more noble slots (groan)

[astronamika]

Okay so I know I've been goofing, bugging Ghed to open more than 9 noble slots so nobody's the odd man out forced to play musical extramarital affairs, and the joke answer back is always "just kill one off."

But I was considering, with the game shifting towards soft PVP, PVE, PK changes, and staff tossing ideas around about what to do with mage slots being full up, will there be similar consideration given to nobles? Mundane nobility generally didn't die last time I played, and I hear PK has gone way down since that era. We could potentially get stuck with a static cast of players for a very long time.

Would it be the worst thing to allow people to openly apply for nobles, and just have more rigid criteria with regards to approving the applications?

Or allow people to apply when nobles are closed for QP, similar to buying latency? I understand part of the reason for limiting applications is so that we aren't churning and establishing a bizarre number of historically-significant characters as people realize noble roleplay isn't a princess fantasy - a significant QP investment would make people stop and think if they really wanted to roll one, and maybe the sunk cost would encourage them to stick with a slow-starting character until they find their feet.

My pitch is: When noble slots are closed, allow people to pay 50-100qp to send in an application with the caveat that it has to be one of the family members outlined at the bottom of the 'help domain' file, or an attached social noble (no house swapping) and they have to come in with some kind of active roleplay hook.