There was once a time when there were 70 people online. . .

[Tanm]

Ranuke, the audibles in RDs refer to specific things. There are noises if there is one of the following on the floor:
Shop
Vault (room with monster a few levels stronger than the others on the level and lots of gems and gold)
Pirate room
Killer bee room
Orc/goblin/kobold room
And maybe a noise for a graveyard room.

These are not, I think, what themadhobo was referring to.

However, it is true that there are spells intended for scouting that are often overlooked. Wizard eye has the unfortunate drawback of having no night vision. Glimpse lasts a very short while, but is an extremely useful spell.

[Ranuke]

Actually, with the combined use of two casts of glimpse and wizard eye, you are able to have perfect vision with wizard eye, extend your sight, and still see through walls with the eye.

[themadhobo]

Ranuke, you misunderstood what I meant. RDs are predictable, its exploring new areas that gets dangerous, particularly at lower levels. Its not that much fun to explore the game on a hof, but its not that much fun to get killed before you see your enemy on a lower level character.

[Jammart]

As far as I can remember, the only thing that had made me quit way back when, was when Rhialto added the item bonding rule; how only players could auction off items to their friends at minimum if they wanted to "give" something away. It had gotten impossible to really cooperate with others in that sense. I know it wasn't his fault, it was those high levels who just mass dropped gold at NV, but still. That had just really killed it for me, and is a complication for newer players as well.

I wish the best to this game. I am highly anticipating the halloween events for the game (I remember participating in them as a child and going CRAZY over them.. they were sooooo exciting NO game can top it), but I am afraid there won't be a large enough community to make it possible.

This may sound repetitive, but I really think someone should get a hold of R and try and get him to advertise the game a little. I would offer to release an article on the game in the future at a pretty large traffic gaming press website, if that can help gather more users.

I'm sure if everyone collaborates, we can give life to Wyvern once again.

[Arilou]

There's not going to be a Halloween event. That was Ender's thing and Wyvern's not much for localized real world holidays since it's an international game. There were a few hiccups here and there since we never had an official policy on it and wizards have a lot of free reign, but several years ago we've settled on something that is currently being enforced.

We still intend to plan fun events for players, though, and in fact you just missed a huge all day one this summer that most active wizards spent a lot of time and effort on. It had a very good turn out, even though we had about the same number of peek hour players, since it was announced in advance (there are some screenshots here if you want to see: http://arilou-wyvern.blogspot.com/20...reenshots.html ).

There was a lot of lag during the combat events though and the server crashed at one point, which is the main crux of the issue - There are server performance problems which need to be resolved in order to handle more players. Just advertising will not help until that is done as players will be turned off by the server lag and the headache of regular crashes if the number of players online gets up there. Just recently we noticed problems with some 30 odd players online. There were lag spikes and spells begun to freeze - Previously we thought the lag spikes started after the 40 player mark and spells didn't begin to freeze until around 60, so this that's bad news since spells freezing often means the server is under heavy strain and if it continues the game could crash. When Rhialto has some free time, he'll look into it, so hopefully we can make some progress on that front in the near future.

[Beckhan]

Hey everyone, long time no see.

First I just want to acknowledge the hard work the wizes put into this game. It's a great game and none of us were asked to pay you money for it. Thank you.

Second I wanted to give a quick response as to why I took a break as per the current topic..

I played an elf archer and I got pretty far; 1 level from HOF. But right when I was at my richest after having saved up and getting ready to gear up for the next level a few bad things happened in the game that really discouraged me from playing:

1. Random unannounced reboot. I lost all my gear that I had stored up to buy decent gear with. I lost probably half a mil in goods. Turns out someone was just doing some maitenence and decided that would be a good time for a reboot.

2. Rebuilt my stores, was getting ready to make a killing during a certain spring event. Server crashed and all my junk disappeared. Ok, my fault, I should have known that if things get choppy, pick it all up and wait till later.

3. FINALLY I get enough money to get pretty well situated with gear. I've got a crown, a huge pile of plat bolts, and some other cool items I recently spent all my hard earned cash on. I take a break for a while, come back on and finally am able to purchase the plat bow I was waiting for and then when I go to fire it I realise that ALL MY PLAT BOLTS ARE GONE! As are some other things. I get to reading the news and find out that many things were deleted because some of them had been hacked and illegally duplicated.

OK so I'm not that discouraged by all the times i've died (which is allot) I understand that's part of the game and I learn from it. But the stuff listed above all kinda killed it for me. It ceased to be a game. It would be more like a job or an obligation to do all that again. It took me weeks to get the cash each time.

In the real world, summer came and I just found out that I was less stressed when I ceased to play the game as a stress reliever. Who knew?

I'll probably play again sometime. I really enjoyed all the personalities of the real people playing and making the game. I like how the personalities come out in their work, especially Binyamin's and Teshuvah's. You really bring the flava!

Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah, thanks for fixing the player list.
16th most awesome elf ever! W00T!
-Beckhan

[Teshuvah]

Originally Posted by Beckhan

Hey everyone, long time no see.

First I just want to acknowledge the hard work the wizes put into this game. It's a great game and none of us were asked to pay you money for it. Thank you.

Second I wanted to give a quick response as to why I took a break as per the current topic..

I played an elf archer and I got pretty far; 1 level from HOF. But right when I was at my richest after having saved up and getting ready to gear up for the next level a few bad things happened in the game that really discouraged me from playing:

1. Random unannounced reboot. I lost all my gear that I had stored up to buy decent gear with. I lost probably half a mil in goods. Turns out someone was just doing some maitenence and decided that would be a good time for a reboot.

2. Rebuilt my stores, was getting ready to make a killing during a certain spring event. Server crashed and all my junk disappeared. Ok, my fault, I should have known that if things get choppy, pick it all up and wait till later.

3. FINALLY I get enough money to get pretty well situated with gear. I've got a crown, a huge pile of plat bolts, and some other cool items I recently spent all my hard earned cash on. I take a break for a while, come back on and finally am able to purchase the plat bow I was waiting for and then when I go to fire it I realise that ALL MY PLAT BOLTS ARE GONE! As are some other things. I get to reading the news and find out that many things were deleted because some of them had been hacked and illegally duplicated.

OK so I'm not that discouraged by all the times i've died (which is allot) I understand that's part of the game and I learn from it. But the stuff listed above all kinda killed it for me. It ceased to be a game. It would be more like a job or an obligation to do all that again. It took me weeks to get the cash each time.

In the real world, summer came and I just found out that I was less stressed when I ceased to play the game as a stress reliever. Who knew?

I'll probably play again sometime. I really enjoyed all the personalities of the real people playing and making the game. I like how the personalities come out in their work, especially Binyamin's and Teshuvah's. You really bring the flava!

Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah, thanks for fixing the player list.
16th most awesome elf ever! W00T!
-Beckhan

Wb Elf
Yeah using auction house for storage vault is never a good idea, honestly.
Loosing what you would sell anyway is one thing, loosing everything because you used it for storage is very painful. It's why we dont have storage vaults (one of the reasons).
But Rhialto forgets sometimes and "reboots". He did it the other day again too , He has to do things when he has time.
So I repeat, for you and everyone else, do not use the auction house for item storage , items to sell can be replaced, items you want to keep but dont want to carry around cant always be replaced.

But yes lots of things, in any game change/move/deleted on a regular basis.
Shoot, Last World of Warcraft upgrade everyones "high end items" became worthless over night that they spent upwards of 300 hours working for. And you pay for that one lol
So always good to take a break when it gets frustrating, from this, or any other game.

[Salkand]

I say we need more wizards, don't get me wrong. between the 3 we see constantly, the 2 we sometimes see and the many no one even remembers, a lot gets done. Much of what gets done is because of the wizards we don't see, and I understand you guys need more rhaialto who is busy right now, but more qualified wizards.

[Farore]

Well I can easily tell what one of the main problems is. This game has no publicity. I came to know this game through Arcadepod.com and I'm sure a lot of other people have too. Afterwards I told a few of my friends about it, they joined the game and left after awhile. Another thing that causes immediate distaste in the game is the graphics. To be honest, they aren't the most impressive at first glance, but I enjoy them and it definitely is a more specific taste (probably for those with more imagination). But the biggest problem for this game is its publicity. It needs to get out there and get more attention.

[Rhana]

There never is a LQ or party for any holiday because some people do not celebrate it anyway.

[hagrit]

ideas for more players: 1: dungeon LQs! [even for ****ie players] [a duengon LQ would be nerfed SEPRATED dungeons with bosses at the end, to powerful to solo witch comes in the need of new players witch people will probly talk about on youtube and places like that]

[Godhand]

The main problem is that there is so much less freedom nowadays that it really kills most of the enjoyment.

no trade, min/max auction price, no pickup items on ground, nerfs, new items are even more unbalanced than some of the old items that were taken out, can't summon on the world map, not allowed to casts spells in cities, pk guild not being able to pk in cities, and most importantly wizards who monitor the game like its some form of maximum security prison.

Wyvern was worst back then but it still had more players because there were simply less restrictions. Now there are way too many restrictions, and it really kills the fun out of the game.

And also Wyvern is not a family game, most kids under ten do not like to play graphical muds, why would you want to be considered a family game when there are no little kids that play? Wyvern should focus more on teens and older, because those are the people that actually play. When wizards treat the player base (mostly teenagers and adults) like they're some little kids, it drives them away.

[themadhobo]

I agree Godhand, when it's assumed that we are all children everything gets old fast.

[Arilou]

Originally Posted by themadhobo

I agree Godhand, when it's assumed that we are all children everything gets old fast.

