Suggestions:Miscellaneous

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Suggestions
Items | Skills | Classes | Game mechanics | Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous suggestions are made here. See Suggestions for a list of other suggestion categories.

Suggestions for Shartak are not often implemented but are always welcome. Comments on and improvements to existing suggestions are appreciated. Please don't remove suggestions you don't like.

Before adding a suggestion, please take the time to view the guidelines for advice on what suggestions are feasable, and please check existing suggestions to ensure that yours (or a very similar one) has not already been made. Please add new suggestions to the bottom of the page.

Implemented suggestions are moved to Suggestions:Implemented. Bug reports should be added to the Bugs page.

Example

To use the template, enter the following at the bottom of the page, but replace emboldened text with text appropriate to your suggestion: 

===Suggestion Name===
{{suggestion|
suggest_type=Skill, balance change, improvement, etc|
suggest_scope=Who or what it applies to|
suggest_description=Full description. Check spelling and be descriptive.|
suggest_time=~~~~~|
suggest_author=~~~|
suggest_comments=
<!-- COMMENT **BELOW** THIS LINE - DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -->
Comment here
<!-- COMMENT **ABOVE** THIS LINE - DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE -->
}}

Miscellaneous

Talking parrots

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Dog Pants 16:57, 24 April 2007 (UTC) improvement Parrots

Possibly available by use of a parrot training skill, but probably more fun if you have to repeat a word to a parrot a number of times. Say, a random amount between 5 and 15. Other players entering the same square will be greeted by the word (or words) that parrot has learned. For extra realism it could repeat that word ad nauseum until you either leave it's square or feel compelled to teach it something else. Obviously this would have no real game affecting effect, but it is rather amusing.

Comments
It could repeat randomly one of the learned lines and it could be taught up to 5 sentences/words. You could not teach the parrot with head full o'words anything new, yet parrot would forget the lines after some time - month, week or so. And parrot teaching could be first animal-related skill letting you interact with them beasts. But I bet it is not so beautiful from code-side of view, as it would presumably need every parrot got her own nest in the database, in order to retrieve the words. duh, forgot to sign it Lama

Totally pointless, but I'd still enjoy this, a whole army of swearing parrots FTW --Htkl 20:35, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Sounds good to me. Heck, I'd like a parrot. Still, I like my own joke on the forums:
  Since your last turn: 
  The parrot says, "Arr, be gone with ye."
  The parrot bites you for 1 damage.
-Mark D. Stroyer 03:55, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Entrance text

Author Timestamp Type Scope
slayerofmuffins 19:50, 24th February 2007 (UTC) New text Entering places

At the moment, if as a ghost I enter a hut (at any rate), I get the message "You step inside." As I leave, I get "You climb outside." Now I'm pretty sure it said somewhere that ghosts are supposed to 'float through the jungle' and whatnot, so shouldn't the same apply to buildings. I suggest that the text be changed to something like "you float through the wall" - or something better, I'll leave that to Simon.

Comments
Comment here

Plantable-Plants

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lantz 05:17, 26 November 2006 (UTC) Improvement Players

A player would be able to plant a seed or berry to have a bush grow with a slim chance of success. It may need some watering and a little time to grow. It would function like a normal tree or berry bush, and appear in a block's description. It would last until the block it was in is chopped past a certain density, so it would not work on a beach. Overgrowth by random weeds would also destroy it. It doesn't need to show up on the map as an icon. There might be a small XP reward for successfully planting one.

Comments
This sounds like the suggested Planting/Agriculture skill. --Frisco 19:39, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

This idea is simpler and doesn't require a new skill.--Lantz 22:08, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Temporary Shelter

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lantz 05:11, 26 November 2006 (UTC) Improvement Players

With quite a few pieces of driftwood, a player would be able to erect a temporary hut, for a small XP reward. If making an enterable hut is too costly on the server and/or its maintainers, then make it simply create a square in which a player is not so suceptible to attack by animals or any sort of weather implemented in the future. The hut would last until either it collapsed on its own, if improperly maintained(by adding driftwood every few days), or if attacked by another player or animal. Weather may even knock it down. This would be a fairly simple terrain type, so any additions by game implementers would work very well.

Comments



Player NotePad

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Lantz 05:02, 26 November 2006 (UTC) Improvement Players

Players need a little notepad that they can keep notes on in their profile. Notes that only they can see, such as locations of certain places of interest they have found, or plans they want to keep for the next day's AP spending or roleplaying. This would work like the player desciption, easily editable and update-able. I'd use it to keep the coordinates of berry bushes I'd find in my area I patrol.

Comments


Tunnels

Tunnels underneath the island lead to interesting places.

