The new curve is better than at its worst, but still not good enough for launch

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Ok, I just completed all the missions in Westside, after completing all the missions in Canada. It got me to level 17.5. That's not completely out of line, since the content in the area is 14-17, but it's far too tight, since I HAD to do every single mission to get that high. That's not right, especially given that MC is the ONLy zone one can play in from 14-17. Making the leveling so airtight means that there is no variation from character to character when playing alts, which leads to rapid burnout.

Ideally, to get from any one level range to another, you should only have to do about 60-80% of the available missions, tops. The other ones are there for you to pic up with a different character so that you have a little variety in your experience.

WoW, for example, has about 4-6 complete zones in the same level range as Westside (at least, they did at launch, they might have more now).

If you guys want to slow the speed of leveling, that's fine, but it'll have to wait until you have the content to FULLY support the new speed, instead of just the bare minimum amount to sort of support it.

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I'm about halfway to 19 on this toon in MC at the moment and still have quests left there, they are however level 20 quests so the gap between mob levels relative to your own and items levels for quests still aren't right.

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Did you just do Canada? I got to level sixteen after just doing one mission in Westside because I did all of the desert and as much as I could in Canada before heading to MC. I haven't played since then, though, so I don't know where I'll end up.

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The xp is fine now, might even be a bit faster than it should be.

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The xp is fine now, might even be a bit faster than it should be.

No its not unfortunatly. I got to 21 last night, but there are content gaps, and one ya hit 30 theres apparently a huge content gap that people have run into. Is it still to fast, yes, is it fine nope, not unless the magically content fairy shows her head.

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I'd rather the devs fill the content gaps instead of going back to the pre-nerf XP rates. Granted, that doesn't immediately solve the OP's issue, but I'm a little leery about another XP rate roller coaster ride...

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.....not unless the magically content fairy shows her head.

she better get off the pot !

or there are going to be really ANGRY people here in a couple days.


.

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XP is too fast, but content is too little. That's the only issue. The curve is fine, but we need moar issues.

Issues like comic book issues, not issues like problems. I got 99 of those.

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The leveling is fine. There just needs to be more content for some level ranges.

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as far as content goes I would put CO in the same boat as AoC at launch.

( those of you who played AoC at launch before the massive content patch know what i am talking about )

Cryptic needs to add content for all levels and not just End-game ASAP!

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XP is too fast, but content is too little. That's the only issue. The curve is fine, but we need moar issues.

Issues like comic book issues, not issues like problems. I got 99 of those.

Agreed. XP is fast enough (Too fast even), Just need more content.

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Did you just do Canada? I got to level sixteen after just doing one mission in Westside because I did all of the desert and as much as I could in Canada before heading to MC. I haven't played since then, though, so I don't know where I'll end up.

I'm aware that there are practical workarounds in places, but my point is that there shouldn't have to be. Yes, I only did the Canadian content, no Desert stuff, entering MC at about 13.75, and yeah, in the past with certain characters I've done a few desert missions before hitting MC, and like I said, these were just the Westside missions, there are still City Center missions to do before I leave MC, but I see that as a sign of a broken system when ALL the Canadian missions are not enough, and then ALL the Westside missions are not enough.

In closed beta, I could usually skip at least a few missions in each zone completely and still reach level 18-019 before leaving Westside. For example several of my characters didn't do Fight Club, or the Purple Gang chain, because they could either be broken or hard to get on to (the latter requiring you first do an obscure escort mission to unlock the chain). I think that ideally you shouldn't HAVE to do every single mission, so that if you don't like a given mission, or if a certain mission is bugged at the moment, or just to save something for a different character, you can skip a few.

The way I see it, if it takes 100 missions to get to level 40, and they only give you 100 missions, then they've failed. If it takes 80 missions and they only give you 100 missions, they've stil failed. They should give you WELL more missions than you'd ever actually need, so that you can vary your experience from playthrough to playthrough. having JUST the content from 5-13 vary between different characters (and exactly two paths at that), is just not good enough.


The xp is fine now, might even be a bit faster than it should be.

I don't care about that one way or the other. My issue is not with the XP, my issue is with the content. Maybe this XP curve IS fine, but IF they want to stick with it, then we'll need much more content to support that XP curve. Whether the curve is set up so that you can reach 40 in 40 hours or 400 is completely irrelevant to me, all that I care about is that there is an overabundance of content such that you can take multiple paths through it, rather than having to hit every single one in order to advance without grinding. I was fine with the speed in beta, loved it actually, but I wouldn't mind if they slowed things down, so long as it didn't come at the cost of FUN as it currently does.

I'd rather the devs fill the content gaps instead of going back to the pre-nerf XP rates. Granted, that doesn't immediately solve the OP's issue, but I'm a little leery about another XP rate roller coaster ride...

I find it a bit unrealistic to expect them to dump the amount of content necessary within the next few days, given that it took them months between major content dumps during beta. I think it would be a far simpler fix for them to just correct the XP rates for now, and get back to monkeying with the XP rates when they have the content available to comfortably support such changes. If they wanted to have the rates they have now then they really should have thought of that sooner and designed the content necessary to support that idea.

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1-6 tutorial
6-9 crisis
9-13 post-crisis

13-16 MC

16-19 Desert

5 bubbles of burnside open mission grinding'

I could probably get to 21 or 22 in canada because of all the 20+ missions they have. the hunter patriots, the gadroon, etc.

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never mind.. was off point.

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They did say that they are creating more content for one or two areas that were barren and moving other content around. Not sure all of that has been completed yet.

I suspect that the content creation part is not done for sure.

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I think it's fine, I made 11 last night after re-rolling my toon from level 7 without even trying. I could have been 20 if I really felt like it.

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Hitting lvl 30 in one night is fast xp, content gaps or not!! You only have 10 more lvls to go and its still headstart... I can not believe people are still complaining about slow xp...

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Except people aren't complaining about it being slow they are complaining beause the game is so linear you do every quest to make the next level there is no choice at all do it or grind mobs forever because mob xp is terrible. You will run out of missions to do and be forced to grind either public quests or pvp or mass (and I mean mass, Mobs)

When this problem was brought up in Open beta 3-4 developers stated you will not have to grind to soothe the mass hysteria that was going on in the forums it now appears that was deceiptful.

I am now level 18 and taking my time I am enjoying the leveling but that does not excuse Cryptic not having enough missions to not run people into a xp wall on their way to level 40 regardless of how fast some people want to progress.

They really need to fix this and quick. I would actually be happier if they slowed the leveling even further if they added choice in which missions I could use to level up.

Right now its do mission a thru z level 17 to hit 18 then its do all level 18 missions and some level 19 and 20 missions to hit level 19.

Double the number of missions and decrease the mission xp bonus by 25% this solves both problems....slows the leveling speed and gives people a choice and more to do. the problem is it takes time and now is pretty much too late because now they have a player base used to the faster leveling speed any major change to it will leave a sour taste in the mouth.

