Death xp penalty at low levels
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:02 pm
Hi there,
I have tried to play a wizard, but have been jumped by mobs while transitioning, killed by lag, teleported right next to the thing I am shooting, and watched as enemies run right past my summon, to me, while it watches on dumbfounded.
I get that most of these issues are difficult to fix on an old game. I posted some as a bug thread, but get the feeling that they are mostly just intractable.
What is not clear is why the death penalty is so high when xp rewards are so low. I've now been killed so many times while trying to hunt and (because that was a net-negative) trying to explore areas and finish fetch quests, that I will de-level back to level 1 if I log back in and wear the death penalty. At this point I'm not really sure what the point would be, as I can't go anywhere or do anything without dying so quickly as to lose any previously gained xp.
So, in NWN2 low level characters are very squishy. There are also infuriating ways to die which can't reasonably be avoided. Why impose a death xp penalty? Seriously? What does it achieve at low level except to disincentivise exploration? The xp rewards are so low that the delay of having to run back alone will be sanction enough to people who are trying to grind.
Your server population seems fairly high, so you might not be worried about new players leaving out of frustration. If not, fair enough. In my experience, people join PW servers because they want to interact with other people. Also in my experience, they need to get to a certain level before most areas are open to them. Maybe this is a problem peculiar to the squishier classes. Perhaps there is a way to get a relatively cheap cohort who can raise dead / stabilise bleeding, and I just haven't found it.
Anyway, I hope the above is of some use. Maybe I'm the only one who has joined and found it too frustrating to want to continue. I'll keep an eye on this thread, because your server does seem like a fun place, and if there is some kind of change made, I look forward to playing on it, but at the moment it is just too much.
I have tried to play a wizard, but have been jumped by mobs while transitioning, killed by lag, teleported right next to the thing I am shooting, and watched as enemies run right past my summon, to me, while it watches on dumbfounded.
I get that most of these issues are difficult to fix on an old game. I posted some as a bug thread, but get the feeling that they are mostly just intractable.
What is not clear is why the death penalty is so high when xp rewards are so low. I've now been killed so many times while trying to hunt and (because that was a net-negative) trying to explore areas and finish fetch quests, that I will de-level back to level 1 if I log back in and wear the death penalty. At this point I'm not really sure what the point would be, as I can't go anywhere or do anything without dying so quickly as to lose any previously gained xp.
So, in NWN2 low level characters are very squishy. There are also infuriating ways to die which can't reasonably be avoided. Why impose a death xp penalty? Seriously? What does it achieve at low level except to disincentivise exploration? The xp rewards are so low that the delay of having to run back alone will be sanction enough to people who are trying to grind.
Your server population seems fairly high, so you might not be worried about new players leaving out of frustration. If not, fair enough. In my experience, people join PW servers because they want to interact with other people. Also in my experience, they need to get to a certain level before most areas are open to them. Maybe this is a problem peculiar to the squishier classes. Perhaps there is a way to get a relatively cheap cohort who can raise dead / stabilise bleeding, and I just haven't found it.
Anyway, I hope the above is of some use. Maybe I'm the only one who has joined and found it too frustrating to want to continue. I'll keep an eye on this thread, because your server does seem like a fun place, and if there is some kind of change made, I look forward to playing on it, but at the moment it is just too much.