Comments

How do you know they don't exist? :) Dr. J
Tunnels underneath the island lead to interesting places. --Tycho44 06:43, 8 June 2006 (BST)

Treasure to capture

"Capture the flag" type objective, in this case the flags are treasure from each village. Bonus points in the form of XP or gold coins to be awarded to the holder of the treasure at certain intervals.

Comments

I would like to modify this slightly Mystery Suggester. Please see the Unique Item Hunt suggestion. --Lint 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

Player VS Player Interaction

I would propoese a to hit % penalty for attacking members of same Home location. I believe this will promote exploration and perhaps offer a measure of protection of newly "birthed" population. As a recent victim of death by the hands of a warrior from my own villiage this has a bit of appeal to me ;). - Nan

Comments

Instead of a hit % penalty, what about reducing or eliminating XP earned for such attacks? It would be similar to the ZvZ penalty used in UrbanDead, and its easier to rationalize not getting as much experience fighting one of your own than to rationalize that its harder to hit your own people for some reason. --Jackel 19:52, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
The to hit penalty and the lack of XP should be combined to discourage intravillage conflicts but only on nonclan members(so clans from the same village can fight with each other to simulate a power struggle for leadership), extend this to shamans as well, as its not often the village shaman gets killed by an out-of-towner. --Daylan 00:27, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
I don't like this idea--especially with the inclusion of pirates in the game. It makes sense for pirates to trun on each other now and then, or to turn to pillaging from one of the outsider towns. All of a sudden, for our good RPing we get a reduced chance to hit and no XP?--Wifey 07:30, 29 March 2006 (BST)
I have suggested a full non player vs player implementation at Suggestions:Game_mechanics#PvP_Protection. --Iamtas 10:10, 13 April 2006 (BST)
Players already get less XP for attacking someone from their own camp, and no kill bonus (if I remember correctly). You would still gain a bit of experience from fighting with your own, just not quite as much as when it's a life or death situation against someone hostile. Do we really need this suggestion to be implemented? --Simon 12:28, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Spirit Movement

A couple thoughts on this topic.--Jackel 02:29, 6 March 2006 (GMT)

  • My character has the "trekking" skill, but as a spirit, actually moves slower (1 AP per square) than when he's alive! Spirits should move at least as fast as someone skilled at traversing terrain.
Perhaps spirits have less impetus than live characters --Dr. J 18:55, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
  • Spirits move effortlessly through the thickest jungle, water, swamp--as it should be. Why should mountains be an impediment?
Perhaps there's some kind of mineral in the mountain that prevents the spirit from passing through it.. could be mined later on to spirit-proof huts or something (clutching at straws here, can you tell) ?
They also can't move through the deepest water, but that is the boundary of the game I'm guessing.

So what's the suggestion here? Perhaps this belongs in the Talk page instead? --Simon 17:51, 27 May 2006 (BST)

Is the suggestion that spirits can move for 0.5AP instead of 1AP regardless of terrain? --Simon 12:29, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Fast-moving spirits don't make sense to me. Zipping across Shartak by dying doesn't seem right (unless you're contacting the home shaman). I prefer the idea of a spirit that is somewhat "bound" to their site of death. A high fixed movement cost per square (1AP or 2AP) creates this binding effect. --Tycho44 05:19, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
The main problem with this suggestion is that it lets spirits travel faster than everyone but explorers (since heavy jungle sometimes gets in a trekker's way), meaning that if you're dead and have somewhere to be, it's better to float across the island than walk across it. This means fewer visible people in the jungle and fewer player interactions overall. — Elembis (talk) 05:01, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Player Titles

To supplement the explored/killed statistics, give players rank titles based on percentiles. For example, if Jack is in the bottom 10% of explorers and the 30th percentile of hunters, his profile would show him as "Greenhorn Jack the Good Shot", if Sheila is in the top 10% killers and middle 50 explorer, she would be "The Adventurous Sheila, Grandmaster Hunter", and Murk would simply be "Demigod Murk". The titles would be determined once a day like the stats, only apply to active players, and only take active players into consideration when determining percentile. This will help statistics be more relevant to all players, as once time goes on and new players start, the top 100 may be quite a distant goal. --Frisco 04:15, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

