Vaniki has been out for 2 weeks, and I'd like to give my own opinion about what works... and what doesn't. I am only going to refer to those changes that differentiate it from a "normal" TLP server, so I'm not going to debate the truebox or tradable aspect of the server, just the Level Locked Progression changes. Pro: Having all the lowbie zones in Kunark, Velious, and Luclin open from the start are great. People were much more spread out, and there were always camps to find. Places like Kurn's Tower and Tower of Frozen Shadow were actually used to level, not just powerlevel your fifth alt. Con: XP rate. It was FAR too quick. People were hitting max level in 4-5 hours, and you could do it faster on an XP bonus weekend. As an example, I got in a group at 22, we got keys and pushed up. By the time we got to the 4th level, people were hitting 40 and leaving. The XP rate is just far too high. If a TLP uses this ruleset in the future, PLEASE lower the XP gain. Put a high starting XP penalty in, which offsets the automatic increase from GoD releasing. Then when progression level hits 60, turn that increase off. Pro: All classes and most races available from the beginning. Having Beastlords and Berserkers in from the start has really made things more interesing, and having Iksar, Vah Shir, and Frogloks in has been great. Con: Plane of Knowledge. This may be an unpopular opinion, but having PoK in from the start is bad. It just reduces the size of the world, makes things like Druid/Wiz ports trivial. There really needs to be some way of turning off PoK access, like putting a lvl 61 cap on entering until lvl 55 is unlocked. Also, there is currently zero reason to do spell research since all the spells are for sale in PoK. So far, however, I'm having a lot of fun, and I'm definitely not missing the bot armies and krono lords.
Exp rate was fine, if you want it lower remove exp potions. Exp rate for normal players shouldn't be balanced around people who don't kill a single mob without a 75% exp pot running and spent weeks doing practice runs to level as fast as possible. Good. Research is an awful system that costs way to much money for what a player is expected to have at certain levels.
