Yeah a feeling of accomplishment for thirty seconds.
People always approach RPGs the same way. Grinding, grinding, more grinding and then boom, suddenly players have nothing to do. That's why basically any type of RPG server, whether it's cityrpgs or medieval RPGs, always start out with big time player counts then a week later the server is a wasteland. I can name a seemingly endless amount of examples of this issue, but a few more recent/popular ones off the top my head include Jorgur's RPG, Wicked's RPG and any CityRPG that used Jasa's mod.
Talented modders that have made RPGs before always make the mistake of putting more emphasis on the grinding aspect than the quests or fighting. Yes, obviously there are quests and monsters to fight on RPGs such as this one, but if a player grinds enough then eventually they can just mindlessly kill enemies and complete quests with ease. This will very quickly lead to boredom for the players and eventually the death of the server.
What I'd like to see but still have yet to see in a RPG on this game is one with all the usual RPG elements including grinding when appropriate, but with elaborate/challenging quests no matter what level a players is as well as enemies that can actually put up a fight against those maxed out players. This idea might not attract as many players as a traditional grinding style RPG within the first week, but the server would definitely be more consistent with the player counts, popularity and longevity.
I remember joining Wicked's private server months before he opened his RPG public and the first thing I thought to myself was that it was going to die within weeks and the server did exactly that. I am not trying to say he's a bad host or a bad modder because he's obviously one of the most talented people on this game, but I can't even put his server in the same league as some of the more historically popular servers.
I can't apply any of the above opinions to this server because I haven't personally played it, but when I asked people what the server was like while I was loading they all said one word in common. Grinding. I left almost instantly, but I may end up trying the server out eventually.
I agree with you on a lot of this. However, I would definitely say that this server
is different from the other RPGs. The combat is less slow-paced and grindy, and more action/quick movement oriented, and that's something I value highly. I'm not going to try to hide that fact that at it's core this RPG really is just grinding, but I will say that it's grinding is definitely made to be more fun and involving than other RPGs (at least on Blockland). I've played probably every other "popular" RPG on Blockland (except Wicked's RPG), and to be quite honest, I dislike all of them.
That's because with all of those RPGs, the player's ability to perform with combat and grinding seem to be completely reliant on numbers. For example, in Elm's Land of Blocks, it seemed like when I was fighting monsters like the worm, the winner of the fight seemed to be only determined by how much health and attack damage you and the worm had, almost like a turn-based game. In StoneQuest, sure there are these numbers, but I like to think that there's a lot more that goes into the fight. For example, you need to continuously pay attention to aiming at the enemy, while still dodging its attacks. This may seem easy to do, but many of the enemies in StoneQuest (especially the high level monsters and bosses) move rather quickly.
With all the other RPGs, it seemed to me like the creators spent a long time trying to make their GUI look fancy and less on the game's design. StoneQuest used to have a GUI, but in interest of keeping things simple it's gone now. Instead of focusing on a GUI, I've added tons of content to the game such as the new guild system where players can own or be a member of a guild, and the guild can level up over time to give it's members stat boosts. I'm also constantly adding new areas to explore (with the help of my awesome builders Blades and Sanctus Rem).
I completely understand your worries about RPGs and this server, but I urge you to try it before you assume that it's a typical grinding RPG :)
Also, I don't think it's really fair to expect Blockland RPGs to be amazing given what they are. Who in their right mind would spend weeks developing an actually good RPG just for Blockland anyway? It's pretty obvious that the game is in decline and I'd say it's hardly worth it to host anymore.