I like it. It adds flavor to the game. I also agree that this system should be based on dynamic percentiles to allow for new players to compete with some of the more established ranking players. A static listing would be incredibly difficult for newcomers to break into. --Lint 22:12, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
  • This could be done in a similar manner to the rogue elephants and ferocious tigers that we have now. Several questions need to be answered first.
  • A title for every player or just those in the weekly top A% of whatever chart?
  • Just to be displayed in the profile or in the location description as well e.g. Here you can see Fatninja, the hunter, and Leaky Bocks.
  • What kind of statistics would need to be kept for this to work?
  • areas explored for the explorer titles - not a problem, we have the top 20 explorers this week already, it can be expanded to include however many players are required to make it work since it's just a case of manipulating the raw data differently.
  • animal kills for the hunter titles? specific types of animals killed e.g "Bob the parrot killer", "Fred the big game hunter", "Bert the murderer" (pkills) rather than just all animals killed?
  • something for some other kind of title, trading perhaps? "Tycho the master salesperson" for example ;)
  • Of the above, the explorer titles are the easiest to do. Kills will need some adjusting because there are no database timestamps on kills at the moment, just raw quantities as seen on the kill statistics page..
--Simon 12:43, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
A title for every character, with the top A% appearing in the location description and profile pages, and everyone else only appearing in the profile page - this lets everyone know where they stand and keeps the location page less cluttered. For statistics, some records for healers and wailers should be kept in addition to trading, like HP healed (modified by recipient's travelling/trading/killing stats), number of times screamed/shrieked/wailed (balanced for severity of attack), number of trades (modified by number of towns trades were done in and rarity of item). Kills in particular to the animal that has been killed would be more distinctive and flavourful - should it also be in particular to the town (or clan??) for pkills, making "the Butcher of York" an official title?
Weekly tabulating of titles will make them very transient. Perhaps once a title is acquired it is kept so long as you're halfway to that title each successive week (not affecting others gaining the same title if they're in the appropriate rankings)? --Frisco 15:42, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
I thought a little bit about this after I made that early comment. It becomes fairly hard for a newbie to compete with the existing stat leaders regardless if the awards were static or scaling. I think the best way to handle this is a two-tiered approach, one that rewards players for accomplishing static minor goals and one that rewards players for being the highest rank. The latter is already accomplished through the statistics, but the former has not been addressed.
Most of what follows is inspired by a draft suggestion on the Urban Dead wiki and my experience with Nexus War.
I see these award descriptions appearing only on the profile pages to cut down on clutter. Each degree of award is assigned at some arbitrary number. Perhaps 10, 100, 500 (with more titles developed as the game progresses). When a player achieves a target number, an award flag is raised. Every 24 hour period, the server will compute the rankings and append a prefix or suffix to the player's existing award.
  • Area explored - Wanderer, Traveller, Adventurer
Bonus prefixes for top-ranking explorers: Top 1% - Worldly, Top 5% - Experienced, Top 20% - (e.g., Worldly Adventurer)
  • Hasn't killed anyone - Pacifist
  • Killed animals - Herder, Hunter, Slayer
Bonus prefixes to state which type of animal the player has killed the most (e.g., Wild Boar Herder, Elephant Hunter, Special Slayer)
  • Killed opposing side - Killer, Fighter, Conqueror
  • Killed same side - Turncoat, Backstabber, Traitor
Bonus prefixes for top-ranking killers: Top 1% - Bloodthirsty, Top 5% - Fierce, Top 20% - Brutal (e.g., Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Bloodthirsty Traitor, Bloodthirsty Wild Boar Slayer).

Inventory Limit

I think I would like to have an indication of how much of my inventory limit is being used up. :D --Lint 22:12, 11 March 2006 (GMT)

  • The inventory is somewhat flexible in size (+/- 2) so wouldn't be completely foolproof if represented as "(x/y)" appended to the inventory header, I could do something like a small bit of text just below the header like "You can carry lots more" "You can carry more things" "You can't carry much more" "You might be able to carry a couple more things" "You can't carry anything else". The question is though, is it just you that wants this feature? If so, you might be able to do something clever with greasemonkey. --Simon 11:02, 14 April 2006 (BST)
  • Ah. In that case, a greasemonkey script would be fine. I imagine it would require a little list of all the inventory item names and then a size value assigned to each. Then parse through the list and do simple addition and display the result. I might try my hand at it, but I don't promise anything. --Lint 20:13, 14 April 2006 (BST)
    • "is it just you that wants this feature?" Hmm, I assumed everyone would want this feature. Perhaps "your inventory is getting full" and "your inventory is full" would be sufficient warning, but inventory size info seems valuable. Also, the Trader won't give me a rifle for my bananas (you can't carry more) even though I'm giving away much more than I'm getting -- the trading mechanism appears to check for overload based on carrying both the given and received items. Perhaps a feature... but he's the guy who owns an entire hut, you'd think he'd be willing to carry both during the transaction rather than requiring me to shoulder the burden. --Tycho44 09:10, 29 April 2006 (BST)
      • <Bump.> Also, why not "(x/y)" appended to the inventory header? If the game code can figure out whether or not the inventory is full, it seems that the player could be able to figure out the same info. Even a simple load indication "(x)" would work fine, if the worry is that total inventory capacity 70-74 depends on quirky variable info rather than being static based on class. --Tycho44 22:36, 15 May 2006 (BST) Besides which, seems like most everyone has an inventory limit of 71 now. (2 for blowpipes or rifles, 0 for gold coins.) --Tycho44 22:31, 20 May 2006 (BST)
  • See the last list item at The_Shartak_Wiki:Community_Portal#Greasemonkey_scripts. — Elembis (talk) 07:51, 28 May 2006 (BST)
  • Still needed/wanted or is the greasemonkey script sufficient? Would this change if, for example, backpacks or some other means of carrying extra items was implemented? Inventory size: 23/90 --Simon 12:46, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
    • It would be nice to have an official inventory counter mechanic as I believe the script is based on a handful of assumptions (inventory size for all classes is 71, gold coins are weightless, ranged weapons have weight of 2 units) and will require testing and updating whenever a new item is added. --Lint 19:01, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Ok, this has been added...
<span class="invsize">36 / 70</span>

