Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!

Dev Discussion #24 - Overgearing

1246711

Comments

  • ariatrasariatras Member, Founder
    overgearing.gif?h=250

    Glorious Ashes community - it's time for another Dev Discussion! Dev Discussion topics are kind of like a "reverse Q&A" - rather than you asking us questions about Ashes of Creation, we want to ask YOU what your thoughts are.

    Our design team has compiled a list of burning questions we'd love to get your feedback on regarding gameplay, your past MMO experiences, and more. Join in on the Dev Discussion and share what makes gaming special to you!


    Dev Discussion #24 - Overgearing
    What’s your view on overgearing (aka "twinking")? Giving high(er) level equipment to low(er) level characters?

    Keep an eye out for our next Dev Discussion topic regarding boss difficulty!

    Oh, I haven't bene here for the other questions. But I am here now to give my thoughts on this subject.

    Twinking is fun for the twink, not for the other players. With that said. Twinking I think is part of a deeper issue. The ability to twink hinges on a progression path that is solely gear related. Whilst gear being better is not a bad idea per-say. It can very quickly compound in where you need to squish damage/hp values.
    I'd much rather see gear have less of an affect.

    However, I would not really know how to satisfy the feeling of growth. Other than an amalgamation of multiple systems. Skills gained from bosses. Access to additional land+unique resources. Alternative colours for animations. Giving a Cleric corrupt spells for example. No real effect other then looks. (Think Fel Fire for Warlocks in WoW) Perhaps even things like having it effect the world. You killed the dragon, but as it turns out, the dragon was there to keep the mountain from erupting, it was actually a volcano. And now the area around it is covered in magma and ash. Thus the mountain spilling its enriched guts. I'm sure all the creative people at Intrepid can think of many ways to make it feel like you're progressing without only relying on gear.
    l8im8pj8upjq.gif


  • i don’t like it, especially regarding one’s first time playing or main character. in a game like aoc with so much beautiful work put into it i’d prefer to play through it in the correct order, enjoying all the aspects of it, even if it takes a while to get good stuff. grinding and putting work into good gear is half the fun!
  • I personally think that overgearing is a bad thing for the following reasons:
    - Low level equipment becomes useless (loss of skin designs)
    - Leveling is a big part of the learning curve to understand the game, both basics and indepth. By making it easier to level using higher gear, you're taking away time for people to learn/understand the game. Besides, people who will level up a 2nd character will already have an edge anyways because they know how to level more efficiently and most likely have some gear ready to be used for them.
    - The mentorship program will be less useful/useless when people will be able to level up faster with higher gear.
    - Leveling is part of the game as any other thing in the game. Many times I've seen games making this period faster, which as a veteran, feels very bad for spending way more time reaching the same point as they do. It really feels like the time I've spend to reach the point I'm at right now as being a waste and I should've just waited a few years just make it easier for myself to reach the same point years later anyways. Even though overgearing will only slightly effect this, I still feel it takes away the feeling of vetarans that their leveling was a form of achievement.
    People only believe in the beautiful view behind the tunnel, if they walk into the light at the end of the tunnel to see it for themselves.
  • akabearakabear Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    edited November 2020
    BUT, BUT, BUT IF AOC were to introduce a one off, Demonic Sword Zariche, as done in Lineage 2, then I am totally for it. The sword was a random piece of completely overpowered equipment that would randomly drop for anyone to pickup and use for as long as they can hold it!

    The rush for trying to obtain it when it randomly dropped into the world and then the rush of trying to retaining it while every player with an ounce of pvp blood in them relentlessly hunted you down.. Once obtained you were bestowed with power much greater than your level and could be near invincible one on one but while you were in possession you were highlighted on the map for all to see. If you were killed you dropped it and the next person could pick it up or if I remember correctly it disappeared to randomly drop into the world a day, a week or a month later. It created an almost unparalleled experience in L2.

    I was so fortunate to grab it for a period of about 5--10hrs.. and for that period it was probably the most intense period in my six year time with L2. I had wave upon wave of players try and take me out while I kept trying again and again to get to primary pve places to power level.. It wasn`t until a pair came that I was overpowered and lost it... I totally would like to see that kind of experience repeated in some form or another with a unique overpowered piece of equipment!
  • rikardp98rikardp98 Member
    edited November 2020
    Okay, I'm not sure I get the question right, but a lvl 15 players should not be able to use lvl 16 gear or higher. However, interesting gear in the different levels is interesting.

