The insane (double XP) plan to get everyone to 55 fast

[knghtmar]

I cannot say I am for or against double-XP. Other games I have played its been a blessing, and a curse depending on the environment.

 

What I can speak to is my experience with leveling in SWTOR. I have not been playing that long and am still learning the game now after I bought it, and never played it til recently. The main MMO that I play I have played for close to 9 years, so I have gotten used to certain elements of the game (both good and bad) which very probably are skewing my vision of SWTOR.

 

I feel like I have experienced a TON of content in SWTOR on one character and he is barely level 18. Compared to the other game I play this is fantastic to me, from a content standpoint. From a leveling standpoint, it feels extremely slow. It's kind of a double-edged sword for me really.

[Bomyne]

Personally, I'm not against an option, I just don't see the point. All the reasons that people give are invalid. Your toon's level has absolutely nothing to do with your combat ability, your mods and training do. But everyone one of you seems to ignore the countless posts that point that out.

 

That's not true. When you level, you gain a small handful of stats. It's more acccurate to say that it has a very small effect on combat ability.

[Turshek]

Personally, I'm not against an option, I just don't see the point. All the reasons that people give are invalid. Your toon's level has absolutely nothing to do with your combat ability, your mods and training do. But everyone one of you seems to ignore the countless posts that point that out.

 

Levels matter a lot, solo flashpoint 10 levels lower while being naked with no point spent in your tree and say it again...

 

 

All of you who don't understand, we don't want to remove double XP from you, we just want a way not to be part of it for us.

 

I'm a completionist, I like challenge, I like to get the best gear. Considering the amount of XP and content, even without double XP, I already gave up on challenges in class/planet missions, I partially gave up on gearing thus I already would like to stop earning XP, or at half the normal rate or less, ... Double XP only makes it worse for me.

 

I already out level stuff, I got recently 55 while being on Voss main part ie without Voss bonus.Hoth bonus, Corellia, Belsavis dailies, Ilum, Black Hole, Section X (+HK), Makeb (+binocular/seeker). Double XP means getting to 55 earlier and being at the limit of earning XP (-10 for mobs) almost always.

 

Somewhat outleveling, I still can get killed, at 10 above, I can't, at least 99% of attacks are resisted/missed.

 

As for comms, I need around 95 like every 4 levels, not sure how to get that by skipping content. I could accept being in worse gear and it would be better for the challenge but at same time I would intentionally gimp myself for PvP, which doesn't make sense. As for spending money on comms, no way, I need it for buying CM items and other things on GTN.

 

The problem exists with or without double XP, which only makes it worse for us.

 

And again, adding this option is not complicated and different ways have been proposed, not sure why oppose an option that won't affect how you play (as it would be an option to turn off/reduce XP)

[Arkerus]

The whole need to turn it off has been debunked 1000 times. Kill thread.

[James_four]

The whole need to turn it off has been debunked 1000 times. Kill thread.

 

Those of us that do not like being forced to play with double xp turned on would say the opposite is true.

 

It looks like both sides are not likely to see eye to eye on this issue although I did see one poster that was a very vocal supporter of the position that people who do not like double xp should not be allowed to opt out change his mind much to my surprise.

 

I have never ever liked being forced to level faster like this. If I could just be allowed to opt out in some way while everyone else that does want to participate levels as fast as they want with all of the many boosts, events, legacy perks and more that are out there then I would be happy as a lark as I level at my snails pace and enjoy the game and my character's story.

[well]

Well I am a happy camper.The last time they had it I had fun.Sorry but that is why i play the game.I know that is terrible but it is what it is.I have 22 chrs.I made 12 50 plus..down to 10 so I have done the side quest plenty of times.Gets old.I don't do space,hrs or fps most times.To boring to me.Others like it more power to them.With double xp I get to do less side quest.There are some I really like but many I don't.Thanks SWTOR I going to a blast when this starts:p

[Arkerus]

Those of us that do not like being forced to play with double xp turned on would say the opposite is true.

 

It looks like both sides are not likely to see eye to eye on this issue although I did see one poster that was a very vocal supporter of the position that people who do not like double xp should not be allowed to opt out change his mind much to my surprise.

 

I have never ever liked being forced to level faster like this. If I could just be allowed to opt out in some way while everyone else that does want to participate levels as fast as they want with all of the many boosts, events, legacy perks and more that are out there then I would be happy as a lark as I level at my snails pace and enjoy the game and my character's story.

