Monthly 100% RCR

[NegInfinity]

I dunno about other players, but I had a really hard time on this server when I first started.

This is normal.

I've started playing bgtscc after beating original campaign (OC + MOTB, then SOZ), and experience was so drastically different that NWN2 experience didn't help.

My first ever character made it to level 29 (due to sheer stubbornness) and at the time of retirement has died something between 130 and 200 times. The only reason it made to epic levels is because half way I switched progression to one of the powerful casters that made it playable.

The build was quite bad and was based off the one I used in OC, except it went in very different direction. Basically instead of TWF weapon master, I ended up with TWF hellfire warlock.

[Xanfyrst]

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I feel like the current RCR system makes me feel like I've wasted my time in getting xp for the lost levels on the old character.

this is where i think my disconnect is with those that are pro 100% rcr. i have no idea what the game is to a player that considers the above quote.

and that is fine.. we all play a different game. go play your's

Time investment. It's a limited currency that I will nevery get more of. I don't expect you to understand or agree with it, but I hate wasting my time. I hate losing things that I've earned because of an arbitrary system says I should.

[Wolfrayne]

Think about games you have stopped playing. Each of them was a time investment. If you are enjoying yourself then time is never wasted regardless of your "level"

[Fury_US]

Here's one of the primary things that is exploitable about RCR periods: Make a new character. Get 1k gold. Go down, run quests. Every server reset, RCR. Get 1k gold, go run quests. You'll even get at least one free trip back to the Nexus each server reset cycle. Now, me personally? The whole proceedure is such a pain in the ass when it comes to "hold my gear, hold my cash" that it becomes just as heinous as actual leveling. Just much, much faster for a while. I don't personally have the time and patience for it, but I know those people are out there who do.

Some of you are likely "Eh, what does it matter?" about that sort of thing. Some may be thinking "That's bloody cheating!" and some might even be going "Holy crap... why didn't I think of that?" But this is the sort of thing why RCR periods, in my opinion, need to be limited to, like, once per year rather than around all the time. Once per year, the benefit to the community far outweighs the inevitable abuses of the privilege. Any more than that, and people basically begin to believe their ability to abuse a privilege is the privilege.

[Xanfyrst]

Think about games you have stopped playing. Each of them was a time investment. If you are enjoying yourself then time is never wasted regardless of your "level"

Those games don't take away something I've earned though. Not even the + mode that's become popular nowadays.

[NegInfinity]

Once per year,

Do you people think you're some sort of elves or something? Time of Troubles will start in 4 years. BGTSCC won't be around forever either. The game is 12 years old. Grinding/leveling process here is horrible and sucks. Use community you have while it is still around and concentrate on positive aspects of changes rather than negative ones. Imposing too many rules will drive the people away.

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This thread makes me think about a steam review I read somewhere. It went roughly like this:

"Long time ago, I logged onto (some MMO title) for the first time, and has been amazed by the feeling of life - as people moved around me, each one of them going to their own goal, doing their own thing, chatting etc.

I've been hunting for this feeling for ten years, but has never experienced it since"

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The reason for asking for 100% rcr is because people walked the road before, the times have changed and they do not have resources to do the same thing again. But they would like to participate and contribute to the world anyway. 100% RCR would allow them to do that.

[Fury_US]

Once per year,

Do you people think you're some sort of elves or something? Time of Troubles will start in 4 years. BGTSCC won't be around forever either. The game is 12 years old. Grinding/leveling process here is horrible and sucks. Use community you have while it is still around and concentrate on positive aspects of changes rather than negative ones. Imposing too many rules will drive the people away.

You know, not too long ago, I rolled up a couple of characters on this server and got into some RP. The other day I realized holy crap, that was two years ago. So... passage of time is clearly being perceived differently here, because you're acting like you have the life expectancy of a mayfly. Precisely how many other games of similar type out there let you do what you're demanding, without it being a paid choice? You have the option to RCR all the time, here- it'll just cost you ten levels. With once a year, you get to decide "Ok, do I do it now, at penalty, or do I hold out for X Date". At least they aren't demanding cash from you for it.

[NegInfinity]

You have the option to RCR all the time, here- it'll just cost you ten levels.

It'll cost you weeks of playing to get to power level, that is unless you've made a mistake. Ever performed a double or a triple RCR due to a build error? With 50% loss each time? I have. It isn't fun.

Precisely how many other games of similar type out there let you do what you're demanding, without it being a paid choice?

Most of the other games on the market do not demand BGTSCC level of time investment
That's why people are asking for character rerolls.

It isn't that hard to understand, is it? Those threads show up because there's a problem. The problem can be addressed or ignored (with all the consequences that follow).

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Do you people think you're some sort of elves or something? Time of Troubles will start in 4 years. BGTSCC won't be around forever either. The game is 12 years old. Grinding/leveling process here is horrible and sucks. Use community you have while it is still around and concentrate on positive aspects of changes rather than negative ones. Imposing too many rules will drive the people away.

26,937 unique GSIDs in the server vault. Let's say only 5% of those are unique players, at 1,346 different players having revolved through the doors here going on 10 years for this module's iteration, 134 a year give or take, 11 people a month, with a retainer somewhere around 4 to 5 for the first 90 days, 2 after 6 months, 1 after a year.

As long as people keep the lights on the server is going to keep chugging along, quite possibly into it's 15th year at this rate, and a strong chance for it's 20th. We've outlasted a lot of MMORPGs ran by development studios.

We don't cap out at our 96 connection limit because we have 100% RCR.

The shortest duration for the 100% RCR eligibility can be at six months, even though 30 is easily obtainable within 5 weeks, that's fairly reasonable.

