Reform and evolution in NannyMUD

[Tredon]

I do not play Nanny any more. I will very likely not play it in the future as well.
Yet I want to improve it for other people.
Everytime I sent in typo's, bug reports and suggestions to changes when I played was
because I wanted to make Nanny a better game and to improve it for everyone else.

Now, here are some suggestions and ideas which you are free to use if you like them,
not only in nanny, but in any way you like.

A "slot" specialization system, where players gain a "slot" at level 15, another at level 19 and the third one
at reaching paragon rank. Balance could of course change the number of slots and what levels they would be received.
It is just an example.

The slots would be specializations for things like weapons, armor, spells and so on.
A used slot would improve the selected feat in a minor fashion.

A weapon slot would increase the damage of a particular weapon, dagger would be one type,
shortsword would be different from longsword or staff etc.
Like a lesser version of silk gloves, but anyone can do it by "slotting it".

Shield and armor spec, shield spec would either increase the defense when using a shield
or make it possible to block with a normal, regular shield rather than only with unique and magical ones.
Armor spec would for example make you less encumbered when wearing armor.
IE worn armor would have less encumbrance than normal.

Using a slot for a spell would for example lessen the Sp cost of the spell or increase it's duration or potency for example
defensive or utility spells.

A maximum of three specialized spells or weapons is neither unbalanced nor game destroying.
After a nannymonth it would be possible to respec and free a slot to choose something else.
Just an example.

Add more weapons to the ordinary shops, rather than have to kill monsters to get a decent bludgeoning weapon
or say a whip. Weapons like spear, whip, mace, morning star, halberd, scimitar, staff, cutlass, flail, rapier, twohanded weapons and
unarmed weapons should be available from the shops in cities rather than having to get it off monsters or hope for the best
 in the 3e n shop and hope that someone has killed a monster and sold the weapon.

Travel and transportation.
Player owned ships, or better, airships.
Looking at the NannyMUD map you can see that the east coast, Antharis and the south coast are linked
by sea geographically.

Many of the guilds already have a thematic or historical ship they could use.
Khorne have black ships infused with Daemons in the Felix and Gotrek(Trollslayer) stories.
Knights have their ships used in attacks.
Cthulhu could have a ship made from the flayed skin of the innocent.
Vikings have their classical longboats.
Simyarin could have a ship run by magic, powered by magical winds.
Druids could have a ship made out of a living plant, fruit or tree.

Also ships like elven, dwarven steampowered and classical ones such as galleon would of course be available
for those not of those guilds.

In essence it would be the same as using the "shuttle service boats", but it would be your own ship
with access to the east and south ports and the Antharis ports.

Also owning your own airship would be very interesting, with a whole system of airship ports in the most
popular locations.

For a ship you could take it from east coast, sail to middle earth and then sail to Antharis and from there
sail to the antharis ports and go to Pendor instead of having to swicth ships and travel overland much of the way.

Note, a ship would be very expensive, an airship even more so.

The Luggage holds Twoflowers clothes, money and equipment and it follows him around.
Why not have a mule with saddlebags which would follow after you, or a levitating chest which
follows you wherever you go or even a teleporting chest.
For example: you call the teleporting chest, put loot in it and send it away and can then call it when you need it.

We have magic in Nanny, use it creatively.

People should not have to carry around chests and bags like a mule.

Another system which would make things a lot easier to play the game would be having an automatic sell toggle.
When you pick up loot which is weaker than what you are currently using it is sold automatically
but at a lower value than if you would sell it in the shop.
In essence the item would be teleported to the shop, but due to the cost of the service
of teleportation the gold for the sold item would be deducted.

Note that this would be a toggle, so you could switch it on and off, so you can sell the loot as usual.

Lastly it concerns the Alexii tome spells, the ones with the tea and the spell researcher.
To get all the spells you have to do the same things over and over, wait for it to reset, the ingredients are
in a different location almost every time due to the "random element" required in todays
nannyville quests.

Doing a thing over and over again is called grinding and is frowned upon in much of gaming society.
It would be much simpler to receive all of the Alexii tome spells all at once when finishing the quest
instead of having to run around and repeat the same actions.
It is not as the quest is hard to do, it is extremely easy in fact.
It is just annoying to wait for it to reset and do it, run around and perform the same basic actions.

