Zone Flag Hunt: Clan Rewards

[Asmodeus]

I was thinking about possible clan rewards for the overall zone flag hunt, and came up with the following idea.

What if each clan got a shortcut from their clan hall to that particular zone.  So for example, Vikings claimed the flag for Upper Nile.  So in the viking trophy case would be the Upper Nile flag.  Someone in their clan hall could 'get upper case', and that action would result in that player being pulled through space and time to a set location in the Upper Nile zone.

Of course, there are a few quest zones that you shouldn't be able to get into, but maybe that particular flag would transfer you nearby that zone (or it could check if you have a variable on you to determine whether or not it could transfer you to the zone).  Obviously each flag would have a specific room vnum its taking you, so it wouldn't be hard to determine where was fair for those particular flags.

I like this because each clan then has a sort of reward for participating, in proportion to how much they found.  Also, there are the tokens for the top 3 clans, which provides the extra incentive to be the best clan in terms of flag hunting.

Thoughts? Musings?
Asmo

[horus]

I love it, can I claim this was my idea?

[Molly]

It's a perfect idea, Asmodeus, and I really love it.
Especially because it means that the reward is totally in proportion to their achievement in the 100 flag quest. And all the Clan members benefit from it.

So the three Clans in the top, Sicilians, Vikings and Chaos, get a significantly bigger reward than all the rest, and the ones that didn't bother to turn in a single flag get nothing. Muhaha - perfect!

I'll start working on the scripts for it right away.
I think teleporting to some point close to the entrance of the Quest zones would be acceptable.

The three Clans in top should have some other reward too, of course, since this was a very big Quest, that has lasted for almost the entire time the Mud has been on line:
An extra Clan House?
A Clan Spaceship? (The Sicilians already have one)
A foldable Spacebike?
Or just Tokens?

[Tocharaeh]

genius

[Virisin]

This is a good idea. It'd go great with zone levels.  If players didn't have individual levels but instead had an individual level unique to every zone, clans would have territories based on the transports to zones they had. Just like newbies would very quickly get competitive in easy zones with the older players, new clannies would very quickly become competitive in zones their clans had links to. This would be great for PK, being able to transport very quickly from your clan to a faraway zone you happened to have a particularly high level in to trap another PK player.. Mmmmm

[Asmodeus]

The three Clans in top should have some other reward too, of course, since this was a very big Quest, that has lasted for almost the entire time the Mud has been on line:
An extra Clan House?
A Clan Spaceship? (The Sicilians already have one)
A foldable Spacebike?
Or just Tokens?

I know Chaos is in the process of getting a spaceship... I think that would be a good reward for us.

[Asmodeus]

POST 100! 

[NotNOTKitolani]

I think we should get a mob scripted to guard the entrance to the Queltorian keep. Something awesome and quizzical that interacts with guests that come as friends of Queltor, but eats them dead if they come with destruction in mind. Deep-space diplomacy at work! I'm so proud of you, Asmo! You really hauled there at the end! Virisin would no doubt say something wry to you as well for your efforts! Woot!!

[Xeriuth]

This is fair and appropriate as a clan reward I suppose. But if this is the reward I dont think there should be anything else given, as it already will significantly imbalance the clans if implemented. I'd say personally give the clan rewards in forms of say winning clan gets 3 gold tokens of credit to spend on their clan, not actual tokens the leader can use on themselves but credit to say build rooms for the clan, buy more crests, add scripts, you name it. likewise gold to 2nd place and 1 gold to third place. The remainder clans just the tokens per individual flag.

This transport to the zone I think would be more appropriate to the individual contest, and be obtainable by anyone. If the flag is on your certificate you can use your cert to transport you the designated room of that zone. Say you hold the certificate and say Old Yorke you go to Old Yorke, some zones can perhaps have longer timers than other before they can be re-used, but it would add a much faster way of people that have thoroughly explored the zones to get around. If you want more places, then find more flags, simple as that. Now incentive could be if you were the one to discover or find the flag, your timer is shorter than others or you don't have one.
 
Thoughts?

[Molly]

Sorry, Xer, but the certificate idea is not feasible. By now several of the older players have reported over 90 of the zone flags and a script like that would give them instant access to any zone in the game from anywhere, which if anything would be unbalancing for newer players who have not yet had the same opportunity. Also it needs individual scripts on every certificate, which would have to be updated regularly, and that's just too much continuous work.

