RK Gets Worse and Worse and Worse

I'm telling you, 8+ years ago when I first started, it was a bit complicated and slow, but you could get by and stumble your way through.

I can't believe how fucking complicated they keep making this game.

The mines were always complicated and super annoying, now they are even worse than before. All Celsius does is give you tons of data and tell you to go fuck yourself.

We begged for years to get sea lanes coded, they gave us sea travel and boats after 5 years- and they fucking made it a mess as usual. There is no display to tell you % chance of move, you have to log in every 2 hours to be 100% efficient; I swear Celsius is trolling.

But wait, they want to make the game more 'realistic' right? So they implement load, which is a fucking nightmare if you are trying to move an army or do some trade. Herp a derp.

Hourly jobs, forum synch, it feels like I have to write a book to new people explaining how shit works.


Seriously, can't we find a better game already?  

I would have quit this stupid game long ago if you guys would let me....

I have a question to put out there.  We all know that RK is flawed as hell, but we all still play it for one reason or another.  This tells me that there must be some aspects of the game that we all like.  I prefer to think that rather than the alternative that we are all closet sado-masochists!  So, my question is:  if you could design RK from scratch, what would you have in it?

I know that from my point of view, there are some good aspects, like the social aspect of the taverns and how they are player owned, the way the forums used to encourage creativity, the way it is relatively simple to play at the base level and the way you can choose your level of involvement.

Some things that I would improve on RK is how the economy moves, redesign all land and sea movements, maybe bring in a queued system for actions, improve how armies work, put stricter hard code for legal systems and maybe even input random and voluntary quests, like: "you feel the need to commune with nature today, if you spend the day in the forest picking flowers, you might find something special."  Then have a random chance to find an item, or just end up with a bunch of flowers  Just little somethings like that for people to do when they have some spare time but nothing that has them tied to the game every few hours, because I admit that since they brought in this desync, RK has really been a lot more stressful to me, because if I go out or anything (and I do not possess any handheld gadget ) then I can't enjoy myself for thinking, did I feed Bekah, did I set her to work, did I click follow?  And that is on top of the usual niggles of did I lock the front door, did I turn the iron off, etc.

So yes, I am very interested, what keep us in RK and what would we do to make it better if we could?

I only stay because of all the friends I have there. There is so much I would change, might as well make it completely different by then.

I would have player based creation and expansion, first and foremost. I would assign the world into a grid, with terrain, and make everything real time including movement and combat.

It would be more MMO. Get a few friends together, and hang out doing something cool that night. If you don't have time, there can be a queue, and/or a way to follow someone else's command which can be set and viewed by all. So if you only have 5 mins, you check the board and see what other people are doing, and can join them and then go off and enjoy life; or chose 5 things to line up in a queue. If you come back early, no penalties for ending an action early.

You could sail to an uncharted island and built an outpost there. Or, a bandit camp.

There would be no elections either.

It would be a completely different game

Reasons I've stuck around RK (in one life or another) are:

1) The people.

2) To write.

The second reason is the REAL reason I joined RK to begin with damn near six years ago and have kept coming back. That or its so much of a habit by now I just feel empty if I don't get a daily dose of it. Sounds more like a drug...

That being said my one main gripe is when they tied the forums to game itself. I understand the reasoning behind it but seriously believe they managed to eliminate a lot of opportunity for those of us whose main reason for being around in the first place was to write.

Beyond that? I can take or leave the rest of it. Never gotten involved much beyond where I am now.

Anto does have an interesting concept but I have to wonder if a change like that would chase people like yours truly away (as if there aren't already enough bailing...) completely. I don't get along with MMO's. Can't tell you how many I've signed up for and never touched again, up to and including DDO. Sorry but it's true.

But I'd still give it a shot.

In regards to the ship system, the player behind the captain of my ship set an alarm at 4am every morning just to make a move so we had full moves per day. Now that is dedication! But needing to get up at stupid times at all is not what people should have to do to move a ship in a bloody game.

The problem is I don't know of an effective system that can solve that issue and still leave a level playing ground when it comes to naval combat.
The idea I did have was the number of moves a ship can make per day should be allowed consecutively within the space of any time frame of the day, all the moves within an hour if the captain wanted to do that, then have no more moves until after reset. The problem with this though is if in a naval battle, one captain uses all the moves within an hour and the enemy captain plans to use all the moves over the course of the day, the former captain is going to destroy the enemy captain before they get chance to move.

I have always said if a better game comes along, I will try to encourage the friends I have to leave with me and play together in the new, better game. The story lines are great and the tension of war within the British Isles keeps things exciting, but the functions really ruin things.

As a predominately social game, I think they should do away with the heavy political/ economics aspect.  Having more quest based activities would be good, but games like LOTRO or DDO tend to have a much smaller social sphere.  The trick would be to merge quests with an active RP forum, which I think they are trying to move towards with these digs and the newbie tutorials.  

