[Leveling] Too Easy?

[hoilandms]

First off, I am loving the game and I will be a monthly subscriber going forward.

 

 

BUT...

 

 

Is it just me or is leveling way to easy and way to fast?

 

For example, I hit Tatooine at level 25, did my class quests, did 0 flash points, 0 space missions, 0 warzones, and guess what...

 

I am level 29 with maybe 30-40% of the map revealed and already done with the zone (which has a 25-28 level recommendation). Now I am ready for Alderaan.

 

 

Honestly, I am disappointed. Most of the Tatooine quests are green and I still have half the zone to explore. But now I have to head off to a new world where I am sure I will only get half the quests done before they are trivialized and only half the world explored.

 

 

Sure, this adds a lot of replay value (maybe that is what they are going for?) or maybe I am just missing something entirely.

 

With so many people racing to 50, so much story, so many things to do (warzones, FPs, space missions), I really wish BioWare would have cut the XP gains in roughly half.

 

The story and quests in this game are the best of any MMO, they should have made leveling last longer; in my opinion.

[Yinata]

First off, I am loving the game and I will be a monthly subscriber going forward.

 

 

BUT...

 

 

Is it just me or is leveling way to easy and way to fast?

 

For example, I hit Tatooine at level 25, did my class quests, did 0 flash points, 0 space missions, 0 warzones, and guess what...

 

I am level 29 with maybe 30-40% of the map revealed and already done with the zone (which has a 25-28 level recommendation). Now I am ready for Alderaan.

 

 

Honestly, I am disappointed. Most of the Tatooine quests are green and I still have half the zone to explore. But now I have to head off to a new world where I am sure I will only get half the quests done before they are trivialized and only half the world explored.

 

 

Sure, this adds a lot of replay value (maybe that is what they are going for?) or maybe I am just missing something entirely.

 

With so many people racing to 50, so much story, so many things to do (warzones, FPs, space missions), I really wish BioWare would have cut the XP gains in roughly half.

 

The story and quests in this game are the best of any MMO, they should have made leveling last longer; in my opinion.

 

Let me break it down for you MMO's are no longer about a 3-6 month grind to max level, they are about getting max level in a relatively short amount of time and then enjoying end game content. You may want a 3-6 month grind to max level, but very few want to do that with you. The leveling time in this game IMO for the casual crowd they are marketing the game to is fine because you have to realize some may only play a few hours a week, and expecting them to level for a year to get max level isn't going to work for this game. The day of the hardcore MMO is pretty much over, welcome to the new softcore gaming experience where leveling is short and sweet and endgame is the goal of all progression(or at least it should be).

[hoilandms]

Let me break it down for you MMO's are no longer about a 3-6 month grind to max level, they are about getting max level in a relatively short amount of time and then enjoying end game content. You may want a 3-6 month grind to max level, but very few want to do that with you. The leveling time in this game IMO for the casual crowd they are marketing the game to is fine because you have to realize some may only play a few hours a week, and expecting them to level for a year to get max level isn't going to work for this game. The day of the hardcore MMO is pretty much over, welcome to the new softcore gaming experience where leveling is short and sweet and endgame is the goal of all progression(or at least it should be).

 

I am not asking for a 3-6 month grind.

 

 

I have been playing fairly casually, have maybe just under 3 days time, and now level 30.

 

Too me, that is just a bit too quick.

 

An IDEAL playing time in my mind is roughly 8-9 days to hit max level (50). That would take you roughly 2 months of casual playing.

[eightohfive]

Judging from a lot of other posts the leveling content seems to be pretty damn hard! I've lost count of how many threads I've read about broken classes not being able to handle leveling content =p

 

The leveling process is fairly quick I guess, after level 30 it starts taking a much longer time to gain a level tho. For me, it felt like 30-40 took as much time as 1-30. Just depends on if you care to listen to the storylines, or want to spacebar.

[Daeborn]

You can ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers. I know people who think leveling is too hard and others who don't.

 

I think it's well done myself.

