Bring back vanilla item level restriction

[Rhifox]

In the end, however, playing against the mechanics of the Server no longer is about Items or mechanical restrictions, it is about player knowledge. Eventually, an experienced player can meta the Content so that they could level from 1-30 with no mulling by playing blind, deaf and drunk.

But as Ewe recently posted, removing Item level restrictions just made it a farce.

+1

Honestly, most annoying thing I found when I first came here was that the level 1 area is undead, and thus invulnerable to the low level staple spell, sleep.

[Blame The Rogue]

to be fair, i feel that is something that needs to be addressed. why do we have 70% of our areas designed for lower level content, when level 30 is max level? imo, we have that backwards. anyone who plays long enough will have their main character level 30, and be looking for things to do. and with lower level dungeons no longer granting worthwhile treasure to epic characters, you end up with epic characters running out of areas to adventure, leading to boredom, leading to player exits. even if a player is a part-timer, they can achieve 30 in a year, and if they love their character, as many players do, they will play that character for years and years after reaching max level, and be looking for content

For a long, long time, in the history of this Server, it was the active concept to slow down leveling progression, so that we DIDNT have Level 30s being the majority of the PCs populating the Server at any/every moment of the day.

While I agree that it does make some sense to have more Areas suited for the longer “existence” of a PC, since it does simple take exponential time to level the higher one gets, I think it is also much more difficult to design and balance for Epic Level Areas, because really, the basic D&D mechanics that NWN2 is built upon are not very...functional...the higher you get. A PC just rockets to god-like power too fast, while some builds actually struggle, even though they are epic level.

Maybe we can look to the future after the Server Split that more Areas are put in at the higher level. But really, the game doesn’t offer that much challenge anyway because our toons are all essentially immortal, especially so AT level 30.

agree to disagree here. every time i've built a character and lean too much to the side of interesting, and too far away from the side of mechanics, they get stomped in epic areas

hopefully we do at least achieve a 50/50 split some day, in regards to content per level range. would be nice to have more areas to explore and adventure as an epic character

anyway, i feel a bit drifted off topic, my apologies. i still vote no on ILR

happy gaming everyone

[Ariella]

No point debating this really it can't be done. Well, that's a lie it could be done with a vault wipe or someone spending an obscene amount of time. When it was removed it was removed for good, returning it would require updating every item in existence and not just their blueprints but the individual ones you all have, it's just not worth it.

[matelener]

It's possible to code a custom ILR, affecting only the items you're trying to equip (not currently equipped) without too much effort. It could even be done by basing it off particular properties like +AC or +EB instead of gold value. Though, like I said before in this thread, personally I disagree with the whole notion.

[Theodore01]

Most items were good as they were.
Only SR items could need a change.

(Really don't care about some overpowered DM items a few 'favored' players have and other players will never ever get. They could hang these trophies over their chimney in the upcoming houses )

If anything, all it would require would be a temporary inventory increase to prevent item loss with a full inventory on logging in.

[Wolfrayne]

I dont see much of a point to this at this late stage of BG's life. its too long gone.

Now if you said to me "Hey lets split the server, go past the time of troubles, wipe the vault and set the level cap to 15" id be all for it.
Once you get to 30 and have some gear lined up there really isnt anything else to farm for unless you are a min/maxer and nobody cares about a show off

[c2k]

No point debating this really it can't be done. Well, that's a lie it could be done with a vault wipe or someone spending an obscene amount of time. When it was removed it was removed for good, returning it would require updating every item in existence and not just their blueprints but the individual ones you all have, it's just not worth it.

A vault wipe would solve a lot of issues.

But at the same time it would kill a lot of people's incentive to play a 14 yr old game. Its not even debatable.

[Steve]

A vault wipe would solve a lot of issues. Its not even debatable.

Everything is debatable!!! So says Steve the very unofficial speaker of the Forum!!! Hahaha. Zing!

But seriously, if one made a real honest list of the all the benefits of a vault wipe, then next column the negatives, then next column all the extras/considerations that could be given for a vault wipe, I think anyone with a desire for general improvement, would see the value in actually DOING a vault wipe.

I absolutely do not want to "lose" any of my digital toys. But if EVERYONE lost them? Sure, why not? My +5 Vorpal Pirate Elf Killer Scimitar of Adamantine Four-Elements Massive Crit Keen'd World Slayer doesn't make my Role-play one bit better, or more enjoyable, for anyone but myself. And who am I to stand in the way of progress?!!?

Would I be bummed that Jon Smythe was wiped away? All 24 Levels that has taken me over 4 years to get to? Sure. But if everyone else had to also re-roll-up their own Jons and Janes, fine, why not? Maybe my RP would be even more effective in a new environment where Jon Smythe far out skills and out-pwns any other PC from 21 or lower.

The only thing that would REALLY bother me with a vault wipe is remembering the face/skins/hair of my PCs. Always remembering what that is for my toons is just maddening when RCRing, or recreating.

I'd bet anyone a bucket of bucks that if there was a parallel BGTSCC server option that just showed up, where the Levels were maxed at 13, 15 or 20, and all the old epic/grandfathered gear was wiped clean, and the available gear was within below-current-power-creep zone, and all Areas were updated to support that new Level maximum, we'd see a boatload and even the majority of current Players migrate over there, to start a new experience without all sorts of baggage that currently exists.

Why not? Well, the true story here is no one wants to do the work! Cause yeah, A LOT OF WORK TO DO IT!

[Lambe]

BG power creep through the years.

1. Item Level Restriction removal
2. +4 item propagation
3. Mob difficulty increase
4. Epic stores availability
5. Loot drop changes

What else did I miss?

At this point I am of the mind to agree that a server wipe is the only way to bring things back to how it was years ago IF we actually want to go back to how it was. We don't need to. Just move forward, but let's try to avoid making any more decisions a few of us are heavily supporting only for the same people to leave the server in a few years, leaving their changes for the rest of us who stay to live with.