Raised Outdoor XP?

[____________Sardunos]

I went outdoor hunting this evening and accidentally killed myself when, after healing, I forgot to re-target the MOB and cast a high-level combat Nano on myself.

Just thought I would share.

[Darkbane]

Outdoor hunting has moved closer to being feasable. But I keep reading people who say stuff like 'missions are almost risk-free' and I tend to agree. Certanly team missions should be a bit tougher than they are.

Some ideas:

1) Increase the density of larger 2 and 3 mob rooms in team missions and increase aggro slightly.

2) Decrease team mission xp 10%.

3) Make solo missions solo only (ie make solo mission keys non-duplicatable) so they can be balanced seperately from team missions.

4) Make some 'outdoor' style mission areas.

Just random thoughts, but the mission vs hunting thing is still too heavily biased in favour of missions.

[Dhurdahl]

Ok... what is the basic problem here???







1. We get XP too fast in missions!! thats the main problem. Too easy, too riskfree.







2. Lack of focus from FC regarding the purpose of missions.







How to solve:



1. Either raise xp/sec even more outdoors or nerf xp in missions hard. Raising xp outdoors more would just raise lvling speed even more, aka not a good solution!!! Nerfing mission XP, well without a lift in availible XP outdoors it would be impossible to implement So Im for a middle way, raising outdoors an additional 10%, and nerfing mission xp by 40% + lowering mission xp reward by huge bit! BUT we need more outdoors activities for that to work....





2. We must also ask ourself , why are missions there?
What's the focus?

Well, one answer is that's an easy way to cater the casual players... press a button, travel to the mission and get some xp... log out..









Focus? What role should missions and hunting have in the whole? What should be done where and why?







This is how I would want it to be!







Missions: credits, standard equipment, tokens.



Outdoors: XP, special equipment (aka rare, nodrop.....), quests items







And the destinction between those two should be absolutly clear! If you want's XP you hunt, no hesitation. If you want credits or tokens, you take a mission or two!








One of the more important thing too boost outdoors hunting with in my mind is to add lots and lots of quests that need items from outdoor mobs drop.


The spinoff effect of that is people will hunt outdoors to get hold of those items..


BAH, this turned into a NERF missions post!

[_______________Vydas]

Yes, it did, and that's my objection to it.

This is a game, and we all play it to have fun. What each of us finds fun is different, though, so there are always fine lines to walk to keep it that way for the most of us as is possible. We may not always want the same things for ourselves, either - sometimes you want a challenge, and other times you still want to be 'productive' but aren't really looking for a hassle.

Nerfing anything tends not to be fun, so it really isn't an attractive alternative. Your suggestions, for example, really would hinder solo play, especially for professions without crowd control. They will also lead to camping good spots, kill stealing and all the other features(!) that hunting outdoors can have.

Why nerf anything? Why not just raise outdoor hunting experience, and make more areas available? It's my opinion (and nothing more than that) that the risks of hunting outdoors will make it so that there will be more deaths, and leveling rate won't necessarily be increased by an unacceptable margin.

[____________Travesty]

Increased difficulty isnt a nerf. I dont want solo missions to change. I totally agree with vydas's concern of affecting solo play. Though as I stated in another thread, team missions are incredibly easy. If a team can run straight through a mission without pausing, there is no way to make positive changes to outdoor hunting to balance it. Try to run through belial, dav, Pw, or EFP with a team at that pace. You might be able to survive by avoiding the larger clusters of critters. But, in no way will you recieve the xp in comparison.


Ill say this until my fingers fall off : MOG player decisions are based on reward per hour, not reward per kill. Risk and access go hand in hand with it.

[__________Specialone]

people have to remember that LONG before team missions and even before BS became powerlevelcity, outdoor hunting was the best way to get xp, and missions were the only way to get items/cash.

Nearly a year ago (approx) FC nerfed the outdoor hunting spawns in many many areas so people could not get xp/level quickly. It used to be the case that outdoor areas were a veritable playground with teams all over the place competing for hunting areas. All over GTC and VW the spawns were totally nerfed (as a young clanner at the time I can't say I hunted many other places regularly). The OPs were places to pick up a team. lol I loved the OT rookie camp with the wierd radio static in E gtc

I still have no idea why this was done.

But the recent patches seem to be an attempt to give players other options to BS missions, and I think that's a good thing. I've had a blast checking out the dynacamps all over the planet as well as exploring all corners of RK.

SO I say
a) increase outdoor hunting XP 150-200% (at the high end imho)
b) toss more aces and RM mobs in those 180-200ql team missions
c) bring back the spawns that aren't way the **** out in the middle of nowhere for the lower lvl chrs

my fear is that FC will nerf BS missions, since nerfing is what FC usually does when they see a problem, but I say who cares - if anyone can stand the BS powerleveling repetition, more power to 'em

just give the rest of us a more VIABLE OPTION to BS

[____________Ejeckted]

leveling from 150-200 is already painful and slow.
it doesn't need nerfing. it needs fixing.
it's not keeping accounts active longer.
it's boring people out of the game.
funcom doesnt talk to players when they leave.
we do.
and I am telling funcom at every opportunity that
the monotony of the high level game is the #1 reason
my friends and guildmates give for leaving the game.

I'm fairy certain it's too late to change the XP curve,
so at least make the methods by which we gain XP
at higher levels more enjoyable and less tedious.

