MrJohnM
Dalayan Beginner
Hey everyone! You probably know me (or most likely do NOT know me) as the loudmouth sarcastic enchanter that sits around fishing all day while donating commentary (and help!) to the various channels in SoD.
While I sit around fishing all day, I usually come up with some ideas that I think would or could potentially help SoD be more unique. Obviously these are just my weird ideas but after bugging Krista about them all the time, I have finally just taken her advice to bring them to the forums. I apologize ahead of time for the lengthy post. I'm bored at work and have tons of time and have been working on this for some time now.
Suggestion 1: Fishing Enhancement(s) --
Naturally as the guy that stands around fishing all day it would be my first suggestion to enhance fishing. Right now, fishing is in a fine state as far as I can tell, though I don't see tons of people pursuing it.. Through hard work and dedication you can use fishing to supplement your income and fish up TMAPS if you want. My suggestions would make an interesting change to what you can do with fish themselves as well as the actual fishing process.
Enhancement proposal A: Add an NPC to some of the more popular cities and villages (Athica, Newport, etc) that gives out "fishing quests" (or like a fishing work order) something where players could actually hail an NPC and accept a challenge, maybe catch 10xfish bundles (or stacks of fish), for a feast or just to feed the citizenry. Maybe something interesting like having a gnome who requests a stack of electric eels so he can dump them in a backpack, tie a stick to them and make a tesla cattle-prod (inside joke).
Rewards could vary based on challenge/skill level required, and maybe give money/xp and or faction increases. It makes sense Lore wise (people have to eat, right?!) and gives a little incentive to fishing. This idea could extend of course to other tradeskills (blacksmiths maybe creating swords to turn in for the city guard to use, or tailors creating tunics or robes for new recruits, etc).
Enhancement proposal B: Give master fishermen and fisherwomens the ability to "re-seed" fishing spots and fishing pools. Why not combine tradeskills (maybe pottery, brewing, or alchemy) to allow people with master fishing the ability to create an item that can be "planted" in fishing spots to respawn and re-populate the fish in that area, thereby increasing the pool's regeneration rates...?
Suggestion 2: Newbie Friendly Information --
We recently had an account drive which yielded in some really great XP and was a fun event overall. I'm not entirely sure what the results of that account drive truly were, but we can hope that it did bring in a number of new players. However, that therein lies the challenge, right? I have been a part of SoD for a year or two, and family obligations keep me from playing quite as much as I'd like. My highest toons are 60 and 61...and I still consider myself to be a HUGE noob. There's tons I don't know about the game. Frankly...it's intimidating. There are dozens (almost TWO dozen) raid tiers...and I don't even know what those are, when they are, how they exist, how to access them or anything.
Most guilds aren't recruiting, but the ones that are recruit people that are level 65 and have 300+ AAs and tomes and all sorts of information. Most of the new players won't have ANY idea what this even means. Sure, we have the wiki but is there actually any particular plan on how to train, help, and retain these new players so that they don't get frustrated and go dark?
Obviously SoD has a rich community, the power of the players is what drives the awesomeness of this game...some of us have some friends that can help us here or there, but even I admit that I only know a *fraction* of what there is to know about SoD. Is there any way that the staff (or veteran members/seniors) can put together a "newbie guide"? Not just for leveling from 1-65...but what to do WHEN you get 65...
This is just an EXAMPLE:
-Where can you go to get good AAs?
-What is duo friendly?
-What is solo friendly?
-What AAs are considered "must haves?"
-Any other 'to dos' when you get to 65?
-Where should you go to get good "starter" level 65 gear?
-Can you do them duo?
-Do you just buy stuff?
-What are tomes?
-Where can we go to earn decent loot/plat? (Note I said earn, not just 'get')
-What zones are considered "Hot spots" at 65? Why? (For example, everyone keeps talking about Cesspits as being THE place to be for new people, which is great).
-Are there certain "must have" quests at 65?
Suggestion 3: Questing for Spells--
SoD seems to do a fine job of adding very interesting quests and drawing us in with it's rich lore and unique world. It's difficult to create lore out of thin air but most of the information in SoD is easy enough and enjoyable to follow. That being said, as a pair of primary spell casters (as well as an interesting opportunity for noobs), spells become a concern around level 60.
