostile one(ik this isn't easy to push and probably more of a pipe dream suggestion). Make the fact that just killing on first meet caps or without much of any development be frowned upon more and display that message more. There were frequent announcements about it to remind people in e1 and I think it helped. Just do things that improve the quality of life for the game and it's RP in the world really. I do agree with some others suggestions, Like some of peeps, so I don't feel the need to restate everything others have said.