Is 4D dying? And if so, how can we save our beloved Mud?

[Molly]

My instinct shies away from changing something that is the basis for the mount and vehicle system.
But on the other hand I most certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from exploring, since that is the main idea behind 4D.
As far as I know, movepoints are only a problem for low level players, so maybe the coders could set it so that players start out with a higher amount of moves. I'll see what I can do.

And on another note, make sure that you are not hungry or thirsty, because that affects your stamina, and use vehicles where you can find any. If you are exploring in Prehistoric and Future, make use of the ships and spaceships.
And I think you'll see that the mounts are well worth the training sessions in riding, and they defonitely don't make navigation any different. Nor do vehicles, as long as you sit down when driving.
There is also equipment with extra movepoints that you can find, mostly leg and footwear.

[Virisin]

Moves really are terrible. I noticed that when I created a new char recently too.

[Tocharaeh]

Any equipment that gives extra moves is a complete waste of stats.

Hunger and Thirst is really only good if you have battlespam off. Most people don't even know they need nourishment.

Movements/stamina, and hunger/thirst really need to just vanish.

I mean, this is my point exactly. We're still entrenched in an old gaming style that just make people go "Really?". If you WANT peple of the new gaming age to come play an antique, then you got give a little something for them.

does it truly ruin vehicles/mounts? I doubt it. People will buy them anyway because they are cool.

Besides, if my mount has less moves/stamina than me, and is falling everywhere, it's just proof of a bad movement system taht needs to vanish.

[Tor]

If Convey maxmove still works, it will get a new player an extra 100 maxmove points in exchange for 10 million gold. It could be used multiple times but the cost goes up, the 10 million is multiplied by the number of times the player has used it. It still shows up in the help files.

[Tocharaeh]

I want to point out that moves are pointless so long as stamina still exists.

Remove stamina. Problem semi-solved.

Convey is great if gold still dropped from everything, as opposed to ONLY humanoids. (one of the dumbest changes ever. We are the ONLY mud to do that crap.)

[Prometheus]

I'm working on increasing the starting amount of movement that first time creation players get. And Stamina does change depending on what the area is like ie for example you will lose more stamina walking through the mountains than when you are walking in plains. And Space really sucks up Stamina.

Prometheus

[Diandra]

For now as a help to speed up your movepoints regeneration: there are some inns spread around the Realm that will help you regain your moves faster if you're sleeping in those Inns. Providing you're not hungry or thirsty.

A list of those Inns can be found in the room one west of Recall. Also another suggestion to prevent hunger/thirst, each time you're in Recall, whether you died or just recalled, make a habit to go to the milk fountain east of Recall, and drink the milk till you're full. It not only gets rid of thirst but also of hunger.

[Tor]

Tocharaeh is right about the gold, some of, (what I take for), the humanoids even quit carrying gold when that change went in. 

Stamina, isn't it tied to the race and occupation of the player, and as such something they have at least limited control over when creating a character? I need find more information on it.

[Asmoday]

Hey

     I read what was written before, I would not want to answer all questions, but I think the answer may be quite simple: Clans
     I remember what attracted me most to 4d was that it was a fight between clans ,also whenever someone came into play, all the talk, all that was heard ,was about the importance of the clan, about how important it is to do part of a clan and everyone wanted to be part of a clan -> drama -> interest -> lots of people playing
I think some changes should be made also in this side of the game
Also the first remort should require less experience , so people would be "lost" without a clan

[Tor]

I need to cogitate on Asmo's post.

[Jaros]

Get rid of moves.  Possibly keep stamina and tweak it so extreme environments are still extremely difficult to cope with without a mount; eg Llano, outer space.. other deserts.  That should only be extreme environments though, where it adds to the zone's dynamic.  Nothing should slow down exploration in the vast remainder of the game.  Get rid of moves.

Clans require players.  More players = better clan dynamics.  Fiddling with clans without the playerbase won't do anything.
Although adding the clan war mechanics and mob loyalties Mord used to talk about would be worth it regardless.

