02-02-2007, 01:09 AM
Well you have the name of what was once a great if not the greatest shard ever, and only time will tell if you can keep the players here as long as IN1 did, unlike 2 and INR which were not as successful.
The thing that made IN great was nearly everyone roleplayed bar the odd exception that slipped through the net, having to create a story and email in "before" you were aloud to play on IN was great but hampered who and who did not join. until the end when it became the sense that anyone could join and make an account which followed by its demise.
Maybe recruiting some old IN players (roleplayers) to bring that roleplay side into the shard would be a good idea, They do not have to be as staff as such, merely a forum for instance where original IN players can make suggestions and give advice concerning copying old IN to anew, without the view of any other players. This in turn could in theory then be put to the players to say yay or nay as to if they like the suggestion.
I think you just have to be careful what you do with the people and such as if you set a bad impression from the start its hard to regain that players view/opinion/trust back for them to come back and play again.
A few bullet points I would like to point out that made IN a great shard for myself were:
Housing =
If people were bored of hunting or killing players etc, we could throw a party at someones house, which was decorated in a party style - And have some good roleplaying aspects.
Decoration =
Everywhere was decorated to a high standard and most places were intresting, Yes you get people saying more items = more lag, but at the end of the day just getting lost in the middle of a forest and finding random things made IN intresting, All the detail that was put in, random dungeons/abandoned houses which anyone could walk into.
Quests =
Few and far between, but then IN never was a great questing game, towards the end of IN things became slower and slower in regards to throwing out new quests, Yes you would get the odd one or two that a GM would work on which would entertain the players for a night but that was about it. IN's original quests were some of the best, hell they even had difficult puzzles and best of all riddles in them!
Last but certainly not least
Players =
I suppose everyone can agree on this at least, IN had a great population, everyone had there own story to tell, everyone was different, you had Vampire/Goblin being one of the most influencial mostly because they were usually PK's and had there own scouts that were not red, coming to check things out for them, <-- On that point a good note would be to make these guild a faction so that if you joined them you are permenantly flagged red, Yes it would be horrible for those players, but in a way fun and exciting.
This in turn leads onto them using the land as a player area (back to intresting random places)
I really hope this place takes off, Im sure if things go well then we will have a good playerbase its just getting it right first time, And if all goes bad, then it could be another blow to the name which may not recover.
P.S = Not an insult to any of the staff I would also like to add, that having quite a few trusted people on staff is a great advantage, especially people dedicated to roleplay and quests/events. Most people always want this position as they think it would be fun giving the players events and such, and Yes they make great staff for the first few weeks to a month or two, then it slowly dies off and as they lose intrest the output they generate gets less and less - making the players get bored, and becoming less intresting, Im sure choosing people to be on the staff is a huge responsibility not only to those chosen but to the people choosing as alot of trust goes into the position and not everyone wants the position to do good for others but more for themselves. Not an insult to any of yourselves of course but just a personal judgment and observation I have made throughout my time playing on different Shards throughout the Ultima database.
The thing that made IN great was nearly everyone roleplayed bar the odd exception that slipped through the net, having to create a story and email in "before" you were aloud to play on IN was great but hampered who and who did not join. until the end when it became the sense that anyone could join and make an account which followed by its demise.
Maybe recruiting some old IN players (roleplayers) to bring that roleplay side into the shard would be a good idea, They do not have to be as staff as such, merely a forum for instance where original IN players can make suggestions and give advice concerning copying old IN to anew, without the view of any other players. This in turn could in theory then be put to the players to say yay or nay as to if they like the suggestion.
I think you just have to be careful what you do with the people and such as if you set a bad impression from the start its hard to regain that players view/opinion/trust back for them to come back and play again.
A few bullet points I would like to point out that made IN a great shard for myself were:
Housing =
If people were bored of hunting or killing players etc, we could throw a party at someones house, which was decorated in a party style - And have some good roleplaying aspects.
Decoration =
Everywhere was decorated to a high standard and most places were intresting, Yes you get people saying more items = more lag, but at the end of the day just getting lost in the middle of a forest and finding random things made IN intresting, All the detail that was put in, random dungeons/abandoned houses which anyone could walk into.
Quests =
Few and far between, but then IN never was a great questing game, towards the end of IN things became slower and slower in regards to throwing out new quests, Yes you would get the odd one or two that a GM would work on which would entertain the players for a night but that was about it. IN's original quests were some of the best, hell they even had difficult puzzles and best of all riddles in them!
Last but certainly not least
Players =
I suppose everyone can agree on this at least, IN had a great population, everyone had there own story to tell, everyone was different, you had Vampire/Goblin being one of the most influencial mostly because they were usually PK's and had there own scouts that were not red, coming to check things out for them, <-- On that point a good note would be to make these guild a faction so that if you joined them you are permenantly flagged red, Yes it would be horrible for those players, but in a way fun and exciting.
This in turn leads onto them using the land as a player area (back to intresting random places)
I really hope this place takes off, Im sure if things go well then we will have a good playerbase its just getting it right first time, And if all goes bad, then it could be another blow to the name which may not recover.
P.S = Not an insult to any of the staff I would also like to add, that having quite a few trusted people on staff is a great advantage, especially people dedicated to roleplay and quests/events. Most people always want this position as they think it would be fun giving the players events and such, and Yes they make great staff for the first few weeks to a month or two, then it slowly dies off and as they lose intrest the output they generate gets less and less - making the players get bored, and becoming less intresting, Im sure choosing people to be on the staff is a huge responsibility not only to those chosen but to the people choosing as alot of trust goes into the position and not everyone wants the position to do good for others but more for themselves. Not an insult to any of yourselves of course but just a personal judgment and observation I have made throughout my time playing on different Shards throughout the Ultima database.