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Post by Silverking on Mar 14, 2011 13:10:40 GMT -5
I just wanted to let everyone know that as of today, March 14th, 2011 at 2:00 PM EST, you may now play two characters at the same time on JediMUD. Policy Multiplay has been updated to the following:
In response to player concerns, 2-character multiplaying is currently allowed on Jedimud on a trial basis. Each real-life player may have only two characters logged on at a time. There are no exceptions to this rule. Typing 'quit' or 'rent' are the only acceptable methods of leaving the game, aside from a game reboot or crash, of course. Dropping link is not permitted if you want to log in another character, unless you're willing to wait as long as it takes for the first or second character to be force-rented. Having more than two characters connected at a time, linkdead or not, will usually result in all characters being frozen.
The rule about multiplay also includes having one or more characters hanging at the login menu while other characters are actually fully logged into the game. Please log out entirely before logging in other characters.
We could potentially revert to the previous rules regarding multiplaying if this trial does not go well. If that is indeed the case, announcements will be made prior to the change.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reply, PM me, or email the admin team at admin@jedimud.com.
Thanks,
SK
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Saviour
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The only thing I ever ask of you, gotta promise not to stop when I say when...
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Post by Saviour on Mar 14, 2011 17:22:41 GMT -5
After nearly 20 years this finally goes into effect? I don't want to sound like I am b*tching, but I can't say I agree with this policy change. This will spell the death of grouping, and I'm sure I haven't even begun to think of all the ways this will be abused and cause a massive shift in the balance of the game. I may be in the minority on this, but put my mark firmly in the 'disagree' column.
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Post by Kailyn on Mar 14, 2011 21:33:42 GMT -5
With all due respect for your reservations -- I admit I'm not without reservations, myself -- this is most definitely *not* a sign that we've "given up on it," but exactly the contrary.
If we didn't care, or if we had given up, the easy answers would be to either shut it down, or to do nothing.
Since we do care, and haven't given up, we're willing to undertake this *trial* -- note that it's a temporary test! -- to see if the many people who have suggested it just might be onto something. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but at least we'll know firsthand instead of just relying on experiences from nearly 20 years ago that may or may not still be relevant.
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Post by Silverking on Mar 15, 2011 8:41:40 GMT -5
The opinion was voiced that two character multiplaying would help during the times when the online player count of the mud was low. A valid argument was given, and the administrative team agreed. The original policy was implemented years ago when we had dozens of players on at any given time and finding groups was easy. Now that we don't have dozens of players on at a time, it just makes sense to re-examine the policy.
I don't see this as the death of the game at all. There is a lot of stuff going on with JediMUD 6.0 and AustinPowers has been pretty reliable in giving status updates. You can login yourself to jedimud-test.homelinux.org:6000 to see what's new.
As Kailyn said earlier, if we didn't care, you wouldn't have gotten a response at all from us on the question surrounding multiplaying. We could have ignored it and just left things as is. As it stands, the suggestion to change the policy was made last Monday (March 7th) and we implemented it yesterday (March 14th). A seven day turnaround time for a group of volunteers who all have full time jobs is not bad at all.
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Post by Austinpowers on Mar 15, 2011 10:26:17 GMT -5
While I share the same concerns as everyone, the fact remains. Many players are sitting back and waiting for JediMUD 6.0. I have had quite a battle with my surgery, but I have been doing work on the game still. Any admin can give you a status update, as I update almost every day.
I have also agreed that it is TEMP. While it could be abused, I regually check the logs, and come on invis. Trust me, abuses have and will be caught. JediMUD 6.0 can actually track multiple players on. Since logging is also in play, not only do I log multi play sockets, but a new logging system is also in the works. The admin will be able to log what ever on the fly, and it saves out to its own file.
I personally wont multi, but I would rather group. That is kinda hard atm.
I hope this sheds some light on to concerns and how we intended to enforce the policy.
AP
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Saviour
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The only thing I ever ask of you, gotta promise not to stop when I say when...
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Post by Saviour on Mar 15, 2011 12:28:53 GMT -5
OK...as an individual who has contributed little to nothing to the game over the years in terms of sweat and blood, I DO NOT want to belittle the contributions of all of you who have done so much to keep this place afloat over the years. That was certainly not the intent of my post. Without all of you, this place would have eroded into decay a decade or more ago. I don't see this change as the 'death knell' of the mud, but I woud like to see some sort of regulation of this policy, at the very least. If I recall in discussion or a previous post there was talk of limiting it to a certain threshold of PCs currently logged in. This could be a possible way to temper it a bit. Utilize Puff to announce a general 'get out of the pool' gossip when threshhold is reached, allow a certain time limit to comply, and have her announce an 'all clear' to allow resuption of multiplay? I dunno...shooting from the hip and offering suggestions on how to modify it slightly.
Again, this post or previous posts was meant in no way to flame the previous or future contributions of the staff. I'm just throwing around my 2 cents.
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Post by Silverking on Mar 15, 2011 12:48:39 GMT -5
Saviour - We are actually limiting it to two characters online per one player. We're going to enforce the new rule the same way we would have posted the policy previously, but just with the change of "no more than two".