but the invsize style is set to display:none by default - override it to get it to display alongside the inventory header. --Simon 21:34, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

In-game Rankings

I was noticing recently that one of my characters seemed to have killed a lot of parrots lately. I realizing that such information is tracked on the game stats page, but not necessarily everyone looks at it, and I thought it might be fun to have something in-game to acknowledge the player who has killed the most creatures of each type. Maybe a line is added to the player's description page, or the color of their name is different, or a mysterious "crown of the fallen parrots" appears in their inventory--no real impact, just bragging rights. It should be easy enough to implement, and might add a little intrigue.--Jackel 01:03, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

Comments

  • See the player titles suggestion further up! --Simon 12:46, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Wiki: table CSS

It would be nice if there were a class set up in the wiki's CSS file so that we could make attractive tables (see my ugly, hackish one on Tips and tricks). I tried to edit WikiMedia:Common.css but it's edit-locked. --VTBassMatt 16:14, 23 March 2006 (GMT)

  • I don't know that WikiMedia:Common.css is the right thing to edit - That link takes me off to an external site! --Simon 18:09, 23 March 2006 (GMT)
    • What the heck! Ha, sorry. Now I can't find the page on either this wiki or the WikiMedia page. Weird. Well anyhow, it would be nice to have a useful table class. Thanks, Simon.
      • What kind of table class? Do you mean something to give a particular title bar, and row colours? Similar to the one on the front page. Got an example of what you'd put in the css file? --Simon 11:58, 3 April 2006 (BST)
        • Colors aren't too important, I was more concerned with borders. Something simple like:
table.bordered, table.bordered td {
  border: 1px solid black;


Pets

Discussion of Pets has been moved to the existing Pet System suggestion.

ruins

the ruins in the game are mostly for show, and that can be aggravating at times, as i would love to "explore" ruins more if there was something there. i am suggesting several things such as:

  • unique, ruin only monsters
  • special items found only in ruins
  • if quests are implemented, a quest location

this is a very vague suggestion, but i feel that alot of the ruins on the map are just too bland. i camped out at ruins with my character "Richard Rose" and i stayed there for a week (in real time) because there was nothing better to do. and nothing and i mean NOTHING passed by, no game, no fruit trees, no players. it was completely desolate, and i am just suggesting several "interesting" components for ruins.

Comments:

  • I have to agree that last I checked, the Ruins seemed like a total bust. Fifty searches yielded worse than the typical Jungle average. No events triggered, no creatures, no spirits, no variable flavor descriptions.
  • "As the wind blows through the ruined arch, you hear the spirit voices of the ancestors" (gain 1 XP).
  • "You find a bundle of parrot feathers tied to a leather strap. The spirit magic of this amulet has long since faded away." (junk item that could be implemented with magic/spirits later).
  • "Ghosts of the ancient dead chill your soul" (lose 2 HP, gain 2 XP).
  • "Sliding the heavy iron lid to one side, you discover The Conch(tm)!"
...And so on. --Tycho44 22:56, 15 May 2006 (BST)

Wind

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Frisco 16:54, 14 April 2006 (BST) Game Element Addition Everyone

Add the concept of wind to the game. Could be either constant (always from the west) or random over time, possibly even dependant on the side of the island you're on. For now, including a changing wind speed (10mph to 30mph) may be overly complex. Wind can affect spirit movement, pigeon delivery times, fire movement, etc.

