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

Kiran wrote:From what I see in the poll the consensus is showing what majority of people want.

Okay, so do we just add more experience to each kill?
How much more?

I think its time the staff reconsider implementing this. Over all increase will be the easiest to implement. I would stand behind that. Other options are also welcome. Creating an XP pool, increase in RP XP, and increase in quests would all be welcome by the majority of the player base.

Tekill wrote:

Kiran wrote:From what I see in the poll the consensus is showing what majority of people want.

Okay, so do we just add more experience to each kill?
How much more?

This is the real trick, isn't it. Too little, and we still have people spending an awful lot of time on the server doing something they consider to be anti-fun. Calls for more xp will continue. Too much, and people with lots of free time on their hands are blazing through the levels, while those with not much free time are still falling behind the people they adventured with in their early days.

To me, more xp per kill/quest doesn't really get to the core of the problem. But if forced to take this system or nothing, I'd say no less than a 20% increase so as to be noticeable, no more than a 50% increase.

Egg Shen wrote:

Tekill wrote:

Kiran wrote:From what I see in the poll the consensus is showing what majority of people want.

Okay, so do we just add more experience to each kill?
How much more?

This is the real trick, isn't it. Too little, and we still have people spending an awful lot of time on the server doing something they consider to be anti-fun. Calls for more xp will continue. Too much, and people with lots of free time on their hands are blazing through the levels, while those with not much free time are still falling behind the people they adventured with in their early days.

To me, more xp per kill/quest doesn't really get to the core of the problem. But if forced to take this system or nothing, I'd say no less than a 20% increase so as to be noticeable, no more than a 50% increase.

You are looking at it wrong. Your first thought is about limiting those with more time than others. This is a false thought. You can not limit those with more time without punishing those without time. It is not something you can ever balance for. EVER. Once you grasp that it gets easier to look at things for the ones who are suffering from the false thought and actions to limit people with grind time.

Egg Shen wrote:

Tekill wrote:

Kiran wrote:From what I see in the poll the consensus is showing what majority of people want.

Okay, so do we just add more experience to each kill?
How much more?

This is the real trick, isn't it? Too little, and we still have people spending an awful lot of time on the server doing something they consider to be anti-fun. Calls for more XP will continue. Too much, and people with lots of free time on their hands are blazing through the levels, while those with not much free time are still falling behind the people they adventured with in their early days.

To me, more XP per kill/quest doesn't really get to the core of the problem. But if forced to take this system or nothing, I'd say no less than a 20% increase so as to be noticeable, no more than a 50% increase.

@Tekill - Great question, however I will not answer it as I do not know the answer firstly and also it has nothing to do with the current poll, let's try and see first if majority wants to increase before we discuss % - I imagine staff will want to first look at what's been said so far rather than we go on another discussion which of course is relevant but not currently being asked.

@Eggsheen. - I understand this, however with the current xp format you will still have this issue, if someone plays more, they level faster, that's just how it is, but if they both have the same xp increase it makes no difference as the one who plays less also gets more xp.

@Calodan - I think I understand what you mean, but neither side really gets punished overall, both receive an increase

For me an increase in RP xp is actually more interesting. Cause increasing the xp per kill will make leveling faster but the real problem I see is the... Do I go grind to gain xp faster vs RP to have fun...

Calodan wrote:

Egg Shen wrote:

Tekill wrote: Okay, so do we just add more experience to each kill?
How much more?

This is the real trick, isn't it. Too little, and we still have people spending an awful lot of time on the server doing something they consider to be anti-fun. Calls for more xp will continue. Too much, and people with lots of free time on their hands are blazing through the levels, while those with not much free time are still falling behind the people they adventured with in their early days.

To me, more xp per kill/quest doesn't really get to the core of the problem. But if forced to take this system or nothing, I'd say no less than a 20% increase so as to be noticeable, no more than a 50% increase.

You are looking at it wrong. Your first thought is about limiting those with more time than others. This is a false thought. You can not limit those with more time without punishing those without time. It is not something you can ever balance for. EVER. Once you grasp that it gets easier to look at things for the ones who are suffering from the false thought and actions to limit people with grind time.

I'm not sure it really matters what "my first thought" is for the purposes of answering Tekill's question.

To clarify, I could have ended the sentence at "Too much, and people with lots of free time on their hands are blazing through the levels." The second bit was just an afterthought. My point is that I suspect speed of leveling is a concern for the staff and most players.

To further clarify, I will say I'm certainly not trying to punish those with more playing time than others (though if you look at my proposals earlier in the thread I suspect some people who like grinding and have unlimited free time will see it as such). It absolutely IS possible to limit those with more free time while not punishing those with less (at least with regard to xp progression), it just requires a major shift in how we view xp as a whole.

Finally, You lost me on that last sentence. You're going to need to restructure it if you want me to understand what you're saying.

Kiran wrote:

Tekill wrote:There are so many different opinions and suggestons on this topic. It would be interesting to see what the path of least resistance is, to a concensus on what actual changes should be.

From what I see in the poll the consensus is showing what majority of people want.

the consensus seems to be that an XP increase across the board for spawns is what the majority want. It's pretty clear. Followed by an increase in some areas (likely late level areas.)

Double the xp make me happy

Rask wrote:the consensus seems to be that an XP increase across the board for spawns is what the majority want. It's pretty clear. Followed by an increase in some areas (likely late level areas.)