At least with the Clan rewards I can set the scripts on the room with the showcases, and they can only teleport to the zones on their list from that particular room. To me it makes sense that the entire Clan benefits from this, since the contest was planned and announced right from the start as a contest between the Clans. And I think rivalry between Clans is a good thing for the game.

Maybe someone can come up with some new idea along the line of Clan contests, to strengthen the ties between Clan members?

As for the other Clan reward we'll go for gold tokens, just as you suggested. Then the Clan itself can decide what to spend them on.

For the individual contest I could consider giving the three top players a free teleport to some of the zones, but not all.  Let's say 1st prize gets to choose 10 zones, 2nd gets 7 and 3rd gets 5 zones.

What do you guys think? There's just 5 days left now, so time is running short.

[Xeriuth]

That's fair, I was thinking more along the lines of there being a large cooldown of sorts, each flag gives the player a flag, and then when they are within a specific room, could tie it to the trophy case or the 4d map room even. With the given flag the player can travel to zone of choice, even a global cooldown, so it's a 1 hour at a time kind of deal. I'm just thinking of something that doesnt put a permanent imbalance to the game, a new player has every chance to find all of the flags, sure an older player has more, but that's a given, same with equipment and knowledge. It won't change the fact it is still obtainable by anybody. Unlike the clan idea.
The clan idea makes DJ's pretty much worthless to join and Sics, Vikings, Chaos the only clans people would want because of the extreme imbalance. If we want that extreme imbalance and other clans have RP and such merit only to go on, then works. I won't be going anywhere if it's implemented, I just dont think it's fair especially with the pbase.
I just keep thinking, someone really wants to be a DJ, but no, I get no benefits so I'll join these other three. Might as well start closing clans..
I rambled a lot but I think I said what I needed to.

[Molly]

Honestly, I think you put too much significance to the flags, they are more a symbol of former success than an imbalancing advantage, especially since many of them lead to zones that are easy to reach in any case. I doubt you'll see any rush of new recruits to Sicilians, Chaos and Vikings in the next few months just because of the flags. And very soon they will be more or less forgotten, like most features we implement.

There are other things that decide the development of Clans, above all active leaders who recruit new members to the Clans, and take well care of them after they join. What definitely kills a Clan is inactive leaders, we've seen that many times over the years.
The Clans are all different, and they attract different types of players. The Clan policy should rather be to define and enhance the character of each Clan, than copying features from others.

[Xeriuth]

Fair enough, if its not really a big advantage, and won't cause imbalance works for me. Now that I think about it and this is the reward. With the next batch of 100 starting after this. Other clans know what they can work towards. So if anything it can be achievable by other clans still.

[Molly]

Here is another idea, to make Flag hunting more attractive for future players:

Everybody with 100 reported flags on their certificate will get to choose 3 of the zones to get a teleport to.
The script will be put on the certificate, and have the usual restrictions against fighting etc.

 

[Asmodeus]

Clan contests should reap clan rewards, where everybody of a clan can benefit (in more ways than just extra tokens to add rooms/items to a clan)... this is why i think the flag teleporting idea is such a good one.  I highly doubt its going to change clan recruitment, just because they'll get instant access to some zones.  Like Molly said, current leaders and members usually determine how well a clan is functioning and recruiting, not past rewards.  The reason there are pretty much no DJs playing these days has nothing to do with the fact that they got 0 flags in this contest. Not to mention newbies most likely wont even know about this extra perk before joining a clan, or which zones they'll eventually really want a shortcut to.

As for the individual contest, i don't feel one way or another about any reward past tokens for 1st 2nd 3rd, etc.  I certainly don't think anyone will complain if there is more!  But i like the thought of anyone who puts in the time and effort to find all 100 should get some sort of award.  I feel like finding all the flags to this point is really an accomplishment considering you pretty much explored most/all the mud to find them.

Also, I agree that we definitely need more clan v. clan quest ideas.  I'll start trying to come up with some.  They're very fun, and encourage recruitment and friendly competition!  How do we come up with a global clan quest that can rival zone flags... hmmmm