Crafting timelines gets you to 14 from 10. 14-15 sucks but it's doable. 15-20 doing writs isn't that bad.
I think experience is fine as is. Tonight I was in a grind group and gained two full levels, from 16 to 18. Everyone leveled at least once. Two full levels for a night's work, how much more do you realistically think I should have gained? There are only 50 levels to gain over 12 weeks and only so much to do at level 50.
If any MMO is basing its xp gain in order for people to get to max level in 12 weeks, they're doing it wrong. In a full expansion you should be able to: - get to max level with a decent amount of time remaining in the expansion - in a commited raid guild clear most or all of the raid content - have enough time to roll and play alts ... My guild has been on Stormhold since launch, and we're one of the 3 guilds still playing on that dying server. We're not Live players who look for fast XP rates, we specifically came to SH and now FG to enjoy vanilla-like content. That said, the XP gain is not only painfully slow, the good XP spots are also largely unavailable due to lack of instanced content and "assured" zones to play in. Go into OOLS, try to do the access quest and find a bot group going around killing the quest mobs. Good fun, eh. If you're level 15, and there are two other groups in Wailing Caves and/or BB, you have F all to do. Oh, you can go back to Darklight woods, do 7-8 quests, get maybe 50% of a level and be painfully underleveled to do anything else there. The XP rate is NOT fine. Not in adventuring, and even less so in crafting. 100% vitality lasting less than a level at level 40 is beyond ridiculous. And again, speaking of someone who's in a guild which has been there since the start, there's a number of people who are finding this low XP gain (much lower than it was on SH) simply frustrating, unfun and not rewarding enough to keep playing. While it gets better when you hit 20 and have more zones to choose from to grind in, and you can do HQs in the process, the first 18 or so levels are an utter borefest. (and I'm actually enjoying the server, but trying to be objective and convey not only my experience but of the people around me as well)
There are also a number of people who do think it's fine though. I still feel like everybody is ignoring my suggestions and just finding their own thing to talk about /shrug. I've got over 4 levels in the last day and I'm really not trying that hard, 32 now. Being able to get multiple levels in a day is fine to me, IDK what more people are asking for. If experience is boosted how people want it to be, may as well call TLE the new live server. And I'm being serious. Live experience was severely chunked and if experience is tuned across the board MANY things will become overtuned, trust me.
Expansions on TLE last 3 months, not a year like they did on Live. If you got to 50 after 2-3 months of casual play 12 years ago, and still had 9 months to go in an expansion, that's fine. If the expansion lasts 3 months and people feel frustrated and pressured to level or they will miss out on things, then no, its not fine. I've been "getting mutliple levels per day", doing HQs, in the 40s now, burned through about 6 XP potions and I probably 6-7 vitality potions. I've stopped chugging because the vitality pots (for example) feel like an utter scam. At worst, the experience should be like it was and is on Stormhold. There is a line where people who think vanilla EQ2 was about a painful slow grind and people wanting to experience content can both be satisfied. But that's not where we are now. I'm not saying up the xp because I want easy levels - neither me or my guild are about that and never were, as you can see by our record on Stormhold. I'm saying up the xp because its currently out of whack (you can't keep up with the quests, solo combat xp is non-existant, and the ONLY way to get levels is grind in dungeons that can be overpopulated or taken over by botters). I'm saying up the xp (not to ridiculous levels like on Live, just Stormhold level) to keep the player base here while the server is active and living. If people start leaving, if the bleed starts, it doesn't stop. Same happened with Stormhold and Deahtoll (though for different reasons) and once it starts, it never stops until the server dead.
If you prefer different experience gain rate perhaps you can ask DBG for a personalized solution like buying a bottle of experience or token of fast experience gain from game vendor or on market.
