I think the problem has a lot less to do with total time to do a climb.
Its more about not enjoying the time spent for a number of reasons.

1. Game play is too complex to be a very basic game, but too basic to be anything more. Its stuck in this weird place. I think changes to things other than the game play would have been better. For example prof system was good, forced to drive in catacombs not good. Updates to skills like fishing/glyphing are good, adding graphics to catacombs not good. And no one can forget MCC of course. It added complexity without adding complexity, if that made any sense.

2. Very little reward in this game even after thousands of hours. More item drops will change the economy even more. So maybe giving rewards that are not item based is the way to go. I still think it would be cool to see a random stat given for every climb done. A semi permanent stat that only resets when the ladder resets. So for example you climb and fail, randomly you are awarded with +1 quick draw. Next climb it might be +1 mana regen. List of extra stats are publicly shown so people can compare on the site. Again these extra stats add up and only reset when someone resets. Other ideas with guild points are also very good.

3. The game has a steep cost to play. Im not talking about gear even. Vault was optional before the well was only in catacombs. Now vault is a necessity. With this game only draining FG and not giving any(trading doesnt give any, just balances a +/- for two players), there is only so long someone is able to support themselves without playing a different game or spending money. Most people decide to play something else which doesnt help the lack of players problem.

The list goes on of course, but I think these are the biggest three problems for me.

This post was edited by KakeWalk on Jul 28 2013 10:52am

i make plenty of fg in this game.between trading, selling skillables and fishing i have built a very nice set of gear for myself. the only time i truly ever lost money was on a dagger set i bought. lost about 1.2k on it

edit: plenty of fg: dont look at my current, just upgraded my lite set with 1.1 k fg

This post was edited by klinezerokilla on Jul 28 2013 02:55pm

I have got about 100gp in this game, not going past Monk, and had to get some kind of income coming from another game or buy FG. Yes, you can make some FG from this game but not much at all unless you are really lucky on drops. Very hard to sell items right now because no one plays, and 1fg skillables will probably get the newcomers to vet level in 20 years as long as they never use vault.

lol no.. never in my life.

maybe when i was teaching you the game.

Some very solid thoughts and ideas in there, could use more tweeting, but great start!

This game is vastly different then it once was long ago. With Paul making some of these updates and changes, it brings Ladder Slasher to a whole new level of games that it is competing against; and as sadly as that is Ladder Slasher has fallen behind in many aspects. I bolded what I thought was THE most important issue with this game in its current state. You will spend countless hours of Climbing and Skilling and barely make a mark on the Proficiencies Ranks. There is simply not enough reward for your efforts in this game. Even with Weapon/Charm proficiencies, you get 1% EE per rank level? But Yet it takes Countless hours of climbing/solo play to go from rank 20 to 21 and so fourth, even if you do get that 1 rank, you virtually only get the satisfaction of getting that next rank; face it 1% EE will not make or break a setup. Look at SZSZ for another example, transmuting 99.9% of his time on Ladder Slasher for the last 3+ years, and still not max rank (makes me want to start transmuting I thought with heavy sarcasm). Even if SZSZ did get Max Rank at 3 years, that is only 1 of 23 Proficiencies that he has maxed out. That is not good statics at all by any measure for any game.

Over the last few years of me slashing, I have tried to voice my opinions. Making thoughts/ideas polls and threads, to which were seemly ignored; except by my fellow slashers. I am done posting those threads; because Im 99.9% sure that those ideas, no matter how much more enjoyable it would have made the game and game-play, it would still never be implemented. It is a shame that Ladder Slasher has gone down this road. Even with a few quick updates, this game has the potential to be a very enjoyable game, and could bring in loads of new slashers.

Agree the MCC add a factor of challenge and experimentation that the current game doesn't really have.

I might play again if arena is back/well in town

MLK had a dream also...LOL

Alot of people will play again if that happened but last i heard Paul said it will never happen.

This will become a Myth and all the oldtimers will tell stories to the newbies about it.