The Grind

[Bryton]

This wipe I decided to play 3 chars and see if it made the game anymore entertaining. After day three I was level 28, had some decent eq, and was rank 10.  Btw I wasn't grouping with rise, just my dk,shaman, and mage. After two straight days of geeking out I had to go back to work. My wife started to hate me(more than usual) when I would come home from work and play Arctic. So after about 4-5 days into the wipe I just quit playing.
 The grind to get to legend is insane for the casual player. Also the difference in a non-legendary and a legendary character  is insane. I realize people hat put more time into the game should get more out of it. I just don't agree with how extreme the gap is. When a causal player is level 29 and someone else is legend in the first 5 days of the wipe. That's the problem and why you see so many casual players whining on the forums. When a causal player grinds for days and hours to only be pked or dt they usually will quit and go play LoL, WoW or whatever. Because LoL is pvp but doesn't have a grind, and wow is a grind but you can't lose your stuff in pvp. So either Arctic needs to be a grind game with no way to lose eq or it needs to be less of a grind with the risk of losing eq. If eq were less limited, xp tables, and skilling were cut 50% you would see a lot less whining about being pked.

1.Either remove legendary to lessen the gap between the large casual player base and small extreme player base.
2.Leave the game as a grind and remove dts and pk
3.Make the game less of a grind(xp/skills/load rates), remove most limit items, and leave pk alone

I personally would prefer 1 or 3
 

[Attai]

I don't say this often but I agree mostly with what Bryton has to say.

LoL is a grind to level 30 but then you can play ranked and if you lose you drop a few points
WoW is a grind but you only lose XP when you die and you can't deadbeat if you cancel your subscription for 2 years

Arctic is a niche game, you're not going to be able to attract many new players because its a text based game and there are so many good graphic games out to choose from.  I was in high school 20  years ago when I started playing, now I've got a wife and kids and a full time job and a really long shitty commute and I just can't play as much anymore which is probably the same for most players now a days which makes it hard to play like I used to.

[Jorake]

Removing legendary would run people off way way faster than them having to grind for it. It makes it so the casual player can still group a couple buddies and do some smaller/mid tier zoning. And if your buds aren't on you can still prep up and try your hand at solving something.

[oom]

If you mean removing legend as in removing any requirement to become legend other than the 2 rank points then I agree. If you mean removing legend bonuses then I agree with Jorake. I have no desire to go back to pre-legend arctic in terms of character strength unless mobs in general become much weaker as well.

[Nostramazos]

Hey Bryton,

You are right about the immense gap between legendary and non legendary but this is not a bad thing. I am not sure where you're coming from as a player and whether you are one of those freaks that wants eq or starts wars over them but legendary status (although it is too much of a grind) does allow small clans from grouping more effectively and having fun without the need of eq. If you find your self soloing too much to get to legend then that is a problem of the relations you have established and not of the grind. In general, with a bit of tweaks on the rank system, reaching legendary is not as hard as it seems. A group of four-five friends can legend together quite easily.

I remember in the past you have attempted to create a clan of friends and casual players. If that is still your wish (and you are not an eq freak, sorry I have low tolerance for those) find anyone with Maza title online and let's get grouping. Dts, deaths and fun guaranteed.

Nostramazos

[Bryton]

@attai ya I agree I'm more comparing the style of play and why people like the game.

@jorake I disagree, legendary made this game so unbalanced and hurt the causal player. Imms like jorquin and others have done things like buffing zones but it's still pretty unbalanced. That is why you are seeing so much whining on forums right now. Rise has 20+ legends in there clan after a week of playing and the gap is so huge no one stands a chance. But like I said in my post people that put a lot of time into this game deserve an advantage but the way legend is now the advantage is to big.Either make legend easier for the casual player to hit quick or remove it. You would see a lot less whining

@oom answered your post in jorakes reply

@nostramazos I've tried your style of play and it doesn't entertain me. But I love reading your posts and those entertain me.


