Reaching Level 50 Is Too Easy

[DarthOvertone]

Not QQing, quitting or any of that other nonsense. Simply stating that I think it's way too easy for players to reach level cap in this game. I've been really impressed with the game so far. Sure it has its rough edges that need to be smoothed out and fixed, but for a first month launch the theme park is in full effect and it's pretty impressive. As such, I plan on subbing for quite awhile.

 

That said, I think BW is doing themselves, and all the work they put into the game, a grave disservice in making it possible for peeps to hit level 50 so fast. I consider myself between a casual and hardcore player. I play everyday, about 3 hours a night during the week and most of the weekend. When I started playing the game, I committed myself to taking my time. I didn't spacebar through any of the quests and I played all of the content quite a bit including questing, WZs, FPs, space missions, heroics and class story. I even burned about a week's worth of playtime just doing OPvP which gained my toon nothing in terms of xp or rewards, but was total fun.

 

My toon hit level 50 over the weekend, less than a month after game release. Now when I initially purchased the game, I fully expected to put in 2 to 3 months of dedicated playtime to hit cap. I was a bit disappointed that I hit 50 so fast, and that was me taking my time, playing very casually. We are all familiar with other peeps who hit 50 in four days or a week by just doing WZs and Space Missions.

 

Now I think it's great that players can level up in whatever way they see fit, they paid to play the game their own way after all, however some of this stuff just needs to be toned down.

 

-Quest XP is too high. I only did one Bonus series on one planet (Tatooine) simply because I out-leveled most of the planets I was on. Voss was my favorite planet by far, but I didn't even do the Bonus series there. Many people think the planetary zones are small, but most don't even see all that there is because they never touch the Bonus questlines that really extend the zones.

 

-Rest XP is too much. There is also too much rest xp. With such a large variety of ways to progress and level your character, the added bonus from Rest XP is just over the top.

 

-WZs Reward Too Much XP. The fact that a large number of peeps were able to hit WZs exclusively and cap their toon in a week should provide a glaring red flag as to there being too much XP from this instanced play. I know it has been nerfed once already, but I think the XP in WZs should be halved again, especially considering all the other rewards you get from them, commendations/valor/dailies.

 

-Space Missions Give Too Much XP. Space Missions have to be the most ridiculously easy content in the game. Many players use these in combination with WZs to blow through the leveling process. Space Missions are a nice alternative form of content, but I seriously doubt BW intended them to be a primary leveling mechanism. For time invested, they reward far too much XP.

 

Players do pretty much have to participate in their class story to fully maximize their toons. I think that this was a good move by BW. However, I think the content in game would be better served with an integration of all different types of content into the story. So at some stage of the class story it is necessary to do a FP, a WZ, a Space Mission, Heroic, craft something, etc. This way the full gamut of content is covered simply by doing the story. At this point, it's just too easy to bypass everything in favor of brevity and power-leveling to cap.

 

Anyway, just some observations. It would be nice to have a community that sticks around. I think making the leveling process a bit more complex and requiring more of a commitment would be a good thing for us all who plan on sticking around for awhile.

[Caelrie]

3 hours a day and all day on the weekends is not a casual player. Let's say your "all day" means 6 hours. It's probably more than that, but whatever...

 

15 + 12 = 27 hours a week.

 

You're playing almost as much SWTOR as someone with a fulltime job. That's NOT casual.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Caelrie

[Aaluria]

Experience is fine, you can slow your own progress down and not worry about other peoples. people are happy with it as is. Thanks for the post though. Just realize most of us are fine with it.

[truedark]

No. Do not halve any experience. I don't want to have to spend 3 months just to get to the *********** last level. The pace right now is perfect, you actually feel like you're making progress rather than just staring at a bar screaming for it to go faster.

[RogueRange]

i think the point of this game is to make alts. hitting cap quickly makes that more of an option to casual players.

[Agemnon]

3 hours a day and all day on the weekends is not a casual player. Let's say your "all day" means 6 hours. It's probably more than that, but whatever...