[Vydor_HC]

Yeah, I out level a planet before I am finished with the quests on the planet. Leveling does go way too fast for me. My wife and I went from 27-30 in about 5 hours of play time this weekend. Damn shame too, we will get to max and be bored to death and quit.

[Scan]

The Mods are going to be very busy trying to delete all these posts...

 

Welcome to two weeks ago sir, the hardcore were posting this weeks ago and being shot down by everyone.

 

This is just the beginning, I'm betting you will see so many of these posts as the bulk of the playerbase catches up the hardcore.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Scan

[Yotes]

Yeah, I out level a planet before I am finished with the quests on the planet. Leveling does go way too fast for me. My wife and I went from 27-30 in about 5 hours of play time this weekend. Damn shame too, we will get to max and be bored to death and quit.

 

Quit now then..........?

 

So we don't have to hear QQ later?

[hoilandms]

Yeah, I out level a planet before I am finished with the quests on the planet. Leveling does go way too fast for me. My wife and I went from 27-30 in about 5 hours of play time this weekend. Damn shame too, we will get to max and be bored to death and quit.

 

 

That is my biggest complaint. Out leveling the planet you are on.

 

 

Maybe this changes post 30 and I have yet to experience it. But right now, I am out leveling the planet I am on without doing any of the extra stuff (FPs, warzones, space missions).

[KoukosGamer]

Well Im at 6 day playing time and just hit 39...so I guess around 10 days playing time ill be lvl 50...which is pretty normal...lvling is way too easy.... this is the only mmo ive been able to solo 1-2 gold mobs at once..doing heroics 2 on my own pretty easy...( im a healer).. I hoped it was more difficult to force me to search for grps. I dont usually do heroics 4 as there is no point..and i usually outlvl them while on the planet by the time i finish all solo and heroic 2 quests...and as there gear is outlvled very fast no use farming.

 

I expected again a longer curve to reach lvl cap...Legend helps in that manner ..IF they actually implement something with Legend lvls...for now the surname doesn't cut it.

[Vydor_HC]

Quit now then..........?

 

So we don't have to hear QQ later?

 

Nah, we really enjoy the game. Having a blast, too bad it's going to fast.

[Warjhinn]

First off, I am loving the game and I will be a monthly subscriber going forward.

 

 

BUT...

 

 

Is it just me or is leveling way to easy and way to fast?

 

For example, I hit Tatooine at level 25, did my class quests, did 0 flash points, 0 space missions, 0 warzones, and guess what...

 

I am level 29 with maybe 30-40% of the map revealed and already done with the zone (which has a 25-28 level recommendation). Now I am ready for Alderaan.

 

 

Honestly, I am disappointed. Most of the Tatooine quests are green and I still have half the zone to explore. But now I have to head off to a new world where I am sure I will only get half the quests done before they are trivialized and only half the world explored.

 

 

Sure, this adds a lot of replay value (maybe that is what they are going for?) or maybe I am just missing something entirely.

 

With so many people racing to 50, so much story, so many things to do (warzones, FPs, space missions), I really wish BioWare would have cut the XP gains in roughly half.

 

The story and quests in this game are the best of any MMO, they should have made leveling last longer; in my opinion.

 

Than stay and finish them. I stay and finish most of the quests before I go on to the next zone. I get a little overpowered for the area, but I enjoy the quests and discovering a completely new world.

 

If you look at other MMO's, the zones are designed to give you far more questing opportunities than you need to advance. In other games I have played, I didn't always do all the quests in some areas. In WOW I didm't like the Night-Elf starting area and have yet to finish the quests in those area. I leveled 15 characters and have doen the quests in other areas because I really liked them.

 

Go through and try to do all the quests, if you find an area you don't like, level past it and go to another or just travel to another area and do those quests instead. The only real difficulty is having to keep up with your class quest.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Warjhinn

[overfloater]

Let me break it down for you MMO's are no longer about a 3-6 month grind to max level, they are about getting max level in a relatively short amount of time and then enjoying end game content.

 

Let me correct that:

 

"... they are about bypassing as much of the 1-50 content it took the Devs 3-6 years to create in as little time as humanly possible, then spending 3-6 months grinding the tiny selection of end-game content with mind-numbing repetition and minimal advancement while endlessly complaining that there's not enough end-game content."

