Fighting mobs.. why?

One of the issues I have in the game right now (I know early accsess, not done) is to justify why I should get out and fight mobs in the world.

I gain nothing from it really...

If I want to raise my skills then I spam them on a dummy in town.

I just feel that there needs to be a point to fighting creatures and other "evil" things outside of mass AOE farming mobs for EXP.

Like I said; I understand his is early accsess and I understand the devs have million of other things on their plate but this need to be thought of really; why are we fighting mobs? Why should we bother?

Mass AOE farming will only benefit certain builds and playstyles. Why should people who do not confine to EXP farming fight enemies in the world?

This really needs to be explored and explained.

Should the game be about mob grinding for EXP or questing or both?

Also (hijacking my own thread) why are there so many cities and towns? Wouldn't it be much easier to work on the games story if there was less space to spread everything out on?

 

Don't find you enjoyment in smacking these bandits, skeletons, kobolds, and all other vile creatures in Novia (and Hidden Vale)?

Another answer would be the same reason as why you need to kill all the koopas 10 scenes away from the castle before you can rescue princess Peach from Bowser. You don't need to justify every single time you step on a koopa or throw their shells at their comrades, do you?

Also for cities and towns, the 3 main story paths are spreading out through Novia. Each of them has their own version of struggle and conflict that are not necessary affecting one another. The devs also factor in the spaces for players to create their own game contents (stories, events, and such) as well.

 

In a RPG you kinda have because they are all about character progression. In Super Mario there is often no reason to stomp Koopas or Goombas because that game is all about progression through completing maps; it rewards you for being fast/collect all coins.

Super Marios mobs are only there to be in your way/make it harder for you to reach the flag/take the coins.

In a classic RPG mobs function is to reward you with EXP or loot outside of doing quests; the harder the enemy is; the better loot/EXP. They can also like Goombas or Koopas be in your way but usually the encounters are more difficult thus rewarding you loot/EXP.

Yes, there is trash mobs in all RPG but there needs to be a point to fighting them else there is zero point for me to ever step out of resolute cause progressing my character is more efficent if I just spam my skills against a dummy.

Talking about EXP; as I said before mobs function right now seem to be to reward you with EXP for your pool BUT only IF you have the correct build to mass AOE difficult mobs. This means that if you do not have one of those builds and are not farming the correct mobs then the mobs are USELESS; they do not stop you from reaching your flag and they do not reward you with any meaningful rewards.

That is what I meant with my post and that is what PORT needs to figure out; why are the bandits/thugs there? Why should I bother to stop my character and fight them?

Mobs in this game ATM is like leveling through the new EXPAC in that other huge MMORPG which I won't name... Mobs are useless and pointless but in that other game you at least have quests that tells you to "kill 10 of these", "kill 10 of these and collect 5 of these from them" there is your reward in turning in the quest.

In Dark Souls series the reward is in that the games are difficult. Progressing is done through fighting through difficult mobs, with very little guidance as to where you should go and what you should do.
You fight through difficult mobs to reach reach another even more difficult boss to somehow figure out where to go and how to complete the "ring the bell at top and at the bottom" quest.

Mobs and bosses also rewards you with souls which you need but the main reward is beating the challenge.

This game has none atm.

If it was possible to progressing solely by doing quests (turning in for EXP) and train on a dummy there would be zero point in actually fighting anything at all.

 

If you know this is in development, I don't understand why you're confused.

You need XP to raise your skills...

To test the game mechanics...

 

You dont have to hit a training dummy, I really dont. I hit adv lvl 92 and the vast majority of my skills were gained by normal XP'ing (10 GM's)... this is largely because Im out killing things not only for the xp but for the gold to buy shinny things to put in my house or body. I rarely ever sit around training and when I do it may be to take the skill from 98 to 100 which is the hardest part. I dont use Earthquake in my normal solo play but I do in groups. So I add earthquake to my deck when Im out killing things and use it a lot to raise it, I throw the skills I want to raise on my deck when Im out solo, even if they arnt efficient. If I want to raise a passive, Ill shut down all the skills then run out an solo... this way I am always bringing in gold and crafting loot.

 

For me its getting away from the house and exploring, meeting other people in the world, getting the gold and loot. If i wanted to sit at home all day beating on a wooden opponent that would not really be worth my time. I spend enough time at home when i am crafting or decorating...so yeah its to go out in the big wide world and see whats out there. There's always something bigger than me out there to try and avert my attention. "looks around for the next group of 5 skeleton archers to go beat on"

 

In ESO mob grinding is justified because quests are mixed into the scene (the save the villagers trope). If you finish the quests and continue to grind, that is on you, for that game offers plenty of other quests.

SOTA just needs to throw some NPC into the scene to give reason for your grinding. They could take it even further and evolve the scenes dynamically as you level up to give justification beyond grind for revisiting the scene

 

Thx for all of your feedback guys!

I didn't mean to bash the game so sorry if it came out that way. I was merely interested on where they (port) will take it from here. If they have a plan.

I'll admit that I didn't play UO and EverQuest way back when (I was too young and we didn't have reliable Internet) but I did play other grind MMORPGs like Silkroad Online, Mu Online later in my life and I do really love those kind of games. I know I'd love UO and EverQuest if I could play them. I remember me playing it on our dial up 56kbs modem for like 20 minutes and loving every second of it.

Can't even begin to count how many hours I've put into Diablo 2 grinding over and over and over.

