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

Steve wrote:

Calodan wrote:I.E. If I am getting 40 XP solo in an area the second I group up it will go down to about 35 and less if more are present. I still do not understand why this happens but it does.

so that the Server isn't populated with a Bajillion Epic Toons.

This bird may have already flew the coop. I'm guessing there already is... and people just create new characters to experience the server again with a new flavour?

Steve wrote:Calodan, as an IC way of thinking, I agree with what you're saying above.

But XP in general, is really an OOC issue. Our Characters do not learn of a "value" to killing 1 or 5,000,000 goblins, in any concrete terms of X Dead Goblins = X Levels of Skill.

An actually, it is usually considered that our Characters are not aware of what the Character Sheet says, in terms of Values! Feats and Skills ARE learned things acquired, but they are not interpreted in values.

"Hi, I'm a fighter guy with diplomacy of 17 points! Please give me a bigger flagon of ale!"

To continue this train of thought, one may question at what point, after killing X number of goblins, would you even gain any more Experience from killing one more of them?! I'd say that is rendered as effectively as possible, by how the game is designed to lessen XP based on the CR of the Type of Monster you kill. It is clumsy, but kinda works. Epic PCs killing Goblins gain 0 XP, with the thought being that you've gone beyond experience gain, when you slay them.

As for constant group learning, I could counter and say this is really only applicable when sharing of the same skill sets, in which to improve. There is also the case that POOR insight and BAD observation could be detrimental to your experience! Have you ever had a crappy coach try to teach you how to play a game?!? lol. Kinda like that: STFU coach, and let me use my own knowledge!

There are no crappy coach's....just poor team players who won't listen.....

On a more serious note. One must do something over 10,000 times to master it. So I would say your little goblin ratio means that my PC should kill over 10,000 goblins to master but one single technique......Think about that!

There is nothing wrong with having an level 30 PC or multiple PC's. I have 2 level 30's that I still find RP with, still go out and adventure with, etc. Whatever the cap is on levels in an online game you have to accept players will reach that cap. Sure there are soft caps that some servers have done where you can only reach level X and then all future XP/levels is only gained through DM awards. The problem is this is an unfair limitation that opens up to favoritism cries and players in some time zones being SOL once they hit that soft cap. Without any soft cap whatever hard cap you have will be reached, no matter how slow the leveling those are just hurdles.

I was not around whenever the system was set up, but IMO the current XP setup is somewhat similar to a soft cap, if an insanely mild one. OK, not a cap really, just a very large slow down in progression. However, it simply feels arbitrary because there is already mechanics in D&D that slow down leveling as you go. Plus the increase in pre-epics makes it feel like a rocket ship getting to ~18 or 19 moving to riding in an overloaded semi-truck going uphill to 30.

There is a dearth of end game content, which the recent mob scaling somewhat reduces. A great addition would be to convert more area's to CR26-30 though. These area's really do require some very specific power build types to solo, but are still very doable with a party of level 26-30 PC's. They are challenging though, which keeps the interest in playing a level 30, even without XP gain. It's about the RP, the challenge, the potential reward of a decent item, and the story you can tell afterwards, IC. (at least that's what it's about for me).

I enjoy playing low level PC's, especially with my group that meets once or twice a week and runs an adventure or two. Only level 5, but even that came pretty fast when I consider the actual content we have gone through. I also enjoy playing mid-levels and high levels. They all have their various charms and they are all supported with or without a DM on this server. It's up to the individual player to determine what they most enjoy and where they fit in with their character(s).

CleverUsername123 wrote: I still don't get the 'XP is too fast before 20' argument though. No it isn't! You can't get past 13 at all if you don't have hours to spend on this game every day.

I think he might be talking about level 6. The content at levels 1..6 is highly entertaining, but it is over before you can blink. Past that moment everything goes downhill.

And yeah, I agree with Throsson. It is a medium RP server, so if someone find sitting at the same spot and chatting for days entertaining, its' fine with me, but I'd rather not have the rest of experience ruined by misguided ideas like E15. In practice E15 it feels like Bgtscc epic level progression speed, except starting with level 1 and slower.

Calodan wrote: My biggest issue is seeing 25 XP per kill in the epics. It is just disheartening.

25 is actually a lot. I recall having a char that has been getting 9..11 per kill. And this was one of the characters I got to level 30 from level 1.

Needless to say, the experience was drainign to the point, that I feel disgust thinking about grinding or questing to this day. Meaning I'll not be making another character by means other than RCR any time soon. Had enough the last time. The whole leveling thing in the end is just an unpleasant ritual you need to go through to make what you had in mind to begin with.

sure.increasing decreasing low level xp gain would make you stay in low levels longer, there is no real point. people will still see the stronger PCs (lvl30) as the cream of the crop and push to get their hero to that status.

i agree that the most fun levels to play are before level 27. peaking at 12-22. what you may not be considering is the "why" these levels are the most fun. i think it might be because you are still leveling fast and are coming into your own mechanically. before that you are leveling fast, but your character is not very developed. the 3b20 rule has spread your toon thin. along with other things. after that your character has reached it's potential and your just placing icing on top and the levels are pretty slow. gear does take a nice upward at mid 20's though, so that is nice.

all in all. there is more to consider to this then just its more fun at 15 so we should have all levels be just like 15. i do not have much confidence this is the right answer because the variables have not all been considered.

I feel like I am the poster child for hating grinding. There was a good two or three year period where I played every single day and my highest PC was only level 12, then the DM staff had me RCR him because I took a class that no longer worked with his RP. (Basically a certain DM who is no longer here changed his alignment and told me I had to change his class.)

That said even though my two main characters had very low levels in comparison to the rest, I still felt like I was a pretty active contributor in regards to several key events in the server history. I just had to be more creative than other characters who could whip me in outright combat.

I haven't gotten on as much in the past three years or so, but, I have definitely noticed that RP XP has improved by a very large margin. I am pretty gladdened by the trend and i'm hopeful that whenever I find the time to get back into BG, that I will finally be able to be competitive and take over the entire coast. Everyone will tremble as Brent enforces his tyrannical dictatorship on the coast banishing every single paladin. *Sighs and dazes off imagining the day*