Ardent's Future
04-17-2018, 07:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2018, 07:42 PM by Nyx.)
Future Discussion
So, as fun as it is to come up with things behind the scenes and surprise you all, we think it's just as important to know what you want to see happen on Ardent in the future. I'm going to lay out a few points that I (and some of the staff) have discussed in the past and see what you guys think. Feel free to give your own input, even if it's wildly different than what anyone else has mentioned. Also feel free to argue certain things; i.e. tell me why my ideas suck, or give me potential downfalls.
1. Site events are the first thing I'd like some input on. While I think random skill-focused random events are fun, and plan to keep doing those, I do sometimes feel we lack large in-character events.
For anyone new to Ardent, here's some examples of global events in the past: Halloween 2017 Event, Halloweeen 2016 Event, Site Epidemic, Severe Weather Event, Site Plague. Please note that other events have happened, but these are some of the major ones for anyone who might be unfamiliar with our history.
We have moved away from forced events, as some people become uncomfortable when they are made to do something they're not willing to (note: we would never do anything such as force injuries or anything long-lasting on anyone's character without their express consent. In the past we have done site plagues where, although wolves were randomly chosen to contract the plague, they never had any chance of actually dying from the illness), but that doesn't mean they are not possible.
I am definitely interested in more events that effect wolves all across Boreas and Auster. Events, especially ones that involve some kind of collaboration (or even cause more rivalry among wolves than there already is?) are super fun, in my mind. It's a bit harder to come up with global things, as there are so many different cultures and religions amongst our characters, but the more widely-involved everyone is, I think makes it more fun.
Please don't suggest events that would totally ruin our current map, since I'd like to stick with it for awhile, lmao.
2. Skills! Skills are fun, but they don't have any end-game element now that we've always hoped to work towards. Here are some things I've been mulling over involving skills:
Navigation - Adding hidden lands that can only be accessed by navigators of certain skill level. Perhaps random events might happen here? The most dangerous ones, only accessible by wolves of high skill level, could have dangers (randomly rolled injuries) that require healing to fix before they can move beyond those lands. (My worry with this is having too much pressure on staff to watch these characters and make sure they're not breaking rules or slipping through the cracks with injuries). If injuries are a risk, should rewards somehow be given? Or would navigators simply go to these areas for the fun of it?
Healing - An herb inventory!!! I personally would love this, and love using it. Let healers (or anyone) attempt to gather an herb and a dice roll would determine if it was successful or not. (Not sure if the RNG of this would bug people or not - or even if balancing difficulty of herb with level of skill of the character would be too much or not...) But why? I wonder if people would still do this even if herbs weren't specifically required for anything, and worry about not having a "point" for them.
That leaves intellect, fighting, and hunting...
I don't see us ever really FORCING players to hunt/eat. I feel that takes away from the more creative aspect of our site, and it'd feel like another task (I think pack meetings and trainings take up that slot for most of us, and another "requirement" would just be cumbersome).
Would it be fair to add features to healing and navigation without focusing on the other 3? Perhaps we ought to consider items for each of the skills; or is this getting too much like a video game for everyone's comfort?
Another thought I had was to somehow come up with quests, involving players to do certain tasks or collect certain items for some kind of reward. What reward, though? We already have enough ways to gain Gems (I think) and I feel gem rewards would require some kind of new thing to sink Gems into to make it even out.
3. We have had plans to work on "Specializations" for awhile now, which is basically a bonus perk once you hit the highest mastery in a skill. What do you guys want to see out of these? Some might be easier than others - for example, fighting perks, but would, say, a healing perk really matter if healing isn't ever really required? Should Specializations merely be things to add to a character's personality?
Examples of possible specializations: Mercenary, Fisher, Messenger, Collector, Scholar, Crafter, Herder, Religious Zealot, Mountain Climber... etc. Sort of like how duties used to be (many, many years ago!). Only more focused on your character's personality.
Or am I simply thinking too much, and are people interested in leveling and achieving these things simply for the sake of character development and nothing else?
Maybe we could get small, cute pixel icons to designate mastery of skills to place on the mini-profile (to the left of posts) at the very least. Or custom titles?
Example:
for Explorer.4. Fight system! On this one I'm speaking solely from my perspective, not sure what the other staff think entirely so please don't take this as a staff-wide thing.
Our current judging system takes way too long (this is of NO fault of the judges AT ALL, but because our system is very thorough and complex). While I think some level of this is important, and I know players appreciate the feedback, I do think that at least some level of RNG would help a lot. 1, it'd make our judges lives easier. 2. It would make players more inclined to fight, and give a leg up to players who might not necessarily be the best (subjective) writers, but might gladly participate in fight training and gain experience.
I think this would mostly be based on RNG, perhaps partially an effort score, as well as minor bonuses for trained fighters.
Would this be fair for.. say.. pack challenges? Force claims? Maims? Death matches? I think we may have to re-work some of our fight rules to make these things less random, but I think it's something we should seriously consider. Also, we'd need a way to record rolls so there is no proof of cheating.
I know this is getting super excessive, but this is all stuff I've been considering for a long time. Please, please, throw me your input!! I'm interested, and I'll respond, and hopefully it will help us all work out our thoughts clearly!
As a note, all final decisions about these things will be made by staff - we aren't able to please everyone, of course, but we will keep (and always have!) everyone's opinions in mind. We're here to make this site fun for you guys, after all! <3
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