The ONLY way huh? There are a lot more instanced dungeons than you think there are actually. You can pretty much do "closed" or "private" instances all the way from 13-50 if you know them well and where to go. Some of them actually yield more experience than contested, especially when you don't have to compete with anybody. Also, you can keep up with quests, if you think you can't, you just aren't looking hard enough. Quest hubs hardly exist at this point, yet there are quests all over. You find them, but refuse to do them. For example, on DT I thought there were no quests in Nektulos, but that's all because I didn't want to to one quest to open up a huge simple quest line which I discovered here for the first time in my life. Repeatable quests generally give some good exp too, with a decent money amount. do them as much as possible. Solo combat exp could use an increase, yes, but it should be a scaling increase based on level, with a reduction to how it transfers over to heroics, because heroics actually give pretty decent experience, you can get a couple levels in high 20s just running Gobblerock's/Condemned Catacomb (Quests give massive experience here, be warned), and the lockout seems to flow fairly smoothly with the clear/travel time. If you think the experience is out of whack and that there isn't anything to do, you're doing something wrong.
It's not about me wanting more XP, it's about the server wanting and people staying interested in the game. If you don't think this low rate of XP and the sudden release of XP potions on a TLE server isn't sketchy, I'm not really sure what to tell you. Did you play Stormhold / Deathtoll? Again, we're one of the three surviving guilds on Stormhold. We can hardly be accused of wanting to storm through content or get "free xp".
Instances? What are you even talking about? Instances in vanilla EQ2 were never the focus of it (and rightly so), and they're a joke - being either simple clear-3-mobs and get a boss instance at the end of a dungeons, or a big open room with a load of trash and a boss at the end like Firemyst Gully. It's boring, uninspired, and no, doesn't give nearly as much as xp due to the ancient mechanic of contested zones and xp. Quests are a joke; particularly as the quest lines - as you say - are almost non-existant. I'm not saying you should be able to quest your way to 50, but running out of quests in Darklight Wood is ridiculous. The whole zone was set up so you can get to know the game and your class and quest your way to 17-18/19. Now you do your quests, you hit level 7, and you can't pick up the next batch until 9. You depend on collections and running around zones for discoveries etc. Quests giving "massive experience" is a blatant untruth (to call it mildly), even the heritages give you 7-8% (aside from jboots). There is stuff to do, I'm enjoying myself - but a lot of people in my guild are struggling. And again, this is a guild that's been there since the start on Stormhold and that's still there. That group of people playing particularly on a TLE server longterm tends to have a better feeling for the game and what it's gonna look like in 2 months than people streaming over from Live and "enjoying nostalgia" for a couple of weeks and then going back.
When we talk about speed we have three group of people. - People that think that speed is low - People that think that speed is OK - People that think that speed is high Can you think of a solution that can satisfy people from all 3 groups instead of making 1 group of people happier and the other 2 groups unhappier?
I think the amount of people who think this XP rate is "high" has to be very, very low in number. As for the original post, there are some good ideas in there, but being realistic, you have to know DBG don't have the time nor the personnel to go into such in-depth changes. A blanket increase to combat/TS XP gain is all we can hope for. Not a massive increase, but like I said, Stormhold-like XP seemed pretty much spot on. Fallen Gate went overboard - especially if you take into account the suddenly on-sale XP potions and the lack of trust people have developed with DBG over the years (not talking specific devs here, most of them are hard working and friendly and well-meaning, but the corporation has its share of shady decisions towards customers).
Then I am behind the majority of the players which is not very logical on TLE server. Being behind means I can't normally group with others.
Besides, Fallen Gate is a huge success as far as I can see. A month ago Maj'dul was a most populated server at least at times when I logged in. Now I see that Fallen Gate in 100% full while Maj'dul is 20-40% full. Let's keep it like this for a couple of months
I think people are overlooking an obvious problem it seems... Simply consider that the grind will get easier each xpac. You effectively have 6 months to get to 50 and then every 3 months after you need to get 10 levels. The grind is bad now, sure, but it's because you're making it that way. It's been 10 days out of 84. Chill guys. There's barely anything to do at 50 this xpac anyways.
