Low level areas deserted...

[Steve]

The RCR bot is likely reducing the load in the starter areas. Most established players won't start from scratch when they can sack a toon they are not playing at start 10+.

This is also true.

In my opinion, if one has played on BGTSCC for at least a year, you've probably have 1–2 Level 10 + toons in your Vault. So, considering the current paradigm where Level 10 RCRs are at 100%, one has to make a real and conscious decision to start off at Level 1, or below Level 10, and thus at Level 10, your toon is literally above about 20% of the Server Areas (where I mean that many many many Areas are and have been designed for the minus level 10 crowd).

In other words, one can have a TOTAL EXPERIENCE of RP between the Levels of 1–10, if you wish. I bet, if you put some effort into it, one can even get DM storyline/campaign interest, for those levels.

OMG...what I'm actually saying is that a Player need not even consider getting above Level 10 to have a Real Fun Time!! Shocking, but true!!

[chad878262]

Often as players we can be or own worst enemy. Remember 6 months ago when many were threatening to stop playing if 100% RCR was taken away? Would we have any below level 30? Would new players want to play where pcs were changed out every other week? Who knows, but hard to imagine we would be in a better place than we are currently.

[Steve]

Remember 6 months ago when many were threatening to stop playing if 100% RCR was taken away?

Yeah, that was the biggest bull crap argument I had heard in years.

[Toxen]

Ive been levelling 2 new toons in the past few weeks.

Always met people in the low level areas. Even if I didn't search for them. Sure we weren't exactly the same level, but who cares. Was still fun.

One thing I do keep hearing from newcomers is that they have trouble finding out where to go. Especially those who decided to come to BG by boat.


Imo make a 100% copy of farmlands shop and locate it in docks, so that new players no matter which direction they took, will have a beginner shop right next to them when they join. So they can spend their 1000g on getting basic items.

Those beginner shops (since newcomers keep searching for them) should have that newbie tip where it says go ask those and those for quests..

And sometimes I see people being recommended to go the wrong direction, by people who TOTALLY forget what it's like to not start with full +2 or +3 item sets, cuz they had a char already... It's utter and complete suicide for a lvl 1 to go to the kobold cave fx. The only place I would go solo if I just started out would be north of Palace district. Even the graveyard is too rough alone.

All that can be overcome by finding 1-2 persons to adventure with tho, and I can see why people say lvl 1 players should have access to FAI.

However, I doubt they will find that many people who are wanting to go to the graveyard etc.



ANother really helpful thing for new players would be if the Quests said what CR the quest was. I remember when I started 3 years ago and went to the Island off Ulgoth's beard, thinking it would be easy since I got hte quest in baldurs gate. Nah insta death.


I'm not saying the game is too hard by any means, but people need to know where to go at what level and having a grasp of what their character can handle. This involves a lot of "learning by doing/dying" from the new players... Which frustrates a lot... So greater emphasis on having CR added to every area, and every single quest.

Also if beginner shops had items with just +1-3 hp on each slot that would help newcomers out a lot too, as those items are inexpensive by nature, but the small hp boost is a very large % of a new players total hp bar. (this we might have already im not sure) - An alternative to this is to cap the amount of damage that lvl 1 creatures do to 1-2 damage. But I feel the shop is a much easier way to do it as it requires very little effort from devs.

[Marathados]

Ive been levelling 2 new toons in the past few weeks.

Always met people in the low level areas. Even if I didn't search for them. Sure we weren't exactly the same level, but who cares. Was still fun.

One thing I do keep hearing from newcomers is that they have trouble finding out where to go. Especially those who decided to come to BG by boat.


Imo make a 100% copy of farmlands shop and locate it in docks, so that new players no matter which direction they took, will have a beginner shop right next to them when they join. So they can spend their 1000g on getting basic items.

Those beginner shops (since newcomers keep searching for them) should have that newbie tip where it says go ask those and those for quests..

And sometimes I see people being recommended to go the wrong direction, by people who TOTALLY forget what it's like to not start with full +2 or +3 item sets, cuz they had a char already... It's utter and complete suicide for a lvl 1 to go to the kobold cave fx. The only place I would go solo if I just started out would be north of Palace district. Even the graveyard is too rough alone.

All that can be overcome by finding 1-2 persons to adventure with tho, and I can see why people say lvl 1 players should have access to FAI.

However, I doubt they will find that many people who are wanting to go to the graveyard etc.



