Proposed Duel Changes.
Fighting zero motivation duelers?? I never knew we were the enemy.
I started playing the West on world 7. I was here when this game boasted 300,000+ players on the English server.
In those days (when the game was immensely popular) each player type had a definite roll to play within a town to make it prosper.
Duelers/soldiers were defenders of the players in their towns and later in their alliances. Posses would be formed... and wars declared on enemy towns that would come raiding.
Builders were vital to each town, as the shops they made could give its members the best selection of weapons and clothes*. They also could contribute to the ranking of a town through their building efforts.
*This vital part of the game has slowly become a redundant feature due to many new clothing sets replacing 90% of items that the shops provided (and the ability to get 'rare' items, that have now become very common...)
((Personally I like the new duel clothes... but there must be a way of incorporating them into the game without them replacing so many of the great items in the shops)).
Adventurers were the cash givers, who usually accessed high paying jobs and brought in the cash to make a town grow.
Each player had a role to play... in order to make the town function effectively.
I love this game... but I can see that some changes to it over the years has alienated each character class from its dependence on one another.... to the point now where it seems a town needs not band together to overcome the 'enemy' towns....
Instead it has become a 'fort fighters can no longer abide with having duelers around' mentality i.m.o. (Or... every character for themselves...).
Kinda silly... as the original draw of this game was the ability to duel... not the ability to fort fight. Look at the intro blurb on the West log-in page if you doubt me... "Discover new lands, experience exciting adventures and duels! The West awaits! "
Anyway... Why should these two great parts of the game (dueling/fort fighting) be so opposite to each other? They both result in players' getting Ko'd, losing health and money??
The developers had a role in creating this alienation of these 2 facets of the game by making fort fighting skills different from dueling skills. Why not make these skills the same? In fact... why not make dueling skills require more than just aim/shoot and dodge... or back in the day of resistance fighters... vigor/toughness/reflex/aim??
If forters needed the same combination of skills as a dueler needed... then they would fare much better in defending their towns adventurers and builders.
The future of dueling?? Looks pretty bleak with the proposed changes...
The whole West map is already a duel area... why contemplate making it smaller? It is fine the way it is.
Npc dueling is dull. Dueling a real human who can telegram you... either to appreciate the good challenge... or to complain about their loss and inform you about their unique brand of ethics... is way more fun.