06-23-2004, 05:34 PM
I pretty much agree with everything that you said. I think the rest system is a really good idea and I hope that Blizzard will hone in on a better application of the system than they currently have.
However, I'd like to expand upon what you said in the following with my own experiences in this game.
-But I would go even farther. I would say that playing a given race has exactly the same problem. Currently, when starting a Night Elf I will go through and do every single quest I can get my hands on in Teldrassil in order to get enough XP to move on to Darkshore at a reasonable level. The same goes for all other races that I've played in their starting areas. There's literally no difference in the story for one character of a race from another (aside from the rare class-specific quests). Currently, I am loathe to abandon any quests or try to specialize my questing to a certain area because I know that for each quest that I abandon, I'll be short on that many quests later on.
For this sort of problem, there isn't really any easy solution. Personally, I think the best case answer would be to put in more quests. Lots more quests. I'd like to see all sorts of quests as you can imagine for each area. Make it so that a player isn't forced to do EVERY quest. Let the players choose which types of quest their character wants to do. Make it so that it's not a big deal to skip that quest that takes you deep into the heart of a mage mob base as a Warrior. With so many choices of quest types, a player will have his choice of when to move on to the next region. Many will probably progress to the next area similar to how they do now. Sure, some might stay and complete every single quest in an area just to be thorough (I'm often guilty of this) but at least they'll be having fun as they do this. And, of course, better rewards are to be had in the next area so people will tend to progress into more difficult areas more naturally. More quests means more control and leeway as to how you want to play your character and, hence, more ability to "immerse yourself in the world" as Blizzard always points out is their goal.
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To change gears a bit, I'd also like to address the fact that the experience earned during "Normal" currently is laughably small. Five bubbles on the experience bar is not much at all. I've found that I will often move from the Rested-Normal boundary to the Normal-Tired boundary in about an hour. If, as Blizzard claims, they want to see most people play most of their time in Normal, they'll need to expand this region a lot or balance the game toward the Tired end of the spectrum. I highly doubt that most people are only going to play for an hour or two a day if they're really getting into the game.
However, I think a better solution is what Bolty and anyuzer point at. When you start the game at 200% XP, when you hit that point where you switch from being Rested to Tired, it's kind of like hitting a wall. You see your XP drop but the amount of XP to level go up. It's almost unfair. I would tend to agree that you should start the game at 100% (Normal). However, when I thought about it, I have the feeling that Blizzard set new characters to "Rested" because, if you could rest right off the bat, then players would probably make every character they ever wanted to play on their account at the start and let most of them rest up to gain the full bonus. As such, if you balanced the newbie areas for the Normal level, then when those 2nd and 3rd characters for a person start out, they'd start with the bonus and blast through those early areas.
I think Blizzard foresaw this and just started all characters at "Rested." Then, once you reach a certain level (around clvl 10 or 12) you start to descend into the Normal and Tired regions. This is so that you actually have to have played the character for a while before you reach the point where you get the bonus to discourage creating characters and letting them sit for a week before actually playing them. But there's another way to do this! Why not start at "Normal" and then not let rest start accumulating until clvl 10 or 12? That way, the areas could be geared toward 100% XP and so when you reach clvl 14, your XP doesn't drop off despite the fact that you're fighting harder mobs than before. It's the same idea as what is in, but goes along with the idea of making it seem like a "bonus" rather than a "penalty."
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I've said a lot in here, so I'll do a quick summary of what I'd like to see. :)
I agree that "Normal" should be 100% XP and it should be what the baseline game is designed for. Players should start at "Normal" and not start accumulating rest until around clvl 10 (and perhaps phase it in, even). But even then, players who spend all of their time in "Normal" should be able to decline or abandon quests without having to grind through monsters to make up for the lost XP. That way, the story is not so constantly linear for all characters of the Alliance or Horde. This means that there would have to be a huge number of new quests introduced to the game so that you don't have to jump around from area to area in order to find quests to do.
If nothing else, Blizzard should re-think how much XP it takes to go from "Rested" to "Tired" because I've found that I currently spend most of my time in either "Rested" or "Tired" with very little time spent in "Normal."
However, I'd like to expand upon what you said in the following with my own experiences in this game.
