Two Words...
Who Cares?
If I find myself in a group with people whining and bitching about exp
penalties, I politely excuse myself and leave. I play this game to have fun,
not to maximize exp for each encounter, and certainly not to put up with
some 12 year old who can't seem to level fast enough.
That being said, the bard of all classes is least affected by the "exp
penalty" problem because we increase the effectiveness of the party so
significantly that we more than make up for the exp we are "taking" by
increasing the total amount of kills the group can handle.
Now for a dose of realism. The game has been live for more than a year. You
will not see any changes in the exp tables, nor are you likely to see any
changes in the way exp is awarded. It's just not going to happen, it's too
late in the game, so we might as well focus our efforts on something that
has a chance of happening.
My major gripe with this game is that everyone who plays automatically
thinks they are qualified to be a game designer. This is not directed to you
Elwyn, but towards the myriad of fools who post constantly to the official
message boaards thinking that since everyone would like a change it should
be implemented. People need to realize that this is not a majority rule and
that just because players want something, doesn't mean it is good for the
game. This game would suck if there were no penalty for dying. It would be
bad if transportation were instant. And it would not hold our attention long
if planar armor dropped like candy. Granted there are many flaws in the
system. (Bard armor could drop a little more frequently) But overall, I
think this game is awesome. I've played for 48 levels on my main character,
23 on my secondary and taken several others to 12 or higher. I can honestly
say that I can see myself continuting to play my characters for quite some
time. This is not the case with games like Baldur's Gate, where the instant
I was done I had lost all interest in the game.
Anyways, I have to fall on the side of Verant. I've seen many beneficial
changes over the life of my character. And I truely believe that the EQ
world is a better place than when it was originally released. Whenever I
think about something game that I find annoying, like some of our songs
being broken, I remember that the death penalty used to be twice what it is
and then I feel better.
So, it seems like Abashi is completely ignorant of our concerns about our
songs. This says to me 2 things...
1) They aren't ignoring us. Instead they just have no idea that we think
there is a problem that needs to be looked at. Abashi is a busy man, I'm
willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he missed our
posts or forgot them.
2) If we can make them aware of what we think is wrong, then we can get them
to look at it and there is a possibility that we can get it fixed. This to
me is good news. The only problem is how to get our thoughts looked at. I
suggest we write up a concise description of the problems. (insane resist
rates on pixie strike and lullaby and ineffectiveness of snare since the
patch) then we post it to the bug board and the gameplay board, as well as
emailing it to abashi.
Draelon Stormsong
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Gillan [mailto:
ggillan@...]
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 9:47 AM
To: '
eqbards@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Oh this can't be good....
The hybrid penalty is a HUGE problem. If it worked like it did in AD&D,
fine, that would be one thing. The problem is not that a class is slower to
level, but rather that having a hybrid in your group makes the whole group
level slower. This unfairly penalizes your group members for what is
supposed to be your penalty.
When a kill is made, every member of the party is not given an equal number
of xp points. No, every member is given a percentage of the total xp based
on how much xp they currently have.
Lets take the most extreme example. A group of 5 troll shadow knights
(highest xp penalty) and 1 halfling rogue (lowest xp penalty). Lets assume
they're all the same level and they kill a monster worth 600xp. Now you
think the intelligent thing would be to give each member of the group 100xp
each, but no, that's not how it works. In this example, each troll SK would
get 108xp, and the poor halfling rogue would get 55xp. The logic is that
the halfling needs less xp to level, so he gets less. The problem is that
this system totally eliminates the idea of having a class that's easier to
level. The poor little halfling got screwed by the hybrids in his group.
Replace all those troll SK's with non-hybrids, and suddenly our halfling is
getting twice the xp, and leveling twice as fast.
Now granted, this is an extreme example, but every time you add a hybrid to
your group, the ability of the group to level quickly is decreased. So you
tell me, who pays the penalty? Hybrids? Or those forced to group with
them?
Elwyn
Level 58 Hybrid Bard
Erollisi Marr
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin L. Crawford [mailto:
Lyrnia@...]
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 9:32 AM
To:
eqbards@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Oh this can't be good....
I still get a kick out of people thinking there is some kind of XP "penalty"
for being a hybrid. It's not a "penalty" it's just harder to level certain
classes than it is to level others. This is due to varying benefits that
each class has. Go look at an AD&D players handbook and look at the xp
differences for each class. If you look in a 1st Edition one you can even
look at bards and realize that they are the single hardest class in AD&D to
level (had to level to 10 in warrior, 10 in thief then switch to bard and
level on an xp curve comparable to that of a paladin.).
Lyrnia Jongleur
Bard of Norrath
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