Topics

16

Scripting Board / Quest flags question

« on: June 28, 2009, 08:09:40 pm »

hey. I just have a couple quetions concerning quest flags (variables I think...dunno).

I have evals down and they are very easy to set, but they're temporary as far as I can tell. How exactly should I go about setting variables on players?

The reason being is that I plan on hvaing players work their way through the storyline, instead of having them having to restart everytime there is a crash/reboot/death. I want players to be able to pick up where they left off easily.

For example:

Ultimate Goal is to Gain Trust of Mob
Player starts quest A
Player Finishes quest A, and gains slight trust. (var 1)
Player Starts and finishes quest B, gains more trust. (var 1 turns to Var 2)
Players continues down list, until final quest in series (quest E) is complete (Var 2,3- ends in Var5)
Mob Now Trusts Player (not to be triggered by items as that would be abusable.) (Var 6 enables story continuation)
Mob Trusts player, and starts series of events in main quest. (finish quest, and have new flag set for quest item, while keeping var 6 to repeat quest as needed from proper point with story main mob)


How would I go about setting variables on a player, then replacing and so on as above?

Any chance I could get a couple good examples taht I can build from, and/or maybe have some time set aside to have a one on one tutorial? Thanks so much guys.

-Tochie
trying to finish

17

Suggestions & Ideas / Mounts, and Mount Skills

« on: June 04, 2009, 03:57:30 am »

Fiachra suggested I do this- so I am.

here is the issue at hand (confirmed): Trample has a horrible land rate. I've an almost maxed skill and landed once out of 17 times. the lag is ginormous (big). I think it may need some slight tweaking due to it's horrible land rate.

second: As players grow stronger, their mounts stay behind- However players NEED to go to higher level areas in order to grind, meanwhile their mounts just get destroyed by aggies left and right. What I would suggest is the ability to buy set tiers to ones mount. The reason being is that it is the only way to give THEM a "fighting" chance to survive vs. large aggy mobs before we can save them, and heal. They dont assist, so there would be no abuse. Their only function is for us to ride, save stamina/mv loss, and get slight dmg bonuses from them. They hard ever come into PK fights, and we can't order our mounts around- so aside from griding/exploring, they are useless. I would propose a 2 silver/tier for perzed mounts. It gives them the stamina, and mv increase that could come in VERY handy when going into mazes and such- In the long run this only benefits us in small areas, but they are helpful nethertheless.

18

Suggestions & Ideas / Suggestion to QEQ stndardization, and power balancing.

« on: May 22, 2009, 02:20:56 pm »

    I have been thinking about this for a long time, and the reason being is that it has become rather standard practice to builders to try and make "the best in the game" eq which I really do not agree with.
When it comes down to it, we do not have set standards that say "items can only be this powerful or less". So my suggestion is, and I would be happy to help, is to create an actual 4D database of items, with their list of stats and so on, and create the standards.
    My biggest complaint is that there are certain items that are actually BETTER than gear from Gojira which in mine and several others opinions, should not exist. The reason being that Gojira is undoubtedly (and the leviathon) the TOUGHEST mob in the game. The rewards for Gojira should be worth the time and effort you must dedicate in order to accomplish such a feat.
    I should make a point to say that this is not for me to just simply pat myself on the back. This is about trying to push for EQ stat standardization so as to prevent further production of eq that is built to outdo another. Even in my own zone, no such eq exists. They are all similar stats so as to provide the player with the ABILITY to wear either one or the other, without either pieces being better than the next.
   If we do not have a standard by which builders must follow, then we will continue to have a constant power imbalance. As it remains, we have a very large eq imbalance because of their not being enough (or any) particular slot pieces available as they are continually ignored. We need to learn how to create a balanced eq system that provides ALL characters of ALL alignments, classes, and races with an equal opportunity to climb the strength ranks.

   Some further suggestions would be to abolish the !race flags, and !class flags. That would be a perfect step into the right direction. As for !alignment, I think it is semi-fine...but we all know my stance on our fluctuating alignment system (I hate it).

Anywho, thats all for now.

     -Tocharaeh

19

General Discussions / CHANGE OF HANDS

« on: April 01, 2009, 02:32:07 pm »

So, when was somebody going to tell us about this sudden change of hands?
Even though I am a HERO, meaning I'm the IMMs assistant for the players....I still need to ask
the question we are all wondering-

WHY didn't anyone tell us?
Why were we not at least informed taht 4D would take such a huge turn?
What does this mean for us?
How will this effect the quality and gameplay?