    From my experience twinking is when a low leveled player gather the best gear within his or hers level. And then you have enchants and other end-games items you can possibly apply to gear to make them stronger.

    In my opinion, what makes a game really stand out is interesting gear that can be used in different ways. In wow classic for example there is a blue low leveled mace that increases your attack speed. This mace is best in slot for feral druid all through out vanilla and the burning crusade.

    Having interesting low leveled/ranked gear is better than having low leveled players equip high level/ranked gear.
  • I would like the option to obtain it, but keep it locked behind a level lock. While it is annoying to see the loot drop and seeing "unlock at level 25", it gives me something to look forward to grinding for.

    Though I will state that if something drops that's 3 levels higher and it's a super rare drop, I really dislike when getting to that level and find out it's equal to common drops stats wise. Why hold onto it for so long when it's really meh comparatively?
    E8OOol.gif
  • I believe that overgearing often causes weird situations in games and makes the way of playing quite confusing and sometimes convoluted as well as ruining the emotional aspect of leveling up.
    I played Black Desert Online as a very casual player for example. I remember that at some point I logged in and had gotten a ton of money from something and I thought I'd invest it in some gear. I bought a set of the most expensive/best gear (that was intended/dropped for max level players) I could find and suddenly I was one shotting things that were well beyond my level.
    Although initially it was fun, it also completely ruined my sense of scale and power in the game and I wasn't able to enjoy it anymore.
    I lost all sense of "Okay this is what I should be doing" because doing a quest that was appropriate level became obviously slower than going to one-shot the highest level thing I could. It ruined my learning curve, I missed out entirely on the story and I also no longer had any clue on what progression I was actually achieving. As such it ruined my motivation to get immersed in the game and I lost interest in it.
    Another consequence was that although I felt like trying out the game later and level up another character I felt demotivated by the fact that I knew I could just buy my way through progression by purchasing a cheap set of trash items from max level.

    I believe that gear progression is an important part of the leveling experience. While you're working on the progression track of your level itself you are also working on your gear through drops and quests.
    If you remain undergeared combat may become frustrating but you also feel motivated to get more geared. This is a great motivator for seeking alternative methods of gaining power and can feed into other systems of the game. For example; If your method of leveling does not include as many quests and you are no longer receiving appropriate level items at the required speed, the first place I would personaly seek power is from - Crafted gear, Bought gear and then consumeable items.
    Using Classic WoW and Archeage again as examples. In WoW I would craft myself potions as an alchemist to boost my combat abilities as compensation for my lack of strong gear. This allowed me to when entering a dungeon also provide potions to my party members which provided a positive social encounter.
    On another playthrough I would want to go a Blacksmith or tailor route. Although I could gear through quests the reward from spending some time and resources I've gathered in the adventure to create level appropriate gear from my profession was amazing. The increase in power felt rewarding while not being overwhelming and it also was an introduction to the crafting systems for later in the game. Additionally the crafted gear often lasted me longer than qear I received from quests as well as feeling more emotionally attached to the gear.

    Comparing this crafting experience to a game where you could attain "Heirlooms" or gear that is more powerful than that you would normally attain at your level - The emotional reward and experience of receiving new gear completely dissapears. It makes the different levels feel blurry due to the power difference from one level to the next feeling miniscule. It doesn't really matter if you're level 30 or 31 if you're still one-shotting everything. It also ruins the intrigue of getting into crafting at an early stage because the reward from time spent is simply not worth it.

    TLDR: Overgearing ruins the emotional experience of leveling, damages other systems such as crafting and confuses the players sense of power and progression.
  • I have no problem with overgearing if a character is taking on higher level content with friends or whatever. But I would like to see each character on a given account managed independently. No acquiring gear on your main and transferring it to your alt.
    WoW's heirloom system is nice as it forces you to level up a main first and then makes alts easier to get going but not overpowered on their way to the top.

    There was a really old web-based game called Alien Adoption Agency that allowed guilds to set the amount of xp tax on their members. It was common to make it a 100% xp tax so characters would stop leveling but continue to develop stats, skills, etc. which created what were called "super newbs." This became a whole sub-set population of the game which is interesting, but it threw off the power balance (for that player). I don't think XP taxes are a thing in Ashes from what I've read but would suggest avoiding that if it's being considered in a PVP focused game like AoC.
  • TheogermalTheogermal Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I've been discussing this with my guild members about how overgearing will affect the game.

    The main concern is a low leveled player having high end gear will have complete control over an area that is used for leveling up, and anyone that tries to contend for that spot in PVP will get completely destroyed because of the difference in gear power, ruling out any difference in skill level or tactics.

