A few thoughts from a vet:
I think that some people who are complaining about vets keeping their levels are missing out on one big thing: We high-level vets will NOT have high level equipment to work with at the beginning! We will have refugee equipment, and maybe be able to afford to buy q50 or maybe q100 in the capitals.
The routes to the higher level dig areas will be blocked with kitin of increasing levels. (This was in the earlier announcement.) Those will be hard to kill with NPC amps and swords, even for those of us with 250 2H axe. The stanzas need to be matched with the weapons. Because of the economy reset it will not be as easy for us to make the dappers to even buy the high level NPC crap-gear. Until we can get to the q250 dig areas there will be no decent high-level equipment. (This may be a matter of days or weeks, but there *will* be a delay.)
There never was, in Ryzom, the ability to be truly *uber*. There were always mobs that could take you apart. The vets will have lost their good weapons and amps. That means even lower level mobs will be able to take us apart. Trekking will not be simple with kitin in the way in addition to the usual mobs.
Yes, we will help the new folk. That sort of help was what kept me going during low level grind in the Forest in my first main toon. Ryzom has a steep learning curve, one might even say a "learning cliff". Assistance helps a new person along. There is no particular virtue in being poor or under-trained. Sure, being power-trained through fame runs takes the effort out, but you don't have to accept that.
The premium packs for those who volunteer to restart are a set of goals. NPC armor is hard to get, even if you are q250. (I certainly don't have any, two years after my first melee master.) The toons won't be able to use it until they get the necessary levels. They will be working for it and towards it. The basic pack gives you a tiny bit of a bonus for being paid or being active. What's wrong with that? The difference between the basic pack and the standard refugee gear just isn't that much -- the big thing in the basic pack is the retention of name and appearance.
As for that, as far as non-paid players are concerned, name poaching is very unlikely and appearance can be duplicated.
If you compare the loss of levels gained for free to the loss of items, mementos and teleport pacts that the paid vets are getting, I'm afraid that I don't see that the F2P players are getting more screwed than the rest of us are. The loss of items and dappers is necessary to restart the economy. The loss of teleports is part and parcel of the same. (The fact that any cash/dapper-based economy is doomed by the continuous flood of materials is beside the point.) The merge is necessary for RL economic reasons. The internal economic reset is designed to help attract players who want to buy things rather than trade them. The revision of the terms of the reset is designed to keep paying vets on board who would otherwise leave. No one is happy, which means that something approaching equity has been achieved. ("In a true compromise, no one is completely happy.")
-- just some night thoughts.
-- Bittty
I think that some people who are complaining about vets keeping their levels are missing out on one big thing: We high-level vets will NOT have high level equipment to work with at the beginning! We will have refugee equipment, and maybe be able to afford to buy q50 or maybe q100 in the capitals.
The routes to the higher level dig areas will be blocked with kitin of increasing levels. (This was in the earlier announcement.) Those will be hard to kill with NPC amps and swords, even for those of us with 250 2H axe. The stanzas need to be matched with the weapons. Because of the economy reset it will not be as easy for us to make the dappers to even buy the high level NPC crap-gear. Until we can get to the q250 dig areas there will be no decent high-level equipment. (This may be a matter of days or weeks, but there *will* be a delay.)
There never was, in Ryzom, the ability to be truly *uber*. There were always mobs that could take you apart. The vets will have lost their good weapons and amps. That means even lower level mobs will be able to take us apart. Trekking will not be simple with kitin in the way in addition to the usual mobs.
Yes, we will help the new folk. That sort of help was what kept me going during low level grind in the Forest in my first main toon. Ryzom has a steep learning curve, one might even say a "learning cliff". Assistance helps a new person along. There is no particular virtue in being poor or under-trained. Sure, being power-trained through fame runs takes the effort out, but you don't have to accept that.
The premium packs for those who volunteer to restart are a set of goals. NPC armor is hard to get, even if you are q250. (I certainly don't have any, two years after my first melee master.) The toons won't be able to use it until they get the necessary levels. They will be working for it and towards it. The basic pack gives you a tiny bit of a bonus for being paid or being active. What's wrong with that? The difference between the basic pack and the standard refugee gear just isn't that much -- the big thing in the basic pack is the retention of name and appearance.
As for that, as far as non-paid players are concerned, name poaching is very unlikely and appearance can be duplicated.
If you compare the loss of levels gained for free to the loss of items, mementos and teleport pacts that the paid vets are getting, I'm afraid that I don't see that the F2P players are getting more screwed than the rest of us are. The loss of items and dappers is necessary to restart the economy. The loss of teleports is part and parcel of the same. (The fact that any cash/dapper-based economy is doomed by the continuous flood of materials is beside the point.) The merge is necessary for RL economic reasons. The internal economic reset is designed to help attract players who want to buy things rather than trade them. The revision of the terms of the reset is designed to keep paying vets on board who would otherwise leave. No one is happy, which means that something approaching equity has been achieved. ("In a true compromise, no one is completely happy.")
-- just some night thoughts.
-- Bittty
---
Remembering Tyneetryk
Phaedreas Tears - 15 years old and first(*) of true neutral guilds in Atys.
(*) This statement is contested, but we are certainly the longest lasting.
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