Skaljard Feedback (again)

[Oaks]

Hello! First time Skal-player here, currently level 18. Here's a bit of feedback.

1. Skaljard is beautiful

I love the aesthetics of the Skaljard module, great atmosphere altogether.

2. Skaljard feels small

I know it's lvl 1- lvl 17, and I haven't seen Skal UD yet, but it really doesn't take long until you feel confined. Which leads to the next point..

3. Skaljard feels incomplete

3.1
There are a few spots where you expect the module to continue, but it doesn't. Sometimes it's just a feeling that somehow you thought there would be more, but there really isn't (e.g. Northern Trails), sometimes paths are blocked by ice perpetually (e.g. Eastern Slopes). Based on how well done most of the areas are, at least to me, the realisation how small Skaljard ultimately is was a bit of a letdown. You get this "wide, far and desolate" feeling, created by sheer atmosphere (e.g. tundra areas), then you go on playing for a few days, and suddenly the whole isle feels like a small sandbox.

3.2
Couldn't help but feel the mobs used throughout Skaljard are a bit sloppily put together. Some creatures like most ice drakes seem to be based on some animal creature template with a different skin. Neither loot nor creature type were changed. Creature types are often off, the "half-orcs" are actually orcs, and so on. This isn't the most important thing in the world, but then again, to ranger characters it might just be. All things considered, if you take a close look at the mobs, it simply feels like a work in progress.

4. Wyverns (and cursed myconids (sp?))

Seriously, why would you make them spawn in the middle of the bridge. Not one, but two. One in front of you, and one behind you. You can't run. You (probably) can't fight (at that level, solo at least), and you definitely didn't expect that setup the first time you went there. If at least you had the option to try and run. But you don't. People can go there with a party easily, and would be able to continue beyond the bridge, but the wyverns are an instant wipe. This really isn't fun. Really.
Underdark is cool, too, unless you run into cursed mushrooms, but I guess that's the risk you take going into the UD.

5. Skaljard is NOT (new) player-friendly

I know Arelith systems. And there's so many of them squeezed into the village. I couldn't help but feel new players have no clue what their options are. There are absolutely no pointers. Severed boss heads? Metal scrap parts? Lassoed creatures? Pelts? No explanations how to make the most of your adventures.

6. Skaljard is more difficult

Perhaps it's me, or the fact that I play on Skaljard for the first time, but PVE balance-wise, classic Arelith feels much more computable than Skaljard. Put a bucket on your head and moved one transition away from the village? Oh what, you thought there wouldn't be large spawns here that can maul your 30 HP in seconds? Think again! Oh, this area is easy, right? Let's move to the next. What, you didn't expect wyverns or giants? Tough luck.
And after giants and wyverns you get minotaurs, which are comparatively easy. A better thought-out "progression" sort of area progression would help.

7. Skaljard feels removed from Arelith in mentality

Some people seem to go for days or weeks without typing a single line. RP revolves around crafting, otherwise Skaljard sometimes feels devoid of RP: This is a generalising statement of course, but that time someone said Skaljard is RP Lite, compared to Arelith? It feels kind of true. I guess this is on every single one of us to change.

8. Lag

I don't know what's going on in the village, but I get the worst FPS there. Anywhere. Ever . On any server.

9. Skaljard economy feels off

Not really an expert on the crafting system, but I have a feeling some resources are super difficult to come by on Skaljard, while other are available in abundance.



If anything else comes to mind, I'll edit.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Not to sound harsh,

But I'd really love to know the justification for Skaljard's existence in its current form.

I'd also love to know how many players actually love Skaljard for what it is.

[Xarge VI]

I liked Skal when I could play there at the beginning. However for some reason my poor old computer can't handle Skaljard village.
While most of the problem spots such as Bendir and Arcane tower have been fixed of the fps issue Skaljard Village and Shadow Cordor remain unplayable for me.

[Opustus]

About the smallness and RP liteness:

I love Skaljard with the n00bness and the smallness. The smallness ensures there's only one hub, and it makes the outlying wilderness seem so vast and Skaljard feel like a dismal little hamlet moored in the middle of it just because of that. It's such a well-crafted environment to play in!

