Shattered Kingdoms

There are many ways to get that non combat experience. I think the idea is like everything else in SK. Worry less about grinding and just letting things happen naturally for best results. Take in small amounts frequently.

That's all well and good, but a lot of us can't survive on fountain RP alone, and until you hit those upper levels, you can't even explore the game unless you want to get eaten by Grogrotchetha the vile or something else horrible, and only a masochist would get involved in PvP before Master/Champion.

The fact still remains that while it might "feel" like less if you spread your grinding apart... you still have to grind.

Doing so past a certain point in SK has diminishing returns. Spreading the effort into smaller chunks of various tasks is likely to be more rewarding. Twenty minutes each of fountain RP, spellcasting, questing, NPC killing, selling found treasure, PK, rinse and repeat and mix and match in whatever random order you like. That's the formula for fun that I think Dulrik is subtly trying to push people toward.

I'm still just gonna grind ;/

It isn't fun getting ganked while leveling because you were PKing. It also isn't fun to die in PvP because you started too early, then realize that you don't even have the gear to level. It also isn't fun to die while exploring because you didn't spam your spells to perfection and you failed a critical spell twice in a row, then realize you can't level because your gear got lost.

Just saying. You -have- to grind somewhere in order to do most interesting things that don't have a reasonable chance of ending in your death. Spamming spells to perfection, grinding NPCs, something.

We do agree it takes a lot of these things to get to a plateau where the game really gets fun. I would hope that there are enough of these options available to keep things from getting too boring.

It all goes well until your adventuring party spends about 3 hours in and out of your drink, Achernar, & loses the entire lot of items. There's little fun in the 'grind' of putting your character back together, esp. when the game isn't your life (you put in an hour or two a day) and you don't always see enough of a potential group to either 1) attempt to get things back or 2) enough to get new things which are generally equivilent, nevermind the time it also takes even for 'average' enchanting and item prepping.

My interest since taking on another character since Mehlonballs seems to wax/wane with the Bonanzas - not because of the extra experience/ability to get the levels out, as much as the greater potential to interact with others in the larger groups in general.

We apparently have different definitions of 'grind'. To me, grinding is performing the same monotonous task to the exclusion of all else. As Achernar stated in his response to you, SK is trying to make it more profitable for you to perform a variety of different activities to gain XP than to just go and kill the same set of monsters for 100 hours. Variety is the spice of life. Add variety to your routine and you'll have more fun.

This is the real reason we have bonanzas. It's not because I want people to level faster. I just want to give people incentive to all log on at the same time, so that they can have more chances to interact. Interacting is one of the most fun things about the game. And if you have a good time that weekend, you are more likely to stick around and play the character even after the bonanza is over.

The last time Dulrik interacted with me, my swash beltiln spotted the basted picking on my poor blind legionnaire in Losache, and I ran into the room and had typed in taunt god, by the time I walked in, he went wizinvi:(