It would of course be a different matter with Brom's selection of spells since that quest
is a bit more dangerous and different and often more difficult than the Alexii tome quest.

Most of these ideas already have the game mechanics in place.
Almost everything mentioned here is already available, either through guild abilities or uniques or coded
already.
You are free to use it as you like, code it or suggest it to the wizards and admins.[/b][/b]

[Tredon]

First of all, these are suggestions to wards improving the guilds and making them more enjoyable to play.

Simyarin:
Remove all the useless spells and remove all the "new" spells which is just an updated version of the
previous one, such as the enchanter staff attack spells.
Instead spells should become better automatically with use and gained grades
instead of having to learn a better or "updated" version of it.

Example: Instead of having a blue, white, red and black circle which are basically better versions at a higher level only  one circle spell would be needed, but it would automatically be updated "to the next level" upon advancing.

Also instead of having ten different wards against a single type of creature, alignment or gender,
only one defensive spell would be needed, which would protect against anything.
Also spells like teleport would only have one, really good teleport instead of many lesser versions.

Remove the secrecy rule and let people know what a spell does instead of having to be informed by someone
higher up than you.

Replace the apprentice system with a test of your magical mastery and wits.

Example: Level 5, max grade yillon, being tested on his magical powers and if he finishes it he may choose which
school to join.

The test could be designed to test the three basic or yillon spells.
Example: Must use magical arrows to defeat a creature which is invulnerable to physical attacks.

Use the light spell to be able to see in a magically dark room and find the random exit,
a room in which which torches and lanterns does not work.

Use detect magic on several items to see which item is magical.
Then you use that magical item to go forth in the test.

Also I was thinking of a test of riddles as a final challenge.

Note: Sp would not regenerate with potions and suchlike in the test so mastery of the spells would matter since it would make succeed more and not waste Sp.

This teaches the value of economy and conserving your energy.

Of course, make the Sims able to use a backpack without losing their power to do magic.
It has been ages and Sims are still not able to wear a backpack and do magic at the same time.

Give them the ability to release spells through will alone, basically not having to wait a spells total duration
but instead chose to dispel the active spell instead of as it is now, using another spell to
disenchant all active spells or waiting for it to end.

Lastly a system to charge or empower Spells with more magical power.
To be able to use more sp to charge a spell and increase it's damage for attack spells,
increase a spells duration or increase it's potency when using for example defensive or utility spells.

Khorne:
First of all, instead of having to obtain every bit of chaos armor piece by piece,
a full set of chaos armor would be obtained firstly when you join and later when you meet the requirements.
This would mean that more chaos rewards could be gained when advancing in the guilds ranks.

Khorne's favored weapon is the axe:
"Axes are the favored weapons of Khorne, and another common mark worn by his followers is the Collar of Khorne"

Source: http://uk.games-workshop.com/hordesofchaos/khorne/

Hellblades would in the reform not be the only "guild" weapon of Khorne, but other weapons would also be available
as chaos rewards, preferably axes and maces.

Alignment: Khorne is a chaos god, in the warhammer world he is the embodiment of evil, destruction and war.
Followers of Khorne should never be saintly or good in nanny, suggestion is to either restrict access to good alignments or make it so that every sacrifice makes you a bit more evil.

Sacrificing people and offering their souls to the chaos gods is not a nice thing to do.

Mutation is an important part of chaos in the original sources, chaos causes mutations.
Followers of Khorne ought to have the stigma of chaos, such as an arm growing into a massive tentacle,
regeneration, head turned into that of a horned, raging bull and so on.
Suggested possible positive and detrimental effects due to mutations.

In the warhammer game the followers of Khorne are resistant to magic since their god despises spellcasters.
A suggestions most likely not to be implemented.
Still, such an addition would make the guild more attractive.

Adventurers:
Add a stun effect for the spell stunning blow and increase the cost of sp,
as it is now it only deals damage, yet is less effective than kick and of a higher level.

Vampires:
Suggestions:
Remove the sun damage from the vampires, according to vampire lore
vampires are weaker in the sun, they are not damaged by it like they are in popular culture and media.

Diablerie should not be the only way to gain age, diablerie would be the most common and quickest way
but one should have the option to advance age and potency through aging, being active and drinking blood than just killing your vampire kin.

Age gained through active play and seniority would naturally be reduced through inactivity and long periods of resting in ones coffin.

