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Make Adventurer Level More Relevant

Discussion in 'Wishlist Requests' started by FBohler, Mar 18, 2021.

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  1. FBohler

    FBohler Avatar

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    Leveling up in RPGs normally in accompanied with that good feeling of getting points to distribute in stats and skills and thus getting stronger.
    In SotA the character progression is more fluid than that, so we never get that "level up" feeling.

    How about adding a +1 STR, DEX or INT every couple of Adv Lvls and a +1 Health or Focus every Adv Lvl?

    @Elgarion this may help to increase the game's "stickiness", with that "just one more level" approach.

    This way leveling your character will be more engaging as you're getting further bonuses aside from skill leveling.

    I'm fully aware that such bonuses could unbalance the game especially early on (main quest), and this is why I'm starting this thread to discuss the possibility of getting Adv Lvl bonuses.

    What are your thoughts?
     
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  2. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

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    Level used to actually be a lot more relevant, at persistence, you got a notable amount of health/focus increase and over time we've seen that go through a few reduction passes to where we are now.

    At higher levels, levelling up happens so rarely (even if you grind like crazy, you're still probably looking at weeks between level ups - months if you play "normally"). There's no real display of your level other than via inspection and even that was a much more recent addition. There's no "ding" or notification or attention to your level up, usually its something you notice if the mob names change color because you're at that threshold or you notice it some days later saying "oh, I levelled."

    I think this design was to really put the emphasis on individual skill levels rather than the holistic "character level" approach, with your overall level simply being a kind of indicator of your total exp investment - and I'm mostly okay with that. I think if we added passive gains "per level" across the board it would have to be handled carefully because it will shift the balance of power to where you gain more benefit from "level" as a % of the whole as related to gear, buffs, etc. I think this is probably a good thing, but it may imbalance existing content - i.e. if I got 1 free stat point per level, and suddenly pushed my INT up by 130 points, it would be a pretty significant power increase.

    Alternatively, we could do some sort of threshold rewards, say for every 5th level gained, you get some sort of passive benefit. These could then be tweaked to reflect the difficulty of the achievement. The quest for "incremental character improvements" gets less and less fulfilling the higher you go so this would certainly help make levelling feel more significant. These benefits wouldn't have to be pure stat gains.
    Ie -
    Level 5 - get +25 max hp / focus (it matters a lot when you're small)
    Level 10 - get "Novice Adventurer" title and +1 damage resistance
    Level 15 - get +0.1 movement speed
    Level 20 - etc. etc.

    This sort of thing would dovetail well with an achievement system that unlocks small incremental rewards for fulfilling certain objectives, like for example, Achievement: take a million falling damage Reward: +20% normal jump height. ;)

    Or, you could actually have a progression "skill tree" with passive skills that you raise with "level up points" that would add an element of decision to it.
    So rather than putting experience into these skills, you put these points in, with the notion that at adventurer level 200 you could max the whole tree but prior to that you've got to make some decisions. This could even unlock active skills at the lower end, not necessarily combat things but like, the ability to summon your whole party to your location, or the ability to summon a deployable bank device for 5 mins, etc.
     
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  3. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    I can play around with this concept on some upcoming artifact and potion work :)
     
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  4. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

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    SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
     
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  5. FBohler

    FBohler Avatar

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    There is, actually, level up sound and animation.

    I like the concepts of your ideas, investing points in stats and skills sounds very exciting especially for lower level players.
     
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  6. Vesper

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    It already adds hp and focus, which in turn gives regen, power creep is far too big of a thing atm to start throughibg around more stats. Chris has been actively removing things that AL adds.
     
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  7. Sorgin Txakal

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    IMO the more relevant adventure level becomes, the more discouraging it is for lower level players to engage in PVP with higher level players. Without any group based PVP systems or events in game, and with only one very small area where levels are equalized, it is hard to get people on board with trying PVP as it is, let alone if you told them that there is no point in trying to engage a higher level player.
     
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  8. FBohler

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    I don't see gaining stats with levels as power creep. It's just a change in actual player progress, which will get faster especially in lower level. After you hit 120-ish, adv lvls advance very slowly.
    I would see it as power creep if it made some other aspect of the game worthless. It's additional power rather than power creep.

    Edit: yes, I'm aware adv level affect health and focus, I'm asking for some point distribution each level or couple of levels to make it more interesting and compelling especially for new players.
     
  9. Vesper

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    As I said, it's well known that the current direction is the opposite of what you're suggesting, and I agree with that direction for many reasons.
     
  10. FBohler

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    That's why I posted in the Wishlist Requests subforum.

    If I got what I wanted, I would post in the General Discussion with a big thanks for the devs.
     
  11. Net

    Net Avatar

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    The better you get at higher level the worse you have to be at lower levels, I do not like when levels matter too much, especially with no caps and open-ended progression. Too much grind to stay competitive:) And if there is big difference between levels it is harder to have working party of people at different levels.

    Anyway, I think a lot of current issues is that a lot of the combat (and possibly crafting) math is quite hidden and people do not know for sure what sorts of benefits they are getting from higher levels.
     
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