 

As its been said a million times, your level technically does not stop you from enjoying that game at a snail's pace. You could be level 1000 and if you are using gear and skills from level 30 you will hit like a level 30.

[JTrox]

The whole need to turn it off has been debunked 1000 times. Kill thread.

 

If you don't think levels have any effects on fights take your level 55, strip off all their gear, and then head back to your beginner planet and see how long it takes for your character to die.

 

I see no reason why BW can't make it optional; hell I can't see any reason why they can't do like EQ2 and just add an XP slider bar in that goes from 0-200% (make it a sub perk to be able to take the bar below 75% and above 125%) so that people can level at the speed they choose whenever they want.

[Bomyne]

As its been said a million times, your level technically does not stop you from enjoying that game at a snail's pace. You could be level 1000 and if you are using gear and skills from level 30 you will hit like a level 30.

 

No, you wouldn't.

 

Everytime you gain a level, you also gain a very small handful of base stats. Not enough to matter if you are 3 to 10 levels overleveled, but if you are 970 levels over, it'll add up.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Bomyne

[Arkerus]

No, you wouldn't.

 

Everytime you gain a level, you also gain a very small handful of base stats. Not enough to matter if you are 3 to 10 levels overleveled, but if you are 970 levels over, it'll add up.

 

A handful of stats is near worthless in a gear based game. Anyone complaining about a handful of stats is the epitome of people complaining about first world problems.

[Nkya]

Personally, I'm not against an option, I just don't see the point. All the reasons that people give are invalid. Your toon's level has absolutely nothing to do with your combat ability, your mods and training do. But everyone one of you seems to ignore the countless posts that point that out.

 

It's ignored because it is wrong. Repeating it countlessly doesn't change it's wrong..

 

I was able to solo Heroic 4 since Alderaan after the last double XP sessions, with the locally collected gears (outdated for my 5 or 10 levels over the content). Heroics were the only remaining challenge, but the rest of the game becomes boring when nothing can hit you and you don't get any more valuable rewards beside credits. The story was still fun, but the character's quote telling they enjoy the danger becomes a sad joke.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Nkya

[Bomyne]

A handful of stats is near worthless in a gear based game. Anyone complaining about a handful of stats is the epitome of people complaining about first world problems.

 

I agree, but you did say level 1000. If you get 2 Strength per level (I dont know the exact number) and you are 970 levels over, That's 1940 extra strength you have over a level 30 Jedi knight, meaning you would still hit like a truck against a level 30 mob even if naked.

[branmakmuffin]

Personally, I'm not against an option, I just don't see the point. All the reasons that people give are invalid.

Wrong. An opinion expressing personal preference cannot be invalid.

[OddballEasyEight]

All of you seemingly opposed to the option to turn it off, explain one thing to me: why?

 

since it would take more work to implement than you think.

And since there is no NEED for it (imho)

[OddballEasyEight]

Since people are just ignoring my post and then keep on saying stuff like "some of us dont like being forced to level faster" without any explanation as to how that would effect their gameplay any more than the current overleveling, im just going to repeat my post.

 

 

All of you complaining about the double XP weekend, explain a few things to me.

 

1: You say you will overlevel content. But you already overlevel content if you play all missions in the game. Overleveling will stop you from earning XP once you are 5 levels above the missions. So its not like you'll reach lvl 50 on Tatooine.

 

2: You say overleveling content will make the game too easy. Compared to what? Compared to how it is now when you still overlevel content? Sure, it will happen more often, but it wont be that big a difference if you just skip some of the content.

 

3: You say you dont want to be forced to skip content (ie. side missions and planetary quests) because you'll outlevel the planet if you dont. Well you already do that if you dont skip any content.

 

4: You say you'll be left behind in gear if you do skip content and only do the storyline missions. Well, with the new planetary comms, that wont happen (especially if you throw in a flashpoint between planets). And the GTN prices for mods are cheaper than ever now, so buying what you cant get with comms should be a piece of cake.

 

those are the general complaints ive seen. So please tell me if im wrong here, but double XP weekend wont change much for you.

 

Oh, then theres the "but it will make people get to lvl 55 too fast and then they will just be stuck there" argument that the OP used, but thats pretty invalid since you can always make alts. Either you make an alt to level up during the double xp weekends, or you make an alt when your main reaches 55.

