Hey, I've been playing this game for about a year.. I don't have much of a life, so i devoted much of my time to KoL. I decided that since i loved it so much, i should try listening to the radio show. As it is, I only caught it about 3 times ever. On one of the shows i did catch, someone asked about implementing an auto-combat for KoL, and Jick mentioned Generia, so i decided to check it out.
None the less, i think the game is awesome. I find my self becoming restless with anticipation every night at about 8:45, cause i know rollover is soon. I get excited when i see myself in the top five on a leaderboard (Even if it is just the losses), and i lay awake in bed thinking of how i want to spend my adventures the next day..
However, i do remember my first couple of days in the game. I had no clue what was going on, and the movement took FOREVER. shortly after i started, the 2006 Grimm Crinkle quest was implemented. I was like sweet, special token to alderpointe, so i went and teleported there. Since i was so new, i had no clue what to do, so i started my hike back to generia. 3 weeks later, i finally made it back.
the things that kept me playing were stuff like the sweet message i got from help4newbs. the food i got was awesome, and the money (along with kilii's mall prices) kept me eating healthy for a long while. All the help I received from Maz was great too (cool free outfits, lots of tips, etc), and the kindness of people in the forums (someone sent me the vinegar for one of the first quests.. without that, i probably still wouldn't have finished it).
Things that i would like to see changed:
1. Auto combat needs to be fixed. I find that i spend 5 minutes every day making food and auto-selling items, then i spend 5-10 getting myself properly buffed, eating, PvPing, then drinking. Then i move to my destination, and auto away my turns in < 1 minute. Why do i do it this way? Because i can stretch a 2-turn buff out over 700 turns. I've been told that the system isn't 100% perfect, and that there are drawbacks to counter the benefits, but i still think a fix would be super. I've been kicking around some ideas with stacks and the like in my head, but i haven't actually looked at the available source code to see how it would be implemented.
2. Along with (also part of?) the auto combat, i think that making buffs useable more than once would be a good idea. Playing KoL, i learn that MP is a valueable resource, and i hate seeing it go to waste. I've got lvl 1 for all the skills and all the arts, so i generate MP by pretty much clicking on anything. As it is, i can max-use all my useables by using the tent, and walking back and forth on the map a couple of times (at a cost of movement turns). I would be less likely to auto-adventure if i knew that i could have my veil of darkness last for more than 12 adventures a day. I think that if the limits were removed, you would also see a lot more friendly buffing going on. I love my Easter lolli, but since i can only cast it once, you bet i am gonna use it on myself, rather than some newb.
3. As everyone states, i think a useful tool would be something that allows newbs to get home.. Like give them a book of stamps that they can use to "mail" themselves back to generia if they are on a mailbox tile. Maybe bus fare, so they can catch a bus at the nearest sign post.
4. the HOI. Makes every quest ridiculously simple. for the mob quest, you have to kill, what, 100 enemies? I finished it in 104 adventures total. If I didn't have the HOI, it would probably have taken me well over 2000.
5. Drop rates. Along with the HOI, they can make or break quests for newer players. In the early quest where you have to slay bums to get the important papers, you have to adventure on a tile til you get a bum (which can take forever) and hope upon hope that he happens to drop the paper. That can take FOREVER if you're new.
6. Worthless Items. I have 20 crocheted hats laying around. I got them while collecting forrest blessings. I saved them, because i thought it was an un-implimented item. Turns out, its just a 0d0 hat with no picture. Since there are no outfits, Items like this just seem to be a waste.
7. Item power. I spent some money on a white stag hat. It makes me sad to know that a bandanna has the ability to protect me better in a fight. I think that better items should have a guaranteed floor when it comes to power. maybe change it from 1d11 to 1d5+6. again, knowing that the dagger has the ability to hit as hard as my scissial beating stick just doesn't seem right. it would be nice if some items had a level requirement to wield, instead of just a huge weight value to them. Also, if you could make my cool, rare, enchanted blue balloon do something cool, rare, or enchanted, I'd love that as well.
8. Holliday Items. I have no problem with them (i love the new pumpkin mount), However, i don't think they should be so overpowered Vs. The rest of the stuff in the game. As of now, I've got an edge in the mount contest over anyone else who signs up to play the game today, because there isn't a mount nearly as powerful that they can get their hands on.
