Okay guys I though something and I wish to share it with you(as much as my poor english allows me to).I think I found a simply way to keep and expand our playerbase.There is not anything that needs to be changed, just a little coding from Zhokril and I am sure that he can do it;)
IDEA ONE: (this is taken from another mud when I used to try to play when FL was down)When someone reaches pinnacle we can make the expirience double for whole the lands for two hours for example: has reached his last tittle, he is now known as all the learning doubles for all the creatures of Aabahran! Or something of the sort.
IDEA TWO:When a character have reached some IG hours...for example at every 70 hours of play you can choose to get a binded item like dragon from your temple or your hometown shopkeeper that you can buy.When you get 70 IG hours you can get one, When you get 140 IG hours you can get another one...and so on and so on.The item will not be very good but like the common rares.The item can be different for every class.For example if I play a ninja and reach 70 IG hours I can go to Gerek the shopkeeper and choose to buy for 50k gold one of the following items for face:Shadow hood, faceless shadow or Rogue's faceplate.
This way we solve the problems with gaining ranks, groups.And some of the problems with rares, because I am sure that anyone would be proud to wear instead of a white veil his personal item for example.
Double XP - there is already double XP. Zrothum recently posted how he got 2.5k XP from killing a mob. How much more double you want than that? 5k?
Binded items based on hours played - that is not a good idea. Binded items (rewards) should be given sololy to people who contrubute to the atmosphere in our mud i.e. RP. And 70 hours? Wtf? if it was 500 hours I would have been more inclined to agree, but 70?
binded- good idea. Deffffffffff.
Since i play usually one at a time! 
I like the ideas, but I think it would grow stale after a while.
One thing that I have seen before and really thought was a great idea was a bi/yearly event where everyone voiced ideas on what they wanted to see in game. The IMMs picked say the top 10 items that they would be willing to contribute time to, then the players voted on the top 10. The winning choice was then implemented by IMMs. Now, this was also tied to voluntary donations. The top 10 list was weighted by time involved. Coding a new class required significantly more $ than say an extra channel like clan.
It gave the players a voice, and the ability to actually get what they wanted to see in the game and it helped to support the IMMs time with $. They had a bit larger player base, but people just ate it up. A LOT of money was raised.
I think to really grow you have to give people the feeling that they have voice. Otherwise, no matter how totally awesome your niche idea is, it will still only appeal to a 'niche' audience.
I don't like rewards that are based solely on playtime spent, personally.
I've been spending some time over at CF recently to see how they run things over there. They definitely give more to their players in and out of game. They've been averaging about 25-30 players on for the past 2 weeks that I've been over there.
I'll re-iterate then: I don't like rewards that are based solely on playtime. I've averaged, at best, 5-6 hours a week over the last few months (I've been very busy the last couple of weeks and haven't been playing at all for them). Why? Because I have lots of stuff to do IRL, and FL isn't my only non-social non-work hobby. I'm not caballed, I have maybe 2 basic rares, I'm not even level 50... but I do have a char going.
Start doing things like you were suggesting on the other thread, like requiring 50 hours a month to keep cabal spots or rares, and I wouldn't even be playing at all - because anything I could accomplish in my playtime will be wiped out in a little while anyways.
I've never been a fan of cabals auto-promoting after 10 hours - I've always felt that promotion should be either a matter of cabal leaders/elders deciding you have earned it or through a vote of other cabal members. We've implemented the auto-promotion because we simply lack the players for people to be reliably voted up in a reasonable period of time, and unfortunately being noticed by cabal leaders/elders can be little more than a matter of being around at the right time rather than being around in the right way.
If you want more people to play this game, you can't just look for things that appeal to only gamers who are willing to spend hours every day on it - you have to look for things that will appeal to more casual players.
We don't need casual players mate, we need power gamers playing 10 hours a week.We must give a LOT, a lot of to the players.Quest everything with lower waiting time/requirements.Custom rares, nice tittles this is an open mud for everyone, newbie friendly.If we wish to be friendly then we need to give more and invest more.
No, we need players, PERIOD. Casual or power, it doesn't matter - we simply need more people.
EDIT: Lower time requirements? That doesn't sound like something aimed at power gamers. Newbie friendly quests? Again, not something aimed at power gamers. Not exactly consistent.
This whole mud thing is like doing business.If you invest more-you recieve more.If you invest less, your earnings will be little.Give a lot more to the playerbase, this is the best text mud in the world with the best coding.And I am sure that it is after I have played some other muds!Let the others feel it!Please Immortals comment as well.
No, we need players, PERIOD. Casual or power, it doesn't matter - we simply need more people.
EDIT: Lower time requirements? That doesn't sound like something aimed at power gamers. Newbie friendly quests? Again, not something aimed at power gamers. Not exactly consistent.
