Level Cap increases.

[Azulfae]

I have always been a supporter of the level cap system on Sundren.

When I first got here I went around Roleplaying and working out what to do, forming parties and doing quests. My character slowly levelled and things were gratifying.

Sometimes you would see a player make a new PC and they were several levels under you, then they would plough around the server earning massive amounts of XP and suddenly they would be higher level than you with decent gear etc.

The thing that used to satisfy me was that the same players would then, in tells, say how it was such a bummer that they were up against the level cap and this you knew mean't that there was some measure of control allowing you to keep up with the 'professional' character builders.

The new cap system! I am up against he cap with every PC I own. This is me, I am a 'slow' leveller, I like to spend time in non hunting areas RPing and building up to a good fun adventure.

At the moment I have loads of play time on my hands and during hours of the day that no-one is on, to do things that earn XP. I am up against the cap sat around doing nothing waiting for the cap to go down so that when there is something to do, I can do it and get the gratification of my acomplishments.

Next week i'm back at work, that means 1-3 hours maybe 4-5 nights a week. I see myself quitting the server at this rate. I can't play with the obsessive dedication required to get what you are supposed to get out of this game, whilst holding down a job and having a family.

The kick in the balls is that during all this sitting around waiting for the cap to rise, I am getting most of the way to the next level via trickle XP.

So when the cap finally rises and yeah! it's time to have some fun again, nope, nope it isn't, maybe one hour doing a quest and I've levelled and hit the next cap.

How utterly demoralising.

It's not like I'm excessively farming XP either, I have static quests waiting in my journals that I don't want to do because all i'll get is gold and no XP and that really takes away the satisfaction of doing them.

I'd rather, with a level cap system this harsh in place, that I had the option 'not' to accept trickle XP aswell.

For me it's not about what level I am, it's about when I do something I want to feel I got rewarded in some way.

Currently I am given hollow rewards for doing nothing and then not rewarded for doing something. RP has utterly declined for me since it's all about obsessive behaviours all designed to overcome the cap system and not about really relaxing and having a good session when you can be online.

Suggestions:

A. Go back to the old system

B. Modify the new system so that it doesn't punish people with jobs and families and real lives.

C. Get rid of the XP ticker so that when the cap is gone the player has the satisfaction of being able to earn the XP to reach the next level themselves rather than just being almost there and almost at the next cap.

[Iso]

With the current cap system it might as well be that the global exp gain were increased. It's impossible for people to grind up their levels unless they've already spent an extraordinary amount of time playing their characters, particularly once it begins taking a full 24 hours clocked in to gain a single level's cap increase.

For those who do spend a lot of time in social RP and less in adventure RP, a single death can wipe out a week or more of precious time spent on the server. As for permanent death potential at higher levels, who wants to clock in 500 hours on a character just to have it croak?

There seems to be three categories of players on the server, those who sit around leveling by trickle and the occasional terrifying romp through the forest, those who go social for a while and then adventure for a while in equal balance, and those who are out dungeon delving 24/7 exp be damned.

The people who dungeon romp prior to the current cap were the ones flying up in levels and I guess are the inspiration for the current level cap. For the people who do both in equal balance they will often find themselves hitting the cap now and ending up not being able to gain much satisfaction from their adventuring. Those who's characters lead more sociable lives and very rarely end up out and about; if they die once they basically lose huge chunks of time and get nowhere fast.

The only people who aren't effected in "play style" by the cap seem to be the people who inspired it's current incarnation anyway, while the entire exp system in place muddles with the others. Caps stop people who progress naturally from progressing naturally, and the slow exp gain and high death penalties completely halt or reverse people who already have a very slow time leveling to begin with.

Some people like stabbing ogres and zombies just for the challenge of it, that's their reward and the exp doesn't matter much to them. Cap solved the flying up for the ones who didn't care about exp to begin with.

[Phantom Lamb]

Thanks folks. It's already been stated that the new system is here to stay. We may adjust the ratio of play time to level cap, but we won't change the system itself.

[Saulus]

Another level cap whine post. Closed.

[KimKandor]

Level cap?? Whats that??


All kidding aside, I haven't even looked at it outsied of it's something you see when you click the stats button. I lvl when I gain enough xp, but a few levels I waited for proper RP to ensue so I could choose a class befitting the RP. I've died a lot, and haven't found the penalties that excessive, Ariel is lvl 10, I feel she is above average since the players I started out with aren't to level 10 yet. So...what is level cap?

[Kaeldorn]

It's not like I'm excessively farming XP either, I have static quests waiting in my journals that I don't want to do because all i'll get is gold and no XP and that really takes away the satisfaction of doing them.

Note (again) that trickle, DM and quest xp go on beyond your level cap. The only cap they are subject to is 20th level. With the exception that some quests won't give experience if you are too high level to do them normally.

We need more quests to entertain people so they can have something rewarding to do when they can't find much RP around, and as PL said the rate at which the cap increases may be tuned some still. However, the highest of the high levels (post 15) are meant to be difficult to obtain and if you go out enough to have your characters constantly kept at their cap in those regions, then yes you'll likely get a lot of that xp needed for the next level through trickle before raising your cap again.