Server Reset Frequency vs Levelling

[pwdcrk]

Hi,

i was wondering about the growth curve of a newly build character and i was noticing that most of the times the growth speed is really limited due to the time from a reset to another one and due to the fact that most of the quest are not repeatable during the same cycle so i'm here to suggest to add more repeatable quest to help people develop their chars even if they decide to speed up their growth.

repeatable quests should be really repeatable ( each time you complete it you get money and exp not just exp first time and just money later ) and have a decent reward like other quests of the same level scope ( so not just 50 exp prize but a decent amount of it ) and could be accessible just to characters in that scope ( like one quest for levels 1-5 one for 6-10 one for 11-15 and one 16-20 )

this could help people develop their projects not changing the time between resets and even people will not be forced to plea other people to switch to a char that has not already completed all that scope single run quest to have the possibility to grow more inside the same reset ( thing that is really hard when the player base is so narrowed )

its obvious that quests with this aim will not give such a loot since they are more aimed to render accessible more exp points to people than to be taken for loot richness.

i hope i made a quite clear explanation of my mind since english is not my main language

cheers

Edit by Moderator: Changed Topic

[Jain Zar]

Xp for rp would also be a solution... with a maximum one each day (reset) on a character can gain. And maybe the higher the level, the higher the max. But I believe that has been mentioned in the past somewhere (?)

[pwdcrk]

Xp for rp would also be a solution... with a maximum one each day (reset) on a character can gain. And maybe the higher the level, the higher the max. But I believe that has been mentioned in the past somewhere (?)

sadly i suppose that scripting an RP reward system it could be not that easy and fast to realize that's why i was pointing first at raw exp

but thumbs up for (also) an rp reward system !

[Kell]

That horse has been beaten to death and flogged many, many times. Last time was around a year ago.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=12032#p120693

[Outbreak1992]

Going back to the automated XP system for RP, a server I played once on NWN1 (Ravenloft I think)had a pretty decent setup going, from what I could tell it would award you XP randomly (Most likely on a timer of sorts) providing you was actually typing, so you couldn't just go chill near a group of RPers and leach XP... I'm not coming up with the solution for this idea, I'm just throwing it out there, if it helps at all.

[pwdcrk]

That horse has been beaten to death and flogged many, many times. Last time was around a year ago.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=12032#p120693

i quickly read that topic and what i got is that there are some really nice ideas in there but most of them seems to be far from be realized in short time ....

that's why what i was proposing was just to convert to "repeatable" status some of the actual quests ( following my scheme just 4 of them ) to help people to speed up their char development

a couple of suggestions could be

the hunter quest ( i cannot see any reason for the hunter to stop needing wolves/boars/bear hides - and i know there is the plain hide quest but .... c'mon 50 exp ??? and you have to travel with really heavy hides in inventory thought 3 zones maybe slowed ? - i prefer to kill and get just kill exp 50 exp more doesn't change my life )

and the orbus obscurus quest

i know that also there are some other repeatable quests like morellian minks pelts and giants hunt but those after you completed first time don't give you exp at the turn in moment ... and this is the problem ....

[Lucifer]

I do not wish to offend anyone here and everyone has their own playstyle and goals, but seeing the growth of characters in the title my first thought is that Character growth is about interaction and char actions more than levels, I do not want a char based on numbers and levels> Levels are nice and it feels good to be able to effect greater change by dealing with more powerful NPC's and Organizations, but I find that playing my first Char here on Das, the enjoyable experience is the other characters. level 14 after a month or so is plenty fast. Having said that I do wish there was an RP/XP tick, a slow one at that, that was activating whenever two or more characters were chatting with each other in open or party chat, and I mean a realistic distance not halfway across the zone. Having said that, if setting that up is too much work it is not needed IMHO, nor are WoWstyle repeatables.

[pwdcrk]

I do not wish to offend anyone here and everyone has their own playstyle and goals, but seeing the growth of characters in the title my first thought is that Character growth is about interaction and char actions more than levels, I do not want a char based on numbers and levels> Levels are nice and it feels good to be able to effect greater change by dealing with more powerful NPC's and Organizations, but I find that playing my first Char here on Das, the enjoyable experience is the other characters. level 14 after a month or so is plenty fast. Having said that I do wish there was an RP/XP tick, a slow one at that, that was activating whenever two or more characters were chatting with each other in open or party chat, and I mean a realistic distance not halfway across the zone. Having said that, if setting that up is too much work it is not needed IMHO, nor are WoWstyle repeatables.

