Character size inflation

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Laurel

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Laurel » 01 Aug 2012 10:14

Compared to '90ies, the number of the big active chars is not an issue (let it be even 10 ... tho there is not that many). The lack of the horde of smaller chars is one.

Makfly
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Re: Character size inflation

Post by Makfly » 01 Aug 2012 11:22

Laurel wrote:Compared to '90ies, the number of the big active chars is not an issue (let it be even 10 ... tho there is not that many). The lack of the horde of smaller chars is one.
Perhaps one of the reasons why there are few smaller characters are the fact that the little population that is left, is mainly Legend or Myths.
The playing field has never been more unequal as it is now.
Mortimor Makfly - Gnomish Xeno-Anthropologist

Laurel

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Laurel » 01 Aug 2012 11:30

Blaming big sized chars for lack of small sized chars population would certainly be opposite to logic.

Those big sized chars are here for long, while Genesis stopped attracting really devoted new players, who in turn would created hordes of smaller chars, aspiring to reach bigger sizes.

When you play for x hours per week without really dying, you will reach legend in the end. Myth is not that obvious, but legend ...

The playing field? Hmmm - I could name as many grind-spots for a rising-hero as there are for a myth. With guild racks and AH equipment is not an issue neither.
Actually for a rising hero - champion without align restrictions there is quite a few more places to go than for a myth.

Makfly
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Re: Character size inflation

Post by Makfly » 01 Aug 2012 11:46

Laurel wrote:Blaming big sized chars for lack of small sized chars population would certainly be opposite to logic.

Those big sized chars are here for long, while Genesis stopped attracting really devoted new players, who in turn would created hordes of smaller chars, aspiring to reach bigger sizes.

When you play for x hours per week without really dying, you will reach legend in the end. Myth is not that obvious, but legend ...

The playing field? Hmmm - I could name as many grind-spots for a rising-hero as there are for a myth. With guild racks and AH equipment is not an issue neither.
Actually for a rising hero - champion without align restrictions there is quite a few more places to go than for a myth.
No, the logic is there.

If a new player starts out in Genesis asks around, and finds out that it will take them years to reach Legend/Myth status, let alone be on an equal level as some of the current characters, then perhaps that new player will go play some other game were they have a more realistic chance to be on equal footing with the rest of the community.

Since this is a Free-for-all PvP game the incredible inbalance can certainly be a major turn-off for new players starting out.
Hell! It's a turn off for me too, as I'm still just at Titan level, and all my friendslists ever show is Myth & Legend characters - if a war should break out, I would be:
A. Unable to help out.
B. Not stand a chance in a fight against 90% of the community.

But I want to emphasise that I am not blaming the players who have big characters (except for bots & cheaters), but I do think that the game needs a change to help alleviate this issue.
Mortimor Makfly - Gnomish Xeno-Anthropologist

Laurel

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Laurel » 01 Aug 2012 12:00

Makfly wrote:If a new player starts out in Genesis asks around, and finds out that it will take them years to reach Legend/Myth status
Slight exaggeration there :)

Besides - I found champions (and even titans - nudge Tive) to compete on quite equal terms with legends and myths. Eq and guilds make a bigger difference than size.

Makfly
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Re: Character size inflation

Post by Makfly » 01 Aug 2012 13:13

Laurel wrote:
Makfly wrote:If a new player starts out in Genesis asks around, and finds out that it will take them years to reach Legend/Myth status
Slight exaggeration there :)
I would, honestly, like to know how many hours it will take to reach Legend or Myth status.

An interesting test would be to make a character that will solve about 40-50% of the quests available, then join the Mercenaries and see how many 3 hour slots it would take for that person to reach Legend or Myth status. That time should of course include time to solve the quests and time to gather equipment (though no necessarily at ever log-in).

I have no doubt that I am quite slow, since I've been playing for years and years and never reached even Champion level. But even for me, it takes me 3 hours or so to reach 'low/modest progress' at 'Somewhat violent' brute. That is even with the benefit of having most hunting grounds to myself.


Anyways, I do not think that it is such an exaggeration to say that it will take a new player years to reach Myth status.
Mortimor Makfly - Gnomish Xeno-Anthropologist

Amberlee
Myth
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Location: Kristiansund, Norway

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Amberlee » 01 Aug 2012 14:00

Choice of race is also a factor.
And that annoys me.

If you are gnome or elf.. Expect it to take even longer time then for say.. a human, goblin or dwarf.
The views posted by me on this forum is not the views of the character Amberlee in-game.
If you ask for my opinion here, you will get MY opinion, not that of my character.

Laurel

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Laurel » 01 Aug 2012 15:35

You can have a titan with ca. 10 game-days of age. That wasn't 100% focus, so I guess you can have one with lower age.
To hit myth sooner, human with even stats would be better (says my personal statistics-nerd, after looking at numbers). Such a char would grind slower than gobbo, so it would have to be two test-runs with almost identical setup, which won't be happening.

My wild guess:
titan 10 days
champ up to 20 days
legend up to 30 days
myth up to 50 days of age

as human, merc, aa to allow access to all quests and grind-spots with a wide variety of equipment choice.

That's my guess tho. People who created multiple myth chars surely know more.

Poet, you here? ;)

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Cherek
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Re: Character size inflation

Post by Cherek » 01 Aug 2012 17:09

Well, I think the game must change to become a game of interaction again if it is gonna have a chance of surviving.

RP and PVP is what I would like to focus on. XP secondary.

Solution?

Drastically reduce player sizes with an XP purge. Add a max level cap at around today's titan size or even lower. People with additional XP gets other, mostly cosmetic, rewards instead of XP, as well as some other smaller rewards, like ability to train skills a bit higher, or chose between different bonuses from a "skill-tree". Like "battlerage + 5% combat speed", and similar.

Remove difference between XP types, and add a few zeros to quest XP instead. OR, make QXP count towards the skill-tree instead, similar to what Kas suggested not so long ago. That way you can gain skill-tree skills in two ways, by solving quests, or by continuing to grind even after you reach the cap.

Introcude rewards for PVP kills, and considerably less penalties when dying than today.

If PVP becomes fun, I think RP and guild politics will follow, and we might get an interactive a game again.

Also, its much easier to start new characters and level them up to max level, and even truly new players dont have to spend too much time until they can play with the big guys.

Alexi
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Location: USA

Re: Character size inflation

Post by Alexi » 01 Aug 2012 17:59

With a XP Purge and a Character Level Cap, wouldn't that cause a ton of recoding due to the fact lots of NPCs and mobs were coded due to the influx in character size?

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