Shattered Kingdoms

Naarn is right, I hit GM with my delf necro in less than 50 hours of levelling without any help at all. And the levels from 41 to 50 were by far the easier levels that I gained. Even easier than the low/middle levels in great levelling areas for darkies.

Its great that the most powerful class on sk is also the most easiest to level. I also leveled Iotian without aid under 45 hours.



And that left me still enough arepee time to be interviewed by adepts and inducted at level 48.

Actually, no, Naarn is not right.

Read my post if you are going to take the time to disagree with it.

1) I never said that anything was impossible.

2) Solo, legitimate plevelling without twinkery and in absolute anonymity happens, but it does not happen at that speed nearly as often as Naarn suggested. Disagree all that you want- but I see the real numbers- you don't.

3) I can guarantee you that a character played by someone like Tragonis will receive different treatment than a character played by someone like Allikat or by a complete n00b or played in complete anonymity when it comes to IC helpfulness of other characters and when it comes to things like consideration for cabals and tribunals. Any of you who deny it are either really naive or simply lying through your teeth. And this different kind of treatment, even if not organized for twinkery, still has significant bearing upon that character's ability to progress quickly.

4) Players who have been around longer and who have learned the system will obviously be at an advantage for faster levelling. They also tend to be more vocal and visible in the OOC arenas. They also tend to think that they are the norm or the majority, when in reality they are rarely either. The average player, whether a newbie or a veteran, cannot and does not level at the speeds suggested by Naarn.

5) How many characters has Tragonis burned through in the period of time that it took Frollith to reach GM? How many characters has he burned through in that same period of time since Frollith reached GM and has stuck around? While it may SEEM that the plevelling process is easy and common because you've seen 5-6 different characters do it, the reality is that the plevelling players often don't keep their characters as long, they are louder about making themselves known & seen in both IC and OOC arenas, and therefore give a skewed perspective about how prolific this actually is. The true indicator is not how many CHARACTERS are plevelled this way, but how many PLAYERS can plevel this way.

6) Even among the plevelling players whom I like and respect (such as Tragonis for instance), very very very few can make HONEST assertions of playing completely free of twinkery or free of OOC influence that benefits them.


Again, to reiterate, it is this claim that I refuted:



The above is simply not true. There are a LOT of players who know the game well who CANNOT do this. There are a LOT of players who know the game well who can do this, but not easily as Naarn suggests. And there are a LOT of players who know the game well who can do so only with twinkery and/or the benefit of their OOC reputation.

There is a tremendous difference between what is POSSIBLE and what is "not hard" for "anyone who knows the game fairly well".

I'm quite certain that the facts are on my side in this discussion.

There are several things that affect the amount of xp you gain. But to answer your question, the level of the NPC that you are killing versus your level are indeed an affect upon how much xp you gain. A NPC that is a -perfect match- will not yield as much experience as a NPC that is a -tough challenge- or even better if you can find an area of NPCs that are -much more powerful than you-. I can't really recommend trying to level off of NPCs that consider as -death will welcome you- because there is a point where a NPC will be too high level for you to gain any xps off of it.

Generally there are a few things that affect xp gain, and here are a few of them.




Those are just a few things, I'm sure other things can be pointed out.

I've had several characters for 400 hours or more, and have never even reached Champion (though I've had... 4 masters, maybe?). Of course, my leveling time only took up maybe 100 or 150 of those hours, but still...

You've never been to a specific levelling spot then (like the ToM) or you've never found any NPCs that give excellent xp and are easily killable (look for mud zones that have a fairly decent repop/turnover rate, tho) or you've never really paid attention while grinding or gotten into a good flow while grinding. Sounds like you haven't been utilizing CHA and group xp, either. That all might sound like [REDACTED], but you'd be surprised by what being proactive and paying attention to the NPC, your group and/or your own characters skill and xp development will do for your levelling horizons. It's a whole 'nother mentality. You don't sit around and RP over stupid, inane BS while levelling - if anything you give a quick witty comment and then push for moving onto the next NPC, pronto. Don't be a [REDACTED] and go total OOC while you're grinding tho.

Not that it matters much on SK, really. Most players are easily killed by other players Master and below. Enchants and elite gear are really the only reason to GM since you don't gain nearly as much hp and me at the higher echelons of status (43+) than you do at the lower ones.

The argument can be made that gear plays an inordinate role in SK, but personally I think that surprise, speed, and a decent stunlock routine are more than enough to do the trick 80% of the time.

Dalamar wins IMM of the month for so eloquently pointing out the reason that so many folks get frustrated with Shattered Kingdoms. It has been my experience that events on the MUD are often arranged, orchestrated, and the outcome decided via Internet Messengers (YIM, AOL, ICQ, etc.) before a single line of roleplaying has been typed on the game.

As to the leveling process, it is alot easier to level now than ever before. I recall it taking almost 500 hours to hit Grand Master on my last long term character, which was prior to the charisma update. After that update, I was able to GM a human sorcerer in 24 hours. Did I twink? Yeah, if you consider knowledge of the game gained from past playing experience as twinking.

My point? I don't really have one. Just glad that someone else shares my view of what IMs have done to the game.