But if it was from the ground up, I'm not sure.  There was one game that Smudger and Cheats got me playing that seemed a successful merging of quests and consolidation of power...  Europe 1400.  Even the illustration style is similar to RK.  If they could merge our active RP forums to something like that I think it would be a huge improvement.

Edit:  Even with the crappy 2 hour time tics, I think the sea lanes are really the most interesting things out of RK lately.  That epic naval battle back in June?  Probably the most fun I've had in RK in 5 years.  Even if I did lose an insane amount of sleep for 2+ weeks.

My idea has been to try to find, or create something that allows for as little or as much activity as a person wants to put into a game without more active people gaining an advantage.  What this means is for a lot of the game functions to "voluntary".  This means if you want to sail, then you will commit to being more active, but if you know you are going to be busy, then you can set things up that way.

The type of games I enjoy playing all have some elements of what I think would keep me engaged and some ideas that i have gotten from them is the following:

1/ Strategy:  Whatever setting the game has, it requires some type of strategy, something to engage the brain and make people band together to achieve a common goal, whether this is to build a hill fort, create a city or even grow vegetables!

2/ Levels of activity:  lets face it, we all have differing amounts of time available to us on a day to day basis, so we would need a game that adapts to suit us, not one that forces us to adapt to suit it.  So for this I envisage being able to time manage things.  So for example, if you have a farm and crops needs harvesting. livestock need feeding, etc., then you can either do those actions manually, maybe even have mini games in there to boost production, on the days that you have more time or feel like micro managing things, but also have the option to 'hire' a manager for the days when you won't have time, so you can instruct the manager to harvest crops, collect the eggs, and so on.  I am using the example of a farm, but it can work for many things, even for sailing or war - hire a manager or a general or as Anto suggested, have the ability to join a group and follow their actions for a while.

3/ Social activity:  very few online games out there are social and this is where RK used to have an edge.  I must say that the cons are starting to heavily outweigh the pros on RK, but that might just be me suffering from the end of the year blah's again.  So for a social aspect, the idea of taverns which are player run and maintained are great, I would go so far as to think that idea could be expanded to include inns so you have somewhere to stay when you travel.  Forums are also great, but the way the RK ones are structured and policed has made things progressively more uninviting and confusing.  I think that a forum with one area for all those mindless spam games that every forum seems to attract as well as the more casual out of character chatting we all like to do, one area for all game discussions, Ie bugs, suggestions, all the mechanics of the game, and then an area that is strictly for role play would eliminate a lot of confusion.

4/ Game support.  Shit happens and in a game, it can happen a lot!  What is needed is a good reporting system and real IG hard codes that prevent abuses which are not helped by someone saying "don't do it" or "be reasonable".  If something is coded into a game, then expect it to be used, so if something shouldn't be used, it shouldn't be coded.

5/ Playing it should be fun and challenging to all levels of player.  Not all of us can play fast paced games, I know I can't because my eyesight doesn't allow it and playing DDO almost always gives me a migrane.  So an online game that allows for slower paced players to play alongside those who want more action is a desirable compromise.  I think this can be achieved by allowing players to set a "staging"time, so as Anto says, get a bunch of you together and go explore that cave in real time and have fun with it, but don't make that a necessary part of the game, only a fun side addition.


So, as you can see, I have put a great deal of thought into this.  I have also been investigating into how much of this is actually possible.  A lot of t is easier to achieve than I thought, but does require a lot of time to get there.  One thing that I have found, I enjoy the challenge of game design more than I actually enjoy playing games lol!

Honestly, about a year ago I turned RK into my ‘secondary’ game, putting less of a focus on it, in favour of another I was invited to play, which is basically a carbon-copy of RK – before the 24h work system – and more basic mechanics. I got significantly involved with it, and have never really felt a need to switch back to RK as my main game. I still enjoy RK’s social elements, and I’m happy to spend a few moments each day ‘clicking to continue’ so I doubt I really will ever leave, just slowly head towards a cocoon like state on the game.

My major gripes with RK, especially with the political system, and sea travel are not issues I face in the game I play, and whilst the rules are defiantly more PG, there’s always off-site which makes that bearable. I also find communication and clarification over mechanics easier also w/ most responses coming within 24h.

As for RK, I just feel like it will never solve it’s problems. I spoke of it in the last thread of a similar nature, where RK is focusing on the Facebook audience, and 3D villages and 24 clocks and all the token clothes, backgrounds and pets are catered to them. The focus is to harness that audience and to do that they just have to put out shiny objects that people will want and be willing to spend tokens on. Are they actually going to fix the basic mechanics? Nope. Why? Because your generic FB player doesn’t care about those, no the people who care and spend time on those are for simplified grouping sakes ‘us’ the people who despite our bitching, moaning, questions and want for the game to get better and solve these issues they know we’ll continue regardless, and did I mention the shiny shirts people buy with real money? Yeah…that’s their focus, make a profit.