So just to use an example

Rise/people with lots of playing time.
- legendary after a week
-which allows them to load all high end eq and spells by week 2 or 3.
-Makes them untouchable.

Casual player
- legendary after 2-3 weeks
-which allows them to get decent eq and most spells
- since they are late to legendary they get pushed around by the people that got it 2 or 3 weeks before them.

This is exactly what's happening.

-The fix-
-Lower xp tables a lot
-Make legendary available at rank 10
-Up eq loads and maxes(I thought everyone loved unlimited spiked wrist bucklers)
-Remove tether this shit causes so much trash and whine

-To cut the whining of mages, make them a single frag damage character, buff tent a bit and color spray. Remove nightmare,pws,prism, and blastwave. Pk shouldn't be decided on spamming pws and nightmare. This game is about skill, not who can spam one spell the most.

-let Druids be the area dam since there area is pretty well balanced.

All of this will make dying to pk/dt less dramatic and easier to recover from. All the other stuff like pk time frames or arenas kill the niche that Arctic has over other games and makes things pretty complicated.

"Keep it simple stupid" Michael Scott

[Willoe]

Like most of what you said just need to include the skills grind as well.

[oom]

Amen to all of this. Arctic feels like you have to grind non stop for days on end, sometimes not even xping, just going around to different mobs and doing a skill on them for no real reason, or getting your clan druid to log for 4 hours with triggers set up so you can superb banish(a skill that literally isn't possible to superb without either botting or wasting the life of 2 people simultaneously doing something neither considers fun in any way). Get rid of the stupid grind regardless of what is done with pk. You used to be able to roll a character, play hard for 2 days and you were ready for high zones and pk. Now if you and like 3 friends rolled characters and played hard for 2 days I would crush you 1v3 with my legend whatever with elite eq.

Make this game less dependent on equipment in general. This is the reason I play a shaman. Other than some super elite items I'm basically as useful naked or geared for most things. Jack was saying this in discord and I really think it's true. Raise the floor on all classes prior to equipment and then the equipment isn't nearly as unbalancing. Make equipment easier to load and people are more willing to do something that might cause them to lose it.

Some groups of players remain 'casual' because it took them 3 weeks of grinding to hit +5damage and there is no way they are going to risk 3 weeks of their life to explore dun mir or mithas when they would lose it all in 20 minutes. I think the immense grind and stupidity of training skills just removes part of the fun from all aspects. I feel like you should still have to 'earn' lvl 30 or legend or whatever, but let's face it. Legend is the new lvl 28, it just takes a LOOOOT longer to get there.

[Thymorical]

 Without pk this game is just like every other garbage rpg played and eventually returned to arctic for pk and ownage.. 

Gear being more available or less important would make the game better for the care bears id imagine.

[el conquistador]

agree with oom.

thymorical it may need pk to you, but i havent even tried to kill anyone for 10+ years and i keep coming back.  arctic has a lot more different from typical rpgs than just full loot pvp.

[Dagda]

agree with oom.

thymorical it may need pk to you, but i havent even tried to kill anyone for 10+ years and i keep coming back.  arctic has a lot more different from typical rpgs than just full loot pvp.

I haven't pked in about the same amount of time. I still love this game.

There needs to be a balance.

[Bryton]

So I didn't ask if you pked or didn't pk. I and everyone else realizes this game has both people who like to pk and don't like to pk. So stop getting off subject. This solution benefits both.

[Kadaj]

Without pk this game is just like every other garbage rpg played and eventually returned to arctic for pk and ownage.. 

Gear being more available or less important would make the game better for the care bears id imagine.

Try playing the game with one character instead of 7 bots and killing people 8 vs 1, I think you would find PK a little less enjoyable.

[Dagda]

So I didn't ask if you pked or didn't pk. I and everyone else realizes this game has both people who like to pk and don't like to pk. So stop getting off subject. This solution benefits both.

I like your idea, fix the grind and balance power for casuals. I personally think rent should go as well.

[Dagda]

Though to expand on that non worn items should have some limit (spare primes/off hands) or requirement to vault them.