Open areas for all?

[The_Four_Horsemen]

I was wondering, is there a reason that most of the areas are level restricted? I would propose that we don't restrict areas.

1. All the quests are restricted, this seems like a fine idea
2. The creature kill xp scales with level as expected.

When you party up with a bunch of random people and start to RP suddenly you are restricted because one character is too high a level, and one person is too low a level. With such a wide range of characters its kind of a buzz kill when you run into this issue. It doesn't seem very rpish either. I mean If my character hates rats and loves to go bash their little heads in I suddenly can't figure out how to get the sewer open because I am too high a level now? People have tons of fun on goblin hill, and its not because they get XP for it, there is just something satisfying about bits and blood exploding everywhere. There are some really fun RP areas that get blocked out due to level. If there are concerns is there some way to address them other than locking out all the areas?

What do you think?

[Greyshore]

No.

There is no need for high-level silent runners in newbie areas. And there is no need for more ways to exploit...

Wouldn't you agree?

[Kazak]

If all dungeons would be open, you'd get farmers ruining all the fun for the lower level folks. Or on the other hand, you'd get a higher level character power leveling the lower level character by running through the place. Or even worse, you'd get a low level character stumble into the higher end content and be all upset about dieing multiple times because the content is too hard.

The only solution, try to group with people your own level.

[Wyvern]

Pretty much what those two said.

[daniel.alcantara]

I think the area-locking works quite well

I mean, letting a lvl15 enter the sewers could totally ruin, from my point of view, the immersion of the lvl4 group that is struggling to survive and drinking potions like dwarves drink beer
You see that guy walking over all the traps, killing everything with a blow, getting the quest item and leaving before you could even cast Ray of Frost (for a whooping 1d4 damage) on him.

I also think that it wouldnt be much of a challenge, or any fun, if you could go through the dungeon without breaking a sweat

And even if you say "but i dont get the fun from the killing, i get it from the RP", then you could always RP in the areas designed for your level

But thats just my opinion

edit: post before i saw the 3 other ones....pretty much the same idea

[The_Four_Horsemen]

I don't see what the exploits are here.

Quests are already level locked, why would a higher level want your lower quest items you can't sell them or turn them in?

I think it is fine for a low level to "stumble" into a high lvl area and get clobbered, isn't that part of the risk of adventuring?

farmers of what? There certainly isn't any xp to be had for the low level kills.

RP in your own level areas is great if there are others of you level logged on. If not and you don't have a powergammer character then you can't solo so its log off and try again later?

[daniel.alcantara]

I do see your point and, in some degree, agree to it.

But IMHO, the cons of your suggestion outnumber the pros.

[ChikenKannon]

Farmers of items. Thus making lower level people forced to sit and wait until they get a chance for the next higher level person to rush through grab it all and leave.

[Jay Four]

Personally I am with the Horseman on this.

I was against locking the areas like this but I lost the crucial vote.

I find it extremely annoying. It seems like probably every single play session this comes up, and I curse it anew each time.

I'll keep fighting the good fight for you, Hourseman! Just have to convice the rest of these guys heh.

[Greensleeves]

Personally I am with the Horseman on this.

I was against locking the areas like this but I lost the crucial vote.

I find it extremely annoying. It seems like probably every single play session this comes up, and I curse it anew each time.

I'll keep fighting the good fight for you, Hourseman! Just have to convice the rest of these guys heh.

Just my 2 cents, but it may be plausible to relax some of these restrictions once the DM client is working. With DMs about, it would be much harder for a farmer to steamroll a legitimate group. For now though, considering how overcrowded some areas can get, the restrictions are probably for the best.

[Grayle]

Yeah, I think I agree with Jay, as well. Last night, I got caught up in role-playing around with some characters I had not met prior. We decided to go to the Bugbear cave to see if any ore could be found amongst the fissures and crags as we had been discussing mining and minerals, crafting, etc. (All IC mind you). We just wanted to all play together and continue our characterizations, but we also wanted to have some adventure.

Well, we couldn't continue because one of the characters in our party was either too high or too low to enter the bugbear caverns. The span of levels between our characters wasn't because we were trying to boost our lower-level member. I can see why you'd want to keep higher level characters out of the low areas for PvP reasons, but don't think there is much to exploit, expecially if the quests disable at a certain level.

Well, so we just ended up on Red Hill for a few hours. Still RPing, still thrilled in combat, etc. It was fun, but exploring the caves would have been more challenging.

[Kazak]

J4, I think we are all with you on this one. Maybe you guys could open one dungeon up for everyone to venture through it. Give a low exp for the reward through that place and high rate of respawn and see how it turns out? Maybe open sewers or bugbears?

Another way to solve it is to create dynamic difficulty spawns with triggers. I honestly don't know how easy/hard it is to make, so it's just an idea. The area trigger would spawn the monster of the same level as the highest party member. Is there a way to set a level of a monster dynamically?

[Depheant]

I agree with Jay and TFH on that as well. I don't think back in Dasaria 1 there were any areas that became locked so that you couldn't enter them at all. But at least then we had a DM client and could watch out for any foul play.

Is there a way to set a level of a monster dynamically?

I'm not sure scaling difficulty is a good idea. I hate that. One word: Oblivion. Also, simply changing the level of a creature isn't going to make it tougher exponentially. You still need to assign certain feats, spells and items so that they're challenging. An NPC needs to be substantially stronger to match a PC of a much lower level.

[Tinuvhiell]

I think once there are more, a lot more, areas for every level range, that having most of them open for all ranges would be good.

[xAndersx]

Opening higher level areas for lower level characters wouldn't be so bad, i think.

Only reasons they aren't now, i understand, is so that people won't get squished and fear of powerlevelling?

Because powerlevelling doesn't really work.. if a high level person is in a group with a low level person and they go into a high level area, the low level person will get very reduced exp, won't he? Also, the low level person will likely get fried soon enough in the crossfire. Especially with the new hardcore rules in place.

And perhaps there could be more "roleplayish" warnings for those lone newbies wandering astray... say, the skull of an adventurer staked on a pole outside the bugbear cave, rumors about town that the sewers are really nasty and the magicians tower is aboslutely lethal unless you are an epic hero, etc etc.