Monsters and Memories (Project_N) - Old School Indie MMO

Hekotat said:

I saw on that newsletter it took someone 220+ hours to hit the 40s.

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We've also seen that it took someone roughly 6 hours to hit level 20 when being power leveled.

I think the biggest thing you and I have encountered as we've leveled, is (and this isnt necessarily directed specifically at you Heko):

1. Our gear as a noob sucks. So its our normal inclination to spend an unnecessary amount of time farming gear in a low experience spot. When in the grand scheme, +10 skill for offense/defense/etc. from a level is far more valuable than the +3 str/sta necklace that you would farm up.

2. This is a big one - There isnt a clear, laid out path, for grinding. You're kind of just floundering around, trying different spots. On one hand, you get to break up the monotony of leveling by going to different spots. But the other side of that is the experience per hour. Farming the bottom of Wyrmsbane is fun, and rewarding. But the Exp/Hr pales in comparison to fighting the Goblins at the entrance of Tel'Ekir.

Going even further, you, as a player, have to recognize - following that same example - that as soon as you hit 16, its better for you to leave Goblins and go kill Skeletons in Fallen Pass. Then, recognize at 19, that its better to move from the lower level skeletons, to the upper skeletons and ghouls.

This is banking on the fact that you have a competent group of players to play with. As you can move from upper skeletons to Cave Rats as early as 21 with good players. But its a lot more dangerous, and you might as well stay at Upper Skeletons until 24.

3. Lastly - This is alpha. There are times when people just wont find a group because there arent but so many people allowed into the alpha. Theyre letting in new players every single day, but all too often - you just wont be able to fill an entire group for the best camp / group exp bonus.

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I feel like this held true with EverQuest back in '98 when they were grabbing people from other games. I dont recall the name of the person that invited me to "test" EQ back then, but I was actively playing Sierra's "The Realm" at the time. I doubt they had any idea how young I was, nor did they probably care. But I recall killing shit in Greater Fay for far too long. Pining more over Bronze Armor than I should have been.

Daidraco said:

We've also seen that it took someone roughly 6 hours to hit level 20 when being power leveled.

I think the biggest thing you and I have encountered as we've leveled, is (and this isnt necessarily directed specifically at you Heko):

1. Our gear as a noob sucks. So its our normal inclination to spend an unnecessary amount of time farming gear in a low experience spot. When in the grand scheme, +10 skill for offense/defense/etc. from a level is far more valuable than the +3 str/sta necklace that you would farm up.

2. This is a big one - There isnt a clear, laid out path, for grinding. You're kind of just floundering around, trying different spots. On one hand, you get to break up the monotony of leveling by going to different spots. But the other side of that is the experience per hour. Farming the bottom of Wyrmsbane is fun, and rewarding. But the Exp/Hr pales in comparison to fighting the Goblins at the entrance of Tel'Ekir.

Going even further, you, as a player, have to recognize - following that same example - that as soon as you hit 16, its better for you to leave Goblins and go kill Skeletons in Fallen Pass. Then, recognize at 19, that its better to move from the lower level skeletons, to the upper skeletons and ghouls.

This is banking on the fact that you have a competent group of players to play with. As you can move from upper skeletons to Cave Rats as early as 21 with good players. But its a lot more dangerous, and you might as well stay at Upper Skeletons until 24.

3. Lastly - This is alpha. There are times when people just wont find a group because there arent but so many people allowed into the alpha. Theyre letting in new players every single day, but all too often - you just wont be able to fill an entire group for the best camp / group exp bonus.

///

I feel like this held true with EverQuest back in '98 when they were grabbing people from other games. I dont recall the name of the person that invited me to "test" EQ back then, but I was actively playing Sierra's "The Realm" at the time. I doubt they had any idea how young I was, nor did they probably care. But I recall killing shit in Greater Fay for far too long. Pining more over Bronze Armor than I should have been.

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The other problem will be the number of players at said popular spots. It was night/day difference from a dead server versus the free week. We routinely ended up in worse xp camps because everything we knew about was camped. However, it appears there are a lot more camps that what is popular and we just haven't found them. After hearing them talk about the underdark and how it'll be another starting area under NH should help a lot as well.

Im honestly not too concerned with it, im mainly here to hang out and blow shit up with some homies. Its all about the journey so im not in a huge rush.

Also, some classes just get huge advantages with stats, inquisitor being the main one. Getting +4 int and an increased mana pool makes a remarkable difference in how the class plays. Inquisitor is very difficult to level even with a pocket healer due to mana regen. It just doesn't really feel fun until 8 or 10 ish.

Inquisitor and enchanter are just painful to play at low levels by a large margin compared to everything else I've tried. The experience needs to be improved or they risk losing players starting out new to the game if they pick those classes. I dont know how to improve it without making it OP other than maybe giving them meditation out of the gate.


Edit: typed from my phone and I didn't proof read well enough and I dont feel like editing it, youll figure out.

Hekotat said:

The other problem will be the number of players at said popular spots. It was night/day difference from a dead server versus the free week. We routinely ended up in worse xp camps because everything we knew about was camped. However, it appears there are a lot more camps that what is popular and we just haven't found them. After hearing them talk about the underdark and how it'll be another starting area under NH should help a lot as well.

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Have you tried the elf city?

Sloan said:

Have you tried the elf city?

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Not yet, im trying to play on a slow burn so when ea comes out there is still fresh content to engage with. I dont want it to end up like WoW where im just really tired of the first 20 levels of content.