    I personally see two solutions to this. No overgearing at all, or having the stats restricted on the gear because "your level is not high enough to bring out the gears full potential" for example. Both have good reasons for being picked. For example, having no Over Gearing means that those who want to level up their twinks quickly will need to prepare low level gear for each level stage, e.g. lvl 10, lvl 20 etc. Some will get gear that is cost efficient, and others will get the best gear they can because they have the finds for it. Either way, they will be purchasing the completed gear from other players, or acquiring the raw materials to craft the gear themselves, thus stimulating the economy through all stages of the game.

    Having restricted Over Gearing, where the stats on the gear get better as your level increases, does a similar thing, but instead of preparing multiple sets of gear, you would only need to prepare one set that you would then use throughout the whole leveling process. Having the stats on the gear restricted by your characters level will allow low level PVP balance to remain more constant, and allow someone of greater skill level to still have a chance of defeating someone with better gear than them.

    Which ever way things go, I very sincerely hope that you do NOT go for unrestricted Over Gearing, as the early-mid game balance will be completely ruined.

    Personally, I do think that No Over Gearing is the way to go, and those who have progressed further into the game will have the means to acquire superior gear for their twinks.
  • I've thought a lot about this over the years, and ideally you wouldn't have levels so to speak of. People would have skills, so equipping them with an amazing sword wouldn't mean much without the corresponding skill to use it.

    In my endeavors to design a game, I strove to make things as much level-less, experience-less, and class-less as possible. While you still need levels, and experience, I tried to approach them in a different way. Using a sword, you would get better at using a sword. It would affect an overall skill like melee by very little from general knowledge, but your actual expertise would come from that particular kind of sword. (ie: longsword, shortsword, rapier etc). So that you could be a master at longsword, and a novice at rapier. There could be some overlap, from general fighting knowledge, but you would need to work up both weapon skills if you wanted to be good at them both.

    I wanted more of a realistic experience, set in a high fantasy setting. Why can't you be a master swordsman/spellcaster? Or a pickpocket cleric? I think Ultima online did it best, and I miss a good sandbox where you could do anything you want, and weren't restricted by levels.

    Given the choice, I also like the idea of being able to learn everything on one character, just at some much higher difficulty. Using ultimas system as an example, you could get 700 points to spend among any skills, and later up to 120. so you could pick and choose the skills you got, but were limited by the number of them. This is ok, but after having played on freeshards, I think a better solution would be 700 points at 1x experience gain, then another 700 at 2x experience gain, etc. so your initial base skillset would be easily gotten, then it gets harder to keep learning new skills.

    In this way, you're not telling anyone straight up they can't do something they want, you're just artificially slowing them down. Depending on how many skills you actually want a player to have, the multiplier could even be exponential for each new skill point they gain.

    Anyway, I think I've gotten a bit off topic, so I'll wrap it up here. Thanks for your time!
  • bosheanboshean Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I do not want twinkng during the launch of the game. However, when the max level gets increased, and the expansions get launched, that's when I think winking should become a feature. Its alot better in the later stages of the game and can help new players catch up.

    However the gap twinking makes would be way to large for the start
  • malifoemalifoe Member, Intrepid Pack
    There are two different questions to this one. So, I will try to address each separately.

    What do I think of giving high(er) level equipment to low(er) level characters?

    It shouldn't happen. Gear should have some sort of level/attribute/progression requirement that requires all users to meet a standard in order to use it. That requirement should be in place to help balance PvP across a general level range. If a level 1 can pick up a level 10 sword, and swing it around, what is the point of leveling to 10? Getting more skills? Why even have the gear then, just make all combat skill based and all weapons/gear cosmetics with the same stats.

    What do I think about Overgearing (aka "Twinking")?

    I think Twinking within a balanced gear environment is fine. I think when gear has stats, there will always be a "Best in Slot" (BIS). Veteran players will farm/craft this and hand it down to alts/friends, or sell it on market. That rare drop from the Elite/Notorious Monster will become a prime place for small scale PvP, often with Veteran's camping out lower level mobs.

    I think there are ways to even balance that out, having gear/items drop at lower % chances once you exceed certain level caps beyond the mob. Having that same gear drop on higher level monsters perhaps with a slightly higher chance. Or even having different gear with the same stats for that level dropping from another Mob.

    Something I have seen said a few times in this discussion that I disagree with.

