Will we just all be the same at lvl 200? FUNCOM READ THIS!

[Laszarus70]

Originally posted by ZenBeck
...Even w/ the best gear you are still going to have trouble fighting some mobs so what are you going to do? You’re going to group and gain xp at a very fast rate.

That's a function of grouping, not having great gear bought with "illicit" credits.

Originally posted by ZenBeck
My lvl 56 Soldier got 2 lvls last night in LF (big cave with the lifebleeders). He has far from the best gear and died the first few times he went there due to inadequate gear. Lets say you play 4 nights a week. That’s lvl 128 in 16 weeks. That’s a far cry from lvling a “little” faster.

That's grouping in action right there. You supposed to be able to get XP that fast in a group, good gear OR crappy gear.

And here's the important part...Leveling slows way, way down as you get higher in level. The required XP curve is exponential. Just wait, you'll see. You don't start feeiling the XP pain till level 80-85.

Originally posted by ZenBeck
I was on the shopping chl last night and know what I saw?
“WTB a full set of X armor paying HUGE”
“WTB QL 60 Tank armor will pay 500k” (this was a lvl 19 char. Wants ql 60 tank armor? He had on a full set of omni pol armor already and has another 500 large?)
“Need buffs for hi lvl implants paying big big credits.”
I see a pattern forming here.

This is the ONLY effect of moving credits from high level players to low level players. Which btw, I mentioned in my post. Low level peeps will have trouble competing monetarily for the same gear. Is this a bad thing? Ehhh, it's not great, but there is more gear than just that one piece. You can find almost anything in auction if your patient.

Originally posted by ZenBeck
Ask your self this. Will the ability to get millions of credits for 10 bucks lvl a good portion of the population at a hi rate?

Again, your assuming that a large percentage of people will buy credits on E'bay. I seriously doubt that will happen. Will some do it? Yes, of course. Will a significant majority do it? Nope.

Also, this argument is flawed. Getting millions of credits will not let you level at a high rate.

Originally posted by ZenBeck
Will Funcom increase the difficulty of the game if they see people lvling at a ludicrous rate? (heh…they have already started) Will the average player be able to play with the mob difficulty being determined by players with the best gear credits can buy? If you are truly involved with the game would you spend the 10-20 dollars to keep up?

I see where your trying to go with this entire argument. "free" money -> fast levels -> increased difficulty. Repeat in a loop. The outcome of that, if it were true, is the inability of the non-e'bayer to even play the game.

But "free" money != fast levels. So the whole argument breaks down.

[_____________ZenBeck]

Damn laszarus, your not a lawyer by any chance are ya? …lol You can dissect my words any way you want…the fact still remains. All that stuff on ebay sucks with a capitol UCKS. AO is supposed to run for 4 years. If Funcom lets this kinda thing go on it wont make it that long. I WANT IT TO!

All of my online friends went to DAoC just because they said this would happen…I held out. Mainly because if I see another dark elf I’m gona hurl, but over all because I love si fi and AO’s futuristic theme. Selling off a few hundred million credits and top notch gear on ebay will make AO a big joke. I see it starting to happen every night.

I just want to know where Funcom stands on the issue.

[______________Othgar]

Originally posted by ZenBeck
Damn laszarus, your not a lawyer by any chance are ya? …lol You can dissect my words any way you want…the fact still remains. All that stuff on ebay sucks with a capitol UCKS. AO is supposed to run for 4 years. If Funcom lets this kinda thing go on it wont make it that long. I WANT IT TO!

All of my online friends went to DAoC just because they said this would happen…I held out. Mainly because if I see another dark elf I’m gona hurl, but over all because I love si fi and AO’s futuristic theme. Selling off a few hundred million credits and top notch gear on ebay will make AO a big joke. I see it starting to happen every night.

I just want to know where Funcom stands on the issue.

Maybe you should do a search for Characters and Items in DAoC on Ebay. There are as many for that game as there are for AO. I think as long as you have people willing to pay real money for virtual items you will see them for sale everywhere. Supply equals demand.

BTW: This is true of almost every game that comes to mind, Diablo2, Asheron's Call, EQ, UO, AO, DAoC, etc, etc...

[______________Hodaka]

From what I've seen with Diablo2, the sale of items on ebay only makes guys I know want to play more.. I have students working for me who buy that stuff and can't wait to get back to playing with it. It "extends" the life of the game for them..

