Starting on Talus 2

[Badwater]

Talus 2 is going to be harder in terms of combat and leveling than Talus 1 is. I figure there is no reason to make them the same and if combat difficulty isn't your thing then you do have a choice as to where to adventure.

That said, I'm thinking it's going to be easier to die in T2, especially for brand new characters. I'd like some feedback on whether I should allow for new characters to immediately get to level 2 before adventuring, by training on a combat dummy or something like that.

I'm inclined to incorporate a feature like this, because it's going to be hard enough out there but being level 2 really helps weaker classes like rogue and wizard starting out.

Comments?

[Osa]

I love my rogues I think it would be a great idea to be at levle 2 before starting out.

So if I am reading correctly Taslus2 is going to be more of a hack and slash than a rolll play server.

[Badwater]

Jan 18, 2011 16:21:44 GMT -5 Osa said:

...

So if I am reading correctly Taslus2 is going to be more of a hack and slash than a rolll play server.

No. If you're reading correctly, combat and leveling will be harder on Talus 2 than on Talus 1.

[ellis]

Rather then just giving level 2 away, perhaps make it easy to get level 2 without combat by having the new players exploring the new city, perhaps 4 small quests that give 500 exp at the beginning could fix that.

[slidermike]

I am a bonafied hater of non haste levels as anyone will tell you BUT....

for some strange reason I would rather see a couple of alternatives to just starting at lvl 2 because some areas are too hard for the certain classes that are weaker early on.

A couple of thoughts that jump to my mind would be..

#1 any class you deem too weak at lvl 1 could temporarily gain an allie from the local tavern. Hence making a meat shield and adding attacks per round for that person. These henchmen could be npc or an animal such as a hunting dog. I bet BW would love to have a hunting falcon on his character!

#2 modifying the "on enter" area scripts to spawn based upon character class and level. Yes this is more work on the front end for BW (he is doing all the heavy lifting).

Dunno why but just giving away levels in a world you are trying to start out making balanced and slower to level in seems a bit off.

[Badwater]

Jan 19, 2011 14:11:27 GMT -5 slidermike said:

I am a bonafied hater of non haste levels as anyone will tell you BUT....

for some strange reason I would rather see a couple of alternatives to just starting at lvl 2 because some areas are too hard for the certain classes that are weaker early on.

A couple of thoughts that jump to my mind would be..

#1 any class you deem too weak at lvl 1 could temporarily gain an allie from the local tavern. Hence making a meat shield and adding attacks per round for that person. These henchmen could be npc or an animal such as a hunting dog. I bet BW would love to have a hunting falcon on his character!

#2 modifying the "on enter" area scripts to spawn based upon character class and level. Yes this is more work on the front end for BW (he is doing all the heavy lifting).

Dunno why but just giving away levels in a world you are trying to start out making balanced and slower to level in seems a bit off.

I think allowing someone to jump to level 2 isn't a huge deal, in that it's not going to avert death later on. I was running a level 2 around some of my encounters and I had to be really really careful as it was. Attacking a training dummy to get to level 2 is optional, after all, and not everyone is a combat ace, especially at level 1.

That said, the idea of a henchman for perhaps 3 levels might not be a bad idea. I think I'll look over what was involved when we had henchmen in Challenger's Inn and see if something can be easily modified to only work for the first 3 or 4 levels.

[Badwater]

Jan 19, 2011 13:21:09 GMT -5 ellis said:

Rather then just giving level 2 away, perhaps make it easy to get level 2 without combat by having the new players exploring the new city, perhaps 4 small quests that give 500 exp at the beginning could fix that.

I'm disinclined to do this for a few reasons: 1) Quests specifically designed for a level 1 or 2 is a waste of time. Since quests will be (likely) done again then it's more than a bit onerous to put all that time setting up a quest like that, one that isn't more universal or that is still challenging at a later level. 2) If we go with multiple entry points later on, based on race, mechanically this isn't feasible but training centers in the starting cities or towns are. 3) There is no way in Hades I'm giving 500 xp for an easy quest! 100, maybe. Maybe less.

[Edohvi]

Well if not 500xp can I hear 1000? Hehe, just joking. Maybe the training areas/centers might be a good option?

[Badwater]

Well, I do like slider's idea of a henchman, and something along the lines of Gunak on Pirate Island is exactly what I have in mind. I'd have a NPC that has a conversation conditional not to offer a henchman to anyone level 6 and over, for example, and the rest of Gunak's scripting would be easy to modify.

[masterstrife]

I like the idea of a henchman early on as well. Certainly helps for those dangerous early encounters.

I havent always been on Talus so from what other worlds Ive played on Ive also liked the idea of getting early rewards for simply just exploring the area or some simple quest to get you just a touch of xp. Not a levels worth but something to congratulate the player for exploring the initial area(s) or interacting with other npcs. It encourages the players to interact with what the builder created and adds a way to get new people involved in the world or hinting at quests or towns they could work their way to as they adventure.

Many times Ive been at new worlds and quickly get discouraged when I find my way into an area I should never have visited. Im not saying write a handhold questline, just something for maybe the first 3 levels so players can get an accurate and comfortable introduction to a great world.

-MS

[HC Sayuri]

I would vote for using the time between level 1 and 2 to have the person get to know the initial area and do small (non combat) starting quests, such as apprenticeship or such.

I think making someone work for the level a bit sounds fine. Every peon has to start somewhere. ;-)

[Badwater]

After some playtesting, I'm finding that getting past level 1 can be a bit of a challenge.

The thing about quests and henchmen is that it simply is not intuitive where a quest or henchman is going to be in some of these large cities. Just as not everyone cares for RP, not everyone is going to explore every crack and door in a city before venturing into the countryside. It would be great if they did, but not everyone will, nor should they necessarily be compelled to.

I will continue to tweak encounters, but I still may allow for an option to get to level 2 right away. There's still plenty of death to be had for 38 more levels.

[Badwater]

I think this is what I'm going to do - in order to have something available sooner for players I'm going to initially have a combat dummy that will level you up to level 2 to start. The reason for this is that I'm not going to have much, if anything, available for beginning quests.

After I add quests that will get the beginning PC some gold and xp, I will delete the combat dummy. Also, I think I'll make beginning quests that are only available for the first 4 or 5 levels, so that they won't be spammed by higher levels. The higher levels will have other stuff available to them, obviously, and don't need the beginning quests.

[HC Sayuri]