[Wing]

I'm with Nehetsrev. I think our system works fine, though I might add.. it could be a bit more challenging than it is now. Seems too many of you have shot all the way up relatively easy and I see that as a problem, not a good thing.

Very much agreed, especially that it is a bit too easy right now.

This has become such a pervasive problem I am cutting my mini-vacation short to work a some potentially major systemic changes to address this, correct this, and avoid this problem in the future. I've only just moments ago brought them up to the staff for discussion, and I will loop in a couple non-staff members soon as well.

I certainly feel I'm one of the folks who have shot up relatively easily, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in. For background, I've been playing this server for just shy of 2 months, probably 6+ hours/day (cough), and my character is level 18. My background is at a server that took me 3 years to reach level 8. Needless to say, I find the advancement rate here very fast !

XP Gain / Speed: Too fast. From a character development standpoint, I've found Maera has gotten levels faster than she can assimilate the changes. That provides rp opportunities of its own, she's had to drink from a firehose, but there's something to be said for the fun of pursuing a goal as well as achieving the goal itself. While I wouldn't trade her level (it's now part of what has shaped who she has become), had that growth path been slower I believe it would have been positive.

There is careful balance between controlling level progression for someone who is playing a jaw-dropping number of hours, and providing a more casual player with a rewarding level of advancement. Perhaps a max xp / day, unlimited notoriety / day system (just to complicate programming ideas even more).

As far as Notoriety: I think programming a way to gain notoriety faster will only add to quicker progression, which I don't think is a good goal. It also seems that turning off xp to earn more notoriety introduces another way to min/max where the focus is on management of rewards rather than game play. Nehetsrev summed up my feelings quite well.

Most of the responses here seem to be in favor of disabling XP gain in some way and doubling Notoriety gain during that period. I, however, hold a different view about how that sort of system might affect things. The way I see it, if everyone suddenly starts gaining notoriety at a faster pace, we will soon end up with a server full of high-ranking individuals and hardly any of those of lower rank for them to give orders to.

I recognize that my background and expectation for character progression is VERY slow compared to most people, and that the success of a world hinges on drawing people to play. Level 8 in 3 years may be a bit slow : ) . I do believe,however, a slower speed would be equally or more rewarding.

-Wing