Hi! I'm fairly new to the server, thus apologise if these suggestions are commonly brought up!
I've been playing for a few days, and have thought of a few things to make the map easier to traverse and be less monotonous for quests.
1. More information on signs on Grand Staircase. It's quite annoying to ask where *e.g. Divination* is and not always get a response. A way to solve this would be to add a list of each department on the Grand Staircase signs. "2nd Floor *newline* For Divination, Library" - I know this is not accurate but I struggle to remember where each department is! Also, add signs to the kitchens on the badger sign on the grand staircase as it is a bit counter intuitive to go down there to get to the kitchen when the only information you have is that the honeybadger commons is located there. Also more signs to direct people around in the corridors, for those who struggle or get lost easily. It's a huge map!
2. Add a fast travel to explored locations system. If this would make questing too quick, add a cost, like gold or fire dust, to let people set multiple warps in their warp bag. It's been hard as the spiders can kill in one or two hits and you then have to walk ALL THE WAY back to finish the arachnicide quest.
3. More variation in questing. I feel like most quests are long monotonous fetch quests that while have a good story tend to follow the same system. e.g. Talk to person 1. They tell you to collect or do something all the way across the castle. You go do that thing, or collect ingredients, then go all the way back to finish the quest - even warping to the great hall doesn't save much time, and I'd rather not be constantly running around the castle. It's made worse when the next quest you decide to do has you returning to a point previously visited - I've run back and forth to the groundskeeper's hut more than I'd like to admit!
3b. Given 90% of the castle is corridors, maybe add more rooms with tasks and side quests that can be completed in 10-15 mins - they could even randomly pop up to make the castle feel more alive. I understand this could be difficult to implement but give more to do among completing the bigger quests like playing the minigames. Maybe add random events for everyone - e.g. Someone's book has been stolen. First to find it wins 5 AC or gold reward. The book is spawned randomly around (the dungeons) or (the herbology greenhouses). This would create more excitement - maybe even have multiple happening at once for maximum competition!
4. Add player locations to the map, and maybe implement /tpa for friends to meet up together for example to fight mobs together - to balance this, maybe unlock tpa at year 2.
5. I believe this is already in progress but a complete floor map of the castle would be greatly beneficial - I would say I have a good sense of direction, but it's so easy to lose that with all the spiral staircases and painting teleports!
5b. A map of Diagonal Alley would also be great as it can be confusing at first glance and takes a lot of experience and memory to get around flawlessly!
Thank you for taking the time to read these ideas - I apologise if you get these points a lot, but from the perspective of a new person to the server, these ideas could certainly motivate people to come on more as it would be easier to get around without necessarily asking for help every few minutes!
-Shibanu
I've been playing for a few days, and have thought of a few things to make the map easier to traverse and be less monotonous for quests.
1. More information on signs on Grand Staircase. It's quite annoying to ask where *e.g. Divination* is and not always get a response. A way to solve this would be to add a list of each department on the Grand Staircase signs. "2nd Floor *newline* For Divination, Library" - I know this is not accurate but I struggle to remember where each department is! Also, add signs to the kitchens on the badger sign on the grand staircase as it is a bit counter intuitive to go down there to get to the kitchen when the only information you have is that the honeybadger commons is located there. Also more signs to direct people around in the corridors, for those who struggle or get lost easily. It's a huge map!
2. Add a fast travel to explored locations system. If this would make questing too quick, add a cost, like gold or fire dust, to let people set multiple warps in their warp bag. It's been hard as the spiders can kill in one or two hits and you then have to walk ALL THE WAY back to finish the arachnicide quest.
3. More variation in questing. I feel like most quests are long monotonous fetch quests that while have a good story tend to follow the same system. e.g. Talk to person 1. They tell you to collect or do something all the way across the castle. You go do that thing, or collect ingredients, then go all the way back to finish the quest - even warping to the great hall doesn't save much time, and I'd rather not be constantly running around the castle. It's made worse when the next quest you decide to do has you returning to a point previously visited - I've run back and forth to the groundskeeper's hut more than I'd like to admit!
3b. Given 90% of the castle is corridors, maybe add more rooms with tasks and side quests that can be completed in 10-15 mins - they could even randomly pop up to make the castle feel more alive. I understand this could be difficult to implement but give more to do among completing the bigger quests like playing the minigames. Maybe add random events for everyone - e.g. Someone's book has been stolen. First to find it wins 5 AC or gold reward. The book is spawned randomly around (the dungeons) or (the herbology greenhouses). This would create more excitement - maybe even have multiple happening at once for maximum competition!
4. Add player locations to the map, and maybe implement /tpa for friends to meet up together for example to fight mobs together - to balance this, maybe unlock tpa at year 2.
5. I believe this is already in progress but a complete floor map of the castle would be greatly beneficial - I would say I have a good sense of direction, but it's so easy to lose that with all the spiral staircases and painting teleports!
5b. A map of Diagonal Alley would also be great as it can be confusing at first glance and takes a lot of experience and memory to get around flawlessly!
Thank you for taking the time to read these ideas - I apologise if you get these points a lot, but from the perspective of a new person to the server, these ideas could certainly motivate people to come on more as it would be easier to get around without necessarily asking for help every few minutes!
-Shibanu
