[Shujin]

Progression

To me the accelerated progression is ruining the "game" part of SL2. It's really quick to get to 60 with the latest methods but it's not at all fun....
Level 60 certainly doesn't feel particularly special as it did so many years ago. But I also don't want to go back to the "good old days" because it was changed for good reason. Level 60 was only really an achievement because it felt like a complete chore to actually get there.

Yeah, I agree, I remeber just how much of a chore it was aswell even before we had the LE system. I do not say to make it like that again per say.
More like having an additional system that works parallel to what we have already, that can by no means be rushed for just having friends on high level and gear. I am trying to find a solution that is rewarding people to stick with old characters even if stuff looks a bit stale for a bit, because characters that are already established in RP are more meaningful to RP with over the dishing out of 20 new faces a day. Heck how do you bond with that? It feels really shallow and for me at the very least, ruins the RP experince on many ends while at the same time makes me question "Why do I even stick with this character since pretty much the beginning of SL2, if I could just make a new and better one within one day?"- And I wish I was exaggerating here, but I am not.

So I figured a additional progress system to what we have, that is SLOWLY with time giving you tiny benefits that in the end add up to something slightly noticeable would be cool.

I think it's a good time to think of how to smooth out the progression and make it more enjoyable for players. Personally, I'd like the non-Level 65 static dungeons to be more fleshed out and made into actual locations than large, specific Black Doors (for example like the Darkwood Manor) where they can be places for quests, they can have set loot that makes sense and helps in that area and be just far more enjoyable than what they currently are.

While I agree that we should also make the "battle grind" part more enjoyable over all, I do not think this is going to solve the "One day Fly" characters that are getting dished out so frequently and fast, so it devalues any other characters. It's kinda like an inflation right now, nothing really matters cause there is zero difficulty to it once you have got the general gist of it. So I am trying to move away as much as possible from any kind of grinding. Cause that way it won't be a chore either, just something to feelgood about in a few months where you sticked to your guns, in my opinion.

- Disregard Roleplay levels. That's just gonna end up in e-peen contest, and we know it. [strike]There's already others that do that[/strike].

Thats actually the point of those though. To not have those E-peen people dish out what they want within a few hours and people that actually roleplay and develope their character over long time can stand up to that. Call it E-peen contest if you want but...I think that actually better as what we have right now. cause:

It could also help people take a break from the whole "I MUST GRIND FOREVER AAAA" mind-set.

Pretty much this. People won't feel the need to grind to "max" anymore, when they can't...You know? Get to max with grinding. Giving them mentally the break forcing them to think "Ah right, can't rush this so might aswell just relax and RP". People will start to consider twice if they rather want a new char or work the one out they have right now cause in the long run they might be happier with it which in turn increases the presence of these characters in the RP and overall makes them bigger parts of everyones story.

While of course new characters CAN bring a freshwind into the game, the way it currently is it's more damaging than it is helping cause again. 20 new faces a day that only stay for about two weeks and get replaced by new 20 faces is hard to bond with and makes you even ask "Do I even bother RPing with them if they just vanish for no reason anyway?" since most the time your rp vanishes in thin air. Thats just getting worse if you have a character that is socially difficult and takes its time to bond and open. I slightly exaggerate here, but sadly also just slightly.

I wouldn't recommend a level cap raise right now, but that's of course my opinion.

Yeah I know, I am not exactly aiming for it aswell, for the sake of raising it, but trying to find an sort of easy solution to migate this more rewarding feel into it while not exactly taking something from anyone. Thats actually sorta hard.


Crafting and Jobs

Now as for crafting, I think "crafting 1000 Longswords" to become a maxed out Blacksmith isn't necessarily the problem but the fact that you can do so relatively quickly is.

There's no stamina cost to crafting and as long as you have the Mura, there's nothing preventing you from buying a truckload of Iron Ore. So there's not enough to stop you from getting to Max Level Blacksmithing in a matter of minutes. (Of course, it's not just Blacksmith but all the crafts have a quick method to do this.)

Yeah, I mean the 1000 longsword was pretty much the example of it being so easily acheiveable aswell. But I still believe the system itself should encourage smithing different kinds of weapons aswell and very much more difficult ones. Mostly cause in my "Dream world" I would enjoy if the main econmy is handled between players interacting with each others with jobs they actually fullfill within the world.
A smith relying on Miners or Hunters for quality wares.
Alchemist on Herbalists and so on.
To have a constant flow between those people and each fullfills it's purpose and with time and experince can maybe build up actual merchant guilds. That would be something to acheive that isn't combat related at all but valued by the people. This is of course just an sample of how I imangine things and why I believe that:

I've wanted something like part-time jobs for a while, where you can do certain things for certain people for some experience or crafting experience and more importantly a reliable source of Mura that you can get without having to go kill monsters. Currently, the only thing we have like this is the clinic, which is a nice touch but we could use more things like that.

Examples would be things like:
Making particular weapons with certain ores for Michelle, helping Risu out in the kitchen with cooking or even things not tied to crafting like a courier job where you go deliver letters or parcels to NPCs.

Are not going to help the game much cause they do not require interacting with people much, but are just another thing you can either entirely ignore or well...be bored with. Clinic likes are basically just "Here have this item I might have in my inventory, gimme quick exp!". I don't feel thats much fun, really.
THOUGH having renewable parttime jobs/Quests aren't a bad idea either, and should probably be a thing along the line.