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Im not having trouble so much, but I have noticed that i was at a lower lvl when i finished the desert than i was with previous characters. Im normally at lvl 14 if not 15 when i finish the desert and head to the city. I was lvl 13. This caused a slight problem as when i get to the city, most of the quests are lvl 14-15.

Again, not the end of the world, but at lvl 13 fighting lvl 15 groups, i do cut it close from time to time with no defensive passive.

It seemed the the curve was perfect before with the amount of quests you have to do. Leaving the desert at 14 almost 15 is perfect for heading to the city.

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Hitting lvl 30 in one night is fast xp, content gaps or not!! You only have 10 more lvls to go and its still headstart... I can not believe people are still complaining about slow xp...

The problem is that once you hit about 30 you have thousands of mobs to kill before leveling.

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Don't you guys have Monster Island and Lemuria for 30+ content?

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Ok, I just completed all the missions in Westside, after completing all the missions in Canada. It got me to level 17.5. That's not completely out of line, since the content in the area is 14-17, but it's far too tight, since I HAD to do every single mission to get that high. That's not right, especially given that MC is the ONLy zone one can play in from 14-17. Making the leveling so airtight means that there is no variation from character to character when playing alts, which leads to rapid burnout.

Ideally, to get from any one level range to another, you should only have to do about 60-80% of the available missions, tops. The other ones are there for you to pic up with a different character so that you have a little variety in your experience.

WoW, for example, has about 4-6 complete zones in the same level range as Westside (at least, they did at launch, they might have more now).

If you guys want to slow the speed of leveling, that's fine, but it'll have to wait until you have the content to FULLY support the new speed, instead of just the bare minimum amount to sort of support it.

Yeah, I'm 18 and still in MC as well, will probably get to 19 or 20 before I have to go to Canada or Desert, the same as early OB.

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I'm still in the desert, but so far I'm finding the XP rate OK for quests, and possibly a bit high, while I think the XP for mobs is still too low. Overall the rate isn't too bad - but I agree with the OP's point about content. It seems like I'm going to have to do the exact same missions with my alts, which is going to be more than a bit dull.

Here's to the content fairies. /cheers

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One problem this all creates is there is really no incentive for developers to spend much if any time post release adding lower level content, because even casual players will be advancing fast, so they will have to focus all their energies on the last 10 levels and beyond.

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Hitting lvl 30 in one night is fast xp, content gaps or not!! You only have 10 more lvls to go and its still headstart... I can not believe people are still complaining about slow xp...

You're missing the point entirely. It's about quality of experience, not quantity. As I said above, whether the curve is set up so that you can reach 40 in 40 hours or 400 is completely irrelevant to me, all that I care about is that there is an overabundance of content such that you can take multiple paths through it, rather than having to hit every single one in order to advance without grinding.

I don't care how long it takes to get from A to B, what I care about is that there's enough to see along the way that I can make the trip dozens of times and have a unique and engaging experience each time. That is NOT the case at the moment, at the current rate.


Yeah, I'm 18 and still in MC as well, will probably get to 19 or 20 before I have to go to Canada or Desert, the same as early OB.

In OB you could hit 21 in MC, and that's while still skipping a mission here or there. Now I don't anticipate being more than 19, maybe early 20 by the time I do it all (bearing in mind that some of the enemies are level 21).

I don't want to seem melodramatic here, but I seriously have much less interest in playing this game now, because I feel like the more I play, the closer I get to the inevitable "no fun" point, whereas in beta, I was running 5-7 characters simultaneously and having fun with each of them.

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exp is fine but not enough quests to support it. Im being far outllv'd by my quests now an dits getting annoying

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In OB you could hit 21 in MC, and that's while still skipping a mission here or there. Now I don't anticipate being more than 19, maybe early 20 by the time I do it all (bearing in mind that some of the enemies are level 21).



Yep i was 21 before i left MC in OB before the changes also. I've made gotten 2 toons through MC so far in head start and both were 19 by the time they were finished there, on both occasions i finished off 19-20 in PvP matches to try and narrow the gap between my level and the quest levels a bit. You very quickly start fighting level 22+ at that point, but luckily there are 2 level 22 repeatable quests that give almost a bar each, one of which is more time efficient than the other. What is annoying me though is always having to wait 2 or 3 levels to use any gear i get as rewards.

I've missed out the desert on both toons as i really am not keen on that area.

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One problem this all creates is there is really no incentive for developers to spend much if any time post release adding lower level content, because even casual players will be advancing fast, so they will have to focus all their energies on the last 10 levels and beyond.

If they do it right and keep max level 40 forever and allow alternante advancement then it's not an issue. They do one crazy hard lair, that people are trying to get through for the next five years... they do a lot of mid and high level content and if your AA makes those areas/lairs super easy then so be it. Then they have a nice, smooth, ramp up to that mid-high level content that slowly gets more challenging.


So if it was a graph it would slowly go up till 40 and for 95% of the games content the line would start to move downward at the same rate it advanced and for 5% of the games content it would very slightly start to ramp down. The trick is figuring out the angles, sticking with them, and not messing with things.

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No its not unfortunatly. I got to 21 last night, but there are content gaps, and one ya hit 30 theres apparently a huge content gap that people have run into. Is it still to fast, yes, is it fine nope, not unless the magically content fairy shows her head.

That's awesome to hear I can't wait to see how big of a content gap I hit with my char that didn't finish all the quests in a zone

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I find it a bit unrealistic to expect them to dump the amount of content necessary within the next few days, given that it took them months between major content dumps during beta. I think it would be a far simpler fix for them to just correct the XP rates for now, and get back to monkeying with the XP rates when they have the content available to comfortably support such changes.
I guess this is gonna be another "agree to disagree" issue. I realize more content isn't gonna solve things right away, and said as much earlier. But, especially now that we're live, my sense is that upping XP even temporarily will carry more headaches than it's worth. Fast XP rates won't retain players for the long run as much as decent content; there'll be less reason to develop low-to-mid level content if people can just blow through it; and the devs would be inviting a firestorm if they raise XP rates only to drop them again later.

If they wanted to have the rates they have now then they really should have thought of that sooner and designed the content necessary to support that idea.
I suspect they didn't know what rates they wanted, until they saw the average rate of advancement with a very large group of people. Hence the very late XP nerf to begin with. Yes, the content may be stretched thin at the moment for the rate we have - but I'd rather see a solid long-term fix, even if it takes some time, than a "hotfix" that throws things out of whack again.

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I wish I could explain the point of diminishing returns when applied to quantum mechanical and atomic interactions in under 10 words.

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I wish I could explain the point of diminishing returns when applied to quantum mechanical and atomic interactions in under 10 words.
It helps if you sleep-post.

