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Author Topic: Zone-dependent roleplay XP  (Read 125348 times)

IDreamofDaleks

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #575 on: September 14, 2014, 10:59:00 AM »
I understand and agree with everything you say. I don't particularly take issue to any one point of it. The only thing I don't like is this tickling feeling in the back of my head that makes me feel bad for staying in Barovia on a level 14 character when there's really no where else I'd like to go.

I've considered trying to move people along to the Village, but it never really took. It is a good idea though!

Hlot

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #576 on: September 14, 2014, 11:04:17 AM »
I went today throught Svalich Road from Tser to the eastern end talking all the time, we were levels 10 and 11. Basically we didn't get any exp from talks, so I guess that exp cap is being stretched through whole Svalich Road from western to eastern end?

FinalHeaven

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #577 on: September 14, 2014, 12:09:38 PM »
I'm going to be honest, the exp penalty really in no way determines how long I will stay in Barovia.  If I'm level 20, I'm going to RP where it makes sense for me to do so.  Everyone understands the effect it can have on low level zones but unfortunately, that comes with being an RP server.  If a character has literally no reason to go anywhere else, well...

I do not believe the penalty has the intended effect.  Obviously I can only speak from personal experience, maybe overall it does do what it is intended to do.  But personally, I know I can wander up to the camp and find some people going somewhere dangerous, go get a ton of xp, then head back to the Outskirts where it makes sense for my character to be.



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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #578 on: September 14, 2014, 01:42:21 PM »
I do not believe the penalty has the intended effect.  Obviously I can only speak from personal experience, maybe overall it does do what it is intended to do.  But personally, I know I can wander up to the camp and find some people going somewhere dangerous, go get a ton of xp, then head back to the Outskirts where it makes sense for my character to be.

Actually Soren compiles logs that tell us the average level of players in an area, the average party size (number of people in said area), the number of people going to that area and plenty more information on all the areas of the server. Such reports are pulled from time to time and let us see if we've achieved what we wanted. In this case, we have noticed an improvement. The average level in the Outskirts has been declining steadily since we added the Mist Camp and implemented this system, which is the intended effect.

FinalHeaven

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #579 on: September 14, 2014, 02:08:26 PM »
Fair enough I suppose, I would call that a success as well. 



Arael

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #580 on: September 14, 2014, 03:04:36 PM »
PROBABLY OT: but why you choose to make the mist camp a complete safe place during all day, and not a similar dangerous/safe place like Vallaki's outskirt?
« Last Edit: September 14, 2014, 03:17:50 PM by Arael »

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #581 on: September 14, 2014, 04:11:34 PM »
PROBABLY OT: but why you choose to make the mist camp a complete safe place during all day, and not a similar dangerous/safe place like Vallaki's outskirt?

The mist camp is not IN barovia. I think I also read somewhere that monster supposedly avoid pure blood Vistani normally. How would it make sense to spontaniously become dangerious on a particular cycle? There is also the fact it is literally the hub betwen other domains on our server. Travel gets fairly bottlenecked already having one caravan without adding additional delays.

Edit: Attempted to clarify statement.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2014, 04:15:12 PM by RedwizardD »

Thorvald

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #582 on: February 15, 2015, 08:39:29 AM »
ABOUT XP AT LARGE... I play here for about a week and it's fun but very hardcore... I wonder if there is any way to see the character XP gained ???

Thanks

Player of Waling

julienchab

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #583 on: February 15, 2015, 08:45:59 AM »
ABOUT XP AT LARGE... I play here for about a week and it's fun but very hardcore... I wonder if there is any way to see the character XP gained ???

Thanks

Player of Waling

There is no exact way to know how much xp you have gain until you actually level up. If you want an indicator of where you stand in your level, you need to look at the message you get when you rest. It will be a different message if you are at 25%, 50% or 75% of xp gained for your level!

Hope this helped!

Thorvald

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #584 on: February 15, 2015, 09:36:30 AM »
Yes Thanks!

respawnaholic

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #585 on: March 21, 2015, 10:14:57 PM »
But  I guess then the question is where are these higher levels supposed to go?

The XP penalty (If I'm remembering correctly) doesn't apply to the Village of Barovia, and if it does, the average level there is always so high that I've never run into it out there on my higher level PCs.  That's a way you can stay in Barovia, and still keep from tangling too much with the areas/events designed for the new blood.