    I don't think that a higher level player should be able to get specific items to increase the leveling rate of a character, through added experience gain, scaling power progression, or anything of that nature. If Max level characters are able to get these items and pass them to "alts" then they will also likely be able to trade them to other players. Creating waves of under experienced, high level players.

    This could also lead to a situation where there is an "Optimal leveling Class". Where 1 class becomes the predominant class for first play through leveling, causing a large number of those to appear, followed by waves of other classes.

    Veteran players by experience will already be able to level faster than their first play through. Knowing where the better farming areas are, knowing where quest progression takes you to ensure you can set up a quick questing path. Don't really need to add rocket fuel to the jet engine.
  • CypherCypher Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    No, absolutely no. One of the absolute BEST parts of an mmo, what keeps me addicted to it and enjoying making alts, is the fact that I have to work just as hard to level up and unlock stronger gear. Sure I could transfer some gear to my alt but they shouldn’t be able to use it until hitting the required level!
  • No issues.
    AoC+Dwarf+750v3.png
  • If you are running low level content with your max level character and you get items appropriate for your alts there should be no reason that you cannot hand them off or give them to a friend's alt.
  • Hello everyone,

    In my humble opinion, instead of over gearing (which I'm not a fan of), I would suggest a different and unique approach.

    You might get some inspiration from this:

    There's a MMORPG called Florensia that has an interesting system. In that game you can level up both on the Land, but on the Sea as well. When you gain 1 level on the Land, your character gains 3 status points to spend on your character's status window. When you level up 1 level on the Sea, your character gains 1 status point, which makes your character stronger on the Land. Let's say that your character has Land level 5 and Sea level 40. That means 15 status points (Land level) + 40 status points (Sea level), in total 55 status points and that would help your character a lot while grinding on the land, compared to having a character Land level 5 and Sea level 1 (only 16 status points). The status points are not used on the Sea content, but they are really important on the Land, because the more status points your character has, the stronger it'll be.

    So, instead of over gearing, I would suggest something like this, something that can help your character on the long run and also, at the same time, the Sea content could impact the Land content as well, and who knows? Maybe you can improve this and come with a better idea that would make the game even more amazing.

    Best regards,
    Barbecue
    lOdSqVw.png
    Are you looking for an amazing community with lovely people? Join the Aurora Discord now and chat with us!
    We are recruiting!
  • MMO's are difficult to balance as they are, people will always try to maximize their chars. The journey to achieve this should not be possible. I do believe that over gearing / twinking should be discouraged to keep the balance as much as possible. Especially, in the long run, some people will take it slow and others will join the game after a year or longer. You really want their first experience to be a lvl 20 one-shotting them?

    Epic gear on a LVL 20 is perfectly fine but to get that it should require a lot of work including some materials found only at level 50 or have it as a very very very rare drop. The stat difference should also not be that big.

    AoC is going to be balanced around groups, if you encourage over gearing, twinking, etc. you can throw that idea of let's balance around group play in the trash bin. Gear should never be the main driver, Gear should enhance the player not make it the most important part.
  • mcstackersonmcstackerson Member, Phoenix Initiative, Royalty, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I like it because I like being able to get gear that will be useful to me for more than a few levels. Spending any amount of time getting gear while leveling feels like a waste of time to me. Why spend time getting gear at low levels when i can wait and spend that time at max level to get better gear.

    If we are talking about higher level character giving gear to low levels, like a friend, i guess i don't see a reason to gate that behind level. They still need to level and would be getting that gear anyways, i don't feel like there is much of a reason to prevent them from using it.
  • Personally I never did twinking in any MMO. I don't mind others doing it as long as it doesn't affect max level players
  • I have never been a big fan of locking a character out from using an exotic weapon just because they have not reached a certain character level. Lets take a basic weapon as an example. There is the basic dagger, wooden shaft mated to an iron blade. Character finds an exotic Obsidian-blade dagger on the body of a fallen combatant and picks it up - "oh sorry you do not know how to use this dagger because it is made from a more exotic material than your basic dagger".

