I would like to point out two things I think people should take into account. These changes will affect the entire playerbase and as someone has previously mentioned we should take into consider the various types of player. Yes there are wolves and sheep but there are also casual players and then there those who can spend 4-5 hours on at a time. To appeal to a greater number of players nothing should be tedious and time consuming, mining for instance is quite fun and the rewards are good for the amount of time invested. Mining beforehand could cause the involuntary and repeated appearance of words 'You are idle and are pulled into the void'.
Secondly consider that the only level part of the playing field are each characters stats, practicable skills and currently equipement. Unfortunatly there will always be a big difference between individual players levels of skill, balance will always be an issue. A bonus should be availble for those who earn them, be it through pk or rp, but they should provide a small advantage. The idea of small is of course open to debate but not here.
B)
Quests (aka things for sheep)
These are in the works and soon to be implemented. I agree with Chase on the point that they shouldn't be setup to allow qps farming. However if the player is asked to put in time and effort into completing a quest they should be justily rewarded, no matter how many times they may do it. Borrex put 6 hours into smobbing for a lot of top end eq for which I think he rightly deserves.
Sonea talked about an interactive world, this is a great idea but very difficult to create and maintain. One way to do this would be to see interaction between mobs and between cities. A day/night cycle effect for instance whereby by shopkeers are not there at night (having gone home) or perhaps a trade system between cities, whereby large amounts of ore sold by the player in baerlon create cheaper armor/weapons prices in Caemlyn. The trick here I think is to acheive a noticeble change in the game by the player/players over time.
Economy and Item Decay
Firstly item decay is as Evilina has said would be tedious and detremental to the great atmosphere we have here. I don't see an issue with the current levels of equipment we have, it allows the casual player, wolf, sheep or newbie to have a top end set without to much effort which is great for playability.
However we need some kind of money sink and I understand the easiest way to create some would to have players loose and then buy equipment. I've an idea for a fairly complicated tier system of equipment with features that would involve loosing/buying eq that I'll post up soon but atm i'm too tired to see all it's implications.
Other types of money sink are still viable but they need to be numerous, of varying price and they need to be something we want. People have posted a few idea's for money sinks here and elsewhere that are worth considering and I'm sure we can think of a few more. Throw away items ( e.g vials) are great but perhaps some more permanent items are needed.
Consider this, every clan has one room with a chest and their head mob. For a price of say 300 gold they may purchase another room up to a total of 4. Each room provides some form of a bonus. The money for each can be collected by the clan treasurer (mob) over time and can eventually be used to purchase a particular room. If rams were again used to break into clan rooms you could also add purchasable doors of varying strength.
1) Main clan room: Chest and Head mob
2) Garden room: Where clans can grow their own herbs
3) Clan stables: Where for 2qps they can purchase a horse (with a description written by the clan) that has say 10 extra moves.
4) Clan armorer: Retooled equipment availble, with perhaps 3 pieces per set (dodge, combo, abs) that would provide 1 extra pb, db or 1 less lb of weight.
Trouble here lies in finding bonus's that are small enough not to create a great advantage when used altogether but enough of one to make it worthwhile.
Has both, well one functioning atm.
