Hi Sam,
This is Madrak (aka Render, Vramin, Zek, Taco, and a few others). I'm writing to you in hopes that you will consider something that you offered me a few years ago, and that is an immortal.
I took a several month hiatus from the mud after the clan I formed went tits up on me, through my own mistakes. However I am absolutely shocked at some of the stuff that has gone on since I have been gone.
A lot of new code involving mob behaviors has been implemented that I honestly feel does more harm to the MUD than good. The main reason I'm writing this email is because today, I took it upon myself to lead a noble group, and upon request attempted to run what used to be some rather run-of-the-mill gear from Chaos. Upon entering a room in the Thief House my group, including Link (a rather powerful tank) and 3 others were, for lack of a better term, spanked. The main reason for this was the new ability of ladies-in-waiting to cast spells, primarily dispel magic.
I am by no means of the opinion that noble areas should be EASY or UNBALANCED. When Myth first implemented Moonglow and Plink was running 350mil xp runs in a few hours it was me that advised her on how to correct the matter and the result was a fairly balanced noble XP area. All of these new mob procs have done absolutely nothing to limit the amount of legends on the mud or how fast people acquire legend characters. They simply have broadened a gap between XP areas and other areas that either used to provide XP or were predominately for equipment.
There are a lot of things going on that I truly feel are wrong. I'll just come out and say what I think, and here it is. Raistlinn may be able to do positive things for the MUD but I truly feel that he does many things simply to be a dick to people. I think he really gets off on imposing his authority and will on players through his position, and not in the best interests of the game and community. Yojimbo, may be able and willing to build great areas, but I and many other experienced players see him as only building areas that will benefit his mortal characters. He also has very limited experience in actually playing the mud. It took me almost a year and a half to level my first legend. Omoni did it in much less than a year, through the help of a "clique" of players.
I want to stress to you, that I am not requesting an immortal with the plans of fighting with the current administration. I simply want to bring some sort of balance to the field. There are a huge number of loyal players who have many fond memories and ideas about the MUD and how to make it a fun and fair place for all to play. I simply wish to be representative of that. I don't think that any of the players that have made Kallisti a great MUD, want easy areas or no challenges, but when there is a huge gap of understanding between the admin and the player base nobody wins. There has been, ever since I started playing, this rift between veteran players and the admin that is completely unnecessary. Nobody wants an MUD with no challenge or risk.
Code changes and new areas are not always the answer either. I've played MUDs for about 15 years now, and Kallisti is awesome in it's uniqueness but it absolutely is lacking in questing. I appealed about a year and a half ago to work with Myth to develop some good questing but was lobbied against by Drifter who at the time was your right hand man. There are many things besides just adding new areas and equipment that can bring interest and fun to a MUD. To me, it's about developing a community of players who have an active interest in playing and interacting with others. That has always been what made Kallisti great and kept players coming back.
Please Sam, let me have a chance to make an impact. There is absolutely no one running any sort of quests, let me have a chance. There is at least one builder I KNOW will work with me to make good shit happen. I've donated money to the MUD before and would do it again in a heartbeat if you asked. I don't want to come to the field with nothing to offer or being combative with the other immortals. I just want a chance to level the field and make the MUD a better place for the players.