The Old Clan Forums

[Scarwake]

I was just reading through some of the old clan forums and realized just how into the game everybody used to be.  I mostly looked into reading The Clan of Evil Blades forums.  I noticed how much we all used to work together and collaborate with another to move up in the ranks.

We, however, did not maintain a "higher purpose" but we sought different methods of improving ourselves as well as the members coming to RWL for the first time.  Blades had originally been a clan full of new people to the game, sure there were a few people that had joined before we did, but all in all we were all new.  We were all finding out new ways to play the game and shared our strategies with our clan members as well as a select few "outsiders."  We tweaked our play accordingly hoping that with this we would reach the position as Emperor.  Many of us reached such a spot as well, many did it once...several multiple times, some at the time never reached it.  And few strive yet to reach that goal and eventually they reach it and hold it.

It is this that makes me wonder....Where has our hospitality gone?  Why have we chosen to not help the new people as much as we did in the First Era?  There have been a few attempts since the beginning days of RWL that I remember that looked to helping the newest additions to RWL but none of them seemed to last very long.

The Greatest attempt which had been there from the beginning and had at one point been the Oldest Clan in the game was The Clan of Winter!  It was truly a clan for teaching and assisting new members.  Blades attempted to do such but there was always a longing to play on a more advanced level than what we were teaching to the newer folks.  Winter's teachings were long lasting!  They I believe had a set way to help members.  Why can we not come up with a set way to do the same?

I believe that Winter had the right idea and I feel that we need to adopt such an attitude that Winter had so that we may see new people come once again and stay for longer than a week.  I believe that a beneficial method might be to creating a clan in both servers.  A Clan that could in someway be headed not by a slew of members but perhaps by some of the most strategic people we have in the game?  I would think of the Admins in such a position, and I know immediately as I type this that such would be frowned upon as some might see this as a away for cheating to occur if Admins were playing the game.  HOWEVER, if the admins were playing the game in this way they would be able to teach new players how to understand the game and thus enjoy the game, stay playing the game, and make the game more challenging and fun to those who are continuously taking the lead.  I also believe there are some flaws in this idea, but it is an idea worth looking at. 

[Gen. Volkov]

Well, I've been steadily helping people improve their strats through email and such. I'd like to see this clan too, even if it was headed by an admin.

[Holby]

I have a very different take on it.

Actually, I think it is friendlier now than it ever was. From the main page, there are people offering to help new players and take 'pupils'. The forums I always remember (despite being fun) as mildly unfriendly to new players. I think history shows that, but I can dig up some ugly stuff if you want :P

I had a teaching clan as a branch of Loren, LRecruit, and that met with some success. I believe there were some other clans doing the same thing. Much of the old guard has gone, and of those in the forums now, many I don't know. I think RWL is definitely moving forward, especially with all the work admin are doing.

There are not that many clans in the game anymore, but of those, Blades I trust is doing a good job with new members, and having any other clans in the first place definitely adds some spice. I don't think we have to worry about anyone getting the wrong impression around here, it's definitely a much nicer attitude forum-wise, and there are more seasoned players in the game willing to lend a helping hand.

Rest easy.

[Scarwake]

I'm not saying the forums aren't nicer.  I'm saying that in overrall while the forums are nicer we in the game don't really tend to stick up for clan mates like we did in the beginning until as of late.

I look back and just hope that we can continue at the progress we've been making as of recent and that we don't go into another recession like we did.  I just think if we had a clan like I pointed out above that we might have more newer players that would stay longer and have a better concept of the game and how to play.

[wolf bite]

I agree with all that is said.

I can not tell you how many times I have seen nice people join with cute names, some never send mail, some are offered help and don't take it, sometimes we have someone like Kell (for example) that allowed to get the help and become part of our community, rarely I have even seen people "helping" them become targets!!

I have thought often about how much I just want to go on their accounts and BUILD something.  then I watch yet a another go inactive.  I have thought about having a Newbie clan programed in that allows a teacher step in on their account, but this would be abused.  I have even thought of a training server, but getting people there would be hard. 


Wolf Bite

[The Lady Shael]

*sigh* And that's why I've been wanting a newbie server. A server that would depend less on skill and strategies and more on role-playing. That's really what those kinds of players with the "cute names" want anyway, and when they see the game now, they get overwhelmed by all the features and seasoned players. Even if they got around to asking for help, they're looking for Redwall, not promisance, and don't stick around. I know I was anyway....then I got converted....but that's besides the point. =p

I would have made one already if our server wasn't choking on CPU usage.

[Holby]

I struggle to see how the RPing side can be made to be a bigger part of the game, although I agree it has the potential to lure many more players, specifically the Redwall ones.

