John B Knight
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- Jul 9, 2007
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- John Black Knight
Hunting - balancing level progression
We all know that as we progress in Entropia and gain higher levels we gain the skills to use stronger weapons, hunt stronger mobs, cycle more peds but what i keep noticing again and again is people who are unhappy with the bankroll they need to kill these bigger mobs.
As a matter of fact many players improve up to a certain hunting/mob levels till they outgrow their own budget and have to make a decision: to either hunt smaller mobs which they can afford or to stop playing until they can afford again the mobs they enjoy killing.
So what is the joy/fun in hunting, most gamers out there would say to face an opponent that takes skill to beat who is a challenge and/or to loot something big.
Most encounters in entropia are mainly about killing mobs with more and more hitpoints, throwing more and more firepower at them and less about skills - many smaller mobs are more about grinding through endless amounts instead of planning and executing a skillfull attack.
Of course mindark earns alot of money from players who keep cycling it, but midnark earns no money from players who dont cycle it - this often ends us up with encounters to make us cycle peds - however i feel that allowing players to cycle peds longer and more often would still earn mindark the budget those players have and in turn give them more happy customers who might recommend their game to others.
Improving through the levelrange should not just be about more firepower and bigger bankrolls, it should also be about more long lasting fun a game that is enjoyable even at very high levels against very though mobs with a small bankroll.
How could Mindark match this goal or having a more satisfied, more active playerbase without earning less or changing the lootsystem entirely ?
Based on the premise that successchance to loot big is next to other factors partially based on a actual dps ranking aquired by players over time. (This is my perception from hunting many years actively in space were alot of the other hunting parameters are set and unchangeable.)
In my opinion a new type of weapons could be introduced to the game, which would do all that the current weapons do but also have an additional effect - they would decrease the dps rank aquired from players in exchange for a minimum loot cap.
Means any mob killed by such a weapon would atleast return the minimum loot set by this cap but wielders of such a weapon would have a harder time to compete for globals/hofs/ath/shared loot.
Equipping such a weapon would automatically disband a player from a team, except if the team has usage of this weapon type enabled - this setting would have to be included in team creation process and team setting display.
As an example there could be weapons usable at (actual numbers are of course matter of the balancing team to decide):
profession level 10 which give a minimum loot of 5% decay(including ammo)
profession level 20 which give a minimum loot of 10% decay(including ammo)
profession level 30 which give a minimum loot of 15% decay(including ammo)
profession level 40 which give a minimum loot of 20% decay(including ammo)
profession level 50 which give a minimum loot of 25% decay(including ammo)
profession level 60 which give a minimum loot of 30% decay(including ammo)
profession level 70 which give a minimum loot of 35% decay(including ammo)
profession level 80 which give a minimum loot of 40% decay(including ammo)
profession level 90 which give a minimum loot of 45% decay(including ammo)
profession level 100 which give a minimum loot of 50% decay(including ammo)
profession level 110 which give a minimum loot of 55% decay(including ammo)
profession level 120 which give a minimum loot of 60% decay(including ammo)
profession level 130 which give a minimum loot of 65% decay(including ammo)
profession level 140 which give a minimum loot of 70% decay(including ammo)
profession level 150 which give a minimum loot of 75% decay(including ammo)
profession level 160 which give a minimum loot of 80% decay(including ammo)
profession level 170 which give a minimum loot of 82% decay(including ammo)
profession level 180 which give a minimum loot of 84% decay(including ammo)
profession level 190 which give a minimum loot of 86% decay(including ammo)
profession level 200 which give a minimum loot of 88% decay(including ammo)
Such weapons would allow players to keep on skilling against harder and harder opponents as they progress through the levels, while keeping the bankroll required to a minimum and still earning mindark the decay.
The minimum cap could either be a set amount tied to the weapon or a dynamic amount tied to the profession level of the player.
If need be weapons that have minimum loot cap switched on could be disabled for pvp use, but i think it could also be a nice incentive for highly skilled players to be able of performing pvp at further reduced costs due to looting some decay back uppon success.
In regards to mobs there should be more mobs who have a high level due to their attack strength / abilities and not just because of high hitpoints.
Players should have a choice to either grind on standard mobs like they currently do, or to set out against special mobs, who require hits in different bodyparts, or their 'pets' to be beaten first before they can be attacked again, or environmental tasks to be completed before/between attacks so that players would have to spent time and decay on skillbased tasks with the chance to fail entirely or beat the endboss and have a guaranteed win.
Such encounter and weapon choices should be avaiable planetside and in space and the minimum loot cap could also be a bonus to be toggled on on existing weapons/gun turrets if exceeding the maximum levels required for them.
This would give a true meaning and advantage to skilling up as a player and secure skill values in the universe longterm.
