[Snake]

Or you know. A verb like in DU that tells where people are in the game.

Like "where-is-everyone"

And then an input appears with:

X people in Sigrogana.
X people in Kysei.
X people in Lispool.
etc

[Nanovelich]

I hate to say it, because I'd very much like to see more roleplaying hotspots than the primary two we have now, but I agree with Soapy and Spoops. Restricting movement is going to have the exact opposite effect of what you'd want. What I want to add to this topic though is to point something particular about Cellsvich out that does actually make it stand out a bit from every other town we have in the game, aside from it being the starting town and all:

There is a very obvious center of town in Cellsvich, which everyone gathers around even if they're slightly distanced away from it and sitting under a tree.

Every other town does not have a center. They're very asymmetrical, which makes them more interesting, but it also makes the commonness of any type of 'gathering' there less likely. There's nowhere in particular you'd look to see if someone's loitering for RP in Lispool, and in return, there's nowhere in particular you yourself would loiter to show your interest to people who might stumble upon you.

In comparison to Cellsvich, try to name the primary place you'd expect to run into anyone in any of the other towns, without relying on obvious game mechanic spots like the blacksmith in Law's End. With Cellsvich, it's immediately the fountain, because it's directly in the center. Even if it wasn't already the go-to, it's just incredibly likely you'd be close to it anyway. On the other hand, you have towns like Tannis and Lispool where there isn't really a single obvious spot (not counting indoors, if you want to point out the church in Lispool), and towns like Oniga and Chatarunga, which are too large and have too many areas you could try to point out for it to be easy enough to find anyone there.

Dormeho is the closest you really get, but that's a case of its own. (Too much navigating the place like a tree with its layout.)


Point being:

No one wants to sit around with a near 0% chance of being found by anyone if they're actually interested in roleplaying with the first person to come along. Cellsvich wins by its geography, in addition to everything else that already puts people there.

Or you know. A verb like in DU that tells where people are in the game.

Like "where-is-everyone"

And then an input appears with:

X people in Sigrogana.
X people in Kysei.
X people in Lispool.
etc

I can get behind this if it can be done with what's already in place in the game.

[Neus]

I think having world events happen there would also contribute a bit.

[Ahalaniel]

Migrating foot traffic to towns via inconveniencing players is a terrible idea.

I agree that Cellsvich's layout helps make it the dominant hang out area. It's a very dense town, so it's extremely convenient to use, as opposed to some others (Looking at you, Lispool). Other towns both lack a center and are quite spread out, so I don't see them getting much use unless people go out of their way to use them. Players will always favor the most convenient town - look at every MMO in existence for evidence of this.

However, I don't think it's everything. Changing the towns might be rather hard at this point, also, and the "being spread out" issue doesn't have to be solved to help with the problem. Personally, I'd do two things;

1) Add some sort of small, dense "town square" area to existing cities. Add decoration (like Cellsvich's fountain - i.e statues, greenery, whatever.) and places for people to stand - benches, empty spots under trees, whatever. And put these areas between the mage's guild and the nearest town exit - these absolutely have to be put somewhere that there is going to be guaranteed foot traffic.

2) Bring attractions to that part of the map. Right now, Cellsvich is near everything - mostly the beast invasions and the arena. The arena being a big one. Perhaps either add new, different arenas, or come up with other ideas for minor locations - like the "world event" idea mentioned above. Something combat related, that could give daily rewards - giving people even more of a reason to traverse the map? (Maybe a "show up and help train our guards/combat trained dolphins/whatever, and we'll give you a reward every day you help out"? Or even, "Help out with our summoning research by guarding us from whatever we might randomly pull from the Plane of Giant Mutated Terrifying Death-Creatures? - 2-4 player quest, fight a daily boss for currency you can spend at our shop for cool things!&quot

Just my thoughts. With both of those, you'd definitely start accumulating little groups in the other towns.

EDIT: I also want to point out that the Arena is an invaluable tool for dungeon clearing. The Inn is less than a dozen steps away from the zone entrance - it seriously could not be more convenient. Just something to keep in mind when thinking about getting more use to other regions.

[Soapy]

I think having world events happen there would also contribute a bit.

I can see why you'd get that idea, but the vast majority of players participating in world events are OOC.

[Ahalaniel]

I think having world events happen there would also contribute a bit.

I can see why you'd get that idea, but the vast majority of players participating in world events are OOC.

I think the important consequence of more world events is getting more people moving through other areas of the world.

[Soapy]

I guess we'll see when/if it happens.