[Senna]

Welp, since I'm online again, I might as well put my two cents.

The state of the game:
There isn't much to say considering everyone as pretty much put their points on display. The game is indeed 'low' for a bit now. People are playing other stuff and drifting away from the game. It is expected, after all, the game is, and I'd quote 'A slice of life' simulator. I'm not saying the game doesn't have danger, it is around, but it's up to the player to decide if they want to be a part of the danger and accept what's coming if they decided to do so or ignore it and keep the same drama filled with casual conflict RP. 

This falls under both PvP and RP situations. Everyone develops their character differently than others, that's just how it goes.

It's not Dev's fault, but the players if you don't choose to break that bubble, there isn't much Dev or the Event mins can do in that situation.


Game Situation:
The game is coded and set up like an MMO with RP elements at the side, I don't know what you're expecting once you're level 60. Legend extension is there to repeat that grind but the problem? When you make a game too grindy (Almost unfun), people will soon make different methods to get through the grind as quickly as possible or just flat out avoid it after a while. It happens to almost any game. Some classes handle PVE faster while others handle PVP better, that's just how games like this works. Yes, once you're 'late-game', you truly don't have anything else to do.

All I could suggest is more story, more content similar to the tombs but with more/different bosses, different high-level dungeons that offer something new each time. Special craft items, equipment, tools for perhaps special raids, and so on. Even special bosses that only show up at X time of the day during X time of the week and so on for a limited time. Something like the tower but grant interesting things but also randomize so it's hard to build a cheese/grind build against it.

Something that isn't too grindy else could remove the fun from it but make it something more interesting; such as giving the players a reason to do it, a reason to challenge themselves with good rewards if they pull through. (Rare but random) I'd also suggest anti-cheese so we don't have Evoker deleting half to almost all the boss health and skipping phases.


Comparing games (Just why would you even do that?)
I've seen people compare SL2 to games like Naruto RP, Dragon ball (Rebirth works well here), and Bleach RP. While I can say for sure SL2 is nothing like them, I've been on those RP games a lot longer than SL2 but the pure RP system works much differently than SL2's. Unlike those games, getting to a late game isn't as easy. You progress via RPing and interacting with people. Those games will have you progressing a character for over several months before you can see the fruits of your labor. Of course, it's like drugs when you get into a fight and show off your progression but it's different. Those games, your build and items/weapons aren't set in stone, it can change via IC events and developments are battles. In those games, you have no real control over anything, you can only build to resist the outcome of the faithful day someone or something tries to kill the character. SL2, you can set your build and make said build in 2-7 days without even RPing with a single soul. You're able to reach from early to late game very quickly with or without help.

So you can pretty much skip 90% of the leveling content and be on even footing with everyone. People only had 'fun' with it with the hardcore player challenge. 

All I could suggest is add rewards for RPing, whereas RP experiences rewards can be used to not only level character but also a hidden status. That status once leveled up grants X character access to 1 unique list of traits/bonus (You can ask the the community to make suggestions for these traits). And incentive to promote RPing and focusing on one character more than many. Of course, I'd also suggest increasing the RP experience based on how many people you're RPing around and lower it based on how often they've RP with the same set of individuals. To push people to leave and interact with others. Or just pull an FF14 MMO and let RP experience (Allow EMs to give RP exp after events as well but a bot to alert GMs when they use it) be the only options to break the said level cap but said level (Probably push the cap up or bonus levels by X amount but only reachable via rping), however leveling up is half efficient. (So 2 instead of 4).

Just random thoughts to help.

Granting people that actually RP and build said character with some rewards, rewards which will push them and others into RPing more. That's pretty much how those compared games work. Develop and get rewards for it.