Then you are doing it wrong. Once you hit level 15 crafter, you can start getting crafting writs (not the rush writs, note). I leveled from 15 to 20 in about an hour. The reason? Crafting writs don't just pay you a little cash, they give you tradeskill XP *in addition* to what you get doing combines. I was at zero crafting vitality at the end of that little push, I do admit. But it was fast and easy.
Maybe I missed something but I thought they said the xpacs were going to be every 3 months. Where did the 6 months to get to 50 come from?
A guildie of ours had all the crafters on Live, and has all the crafters on Stormhold. I'm pretty sure she gets to max level on several crafters before anyone else gets a single one. And she's saying the TS XP is pathetic. I tend to believe her.
Then you are doing it wrong. Once you hit level 15 crafter, you can start getting crafting writs (not the rush writs, note). I leveled from 15 to 20 in about an hour. The reason? Crafting writs don't just pay you a little cash, they give you tradeskill XP *in addition* to what you get doing combines. I was at zero crafting vitality at the end of that little push, I do admit. But it was fast and easy. EDIT: Oops, forgot to address level 1-9, and 10-15. I'm too late to amend the prior post, so here's the whole thing. To start with, go to your home city and speak to a Crafting Trainer at crafting level 1. That gets you bumped up to level 2. Then speak to a Tradeskill Tutorial NPC to start the Tradeskill Tutorial line, which ultimately gets you your Artisan's Tunic, which gives a small boost to your crafting skills. As soon as possible, do the Tutorial: Learning To Harvest. This nets you a 12-slot harvesting bag and a big harvest storage box for your bank. When you harvest, clearcut. By this I mean harvest EVERYTHING, including bushes, logs, rocks, roots, etc. As an "Artisan" at levels 1-9, you can craft at every single crafting station. You don't just focus on tubers (I'm assuming you want to grow up to be a Tailor). No: instead, craft Journeyman spells out of the loams until you run out of loams, craft some piece of tin/iron armor/weapons until you run out of the common metals, craft low-level jewelry until you run out of the common soft metal and gems, cook yourself stacks of one food and one drink, and so on. On regular servers, at about level 5 you should start the Shipwrecked Timeline (Altar of Malice) and A Gathering Obsession Timeline (Fallen Dynasty). The regular servers also have a crafting timeline from level 20 up (Echoes of Faydwer) that results in several nice mounts plus tradeskill XP for the quests themselves. The TLE servers won't get these until the associated expansions become available. You absolutely need good drink equipped while crafting. Otherwise you run out of energy. Read the recipes, or check Niami's helpful guide to food/drinks, You Are What You Eat. I try to craft up or purchase whatever drink (a) lasts the longest and (b) when possible gives good stats (same for food). You will find that a LOT of low-level common harvests are being sold on the broker for 1 copper... especially food materials That means that even if you don't want to harvest, you can pretty reasonably get crafting materials. Roots and hard metals are typically expensive at every tier, food common materials, usually dirt cheap. Once you hit level 10, you are forced to choose a crafting archetype (Scholar, Craftsman, Outfitter). You still are not limited to just one crafting station yet! Scholars will have recipes for the scribing desk, work bench, and chemistry table. Craftsmen have recipes for the woodworking table, stove & keg, loom , and forge. Outfitters have recipes for the forge and loom. Use all the crafting stations available to you to craft up common materials to level. Pick some one thing at each and craft until you run out of materials for it, then move to the next. At level 15, you will be able to get normal crafting writs, and those level you FAST. Pretty soon after you hit level 19, talk to the crafting trainer to choose your final profession, and they'll jump you to level 20. Once you are in your final profession, rush writs become available, and so that's what you want to grind to level crafting the fastest. Also at level 20, you can start the Journeyman Service quest, which you should absolutely do before starting to harvest in T3. T3 harvesting is easiest in Thundering Steppes because you can see both harvesting nodes and potential monsters easily. Near the docks, pick up harvesting quests from Duggin Brandywine: each of his quests gives tradeskill XP, plus you're going to be clearcutting ANYWAY, so you might as well get credit for it! On a regular server, you'd want to start with Quo Augren's harvesting quests even earlier, but this isn't available on TLE.
