This sounds awesome.Cherek wrote: ↑21 Jan 2021 13:15Yes, I do think a change to the growth curve would have the biggest positive effect of Nils' suggestions, and it's still something I would like to do. I did try it out myself on our test server several years ago. Growth rate up to hero was roughly doubled if I remember right, and I created a new character and started from scratch. It was a much more enjoyable experience because it made it so much easier to quest and grind for money, and seeing stats and mortal levels go up fairly often was also motivating. My growth rate would slow down to our current rate after hero, and slow down more than our current rate after champion. So, it would still be just as hard as it is now to become huge, but easier to reach champion, and much easier to reach hero.
A change like this would make new players progress quicker and also even out the size difference between players, so that more players would play in the same league. Meaning they can both team up and cooperate on more even terms but also fight on more even terms. Being old and huge would still come with a benefit, but it would be smaller than it is now, and new players would be able to reach a reasonable size without spending years playing.
Since stats would grow slower than now after champion, my idea is to instead introcude a "skill tree" once you reach champion level. This skill tree would unlock various small but fun perks, and would make it (hopefully) more fun to grind than just watching your stats grow slowly. Even slower than today (and it's pretty slow as it is). The skill tree would generally make players more versatile, but not much more powerful, and players would be able to choose different directions for their character. On the other hand, players who don't want to grind much more after champion would be a little smaller than those who do, and miss out on some perks, but they would still be able to compete with the bigger players, as the difference in overall "power" would be much smaller than it is today. My hope is that it would encourage some players to focus on things like running their guilds, RP, or just sitting around chatting, without always feeling that they _have to_ grind to keep up with other players.
Now, changing the growth curve is quick and simple. The skill tree is what would take time here, and the main reason this project hasn't gotten further. Well, that, and the fact that it would be a pretty controversial change.
The player size inflation and player size disparity is something that's been talked about for decades, but even if most can agree that it is an issue, nothing much have ever been done about. From the sound of it, you have made more progress towards some change that can be a part of dealing with the issue. So I really hope that you, or someone else, will be able to pick up and run further with it.