We "assume" the average player is around 12-14 years old (which is actually an educated guess based on years of observation). Any idea that we think of or treat players as if they are much younger is all in your heads. Humor directed at the age of players is centered around that figure and things we do to protect players based on age are based on that as well. Although, we've actually done very little to change the game because of that figure. Restrictions on things like offensive language are a way of protecting all players, many of which just want to play the game and not get stressed out by being treated badly by uncontrollable internet bullies. We would do it regardless of the estimated age group and, in fact, it is something that was established when the game first started, before Rhialto saw what type of people were coming to the game. The only thing that really has to do with the age group of players is the game's stance on blood which came about after quite a few players emailed Rhialto, explaining that their parents would not allow them to play if blood splatter remained in the game. However, our response to that is not to remove blood entirely, but to push it to the side. Eventually blood splatter will return with the option to turn it on and off and eventually blood filled areas will be properly marked with warning messages, while general things will be blood free.

Anyway, do keep in mind that there are players who are much younger just like there are those who are much older. The idea that they are non-existent or not populace enough to take note of is just untrue. We may not gear the game toward them, but they certainly are/have been there in healthy enough numbers.

[Logwad]

Interesting, so that's why splatters were taken out. I thought that perhaps it was viewed as too spammy.

It was a nice visual way to see how much damage you were doing.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Arilou

We "assume" the average player is around the 12-14 years old (which is actually an educated guess based on years of observation). Any idea that we think of or treat players as if they are much younger is all in your heads. Humor directed at the age of players is centered around that figure and things we do to protect players based on age are based on that as well.

Hunh so thats why almost nobody understands my humor anymore...

[bloogah]

I feel like Wyvern is dying.

[Ovrlndnsea]

You're right.

[Shootout]

I've noticed a recent spike in players lately. From the regular 25 or so at peak hours to a 38~40 ish amount. New players regurarly (albeit slightly slowly) flock to the game, the key is holding on to them.

[drewskee]

First off I'd like to say that wyvern is a free 2D mmorpg, and that comparing it to (i believe) the most popular online game ever made is just silly.
But anyway, the thing is...wizards you guys are doing it WRONG. Let me say that again you guys..are..doing..it..wrong!

Originally Posted by Arilou

Yeah, that's not going to happen. We generally know if players are going to like something or not and why they will feel a certain way about it. If we add something that is widely unliked it's because we are trying to get the game in shape for the type of players we want to attract once the game is out of beta testing. Right now a lot of people that have come here do not get that they are beta testing the game for us and as a result they think that the type of playing, (that attracted them in the first place) which is unbalanced/unfinished, is how it should always be. As a result they do not care that there is clear vision for post balance Wyvern that we are trying to achieve and have no interest in doing anything but complaining when we just to let them in on these things ahead of time. So, in the end, the type of system you described just isn't appropriate for a game that is up and running only to get people to help us test it as we go along. If this is a deal breaker for anyone, sorry, but this is not going to change.

Look, i understand this game is in beta testing and that you guys need to balance the game properly and implement new ideas to see how they work. I get that, we all get that, but if you continue to take away something that was really popular, something that made the game playable, people are NOT GOING TO PLAY.
Tell me, what is the point creating a game that nobody wants to play, that nobody will play, regardless of how "perfect" you think it is?

In my opinion...
a) Fix the healing spell so players are satisfied with it

b) Get ride of the min/max auctioning rule, i never understood why this was even implemented in the first place, for me one of the best parts of wyvern was trying to find the best deal possible, or make the most money off of other players that i could. I'm not talking about scamming, I'm just saying there was something satisfying about being a good merchant. No way to do that now. Maybe this was put in so new players don't get ripped off but people tend to pick up on the general prices of items pretty quickly. Everybody was ripped off once or twice, its just the nature of business, i once paid 20k for a whirlplosion axe. haha

c) Let people give away whatever they want, or pick up anything from the ground. I believe the reason this was put in was to stop transferring alts? Look, people still get around that, just have a friend log in, buy your item off you and then have your friend sell the item to your alt. Why in the world cant we transfer items between alts, most mmorpgs try and make it easier with some sort of storage system that can hold your entire account's (or IP address) items.

d) The chat rules. You log on and play the game...and whose talking...NOBODY! I understand people cant be cursing and saying obscene things left and right, but seriously loosen up. I got booted for saying something on a Wednesday at 1 in the morning, honestly i don't think many little kids are playing right about then.

Those are just my thoughts, its probably all been said before but i used to really enjoy playing around in this game (i'm banished now as of 2 nights ago hah), but the lack of freedom and the fact that wizards all walk around like theres something stuck up their ... really ruins the fun. So maybe you wizards think you know what you're doing but you really ought to change the direction you're going when your player base is at an average of 15-20 people. It's okay to make mistakes, everybody does it.

And read Ovrlndnsea's post...and respond to it.

and one more time what is the point creating a game that nobody wants to play, that nobody will play, regardless of how "perfect" you think it is?

peace out