Introduction:

The purpose of this page is only to mention what can be improved in the game to make it more realistic...
There is also a DSO discussion newsgroup, where you will find some interesting posts about Dark Sun, with answers from developpers.
I'll try to add some new thoughts from times to times, either here or in the newsgroup mentionned above.
The current version is 1.6, which works great, and developpers are now designing and coding 2.0.

Experience.

I believe that it's too easy to gain experience, so somebody who knows the game can max. a character in but two days! 48.000 XPs for a pack of Vrocks (Dispel Evil+Prayer and they are gone), and 97.500 XPs for a bunch of Drakes in Demise (that you can petrify quite easily)... But this is only a personal point of view, I understand that some people prefer having powerful characters fast.

Monsters.

Well, if you don't want to lower Experience Points awarded, then create more fearsome monsters! Introduce Beholders with AC-10 and 100% Magic Resistance, with they Death and Petrification (etc.) rays, create Green Dragons who will breath poison gas so it won't be save by Energy Containment... The "abandonned town" is a good example of what can be done.

Encumbrance.

Here is a very non-realistic part of Dark Sun. How can people carry 65.535 arrows and 1.000.000 Copper Coins? If applicable, the maximum stack that you can do in a inventory slot might be related to the item (I understand that this will be hard to code, though). Arrows should be limited to 63 or maybe 127, and gems/diamonds to 255?
About CPs... I don't know what to suggest, as some items are very expensive, if you want to buy some copyable scrolls for Preserver spellbook, you will probably need several hundreds thousands CPs!

Preservers Spellbook.

Talking of spells, all Preserver spells should be available via copyable scrolls, but only few might be purchasable. Some Monsters, like Cult Leaders, should drop scrolls when killed. This could lead to interesting tradings between players, too.

Scrolls.

About scrolls, still, why can't thieves be allowed to use preserver scrolls (maybe with a percentage of success according to intelligence and level)?
Also, there should be some clerical one-use scrolls available (though, this might have been the original purpose of magical fruits)
Dispel Magic scrolls are a necessity for PvP (Yes, I know there are rings, too), so can't they be available in somewhere out of The Elven Caravan, like at Ibod?

Initiative and PvP.

Right now, if you start a PvP, your opponent will gain initiative and have it till end of fight. I understand that the attacked person might have a chance to flee in first round, but for following rounds, a roll for initiative might be done, with a random chance modified by react/adj bonus from Dexterity, etc.

Druids and PvP.

If you want to PvP and jump/attack/kill other players, you will oubviously want to be a Druid/Psionicist/Preserver. But Druids must be true Neutral, so they aren't supposed to PKill others. This is because Clerics are real wusses, due to the poor number of high-level spells they have, compared to Druids... The reason being that Athas is a land forgotten by the gods so Clerics can't have much powers. Well, Druids are taking their powers from nature and elements, normally, but nature has been destroyed in Athas, so why are they so powerful?
Cleric should have more powers, that will give people the opportunity to have powerful Lawful Good/Chaotic Evil characters.
Also, Druids should be solitary characters, and should definitely be single-classed. No demi-human multiclass should incoporate Druid, and even human should not be able to dual from or to Druid.

Spells.

There is much to say about spells, and it's one of the major theme of discussion in the newsgroup mentioned above.

Ironskin.

The Druid spell Ironskin is probably too powerful. Maybe magical weapons should be able to hit through Ironskin? Or maybe just +3 weapons? At least, that will give a chance to fighters in PvP, if they can have a chance to hit a Preserver/Druid through Mirror Image, Blink, and Ironskin...
On the other hand, maybe one good thing to do would be to "upgrade" Preserver's Stoneskin. It seems that I could never make it last more than one round, even if I'm not hit. Maybe if it worked exactly like Druid's Ironskin, there would be a chance to have powerful Good or Evil Fighter/Psionicist/Preservers.

Detonate.

Detonating items is not very fair, and that psi dicipline should be removed from the game. The only effect of it is that newbie players are just pissed and they'll more likely sign off after they had lost magic items a couple of times... All the more if they have been arrested and wiped by the guards a couple of times too.

Registered items.

One good way to prevent hacking/creating/duping items would be to create "registered items", like it was in Neverwinter with Pearl items. Most powerful items, more or less what are now "uniques", should be granted by staff as very exceptional rewards, to the exact character who deserved the prize, and absolutely non-transferable, even within characters of a same account...
Such items would be El's Drinker (or Vampiric sword), Belts of Strength, Boots of Speed, Robes of the pockets... Or some cool stuff to be created!
Otherwise, the same Neverwinter system of Pearls, or points, should be created here, so players could cumulate points till they reach the amount required to gain a specific item... Assuming that items will have a certain point value, like 20 points for a +3 sword, 40 points for Belt of Strength, 50 points for Boots of Speed, 100 points for a Vampiric Sword, etc.
Of course, this will encourage players to roleplay, too!
The only drawback will be a little more work for the staff as they will have to maintain a list of points and items awarded per players and characters.

Magical weapons.

Weapons are too powerful. Only +1 weapons might be sold, +2 weapons found as quest treasures, and +3 weapons registered items already. Everything else, like Rod of Teeth, Flame Sword, Vampiric Sword, etc. should be "Registered items" as explained before.
Athas should be a world where metal is uncommon and magic very rare, but everybody is overloaded with magic!

Fighting with two weapons.

Figthing with 2 weapons should not be so common, and fighting with two longswords doesn't seem very realistic to me (except, maybe, for a half-giant). If a sword is used as weapon, let only a dagger, a mace or a hand axe be a second weapon, well nothing that can do more than 1-6 damage (or a shield)...
And for those who decide to use 2 weapons, apply penalties decreasing with high Dexterity. This will force players to roll characters with a high Dexterity... So they will be obliged to have less Constitution and Wisdom, etc.
Maybe, to encourage players to use 2-handed weapons too, damage inflicted to "Large creatures" should be implemented, like (3-18) instead of (1-10) for a two-handed word.

Striking on multiple opponents.

In hand-to-hand fight you can't strike on several targets (which was possible in 1.0) in the same round so a mighty 15th-level fighter will take six rounds to defeat a pack of 6 tentacles. Fighter classes, at least, might have the ability to strike different targets in the same round!

Miscellaneous.

- Pants of Resist Fire are nice but they don't protect from Fire. I'm taking same damage walking in a wall of fire, with or without the pants. I tried several times, of course, to be sure.
- I'm using +3 bow and +2 arrows (Xorns are kind enough to drop plenty of), so that should be a 1d6 +5 damage, ie 6-11. But I often score under 6, so one of the bonus (I think it's bow) is not implemented.
- The way Dispel Magic works should be fixed. To resume, when as Dispel Magic is cast vs a Minor Globe of Invulnerability, it's only the Globe, and not "what is under", that should be checked to see if it resists. Why do other spells disappear to come back?

Quests.

We want more quests, more NPCs, more areas... More things to discover! And why not a new town?