Player that missed the point

[xeraphim]

4.6 mill scares most of my guildies

I been there plenty of times and it still scares me

[kodajinn]

I don't see the harm in some directed content that helps advance skills via xp rewards or gives items/weapons/armour/materials. A greater variety of things to do in a game like this only fortifies it so long as balance between the new and the old is maintained. If a business does not grow and evolve then it will eventually stagnate and die. Being a new player that likes this game, I do not want to see that.

However, I've seen more points against this type of content that elude (and I paraphrase) to "I didn't have it when I leveled up" which seems a rather self-centered reason to denounce new content such as this. Quest content with rewards is incentive to become involved in the story.

AC1 is probably the best MMO I have played. In it's time is was both Sandbox and Quest driven as you could run a few errands for the NPC in towns nearby or visit one of the many dungeon areas scattered all over. There was never a shortage of things to do and huge server wide events were frequent. Ryzom reminds me of AC1 a great deal.

Ryzom Ring could have been the answer to this....sweetened more by the fact that it's all written for players by players, but a Dev told me in game the other night the Ring Scenarios would not allow XP advancement or yield material rewards. I have to admit that if this is true, it really kills it for me.

[jtyler]

if ring allowed xp and items it would be abused. I believe the point of the ring is to open up the power for players to truly shape thier stories. Its taking NWN to a new level by creating a persistnet world where players can craft their own stories and share them with friends.

I remeber when I played DAOC we would have guild events that shaped the story of our guild. In one such event Terabold (me) our leader was kidnapped by a group of bandits. I was a hunter, which in DAOC has hide. We used the existing game mechanics to create our scenario. I hide in a bandit fortress, and my Father (in game and in rl) who waited till our regular guild meeting (held in a tavern) started to run in annoucing the terrible news. At which point everyone rallied and came to my rescue. It was a lot of fun. Alot of the players were lobies at the time and actually got killed taking the fortress. But it was a blast and got rave reviews.

Now imagine if DAOC had a Ring. I could have preconstructed the scenario and it could have been tailored to fit whatever lvl range I needed for those present at the meeting. To me, that is what Ring will bring to the game. If the Ring scenarios provided xp and loot... well you would get people building pl scenarios that rewared max xp and loot for simple tasks that required minimum time and effort expenditure, this would of course ruin the game.

A solution could possibly be discovered, but to me that would be a post release patch. I would think however scenario creation whould allow for placement of monsters (who when killed would give xp), limited mats (and when harvested would yield both xp and loot which would not be editable by the AM) and merchants (whose prices and inventory would not be AM determined). I have a feeling it will be much like the stanza system. That is for any good content you add there will have to be some balance to make it accesible.

[sehracii]

Ring Rewards:

From what I've heard they have the perfect solution to rewarding time spent in Ring scenarios while minimizing any potential abuse.
Experience Catalyzers.
Last I knew, the plan was to reward time spent in R2 with cats. You get no XP while in the scenario, as its too easy to create something exploitable, BUT when you leave you have a little stack of crystals to double your XP gained in the "real" world for a time.

Assuming they have any reasonable control of how many cats you get for your time, I can't imagine a better system. You get your player created stories, you get your leveling done without exploits, everyone is happy

[rothimar]

That's actually not a bad idea at all

[jtyler]

wonderful. That is a nifty solution.

[jamela]

It is a neat solution but I have a couple of provisos:

Allocation of catalysts should be solely in the hands of Nevrax when a Ring scenario is published.
Otherwise I fear it is inevitable that scenarios will appear for convenient level grinding, even taking advantage of terrain and placed obstacles to engineer something like cliffing. Such a scenario will only lead to more rapid burnout for those that use it, which is just not good for the community, in my opinion.

Catalyst rewards ought to be tagged for the skill used to obtain them.
It would make perfect sense to come out of a scenario which I have slashed my way through and then go and train some more slashing melee on Atys with the reward bonus. It might be convenient but it just wouldn't make sense to use the catalyst rewards to boost my digging. I think the catalysts need a skill limitation applied.

[truce1]

What strikes me the most negative about all posts of this ilk is, that people ssemingly aren´t prepared to accept a Game for what it is, and want to change it to "what they like better".
While you think it´s a"great Game" you seem to want to change it into another game, just because you do not like some points.
Well, a whole lot of people accept these points.
And a wole bunch of others accept these and don´t like others, and so on and on....

A Game is what it is. Most newcommers only see "their Game" and don´t even seem to think about others, that actually LIKE it the way it is. And that realy bugs me to no end.

YOU don´t like DP, so away with it.
Well, I´ve got no problem with them.
You go, I stay.

And I don´t even think it´s great that way. Not at all. I´d rather have you stay with us.
Only thing is, you´re not about to accept the game for what it is.
Trouble with all these suggestions and sometimes even demands is:
A Company just CAN NOT make every player happy.
If so, it would be completely different games for each one of us.

Sorry to start ranting a bit now, but it´s the same as in RL.
People like what they are used to and aim to make things better for them, and them alone. Skrew all else.
That saddenes me a great deal.

What do you think? Just because you and a few others don´t like the concept of DP, they change it?
Well, tough luck. They won´t. Because in every other Game out there, there are similar concepts, so good luck finding one that does not punish dying.
Simple soultion is, don´t die that often.
Do something about it.
Become stronger, group, learn to sneak.
But do something yourself and don´t just sit there wayting for the Devs to do it for you.

I´m not mad at you, I´m just dissapointed in that so few people can´t see whats right under their noses.

Edit: DP is just an example I piked, it applyes to all other things too.

Acridiel

I’m sorry, but that’s a great attitude for driving away new players and old alike.

The mark of a good sandbox is the fact that so many players are inspired by the possibilities of expanding it.

Chastising someone for discussing what <b>THEY<b> feel could be improved or added is not healthy or productive to building a good community and fan base.

[jamela]

Try reading a little further in the thread, truce1; Acridiel apologised twice for the tone of that post, but now you've quoted the whole thing. While essentially I agree with you, you should also take a look at Acridiel's sig before you warn him about damaging the community

[aardnebb]

It is a neat solution but I have a couple of provisos:

Allocation of catalysts should be solely in the hands of Nevrax when a Ring scenario is published.

Catalyst rewards ought to be tagged for the skill used to obtain them.

1. IMHO with OPs already churning them out I dont think farming them can be considered an "exploit"...

2. The issue with that is you cant really craft/forage in scenarios.