Low- & Mid-Level Gameplay

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16-11-12, 18:26
aKe`cj

Low- & Mid-Level Gameplay

Quote:

Originally Posted by CMaster

I think what William and Dropout were really after was "faster" levelling rather than necessarily "easier" levelling, if you see where I'm coming from. Hence why I said that perhaps rather than one rather broken spot, it would perhaps be better to look at XP gains and so on across the board.

Reading the following post in the thread "Regant Bossroom", I would go so far to say that either view is skewed.
As this post is not related to the above thread per se and probably much less focussed on a specific issue that can be ticked off some list, but more of a meta issue, I opted to take it to a new thread.

First of all, the majority of PvE experience should not be hard or easy.
In the ideal Neocron, most PvE should both be challenging and rewarding enough to make up for the players investment of time.

Rewards are also not limited to mere XP gain here. In fact, when XP gain becomes the major or only incentive that keeps you doing what you are doing, that's just "grinding" and what I would consider a sub par game experience.
Unfortunately, right now, repetitive grinding seems to be the most rewarding type of PvE in Neocron and thus it is what most people end up doing.

Making leveling "faster" is one way to deal with the problem ("this sucks, make it go away faster") and in my view the wrong cure as it deals with the symptoms, not the cause.
The goal should not be to just cut down the time you have to spend "enduring" unrewarding gameplay. We should find ways to make the game not suck, regardless of your character level. Make the process of getting to endgame content a little more fun. In comparison to other MMOs out there, the time needed for getting a char from newbie to capped is not long at all.

Neocron is a MMORPG-FPS hybrid of sorts, so with the MMO/RPG part in mind - character development aka leveling as well as exploration and hunting for loot should be fun activities.

This is not to say that time is to be disregarded completely. It is an important factor as every activity will get boring at some point (at least activities of the scope one can realistically cater for from a game design standpoint) and thus has to be weight in - but it is not what NC is lacking I believe.

What I do believe, is that there is still a lot Neocron could adopt from other games to make the low and mid level game experience more enjoyable. Lets have a look at what other games do really well in the area of PvE and char leveling and see if we can adopt some of the ideas.

TL;DR: If leveling is too slow, gameplay is too boring!

P.S.:
I know I ommited suggestions of what could be changed. I did so on purpose, as this thread is more about the general perspective on the issue rather than any concrete suggestions. I would be delighted if we can group/compile a list of possible improvements to be discussed in threads of their own though. I guess this place could slowly use a little more structure ;)
16-11-12, 20:14
Forget My Name

As long as I need to PvE to cap Tradeskilling, then easy and fast is perfectly fine.
16-11-12, 20:42
aKe`cj

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forget My Name

As long as I need to PvE to cap Tradeskilling, then easy and fast is perfectly fine.

The topic of how it could and if it should be viable to have a leveling path not including traditional combat skills is exactly that, a topic of its own. I would consider a xp boost for tradeskill activities, creating a demand for mid-level research/build goods or some offbeat ideas like introducing a bigger array of turrets/shield generators/recovery units of varying strength to be deployed in PvE. But again, hardly the topic here.
17-11-12, 00:53
William Antrim

Ok so what are these things you want to look at? I was expecting some comparisons to games I had not played.
17-11-12, 04:40
Forget My Name

Quote:

Originally Posted by aKe`cj

The topic of how it could and if it should be viable to have a leveling path not including traditional combat skills is exactly that, a topic of its own. I would consider a xp boost for tradeskill activities, creating a demand for mid-level research/build goods or some offbeat ideas like introducing a bigger array of turrets/shield generators/recovery units of varying strength to be deployed in PvE. But again, hardly the topic here.

By overhauling PvE and making it "harder and/or longer" without addressing the needs of tradeskilling you just knee cap the entire game.

You NEED capped or high level Constructors and Researchers to play Neocron as it is intended. Period. No poking. No Rare Weapons. No 99% quality items. Nothing but store bought items and STORMlasers.

Just do what many modern mmos are doing, especially Guild Wars 2; Be able to cap by only doing your tradeskilling within a reasonable amount of time if you so choose. I can cap my guild wars 2 characters by sitting a forge and making swords all day in 30 hours. As a matter of fact, tradeskilling is the fastest way to gain xp in GW2.

I commend your attitude towards working on a better PvE experience overall, but don't ignore the needs of Tradeskillers.

If Tradeskilling can cap itself by sitting in a corner, then great, make PvE whatever you want it to be, but as long as I need to LOM into a Tradeskill, I don't feel like shooting scorpions in El Farid for 7 days straight to do so.

Other than that, I wub you!