Thank you very much everyone! Once the test port is back up I'll have to try that. :>

Um, didn't know where to put this really... thought maybe rp... But over on the test port(5900) I am in Olaria... I just bought a starchart, and I don't know how to operate the sucker... Any help?

Here's my suggestions on changing bards. Allow them to sing to cast their magic songs, with the bards' % in music allowing them to sing up to medium powered songs. For more powerful songs, they would have to wear an instrument to play along with some of the sung parts. Specific instruments(my guess would be mostly wind instruments) like trumpets, flutes, tubas, etc that require breath to play would cast specific songs, but couldn't be used to acompany a bard's voice. An acompany or instrument skill would determine the power or maybe the availability of medium to high powered songs, or maybe different instrument qualities could enhance sung magic. Instruments could have volume, musical range, and key(average tonality) values, and perhaps combinations of range/key combined with different sung parts could alter the effect of songs or invoke unique songs. Volume could affect the power of some songs, or maybe even allow the song's effects to cary over room borders. It would be really cool, in my opinion at least, to collect special/quest musical instruments to make a bard very versatile… And a magical expanding baby grand piano of madness would be cool to whip out and start jamming on to destroy your foes... not to mention it would be soooooo cool if a formation of bards could play together for tremendous magical effect... ~whew~

Thanks Riane, thats a great point. :) Also, nowhere in my post did I say each insturment would be limited to evoking 1 bard song/spell. Also, its hardly a problem to swap insturments so you could benefit from the healing magic of say… a celestial banjo, or whatever. That way people won't always be wearing a silly os tuba, because tubas aren't good for all types of music/songs, and that would separate the bards from the good bards who win at pk.

I think that being able to target a bard's weapon with spells(silence, fireball) or weapons would be a nice way to counter the bard's magical songs, and if a specific insturment either allowed new songs to be used, or a specific insturment would be required for certain songs(ie. a demonic fiddle for curse of the abyss). Maybe even balance it by having some insturments be great for offensive songs(such as my demonic fiddle example) but totally nerf[increased chance of failure or slower casting time or reduced effectiveness] healing/buffing songs since it __is__ made from negative energy filled demonflesh.

I think Ithilidin put it pretty well in saying that insturments should be used to enhance bard song, as an acompanyment to the bard's voice. It would be pretty cool if a bard's race would set up their vocal qualities, and change how effective some songs were. Also, the way silence works now, using an insturment would allow a bard who has lost her voice through silence to still use bardly magic with an insturment. An insturment wear spot could be added, but while actually using the insturment to cast spells, it seems to me that attacking with weapons would be much more difficult.

My idea really wouldn't affect targeting a player, as words in their chosen description/their race would allow you to target them, unless they were smart and had earned multiple descriptions and changed them often. Perhaps there would be a slight bonus vs. spells that wouldn't hit correctly without using someone's true name as the target, but thats a whole 'nother idea. I agree with Xevira about just wandering into a room with some other people, and you automatically know their name and whatever organization they are a member of. Stupid brain osmosis. :>

My votes go for new remort racial abilities, Deities/Shrines, and special EQ as top priority. As second priority, the weed smoking and herbalism sound like a couple of fun things to experiment with. Ith's point on trying to balance the game with layers and layers of new stuff added is a very important one, though. It was pretty hard to choose my favorite things since all the stuff in the list would do a great job rounding out the game. I also think adding some roleplaying elements into the game would be tremendiously cool. One idea I had for that is give each player a short description and a matching long description for each mortal class they earn, and 2 more short/matching long descs for each remort class they gain. These descriptions would be what we would see with players in a room instead of their name and title. Then add a command to "remember" players' names, and once you have met a character and they have given you their name, you would see their name and title or name and short desc upon entering a room with them present. Short/long player descriptions would probably have to be individually approved by the Immortals, and perhaps allow players to buy a wardrobe or dresser that would allow them to switch their current appearance at their residence. A hint of race could be required on warrior/cleric/mage descriptions, since each Sentience race would create very different images of each archetype. This would also allow the use of a racial keyword to look/interact with someone, and other keywords could be gathered from good descriptions/preset ones determined by the IMP staff.

I think it would be pretty interesting if charge worked a bit differently… The minotaur/hellbaron would have to start a charge x rooms away, and the farther they charged before slamming into an opponent would determine the damage that opponent would take, and perhaps would set a % chance that some negative effect would take hold. Stamina loss could be based on the number of rooms the horned beast decided to charge, with progressive rooms requiring more stamina, due to the increased speed. Hellbaron charges would do more damage than mino charges at the same charging distance, due to better horns and more body mass. Also, I think %skill in charge would allow the hellbaron(maybe not minos) to charge around corners to attack a foe. My best guess for syntax on this skill would be "charge *target* *direction*". Some possible status effects would be, in order of most severe to least severe, Target CRUSHED, major damage and 1-2 round stun, Target IMPALED medium damage and loss of hp per round due to bleeding(could be stopped with magical healing), Target MAIMED medium damage and penalty to dex and hit roll, and Target SLAMMED medium damage and target knocked to the ground.

I think reageants would be a fun part of the game if they 1)had a near negliable weight 2)took up space in the score menu instead of in a players inventory and 3)enhanced spells to make them more interesting, or as a balancing effort over spells(such as having a weak version of a spell take a common reagent, a more powerful version needing a better reagent, and maybe a remort version negating a reagent requirement). Power levels on reagents sound great, as do a # of uses rating.