Comments

  • Working this out technically might be a bit much, but I would like to see similar environmental variables on the island. It would increase the variety in the game and provide a creative amount of unpredictability while not being outlandish. Perhaps there can be a similar effect for the water current and tide as well. I can't wait until there are hurricane-strength winds that whip around everyone unless they're safe inside the mountain tunnels. Mwahaha. --Lint 20:08, 14 April 2006 (BST)
  • A tornado/hurricane would be possible, scattering players and npcs that it runs over into adjacent squares. It would have to move every 30-60 minutes and theoretically could move players halfway across the island if it happened to throw them into the same square that it then moved into next. --Simon 16:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

UDTool type Firefox plugin

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Rip Purr 08:18, 27 May 2006 (BST) Plugin All players with Firefox

I don't have any coding skills, but I'm sure many of you out there do. Currently there is no way to add people to a contact list, thus making it difficult to recoginse people. Could someone please develop a UDTool style plugin (like that seen in Urban Dead) that allows you to add player's names and assign them to groups with user defined colours? Basically just port the UDTool over to Shartak users, so when you're in a hut or square with others, you can see people you've encoutnered with a llittle bit of text to pop up at your cursor telling you why they're important to you (like the 'notes' feature in the UDTool).

Comments

  • This has partially been implemented in-game, we now have contact lists that identify people from the opposing side as well. That's not to say that an UDTool type plugin isn't required though. Perhaps this isn't the best place to put this suggestion though, but somewhere for the real greasemonkey wizards to see it? --Simon 20:50, 12 June 2006 (BST)

Hide Skills

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Kripcat 08:18, 31 May 2006 (BST) Technical Everyone

I think it would be useful to be able to have a "Hide Skills" button which hides what skills you possess from those viewing your profile, I know many people wouldn't care but it would be useful for players whose skills don't fit with the way they roleplay. Besides who can tell how good a shot someone is simply by looking at them?

Comments

  • Comment removed --Lint 20:06, 6 June 2006 (BST)
    • Well, hiding (as a skill) seems different from "hiding your list of skills"... although perhaps that would be a way to boost characters with Sixth Sense, who know how good a shot you are simply by looking at you. I like the effects of having fully revealed skills. Realistically, your home town should hardly be public knowledge, nor the date of your last demise, nor your killer, and so on. Perhaps a "Disguise" skill would give you access to a button that shields your character info (such as level) while you sleep (at a small AP cost). --Tycho44 21:51, 1 June 2006 (BST)
      • It makes sense. No more can I look at the victim's skills t osee how well they'll be able to track me if Ifail to kill them. ;) --Wifey 23:50, 1 June 2006 (BST)
      • That is another bonus to be sure, might add a little tang to your game. Kripcat 07:28, 6 June 2006 (BST)
      • The problem with doing anything "while you sleep" is that it's hard to know whether you're actually not playing, or just taking a very long time between clicks. Idleness is triggered after 7 days of not doing anything, although I'm not sure if simply loading the main game page is considered to be doing something, I'd have to check. I suppose "asleep" is either something you activate on your last go and the next time you reload the page, you're awake again, or else when you haven't done anything for an arbitrary length of time (say 3 hours). --Simon 12:18, 9 June 2006 (BST)
        • There's no issue with player-activated sleep conditions. Clicking a button ("Disguise Self 4AP" or however many AP you want it to cost) activates the Disguise. Player skills are then concealed. They remain Disguised forever until they click anything, at which point they leave the state. The state never activates automatically (in 3 hours or 7 days), because you have to pay to activate it. There are no mechanical complexities. --Tycho44 23:03, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Jungle Regrowth

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Kripcat 08:18, 6 June 2006 (BST) Alteration The regrowth of the Jungle Terrain type

As I understand the growth of the Jungle terrain is currently random. At any time a square of jungle can grow anywhere on the map, except for Water and Beach terrain, and when it happens to grow on a square which already contains Jungle it increases the density of that jungle by one. Now to me, this appears to conflict with one of the driving emotions of Shartak, the battle between civilisation and 'the wilds'. At the moment a player can spend a week's AP expanding the settlement's borders only to find that jungle has randomly cropped up in the middle of the settlement. This is highly demoralising and also leads to strange patches of jungle in the middle of no where. I prepose that new Jungle Terrain is formed in the following manner:

  • Whenever a square of Jungle with a density above D2 or above is touching a square of D0 terrain it has a 1% chance every hour of "seeding" each D0 square with Jungle. By seeding I mean, the D0 square would become Jungle terrain with a density half that of the square that seeded it.
  • Each square of Jungle (with the exception of D10) has a 7.5% chance of "growing" into the density level 1 above its current.

This would mean that roads would be harder to maintain, as they would have to be recut every 4 days or so, but settlements would be easier to maintain and expand as a dedicated weeder or two could slowly push back the borders of the settlement. I know nothing of coding so it may be a coding nightmare and the numbers may need to be tweaked, but I feel that this makes the Jungle more the second enemy that it is in all those Jungle Warfare fiction novels rather than an annoying and unrealistic random occurrence.