Dementlieu is
A) Near empty a lot of the time especially recently
and
B) Not for everyone; not everyone wants to do the political thing, a lot of people -like- the natural horror and fear of the night  that Barovia offers

People get this strange misconception that Dementlieu is just 100% hands-off political landscape and no real action to speak of.  As far as the lore goes for Port-a-Lucine, it's got a thriving underworld and PLENTY of opportunities for RP outside of the typical house struggle/politics you see.  Also, nothing says "Fear of the Night" like greataxe-wielding Caliban Gangleaders walking down the same streets that the Gendarme patrol during the daytime.  That place takes on a whole different feel once the sun goes down.  But if the city isn't your thing, there's still the town of Edrigan nearby, outfitted with it's own dangers, and a much more rural feel.



As for things being empty, that's definitely going to happen.  People tend to flock to where DMs are running events, or where other player groups are doing cool things.  If you want to bring life to an area it's entirely possible, but you have to accept that at first things are going to be slow.  You'll be bored and might spend a lot of time on your own, but things WILL improve if you just stick with it and never hold back on the creativity.  (Maybe do things on the forums to promote the area, like posting cool screenshots or writing compelling Bio entries about the goings-on of the area) When you come across someone, try to make every encounter something that people will look back on and go "Hey, I really liked that.  I think I'll go out there more often and try to find that person again".   It will also help your morale (and sanity) if you grab a few friends and drag them along on your bold new journey.  Nothing makes suffering easier than suffering with a few of your friends.

As far as level caps, that's never going to change.  It's another thing that's been hashed out 100 times, and it's just not going anywhere.  Besides, if you lower the cap to 15, then 15 will be the new stigma.  If you lower it to 10, then all the level 5's are going to be muscled out.  Don't get too caught up in the numbers themselves, but rather the unfairness of a few people being much more powerful than others in a given area and not having the respect for fellow players/DMs to bow out and allow the newer players a chance to shine.  And while you may think "But I don't do that!", just keep in mind that these things are put in place because it's been observed for years that MOST of the higher levels in that area tend to disrupt things.  Not all, but most.

If there's one thing I can say about the team, it's that they are very methodical in how they research for changes like this.  If you go back in the thread, you'll see that Soren really did his homework and ran the numbers before implementing this change, and after looking at the data for yourself you have to agree that there was a problem.  Nobody is trying to ruin anyone's good time, it's just that there was a problem, and sometimes the solution can't be something easy that everyone agrees with.  Still, it was needed, and I've seen a large positive change since it was implemented.  Besides, there's nothing saying you CAN'T go into Vallaki as a higher level.  It's just that you shouldn't expect to get XP for being in a place that presents little to no challenge for your skills.


VOB is in the butt-end of nowhere even by this servers standards. The only people who ever go there are parties stopping over from a raid in the swamps or someone hunting herbs in spring. No one is ever going to set up a group there because no one ever stays there. No one ever stays there because no one is ever there and theres nothing to do there you cant do more efficiently somewhere else. Chalk this one up to convenience and lack of fast travel.

What plagues Port Lucine isnt the preconceived notion that its some "hands off" political landscape. Its that its at best a social RP server sitting smack in the middle of a Gothic horror server, and at worse it embodies every negative cliche and trope Americans have about the French. It is, by its very existence, extremely atmosphere breaking if someones signed up for slack jawed, smelly peasants with pitchforks cowering in terror while a sinister mist flows under their doors to go to Port Lucine and see a bunch of arrogant, effete, cosmopolitan douche-bags sneering at everyone who walks by. As for the "fearsome" caliban their just dangerous. On a supposedly gothic horror server populated with vampires and werewolves nothing quite underwhelms someones sense of supernatural horror than to see glorified gang-bangers hanging out on every street corner. The only thing they lack are bagged bottles of 40 ounce malt liquor to complete the image.

If epic levels keep popping up in the outskirts its because past a certain level your rather limited in your options of where to go or more importantly where other people are. Since your forced to walk overland everywhere people are going to congregate where they know other people are. Even the Mist Camp is quiet most nights, and even when its not it tends to be a relatively exclusive club. That leaves Port Lucine and the Outskirts.

As for the methodical research put into these kind of decisions I think its easy to draw multiple conclusions from the same data source. I think allot of love and care is put into the module and it shows in lots of places and in lots of ways, but that doesn't always translate into a decision made having the outcome originally envisioned.