    If it is really necessary to penalize a character then make the weapon have a higher stamina drain. A new character can still wield the weapon but they get tired quicker than a season veteran character - this is more in keeping with "reality" - a swordmanship trainer starts their trainees with wooden blades to build up their arm strength and stamina with a sword. Once the trainee has shown sufficient skill with the wooden blade then they graduate to a metal blade to refine their skill and accuracy. In much the same way, if a green swordsman comes across a more exotic blade, or is gifted a more exotic blade by another character, it may take time for them to be fully proficient with the new blade, thus the extra stamina drain while they become accustomed to it, but they would still be able to use it.
  • I think twinking in general is very toxic since it's usually just high level players looking to farm newer players. However, there's also the PvE side where there may be a particular mob/boss that drops specific loot that you might be level restricted from joining. I don't know about in AoC, but in other games stuff like that happens where twinking would be fine. I think in general twinking shouldn't be possible. Have level requirements for gear and stuff. The cons outweigh the pros for sure overall.
  • SangramoireSangramoire Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    edited November 2020
    I don't know how exactly leveling and the skill tree will work but I personally prefer gear to have level and attribute requirements. I think having such requirements gives devs the ability to create more unique weapons and armor without having to worry about balancing as much because it can be restricted by specific attributes that characters would need to have in order to use them meaning it would be a trade-off. You can essentially make certain gear combinations nearly impossible or just not as viable because it would neglect another aspect of the character that might be important for survival.

    If that sounds confusing here's an example. Say you have a really strong sword that has a special attack that does damage based on your characters maximum health, and there's also some plate armor that when worn gives your character 300% increased maximum health. Those put together would make a character essentially overpowered and definitely not balanced but if the character requires to have say 40 strength to wield the sword and 60 constitution to wield the platebody and that would only be possible if the character neglects all other stats completely like defence and accuracy and stuff, then something like that becomes a bit easier to balance. I think this gives devs the ability to go wild and create some very unique gear that is really powerful but with trade-offs.

    I think doing gear in this way can also help almost all classes to be useful/viable since gear would also play a big part on the role they want to fulfill rather than having each class meant for just one specific role with no other playstyles.

    Edit: another thing to note is that since it is planned for AOC to have bosses that do not scale, I think it would kind of ruin the fun for new players to be able to kill say some lvl 10 world boss at lvl 1 just because their gear is lvl 30 or something. This is all just my opinion though. I like character progression and like many say, it's about the journey for me.
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    Since this is a PvP and I hate losing a fight mainly because of gear. I would not like to see gear give much more then a 10-15% advantage.

    The real pain of leveling a 2nd or 10th time is the constant need for new sets of gear. I would love to see WoWs heirloom system. Gives a slight advantage but levels up with you. So you need not buy gear for every 10 levels.

    Please don't let twinkling mess up PvP. Skill should be the main advantage in PvP.
  • bloodprophetbloodprophet Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I don't think this will be as much of a concern in Ashes as most fear if there is a level and/or stat requirements.

    The vast majority of gear needs to be crafted and when it breaks you need the materials and the right crafter to fix it. Gear won't be soul bound so passing stuff off is already a thing. However if you pass off your Flaming Sword of Jeffery to a level 10 alt and it takes level 40 materials to repair you also have to pass that stuff off as well and it might be cost prohibitive to do so. Especially if you pass off a full set of gear to an alt.
    In other games I usually have a tailor to make mage gear for my main. I then can make cloth gear for alts as well to help them get a small edge.
    18 - 24 months after launch you might see a small problem with this but if the material sinks to remove stuff from the open world so people can't horde materials and things keep moving for the economy then it will happen but not to a big effect.
    Most people never listen. They are just waiting on you to quit making noise so they can.
  • Some element of overgearing should always possible as a risk reward for doing harder content at the earliest possible level. HOWEVER, for a game that is trying to prevent steam rolling through the levelling experience, it could be detrimental.