ANother really helpful thing for new players would be if the Quests said what CR the quest was. I remember when I started 3 years ago and went to the Island off Ulgoth's beard, thinking it would be easy since I got hte quest in baldurs gate. Nah insta death.


I'm not saying the game is too hard by any means, but people need to know where to go at what level and having a grasp of what their character can handle. This involves a lot of "learning by doing/dying" from the new players... Which frustrates a lot... So greater emphasis on having CR added to every area, and every single quest.

Also if beginner shops had items with just +1-3 hp on each slot that would help newcomers out a lot too, as those items are inexpensive by nature, but the small hp boost is a very large % of a new players total hp bar. (this we might have already im not sure) - An alternative to this is to cap the amount of damage that lvl 1 creatures do to 1-2 damage. But I feel the shop is a much easier way to do it as it requires very little effort from devs.

Sound advice! Appreciated!

[ARHicks00]

Reason why servers/areas go empty...

- Veteran players have made it to endgame and have not re-rolled new characters. Thus, this leaves new players on their own unless a veteran player passes through. (I tend to pass through low level areas to meet lowbies to start an RP session)

- Leveling takes too long or the areas are too hard for players to solo with certain classes causing them to leave the server out of frustration. (Rogues are pretty bad without HIPS in beginning)

- Money and items are so disproportionate that it takes weeks or even month to get the money for one item. This can cause player exhaustion and frustration, to which players may take a break or not even come back. (Currently, I'm on a break and I come back to see the updates ever so often)

- RP servers are not always RP friendly. Players want to get a feel of the game before they start devoting themselves to full time RP.

- Even though this game is cheap, a lot of players are only playing this game until a new better game come along or they are unbanned from another game they are currently playing. (Ex. Smite has a 30 minute down time if you leave mid-game)

- Present server has changed so much players become disinterested and look for greener pastures. They either go to another server or another game completely.

- A server may prove to be too strict or have too many nerf that players will leave for a server with less restrictions or nerfs.

- Lack of variety on a server. A server with a lot of elves and humans, but no orc, tiefling, etc. means players have less to work with when roleplaying. Same goes with classes.

[Toxen]

Just to compare the naked start with the fully equipped start:
My first char was a kama monk (yes probably one of the worst to start with). Was extremely hard, and after lvl 10 i had to settle for 10-15exp a kill because everything else was too difficult.

Today: Make a new char. Throw some items on it. Boom starts at 60hp instead of 10, with plenty of damage and ac. Ready to rekk stuff. On a char like this whenever exp goes below 20 my eyebrow would raise in anger and I would switch to a stronger area.

I didn't have that choice on my FIRST character, because it didn't have the gear and would simply die. But If I found 1-2 more adventurers I would be able to go to a harder area.

So for a new guy it's all about strength in numbers imo, and I can see why people would want FAI more accessible because of that. But as soon as you hit lvl 3 you should be able to reach FAI relatively effortless




One thing that was off putting for me when I started and for my friend who started recently was this:

On a very busy night the loadscreen put you off exploring. Which can be annoying when starting a new character and trying to find the quests, if you do not know where they are.

As a solution to this problem I wrote my friend a quest guide, totally OOC, and full of spoilers. That way he knew exactly what houses was actually worth 5mins of loadscreens, and could avoid those almost empty/pointless areas/buildings.

It did take away a few surprises - at least of where to find the quests. But for a man with full time job and limited spare time it was necesarry for him to actually play during busy evenings instead of just "waiting" or feel like he's spent most of the evening doing nothing.

And I do not want to change this thread into a lag thread, but I do think its worth mentioning to new players that the server is a completely different experience when it's half full compared to when it's filled to the limit.

Ultimately I think the most important thing is that we greet new players, answer all their questions, give them tips, but most importantly involve them in RP. The social aspect of this server, be it IC or OOC is imo the most important aspect here. We have some freaking nice and cool characters (and people), and as soon as newcomers get involved with others I'm sure the interest in staying will increase as well.



ARHicks00 you have some good points too, sorry I didn't adress any of those in this post, gotta go to work now.

[K'yon Oblodra]

Really very good points, aside from the low hp another problem is getting swarmed even if you have high enough AC to only be hit on crits you get quickly killed or run through tons of potions of you are fighting multiple opponents at once just due to the sheer amounts of attacks you'll have to endure while taking the enemies down.

The thing about not knowing where to go hit me very hard when I started a new char in Soubar cause I thought a Wood Elf shouldn't start in BG... Completely lost there .

