So I am going to start this off with the statement that I have very much so enjoyed my time in the game and it has been a refreshing experience in the mmo genre. I am a marauder player on the server Theleme. After about a month of playing in the world of Aeternum my company mates, players on the server, as well as myslef have been talking about how the world can be improved and what we want, mind you most of it is pretty petty, but I feel that after some very long conversations that we have picked out some key things that universally we would love to see. I shall list them below:
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Updates and upgrades- Other mmo’s, especially nowadays have suffered from a lack of useful updates in the world in order to improve player experience. Being that this is a new game and the time between launch and now is pretty small there are some very egregious bugs in the game that can and should be patched (the bugs are not the point of this post though). Mind you this may also be a lack of communication from the community so treat this as a call to arms. PLAYERS if you want to see something changed or fixed in the game reach out, post in forums, and spread the word to others to speak up and get the changes. Also to the devs please respond in turn by action or acknowledgement.
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Wars and conflict- Being that pvp is a vital function of the game war is the proving ground in which we can defend our in game homes with our skills in pvp. There is a pretty hard pressing issue though in the aspect of wars within the game and that is the rate in which that they can occur within the same territory. To often on my server will a war be completed and within a couple of hours an opposite faction will already have some enough standing in the territory to declare war two days after the war was won. Being that this is a game that most play to have fun it is very stressful to have to defend a territory up to three times a week. Having a cooldown in which influence can be gained in territories immediately following a war would be a large morale boost on either side but also could be worked in to in game cannon to be a victory day with time for both sides to recharge and accrue funds for the next war.
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The economy- Now I will preface this with the fact that I am not a historian or an expert in the foundation but I believe that some of the points that my company mates and friends have brought up could bring great playability to the game. (There are multiple sub points to this that will be designated by letters):
3a Town boards- As a method of experience gain within the bounds of level 1 to 59 the town boards do definitely provide a layer of involvement with the advancement of a civilization and to gain some gold. However upon reaching level 60 that feedback slows to a halt due to the net negative state of the economy with ownership taxes and upkeep.
One idea that floated around was that when a pc hits level 60 the town board changes in nature for them. Instead of bounties and fetch quests to go and perform the board will provide a job listing (similar to the already established war board) for players. An example explains it best- The territory fort needs to upgrade siege, gates, and the stone cutter needs upkeep. The territory carpenters sign in to the job and use gathered resources to fix gates, or smelt ores to make new cannons, and even use their expertise in furnishing to facilitate the expansion of crafting stations then based off how much time the crafters spent on this job they will receive financial compensation. The money to fund these project can come from the net money loss that the governor will have to pay regularly for the upkeep anyway. The money made off of jobs can even be taxed and this would spark a growth in the economy relying not only on the market but also to effort of the pc.
3b. Crafted high tier items- It is very common that over time the items in your inventory will eventually be damaged by combat or death. This can be quite annoying but easily overcome by the fact that you can just right click and click repair for a small amount of gold. This puts an expiration on the practicality of crafting very high tier items for the end game because why do you need a crafter when a button can fix your armor better than any craftsman. The fix I propose is that high tier items cannot be repaired unless by a skilled craftsman with a percentage of the components needed to make it, on top of that there can be a trade system implemented through the crafting tables to allow the repair of such items by another player without violating the bindings to the pc. This may seem hard to swallow and I know that items will still degrade but higher tier items should deteriorate much slower based off of their quality.
3c. Marketplace- The idea of a player based market is amazing and allows for pretty interesting studies in the economics but let us remind ourselves that we are gamers searching for the fastest and easiest way through and obstacle. The priced for materials and items seem to vary so much that you can pay nothing for some high level potions and all of your fortune on some tier one ingredients. What I propose is an attachment to the town that serves a function similar to the town board but also provides a baseline price for items to be sold to the territory/ faction/ people fighting the corruption (an item sink with fixed prices). This could solidify the market with incentives to compete both with players but also with the world in which they play.
Now I know that that all was a lot but I really do believe in the items above and that they can very much improve the game and even get more people to play. All and all i am excited to see how this game develops and where Aeternum will go.