How to make leveling more interesting

[Samoht Farstrider]

Two years is generous for me. It took me like 4 years to get to 55 on live. I screw around too much instead of leveling. It's more fun to me.

[fadetree]

? This thread was not originally about changing anything on this server. Was entirely hypothetical, as stated by OP.

[Dangermouse]

Well, there's reward, and risk - two seperate things.

I'm not expert on every zone, but generally I think the rewards to be gained from dungeon zones are acceptable, and generally higher than outdoor zones - although that's a very general statement and I'm sure there are exceptions.

I wouldn't want to increase rewards particularly - it seems that there is plenty of loot around on this server, masses of plat, and xp is not slow if you are determined.

What I would change, on our hypothetical server, is the risk factor of dungeons compared to outdoor zones. As has been pointed out, the risk in outdoors zones is pretty much zero if you can run to a zone line. So how to acceptably reduce risk in dungeons without trivialising the game and making a WoW style "invulnerable corpse run mode"?

- An item that will summon your corpse, but costs more than the tiny coffins needed for the necro spell.

- Lower xp loss on death in dungeons - perhaps related to the ZEM.

- Some way of getting a rez in a dungeon that doesn't involve a cleric. Although how would clerics feel about this I wonder - is it putting them out of a job, or freeing them up to do something more interesting?

Those are just ideas being chucked out for discussion. Back in the old days, Verant would baulk at allowing people to duplicate a "class defining ability" - for example no rez potions - and that's one of the things that makes classic the way we like it (I assume!)

[Andervin]

The risk v reward is already there. All the phat lewtz are in the dungeons yo.

[Dangermouse]

Originally Posted by Andervin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The risk v reward is already there. All the phat lewtz are in the dungeons yo.

So what you're saying is: outdoors for xp, indoors for lewtz?

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[Aerar]

To me this is EQ classic, the risk has to be HUGE because it makes the reward oh so much sweeter.

There will be nights you tear your hair out, or leave your corpse rotting for 3 days just because you cant deal with it.

You cannot add items into the game that remove the marketability of another class.

Just making an item that summons corpse more expensive than a coffin does not mean more expensive than a necro would reasonably charge. Necro's want to make a profit just the same as a druid or wizard does for ports.

To me solving problems that already have solutions (Like PoK books instead of druid ports) or in this case summon items instead of using your local necro - RUINS the necessity to rely on other people in what is suppose to be a MMO (MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER) game.

This is my opinion and Im sure not all will agree, but you start going down this lets make this little thing easier and then that little thing, where does it stop?

There are tons of custom servers people can join, people play this because we want CLASSIC not MODIFIED

[Dangermouse]

Originally Posted by Aerar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To me solving problems that already have solutions (Like PoK books instead of druid ports) or in this case summon items instead of using your local necro - RUINS the necessity to rely on other people in what is suppose to be a MMO (MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER) game.

That's a very valid point, and I largely agree with you.

This is my opinion and Im sure not all will agree, but you start going down this lets make this little thing easier and then that little thing, where does it stop?

Remember no one is calling for changes to P99 here - we're just bullshitting about how it could be done differently. But as I said in my previous post, these are the things that make classic the way it is, and people seem to like it.

[Andervin]

Originally Posted by Dangermouse [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Remember no one is calling for changes to P99 here - we're just bullshitting about how it could be done differently. But as I said in my previous post, these are the things that make classic the way it is, and people seem to like it.

Agreed. This thread is now about how cool unicorns are.

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[Iumuno]

I'd definitely not ever touch the risk part. It's a huge part of what made classic era EQ different than other games. You definitely have to alter the rewards.

The loot part, well at an appropriate progression level for the server, I feel the rewards are just fine. Inflation eventually makes the lower level dungeon less desirable, and it's hard to work around that. Trivial loot code was an attempt to fix that, but it seems the conclusion was that it sucked. I disagree, but that was the conclusion nonetheless.

So if you exclude lowering the risk, and upgrading the loot via TLC, there's just the ZEM left.