The RP liteness or n00bness on Skaljard, in my humble appraisal, means that there isn't this strong standard of RP forced onto people. Or rather, people who aren't used to RP aren't automatically left outside because they are thought of as embarrassing or bad at roleplay or whatever criteria players tend to have for wanting to spend time with each other in an RP community. I find many veterans pretty elitist, how stringent many seem about enacting their own character plots in company worthy of sharing this story, and how little flex they have to loosen their standards to make room for the enjoyment of people with more modest goals or interests in the game.

Mind, I've had only two characters I've played to around level 15-20 on Skaljard and this was some time ago, so this isn't like a reliable supercut of Skaljard in the long term (I mean, things change and I might not have a clue what I'm talking about), but I swear this on my personal experience of the time spent there: I've had more character interaction with random people on Skaljard than I've had anywhere else on Arelith.

3.2
Couldn't help but feel the mobs used throughout Skaljard are a bit sloppily put together. Some creatures like most ice drakes seem to be based on some animal creature template with a different skin. Neither loot nor creature type were changed. Creature types are often off, the "half-orcs" are actually orcs, and so on. This isn't the most important thing in the world, but then again, to ranger characters it might just be. All things considered, if you take a close look at the mobs, it simply feels like a work in progress.

I've understood that development resources for Skal have been pretty skim, so stuff like this might just be pushed to module unnoticed. Little stuff like this could be reported on a bug forum or maybe posted as a suggestion, I don't think there'd be any problem to fix small mistakes like this.

About difficulty and n00bfriendliness: This has been brought up a several times and the "recommended for new players" sticker in the message when entering the world for the first time was removed because of it. I don't know if Skal lures new people in anymore or not, but Skal was originally designed with this intention, which is a really good thing to have.

[Bunny]

As a new player this rings true but I've not played other areas enough to compare. I do feel the leveling grind isnt even or at least trial and error to find steady progression. Encounter scaling and reward seem inverse. More to fend off less reward. The economy is poor due to low number of vendor booths. Seems little transition between merchants/owners as with the housing. Little motivation to craft but for yourself and given the encounters, supplies seem random.

Wish there was more content to guide travel other than contracts too difficult to complete solo. Also wish it was apparent i could travel to other starter areas and return but it seems a one way trip

[Sea Shanties]

I keep trying Skal but never stick around. I love the idea of a more traditional D&D experience with an outpost town surrounded by dungeons and wilderness without the politics of regular Arelith. Not that I don't enjoy the politics, but I mean just for something different. But I never make it to the upper teens there because it does get boring and lonely.

If it wouldn't trash what a lot of people have going on already I'd say make it an epic area instead and dial up all the monsters to 11.

[Adam Antium]

Not to sound harsh,

But I'd really love to know the justification for Skaljard's existence in its current form.

I'd also love to know how many players actually love Skaljard for what it is.

Throwing my experience in here.

I've never gone to Skaljard because my active characters have never needed or wanted to go there ICly, and OOCly I have no desire to make a character who wants to go there because I've heard nothing but shittalk about it and it sounds miserable. Super low quality RP (I've seen some screenshots, man), pvp everywhere, limited resource availability, epics sometimes blow through just to shit on lowbies and claim that they own the island so they feel "relevant" (this is exactly the wrong way to play a villain unless you're REALLY engaging as an "evil baron" type, and many people aren't), and you can't leave it for like 9 IC months out of the year.

This is all word-of-mouth with occasional screenshots to back it up, I'm not accusing anybody specifically and I'm not saying my word is dogma.

But.

It doesn't sound fun to me. At all. So I don't go. At all. Mainland Arelith is plenty engaging as it is for me.

[Peppermint]

I won't go so far as to say "remove Skal!", but I would definitely reconsider its position as the new player recommendation.

Skal is really limited, and not nearly as polished or well-balanced as the rest of the server. I feel it's the worst possible start for any new player.

[Anime Sword Fighter]

I love Skal. I've played through two characters to mid teens on it. I am not the best at the game but I'm not a new player. If I was a new player, I could very well see myself getting stomped by how difficult some of the mobs are - especially playing a character now on the Surface and seeing how easy mobs are here compared to Skal's. I still do enjoy the difficulty somewhat, but would like if you gained more exp from them in relation to that difficulty.

The smallness of Skal is true for both of the characters I played. Once you've seen the whole island (not talking about Skal dark for the moment) it does get annoyingly tiny. Skaldark is a move that helps expand it, but the mobs I encountered there were, again, extremely difficult (for the better, since it IS the UD.) Expanding the surface-world of Skal though at those borders where it looks expandable would be nice. More areas that provide interesting landmarks, potentially varied enemies so one doesn't need to repeat the hunting the gnolls writ a million times. More exit portals at dungeons would help too. I absolutely hate back tracking after the master's writ through that annoying cave system.

