Manouk said:I would prefer interesting GM events, over double XP weekends.
Same here.
Way I see it, is that Pantheon is not a game you want to rush through. This is a game where you are encouraged to take your time and explore.
Besides...every character you make is going to have a different experience due to the perception system. Double xp isn't going to be as essential to your alts, since in other games it is the same thing over and over and you have been there, done that already. With the perception system, it's going to be different every single time, (since no one will be doing exactly the same thing in their character's life), so bonus xp isn't going to be as useful to the life of the character.
I do think GM events would be much more enjoyed by the majority of players than the bonus xp.
Not a fan of the double xp thing, don't think we even need rested xp.
If this does get some serious consideration then perhaps it should be connected to another ingame mechanic that has been discussed and is in 'The Pantheon Difference' section:
Progeny System
Players will be able to 'retire' high level characters and then create their children as new characters, but these new characters, the 'progeny', will have certain abilities, stats, etc. that make them slightly yet noticeably better than a completely brand new character (but not to the point that it unbalances things).
Possibly having an option or way to have 'some' increased xp due to the sacrifice of retiring a level capped character might make sense. After all if the new character has some connection and benefit from the retired character it could make sense that they have more 'insight' for the future and what to expect, thereby making an experience increase a reasonable idea.
~~~ <()> ~~~
Valor and virtue ride with me, my blade defends the helpless,
my might upholds the weak, my words speak only truth,
my wrath undoes the wicked!
<~ Vaultarn Stormborn ~>
There is camaraderie through adversity. You see it in sports teams and military boot camp. When a group of people have a shared experience of adversity and/or pain they form a bond and are usually more cooperative with one another. Its why corporations will send their employees out on week long survival trips; its also why they encorage company sports teams.
Double xp, xp pots, or an xp bonus undermines this bond making the experience different from one player to another. I believe this is why in WoW, even though millions of people have played, most people dont have deep feelings/remebrances of other players in the game because there was no adversity through a tough exp curve or group content (except high end raiding which only proves the point). Its also why now players will wax nostalgic over hell levels in EQ when they were loathed at the time.
I'm not really a fan of any time-restricted events at all. Be it exp reward, special gear, achievements, etc. Even if the time frame is weeks - some people would still be on vacation that whole time and feel left out. So I usually don't even login during them to boycott this type of thing.
However, speaking of exp boosts in particular - I'd love them for n-th alt. :) Most games aren't very alt-friendly so when you don't feel like playing your mains you usually would leave the game altogether because starting a 7th character is too boring. I've been thinking of a system to make exp boosts available for characters that are below average level of all your chars, and only if you have at least 3 on your account, or something like that.
Another thing I've been thinking of - exp rates often end up being too low or too high for some people. I often find myself disappointed that I outlevel an area too soon and have to choose between exploring it all without any challenge, or leave it half-way and move on to the next one where I can find something that has a chance of killing me. :) So I had this idea about letting players tweak it for themselves in exchange for something else. E.g. you could have a tiny bonus to your main stats for playing with lower rates or equally tiny penalty to them if you want to level faster. These just have to be not too high so they don't become a real advantage in dungeons/raids/etc. Or disable them in such areas. Also I think they would have to be character- or time-locked so you don't abuse it to level fast and then just casually swap it to maximize your stats for whatever reason (a rare miniboss in open area?). Could be not stats boost but something like... Money rate? Or even just a mild visual effect to show off? Or even nothing at all, I often really just want to explore every last bit of an area with the mobs staying in "scary" zone on threat meter. :) But only on the first couple playthroughs.
While I will agree with what appears to be the majority about not wanting XP bonuses, I do think there is room for some XP boosting. Looking at this from the point of view for the support staff, I think it would NOT be out of order for a mechanic to be added to the game for Support to issue "XP potions" to the community in the event of an extended outage. For instance if the game goes down for several hours, when players are able to log back in they find that they have been granted a single-use item (potion, wand, magic frog - whatever) that will give them an XP bonus for an equivalent amount of time to be used at the players discretion.
