So it sounds like they fixed decay on the QA server. Noooo! But it's good. I have a few questions: On the eve of the update (Sep 28).. should I go die and 'reset' the decay in the current version of the game, or is it irrelevant because a new decay system will reset everyone's decay? Will we be able to reduce the decay on skills at all (without dying), or is the answer to not ever decay to simply, not die? Will decay rules change in the manual, or does the manual reflect the 'fixed' decay system coming back in? Will decay be measurable somehow?
I would like to see a counter, possibly in the skill window, showing how much XP is currently at risk from dying. That would give people a way to track whether they have enough in their pool to cover a potential death.
My plan, set ALL my skills to Maintain, have a large pool built up, and go die and see what kind of drain I'm looking at for my levels... but more than likely, I expect many bugs to be present in the decay system which will unfairly gimp many players before they fix it.. so with that in mind, I think it is best to stop dying as often as I do! Dying will now become the last thing I do in this game.
Let's please keep this debate on decay to the DeV+ Forums. Even on the QA server I can tell you a lot about it is in flux, so little we'd be able to provide would give you an accurate way to 'prepare' for decay anyways right now. One of the main reasons QA discussions are kept to dev+/QA prior to a release is BECAUSE of how in flux everything is. It does not give a completely accurate representation of what to expect thursday.
I didn't get this info from Dev+, so it's fair game. I saw mention of the decay hit in a forum post somewhere.. maybe it was in the titles of the dev+ forum, which is also publicly viewable. Note, I do not have Dev+. And as decay should be working anyway (and it's not), the manual states how it should, so I am merely working though what it all means, based on the info given to me, in the manual and the forums. So, if I could discuss it on the Dev+, I would Free the information! Lol!
The point is the information changes, If yesterday you would have lost 10k, today you might lose 1k and tomorrow it might be 5k..WHO KNOWS where it will be by thursday? Same thing with the "rules" that govern the system.
I remember the EQ days of exp loss on death. Was fine until players discovered how to manipulate zone trains, multiple deaths on very hard solo quests ( epic armor ), players losing hours of game time worth of experience , dying to lag and DC issues etc , etc. Decay was removed. I remember the DDO days of guild boat decay, it was fine until larger guilds realised they could not keep up with it. Decay was removed. I am all for stat cool downs/encumbrance penalties on death, but I have never had a good experience with...the loss of experience, especially for a casual player. I am sure given the length of time that has passed since the above mentioned games were in their hay day, the powers that be have some what " moved on " from old " failed " systems. If I begin to feel punished for my " game time " as an adventurer,then what is the point of adventure, to wander, to discover, that feeling of intrigue? .... replaced with the feeling of walking on egg shells. Logging in and playing to recover lost exp and praying my character doesn't die again in the process...... Not really where I would like to be.
I played Main Tank Warrior back in EQ.. couldn't kill anything and would always die.... de-levelled so bad drove me to quit the game.
Wait till the 28th.. haha or look in the Dev+ Forum (hint: read the titles.. fascinating), right here, the top post is currently the one I am referring to in my OP. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/release-34-dev-feedback-forum.709/ The title is publicly viewable (again, I'm not Dev+ ), and it's enough info to alert the ppl that decay is coming in fast and hard, and likely buggy.
I'd say practice not dying anymore. If you're in an area that's tough for you, then take your time and approach each encounter tactically. That's how pretty much every game of this genre should play though imo. Either that, or make sure you've got the XP pool to cover the decay of your skills (that you should have set to maintain) upon death. Decay still only applies on death afaik, but I can't confirm that. I have access to dev+, but I haven't been able to get on QA and I wouldn't share any specifics here anyway as I'm pretty sure that's against the forum rules. So don't expect to receive any specific answers from others as well. IMO the issue in that forum post title you're referring to isn't as bad as the title makes it sound. I think decay on death is necessary to make death have an actual, and relatively significant, consequence. Otherwise, there's no risk to adventuring at all. No risk would be bad for the game imo.
This is my exact plan, I have personally gotten quite comfortable with dying, but that will be a mistake now I think. The decay (if it is brutal) would be a good thing, as I'm running around with all the glyphs and wonder what is stopping me from leveling up everything to high levels.. if the decay is brutal enough, it may make a lot of skills I don't use a lot actually become unusable and then I may have to 'specialize' finally. We might even see some real specialized builds finally. Decay is designed to do this to an extent of course (to prevent us all from getting skills all to the 200 cap).. but we will see how much decay hits.. I worry a bit LOL but it's probably supposed to be this way..
Decay should help quell some exploits. I just got my summoning level to 79 the other day because I didn't repeatedly jump off a house to die and reset my summoning cool down instantly...over and over again.
we have been discussing this , and need more info . does skill decay happen when too busy with real life to login , does it only happen when playing ? is it only when you die or is it just while you play it naturally happens ? it does not seem to make sense . who wants to put time into something just for it to be taken away ? we need more info about this . Also is the rumor true about them taking away the take all button and having to single target loot ?
I agree, the game should be stable before something like decay is implemented. Just waiting to see for myself what things are going to be like.
Its pretty stable for me, I think Ive been disconnected once since persistence started (and I'm AL 80). small bursts of lag..one has never killed me. They will tune the decay a bit, what people are seeing on the QA feedback is not the devs simply refusing to consider alternate points of view on the matter.