Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

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Veega
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Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Veega »

Brad wrote: 23 Nov 2011

Great ideas guys.

One thing we HAVE to do, before wasting time on any real overhaul, is fix the new player experience. Modern mass market players don't get the tutorial, and flame out quickly. That’s why I was trying to get a new frontend written that can actually be debugged ( and doesn’t have to compile on a 12 year old compiler ).

1) New player experience ( tutorial )
2) Normalize free to play experience with limits on advancement instead of scenario locking.. 100% agree on this.
a. Another great idea is to SLOW advancement for non payers after a certain point, or allow 1 time purchases of “boosts” if they don’t want to subscribe
3) New mid level content, quest based, experience based..
4) Badges, awards, etc

I work closely with many major F2P mmos. The real trick here is that some people dont ever,ever want to "subscribe", they will spend $20.00 a month when they play, but they dont want to subscribe. The way to generate revenue from them is store items that "mimick" subsriptions.. "gain boosters, access to areas, etc "
I remember this post from Brad several years back. Sometimes I will take breaks from this game I have played since I was a kid and things like this change my perception on the game and give me hope that it may return to the active fun game it used to be. I don't want to go off any any tangents with this post so I will leave it open to others.

Please post well-thought short posts giving input and new ideas that are plausible. Not the same old "blame brad for this and that" - Just anything that MAY be used to help bring life back to the game. And then act on it, together, as a community! This used to be an awesome community but now it is very toxic. Several big players are just mean and rude probably because they haven't been heard for years. Get over it, just try to support the game. I will always be a returning player but that doesn't mean I don't want to have everything I've ever dreamed of and more actually happen in the game! I want new players to come to this game despite it not being the best free to play OR paid to play option.


-IDEAS-
  • Bring back Challenge Nork and Cobrahn

    I've heard it a dozen times. "It's not possible at this time to bring it back" - Mars

    Don't 'bring it back' then. Just remake it, start it fresh. Several games I play thrive off of seasonal activity; perhaps you could (every several months) refresh it, and give teams of players something to push themselves for to try to achieve certain goals. You could tweak drops slightly but overall keep it pretty close to the original CNork. I had a BLAST playing it but unfortunately wasn't able to finish my time in the scenario before it crashed!

    Also there are TONS of players who never even got to experience it! Just the handful that played it out. Even if it is just another handful, I would be one of them. I really like the idea of a seasonal thing for it though because it would be pointless to leave an alternate game up forever when people have their mains here with new content focused on NL.
  • Remove Alt 2

    This is a big one for me. I get it, way back in the day we were overpopulated. We also wanted to give paid players an elitist feeling that they were better than the free players stuck in alt 1. We can jump between the alts to hit the same lairs more than once if necessary for maxxing hp or whatever it may be... But now it is COMPLETELY pointless to divide the playerbase in the beginning of the game. You sped up the rounds for both scenarios. Here's the thing, you can just adjust the lair refresh rates, an easy fix for those that argue they need to hit lairs in both alts, AND who even really needs to hit most lairs more than once or twice? None of us do anymore, and the idea is for NEW players not for us old farts.

    Remove alt 1, and give events to new players (the classic holidays) - Give them some other kind of fun. Back in the day the events are what pushed me into paying, before I could have even known the benefits of other scenarios.

    Update alt 2, a few new beginner lairs, maybe a few small areas added in. Some more interesting party lvling areas to give new players a use for parties other than n6, and to give them the need to increase their party leader EXP
  • Utilize Omni's Test Server!!!!!!!

    This one is pretty obvious. New menus for chat? YES. New areas and quests? YES. This is good just in general and should be utilized in the regular game, especially the new starting area.

    THIS could be the new 'alt 2' - a much cooler reason to go paid, to have differences, not just a clone model of the same thing they already have. Make it useful but NOT an alt that players will stay in to divide from Alt 2. Make it kind of like Mjorin, just a fun little place to go to test and push yourself but no real benefits of staying there. An EVENT server.

    "Come on into alt 3 (Omni's test server) for the weekly event! or Monthly event! It's open this weekend only! Stuff like this. YES.
  • Unlock all previously-paid accounts

    What do I mean? Give everyone the option to revert to free, with decreased benefits. You ALREADY allow Cob items to cross-over into Nork. Players may quit paying and have cut off access to bigger events like omni's test server (which could be sort of a new alt 2 for events) or high end content, but make a majority of the game free to play again. Aleria and Cob as well, included in the base game as all of the focus has been on NL for YEARS. Possibly tweak skill gain to be less, or remove certain features to balance this idea. You could also limit the Lobby to only allow X amount of instances to be run (I am sure some people could avoid this by running virtual PCs or some such but only a few would bother) This would DEFINITELY bring some life back to the game, and give people free will and not a locked-out dead account they abandon

Please submit ideas to be posted, I will try to keep things organized, and would love to hear input from sysops and Brad himself.
Last edited by Veega on Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:10 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Areyekuwe
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Areyekuwe »

So, your big idea is to remove a server?