While it is possible to buy spells from the vendors and from other payers (post 60) it's increasingly difficult to manage (and can be extremely expensive) some of the Relic, Ancient, and Iksith spells unless with a raid...and obviously raiding as a newbie is not possible until tons of time and effort and gear is put into maximizing our characters. I understand that these spells are special and that's WHY they are "Ancient" and "Relic" and "Iksith" but for a caster, that's 99% of our arsenal.
What I am proposing is a way for players to "Quest" for their spells. Maybe make it generic: They can perform a series of quests which may take them through any number of zones, research, information, etc, and then at the end of the long and arduous road, they are given a spell scroll (NoDrop) that they can then scribe and enjoy. This doesn't really "Take away" from the economy of spells, because if they drop, lazy or rich players can still BUY the scrolls they want, while the poor or focused players can quest for them. OR...maybe have a lesser version of the Iksith, Relic, and Ancient spells, where maybe a player can get a "weakened" version of the scroll where it does the same effect as the spell but maybe at a 25% reduced effect or something. The reason for this is that the ancient and relic spells are often times completely different effects from what the last highest end spell really was... (if that makes sense).
Suggestion 4: Monk Combo melee equivalent?
The monk combo system is pretty awesome. From who i have spoken to and some of the chatter that goes on in some of the channels it does seem like it is working well, and might be perfect with some tweaking to the DPS output at lower levels.
That being said, it might be cool to see more of these types of things added for the other melee characters. For example (just as commentary only, the design team probably has a much better grasp of balance and design)...
Ranger ability example: Perhaps give rangers the ability to generate stamina with melee at low levels, and then they could back off about 10-20 paces and "dump" their stamina on a rapid fire shot or something, giving them the ability to fire a few arrows in quick succession, thereby adding to the ranger archery synergy at lower levels.
Warrior ability example: Some of the warrior abilities are pretty cool, but at low levels all you can really do is massive kick over and over. What might be interesting is giving warriors the ability to focus their stamina into a "shoulder slam" that basically acts as a bash or slam that either A) doesn't miss (for interrupts), or B) maybe stuns the target for 1-2 seconds if it connects. Another cool thing for warriors is maybe a command or ability like a warcry or war shout that could give a temporary 5 second haste boost (song maybe?) to the surrounding melee.
ShadowKnight example: Since SKs have some strong ties to their necromancer cousins, it might be cool for them to get the ability at lower levels to maybe use their stamina to give themselves a quick buff after they kill something -- maybe like they are doing a soul channel to increase their movement or attack speed for a few ticks. Or maybe they heal for a small percentage of health for everything they kill (like consuming their soul).
Rogue example: I know that rogues were recently given the cool new "Ambush" ability and I am not 100% sure how it's working out, but it seems like it might be pretty cool. I don't really have anything specifically outlined for rogues except maybe a neat ability where maybe they can do a "Serrated" blade type attack if they are using a sword in the offhand, where their attack maybe causes the target to bleed, which does increasing damage as the fight continues? (Like the Splurt spell?).
Bard example: I think it might be cool for bards to be able to have an ability where they can maybe dump stamina and get a different effect based on the instrument they're wielding. So like if they are singing and have out their weapon, maybe they just do a crit. If they have their drum out, or their horn, maybe it does like a 2-3 second stun -- or if they have their lute or flute, it does a spell interrupt. It might give them some interesting utility in addition to their spells.
Beastlord example: Since BSTs have such a strong tie to their pet, it might be neat for them to get a command where they can make their pet lash out and get a flurry or attacks or something for an attack round. Or perhaps an ability to just make their pet leap out and get a bite crit?
Pally example: Since pallies seem to automatically be geared toward dropping undead and already have a wide array of stuns, it might be cool for paladins to use some stamina and transfer it into an attack that maybe imbues their sword with a blind proc for a few swings, or maybe a blinding flash of holy light that does damage to undead or just burns their enemies for a small amount of damage?
Okay so that's all for now. Sorry about this insanely long weird post. I expect that people will most likely flame me all to hell about how I am nieve and nothing will ever be done or addressed, but I like to remain optimistic.
