XP Requirement needs to be Lowered and Quest Logs need Updates

Nusrizan

Last night I was in a Crew with someone and we were at the Mirror Lake killing small things like Eels and Skippers and it took a very, very long time to level. I don't know if it's being in the Crew that splits the XP together or if it's really the system itself, but it was making her angry and she quit the game. I was actually enjoying the game and I do like the grind and I know long grinds are not for everyone. But her getting angry and quitting the game had me concerned. I know the mud is still in early stages and the developers are hard at work to make it better for everyone, but here's my suggestion. Lower the XP requirement for Levels 1-5 or 10 for beginner areas. I have another small suggestion. Some of the quests, like the Quest to become Level 5 needs to give some directions on where to find creatures to kill or NPCs to help out. We had a lot of trouble in the beginning running all over trying to find something to kill or NPCs to greet. The newbie channel does somewhat help, but it's not always reliable since it tends to be quiet at times despite hundreds of people being on. Probably due to people feeling discouraged with the restriction in place to slow down spam or most of them are still new and don't know how to answer it and I can understand that. Your thoughts?

Minion

I could be remembering wrong but the "Get to level X" quests do mention checking AREAS for where you can go to level up. There is a bit less hand-holding than an MMO would typically have, though. At least for the first 10 levels or so, some more specific guidance would help. After that I think orgs can take over to create help files for more guidance.

bairloch

They've been open about leveling taking longer in Starmourn than other IREs. It is intentional, from what I've read. That said, I hit 5 by accident while talking to people and finding missions.

Cubey

Yeah, noticed the same thing - leveling takes forever and everything drops tiny scraps of money (while of course prices for goods and amenities are as they were in other IRE games). If the intention was to slow down player progress and make it seem less like a race then I gotta say, you devs totally missed the mark on this one. What this actually results in is an even deeper gap between hardcore grinder part of the playerbase and those with a more limited time or simply new players in general.

But hey, at least the credits are cheap.

Aurelius

I'd be surprised if nearly every system doesn't need some adjusting.

BadPenguin

There is adjusting and it being boring. Right now leveling is boring because at a beginning level I feel like im grinding 99 to 100 in imperian  in 2004.

Zaoul

This is obviously a scheme by BigStarmourn to start selling xp boosting items for credits.

Aurelius

Zaoul said:

This is obviously a scheme by BigStarmourn to start selling xp boosting items for credits.

Too obvious. Look behind the curtain, not in front of it, n00b. Who pulls Starmourn and Iron Realms' strings? EA? MI-6? The Chechens?

Eukelade

Aurelius said:

Zaoul said:

This is obviously a scheme by BigStarmourn to start selling xp boosting items for credits.

Too obvious. Look behind the curtain, not in front of it, n00b. Who pulls Starmourn and Iron Realms' strings? EA? MI-6? The Chechens?

RUSSIA OF COURSE

Sairys

I think for me it's the combination of the lower xp gain with the deadlier/longer combat. It just really makes it feel like effort in the early stages.

On the other side, captaincy and hacking have been pretty fun so far and feel nicely rewarding with decent progression.

Aurelius

We'll get it looked at, yeah. This is the kind of thing we tend to start conservatively with, because you guys react a lot better to changes that make things easier than vice versa, understandably.

Tecton, who I need to talk to about this, is pretty heads down trying to solve some crucial problems that are causing various things to break. 

Tye

So he's working on making the intro slaves more... interactive?

Nix

Great. Because trying to level is making me want to tear my hair out.  It feels especially grinding when hunting alone.

Sagex

yeah the xp value is completely insane and benefits those who were not bound by the bad launch and being stuck behind things and not enough areas  people can go to to gain exp without tearing your hair out

Markov

I think it is more so that the progression of Mobs seems insane, in the same room that you are hunting mobs that are a good little fight, there is another mob that will kill you in 2 hits. I think the areas need to align their mob difficulty distribution a little better.

It makes it so i end up not even trying the harder mobs, because they will often time kill me in three hits, and end up just grinding hundreds of the small mobs, that only give 1-3 xp %

Traveler

I was frustrated with not being able to find anything that I was strong enough to kill at level 3. There were a few things, but the one area suggested for Song Dominion was already overrun with other newbies, and practically hunted out.

I ended up questing instead for xp and marks, and was actually rather pleased with my results from that. 

Exto

I agree that XP gain feels much too slow. It seems like you pretty much have to grind 50-100 mobs per level even down at level 5-10 which is ok for later in the game but is a pretty bad feel for a newbie experience.

bairloch

I think the XP gain feels just fine. I would hope you don't speed it up too much. That would make leveling trivial. It's easy enough now, any more and what's the point? Just start everyone at max.

