Realms is dying. there are fewer people playing than before. You can basically feel it if you have been here for years. People you know have left, quit for good. Most newbies tend to be sheep. As in they whine, moan on chat for people to do this and that for them, ask where to level, where to get gold etc etc etc.
RoD should really be following the route most other companies are taking. Just raise the new stuff to a new level. Instead, new things have been rather mediocre frankly. The difficulty of the game since I started playing has ramped up probably easily 20 times harder. Back in the day you pleveled characters in a day. Newbies took a year to level. but it was all good. the economy worked, things sold at a constant price, there were alot more people actively playing. Now RoD is like an overglorified chat room with RPG elements. Most people who play dont actively DO anything.. they just sit around and chat. Why? 2 main reasons.
Reason 1. Realms has gotten harder but the rewards are still so-so. What is still the most profitable run in the game? Seth. How long has seth fort been in the game? long enough for the imms to have totally revamped gameplay, added in a dozen plus areas. But the economy still revolves around seth's fortress. Why? Class balance. or rather the lackof. its been getting better but neut thieves still can run 99% of the generic stuff you want to kill. and every so often you hit the 1% and you need something else to kill with. But if you are really smart... you stick with the standard neut thief, decked out in (gasp) seth. and run... (bigger gasp) seth. to make profit off (even bigger gasp) seth. The game has revolved around seth too long. Why? because seth is unrestricted mainly. neut/evils ALL wear it. Along with all the other goodies that are in seth's fortress. golden plate (cato plate is 15hp more.. great. and how much more expensive? right.) jade strand. (nothing beats jade strand.. STILL) and of course.. darko's stuff. Collar of abyssal servitude aka morphs.. why? cause nothing fits better on a thief than 2luck 4dr 35hp neckwear.
But seth is still standard equip for 99% of all neuts/evils. some will wear other things because some SLIGHTLY better eq has come out lately. but otherwise... seth eq is still the thing in highest demand. So why have people been leaving if nothing has been changing that much? oh. boredom. you can only run seth that many times till you get bored of it and the formerly less important things things in your life become more important than running seth.. then you leave cause everyone else is doing it. after all.. you are still playing the same old characters (with a few new ones) Theres no real new challenges (even with the new areas for avs. nevermore, daichaal, fixes of barren peaks, otherlands, the totally new areas i havent even visited yet. the slime pits, the mausoleum, and d'morian's lands) yes. there is new stuff (woot) and there is eq that is better than existing eq!...... but no one REALLY cares about it. it doesnt impact the economy at all.. it sells for measly millions (maybe even 20 i saw one item) but.. thats it. want cash? go seth. what they REALLY need to do is GLOBALLY revamp eq. along with hr (which is broken according to some imm's post on the game.org forums which are the official forums. broken not as in it doesnt work but broken as in it hasnt scaled properly thus its too easy to cap out). then they need to take out old clan (cause its even more overpowered than seth. and people who have it practically only really do quests and run gorog's dog for more "income" since anything else is a drop in the sea) along with all the eq which was glory traded (loads of chars all put glory on the same piece of eq resulting in pieces of eq which have stats that basically puts seth to shame). In the end.. realms hasnt changed much. fastest way to riches is still seth because its STILL unrestricted, neut thieves are STILL the choice for 99% of regularly done runs and seth still has that regular value.
Solution? put in ALOT of new stuff make it HARDER than the current stuff but also make the rewards BETTER than seth... yes. BETTER THAN SETH. cause no one is going to give a shit if it isnt better.
Reason 2. classes to this day are still broken. The balance in power between classes is alot better than it was. but still wayyyyyy too far to be considered even remotely balanced. both 18 dex classes are horrible to level, and even worse at av when every potion you drop matters. Augurers still get about as many spells as warriors get physical attacks. which is a decent amount, but real quick comparison.
Augurer.