 

 

I do seriously wonder why modern MMOs bother with levels and early/mid-game content any more. The majority ignore it, fly through it without appreciating it, or flat-out bypass it by grinding early/mid-level instances in order to hit level cap asap. MMOs are all about advancement, but nowadays people only derive any kind of pleasure from the incremental advancement achieved after you've already hit cap; the first 50 levels are seen as just preliminary crap you have to deal with first. All seems kind of ridiculous to me.

[Jenarie]

This does change. I wanted xp to be at about half rate up to level 30 but soon after 30 it starts swinging to a bit more reasonable for the amount of quests.

 

When you get to Alderaan there is a noticable jump in difficulty level. For the first time I had to actually care about my gear - I went back to the fleet and spent all the comondations I'd never bothered with and updated mods on myself and companion which really helped. For the first time exp progression seemed to move at least close to the correct pace. I haven't had to skip things since then and although I'm still slightly high for my quests at times it tends to be shortlived.

 

The early game is hugely unballanced. If you try to do ANYTHING in addition to your solo quests you outlevel it. Even just solo questing and doing nothing else you can't help but outlevel stuff. But keep going it does get better. If you do daily PVP and do daily ship missions and all the flashpoints you'll still way outlevel stuff but if you are just questing they have the pace correct.

 

I still wish we could either toggle xp on/off or decrease our exp gain to slow down for those of us who want to see it all on the way up but at least as you get higher it does get closer to balanced although still not perfect.

[hoilandms]

Let me correct that:

 

"... they are about bypassing as much of the 1-50 content it took the Devs 3-6 years to create in as little time as humanly possible, then spending 3-6 months grinding the tiny selection of end-game content with mind-numbing repetition and minimal advancement while endlessly complaining that there's not enough end-game content."

 

 

I do seriously wonder why modern MMOs bother with levels and early/mid-game content any more. The majority ignore it, fly through it without appreciating it, or flat-out bypass it by grinding early/mid-level instances in order to hit level cap asap. MMOs are all about advancement, but nowadays people only derive any kind of pleasure from the incremental advancement achieved after you've already hit cap; the first 50 levels are seen as just preliminary crap you have to deal with first. All seems kind of ridiculous to me.

 

 

It would be interesting if a game implemented some type of curve or weight feature to gaining XP.

 

Like a smart leveling system. The system recognizes you are on pace to hit 50 in 3 days play time so it adjusts your XP to be more of a 6 days play time to hit 50.

 

The hardcore crowd would go nuts over such a system. But it would be refreshing to see no 50s until say, a month after a game launches or a new xpac. Will most people here think I am crazy? Yuuuuup.

[Aisar]

I guess the old days of actually feeling like you are playing a real character and "living" their life is over.

 

Now it's about 1-50 in 10 days and then apparantly doing almost nothing. I think it's time to go back to EQ1 or a game that is what I consider to be an MMO

 

RIP MMORPG, WE WILL MISS YOU!

[hoilandms]

I guess the old days of actually feeling like you are playing a real character and "living" their life is over.

 

Now it's about 1-50 in 10 days and then apparantly doing almost nothing. I think it's time to go back to EQ1 or a game that is what I consider to be an MMO

 

RIP MMORPG, WE WILL MISS YOU!

 

 

EQ1 was beyond epic.

 

 

Huge worlds, hell levels, some classes literally couldn't solo content, and when you died, you lost XP unless you got a rez from a cleric.

 

 

Hardcore game for hardcore players.

 

But from a company standpoint, it limited its player base and thus limited its earning potential.

[Oneirophrenia]

Is it just me or is leveling way to easy and way to fast?

 

I like the leveling speed just fine and have not found it to be too fast. If I were to venture a guess, I would estimate that your average non-hardcore gamer (20-25 hours per week) will reach level 50 after about 3 weeks of playing. At the most a month if you spend a decent chunk of time crafting or playing the GTN. That speed of progression is really no different from the other MMOs I have played during the last few years.