I like the insularity from the main island's politics and the abundance of low levels without high levels. However it does lead the social environment to be stale after a while. I don't know what about Skal lends itself to the notorious character of RP there. I can only recommend people report the griefers, outright OOC / unhealthy-for-rp actions (an example coming to kind are monster PCs using the shops in the trade hall blatantly), and try to bring the attitudes towards inclusive RP that Skal needs in their characters.

I also, weirdly, have the opposite problem with FPS that people have in this thread. Skal runs flawlessly with the normal every-hour crash that comes with the game being ENHANCED. Cordor and Bendir lag me more.

I think that some system of export/import of rare items at Skal would provide that economic incentive to base some RP around. More systems that help assimilate into the rest of Arelith's item balances too would help, if that makes sense?

[MissEvelyn]

I had extremely positive experiences with Skal, with both characters who went there. One of those characters started there from creation.

Maybe it was because I had the luxury of having years of RP on Arelith in the bag that I felt it was easy to engage in RP and encourage newer players to get in on it, but I sincerely believe Skal was (and probably still is) needed for players, new and old alike, who want a break from all the politics roleplay that was especially rampant at the time I played on Skal.

I won't deny that it was especially exciting because everything was new and exploring Skal as one of the first players made you feel like a true explorer in the game. There was that aspect of it.

But all in all, I enjoy the dangerous wilderness that Skal is, the seclusiveness that draws people together, even people who might not normally work together. We could certainly use a few quality of life updates to Skal, like adding in a peddler. Small stuff that don't really change the foundation of the place. But as a whole I find Skal enjoyable, and it's a shame some newer players have been turned away by veteran players for apparently not being good enough RP'ers.

While the ones who don't RP much seem to be getting so much attention, I can personally attest that there's many new players out there waiting to unleash their inner roleplay god, all they need is a little push and attention so that they might feel welcome and comfortable enough to unfold as writers and roleplayers here. It's sad that we don't see many threads about them

[Ork]

I love Skal.

I agree with ASF entirely here. I love skal. It's unique and a different experience all together from the mainland. It's what I would expect from a chaotic aligned settlement. There is no authority, other than the authority of the mayor, and that leads to unique plays at power within the settlement. It isn't your traditional space where a team of 5 people can roll in and make up a system of government - it legitimately is lawless, and I think that makes the place unique.

The aesthetic is beautiful. The setting is wonderful. The players are by and large great fun to be around. As a veteran player of Arelith, it is SO DAMN REFRESHING to drop into Skal and enjoy that unique style of roleplay. It's almost wholesome - but, don't be turned away would-be villains. While Skal would provide a unique challenge for villains, I had the opportunity to play a few there with great success.

I love that it is challenging, new, and untamed. It's inconvenient with lack of resources/access to arelith specific benefits, but I wouldn't even change that. If I could change anything, I would change the exit location from Guldorand to a middle location that allows players to wander directly after leaving the island. I think having Guldorand be the exit does put undue stress on maintaining guldorand as a settlement.

Thematically, I'd like to see Skal expand the Faerie influence on the island. I think that's such a unique piece that's wholly lacking on mainland Arelith. Titania, do your thing.

[Scylon]

I have no desire to make a character who wants to go there because I've heard nothing but shittalk about it and it sounds miserable. Super low quality RP (I've seen some screenshots, man), pvp everywhere, limited resource availability, epics sometimes blow through just to shit on lowbies and claim that they own the island so they feel "relevant" (this is exactly the wrong way to play a villain unless you're REALLY engaging as an "evil baron" type, and many people aren't), and you can't leave it for like 9 IC months out of the year.

While Razial is my only character (as I have only been around a couple of months) honestly, I haven't seen any of this and I have been in Skal the whole time. it is true, there are people just running around killing stuff, not RPing at all, there is plenty of quality RPer there. I have seen people go above an beyond to create stories either for their own character, or to create group adventures. I have seen PVP happen only on one occasion (my characters brother) and to be honest he probably deserved it

Resources are plentiful if you ask me. Though I don't have the experience to compare it to the main land. Though an associate of mine said they come there because it is easier to get the rarer stuff. That said we are staved of crafters. The final point is meeeh. There isn't any real hard and fast "laws" in skal and most characters IC don't really care what you do unless they have a serous conviction against it (like a certain someone who may or may not be me running around with questionable summons). I can't say I have ever seen anyone tossing their weight around. I certainly saw that in my short time in the main city though.

