I was thinking of all of the old players who do not log in anymore and why. I came up with a couple things.

1) Not enough players online
2) Their characters are nearly or are maxed out/complete
3) Not enough events
4) The are banned

Here are some things I would at least try. I will provide reasoning to go with them.

1) Hire 2 more in game staff from 2 time zones. Requirements should be 5 days in which they hold events per week. This means that 5 days a week they log on and hold an event of some sort...if they do 5 in one day, it does not matter...they are still obliged to do 4 more days.
-Having 2 new staff would bring new blood and enthusiasm to recruitment etc. It might actually pressure some older staff to step up as well.

2) Increase maximum characters from 5 to 7.
-Old players would be able to make a new character and try a new race without compromising years of hard work on their other characters.
--This will bring more new characters(under 21) to the game. Having the older players running around Cove could benefit in having assistance for the real new players to Obsidian. This could alleviate the pressure from GMs and other staff.
---Send a mass mail to all forums accounts telling them that they have 2 NEW open character slots!
---If there are staff active with the under 21 group with fun events all over the world of Obsidian-taming events, monster bashes, dungeon crawls, etc. This would create enthusiasm and a reason to log on every day.

Even without the major patches implements, I believe these could be good steps to prepare for those patches. The more players online-especially older players training new characters-the better the testing will be for the new patches.
I would not recommend advertising right yet, of course. This would just be a small adjustments, that to me, just makes sense.

i think its a good idea

I like the idea, but im pretty sure Bob will not like em. As for the staff part.. BB told me that him and CV are planning on returning and suprising everyone by being active but i dont think they are. (told me this yesterday) Also for the 7 slots part, last time i asked that bob threatened to make it 4 slots (on my account lol)

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I like the idea of having 7 character slots.

I don't think it would make me log in any more often, but I'd use it when I start playing again (maybe when the weather gets cold?).

As for player base....I have my own opinions about why the numbers are low, and (if I'm right) more events will not necessarily mean more players, but at this point it couldn't hurt to try.

I love all the ideas.

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Shadow Hunter [Outkastz]
Hemlock [Outkastz]
Shadow [GWAR]

Yeh some good ideas, I doubt bob will like any of them, I've already told him from day 1 since the transfer he should recruit more staff but he seems to feel it is fine as it is, staffless.

I don't think events are the answer but there are some good ideas here. Tbh there has been a few good suggestions floating around here recently.

Unfortunately I think some of these here are a bit too drastic or radical, and as such - will not happen.

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Miner/Smith/Lumberjack/Carpenter/Cartographer
Alchemist/Fisherman/Tamer/Warrior/Daemon

Pretty much all good ideas in my opinion.
And im sure we could even find some older players who dont play anymore, but would log on just to be staff and hang out.
I REALLY doubt we will EVER get extra char slots, but it would be nice to be able to just have a noob char to run around cove and help the noobs, i would just delete mine when he turned 21 and start over anyway.

I don't see anything either drastic or radical here.

I also do not see why there would be a sticking point on having only 5 characters. There is no real work in implementing it, but selecting the option in a certain file of the coding and rebooting the server. And having more staff is hardly radical thinking...more like common sense thinking imho.

well i am torn on the 7 char slots...if i had that many, iwould be able to have about everything i need, i would be self contained. i would not need to buy anything at all.

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Falin(ROT)-Bully
Galen Soulhunter(Deamons)-Money maker
Cutler-Worker Bee
Hook(Daemons)-Mild mannered reporter/Tamer
Mr.Obvious-SUPER Crafter

When I say radical, I mean in that it would be such a significant thing to do. Sure it may be easy to do - and yes I would like another char but I cannot see it happening. And as Falin has just mentioned, for a lot of us we would then become almost entirely selfsufficient.

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Miner/Smith/Lumberjack/Carpenter/Cartographer
Alchemist/Fisherman/Tamer/Warrior/Daemon

thats because you would be able to play hours n hours n hours to get ur chars maxxed out...some people will still need help because they wouldnt have the time u have to be self contained.

In order for you to be self sufficient, you would need to log on more to train those characters...meaning more players online.
As it is now, I never see either of you online anyways...Tax or Falin that is.

lol i put my time in...ask my wife!

i really see no benifit in it, if you trying t get old ppl back...maybee you could get a couple...but if they arent on at all now..to test the new stuff we do have that there chars prolly do have they wont be putting time in to train a new guy...imo. i could care less if we had the extra slot, but hard time finding justification.

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Falin(ROT)-Bully
Galen Soulhunter(Deamons)-Money maker
Cutler-Worker Bee
Hook(Daemons)-Mild mannered reporter/Tamer
Mr.Obvious-SUPER Crafter

IMO old players like the old obsidian, extra char slots arent really going to help. If they don't play it is either because they just decided to move on without trying the new obs, or have tried it and either like it still play or they do not.