Lowbie suggestions

S

Snotgrubb

Dalayan Beginner
Greetings, I have recently started 2 lowbies, a bard out of Newport and a troll beastlord out of Stinger's Bog.

Exp and levels go by so fast it seems your skills can't keep up. (and I'm not twinked so these are long fights) This can make fighting low blues and such very hard. The bard really struggled with offense/defense/weapon skills and often was 3-5 levels below where his skills should have been.

The troll beastlord is struggling with weapon skills and is really struggling with spell skills. I had to dump a bunch of training points just to get my weapon skills close to where they needed to be. He now is almost lvl 14 and his spell skills have gone up only 5-10 points over the last 5 levels. I am almost afraid to hit lvl 15 as I'm afraid I won't be able to cast any of the new spells due to my skill being riduculously low. (and yes, I cast them constantly, they just aren't going up). Anything you can do to up the skill rate gain at low levels?

For the good newbie zones, Newport newbie yard is fine. Centaur hills could use some more mobs in the 5-10 range I think. Blackburrow, while it potentially could be a great lowbie zone, isn't. I can't call this a good hunting spot because there was always a lvl 65 or 2 running around killing every gnoll in sight. (and I've read you have plans to fix this). Fearstone seemed to be very well done and the group I hunted with had a lot of fun fighting to the throne room. Good challenge and good rewards there.

For the evil newbie zones, I think they need some love. (granted, the geography and darkness of the evil zones make them naturally poor newbie zones) I had a real hard time finding mobs I could kill in Stinger's Bog until about level 7. I mean this in terms of both quantity and level of mobs. Sometimes I just couldn't find any critters and when I did they were yellow and would dust me easily. I suggest increasing the number of mobs near Grobb and maybe even adding some static spawns on some of the nearby islands. I also suggest increasing the number of lvl 1 mobs there as I struggled to find mobs I could kill at lvl 1.

In the Ogre newbie zone the mobs seem even more scarce. There are some lizards in camps but since they are social they aren't really good to solo and not enough lizards for a group. There are plenty of Sarnak-like lizards on the island, but they are so close together you get 3-5 of them at a time. I suggest populating the ruins in both the NW and NE corners of the zone with appropriate lowbie mobs. Put some wandering mobs in the North part of the zone to kind of lead the way and fill out at least part of this empty zone. For the Sarnak island I suggest splitting some of the temple mobs up. Add some more single spawn points (I know of 3 right now). Have a few double spawn points and a few triple spawn points as well. Mix it up. Add a few wanderer's. Make the island viable for solo'ers and small lowbie groups. Right now when someone starts an evil and shouts for advice on where to find something to kill the stock answer is "Go to Newport".


Day/Night population: I understand and kind of think it's cool what you are trying to do with the locked doors and daytime/nighttime population. I'm just not sure it's a good thing. I find it really annoying to have all these locked doors. I get frustrated when my quest mob is behind a locked door or a vendor I want is gone for the night. The nights aren't exactly short either. I suggest going back to 24/7 doors/vendors/quest givers.

*edit*

I also wanted to add I too have problems hitting fleeing mobs. If I manage to connect with a mob that is running I consider myself lucky.
 
I came to this forum to post about the unbalanced newbie zones, but this thread was already here. I'm not sure about all of them, but I know the Ogre and Froglok newbie zones are horrendous, and I've heard that the only newbie zone worth levelling in is Newport. This gives an unfair advantage to experienced players who can afford to buy their new character's way to Newport without a problem, and makes it harder for new players to start characters.
 
I also completely agree with Snotgrubb. I've been farting around with EQemu for a quite a while as I quit EQlive several years ago and was looking for a way to play the game free. After I dabbled around with #summonitem and such, I decided I'd like to play and develop a serious character on a legit or custom legit server so I turned to WR, since most of the legit and custom legit EQemu servers suck bigtime. Anyway, I log in to WR for the first time, and I must say, was VERY impressed by the lack of bugs, the stability, all the time and work the devs and staff have put into the server is very evident.

Unfortunately though, there are indeed some balance issues in the starting areas, that need desperate attention. I won't repeat them though since Snotgrubb hit it on the nose. In my experience, starting new characters on WR (and I've played about 6 or so now) is for the most part ...not very fun at all. I had more fun during my first day of EQlive then I did on WR, I'm sorry to say. This is because I didn't have to run around the entire zone to find mobs that conned white or blue to me. When I do find mobs, as Snottgrub said, most are yellow and extremely deadly to a fresh newbie or (if there is such a thing) a person starting a non-twinked character.

Loot and quests is another issue. As far as loot is concerned, either its sellback rate is too low or there just isn't enough. My first character was a monk, and by the time he had reached level 7, he'd earned enough money to buy 4 pieces of cloth armor, and one stack of bandages -- ouch. I started playing EQ before Kunark, and I cannot remember ever struggling that much for cash. Anyway, my monk would roam around and kill mobs by the droves, and barely get any loot. I thought maybe it was my dumb luck till I tried other race and class combos, however there weren't enough mobs to kill or the loot wasn't dropping enough for them either. I think the loot-drop rate should be increased, not by a lot, but enough to sustain a steady cash income for newbies that amounts to more than 38 copper. I don't mean this to be a personal rant, because I've always been old-school when it came to playing EQ. I never twinked my alts in EQlive, even with several hundred thousand plat at my disposal. I like to work for what I have, as earning something means more to me than buying it. It's just that I noticed that it is perhaps almost too difficult for newbies to equip themselves, and ...casters as well, who have to buy spells on top of gear.