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It helps if you sleep-post.

...I wonder if I've ever done that, it would explain a lot.

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I suspect they didn't know what rates they wanted, until they saw the average rate of advancement with a very large group of people. Hence the very late XP nerf to begin with. Yes, the content may be stretched thin at the moment for the rate we have - but I'd rather see a solid long-term fix, even if it takes some time, than a "hotfix" that throws things out of whack again.

I'd rather the game be fun and playable at launch, rather than have them continually make excuses until the first major content patch several months down the road when the game will finally have enough content to support the new XP scheme (and I'm being optimistic there), and most of the people who bought the game with the free month quit because they ran head first into The Grind and walked away.

Anyways, as an update, I just completed the City Center content and JUST got to level 20 (technically the content left me a few hundred XP short of 20, but I killed a half-dozen guys to top off). And that's doing EVERY mission in the zone, including the somewhat hidden ones in the NE corner and the Invitation one, AND doing two Bank Robbery missions. So that's more content than the average new player could be expected to find.

Note that at no point did I exceed the level of the content, I was doing level 19 content at 17 and 18, and level 20-21 content at level 19. Most of my rewards I could not use for several hours after aquiring them, and in some cases the content was very hard to defeat at my level, especially if I were running a weaker character (I'm looking at you, Gadroons).

There were even some areas, such as around the Argent base, in which the crafting nodes were 201+ required, which cannot possibly be harvested by a less than 21 character, I wrapped up that area at early 19.

Look, people can "agree to disagree" on this one all they want, I don't really care who agrees with my position on this or not, the important part is that they FIX THIS. No amount of words can solve the problem, they need to alter the game to correct the problem. No excuses. That either means dumping in maybe a half-dozen additional, fully thought out missions per level range, basically the equivalent of adding an additional Canada-style zone to the game, OR they could tweak the XP rates back to Closed Beta levels, and they need to pick, and implement one of the two within the next week or so, before completely new players start hitting MC.

Choosing to do neither is simply not an option, the existing system is completely unjustifiable to the players.

I've been playing this game for a year, I enjoyed the game up until last week, and I bought a six-month subscription in hopes that they would fix this mess by launch, but I just don't even want to play the game in this state, much less pay to play it. They made a mistake, they miscalculated, and they made a game in which players level up faster than they intended. That's on them. They shouldn't take that mistake out on their players like this. If they can't "fix" it right, by adding additional content that adequately covers a slower leveling pace, then they should leave it how it was when it was working well.

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Why don't you ask all the people who are in the mid to upper 20s and 30s plus how they soldiered through.

Perhaps they can give you some tips, but most of them are not going to be on the forums, I am afraid.

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Hopefully they implement random content like another popular superhero game.

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Why don't you ask all the people who are in the mid to upper 20s and 30s plus how they soldiered through.

Perhaps they can give you some tips, but most of them are not going to be on the forums, I am afraid.

For those not paying attention, the problem is not that it's impossible to "soldier through" to max level, that's completely irrelevant, and I haven't even hit any sort of content cap yet, the probelm is that it's no longer FUN to play through. "soldier through it" is not something that should ever come up in a game discussion, at least not discussion of a good game.

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I don't know - it seems fine to me... I am constantly outlevelling quests because I am a completionist...

Although I do agree we need more variety.

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I've had no problem with it. Check your Crime computer for leads to other quest givers. You won't always get your hand held and skipped daintily over to the next quest chain.

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/sigh.

The problem is NOT about not being able to find quests. How am I being unclear here?

I know where all the missions are, I know where all the ones are that aren't even listed in the mission computer, that isn't the problem.

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1-6, tutorial
7-13, Canada
14-19, MC
20-21, Desert
22-24, Canada
and that's where I am now.

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/sigh.

The problem is NOT about not being able to find quests. How am I being unclear here?

I know where all the missions are, I know where all the ones are that aren't even listed in the mission computer, that isn't the problem.

So then the problem is that there is no problem?

Don't get me wrong, your constant admonishment to fix the problem is quite persuasive, but you need to establish what the problem actually is first.

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1-6, tutorial
7-13, Canada
14-19, MC
20-21, Desert
22-24, Canada
and that's where I am now.

Right. Duh.

Seriously, is there some reader comprehension issue at work here?


Don't get me wrong, your constant admonishment to fix the problem is quite persuasive, but you need to establish what the problem actually is first.

I did, on page one. You'd know that had you read it.

The problem is that there's just BARELY enough content to advance, and that's only If you do all, or very close to all of it. There needs to be a SURPLUS of content, enough that you can advance while only doing a small portion of it. This was the case in closed beta and needs to be the case again. Now, I've heard that people are hitting 30 and being unable to find additional content, which, given that I've been to the mid 30's several times before, and based on this current pace, I can believe, but I'll see for myself in a day or two. Until then, I feel like I'm jogging through mollassas under the current XP rates, and I feel that playing through with alts will be MUCH less fun than usual, because I'll have to redo everything almost exactly the same way each time, and repetition is the arch nemesis of replay value.

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The problem is that there's just BARELY enough content to advance, and that's only If you do all, or very close to all of it. There needs to be a SURPLUS of content, enough that you can advance while only doing a small portion of it. This was the case in closed beta and needs to be the case again. Now, I've heard that people are hitting 30 and being unable to find additional content, which, given that I've been to the mid 30's several times before, and based on this current pace, I can believe, but I'll see for myself in a day or two. Until then, I feel like I'm jogging through mollassas under the current XP rates, and I feel that playing through with alts will be MUCH less fun than usual, because I'll have to redo everything almost exactly the same way each time, and repetition is the arch nemesis of replay value.

Hearsay. So long as you have a quest in the log or in the computer, there's no problem.

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Hearsay. So long as you have a quest in the log or in the computer, there's no problem.

No way. That's like saying as long as you're eating bread and water you're fine. I need meat. Bare sustainence is not enough, there needs to be enough that as character A levels, there's enough left over that character B can have aunique experience, and ideally enough that characters C and D can do missions that neither of the other two have done. You could do that in closed beta, then they broke it. Deliberately.

All i'm asking is that they fix it, nothing major.

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Hearsay. So long as you have a quest in the log or in the computer, there's no problem.


Until you decide to make a second character and have to do all the exact same things, in the exact same order, again.

That's called a lack of content.

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My quest are inline with my character. You need to bounce around, superjump here, to find the exclamation marks. I found bouncing around in the appropriate leveled areas you will find other quest givers.
Also I am able to do mishes and villains 2 levels higher than my toon as well if need be.

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My quest are inline with my character. You need to bounce around, superjump here, to find the exclamation marks. I found bouncing around in the appropriate leveled areas you will find other quest givers.
Also I am able to do mishes and villains 2 levels higher than my toon as well if need be.

