Pay to win or at least a jump to level 50

[Grayden]

It's the idea fairy again.

How about a jump to level 50 that people can buy?

Maybe an unlock so anyone can play a vampire? The vampire one annoys me a bit because the helpfile is crap.

[Olyn]

I'm open to a lot of things, but pay to win is not one of them. This game will always be 100% free for our players.

The path to vampire is pretty clear: be voted hall of exalted by your peers. Most of our early Halls characters were dominant PK'ers but most of them from the last 5 years or so were a combination of longevity and memorable RP.

Nycticora is in charge of exceptions to the Halls rule, but I can't think of anyone actually getting it in a while.


tl;dr - to get a vampire, contribute to this game over a period of time with a single character that the rest of the players think deserve recognition.

[Davairus]

I completely understand the frustration with levelling, especially difficult to get a group. I wouldnt mind if we had a way to hire (for in-game gold) a solid group merc

[Ergorion]

Or buy experience points with in game gold? Or mystic tokens or something?

[Davairus]

That doesnt seem really like the kind of game I'd be interested in working on. I think I'd rather do something like provide a "special guard" type mob to solo rank on endlessly that splits exp instead of providing bonus. I mean we just need a way to progress, period. Then we can talk about making that faster. Right now most of us get stuck

[Nycticora]

Ozaru requested a few things recently:

1. Ensure decent experience is granted to a solo player winning a difficult fight. He shouldn't fight for 5 minutes against a mob in Solace at risk of death or gank and only get 200xp, less than 0.3% of a level

2. Ensure duo group members always receive more experience than they would have solo at all levels regardless of the levels of the group members

3. Add a way to kick idiots off newbie chat

I was thinking of adding some kind of xp buffing effect to sleeping in lairs or eating home-cooked meals. Maybe if you're well-rested and/or well-fed from spending time in your lair you would receive a little more XP when soloing. Maybe a flat effect, like +50xp from defeating any mob regardless of level but only while soloing. Maybe with a little extra logic for corner cases like casting tornadoes in elemental canyon so you don't get the xp payout more than once a round. So if you kill 10 weak mobs with one meteor swarm all at once you still only get +50xp, but if you kill two weak mobs in two different rounds you get +50xp twice. Being well-rested should also give you bonus xp when you gain a point in a skill to incentivise training skills and spells in lairs.

I was also thinking about adding a temporary effect to home-cooked meals to make them more filling. They could apply a buff "satiated" or something so if you take the time to bring ingredients home and boil them in a pot and cook your meal, it applies this effect that stops hunger from counting down until the effect expires. Basically so we can have meals that satisfy hunger for longer than just eating a slab of beef.

I don't want to do that with drinks, drinks should do something else.

[Grayden]

I like the idea of a pair a leveling warriors to hire that are only available if there is no one to group with, or only after you have invited those in your group range and were either declined or no response.

Perhaps just being available to hire is better, but I want groups to still be encouraged.

Ideas
-the warriors work at the employers level
-they make a full group to help gain exp bonus
-they are masters of rescueing to help softer classes and will fight frontline but not initiate fights
-they will not assist pvp
-they will disappear if a mob has a rare item and return to town (like the green aura).
-if they die they return to town
-they dont split gold

Maybe the Brothers Grim fighting instructors to help those gain titles in their guild. [/img]

[Ergorion]

The thing with a buff merc that gave me pause was what if someone used that to get rares? And the fix for that seems like a similar thing that happens with monster pots. Maybe you should be able to hire a really badass mercenary who only assists when you're solo and when you're not fighting mobs with rares?

[Mikoos]

I like the idea of a giant religious quest that has you exploring Thera, pilgrimages, sacrificing, killing mobs, collecting artifacts, etc. When you’re done your deity is like..boom! 50. I don’t want to have to go through any player characters at all to complete the quest. Like having to talk to a mystic or cleric.

[beia]

I have always been a fan of having another way to level up besides endlessly killing npcs feels to meh, especially after years and years of the same thing.

[jaran]

I think perhaps something more could be done to help with ranking in the context of a low Pbase and there have already been some nice suggestions in that regard.

What I don't think should ever happen is a quick and easy way to get to 50 - you do need to earn the right to have a 50 in my opinion and a big part of the game is the experience of getting to that point - the relationship building in groups, the PK ranges and having to deal with fire giants 6 levels above you, etc.

As much as it perhaps can take longer now due to some difficulty finding groups I don't think it should be taken away - there have been already tons of great work completed to help with ranking and in many ways it's never been easier.

[Ergorion]

Jaran!!! Sup d00d. Long time.

[jaran]

Hey buddy! Yes I am still alive.

[Davairus]

We'll move this thread to the next patch topic and spend 3 months deliberating what to do. If its nothing, we'll have a reason why for you.

[Olyn]

Yeah, I've had a lot less time to work on patch stuff this time around, so Q3 2019 Balance Patch will probably land right around the middle of October. The next forum for patch suggestions will open when we release.