[Adam Antium]

Maybe I'm misinformed then. Glad to hear it.

[Reallylongunneededplayername]

Recently left Skal:

Why? I was lvl 13, and done it all, So to say. Did everything up to the masters, Seen the underdark, Made friends and, Well. That was it.

Time for the main island.

What I think was wrong:

-Silly RP

-No RP

-Opression by high lvls

-So many things you can't sell at Skal

-Hairy spiders

-lack of rats. Your first contract for your writ is likely to kill 10 rats. But at lvl 3 you spawn 9 rats.

[Scylon]

-Opression by high lvls

Without naming names of course, what do you mean by this? can you give an example? Honestly I haven't really seen it, but maybe I'm not looking.

[Durvayas]

I had a PC on skal that had been exiled from the mainland to skal.

Said PC decided to return and risk execution rather than stay.

My experience on Skal mirrors others here.

-Little-no RP.
-Silly RP.
-Economy basically nonexistant.
-Difficult to sell things.
-Lack of mechanical direction.
-Plenty of large, mostly empty wilderness areas make wandering feel like wasted time.
-Overtuned mobs == high risk, low reward.
-Enough ambivalence to just about anything that conflict RP wasn't even really there. (Not at all uncommon to see Paladins and necromancers chatting.)

Basically, the bar for RP on Skal is so low, it feels like an entirely different server(and an unfinished one at that), which is a shame, because Skal village looks great and is conceptually interesting, but the rest seems to just fall so flat as to not be worth the time investment.

[Nitro]

-Opression by high lvls

Without naming names of course, what do you mean by this? can you give an example? Honestly I haven't really seen it, but maybe I'm not looking.

Every now and then one or more mainland epics decide to roll through Skaljard. Either goodies answering reports of the rampant necromancy and devil summoning that happens there (because there's no one letting new players know those are generally shunned on the surface), or baddies looking to pick up some recruits or otherwise do some nefarious deeds. And sometimes there's the odd ill-advised DM event on Skaljard that brings over epics.

The sad truth is that even if these epics don't go in intending to bully low levels, they do by default with their very presence. No one can go against what they say or express a strong disagreement with them because any conflict that ends up in combat results in an automatic loss for the skaljardite. It's unfair and kind of weird design to have a place made for low levels that high levels can come to at will. Unlike other low level areas of the server like Cordor, there also aren't any native epics that can stand up to those who roll in to do whatever they feel like.

If I'd do anything to Skal it'd be to remove travel restrictions entirely, turn the city into a proper settlement and just have it be another starting area connected fully to the mainland. That way there's no weird divide in the server culture.

[Bunny]

I keep hearing about mainland rp. What is the difference in peoples experience? In most starter areas I've seen plenty of no chat grinding, Ive seen low key rp usually crafting deals, seen a few pvp conflicts, and a lot of *acting*. Personally, i speak in character but I'm not one for constant gestures. Ive had some fire side chats but it didn't give me a feel for the would, more that there was tons i may never understand. Mechanically, each area is the same. Cordor is more spread out and has more player content but it doesn't mechanically cause better rp.

Personally, the only place I've been level oppressed was cordor.

[WJLIII3]

Its not the mainland has so much more rp, its just, in ym experience at least, character breaks only happen on Skal. Its the only place I've seen people use build notation and chatspeak in the "Talk" command, like "lol, my Bard/WM had 46 AB" while sitting around the fire. New players starting there seem accustomed to asking via talk instead of tells about game mechanics and server data. And then...necromancers/warlocks/generally evils aren't shunned, which like, I'm not saying they should be, but it means they're very unprepared for the server atmosphere, where they certainly will be forced to hide and conceal those aspects of their character if they want meaningful RP to develop. I don't notice them reading descriptions or inspecting characters to inform their RP, I've mentioned before bringing a drow there, with a description starting "This drow female..." and having no one notice at all, until we talked for 20 minutes to one person, finally. No helmet, no wards. Not a particularly drow-y name, no apostrophes, but still.

