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Early Game and Leveling, how to make it great (for the first time)
Borus
Member
Lets be real, most people never make it to max level and MMO fans all say that the game starts at max level. This is a problem, the average person doesn't enjoy the game enough to commit the time to make it. I'll explain how I solve this problem, see my post on skills for my vision on combat.
REINVENT THE LEVELING PROCESS.
Now I know you forums people get worked up over everything, but here's how to keep the same feeling of leveling without making players feel like they're at a disadvantage until they put 200+ hours in.
Leveling in an MMO is meant to represent power and power level that's easily visible to other players. I feel that this style is clunkly and doesn't allow someone who is naturally good at the game to feel powerful until they put in a ridiculous amount of time.
Its time to get rid of the idea of levels and replace it with powers. Instead of grinding 100 boars (or quests) to level up so that you automatically learn a new spell, have the spell as the reward and the process. The spells you gain would be the same as everyone else and gear would of course augment them but they would only be capped behind a long quest chain or some sort of reputation.
The most important part is that you learn the spell in some reasonable way (bards practicing with a master, fighter sparring, rogue stealing, ranger ranging, mage - books (learning and practicing) summoner- getting friendly with summons.
You can still create huge gaps between players by making skills obtainable all through the world and have the hardest areas require lower tier spells to get to so there is still a sense of natural progression.
For instance lets say you're a mage, you start in a zone where the master magician of the area teaches fire spells. You would seek him out, see what he requires for teaching and then go after whatever he wants (IE: 100 bear pelts or soemthing) The time and grind would stay the same but the reward system for leveling would be completely different.
Once you get that fire spell, you would feel rewarded and more powerful, increasing your dmg capabilities. You would then unlock an area that requires higher level combat and subsequently higher magicians to teach you more (maybe fire/lightning or fire/ranging if you're doing a hybrid class.
This style would give a lowbie a chance (small) at killing someone higher level, especially if you make combat based more around dodging and blocking. (see my other post)
Skills would be your primary goal and once you completed all of the lower level versions, you would then unlock the ability ti train with a master and unlock endgame powers (the same as max level if you're leveling)
Health would be based around gear and dmg would be based around your progression in this skill learning system (and of course gear)
Also make it so you start off as a character without a class and you need to find a master to teach you the ways of the class you want. (more on this later)
Lets put this into terms we can all understand.
A new player finishes his first mage quest and unlocks fireball. He encounters a high level player and combat starts.
The new player might have to cast and hit the expereinced player 3x more than he gets hit, but he still has a chance
This way the player could see that his abilities are powerful but there are ways to get more powerful and this completely avoids the discouragement of getting 1 shot with your chances of winning combat being 0% like the current leveling system works now. This would encourage group play with lower levels as a defensive technique.
REINVENT THE LEVELING PROCESS.
Now I know you forums people get worked up over everything, but here's how to keep the same feeling of leveling without making players feel like they're at a disadvantage until they put 200+ hours in.
Leveling in an MMO is meant to represent power and power level that's easily visible to other players. I feel that this style is clunkly and doesn't allow someone who is naturally good at the game to feel powerful until they put in a ridiculous amount of time.
Its time to get rid of the idea of levels and replace it with powers. Instead of grinding 100 boars (or quests) to level up so that you automatically learn a new spell, have the spell as the reward and the process. The spells you gain would be the same as everyone else and gear would of course augment them but they would only be capped behind a long quest chain or some sort of reputation.
The most important part is that you learn the spell in some reasonable way (bards practicing with a master, fighter sparring, rogue stealing, ranger ranging, mage - books (learning and practicing) summoner- getting friendly with summons.
You can still create huge gaps between players by making skills obtainable all through the world and have the hardest areas require lower tier spells to get to so there is still a sense of natural progression.
For instance lets say you're a mage, you start in a zone where the master magician of the area teaches fire spells. You would seek him out, see what he requires for teaching and then go after whatever he wants (IE: 100 bear pelts or soemthing) The time and grind would stay the same but the reward system for leveling would be completely different.
Once you get that fire spell, you would feel rewarded and more powerful, increasing your dmg capabilities. You would then unlock an area that requires higher level combat and subsequently higher magicians to teach you more (maybe fire/lightning or fire/ranging if you're doing a hybrid class.
This style would give a lowbie a chance (small) at killing someone higher level, especially if you make combat based more around dodging and blocking. (see my other post)
Skills would be your primary goal and once you completed all of the lower level versions, you would then unlock the ability ti train with a master and unlock endgame powers (the same as max level if you're leveling)
Health would be based around gear and dmg would be based around your progression in this skill learning system (and of course gear)
Also make it so you start off as a character without a class and you need to find a master to teach you the ways of the class you want. (more on this later)
Lets put this into terms we can all understand.
A new player finishes his first mage quest and unlocks fireball. He encounters a high level player and combat starts.
The new player might have to cast and hit the expereinced player 3x more than he gets hit, but he still has a chance
This way the player could see that his abilities are powerful but there are ways to get more powerful and this completely avoids the discouragement of getting 1 shot with your chances of winning combat being 0% like the current leveling system works now. This would encourage group play with lower levels as a defensive technique.
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