Leveling rates/ Highest Levels currently in ALFA/PrC's

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:50 pm

Ok, im bored. So, I thought Id ask people what they thought about the rate that their characters are leveling on TSM currently. Do you think your character is leveling too quick or too slow currently? If you think too slow what are the factors for thinking this? ( ie. Not enough DM coverage. Statics all finished.) If you think it went by too quickly what do you think needs to be looked at to curb the XP? (ie. statics nerf or DMs giving out too much XP?)

Without saying what name or character is the highest can someone tell us what the highest level character is currently in NWN2?

Im asking these questions to start some discussion and Im also asking these questions because characters are going to be getting close to levels they can take PrC's. We have yet to discuss if PrC's or which ones will be allowed in ALFA. What PrCs would you like to see included in ALFA and what ones you think have no business in our game world?

Just getting some topic discussion going. Cause its like a ghost town around here today..

dergon darkhelm · Post by **dergon darkhelm** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:26 pm

The highest level PCs I am aware of are lvl 6

My PC is level 5, having around 10.5k exp.

That is just shy of 1000 exp/week.

I have been ingame nearly daily since live. I would estimate at least a couple of RL hours each day on average.

I would estimate that probably 30-40% comes from RPXP, 40-50% has been combat, and around 10% DM.

I think that both the amount and proportion of combat exp is too high for my tastes. The biggest problem with combat EXP awards I see are certain monsters that deal very large exp awards some at around 200exp each as well as some "grunt" type creatures that give in the 10-20 exp range but are not all that challenging.

I would like to see a dimret system put in place. HDM is aware of some the award "bugs" for some monsters and addressing it. I would, of course, also like to see more DM coverage and DMs coming more towards the 100xp/hr line. (I would say my average 1 hour award has been more in the 25 range).

I always liked the 1,000xp/week guideline (as opposed to a scripted cap) to allow players to assess their own levelling rates.

All said, I don't think we are horriffically out of balance anywhere and am quite happy with the roll out.

wvincenti · Post by **wvincenti** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:00 am

I'm with Dergon. *points up*

Beleg is 10th level on Shadowdale after um
*checks his logs*

Hmm... November, 2005 I rolled him up.
33 months?

He's leveling just fine.

-Bill

PS. My lad on TSM is still Level 1 after several days. Close to leveling and nearly died a time or two. Good fun!

Sintaqx · Post by **Sintaqx** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:20 am

Hyacinthe is level 6, about the same combat/rp/dm exp split as mentioned above. I don't think a dimret script is really necessary. once you hit 5 and 6 few things give more than 1 or 2 exp for combat anyway. 80% of my exp for 6th level came from rpxp and a couple DM events.

I've been playing Hyacinthe since April 16th, way too much according to my wife.

As of late my exp accumulation has dropped to about 200 a week.

Dorn · Post by **Dorn** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:22 am

On TSm my character is now level 3, 2500exp shy of level 4.

He was created about 5 hours after TSM went live.

My play has been interupted, but largely the levelling rate was reduced when indio went offline. Even before that with his building commitments accross alfa it was a one day a week excercise.

One other from australia who plays MUCH more than me has just reached level 4.

So i'm not sure that the arguments above are completely spot on, when there are no DMs around then nerfing all the monster exp is...even more challenging.

particularly when in our group now there is a level 4, 2x3, and then several 1's. The way that exp is being calculated means that the level 1's get nearly nothing (due to no DMs) from monster combat. Tor educe it furtehr could be dangerous.

I do wholeheartedly agree with the dimrets however.

To slow the levelling rate of the higher levels i still believe the removal of that script is a good plan. Some of the higher levels were doing many missions with 'newbies' to show them round and get them past level 1. However due to the script and absence of dimrets, they were actually hitting the same spawns many times and getting all tyhe exp while the lower levels got very little. And fair enough as well to keep people and new players occupied while we had a bit of a DM drought. Hell even i've done the humanoid caves near HH 3 times with lowbies when thery're not seeing DMs or others around to keep us occupied.

That might be a bit of a simplistic view (or incorrect even heh) but something to think about.

1000exp a week? That's about 10 hours with a DM right? Lucky bastards!!!

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:12 am

1000 xp over level 4, been playing since hour 1. Just needs more dms for team evil.

oldgrayrogue · Post by **oldgrayrogue** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:51 am

Been playing my current PC since April 30. Currently Level 4, just over 7000 xp I think.

Level rate is fine for me. Used to play most nights. Has dropped off since the baby was born =)

I'd say most xp came from statics, then combat, then the RP script and lastly DM rewards.

Don't know what a dimret is but I don't think I like it.

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:59 am

dimret= Diminishing returns. Say you get higher level and do a quest thats lower than you...you should get a lower amount of XP for that quest than someone whos close to that quests level. Its a way to keep you from hogging a lot of XP away from lower levels.

Dorn · Post by **Dorn** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:03 am

Oh whoops. I thought dimret was if you hit the same spawn over and over (even while the same level) your rewards eventually go to 0 or 1 to reflect the diminishing challenge (and to prevent farming for the cynics).

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:06 am

Actually I believe your right. Its been awhile since Ive dealt with the term. I was thinking it was a way to balance out XP between party members but I think your correct.

Edit: did some checking you are correct, sir. its basically to stop farming.

Kest · Post by **Kest** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:22 am

The breakdown of my character:

RPXP
50. This makes up the bulk of my experience.

Statics
40. A significant contribution.

DMXP
10. Only joined maybe one or two sessions.

Combat
0. Mostly nonexistent - avoid soloing, so I earn hardly anything fighting.

Demson · Post by **Demson** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:24 am

I'm about to hit level 2 on TSM after 6 weeks of playing. I'd say 30-40% DM exp, perhaps 10-20% quest and the rest is RP and location exp.

Suffice to say that leveling is not the way to go about character advancement with ALFA. It gives ALFA appeal, and theoretically the DM plots will be in place of the levelthreadmill for character development.

I'm not complaining.

I'm also a njub.

Post by **paazin** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:00 pm

Lusipher wrote:dimret= Diminishing returns. Say you get higher level and do a quest thats lower than you...you should get a lower amount of XP for that quest than someone whos close to that quests level. Its a way to keep you from hogging a lot of XP away from lower levels.

iirc, there have been troubles with implementing dimrets and keeping the CPU load down. it's a tough cookie to crack so in the meanwhile if it is as bad as people think we may just need to tweak down the monster XP in general

wvincenti · Post by **wvincenti** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:20 pm

I'm getting 6-9xp for the undead near Rivermoot.
I haven't seen any monster xp that I'd suggest be nerfed yet.

Please leave it be unless some critter's xp is grossly out of balance. Over the course of a long day or week without much DM contact the xp balances out anyhow.

If anything, please keep adding to the content that we can work on without a DM. Twas wonderful the other night when we had an impromptu group of low levels form to roam about. All sorts of RP gets cooked up around such things.
*points to the thread about roasting boar*

-Bill

oldgrayrogue · Post by **oldgrayrogue** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:38 pm

OK, I think we already have a dimret. My level 4 PC gets no combat xp from killing kobolds, hardly any (maybe 1 but sometimes 0) for goblins, and much less than he used to for killing an orc or gnoll. Now that I know what it is (thankyou) I think it makes sense. I see no need to change anything. I'm not sure what spawns Dergon is killing, but I have never seen a combat xp award of 200xp. Honestly, I don't think I have ever seen a combat xp award of over 50 xp. So yeah, leave it as is.