RP experience in an RP XP enriching area (FAI Int, etc) at ~50 XP per hit, approximately 11 per hour hits for 550 XP on the hour. ECL0 20 is 190,000, 345hrs, six months is 57 hours, or almost 14 hours a week. So two hours a night or two 8hr sessions on the weekend. If we jumped it to 90 XP in these areas, 990XP/hr, 191hrs, 31hr/mo, 1/hr a night to reach 20 in six months just RP alone. If we jumped RP XP so that it was closer to the NPC grind with an automatic six month eligibility for 100% RCR based on the creation date of the character BIC file, this might do.

[NegInfinity]

26,937 unique GSIDs in the server vault. Let's say only

There are 5 times less NWN2 players now than there were in 2014.

If you launch NWN extender at any time now, it'll report 170..200 people online total. In 2014 the number was 1000+.

The reason for high population, by the way, most likely people migrating from servers that go defunct. Servers like Sigil and Skullports pretty much reached single digits (well, alright, skullport is now dead). Realistically speaking there are only two neverwinter 2 servers active right now, aside from maybe that odd polish server I haven't ever visited.

Right at this moment 52 people total play neverwinter 2. On all servers combined that report their data to nwnlist.

That's the real number. Population has been decreasing. For comparison, there are 5500 people playing skyrim special edition right now.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Not quite, most of the newcomers land here from GOG sales not from other NWN2 servers, especially if many of their players were already ours to begin with. We're even getting NWN1 dissenters who weren't thrilled with Beamdog's EE efforts, and more recently a group of five or six from Facebook, and two who I invited from a WoD group.

Active GSIDs Since
24h : 52
2/01 : 295
1/14 : 513
1/01 : 620

This is being in the middle of stability issues even. Solving that and amending a few gameplay elements wouldn't trouble us with the server being capped out a lot, again.

[chad878262]

I dunno about other players, but I had a really hard time on this server when I first started.

This is normal.

I've started playing bgtscc after beating original campaign (OC + MOTB, then SOZ), and experience was so drastically different that NWN2 experience didn't help.

My first ever character made it to level 29 (due to sheer stubbornness) and at the time of retirement has died something between 130 and 200 times. The only reason it made to epic levels is because half way I switched progression to one of the powerful casters that made it playable.

The build was quite bad and was based off the one I used in OC, except it went in very different direction. Basically instead of TWF weapon master, I ended up with TWF hellfire warlock.

I had a different experience, not in that it wasn't difficult, but that it was also a lot of fun. My first character wasn't great, but he was serviceable. I couldn't solo even the weakest epic bosses with him once he got to level 30, but the rp wad amazing and i didn't have any ooc knowledge to get in the way. 100% RCR won't bring that back... Honestly i generally don't use rcr much anymore, just start a new character. Why? Because low levels are fun and leveling is fast. Honestly of we made epic leveling a bit faster instead of 30xp per kill max i feel like most would not care about needing the rcr tool.

[Reckeo]

It wouldn't be so bad if the XP granted at higher level's was a bit better for higher level mobs/quests. Look at the typical RPG that is XP based for levels....the higher level mobs grant higher level XP.

I realize that this is on a curve in order to avoid lower levels going to higher level areas and reaping in massive amounts of XP from 1 or 2 kills, but there has to be a way for it to be made so that isn't possible. However, if a group has the skill why shouldn't the XP be rewarded?

Easy example: Typically XP in old school RPG's is granted at a fixed rate. You kill a goblin at level 1, you get 15 xp. You kill a goblin at level 20, you get 15 xp. You kill a dragon at level 1 (bare with me), it's 15k XP. You do the same thing at level 20, it's 15k xp. Killing a goblin at level 1 and getting 50 xp isn't so bad when you need 2k xp to your next level. Killing a high level gnoll at level 20 and getting 50 xp, but you need 20k to your next level makes no sense.

That being said, the higher level zones should be offering much higher xp rewards to represent the more difficult threats. Maybe I'm missing the formula, but maybe were looking at the wrong solution to the problem altogether. If XP rewards were different, leveling wouldn't be such a chore, and the 20 cap and XP for RCR wouldn't be so bad.

[Hawke]

I think semi annual full RCR is acceptable. It gives time for players to plan on fixing their mistakes or when new content is added, to modify the builds they have without going through the grind... yes grind. Not a complaint, just a fact.

I cannot count the number of times I have RCRd. Since I play primarily wizard, each time I RCR, it costs me 20k-60k gold to get the baseline of spells back that I would need to carry on.

Every other class, than the wizard, it is completely free to RCR. No punishment no consequences. Even if the RCR takes XP, it still costs money for wizards. This is why I am constantly broke and only have one PC over level 20.

Can it be exploited? Sure. Make a fighter and level to 30, then RCR into something very complex, hard to level, but blossoms into a superhero in later levels.... I'm just saying, we cannot stop it all.

Heck even with the RCRs the way they are, I don't even recognize 3/4 of the people who are triple +'d, accounts or PC names.

Now I know that certain folks do not like full RCR, I get it. I understand it. But can it truely hurt to have 100% RCR semi-annually for a week? This will give people time to plan, and draw that XP within 7 days to get what they need or want.

That's my soapbox.

[Planehopper]

Which is more detrimental toward RP and immersion - dozens of players grinding xp at places like the Xvarts, kro's, etc as they try to quickly regain xp - or full RCR periods at regular intervals (even once a year or six minths) with a caveat that rebuilt characters need to be new identities or the same thematically as before rebuild?

My argument would be that these things (either way) impact me only slightly except in outlying cases, while allowing the full rcr at times may certainly increase the other players enjoyment of the server. I u deratand that some of you disagree with this "in principle", but the actual effects on your gameplay are slight, and if people want to be level 30 they will be level 30. The grind is real. And tragic.