The idea with the shop in the starting areas is really good and hp bonus items would help a lot.

Are there indicators of the CR of areas, where do I find them?

On the topic of RCRing toons, I have to say I always hate it when I get a character in any game that already is quiet advanced it just doesn't feel like he is my toon.

I love the development of the characters. The process of doing little things slowly advancing to more important ones just feels more natural than having someone that just starts killing dragons from scratch (exaggeration alarm).

Also the low level areas offer a lot of RP possibilities of you ask me.

Ive been levelling 2 new toons in the past few weeks.

Always met people in the low level areas. Even if I didn't search for them. Sure we weren't exactly the same level, but who cares. Was still fun.

One thing I do keep hearing from newcomers is that they have trouble finding out where to go. Especially those who decided to come to BG by boat.


Imo make a 100% copy of farmlands shop and locate it in docks, so that new players no matter which direction they took, will have a beginner shop right next to them when they join. So they can spend their 1000g on getting basic items.

Those beginner shops (since newcomers keep searching for them) should have that newbie tip where it says go ask those and those for quests..

And sometimes I see people being recommended to go the wrong direction, by people who TOTALLY forget what it's like to not start with full +2 or +3 item sets, cuz they had a char already... It's utter and complete suicide for a lvl 1 to go to the kobold cave fx. The only place I would go solo if I just started out would be north of Palace district. Even the graveyard is too rough alone.

All that can be overcome by finding 1-2 persons to adventure with tho, and I can see why people say lvl 1 players should have access to FAI.

However, I doubt they will find that many people who are wanting to go to the graveyard etc.



ANother really helpful thing for new players would be if the Quests said what CR the quest was. I remember when I started 3 years ago and went to the Island off Ulgoth's beard, thinking it would be easy since I got hte quest in baldurs gate. Nah insta death.


I'm not saying the game is too hard by any means, but people need to know where to go at what level and having a grasp of what their character can handle. This involves a lot of "learning by doing/dying" from the new players... Which frustrates a lot... So greater emphasis on having CR added to every area, and every single quest.

Also if beginner shops had items with just +1-3 hp on each slot that would help newcomers out a lot too, as those items are inexpensive by nature, but the small hp boost is a very large % of a new players total hp bar. (this we might have already im not sure) - An alternative to this is to cap the amount of damage that lvl 1 creatures do to 1-2 damage. But I feel the shop is a much easier way to do it as it requires very little effort from devs.

[slumpy]

It is the people who come here wanting to get involved that struggle which worry me, several people I have spoken to (new players) feel that they are unable to settle in / find their place, which is why the thread was started for new players (some good ideas in there)

What you also have to remember is a lot of our player base is made up of old and returning players, which are already in their mid 20s or 30s.

I am one such person, I have also introduced no less than 8 people to this server, so this is partially me recounting what they have said as well:

The players that have been around a while and really dedicated their time tend to form cliques. People like me who sort of come and go, are extremely inconsistent, are unable to really find their niche because the people who are consistent, tend not to mingle so much with those outside their social group (not saying there's anything wrong with that).

These are also the people that tend to get DM "service" the most frequently, which (unintentionally) leads to people feeling like there is an in group and an out group. Breaking into the in group seems like a fairly impossible task just from casually roleplaying in-game and not doing any of the extracurricular stuff like joining the forums, so I'm sure many simply shrug their shoulders and move on.

I've tried joining Guilds, and they were quite helpful and willing to involve me, so I feel like the above sentiment is primarily based on "feeling" rather than "how it is" in regards to the "cliques" and "ingroup/out group" stuff. Once you join a guild, a lot of those problems disappear, but then you also have to be able to play by the group's schedule, which is a whole other issue in of itself.

It's just sort of the nature of this server/game. If you cannot invest a good chunk of your spare time, you will spend 100% of your time spinning your wheels. I also think the levelling grind is.. Well, it doesn't help; Certainly not in today's video game world of instant gratification. It can be a real slog. My Dwarf warrior is at level 17 and whoo boy, the amount of work I am required to do to hit 18 just doesn't seem worth it - Mind you, I was unaware when I made the character of certain rules, like the XP being nerfed after multi-classing, I am a DnD newb - It will take months of grinding every day to get there. I just don't have that kind of time and levelling is as much a part of the game (for me) as the roleplay aspects. I understand why it's there, from a roleplay perspective, but from a pragmatic, real life perspective, I feel like it just gets in the way.

