The problem with the Sentinel

I used to enjoy going to the Clan Lord Sentinel to catch up on what has been happening and to read what ideas other folks have about fixing problems or introducing new features. Granted the chance of any of their suggestions actually making it into Clan Lord are between zero and none. However, I like discussing what could be even if it will never actually be just because I find game theory and mechanics interesting.

The problem is with Maeght and the people who respond to him, thinking that he's engaging in serious discussion. Destian has had some interesting ideas about the Healer class and while I'd love to post on his threads they've all basically degenerated into a conversation between Maeght and Destian. Destian says something reasonable, Maeght counters with examples that have never happened or could never happen and arguments that are absurd or are designed to change the topic of the conversation from what it originally was, Destian responds reasonably, Maeght counters with more insanity, and so on and so forth.

Actually Maeght does this with everyone and even though I've ignored him long ago not everyone does and he tends to take over a thread completely. I've fallen into the trap once or twice, especially when he says that I've said something different then what I meant to say and I think "I'll need to correct him because I don't want anyone not understanding me" only to find out that I was perfectly clear. Does Maeght do that on purpose or is he just stupid? Maybe it's a combination of both but it doesn't really matter because he derails threads regardless of the reason.

I used to think the Clan Lord GMs would gain a lot from reading our ideas, solutions, and problems at the Sentinel but now that far too many of the posters spend far too much responding to Maeght it has lost a lot of its usefulness and general enjoyment.

Preparing

I took another step closer to resetting and becoming a Ranger by transferring everything I wanted to keep to Jeanne and Moon Kitty so that the only things I have are my mystic tools and yellow outfit. I auctioned off my phantasm books which actually sold even though I didn't bother to get very many phantasms. Jeanne has a bunch of ethereal amulets and ethercles which can be used if we ever want or need to explore the Ethereal Plane again. Maybe one day we'll rescue Tenebrion and find out if he's really dead or alive. I gave Moki my wooden parrot which she is going to treasure since she's a pirate. I think she's been standing up a little straighter with it perched on her shoulder.

I know I should have reset ages ago, but was waiting for something to convince me that I shouldn't. After all, there aren't very many mystics that have full ethereal training and even though I haven't been to the ethereal plane in years and there's no real interest in it I was telling myself that maybe one day I'd be needed. Plus, I have good training in everything except boosting and I think it wouldn't take a lot of training in order to get good at that too. I didn't want to throw all of that away even though there's no real need for any of it. Plus, I kept on thinking maybe there would be more added for mystics but it'll probably be added for Full Mystics with Journeyman and Apprentice Mystics left behind.

Of course, I haven't really left the library much lately and that's required to be promoted. As with all mystics that's always the goal especially since you're not really considered a Mystic until you're a Full Mystic but after a recent trip I started thinking that maybe I didn't want to be a Full Mystic after all.

For one thing I'd have to play politics and probably would have to change my entire personality to be considered the right kind of Mystic to be promoted. I'm not one for politics and I don't care if I'm the right kind of Mystic as far as they're concerned. I think it was talking with Rincewind that really sealed the deal though.

I was talking to him about the parrots that are found in the latest area in the Estuary as well as Tart'targ who's also found there and who refuses to teach us because we're too young. He was telling me that the other Mystics refused to share any information because they were playing politics with what they know. I then asked myself if they were the people I wanted to call my colleagues. What's the point of being accepted into an "elite" group dedicated to knowledge if they won't share knowledge with each other? I can understand why they'd want to pick and choose with what they tell other classes but with each other I thought they'd be more honest if only to have a united front. I probably learn more about mystic secrets by just inviting Mystics to the hunts I'm on and asking them questions then I'd ever get by being a Mystic myself. That's so bizarre I can't quite understand it.

I'm not quite ready to hit the reset button but I'm very close to it. It's just a lot harder to do than I expected. Even if the only thing I got after years of effort is useless junk, it's still my useless junk if that makes any sense at all.

Back from a Break

Accomplished an easy goal, now to AnDeux Faure.

I came back after a brief time away since I wanted to go on vacation and was a little tired of the Rainforest and Estuary. They're lovely places but when you only go there they can get a little tedious and I just wanted a break from it all.

On the plus side my trip enabled me to get to the next stage of my radius healing development so now I'm on my long trek of learning with AnDeux Faure. The speed of my healing and spirit regeneration have been low for a long time and I have to focus on them. At one point I thought I could get all of the faustus training I needed through Sprite, but I need more than her teachings provide. It'll take a long time to go from the 300 faustus I have to the 400 faustus that's my goal since I'm not training with Faustus directly. I could and it would be a lot faster but then my Respia:Faustus ratio would be 2:1 and I'd probably would train with Respia after anyway. It will take a lot longer to get to my goal with AnDeux Faure but when I'm done I'll have 400 Faustus and 1,000 Respia which I think will make me a much better healer overall.

