Do something about leveling.....
Posted: 13 Mar 2009, 18:08
Ok, now we can all agree that lvling past lvl 70 is slow, and past lvl 80 is EXTREMLY slow. One thing is that the XP needed is increased by a lot, but the fact that monsters become less and less efficient (xp compared to the time it takes to kill them) and that at higher level more and more stats are needed, just makes the whole equation redicoulus. When a high level player is happy to have gained 3-4% xp with one days worth of grinding I think that somethings wrong. The point is that its a game, its not life, people should not spend large parts of their life playing just to progress in a game (wich people obviously do because games a addictive, i'm not going to go into the reason why they are addictive cuz thats covers a lot of ground). Its supposed to be entertainment, not a life style. So I have come up with a few suggestions to help this out.
1. Add an additional XP bar under the original one. This goes from 1-100 but only covers 1% of the total xp (so 1% on this xp bar will only be 0.01% of total xp). This way lvling will be more enjoyable because it will be much easier to see your own progress.
2. Add more good items that you can work towards. It diddent take long before i had all of the best items ingame. So why not add a few new items that can be gained thru the quests from the blacksmith like the iron shield. For expamle that you can upgrade your leather gloves/boots/pants to a chainmail version if you give him an infantry helmet and a few iron ores per item. For example: Leather Gloves + Infantry helmet + 3 iron ores = Chain Mail Gloves ( 7% defense), Leather Boots + Infantry Helmet + 3 iron ores = Chain Mail Boots ( 5% defense), Jeans with snake chaps + infantry helmet + 6 iron ores = Chain Mail Leggings ( 10% defense). If you add these and more items, people can work towards these and free up some points spent in vitality and spend them on other stats instead. Adding bracers and magic rings would also be an idea.
I also think there should be added new weapons, like a 2handed sword (cant be used with shield ofc.). For example: 300 dmg 1.5 second attack delay (assuming setzer has 1 second attack delay). Also upgrades of the forest bow or new better ones, new one handed weapons (better than setzer) and some other 2 handed weapons, like spears 2 handed axes polearms or such. Or different items with same dps as setzer but with different stats.
3. Start stat point cost at 1 instead of 2, and increase by 1 for every 10 points spent (think this increases a lot more at very high stats, like at 90 stat points it costs at 11 for a new one). This will free up a bit of stat points so people can grind faster. This is needed because the amount of dex or accuracy is way to high. At lvl 72 i specced 99 dex and could barely hit the skulls. I need at least 70 dex at lvl 75 to be able to hit snakes at a decent rate, and this sucks up most of your available points.
4. Increase the spawn rates of monsters, this is pretty much the only reason people are not grinding only low level monsters. They are and will allways be the best xp considering how much time you spend trying to kill them. The only problem is that you run out of monsters very fast.
5. Add an alternative method of progressing apart from leveling. For example: Alternative Advancement points: You redirect your experience into a new experience pool, this pool is set at a fixed value like 10-20k experience. Once you fill it up, it resets and you gain an Alternative Advancement point.
These points can be spent in the normal stats like Str, Dex, Agi, Vit, Int and Luck, or into more specific areas like Accuracy, Defence, Attack and the rest (these would of course cost less AA points than the stats since they are more specific). For example 1 AA point per 1 normal stat (Str, Dex, Agi ect.)
or 1 AA point per 2 "substats" (Accuracy, Defense, Evasion ect.) There could also be additional stats like haste and dual wield specialzation (if you decide to implement dual wielding, wich i hope you will).
It could also be used to later purchase skills like "whirlwind" or whatever you may come up with.
1. Add an additional XP bar under the original one. This goes from 1-100 but only covers 1% of the total xp (so 1% on this xp bar will only be 0.01% of total xp). This way lvling will be more enjoyable because it will be much easier to see your own progress.
2. Add more good items that you can work towards. It diddent take long before i had all of the best items ingame. So why not add a few new items that can be gained thru the quests from the blacksmith like the iron shield. For expamle that you can upgrade your leather gloves/boots/pants to a chainmail version if you give him an infantry helmet and a few iron ores per item. For example: Leather Gloves + Infantry helmet + 3 iron ores = Chain Mail Gloves ( 7% defense), Leather Boots + Infantry Helmet + 3 iron ores = Chain Mail Boots ( 5% defense), Jeans with snake chaps + infantry helmet + 6 iron ores = Chain Mail Leggings ( 10% defense). If you add these and more items, people can work towards these and free up some points spent in vitality and spend them on other stats instead. Adding bracers and magic rings would also be an idea.
I also think there should be added new weapons, like a 2handed sword (cant be used with shield ofc.). For example: 300 dmg 1.5 second attack delay (assuming setzer has 1 second attack delay). Also upgrades of the forest bow or new better ones, new one handed weapons (better than setzer) and some other 2 handed weapons, like spears 2 handed axes polearms or such. Or different items with same dps as setzer but with different stats.
3. Start stat point cost at 1 instead of 2, and increase by 1 for every 10 points spent (think this increases a lot more at very high stats, like at 90 stat points it costs at 11 for a new one). This will free up a bit of stat points so people can grind faster. This is needed because the amount of dex or accuracy is way to high. At lvl 72 i specced 99 dex and could barely hit the skulls. I need at least 70 dex at lvl 75 to be able to hit snakes at a decent rate, and this sucks up most of your available points.
4. Increase the spawn rates of monsters, this is pretty much the only reason people are not grinding only low level monsters. They are and will allways be the best xp considering how much time you spend trying to kill them. The only problem is that you run out of monsters very fast.
5. Add an alternative method of progressing apart from leveling. For example: Alternative Advancement points: You redirect your experience into a new experience pool, this pool is set at a fixed value like 10-20k experience. Once you fill it up, it resets and you gain an Alternative Advancement point.
These points can be spent in the normal stats like Str, Dex, Agi, Vit, Int and Luck, or into more specific areas like Accuracy, Defence, Attack and the rest (these would of course cost less AA points than the stats since they are more specific). For example 1 AA point per 1 normal stat (Str, Dex, Agi ect.)
or 1 AA point per 2 "substats" (Accuracy, Defense, Evasion ect.) There could also be additional stats like haste and dual wield specialzation (if you decide to implement dual wielding, wich i hope you will).
It could also be used to later purchase skills like "whirlwind" or whatever you may come up with.