Possbile progression changes.

[driller]

I have been playing with friends recently and based upon our experiences I am leaning towards reducing quest xp by about half or so.
Currently, the server is a mad dash from one quest to the next with very little time spent actually playing the areas.

I think it would play better of there were a bit more grinding required. Let's hear your thoughts on this, where you actually are required to play a bit.

[Yune]

What do you think grinding adds to the player experience? To do the quests you have to generally visit all the areas and fight the mobs there once or twice. The need to grind is normally something people criticize about RPGs.

[Cornflower]

I would respectfully disagree. I would say you'd have the same dash and even more "cheating" with people helping each other get to high-XP-areas etc, etc. You're not going to solve that through less XP.

I would suggest something else. Today, the server is somewhat segregated in that all the low-levels and newbies walk the streets of Blackstone. As soon as they get a few levels up, they move, first to Bordermarch, then Oasis, then the Citadel. One of things that I would change if I ever rebuilt a PW again, is that there should be one central point, where ALL levels hang out. Sure, the lvl 40 will go elsewhere for grinding and experiencing the areas, but my point is that if you had one gathering point, where everybody would meet, that would increase the opportunities for both questing and hunting (=grinding in a flock) and maybe achieve some of the same purpose. You can still segregate the shopping and such, but I miss the spontaneous meetings that sometimes lead to good RP and even friendship.

Also, the Bounties are a great idea. Maybe expand them?

Now, if you feel you want to lower the XP gain regardless of all the protests you will surely hear, may I suggest not just halve it. I would say that you could reduce the XP gain a bit in the levels 5-10, as well as a bit in Oasis quests, but on the contrary increase the xp gain a bit in the Citadel quests. Usually, you have about 4-6 levels of grinding to do when you've done all the quests. That's a lot. You might want to move some of the Umgah grinding to the lower levels, but maybe not increase the grinding in general. Re-balance the xp.

Also, I really hate the underdark. Always dark, can't play in daylight, have to sit in a dark room if you want to see what you're doing. I love the other areas of the server. But that's my personal preference. I'm a sunny kind of guy.

[Sorcy Sid]

Are you sure that's not how your friends like to play?

I'm sure that new players would take far more time and explore things.

I would also add that I am currently leveling a toon for the purpose of soloing your newer high level areas. That goal would make me dash from one area to another.

Currently, the server is a mad dash from one quest to the next with very little time spent actually playing the areas.

[Yunim]

My levelling route tends to focus on grinding rather than quests so my experience is probably different from the other people on the server. With that said, I don't think that the Oasis or Citadel quests should be changed at all.

I usually grind 1-10ish, do Keep/Bordermarch quests until 18ish, then a mix of grinding and Oasis/Citadel quests to 40.
Currently the Keep/Bordermarch quests take me from 10/11 to around 18/19 depending on how much grinding I do before starting, which seems fairly reasonable to me considering that many other players start quests at level 2 or 3.
The Oasis/Citadel quests already don't give enough xp for somebody to level on quests alone, so I don't think that they need to be adjusted. Even if somebody saves every single quest until they are level 30, they will still need to do some grinding in order to hit 40.

[Sorcy Sid]

Maybe a solution is applying your high level areas strategy, that require large diverse parties, to the lower levels. Have a lot more additional* level restricted zones that demand a large party to complete. Of course the right kind of bait will be needed to get people to do that.

Edit*

[Cornflower]

Maybe a solution is applying your high level areas strategy, that require large diverse parties, to the lower levels. Have a lot more level restricted zones that demand a large party to complete. Of course the right kind of bait will be needed to get people to do that.

Note that I was alone on the server for my entire playing session today. Not alone as in my level bracket. Alone as in the only player around. It’s hard to party up with someone when you’re alone. That’s why I’m always arguing for the quests to be soloable. If there are plenty players around, I don’t need quests.

[Sorcy Sid]

That was the reason for my suggestion of additional dedicated areas. The server then accommodates the soloist types and the large party types.

Maybe a solution is applying your high level areas strategy, that require large diverse parties, to the lower levels. Have a lot more level restricted zones that demand a large party to complete. Of course the right kind of bait will be needed to get people to do that.

Note that I was alone on the server for my entire playing session today. Not alone as in my level bracket. Alone as in the only player around. It’s hard to party up with someone when you’re alone. That’s why I’m always arguing for the quests to be soloable. If there are plenty players around, I don’t need quests.

[KnownNarcissist]

Now, if you feel you want to lower the XP gain regardless of all the protests you will surely hear, may I suggest not just halve it. I would say that you could reduce the XP gain a bit in the levels 5-10, as well as a bit in Oasis quests, but on the contrary increase the xp gain a bit in the Citadel quests. Usually, you have about 4-6 levels of grinding to do when you've done all the quests. That's a lot. You might want to move some of the Umgah grinding to the lower levels, but maybe not increase the grinding in general. Re-balance the xp.

I have a similar opinion to this section of what Cornflower said. I would welcome lower XP from early quests. Levels 3-15/20 seem like a race from quest to quest once you know the best order to do them in. A new player might not know the order, but they're going to do exploring anyway. Oasis seems like it's in a good spot. Possibly lower the XP of side quests but raise the XP of the main. Citadel quests need buffed XP-wise. I still don't have a level 40 after many hours, but do have a bunch of level 35s because I get bored farming Umgah's after finishing (almost) all the quests.

[solar777]

I'm agreeing with Yune and Cornflower that lowering the amount of xp a character gets isn't going to help. With that, we also already have a cap on xp gained. I've played this with over 12 characters and it's the grinding that's monotonous - you can only kill so many Ettins, Waste Giants, etc., before desiring to fight something else. Exploring the Ettin area doesn't take long, the same for many other areas. I'd welcome more areas to explore on the surface, such as a small town and/or village, an isolated farmer area and so on. Skara Brae looks like a small village but there's only one person to talk to. Different people of interest in various areas. I enjoy the old man & woman sitting outside their home because of the vampire.

[Adalon]

I would agree with the rest of the folks above to not lower XP gain, if possible. That lack of a monotonous grind was one of the things that actually drew me to this server in the first place after jumping through over a dozen servers over the last 2 weeks. The world is already pretty fantastic, with lots of quests and areas to explore. I think the world is pretty perfect for what parts I've seen. It is certainly the only one that has me wanting to play another character and I'm pretty sure I played through at least the starting areas of all the "most popular" servers in the last 2 weeks. I would think that replay value will probably get more use out of the hard work done in those areas than anything else.