Mail Run Static Abuse

[Castano]

Due to rampant abuse of the mail statics I am reducing their XP award to 1 xp and 1 gp per mail run.

Until the fix in in game in the next week or so, please see a DM to have your awards reduced.

[boombrakh]

[kid]

statics need fixing, will be done as soon as possible.

[t-ice]

A diminishing return for repeats per RL time would be nice for grindables like this. Of course that takes scripting skillzzz

[Zelknolf]

A diminishing return for repeats per RL time would be nice for grindables like this. Of course that takes scripting skillzzz

Much simpler to make the XP diminish by the level of the person performing the quest. Level 1 fighter might learn something from carrying a heavy bag; level 15 cleric probably won't so much. The statics I write calculate gold/ XP to the tune of

Code: Select all

int GoldToXP(int nGold, object oPC)
{
	int nHD = GetHitDice(oPC);
	int nXP = nGold;
	if(nHD < 9)
	/* 1.25 gold/xp */
		nXP = (nXP*4)/5;
	else if(nHD < 13)
	/* 2.5 gold/xp */
		nXP = (nXP*2)/5;
	else if(nHD < 17)
	/* 5 gold/xp */
		nXP = nXP/5;
	else
	/* 10 gold/xp */
		nXP = nXP/10;
	return nXP;
}

and then it's called as...

Code: Select all

int nGold = <whatever value I think the quest is worth>;
int nXP = GoldToXP(nGold, oPC);

Manifests as a constant gold reward (that's the in-character part, anyway) and XP rewards that are lower for higher-level characters, aligned with the wealth guidelines as a random bonus perk.

Paazin also has a system to reduce grindability of these particular statics on BG-- but that's just a flat "You must wait [x] days to perform this quest again" sort of restriction. If quest grinding is problematic, they might be worth adapting to MS.

[t-ice]

That's a neat idea, Zelk, and the same formula works for all. But starting to scale down at lvl9 is for our practical purposes sorta ... eh.

This is the issue about static content. It is there for players to do stuff sans DM, and yet we get sanctimonious about "farming" when people over do what is presented for them. That "over" part is always a matter of opinion, and what else is there to do if you're on alone. Should we tell players to not play. And let's not pretend hunting spawns statics are any relevantly different from delivery statics. Neither have any risk to anyone but the very noob player who doesn't know meta the dangers of the handful hunts there are. Actually doing solo combat is typically worse, since it usually incorporates plenty metagaming in terms of how stupidly the hostiles grow on these spawn farms: No risk of getting ambushed, and you can pick the spawns off one by one, etc. So it's meta unless you fight zombies or such.

"You must wait [x] days to perform this quest again" sort of restriction. If quest grinding is problematic, they might be worth adapting to MS.

I think it totally is. Don't reduce to nil the reward per instance the quest is performed, cap it to not being repeatedly farmable.

And I think something similar should also apply to spawn grinding. It could be implemented in terms of spawn grinding returns coming in via quests, not lootz and kill xp. Or capping kill xp based on the rpxp loop. Like, you can only gain upto X times your timed rpxp from kill xp. (X could be something like 2 to 5). Both would be rather intensive in terms of scripting and system changes involved, I reckon. (Although blanket reduction of kill xp would likely by trivial technically but controversial. But I would remind that kill xp is essentially a hack-n-slash crpg concept. In true rp you get the same xp whether you solve a problem by fight, stealth, diplomacy, whatever.)

[Ronan]

Posted a comment on static quest XP in the tech staff forum.

Castano, let me know which script is supposed to be controlling repeatability but isn't, and I'll take a look? Its probably something very simple.

[Castano]

Thanks Zelk & everyone. We are supposed to have the x days limit on there..I may add the level limit too.

I'll be getting to this soon, hopefully in March.

Yes boom I am very very serious. People should be leveling via quests, not walking around on roads over and over and over 6-8 times a day every day for 2 months. If I got higher levels in RL for all the schlepping I've had to do, I'd be Warren Buffet right now

[Zelknolf]

In terms of general content policies, I would prefer that we not have content which discerns in-character paths by an out-of-character concept like level-- however, I would be perfectly happy to help you design the quest in such a way that high-level PCs don't gain as much experience for completing the quest (as such is also a metagame concept) or where the quest ceases to be able to be completed by famous-enough characters ("Oh no-- nono, there's nothing here that you need to concern yourself with. We'll manage just fine, I promise!")-- I'm sure we could hammer out a design wherein the quest starts to seem "beneath" high-level characters without putting in a hard stop.