You must have not maxed one character HP through Hitos yet.

More content, servers, scenarios the better.

Also at the moment every scenario has 2 alts, nork scenario needs a few upgrades so that primal players could gain in there, something, anything. Two alts, good. I want to see drakkar grow to 3 alts of each nork, aleria, cob and NL!
Are you a writer on Drakkar issues and also follow news / current events on the IRC?
You are hired: https://areyekuwe.wordpress.com/ -Writers wanted.

Veega
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Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:37 pm

Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Veega »

JadeAmber wrote:The assertion that "new content drives player interest" is also erroneous in terms of new players. Especially when the new content is for the game elite.

Wolverine2
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Wolverine2 »

Arey,
That isn't what Veega said at all. He said the lair respawns should be quickened, and the other alt used for something more interesting. I don't get your point that we need yet another alt though. As it is, last time I played, I was often the only one in whatever scenario I was in. If there was a 3rd alt, it would guarantee I was the only one. We need less alts to make it at least feel like we run into people SOMETIMES.

luckyman
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by luckyman »

New players or even old players who wish to run around on free accounts have already been given so much more than they could ever ask for.
The alt 2 only quests were copied over into alt 1 offering new weapons and some excitement for them.
The rounds were sped up increasing there skill gain and exp gain.
The point of alt 1 is for a taste of the game to a new player to see what Drakkar is about.... not to give them everything nork has to offer without paying anything.
I do understand nork is not fully active at the moment yes but there are changes and updates in the work to bring back some activity to it and removing one alt is not the answer to that.

Simple answer from my point of view leave nork as it is, let Omni finish his expansion get everything tested and working and let him throw it up in alt 2 bam difference between alt 1 and 2 again no need for an alt 3.

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Areyekuwe
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Areyekuwe »

As a BTW, I remember time when we had 3 alts of Nork. It was best time ever.

Ppl posting above and addressing what i wrote do not seem to understand simple idea, let me put it in "bold".

Here we go:
Two alts, good. I want to see drakkar grow to 3 alts of each nork, aleria, cob and NL!
Drakkar does need a bit of care on many ends with new content and new effort on many levels.

New servers should be opened not existing servers closed.

New subscribers should be welcomed not old subscribers fazed out (due to lack of premium subscription or available area to park in)

Now, just how friendly the interface is. I had a very old ingame acquaintance, come back to the game, we go back the the tune of 15+ years, he rolls in the character and in the process of helping him out I log onto their account. Now I was curious how far ahead their quirk abilities have expended. Guess what? The player had no way in game to know in a very direct way what quirks are, and did not have any of them spent....

That little grey menu with a list of "abilities" and cryptic tooltip descriptions buried somewhere inside little little pull down grey menu, this is the height of user unfriendly interface ever..... Just for an example. Things like this little cryptic grey menu that no new player can understand needs to be fixed as well as a million other things, not close down servers. And limit content available.

Things like a whole new skill in game, almost completely without widespread use or clearly available guidelines of any kind???
I am talking about brewing, why not add a random drop scroll throughout game that would tell of a recipe?? Because guess what, no one knows these things, almost. -Nah, nobody.

In other words, Thank you Brad for keeping Drakkar up for this long, I do enjoy checking in here.
-And oh great, it has not changed a bit!
-But where are the people?

I mean biggest thing in the game right now(and for a long while) is boxing, multi account running. If there was a shred of honesty from "Drakkar Team" you guys would sit down ages ago to write done the code needed to log in all characters on the same account in, rather then make people run multiple accounts. But, more accounts, more money! And guess what, this is a big for profit game? (yes it is, if you did not know). And changing anything with interface after the "New Drakkar Graphics" (that are really bad) went in, well everything is great.
Are you a writer on Drakkar issues and also follow news / current events on the IRC?
You are hired: https://areyekuwe.wordpress.com/ -Writers wanted.

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Areyekuwe
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Areyekuwe »

MPGN and IEN Lobby interface were far, far superior to the DZ, there seems to have go no effort towards bringing the DZ up to speed at all.

How about this for an IDEA?

Few things that IEN lobby did and DZ is not even attempting to.

*Rich graphic interface with ability to customize appearance and nickname of the lobby character.

*Ability to access chat / small in chat games / game forums and in game lockers all from the login into the lobby.

*Within the forums, guild forums for guild members only.

*Scoreboard

Better lobby would be really great. But below is also an idea.

What about the infamous "Help file" that does not open for anyone no more?

Now, did i propose any cheap interesting ideas that could help in this direction??
-Sure I did.

Here is one that some one almost implemented, to a degree, somewhat. Take a look, if not already.http://www.wolfguild.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

I have asked Brad to host a full fledged Wiki script on his side for years, instead him and the "Team" kept talking back to me about how the wiki system deleted article mention on the glorious Kingdom of Drakkar...
Then we got super add rich free wikia built by omni with not really anything on it to make anyone like it, for any reason?

