Hello again, Atraos!
Atraos wrote:Is it possible to introduce a meditation room in the newbie areas to allow a faster spell regeneration rate? Something that would speed up the normal rate but only whilst in that room? This way it is also limited to new characters and also only to those in or around the newbie areas?
The answer to all these questions is: "Yes." All these things can be changed to affect the game as you have interest in doing.
However, it is only a placebo. In fact, I'd even say it's a bait-and-switch tactic.
I came from multiple MUDs and when I first came here, I was absolutely lost. Luckily, there was an Imm playing Sune at the time who apparently knew I was new to the game and pretty much helped me out when I got into trouble (for instance, I fell into a gorge and it was impossible for me to get out without climb or a fly spell - I was a lowbie fighter Dwarf and knew no one with any such spell, so I had begun to die of hunger and dehydration!).
FK is not newbie friendly; there's a huge learning curve to it. We have:
- Areas that don't warn you about insta-kill mobs.
- Hill giants (lamias, wyverns, etc.) that pwn lowbies in a single round.
- Coin is difficult to come by without specific non-repeatable quests.
Various Inns charge gold.
Food that doesn't even sate your hunger after eating more than three of the same item sells for multiple silvers.
Armor is prohibitively expensive for low levels.
Guilds cost 10 platinum to join to get access to skills you have to train for even more expensive sums.
- Limbs get severed and characters bleed out.
Aid can save you, but only if you spend gold to train it.
Even if you were smart enough (and wealthy enough) to traiin aid to save yourself, hobbling without a leg can take a long time to get back to town.
- Mob priests that heal for garbage, but charge lots of coin.
- Drowning is ridiculously easy to die from.
- Climbing failure can hit you for 25% your health.
- Slow healing rate.
- Super slow "mana" regen rate that is helped by meditate skill (which isn't available until later).
- Dying costs you tons of experience (all).
- If you're not lucky enough to know someone to retrieve you, you sit in the fugue for hours or reincarnate
If you reincarnate you lose one point of non-reimbursable constitution.
That said, it's a difficult balance. How much hand-holding is required? I don't mean that in a patronizing way; as I assume you saw in the previous thread, I am very much for spell regeneration concessions - even for higher levels (though lower levels are far more important to me). But at what point will we just admit that these are undesirable aspects of the game for the majority of players on FK and petition it changed?
I'd like to see a lot of features changed to reflect today's climate of gamers. I don't believe people have the time to sit around and mine ore for hours anymore. I don't think many find it enjoyable to spend months in a single craft (armorsmithing, for instance) to get a single increase; years to be able to craft full plate for their buddies. Time's precious.
Full circle: wasted time is not fun - it's punishment (think along the lines of "time out" as a kid). We need to keep the environment fun without making it too easy or applying bandaids everywhere. If increasing regeneration rate for spell slots is not a feasible solution, what can be done to make it
enjoyable?