Carrion Fields needs to keep its new players. Carrion Fields has a steep learning curve, but it makes up for that in being the such a great game once you pay your initial dues.
The biggest obstacle to keeping new players is Dark-Elf Necro Syndrome.
CF is a role-playing MUD and, from an RP standpoint, Dark-Elf Necromancer is a perfectly viable choice for a first ever character. In practice however, Dark-Elf Necro as a first character almost guarantees that the new player will become frustrated and not enjoy their fledgling CF experience. It is already a given that a new player will have his ass handed to him by experienced players, but when you add to that the fact that solo-exploration is nearly impossible and you find that, around level 15 or so, that you can't even solo-kill “Perfect Match†mobs, you will have most likely just lost another new player.
My suggestion to solve this problem would be to somehow make all race/class combos viable to solo-rank/solo-explore up to around level 25. A new player is going to want to take his time leveling and figuring out what all of his new skill/spells/sups actually do. They may not want to be part of a group that gains them three new levels per hour. We should allow them to take their time and learn their way around on their own, no matter what kind of character they choose to play.
The classes that have a hard time solo-ranking, in my opinion, are: Shifter, Conjurer, Invoker, Necro, Muter, and Thief.
Tank-Mob
What if Conjurer and Necro could summon/raise a tanking pet at an early level that would not assist, and not be able to murder, but could be commanded to attack mobs? It seems that this would have zero impact on the PK ability of these classes while at the same time allowing them to be more self sufficient. If their tank-mob cold not be commanded to MURDER and it did not assist, then the only way it could enter PK would be if it was directly attacked or brought in using area spells.
Auto-Feint
What if Shifter and Muter had spells that would cause them to auto-feint up to two attacks per round? A revamped Paws of the Cheetah and something like a Blur spell. What if this spell could be completely nullified by a PK opponent having Detect Magic or True Sight up? Over the past few years there have been low level damage reduction spells added to all the caster classes. Unfortunately, casters still tank like crap due to their low HP and poor defensive skills. If Shifter and Muter could completely negate up to two mele attacks per round, then I think that they would be able to take on a few mobs of their level on their own. If the spell was easy and cheep to negate in PK then it might not unbalance things in that are too much.
Flame Shield
What if Invoker could summon a Flame Shield that repelled mele attacks in a similar way that a Pole-Spec does with Distance? What if this spell was mutually exclusive with Barrier and Greater Shields, and could be completely negated by any form of heat resist, and call resist? It would be a powerful spell in both PK and against mobs, but for most players it would not be hard to bypass this. Also, this and this spell might be a good reason for someone to start with Dispel Magic against an Invoker if they don't have a resist heat prep.
My specific ideas are probably not the exact way to go to rectify the problem with Dark-Elf Necro Syndrome, but I do believe that casters need to be able to become more self sufficient at the lower levels. If they are not then the new players who come to Carrion Fields run the risk of having a bad first experience and ultimately leaving the game for good.
Anyway, what do you guys think?
