Just did some math; doing explorer areas for XP only, you get 54,416 xp, until you run into the wall of no more appropriate leveled areas.
Just did some math; doing explorer areas for XP only, you get 54,416 xp, until you run into the wall of no more appropriate leveled areas.
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Solo content can often be found if you play the adventures when you are 2 or 3 levels above their listed level. If you try to solo (on normal mode) earlier than that then you are playing content that was supposedly designed for 4 players.
Not all of the quests are consistant like that. Some require 2 actual people, while others are designed for 6, and yet others are designed to beat the snot out of you at the listed level.
Turbine could make these quest difficulty variations more apparent. For instance, the LOTRO game has quests labled as normal/solo, small-fellowship, and fellowship. I don't think Turbine should have to tell us what challenge we might be facing. Part of the adventure of D&D is knowing that you can get into more than you are capable of defeating right away.
Last edited by winsom; 02-28-2008 at 10:00 PM.
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Last edited by Eladrin; 02-28-2008 at 11:03 PM. Reason: Added full chain of areas for clarity.
There was a girl warforged named Cleaver.
Every man that she loved would soon leave her.
They all left so fast / as they couldn't get past
the fact that she has a Brass Beaver
The only problem I have with the adventure areas is the crazy numbers of mobs you need to do the slayers before you get an XP reward. I mean 10, 25, 50 and maybe 100 are ok, but beyond that it is an awful lot of grinding before you get any payoff. And once you hit 1500 you get nothing for the next 1499 mobs...
They would be much more solo friendly by just being an XP reward for every 25 mobs.
Code:Sil - Human Paladin 14 Lava Divers Tad - Drow Wizard 14 Semolina - Elf Rog 13/Ftr 1 on Rava - Drow Sorceror 7 Riddikulus - Human Cleric 14 Khyber Clamor - Warforged Barb 7 Durum - Dwarf Ftr 10/Pal 3/Rng 1 Ridd - Dwarf Ftr 6/Rog 2/Pal 2
Yes. You are correct, there is a huge dropoff in solo content. That was pretty much done on purpose. Remember, when the game came out, the level cap was much lower. As the game has expanded (and the level cap) they've slowly been adding more solo and solo-able content. But the game is still really focused on not being a solo-style adventure.
You left out Neverwinter Nights, which is a great solo D&D style game. And Morrowind!While I realize that DDO is very much focusing in group dungeon delving... Many people I know have opted instead to play other games (Such as WoW or LoTRO) because of a distinct lack of solo player content past level three.
Woah, woah, woah. How do you get from The Harbor to Raids and Raid Loot?While group play should continue to be encouraged, and strongly reinforced with large raids and raid loot, there needs to be more solo player content to allow players without as much time as others, to play alone and still gain levels past the third.
They've needed to adjust this for far too long. I don't understand why Turbine hasn't figured that out yet. That would END all problems with leveling if they did that. People could log in, ON THEIR OWN TIME, and advance their character a little, or a lot. Depending on the time one has, the advancement could be big or small but again, it is on THEIR TIME.
1500 / 3000 kills is absolutely a joke. Whoever thought that was a keen idea really needs to re-examine it, it's way past a dumb idea into the realm of poor game design.
But even if you're not getting XP right away, you're still making constant progress. Kill 25 NPCs and log off, you're still 25 NPCs closer to the next rewards.
You are, in fact, doing exactly what tekn0 suggests you should be able to do:
It's just as you do more and more the rewards are spread out a bit more.
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But realistically when the intervals in the awards starts to mean complete clearing of the entire area 6 times for the next bump, that is a little much. Even Waterworks faces this problem.
What would be more friendly to people who are using Explorer areas to level is to lower the maximum interval gap and to apportion the experience along the way.
Right now for example I have some characters over 1500 kills in the Vale. The 3000 kill level will net them about 35000 EXP for each of the two factions. I know a lot of people set up the Orchard and GH with kill counts before the level increase, and when the Mod 6 was released, they went a dropped a handful of undead, and then a couple of Giants types and scored HUGE amounts of experience, enough to bring them close to if not hit 16th level with only a few minutes of work (that night). So if instead of a lump of 35000 EXP for reaching 3000 kill counts, what about breaking that down into 5 chunks of 300 each. 1800 gets yoo 7000, 2100 gets you 7000, 2400 gets you 7000, etc. That leaves the EXP/min on a par with most quests at that level. Not quite as fast, but at least in the same ballpark.
It also avoids the really artifical thing where players refuse to adventure in a zone when capped since they would likely blow huge wads of EXP if anyone killed a few mobs while they were in it. I know some people who would not take certain characters they had "primed" into the Orchard for the last few weeks before the new mod came out.
The intervals probably should be adjusted to never be much more than twice the total population of the explorer zone.
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Yeah I fail to understand where 'solo' is missing in DDO, for anyone in that matter.
No offense, but if you stink as a player or your character is designed in some weak fashion, then you struggle by your own accord.
