Hey Everyone, It's been awhile since I've been on but I wanted to share an idea.

We used to be able to gen up past generation 10, no real benefits except the number and gaining Quest Points every time you genned up another generation.

What about benefits such as (it could be all of them or one/two of them):

1) A reduction in that character's rent costs by maybe 5% per gen past 10. 2) An increase in base hitroll and/or dam roll, maybe 2 each per gen. 3) An increase in starting hp/mana/move at the beginning of each gen past 10 by 10-25 per gen. 4) An increase in exp gained by 1% per gen past 10.

Just a couple ideas, I'm sure there are some amazing others. What do you think?

Ugh, the formatting on realms is annoying sometimes. Here's the list of ideas in a clearer format:

1) A reduction in that character's rent costs by maybe 5% per gen past 10.

2) An increase in base hitroll and/or dam roll, maybe 2 each per gen.

3) An increase in starting hp/mana/move at the beginning of each gen past 10 by 10-25 per gen.

4) An increase in exp gained by 1% per gen past 10.

Making the most powerful characters on the game more powerful just doesn't seem like a great idea to me. Newbies can barely get to level 10 without quitting because it's too hard. With the most powerful characters getting more powerful, it could only get worse.

shrug

Ok.

I've been playing this game for a very long time, and I've been meaning to post something regarding things to do post-gen 10 (I may have already, but I am too lazy to search). There NEEDS to be something to do for characters past gen 10.

I don't need to state the obvious, but Tempus is a dying game and every year we lose more and more players because of lack of things to do. I can't even remember when the last time a new zone was released. Sure, there are things to look forward to, such as Santa giving gifts during Christmas. What happened to Imm celebrity auctions? That was a great way to keep players active to make gold in order to buy some cool stuff. Now, the only thing to run gold for is to pay for rent.

Well there are no new zones because there aren't any builders. Even if there were, getting them to make a new zone for the three people with gen 10s to play just isn't as important as putting effort into getting more people to play and and actually stick around. If we could get some people actually playing, I am confident that those who quit because things were dead would play again.

As far as christmas presents and Imm auctions: it's just another way for the most powerful characters to get even more powerful. I just don't see how it benefits the mud. It just adds to the elitism and broadens the gap between the experienced and the newbies. It is nearly impossible for a newbie to play this game. Even with substantial help, they aren't going to get anywhere without being leveled by powerful players.

I agree that there should be more for experienced players to do, but with the critically low resources available on the Immortal end of Tempus, any efforts should be focused on making the game playable for those that aren't gen 10. Anything done to boost high end characters and make the mud appear too easy is just going to hurt newbies.

Well we had players till someone decided to prove a point… Plus I wouldn't say newbies need to be spammed atm just need some tools to point them in the right direction. Like the newbie zone mobs should be revamped a little bit. So they don't heal faster than your crappy weaponless start up gear allows you to kill them. Make it so the game is more fair. Like balance the classes. Get rid of all the old stat gear or bring it back. Its a bummer to tell a new player that he or she will probably never get nflt gear since you guys took it outta the game. Put some more gear out there that has static loads or if you really want pkills and full loots to be a part of the game get rid of random loads. Tempus is an rpg so naturally your character should get stronger as you remort and level up spread out the remort skills. Mages get four remort spells at gen one why not one skill/spell per gen. Quit catering to evil and give players more incentive to play good aligned Knights or Clerics. Also who the hell are the immortals in charge? Wish and Azimuth? Where are they? If you guys can't do the job or don't want to why not give it to someone who has the time and would make some changes. Tempus was growing and can again if we all try a little harder. Unfortunately that means quit being a buncha trolls. I've seen players run off from being called smelly irl is that really necessary? I've seen players run off simply because others didn't agree with them. Share your concerns don't be a dink about it. Plus lots of players leave because they simply just get bored with running the same zones trying to farm the same equip. Its not very promising logging onto a mud with four idle people on the who list. Oh well

While I agree that all efforts should be put towards getting and keeping newbies, the only way to get and keep them is through our old players. Without the presence of our active players, newbies who randomly test out the mud will be gone the next day. A true newbie won't make it past level 10 if there is no one on to help them.

It's a vicious cycle that will eventually result in Tempus dying. Tempus has never really been that populated, and the players that do currently play are the same ones that were active years ago.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but my thought is to first find a way to keep the old players active. We are the core of the mud, and without us, there will never be newbies.

I would like to see newbies be able to play the game without heavy dependence on veteran players. When I first started I was able to level to 49 before I got help from others. When I did get help, it was truly awesome. Now we give newbies a bunch of equipment that they don't know what to do with, and don't have any respect for, just so they can get a few levels and still get frustrated and quit.