 

Of course, there is the tiny core of people that refuse to play more than one character... but most of them are already at lvl cap, so this wont affect them the slightest.

[OddballEasyEight]

Wrong. An opinion expressing personal preference cannot be invalid.

 

It can if you state it as irrefutable proof.

[ekimmak]

I think his issue is that there are a lot of people in this game that believes your level determines your combat abilities, when it does not. If you don't train when you level and if you don't upgrade your gear, you will remain at your combat strength, regardless of how many levels you gain.

 

You can continue to play how you want to, even if you gain 20 levels in one planet. All you have to do is get gear that is of an appropriate level for the planet you are questing on, and train the same. Presto, you will have content that is appropriately challenging, regardless of your level.

 

Aside from the RNG always favouring high level characters. I have tried to beat Mako's full companion arc at level 39, I do know what I'm talking about.

[HaoZhao]

On one hand, I think double-EXP weekends are a farce. If you do all of the solo quests on every planet and run your dailies, you level up way past the recommended level for your class quests. There's already too much EXP in the game.

 

On the other hand, my sister is a casual player. She has one character that's around level 35. I'd love for her to be able to level up faster and get to the end game content so we could play that together.

Edited June 6, 2013 by HaoZhao

[Khevar]

On one hand, I think double-EXP weekends are a farce. If you do all of the solo quests on every planet and run your dailies, you level up way past the recommended level for your class quests. There's already too much EXP in the game.

 

...

The highlighted statement above is false.

 

During the last set of double-xp weekends, I started a brand-new character, purchased every legacy xp perk available, and a stack of xp boost consumables which I had running at all times. Altogether, this made for a massive boost of xp.

 

My goal was to level with class quests, and to skip over every other planetary questline and optional side quests, which I had already seen on 5 other Republic toons. Things started off well, I was overleveled for Ord Mantel and most of Coruscant. By the time I got to Taris and Nar Shadaa things began to slow down. I started running all of the multi-stage-bonus quests that triggered to see if that would help.

 

A typical planet is 4 levels higher than previous one. And yet, I was gaining only 3 levels per planet if I pushed it by never skipping mobs. Near the end of Alderaan I was level 27 and mobs kept resisting my attacks, which was annoying. I ended up doing space missions until I unlocked the Nar Shaddaa Bonus Series and ran that to try and catch up before wrapping up Alderaan and moving onto Balmorra.

 

So, despite having every single XP boost possible, multiplied with the double-xp weekends, I had to re-run side quests I'd seen before just to keep from being underleveled.

[Mowermanx]

The highlighted statement above is false.

.

 

That depends on what solo means? could be everything other than flashpoints/pvp?

 

Anyway, for myself, I not long finished a bounty hunter to 55

Started it after 2.1 as I made a cathar, so no double xp in sight.

On average, I was 5 levels above everything right throughout the process, and dinged 55 nearing the end of corellia(didn't even make Ilum, let alone Makeb )

 

Conditions for this to happen:

No space, not a single mission.

No pvp.

Only 3 flashpoints, black talon, athiss, hammer station.

Played daily, so very little rested was ever accumulated, but always parked in ship or in cantina.

Only used the xp buffs given by the missions.

This was done by just doing all the missions and bonus series, but I had to forgo alderaan bonus series as it greyed out on me.

 

I made this toon for a few reasons, to see where a person would ding 55 since 2.0, to see what playing a toon without an AC would be like, and also to see what leveling with HK was like, have him on 3 other toons, but never leveled, and I must say, I am impressed, absolute killer of a companion, and the assassinate skill is awesome to get rid of the strongs before engaging a pack, I kept mako geared up as I was going along thinking I may need her in some tough fights, but alas, HK just destroyed all in his path long before needing medical attention

Edited June 6, 2013 by Mowermanx

[space_mechanic]

Your toon's level has absolutely nothing to do with your combat ability

Lol. Level up boosts your abilities and opens new ones. Also you grow in stats.

[branmakmuffin]

It can if you state it as irrefutable proof.

Then it's not being stated as an opinion of personal preference.

 

since it would take more work to implement than you think

And since there is no NEED for it (imho)

One and the same. If you like a potential feature, then it's worth the development effort. If you do not like a potential feature, then it's not worth the development effort.

Edited June 6, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[well]

Since people are just ignoring my post and then keep on saying stuff like "some of us dont like being forced to level faster" without any explanation as to how that would effect their gameplay any more than the current overleveling, im just going to repeat my post.

