Solo Player Buff / Multiboxing

I am not sure the suggestions or feedback do a ton of good but I still think this is a core issue that could be improved. The population is basically more or less exactly what I predicted and expected after launch and I still have hope/wish the game could be more appealing to new players. I do not claim to know the inner workings of what can and can't be coded into the game but I think there is fundamental issues that can be improved or hope they can. I will make my main suggestion/feedback and then throw out some other ideas.

I think Realm has some charming features and qualities, but player population and grouping continues to be a huge issue. Players who do not run atleast 4 accounts will likely be at a large disadvantage. Even running 4-6 accounts is very grindy to chase end game/elusive items you would need to pretty much make Realm your main game and really put some time in. If you want to go for chase items or top tier items you need to be able to run caves efficiently that require grouping - which let's face it is mostly solo players running multiple accounts.

This is often confusing or frustrating to new players, or returning players who return to the game only to find that drop rates and current meta encourages strongly running multiple accounts solo. Sometimes I can run heroics for 5-6 hours straight with a full group and find maybe 1 item that excites me, imagine having to sell that and split profits with 2 or 3 other players. That's why no one groups.

Suggestion:
Buff solo play strongly, so that group play and multi-boxing is still top tier for those who invest the money and effort into doing it, but solo players can compete and progress through heroics in a more reasonable fashion.

Example:
Hunter's Boon - this level 4 sorcery spell is available to all noble citizens. When you are in a dungeon you will gain +500% HP, +400% Spell Damage +400% Melee Damage and +30% Mysticism Resistance. This spell has no effect in PvP or group play.

Theory: This would allow new and returning players who pay to be a noble citizen basically be as powerful as 4 characters in dungeons only. However, it would still have major drawbacks to groups. You can only take 1 action per round, its 4x strength not 6x (max group size) and it would likely still not be as efficient or good as a real group.

However, if a new player started playing the game I could look them in the eye and actually say - you dont need to run 4 or 6 accounts to be competitive wealth and progress wise, if you're smart and use a well rounded character you can still keep up to some degree. This may seem like a drastic change but I garuntee you plenty of people will STILL pay and play mutiple accounts while it will open up another avenue for people who only want to play one character.

I am saying this as someone who DOES play multiple accounts, can do it, doesn't mind doing it, but can't recommend the game to friends who have never previously played Realm for this reason. I have tried and its a huge turn off. Most players playing MMORPG's dont want to be told "well.. you can just play by yourself" when they are smart enough to know their progress will be a joke in comparison to others.

I also think the game could use some quality of life and transparency upgrades. Such as a NPC that will give you the directions or walk you to a dungeon for a small gold fee.

IE:
"Dungeon Master: "I can tell you the directions to Thieves Hole (level 30 recommendation) or for a fee of 500 gold coins I can walk you there."
Pay 500 gold > your character automatically walks the screens and uses TP NPC to go to the right town and stops at dungeon screen.
This is more advanced, I am not sure if this is possible but this would help a lot with new players who aren't sure where to go or what content is good for their level.

Kill tasks suggestions:
Weekly kill tasks for silvers / xp such as - kill 200 snakes and come back to me for 50,000 XP and 500 Silvers.

Dungeon / variety suggestions:
Create a rare/exotic dungeon that has a 1 in 500 chance to teleport you inside from any heroic dungeon. Such as "unknown dungeon". Have various spell books and baldrics drop there some good look, this would be very exciting if you are just plugging away at heroics and then randomly get the rare dungeon spawn every now and then.

In conclusion, I am not a game designer I am sure some of this would be difficult or maybe even impossible. But. If solo play was buffed substantially, we added easier and clearer ways for new players to interact/get to caves/learn where things are and we added some more kill tasks/rare dungeons/rare triggered events (rare bosses, rare dungeon proc,) it would go a long way toward making the game more marketable.

I also think if this game is ever able to be ported to mobile devices or cross platform, having a large solo play buff/boost like that would make a lot of sense again - even at 4x-5x power you can only take one action per round its still not gonna touch a 5-6 character group it will still be slower.

I have played solo on POOR since the game was made. I think this is an awesome idea. But I also think the ability to multibox in this game was a mistake that should of never happened. I know they like the money people give them paying for multiple accounts and such. But it just makes the game a RPG when it comes to hunting more than a MMORPG. Only MMO part is talking to people in group chat/trading/buying/selling to others. I'm sure SOME people group up from time to time. But not even remotely close to how often people would if there never was multiboxing. I know it isn't a popular opinion, but I just for one dislike multiboxing in this game.

I agree and disagree with people/new players not being able to gather wealth the same as multiboxers however. I have a pretty good amount of wealth and I never group or multibox. I tried to 2box with POOR(AIEW) and a orc warrior which I got to 3k and geared…But I dropped him pretty fast because it just left a bad taste in my mouth to do it. I don't know how a solo warrior/adventurer/thief would fair soloing, but a wizard does very well for a solo toon. I can solo every heroic/DP/HC/CoD/UG/Dig…Every single dungeon exclude ToD. I HAVE solo'd ToD but it was a large pain in the ass and I don't do it anymore lol. But I clear every other dungeon with no to very little deaths(Usually depending on MC or timing of dispels on certain fights).

Anyways my unpopular opinion would be get rid of multiboxing(I know, literally the entire game will hate this opinion lmao) and implement your idea to make solo players stronger.

