Levels? Really?

Read that in a recent interview it was mentioned that SotA will use the "gain xp to get levels" progression system, as opposed to Ultima Online's "do an activity to get better at that activity"

If you only get xp through quests/combat, it's going to be really hard to have immersion as a crafter. "I need to kill a dragon so I can make better armor." Or if you get xp from crafting, you can have someone buy a ton of mat, make lots of gear, and be a powerful wizard. I just don't see how a level system can really work for immersion.

I hope that you guys rethink this and go back to a UO style of progression. I know those systems are hurt with macroing, but that's usually only in games where it takes excessive amount of grinding to imp skills. Plus i'd rather take the problems of macros versus having another grind xp to level-cap game.

 

I think it means that you gain xp from doing a activity to lvl up in that activity so it's probably just same thing with other words.

 

I think if you watched any of the videos with RG and listened to what he said about skills, you'd know that there will absolutely not be levels in the game. And when I say levels, I mean you won't go DING and now you're level 3. You WILL gain levels/skill when using an ability though.

Not sure where you read that but sounds like Faux News.

 

@RelExpo

Oh really? RG needs to explain this more clearly. It sounded to me as if there were going to be levels, but I did hear the part where he said that you don't have to be an "adventurer" to gain them.

So I'm not sure how to gain experience/skill when he said he wanted to do away with the repetitive grinding of a skill. In other words how does a crafter "gain level/skill"?

Can and adventurer use his level/skill to purchase points toward crafting, and can a crafter use his skill/level toward swordsmanship etc?

 

The game does contain levels. Levels directly relate to how many skill points you have. This was in this videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQ927jrPxM

However it sounded like the point of the level system was to prevent grinding on making 1,000 fancy shirts - taming 1000 bulls etc...

Instead it sounds like the idea was that every action got you XP which you then dumped into any skill you wanted to power up. The point was to avoid the level grind of questing whereas you could level through any action. It was also to avoid repetitive tasks where you just ran a macro to gain skill in crafting.

 

@Andrew, that actually sounds like you can become a better crafter by killing dragons. I.e.: kill dragon, gain XP, spend XP in crafting skill. Now your character has never seen an anvil, but he can craft exceptional armour.
Not good :/

 

ummm, an argument could be made that swinging a hammer at orcs all day could make you a stronger blacksmith. Not sure about your needlework though

 

Indeed.
If I remember correctly, swordmens with skills in lumberjacking were better than those without.

 

It sounds similar to Secret World.

 

The swordsman using an axe who had lumberjacking did more damage... but wasn't that only after AoS? Or was it just that double strike made that valerite axe I had HILLARIOUSLY powerful?

 

Maybe there will be divisions in types of XP gained.

- Like swinging a sword gives you "Swordsman XP" which grants you levels in Swordsmanship, which in turn awards "Swordsman Skill Points" that you then apply to choosing or enhancing current swordsman attributes or abilities.

- Like mining gives you "Mining XP" which grants you levels in Mining, which in turn awards "Mining skill points" that you then apply to choosing or enhancing current Mining attributes or abilities.

The list can go on and on. Might be too complicated a solution, but definately the XP needs to not be universally used to advance in totally unrelated professions.

 

Clajo - I think you're right and the team will create these sort of deep sets where you can juggle points within a similar activity but sewing fancy shirts isn't going to make you a more accurate archer.

 

Still not sure what levels mean to this game but it appears there will be levels as shown on the paperdoll.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd....20x720/1014436_293563724121830_15365305_n.jpg
I wonder if other players can open my paperdoll and see what level I am?
And when I see levels I think of gaining points to then put into the skill I want.
Rather then the UO style where I had to use that skill if I wanted to get better at it.

 

I don't like the idea of fighting monsters to become a better crafter at all either. If this is how its done, then people will all just be fighting monsters or picking this one activity that works up any skill that you want. Then you would have exactly what you don't want, wich is "world of warcraft" were all every player is doing is slaying daemons rather than living out a peaceful life of a crafter. The one thing that makes UO much more different than most MMO's out there is the fact that you can play the game without ever fighting a monster.

 

Sure that they have said your crafting points are different from your fighting points and the whole skill trees do not interact (except that there was some talk about having some specific crafting related combat move like a blacksmiths hammer move or I don't know, dwarf fighting bread throw?). Chris has also said before that they don't want you making 500 basic swords to level up, what they want crafters to do is gamble the sword to improve it to make the best possible sword and level up that way. If you want to make 500 basic swords you can but they are not going to sell very well after the first hour

 

This is what I have gathered over the past few months: Levels are just a basis of how far your character has come as far as storyline progression, but the storyline is based on the player's willingness to find the quests. A lvl 13 player may not have it as easy fighting elites in a dungeon, but a lvl 55 will be more fit to the task. In regards to crafting experience, I think that it's still, make a chair, get chair making experience, :/ The experience you get from fighting will only be able to be used in fighting skills/stances/spells etc. Crafting experience will only be able to be used for baking/tinkering/etc.

I don't think that the SotA team's direction is bake some bread kill enemies easier imo or vise versa. Think of this game in terms of Ultima Online, where if something is crafted, it goes into that particular style of craft, if you use swordsmanship, you unlock tiers of abilities in that style of weaponry. You are not going to be able to cast healing spells to get better gains at lumberjacking..

 

Not a fan of grind to win in any case. Levels unlocking titles, cooler finishers, or anything cosmetic is just fine. And by "level", this could be skill points or "gear score" or whatever. All progression should be cosmetic.

 

Then you might as well write off the crafting system as far as weapons and amour goes because your not going to have any reason to change what your wearing and there is going to be no reason for a crafter to go above the basic weapon they get because why would anyone buy it? they might make one brilliant weapon for themselves but apart from that its going to be the 500 basic swords

 

Why not? You don't think people work for cosmetic gear? People value cosmetic gear way higher than stats.

 

They indicated the plan is that the most valuable gear will be crafted. they have also indicated that they definitely would like crafters to be able to give items maker mark's, different looks/colors. Source Rooster teeth demo.