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BatMUD Forums > Ideas-wanted > Re: Houses
Suggestion: Increase Privileged House Member Limit
I'd like to suggest increasing the number of privileged house member slots
from the current limit to 10 or even 20 members.
The original house system was introduced when the player population was
significantly larger, and the current restrictions made more sense in that
environment. Today, however, the active player base is smaller, which creates
an unintended issue for many established players. The House System was
designed as a small community structure that provides benefits and encourages
cooperation.
Many players who take a break from the game eventually return, but because
privileged slots are limited, returning members often lose access to house
benefits. At the same time, creating a new house is not a realistic solution
for many groups. Players who have already used their three rebirths are
effectively locked into their current characters and communities, making it
difficult to reorganize around the existing house limitations.
Increasing the privileged member cap would:
Allow houses to retain long-term members who take occasional breaks.
Reduce the need to choose between active veterans and returning players.
Better reflect the current size of the player base.
Strengthen existing player communities instead of forcing fragmentation across
multiple houses.
I don't believe this change would significantly affect balance, but it would
make the house system much more welcoming for returning players and help
preserve long-standing social groups.
Something in the range of 10 to 20 privileged members per house feels like a
reasonable adjustment for today's game environment.
I'd like to suggest increasing the number of privileged house member slots
from the current limit to 10 or even 20 members.
The original house system was introduced when the player population was
significantly larger, and the current restrictions made more sense in that
environment. Today, however, the active player base is smaller, which creates
an unintended issue for many established players. The House System was
designed as a small community structure that provides benefits and encourages
cooperation.
Many players who take a break from the game eventually return, but because
privileged slots are limited, returning members often lose access to house
benefits. At the same time, creating a new house is not a realistic solution
for many groups. Players who have already used their three rebirths are
effectively locked into their current characters and communities, making it
difficult to reorganize around the existing house limitations.
Increasing the privileged member cap would:
Allow houses to retain long-term members who take occasional breaks.
Reduce the need to choose between active veterans and returning players.
Better reflect the current size of the player base.
Strengthen existing player communities instead of forcing fragmentation across
multiple houses.
I don't believe this change would significantly affect balance, but it would
make the house system much more welcoming for returning players and help
preserve long-standing social groups.
Something in the range of 10 to 20 privileged members per house feels like a
reasonable adjustment for today's game environment.
Rating:
27
Votes:
27
Valkrist wrote:
Suggestion: Increase Privileged House Member Limit
I'd like to suggest increasing the number of privileged house member slots
from the current limit to 10 or even 20 members.
The original house system was introduced when the player population was
significantly larger, and the current restrictions made more sense in that
environment. Today, however, the active player base is smaller, which creates
an unintended issue for many established players. The House System was
designed as a small community structure that provides benefits and encourages
cooperation.
Many players who take a break from the game eventually return, but because
privileged slots are limited, returning members often lose access to house
benefits. At the same time, creating a new house is not a realistic solution
for many groups. Players who have already used their three rebirths are
effectively locked into their current characters and communities, making it
difficult to reorganize around the existing house limitations.
Increasing the privileged member cap would:
Allow houses to retain long-term members who take occasional breaks.
Reduce the need to choose between active veterans and returning players.
Better reflect the current size of the player base.
Strengthen existing player communities instead of forcing fragmentation across
multiple houses.
I don't believe this change would significantly affect balance, but it would
make the house system much more welcoming for returning players and help
preserve long-standing social groups.
Something in the range of 10 to 20 privileged members per house feels like a
reasonable adjustment for today's game environment.
I'd like to suggest increasing the number of privileged house member slots
from the current limit to 10 or even 20 members.
The original house system was introduced when the player population was
significantly larger, and the current restrictions made more sense in that
environment. Today, however, the active player base is smaller, which creates
an unintended issue for many established players. The House System was
designed as a small community structure that provides benefits and encourages
cooperation.