----------------------------------[Spells]----------------------------------
balm of time 95% bind oracle 90% burning hands 95%
caustic touch 90% charm person 90% crystalize 90%
detect hidden 95% dispel magic 75% divination 90%
enchant weapon 23% fireshield 95% float 95%
fly 95% forecasting 95% foreshadow 95%
helical flow 85% herald death 75% inner warmth 90%
invis 95% midas touch 95% nostrum 95%
prescient sight 85% prophetic aura 95% psychic surge 95%
remove invis 85% ritual blessing 95% scorching surge 95%
second sight 85% seek passage 95% shield 90%
shocking grasp 90% sleep 85% spiral blast 95%
weaken 80% word of recall 95%
----------------------------------[Skills]----------------------------------
aggressive style 60% aid 19% berserk style 40%
climb 19% cook 19% cuff 90%
defensive style 85% dig 82% dual wield 80%
enhanced damage 75% evasive style 90% fourth attack 40%
hide 75% kick 90% meditate 95%
mount 25% parry 95% rescue 50%
scan 85% search 80% second attack 60%
sneak 75% spurn 80% standard style 70%
strike 90% swap 65% third attack 66%
two handed 19%
----------------------------------[Weapons]---------------------------------
bludgeons 19% flexible arms 95% long blades 19%
pugilism 60% short blades 85% talonous arms 19%
Mage
----------------------------------[Spells]----------------------------------
acetum primus 85% acumen 95% adamant 95%
adroitness 95% antimagic shell 95% aqua breath 95%
astral walk 95% black fist 95% black hand 95%
black lightning 95% blazebane 95% blazeward 95%
blindness 95% brawn 95% caustic fount 95%
chill touch 95% colour spray 95% confidence 95%
continual light 95% cosmos shift 95% create fire 95%
create spring 95% demonskin 95% dispel magic 95%
dragon wit 95% dragonskin 95% dream 95%
eldritch sphere 95% elemental supremacy 95% elven beauty 95%
enchant weapon 95% ethereal fist 95% ethereal funnel 95%
ethereal shield 95% ethereal web 95% extradimensional por 95%
faerie fire 95% faerie fog 95% farsight 95%
fireshield 95% float 95% fly 95%
galvanic whip 95% iceshield 95% identify 95%
infravision 95% inner warmth 95% invis 95%
knock 95% locate object 95% magic missile 95%
magnetic thrust 95% midas touch 95% mystical vision 95%
ogre might 95% pass door 95% portal 95%
prismatic shield 95% quantum spike 95% rapture 95%
razorbait 95% recharge 80% refresh 75%
remove invis 95% remove trap 80% sagacity 95%
sapience 95% scry 95% shadowform 95%
shield 95% shockshield 75% sleep 95%
slink 95% sonic resonance 95% spectral furor 95%
sulfurous spray 95% summon 95% swordbait 95%
teleport 95% transport 95% trollish vigor 95%
true sight 35% valiance 95% ventriloquate 95%
weaken 95% winter mist 95% word of recall 95%
----------------------------------[Skills]----------------------------------
aggressive style 40% berserk style 20% brew 95%
climb 25% cook 95% cuff 60%
defensive style 75% dig 70% evasive style 80%
mount 80% scribe 95% search 85%
second attack 45% standard style 50% strike 70%
swat 80% third attack 30% trance 95%
----------------------------------[Weapons]---------------------------------
bludgeons 50% flexible arms 60% long blades 50%
pugilism 30% short blades 95% talonous arms 60%
see a difference? its pretty obvious mages get about 1.5X more spells than augurers get. That is to say.. alot more. nephandi have more spells than augurers. but still less than a mage.. classes are simply not balanced. there are X times more mages in the game than any other "sorcerer" genre classes. why? brew, scribe, have all 3 shields, get paths. augurers and nephs are stuck in their little niche. given what the imms have done in the years ive played, nothing has really changed. other than adding fathomers and barbarians in, neither class are all that popular. fathomers are awesome and have alot of people playing them now. but compared to ... thieves? still outnumbered easily at a glance. why? balance. rather.. the lack of. the base classes are just too powerful (or all the other classes are just too weak) cleric, mage, thief, warrior. they have so much of an advantage over any of their counterparts that their counterparts in practice never really get played.
if there are any imms reading this. Good job for doing all this for free. but if you want to keep the mud alive you really need to do better.
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