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Saviour
New Member
The only thing I ever ask of you, gotta promise not to stop when I say when...
Posts: 30
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Post by Saviour on Mar 18, 2011 8:37:40 GMT -5
I understand that the limit is two logins per PC, I was just offering a suggestion that would curtail the use of muliplay when there is an adequate number of people on to allow for grouping. I haven't played since the change. I have however, logged in to see a bunch of obvious two man groups running under one PC, and little to no obvious interaction between PCs.I don't want to sound like I'm whining or beating a dead horse, so I'll most likely refrain from posting further to this thread. That old adage about pleasing some people some of the time...
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Post by Kailyn on Mar 19, 2011 20:29:16 GMT -5
I wouldn't object to such a modification, but I haven't seen enough people on yet that I'd think it'd be an issue. (I expect we may see that once 6.0 goes live -- I hope so -- but the entire reason the policy experimentation was tried was the low average current census.)
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Mal
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Post by Mal on Mar 22, 2011 15:50:27 GMT -5
It comes down to what players want. No matter what you do, each player is different. There are players who would rather solo regardless, there are players who would rather solo because it is the most efficient way to run, there are players who solo because they are doing laundry, taking care of kids, etc. and can step away from the keyboard constantly and without warning. There are players who solo because they don't want to socialize that day.
Then you have the people who want to group for the socialization aspect. Yes, the exp for the cleric is going to be slower then soloing - so it is rare to find a cleric who wants to group but you will often find a non-cleric who wants to group.
The above change has allowed me to play my cleric and another char. While I could more effectively run exp by running dual-cleric, it is far more fun to group - now that I have a cleric bot to run with. I've invited and ran with plenty of players when I run exp. So I'd say it has induced a fair amount of grouping opportunities.
I've enjoyed the multi-play option. I would not want more then two chars to be allowed. Is this the solution for encouraging grouping? It helps - but you'll still get the dual-cleric action etc. It has helped me a lot. I've enjoyed being able to group with players without the finding a cleric business.
Do I think the multiplay option should stay? I'd cast my vote for yes. There might be some common ground along the lines of buying Multiplay from Puff or paying a fee for having a second char on, maybe an exp penalty on the second char, limiting the amount of time per char that can multiplay.
If multiplay is to stay there are some changes I might recommend - perhaps a battle text toggle, so in a fight you don't see the fighting on both screens. (Yes, I could parse these out but it would be less message processing on the server side) An autoheal option might be a nice add-on too for those using telnet.
Another note though is that with the 6.0, there will be a lot of great changes that will greatly improve the socialization aspect of JediMUD. This will encourage the socialization aspect for someone who wants to/must solo but still wants to socialize.
Thanks for giving this a trial run. I am quite curious to see the outcome myself.
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Simba
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Post by Simba on Mar 29, 2011 12:53:37 GMT -5
Sweet now I can log on multi clerics and go quake stuff and not group. Or better yet I can squad again without help!
This is a bad idea. This mud is set up so you don't need a group to level if you don't want one. You can easily kill things solo, yes this takes a bit longer but doable. And the advantage of grouping means you can kill quicker. This is just making it easier for the person that doesn't want to share.
I hope to be returning soon. I've had some computer issues.
On another note...it's good to see many of the admin respond to a thread.
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Post by Silverking on Mar 29, 2011 15:06:39 GMT -5
Simba - Thanks for noticing. We're really trying to be more active. We don't want to ever see a day again where the entire admin team disappears for great lengths of time.
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Post by Dank on May 14, 2011 18:09:46 GMT -5
I've been playing this mud exclusively for 20 years. Mostly solo.
Lim multi is cool because:
1. I play again.
2. I can buff/debuff without popping a blood pressure medication pill. in fact, my doctor has reported that my heart disease is in remission since lim multi has been in effect.
3. I can trans poop without dropping it in the Attic and haggling with some crafty locating mage to give it back.
4. I finally got my eight-member mage squad to 30 after ten years of energy draining the musician in NT and fireblasting the stupid einheriar.
5. I find myself regularly meanieing at myself while I'm botting myself in Bard Colleges. (Why am I so slow with those last second summons?)
6. I'm finally playing again. Wait, did I say that already?
There are plenty of other better games out there today. I'd rather play graphical platform games on my 52" diag stereo set, but if I'm gonna slum at the old JediMoo, I'd love to make it joyous.
This is joyous.
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Post by Dank on May 15, 2011 14:44:03 GMT -5
As an aside, it might be prudent to host an unlimitied multiplay day (no cap on upper number of online chars -- except common sense) in order to provide a stress test on the game.
How many chars can the game deal with?
Let's find out.
I imagine that a standard player would be limited by the efficiency of the connection client. I use ZMUD, and can't imagine running more than six chars concurrently.
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Post by jbrady33 on May 25, 2011 15:45:20 GMT -5
I just came back, and am happy with the 2 character multi. I'm doing a warrior, cleric to heal.
Won't stop me one little bit from grouping, but hardly ever enough people on for that at any given time.