Many players who take a break from the game eventually return, but because
privileged slots are limited, returning members often lose access to house
benefits. At the same time, creating a new house is not a realistic solution
for many groups. Players who have already used their three rebirths are
effectively locked into their current characters and communities, making it
difficult to reorganize around the existing house limitations.
Increasing the privileged member cap would:
Allow houses to retain long-term members who take occasional breaks.
Reduce the need to choose between active veterans and returning players.
Better reflect the current size of the player base.
Strengthen existing player communities instead of forcing fragmentation across
multiple houses.
I don't believe this change would significantly affect balance, but it would
make the house system much more welcoming for returning players and help
preserve long-standing social groups.
Something in the range of 10 to 20 privileged members per house feels like a
reasonable adjustment for today's game environment.
question is going to be incomplete. For more complete answer, probably keep
news groups open and settle for the future.
The house system in the past was built to provide a mechanism that would allow
for more recent players and more established players to cooperate, or coexist
so that this would have a positive influence towards our player retention. A
key part of MUDS is social experience, and the house system was seen as a
system that could possibly early on be presented to new players. When you gain
friends in a new environment, you are more likely to stay here. Additionally
joining a house exposes you to a society, which may make the first steps
easier in the game.
Briefly speaking, this was more or less the vision in the past, and should
probably also be for the future. As Valkrist notes in his original post, this
probably worked fine after the house system's inception, but when more time
has passed, it has become obvious that there are some problems concerning the
system currently.
While privileged houes member slots are a topic that can be discussed in the
future, it is unlikely to fix all problems associated with houses. Currently
there are even houses, 5 of them noble and these houses mostly host most of
the people. Then there are those people who are not member of any houses and
do not choose to host a house of their own. The currently implementation also
heavily favours new players who manage to join a good house early on. After
graduation, they become passive members who enjoy maximum benefits with no
additional effort required. This is currently one of the problems. The
privileged slots are also seen as the "main members" and will be treated as
such in the future. Those who have become full members through graduation
will be treated as less privileged. The idea was originally that founding or
being a privileged member of a house eventually represents the end goal for
players and being a graduated member would mean that eventually you leave to
build your own destiny. Obviously, the current system doesn't promote this.
I am also aware that some established players managed to join some established
houses through rebirth and now hold a graduation status. This loophole was
my omission, but not really the desired effect.
Originally, the houses were designed to be small communities, which would make
them more intimate environments. However, due to how the system is built, the
houses have grown very large in size. Despite this, some very functioning
communities have formed and it would be a pity to break these big houses into
smaller units, so for this reason alternative choices need to be evaluated.
However, it is my personal opinion (you can disagree) that it would be better
if there were more small houses than just a couple of large houses. I am aware
that houses have taxes, only the best house levels provide more useful
bonuses, and with this current model it may not be viable for many players to
begin their house - especially if they are already part of a good one. But, it
should be said, that a system such as this should in the future encourage
activity and taking matter's to own hand, to build one's own lineage and
destiny. The house system was never intended to just be a moneysink, and
different ideas can be weighed to make the system more viable to everyone -
perhaps even by lowering taxes eventually.
However, as I stated in the beginning, this answer is going to be incomplete.
The house system is quite a vast system. While adding new privileged slots
can be done easily, I would prefer to evaluate what needs to be done to
provide a completely new version which would better suit me, the current
house owners, their members and the new players. Creation of a suitable
comprehensive plan is a difficult and timeconsuming task and unfortunately
at this stage, I do not have such a complete plan that I could publish
or execute. Hopefully this changes in the future.
At this point I am not ready to add privileged slots, a because I want to
keep more avenues open for future development. If there is a new vision
in the future, it is possible that privileged slots will be added at some
stage as part of that vision. However, at this stage, you will have to
settle with this longer post, which in many ways is a non-answer to many
of the open questions on the table, but hopefully this provides some
insight towards the future, and what to expect some day.
--Darol
Rating:
4
Votes:
4
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