- Crafting is just really dead-end profession. It shouldn't be crafting items that YOU can find in the dungeons. Like, what's the point if a Player forged the Legendary Shining Sword. But then some idiot picked up a Shining sword from a dead Jammer? Sure. It's random generated, and you have better chance of getting the item you wanted. But Crafted items could, and should be stronger than weapons commonly found.

Yop, thats also something I dislike. I am generally in the opinion that players should eventually become noteably better at something at some point if they work towards this specific thing. One craft that actually gives a sample of this is Alchemy. You can get items from it that you can't get otherwise, and thats reaaaaaally cool. Just sucks that there aren't many and those aren't THAT special either. But could be expanded on!

- Prevent active multi-keying then. Probably gonna incite a lot of rage, because people can't role-play more than one character at a time then.

Multikeying shouldn't be forbidden either, much as Sarah says...It helps a lot with events, really. I am one of the people wo do really not like bothering GMs for every tiny shit of event you wanna do, so the more I can do on my own, the better. Of course bigger events still require Admins but I honestly try avoid "Open Events" cause they are usually generalized and unimportant to my character personally nor does it make much sense for them to even attend to it most of the time.
Most Open events have either been Arena attacks (for some reason thats ICly a good target? I mean I get it's OOC reasoning cause everyone flocks there, but I am argueing ICly) or some invites to something like Chimera enterprise back then. Aside from that most events are either slice of life (Which is okay, I don't hate slice of life) or specifically made for a group. Because lets be honest? Whats more fun? A Necromancer sending his hoards of undeads for some reason at the arena or a Storyline specifically crafted for your characters group he is in and building up their story more?
Not to mention that I atleast try to avoid open events cause of certain players being unbearable in my opinion.
So yeah I much rather see mini GM tools for player houses and shit.

Now. Meaningful positions, and lack of "connection" to Main world that Dev is creating himself. I can understands that. But there's just how it is. It would be too much of a pain to abruptly removes the Main storyline just so Dev can focus on role-play aspect at large. The Main storyline was implemented there so that players could obtain few variant items, and alas also explores us more into current circumstances of the World.

I don't think a storytelling tool should solely be used to get you items. But to tell a story, which it is. Though instead of making it a Story(past) it's way to interwined with the Characters present timeline that you wonder why you have no influence. The storyline can't even be used IC much cause its build in a concept like a generic hero from an MMO so everyone is the "Choosen one". But my feelz when I have to look into Kinus eyes and realize "Thats what you say to everyone, isn't it!?", Jokes aside though. It's sadly a point that is driving alot of players away because no one wants to play something long term in a world where the NPCs are the Main Characters forever.
It's like buying a ticket for a concert and all you get is to watch a live stream on youtube.

The rest of what you said pretty much boils down to "Oh god don't trust anyone, people suck!" Which I agree with, I certainly have my moments I suck hard aswell buuuut. Those wouldn't be things tossed out like candy, nothing permanent if the person proves to not be able to handle it well, and given out to players that are trusted in the firstplace. We lost a lot of reaaaaally good RPers over the time simply cause nothign was going anywhere. And I am not even talking about leadership positions themself. What heard recently was about being a priest for years is also kinda...Yeah just that. The Church has a pretty nice lore, Ranks within it and organisations. Those could be things given to trusted players with time. Or well Geistritter aswell (Which is actually happening in a way just...It means nothing currently).
The only group that actually comes with Responsibillity and Benefits is currently the Guard force pretty much. But this is also not exactly something everyone wants to be. See Villians in a world already overflowed by Heroes (Which by the way is also something I hate about the current progression system. Damm is it impossible to keep up with that amout of people, if they just decide it's fun to screw you over, they succed 100% with not much problems)

Chaos posted:

PvE
a. Identify and balance overwhelming strengths on player-side. (AoEs, Food Regeneration, etc)
b. Identify and balance areas where monsters need help. (I.e. Enemy Skills, AI, etc.)
c. Plan/debate/work through ideas of high-level content.

I would also add more reasoning to even tackle those challanges. Like the "bonesaw" to gather materials but I would go in circle again to my idea of economy from player to player. Something that again, those not only boil down to grinding for the sake of leveling and 10*s.

Character Progression
There is a point we should debate: Namely, Should there be progression after progression? I'm not talking about Legend Inks, nor Eternia's/Spire's RPP, but another resource entirely that players can slowly gain to keep improving their character. Something to keep a character going, and push people to attempt things. I'll throw up a separate topic for this.

I'd also recommend a more progression-based item grind, but at this point, that would just be something akin to the Arena Shop, rather than something that could even come close to replacing the RNG item grind.

Mostly to the latter, cause thats also interesting. What if we entirely remove the random items drops (or atleast for the most part, bar 10* and special monster spcific weapons like bear claws)
And instead get more materials, that can either be sold or well used for crafting. This would in one way be "like arena" but more immersive into the world, this is one of the points I am also hoping to acheive with my Craft/Job idea. Like trying to make it more reasonable to hutn specific monsters for their parts, to go and get the gear you want...
While not really aimed to be that, think Monster Hunter. Where you get stuff mainly from crafting the remains or Ores or well in this world it would be other magical items.
Chest would probably still give our random weapon loots and what not.

Though I agree, we probably have greater problems, but it's still a huge one that could give people perspective aside from PvP being the only end game for everyone.