Exp points now being spent faster . . . . . .

The real issue with this change is crafting.
Your production and refining now chew through your xp 4 times faster so you level up faster, but you do not gain producer xp 4 times faster from harvesting, instead now your harvesting skills are eating up all your would be producer XP and you will have no xp to craft with now. (Unless you turn off all your gathering skills for 20 hours) .. then you can go craft for 1/2 hour and rip through that xp.

 

yea gathering should be x2 and production should be x4

 

Am I the only one that used golems in UO to level weapon skills? Used tamed mobs fighting each other to level Vet/animal lore? Macro'd hiding in a house?

There are always going to be ways to advance skills/levels in any MMO that border on exploitative. Maybe the devs change them, maybe they don't. If they don't, it's just part of the game and becomes the path oft taken. I feel like progression in this game is just a minor stepping stone. At my current rate of play I could see maxing most skill in around 6 months. Most people don't play as much as me, but as in UO almost everyone eventually reached a 7x GM. The leveling and skilling is just an intermediate step imo.

 

The ball replaces the mob?

You still seem to laboring under the misconception that the "ball" can replace the "mob" regarding xp point gain.

The ball is where you can "direct" the xp's that you earned by killing "mobs" into specific skill goals.

It is the ability to "direct" those xp's into skills that you may NOT have used in the "kills" that built your xp pool - THAT (IMO) is the biggest issue with the use of Gustballs.

The gustball - which I've used to track how skill gains are working at all levels (and loved the ability to do so, here in Pre-Release) - should be removed as a "target" for directing your xp's (again IMO).

By the time Shroud releases, the gustball should go back to being a game object - not an xp "director".

But for now, for me, I love the ability to track xp use with it.

The way it is currently used by some is - in the end - bad for the game.

Then again, maybe Port is ahead of us on this - and has every intention of removing it prior to release.

 

oh..kay...

I didnt have that luxury yet...I need the gold, so I go lay down some skeletons for mostly rusty stuff, or maybe a few bandits. Only thing I raised by klick klick klick while standing around was some fire magic. I tried a macro last sunday what left me at 0 xp with maybe a little skill gain in healing and light. Being left at 0 xp at my level is something...well...lets say it was hard.

You happen to have a sort of resumé or any data you could share? Or maybe just give a roundabout quota of "how long does it take to raise a combat skill from 1 to 100 by playing 2 hours a day?".

 

I would say 2 hours a day with normal exp gains (not 4x) will take a long LONG time.

There are a few things t consider- that above 80 you are going to ake a % of your pool (1 or 2 tenths of a percent) So if you have a large pool less time small pol more time.

I would say 2 hours a day playing to train 8 months :-(

 

Just FYI you need 111,000 experience points to go from 99 - 100 in Taming that is One skill and if you have 2000000 size pool that is 25 attempts

to go from 99 - 100 in a Mage skill took 56,000 point for One level that is 11 attempts with a 2,000,000 pool.

Now if your pool is only 75k will take 80ish attempts for that one level of taming :-( and you wont have enough since it takes 111,000 :-(

And this is only ONE skill set to train everything else is locked :-(

 

And what about skills with blue or green icons?

 

I'm actually so looking forward to using up that million and a half producer experience that was languishing in my pool, accomplishing nothing.

 

What do you mean Green or Blue, you mean easy targets? They die so you have to get a new one, cannot just sit there and macro skills

 

I meant skills with green or blue icons. I edited my post to be more clear.

 

Ah Green and Blue are the ones you cast on yourself - yeah those can easily be trained :-( but I had once said a while back a Viable Target, which could mean Not your Self but . . . these are much harder to deal with. True you don't need a Gust ball to train them but they are not really all that major to worry about. All I can think of is only works at levels above 50 if you are damaged by an opponent - again you could just PvP eachother but . . . .

ATM all I am really concerned with is Gust Balls and Offensive spells. I feel they are wrong and the fix would be so easy it is sad they don't just make them a Game Ball only :-(

 

After they remove the gustball exploit, what then? The 'problem' still exists

 

One Wind Mill at a Time

 

yay fun for 15 minutes if your skill is over 70, but you might get a whole hour of fun if under 70. LOL. I have burned through millions already.

 

The gust ball was for roleplay games, ... while I am of the mindset that is causes no balance issue whatsoever because xp earned is xp earned, I do wish it had proper physics on it, as in it did not go through houses or furniture when gust is applied to it. I want a a real ball not a magic one.

 

The good news is that our testing is representative of the release skilling, except still faster. But proportionally it is more accurate.

So these concerns by people are providing great feedback.