Kurdock

I suspect the point here is each level is more meaningful and carries greater impact - no more skipping the first 60 levels in one day by heading to Manara at level 20. There's no problem with the system as it is, except that levelling "feels" slower. Your rate of progression is the same as everybody else. Also, exp gain seems like it has been smoothed out across all levels (at every level so far you get roughly 1% per mob kill if you go to the recommended area, idk about higher levels but it is possible that 0.1% exp per mob at other IRE muds' high levels has been removed and replaced with a more evened-out exp gain across all levels? Purely speculation tho since no one has reached there yet).

Basically don't compare your exp gain in this game to your previous experiences in other MUDs. I think Starmourn is using a different system to make each level count.

kay

I think the biggest problem with it is over saturation of players in each zone. With the respawn times as they are, people can run through several zones and find few things to kill. When there is a more even spread of people at various levels this won’t be so egregious, but with the high concentration of people at lower levels it slows things down.

Sairys

Kurdock said:

I suspect the point here is each level is more meaningful and carries greater impact - no more skipping the first 60 levels in one day by heading to Manara at level 20. There's no problem with the system as it is, except that levelling "feels" slower. Your rate of progression is the same as everybody else. Also, exp gain seems like it has been smoothed out across all levels (at every level so far you get roughly 1% per mob kill if you go to the recommended area, idk about higher levels but it is possible that 0.1% exp per mob at other IRE muds' high levels has been removed and replaced with a more evened-out exp gain across all levels? Purely speculation tho since no one has reached there yet).

Basically don't compare your exp gain in this game to your previous experiences in other MUDs. I think Starmourn is using a different system to make each level count.

Unless there's something actively preventing it, that fast levelling is likely to happen when higher level players start taking lower levelled ones to their hunting zones. Especially if progression is actually that smooth because people would presumably max out in a week or two and could then boost others.

It's likely the reverse, if people feel that levelling is a struggle it's probably a greater incentive for them to powerlevel people

Exto

Kurdock said:

I suspect the point here is each level is more meaningful and carries greater impact - no more skipping the first 60 levels in one day by heading to Manara at level 20. There's no problem with the system as it is, except that levelling "feels" slower. Your rate of progression is the same as everybody else. Also, exp gain seems like it has been smoothed out across all levels (at every level so far you get roughly 1% per mob kill if you go to the recommended area, idk about higher levels but it is possible that 0.1% exp per mob at other IRE muds' high levels has been removed and replaced with a more evened-out exp gain across all levels? Purely speculation tho since no one has reached there yet).

Basically don't compare your exp gain in this game to your previous experiences in other MUDs. I think Starmourn is using a different system to make each level count.

If this is what the admin were trying to do then that's actually totally fine, but in that case they shouldn't gate the main storyline behind hours of grinding.

MundaneName

Put me in the camp of liking a slow leveling curve. If it gets dull take a break and interact with many of the other available systems. I would be sad if the PvE content was used up in a handful of weeks.

Also keep in mind as people start getting credits, bashing areas free up, quests become known, and guides are written the average pace is going to increase significantly. It is important the base rate is slow enough to allow that.

Yalau

I like it.  At first it seemed slow but after every level I felt a noticeable increase in power, health especially.  There are tons of things to do that aren't level mandated, like ship combat.  Not only that but even lower level abilities are pretty powerful.  I think they're going for "newbies are useful too" approach.

Slander

At first I was of the 'this is so slow' mentality but I've come around. Due to a combination of crazy past few days IRL and initial alting I'm not quite level 10 yet (trying to get there before I sleep). That being said, once I got a better feel of combat and where to go the progress got a lot better.

Quean

At this moment I would personally not touch the levelling speed. It will become easier once the players start spreading over more zones, but the combination of small XP gains and longer combat (4-5 hits to take down a mob of my strength) made me cycle through other game systems, and I love it. Plus, every single level is a noticable achievement, unlike Achaea, where you are pretty much a nobody until you hit 80. 

Bottom line: this is a MUD, not a bash-simulator MMORPG. Enjoy the variety of options!

Shinonome

I get maybe 1% from mobs in a zone rated 15~25... at level 14.

An exp buff would be nice...

Sagex

the problem is you have to buy their elite membership in order to grind at a reasonable pace,  i spent the entire time since friday and only got to level 20 while others are 30+ mosto f that is due to the newbie areas being the worst out of the ire muds (sorry but it's true) and also the fact  other areas are mixed with aggro enemies that can kill you

Aurelius

Just checking - you guys did see the Updates news with the xp requirement lowered from levels 1-10 and less so from 11-20 right?

Dorc

I don't mind the XP gain, the biggest issue right now, and will clear up as time goes on, is you have 20 people bashing an area meant for 1 - 2. Quest XP should be greater though IMO.

bairloch

Aurelius said:

Just checking - you guys did see the Updates news with the xp requirement lowered from levels 1-10 and less so from 11-20 right?

Yeah, doesn't mean I agree with it. The loudest aren't necessarily the majority. Don't jump to make changes because of a few squeaky wheels. They'll grind to the top, burn out, and leave. Concentrate on the folks who actually want to play the game. They're busy playing.