Decay yay or nay?

Adv lvl 110 and it takes about 2 or 3 days to recover it. I am not a power grinder who enjoys to do the monkey room just for the sake to make XP.

 

If it was like that, I would never die. Trust me. And if I did, I would probably go 10-20 times, take a break and go at it again.

 

I agree the penalty for dying should be you drop all your gear and if you dont get back to it quick enough someone can loot it with no oracle interference. Shouldnt lose XP though, maybe some FAME if it was in game.

 

I am Adv lvl 94 and currently training a skill to 120, with the goal of hitting lvl 130 before march candidate release.
Decay seems to be ok for now I roughly lose about 80k on my first death, seeing as how I don't really power lvl and rarely die I am fine where it's at for now.
Maybe the answer is to cap adv lvl at 100 along with decay and allow slightly mitigated xp gains to your pool past that cap, but also allow your skills to go beyond 100. It just seems too much hassle has come from allowing players to go beyond 100.

 

Cant cap at 100, there are supposed to be 5 other episodes.
Most likely with stuff that will dwarf the exp we are getting in episode 1

 

The problem isn't that decay is a thing.
The problem is that decay is linked to dying which just serves as a barrier/discourager to exploring, grouping, and trying challenging content because the "entry cost" gets to be a few days of grind.
Shall I go join this group to do this boss? Well, I could, but if I die, its 2-3 days setback....hmm, maybe I'll pass.
There's nothing in the game rewarding enough to risk the loss once you reach a certain point.


Decay system is also not doing what it is supposed to - it is not curbing power, because people play it safe and simply don't do things that can get them killed.

If the objective is to limit player power, other alternatives need to be explored

Polls like this are somewhat meaningless as most of the people who think decay is a great system aren't high enough lvl to feel the sting of it or are part of the "we'll never catch up!" mentality. Guess what? The top % aren't being slowed down by decay, its just hurting everyone in the middle ground who doesn't grind 12 hrs a day.

 

How much xp will you lose 12 months from now?
18 months?

 

The "entry cost" is one of the main reasons why I stopped doing the high end raiding in WOW years ago. It cost a small fortune in IGG and materials to prepare for a serious raid or recover from a night of wipes. A few days of grind should not be the cost of exploration / having fun in SotA.

The severe experience penalty in EQ made me stop playing the game. It was infuriating to die to trash after a disconnect or MOB relocation after patches.

There should be something rewarding if I'm potentially going to lose a few days of experience. I complain about the loot tables all the time. It's boring and unrewarding.

I don't know what the solution is to limiting power and allowing the game to be more than just a level 5 grind session.

 

I'm all for there being consequences for dying - but never liked decay and still don't. It's infuriating and needless. I would prefer to see a strength/dexterity/intelligence penalty for x amount of time upon death. It would make more sense since resurrection would leave you a little weakened. Losing xp through decay doesn't make much sense to me and usually has me turning off the game as soon as it happens.

 

How do you get to the point of accumulating 1 million XP in decay? (500k XP loss on first death)

i mean without grinding

I think im beyond the middle ground and i dont really ever focus on grinding but im not sure i ever felt anything game-breaking decay wise. Ive never even really had to stop what i was doing to go recover i just kidna never really even notice decay at lvl 89 unless i just die 3 or 4 days in a row without hardly killin anything so its not really hurting everyone.

 

Yes. One must always consider one's actions. Penalties are a great way to flay a person for their folly.

 

I've spent 90% of my time since persistence doing things that couldn't be called grinding - mining, harvesting, etc. I don't farm bosses, I don't farm the rise, I just run around 5 skulls getting cotton bushes most of the time and occasionally have a weekend in Krul. Sometimes I don't leave town for days and just decorate stuff. Early on I was spending 20-30 hours a week just refining. I can hardly be classed as a grinder. Through my normal business I might gain a couple hundred thousand adventure xp per evening - less, if I'm running around with people as I often am. If I die, I lose twice that. And we're not even at launch? At this rate, in a few years time, my decay will be over a week of normal activity for a single death. What can I possibly do in game that is going to reward me with something worth a week of my time?

Am I going to go try challenging risky content? No, its simply not worth it. And that's the problem with linking decay to death.