Now, let me give you a slight idea what regular media wiki script hosted off a server could do.

Lot's of smart looking articles (that are easy to write). Ability to have locked pages(for official things) as well as abilities to have user pages as well as say guild pages. Every page normally comes with a "discussion" page attached to it.

Infact editing wiki pages can be so much fun that, well a lot of people love to do that usually....
Are you a writer on Drakkar issues and also follow news / current events on the IRC?
You are hired: https://areyekuwe.wordpress.com/ -Writers wanted.

Veega
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Veega »

It would be GREAT to have new graphical and lobby aesthetic functionality. Like being able to switch between all chat in-game versus player only chat. It is completely impossible to talk to anyone ingame which makes the lobby very useful, but at the same time it shouldn't be REQUIRED because you're unable to ingame. It should still be sort of an option. (While I'm playing I could say something to someone and hope they notice without them HOPEFULLY seeing a PM i was required to send to them because there was no other way)

Forums / Scoreboard / Proper guild functions from within the lobby would be way more convenient. I feel like some of these changes shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

Also, with all of our info dying out over the years due to domains dying out etc, having a lore system would be EXCELLENT.

For example, you could make a real purpose towards picking up and reading scrolls, such as they start to accumulate lore after you read them. That would be exciting, and it would give a purpose to exploring the whole world, especially as a newer player. Unlocking the lore of the land. And at the same time having access to wiki info instead of relying on someone to tell you an external website..
New subscribers should be welcomed not old subscribers fazed out (due to lack of premium subscription or available area to park in
I also have to agree with this point. But not that we need to focus on entirely new content. I think the first battle is fixing the game then worrying about the old farts later.

chaos
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by chaos »

I think the FREE 7 day trial to all old accounts with email sent out (I think this happened befor) would bring some people back and I believe with the changes to bring Cob items to Nork, and the higher number of people that have been on lately would get a few of them to stay

EDIT: crazy aleria cob and nl have been added I think since the last time this was done

Mantorok
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Mantorok »

I think the biggest thing would be to let accounts revert to from paid to free and still be able to play as a free account in Nork. All the way to 50/30. Don't take anything away from reverted accounts. Don't cut HP, don't lock gear, don't nerf experience or skill gains. Let people play in the deserted Alt 1 Nork server for free if they have previously paid for the game.

Free accounts would still have the HP limitation as well as only having access to places and gear from Nork. There would still be incentives to subscribe, if even for a month. Buy more HP, get to Aleria or Cobrahn, quirk gains, leadership experience, etc.

Most of the game is in NL which is still behind the $50 pay wall. More if you're new and need to run 5 accounts on your own to make progress.

At best, letting paid accounts play the same as free accounts would bring more people back, populate Nork, start building a new player base, and give players a group of people to advance through the game with. Once they cap out in or get bored with Nork, parts of this community would pay a subscription to advance with friends. Perhaps to the point where multiple people are paying fifty bucks for NL to explore the content as a group.

At worst, nothing would happen.

Mantorok
Posts: 47
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by Mantorok »

Also implement a feature that allows me to steal Veega's gear from anywhere, whenever I want. Maybe a new discipline.
#form PILFER at Veega's stuff
#put all in sack

FearLessLeader
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Re: Combined Ideas thread to bring life back to Drakkar

Post by FearLessLeader »

Storyline needs to be improved or introduced in a new fashion if your to keep new players interested they need immediate direction and a clear path right from the onset lest they lose interest "bread crumbs" then reward.

Pop-up windows and in game quests that lead the players as they go along npcs stationed in locations to point the way and since this is a lair quest game set-up lair critters for lower level players several of them from low level to mid-range level "kill the next beast" get to the next quest make your mark in the world of Drakkar this to get them used to what is to come. You can also have something like the Oracle of Delphi to tell the new players where to go and what to do next but in a mystical kind of way make the clues easy to figure out in the beginning entice them to the next level.

Browser games are making good money that allow people to purchase in game items... some people just don't want to be subscribers they want to come and go as they please they will spend 100 dollars on in game items but wont subscribe... still keep the free game and subscription options but add the perks of subscription by offering time purchases actual login time that only expires as you use it 10hrs or 40hrs or whatever for X dollars have a clock to keep track of there login time once they login those minutes start clicking whether they are chatting on the front end or in game this makes people feel like they are not wasting there money they can login at there leisure and there time is still there.

Like browser games sell stuff people love to individualize there characters: sell brooms, potions, equipment, spells and the like. I do believe the in game storyline is key "do this" - "do that" - now get to level such and such and I will give you a new quest along with reward.

Another thing that can be a problem is new players being given things from older players that they normally could not get and would not get for awhile I am sure that the older players just want to help but it takes away the need to grow your character I am sure there are ways to address this... also this game was set-up to be a group or guild activity back in the day there where a lot of players to form guilds now not so much perhaps some thought on how to make adjustments to characters so they can wander the lands of Drakkar and do lairs solo.

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