Speaking Out: The Althanas Suggestion Thread

[Ther]

The premise of this thread is pretty simple:

Do you have any comments, suggestions, thoughts on your experiences here at Althanas? Is there anything you'd like to see changed, anything you'd like to see added, anything you feel could be improved?

Keep in mind that we take all suggestions and comments very, very seriously, and some of the features that make Althanas what it is today were recommended by members.

[grim137]

One thing I wouldn't mind seeing is having that rediculous level limit in Scara Brae removed. It is really pointless as its not like anybody can kill anybody else's character with out express permission from that character's creator. Hell the reason scara brae never really gets fleshed out by RPers or anything is that limit is keeping most of the more exprianced writer's from using the place.

[Reiko]

I second Grim's

Also I think we need an open list of monsters that people can use when they want something to draw on. something that players can add to since it'll allow a more complete ecology to the regions and help make the regions feel more real.

[Chidori Draconid]

The world cannon seems to always be in a state of flux or incompletion (current events being the exception). It would be cool to see them finished and set in stone as soon as possible, which would help retain some of the member activity.

[Cyrus the virus]

I know some regions have Beastiaries, Reiko. I know for certain that Fallien has one, anyway. I'm sure you could contact region writers with monster ideas, but maybe if we were more open about it it'd be a good thing. We also have a Beastiary in the Thayne Mythology thread that people seem to ignore.

The world cannon seems to always be in a state of flux or incompletion (current events being the exception). It would be cool to see them finished and set in stone as soon as possible, which would help retain some of the member activity.

Welcome to my world. If I had my way, everything would have a history that made sense and meshed with the entire Althanas world. We'd have a calendar that we'd follow loosely, perhaps even seasons and the like. More importantly, I wish we had IC holidays in our world that act as week-long events. Imagine a snow festival type thing in Salvar, where a subforum is open for two weeks for people to celebrate. I think things like that would be great! Of course, we need a very tight and dedicated staff to work these things, and people are worked as it is. I think if we had a larger member base we could hire mods specifically for these types of events.

[Reiko]

I know some regions have Beastiaries, Reiko. I know for certain that Fallien has one, anyway. I'm sure you could contact region writers with monster ideas, but maybe if we were more open about it it'd be a good thing. We also have a Beastiary in the Thayne Mythology thread that people seem to ignore.

Well I was thinking more of a sticky thread in each region for player submissions. Something more tied to the regions. Like their would be a player submitted Beastiary in Fallien to go with the official one to give players more options, each region could have one that players could submit monsters for the region. I really don't like the Thayne as it forces people to use something that's reliant on a single person.

[Artifex Felicis]

a general iea of the sizes of the countires, a map for reletive locations, and the most basic formsa of transport. I've been wanting to know this for a while, mostly for when Leon has to leave Corone. Just walking from one place to another doesn't seem to be THAT interesting.

Also, I'd like a bit more emphasis on the beastiary and general submissions for new ideas on Althanas. Hell, a small IC incentive wouldn't hurt too much, and it could always be something along the lines of "Alright, you can get and etra 50 gold at the end of this quest* type of thing. OR something. I love the beastiaries, but it's like there's not enough reason to use them. The Thayne one's kind of out of the way, shoved inside a bunch of other sticky threads and about 7 posts into it. Not to mention, I sort of doubt everyone on the site knows who the Thayne are. Probably why I'd love it if there was like a submissions Sub Forum, and a "Stuff to Know" forum of everything the layperson could want about Althanas. Probably a bit of work, but a fun thing to have.

[Djakara]

I would love to see a grey and blue skin. I really thought that was easy on the eyes.

[Osato]

I said this in a different thread, but we need info on the regions that no longer are up as forums but are still in the info threads of other regions and the althanas history. Antioch is the one I'm thinking of, but I'm not sure what the other one I was thinking of is yet... feh.

Also, inconsistencies need to be addressed in the information given by the regional mods. I was thinking about this back when I was a mod even. If you look at Alerar's info thread you will see very little, since its always been meager and lacking (another suggestion). However, when you look at the part explaining the geographical locations of stuff it says that the mountains to the Southwest have a "Tomb of Fallen Kings" that split the drow from Antioch.

Now, when antioch was actually created it was some island with Lavinia (sp?) attached to it. The second problem I have is that the "Tular Plains", which so easily and readily appeared when people got bored, I supposed to be where antioch is said to be in the Alerar information.

So, what's going on with that exactly?

~*~

I very much agree with opening up Scara Brae to other levels. At the moment it seems like it's just thrown up there for people with low levels to rp in... which it is, I know. But, you don't get any more help there then you would in any other regions... there isn't anything specifically 'low level' about it, other than seemingly everything about it is on a less than grand scale (raw materials, nation size, military, export/imports, ect...).

If we opened it up to other levels it would easily gain a little more activity. And, just maybe, we could pull it down to join the other regions...

~*~

What the hell happened to the ToW and the Dajas Pagoda? I know that there is a lot of stuff going on right now, but almost 5-6 months ago when I typed up the Dajas Pagoda info and submitted it to the other mods, I was told that it'd go up with the ToW and act as a lower level version of the theater. Umm... The ToW had a sub-forum, for some reason, in Corone... The Pagoda isn't even a forum/sub-forum, and no information had been released about either one.

Could those at least be put with the Features sections, like above the tournaments or something? And then opened?

~*~

Power Groups: Why do we still not have HQ's? I have always been a hardcore fan of the headquarter idea, but since we moved to here and the Bandit Brotherhood finished their IC dealy, the incentives have been gone... maybe even before that.

It seems that none of the pg's are really going anywhere and no wars between them have been started because there is not incentive to start them. Unfortunately, as it seems, almost all pg's are being created that love and care for one another and just make big alliances... except the IE and whoever else.

Hq's kept the groups moving and active... incentives, IC'ly that made sense, were awesome. You don't even have to give ridiculous amounts of exp per month, just some gold and an artifact or something like we used to.

~*~

I may have more, other than "Why the hell is Istraloth still here?", but that's it for now.

[Zook Murnig]

On the topic of the skins, which was brought up by Djakara a couple posts above me, I've always had trouble seeing the type-marker thingy that shows where your typing will be put when I'm replying. It's black against dark grey. Not friendly to someone with colorblindness (I don't know if normal eyes have any trouble with it). Perhaps making the type-marker thingy (I think it's called a cursor) white? I've seen that elsewhere, like on GUA in the darker skins.

Other than that, I really like the Dark skin.