Should death have consequences? Yes
Should there be some limit to player power? Yes

I'm just saying there is no reason for these two things to go together.
Putting them together just discourages people from experiencing the game because there's too much to lose.


And the more annoying reality is, THE SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING.

Player power is not limited by decay. It just means people are less willing to do stuff that's going to cause it. Its just an unnecessary, pointless setback that is just making things frustrating without any real benefit. The top players can grind right through it and its never even a bump - if they even die, which isn't often.

I think I die maybe once a month. Even with my more casual approach I still gain millions of xp before I die and take the 400k hit. But, well, I don't do anything that has the potential of killing me, because the rewards aren't worth it. For many people, grinding green stuff every day is only going to be interesting for so long.

The existing curve/softcap/diminishing returns combined with limited skill bar is doing enough to limit player power. If someone spends years grinding beyond that, they deserve for that skill to hit 5% harder. I really have never understood the point of having diminishing returns, softcap, AND negative progress.

 

I've never approached this game with an intent to grind and spend all my time playing music exploring or lookin for loot, preferably in uncommon places.

I dont do Xp runs or anything like that and im adventure level 89, and i often die once or twice a day when im really playing. I dont spreadsheet skills or tally hourly XP or anything so that may be specifically why it doesnt bother me, But i do know that when i die, the decay is enough to make me not wanna die, but is faaaar from game breaking.

And being a person capable of end game stuff myself or in groups, level 89, and losing less than 1/3 of the XP when i die than the majority of people up in arms about it, ive never experienced the game-breaking qualities the multiple 100k XP losing folk say i am experiencing (im assuming my level is whats referred to as mid-level, i dunno).

I only know of 1 guy who rampantly loses skills over decay and from my own play experience, i cant wrap my head around why, because im not exaggerating when i say i have to do almsot nothing but die for 3 days straight to even feel decay

 

That's fair enough . At 89 it doesn't really start hurting yet. Because T5 zones are the'norm' once you get past a certain point, it takes a long, long long long time killing things especially casually to get to the level where it hurts. In a few years time, if you just keep doing what you're doing, you'll reach the point where a single death is a huge setback, and see what folks are upset about. I have a level 80ish alt, if she dies, its no big deal, its a drop in the bucket, 10 mins of killing and its fixed. But the soft cap starts becoming evident at this point, my power is not going to increase at the same rate at which my decay does.

So what, I could just stop learning stuff? Ok, then if I continue playing as normal without progressing my character, I'll end up pooling millions of xp for the sole purpose of paying for deaths? What exactly is the point of doing anything then?

This is why decay is not a viable long term solution if they expect players to stick around for years. Eventually you'll reach a point where dying will set you back a month. That's just completely unreasonable.

 

But you said it doesnt hurt the high level people, just the mid level people. its hurting the higher level people then?

 

I could get on board with that. Gotta be some penalty. Shouldn’t be able to just throw yourself against wall over and over and not expect to get hurt.

 

Its not so much a matter of high/mid level but rather people who grind vs. people who don't.
People who grind every day are not stopped by decay, nor will they ever be.
Its a needless setback for everyone else.
How long is 80-90 going to remain "mid-level"? We're not even at launch yet.
I for one am hoping to enjoy this game for years to come.

 

I voted NAY because decay is the unholy spawn of Chris and Satan.

 

I'm all for death having a consequence but the crafting economy is already at the point where nobody pays what stuff costs to make. We start dropping things on death its only going to make the problem worse, nobody's going to spend hundreds of thousands on a suit they can lose if they die somewhere inaccessible. And then people will just grind in founder gear, anyway, to bypass the penalty -

just like we grind stuff that wont get us killed now, to bypass the penalty.

The problem is the current system is having side effects detrimental to the game, reducing the motivation to group, explore, try anything challenging, help folks do challenging things, etc. etc. the list goes on. It would be acceptable if the system was actually doing what it was designed to do - curb player power - but it isn't. Its just making what is already a grind fest even MORE grindy with the one step forward, two steps back nonsense.

 

But you would have to have a hard cap to enjoy it. otherwise you would go up and up and up and they would have to add harder and harder stuff, which is what they said they would avoid from the begining.

And thier intent to make sure you dont have to grind relentlessly to be capable of participating in end game content. That kinda makes increasingly ever higher powered a nono.