Public RP
This is a topic I've seen pop up pretty often. People RPing privately thus not creating hotspots and kill the RP options for others. I know the feeling when the game said 40 people online but you can't find a single person. It makes you think 'Damn, I wish I was in one of those groups'. Ain't much you can do than just chill at one spot and wait until public RP starts. It happens; you can't tell people that they can't exactly RP with their friends. You can call it a clinic, cult, and so on but it's something that'll happen. If they have no reason to RP outside of the group, there's no reason to really bash them. It happens man, the fix for this, is more in the player's hands. Players can decide to make hotspots or move said RP in the public if it isn't too private for the home. Using the 'looking for' tab to point out RP spots locations and so on is also a good option, to let people know 'hey, if anyone wants to RP, here is a good spot or give a location for it.

Dev gave us enough tools to work with.

There isn't much Dev can do for us here, it's all on the community if they want to come out and RP with others or if they choose to stay within their groups and create RP with each other. Of course, It isn't good for the game but it's something the players need to decide on.

I personally don't like it but I understand. If you're comfy with such, that's just how it is. Just please, don't complain when no one is outside after you leave said house.


OOC Corner
Other people have put their points in on the OOC corner and so on about it.

This is kinda a location I'm okay with in a sense? I normally go there when I'm not in the RP mood (And have nothing else to do) but also want to interact with others, test build I wouldn't get the chance to ICly, find a spot I can AFK/Semi without someone RPing at me while I'm away, or just learn things from the more experienced players there. It's pretty much a little social spot whereas you can go without bothering anyone else. Of course, I can understand it can get a little crowded, giving off the impression half the server is there and not RPing but 70% of the time, it's probably 5 people at max, just people on 2-3 alts stacked on each other for it to look great in numbers. RARE CASES, over ten. It seems like this super evil that needs to be stopped but it isn't as bad as it's shown. 

It's pretty much that or the individuals just, well, log off the game which hurts the playbase a lot more.

Events
This topic is a dangerous game. People are asking for public events but those aren't as easy as you think. I've been to a few public events and helped in one. I know how crazy and how toxic the community can get from them. The thing about events is that, everyone wants their time to shine, everyone wants to be hero-kun and who doesn't want to be hero-kun will suffer for it since they won't be able to keep up. Balancing public events is hard due to, well you know, META BUILDS being a dick-measuring tool (And how easy it is to really make said builds). If their meta builds/strong build loses? The salt begins. So much salt you won't need to buy any for a few years. It reaches the point of people being ungrateful or flat out disrespecting the event host. Pure RP public events help as well but those can also get out of hand really fast, as they'll take hours to even get somewhere progress wise.

I understand why the event mins try to do more group/small events since it'll be a lot easier to handle and they'll have an idea how to balance the mobs based on which characters the players' register. Of course, I'd too like some more public events but once SL2 becomes a lot more chill as a community and the game needs a better balance point for that to work.

So, I'm hoping for something in the future but I'm not bashing/pushing Event mins to constantly make public events.


Villain player characters
I've said this before, I'll repeat it here, player villain characters aren't easy to play. The game has too many 'hero-kuns' to really do anything. After that? Goose said it best, people will avoid you like you have flu. You can try to do some little event for people but if you don't choose to just select a handful of people to be a part of said event, you'll have waves of people attacking you until you're captured and taken in by the guards. There is no middle ground or 'Let them escape so they can probably cause conflict and make more RP later' situation. It's either you do it, fight waves of players and when you're out of prison, people will ignore that character or you just don't and join the hero-kuns.

In some cases, people will take it to the extreme and start shit-talking/bullying the person for the attempt, causing them to either never play that character again or just leave the game. And people wonder why player villain characters are only group(Selected individuals) bases these days.

It's at least what I've seen.


PVP
That's for balance fu. All the PVP problems and complaints are there, I don't need to add that in this post. I'd only suggest Dev to check Balance Fu to know what the community is thinking when it comes to PvP.


Conclusion? 80-90% of the problem is mainly the community. The other 10-20% is balancing, bugs and so on. The only thing I'd see Dev should really focus on is more end game events/content and a reason for people to keep going/doing world events. That and a more incentive for RP, rewarding/providing rewards for players that spend their time trying to RP and better/develop their characters.