IMO, EXP loss gets too harsh at later levels.

[Ade]

I think it should top off at 1000, and here is why:

If you can't find a group (which is hard for some of us who aren't on at prime hours) you have to solo. And at later levels, you have to fight tooth and nail with enemies that only give about 80-200 EXP apiece. The areas you fight these enemies in are obviously intended for groups, so it's easy to get screwed and lose 45 minutes of progress due to bad luck.

It's lame when you're doing excellent and you suddenly die out of nowhere and get penalized greatly for it. If i want to replay the same spot over and over to re-earn my EXP, I may as well go back and play regular Nintendo games that make you start all over every time you get Game Over.

This is a great server, but if you're not already an expert at the game, it's almost impossible to do well. Luckily I'm naturally adept at games and I seem to be catching on okay, but I think a lot of players may be lost (or even shy away from online) when they get absolutely crushed while playing the best they can.

Losing can make a player better. Getting absolutely destroyed over and over makes people want to not play at all.

I suppose my two cents on the matter isn't worth much. I've only owned NWN for 2 months, and most of you know everything about the game and probably knew a lot before you came to NS4, so you may not be able to empathize. I only played 2 chapters of the original NWN campaign before hopping online.

I'm getting frustrated at how much studying, planning, and number crunching I have to do. There's so much downtime and thinking that I'm losing out on the experience of the game.

I am a philosophy major, and I do enough reading and studying. The amount of stuff there is to know about this game far surpasses the content of a college course (and probably some entire college degrees) and I'm wondering if this massive time investment is worth it. When am I going to get to the fun part?

Do you ever reach a point where the, "WTF why did I just get killed I didn't do anything wrong" comes to an end? Or is this game all about the lucky dice?

[Gornickthy]

I played on a server where when (not if, but when) you died you lost 2/3 of your xp and everything you own was left on your corpse which you had to go out and try to find afterwards if you wanted your stuff back. Even if you found your stuff you would still be missing a good deal of it and most of your gold. A friend and I quit playing the server when it became apparent that when you hit certain lvls that the DM's would actually kill you off (a DM actually killed both of us and used a mob to loot everything we had).

So in the overall scheme of things, I really don't think the xp loss here is really that bad. At higher lvls if you are getting 80-200 xp per kill then you are still doing good. When you get around 15-30 per kill then it is time to move on to a new area. The only places you really need parties for are the planes. At the right levels everywhere else can pretty much be soloed.

When running solo, and being new to a server/game setting, there will always be a learning curve. If no one in game will assist you then hit the forums with questions, and you will find that there are many people here that will be happy to help (there will be some who will flame and spam, but just ignore them if you can).

Outside of that all I can say is enjoy the game and explore, explore, explore.

[cely]

I just wanted to say that as much as I dislike the Mystral Ascendancy, IO folks usually post very constructive and informative feedback. I imagine if some other Mystral ascenDancy folks were to reply to Ade's post it would go something like this, "can u repeat in english? we dont speak whine." Which of course is not constructive or informative at all and only serves to drive off new players.

Keep up the good work IO, you're a positive part of the Neversummer Community. Just keep your slimy tentacles away from my brain.

[Ade]

Thanks guys. I feel better today. Sometimes I need to get away from the game for a day and let my resolve come back.

Sometimes it helps to vent frustration.

[Amoenotep]

i played/dm'd on a server that took 5k xp/lvl after lvl 10. needless to say, you didn't want to respawn very often.

[Lorkar1]

Sucking up to the powers that be Tal? (I think someone wants to be a DM)
Just kidding...good advice, though I know Ade's woes as much as anyone since I spend more time soloing than partying...yes...I am anti-social...my fiancee tells me so.
The server you were speaking of was truly a great server with that fatal flaw of DM inhibitors, like killing people that approached 6th level.
The server was/is EfU (Escape from the Underdark), great questing ability and total RP. But the penalties were a killer, literally.

[Zing]

Hi Ade,

Welcome to the server. One of the things we try to foster at NS4 is a slightly different approach to the RPG.

RPG's generally all seem to be about 'getting to the next level'...you know just like every other game you every played - Pac Man anyone?

On previous NWN servers I've had multiple level 40 toons in very little time and while great at first, after not long that does become a very shallow experience. Remaking an entire toon to make one change during the build was 'normal'.

With NS4 you have to take a step back from 'getting to the next level'. A level 40 toon here is a fine achievement indeed and something to be very proud of flaws and all.

All of the factions now have some specific job quests in order to help get your toon started out

Of course leveling up and being able to get new gear etc is great fun, even more so on this server in my opinion because you really earned it.

I would recommend approaching the guilds to see if there is anyone else around regularly during your timezone that you can team up with.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Ade]

Thanks.

Yeah I'm Lv. 29 now and I seem to be hitting a brick wall lately. I'll see if I can scrounge up a good party tonight :3

[Lorkar1]

Welcome to the 29-32 level doldrums. It seems (to me at least) to be the hardest levels to get through. You can't get enough xp from Zons and get pounded by everything above Zons. Maybe you will get lucky and find the party that shoots through those levels in one night.

[Findor]

Zons is good up until L32 or so. The two NPCs you have to be wary of are Ritualists and Lancers. The trick to soloing that area is having an AC around 50 with Improved Invisiblity (or around 54 AC w/o II) and avoiding Ritualists (unles you have FoM) until the last. Luring skill is also very essential, because if you get mobbed you will almost certainly die. I usually head up to Zons once I reach L25, but I almost always have toons with decent AC and am very careful in luring mobs.

The real slow down begins in the mid-30s, especially with toons having an ECL of 2 or 3.

[~kSt~Warlord~kSt~]

i have an idea :

dont die

or run 2 accounts

[Ade]

Well, running 2 accounts is lame because that's not how the game was intended to be played.

And the "don't die" part, as great of advice as that is, is not avoidable 100% of the time. I have a "Respawn" death occur maybe once every 3 days, but even then it's still frustrating to lose EXP.

[Mental]

Ya know findor is right bout 1 thing, use improved invis, gives 50% concealment, but you dont need 50+ ac tho. I done it with like 45 even and concealment. I even done zons before with like 45 ac and no concealment, I think the trick is not gettin tauntesd maybe.

I have a question tho, maybe i missed it, but what class r u Ade?

[frogofpeace]

Gets some pierce resist, as well, if nobody has already said it.

[Ade]

Lv 31 Paladin now, and I just got a Pierce Resist Armor today. Can't remember the name. Things are improving, though.