Yes, obviously. I'm talking about when you do ALL the quests, including the ones that are harder to find. For example, as I mentioned, I did the two level 20 Psi quests that are in the upper right corner of the map, the escort and the free the newbs ones, which you'd never know were there unless you were just wandering around completely off the grid. I also did the MON invitation one, which you only get from a drop which you may or may not get from an Argent Courier. I've been through MC about a dozen times or more since they added the zone to the game, so I don't think I've missed any of the available missions (although I think there might be one around the docks of Westside that I hadn't found, I need to double check my completion lists next time I'm in).

Again, the problem here is NOT that I don't know wheree to look to find additional missions, I am not soliciting advice on how my own character should proceed, she's doing just fine at the moment, rounding 21 and mostly done with Snake Gultch now, my points are all based on the premise that I'm already aware of all available missions, that I've done them all within the areas discussed, and that there needs to be more than that if they intend to maintain the current XP curves.

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... my points are all based on the premise that I'm already aware of all available missions, that I've done them all within the areas discussed, and that there needs to be more than that if they intend to maintain the current XP curves.
Dollars to donuts, the closed beta XP curves aren't coming back even as a temp fix, no matter how loudly folks complain. It's gone, and it's gone for a reason.

I'm in full agreement with you that the game needs more content - in fact, I'd say that eventually we need at least 3 routes of parallel advancement for every level range. However, boosting XP won't create content. It won't even create a satisfactory illusion of content (at least for me). You'll just run out faster but with fewer apparent gaps along the way.

I can't speak for anyone's playstyle but my own, but I know I'd burn out real quick in that scenario.

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Ohoni plainly knows where all the missions or nearly where all the missions in the game are. Treating him like he's a noob is rather insulting. As all his posts have been about the lack of content to support the current EXP curve changes. Cryptic painted themselves into a corner, it was escapeable during beta if they had extented it when they noticed they had a leveling speed problem and worked on that before starting up the presses to get the game out the door. They'd have gotten paint on their boots for it, but they would probly have released a better setup for leveling with it.

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Cryptic painted themselves into a corner
No argument there. IMHO, open beta should have lasted a lot longer - like a month or so.

But, it is what it is. I'm having fun so far, but I'm feeling the rough edges too.

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I just hit level 18 and I have plenty of my level quests to do. I went from Canada to MC to Desert. I just followed my quests. Talk to Socrates for more.

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I find the xp rate ok, perhaps a bit on the slow side.

Content is an issue. I'm 15th, most of my missions are 16th, and a couple are higher. So their current "content scheme" seems to agree - the xp curve is too little for the content available.

One thing I haven't seen on this thread yet is alts.

The problem with making the xp curve too slow is that there isn't enough content unless you do everything. In which case, when you go to play an alt... the game becomes a grind.

If someone focuses on one character exclusively - then yes, they could hit 40 pretty fast (give up sleep, real life, play 40+ hours per week for a few weeks...).

A number of folks like to play alts, and alternate characters. For those folks - a slow xp rate, forcing them to do every single mission, makes the game a grind.

Better to have the xp rate the same as it was at the beginning of open beta, matching current content, and encourage folks to play alts. That way the game won't be grindy at all. That'll encourage folks to buy more character slots, too. Then add more content to give "alternate storylines" for them to play, keep the interest. Who cares if folks hit 40th right away ? It's just a number, it's the gaming experience that counts.

-Q

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Who cares if folks hit 40th right away ?
The folks who hit 40 right away. :p If there's no new content for them to do, the fastest XP rate in the world won't keep their interest.

Ok, so there are content gaps right now (supposedly - I'll admit I haven't gotten far enough to know). But do folks really think that boosting XP so that you can get through thin content faster is actually a smart move? I'm not the most patient guy, but I'd rather wait for a good, solid fix (i.e., more content) than get a hotfix that could cause more problems.

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Just posted...

Okay, I've finally reached the point where I have NO equal level quests at all. I'm halfway through level 23, and all the quests I have are level 24-26. This is using the crime computer to make sure I've been to all contacts, and also doing the crime computer missions themselves.

If the XP curve is going to stay where it is (no problem with that), we need new content starting around this point ASAP.

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I'm in full agreement with you that the game needs more content - in fact, I'd say that eventually we need at least 3 routes of parallel advancement for every level range. However, boosting XP won't create content. It won't even create a satisfactory illusion of content (at least for me). You'll just run out faster but with fewer apparent gaps along the way.

No, it doesn't create content, but it creates redundancy, where you can choose path A or B, and then choose the other path the next time around. Having that redundancy makes replay value much more fun. From the looks of it, a determined player can even still hit 40 within about 4-5 days of play, I can probably hit it within a week or two, so the current XP rate really doesn't gain them up, a difference of a week or so, tops. When you have a game with a monthly schedule, that difference is meaningless.

What the old curve did do, however, was make it much more fun to play with alts, and having it so that you play a dozen or so characters, each taking only a week and a half to max out, is far superior to getting one character to 40 within two weeks and then not being able to drag yourself back through the exact same content a second time so you're done right there.

I totally agree that adding more content is better than altering the XP rates, and that should be their long term goal, of course, but that's not somethingthey can feasibly accomplish within the next few days, whereas altering the XP rate is. If we assume that the number of total mission is relatively fixed for the next three months or so, then all they'd be capable of adjusting is how many of those missions you need to get to 40. It currently appears to be like 95% of them or more, certainly dropping no more than a few missions out of every ten levels, it needs to be closer to 75%, less would be better. If they could add more missions within the next 24 hours to achieve the same results, I'd be fine with that, but I just don't see it as being likely based on their previous expansion rate. And I mean real missions too, quality missions, not just some procedural thing like upping the amount of patrol missions.

I just hit level 18 and I have plenty of my level quests to do. I went from Canada to MC to Desert. I just followed my quests. Talk to Socrates for more.

You missed the part where I noted that I'm now 21 and still going fine, if a bit constrained. . . /sigh, people don't bother to read anymore.

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My whole questbook is yellow or orange. Problematic for a semi-glass cannon like myself.

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I totally agree that adding more content is better than altering the XP rates, and that should be their long term goal, of course, but that's not somethingthey can feasibly accomplish within the next few days, whereas altering the XP rate is.
Which again brings up the question - do you think the XP rate can realistically be increased to CB levels temporarily while the devs fill in content gaps? Do you think the devs will have a solid idea where the content gaps are if the XP is raised?

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Yea I gotta agree, the old xp rate promoted alt play. I decided going in that even though the game is content-lite that the creativity side of making cool new alts would stretch the gameplay a bit.

Life expectency for me has gone from 5-6 months to maybe 3. I might make an alt or two when I'm bored but I seriously doubt I'll level them.

This also means less (if any) CO store purchases.

IMO CO should stick to it's strengths; Fast Fun Gameplay and Creative toolsets.