As for the giving the veterans something to do, I have two points. One, if you had a bunch of new zones to play would you really find the time to help the newbies or would you be busy playing those new zones? As it is when a newbie asks for help, most of the time the few people on are idle, so a newbie feels like they are being ignored and quit. Second, with there being precious little builder resources do you really feel building a zone for one or two, maybe three, veteran players is really more important than working on getting zones better suited for new players? When the few newbies that try the game are on, I'd rather them be able to play on their own than to have them quit because there isn't anybody around to help them.

Another thought I have is when you say give veterans something to do, do you mean level 8 Hell or somewhere other than Fassan to level? I feel that there are so many zones on the game that just need a little tweak to make them playable on the level of the few go-to zones that are popular. Tweaks are easy enough to manage, but weighing the time to build a new high-gen zone against working on newbie friendly areas, I would be a heavy proponent of the newbie argument.

When I say give the players something to do, I don't necessarily mean new zones. We don't need new places to level: that isn't going to keep us playing. Players don't quit because there aren't enough zones to play or level at. They stop playing because there's nothing to do once you "beat this game".

That's the difference between an RPG and an MMO (or MUD in this case). Once you beat an RPG once or a few times, do you keep playing or do you look for a new game? People continue to play MMOs because new content is continuously added and gives players things to do, whether it's making their characters stronger or a reason to keep leveling.

Raising the stat cap to 50 was a very good start. It brought a lot of players back to re-level their characters. It didn't involve new zones or broaden the gap between the experienced or the newbies. As a matter of fact, it actually bridged the gap, as newbies at lower gens were able to have similar hitpoints or stats as everyone else. Newbies will not stay if they see the same 4 players idle every time they log on. Newbies will not join since majority of everyone who has ever played started due to word of mouth of their friends.

I know we don't have the resources of the Immortals available. I'm not asking why the immortals aren't building new zones or hosting quests… I already know why. I'm not asking for new zones…no one has ever come back because they heard of a new zone that gives great exp or some has some awesome Cleric EQ. Just sayin.

I get what you're saying now, and it is a good point. The problem is how to add that content without making the power divide even larger. My original concerns about going "Past Generation 10" was that the difference between the few power players and most other players was already huge, and making it bigger would be a bad thing, a concern I still think is valid.

When I would run quests, back when there were actually people around, there would be many that didn't want to participate because they "knew they would lose because player x is playing." There would be 15-20 people on the mud and 12-15 would not quest, would with great reluctance, would just join and idle, or not even try. This isn't an exaggeration. I would send people tells and ask them to quest and I would get that "there isn't a point" response. So then I would try to find ways to not have PK involved, or team quests, etc., but those types of quests just aren't as popular.

I know the point you are making isn't "have more quests", but this illustrates one facet of my concerns with adding more to the high end of the character spectrum. There are way around this I suppose, such as handicapping or strict gen restrictions on questing, but are people going to keep a lvl 49/gen 8 or 9 character just to participate in quests? Seems like asking a lot, or excluding the dedicated few that we have.

I guess quests really aren't the topic here though.

So how to make Tempus continue to hold a players interest beyond generation 10.

Multiclassing a third or more classes. (I've always wanted this one.)

When you remort to gen 10, you can take on a third class. At gen 20 you can take a fourth, and at 40 a fifth. I would suggest bringing back practice points so that at lower gens of having the extra classes you must pick and choose which skills you can take, ending with being gen 50 you get enough so that you can learn every skill of all of your classes. Gen 50 would be the max. I would also put back in the increasing attributes by one or two per gen, so that at gen 50 you could perhaps max at 100 in each attribute.

I would think completely reworking the way experience is gained would be necessary. We all hate that level 40 hump. Instead just have it simply be a percentage based on level and gen. The higher gen, the more drastic the experience percentage cut. Make it more of a smooth transition instead such a harsh one. Each gen the percentage of experience reduction goes up a little, maxing at something that would make getting to gen 40 challenging, and that would require playing in more challenging zones.

This shouldn't require a player wipe, but I'm not sure that having one would be a bad idea anyway. I would also suggest gen requirements on equipment, reworking the race/class restriction system, and perhaps having some easement on equipment class restrictions or a certain number of allowances based on gen. That would make it so you can strive to gen up to get that other class, but also to wield that awesome weapon in that zone that you can run now that you have that third class.

I like your ideas Wrath! Red also has some strong points on how come there isn't much growth in user base. Drystan, what was the reason for the person making a point and losing a lot of players?

I really like Tempus. I haven't had much time to really go on or do much, and I am sure most, if not everyone, on Tempus is equally having a lot going on with their lives.

It is also a challenge that most people are unaware or too flooded with other games to think of a text based game.

