Shattered Kingdoms

This may be a topic which resurfaces every few weeks, I'm not sure. But here it is, anyway.

First off, let me say that I think this "new" area familiarity code is generally pretty cool. I love the discovery bonuses for explorer types and lowbies, and the bonuses/penalties add a little spice to levelling, which I'm sure was D's intent.

Still, I'm not sure we quite have enough areas to support the rate at which areas become overly familiar. Sure, some will say that if you can't find enough areas, you're not looking hard enough. But I'd venture to say that I have an above average familiarity with the areas of SK, and I'd like to offer three suggestions based on recent observations:

1.) Slow down the rate at which areas become familiar by 50-100%.

I've found that an area become worthless for XP within 2 or 3 good levels there. Certain area ranges, there are tons of alternatives. But higher up, there are fewer. And lower down, lots of XP goes to training skills. I'd like to see an area get one through most of a status level -- or increase the number of useful levelling areas by 50-100%...

OR

2.) Have areas become less familiar over time (or level or XP gained elsewhere).

Certain areas span a couple level sweet spots. Morea, for example, is profitable around veteran level, and then again around mentor, depending on what you fight there. It'd be great if one could rediscover an area and profit from it again, after either a period of time, or a number of levels, or based on a certain amount of XP gained elsewhere. Familiarity could slip away for a number of reasons: Haven't been there in a while, details growing hazy. Never explored this new part of this area, the one with the bigger NPCs. Etc.

OR

3.) Decrease the penalty for totally familiar areas.

This would be a catchall for cases where there simply isn't any good alternative to a specific area for a specific class/align/race for a specific group of levels. Basically, it would allow grinding in those rare cases where there's a gap in SK building. I've tried to grind in an area I was totally familiar with, just to see if it could be done... It wasn't practical, for me anyway.

I'm not advocating all of these, mind you. But I wouldn't mind seeing the familiarity system adjusted in one way or another. This isn't about making levelling easier, in my mind, so much as tweaking familiarity to match the realities of the available SK area set.

Discuss?

Peace,
Bux

I'd like to see certain areas divided up into smaller sections, each of which would have its own familiarity level. For instance, I believe Teron is divided into a number of smaller sections. You only get the exp bonus for discovering Teron one time, but your familiarity level differs from place to place. I can't remember for sure, but I think the goblin area is separate from the inn, for instance.

Tlaxcala is one place that I'd like to see divided. The regular mages can be good leveling at around expert or mentor, but the lodge is better saved until master or champion. I can also think of a few other places off the top of my head that I think it'd make sense to divide up. It'd be neat to see familiarity based on individual NPCs rather than areas, but that would probably be even more trouble.

I've found I can usually get a solid 5 levels out of each area which makes finding places not a huge burden, consider this.
1-6 training area
7-11 normal noob place
12-16 next step noob place
17-21 decent common place
22-26 search a little for different areas but there are quite a few
27-31 again quite a few choices
32-36 few choices, but they do exist
37-41 one or two left that can be levelled solo
42-46 you need help or must leave the pyrathian realm
47-50 [REDACTED] in 9 out of 10 cases to level

I like the levelling system now and have found as long as I move when my time is up I actually level more often than before and I actually
discover more of the mud. Decreasing the penalty may be nice and also, having them fairly fresh again after a time might be a good idea too but I will be happy with it even if nothing changes.

my 2 cents

I should probably qualify my proposal by saying that certain classes/races/alignments/charismas/eq will level more or less quickly. My experience has been with what I deem a reasonably speedy levelling combo, though far from the quickest, I'm sure.

Peace,
Bux

I wouldn't mind seeing this implemented to a minor degree. Just a little bit would help out immensely, based on the feedback I've been hearing.

all of the ideas are great, but i agree with thubs about #3 specifically. Also, who is getting this '5 solid levels' from on area? Max charisma sorc? Any fighter class with a high - max charisma shouldnt get much more than 2.5 - 3 levels per area in my experience.

I think this would be a mistake. I've deliberately used areas with the "you ought to get out more." penalty because they were particularly great for my class and race. Levelling was noticeably slower with the penalty, but still quite good. Diminishing the penalty risks making the whole system a waste as people just go to the best XP spots.



I haven't seen this. I don't even run into the minor "back of your hand" penalty by that time. Maybe the NPCs or areas you're killing aren't strong enough? Areas with a higher level maximum seem to provide more XP before the penalty.

This I would love to see, and would switch me from being vaguely antagonistic towards the familiarity system (although I agree with the concept) to being it's number one fan.

Your mileage may vary. My only experience with the new system is killing "tough challenge" NPCs of polar opposite alignment with a sociable warrior. As I've said, different combos may accumulate XP at a greater rate, but I would think my experience was fairly typical. I suppose we could poll it... Something like: "How many levels do you get per area before you hit the major XP familiarization penalty..."

Peace,
Bux

Having recently reached Grandmaster, after very carefully selecting areas to gain familiarity in, and leaving certain ones last, it was still a very long and tiresome grind. I'm definitely in favor of the suggested solutions 1 and 2, but not so much for 3.

Levelling also isn't easy with NPCs spam casting flamestrike (group affecting), confusion and wait for it, hold person. While SK will forever be in search for more players, and hopefully more areas, please let the levelling be a little easier.

If nothing else, solution 2 in place would still allow familiarity effects to remain: there cannot be power levellers, and players still have to explore. But for the casual players of SK, they can gain experience when they decide to play, and hopefully not spending all their time in levelling, instead of other interactions.

Inuili's idea about splitting up larger areas to smaller sections is also a very good one, until more areas are introduced.