As a low level player I can now roam around with a little more surety that I can get out of a jam or take on a slightly too high mob - but that is about it. Exp is split now, but more fun to get. Just makes it more 'playable'
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Post by jbrady33 on Jun 16, 2011 14:19:00 GMT -5
me again, have to say again that multiplay has completely revitalized the game for me. Would like to see it grow to 3 characters even.
Why? I logged on today as my warrior and bounced around killing some stuff - reminded me of the (frustrating) old times of fight a little/sleep a lot. That's 50% of the time staring at a prompt and waiting, not fun. The class doesn't matter, as a warrior I'm waiting for hitpoints, and a cleric (my old main character) both HP and Mana.
But put a Warrior and Cleric together - things start happening! Besides the healing aspect (which gives much higher confidence to try higher mobs) , if one character needs to sleep the other can still DO something, even if it is just fill canteens, identify equipment, whatever!
I know we are supposed to group together to make this happen - but there really isn't enough 'traffic' when I've been on - at times I was the only person logged in.
It doesn't seem to have hurt identifying people either - I'm sure others see my pair as a set or a couple - same person or unit. know what I mean?
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Post by timpanus on Jul 12, 2011 15:11:02 GMT -5
On one hand I think, especially in the beginning, it is indeed not good for the 'Multi' part in MUD. More people will play alone.
On the other hand I read somewhere on the net 'JediMUD is a Star Wars MUD with 2 average players connected' (Mudstats.com). So for the average players connected it is better to have multiplay. Hopefully this will attracts more people to the game.
I think in the end there will be no big difference. Grouping will be still the only way to level faster. If you have one or two players does not matter. As long as the number of multi's not is unlimited combined forces will still be in favor :-)
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Post by jbrady33 on Jul 14, 2011 13:00:33 GMT -5
So far I haven't seen any lack of grouping, in fact the norm seems to be like this: Log in with my (still very low level) mage, do a few 'locate objects' to see if the eq I have made it a personal goal to get on my own has loaded (never has, not once bail out, log in with my "main" pair of characters, do a "who" and see what kind of day it is. 1. Nobody on but me - kill my way through to the mobs that hold that eq I'm trying to earn, kill them in the off chance that _maybe_ they regen with it. 2. A few others on, maybe an admin or a level 30 loitering in the temple but afk. I'll explore somewhere I've never gone maybe, but very carefully and hope someone is on if I do something stupid. 3. quite a few on, the goss channel is hopping - now it gets fun! Besides the chatter, it almost always ends up in a group run to weeden or someplace, or an experienced person will give some pointers on where certian EQ comes from (or even take me there), or I'll feel more confident in risking dieing when there are half a dozen level 30's on to rescue my sorry ass. So the big difference fro the old solo days? I actually have seen more of the place on, grouping is still a blur of movement and killing with a level thrown in there - but each person in the group is really 2 characters acting in concert, who brought on thier Bard first to blur everybody up! Even if I could run 3 or 4 characters, it would still be 2 main 'workers' escorting a low level caharter to build it up to a usable level. (Would love to have a Mage that can enchant EQ, never done that.) So I still think it is great, and would like to have 3 or 4 multi, and would still group with others, but this is all coming from someone who has never reached level 30 on any character, so the more experienced people might feel different.
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cini
New Member
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Post by cini on Jul 18, 2011 19:27:58 GMT -5
Multi-play has completely revitalized the game for me. I couldn't agree more with jbrady; starting a new character with no gear = fight little, rest lots. That kind of gaming gets old quick. Real quick. I have started and quit many times over the years because of it. However lately, I've been playing two mages and have found with some clever triggers that I can spam baddies with monsum two rather effectively. Its almost like a whole new game to me. I don't see multiplay as a breaking the game, on the contrary it has saved the game. I would really like to see this policy expanded to a maximum of five characters at one time. This would truly provide a challenge -- managing two characters at one time can be a handful, five would probably be the most anyone could realistically manage long term. Additionally, with less than a dozen players on at any given time, 60 characters would certainly not tax the servers to the point of crashing.
I like Dank's idea for a multiplay-day, but I think it should be more than ... "see if it breaks". How about adding multi-play quests? Such as solo Jupiter for a retired item or something fun like that. It would neat to see the combinations of 5-man groups that people come up with.
With regards to multiplay = death of socialization. My experience with grouping has always been: movement spam + movement spam + movement spam + fight spam + fight spam, rinse and repeat. So, for me I find it hard to carry on a conversation with people while running around. I don't see multi-play as anti-social -- I see grouping as anti-social.
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Post by jbrady33 on Jul 19, 2011 7:39:26 GMT -5
cini - the talking/socializing while moving is easy to fix (unless the fighting is real intense of course) If you don't already have a client like CMUD - get one! I have one "Primary" character that duplicates any "gossips, Tells, says, auctions" into a separate, floating, read only window. (Pretty standard stuff that the 'getting started' help of the client shows you how to do) No matter how much is flying by on your main windows, the "Chatter" window will move pretty slow. The only downside is I tend to be a little random as to which of my characters responds - must be like talking to someone with split personality to the other side of the conversation
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Post by Dank on Jul 19, 2011 12:08:32 GMT -5
yeah, just use a client channel window for communication.
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