derail
I can't understand how the mentality of most of the development team and major contributing advocates hold cannon the upper-echelon perspective. It is so top-down focused, there's few changes which ever benefit newer players. Bounty hunting was a solid addition, but to really take advantage of what it offers you could probably be in a guild that provides better gear than by the time you can begin to complete your first Tier 3 item (which are the solid rewards, honestly). For example, the Cmal changes and the dragon forged / giant forged gear prior to the combine set are the newer implementations which really benefit the newer crowd.
Games evolve. Everyone in the development side, it seems, apart from Zaela - who does make changes, but then backs out on them because Zaela cannot handle scrutiny from anyone, ever - is fighting kicking-and-screaming to retain the retarded time-investment requirements SoD has.
To take Shards in a direction that steps away from benefiting the established 5-10% of the server who pour their blood sweat and tears into having every minor game-breaking item, to shifting towards enticing newer players to join and establish presence on the server there's only a few things that need to change:
*entering Lheo's majorly opinionated zone*
1) The Vah needs to be removed. It's a dumb quest. Thinkmeats was a phenomenal developer - he made some fantastic content (emberflow) and there are good parts of the quest (gate neck, mask) but the banners are just too good for what you must commit to, to earn them. It causes a lot of grief, anyway.
~on topic with the thread
2) Charms can't be a platinum sink, nor game-breaking. Platinum sinks should be mainly, 1) aesthetic items and, 2) from tradeskilling (which in most MMOs are the main functional platinum sink). In EverQuest vanilla the main platinum sink was horses and other various mounts. They were a convenience to allow travel. I'm not sure how mounts are viewed in Shards or by the development team, but that's just one idea. Charms as a platinum investment - the last 3 pages have described why it's a shit deal. Ultimately, if game fights are designed or catered towards an 18 man group who have accrued platinum-based charms it is my opinion of poor game design. Tarutao, I know you've vocalized a differing opinion previously on this manner. I'm calling you out, preemptively; if you comment on this matter, suggesting that anything past Tier 9 is kill-able with less than 100k charms and several codexes, demonstrate an example of the correct raid composition to achieve success.
3) Tomes, predominantly codexes, are daunting. Perhaps provide incentives to working towards tomes. I think that the minor tomes (stats, resistances, etc) that ikkisith provide are more-or-less balanced. They add minor benefit to the time-investment and, though the system is funky and I would have never promoted the invention of tomes past codexes, it is more-or-less well tuned. Providing quests specific to those individuals on codexes or augmenting existing quests using codexes as flags to provide bonus experience may be a nice addition.
4) Be fucking jubilant when developers like Eisley come along who develop entire zones and content for newer players. Take his example and continue to promote, refurbish and redesign content. Slaariel - finish monkzone. Promote its existence and stop having new content be ultra low-key and tailored towards benefiting those who take the time to discover it and then keep it secret. There are other ways to subtly introduce new content but still make it accessible. As it stands I don't think monkzone has been raided except once, by FWF, who were vastly overtiered.
5) Just allow race/gender changes via platinum. Seriously. Who cares if it's ludicrously expensive. Get off of your high horse, it isn't game-breaking, and people would definitely dump their platinum for that opportunity. There are people who paid thousands of dollars in advertisements for the server, which really did absolutely nothing in the long-run, just to take advantage of this.
*exiting opinionated zone*
On a final note, I read something recently on what a head developer for a new MMO coming out, Firefall, had to say on changing content. He said that making changes often and almost certainly results in players making insane threads and threats about quitting, or how the game is heading for a downfall, etc. And maybe Firefall will flop, but I think he provided a good insight in that if you make a change with the knowledge and intention of bettering the game - you will see it come into fruition and your labors rewarded with a better game. So perhaps even my advice would worsen the game, but you will never know how things could have been if you don't just try. Shards is still a fun game, and I think it will continue to being fun. It's probably the best private server that I've ever played on. I've even taken breaks for months at a time, yet continued to support via Gold donation because I value the server so greatly.
/derail
vvv - I mean non-modded or emulated EverQuest, sorry for the confusion
