Yrk
Gifting was just really nice, you know. When I first arrived on the island I saw all these things going on and was a bit nervous, and felt like an outsider, especially as this was the first MMRPG that I'd ever played and I didn't really have a clue what was going on. Well I still enjoyed playing, but when I was gifted armour from someone it made me feel welcome, it was really good.
Unfortunately this has the problems we all know about. Suddenly there's no challenge for newbies, which leads to boredom etc. This to me is a bigger problem than req transfer. I was never going to be top of the score boards, I spent more time mucking about than actually playing the game: someone getting an unfair advantage never bothered me, although it will bother some people.
Anyway, the point is that gifting gives a nice feeling to the game. Made it good for me, anyway.
I imagine that gifting between alts has been barred, otherwise there's going to be someone with an alt that never does anything at all except receive and give gifts. They'll be able to absorb all the disadvantages of carrying a huge amount of stuff, by never actually carrying it anywhere anyway. Don't know. No good ideas. I'm still thinking about it. You may be getting a page full of idiocy on the subject from me soom.

Cantankerous

Ooookay, moving back to the original topic of New Ideas;

Would it be possible for the Island to have its own weather system?
I know this sounds odd, but just hear me out.

Each New Day, there would be a little thing along the lines of "You look up, and see it's a beautiful day/raining/snowing/fountaining gravy." It would be the same for everyone on the island.
Each of the weather patterns would have different effect on different creatures/races.
Rain would give Kittymorphs less travel, but higher attack buffs.
A sunny day would "demoralize" mutants; lower attack but higher defense, or something like that...
Snowing... well, we could have snow-ball fights with that.
Fountaining gravy would make it more likely to run into a food-related monster in the jungle.

Just an idea, could be expanded upon, but possible?

I enjoy the idea, but just for the sake of having more to build upon in the cities, you know? Having it as a gameplay mechanic would be interesting to see, but I'd be content with it just saying on random events every once in a while in the outposts, "The square of Improbable central has been blanketed in a thin layer of ivory snow. Some civilians are wandering about, hunched over with coats pulled tight and breathing out hefts of steam," Or "You enter the outpost and are greeted immediately with a thorough drenching from the downpour that's decided to hang out, right above (Insert outpost name here.)"

Just for the sake of something changing to make the outposts a little more dynamic. I've made it snow and rain several times before, just for the sake of it being something interesting to talk about, and people generally take it from there. I think it'd be nice to just have a generator that changes the outpost description every once in a while to include the weather.

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"You saved Pineapple!"

I was just thinking about weather today.
I think it'd be a great idea, just as the flavor when you go to an outpost.
As a game mechanic I think it might be a little too complicated.

Back off the subject to gifting, allowing altruism but discouraging cheating. Well first of all, do what you're doing, keep an eye on it and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
However if it does become a problem, then perhaps the items that could be gifted could be restricted. Beer in the Spiderkitty for example won't help anyone with storing req, as it has to be consumed there and then. No chance of stuffing your pint in your backpack and trying to sell it on a week later. Is this giftable? Maps are safe also, can these be gifted? Cigs likewise, they're kept through a drive kill and so there's no need to swap them around in an effort to keep them. Anything else? Perhaps medipacks could be used on another player, as opposed to just being gifted to another player? That way they can't be converted into req. That sounds like too much 'players having to be in the same place at the same time' hassle though.
Maybe things could be made so that once an item has been gifted, it can't be sold/gifted on, only used?
Cigs might be a problem. If they can be bought and sold, and can be kept through drive kills, then that's the obvious way to keep req through drive kills. Might be better if these were off the market altogether?
Just some ideas to play with.

Cantankerous

New thought for the new clan system;
Clan wars.

An easier way for clans with less members to gain control of cities.
Way it works;

Clan 1 challenges Clan 2 for control of City A.
Clan 1 members and Clan 2 members PVP (or whatever the new system is; if this doesn't work, ignore it...) it out; one member cannot be attacked more than once in, say, 10 minutes.
Clan with most enemy clan kills wins; gains control of city, cannot be challenged for... 5 days, say.

Also; Clans could have Req banks, as well as ciggy.
Total clan req could be used to buy upgrades (more members/buffs, price ups each time, of course...), or maybe donate to cities to control.

Either of these ideas sound good?

Hmm, I think I know what you're getting at here, but I don't really like the sound of it. We came close to having wars over PvP and again over the Councils, and I, for one, would rather not do anything that's likely to introduce Drama to the game.

Frankly, I would rather have nothing at all to do with the Councils, and in the future I won't. . .

I agree with Hermein, here.