9. the chat. I used to go on every once and a while.. I'd say hi, wait a half hour with no response, then log off. I've tried to get on the last couple of weeks, but i kept getting an error message (i use the browser, since i don't have an IRC client). It just doesn't seem very user friendly. Remember, if you make your game difficult for the non-computer nerds to play, you lose a HUGE portion of your potential players.
10. Cost of skills. I believe that the XP should scale along with gold. I'm at a point right now where I've got tons of XP, and nothing to do with it. skills are expensive, and i buy food/booze and other such items. I spend many a day sitting around with 12,000 gold and 200,000xp. It'd be nice if there was a way to convert XP to something useful, other than cane/hat man comics.
11. Skills in general. There are just too many of them. As of right now, i have the ability to purchase 1 of 38 different things on the skills page. Due to the gold problem as stated above, it makes it pretty difficult. I understand that it is meant for you to choose one path and follow it, rather than trying to be the best at everything.. but theres still just way too much there. also, some of them seem to be really cryptic. A nice straight forward explanation as to what the skill does would be good.
12. Useable items. Like the skills, some of these make no sense to me. I understand what musclebound does, and i can see the effects of jaunty... But there are some things.. like Essence of mexicano. No clue what it does. I just run the buff so i can fend off windkin45 in PvP.
13. Returns on food. I can go and spend 30 adventures farming 2 ears of corn, a tomato, an onion, and a crunchy herb only to be able to make a food that give me 15 adventures. it doesn't seem worth the effort to even make some of the food items in the game.
14. Recipes. If not for the wiki, I'd probably still be eating tomatoes and drinking water out of bottles. To make the chips mentioned above, you have to get corn, use the corn by itself, use it by itself again, make some salsa, then mix it with the chips. To spade out ice cream would be crazy too. who sits there and tries different amounts of sugar, ice, milk, and bowls until they get a recipe that works? I have figured out a total of one recipe in this game on my own.. Banana nut bread. If it didn't have equal parts of bread dough and nuts, i never would have gotten it. Now, some absolutely crazy ones are good.. like whoever figured out the candy Katamari deserves to have it.. but i don't think a low level food should be a 37 step process.
15. Availability of items. Having the NPC stores stock certain items wouldn't be totally bad. Even little things like tomatoes or raw meat or something. even water bottles. You can fight traveling grocers all the time, who's to say that they don't ever actually make it to the store to drop off their goods. having something like this would also make the cost of food not as great (you could make chips and salsa for fewer turns, at the cost of a little more gold).
16. Reset. As for a "Reset" I think it would be cool to have a thing in the display case that we could put everything we've earned so far in. It would be an in-accessable shelf, but at least the old players would have a way to hang on to some of the cool rares and customs.. Also, before the reset allow each player to take some items (say, 3), and make them non-tradeable, that they are allowed to keep after the reset. this would keep the collectors happy, but would also be a nice "thank you" to the people who stuck this game out. That, and i really want to keep my purple speckled egg. Extra special badges would be cool too.
17. Treasure chests. I was ice collecting in the mountains once (I don't know why i do half the stuff i actually do in the game, its quite counter productive), and i ended up with a sack lunch. I thought that was sweet. I've since come to the conclusion that the lunch was a secret for that tile, and not ice collecting in general. I wish i would have stayed there longer and collected a few more (i like movement turns). would it be possible to set up some kind of runescape-esque treasure trail system? Something with some riddles having varying degrees of difficulty, either based on your level, or the area where you got them, which would allow you to get things like that. Maybe have something cool like a victory cupcake for solving them? Maybe some cool amulets? maybe some gold bracelets? just a simple system that would be repeatable, so that older players could still have something new and challenging to do.
18. Donations? I've read in the forums that a donation system is in place, and I'm guessing that's what one of the generia city shops are for... However, i can't find a link anywhere that allows me to donate any money to help pay for the game i so dearly enjoy.
A real life meet-up/picnic/bowl-a-thon/beer fest would be cool too.
Anyways, that's pretty much all i can think of for now. I think this is a great game, and i thank you all for everything you've put into it. As admins, you're always great about responding to messages, and you've done great work with the holiday quests and material. if theres ANYTHING i can do to help the game along, please let me know.
Godspeed,
-eddo
