Experience point loss has removed the incentive to adventure and explore.

EDIT:
i decided to not participate here again XD its an endless war between opinions.. Lets see what comes out at the end..

Porta... just please dont fokus on the grind.. we have asia games for that ...

 

You start with 3 Hearts and end up with 16, also every new item you get to progress further can count. I would say he gets stronger over time, wouldnt be the same game if you start with everything the game has to offer.

And this games have good replayable and rewarding PvE content. Doesnt matter if it is a high score or a item or just a good dungeon with enjoyable mechanics. And it is in no way a comparsion to SotA. And a level mechanic like in the elder scrolls series is something what i already mentioned here. This would be a much better system as we have now.

I agree that leveling you character is not everything but i have to say that, even if it is a short act, you still need it in some way. Yes SotA is heavy focused on endless grinding and one of the few stuffs you can do in this game atm.
I checked out Legends of Aria the last couple of days and have to say i dont feel any need of grinding to improve my character because i even gain STR when i mine or go for a good fist fight against other players.
In Shroud i always have the feeling to get my GM done befor i can finaly enjoy the Game, i hate it when something is not finished. Call it a compulsive neurosis but when i have a skill on 96 i have to finish the GM, i cant see such stupid numbers.

 

That was never in question.

 

I think that is more or less true for everybody, also me and also not only for SotA.
But this is also a perfect example where the devs need to allocate the average.
It's not 5000hrs after a year, neither 50 hours a year.

 

the same people would still be the best. You can give me the finest of race cars.. tuned to perfection and if I only climb into it for a couple hours a week the person who practices every day is still gonna kik my ass... as it should be.

 

That's the thing. the ''GM" goal is really misunderstood and frankly maybe should be renamed. Attaining the skill lvl of 100 means only 2 things.

A: you can now mentor someone else up to the lvl of 100
B: you can no longer get a mentoring "boost" from another player

 

As I stated earlier, I have more time to play than most people and with 28 Combat class GM's grinded since persistence a year ago, and I currently lose 140,000 xp's on first death, given 24hrs since the last one. Two of my guild-mates who are much more "normal" in their GM's/AdvLvls (mid/upper 80's AdvLvl) presently lose between 40k and 45k on that first death.

Here's what that death penalty's say to us: "You've reached the point in raising skills now where - if you die tonight - you are going to have to spend an hour or more making those points up tomorrow before you start, and if you choose to continue to raise skills beyond where they are now - then your penalty will increase proportionately - forever ". So, stop gaining skills - you've gone too far. If you continue to treat Shroud as one adventure after another, then you will forever have to spend more and more time making up for dying.

IE - DON'T DIE.

Don't explore.
Don't take chances.
Don't adventure.

For a game that is being built for exploring and adventuring, being told not to die is simply beyond ludicrous. Most of our adventuring fun includes deaths - otherwise it would be the same boring safe places forever, and that concept (stay in easy, boring scenes) is what is completely unsustainable. No one that I know came here for boredom, nor will they remain here if this continues. We are explorers and adventurers, that's what we love and that's what has kept the bulk of us here in Shroud.

Find some other way to make death "meaningful" if "meaningful" it must be. But being forced to spend time working up the same points you've already grinded for - is simply unsustainable.

 

Not sure, man. Sounds like you're making excuses somehow for why you "can't" explore. Just get out there and enjoy the journey. Does everything have to be about "achieving more" with folks instead of just having some good ole fashion fun?

 

I'll be right back

 

@FrostII 's already been accused of that, don't forget you are speaking to your elder, and thats the thing when you start judging someone's intentions, you open yourself to more judgement within yourself, why do you think he needs achieving *himself* ?

Maybe it would be his friends who are achievers, and they are affected so he is affected, simple as that ?

You see what I mean ? If you want to be friendly and ask for someone's intention, then ask, do not accuse them of making up excuses.

 

I suppose. I stand by what I said.

 

Of course it must be meaningful : it must mean chaos within your gameplay timeline and maybe some ways to visit places you didn't dare go as the living, and maybe find friends in the underworld, find friends in the unseen worlds ?

Ok with all due respect my friend, and you know how much we're in agreement about this situation : As I've said previously and you must remember :

Death needs to mean new ways to create situations where you meet other players and or collaborate, in really a myriad of ways that would be too long to describe in this post.

The fact that you cannot remember what I say because of "the magik" present is the very reason why nothing changes towards a more compassionate attitude. We have no cohesion as a group... we don't "stand" behind our ideas.

I'm sorry to bring it like this but it needs to be said, everyone pretty much forgets what I say because some other things I say seems schizoid

lol

 

Man, you can do what you want, we stand by what we said : decay is part of life and NOT death.

DECAY NEEDS TO BE TIED TO SKILLS AS PER ULTIMA TRADITION !

End of thread... !!! 0.0

 

I suppose. Chris said it wouldn't be changing multiple times and he was happy with it currently. Not sure where to go from here. I can appreciate the tenacity you guys are showing, but it seems misspent.

 

Beleive me we know, but it will still be written there and those who have eyes to see will see the not so hidden consensus.

I beleive Chris is well intentioned, and that the stats are fine, he has a perspective we don't have and we don't pretend to be wizards *cough*.

Uhm.. ok... maybe a little HAHAHA

 

I frequently have people leave a group due to death or decline to even go do stuff because of the risk. The alternative is go do the same old easy boring crap (deep ravenswood) If I can't jump in a good guild group then it's boring solo stuff. I really don't understand the huge de-incentive to adventure and craft. The real risk is that you die and loose a ridiculous amount of xp, or fail an enchant and loose a ridiculous amount of materials you wasted time gathering.. and you realize just how many hours of time you wasted in this game accomplishing absolutely nothing.

I've been hanging on hoping it's going to change, but it just keeps getting worse. More obstacles in crafting and I don't think I've ever experienced a game that penalizes GMs to such extent their value is massively outweighed by the penalties and complete absence of skill benefit by having them. I used to think this was an attempt to slow people down from progressing until the game is actually released.. but now I'm starting to suspect this isn't the case at all.
If portal is trying to drive people to other games, it's working. If one applies Occam's Razor here, it gets real simple.

I spend money when I'm having fun. What fun that *is* in the game is being crushed by the mechanics intentionally put in to eliminate it. I don't really care about the xp thing, but the friends I like to play with do and it's killing their desire to play. I've given up on crafting. Waste of time, no fun, and stuff doesn't even sell.. certainly not for the price that reflects the time and effort put into it. You guys are killing your own game. It's increasingly becoming a struggle to log in.

 

I had some fun tonight continuing to explore the Savage Coast. I had to find this author who wrote some HP Lovecraft type of books. Then I was sent on a mission to this old tree house that some kids used to use a their base for monster hunting. I also went into this huge lighthouse where this guy who was hold up in there wanted me to lure out some zombies so he could shoot them. I had to gather some flares to light them up for him first. I went to find the car he had abandoned before making his way to the lighhouse and used the GPS in it to track down someone's house. I hacked in to their computer and got some info I needed and... oh wait, sorry wrong game.

I logged into SotA, got my free gold and XP and logged off. I'm getting really really good at it. I can do it in less than a minute with no XP loss!
Oracle camping FTW!!!

 

Yes a "i dont play the Game but it looks fine on the paper" perspective

 

I do the same

 

Here we are, and then it's not time spent , but playerskill , what is way more "acceptable".