Alternate progression path's

Chicago

after hitting max level in ashes of creation what is everyone's opinion on alternate progression paths to strengthen up your character, i think this is a great alternative to raising level caps with expansions, If you have experienced any in other MMO's id love to hear them.

the ones that stand out to me are mostly from an old MMO called anarchy online, Each new expansion added different progression options without raising the previous level cap, For example

Alien invasion expansion added 30 alien levels
Shadowlands expansion added 20 shadow levels
Lost eden added 70 Research levels, so on and so forth.

I think always having a goal or something to strive towards to make your character stronger is always good gameplay, and without raising level caps it keeps old content relevant. One thing i hate about wow expansions is going back to old content that use to be insanely hard and being so over powered that you just one shot everything, it just doesn't feel great to me.

have a great weekend gamers

Nerror

I am all for it, as you can probably guess from my other thread

koltovince

If Ashes fully delivers on what it is promising, then technically the node will be an extend of player progression and power. The higher the node the more facilities, systems, and options the players will have available.

There are also reputation systems and progression paths available to grind, like the Highwayman system and the bounty hunting system. More can be added down the line to give players more to work for, or they can update the systems before launch.

Chicago

Nerror wrote: »

I am all for it, as you can probably guess from my other thread

haven't had a chance to read it, but ill check it out

Voeltz

Not a huge fan of level cap increases as you mentioned. In traditional MMOs it usually leads to entire regions becoming abandoned and that's sad to see in a world that's supposed to be alive. Stronger gear sets are never a bad thing combined with content releases. In Ashes case using the node system, they could do a combination of new regions to explore unlocking new node locations, new story arches, dynamic events, dungeons, gear sets, races, and build on the systems that are already there. Go in depth with the numerous things that are already present/planned that bring more value and replay-ability like node relations/government, bounty hunting, reputation, wars, alliances, guilds, arenas, dungeon types, underwater/underrealm content, spirit world, weather, crafting/trading etc.

Chicago

Voeltz wrote: »

Not a huge fan of level cap increases as you mentioned. In traditional MMOs it usually leads to entire regions becoming abandoned and that's sad to see in a world that's supposed to be alive. Stronger gear sets are never a bad thing combined with content releases. In Ashes case using the node system, they could do a combination of new regions to explore unlocking new node locations, new story arches, dynamic events, dungeons, gear sets, races, and build on the systems that are already there. Go in depth with the numerous things that are already present/planned that bring more value and replay-ability like node relations/government, bounty hunting, reputation, wars, alliances, guilds, arenas, dungeon types, underwater/underrealm content, spirit world, weather, crafting/trading etc.

100% agree mate, ashes have set them selves up with the lore of vera to have some very interesting expansions and new regions to explore, I hope with the node system that we dont see old content become irrelevant, hopefully we hear how they plan to combat this

Mag7spy

I don't really see a difference add new unique levels in except for the fact eventually it just becomes bloat and increases the barrier of entry for new players. Meaning less new players willing to look at 10 different leveling to falsely protect people that grind gear and not wanting other players to pass them.

Again this is based off new expansions having verticals progression meaning players gain more power regardless with new expansions with these "unique levels" and will again be using other gear making their older gear irreverent. So it end up becoming exactly the same as increasing leveling.

Though unless you are talking about a different route (which i guess would be possible unsure if people would like it though at all..) Making special kind of gear that gives you bonus stats for attack / defensive that only apply to that area (which again makes all your gear obsolete anyway).

Which this feels kind of the same as the other thread, at this point you should just advocate for no levels in the game if you don't want vertical progression and just have everyone in equalized gear lmao.

Dygz

Ashes already has Node progression, Social Org progression, Religion progression, Artisan progression and Naval progression.

Noaani

I don't see the point.

If you have a game where there are 50 levels, and you want to add progression, why add a second leveling scheme? Why add a third or fourth?

This doesn't make it easier for new players, it makes it more confusing and frustrating.

They spend their time leveling up to Level 50, and go to try and join in on content only to be told that the content everyone is running is designed for people with t0 new expansion levels. So they get then, only to find that there is another new leveling system they need to Level up now.

The beauty of a level cap that is used as the over all marker of potential and current character power is that it is just so damn easy for everyone to understand.

Any other progression system is literally the same thing with added steps.