Grinding / Balancing Issue
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:36 pm
Hi there,
Its my first round in AT but I like it, A LOT (for more praise see my first post !
Right now I'm in the Gargoyle-Cave looking for the RolS. I'm doing that since level 21 or 22.
If the post fits in better somewhere else, just move it or split it or ...
As grinding is an important element of AT, it's also rather annoying. It takes a lot of time and it does not help the story.
Also when your done, you have a powerfull charakter who ist at the same point in the story as he was before as a weaker char.
That got me thinking, read a lot in the forum and I have two ideas: I will use the RolS as an example, but I guess ist the same for other items.
So what if:
1.) The experience points from monsters will slowly reduce so you will not level up so much while grinding. The drop rates stay untouched.
There is obvoiously a monster-couter already implementet. My idea is that after 50 or 100 Monsters of the same kind (shadow gargoyle trainer) the experience you gain starts droping. Every 25 kills (or 10 or 50, all numbers are open for discussion) you gain 1 experience point less.
So you kill 100 trainers, you get 102 Ex-Points. For the next 25 kills you get 101 and so on. After 2650 Kills you will not gain Ex-Points from a shadow gargoyle trainer and after 2875 its the same with the sg-masters (102 * 25 + 100 and 111 * 25 + 100)
You could factor-in the QL-skill like that: 102*1,05 * + 100 = 2775 kills for L1 QL or you can add it after the reduction which seems more appropriate.
They will keep dropping gems, coins, potions, rocks and Rols with the original rate! So you get you wealth and your RolS eventually but you didn't gain 20 levels or so.
I spend 10 Levels in the cave and its rather not a challenge to kill the monsters anymore. And as far as I've read I will probably stay there for a couple more levels. I allready spend a skillpoint for MF and intend to do so once more.
2.)
So the RolS is not a Must-Have to finish the game but kind-of. The cave is accessable rather early in the game and the ring is one of the most powerfull ones in the game. So at least in theory you can get it early in the game and by chance.
So instead of chance I would prefere a quest. You have to collect several items and a smith has to craft it for you.
2a) Do a minor task for the smith to gain his trust. Or maybe get the quest from the Vilegard smith after the "Feygard Errands"-Quest if you delivered the degraded items to the guards and finished the quest.
2b) Collect 10 bonemeal potions (for the healing properties), 25 claws (for the critical damage properties), 10 insect shells (for the BC properties), 10 sharpened gems (for the extra damage properties) and 1000 small rocks (for grinding and for 2c)
2c) Bring the 1000 rocks to another smith, maybe in Loneford. For a password (you got it from the Vilegard smith) and 1000 coins he will forge you the RolS. [end of quest, no other reward, the RolS is enough!]
This way you can get "only" one RolS, you gain experience and therefor levels, you have to grind, its pushes the story, you don't get it by chance and really earned it.
The items to collect, their number and the NPC's involved are open for discussion, of course. Maybe you even need another ring and the stone are necessary for the improvement (AC, damage).
The same principle could work for other legendary items like the ElyR. A sword and basic items (with each standing for one feature) have to be forged into a legendary one by an NPC.
Hopefully I could describe my idea properly.
BTW: I would gladly contribute and do some tranlsation into german. I've seen some dialog is still in english. Feel free to send me an PM.
Its my first round in AT but I like it, A LOT (for more praise see my first post !
Right now I'm in the Gargoyle-Cave looking for the RolS. I'm doing that since level 21 or 22.
If the post fits in better somewhere else, just move it or split it or ...
As grinding is an important element of AT, it's also rather annoying. It takes a lot of time and it does not help the story.
Also when your done, you have a powerfull charakter who ist at the same point in the story as he was before as a weaker char.
That got me thinking, read a lot in the forum and I have two ideas: I will use the RolS as an example, but I guess ist the same for other items.
So what if:
1.) The experience points from monsters will slowly reduce so you will not level up so much while grinding. The drop rates stay untouched.
There is obvoiously a monster-couter already implementet. My idea is that after 50 or 100 Monsters of the same kind (shadow gargoyle trainer) the experience you gain starts droping. Every 25 kills (or 10 or 50, all numbers are open for discussion) you gain 1 experience point less.
So you kill 100 trainers, you get 102 Ex-Points. For the next 25 kills you get 101 and so on. After 2650 Kills you will not gain Ex-Points from a shadow gargoyle trainer and after 2875 its the same with the sg-masters (102 * 25 + 100 and 111 * 25 + 100)
You could factor-in the QL-skill like that: 102*1,05 * + 100 = 2775 kills for L1 QL or you can add it after the reduction which seems more appropriate.
They will keep dropping gems, coins, potions, rocks and Rols with the original rate! So you get you wealth and your RolS eventually but you didn't gain 20 levels or so.
I spend 10 Levels in the cave and its rather not a challenge to kill the monsters anymore. And as far as I've read I will probably stay there for a couple more levels. I allready spend a skillpoint for MF and intend to do so once more.
2.)
So the RolS is not a Must-Have to finish the game but kind-of. The cave is accessable rather early in the game and the ring is one of the most powerfull ones in the game. So at least in theory you can get it early in the game and by chance.
So instead of chance I would prefere a quest. You have to collect several items and a smith has to craft it for you.
2a) Do a minor task for the smith to gain his trust. Or maybe get the quest from the Vilegard smith after the "Feygard Errands"-Quest if you delivered the degraded items to the guards and finished the quest.
2b) Collect 10 bonemeal potions (for the healing properties), 25 claws (for the critical damage properties), 10 insect shells (for the BC properties), 10 sharpened gems (for the extra damage properties) and 1000 small rocks (for grinding and for 2c)
2c) Bring the 1000 rocks to another smith, maybe in Loneford. For a password (you got it from the Vilegard smith) and 1000 coins he will forge you the RolS. [end of quest, no other reward, the RolS is enough!]
This way you can get "only" one RolS, you gain experience and therefor levels, you have to grind, its pushes the story, you don't get it by chance and really earned it.
The items to collect, their number and the NPC's involved are open for discussion, of course. Maybe you even need another ring and the stone are necessary for the improvement (AC, damage).
The same principle could work for other legendary items like the ElyR. A sword and basic items (with each standing for one feature) have to be forged into a legendary one by an NPC.
Hopefully I could describe my idea properly.
BTW: I would gladly contribute and do some tranlsation into german. I've seen some dialog is still in english. Feel free to send me an PM.