I love this game and what they are doing to it. I've waited for a "modern" game like this for what feels forever. I just sometimes wish Port would focus less on making the world so huge and more on working quests/storylines in a set number of places.

Expanding can be made by releasing new episodes. I feel like they are doing too much at the same time currently instead of focusing on making a working game that they can expand on later.

 

You will gain adventure pool exp when you kill mobs since the quests that grant exp are finite and you need to maintain this pool to gain skills and prevent your skills from dropping if you die.

Also you need to gather resources for crafting pool exp which is spent when you gain in crafting skills.

Aa you advance in skills levels, the demands on exp expenditure will also increase.

 

Having some meaning behind killing mob after mob after mob would be nice, I agree, Salazar. Especially in a game that has an abnormally large number of role-players, I have often wondered how others have justified it, in an in-universe sense. Even in theme park MMOs, I'm always careful to play my character killing things in the path of (or because of), a quest. I can never get my head around the concept of farming an area... tagging a bunch of enemies to pull into a pile, then smashing them just for XP. I guess if someone is just playing the game "as a game", that works, but for anyone wanting to think a little more deeply and/or have some sort of relationship with their character, and why they do things, that's always left me a bit cold.

 

I definitely agree with expanding the purpose of the game but they do have a few things that you can still do besides farming the same scenes for the most efficient exp and items. Although that is sometimes what I do, I get bored easily, so I spend time collecting keys in the underground, or working my way through hilt. Taking the underground passages across the map. Seeing how high you can push a control point before it pushes back. Chilblains or bosses if you have a group.

It's only going to be as Grindy as you choose to make it. Some may be racing to the finish but I still just want to enjoy the actual game.

 

I explored. Leveld into 5 skull so quick i missed s lot of 3 n 4s.
Honestly i only kill things the few times i come on now to keep my skills high enough so if / when they ever put in guildwars or goal based pvp, im not AS far behind the hardcores.
I see no way a player with undee 500-750h of adv exp grinding ( unless power leveld ) will be able to matchup in any future pvp, espectially as guild wars becomes more important, and guilds focuse on hard power leveling.

Sota s combat doesnt excite me. The exploring isnt near most other games i play in excitement, and housings a chore.
I farm specifically to keep the earlier push i did relevent in hopes of more coming to the game.

So... yea i kill mobs to stay relevent at this point. Thats bout it.

 

@Salazar Calabra

For me it lacks some immersion about Mob fighting too, but in some scenes you can explore things, like the uncloned North Drachvald Spur for example.
In a Sandbox RPG you can or should create your own causes to do so, quests about lore would help to immerse into the world, but you can find or make your own quests about Bandits and other Mobs to fight.
Exploring the world etc, depends on your definition of your character too.
It's a roleplay game, nobody has to roleplay , you can just do it, but if you seek a cause for you and your avatar I recommend to roleplay in any way and try to immerse into the world. It's not perfectly and allways with a lot of compromises , but possible and a lot of fun (at least to me)

Edit: but this way is less effective and you will have problems to get further in char development.

 

It is really something the world lacks currently.

Virtue and Anti Virtue are meaningless so far (hoping that changes), no guild wars or competition on resources or anything.

The game needs more sandbox drivers: Virtue + Anti Virtue conflict that shows in PVE and PVP, Guild competition on assets they can aquice through ingame means.

The only real good driver they have: POT building, is only for people who want to invest a huge amount of time or money into the game.

 

Many people do this, and I wonder if it is an online game phenomenon that encourages players to want to "keep up with the Jonses", i.e. players feel they have to grind exp because others are doing it.

The fact is, no one has to spam skills on a dummy. Instead one can explore the world and gain exp by using the skills along the way. That makes for much slower progress, of course, but can be much more enjoyable.

 

I am exactly like that but aware of it so try to do things I enjoy instead of the stress "Gotta keep up" I think years of trying different mmos after UO has damaged me somewhat

 

The fact that you can better spend experience in town than in the field is a bit crappy. I always imagined training dummies and gustballs would be for when you need to get a skill up to speed so you can use it when adventuring, not as the most efficient way to allocate exp. There should be a bonus for gaining exp on a skill when out and about, and it shouldn't be insubstantial either, say 30-50%. Going out with everything off so you can build your pool is kind of weird and counter intuitive. You kind of learn more from a handful of swings at a dummy than for killing 30 spiders, 20 kobolbs, 5 skeles and a satyr with a sharp stick...

 

I do so most of the time, but actually I really suffer from not having a progression feeling of my character and are limited to some scenes as other scenes aren't manageable solo for me.
This let me login less atm and i don't see a solution but to "effectively grind" to the next stage, especially the innates to increase stats and make you more stand the incoming damage use mass XP.
I allways tend to switch to something i wouldn't like so much like a shield or a bow.
I already tried shield and wand but doesn't work for me.
Bow is actually maybe the best choice, but i want to stick to my pure mage in cloth with wands.
Actually, level 63, i won a duell against a fighter who is some levels above me and with higher damage skills, but in the field agai at mobs he can stand things and fight groups of mobs where i need to flee and have no chance.

 

Is this a philosophical question?

 

This is just not true as it takes the same amount of swings to increase bludgeon be it on a spider or a dummy.
Only difference in the wild you constantly accumulate more exp where as in town you only use it up

I only train skills at my home to 40 if it's a unlocked glyph and I want to have more than 1 glyph before going out other than that I see no point in training at home/town