Edit: On second thought it may just be easier to create a "coding requirment" that new Jungle Terrain appear within 3 squares of an already positioned Jungle Square. Kripcat 08:24, 6 June 2006 (BST)

Comments
If I understand your comment correctly, you're bothered by the light green d1 Jungles that pop up inside settlements. It is possible that the game already uses a non-random algorithm to grow jungle; in any case, jungle does not appear to grow instantly two or more levels, so the cleanup is ongoing but minor. The crux of your suggestion could be achieved by modifying the current grow system so that d1 did not grow in a fully d0 zone. For example, the game checks a d0-d1 to make sure that there is adjacent d1+ jungle; if not, the game heads out in a random direction (or towards the center of shartak) to the last available d0 square before jungle, and grows that location d0-d1 instead. This would result in the same overall growth speed, but d0-d1 changes would occur on the boundaries rather than the interior of a paved area. --Tycho44 06:55, 8 June 2006 (BST)

  • Yes that probably work better with less coding work, but do you have an opinion on such a change? Kripcat 08:36, 8 June 2006 (BST)
  • There is a simple algorithm for determining growth of jungle, but it's not as clever as this, it's all to do with growth rate of the square and how often people chop it back. There is also a limit of about 10% of the island that can grow in any given day but it's not hitting the limit at the moment. Having to look at the surrounding squares would also involve having to write the growth as a script rather than a couple of lines of SQL so I'm not overly keen on this even though it would make a bit of sense. --Simon 18:32, 8 June 2006 (BST)
  • If it requires a large amount of coding work I wouldn't worry about it, theres a lot of more imporant suggestions than this one about, I just thought it may have been something you overlooked when creating the regrowth system and could perhaps be easily fixed. Kripcat 09:49, 9 June 2006 (BST)

Animal Meat

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Riddick 04:52, 8 June 2006 (BST) Alteration get meat from dead animals

well it's simple you kill and animal and you can get it's meat from the corpse!or.... and also eventually the animal on the floor will run out of meat and as it says"there is a corpse of a large stag" that will not be there when it runs out of meat....[meat restores 2 HP].

Comments

Breakable weapons

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Black Joe 10:25, 19 July 2006 Weapon alteration All weapons

I'd like to propose that all weapons break occassionally. At the moment, cutlasses and machetes do, but I don't think any other weapons do. This means that there is a surplus of rifles and blowpipes on the island, as they continue to be produced, but are never destroyed. It makes perfect sense for a rifle or blowpipe to break (poor handling or poor workmanship?). Additionally, once someone acquires a heavy sword, it is theirs permanently (to my knowledge). If it was breakable, it would be both more realistic and less unbalancing. That being said, the very name "heavy sword" implies that it is strongly built, so perhaps it should have a significantly lower chance of breaking than a machete or cutlass.

Comments

  • Also take a look at Suggestions:Items, where there is a Remove Uber Sword of Doom (aka Heavy Sword) discussion. If I recall correctly, both Simon and Jones Dye have implied that heavy swords do break. I'm not sure why the name "heavy sword" suggests anything other than the sword weighing a lot. Whether it breaks a little or a lot, the heavy sword is still by far the best item in the game, and would still be superior even if it did 1 less damage and broke with normal frequency. Rifles and blowpipes are common - it would be fine for them to have a slight breakage chance. --Tycho44 16:14, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
    • To me, heavy implies it's either thick or otherwise stronger. However, that's just my personal take on it, and it's not really a major point. My main suggestion is that any weapon should have a chance of breaking. Otherwise, there will be a surplus. Incidentally, I saw the "Uber Sword of Doom" entry, but given that this covers all weapons, I thought it best to create a separate topic. Thank you for your input, by the way. - Black Joe
  • I agree weapons should break occasionally, but I especially would like to see machetes and knives dull with use more often (I dont know if I have ever personally had this happen [though I've heard it does happen], and I've been playing for nearly 7 months), thereby changing your machete into a blunt machete (there arent blunt knives/blunt cutlasses in the game, as far as i know. maybe there should be). Rifles should occasionally explode, too, destroying the weapon and giving you 10 damage or something. Those old-fashioned rifles would occassionally do that. Arminius 00:47, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Secret Shop

Author Timestamp Type Scope
A for anarchy 09:31, 22 July 2006 (UTC) new addition

I like to see the introduction of secret shops (traders) to Shartak which allow players to purchase hard to find items (heavy sword or charms) and/or special/unique (non-searchable) items at hyper-inflated prices say between (100 to 1000 gold coins). Accesses to such shops are either treacherous (crossing an area full of giant squids in deep water) or complex (requiring the completion of puzzles/quests) or time specific (opening for one day a year) or possibly a combination of all three. This would thus open up gameplay potential for high level players who have maxed out or allow players to get certain items without having to leave it up to chance. Potentially I see such shops being placed in ruins, islands or caves to promote exploration.

