XP curve was too steep before, Now its a downhill slope.

Out of curiosity, and of boredom im looking to see what other players think of the subject.

Ive been here since the launch and can fondly recall the early days, and also many things which were less than optimal. Taking the good with the bad, you could still feel accomplished when your first character hit 50, and that epic archtype unlocked was an awesome bonus.

Now its common to hear, got this one to 50 in two weeks. I know this is an alt heavy game, but several solutions to the old grind were added over the years, alone they are good add ons, together they are rediculous.

First the truly slow slog thru the upper thirties up to firty, yes that truely took a long, long time. So they 'smoothed' out that part of them game. I was actually very much in support of that.

Then they smoothed out the first part- yet that is where the most of the game content is located.

This along with the total destroying of debt, which is a laughable 'penalty'. At best it is gone within the mission you are in.

To cap it off we have the resting xp, patrolling whatever you call it.

TLDR

- Im not the only one who thinks the xp floweth too much too fast now. If you agree, say why. If not, by all means share your view.

-who else wishes kheldians/soa's were kept as lvl 50 rewards? you get to 20 now in a day, or an hour..

First point: Yeah, the thirty to forty slog is still just that; a slog. Mostly due to lack of any decent content there. Even at forty onwards, blue side at least, there's still not much going.

What's that? Portal Corp? Oh, yes, send me off to every bloody giant outdoor map with a hundred and one glowies and a defeat all! No, I think not...

But, honestly? I still find I have a lot of characters sat around the twenties mark and up to about 32. Although I mostly try and skip to 22 as fast as possible.

Why? Because I have altitis and I have run low level stuff over and over and OVER again. The new stuffs good (except you, Graves. Go take a long running jump...) but it ends about level 10. Meaning you still have twelve levels to fill until you (finally) get SOs and start feeling super instead of average and handicapped.

So, no, I don't harken back to the 'good old days'. Because, to me, debt SUCKED and destroyed my fun. Good riddance to it. I, for one, don't play this game to have to grind my way out of exp debt and frustration (which, when running a Blaster, fighting to get OUT of debt often got you MORE debt!)



Second point; No. Unlocking EATs at 50 was bloody awful. 'Epic' didn't, doesn't and never will mean 'More Powerful'. If it was a more powerful or something AT then yes, sure. It should be something you might need to, dare I say this in game context, work at.
Kheldians especially are by no means more powerful than a normal AT. In fact they are often held as being WEAKER than regular ATs (I know its not true, but it's a conception. I also know that they are damn complex to get the hang of) and VEATs, while utterly awesome in a team of eight, are no solo tankmages.

In a game where altitis is the norm and indeed on record as being Dev encouraged, gating stuff at 50 doesn't sit well. Incarnates aside, I guess.
And even then they stole our bloody costumes and emotes ¬¬

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I like it the way it is now. It makes soloing much less sisyphean than it was in the old days.

My opinion..hmmm..I agree with what you say about leveling kitten quick in the early levels...I don't like it because there is so much stuff to do in those levels...I actually had to turn my XP off in 1st Ward because level 30 was staring me in the face and I was afraid if I did reach 30, I would come to a screeching halt.

Heroside The early 30s are ok because there is Croatoa, and in the 40s you get all the cool missions in PI....to me, the gap between leaving Croatoa and getting Tina's PI missions needs either another XP smoothing, or more content. If I am going to get bogged down, that is where the bogging happens for me.

I have not been here since launch, but I vividly recall what the game was like before XP Smoothing....shudder....I don't want to go back...no, no, no.

Lisa.

The old grind was too long. I have several 50s gotten that way, and much prefer more recent leveling.

Khelds were never that great. They're at the same power levels as other ATs when played very well, and the presence of Voids makes them actively worse. The shape shifting, for me at least, is off-putting in the extreme. And the story was pretty thin.

That's one area of the game that has improved.

If you think you are leveling too fast just go under options and turn off your exp. Problem solved.

If you think other people are leveling too fast then mind your own [pancake] business. Problem solved.

There's nothing stopping people from leveling at a slow leisurely pace if they so desire.

I'll agree with others. Leveling speed doesn't bother me. It's the lull in engaging content that comes in the late 30's and 40's. We have tons of leveling routes in the 1-20 range now. We need to beef up the mid to late game.

Want to experience debt? Keep playing the character until you run out of patrol XP and die a few times. There, you now have debt.

Okay lets see to respond to several posts..

First I do like the new 1-10 content but as a vet I am not about to do it over and over .. I have said it numerous times in other threads I have close to 6 years in game and do not need a mission that requires me to a) find the train station in Atlas Park and then b) ride the train to Kings Row. The only alternative, at this point, is Death from Below. I do like this option and I have started several new characters and each has run the trial 4 times for the buffs and left between level 13 or 14 to go do other things. While the old missions were boring beyond belief I think they should have kept them in game as a third option for players.

Second.. I agree with the majority here. I do not MISS being in debt. Not even a little tiny bit. I also don't miss being dirt poor.. thanks to innovations all it takes is one rare bit of salvage to fund a low level character for quite some time and keep them performing at maximum. Between that and how easy it has become to erase debt the game has become much more enjoyable.

Third I agree that more content between 30 -40 is required but perhaps even more important is content betweem 40 and 50. As bad as it is from 30-40 there are still several TFs that open up and you can jump on to level faster. Manticore at level 30, Numina at 35 and the ITF at 35 all give you other options beside just running contact or radio missions. Once you hit 40 all you can do is go back and exemplar down to run anything you may have missed or run the same stuff again until you reach 45 when the STF and LGTF kick in. Thankfully at all levels, above 20, we now have the added option of tip missions to increase the different means we have to advance. Its much better than it used to be but we could definately stand for a few more options between 30-50.

I prefer a slower leveling curve. On all my characters now,in order to maintain a steady but not fast rate, leveling from 35-50 is done exclusively using the SSA's, Tips/Alignment system and RWZ Borea missions. And each character is limited to play time of no more than 2 hours per day.

Often, I am quite sad when a character does reach 50 because, other than opening the Alpha slot, it means the end of my run with that character. So, I go to another server and create a dupe and start the whole process over again. On average it takes each of my characters about 6 months or longer to go from 1-50.

The Incarnate system simply does not provide enough incentive to level faster or take characters deeper into the system beyond Alpha level.

In order for the game to stay interesting, I try to have multiple chars at various stages of development. At any one time, there will be 2-6 below level 10; 2-6 @ 10-20; 4+ @ 20-30; 3 @ 30-40 and 2 @ 40-49. 75% of all my chars get played on at least a monthly basis.

I do have a couple of favorite level 50 chars I play weekly (including one who reached 50 in 2005) but I do not identify with any one character enough to call any my "main". I simply like a lot of concepts and have fun experiencing their variety.

As is quite evident, the process of leveling is far more important and enjoyable to me than the end point itself.

haven't ran some of the old content for a while...and Allison King reminded me why I don't...the back and forth from Brickstown to Dark Astoria to everywhere else wasn't worth the 21 merits...

I started just before i6 hit, and my first two characters took around a year to get to level 50 (with several bouts of Altitis and a couple breaks away from the game). Then the the VEATS became available. Some of the levelling/XP changes had been put in place already at this time, and I found it only took me a single month to get my Fortuna up to 50 with no Powerlevelling, running just with PUG's and my teammates.

Half of me is thankful for the changes, yet the other half of me thinks that they've made the game a little too easy.

Just for the record, when I used the word "you" in my post I meant in the general sense, not at the OP specifically. I've seen several threads recently where people were frowning on how fast other people have been leveling.