i got your point of view and trust me i do not have just started a char today here, i have some lvl 20 char here ( so i can say i know how this pw is ) the problem is that at the moment ( at least ) dasaria lacks of people to interact with and since play a lvl 20 char who is logged alone most of the time is not that fun ( since you cannot get any further, play OLM map is quite useless since nothing has ever changed in main plot since i play here, and there is no one to interact with at lest in the hours i can play ) i decided to start some new chars just to test classes and combinations that i never played before ( as anyone i have my top favorite class / alignment so i tend to play that as first choice ) and i realized that if i were a new player on this server at the moment i will sunddently find myself hanging around ( most of the time alone ) waiting for server reset or to find someone who logs in ( hoping is in my level scope otherwise i'm f**** ) ...


since what people do when there is no possibility to interact with others is to raise theyr char lvl ( to discover new areas be able to equip gear and to hang out questing with more high lvl people ... and so on ) what i suggest is to give people the possibility to occupy time while waiting ... you do not have idea of how many people i see logging in waiting some minutes and then log out ... probably they log in check how many compatible lvl chars are online if none or few or opposite side/factions check if server has resetted and if not already resetted log out ...

if we can give them reasons to stay online probably we will give them also more possibility to interact with others ....

you could tell me .... "well you can go around dungeons even if there is no prize at the end waiting for people" right but the fact is that for reality settings here death is really penalizing ( and i like that ! ) so people don't rush with an axe in hand looking for some skull to bash since this can easily bring them to death and to loose XP the hardly gained before ...

so they calculate : is it worth to risk my like for entering that dungeon ? if the answer is yes they stay online if no they log off ... quite hard but i'm quite agree with this way of thinking ...

thats why i was suggesting to render some ( 4! ) quest fully repeatable inside the same reset i'm not proposing to change main mechanics of this PW ( i mostly like how is designed ) i just consider that with the actual player base there are a lot of limitations especially for new players or low lvl char

[pwdcrk]

I do not wish to offend anyone here and everyone has their own playstyle and goals, but seeing the growth of characters in the title my first thought is that Character growth is about interaction and char actions more than levels, I do not want a char based on numbers and levels> Levels are nice and it feels good to be able to effect greater change by dealing with more powerful NPC's and Organizations, but I find that playing my first Char here on Das, the enjoyable experience is the other characters. level 14 after a month or so is plenty fast. Having said that I do wish there was an RP/XP tick, a slow one at that, that was activating whenever two or more characters were chatting with each other in open or party chat, and I mean a realistic distance not halfway across the zone. Having said that, if setting that up is too much work it is not needed IMHO, nor are WoWstyle repeatables.

That horse has been beaten to death and flogged many, many times. Last time was around a year ago.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=12032#p120693

also another way and also more elegant in my opinion ( but i don't know if is technically a nightmare ) should be to make quest area to reset indipendtly by the main server reset

i try to explain myself

let's take for instance that actually the server resets every 48 hours

we have 4 quest hub
-cear
-morell
-the mill
-ravenswatch

then all these hubs resets every 48 hours

but if we could make possible that if one of these areas is totally empty of chars for ( let's say) 45 (or so) minutes the quests that starts inside that area become aviable again for people without waiting for a full reset we can achieve a really nice and balanced result

if the server is full of people it will follow it's natural 48 hours cycle if not a character will have the possibility to travel area from area having every time something to do

also this can render possible that quests that starts outside main quest hubs ( carcerum for instance ) will keep their exclusive "taste" being aviable just fewer times than others ( even if i was never able to build a party to go carcerum for example and is not soloable .... )

[Wired]

I don't think leveling's really a problem and certainly fast-leveling isn't the spirit in which the content was written. Older quests will tend to be designed around larger parties than newer ones, but it seems to me that challenge, balance, and a steady progression over time was always a design goal of the builders.

As to scripted RP XP, a quick search will show that we've discussed this many times and at length and that this simply isn't something we ever desired to do. Probably the only thing that gets brought up more than that is changing the death system. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be appropriate in some other context (there are many, totally valid ways to go), but eight years into the project, we're not planning to change the base systems of the PW.

Where would you say your sticking point is? I know I can often take a new character to level 5 or 6 in a single sitting (maybe that's too fast? ), and off the top of my head at level 8 there's something like 60 quests worth a whopping 18,950xp available to you.

Where I find things slow down is about level 15-16 or so, and maybe that' appropriate. The math of the d20 system does require a lot more xp to move the needle at that point and also mobs get more difficult... damage reduction, spell resistance, higher level spells & etc.

A few other thoughts:

The server automatically resets itself after X hours at a certain time of day if nobody's on... we can take a look at the timing of this, whether it's working correctly and/or could happen more often.

Many quests in the starting area are intentionally repeatable... you do however, have to add somebody to the party who hasn't played it that day. You can't just repeat a quest over and over and over by yourself.