So hence why I’m sticking to my other game I play, it’s fun, there’s a good conflict, the economy is easy to run, and there is a good level of RP and a good number of updates each month (A number of which I and other players suggested) - The only reason I play RK honestly is for this…and even the use of the word ‘play’ should really be replaced with logs in once a day to feed and that’s about it.

Could do without RK tbh. It's become a headache with it's glitches and bugs, I've never had, with any other game as like Bekah said, to have to put it on my list of 'to do's' basically to make sure I've logged on in time to do something. The admin. are awful to have to deal with too. It's just ridiculous.

The things that have kept me:

1) All of you. Promises to stay.
2) Tavern Activity/chat, but then I'm never IC there anymore either. It's too much to have to deal with and the arguments that can/would ensue if I were to actually play my Trinkles as I've written her.

That's it. I used to love going to the forums just to read some good rp and get pulled into fun antics, anymore, that's just a waste of time it seems. Unless one of ya's link me to something good or vice versa if I come across something interesting. That's less and less now, even currently I've gotten in that mode, yet again, where I don't even want to pull up the forum because of all the BS.

All the info ya'll posted on things that could be fixed, I'm whole heartedly in agreeance and if those things were to become a reality I believe I'd be more involved, usually when people ask me my honest answer to things is "I have no idea" because anymore I don't keep up with the political aspect etc. (ig or rp) It's too much BS and I refuse. It's the only 'happening thing' going and it sucks, if there were more options that would be nice.

Zuk, I absolutely enjoyed playing that game you're referring to, was actually getting more and more into it than I have ever been even with RK. I miss the people I met there too, but I refuse to go back because of admin there. You mentioned using offsite forums? Has something changed? If so I wouldn't mind hearing about it, could PM me or can use the other thread for it so as not to clutter this one?

Not sure what I could throw out there that hasn't already been posted in ways I would like to see it change. There's been some great ideas they've come up with, just executed in the worst ways.

I think for the majority of us, the reason we all play this game is that we all play this game. If there was another game that we could all agree on to go to then I'd leave in a heartbeat, but it's not easy to find one.

1) Bekah needs to make that game she just described.

2)I come here for the same reasons listed- ya'll and writing. Less so writing, since I have less time for it now. Plus, it kind of has lost its luster. I just hate how people can't separate fact from fiction. The fact that some who play the game on the "good" side can NOT write with the bad guys. Because morals or some horse shit. So that is a bummer.

3)It must not be THAT bad of a game because I have never played a game longer. There isn't even a website that I frequent still that I would go to daily in 2007 (when I started RK). My dailies have changed, my games played have changed...but I still come back to RK. So while it is a really stupid game, I can't hate too hard. I'm here.  (even though I DID RP kill Toastini during a bout of extreme boredom and ennui. I resurrected her to keep on keepin' on with you crazy kids)

Well you could complain about it all day and do nothing, or you can complain about it all day and do something!

We all know people who can code, people who can design, and people with too much spare time on their hands (or too much time to procrastinate)...

idk anyone who can code my ideas

What are your ideas?

Rare could do it

And i would like to be head of the 'WTF were they thinking' dept.  

Ooh I hear the position for head of the WTF department has fierce competition!

I've had a lot of the same thoughts as everyone who posted on the first page of this post.

We definitely played RK at its prime. I came back because I was reading Game of Thrones and wanted to RP. Ended up realizing what had happened to this game, and that the only time I enjoyed this game was when I was causing trouble and hanging with you guys.

One thing I would add to RK is a better RPG system. More stats and more ways they influence how you play. I would also throw in a better political system, how unrealistic is it to have a "mayor" in Renaissance times? I would also add some sort of way to upgrade towns into cities, and have empty nodes available for settlement, to turn into towns.

I don't even read the forums anymore, come on here just to check orders and log in to eat and work.

I know I am going to be playing the Elder Scrolls online. Doesn't look too graphically intense and is playable on mac, pc, xbox1 and ps4 (not sure if its cross platform). The pvp looks really interesting in the game because an actual player can start an army and capture the capital and become emperor.

Gilan wrote:

I know I am going to be playing the Elder Scrolls online. Doesn't look too graphically intense and is playable on mac, pc, xbox1 and ps4 (not sure if its cross platform). The pvp looks really interesting in the game because an actual player can start an army and capture the capital and become emperor.

ESO is gonna rock, it will consume my soul....

But capturing the capital? Holy shit ESO sounding better and better

Yes! I can do dungeon runs with you all!

eso is hella fun

I got invited to the beta, but its PC only right now and I only have a mac atm, gonna play the shit out of it when the mac beta starts.

nice. lucky.

I would've gotten invited if my damn internet didn't screw up when I submitted my application :c