Topic: Character Experience.

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  • #2926
    Avatar photoSky
    Participant

    I’d like to see the opinion of other players and the plans of developers for this topic.

    Getting experience at this moment seems to bee way too fast. Not sure after the last update that made it more slow after lvl 5, still have to see it for myself. But at this stage without a proper mid/end game it is unfortunately almost impossible to say how balanced this issue is. Still I do belive that this is one of the most important game paceing elements there is. Especially the 1-11 lvls. This concrete issue needs the perfect balance, without it everything will fall apart. Seems more or less consistent with the equipment gain till a point, where suddenly even being relative low lvl you are able to get almost all equip you want or the opposite where you just rapidly lvl up without having the right equipment to back it up.

    Experience for the kills. This part if fine by me, only cuz it is not individual exp but devided across whole group. Would be stupid to see how one lucky guy gets all exp while all the hard working others are left with nothing.

    Experience for jobs. Did not check it, and can’t do it now unfortunately, but seems there is no exp for completing jobs. And it is very fine. But the job rewards could use some variety. At this moment they could give sometimes not gold or not only gold but a piece of equipment. Even now there are weapons and armors that are much harder to get than the rest. Perhaps as more things will be implemented, the reward variety could grow with reputations or even traits like destroying a vampire nest making some of the members vampire hunters, etc.

    Maximum level. Is it a good thing? Should it be at all? Is it necessary? Not realy sure, I can get a lot workarounds even without thinking to remove this needles limitation. As for now as I see it, the main reason is that stat improvement and the perks that makes this level limit a valid thing. Now for the perks, it is a common thing to bind them to the level, but other than wide spread and used to mechanic it has no meaning. You can simply limit the perk point gain at a certain level, if not stopping completely then maybe a bonus point every x level for the elitenes of the char er a point at 20th 30th etc lvls. With stats it should change to something simple like 3x 1 point to the chosen stats. You could say it is almost non existent, but you have “no” lvl cap so it can be quite powerful if you manage to get the char through. Making the notion of having sellswords beyond the “soft cap” (where the main lvl up mechanic stops) still valid and encouraged not only by made up player specific personal connection but thru game mechanics aswell.
    At this moment the only indication of how “old” the char is, how long he survived is in the players head and non representetive in game, maybe only by the founding member trait. With removing the lvl cap this could be the representation of the characters ability to live and prosper. It could be used even as so to say aging mechanic where a character by reaching a lvl will automaticly get a trait even mybe a random one (backstory or part of it) that is consistent with the chartacter and would give him more individuality even age specific ones could be added. If so desired perhaps after a certain lvl a more restrictive ones like “old age” “sore back” etc, to compensate for the overpowering stat / perk boost of many lvls.

    More times was the weapon specialization said. Well maybe it could be done with weapon skill lvls. Like having a lvl for any weapon a character uses, that will get exp only when the character actually hits or kills(cuz ppl wanted it into perk trees). It will give a weapon specialization of a sort, and still won’t be forcing anyone. Considering that the bonuses should be sparse and only the high end ones strong. Like giving small stat improvements while the end ones could give damage or something as insane as reducing ap cost for skill use. This could be an always represented weapon exp bar, or rarely represented trait thing like “swordmaster” “shieldbearer”, or even absolutely invisible to the player(not so good).

    Experience could also be implemented in trading, like a trade skill of some sort. Tho if anything then faction reputation would be the best for this.

    #2932
    Avatar photoAnonymous
    Inactive

    With a less linear distribution of points and across levels allied with traits resulting from missions and battles ( IIRC read it in the to do by the devs, such as 4-fingers, peg leg, and other similar awesome scars ) the natural evolution might achieve a credible balance.

    Mind you there is no pressure yet around the map and only twice was I really into “serious business mode” given I was ambushed while licking wounds back into town and another I was simply ravaged by a undead deadly horde.

    Other than that is still the when, what and how I want it to happen. So, more pressure along routes, bandit ambushes and orc raids are probably a good thing to include in a upcoming patch.

    Then we will see. Most probably we will end up with 3 or 4 battle scarred bad-ass warriors and a bunch of sheep given many will perish along the way in the most hilarious ways.

    #2937
    Avatar photoGOD
    Participant

    I’m going to hold off on seriously ruminating on the experience issue until the roadmap that the devs are working on gets posted. I’m with you that it doesn’t work as smoothly yet as it could, but I’m pretty curious about the context of it that us players are missing.

    We should get a clearer image of a mercs history with the company once their achievements in your service get added and, like Heth mentions, when combat starts to have a lasting impact (eyepatches?!).

    I think Rap at one point also talked about how they’ll tweak the way experience is distributed at the end of battle, so as to reward not just dealing the killing blow. Currently everyone seems to get a base amount of exp for winning the battle and then extra for killing blows.

    #2939
    Avatar photolfish
    Participant

    I think any system with limitless leveling is pretty exploitable. It bothers me when the difference between high and low level characters is so vast that they don’t even resemble the same species. I think it makes long-term balancing even more difficult as well, because a system of slow long lasting leveling makes new recruits comparatively even weaker than they are now; making individual troops more precious than they probably should be. I like the idea of achievements and wounds continuing to add to the attributes and history of a character though.

    #2950
    Avatar photoSky
    Participant

    At this moment if your party does not kill even one enemy, you get 0 exp at the end. And yes ofc this all is still valid as is only at the current state. As I already wrote, imo all the things that are suggestions for the future are shots in the water since we do not know anything about the devs plans. Still opinions about the current state of different things in the game, as skills, weapons, way of strategic map, battles, etc might have use for the dev team even now, be that supporting their plans or perhaps making them question or retink certain things that would be bould on the current base. Just look at it as a pre suggestion suggestions or something like that ;)

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