But I also feel like the grind actually works against roleplay in some respects, because people will feel like "well there's no point in roleplaying with my level 3 fighter so I'll just work on grinding out my next level instead" I saw this a TON on World of Warcraft RP servers, and frankly, it sort of killed RP on them. People are rushing towards getting to a point where they feel they can RP and not "waste" their time because their characters are too weak to participate in any significant way.

[K'yon Oblodra]

But I also feel like the grind actually works against roleplay in some respects, because people will feel like "well there's no point in roleplaying with my level 3 fighter so I'll just work on grinding out my next level instead" I saw this a TON on World of Warcraft RP servers, and frankly, it sort of killed RP on them. People are rushing towards getting to a point where they feel they can RP and not "waste" their time because their characters are too weak to participate in any significant way.

You know this is such an awesome point you make. It puzzles me why people keep thinking they need to be a certain level to properly RP. To me it really is strange to level a char to a certain level and then start RPing as it is like they developed doing chores and now are developing as characters.

Maybe that is because people think, okay my character is supposed to have levels in this class and that and to be able to RP these aspects of the character he needs to have these levels first but in reality these abilties can still develop while RPing or already be there without having the actual class levels just becoming more significant over times as they delve into these classes and the concepts of the classes.

But that is just my opinion.

Btw I am starting a new character on the surface at the moment and I have a level 6 character in the UD which could really use some company of equal level or way higher I really dont care .

The time zone thing really hurts especially if you do not have too much time to spend.

The DM attention I can't really say much about yet as I have only had time to be on for like 20 hours in the past weeks, which is really no timeframe to measure such a thing.

The merchant in the farmlands could really use the backpack of the hearthy was unpleasantly surprised I had to go back to maltz to get it .

[ColBigguns]

I literally just started playing NWN2 to hop on an RP server. I'm a total noob - level 2 right now - and I really don't even know where to go to level up, or who to talk to. I did the wolf pelt quest and the bandit stolen goods quest. Now I'm sort of just wandering around. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Planehopper]

I literally just started playing NWN2 to hop on an RP server. I'm a total noob - level 2 right now - and I really don't even know where to go to level up, or who to talk to. I did the wolf pelt quest and the bandit stolen goods quest. Now I'm sort of just wandering around. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

There are several non-combat/errand type quests in Baldur's Gate that you can pick up and move through, I think most of them start in the dock district (I could be mistaken, its been a while). It will be enough to push you up a bit.

The graveyard is probably good for you? Have you tried there? Gather a small group for the hilltop ruins?

Talk to everyone you see, if it fits your RP. Someone will show you the ropes and/or lead you to something fun. The game is a lot more fun with others.

[K'yon Oblodra]

I went into the bandit cave yesterday and was swarmed by 3 guys.

But it didn't even matter too much as the crossbow guy just landed a crit on me despite my AC of 21 and killed me outright with 15 points of damage.

The idea of lowering their damage output might really be something to consider, that way I could have healed with one of the many pots I had with me.

Is there a more friendly environment to level at first level without doing quests?

Back in the days the wolf's area was pretty good for that the current northern farmlands seem to be almost void of wolves.

[Invoker]

It puzzles me why people keep thinking they need to be a certain level to properly RP. To me it really is strange to level a char to a certain level and then start RPing as it is like they developed doing chores and now are developing as characters.

Maybe that is because people think, okay my character is supposed to have levels in this class and that and to be able to RP these aspects of the character he needs to have these levels first but in reality these abilties can still develop while RPing or already be there without having the actual class levels just becoming more significant over times as they delve into these classes and the concepts of the classes.

But that is just my opinion.

On one hand, certain classes and abilities conceivably need a lifetime to be mastered. Someone creating a lvl 1 fighter and RPing accordingly, and then being lvl 30 3-4 months down the line with, say, WM levels, suddenly having become "a true master of the art" in 25 mins is unappealing to some people.

On the other, some players don't want to play scrubs. If you want to play an exceptional individual, a character with rare gifts and very high skill level, you need two things: your character sheet reflecting that (as per server rules) and mastery over the environment (the ability to go everywhere/in as many places as possible safely, barred metagaming NPCs).

I found those to be two of the main reasons people grind first, and increase RP intensity as they reach the "comfort zone" that fits the RP they have in mind for their character.

And they're VERY valid reasons.

[dedude]

For me it's mostly wanting to be able to travel the main roads safely, and having enough defense/hp to run from danger instead of being insta-gibbed. Prior to that I feel like a wet noodle.