Chefs guild:

Available info on many things which are not that obvious, like what effect weapons and damage type has on the quality of the meat.
Having to guess and potentially ruining your gaming experience is not very fun.
Also having info in the helpfiles such as what meat parts would be considered large so that you don't have to guess and most likely ruin your meal.

In the helpfiles info on peppers and it's effect on unusually dark, unusually light and neutral meat
would be greatly appreciated.

Again, having to guess which pepper to use is not very newbie friendly.
Using identify/investigate and interpreting the text is not the most obvious thing for an inexperienced player to do.

Artifacts:

Rewards for gaining the higher ranks should be awarded with such things as relics, artifacts and special items, similar to that of the Cthulhu cult.

Obviously not combat gear, but things as a herb pouch for a druid which would make him able to plant a tree without having to fertilize it with a corpse.

For chefs they could have a box of pepper which would supply him with infinite amounts of
the standard pepper sorts or a salt mill which would supply an endless amount of salt
or a jar which never runs out of water.
Or the classical endless sack of flour.

Monks could have holy relics to be borrowed at the higher ranks.

I am aware that these suggestions would likely not be implemented in nanny, but you are free to use
them as you like, suggest them to the admins or take them code them yourself if you like any of them.

Also: Update the nannyMUD homepage and guild pages, good pr is a must these days.

[Tredon]

These are merely suggestions, do what you like with them, you can suggest them and take the credit.
Obviously these are but basic ideas, they would need some tweaking and adjustment if they would be coded into the game.

The Assembly of Knights:

Either have armour and weapons given as rewards upon advancing, to be requested from the Camelot smith.
Or being able to request Camelot made armour and a weapon from a Camelot smith during an attack.
Which would then have to be returned after the attack.

For example the armour for a page would be chainmail while a Chivalrous Knight would have a full platemail with the insignia of Camelot on it.

Likewise higher ranks would receive better weapons, for example Champions would have a Champion of Camelot weapon, only usable by that Champion.

The last stand/none shall pass/defensive stance would be a new ability, available during attacks.

When a knight enters the none shall pass stance no enemy could then pass him and he would not be able to move about much save to block an enemy from advancing, he would be prohibited from leaving the room while in the stance.
If an enemy tries to pass him when the stance is initiated the knight would attack the enemy automatically.

He would be able to use such skills as bandage, falconry and defend, but not shield bash since that would require him to pause and set up an attack with the shield which takes concentration and time to perform.

If the knight would die when in the none shall pass stance he would gain much valour, since he sacrificed himself to keep the enemies of the knights from advancing further.
Obviously this would lessen, but not become greater than the loss of valour upon dying normally.

Yet if he would be in the none shall pass stance and leave the room when an enemy is still in it he would lose valour since he was a coward and fled from his duty.

The stance should be able to be ended whenever he likes, and if he ends it if no enemies are present then no loss of valour would occur.

This tactic would mainly be used to defend bottlenecks in the terrain such as the entrance to the shores or the castle gates.

Lastly I suggest that knights should have the ability to choose their specialization within some of the knightly skills.

The choice of special training would be available either at Master or TM.

For example training as a master falconer would give the ability bond of loyalty which would in essence mean that the falcons bond to the knight would be unbreakable.
Examples of benefits would be more damage dealt by the falcon or a decrease of sp used in each falcon attack or that the knights falcon would gain more health.
Like half the hp of it's master.

Hands of a healer would make the knight specialize in bandaging, giving him the ability to mend broken bones with the bandages and staunch bleeding wounds.
Or just heal more hp when bandaging someone that isn't the knight.

Weapon specialization would be available to those with either TM or master in weapon skill and let the knight choose a weapon style in which he would be more proficient with, similar to the silk gloves, but permanent.

[Tredon]

Here is an idea I have been thinking of for quite a while.
I think it would be very difficult to code and I think that nanny's game-mechanics wouldn't even be
able to support it.

The suggestion:

To be able to join a secondary guild.
The idea is that you could join a second guild but be limited in how high you can advance it as well
as having only limited access to the guild powers and facilities.

For example, a druid joins the chefs guild and can advance to a maximum of guild rank 3 aka Washer-up.
He would be able to cook food, but not use spices in combat.

Example: A chef wants to learn magic, so he joins the simyarin at yillon grade, he can advance to a maximum of yillon grade 3 but cannot join one of the three schools.