For ****'s sake there is one power gamer in all of us.Power gaming comes with the motivation.Why 50% of the players doesn't play anymore-MOTIVATION.They don't play because they DON'T get what they feel they deserve.Give them oppurtunities for custom tittles, custom suits and cabal positions and just watch the RP flow mate!People will say "With good RP you can do everything".I would say **** the good rp!.I don't feel like roleplaying 150 hours for one custom ****.I remember before getting custom tittle for doing deeds not for roleplaying with a brownie when there is noone on.The periods in this game are VERY LONG, the cabal warfare is a **** begining from 50's.In the good old times I had a syndi inducted at rank 25, I had a nexus at rank 30.That is what I am talking about-MOTIVATION.This is an open mud, everybody deserves tittle, custom item or Elder/Leader rank.Because from I have seen I must say that they are only given to 5-6 in the mud always.SAME PEOPLE SAME REWARDS SAME CABAL POSITIONS, is this really interesting and entertaining?
Yeah, ROCK on. Agree totally- I mean, when I see 101hrs, with a char i made like last week. And i dont rock the triggers- I wish i had at least somethin...
But the imms are god. And we are but mortals.
I would say **** the good rp!
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Because from I have seen I must say that they are only given to 5-6 in the mud always.SAME PEOPLE SAME REWARDS SAME CABAL POSITIONS, is this really interesting and entertaining?
Perhaps you need to change your attitude then and start caring about RP? This is an RP/PK mud. Not counter striker or DotA.
Do you know what RP means?You know right-Roleplay.It means that every character is playing a role in the mud just like an actor.What the actors recieve my friend?Money fame, glory power.What to the players recieve f0xx?NOTHING.They don't recieve a ****.They just secretly hope that someone will turn their attention to them and give them something, because as I said this what you deserve, everyone else in the mud deserves it.Not only the "blessed ones'.I am sure for example that Atticus would be more pleased with his elder position, custom tittle and a good attitude.I am trying to explain you my dear f0xx that to get something in this mud, you must have nearly GODLY RP/PK which is WRONG.Some of us have talents in killing, some of us in roleplaying but when I saw Immortals saying:"With roleplay you can get things you will never get with a PK", I was a bit of dissapointed.Because talent is a talent, being able to PK doesn't mean that you are going OOC.English maybe is not your first language, or maybe you don't feel comfortable when you RP.Then why you should roleplay godly to recieve something?Ask yourselves.What godly RP you have seen from Ithamar,Nortak Poplin or many many others I can think of that never did RP'ed much but were talented killers.They all were cabal leaders because they had talent.Doesn't matter of their gamin expirience as a player, noob or vet.They just had talent.
I HAVE roleplayed for 150 hours on a char with the end result being two titles and Noble spot (the first title gained for treating mobs as actual people and interacting with and talking to them) - and I consider that char one of the best I've ever had here, and some of the most fun I've ever had. I'm sorry if you don't consider RP to be as rewarding as I do.
The rest of your post actually complements what I am saying - you seem to be arguing in favor of lowering time requirements for various things. In some cases I'm in favor of this, in some cases I am not - I'm a big fan of the idea of more quests for people to do, and in particular quests that can be used as a basis for solo or group ranking, but I'm not really in favor of lowering by much the requirements for cabal eldership or leadership (I'm in favor of changing how the lower cabal ranks are given from their current time-based status, however).
I HAVE roleplayed for 150 hours on a char with the end result being two titles and Noble spot (the first title gained for treating mobs as actual people and interacting with and talking to them) - and I consider that char one of the best I've ever had here, and some of the most fun I've ever had. I'm sorry if you don't consider RP to be as rewarding as I do.
You have roleplayed 150 hours, 150 hours is A LOT.What if every character of yours can be like that?Won't you be more happy with it, instead of one character for ten years?
Yes, it was a lot. It was spread over several months, too. EDIT: And yes, I would love to be so involved in a character that I played him for years on end.
In deed my friend, this is what I mean by MOTIVATION.Why you should invest 150 hours in something quest for example after you can get it after 70 hours?Give to the players more, if somebody doesn't deserves it then it is simple, just take it!When I made my first vampire the Immortal then told me something that I will never forget even in RL."Remember that this what is given, can be taken easily."I would like here if possible some immortals to comment as well.After all we all like this game and it is all our hobby.
The gain of RP might be something different than the gain from PK.
Instead of having the option to full loot, or not full loot and a gain of superiority over another player, you have interaction.
Interaction wont give you straight superiority, you can gain fun though.
It seems easy to project the gain of superiority from PK to RP, but its something very different, still, if RP and PK put it together and combine, thats the special about Aabahran, isnt it.
In my opinion, you can't be "godly" in PK without a good dose of RP and elsearound.