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Which again brings up the question - do you think the XP rate can realistically be increased to CB levels temporarily while the devs fill in content gaps? Do you think the devs will have a solid idea where the content gaps are if the XP is raised?

The content gaps are everywhere in the current build. You can get by up until apparently around level 30, falling further and further behind the curve until there is no new content left, but it's always airtight. They just need to add a few missions somewhere every 2-3 levels (starting with, at minimum level 14), and that should provide enough bonus XP to make up the gaps.

the basic idea would be to "add a level" every 2-3 levels, adding enough missions to gain a complete level. For example, if at level 24 it takes ten missions to gain a level, then maybe they add ten level 23-25 missions. Then, you can do these missions anywhere from level 21 to 26 to plug up any experience gaps you might have. There's no need for the plugs to be super precise, since you can take missions in varying order.

I mean, it's their game and they've been working on it for years now, with the tools to adjust their own XP as needed, and with paid testers to do stuff like that, I'm sure they've already run it through from 1-40 themselves several times with different XP rates to see where they get choked up. They wouldn't even actually have to complete the missions, they could just take the mission, use the dev-code to auto-complete it, see how far the XP gets them, move to the next mission, etc. Even at the current XP rate they could get to 40 within a coule hours doing it that way, but they would easilly be able to tell at what points they weren't able to find plenty of missions within their range. It's much easier to achieve that sort of balance when the goal is to have plenty of overlapping missions, than when the goal is to have it so that you need an exact number of missions to advance.

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I have no issues with the rate of advancement levelling 4-5 characters simultaneously however, I agree with Ohoni.

Why do people bemoan the tutorial and it's fast 5 levels? Once you play through it 2,3, 4 times even with different archtype it is predictable. You know about the ambush while waiting to save Kinetik, you look to kill the boss at the top of the stairs at Champions HQ, there is nothing new about it.. It just becomes a tedium you have to make through to get your real powers and start the real game.

Herein lies the problem. With a single path of advancement and low xp of mobs within the city. You just do the same limited quests in variable sequence. You have no choice but do MC at that level range. There is no alternative zone you can level in, you cannot street sweep and level if you like such a thing, and the level range specific content becomes simply a larger version of the tutorial. Realistically you skip quests only to place your character levelling at a painfully slower rate, unable to use your quest rewards or access your crafting nodes due to level differential.

Each of the major zones need more story arcs to permit variable advancement. If you do not feel like escorting that damn deranged mutant across half the map, you shouldnt have to. Do not feel like slipping and sliding on ping pong balls fighting off an ambush; you shouldnt have to.

Give people options in questing and you will increase the longevity of the game. Perfectly aligning the levelling rate to an exact number of quests within a zone, turns the whole game into one big repetitive tutorial, only on a larger scale.

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Been reading this thread with some interest, i am relatively new to Champions Online, i have played Open Beta and am currently in head start. In OB i got to level 17 and in head start i am at 12. I must admit that i agree with some of the points being made, in head start i am going through the same quests as OB and there doesnt seem to be a great deal of variety. However this is partly my own fault as after the tutorial i went to desert again, maybe i could have gone to canada.
Seeing as i only got to 17 in OB it wont be too long before i get to some new content and at the moment i only have one character and want to get to 40. I think most new players will be looking to get there character to level 40 and wont be worrying to much about gaps in content/xp it will be about the journey and experiencing the game for the first time.
I guess the problem will come when people start rolling alts, if they have to go through the same content each time they roll a new character it may put them off.

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I think the exp is fine, i mean as of right now, 11:15am EST on the 30th, i logged out of the headstart to go do some work, but i did a search first and we have our first level 40. Tell em expo needs to come in faster please.

if your in the headstart and don't believe me, do a search, he is Dameron@Dameron


EDIT: for timezone

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I understand his concern is not as much the rate of advancement but the path by which it occurs.

Every character you roll, will do the exact same quests just perhaps out of order, because not doing each and every quest in a zone, requires an excessive alternative to reach the next zone of play for levelling.

The path is currently linear.

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I have no issues with the rate of advancement levelling 4-5 characters simultaneously however, I agree with Ohoni.

Why do people bemoan the tutorial and it's fast 5 levels? Once you play through it 2,3, 4 times even with different archtype it is predictable. You know about the ambush while waiting to save Kinetik, you look to kill the boss at the top of the stairs at Champions HQ, there is nothing new about it.. It just becomes a tedium you have to make through to get your real powers and start the real game.

Herein lies the problem. With a single path of advancement and low xp of mobs within the city. You just do the same limited quests in variable sequence. You have no choice but do MC at that level range. There is no alternative zone you can level in, you cannot street sweep and level if you like such a thing, and the level range specific content becomes simply a larger version of the tutorial. Realistically you skip quests only to place your character levelling at a painfully slower rate, unable to use your quest rewards or access your crafting nodes due to level differential.

Each of the major zones need more story arcs to permit variable advancement. If you do not feel like escorting that damn deranged mutant across half the map, you shouldnt have to. Do not feel like slipping and sliding on ping pong balls fighting off an ambush; you shouldnt have to.

Give people options in questing and you will increase the longevity of the game. Perfectly aligning the levelling rate to an exact number of quests within a zone, turns the whole game into one big repetitive tutorial, only on a larger scale.

This is a problem I have with MMOGs and have had for years. The problem came about when the games became quest driven for advancement. Instead of a lot of disparate quests that you discover and do, you end up with quest chains that drive the story line and go along the same path.

In the old days you would just have camps all over the world and go hunting. Sure you could do quests and such but was not the primary form of advancement. In EQ you had multiple areas at any given level range. Even at the barest level range like 45-50 in the original game, you still had at least two viable options to advancement.

However the problem is quests take more time to make. Not only do you need to create the camps and caves and such for the mobs, you also need to create the quests itself. So you end up with a lot less content.

I think in the future you might see new games jump off this quest-centric path. Sure it was good for a bit, but now it is feeling old and too confining and it is forcing games down singular paths.

It is right up there with armor sets for me. Armor sets are an awesome idea in theory, but in practice they reduce the amount of content and exposure in games to a tiny level. To justify the work going into to making armor sets, for example, developers have to make them very viable. If they don't the work is potentially wasted.

Same goes with quest lines. I LOVE doing quests. However, I would not mind at level 18 if there was a completely different zone with no quests where I could go explore and kill stuff and advance. I would love it more if it had quests. The reality is though, you can make two or three areas with few quests, or one and a half areas with a lot of quests. Most games don't have the time or budget to provide more than that.

I remember in my early days of EQ when I was playing and met up with a group of strangers and we would play every day together. We meet in Blackburrow but as we leveled through the teens we would alternate between Unrest and )Permafrost. Beyond that there were probably a half dozen or more other places you could viably hunt at that level. Ironically the game was lacking in quests, and quests played no role in experience advancement for the most part, but you had multiple things to do, different georgraphy different part of the world.