 

15 + 12 = 27 hours a week.

 

You're playing almost as much SWTOR as someone with a fulltime job. That's NOT casual.

 

No one told you to make sense, Twilek!

[Elindalyne]

If I wanted a grindy leveling game I'd go back to Ragnarok Online pre-Kafra shop. The journey is not the destination. End game is what will make or break this game or any other upcoming mmo.

[LordKrell]

Funny, just now in another thread someone was saying that leveling takes too long. Opinions, and all that.

[supertouch]

If I wanted a grindy leveling game I'd go back to Ragnarok Online pre-Kafra shop. The journey is not the destination. End game is what will make or break this game or any other upcoming mmo.

 

and that's precisely what's wrong with MMOs these days

[Bazouk]

unfortunately, most gamers just want to get to level cap and play what is there to be played. devs dropped the ball here because, even though you feel like getting to 50 is too easy, most of the development efforts in this game went into leveling and not what happens when you reach 50.

 

the truth is, leveling is pretty much all this game is. if you're disappointed in that, your life is going to be AWFUL at 50.

[Blue]

Leveling takes too long. Quests dont give enough xp. Ive had this game since pre-release and am only 27.

[Jswizzle]

Some people say this game is too "grindy"

 

Seems to me like they found a good balance in between

[Caelrie]

No one told you to make sense, Twilek!

 

It's the brain tails. They make me extra logical.

[Skaara]

Thank god the leveling is easy in this game. Three months of grinding is not fun and borders on Sadomasochism.

[Waypoc]

Not QQing, quitting or any of that other nonsense. Simply stating that I think it's way too easy for players to reach level cap in this game. I've been really impressed with the game so far. Sure it has its rough edges that need to be smoothed out and fixed, but for a first month launch the theme park is in full effect and it's pretty impressive. As such, I plan on subbing for quite awhile.

 

That said, I think BW is doing themselves, and all the work they put into the game, a grave disservice in making it possible for peeps to hit level 50 so fast. I consider myself between a casual and hardcore player. I play everyday, about 3 hours a night during the week and most of the weekend. When I started playing the game, I committed myself to taking my time. I didn't spacebar through any of the quests and I played all of the content quite a bit including questing, WZs, FPs, space missions, heroics and class story. I even burned about a week's worth of playtime just doing OPvP which gained my toon nothing in terms of xp or rewards, but was total fun.

 

My toon hit level 50 over the weekend, less than a month after game release. Now when I initially purchased the game, I fully expected to put in 2 to 3 months of dedicated playtime to hit cap. I was a bit disappointed that I hit 50 so fast, and that was me taking my time, playing very casually. We are all familiar with other peeps who hit 50 in four days or a week by just doing WZs and Space Missions.

 

Now I think it's great that players can level up in whatever way they see fit, they paid to play the game their own way after all, however some of this stuff just needs to be toned down.

 

-Quest XP is too high. I only did one Bonus series on one planet (Tatooine) simply because I out-leveled most of the planets I was on. Voss was my favorite planet by far, but I didn't even do the Bonus series there. Many people think the planetary zones are small, but most don't even see all that there is because they never touch the Bonus questlines that really extend the zones.

 

-Rest XP is too much. There is also too much rest xp. With such a large variety of ways to progress and level your character, the added bonus from Rest XP is just over the top.

 

-WZs Reward Too Much XP. The fact that a large number of peeps were able to hit WZs exclusively and cap their toon in a week should provide a glaring red flag as to there being too much XP from this instanced play. I know it has been nerfed once already, but I think the XP in WZs should be halved again, especially considering all the other rewards you get from them, commendations/valor/dailies.

 

-Space Missions Give Too Much XP. Space Missions have to be the most ridiculously easy content in the game. Many players use these in combination with WZs to blow through the leveling process. Space Missions are a nice alternative form of content, but I seriously doubt BW intended them to be a primary leveling mechanism. For time invested, they reward far too much XP.