[Klax]

4. How can we attract more new players to the Mud?
In particular I'd like ideas about how to target and reach a new audience. (Even of most of the gaming interest has moved to graphics, there must still be thousands of people connected to internet, who like to read, and might enjoy the more complex atmosphere of a Text mud. But how do we make these people aware that Text muds in general - and 4D in particular - even exist, now that muds are no longer mainstream?)

You want to reach a new audience.  There are lots of people who might enjoy text-based muds, particularly one with as much depth as 4 Dimensions, but they won't even give it a chance because of the lack of graphics.

So...why not add graphics?

4D is a text-based game and that shouldn't change, it's important to play to your strengths.  But just as MMORPGs use a certain amount of text, so many MUDs also use graphics, and 4D is no exception.  Take the 'map' command for example.  That draws a map of your surroundings using ASCII graphics.  But wouldn't it look nicer if it instead displayed the same graphical maps that are available on the website, and updated them in real-time as you moved around?

Or how about the prompt?  A sequence of mysterious abbreviations and numbers that are displayed over and over, it's like a second language to a veteran but pretty unintuitive for a first-time mudder.  Why not move that same information into a set of clearly labelled energy bars?

Players who don't like graphics wouldn't need to use them, they could carry on playing exactly like they do now.  But for attracting new players, particularly those from outside the text mud community, it could make a strong selling point.

6. What do you think specifically turns newbies off our Mud?

One possible reason may be technical.  Your implementation of MCCP appears to be broken.  When I connect with Mudlet the session freezes during character creation, and when I connect with BlowTorch the client crashes every time.  I connected with TinTin++ in debug mode, and found that you initiate MCCP at the exact point where the other two clients die.

If a new player tries to connect and their client keeps freezing or crashing, they'll just move on to the next mud on their list.

[Xeriuth]

I think it is not entirely clans that will help the player base grow again, it is camaraderie. Every new player is another potential new player to stay. I kind of lived this idea when I was CL of Dragons.  I essentially took anyone into the clan, just had them perform simple find an item quest etc. At the same time teaching them the basics and fundamentals of questing on a better scale than the mud school. At the same time being their friend. This made Dragons the largest clan at the time of active members but we also got labelled as the noob clan because of the members we had.

This is what we need clans to become right now. With the little number of players we have we have too many clans. I would personally recommend to temporarily shut down clans like Qualinesti. Perhaps incorporate them into a clan currently there. I would recommend say two or three clans. One good, one neutral and one evil. This way if people join for an RP purpose they have a clan that would fit them.
And if every leader would treat it as I did back when I was Dragons CL and recruit anyone and everyone and teach them, and be friendly, in their own clan RP sort of way then people will certainly be more prone to stay.

After we begin to grow, we could then start doing RP events and such to re-open the temporarily shutdown clans, with player chosen leader for the clans.

If the first thing someone experiences when they join is a companion, someone who they can talk to when they log in, or a purpose and a reason to play and come back then I feel we have a chance at growing.

Also Klax's mention of MCCP, I am unaware of how this works exactly but it would definitely be something to look into. Right now we are still ranked #1 on mudgamers.com and if people are looking for a new mud, they will see that. Our next goal is to keep those new players, and I think we can do that first by simply 'making friends'

[NotNOTKitolani]

Open clans. I will volunteer Chaos as the test subject. If you've got the balls to land on Queltoria and avoid the dt's littering the landscape to reach the keep, you should be able to gain access to our healer at least! >.< All the good bits are tucked away, and I'm sure we can set up a looting system that's good and fair to keep people defending their stuff. Chaos just recently donated all of their vault contents to the newbies of the realms, and the newbies that were descerning were set up! 4d isn't going to go away, but the ebb and flow will continue as people come and go from their duties to their pleasures. >.<

[AnotherKitolani]

Open clans. I will volunteer Chaos as the test subject. If you've got the balls to land on Queltoria and avoid the dt's littering the landscape to reach the keep, you should be able to gain access to our healer at least! >.< All the good bits are tucked away, and I'm sure we can set up a looting system that's good and fair to keep people defending their stuff. Chaos just recently donated all of their vault contents to the newbies of the realms, and the newbies that were descerning were set up! 4d isn't going to go away, but the ebb and flow will continue as people come and go from their duties to their pleasures. >.<

I will volunteer to go into the Chaos HQ and ransack it to my hearts content.