I myself am a quester. I look forward to min/maxing every quest I can find. I would be moreinterested in a greater XP ratio for questing than for grinding.
Also, I like combinatorics and analytics. I am a nerd and admit it. I would propose a slightly different opinion regarding a "race to the max". I hate it when this happens. It really DOES cheapen the game. It makes all the hard work developed by the designers and the other "lore masters" who help create such a rich environment seem almost worthless. To see the lore and content ignored makes me dissappointed. I would propose a "diminishing returns" type of mechanic. What this means is that if someone goes in and starts grinding without regard to content, they should start receiving deminishing returns on the XP gained from mob kills. There should be a maximum amount of XP gain over a specific amount of time. Even in real life there is only so much a person can learn over a short amount of time. Let that transcribe here. Quest XP however should NOT be restricted as it is time consuming and would probably never get you over that magic line of XP gain/time. That being said, I also support a maximum coin gain/time too. However I suspect there may be some serious backlash over that concept and will not push it too much.
I like the idea of oragnised events that encourage player participation and unexpected situations and anything where all hell breaks loose.
But I think that any events that are organised should give rare items that are not in the normal game play instead of xp as rewards. The stats on the rewards dont need to be great, (maybe slightly better than a average or good items for the level), but they should be unique in some way. Enough to make players want to take part, but not enough to unbalance the target level. For instance, a bow that can proc a snare (that can be turned off when not required) when a ranger's level still doesnt have the ability, or a rogue dagger that embeds the poison deeper so its duration is enhanced or the tick times are reduced a bit.
Be creative with the rewards that helps a player but doesn't make it a cake walk for the recipient. There are lots of things that can be rewarded that dont involve xp, make the rewards a starter for rare quests, or rare and unique objects or recipes, or a tweak to how a spell behaves (instead of standard 3x5dmg magic missiles, for instance, let the caster select between that and 5x3dmg; not useful all the time, but in certain circumstance, it would be).
So in short, events: yes, zone event: yes, rewards: yes (make them unique to to events and not general world items), xp: no.
Kilsin said:Bonus/Double Experience events - are you a fan or do you think it hurts the game overall? :)
I'm okay with them, as long as they're extremely rare - maybe once per year to celebrate the game anniversary. I would also approve of a double exp event following extended downtime for the players caused by a bad patch, technical difficulties, server problems, etc.
Dekaden said:Kilsin said:Bonus/Double Experience events - are you a fan or do you think it hurts the game overall? :)
I'm okay with them, as long as they're extremely rare - maybe once per year to celebrate the game anniversary. I would also approve of a double exp event following extended downtime for the players caused by a bad patch, technical difficulties, server problems, etc.
I really don’t agree that xp should be used as a sweetener when things go wrong. As has previously been said, it just encourages the idea that levelling it the intent of the game. If things go wrong with a patch, down time or the like, then every character should be given something that helps with game play but not a xp boost. A damage shield that lasts an hour and absorbs a percentage of damage, or absorbs maximum number of hit points, or food to boost a stat ot two. Anything that helps a character, a little. I just think xp is the way every other rpg have gone and it just encourages levelling and not content play.
Kilsin said:Bonus/Double Experience events - are you a fan or do you think it hurts the game overall? :)
I have never been excited for them at all, I think they go against the "it's about the Journey, not the Destination" . I'm aware I'm a minority on this but I never could figure out the big race to "end game". I mean seriously, if it's a good game why would one want to end it, and that's what they do... hit "end game" and leave.
Just give me enough content to keep the game going as I level. If done right I like the game as much at 15 as I do at 60... im in no rush to get it over.
No, and not under any circumstances whatsoever.
It cheapens the gaming experience, it fosters a culture of impatience and of entitlement and it causes players to out-level zones.
As I recall, any single character I had in Vanguard was overwhelmed with quests. If that's the case in Pantheon as well, then there is little to no reason to worry over a potentially boring experience with respect to leveling alts.
Pantheon, unlike its contemporaries, should be about rewarding patience and hard work. It should never be about handing out any rewards ever, and these include experience points.
