Suggestions to Balance Twinking

[Riorik]

Lets see. Here's my original full statement.

Really? I can tell you about me and my own experience starting up a new low level character recently. Other than tomes (which were insignificant to capabilities...they were convenience because I wanted it now), I did not bother limited twinking until 4th+...and seriously doing it until 8th+.

Lets analyze...so lets say a player does exactly what you propose. Melee build that throws on a huge pile of CSW potions, +2 MFP, +2 MHS, best weapons, whatever and we go with...the quests he would run, either solo or in a group, weren't really balanced on difficulty for him. His is the extreme condition that was ALWAYS possible, just unlikely in the first week after DDO was released that one player would actually have all of that available. Perhaps unlikely is the biggest understatement of the year.

Which is actually my response to this precise quote of yours:

False. Twinked gear plays its biggest role at lower levels, and not at higher level.

The difference between a new player and a player with a stack of CSW potions and Maelstrom or a flaming longsword, a +2 Mithril FP and a +2 heavy steel shield is beyond ridiculous. At mid levels, the gap reduces slightly and then enlarges at higher level (but that is more acceptable).

Your analysis could not be more wrong. Challenge is an important of gameplay, and jealousy has nothing to do with the issue.

As you can plainly see, I used your exact example of what equipment that a character might twink with. This is a narrow focus. Both you and I are targeting the question on characters that would twink with this type of gear. Clearly, level 1-2 and NOT likely to be much higher.

To which you replied with ONLY:

That has nothing to with what I said.

I can only assume you just pulled that out of thin air since not only did you write a comment about specific equipment for twinking, I used your example and I asked a specific question about it.

You did finally answer on my second request with:

The answer is both.

I'll break it down more slowly for you. In my quote, I have four "sentences" in the second "paragraph". I use those terms loosely because it's not exactly good grammar, however, there are four periods. The first two refer to the twinking situation...the specific equipment you mentioned and I used as my specific example. The third sentence is clearly a comment on the first two and clearly refers to how in the first week after DDO went live, it's unlikely (remember that word), that any player would have capped characters, acquired that equipment, then been able to start twinking characters that soon with it. The last sentence uses a common linking word...(unlikely) to link the 3rd and 4th sentences together in concept. The 4th sentence is merely a description of the 3rd. It is not a summary for the entire paragraph or the question.

I would agree, standing alone, you never discussed that in the first week of DDO's release that it would be unlikely for any player to be able to twink in this fashion for a lot of irrelevant reasons to this discussion. That still wasn't the point.

I think your answer is embarrassing in that you seem to be more focused on not admitting even a single misstep in your argument than the actual merits and continue to shuffle & side-step to avoid it. Sir, that sailing vessel that I mentioned was sinking to the ocean floor? Apparently you just pour greek fire on it because not only is it completely submerged in the ocean, it's now burning as it continues to sink.

Answer these questions, then:

• Why do you believe game developers (of all MMOs) take the time to code lines of code against twinking and add multiple levels of difficulty?
• Why do we see complaints against "dumbing down the game"?
• Why do we see requests to make the game harder or adding new difficulty settings?
• Why do game developers (of all MMOs) take easy buttons away?
• Why do we see requests for hardcore/permadeath servers?

If I am wrong, then game developers of all MMOs are wasting their time!

I don't think these answers matter. You're asking for speculation on items that have many inputs. The mere existence of complaints doesn't merit a conclusion that it's linked to twinking. Really, none of these do. This is just an attempt to change the battle terrain...remove the factual and empirical and substitute with the subjective/anecdotal.

Well, this is your quote:

That has nothing to with what I said.

If people can't identify who is the most attractive between two guys, then I don't know why you expect them to know what is most fun to them.

This is my FULL quote:

It is incredibly disingenuous to suggest as you did in your post that individuals don't know what makes them happy but somehow you do. Can't have it both ways - either all of us know or none of us know unless you're better than the rest of us.

To which you assert just wrote:

That is not what I said.

I used the word happy. You use the word fun. Technically, I think you are correct. Happy <> Fun. They have different meanings although by use and definition these words are not exclusive. I think it would be a reasonably common English language usage to see both words in the same sentence or used together to describe a single enjoyable experience.

So lets say I replace my choice of a single word with yours and slightly alter the sentence to match while preserving the intent within [] brackets.

It is incredibly disingenuous to suggest as you did in your post that individuals don't know what [is fun for them] but somehow you do. Can't have it both ways - either all of us know or none of us know unless you're better than the rest of us.

So I would ask, do you agree, now, that this is a fair summation of your statement or did I transform the intent of your statement?

Counting on player-initiated restraints to solve an issue is setting yourself up for failure.

While some players might be inclined to not play and let the untwinked players play, it's just preposterous to assume that is sufficient. For that reason, it makes sense for game developers to alter the game's design to decrease the likelihood of these situations to happen.

Yet again, an opinion to which you are entitled, but not fact. You fail to cite any relevant supporting information such as how often this occurs. All the time? Most of the time? Some of the time? Rarely? How did you measure failure? Simple pass fail? Grading? How did you determine a cutoff?

As we do seem to be discussing the "other untwinked possibly new players" at the moment, have you surveyed them to find their reasons for leaving? Was any analysis done looking for externalities? What percentage had a combination of reasons for being disappointed? Could cost to play (for some players), teenager, lost jobs, going back to school have played a role where they decided the combination of reasons meant it was better to do something else or just not play at all?

Oh, and since I already have your answer on this, what about the twinker? You know, since you're looking to enhance the experience of the player who's sent all this wonderful low level gear to their own character...what about him or her? How does their fun or happiness factor into things? Or are they just assumed to naturally be unhappy? Is there any chance they're just unhappy that DDO never introduced a full character re-spec option and they're forced to build a new character instead of re-using an existing one?

This just doesn't hold up under scrutiny, does it? Challenging the assumptions seems to remove the foundation for the conclusion?