Yup... But I suppose I could chime in how the 'late level area experience buff' is kind of a build dependent wish. Just like how it is with the low level 'grinding' ability, actually. I have played character just struggle the first levels only to grow much more powerful in the epics, and the otherway around.

Comments Only wrote:

Rask wrote:the consensus seems to be that an XP increase across the board for spawns is what the majority want. It's pretty clear. Followed by an increase in some areas (likely late level areas.)

Yup... But I suppose I could chime in how the 'late level area experience buff' is kind of a build dependent wish. Just like how it is with the low level 'grinding' ability, actually. I have played character just struggle the first levels only to grow much more powerful in the epics, and the otherway around.

The only time the leveling seems to go at somewhat of a reasonable pace (Though still very slow.) are levels 8-18, everything after, or before, is a an insane grind, or a total absolute chore.

Aspect of Sorrow wrote:This argument can be drilled into the ground to the point that localvault is introduced and instant 30s are handed out and still not satiate the underscoring issues present from both the module and the playerbase.

I need an official 'this is an attempt to fix a symptom and not the problem' band-aid image made.

/t

Speaking from personal experience, the current xp system best supports an individual with little IRL obligations and knowledge of how to grind. You can get from 1-30 in 2-3 weeks if you can set that time aside from grinding. I did this in my earlier schooling days, when I had little to do outside aside from the odd social gathering.

I would set it up like this:

Set up a bonus xp pool. RP xp is added to this pool (in addition to rewarding normal RP xp numbers), and 1k xp is added every 24 hours. This pool has a cap of 12k xp at a time. So, say you earn 40 RP xp. You get 40 XP and 40 XP is added to your pool.

When you have a pool, you have get double xp. The extra xp is drawn from this established bonus pool. When the pool runs out, you get normal xp.

Raise the current xp numbers by a slight amount (5-10 across the board). Remove the effect when you reach level 21, you stop getting as much xp. We have epic areas, encourage adventuring in them by giving normal xp (25-40 instead of the current post level 20 xp, which is around 10-20 for level 21-27 and 6-15 xp for levels 28-30). Right now, the epic areas are simply not worthwhile since they don't give the proper XP to epics for their difficulty.

If I may, From a new players perspective. I do like the idea of a Bonus exp pool. 100% no doubt.

Calodan wrote: What I propose is this. Take the XP that is given for quests and wipe it out. KABOOM! GOOD BYE QUESTIN WEEKLY FOR A LEVEL! Keep the quests as a learn the server mechanic and as a gold mine weekly for players. Just do not have them award any XP what so ever.

If that aspect of the conversation is still on the table.

The only problem I see is with (Removing Quest Exp) Is the way I get my characters from level 1 to level 2 is basically just doing the first 3 simple quests. (I may not know the best way, but that works for me) 3 quests get me just a few kills away from level 2, From there I have enough hit-points to Grind mobs in the grave yard OR explore some other zones and be able to enjoy that classic feeling of "exploring" with more than 8 hp lol. Unless a new player is able to find an RP event first thing right when he logs in for the first time, they may struggle even more so with trying to achieve those first few levels.

I'm not gonna lie my first few hours after the nostalgic buzz wore off were quite frustrating.
I was lucky however and was invited into some really interesting RP story lines. Witch I enjoyed very much.

Then again now that I think about it, All you have to do to start Rp'ing is just find a player and start talking. So if a new player had that in mind I guess he would be ok. Its easier than it looks really.

And I have no clue what the servers "turn over" rate is, maybe new players don't come all that often for this to matter that much.

HvN wrote:If I may, From a new players perspective. I do like the idea of a Bonus exp pool. 100% no doubt.

Calodan wrote: What I propose is this. Take the XP that is given for quests and wipe it out. KABOOM! GOOD BYE QUESTIN WEEKLY FOR A LEVEL! Keep the quests as a learn the server mechanic and as a gold mine weekly for players. Just do not have them award any XP what so ever.

If that aspect of the conversation is still on the table.

The only problem I see is with (Removing Quest Exp) Is the way I get my characters from level 1 to level 2 is basically just doing the first 3 simple quests. (I may not know the best way, but that works for me) 3 quests get me just a few kills away from level 2, From there I have enough hit-points to Grind mobs in the grave yard OR explore some other zones and be able to enjoy that classic feeling of "exploring" with more than 8 hp lol. Unless a new player is able to find an RP event first thing right when he logs in for the first time, they may struggle even more so with trying to achieve those first few levels.

I'm not gonna lie my first few hours after the nostalgic buzz wore off were quite frustrating.
I was lucky however and was invited into some really interesting RP story lines. Witch I enjoyed very much.

Then again now that I think about it, All you have to do to start Rp'ing is just find a player and start talking. So if a new player had that in mind I guess he would be ok. Its easier than it looks really.

And I have no clue what the servers "turn over" rate is, maybe new players don't come all that often for this to matter that much.

That is exactly what is expected. You go in town and do those quests which send you to the important places in BG and to the CR1 Bandit Cave designed for level 1-5 PCs.

Now I can count on one hand the number of builds that will not be able to kill the lowest level bandit at level 1. I have had a build that I tried to do from scratch level 1 on. His name is Davendithas Carter. I originally tried to play him like a new player and use only gear I found. Well.....he could not kill bandits reliably until level 4.......if I had not twinked his gear at level 2 after the quests and getting a DM reward for my PC biography for him. Wizards are also a bit of a pain at level 1 without gear as well. So I can say there are a few builds that this might cause an issue with for the first 4 levels or so since getting level 2 is usually those few quests.