Comments
The shop should move every now and then, so that it may be re-discovered by different people. --Lantz 04:17, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Merchants

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Black Joe 16:01, 18 August 2006 (UTC) New Addition All settlements

At the moment, gold coins are fairly easy to get, but they aren't in much demand. You can use them to trade, but they aren't removed from circulation. Since new gold coins are constantly added, this means the value will steadily decline as scarcity decreases.

I suggest splitting the trading and merchant functions. The trader will continue to trade, but he will cease making his high speed runs to the ammo hut to replenish his stock. He will work solely with what people trade with him. However, there would also be a merchant. He would accept only gold coins as payment, but would have unlimited stocks. To reduce the chance for abuse, he would charge grossly inflated prices. For example, a med kit runs about 2 gold coins under ordinary circumstances. The merchant would charge 8 to 10. He would act as a guaranteed source of supply, but you would pay dearly for the convenience. Spending 200 gold coins would only get 20-25 med kits at this price. Thus, newcomers without much money would not be particularly disadvantaged, since they could just search for what they need, but established players would be able to stock up on items they actually need. Additionally, the merchant would only sell items that can be found in that settlement. GPS could not be bought at the shipwreck, and rum could not be purchased in native villages. Other possible alterations are linking the price to demand or adjusting price to match the item's find rate (e.g. FAK's are harder to find at the shipwreck, so the price will be higher).

The primary purpose of this policy is to serve as a "gold sink". Gold coins spent at the merchant are removed from circulation, reducing the inflation inherent in Shartak's current economic model. That being said, this is a very rough guess, and I'm sure there are flaws I've missed. Please offer any input you may have.

Comments
Very good suggestion. Also, some major new expensive items that would only be able to be bought from the all-purpose merchant (not found by searching). I was thinking some time ago about being able to buy a cannon for 500 gold coins, which would serve as a means to actually hold a position and provide heavy defensive ability, it would fire on any enemy that comes within a square of it, and if it hits would inflict 50 damage. The specifics could be worked out. Another idea for merchants in each outsider town is to offer tickets aboard ships to the other towns, e.g. a Durham to York ticket would cost 100 gold or something, and the trip would take 50 AP, a significant reduction in AP to get from town to town, but at a steep cost. This would give people major benefits for getting lots of gold, besides the ability to trade for everyday itmes like FAKs. I'm sure people could think of even more things like this. This could really add a lot to the game. Arminius 00:37, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I like the idea of the merchant very much and think it should be used--Michael edwards 03:58, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I've thought about it, and I think I should add to the merchant idea. Merchants will also purchase items, but at a substantially lower rate than a trader, and only pay gold coins. For instance, a merchant would give one gold coin for five machetes, whereas the trader makes it an even trade. A gem would only bring two gold coins instead of ten. This will remove excess items from circulation (particularly those like GPS units, gems, and sharpening stones that are never broken or used up). --Black Joe 01:22, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

This looks like a brilliant idea, i like that the more established players wont have to search for days for a few FAKs when they have 200gc that they dont have plans for. About the cannon; i think that could link in with what somebody said about capturing towns, also (i know i'm still on about it) the trader could be made the only place to buy flintlocks, if people are still worried about balance issues. Rozen

Statistics: New Statistics

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Johan Crichton 03:33, 26 December 2006 (UTC) improvement players

The current statistics pages display Shartak's top explorers, top gold collectors and top killers - however there are other roles to play in the game. This suggestion is to simply record and display a number of statistics that are currently not viewable on the statistics page such as 'wounds healed', 'spirits banished', 'items traded' and so on.

Wounds healed wound be the number of times that a character uses a first aid kit or healing herb on another character (personal healing should not be counted if that's possible?). It would allow a 'top healers' page.

Spirits banished would be a simple count of spirits banished, and would allow a 'top exorcists' page.

Items traded would reflect active trading between settlements - so items traded with the home trader would not count. It would allow a 'top traders' list, which could be perhaps displayed on the same page as the 'wealthy characters' and allow readers to compare the two lists.

Comments
Based on a discussion on the forum - Suggestion: New Statistics? - Wounds Healed should be based on HP healed, Items traded should be based on trades with a trader where the trader is happy to see the character.--Johan Crichton 01:20, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Boost Ad Revenue With Random Reinforcement Schedule

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Nosimplehiway {{{suggest_time}}} improvement players

Simon has ads on the wiki and in the game, right? Well, presumably the number of times these links are followed increases his ad revenue. I think when you click on an ad it should open the ad in a seperate window, as usual. But, there should also be a 10% chance of opening an additional window. This window would have a randomly generated code. When the code is spoken by a character in game, the character gains 10 additional AP. Obviously, this would be one time only per page hit. Increases ad revenue and gives savvy players additional AP. Everybody wins! suggest_time=20:15, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Comments
Comment here, please. ehh... 10% is rather high. Couldn't I just go around refreshing the page with the 10% chance of getting 10 AP? 10 AP is nice, but also high. Perhaps like 10-25 gold? Or possibly like 50 -Che 03:35, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

