Stop Punishing People For Being Level 10

Cojak81

@O-louth yes good idea about opening the quests out. New PCs shouldn't have to just hide away soloing starter quests until they hit level 7. They can just hide at the back with ranged weapons while the big boys n gals do the fighting.

O-louth

@Cojak81 precisely.

Zolm

Lv10 is the endgame where there is no endgame. There is only idling and making your own fun by trying to pull in other adventurers to your plotlines with...

Gold you don't have anymore. :(

Mr.Moloch

@Zolm

Zolm nailed it. Level 10 is the endgame in a game with no endgame. CoA never developed a real philosophy for what high level characters should be doing, and always seems to kick the cap down to deal with the symptom but not the problem of what happens when you become the most powerful the server can handle (when it was level 20, we capped it to 15, then 12, then 10, then back to 12, and now back to 10 - but caps don't fix problems).

CoA took the idea of basically being a level 4-10 server, there are pros and cons to that. But the biggest pro is everyone can basically do the same quests because its easy enough to balance quests in a range of about 4 levels (and most players will be 6-10th level.

There's no reason at all to cut off level caps at 9th level though in this scenario and with a reduced player base. 9th to 10th level isn't even a major power shift in 3.5.

Death penalties, on that topic, don't just punish 10th level characters - but rather are an impediment to casual players who can't regain lost levels and power as quickly as people who play full time. A problem exacerbated by the reduced player counts these days.

My take, if CoA wants to lure new players and returning players; the focus should be on casual roleplayers rather than hardcore players.

lunatichigh

@Mr-Moloch

Haven't played in a while, but I've consistently hit 9-10 on most of my characters.

Being high level is nice and all, but it sometimes can be a pain in the ass when you're trying to group with other people to do quests. I think I've pitched this idea once before, and I'll pitch it once again:

If CoA will continue to be capped at level 10, make the starting level 8 and then open ALL quests to these levels or rework them to be 8-10. This makes it so no matter who is online a party can be formed and can quest together in a reasonable fashion.

Two levels is plenty for character growth IMO. The XP values to get to 9 and 10 to can be tweaked to take a little longer if the team is worried about people leveling too quickly. And I assure you, with death penalties, people will drop back to 8... right back to where the average character is supposed to be in the current iteration of the server.

I'm a little burnt out on doing quests to level(even if it doesn't take THAT LONG)for the 50th time.

Anyway, my 2 cents. No refunds

Zolm

@lunatichigh Imma ask for refunds anyway ;)

Echo

@Mr-Moloch said in Stop Punishing People For Being Level 10:

CoA never developed a real philosophy for what high level characters should be doing

We have always said that high level characters should be pushing plot and involving other people in the stories that are being told, helping other people to get started, offering sponsorships and training and whatever else that can be offered in game.

Darlene Te'len

pushing plot points and other things is good, but during times when maybe only one or two people are on, what can be done by the player? keeping in mind in game events which have coloured the player as well as the character.

sometimes events do feel like the character/player is being punished when others are on and are found by the players and the DMs for well planned events, which target the contact starved individual making them a rather easy target (without going into details no one is interested in or want to hear about again)

have this happen enough and two things are going to happen, 1 if the player decides to stick it out, they will lose trust in the DMs as well as the other players as a whole or 2 they will simply leave

Mr.Moloch

@Echo Well, yeah. I know. I even wrote the post about the team expectations for 10th level characters about 15 years ago. Though it seems someone deleted that. :)

But by end game, we never had a philosophy of how to walk the characters off-stage. We just get people to ten, and stop offering rewards (level advancement, even really equipment advancement after a point) and instead ask for that pushing of plots and involving of other players.

I think a lot of players would like to see cool retirement opportunities, memorable death scenes, etc. As in "end game" rather than "high level responsibility".

Dire Rabbit

I've never seen level 10 as anything more than a temporary status, because it can be revoked in hilariously stupid ways. Bad pathfinding, bad luck, a misclick, a faction bug...

It's a number on a sheet, it'll change.

I've always thought that a long term character deciding when is right for them to step off is sort of the goal, and helping them do it if it's something that'd be enjoyable for all parties involved.

That said, I've also run level 4 paladins into unwinnable fights against the BBEG of the month and died then and there-- not because I was stupid, or the character was, or the person killing this character was a bully- they weren't! We talked about it in tells- but because that made the best sense for that particular moment in time.

Everyone has a time to go, and that's fine, but an arbitrary number is really not a good measuring stick. I say that not having to balance encounters or fights against those numbers, though.

Echo

you can now do all the quests at level 10 except the 4-6 ones.
death is still under discussion
as for th 7-10s not being "worth it" -- please post here for each quest what is needed to make them 'worth it' https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/category/379/suggestions-quest-tweaks-and-feedback

Cojak81

@Echo awesome!!