Exhaustion doesn't stop people from running everywhere. Not on a server where there are only really ever two places where everyone gathers and a whole lot of nothing in between them. The sudden popularity of monks is probably because they get to run everywhere in a permanent state of haste.

Raising costs for animal companions doesn't promote RP opportunities or a sense of responsibility towards them. People just don't use them anymore. That or they just keep on using them for the cannon fodder they were designed to be and get used to forking over several thousand gold, but since magic users tend to make the best ninja looters anyway it all evens out.

Forcing clerics to use diamonds to cast raise dead doesn't foster a greater sense of role-playing resurrection scenarios. Most parties are well equipped with bottled raise dead or snow globes of raise dead so again it all evens out. At higher levels clerics are far more coveted for heal and greater restoration than raise dead.

Speaking of which how is the whole thing with moving Perfidus into the mists going? Has anyone used the mists to get there?

Dread

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #586 on: March 21, 2015, 10:22:51 PM »
Quote
What plagues Port Lucine isnt the preconceived notion that its some "hands off" political landscape. Its that its at best a social RP server sitting smack in the middle of a Gothic horror server, and at worse it embodies every negative cliche and trope Americans have about the French. It is, by its very existence, extremely atmosphere breaking if someones signed up for slack jawed, smelly peasants with pitchforks cowering in terror while a sinister mist flows under their doors to go to Port Lucine and see a bunch of arrogant, effete, cosmopolitan douche-bags sneering at everyone who walks by. As for the "fearsome" caliban their just dangerous. On a supposedly gothic horror server populated with vampires and werewolves nothing quite underwhelms someones sense of supernatural horror than to see glorified gang-bangers hanging out on every street corner. The only thing they lack are bagged bottles of 40 ounce malt liquor to complete the image.

Heh, neat.

FinalHeaven

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #587 on: March 21, 2015, 10:38:44 PM »
What plagues Port Lucine isnt the preconceived notion that its some "hands off" political landscape. Its that its at best a social RP server sitting smack in the middle of a Gothic horror server, and at worse it embodies every negative cliche and trope Americans have about the French. It is, by its very existence, extremely atmosphere breaking if someones signed up for slack jawed, smelly peasants with pitchforks cowering in terror while a sinister mist flows under their doors to go to Port Lucine and see a bunch of arrogant, effete, cosmopolitan douche-bags sneering at everyone who walks by. As for the "fearsome" caliban their just dangerous. On a supposedly gothic horror server populated with vampires and werewolves nothing quite underwhelms someones sense of supernatural horror than to see glorified gang-bangers hanging out on every street corner. The only thing they lack are bagged bottles of 40 ounce malt liquor to complete the image.
Well, there's always the Outskirts if you're looking for horror.  Plenty of horrific stuff to witness there.





Dread

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #588 on: March 21, 2015, 10:50:01 PM »
Incidentally, there is this view among a few in the playerbase that Dementlieu isn't a part of Ravenloft or a part of Gothic Horror, and I'd like to nip that in the bud. Those of you who think Dementlieu has no place on our server, I would invite you all to examine the written work entitled Trilby, or watch The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,  of which played a rather large role in shaping Dementlieu. Trilby (1894) was, in fact, actually released before Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

« Last Edit: March 21, 2015, 10:52:14 PM by DM Vengeance »

Kendric98

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #589 on: March 21, 2015, 11:06:54 PM »
Incidentally, there is this view among a few in the playerbase that Dementlieu isn't a part of Ravenloft or a part of Gothic Horror, and I'd like to nip that in the bud. Those of you who think Dementlieu has no place on our server, I would invite you all to examine the written work entitled Trilby, or watch The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,  of which played a rather large role in shaping Dementlieu. Trilby (1894) was, in fact, actually released before Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).



I have seen some pretty messed up stuff happen there.

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chuuch1

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #590 on: March 21, 2015, 11:50:48 PM »

Quote
Speaking of which how is the whole thing with moving Perfidus into the mists going? Has anyone used the mists to get there?

Attempted going there twice, since the change.

First time, found in about 15 mins, was on low spawn, didnt bother with it.

Second time, just recently, wandered around for about 15 minutes and got spat out in Har'Akir with no way to get back without going back to the mist camp and entering the mists again.  Needless to say it killed the party and we all fragmented from there. 

