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

I really liked Calodan's idea from the other thread:

Calodan wrote: The best answer and always has been to award a weekly XP pool that only awards XP from that pool when the RP awards come or when you kill a monster. That would alleviate the most need to grind long hours for people. It has been suggested in the past that we remove the XP award from the quests and just put that 8500 XP per week into the players pool instead but retaining the quest for gold earning and to teach the server as they have always been meant to do.

I think it would be great to have this implemented. Basically:

• XP awards from all quests (and optionally fishing) are removed. Gold and "RP value" only. Or maybe you receive xp from quests only once and repeated quests would give you only gold.
• Each week a player receives xp that is added to their XP pool (as long as they've logged at least once during the week with their cahracter).
• The xp from the pool is used to boost (double or triple - doesn't matter which) combat and RP xp until pool runs out.

I think this is a great suggestion. The player doesn't have to waste time doing quests and doesn't get xp for doing nothing either.

This could be optionally be coupled with a permadeath system I proposed earlier, but permadeath is another story.

I think it would be important to note that the quest system would still be in place but would not award XP anymore. So for those that like doing the quests for money or what not can still do so. The quests would still be in place to teach the server as well. All this proposal does is take the XP and put it into a player pool that maxes out at 8500 XP so that no one can just stockpile it for 3 weeks and then get on for a few levels in few hours. This would mean they need to log in for at least 2 hours once weekly. Which I think is a suitable give and take from both sides the player and the admin side.

I would also say that this experience would only be awarded when one of three things happen. You are awarded XP for a monster kill, you are awarded XP for RP and or you are awarded XP for fishing. These are the 3 main ways people get XP on this server and thusly they should allow for the XP pool to generate extra XP until empty whenever 1 of the 3 ticks off.

The MOST IMPORTANT part of this proposition is that we are not lobbying for MORE XP but instead a way to give XP that is already granted via the server in a way that works for ALL players. Including those that have little time to be on. No more spending hours meta questing in the epic levels. Instead those people can engage others and be a part of the server during weekend hours when they are on. It doesn't truly do anything to the current way of leveling up but instead just awards those XP points in another way that works better for a player and would be less intrusive to immersion and RP overall. At least that is how those of us who want this type of system in place in this great server.

I think it should be stressed that this server is good not because of the level up system, not because it is hard, but because of the DM support and RP that takes place here. Nothing about the mechanics keeps people coming back here but the people do. We make connections here and the only way to do that is to be a part of the stories but if you are spending your 2 hours a week doing quests in ANY level it takes away from building the story for those with little time and thusly they burn out and leave for a time. We want to retain these people. We want t retain great story tellers. I think this would go a long way to helping keep people if they were not forced to take either years to progress to 30 or be forced to grind it out 10 hours a week. This kills motivation bad. We want motivated story tellers not beat down ones.

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Steve wrote: What progression do you get after reaching 30?

I have about six possible answers to that and could probably come up with more of them, but if you really want an answer to that ask this question in general forum.

Endelion's post calodan linked is very good.
http://www.bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=54386

The behavior Endelion mentioned has been a source of a great frustration for me every time I tried to propose, well, anything here. So, please, continue the discussion you're trying to start elsewhere. In general forum, for example.

Mallore wrote: What's the math break down?

The number is what you get for actively doing quests (requires 2 hoursof wasted time which could be spent roleplaying, every week).

You do not receive any xp from the pool directly. It is used to increase xp gained from other sources. If you do nothing, you gain nothing, no matter how much xp is in your pool.

Sigil uses this system, it works fairly well (however there is a big difference - on Sigil roleplaying xp goes into your pool, meaning you won't get it till you figjt something. That is not what is being proposed).

Please God yes!!!

Unfortunately when I recommended this in the past it was less than a popular idea so not sure the server as a whole likes it. Some of the negatives that have been brought up, as I recall:

- Questing creates RP, especially at the lower levels as groups form to tackle quests that are difficult to solo levels 1-10.

- An XP pool is essentially giving every player 'free' XP... Why don't we just set everyone at 30 right from the get go? There is no added risk by doing this...whereas if a level 3 mage casts invisibility (and haste at level 5) they can speed run through many quests with little risk, they still may hit a deadly trap or run across a mob far above their CR that has see invisibility and kills them.