TLR - Please add cool stuff, thanks!
-Mitya
While I sit around fishing all day, I usually come up with some ideas that I think would or could potentially help SoD be more unique. Obviously these are just my weird ideas but after bugging Krista about them all the time, I have finally just taken her advice to bring them to the forums. I apologize ahead of time for the lengthy post. I'm bored at work and have tons of time and have been working on this for some time now.
Suggestion 1: Fishing Enhancement(s) --
Naturally as the guy that stands around fishing all day it would be my first suggestion to enhance fishing. Right now, fishing is in a fine state as far as I can tell, though I don't see tons of people pursuing it.. Through hard work and dedication you can use fishing to supplement your income and fish up TMAPS if you want. My suggestions would make an interesting change to what you can do with fish themselves as well as the actual fishing process.
Enhancement proposal A: Add an NPC to some of the more popular cities and villages (Athica, Newport, etc) that gives out "fishing quests" (or like a fishing work order) something where players could actually hail an NPC and accept a challenge, maybe catch 10xfish bundles (or stacks of fish), for a feast or just to feed the citizenry. Maybe something interesting like having a gnome who requests a stack of electric eels so he can dump them in a backpack, tie a stick to them and make a tesla cattle-prod (inside joke).
Rewards could vary based on challenge/skill level required, and maybe give money/xp and or faction increases. It makes sense Lore wise (people have to eat, right?!) and gives a little incentive to fishing. This idea could extend of course to other tradeskills (blacksmiths maybe creating swords to turn in for the city guard to use, or tailors creating tunics or robes for new recruits, etc).
Enhancement proposal B: Give master fishermen and fisherwomens the ability to "re-seed" fishing spots and fishing pools. Why not combine tradeskills (maybe pottery, brewing, or alchemy) to allow people with master fishing the ability to create an item that can be "planted" in fishing spots to respawn and re-populate the fish in that area, thereby increasing the pool's regeneration rates...?
Suggestion 2: Newbie Friendly Information --
We recently had an account drive which yielded in some really great XP and was a fun event overall. I'm not entirely sure what the results of that account drive truly were, but we can hope that it did bring in a number of new players. However, that therein lies the challenge, right? I have been a part of SoD for a year or two, and family obligations keep me from playing quite as much as I'd like. My highest toons are 60 and 61...and I still consider myself to be a HUGE noob. There's tons I don't know about the game. Frankly...it's intimidating. There are dozens (almost TWO dozen) raid tiers...and I don't even know what those are, when they are, how they exist, how to access them or anything.
Most guilds aren't recruiting, but the ones that are recruit people that are level 65 and have 300+ AAs and tomes and all sorts of information. Most of the new players won't have ANY idea what this even means. Sure, we have the wiki but is there actually any particular plan on how to train, help, and retain these new players so that they don't get frustrated and go dark?
Obviously SoD has a rich community, the power of the players is what drives the awesomeness of this game...some of us have some friends that can help us here or there, but even I admit that I only know a *fraction* of what there is to know about SoD. Is there any way that the staff (or veteran members/seniors) can put together a "newbie guide"? Not just for leveling from 1-65...but what to do WHEN you get 65...
This is just an EXAMPLE:
-Where can you go to get good AAs?
-What is duo friendly?
-What is solo friendly?
-What AAs are considered "must haves?"
-Any other 'to dos' when you get to 65?
-Where should you go to get good "starter" level 65 gear?
-Can you do them duo?
-Do you just buy stuff?
-What are tomes?
-Where can we go to earn decent loot/plat? (Note I said earn, not just 'get')
-What zones are considered "Hot spots" at 65? Why? (For example, everyone keeps talking about Cesspits as being THE place to be for new people, which is great).
-Are there certain "must have" quests at 65?
Suggestion 3: Questing for Spells--
SoD seems to do a fine job of adding very interesting quests and drawing us in with it's rich lore and unique world. It's difficult to create lore out of thin air but most of the information in SoD is easy enough and enjoyable to follow. That being said, as a pair of primary spell casters (as well as an interesting opportunity for noobs), spells become a concern around level 60.