[______________Xombie]

People with that much dispensible (real life) cash should be shot...
I mean really, there must be some sort of mental disorder that causes a person to pay 300 DOLLARS for fake money. You'd have to be a sociopath.

[______________Hodaka]

Well, the students who work for me don't buy things like that. I've seen them pay $15-$20 for a bow in D2

There are good and bad things about being able to buy/sell items on ebay.. I'd never do it.. I guess it comes down to whether funcom wants to be the ebay police like verant..

Originally posted by Xombie
People with that much dispensible (real life) cash should be shot...
I mean really, there must be some sort of mental disorder that causes a person to pay 300 DOLLARS for fake money. You'd have to be a sociopath.

[Nikki.]

A quick answer to your question and thats Yes characters will only be defined by their professions special abilities above 175ish. This doesnt mean everyone will have a 200ish character anytime soon. It may be fast to level in the beginning but its super hard and will continue to get harder for the higher levels.


Next on the ebay issue.
Someone said ebay Gives exploiters a place to get rid of their ill-gotten loot. Well ya thats sorta true. If you look at it in a very narrow veiw of the power of ebay.

Exploiters will always exploit and they will always find a way to get rid of their loot for loot that matters, whether it be ingame or out. The only difference from an exploiter and any regular person is they will set up dummy accounts and false names so they can insulate themselves from actually getting their accounts banned. They know the money is out there and people will buy. So you cant stop them.

I saw Verant spend alot of time and money to stop ebay and they didnt even come close. Truth is I would rather have had those same people looking for su****ious sellers and fixing gameplay then spending all the time they did on the issue not to have it work at all. They still sell on ebay and yahoo so nothing was accomplished.

Not only that it means more money and stability for Funcom. See If you just let accounts go away then the game will always be in a flux of few players. As more bugs come out and ruin gameplay for a short period of time as is inevitable the game will begin to die. If you can keep people past those short but ruff periods in time then your game will undoubtably grow.

The way UO was able to continue on inspite of all their screw-ups was because people had invested so much in several accounts. This created a stable base of accounts in which the game could be grown on. Because even if the player was dissatisfied with the game at the moment they wouldnt cancel their accounts they would either pass them along via ebay or just keep paying for them untill they felt like playing again.

Ingame economy will never be ruined by the outside world. It is ruined by ingame bugs and lack of thought on the economy. Sure people can get tons of creds alot sooner than they should. This doesnt ruin the economy though it helps keep it going. If the money wasnt some how tradeable to the lower level players which make up the majority of players then the money would always stay in the hands of the higher level players.

Sure that may sound ideal but that only makes it harder on the new player as hte game goes on. That is because everything will continue to get more and more expensive and less and less obtainable by lower level people. This is not the way to encourage new players to play the game.

Anyways thats my ideas on ebay. Sure its in the TOS agreement not to buy or sell game items. The truth is though its only a vague oneline statement at the end of a longer statement not really pertaining to the line and very unnoticeable. That and Funcom hasnt made their intentions truely known on the issue yet. Its more of a line to protect their interests later on when they decide what to do. This assumption is backed up by how vague and out of place the one line statement mixxed into a large paragraph not pertaining to the statement is true.

BTW I do not sell on the ebay currantly until they make their intentions really known because I like my character. I do think its the right thing and will be allowed sooner or later. Its the only logical thing im my mind they could do.

[Laszarus70]

Originally posted by ZenBeck
..... AO is supposed to run for 4 years. If Funcom lets this kinda thing go on it wont make it that long.

Yeah, but does it Suck-diddly-uck Flanders?

There's no way Funcom could hold on to their playerbase if it ACTUALLY took 4 years to get to level 200. No way.

Look, I totally dig AO too. Sci-fi is my thing. I just think your attributing too much to the E'bay "problem". There is no correlation between money/items on E'bay and the game not lasting for 4 years. What *will* matter is if Funcom has made a compelling game or not. Is their storyline engaging? Is there sufficient high level content? Those things matter if they want to make 4 years.

And no, I'm not a lawyer. Ugh.

[___________Dibujante]

Having millions of creds won't actually speed up levelling too much, but isn't there supposed to be a conflict between the clans and OT onthis planet (Not to mention the neutrals, who are getting stirred up)? If people can super-twink and afford super-eq with lots of fake creds, won't it unbalance the three sides? Battles will be won or lost depending on which side had the richest (In Real Life) players!