Today maybe they would have added 15 quests to permafrost and that might mean Unrest doesn't exist at all.

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The Xp rate is pretty reasonable, there's an awful long time fighting with just one skill for an alt centric game but not bad. Trick is it's not content appropriate. The XP rate needs to go up, or there needs to be a lot more content. And work on new zones for 14-20 and new quests for 12-20 and apparentlya whole lot for 30 (I say these people are crazy though, the games barely been out 2 days) is time that really needs to go on more open missions, instances and end game content.

So either a straight xp buff, or an xp buff to all characters below the level of your highest character seems the easiest solution.

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Give people options in questing and you will increase the longevity of the game. Perfectly aligning the levelling rate to an exact number of quests within a zone, turns the whole game into one big repetitive tutorial, only on a larger scale.
I'm in full agreement. I hope I haven't given the impression that I think you need to do every single quest to level - on the contrary, I'd like to see multiple quest chains for each level bracket.

I just don't think the problem will be meaningfully fixed by boosting the XP curve.

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Had to use up so much Level 24 content to reach Level 24, that I only have 3 Level 24 quests left (Crime Computer missions). Those will barely get me a bubble and a half, and then I'm on Level 25/26 content.

At this rate, by Level 27 I'll be doing Level 31 quests.

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Bump

This is really a thread that deserves dev attention.

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I've had no problem with it. Check your Crime computer for leads to other quest givers. You won't always get your hand held and skipped daintily over to the next quest chain.

This for me too. I got to 21 with zero grinding and lots of missions still to do, and I skipped any mission I died more than a couple of times on. I also didn't go to Canada at all until level 20, as directed by the crime computer.

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Ok, I just completed all the missions in Westside, after completing all the missions in Canada. It got me to level 17.5. That's not completely out of line, since the content in the area is 14-17, but it's far too tight, since I HAD to do every single mission to get that high. That's not right, especially given that MC is the ONLy zone one can play in from 14-17. Making the leveling so airtight means that there is no variation from character to character when playing alts, which leads to rapid burnout.

Ideally, to get from any one level range to another, you should only have to do about 60-80% of the available missions, tops. The other ones are there for you to pic up with a different character so that you have a little variety in your experience.

WoW, for example, has about 4-6 complete zones in the same level range as Westside (at least, they did at launch, they might have more now).

If you guys want to slow the speed of leveling, that's fine, but it'll have to wait until you have the content to FULLY support the new speed, instead of just the bare minimum amount to sort of support it.

Instead of rushing from mission to mission, kill a few things on your way there. it's not a race. I left Canada at level 20, almost 21.

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in head start I've leveled one character to 18. Around level 12 I began to run low on quests. Essentailly i'm doing quest 2-3 levels over me constantly and qute often, now for instance, have trouble finding quests that I can complete. So yeah. There needs to be more low level quests or street sweeping needs to be more viable. From what i've read there needs to be more mid to high levels quests too. I hope the first update addresses this issue. After I post this I'm going to go to MC , stand on a corner and hope someone runs up to me with a quest.

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Bump
10char

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I went into MC as a lvl 17 after doing all of Canada and the Southwest and I know I missed some missions.

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I think the exp is fine, i mean as of right now, 11:15am EST on the 30th, i logged out of the headstart to go do some work, but i did a search first and we have our first level 40. Tell em expo needs to come in faster please.

I think it's perfectly possible that someone is 40 already, which would actually highlight my point. If someone can STILL get to 40 in three days, even under this rather oppressive XP level, then what's the point? Why ruin the game when it doesn't really gain them anything?



I just don't think the problem will be meaningfully fixed by boosting the XP curve.

I'm just saying, I leveled many characters into the 30's and 40 during beta, and never really felt this bad about it until they started messing with the XP rates. . .

Instead of rushing from mission to mission, kill a few things on your way there. it's not a race. I left Canada at level 20, almost 21.

Killing things randomly is pointless, you need to kill about ten thousand enemies to gain a single level.

Also, do you mean that you left Canada for MC for the first time at 20? What were you doing from level 14? If you mean that you left content like Renegade Run orProject Awakening at 20 then you're actually well behind the curve.

I really can't believe that some people are completing the Canada or Desert chains at 13 and then going back and doing all the 8-13 missions in the other zone. That really is a waste fo good content.

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Ohoni, I think I know exactly what you're saying. And frankly, I agree. I don't know what solution could be contrived for this, but it would be nice if something was done. I am getting mighty tired of the same missions on EACH OF MY ALTS. As a lazy, casual player, I'd love an XP boost, but I totally realize many others would NOT like this.

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I had to do a bunch of Level 26 quests to hit Level 25. Most of my Quest Log is now Level 27.

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The level 40 thing is a really good point. As it stands there's nowhere near enough content to keep players from capping almost immediately. A 20-25% XP buff would mean characters could mostly take different paths through the game giving it a sense of non-linearity while really having no appreciable effect on how long it takes to hit end-game.

With the game as it stands I've made a couple of mistakes on two characters that I can't respec out of and I don't really want to do all the same content again with nothing new to look forward to. If I were on a monthly fee then I'd certainly cancel my subscription till this was sorted out. Buffing XP is making the best of a bad situation I feel.

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One problem this all creates is there is really no incentive for developers to spend much if any time post release adding lower level content, because even casual players will be advancing fast, so they will have to focus all their energies on the last 10 levels and beyond.

That is the biggest mistake they could make. And the single most reason an MMO starts to bleed subscriptions down the road beyond repair.

There is always incentive to create new lower level content! It creates incentive for veteran players to roll a new ALT and in return give new players joining an actual feel that there are people around across all level ranges. Wich gives new players more incentive to stay and start subscribing too.

If they only start focussing on high level content, then down the road new players won't stick around as they are put off the moment they enter the world and find themselves in a total barren wasteland with no one around.

So do not ever underestimate the power of new low level content!

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I agree with the OP. Each character you make is going to end up doing all the same quests as the others. There should be many more variations. Think CoH, where you get to choose from lots of contacts and really choose what path you want to take.

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And to add to the OP.

It shouldn't have come to a suprise, that when you do an outright XP nerf right at the end of Open Beta that Cryptic would screw themselves over big time!

It's the EXACT SAME problem Mythic ran into with WAR last year. There they did an outright XP nerf right at the end of Beta as well.

Result: EXTREMELY LINEAR leveling path, with content gaps and no alternative leveling options.

So so stupid. Cryptic should have known better! :mad:

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I found one possible "solution" to this problem, if you can call it that sans quotes, that there are a few missions which you can take repeatedly, presumably indefinitely, as needed. One of these is in Renegade Run. I thought it was a bug, and bugged it as such, but the third time I was offered it I read the tex more carefully and it does in fact acknowledge that you've done it before already.