We are the mud worlds elite slooths. Nobody can quest like we can. We are not simply hack 'n slash.
With the NEW staff building.....what does this mean? Does our standard change? Will they understand how our system works?

I can see some good things coming out of this such as:
round the clock coding
balancing
the class system that horus and I proposed which is now being written.
balancing

However, what I do not want to change is what 4D has been for over a decade. Where is our skull? I have been looking at that skull since I was...what? 15? I'm 26 now. The skull means a lot to me, as I am sure it means a lot to many others.

This is not a discussion to flame our new hands. This is just a place to voice everyones concerns and desires.

I welcome the new staff, but I ask that the new staff does not impose too much change as to deface what we have all known for a very long time. I think the changing of our login screen is going to cause ripples, and I would advice that they take into consideration our feelings as 4D residences.

Please bring back our skull

20

General Discussions / PERZED MOUNTS: TOO WEAK FOR UBER ZONES?

« on: March 21, 2009, 03:01:27 am »

As the zones grow increasingly powerful, we find taht the perzed mobs are too weak to keep up. They last only a few minutes or more (if you're lucky) in places like Dinos, DP, Egypt, and so on. Mobs tend to ATTACK your mount before attacking you. If possible do you think for a certain amount ot tokens you would want to increase their level or tier so that they can keep up with you?

What I have noticed is that the expensive mount loses its worth as you become more and more powerful. The more remorts you stack, and the more quest equipment you gather, your mount becomes obsolete which can make it very difficult when taking on much more powerful mobs.

As it stands the mud has progressed greatly, and the mobs have grown. However, perzed mounts have been left behind. They were great in the older days, especially when mobs weren't attacking them outright. However, today that is not the case.

Once the release of my zone comes to fruition (I'm working diligantly to get it done soon) the importance of mounts will grow because of the great difficulty of what players will face. This fact will increase as my other much smaller projects (in scale) come to in the future. The reason for more uber zones is for more powerful and experienced players to be able to actually feel challenged. As it stands we only have dinos and DP to challenge our blades. I will be challenging both brain AND blade in the very near future.

What I propose is that players with perzed mounts be given the opttion of increasing their perzed mounts tier level by 1 per every 2 silver tokens. This will increase their likelyhood of survival while in the harsh fields of the larger areas.

I should state that this is not for the benefit of myself, but for the mud as a whole. I am and have always been a very poor player here with a handful of bronze here or there. I've never been one for getting tokens- This idea would be difficult for even myself to fund outright, as like everyone else, I am an ordinary player trying to help improve 4Dimensions, and keep it consistent.

21

Suggestions & Ideas / Idea: New Currency System

« on: February 26, 2009, 06:40:59 am »

Hello everyone. I have a new currency system that I would like to bring to the table. First let me state my case, and then continue forward from there.

As it stands coins mean squat in the game. Yes, we have these strange TP's that NOBODY uses because it takes so flipping long to do anything of worth. I just spent 2 hours gathering stuff, and got like 6 total TP's to show for it. I can go walk right into a quest, complete it in the same amount of time, and earn myself a friggin silver. This is rediculous. Next, tokens. Tokens are WONDERFUL quest rewards, and there are a ton of them out there if you look so they have their own place, like TPs, within the diverse world of 4D. However, what good are coins? Well, coins buy us heals when we actually use them, wands should we ever be desperate enough to hold such heavy things, and occasionally we give 200mil to some unsuspecting newbie. Mostly, we just hoard our coins. I would estimate that the average bank/player rests comfortably at 800,000,000 coins..wasting away. Reward Points- Way useless. We rarely give them out, and it takes forever for players to gather anything worth squat for say a pre-title ability. I used to do everything I could to hand out points so people would use them- However as a RPL/Hero- RP Points don't mean a thing- I can't earn them, and I'm stuck with only a FEW of the commands from the list.

This is what I propose-

I propose that we include JEWELS in shops for people to buy. Each jewel is worth a particular amount. Instead of holding coins in the bank, we hold jewels of difefrent types as follows:

                     Middle grade: Red Ruby (worth 5mil coins)
                     High grade: White Diamond (worth 20 RR)(100mil coins)
                     Exquisite: Jeweled Egg (worth 20 WD)(2bil coins)

The purpose of this is to create player treasuries that aren't so...bland, and it also makes the bank look much cooler. If you need to cash in some rubies for cash, you just deduct them from the bank, and sell them back to any shop for the EQUAL price you originally paid for you.

