Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

For my part, I'm open to all of Honk's ideas. And not just because they're Honk's.

If it gets more groups for rp im in!=^^=

The main thing that turns me off to group dungeoneering is the frenetic pace of trying to get through before wards expire. Just.. no talking, no strategy, just Leeroy Jenkins all the way because spells wear off so fast. My favourite dungeon runs are always with one or two other HiPS chars where we're going nice and slow and talking and hiding in the shadows and someone says "you take the one on the left I will take down the one on the right" etc. I know this is a bit off topic because the thread is about the xp penalty, but honestly the xp penalty hasn't yet made me turn down a group. It's the race against spell durations that turns me off to groups.

Yeah, I make a point of avoiding parties with other spellcasters because they tend to reserve a mountain of spell slots for round/CL spells (Haste being the worst offender because it's a favorite of those trying to rush a dungeon), and then suddenly any notion of pacing goes out the window because heavens forbid they reserve the spells for when they actually matter.

But I also struggle to find ways to support lower-level friends and guildmates, or be supported by higher-level friends/guildmates. There's only ever so many things to talk about (and RP XP accumulates slower the lower your level is, anyway!), and after you run out of topics, you either need to start forcing it, or go your own separate ways. In low-population contexts like the Underdark or Oceania-friendly timeslots, "go your own separate ways" is almost invariably code for "start soloing or go AFK/offline", which isn't ideal for either side of the interaction, and can seriously feed into the notion that RP starts at 30. (Speaking in my experience as the past leader of one and current leader of another UD guild, I generally haven't dared recruit people who were more than a dozen levels behind me, because I could promise them nothing besides a few isolated conversations and maybe some gear; no esprit de corps, no respite from the nigh-inevitable weeks and months of solo grinding... so I am a bit sensitive to the subject.)

Honk's solution isn't perfect; far from it. But it's an improvement, in a number of places that desperately need improvement.

All valid points.

I also recognise that my proposal is far from being a solution to all issues but at least I see people grouping up a bit more and being rewarded for doing so, which looks like a step in the right direction.

Again, it was just an opinion and people may feel free to take it and discuss it more seriously if they think it's feasible.

Green Monster wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 3:06 am The main thing that turns me off to group dungeoneering is the frenetic pace of trying to get through before wards expire. Just.. no talking, no strategy, just Leeroy Jenkins all the way because spells wear off so fast. My favourite dungeon runs are always with one or two other HiPS chars where we're going nice and slow and talking and hiding in the shadows and someone says "you take the one on the left I will take down the one on the right" etc. I know this is a bit off topic because the thread is about the xp penalty, but honestly the xp penalty hasn't yet made me turn down a group. It's the race against spell durations that turns me off to groups.

True dang mages ruining rp! Hehe i do love teams of stealth!

-Crazy idea but if we could lvl drain ourselves at lvl 30 temporarily…?

I do love haste but hate that it takes from rp miss the hell out of persistent haste/ swift blade class

DM Honk wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 5:13 am All valid points.

I also recognise that my proposal is far from being a solution to all issues but at least I see people grouping up a bit more and being rewarded for doing so, which looks like a step in the right direction.

Again, it was just an opinion and people may feel free to take it and discuss it more seriously if they think it's feasible.

TBH, these days I'm feeling a little lost with regards to starting staff discussions. Too many times and too many ways I've been burned on trying to suggest changes, whether because I backed my arguments up with real-life (... real-game?) examples from my own experience or because it was otherwise clear that I benefited from the change (which is hard to avoid when I play virtually anything that has any chance of being fun ), and it's left me burnt out on suggesting changes.

I do agree that your idea's a step in the right direction, despite its flaws and inadequacies... and it's an easy step - an intermediate change, so to speak, while we wait for a bigger and better improvement. But I don't think I'm going to be the one driving it forward. I'll probably have to be the one coding whatever you guys come up with, because there's no one left on the team I could delegate the implementation to anymore, but the discussion... I've already given my two cents right here.

I’ll give the most unpopular suggestion as well, take away exp for defeating monsters. Hehe!

Actually mixed with other things it might work like more quests?