 

The days of EQ-style leveling grind isn't coming back and I for one am very thankful for that. Back then, if you wanted to achieve a good leveling rate, you either had to play 24-7 or PL yourself by 3 boxing (melee, enchanter, cleric/druid). An exercise that often led to insanity if you ask me.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Oneirophrenia

[CygnisJunior]

I am not asking for a 3-6 month grind.

 

 

I have been playing fairly casually, have maybe just under 3 days time, and now level 30.

 

Too me, that is just a bit too quick.

 

An IDEAL playing time in my mind is roughly 8-9 days to hit max level (50). That would take you roughly 2 months of casual playing.

 

 

3.6 hours a day is not casual play in my book...

[nawtyuh]

I know what you mean. Me and my fiance have been leveling since level 1 together. All of the Tatooine quests were green to us for a while. We left Tatooine just now for alderaan at 31. It's definitely not efficient for us to be leveling with quests green to us but we really enjoy the stories and the questing so we have been finishing all the story lines available.

 

I did notice however, that a lot of the Tatooine map is still blocked out for us but i'm assuming this is Empire territory. One nice thing is that the story line would just end and you'd be like I guess I'm done here and as soon as you enter the space port there's a guy with another quest.

[hoilandms]

3.6 hours a day is not casual play in my book...

 

 

That is true, my head math was a little off

 

 

I would still love to see a smart XP system (does any game developer dare to institute one?).

 

 

A smart XP system would recognize how fast you are leveling and adjust your XP gains downward.

 

 

 

Take TOR for example. If BioWare had a smart system and it made sure that no one would hit level 50 till 3-4 weeks after launch (that would be tomorrow), would you be okay with that? How would that effect the community and the player base?

 

I have no idea what would happen, but I would love to watch it unfold.

[Chromiie]

It's the way quests are handled. Bioware forced themselves to use voice acting, while great and fun, to make questing more fun and immersive can't have a ton of quests compared to say WoW (Yes I fking said it) does or did in Vanilla. In Vanilla WoW it took months to get to 60.

[KippTabor]

Let me correct that:

 

"... they are about bypassing as much of the 1-50 content it took the Devs 3-6 years to create in as little time as humanly possible, then spending 3-6 months grinding the tiny selection of end-game content with mind-numbing repetition and minimal advancement while endlessly complaining that there's not enough end-game content."

 

 

I do seriously wonder why modern MMOs bother with levels and early/mid-game content any more. The majority ignore it, fly through it without appreciating it, or flat-out bypass it by grinding early/mid-level instances in order to hit level cap asap. MMOs are all about advancement, but nowadays people only derive any kind of pleasure from the incremental advancement achieved after you've already hit cap; the first 50 levels are seen as just preliminary crap you have to deal with first. All seems kind of ridiculous to me.

 

It's just a product of them rushing to max level and then spending most of their time on their maxed out mains. They think that the real meat and potatoes are supposed to come at max level.

 

Pretty narrow-minded, but not unsurprising since WoW catered to these adhd types.

Edited January 9, 2012 by KippTabor

[hoilandms]

It's just a product of them rushing to max level and then spending most of their time on their maxed out mains. They think that the real meat and potatoes are supposed to come at max level.

 

Pretty narrow-minded, but not unsurprising since WoW catered to these adhd types.

 

 

That is why I would love to see a smart leveling system. Have it in place during initial launch and xpac launches.

[Oneirophrenia]

3.6 hours a day is not casual play in my book...

 

Actually it is. Back in 2008, there was a Journal of Computer-Mediated Communications study done by a team of Stanford, USC and U of Delaware researchers. In that study they found that your average MMO gamer plays about 25 hours a week or 3.57 hours per day.

 

Now fast forward 3 years, that average hours played number is probably even higher now as MMOs have made further inroads into the general population. Frankly, 3.6 hours a day isn't really that much. Most 9 to 5 people have about 6 hours of free time each work night. Take out the time required for hygiene, dinner, kids and such, you are left with about 3 hours per night. As for the difference between 3 and 3.6, well that's what the weekends are for.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Oneirophrenia