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I found another method they're using, which is that after level 22, every time I complete a mission I get a spam email telling me to check the crime computr, which then has a Patrol mission in it for me. Of course these are all in MC, and I was in Canada at the time, so running off to do them would be well out of the way.

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as far as content goes I would put CO in the same boat as AoC at launch.

( those of you who played AoC at launch before the massive content patch know what i am talking about )

Cryptic needs to add content for all levels and not just End-game ASAP!

You are a hero in a city or area where bad guys are wandering the streets.

Arrest them all.. that will keep you busy as heck!

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Having only gotten two characters to level 20, i have already seen this. I have taken almost the exact same path, including the same crisis zone, and i know i could have taken the other one.

Being an altaholic, this does concern me greatly, as i don't want to take the same path with all my chars. This will get boring quite fast.


I agree that there needs to be more content, so you can choose an alternating level path. this can, as suggested, be accomplished right now by an xp boost. I don't agree with this, as this will only give problems when they have to nerf it, once they get the content ready. I know it sucks right now, but i'd rather wait for them to fix the problem by adding content, than them boosting the xp now, and then needing to nerf it back down again at a later point.

I do think that more random mission, something like the Radio from that other superhero game, or some other way of getting missions on demand would be great. Don't get me wrong, i love when people run op to me and offer me missions, but it seems to be happening very rarely at the moment. Even if these random missions are rather generic. Create enough templates, and it will be better. And then still add more quality missions with expansions/content updates.

Scaling up mob xp, could also make street sweeping more viable.

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I would like to point out that, at least in beta, you can get xp from completing perks. So if you find yourself low on missions, go exploring!

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Lol, perks offer almost no XP. It's like a little token XP, "good for you", but you'd get considerably more from street sweeping. I've unlocked most of the perks I know of (I haven't zerged my way into higher level areas to get the perks for them yet), and have 1455 Perk Points at level 24, but they certainly weren't to help me level. ;)

The only time perks were worth hunting for XP was a week or so in beta when some of the MC ones were bugged to offer mission-class XP for each. ;)

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Hrm, I've yet to run into a shortage of mission hubs on my main...she's only level 28, but I've never found myself wondering where to find missions. Use the crime computer = never at a loss for missions. As it stands now, I still have a good portion of later Canada to do, all of Monster Island, and Lemuria...wherever that is XD.

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People are STILL complaining about XP?

Seriously come on! There are so many quests that I can't even do them all because I outlevel them quickly. It feels like no one wants to explore the game, use the search button on the forums, etc so they come here and make invalid posts.

Awesome.

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What alot of people here seem to miss is that most of us are not complaining about the xp, that is actually almost fine. But more the fact that if you want to level an alt, there is no alternate route, different missions or anything like that to do. You are forced into doing the exact same missions as there is only enough, or a little more than enough to get you through your level.

Personally i'm fine with the current xp rate, my main has not hit any gaps yet. But if i want to level my alt, i have no choice but to do the same missions again. What most of us want is variety, different zones to level. So that our alts can have a different experience than our main. Right now that is not possible.

I'm not expecting 10 zones for each level bracket, but perhaps 2-3 would be nice, so that atleast 2 of your alts can have a radical different experience than the others.

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People are STILL complaining about XP?

Seriously come on! There are so many quests that I can't even do them all because I outlevel them quickly. It feels like no one wants to explore the game, use the search button on the forums, etc so they come here and make invalid posts.

Awesome.

Sad. Seriously, is reading a dead art? Is talking the only thing people do these days, never listening? If only people would learn to listen to what others were saying, they wouldn't have to say nearly as much themselves.

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Sad. Seriously, is reading a dead art? Is talking the only thing people do these days, never listening? If only people would learn to listen to what others were saying, they wouldn't have to say nearly as much themselves.

Yeah you are proposing that in a game where people hit the level cap in 2.5-3 REAL LIFE DAYS, where they complain of their being gaps in content even, that they should adjust the experience curve so it is even faster.

It is fundamentally a horrible idea, and one you won't let go of...

Why don't you make a proper thread that champions the correct solution which is the addition of MORE content to fill in the gap. Not the kludged and horrible solution of making it take LESS experience to hit the level cap than it does now.

It s amusing that you make a post about listening when you don't listen to anyone else. You have this one real bad idea rattling around and you won't let go of it for anything.

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Yeah you are proposing that in a game where people hit the level cap in 2.5-3 REAL LIFE DAYS, where they complain of their being gaps in content even, that they should adjust the experience curve so it is even faster.

It is fundamentally a horrible idea, and one you won't let go of...

Why don't you make a proper thread that champions the correct solution which is the addition of MORE content to fill in the gap. Not the kludged and horrible solution of making it take LESS experience to hit the level cap than it does now.

It s amusing that you make a post about listening when you don't listen to anyone else. You have this one real bad idea rattling around and you won't let go of it for anything.

Look, Cryptic designed the game. They designed it to be fun, which it really was, about a week ago. Then they broke it. I didn't break it, they did. Now maybe people are leveling faster than they planned, but that's not our fault, they made the game, and they made it such that it was fun when you only had to do a portion of the missions to hit cap, and could leave a portion for later runthroughs.

Yes, lowering that XP curve would allow people to get through the game faster, but if people are capping out in three days does it REALLY matter if they make it so that they can cap out in two instead? Will that actually make a difference?

Obviously having them add more content is the best solution, in an ideal world, but launch is TODAY, and I don't see them taking a long lunch hour and knocking out an extra zone, whereas restoring the old XP curve is something they can do with a few minute's work.

I do listen to what you're saying, but you're completely wrong. I made the post about people not listening, not because I demand that people agree with me, but because people keep making posts that clearly do not read what's come before their's. in which they make suggestions of how people can find more missions, when that was NEVER the problem under discussion.

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Look I guess my main point can be summed up like this: They need to take a long, hard look at what their goal is for their launch product. Do they want to A. stretch out the content and make a game in which it takes the maximum possible amount of time to cap out that they can manage to get away with, but that once people do so they see little reason to stick around much longer, or B. do they want to make a game that takes VERY slightly less time than that to cap out, but that is so much fun to play through again and again and again that their players stick around for ten times as long playing through with various alts?

Seriously, is it REALLY worth it for them to cripple the game in an effort to make it take an additional 6-12 gameplay hours to complete it once?

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Obviously having them add more content is the best solution, in an ideal world, but launch is TODAY, and I don't see them taking a long lunch hour and knocking out an extra zone, whereas restoring the old XP curve is something they can do with a few minute's work.
...and may never be able to undo. Not when threats to ragequit mean real money.

You may have liked the pre-nerf XP rates, but a good chunk of my mission list was turning green every time I leveled in Millenium City. Green missions are boring - but many are required, if you want to get the next set of missions (which also turned green...).

