Cats: To be or not to be

[razorfang]

Cats have always been a hot topic in the past.

The point of Cats is to give a reason to fight over OPs and add a way to level a bit faster.

This have always annoyed people the fact that some people had an unfair advantage by having Cats available and using such Cats. Btw I do have access to Cats and use them but I still consider it to be an unfair system.

It would be much better to do away with Cats and add something else in their place that would be desirable but would not give a leveling advantage.

If getting rid of the Cats and seeing the game is 5 years old (Happy Birthday btw). It would be better to increase the leveling rate (without Cats) to double it's present rate. Or If you wanted to slow it down towards 250, then double the rate to 200 then leave it at its present rate to 250 (without Cats).

So what do you think about these suggestions?

[inifuss]

I personally do not like nor use cats and I do not want my XP to go any faster than it already is. I enjoy learning my skill to its fullest and being able to work with my guildmates in party. Cats are a good option for those who just want to power level. So, I think they are fine the way they are.

[memiki]

I agree with you Inifuss, I have never used Cats.
I want the satisfaction of doing it myself. I am not a powerleveler so it doesn't matter to me how long it takes me.
Let me see I have been playing now for 5 yrs. My highest level is 187 what does that tell you.
I just enjoy the game, the exploring, and the community, not much I don't like I guess. It is still an awesome game to me.

[ajsuk]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Their production needs to be restricted, probably based on -active- server population.

Right now there's more than enough for every player on Arispotle to use them all the time, on every skill. On that basis they might as well just double the xp we earn normally and save us the hassle of trading the damn things.

I feel we would benefit greatly from some kind of population monitoring system. It could be tied in to so many things, such as: OP produce, Kitin lair population, Kitin Patrol population, Boss respawn rates, PR node resources, etc.

[razorfang]

Like Jayce says atm there are a lot of Cats available, but with a higher population that would not be the case. I still remember the disagreements between Kara and Kami over cats when the Kami had most of the OPs, some of those disagreements were quite hostile. It was probably the same when the Kara had most.

But with a larger population Cats are not available to everyone which is the point of doing away with them.

As for the doubling of the xp I still think it's worth doing, it's not about making it easier as a game. We need to attract old and new players back to the game.

The game is 5 years old, if I remember correctly at the start it had a projected life span of about 10 years, so we are half way there.

New players will be more reluctant to join a game where it takes them most of the rest of the games life to get to a high level especially seeing how many skill branches there are. You have to remember that the game does not have to end when you have all skill branches at 250.

[chibiarc]

Like already said, in my opinion the introduction of cats spoiled the community and divided it into those who had them and those wo wanted them.
(Right now it is not an issue due to the relatively low amount of players compared to the number of Outposts.)

I think cats could aswell be taken away completely. The Outposts still produce the Op Mat and Flowers (yay), which can be fought over. If you know the right spots and have one or two people or an alt you can still master a skill within a month, maybe faster. Even without cats. I don't see this as big issue.

I have seen enough so called "shooting stars". Players who burned through the levels with cats within 2 weeks to master magic for example and once done they didn't know what to do and left the game. Burned out. This is not how you play Ryzom. While some disagree here, to me the way and the daily experience is the real game. Not the amount of skills mastered.

[kalindra]

I remember purposefully avoiding cats for skills such as healing, melee, nuking, just so that I could level in groups for a longer time, only taking them after lvl 245 because then I was nerfing the team's XP. I'm a real slacker : with or without cats, I'd still take at least over a year to master any combat-related skill.

I leveled about 95% of my desert forage without cats. I needed the many mats anyways. If you dig with cats, you reduce your bag space and cut the number of mats per level in two, which isn't much good for your craft.

The only skill for which I consider cats absolutely necessary is my jewel crafting. That skill is masochistic enough as it is with it's 6 branches and low number of mats per craft, if you cut the cats out, I'll give up any hopes of ever finishing it. Cats make no difference in crafting ability : wether you craft 400 or 800 jewels to gain a level, it won't make a difference if you don't know the recipes to make a good grind set or a good PvP set. The only difference is that your wrist and mouse get destroyed more if you don't use cats.

[razorfang]

Post duplicated from another thread, so deleted.

[acridiel]

CU
Acridiel

[razorfang]

Now that Cat has got to be q250