Having written this in Loot 1.0 times and looking back of how mcuh has come true, i just meant to say:
Thank you for Loot 2.0, Efficiency, Looter professions and DPP lvl progression
Hope remains that these changes will be finally fully incorporated in space weaponry as well , giving us more choice in weapons to shoot and more impact of the gunner profession in how efficient/dpp turrets can be shot.
We all know that as we progress in Entropia and gain higher levels we gain the skills to use stronger weapons, hunt stronger mobs, cycle more peds but what i keep noticing again and again is people who are unhappy with the bankroll they need to kill these bigger mobs.
As a matter of fact many players improve up to a certain hunting/mob levels till they outgrow their own budget and have to make a decision: to either hunt smaller mobs which they can afford or to stop playing until they can afford again the mobs they enjoy killing.
So what is the joy/fun in hunting, most gamers out there would say to face an opponent that takes skill to beat who is a challenge and/or to loot something big.
Most encounters in entropia are mainly about killing mobs with more and more hitpoints, throwing more and more firepower at them and less about skills - many smaller mobs are more about grinding through endless amounts instead of planning and executing a skillfull attack.
Of course mindark earns alot of money from players who keep cycling it, but midnark earns no money from players who dont cycle it - this often ends us up with encounters to make us cycle peds - however i feel that allowing players to cycle peds longer and more often would still earn mindark the budget those players have and in turn give them more happy customers who might recommend their game to others.
Improving through the levelrange should not just be about more firepower and bigger bankrolls, it should also be about more long lasting fun a game that is enjoyable even at very high levels against very though mobs with a small bankroll.
How could Mindark match this goal or having a more satisfied, more active playerbase without earning less or changing the lootsystem entirely ?
Based on the premise that successchance to loot big is next to other factors partially based on a actual dps ranking aquired by players over time. (This is my perception from hunting many years actively in space were alot of the other hunting parameters are set and unchangeable.)
In my opinion a new type of weapons could be introduced to the game, which would do all that the current weapons do but also have an additional effect - they would decrease the dps rank aquired from players in exchange for a minimum loot cap.
Means any mob killed by such a weapon would atleast return the minimum loot set by this cap but wielders of such a weapon would have a harder time to compete for globals/hofs/ath/shared loot.
Equipping such a weapon would automatically disband a player from a team, except if the team has usage of this weapon type enabled - this setting would have to be included in team creation process and team setting display.
As an example there could be weapons usable at (actual numbers are of course matter of the balancing team to decide):
profession level 10 which give a minimum loot of 5% decay(including ammo)
profession level 20 which give a minimum loot of 10% decay(including ammo)
profession level 30 which give a minimum loot of 15% decay(including ammo)
profession level 40 which give a minimum loot of 20% decay(including ammo)
profession level 50 which give a minimum loot of 25% decay(including ammo)
profession level 60 which give a minimum loot of 30% decay(including ammo)
profession level 70 which give a minimum loot of 35% decay(including ammo)
profession level 80 which give a minimum loot of 40% decay(including ammo)
profession level 90 which give a minimum loot of 45% decay(including ammo)
profession level 100 which give a minimum loot of 50% decay(including ammo)
profession level 110 which give a minimum loot of 55% decay(including ammo)
profession level 120 which give a minimum loot of 60% decay(including ammo)
profession level 130 which give a minimum loot of 65% decay(including ammo)
profession level 140 which give a minimum loot of 70% decay(including ammo)
profession level 150 which give a minimum loot of 75% decay(including ammo)
profession level 160 which give a minimum loot of 80% decay(including ammo)
profession level 170 which give a minimum loot of 82% decay(including ammo)
profession level 180 which give a minimum loot of 84% decay(including ammo)
profession level 190 which give a minimum loot of 86% decay(including ammo)
profession level 200 which give a minimum loot of 88% decay(including ammo)
Such weapons would allow players to keep on skilling against harder and harder opponents as they progress through the levels, while keeping the bankroll required to a minimum and still earning mindark the decay.
The minimum cap could either be a set amount tied to the weapon or a dynamic amount tied to the profession level of the player.
If need be weapons that have minimum loot cap switched on could be disabled for pvp use, but i think it could also be a nice incentive for highly skilled players to be able of performing pvp at further reduced costs due to looting some decay back uppon success.
In regards to mobs there should be more mobs who have a high level due to their attack strength / abilities and not just because of high hitpoints.
Players should have a choice to either grind on standard mobs like they currently do, or to set out against special mobs, who require hits in different bodyparts, or their 'pets' to be beaten first before they can be attacked again, or environmental tasks to be completed before/between attacks so that players would have to spent time and decay on skillbased tasks with the chance to fail entirely or beat the endboss and have a guaranteed win.
Such encounter and weapon choices should be avaiable planetside and in space and the minimum loot cap could also be a bonus to be toggled on on existing weapons/gun turrets if exceeding the maximum levels required for them.
This would give a true meaning and advantage to skilling up as a player and secure skill values in the universe longterm.
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