I have played solo on POOR since the game was made. I think this is an awesome idea. But I also think the ability to multibox in this game was a mistake that should of never happened. I know they like the money people give them paying for multiple accounts and such. But it just makes the game a RPG when it comes to hunting more than a MMORPG. Only MMO part is talking to people in group chat/trading/buying/selling to others. I'm sure SOME people group up from time to time. But not even remotely close to how often people would if there never was multiboxing. I know it isn't a popular opinion, but I just for one dislike multiboxing in this game.

I agree and disagree with people/new players not being able to gather wealth the same as multiboxers however. I have a pretty good amount of wealth and I never group or multibox. I tried to 2box with POOR(AIEW) and a orc warrior which I got to 3k and geared…But I dropped him pretty fast because it just left a bad taste in my mouth to do it. I don't know how a solo warrior/adventurer/thief would fair soloing, but a wizard does very well for a solo toon. I can solo every heroic/DP/HC/CoD/UG/Dig…Every single dungeon exclude ToD. I HAVE solo'd ToD but it was a large pain in the ass and I don't do it anymore lol. But I clear every other dungeon with no to very little deaths(Usually depending on MC or timing of dispels on certain fights).

Anyways my unpopular opinion would be get rid of multiboxing(I know, literally the entire game will hate this opinion lmao) and implement your idea to make solo players stronger.

Good on you for sticking it out and finding ways to complete that content. Appreciate the response – I only want the game to be better but there is huge turn offs to stop any potential growth. A lot of older MMORPGs dont have quite the sales pitch issue Realm has, and I think a lot of the new content is great but not much focus on making difficult decisions to make the game more marketable.

For those who say Realm would never have more population – I ask you to go look at the most popular games in the world right now MMORPGs, look at the graphics for old school runescape and ask yourself why this game cant have more than a couple hundred players.

The graphics isn't the problem, turn based combat isn't the biggest problem - is actually appealing for mobile and tablet devices. The issue is the lack of clarity for new players, lack of quest and achievements/other quality of life content, and the balance issue around group play and multi boxing *in my opinion

I still think with a lot of tweaks/improvements in these areas and some advertisement and leaning into the historical significance of this game the player base could grow. The question is could the game and servers handle it? The game itself I can handle but the lack of population and demand for items in the economy is crushing this game.

The economy in this game with every company has been historical in failing after they own it for so long. always has happen and always will I believe. This company has done a better job than most in trying to keep it from failing so fast. But will end up failing like it always does.

The servers has and should still be able to handle at least 1000 players as it has had in the past. Not sure how many it can cap at if any cap at all. But it is far from the playerbase it can get to or has in the past.

The biggest issue for this game as far as having low population is advertisement. It just isn't being put out there the way it should be in the places it should be. It could grow a lot if it was advertised more. I do agree the game needs a lot of work towards achievements system and questlines. That would help a lot I believe in bringing and keeping players. Why it hasn't ever had that aspect worked on in its long history is beyond me. They have added a lot of content which is nice, but I believe it would be beneficial for them to put a little more time into developing a achievement system and questline storytelling.

I appreciate the conversation here, all.

Like POOR, I also play solo so I try to find ways to make it doable for my type of player (me). We introduced dungeon scaling because of this although it's a tough line to dance between balancing for solo versus punishing people for more characters.

In our upcoming seasonal server, we will be greatly reducing the group size permitted (and are considering disabling grouping all together) which I think should bring a fresh spin on the game.

I hope to see you guys there!

I appreciate the conversation here, all.

Like POOR, I also play solo so I try to find ways to make it doable for my type of player (me). We introduced dungeon scaling because of this although it's a tough line to dance between balancing for solo versus punishing people for more characters.

In our upcoming seasonal server, we will be greatly reducing the group size permitted (and are considering disabling grouping all together) which I think should bring a fresh spin on the game.

I hope to see you guys there!

I appreciate your response and knowing that you checked it out. To be clear I am grateful this game is around to play and I think the heroics and a lot of this content has been a very awesome upgrade to the game. I don't pretend to know what resources are available or how long it would take to go unity > mobile, etc. I am sure its all very difficult and time consuming and pretty much a miracle as a player who hung around through many lean years with 0 content added.

I will definitely check it out and with trying to not be 'negative' I am a bit concerned to see such a small community further divided up on other servers/time bound content. I will reserve judgment to see what the announcement is and what the rewards are! Happy Holidays :)

I can say most dungeons doesn't take to long as a geared AIEW. I even timed myself with DP using that old 3000 geared orc warrior with STQ and AR 3+ all the trinkets with POOR 2boxstyle vs just POOR alone using mass zerk/poison barrage method with ill foes on bosses, POOR cleared it solo 6 mins faster than when I 2boxed it lol. Death Touch makes HC fast as hell now, so its a quick run. CoD is also fast run(exclude the rock boss fight, hate that fight lol). All Heroics are easy/fast runs. UG/The Dig are both decently fast runs(they long dungeons lol). So as far as solo AIEW go, they are a great solo class.

I also will add that AIEW in full master WW or WL set with assassin jewelry set on and fP or WN or FoH fore weapon are very powerful with AIEW getting 30 dex with all that on. I also prefer HoK over master helm for the extra 1k hp and defenses because we only have 10k hp lol. But with PW shield on, we can take a hell of a beating lol, especially with full master WL set over WW.

@Gimili Sounds awesome to me!