69 Xp System....the 10398439483954 time

Posted by Mandarb on 07/19

hmm...i think i heard someone say the main problem with this system. Their is just not enough incentive. The rewards for 50 or even less when you start hitting the hard parts just aren't enough. Is it really worth, and this is figurativly, 10 hours of my time or more even, to get 1k more rent space? Maybe to you, but not to me. I understand i'm thought of as a say, "chronic complainer, but i don't think this can be justified as such. This, for me, of almost 3 years on legend, the BIGGEST offesive against anything implemented. The fightsystem was fairly big...but even after just a few weeks it was accepted. This has been in at LEAST a month, if not longer, and its still nowhere close. I know you strive for balance and what not, but isn't the #1 goal to please the players? We're here to have fun, and without balance, it won't be fun, given, but if their is this much opposition and this many people feeling so strongly against the high level xp, i have to think that their must be some truth to what their saying. Half the people i see appending i've never seen complain, bitch, whine, or anything about changes or desecision made in the past. I've been told in the past if you present your thoughts and such in a respectful way that they will be thoughtfully considered. I've seen so much constructive critisism, i can't even remember it all. We are trying our best to get you to see this the way 90% of the high levels see it. Crap. Before the xp changes, i pkilled, but not really that much. How about now? I kill now because i'm so bored with xp, something i used to do when bored, that i just pkill. The rewards are great, to me, and its fun. Do i still like mobkill? Yep. Do I do it anymore? Nope. Its just not worth it. To get 20-40k for an average mob when you need, now, 50mil to unclan, is ridiculous

I'm not saying i'm right, but with so many people backing this issue on the side of change, won't you even consider trying to fix it? I'm sure if you asked for ideas, you'd get plenty. To me, it doesn't seem like you want to change it. You've decided its right and that its not negotiable. You defend it, but, though their may be one, i can't remember one time someone said, "wow, thats a good idea, we should consider that." It just seems like a waste. So many people have left already, some before they gave it a chance, but most after. I think you care, but you've decided your right and theirs no changing it. I hope I'm wrong, because this mud is one of the most popular, with all these awards and such, and most of your players love it here. It was my first and will always be my favorite, but if this isn't changed soon, i think i'm done. I'm sure the majority of you don't care, but another one bites the dust eh?

Oh, and one more thing to append about Rufus. You want the difficulty to be harder, but i want you to think about something. At level 10 lets say, you need something like 80k to level. My level 10 sniper leveled in less then an hour for sure. Now, getting 2-3k a mob, thats about right i'd say. But now think on this. A level 47 needs something like 1.2mil to level, and averaging lets say 30k, thats not really a great deal of mobs, but here lies the problem. Some chars, and depending on the mob type, can only kill say 2 or 3 of those 30k mobs before they have to heal again. No biggie. A level 10 can kill say 5-10 of is and have to heal. Healing is the main problem here. It takes my 45-50's 10-30 min to heal. It takes my level 10 5 min tops. If you walk around with a healer, your xp is drasticly reduced so in the long run either one is about equal. I don't know how to fix it, but its a problem. I've rambled alot here, inspired by the 4 or 5 other posts ahead of this one about the same topic. Just consider changing the top levels please? Its obvious most of us like what you did with the low ones, but the high ones are just sick. Good Luck, and flame away, i can't wait...

-Mandarb

From: Ea! Sunday, July 19, 04:26PM

First off, we're always open to suggestions on ways to improve the system.

Currently, I think it's pretty good. The complaint that things are boring for people who are high levels is a comon one, and understandable. There are a few changes that have been suggested and that we're working on. First, there are still a lot of mobs out there that are only 20k xp that should be worth more. Second, the way things are currently setup, quests and xp rooms are a lot more valuable at low levels (1 xp room, will on average, get you a lot further along the path from level 1 to 2 than it will from level 49 to 50).

There are a few problems with many of the suggestions that we've received. Most of them include increasing the xp for high level mobs. This will, no matter how you cut it, make it easier to power level at the middle levels (unless you only increase it for mobs that need large groups -- and we've done a lot of that, and we'll be doing it to more mobs as we can.)

As for healing rates, and I know this must be beginning to sound like the party line, why not look into finding someone to heal you?

One way to aliviate boredom (and I understand it's not for everyone) is to take the high levels and worry less about leveling and more about developing your character's personality and RP.

Again, I'm not trying to discourage discussion, we are interested in ideas that players have to help eliviate the boredom of high levels and I know that there are a few more areas in the works for high levels to go and play in.

-Ea!

From: LadyAce Sunday, July 19, 04:35PM

I'll let the coders handle the majority of this, but I thought I'd stick in a small comment...

The system isn't perfect right now. We are still working on changes in the code and in the areas. I know the improvements are not happening as quickly as you would like. I think that we're mostly in agreement that top levels are too harsh (how much too harsh, and what aspect of the mud is to blame, is still not agreed-upon) -- it's the solutions that we're working on at this point, not arguments. We're not trying to be unresponsive, but we do have a number of projects in our hands right now. The more specific you can be with mob names, for example, which seem out of balance, the better. It's our job to fix things up, but if you help us do our job, we'll do it faster and better, almost guaranteed :).

-LA

From: Agni Sunday, July 19, 07:02PM

I've mostly resorted to mobkilling even with my pk-enabled chars, because mob-killing was quite worthwhile since it enabled me to get down and dirty without having to worry about perma'ing.

Now although it does exactly the same as before, the fact that you have to kill more to get the same benefit, and the fact that you have to be constantly killing (instead of waiting for repops, which allowed me to jump/duel pk-enabled chars, now you have to be constantly active) really has deterred me from mobkilling too much.

I understand the powerlvl issue, but maybe by having a code that gives extra xp for perfectly matched chars (not groups with them in it--have the lvl 50 chars be present in the room, similar to the grouped sniper killing things from another room) and have that xp disappear if not fighting a perfectly matched char. So, a lvl 50 mob will be worth what they are to non lvl 50s, but they'll be worth, say, twice as much to a lvl 50 char? That'll bring up the average of lvl 50 mobs to 40k, which is still less than half what they were worth, but still in the same ball-park (almost 10 kills to recover from pk death-- same as before) as the system before. I guess that'll mean that number of perfect mob killing will be reduced to 1250, but there could be some reasonable curve in the extra xp for perfect match that will bring it up a bit more. (seeing as to how lvl 1 chars have their targets limited to just about perfect matches anyway)

Agni