 

Players do pretty much have to participate in their class story to fully maximize their toons. I think that this was a good move by BW. However, I think the content in game would be better served with an integration of all different types of content into the story. So at some stage of the class story it is necessary to do a FP, a WZ, a Space Mission, Heroic, craft something, etc. This way the full gamut of content is covered simply by doing the story. At this point, it's just too easy to bypass everything in favor of brevity and power-leveling to cap.

 

Anyway, just some observations. It would be nice to have a community that sticks around. I think making the leveling process a bit more complex and requiring more of a commitment would be a good thing for us all who plan on sticking around for awhile.

 

Everything is way too easy in general. No worries in future patches they will make things even easier.

[hulduet]

You're 6-7 years too late mate. Mmos got a lot easier to "play" thanks to WoW.

 

Gone are the days where you could grind 24/7 for months without making much progress, i feel sorry for those who played AC2. It wasn't too bad in daoc but took a bit of time, especially in vanilla.

 

From what i understand some people are complaining that content is a lot harder at 30-40 so i guess we'll see a nerf incoming eventually.

Edited January 16, 2012 by hulduet

[elvenseraph]

The days of taking months to level to max, such as in everquest 1 when it launched, are gone. I will miss them as it made the journey more meaningful and most importantly it forced people to group more and really was conducive to building strong server communities. But we must be pragmatic and realize that WoW changed the industry to appeal more to the ADD gang and theres no going back.

[RogueRange]

i'm not sure what game you're all comparing this too to say lvling is slow. you can go 1-50 in 4 days quite easily.

[justahdude]

i have had the game for way over a month and my highest toon is level 36, with a second level 21, the other three level 10 ish... sir you are either saying most players suck, or you play way too much and are somehow able to find groups in this anti social lot we have plaguing the system.

 

and with my full time job, i think i play way too much. so yeah the game isnt too easy.

[lordgracy]

It took me a little over 7.5 days played(~180 hrs) to hit 50 for my first time. I thought it was actually perfect because I was over it by the time I hit about 48ish.

[Utensil]

unfortunately, most gamers just want to get to level cap and play what is there to be played. devs dropped the ball here because, even though you feel like getting to 50 is too easy, most of the development efforts in this game went into leveling and not what happens when you reach 50.

 

the truth is, leveling is pretty much all this game is. if you're disappointed in that, your life is going to be AWFUL at 50.

 

Historically, or at least since WoW, most MMOs have been mostly about leveling on launch. WoW pioneered the design scheme of releasing a lot of leveling content on launch, then putting out fat patches a month or two down the road stuffed with high-level endgame content. It allows the developers to release a polished product, then add stuff in AFTER people hit the level cap and are wanting new content.

[Eldren]

By my definitions, at least, OP, you're not "casual". Three hours a night five days a week with most of your time on the weekend is definitely "hardcore". You might not be a raider, but not all hardcores are raiders, and not all raiders are hardcores.

 

I put in around two hours two to three nights a week. I might put in 5 hours or so on a Saturday, with another 2-3 on Sunday. I'm at level 41 right now.

 

People are always going to rush to the cap, 'cause they want to be "first", for whatever that really means. I think they mostly learn they don't have many people to play with at that point til the average bulk catches up with them a few weeks later.

 

I think the leveling rate is just fine.

[Elindalyne]

and that's precisely what's wrong with MMOs these days

 

No, its really not. Games that require 25 hours/week for years to reach max levels just don't appeal to broad audiences. When you level for an hour and see less than a 1% experience gain, things just get depressing.

 

The reason WoW is a success is beause the devs realized they needed to appeal to a broad audience and not just the relatively small number of people that liked that sort of thing.

[Tzimisce]

i agree.

[ThePromise]

You are more than welcome to go play Asian MMOs.

 

Some of use don't want to log 15 days of play time to get to level cap. It took me just under seven days. The leveling process felt fine to me.