[Arkalezth]

I'm not going to address the main topic for now, even though I have my own opinions. Just a couple of things:

The Morellian minks quest IS repeatable and you DO get full XP (300, not counting kill XP) every time, as long as you're in the proper level range (8-12). Same for the bandit scalps in Thrall's Gate (the XP reward is smaller, but you can repeat it an infinite number of times).

you do not have idea of how many people i see logging in waiting some minutes and then log out ... probably they log in check how many compatible lvl chars are online if none or few or opposite side/factions check if server has resetted and if not already resetted log out ...

I don't pretend to speak for everyone, but I really, really, REALLY doubt that's the reason. Most of the time, it's likely people checking if there's something to do besides good ol' brainless questing. Especially in the case of veteran players who have already done all the quests a million times before.

[Wired]

^ This. I think people do that to see if there's anybody on the feel like RPing with (or if somebody they don't like isn't on). :p

I think folks might connect better if they idled in the Misty for a while rather than logging in and right back out though, if I'm sitting around on the server I see folks miss each other all the time this way.

[Kell]

^ This. I think people do that to see if there's anybody on the feel like RPing with (or if somebody they don't like isn't on). :p

I think folks might connect better if they idled in the Misty for a while rather than logging in and right back out though, if I'm sitting around on the server I see folks miss each other all the time this way.

Yes, this.

[pwdcrk]

....
As to scripted RP XP, a quick search will show that we've discussed this many times and at length and that this simply isn't something we ever desired to do. Probably the only thing that gets brought up more than that is changing the death system. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be appropriate in some other context (there are many, totally valid ways to go), but eight years into the project, we're not planning to change the base systems of the PW.

i agree that scripted Rp XP as this PW is designed has no much sense

Where would you say your sticking point is? I know I can often take a new character to level 5 or 6 in a single sitting (maybe that's too fast? ), and off the top of my head at level 8 there's something like 60 quests worth a whopping 18,950xp available to you.

Where I find things slow down is about level 15-16 or so, and maybe that' appropriate. The math of the d20 system does require a lot more xp to move the needle at that point and also mobs get more difficult... damage reduction, spell resistance, higher level spells & etc.

A few other thoughts:

The server automatically resets itself after X hours at a certain time of day if nobody's on... we can take a look at the timing of this, whether it's working correctly and/or could happen more often.

i tried different build/races and i ended up considering that

my main (lvl20) char is a human / (mostly)warlock and with that i didn't have any problem even at low level but i suppose that is even because it was the second char i builded here so i was more aware of the mechanics of the pw

then i tried a human cleric ... that is far too easy and is the only combination i was find is able to solo anything you throw at him without big difficulties

then my attention was driven to pure caster human (wizard/red wizard - i know the prc name is different but at the moment my memory fails - ) this is one the char i dropped around level 7/8 since it was totally dependant on the presence of other players to complete his scope quest so was quite frustrating due to the narrow player base

so i decided to explore ecl races i made some experiments and now i'm using an ecl+2 warlock and i'm actually lvl5 the only quest i miss to complete is the faralier house 'cause is too hard to solo ( and undead are quite immune to my fear blast so i'm F**** in there ) but i got last 600 exp of lvl4 killing wolves at 6xp each and boars at 18xp each ( boars pays well ) but was quite boring i did it since there were no one around to go faralier with and the server didn't reset and i think that this char will be an rp blast when leveled a bit so i'm not planning to drop it ( at the moment ) but if would be a new player and ( i know ecl+2 its an hard way ) started a char that has lvl 2 at 6000 exp after the first hour and a half i had completed all the quest aviable ending up with something like 1300 or so exp and having no other options than to wait for sever reset i would probably feel ashamed about that ...


mind that i'm not complaining ( at all ) and i'm not complaining about the difficulty of the server or the difficulty of the quests or the death penalties ( that i find correct )

my only worries are about "waisted time" that players may encounter while leveling they chars expecially when no other ( or few ) is around if the server would be populated as when i arrived here there would be no problem at all ( in fact with my first characters i never encountered it I'm facing sometime now just because i started some new char)

Many quests in the starting area are intentionally repeatable... you do however, have to add somebody to the party who hasn't played it that day. You can't just repeat a quest over and over and over by yourself.

you mean that are repeatable if you join a party that haven't already taken them ? 'cause if so i'm aware of that and the problem is that at the moment is difficult to find other people to play with and this is what pushed me to write this all in the beginning

or are repeatable even by a char who have already taken in that reset ? 'cause if so i wasn't aware of that or my chars have something wrong 'cause i can't ...

[pwdcrk]

.... if there's something to do besides good ol' brainless questing. Especially in the case of veteran players who have already done all the quests a million times before.

in my experience ( I'm considering myself quite a veteran ) the best RP i ever experienced was always coming out from random encounters of people inside the same dungeon ( most of the time in there for different reasons ) and those was a blast ! not ( but i fully respect who do that ) sitting in a tavern or in an house chatting about weddings or so basically when something "real" was involved and not necessary saving the world or kill a dragon but even more simple tasks like "i need to find some adventurine "