I think if a heavily structured scenario (Even down to account names) in a server was set up Role-Playing could work. But that would have to be thought through very heavily. I think a re-enactment of some description from the books to be RWL-adapted has its uses, despite the limits of both prom and each account being a 'Warlord'.

Regardless, it does not allow for new players any more than a regular server does. I can't see a way around that one.


Oh, also, I would like to see the attacking system be revised and the groups eliminated, I don't feel they have that much use, except to confuse the hell out of everyone. Way too daunting for new players, and even players of other proms. I like the sack, capture, enslave, etc. tho.

[wolf bite]

We are drifting a little from the topic here, but some good points.  First I like Shael?s line about the cute named players, it is so true.

I could see a simpler game with heavily limited attacks and no dirty murders and minus penalties for higher nets to keep everyone within reach. But our members would get board fast in a game which no one could win.  Would take a lot of time to build up the little ones in numbers to make it fun.

There is nothing wrong with having the game we have now and letting them play in the lower ranks if it was not so overwhelming.  We could toggle in and out the advanced stuff and help.  The attack page could start toggled to having no special attacks. ?your custom fields? could be toggled down to a switch which either does or does not give more information (Sheal ask me on this).  Then we could expand on the ?tips? to be more of a help file such as ?markets make you money, foragers make you ??  Hummm, where did tips go anyway? Maybe I should rewrite them?


Wolf Bite

[White Fang]

If we're looking to hook new players, the first thing that should happen is for the Game Guide to be fully uploaded into the appropriate pages...there's still quite a large amount of information missing.

[The Lady Shael]

Rewriting the tips sounds like an excellent idea. And the Game Guide. I think we've been planning to update that for 3 or 4 years now...

Peace did talk to me yesterday about having an option to condense the attack page. If it doesn't get implemented by next Turbo round, it will definitely be in the next one.

Eh, I think you guys are just thinking like Promisance players. That doesn't sound fun to you, but I think it would be for the Redwall fans. Over the past several years, through many expansions, the game has been pulling more and more away from the Redwall series, focusing more on promisance rather than role-playing.
Our current members would get bored playing a server like that, but that's the point...the experienced people play Reg and Turbo, and the newbies play the role-play server. I just think that when newbies see how good our players are, they let themselves believe it's impossible to ever hope to reach the top, and since the game doesn't carry much of the Redwall spirit anymore, they just leave.

Sure, we wouldn't have many players at first, but lately we've been getting many new players. Also, right before we launch that new server, we could have a round similar to the Duels round that was based off of Stormfin and Gloomer, and then advertise like crazy. 

[Scarwake]

Yeah, Personally...I think a neat option to have (going back to the original topic of the thread)  for a clan like I was suggesting would be to possibly input a confirmation screen that the actual account owner would sign off on allowing something to be done.

Then, if they don't know what it does or how it works exactly they can send a message to their assigned Teacher inquiring about the feature and what not before they sign off on something that the teacher did with their account in the advanced aspects of the game.

But I would really like to see such a clan come into play.  I'd also like to see that okay if someone is in this clan that the warlords not in the clan have more limited attacks on these players because they are learning.  I know as of right now you come out of protection and you can be attacked quite harshly right off the bat.

The reason I suggested the Admins as being the teachers of the clan is because they already have the abilities to look at someone's account and whatnot and so therefore they could more easily monitor the clan members opposed to the traditional Clan Leader role, unless perhaps thats something we could write into code that the Leader of a Clan be able to look at their clan member's Army Status screen so they could better help their members out.  They wouldn't be able to make any changes in this case otherwise it would become a case of multi-accounts, but they'd be able to view the Army Status page to help that member.

Personally, it'd be easier for a clan led by Admins than to work some code in to do what I just stated, and it might provide a better learning experience as well seeing as they know for the most part Exactly how the game works, where as give the Leader of a Clan the ability to see the Army Status screen and they be trying to help someone in their clan but in all reality the clan leader really doesn't understand the game either....

[wolf bite]

I once played a game where the leader and first assistant of a clan could view all their member?s stats and buildings.  I am sure we could get that code and tweak it.  I would be against our top prom players viewing each other?s accounts for many reasons.  But we could have one training clan could see stats that will boot the player when they have the hang of the game.  Maybe we could even default that all new players are in the clan, but let them leave with no waiting time so the experts don?t have their stats viewed.

Another idea I had was that a person under 10 mil net would have attack limits lower, even if claned.  A safety would need to be put in against leader fighters wanting to murder that if over half the land was huts, those limited do not apply.


Wolf Bite

[kell]

Well i founded eire as a clan of relative new people to challenge the top players(granted the members had a fair knowledge of the game) but training new players is hard work, maybe on their account it should have a break down of a simple strat they can follow that way its not too daunting trying to decide what of the seven buildings to build