Perhaps there should be % curve fix for outdoor hunting.
starting at level 100ish at 10% and 50% by level 200.

I also think it may be a good idea to give a bonus to
soloing outdoors. Like an extra 50% if you're outside
and not in a team. Because that's what real 'hunting' is.
It could actually make the game playable for soloists
and casual gamers and people who dont want to have
how long they have to play dictated to them by others.

[r4v3n]

MASSIVE BUMPAGE SCUMBAG!!!!!!


BUMP BUMP BUMP'A'TI BUMP....


Great idea.... Nuf said !!!!

[locomdenom]

Originally posted by Sardunos
I went outdoor hunting this evening and accidentally killed myself when, after healing, I forgot to re-target the MOB and cast a high-level combat Nano on myself.

Just thought I would share.

Sard: my favorite moment ever was hearing the other fixer I was kiting Greater Anuns with (at level 80 or so, mind you!) go:

"Crap."
"What?"
"I hit root."
"So? We're kiting, roots are okay."
"On myself."
"Oh."

He also forgot he had Reckless uploaded.

[Okatek]

i will do outdoor hunting when the xp is like 100k pr kill
(yeah just like Medusa camp) and the HP isent like 30 min kill..

at higher lvls like 120+ you need million$$ of xp to lvl
not every one have the play time to do all does insane(yeah you hurd the word) "small" xp rewards that almost kill you and your team.. 10% is not the way to go..make a camp or 3 that is basic a lvl up place..dont make it easy..but make it like a "controled" level up place for people..funcom..people wont to lvl you know..
and maybe thay even sty longer in this game if thay can lvl more.
people make alts..

/bow.

[____________Ejeckted]

the terrible pace of the high-level game really does
discourage rolling alts, which imho would be much
more likey to extend subscriptions than making the
treadmil of your first toon so tedious that he hates
the game by the time he gets there.

[Darkbane]

The best idea would to make the 'update nearby team members' feature of team missions give a key to any team member in range regardless of whether they have the mission or not.

Then remove the key duplicator from the game altogether.

Now team and solo missions do exactly what they say on the tin...

And that means the challenge level can be better tailored to the mission type.

[_______________Vydas]

Originally posted by Darkbane
The best idea would to make the 'update nearby team members' feature of team missions give a key to any team member in range regardless of whether they have the mission or not.

Then remove the key duplicator from the game altogether.

Now team and solo missions do exactly what they say on the tin...

And that means the challenge level can be better tailored to the mission type.

I completely disagree, because this limits choices even more. If people want to do solo missions as teams, why does that matter to anyone else? Alternatively, especially in view of all the team mission only loot, if people want to solo those, what difference does it make?

Restrictions are not good. Make outdoors be more appealing is a better idea, at least imo.

[Darkbane]

The only thing it limits is preventing a team doing a solo mission. Which is no big deal - maybe the mission generator could just give you two keys per mission so you *could* bring a friend along - but removing teams from solo missions allows them to be balanced for solo play seperately from team missions. And for the solo player, that *is* a big deal, especially with 14.6 impacting solo play still further.

[Thyrra]

let me get team missions even if i am not in a team and i'll get a team mission 99% of the time because that is where the useful loot is found.

[Darkbane]

Which is yet another reason.

Team missions could then be balanced *for* teams and solo missions for single players (not that a single player wouldn't be able to at least attempt a team mission, but it would be harder).

This would of course need a re-evaluation of loot and mission rewards, so solo players were capable of finding the same sort of stuff as team players (maybe it would be easier to find in a team of course), and that mission rewards were the sort of thing you could buy in shops and therefore using CS or having a more CS like interface for missions would not cause loot-inflation.

The missions are one of the best aspects of AO. However, they have problems that really need to be addressed.

[____________Ejeckted]

personally, I hate missions.

I didnt used to hate them this much,
but there are basically 4 missions in AO,
same rooms in different arrangments,
that you get to do 10,000 times over and over.

to me, 'solo play' means hunting.
It means roaming the world,
carefully selecting your prey,
avoiding the monsters that will kill you,
and trying to have fun in that playstyle.

Hunting is not pulling mobs from overcrowded camps.
Camps are not for soloists.
The open range, fields, forests, etc should be for soloists.
But that means there must be changes in the spawn system,
mob behaviour, as well as increased XP rewards
and attractive only-found-outside loot.
(just like there is team-mission-only loot)

Hunting on rubi-ka right now is barely possible,
and definately not viable, and offers no rewards
in comparison to missions. That needs fixing.

Solo missions are basically the same as team missions,
just a little more sane in length and no boss loot.
So I have no idea why you'd want to shut anyone out.
IMHO solo missions vs team missions is just a time issue.
Some palyers dont have 2hours+ to finish a team mission.

Missions do need more variety in setting/rooms,
to help alleviate the repetativeness.
And I would really like to see larger rooms where
crowd control and range can be used more effectively.
And more variety in the look of mobs too.
(give mobs a variety of weapons, dammit)
Maybe even a surprise once in a while . . .

[xyberviri]

Originally posted by Ralakan
Back when i started, people hunted outside for exp, and missioned for items/cash... it was a good balance.

It was like this up about level 100 or so then the xp just doesn't match a controlled personal private hunting ground a high level mission can provide. people figured out that you can make bookoo xp by just turning up the difficulty.