My Observations of Solace II

[Kylie]

Hello all, I wanted to post a little bit of frustration and confusion in what I have seen and heard within this mud since I have started playing here...(which is about 2 weeks ago)...Here are some of the issues that I find extremely disturbing and rather upsetting to me IC'ily and OOC'ily....

Subject #1:   "This MUD claims to be a ROLEPLAY ENFORCED Mud"

Hmmm....I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there is about ZERO roleplay going on in this MUD, hell I am scared to even enter the city due to the players attacking each other for no other reason then because they are bored.  I have sat in the square and other places many times and tried to roleplay, this was extremely unsuccessful.  There are some very nice people here, Serril assisted me alot, along with Sharlise, both have been extremely helpful and kind...However, let me tell you a little story....I leveled to 10th level this morning with my elven cleric, and I hadnt been 10th level for more then 10 seconds and someone pk'd me, I have never seen this person before, never roleplayed with this person before, never even seen him/her on the who list before...I honestly do not mind being Pk'd, I do mind being pk'd and not knowing why the hell or who the hell is pk'ing me and for what reason....(IMM's, if you didnt know, this is the sort of thing that makes newbies quit and never play your mud again, I have brought three friends here to play and they are begging me to quit, I on the other hand am trying to give this mud a fair chance, its not looking promiseing.)

I have seen nothing but pure PK from this MUD since day one I have been here, This MUD is so far from ROLEPLAY ENFORCED its not even funny, I have made about 4 characters here already in the 2 weeks I have played, two of them are 23rd and 25th levels....I have been PK'd (5) times since I have played here, the 5th one this morning when I was a mere 10th level and trying to quit so that I could goto work...and I might add that all my equipment was fully looted, which also is a whole other discussion....anyways.

Now that I have ranted a bit, which I believe is a reasonable rant....my suggestions are this:

The city seems to be the hub for PK not RP, which is bad....my friends and I are scared to go into the cities due to being pk'd, which is causing us not to beable to roleplay, not that any is taking place anyways...but this is the main problem...perhaps make the square a safe zone so that people can roleplay if they choose to...

Secondly, if people are going to loot, perhaps make the looting restricted to 2 or 3 items, that way when newbies like myself that take a long time getting suited up and finding gear dont want to quit because we cant find any nice gear anymore....perhaps focus more on roleplaying with the person your going to kill, then kill them...not just BANG, your dead...(I didnt like the way you looked, or your a elf, or your good, or your evil...sorry, tough luck...)that is crap, that is not roleplay...just because I am a elf doesnt mean a draconian should trapse into my temple and slay me, how the hell did he even know I was a elf, how does he know anything about me?  The Answer is he didnt, he didnt even speak a word to me, nothing...just took my frail little elven body and slung me up against a wall with bash and commensed to beating the crap outta me.

On a side note, why is TELL a incharacter channel?  A roleplay enforced MUD allows TELL to be IC???  Umm...last time I checked, my character didnt have psionics or the force working for her, and I hope its not because she is smart because I have seen Minotaurs useing tell as well...(cough...no offense Minotarus...whistles innocently)...

Now something positive:
I believe this mud has awesome potential, if I didnt think this I would leave, there are 1900 muds out there I could choose from, however the code in this mud is extremely good and I can see there was some extremely hard work put into it...the reason I know that is because I own a fairly successful mud of my own, I have coded and built it from scratch as well, I find it fun to check out other peoples creations and I love to roleplay....I hope this is helpful, and I didnt mean to vent completely, but I was a little furious about a few things....

Kylie, The Elven Healer of Mishakal

[Grim Assassin]

I agree with most points, but give me a minute to craft my full response *cue yawnings and people running away*

[Jemma]

Welcome to ... Solace 2  *sigh*

You have been born in the wrong era of Solace. Sorry, but this is an old conversation covering a subject we are all well aware of, and, some, are trying to rectify the situation. Others are just rectums.

But yes, my pet hate ... wham bam .. and not even a thank you mam type of pk-ing. I loved my recent conversation with a draconian lately. He returned to look at me ... being an elf, and him draconian, and he said ... I am curious to see what an elf looks like as I have never met one.... or words to that effect.  And a cute little RP went on with him. I enjoyed that, and it gave me a little chuckle.

THinks like that make the game enjoyable.

hmmm, wait ... I don't play Solace any more.  oooooops 

[Grim Assassin]

These gentlemen draconians, eh? 

[dargillean]

Hey all.  As all who read my other post know, I'm a newbie here.  I am, however, the RP lead on the mud Kylie mentioned.  I must say I completely agree with everything she said.  We have been close friends, and mudding together for over seven years.  From the experiences we've had, we built the mud we run.  The only reason I'm still here is that Krynn is by far my favorite D&D world, and ours is loosely based on the Forgotten Realms.  I agree that your code is awesome.  You have a lot of things that I've never seen in a ROM mud.  However, the code is not enough to override the frustration of mindless PK.  In talking to my friend about this post, I was told you seek suggestions.  Below I will list a few of the things we have implemented that help us maintain control.  This one is long.  You have been warned.  

First:  Deities Need to be Visible.

Why, you ask.  We have a policy that all of our deities are to remain visible to the players, unless there is a specific reason for them not to be.  That way, the players know we are there, and may be watching.  Also, when something does happen, they can tell us about it when it happens.  Also, when they don't see you all of a sudden, they think you are up to something.  It helps to keep them on thier toes.

Second: Rules need to be established, and more importantly, enforced.