Yes, we need more content. But an XP boost will only provide the illusion of more content - your "alternate paths of advancement" won't be able to tell a story. People really will be just grinding quests to level up, because they'll have outleveled the zone before they get to the end quests.

There's a huge amount of potential quest lines out there - Foxbat could support a line from 15-18, as could any one of the Westside gangs by themselves, for instance - and I'd rather not see Cryptic nerf that potential by making a temporary "fix" that may turn out to be not so temporary.

But anyway, I've said the same thing before, so I guess I'll be on my way...

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People are STILL complaining about XP?

Seriously come on! There are so many quests that I can't even do them all because I outlevel them quickly. It feels like no one wants to explore the game, use the search button on the forums, etc so they come here and make invalid posts.

Awesome.

Sorry, you're either not at level 25 yet, or you're lying.

I've done EVERY quest, using the crime computer to track contacts and even doing the Crime Computer missions as well. I barely made it to Level 25, and had to use up nearly all the Level 26 content to do it. Now I'm going to need to do Level 27 quests barely 2 bubbles into Level 25.

The system IS broken, and seeing as you can't seem to read, I'll explain the solution to you: Nobody is saying increase the XP rate. What we need is MORE CONTENT. The game can't sustain the current XP curve. It's not fun at all to progress past the early 20s, you simply run out of things to do at your level, or even a level above.

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The xp is fine now, might even be a bit faster than it should be.

I am finding that by jsut grinding missions in the sesert I am out-leveling most of Witchcraft's missions.. Seems a tab bit to fast. NOt too much faster but it could stand to be tweaked down another 5%. Then leave the xp payouts in MC alone.

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I am finding that by jsut grinding missions in the sesert I am out-leveling most of Witchcraft's missions.. Seems a tab bit to fast. NOt too much faster but it could stand to be tweaked down another 5%. Then leave the xp payouts in MC alone.

The interesting thing is at 19 I just went to the desert for the first time and did a handful of level 10-13 missions and it took me no time because for one they were all fairly close, (unlike MC where everything is so far apart), and two they were easy.

I was getting maybe 30%-40% of the experience from a level 11ish quest as I did from a level 19ish quest. Yet I could do them very quickly. So it made a lot of sense to go back and do them, when I originally thought I was just wasting my time.

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Sorry, you're either not at level 25 yet, or you're lying.

I've done EVERY quest, using the crime computer to track contacts and even doing the Crime Computer missions as well. I barely made it to Level 25, and had to use up nearly all the Level 26 content to do it. Now I'm going to need to do Level 27 quests barely 2 bubbles into Level 25.

The system IS broken, and seeing as you can't seem to read, I'll explain the solution to you: Nobody is saying increase the XP rate. What we need is MORE CONTENT. The game can't sustain the current XP curve. It's not fun at all to progress past the early 20s, you simply run out of things to do at your level, or even a level above.

You are wrong.

Ohoni has been saying increase the experience rate.

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...and may never be able to undo. Not when threats to ragequit mean real money.

I don't see how threats of ragequit then would be more important than facts of borequit now.


You may have liked the pre-nerf XP rates, but a good chunk of my mission list was turning green every time I leveled in Millenium City.

Exactly as it should be. That way you can skip those missions if you want, move on to the higher level content, and do those missions with a differentn character to add variety to that run. You're supporting my point for me.



There's a huge amount of potential quest lines out there - Foxbat could support a line from 15-18, as could any one of the Westside gangs by themselves, for instance - and I'd rather not see Cryptic nerf that potential by making a temporary "fix" that may turn out to be not so temporary.

There's never a point at which adding more quests wherever you can is a bad idea.


I am finding that by jsut grinding missions in the sesert I am out-leveling most of Witchcraft's missions.. Seems a tab bit to fast. NOt too much faster but it could stand to be tweaked down another 5%. Then leave the xp payouts in MC alone.

The lower levels are not a problem because they went in and tweaked the XP for them. The tutorial and the Desert and Cananda content up through about level 13 is fine, no major change from closed beta. It's beyond that that the game lags continually further and further behind a comfortable curve.


I was getting maybe 30%-40% of the experience from a level 11ish quest as I did from a level 19ish quest. Yet I could do them very quickly. So it made a lot of sense to go back and do them, when I originally thought I was just wasting my time.

Players shouldn't have to go back and do trivial content just to make up gaps in the leveling system.

You are wrong.

Ohoni has been saying increase the experience rate.

Yes, as a short term solution, although I also do believe that adding content is always a good idea, just as a long term solution because I understand how game design works, and that adding content is notsomething we could reasonably expect of them in the short term.

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People are STILL complaining about XP?

Seriously come on! There are so many quests that I can't even do them all because I outlevel them quickly. It feels like no one wants to explore the game, use the search button on the forums, etc so they come here and make invalid posts.

Awesome.

The issue isn't XP. The issue is limited content leading to a repetitive linear play.

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I agree. They need to return the Xp rates to what they were before.

To all those who say the EXP is enough but are complaining about lack of content, you do realize that if they add more missions/zones/ enemies, you will have more missions giving you low exp right? I for one actually enjoy getting rewards and playing the game, not playing a grindfest.

Maybe what cryptic should do is make a primary server that has higher exp rates for some of us and another primary server that has 1 exp rates for all of you meatgrinders out there. It all comes down to fast action VS slow monotony.

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I agree. They need to return the Xp rates to what they were before.

To all those who say the EXP is enough but are complaining about lack of content, you do realize that if they add more missions/zones/ enemies, you will have more missions giving you low exp right? I for one actually enjoy getting rewards and playing the game, not playing a grindfest.

I'm not clear why that would follow. If the XP for the new missions was the same you'd level at the same rate but move on before exhausting the content for your level.

/quote]Maybe what cryptic should do is make a primary server that has higher exp rates for some of us and another primary server that has 1 exp rates for all of you meatgrinders out there. It all comes down to fast action VS slow monotony.[/QUOTE]

I'd love this myself, and could actually see myself using the latter for my main toon(s) and running tonnes of alts on the former. But for some reason meatgrinders seem to think *everybody* should have to grind, and devs tend to lean this way.

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I'm not going to rehash what has already been said in this thread, but I will simply add my opinion...

The current rate of Exp or perhaps more correctly stated Level Gain is way too agressive. This is proven by there already being many level 40 folks with only 2 or 3 days into headstart. Hell I'm 20 with what I would term as minimal play on my main toon.

Personally I think the level gain has to be somewhere between where it was at the end of OB (extremely slow) and where it is now (extremely fast). At its current rate the game will have several thousand lvl 40 toons by the end of the week which not a good thing in any game (1.5 weeks after head start).

Thanks for listening...:D

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I don't really care how quickly or slowly I reach the level cap, so long as there is content to keep me on my leveled character. Not all of us like making alts ;)