After I got back from the Estuary I decided to take the 6th-circle healer's test thinking that it was going to be another failure. After all I was told that most who passed were stronger than me, but I put on my Iron Breastplate and started the test. I had a feeling something was different when I only had a bear and a feral hitting me for the longest time instead of the three or four. I kept healing and healing and then she stood up. I passed!

How the heck did this happen?

I must not be dreaming.

There's not even a comfy couch to sit on.

Since I didn't expect to pass I don't have a visionstone or even pictures of the actual test, but I can tell you that I was healing her from the southeast and didn't move at all. The 400 higgrus combined with the full iron armor set and being in the right position were necessary for me to pass.

I tried the 7th-circle healer test and while I healed her more than halfway, much better than expected, I'll need more faustus and respia training in order to pass that test.

Problems with Healers aren't just about Healers

There have been some posts lately on the Clan Lord Sentinel about Healers needing more stuff to do, more ways of getting unstuck when surrounded, more reasons to bring lower-level healers on hunts, and basically more independence from needing fighters to do anything. There are many suggestions from healer pets to tagging weapons to a potion giving a shieldstone effect and many more besides.


The essential problem is that Clan Lord has little else to offer besides going on hunts for experience, coins, or rarely both. The only way to get baking, brewing, blacksmith, bard, alchemy, and berries is to go from snell to snell and hope you get lucky. Professions are only suitable for a library character since you need so many ranks that they're unsuitable for anything else. Both of which mean that gathering and crafting, which many other MMOs have as a way of doing something besides killing stuff, are nonexistent. Even if you do bother to learn how to bake or brew there's really not much point as most of the items you can buy with coins that are much easier to get, and besides food and beer are only for role-playing.

Well you say, wandering around finding items is something I can do without killing stuff. Except you probably can't because practically every beast is hostile and will attack you if they see you or even if you just enter the snell which makes leaving Puddleby not a safe thing to do. Of course, some beasts should be hostile such as Orgas since we are at war with them, but I'd really like to see more beasts be passive or hostile only if you get close just to let people be able to walk around in peace. At the present moment however, only fighters can really wander around at their leisure.

The concept for Clan Lord is that ranks would have the most impact on a character's development which means that there are few items that make a noticeable difference and therefore we have no stable economy and nothing really to spend our money on besides the library. Since everything is found by luck people basically save their money and if something is found such as a bard part or an orgaberry then they spend thousands just because it's such a pain to find them. Maybe when we get items then we could have some quests because at the moment there would be nothing to reward people with besides experience and money.

I've written elsewhere about the death of role-playing and GM-guided stories and the difficulty in creating Player-guided stories. There are many stories that players can't work on without official support and most of the role-playing that did take place didn't really involve more than a select few. Using clans as a means of role-playing or even getting people involved would be great but there's basically no point to being in a clan either.

What I'm saying is that there's nothing for people to do besides hunt and hunting revolves around fighters and when fighters get hurt they need healers and mystics get left behind. Healers need more to do but everyone needs more to do which is why the population is small and isn't likely to increase no matter how much advertising is done. There are free MMOs on Facebook with more features than Clan Lord and I don't think that's how things should be.

There should be a different profession system that doesn't use ranks, a different gathering system that doesn't rely on luck, more items/item customization which lessens the importance of ranks, more support for role-playing and clans, an easier time of being able to wander around without needing an escort, a revamp of the mystic and healer and Champion classes, and a change in the interface with less of a reliance on the sidebar to see if something happened. Unfortunately the odds of any of these things happening is about zero as the GMs that are active don't bother to tell us what they're doing or interact with us at all lately. Apparently we're too negative or demanding or something.

I'm saying all this because, as many great aspects there are to Clan Lord, there are many more bad aspects and there just isn't anyone with the time or knowledge or money to make the needed changes to turn Clan Lord from being barely above solitaire in being something to do when there's nothing else to do to being an MMO people will not only want to play but will spend money to play. At this point I think Joe Williams only keeps Clan Lord around from a sense of guilt because he doesn't seem to want to do anything with it. The GMs seem to be good at making new areas and there's an artist or two who are good at adding a tree or beast, but I don't think any of them have the time or inclination to make fundamental changes to the game even if Joe Williams would allow them to.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems to me that the problems that some healers are complaining about run deeper than just being bad class design to being bad game design and there doesn't seem to be anyone capable or willing of changing this.