Chronox

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #591 on: March 21, 2015, 11:59:18 PM »
Incidentally, there is this view among a few in the playerbase that Dementlieu isn't a part of Ravenloft or a part of Gothic Horror, and I'd like to nip that in the bud. Those of you who think Dementlieu has no place on our server, I would invite you all to examine the written work entitled Trilby, or watch The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,  of which played a rather large role in shaping Dementlieu. Trilby (1894) was, in fact, actually released before Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).



I don't think posting what shaped the domain does it justice for its place on the server, though. To pat Venge here on the back some, learn ICly or ask OOCly about all the plots that have gone on there, and are currently happening there. The DM's have done a good job of proving that Dementlieu has a place, in my opinion.

The issue does come up though, that a great deal of what's happening there typically feels 'exclusive'. Whether that's the domain being played well, or humans being a bit rude, I couldn't say. As well, most of my forays into the domain have been with an armored barbarian, so take that opinion with a grain of salt.
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FinalHeaven

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #592 on: March 22, 2015, 12:12:00 AM »
The issue does come up though, that a great deal of what's happening there typically feels 'exclusive'. Whether that's the domain being played well, or humans being a bit rude, I couldn't say. As well, most of my forays into the domain have been with an armored barbarian, so take that opinion with a grain of salt.

This is important.  I find that the majority of players in Port are very welcoming and friendly on an OOC level.  But people should keep in mind the atmosphere Port is going for.  If you blatantly stand out ICly and don't make an effort to fit in, the locals are going to react to that.  It's no different than Barovia in that regard.



Syl

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #593 on: March 22, 2015, 12:23:48 AM »
There is actually a lot of lore in the village... No lore RP but its nice and big and I enjoy going there even if its just to get away from everything because its just something different. and hardly ever anyone is there :P

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RedwizardD

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #594 on: March 22, 2015, 12:33:30 AM »
Dementlieu actually has a lot going on if you are willing to try immersing in the setting. People who pass through or don't make any effort to fit in are going to miss out on a fair amount of the things going on in the background.

Kendric98

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #595 on: March 22, 2015, 01:18:21 AM »
On the subject of zone dependant xp we have zones where you get less xp but shouldn't we have zones where you get bonus xp for rping there? I don't remember ever seeing this suggested but i probably missed it, seems to me it would encourage traffic in places that people need to rp more more like dungeon runs and prefered hubs like the port and VOB.

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Telkar

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #596 on: March 22, 2015, 05:30:21 AM »
Not sure if it's already implemented, but speaking of RP XP boost in dungeons, it'd be cool if some extra XP were given if you manage to get both XP from killing a thing and XP for RP within a short period of time instead. Encourages RP in dungeons, but doesn't make it so that you can just go to an empty dungeon and RP a lot of extra XP without the monsters.

de_reguer

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #597 on: March 22, 2015, 10:06:30 AM »
Not sure if it's already implemented, but speaking of RP XP boost in dungeons, it'd be cool if some extra XP were given if you manage to get both XP from killing a thing and XP for RP within a short period of time instead. Encourages RP in dungeons, but doesn't make it so that you can just go to an empty dungeon and RP a lot of extra XP without the monsters.

Never going to happen. Gaining exp while chatting is reward enough that there not going to offer a bonus simply for doing it in a dungeon. Besides one of the quickest ways of guaranteeing a DM swats you like a bug is to run threw a dungeon and NOT RP it out.

Feronius

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #598 on: March 22, 2015, 10:09:36 AM »
I think the problem might be that the system can not really differentiate between roleplay and someone typing messages in the say channel regularly.

Syl

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Re: Zone-dependent roleplay XP
« Reply #599 on: March 23, 2015, 11:23:22 AM »
I think the problem might be that the system can not really differentiate between roleplay and someone typing messages in the say channel regularly.

Sctually it does. As long as they put he // in front of their text the system seems to understand that its out of character...

And if you want to encurage RP in a dungeon then why not start it yourself? on my rogue i'm normally always talking in the dungeon unless we need to be quiet, I talk even more when i'm close to my level. If you want folks to be encuraged to RP while dungeoning you need to do it yourself.

( not saying yourself as in you personally Telkar just meaning "you" as in everyone, we get more then enough exp while RPing... like last night I RPed enough on my level 16 in valiki that even with reduced exp I still got a " Very learning and eventful" message.)

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