Quote:I'd say that right now the exp/kill and quest rewards seem to be aligned toward having a "Normal" (150%) rest state. Since I'm a loser and I play too much, I'm usually in the "Tired" (100%) state, and I blow through quests like crazy. It forces me to jump all over the world to find areas with quests to do - and while I'm now finding plenty to do, the fact remains that I haven't seen my home lands of the Night Elves with my Night Elf priest since she was level 12. Ouch. This makes it so if I'm playing a human character, it's all the same.I agree that it does appear as though the game is geared toward the "Normal" state of 150% XP. I've found that if I just play at this setting, then things seem to pass at a reasonable rate and quests don't feel TOO spread out. I've found that, as far as I've played, when I'm "Rested" I tend to get ahead of the curve for quests and tend to complete them when green or below. When I'm "Tired" I do just what you detail and hop around the world, doing every quest that I can find. As you say, this makes playing any character for a given faction exactly the same.
-But I would go even farther. I would say that playing a given race has exactly the same problem. Currently, when starting a Night Elf I will go through and do every single quest I can get my hands on in Teldrassil in order to get enough XP to move on to Darkshore at a reasonable level. The same goes for all other races that I've played in their starting areas. There's literally no difference in the story for one character of a race from another (aside from the rare class-specific quests). Currently, I am loathe to abandon any quests or try to specialize my questing to a certain area because I know that for each quest that I abandon, I'll be short on that many quests later on.
For this sort of problem, there isn't really any easy solution. Personally, I think the best case answer would be to put in more quests. Lots more quests. I'd like to see all sorts of quests as you can imagine for each area. Make it so that a player isn't forced to do EVERY quest. Let the players choose which types of quest their character wants to do. Make it so that it's not a big deal to skip that quest that takes you deep into the heart of a mage mob base as a Warrior. With so many choices of quest types, a player will have his choice of when to move on to the next region. Many will probably progress to the next area similar to how they do now. Sure, some might stay and complete every single quest in an area just to be thorough (I'm often guilty of this) but at least they'll be having fun as they do this. And, of course, better rewards are to be had in the next area so people will tend to progress into more difficult areas more naturally. More quests means more control and leeway as to how you want to play your character and, hence, more ability to "immerse yourself in the world" as Blizzard always points out is their goal.
-----------
To change gears a bit, I'd also like to address the fact that the experience earned during "Normal" currently is laughably small. Five bubbles on the experience bar is not much at all. I've found that I will often move from the Rested-Normal boundary to the Normal-Tired boundary in about an hour. If, as Blizzard claims, they want to see most people play most of their time in Normal, they'll need to expand this region a lot or balance the game toward the Tired end of the spectrum. I highly doubt that most people are only going to play for an hour or two a day if they're really getting into the game.
However, I think a better solution is what Bolty and anyuzer point at. When you start the game at 200% XP, when you hit that point where you switch from being Rested to Tired, it's kind of like hitting a wall. You see your XP drop but the amount of XP to level go up. It's almost unfair. I would tend to agree that you should start the game at 100% (Normal). However, when I thought about it, I have the feeling that Blizzard set new characters to "Rested" because, if you could rest right off the bat, then players would probably make every character they ever wanted to play on their account at the start and let most of them rest up to gain the full bonus. As such, if you balanced the newbie areas for the Normal level, then when those 2nd and 3rd characters for a person start out, they'd start with the bonus and blast through those early areas.
I think Blizzard foresaw this and just started all characters at "Rested." Then, once you reach a certain level (around clvl 10 or 12) you start to descend into the Normal and Tired regions. This is so that you actually have to have played the character for a while before you reach the point where you get the bonus to discourage creating characters and letting them sit for a week before actually playing them. But there's another way to do this! Why not start at "Normal" and then not let rest start accumulating until clvl 10 or 12? That way, the areas could be geared toward 100% XP and so when you reach clvl 14, your XP doesn't drop off despite the fact that you're fighting harder mobs than before. It's the same idea as what is in, but goes along with the idea of making it seem like a "bonus" rather than a "penalty."
----------------------------
I've said a lot in here, so I'll do a quick summary of what I'd like to see. :)
I agree that "Normal" should be 100% XP and it should be what the baseline game is designed for. Players should start at "Normal" and not start accumulating rest until around clvl 10 (and perhaps phase it in, even). But even then, players who spend all of their time in "Normal" should be able to decline or abandon quests without having to grind through monsters to make up for the lost XP. That way, the story is not so constantly linear for all characters of the Alliance or Horde. This means that there would have to be a huge number of new quests introduced to the game so that you don't have to jump around from area to area in order to find quests to do.
If nothing else, Blizzard should re-think how much XP it takes to go from "Rested" to "Tired" because I've found that I currently spend most of my time in either "Rested" or "Tired" with very little time spent in "Normal."
-TheDragoon