    Someone mentioned the heirloom system from WoW for alts. I feel like that would be a sensible idea as it is not unreasonable to allow people to level a little easier the second and third time round.
  • I think that over gearing is a really good thing for people investing time to get several characters to max level. However, scaling is the hardest factor with world pvp being a central focus essentially. Say you craft a max level set of gear that has equip bonuses that's best in slot for max level. obviously having the stats of max level gear with the stat scaling of low levels will result in outrageous damage numbers. With that said, there has to be scaling of some sort. In my opinion a fair approach to the situation would be, to find a way to allow those players to put that set of gear on a character while maintaining balance. My approach to this is as follows. First you have to break down the power into 2 categories which are pvp and pve. Assuming that we are not going to be running around with the health of dungeon mobs I figure abilities and skills will be scaled differently for pvp than they will be for pve. While the corruption system deters exploitation of level differences, having an over geared player that's leveling a new character one shot you is never fun. Thus bringing me to the actual gear itself. The gear can be broken down into 3 separate limitation factors to maintain balance. If you were to apply the same ability/skill scaling modifier to the gear you can set two separate scaling values ( PvP / PvE). For pve having the max level gear only give ~10-20% more stats than a normal lesser quality item would give the players that sense of power without bolstering their damage to outrageous amounts. This will allow for new players to still experience that content without that sense of just being along for the ride. The second scale factor would be the same thing but further reduced for pvp. In my opinion a new player should not have to accept the fact that they can not beat someone simply because they have played the game for longer or have more money. With that said for pvp that gear should be scaled down to the same level of stats as lesser quality gear (insert pvp skill scale modifier). The last topic would be end game gear that has equip bonuses or set bonuses (attacks have % chance to proc x, grant y, etc...). The damage procs can be scaled down the same but you have to ask yourself, at what point do all these little extra numbers break the game for the new player base. In my personal opinion this can be addressed in a way that would be a fair compromise to both parties on this topic. These items do not typically become obtainable till at least your mid level ranges. With that in mind, I think simply disabling said effects below x level and applying the same stat scale to the proc from that level up to max level would add depth to everything. This would fuel the economy through crafting demands, give items more use outside of end game, potentially leading to interesting personal challenges, speed up leveling of secondary character, provide the sense of power for lower levels, all whilst maintaining the new game experience of new players and players focused more on immersion of story elements. While I do not know how difficult a system like this would be to implement if even possible, I figure my idea of a solution would better help to reach that goal than simply stating my opinion either for or against the topic at hand.
  • Overgearing to an extent is fine I think, but I do think it's a delicate balance. There should be some barriers with a lowbie being given powerful (for their lvl) gear by having something like stat/skill/questing requirements in order to equip it.

    Should a level 5 be able to equip a lvl 40 sword? No, definitely not.
  • lGSMllGSMl Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    edited November 2020
    Twinking itself should not be considered as a separate entity of game experience or gameplay. The moment MMORPG starts to include anything targeted specifically for twinking - it becomes just an MMO, without RPG.

    With that being said - discussion if low level characters should be able to equip high level gear should be completely separated from the one about twinks, and done in a context of actual in-game mechanics.

    And with that being said - I believe that all gear should have an appropriate minimum level requirement without any exception. Any other way will directly influence in-game ecosystem:

    - allowing wow like system of scaled gear will
    A ) kill all low level crafting/pve in mid term.
    B ) ruin game immersion - same 1lvl chars will have different potential because someone has high level char irl - not good.

    - allowing high level gear on low level chars will:
    A ) completely kill any crafting/farming on any other level than cap - like what for do that if you can just equip BiS from level one?
    B ) promote content steamrolling to cap - reaching max level 'adventure' will become a mindless one-hitting of mobs

    Addressing the case "but it is not immersion breaking if you imagine high level friend provide better gear for a low level buddy" is very easy - high level friend can provide good farmed/crafted gear, but of appropriate level - either by buying it and promoting economy landscape for low level players, farm it from low level pve content himself or simply craft it.

  • pyrealpyreal Member, Warrior of Old
    Nope, nope, nope.

    With AoC's pvp system twinking lends itself to shenanigans.
    It also breaks the suspension of disbelief when Noob2 that came out of the portal after Noob1 already has radiant armor/weps.
  • DarkSvanDarkSvan Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Hello AoC family!
    I have been playing games for a very long time (more than I want to admit :p) Funny enough, is the first time I hear the term overbearing. From what I read, is allowing a lower level character to have higher level gear...

    I have to say I agree with many other players that I would prefer not to have such a thing, anyhow (and I am not sure if this qualifies as overbearing but you would get my idea) WoW and heirlooms. It did certainly feel great to have heirlooms to play my alts. Many of us even bragged about our amazing collection of heirlooms. That being said, you can't have heirlooms if u did not work your way to obtaining them, probably in your main character either by unlocking them or paying for them.

    So maybe after you played your main, learned the different aspects of the whole game experience, different mechanics, and so on, by the time u start making alts having something that gives you a bit advantage would be good. Not huge, but some. I mean, after all, you already paid your time, the benefits of being a "veteran" you know?

    Anyhow, I want to remark once again, not a huge advantage, just a bit, enough to feel that your work the first time around has some extra rewards once u start/if you start leveling other characters. Lastly, I do not believe that overgearing should exist in any organized PVP areas. Random world PK would be very difficult to control, yet for organized or instanced PVP areas, there should not be overgearing at all. Is no point on becoming a skilled player, if any random newbie character with access to good gear would mop the floor with u.

    Thank you for this question BTW, I feel is a very important aspect of a game.
    DarkSvan
    IhtxymN.jpg
Sign In or Register to comment.