Hi. I'm new and not even sure if I'm going to stick around. However, being a long term gamer and mmo player. I really like alot of what this game has going for it. I like that the team is dedicated to keeping it running, even though it's small. I also like that it sort of does what no other mmo really does anymore.
That being said, I would love to make some suggestions. Though I'm not a dedicated player, I hope you devs would really take what I'm going to say into consideration, and I hope the community won't defend you too avidly. I'm only giving my opinion and nothing more.
Lets get started... Your game is amazing as it is already. You are a game which forces close community interaction; allows players to build openly in the world; makes the growing of a character a mechanic (modern gamers call this dated grinding fluff); and allows people to be dragons! In short you are a game that is a dying breed. You don't see it anymore, in a world of instanced dungeons and group finders. This alone will keep your niche for as long as you are willing to keep the game running; however, I do think some things could really be worked on in order to pull a few people in and help further enrich the experience of your loyal player base. Lets go over these...
1. Dungeons. I think the original devs choice of not putting these in the original design of the game was what ultimately shot out of the mainstream eye back in the day. Dungeons are a staple of all fantasy. We had dungeons when Homor wrote the Odyssey or when the King Arthur stories were first published. I could go on and on about dungeons in lit but I won't. Suffice it to say that dungeons are just important. Gamers want to feel that tension of venturing into the dark unknown. They want to get lost and they want to fight scary creatures. They want to feel like Frodo in Lord of the Rings. It's just something that is in us. Also dungeons make for good player based co-op opportunities. It is an excuse for players to group up to accomplish a certain goal.
What You all can do... I understand that you are a very small team, but I think with a focus of resources I think you can accomplish this, and I think you need to dedicate one or two updates to nothing but this at first. You already have the ability for dragons to did lairs. Use this mechanic and make a big maze like cave to start with. Put 3 mobs in it that would be considered boss like and somewhere in the cave have a big chamber with a boss surrounded by monsters. This big chamber boss would be your server wide boss that is going to take 30 or so people to take down.
Now you got that done. On the next update, you need to have some quest lines that will take players back into that horrid cave. A player on youtube told me about a type of one way dungeon system that your are trying to get into place and grow. Make portals into your cave that allow for players to enter one of these one way dungeons to finish their quests by finding items and fighting their way to the end. So now you have both a massive open world dungeon (like Everquest) and some smaller instance-like dungeons. You can put ore veins in here you can put rare crafting drops in here. This place is now a guild battle ground and a place for questers and crafters. Rinse and repeat this process until you get a few of these under your belt. It might take a few years for your team, but I'm telling you it will add a very strong element to an already unique game. Think about all these Asheron's Call people who don't have a home anymore and hate modern mmos. Your game is here and is the closest thing to their original game on the market. With some dungeons, it very close to it for the pve crowd.
2. Live events and social media. You have a major event going right now which is awsome. I would suggest you go somewhat back to your roots when you were called by another name. Once a month I would suggest the devs pick a day and an ingame place and just let the monsters invade. Make the players ban together to drive them out. If that sounds like alot for the team, use player volunteers to help be monsters and such. We do this in Ultima Online to some degree and it works wonderfully. We have small little live events every month which just gives us all a feeling of community and it lets us feel close to the developers. Take advantage of twitch. Record these monthly raids and post them on youtube and twitch. It lets the outside community know you are alive.
That's all I have. Just a few tweaks in an already neat system. Just remember this... You all are the last of a dying breed in the modern gaming crowd. If UO goes under, you can be there to pick up a few players. Asheron's call... there. What about Final Fantasy XI or Everquest. They have fans that would need an old-school home. Give them dungeons and bosses and they will strongly consider you guys as that home, should their games be shut down. With daybreak and their parent company's track record, that is a real threat every year.
Don't scream at me too much. I only say this because I do care. I'm just telling you what alot of people who look at this game would say. It has A, B, and Dragons, which is awsome!! But I really need my dungeons and boss mobs to feel like its a proper rpg.
Anyhow, thanks for listening. I wish you the best of luck in this game. I'll download it and give it a try sometime soon.