I lost most of my collection of "Skal RP" screenshots but I had a lot worse than this:


"Lol" and "WM" or "fiendlock" are very frequent visitors to conversation in Skaljard, from what I've seen. And I've never done a Skal start, for long, and I don't visit often, but that just makes it seem more glaring, to me. I've spend huge amounts of time in both Surface and UD and never seen that kind of behavior. Only on Skal, and often within minutes of arriving.

[Ork]

People are harsh. We were all the new roleplayer once upon a time. Remember that when joining Skal. Criticising their roleplay here is pretty low-brow despicable. If you notice these interactions or conversations - approach them about it. If you don't feel comfortable approaching them, report it to a DM who will do so with the utmost understanding that these are our little baby Arelith players that just need help in getting the foundations down.

The reason this doesn't happen on mainland Arelith is to the hostile revulsion a lot of your standard high horse roleplayers have when encountering someone saying lol. Remember this is a game - have fun.

Someone says lol? Emote your character laughing in response! Model for them what is standard for Arelith. There was someone that rolled a "Human Zombie" as their characters name. We rolled with it and it was probably some of the most fun I've had. Skal is cold - chill, and just politely mentor or refer to a DM.

[Scylon]

There is a lot of "high horse" standards that are being pushed I think on the RP. I do agree with what was posted earlier about a high level characters "my way or the high way" just by their presence. That said people are using mechanics to do that every where I'd wager. As a caster if a warrior shirt faces me, I'm scrwed without buffs, my summons and getting in 1st.

I also see a lot of complaints about people being necromancers, summoning demons, warlocks etc. So what? If your character has issues with it, deal with it IC. Keep in mind it's a lawless land basically. It may be immoral, but it's not illegal really. I used to use demons a lot but as my character progressed and I met people I learned the "ways of the land". The biggest lesson I learned was keep it on the down low, and on the main land they tend to be really cranky about that sort of stuff. In my case I just molded that into my play style. Generally now I only use them around people I know don't mind so much (IC reasons etc i'm not getting into). If I don't know the people, I use "non offensive summons".

[Durvayas]

There's nothing lowbrow about expecting roleplay on a roleplay server.

The common observation here is that the quality of RP on Skal is consistently poor. And the island does NOT serve its purpose (preparing new players for RP on the mainland) well. Now that that has been established as feedback, we should be directing energy towards figuring out how to improve skal.

Ideas that come to mind:

-Bring on a dedicated DM specifically for skal to better coach and/or enforce roleplay standards to the new players there.
-Make systems more obvious there. They exist on skal, but explanations for how to use them are few and far between, and new people are kind of left on their own to figure things out.

-Give established (higher level) characters a reason to go to skal and stay there, to both establish a power base (Put one guildhouse there and let it be dominated by PCs like sibiyad) and to shape the culture of the island more in line with how the actual server operates.

Otherwise I'd recommend we expand Sibiyad to breathe life into it (it is both seperate from arelith proper, but vastly more accessible), make it a starting point, and nuke skal into oblivion and/or or turn it into a dungeon like Kholingen.

[Anime Sword Fighter]

I would like Skal to have a year round Smuggler in some hidden / hard to reach area that goes to Sibayad.

I understand that Sibayad should be extremely far away from Skal if their climates are meant to represent their position geographically (Skal north, Sibayad south), but the "hidden sea route that goes miles and miles out of the way" isn't exactly unheard of in RL history. This could further tie in with some sort of specific resource added that the NPC smugglers trade in. Maybe you have to trade them the resource to use the boat or something. And they have a merchant drop off in Sibayad.

I want Sibayad because it has a nice writ selection that lends itself to about where you end at Skal's highest level, it is a politically "neutral" settlement (i.e. not the settlement system) so that potentially new players can ease into that system by having to travel to a settlement with it instead of just being dumped there like they are in Guldorand now. It would also continue to give Sibayad that crowded merchant / smuggler feel it has going on. If it is two way, like I would want, it's also a little out of the way to get to Skal. I mean, I'm sure someone who wants to go to Skal will find it and use it, but it's got that little extra layer of IG lore behind it.

By all means keep player ships from reaching Skal til the ice melts, but having this year round easily connects Skal to the main Arelith while giving Skal people a path to continue leveling, learning to RP if they're new, and settle in with the server at large.

[WJLIII3]

I didn't mean it to be harassing the new players, I just meant, the other parts of the server set and maintain a very different standard. That standard does not seem to exist on Skal, and it seems to hurt new players RP a lot.