While it is possible to buy spells from the vendors and from other payers (post 60) it's increasingly difficult to manage (and can be extremely expensive) some of the Relic, Ancient, and Iksith spells unless with a raid...and obviously raiding as a newbie is not possible until tons of time and effort and gear is put into maximizing our characters. I understand that these spells are special and that's WHY they are "Ancient" and "Relic" and "Iksith" but for a caster, that's 99% of our arsenal.
What I am proposing is a way for players to "Quest" for their spells. Maybe make it generic: They can perform a series of quests which may take them through any number of zones, research, information, etc, and then at the end of the long and arduous road, they are given a spell scroll (NoDrop) that they can then scribe and enjoy. This doesn't really "Take away" from the economy of spells, because if they drop, lazy or rich players can still BUY the scrolls they want, while the poor or focused players can quest for them. OR...maybe have a lesser version of the Iksith, Relic, and Ancient spells, where maybe a player can get a "weakened" version of the scroll where it does the same effect as the spell but maybe at a 25% reduced effect or something. The reason for this is that the ancient and relic spells are often times completely different effects from what the last highest end spell really was... (if that makes sense).
Suggestion 4: Monk Combo melee equivalent?
The monk combo system is pretty awesome. From who i have spoken to and some of the chatter that goes on in some of the channels it does seem like it is working well, and might be perfect with some tweaking to the DPS output at lower levels.
That being said, it might be cool to see more of these types of things added for the other melee characters. For example (just as commentary only, the design team probably has a much better grasp of balance and design)...
Ranger ability example: Perhaps give rangers the ability to generate stamina with melee at low levels, and then they could back off about 10-20 paces and "dump" their stamina on a rapid fire shot or something, giving them the ability to fire a few arrows in quick succession, thereby adding to the ranger archery synergy at lower levels.
Warrior ability example: Some of the warrior abilities are pretty cool, but at low levels all you can really do is massive kick over and over. What might be interesting is giving warriors the ability to focus their stamina into a "shoulder slam" that basically acts as a bash or slam that either A) doesn't miss (for interrupts), or B) maybe stuns the target for 1-2 seconds if it connects. Another cool thing for warriors is maybe a command or ability like a warcry or war shout that could give a temporary 5 second haste boost (song maybe?) to the surrounding melee.
ShadowKnight example: Since SKs have some strong ties to their necromancer cousins, it might be cool for them to get the ability at lower levels to maybe use their stamina to give themselves a quick buff after they kill something -- maybe like they are doing a soul channel to increase their movement or attack speed for a few ticks. Or maybe they heal for a small percentage of health for everything they kill (like consuming their soul).
Rogue example: I know that rogues were recently given the cool new "Ambush" ability and I am not 100% sure how it's working out, but it seems like it might be pretty cool. I don't really have anything specifically outlined for rogues except maybe a neat ability where maybe they can do a "Serrated" blade type attack if they are using a sword in the offhand, where their attack maybe causes the target to bleed, which does increasing damage as the fight continues? (Like the Splurt spell?).
Bard example: I think it might be cool for bards to be able to have an ability where they can maybe dump stamina and get a different effect based on the instrument they're wielding. So like if they are singing and have out their weapon, maybe they just do a crit. If they have their drum out, or their horn, maybe it does like a 2-3 second stun -- or if they have their lute or flute, it does a spell interrupt. It might give them some interesting utility in addition to their spells.
Beastlord example: Since BSTs have such a strong tie to their pet, it might be neat for them to get a command where they can make their pet lash out and get a flurry or attacks or something for an attack round. Or perhaps an ability to just make their pet leap out and get a bite crit?
Pally example: Since pallies seem to automatically be geared toward dropping undead and already have a wide array of stuns, it might be cool for paladins to use some stamina and transfer it into an attack that maybe imbues their sword with a blind proc for a few swings, or maybe a blinding flash of holy light that does damage to undead or just burns their enemies for a small amount of damage?
Okay so that's all for now. Sorry about this insanely long weird post. I expect that people will most likely flame me all to hell about how I am nieve and nothing will ever be done or addressed, but I like to remain optimistic.
TL
R - Please add cool stuff, thanks!-Mitya