Next: I believe to bring up the player base, we need to give players a little bit more freedom by allowing them to access restrings more readily. By this I mean that since the IMM staff is so busy, they might as well use their HERO's who are the IMM lackies. Giving the HERO's this ability means tat a player can come to a HERO, and PAY for a restring for say 5 JE. 5JE would be worth probably close to 2bil in our current coinage.

This reason I am also proposing this system is so that there is more cash flow going around. People are spending more instead of just endlessly hoarding. Just because we are restringing something doesn't mean it's being perzed...just renamed.

Which leads to my next chart:

 Exquisite: Jeweled Egg x 3   = 1 Restring (1 Silver)
 Exquisite: Jeweled Egg x 21 = 1 perz (3 JE per script) (7 Silver)
 Exquisite: Jeweled Egg x 18 = 1 lvl 50 mount (6 silver)
 Exquisite: Jeweled Egg x 90 = House (+30 per upper grade of house) (3 Gold + 1 Gold/Upgrade)
 
This is just an example. I think that a currency system like this is more interactive and I think that we could even use this for mob trade quests as well. As you can see I'm calling for a slight decrease in the prices for housing because I think that we need to make the ability to own homes a little more accessable. The reason being is that not everyone is quest savy, and though this may hurt some prides from other players who have worked hard to get where they are today- I say get over it. I think that on top of the new class system being worked out, there is more that can be done to entice newer peoples into staying. Giving players more accessable options like buying restrings from 4D staff to create item uniqueness, and the ability to USE our coinage for the purpose of purchasing all that is available via tokens will help KEEP people here because it gives them more "reachable" goals. Housing and such is truly a minority, and I think that since it is the players that keep the mud going, they should be given a little slack on things.

If you think that the regular token system is fine, and you don't want to change how the treasury works, then I think we should at least allow for players to be able to BUY tokens from the token machine near recall for the same prices as the proposed jewels/jeweled egg.

This is just my proffessional opinion, and hope to hear some feedback form the staff on this. I would like to avoid nay saying from oldbie haters who own everything We really need to start thinking outside the box rather than within the confines of the "power" we have emassed over the many years.

-Tocharaeh

22

Suggestions & Ideas / The IMMs dream of 4d: I want to know

« on: January 22, 2009, 02:50:10 pm »

Okay, this is a very serious quest I am posing to the 4D staff.

What is YOUR vision of 4d?
here's another:
HOW will your vision impact the playerbase?
one more:
How you do propose we ATTRACT other players?

These are very important and crucial questions and I'll tell you why. I don't see people staying here for very long. We have to compete with newer better graphics based mmporgs out there, and newsflash, they're growing fast. Not only that but aside from probably the most unique and amazing quest system out there (most everyone else uses AUTUOQUEST, and eq is easy to find if you're powerful to kill the baddies), but we also have probably the most descriptive mud out there. Really, people don't go out of their way to go as in depth as we do.

However, that's all we got. I'm sorry but that's not enough to DRAW anyone in for very long save the select few who don't mind not having any in depth class system. The select few who don't mind walking around by themselves, because let's face it we are NOT the most friendly mud out there, and we're made up of either recall junkies, and/or loners.

How to you ;propose to fix this? Our PK system sucks. The use of heals is rediculous. And our class/skill/spell system isn't something to be proud about. It really isn't.

this isn't a 4D bashing session because you nall know I love it very much. it takes love to say all of this. I can log on "bigger" muds and always see a player base average of 60-94 players a day. Granted we don't NEED that many, but I for one would love so see 20-40. It's dead, it's quiet (too quiet), and there is no substance there for RP events, and clan wars. What do you propose do to about this?

Building is not an issue. We know it comes down to coding being the issue, but we need to do something that puts us in our own special niche that DRAWS players. We should throw ourselves up on wiki like many of the muds have, get added to the Z(C)MUD, GMUD (and whatever other clients) mud LISTS, and start advertising. Poeple need to find us. Mud Connector isn't going to cut it.

Our class system need to be cleaned up. It's messy, and nothing to be proud of. We need DIFFINITIVE classes, and TRUE professions (class based) that give every player a unique job in the world. We need SUPPLY and DEMAND. We need these things. believe it or not its THESE things that DRAW players.

What I'm asking from IMMs and other players in input, and ideas. What I don't want to hear is "Well just because others muds are doing it doesn't mean we should", and other such excuses (not answeres/responses, they are excuses). I want to hear true answers and ideas.

I love 4D, I always have and always will. I am willing to do anything for this mud given I have enough time. I am here for YOU.

Tocharaeh