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Sidmouth · 09-15-2003, 11:30 AM

I helped out on a big pwipe/code change on my old mud. Overall, I think the end result was pretty positive.

In the short run quite a few players were lost. However, I think the pwipe was the very least of this loss. If you warn players for quite some time in advance that a pwipe is imminent, the majority of them get used to the idea and are able to prepare themselves mentally. We made sure to have a cataclysmic rp battle right before the pwipe that helped us to retain people up to that point, which is important. Your risk losing players immediately when you announce a pwipe, and anything you can do to get them to at least try the new mud is essential.

The more damaging part was the code change. There were two big reasons for this. First, the game was made more difficult. It was no longer a power levelling mud, and a fair number of people gave up when they realized they weren't going to be able to make up what they lost overnight. Second, and more importantly, the pwipe was rushed, because we had put it off forever and we really wanted to get it over with, and so the code was full of bugs. Some of them were minor, some were crippling. Rushing the new code out was a big mistake.

In short, prepare prepare prepare. Prepare the players and prepare your new features. Ultimately, I think both of these things are great for muds. You're bound to lose players in the short run, but if the changes you're making are essential to your staff's mud philosophy, you'll find that eventually the players will come back, and they'll be players better suited to the kind of game/atmosphere/roleplay/whatever that you want, because they were drawn by your current environment and not sentimental attachment to your old one.

EDIT: I can't type.

09-15-2003, 11:30 AM	#4
Sidmouth Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 35	I helped out on a big pwipe/code change on my old mud. Overall, I think the end result was pretty positive. In the short run quite a few players were lost. However, I think the pwipe was the very least of this loss. If you warn players for quite some time in advance that a pwipe is imminent, the majority of them get used to the idea and are able to prepare themselves mentally. We made sure to have a cataclysmic rp battle right before the pwipe that helped us to retain people up to that point, which is important. Your risk losing players immediately when you announce a pwipe, and anything you can do to get them to at least try the new mud is essential. The more damaging part was the code change. There were two big reasons for this. First, the game was made more difficult. It was no longer a power levelling mud, and a fair number of people gave up when they realized they weren't going to be able to make up what they lost overnight. Second, and more importantly, the pwipe was rushed, because we had put it off forever and we really wanted to get it over with, and so the code was full of bugs. Some of them were minor, some were crippling. Rushing the new code out was a big mistake. In short, prepare prepare prepare. Prepare the players and prepare your new features. Ultimately, I think both of these things are great for muds. You're bound to lose players in the short run, but if the changes you're making are essential to your staff's mud philosophy, you'll find that eventually the players will come back, and they'll be players better suited to the kind of game/atmosphere/roleplay/whatever that you want, because they were drawn by your current environment and not sentimental attachment to your old one. EDIT: I can't type.