From reading your help files, you have established the rules that govern how you want the mud to run.  Unlike another of the posters here, I think your help files are great.  But, it was a waste of time for whoever implemented them, if nobody enforces them.  The PK rules are the most important ones to enforce.  I can tell you from experience that great code will only get you so far.  If your players are here for the RP, they will not tolerate mindless PK, and will leave.  PK, when roleplayed properly, is awesome.  But, when you work to build a living, breathing character, and they are killed and looted for no apparent reason, it tends to piss you off.  Looting is another aspect of PK.  As Kylie mentioned, there should be a limit on the items you can take from a corpse, and you should ONLY take items from a corpse YOU killed.  Again, in my experience, you don't even need or want the gear you are looting.  All you are doing, intentionally or not, is making it hard for the player of that character, and pissing off the player.  Again, players who are in for the RP will not tolerate this happenning too many times.  This also goes back to the deities being visible to the players.  If the deities are vis, a player wronged in this fashion can be dealt with immedeately, not when a deity happens to check thier notes.

Third: Enforce RP

As Kylie mentioned, while you claim to be a RP enforced mud, in two weeks, I have only managed one RP.  From what I have seen, the people who are in your PK range dissappear as soon as you enter town, and you can't stay in town for fear of being PK'd.  Unless you live in a Drow city, this type of paranoia shold not be necessary.  There should never be a PK that wasn't roleplayed out beforehand.  What I mean is: you should never PK someone without a reason.  And, "I felt like it," or "I was bored," or any of these other, pointless reasons are excuses, not reasons.  Bring some semblance of reality to it.  Would you walk down the street, see someone, and randomly attack them?  If you would, you should be locked up.  Why is it any different for your character?  I"ve read a ton of fantasy adventure novels.  I have yet to see anyone act like that, unless they were in a declared war.  There should ALWAYS be RP to justify a PK.  The only time the person being PK'd should not know the reason, is when a contract has been made with an assassin for that person to die.  And, assassins should not be randomly assassinating people.  Looking at things with any sort of realism, people finding out that you're an assassin is bad.  Now, I know that when you group, you can see thier class.  I'll talk about that in a bit.  On this point, assassins should only be actually assassinating when they are under a contract, which was RP'd with a client.  That is the RP that should go along with this type of PK.  We actually have a note board, and assassins have to post thier contract info, and wait three days, real time, to carry out the hit.  

You will find that your players, who are here for the right reasons will help you enforce the rules and RP, once you get them established.  The ones who are here for the wrong reasons will be weeded out by the players, and by the deities when the other players report them.

Fourth: Keep OOC info OOC

On this mud, any info that doesn't come over the OOC channel seems to be IC, and usuable in game.  Again, you need to bring some semblance of realism to it.  How can someone in New Thalos tell I'm a Dark Elf, when I'm in Palanthas, and we've never met?  If you haven't implemented psionics, (which I have yet to see if you have) how can you talk to someone who is across the game world?  How does grouping with someone automatically tell me what your profession is, and what level you are?  These are things that should be discovered through RP.  I play an assassin on our mud.  I have had several people tell me it took them forever to figure out what I was.  That's how it should be.  I worked very hard to keep what I did a secret.  Only the handful of trusted people I've told IC, know IC.  You should not know what race someone is, until you actually look at them.  It just isn't possible to do otherwise, unless you are psychic, or using magic, (which again, I have yet to see a spell that would allow this).  

As I said, this one is long.  Most of the regulars at this mud who are reading this prolly think I must be the biggest jerk in the mud community if I really act like I say I do.  When it comes to mindless PK, I am.  If you guys were to implement a strict set of rules, there will be some growing pains.  Some of your players will complain.  But, in the end, when things are working like they should, by and large, the players who want to RP will be happier, and the others will move on.  Then, as word spreads, you will attract more players, and the players you get will be of better quality, and your mud wil continue to improve.  When I say better quality, I mean willing to put more effort into RP.  If that offends you, you are the type that would leave my mud.  You need to make RP the focus, not PK, as it seems to be now.  To do that, you need to tighten up on the rules, and deal firmly with people who commit mindless PK.  The rest will come into line.

That's it for this one.  As will always be the case, feel free to reply.

[Sgt Pepper]

I agree with every single word on this post, solace was once great, but now it suk.

I wont spend more time in this game.

Please Kylie, tell me what is your MUD, i want to RP a bit.

[Solan]

Yeah, I pretty much also agree with all those points.
As was said, it's really disheartening when your beloved character, whom you worked up to where they are now, etc etc, is killed by some random jerk who enters realms, goes after everyone in pk, kills them, full loots every piece, and sacs or sells most to all of it, with the reason being nothing, or I felt like it, or "I like to see elves rotting" *cough* Joaerh *cough*
There are still those who will RP all the time, whom I'm quite happy to meet and interact with, and there are those who use netspeak in normal messages and won't rp no matter how much I try...
Still, I'll stay with Solace for now and hope for the best, RPing all the time myself and enjoying the company of others who do too.

[hadin]

I also agree with almost everything, although i do prefer keeping tells as IC ability.  I am sick of the cookie cutter characters who just say they are a draconian so all elves must die...etc etc...(just saw yet another one...*spit*)

I think the mud has alot of advantages going for it, lack of RP and endless PK for no reason are the things that bother me the most.

Sgt Pepper:  Kylie and Dargillean posted here to offer their opinions as experienced mudders and mud owners as to how to improve solace, they arent here to advertise.

[Sgt Pepper]

Sgt Pepper: Kylie and Dargillean posted here to offer their opinions as experienced mudders and mud owners as to how to improve solace, they arent here to advertise.

I was kidding...
But is true that im looking for a new RP MUD. Try to do a good RP in solace is almost impossible by now, its kill-or- be-killed (by the way there is a MUD like this, you barely enter the game and is attacked  )