I would not like to see bonous xp in Pantheon for a few reasons (and most have already stated them)
1. It cheapens the experience of actually playing the game.
2. It opens the door to the "I want it all NOW" type of play
In the games I have seen it used (EQ/EQ2) it is also a part of a larger feling that thecompany has the game in life support mode and doing little more than trying to milk all the cash they can with minimal effort.
Things others have mentioned like GM events or other things would be much more appealing to me.
I think that infequent double exp events are actually really great ways to help players get out of ruts in the game. Its unavoidable that sometimes a player will get bored with where they are at in the game and an email about a double exp event is the perfect thing to get them to log back in. However, Im interested in ways that the double exp events could bring players together, say, you only get the bonus if you are in a full group, or you only get the full bonus if you are in a full group. That way, it can encourage bored players to log, and it can encourage players to to reach out and form groups.
zedicus said:I think that infequent double exp events are actually really great ways to help players get out of ruts in the game. Its unavoidable that sometimes a player will get bored with where they are at in the game and an email about a double exp event is the perfect thing to get them to log back in. However, Im interested in ways that the double exp events could bring players together, say, you only get the bonus if you are in a full group, or you only get the full bonus if you are in a full group. That way, it can encourage bored players to log, and it can encourage players to to reach out and form groups.
I'm still not a fan, I'm afraid. If the game is in need to create a gimmick to get people to log in and play the game, then I would have to say that the game has a serious flaw that no amount of extra xp will fix. I do like the idea of events, and lore relevant rewards, just not xp. The game is built around the premis that the "end game" is not the focus point and it's everything in between. If that is the case, why would you have a mechanism in place that is built for you to whiz through that content? Seems like a bit of an own goal.
Gadgets said: I've always tried to take advantage of events like this in the past, especially on project 1999, but I never thought in the long run it was beneficial to the server. I'd rather see spikes in population encouraged by way of well thought out and fun GM led events.
Loved the GM events back in the day...and The Best of the Best contests that were done on each server. :) Will we see anything like that again with Pantheon? :)
Not a fan... It definitely cheapens the gaming experience.
My yardstick is 'does it aid the rush to the end / bypass content' ?
Since it does, I am not keen (put, lacking in will-power, I would use it unfortunately).
However, there are things I could support:
1. Short-Term events:
(a) Region #1 town/village is offerring bounty on killing goblins - bring 'goblin ears' as proof. Only paying out for 10 days or first 1000 ears collected!
(b) Region #2 City/Church - to raise funds to repair the roof, they will cast 'medium' duration buff on player for 10 gold. They will keep doing this (the NPCs do have mana bars and have mana regen rates) until they have raissed the donations they need. Note: players (of that church?) can also 'donate' to get a faction boost (proportionate to money donated) and/or doity_faction boost. Of course, if too many donate, then they reduce the time before this offer will run out. Clever Guilds might try to hog this ... *if* they blow enough cash $$$ !
(c) Local ArchPrelate died and the local churches are all in mourning. No spells/services will be sold until the period of mourning os over.
(d) Local Nobleman was poisoned/killed. City has tightened security. Higher faction required to get into city gates etc. More sentries at night make thieves / black market stop for a while. Town Guards (or local noble families) may be looking for volunteers (need high faction to get past the security check) for guard duty. Extra cash and some +faction for these 'quest' jobs. Perhaps access to a faction not normally possible to get raised easily/at-all.
2. Medium-Term events:
(a) Region #3 has a Plague/Disease going round. For a medium/long while, all supplies of herbs for sale will be reduced 80% in quantity/availability. Local city will pay (a 'quest') +40% for specific herbs needed as long as they are 'fresh' (picked less than 2 days ago, say). Selling them will reduce your faction with local herb_sellers / apothecaries. Selling them at -10% to herb_sellers / apothecaries will improve their faction, but reduce quantity needed to be bought that week/day etc.
(b) Region #4 has a Copper Ore shortage. Or needs to equip a new City Militia. In option (i) they pay for Ore, with (ii) they pay for pre-set armour/weapons. The quanity s fixed, and the event is 'over' once all are supplied.
You get the idea.....