Shattered Kingdoms

Grinding on NPCs for xps is still the most efficient way to level a character. It's about the same shortsightedness that is held in every RPG. Why is it necessary for your character to slaughter thousands of monsters to get to the next level?

This may not apply to you, Ardith, because for all I know you enjoy grinding. But I can only roll my eyes when people talk about the value of efficiency and then at the same time complain that grinding is boring. Efficiency means nothing if you aren't having fun. I'd rather spend fifty extra hours but actually have fun experiencing all the game offers.

How about adding experience to PK? It would lessen the grind a little for those who want to jump into the fray, and it would help people who have a hard time getting past mentor in level. The experience would only be granted to people for killing those who are either higher level then you, or no more then 5 to 10 levels lower then you in order to keep people from smacking around newbs for xp.

At first I really liked this idea, but then I thought of all the ways it could be abused.

rpless pk is bad enough as it is. Don't give gilgon an co an excuse to grind on newbies.

I only grind on experienced players:(

I played a game that made the mistake of adding XP for PK. In a 100 level system, people went from 30 to 100 the day after it was introduced, where previously it had taken months just to get to 30. Thankfully, SK has never made a mistake of that magnitude. Besides, I don't want to help people get past mentor. I'd rather have mentor be the place where most people chill out.

I'm sorry Dulrik, but that's not ever going to happen.

You keep saying that, D, but the fact is that while you might be able to have fun as a mentor, there's still absolutely no way that you can experience "all the game offers" at mentor.

1. You'll get rocked by GMs in PvP.
2. The enchantment system is frustrating enough as it is: Having something that took 1+ hour to enchant dissappear into thin air from logout thieves is even more frustrating.
3. Trying to explore areas that are dangerous is going to be harder, and more likely to result in your death.
4. If by chance you actually happen to explore an area enough to find an elite item, it will be stolen from you by logout thieves.

None of these things are fun.

The fact is that the only way to make the game truly playable at mentor is -to remove the levels past mentor,- which is a bad idea.

If you really want to make the game at least manageable at mentor, then logout thieves need to ignore characters at level 36 or above.

I fail to see a correlation between efficiency and fun.