 

 

All of you complaining about the double XP weekend, explain a few things to me.

 

1: You say you will overlevel content. But you already overlevel content if you play all missions in the game. Overleveling will stop you from earning XP once you are 5 levels above the missions. So its not like you'll reach lvl 50 on Tatooine.

 

2: You say overleveling content will make the game too easy. Compared to what? Compared to how it is now when you still overlevel content? Sure, it will happen more often, but it wont be that big a difference if you just skip some of the content.

 

3: You say you dont want to be forced to skip content (ie. side missions and planetary quests) because you'll outlevel the planet if you dont. Well you already do that if you dont skip any content.

 

4: You say you'll be left behind in gear if you do skip content and only do the storyline missions. Well, with the new planetary comms, that wont happen (especially if you throw in a flashpoint between planets). And the GTN prices for mods are cheaper than ever now, so buying what you cant get with comms should be a piece of cake.

 

those are the general complaints ive seen. So please tell me if im wrong here, but double XP weekend wont change much for you.

 

Oh, then theres the "but it will make people get to lvl 55 too fast and then they will just be stuck there" argument that the OP used, but thats pretty invalid since you can always make alts. Either you make an alt to level up during the double xp weekends, or you make an alt when your main reaches 55.

 

Of course, there is the tiny core of people that refuse to play more than one character... but most of them are already at lvl cap, so this wont affect them the slightest.

 

Nicely put.

[SettGirkkurn]

There is quite easy solution to that. Enable/disable user controlled switch for double xp weekends. Even more simpler solution is not to play during that time.

Personally, I have 3 level 55 toons. I couldnt care less about side-quests that I have done already 3 times. So I will simply toss in all XP boosts, all legacy, and overlevel the **** out of game by doing WZ in between story quests. Actually I will most likely overlevel to the point (level 50) I can just go from planet to planet doing only story quests so that I dont get interupted by side quests... like watching the movie... or all 6 seasons of Lost in one run.

However that is my choice, I love being overleveled since I have already beat the game 3 times. I really dont care about doing it "fair and square" all over again.

My choice and preference, and I will use all possible things to make it level as fast as possible, or at least to the end of the chapter 2 so that i can have buffs... Again, my choice. However I completely understand people that dont like it, thus suggestion from the beginning of this post...

Edited June 6, 2013 by SettGirkkurn

[Starglitter]

Mmm...

 

Double exp is it good or bad?

 

As an old mentor, when I was going thru my MBA used to say: "It depends"

 

Obviously there are two sides to every argument. obviously the negative side to it is amply stated, and some support for argument has also been eloquently stated.

 

To me, the real question has to do with end-game, what is it?

 

In Dark Age of Camelot, so far it has been the only MMORPG I had experienced to actually had a planned, no kidding, end game. In that game, the end game was PvP, and thus they designed from the get-go three-factions and created indipendent PvE and PvP maps, the PvE maps were to learn how to play and level expediently, and the PvP maps is where the real action actually took place. DAOC's PvP maps alone are far more extensive than the entirety of the maps offered by SWTOR, also their PvP allowed for hundreds on hundreds engagements, and had castles to defend or be taken, full use of siege warfare, etc. Thus DAOC knowing that the end game was a three way struggle for supremacy of the "contested lands" thru PvP, their main goal was to allow players to level as quickly as possible to 50, and obtain the best gear possible as easily as possible so there would be equity at the battlefield regardless if you were hard core or casual. There were no raid gear elites, while they did have raid gear and it was very good, you could buy gear that was actually as good or better from player crafters. Also with the intent to ensure that players going to the "frontiers" to engage in PvP, DAOC established a number of level locked "Battlegrounds" so poeple could PvP under a control environment in order for the to learn how to play their class in a PvP world, and learn PvP group tactics, etc. Thus when they finally made it to 50 (highest level) they would be experienced and fully equipped.

 

Now back to SWTOR, I really don't know what end game for this game is, suspect that SWTOPR developers don't either (ha ha ha). If the end game is to the level 55 adventures, then it makes sense to accelerate how fast players can get to 55 to do the end game material, hence double exp makes absolute sense.

 

On the other hand, if there is no real end game, and the joy of the game is as phylosphers would say: "Its the journey, and not the destination" Then double exp makes no sense at all.

 

So what is the answer: It depends :<)

 

Sue