Even so, an experienced player can solo a bad character.
And when I say exprienced I'm not being egotistical. I simply mean that you need to run the dungeons and learn their pitfalls.
Like anything else in this life or on Xen'drik knowing what's ahead gives you the advantage.
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i gave you a improved idea on solo's
But if the xp is a negligable amount, its less likely to be noteworthy.
The underlying issue is that this is once-only XP that you waste if you earn it while level capped. Much like the "50% first time" award.
I'm one of the ones that hates wasting XP -- I was capped when the orchard came out, so I didn't step foot in it until mod 6. If I was capped and a few kills of a huge sum of XP in an adventure area, I'd stop going in there, too.
There was a girl warforged named Cleaver.
Every man that she loved would soon leave her.
They all left so fast / as they couldn't get past
the fact that she has a Brass Beaver
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Putting more granularity into slayer levels in explorer zones would be beneficial in a number of ways.
10,25,50,100,200,400,750,1500,3000...etc
All sounds nice on paper but really starts to fall apart at the upper ends.
Frankly once past the 750 level, the gaps should be smaller, perhaps evrey 250 kills from there on out, with the current EXP rationed between those points. If going from 750 to 1500 kills would have given me 18000 EXP, then put in a step function of 250 for each gap and give 6000 EXP at 1000,1250 and 1500. Same award, just broken into smaller units. Repeat with the next interval and keep the 250 increments, 1750,2000,2250,2500,2750 and 3000. Instead of close to 36000 at one point, just give the same 6000 at each of the six increments. At some point the explorer zones become almost futile as the gaps between slayer levels become so great that it takes a VERY SPECIAL kind of grinder to hit those levels. Not sure that was what was intended.
Not sure what the next slayer level after 3000 is for the vale, but being able to set up a situation where a handful of kills will net you 2 x 70,000 exp in a couple of minutes 140,000 seems a bit much given the amount of EXP required to level. I recall reading some people set up the Desert, GH and the Orchard at the same time and literally jumped to 16 within a few minutes. I know they spent a lot of time before hand, so it was not without time and effort, but it just seems kinda forced. Kinda like being able to clear entire quests except for picking up the end item and being able to save them for future use. You know, somehow kill everything in Garrison's missing, just don't pick up the pack until you want to get EXP and favor for that quest.
Sarlona - The Ko Brotherhood :Jareko-Elf Ranger12Rogue8+4E; Hennako-Human Cleric22; Rukio-Human Paladin18; Taellya-Halfling Rogue16; Zenako-Dwarf Fighter10Cleric1; Daniko-Drow Bard20; Kerriganko-Human Cleric18; Buket-WF Fighter6; Xenophilia-Human Wiz20; Zenakotwo-Dwarf Cleric16; Yadnomko-Halfling Ftr12; Gabiko-Human Bard15; lots more
The solo material that I would really like to see are quest chains for class specific solo quests. There would be static rewards that would be class specific to really benefit the character. Having some of these at all levels would be fun for people to do during low times or when they just don't want to deal with a group.
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Well this is major problem that some of my RL friends that played this game felt. He Liked the Adventure areas and slayer part but felt there was a huge drop off after 100 kills, the numbers are just too far apart. What he wanted to see added was the steady stream of exp rather then just huge chunks… What I’m thinking would help is keep the cap on the exp but break it out more… after 100 kills like Zenako stated in his post.
Another thing he said he didn’t like was that they didn’t get anything for the slayers but exp… what he would of liked was more of grrr I hate saying this but WoW style of quests. Now most of you are going to say “Well if he likes that style he should go play WoW” or “That’s not what the adventure areas are built for” but I ask this… why not? These would be easy fetch quests that would add a lot for those players that don’t have a lot of time or just want to solo for “Fun” wow what a foreign term in MMO’s today. The rewards would be for components for crafting or collectables, maybe some gems or money.
I don’t know I think it would add a lot to the game and give those players that do make up a portion of the player base a chance to get something other then grouping style advancement.
And on a side note my friends did leave to go play WoW/EQ2.
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Mathematically, you are correct, but most players will give up after 750 because (1) having to wait 30 more sessions (at 25 kills per session) to get any more XP is rather unappealing and, more importantly, (2) if you are close to leveling outside the XP range for the area, you might end up killing 700 of those 750 and then running a quest and levelling up so that you can no longer get XP for killing the last 50 of those 750.
Just another stupid game mechanic that hurts people who don't understand all the nuances (i.e., new and casual players)...
Last edited by Dariun; 02-29-2008 at 01:11 PM. Reason: added my missing "(2)"!
Searing Heights is not a solo zone for new/casual players.
Even with House P buffs, you will not get very far out there before you are (1) out of fire/acid resist and (2) dead. Only the wealthy and well equipped can solo out there for long. Maybe a level 7 cleric could get some good progress out there. Maybe.
At least now that the death XP penalty is gone, solo players can make some XP progress in Searing Heights, but my trips out there with the old death penalty solo resulted in net negative XP.