About Roleplaying:
You're already playing a 15 year old game; likely on a PC built either by you or the local Bestbuy nerd. You play in a land of dragons and unicorns and Roleplaying is the point which is TOO much for you? Is it really so difficult to throw in a few thees and thous and cut out the 'rolfstompedlol' bullshit? Try it out. It’s fun.
As for teams - glad that 3 teams are confirmed. I can see the pros and cons of both Deity and racial teams.
I'd suggest keeping each team unique in some way. Each team should have strengths and each should have weaknesses. This is where true checks and balances can come in. I don’t believe giving all three factions all classes to be very engaging. It seems lazy. We certainly shouldn’t give all factions the same races either for the same reason.
Race plays just as important a role as class as they each have their benefits and detriments adding to the class (a troll shaman vs barb shaman comes to mind). I believe it should be added to the list of consideration. We also should remember that when we go race based; we’re eliminating some of the evil character’s detriments (not being accepted in most cities).
It goes without saying that each faction should have their own language starting off. I’d recommend either turning off direct tells or OOC, but not both. That way some organization could be set. I’d also feel that OOC should not be serverwide.
Perhaps parsing /who to your faction only. That way you don’t know if you’re running into a bee’s nest. (this would eliminate the need for /anon or /rp) – That way when Faction1 and Faction3 are on their way to Trak they don’t know that the other is on their way as well.
An interesting note; Enchanters/illusions working as intended as illusions with either a shorter timer or a greater chance of failing midway through the illusion. Have see invisible see through illusion – or add a spell which does this as well.
There are several ways we could split teams. Each of these could be their own type of split or a combination.
Classes – each faction gaining some benefit of a class only they can choose. (Monk, Shaman, Necro, Paladin, SK, Druid, Bard come to mind)
Alignment- No ‘good’ SK’s or necros, no Evil Paladins (although you could argue evil paladins with evil clerics), Neutral Monks, druids, rangers make sense.
Races – Without running over what has already been pointed out with other races; what about Iksar being the FFA race? They ostracize themselves and wouldn’t fit in to ‘evil,’ ‘good’ or ‘neutral’ categories. Perhaps a second pull, besides FFA, to this group would be the release of additional classes that were hardcoded later on (beast master comes to mind)? *Note, the last part is REALLY stretching it – I know.
Terrain/Location – this plays a huge factor on how early someone gets into PVP. There are multiple schools of thought here. Personally I like the idea of early PVP (short races vs. elves come to mind as an example). PVP is paramount and there should be the threat of PVP even at level 1.
Population – population shouldn’t play too much of a factor. Although most people gravitate to darker races on the current PVP server; if granted enough incentives for the other factions this should balance out.
Faerie said it best: there is always going to be one dominant group that rises to the top. I have a suggestion for this. If it becomes overwhelming; perhaps two of the factions could ally and attack the third overpowering faction? Perhaps incentives could be given for this?
For any server to really work direct involvement from management is going to be paramount. But at the same time the COMMUNITY needs to assist in taking care of itself. Shunning toxic players; stepping up and policing policies when staff is overwhelmed; in force if need be.
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