The 'opens in new window' bit is done entirely by whichever advert provider I happen to be using at the time. As such, it's not easy/possible to add extra code to do the above suggestion. Incidentally, ProjectWonderful ads (generally the animated graphic ones) are pay-per-day rather than per click or per impression. As such it doesn't make any difference to ad revenue how often you click them. --Simon 20:43, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Bridges

Author Timestamp Type Scope
FirstAmongstDaves Improvement Players, Landscape

Some sections of the river should have rapids or run fast: " You slip in the fast current and are dragged underwater. You hit your head on a rock and die." To deal with this, create bridges, with NPC "trolls" or tollmasters. "Tollmaster Troy, holding a large axe, snarls at you, "Pay me one gold coin if you want to cross this bridge!", and shakes his axe at you." Players then have the opportunity of either paying him or attacking him. A bridge allows more opportunity of player interaction, plus keep gold coins in circulation.

Comments
Could be tricky to implement although it's a nice idea. The random 'slip in water and hurt self' part could be done for particular stretches of water, although there are only 2 real rivers on the map at present. --Simon 20:45, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

More rivers would make exploration more easy through more ready access to fresh water supplies --Johan Crichton 22:13, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I had guessed a troll would be a dumbed down (ie. less complicated) version of the trader. He doesn't exchange anything, he just takes gold and lets you pass. If you try to pass without paying him, he hits you with his axe, for a big HP toll, or possibly fatally. The troll might have a 100 HP life like a trader, so it'd be possible to kill him if you were up for it. I'd guess he would be multilingual, so both outsiders and natives you easily understand him (therefore not putting either class of players at a disadvantage if they didn't know foreign tongues). As for the existence of rivers generally, fresh water supplies are indeed handy, but (as someone who has never encountered alligators) there should be some peril involved in navigating a river. - FirstAmongstDaves
Yeah, Dave, some peril would be good, whether in the form of rapids, more active alligators, piranha, a disease like typhoid or whatever. Rivers historically have been useful for transportation, power and water, but also occasionally dangerous. I don't think a troll per see really fits the feel of this game, though. I, myself, have XP farmed the boundary between a river and the sea. Well, I guess technically I was in a estuary. In any case, I farmed it for weeks right next to a swamp and I think I encountered one gator.--Nosimplehiway 16:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Well not a "troll" per se, since that sounds mythical and not in the ethos of the game, but more a tollman with a bad temper. Given the colonists are ostensibly English, and Shartak is in the Spanish Main, he could be Spanish, I guess. "Fernando the Tollman" and "Pedro the Tollman"? With a silly accent? "Pay me uno gold coin if you want to cross zis bridge, amigo!" - FirstAmongstDaves

Profile Modification: Display last kill information

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Johan Crichton 00:55, 5 February 2007 (UTC) improvement All character profiles

In a character profile, the game displays information about what the character has killed in the game - e.g.
NPC kills: 293 (Animals: 293; Shamen: 0; Traders: 0)
Natives killed: 6 (Raktam: 1; Dalpok: 1; Wiksik: 4)
Outsiders killed: 3 (Derby: 0; Durham: 1; York: 1; Shipwreck: 1)

The 'Died' line in a character profile displays information about when the character last died (if they've died) and where their death was at the hand of another character, lists which character that was - e.g.
Died: 11 times (last time was 200Y-MM-DD HH:MM at the hands of DarthVisor).

This suggestion is that the 'Kills' entries in the character profile be modified to include information about the last kill - e.g.
NPC kills: 293 (Animals: 293; Shamen: 0; Traders: 0; last kill: Giant Squid)
Natives killed: 6 (Raktam: 1; Dalpok: 1; Wiksik: 4; last kill: Suggestiondox)
Outsiders killed: 3 (Derby: 0; Durham: 1; York: 1; Shipwreck: 1; last kill: Nyarlathotep)

if that's possible to be implemented.

Comments
Comment here

Digging inside huts

Author Timestamp Type Scope
VTBassMatt 13:15, 26 April 2007 (UTC) UI improvement Digging skill

I have a "dig a hole" button inside huts, but whenever I click it, it tells me that no matter how badly I want to, I can't dig there. If we really can't dig inside huts, perhaps the button should be removed while in huts.

Comments
Comment here

Policy Discussion

Author Timestamp Type Scope
Nosimplehiway 13:08, 3 March 2007 (UTC) Discussion of policy Suggestions page

http://wiki.shartak.com/index.php/The_Shartak_Wiki_talk:Policies_and_guidelines

Comments
This is a policy suggestion which will impact the suggestion pages. Your input is needed. Please comment on the proposed policy there, not here. Thanks!

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