He would be able to advance the three basic spells but not learn spells from any of the advanced schools.

Of course not all guilds would be joinable like this, for example darks, knights,
Cthulhu cult, khorne or vikings wouldn't want people who are not fully dedicated to the guild and it's ideals.

For example you couldn't become a half-vampire or a semi-leper.

This is just the basic idea, not fully fledged out, it would of course require much change if it would work in the game.

[Ereshkigal]

First I think that other guilds should be able to join in the attacks, for example a druid could swear to serve Camelot and swear allegiance to the knights guild.
This would enable him or her to participate in the attacks together with the true knights.
It is very unlikely that this will ever be implemented.

What's the point of this? If people want to experience playing in an attack they can just make a knight char. The knights attack serves a purpose in the functioning of the guild. Why mess with that? I truly fail to see the point of this suggestion. I don't think people from other guilds really care about this kind of stuff. When Mami was trying to bring back the Basalt Keep attack the second time, the player response was way too pathetic.

Either take away the spellpoint cost of attacking with a falcon or put it on a longer delay.
As it was when I played a knight the falcons attack would cost more than my regular attack spells and knights would spam the falcons attack in battle.

This makes no sense either. What's the point in making the attack free? Do you think the admins should start handing out free gold as well? And I have no idea what "regular attack spells" you are talking about. Knights don't have any, unless shield bash and weapon skill hits count. And I think those are free. Besides, the falcon itself costs 25 sp a hit and that is a very moderate cost for the kind of damage it does. And you have an issue with falcon attacks spamming in battle? What do you want to do about it? Just cut out the falcon attack messages or reduce them to something really short like "Falcon hurts thingy"?

Secondly either take away the spellpoint cost for using bandages or take away the damage dealt if you fail to use bandages properly on another player.
The damage for failing would remain when fumbling a bandage attempt on yourself.

Removing the spell point cost would mean free healing which is something none of the other guilds have (even monks have to invest in terms of time for their healing so it is not really free). Removing the hp damage for failing on another player and keeping it for failing on yourself makes no sense thematically. The damage is quite marginal anyway. Perhaps when a knight tries to bandage someone, the player should be asked if he would allow the knight to try to bandage him. If the knight fails after that, there should be no issues with the hp loss since the player took the risk.

Good game design is when players are given rewards for playing and when players aren't hampered by artificial hindrances and poor ideas or stupid themes and poor game design.

Oh geez, we never knew what good game design really meant. Thanks for telling us.

[Ereshkigal]

I think it is great when people think up possible improvements to the game. But I would like to request all members to consider the following suggestion to improve the quality of the suggestions:

Don't sit on your ass all day trying to think up a longer and longer list of little suggestions. Anyone can do that and it does not prove that your mind is exceptionally fertile. In fact, if you put way too much effort into this, your suggestions will begin to lose coherency and degenerate into gibberish. Go and play in the sun once in a while.

Suggestions are great. But when you come up with a suggestion, it might be good to restrict yourself to just a few things that will truly change something. After all, if anyone is going to code at all, their time is limited. It is a matter of priorities. Of course, we all have different priorities. So there will be no agreement with this. But at least try to order your own ideas in terms of priorities. It probably is fun bouncing about like a spoilt brat going "I want a cookie! I want more toys! I want ...(what the hell do kids want these days?)" But it isn't fun to watch someone doing that.

Of course, there are a lot of people who just can't help getting flooded with ideas (ooh, lucky creative bastards). People like that, having what one might call mental diarrhea, should try becoming wizards (and once in a while just "stfu").

A disclaimer: I really appreciate people's ideas because ideas are what keep things alive. But good god... (you know what I mean)

Eresh

[lillstrumpa]

Well, I have not played knights for quite some time... What I remember of it though, I liked the guild quite a lot. I think it is quite enough as it is now. No use with new skills etc while the amount of guildlevels and game levels remain the same. What one could do perhaps is some sort of intrinics that are raised with earned gxp. Could be of various sorts, max damage, average damage, damage absorption etc.

And like Ersh said below... If you got shitloads of ideas, wiz and code some yourself.

[Graiendhel]

Truth be told I do not even spend one percent of my time, energy and brain capacity on this forum, nannymud and games in general.

Of course not, that's why you're the most active member of these forums... even though you don't even play it anylonger.