The New Rest System

[Saxywoo]

Hail,

before I go into my take of all of this, I need to give you a little background information.

My little brother got kicked out of college because he couldn't keep his grades up. Why? Because he was playing computer games.

I don't know if Blizzard is thinking that putting a rest system into place would be something to limit one's playing (yes, I'm leaving the powerleveling side of this alone), but simply due to the fact that you can just jump to another character who is "well rested" would defeat that purpose, and thus, my sibling would still run into the

Being someone who spends about 2.5 - 3 hours a day in the car commuting to and from a full time job, I can go to an inn, log out, and then come back every night if I wanted. In that aspect, the 8 hour rest system works fine for me. Even though I'm only online for about 3 - 4 hour when I do connect up (whether I get dropped or not).

But overall, I don't know what the advantages would be for the rest system. Unless it's the whole idea of keeping people from having mega-uber characters. With this system in place, you would have people that have perhaps 3 - 5 strong characters, but chances are that they would be diversified and have lower levels. And in addition to that, they would probably tend to be more diversified, instead of someone having 5 warriors. Having a more diversified "portfolio" of characters would not only teach you how to play that class or race, but also when partying up, you would understand how that class would behave, and what it's limitations are, and thus, be a better party player.

Let's face it. When you play with someone that sucks as a player, or simply doesn't know what they are doing, the game can get agonizing, especially if you really need help with a particular quest.

Just a couple of my thoughts....

SaxyCorp

[Cryptic]

This important post at the official forums might be of interest.
:)

>>"The Rest State system will be undergoing some changes in the near future. Among other modifications, we will be adjusting the 8-hour timing to be much more flexible. Rest will be accumulated gradually vs. the “8 hours of rest or nothing” approach that is currently in place. To add to this adjustment, people who do not play for long periods of time (weekend warrior types) will accumulate extra rest. This will allow those who only play once or twice a week the added bonus of playing as “well rested” for longer than those who play on a daily basis.

Another anticipated change is to add the ability to rest from anywhere in the world. This should help players who forget or choose not to log off at an inn. Resting at an inn will remain the preferred method, as tiers will accumulate more rapidly if you log off inside an inn.

Lastly, we are planning on making the Rest State modifier a level-based sliding scale for how much experience you can gain at each tier. That is, at higher level-ranges, the amount of experience that you gain before moving down to the next tier of your Rest State will increase.

Overall, we are happy with the Rest State feature and appreciate everyone’s continued feedback. We realize that it still needs to be adjusted and will continue to do so until it’s where we want it to be.

~Kat :) "

**

Hmm... In other words, they've heard the howlings of the masses, and are tweaking the system, but the system is there to stay.
;)

[--Pete]

Hi,

Yeah, I've seen that post. Makes me wonder if a conversation along these lines took place a few months ago:

Dev1, "I've got this idea for a totally obnoxious and useless forced rest system. While you play, your avatar gets tired and while you're offline it rests. For some reason that I'll never explain, that will influence not your strength and agility, but the XP you get from killing mobs."

Dev2, "That sucks, no one will put up with it. Everybody 'will moan to high heaven."

Dev1, "Oh yes, they will. First we'll implement it a lot worse requiring all the rest to be in one eight hour period. And we'll have bugs so that that eight hours can be up to a couple of days real time. People will hate that. Then we can back off to what I really wanted in the first place and everyone will be so relieved they'll love it."

Dev2, "Oh. You're so smart. Want to help me introduce forced PvP?"

Then again, I might be overestimating the developer's cleverness :)

--Pete

[Walkiry]

Then again, I might be overestimating the developer's cleverness :)

Well, if politicians can do it...

[Drasca]

If you've played other MMORPGs, what do you think of this Rest system that Blizzard implemented? Is there any precedent to it out there?

In "Earth and Beyond" (which is now going to be closed permanently in september boooo) the rest system was this: Players had a xp penalty for death. It was called Exp Debt, which was based on level and needed to be cleared by normal exp gain. Half your exp gain would go to clearing debt until the debt was cleared. You could reduce this debt intially if you were ressurrected on spot by a class skill called Jumpstart instead of teleporting back to the base (being towed) you were last registered at.

This Exp Debt could also be cleared by logging off. "Sleeping it off" would clear a % of your current debt up based on how long you've logged off. The most debt ever made was done by Icesong, a JE (able to ressurrect) during a series of Epic Battles. Over one million, yes 1,000,000 exp debt. This is when getting 35k exp points per 20 minutes is the fastest you could gain, and gaining 30k-50k per death debt was the most you could ever gain. Its possible to sleep all that off due to sleeping debt off as a % debt cleared multipled by the time logged off.

So, when in debt, players would only gain 50% of normal exp gains until debt was cleared. This was only incurred when "incapacitated" (equivalent of death) though. "If" you died from over-gaming, you'd slow down in exp gain. However, that only made people learn where there sweet spots were.

So that 8 hr system was 8 hours or bust? Boo! Glad there's a "flexible" system being imposed, but with that double exp required to gain in addition to the 200% "bonus" illusion. That part is a little silly.

Power gamers will min-max and "work the system." Multiple chars. I'm glad you reported it was a 6 hour difference between 200 and 150%. At least that's a reasonable amount of play time. Now if Pete's loophole of keeping characters fatigued as possible to gain more skill points per time works compared to real "leveling" of characters. Then this system might have some real value. If underleveled characters can gain skillpoints, and associated stats with skill points better. . . but not items, and associated "loot" hmm. Then there may be some real value to the system, and going at both extremes. Super rested, and super "fatigued." heh.

I like choice. I don't like imposed systems, but if this sytem gives real choice and options... It may work.