Red99 Stimulus Plan (some constructive feedback)

[SearyxTZ]

I should preface with a few things: I'm not complaining, the server is going to be fine even if this thread goes completely ignored, there isn't going to be a wipe, I'm not telling anyone how to run their free server (that costs them money), and I love all of you.



Cool? Cul. All that being said, I do have some constructive feedback. Take it however you like, because this is just one nerd's opinion.

I'm coming with the perspective of a player, but also someone who staffed VZTZ for a while. I know.... "LOL SEARYX WORST GM OF 2009 AWARD FAGGOT WAT DO U KNOW", right? Well, I wasn't a good GM, but I have always known how to get people playing. My failures (notably, releasing content too soon and caving in to the most-hardcore contingent of players) served as learning experiences.

I'll quit beating around the bush now. Here's what I think would make Red99 a better server than it already is:


THE EXP GRIND

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Oh, the exp rate. The grind. The epic journey (tm Rexx). The current exp rate is a 200 hour minimum grind from 1 to 50. Not all that crazy by Korean MMO standards, FFXI, or even WoW.

There are two major problems.

One, the early grind is simply too slow. You mean level three takes me more than an hour to get through? Yes, it does! And yes, I'm wearing a raincoat, Paul! I've seen many potential players check out of the server after hitting that level 3 sweet spot. My haul of TZT players this go-around was substantially less because so many people hit that level 3-5 wall and refused to play. MMORPGs in general are designed around hooking players and attaching them to their character. When you slow things down that much before they even any armor, spells, abilities, pvp hitlist, guild, or anything else - it's a lot easier for a player to just say "no thanks" and never log in again. Because you haven't hooked them yet, and you scared them off.

Two, the average player level range will trend upwards the longer the server exists. What I'm saying here is that if right now there's a fairly even distribution of players across the level 1 to level 50 spectrum, it's not going to stay that way. Eventually, most of the players on the server will be 50. This goes along with the first point I outlined in that the early leveling experience will suffer because of it. You can get a blackburrow group now, but new players may not have that luxury in a few months.

So what is the solution? MAEK EXP RAET FASTER? No. I realize that won't work. There would be a collective whine from much of the current playerbase, who would cry out that it isn't fair that newer players get an easier ride to endgame.

This is my solution: Substantially increase the exp rate from 1-25'ish, but keep the total amount of exp required to go from 1 to 50 as is by dumping the excess experience across 26-50. In short: make the early game faster, and make the late game slightly slower to compensate. Give several weeks advance notice of when this adjusted exp curve will take effect.

The primary goal is that new players would have a much easier introduction to the server, and a higher chance of becoming invested and thus actually staying to play here. Instead of having to endure 70+ hours of auto attacking orcs/gnolls to get to "the fun part" of the game. If I'm someone that's trying to market or sell this server, this is what I want to see happen - because it's a lot easier to convince someone to try a server when they don't have to spend 8 hours in the North Qeynos newbie area.



edit: trimmed to narrow focus / curb stupid ideas for item loot