- Some believe leveling is too fast as it is and arbitrarily increasing XP awards by any given amount is unnecessary.

I hope this is considered again as it would not require anyone to look at XP values of any mobs, or the RP XP script or anything else aside from giving X% more XP until the weekly cap is reached. In addition, it allows players to gain the same amount of XP currently gained from completing quests, but allows them to do so in the manner they enjoy, be that campfire RP, adventure RP, grinding, or what have you. It really just removes the requirement of speeding around the server in 2 1/2 hours for your weekly supply of crack....errrr...XP.

edit: I searched, but the old topic must have been eaten in one of our forum change overs... However, to explain the idea of the XP, you are not getting 'more' XP then you get today, nor are you necessarily leveling 'faster' (though the outcome would probably be a little faster, I don't think it would be significant). Essentially you are just allowing folks to earn XP doing whatever they enjoy on the server, instead of giving the XP out for doing OOC quests once per week. Gaining the XP still requires you to be doing something, be it RP, adventure or fishing it just makes the XP gain faster until you hit your cap. So if you are epic level, instead of gaining 20 XP per Frost Giant, you earn 40 XP per frost giant (until you've gained 8,500 bonus xp, then it drops back to 20). This, in my opinion would stop all concerns of needing Epic XP tables to be reviewed since you get to adventure/RP your epic character an extra 2 1/2 hours when you would have been 'questing' and still get that XP as you do whatever you want, be it killing Frost Giants or having an ale with some buddies and roasting marshmallow's.

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Edited by Forum Mods

Simply put, there have been numerous heated flame wars over keeping 100% RCR XP penalty's for Character deaths and the insane slow down of leveling from 20-30. Giving a bump and removing the quests allows players familiar with the server to RP, play how they want without 'feeling' like they are losing XP since they are not doing the weekly quests. If you like them/want to do them fantastic! If you don't mind taking 12 months to go from 1-30, that's cool too. I don't think anyone is advocating getting to 30 should take 30 days or less, all this solution would do is allow you to get to 30 in about the same time as quest grinders without having to be a quest grinder. If you like to RP, but also do want to actually see your character improving it is a good solution. Because without quest grinding no character will reach 30 even in a year, it would take much longer.

Edited by Moderators


http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=54386

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I'd like to suggest that it be an "opt in" XP pool if we decide to add it.

Eclypticon wrote:I'd like to suggest that it be an "opt in" XP pool if we decide to add it.

That would be fine with me.

Could be implemented as a choice between pool xp and quest xp, I suppose (i.e. if you use pools, quests grant you no xp).

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Mallore wrote:If this is to actually be taken seriously - Perhaps this XP pool should be scaled more to level,

No, because D&D xp progression automatically takes care of this for you. Higher levels should not get more xp. Impact of extra points is automatically reduced by xp progression.

Mallore wrote: While this idea would benefit me greatly (free 8500 xp! A week!).

You're misunderstanding something.
You don't get any free xp.

You get bonus that goes to your "xp pool". Xp pool is not a character's xp bar. If you sit in secluded locations without talking to anyone, killing anything or opening chests, you get nothing. Zero experience points per week. For free.

The pool adds bonuses to xp you get through fights, rp, lockpicking or whatever, until it runs out. So instead of 20 points you get 40. Thos extra 20 bonus is taken from the pool. If there's zero xp in the pool, you get nothing.

That's why I liked Calodan's idea. Your progression is boosted, you're no longer required to run the horrible horrible quests, and at the same time you don't get any xp for free. Brilliant.

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Thank you.

I would say we make every quest give regular experience for the first time only. Then it either goes over to pool experience or the opt in system. Maybe give every quest a small experience bump compared to how it is now for the first completion too. Not all of the quests are terrible after all, and there should be some sort of reason for new players to take the time and search them out.

I do have a question though. What happens if you don't use all of the pool experience by the end of the week? Is the pool reset to 8500, or does the 8500 add onto what was left at the end of the week?

I would personally love it if it adds onto whatever was left over, so that busy people can get some experience when they have a little time and make up the difference later, but I can see some people having a problem with this.