To get growth, we'll need to reach out to a small niche of players who enjoy text based games (which I love).

I have seen us receive a lot of players from time to time that start, but leave pretty quickly.

I think it is a mix of the challenge and our idle players. I remember when I came on, there were mostly idle players. Fortunately for me, there were several players that were very active and warm in talking and helping.

Having people on and able to talk and build relationships is what kept me on. If we can keep the old school players interested and playing, then when we do get people that try Tempus, then they'll stay because they will build new relationships and have fun.

wrath, about your comment that we don't have builders:

this is entirely untrue. there are at least 2 active builders, and maybe 2 more semi-active ones

the problem lies with those in charge of actually proofing and approving zones.

they aren't doing their jobs. my builder has been sitting on at least 2 'production' zones and a playzone for the past 2 and a half YEARS. are they ready for addition to the game? no, not by a long shot. but I can't get the arch's to actually PROOF the damn zones, let alone playtest or release one.

I've given up trying. I've sent mail after mail, ive bugged them in person when I can catch them online, and all I get is 'i'll get to it soon'

3 or 6 months later when I catch up to them again, surprise surprise nothings been done, no progress made whatsoever. something ALWAYS comes up that occupies all their time for at least 6 months straight. I realize people have real lives outside of tempus, but if you're unable to do the job you volunteered to do, then you NEED to pass that job along to someone who IS willing and able to do it.

last time I checked, there were at least 5 zones, all complete, proofed, and tested awaiting release, but again, someone ain't doing what they said they'd do, and these zones are sitting, idle, months or years of work completely and utterly wasted

You would have to ask Wrath about that one Diamond. I have no desire to go get all my stuff back just to tick someone else off and do it all over again :p not to mention some of it can't be replaced since they took it out of the game. Plus why play a game level up your character just to have it deleted and do it all over again (the pwipe origin was talking about)

In the past, I was told pwipes were caused by code changes resulting in the playerfile being unusable. I don't know of any proposed code changes that would be so severe as to cause this.

That being said, it's normal for games to have expansions or DLC that reduce the value of top-level items from previous content. So while it might have been fun to get that amazing item that you used for months or years, you now have the fun and excitement of exploring new areas and receiving new items. See also: http://store.penny-arcade.com/products/pat070311

It would be great if we can start growing the player base again Drystan.

An incentive for a player past gen 10 would be nice too. I like Wrath's idea of a third class. It makes sense that you get even more powerful as you grow past gen 10.

It should not be too difficult to implement.

That way we can help the older players and also help the new players.

New players are important, because they will help keep Tempus alive.

I do not have any old stat items and not sure how powerful they are. I haven't had any trouble getting around and leveling without the old stat items.

Having a larger player base would allow us to have more quests. That will give us more quest points, and that lets us customize the equipment we have.

A third class would be difficult to implement, not just because of the code changes (everything would need to be changed), but because of balance issues. Tempus should be challenging, because games are fun when they are challenging. Every class should have strengths and weaknesses, because this is where fun strategy comes from. I think a third class would add strengths but eliminate weaknesses. And this doesn't do anything for the newbies.

Hey Merriam! Thanks for sharing about the coding challenges. That would be too much to do and would bring about a lot of balance issues for three classes.

Would it be easier to implement maybe a gen 20 (for example) bonus of selecting one skill from any class? I think it'll be a good incentive to have. Might be easier to implement.

As for newbies, I think the major challenge is the pipeline. We need to get more people to try it out. Once they get a good hang for it, then they'll enjoy it and continue.

A quick way to address the fun part is to make things easier for newbies to kill, at least up to level 10-15. That way they have a good amount of time (and more importantly fun) killing stuff. Then it will get hard for them and they need to put some effort to level up.

It sucks to enter and get killed by the lowest level mobs. Perhaps an easy way to deal with this is, as someone earlier posted, some +mortal equipment that gives them a good advantage over halflings, and equal footing against hobgoblins.

It is hard to enjoy a game that we die consistently over and over again in the beginning. At the same time, it is fun to play a game where we can destroy stuff, at least initially.

The challenge of 15-49 will be harder, and those that stay will have to learn how to really fight, instead of just typing "fight" and killing the mobs.

Another idea is to have an item, like a book, that they start the game with that gives them a hint. For example, if the new player is a mercenary, then it'll tell them that wrench is their bread and butter. That way new players will know which skill to use.

I feel the first 10-15 levels will be critical. It is where people are going to really enjoy our world, or they'll find it too hard and just quit.

I remember we had 3 blind guys. Bless their hearts. I am sure they spam died many times, but they pushed through and remorted. Unfortunately they left for reasons unknown.

Let me know what you think Merriam. Hope to see you on Tempus too!