As far as quests go: All I'd like to see is an increase in newbie quests with meaningful rewards, perhaps even newbie armor quests. EQlive devs created the newbie armor quests for several reasons, but one being a big one - and that was because EQlive had reached a point in its growth where most players who had cash and were creating alts were also twinking them. So you'd have a level 4 running around with a fungy BP and exotic weapons that players weren't meant to have till level 50+, while the real newbies were scraping by on cloth and leather and rusty whatevers. This put the newbies at a huge disadvantage in many situations, and thus the newbie armor quests were created to help balance out that issue. The reason I'm bringing this up is because I feel that the game would be a LOT more fun for those of us who are new, if we had something to work for. The same monotonous boring-ass level grind is why I left EQlive and why I haven't been playing on WR as much as I'd like to be. Please don't take this suggestion as an attack, but, as a suggestion. The quests that you guys do have implimented are pretty good for the most part, I'd just like to see more.

I've been helping people with eqemu servers and quests for quite a while, and eventually found my focus to be quest writing as I tend to be very creative with quests and roleplaying. The point is, that I'd be willing to help impliment or create more quests, and, if any WR admins are reading this, take note that I'm available. I will do anything I can to help you guys out because other than the set backs above your server really is very cool, with a great community and would be a lot more fun for newbies with some minor adjustments.

If there is anything I can do to help out please PM me or reply to this. I'd be happy to submit examples of my quest work. Thanks for reading all this, and, once again, don't take any of this as an attack on your server. You guys have done a fantastic job thus far. Thanks for making WR in the first place.

Best Regards,
Skyrahl the Flying Wolf
EQ, E'ci, 70 Plainswalker
 
Another perspective.

Started WR recently and have my primary duo up to level 12 (ranger/cleric), secondary duo up to 10/11 (mage/wizard), and two different shaman around 5.

I had no trouble finding critters to fight with a DC combo, and no trouble fighting the things I found.

Running true solo in the first few levels was a little tougher - the bones of one enchanter still lie in Newport's newbie garden - but it could also be done.

That said, the Centaur Hills were a little sparse at first, and the western part of West Plaguelands is very empty indeed.

The ranger/cleric combo tried Everfrost (forgot the new name) at level 11 but got bored. They might head back around 13/14 when the bigger orcs and the mammoth calves will be a little tastier.

I was very impressed with the frequency and drop rate of metal weapons and fairly useful leather armor, and with the low price and high utility of merchant metal weapons and vendor armor. That part of the low level game was well balanced.

The only rich one of the whole lot was the oger shaman who found a 7 plat shield on a decaying skellington, but at level 12/12 the ranger/cleric combo now has several items with stats, a mix of chain and leather armor, and their first open market weapons. The whole process compares favorably to when I first started a ranger and a cleric on eqlive in the winter of 1999.

I would tweak the spawn rate in parts of Greenmist, Everfrost, and Centaur Hills, but was otherwise fairly happy with the experience.
 
Skyrahl said:
As far as quests go: All I'd like to see is an increase in newbie quests with meaningful rewards, perhaps even newbie armor quests. EQlive devs created the newbie armor quests for several reasons, but one being a big one - and that was because EQlive had reached a point in its growth where most players who had cash and were creating alts were also twinking them. So you'd have a level 4 running around with a fungy BP and exotic weapons that players weren't meant to have till level 50+, while the real newbies were scraping by on cloth and leather and rusty whatevers. This put the newbies at a huge disadvantage in many situations, and thus the newbie armor quests were created to help balance out that issue. The reason I'm bringing this up is because I feel that the game would be a LOT more fun for those of us who are new, if we had something to work for. The same monotonous boring-ass level grind is why I left EQlive and why I haven't been playing on WR as much as I'd like to be. Please don't take this suggestion as an attack, but, as a suggestion. The quests that you guys do have implimented are pretty good for the most part, I'd just like to see more.
Click to expand...
Right now WR has a dedicated team working on quests and there are more quests to come for all levels of play. So hang in there! The dev's are working hard to implement these new quests from the design team. And if I am correct, new quests are being implemented every week, so it won't be long till there will be quests galore to sink your teeth into.

And by all means, feel free to post any quest ideas you might have in this post. As it will be a great help to us.

Journey well and travel safe!
Tarrax
 
Tarrax Ironwolf said:
Skyrahl said:
As far as quests go: All I'd like to see is an increase in newbie quests with meaningful rewards, perhaps even newbie armor quests. EQlive devs created the newbie armor quests for several reasons, but one being a big one - and that was because EQlive had reached a point in its growth where most players who had cash and were creating alts were also twinking them. So you'd have a level 4 running around with a fungy BP and exotic weapons that players weren't meant to have till level 50+, while the real newbies were scraping by on cloth and leather and rusty whatevers. This put the newbies at a huge disadvantage in many situations, and thus the newbie armor quests were created to help balance out that issue. The reason I'm bringing this up is because I feel that the game would be a LOT more fun for those of us who are new, if we had something to work for. The same monotonous boring-ass level grind is why I left EQlive and why I haven't been playing on WR as much as I'd like to be. Please don't take this suggestion as an attack, but, as a suggestion. The quests that you guys do have implimented are pretty good for the most part, I'd just like to see more.
Click to expand...
Right now WR has a dedicated team working on quests and there are more quests to come for all levels of play. So hang in there! The dev's are working hard to implement these new quests from the design team. And if I am correct, new quests are being implemented every week, so it won't be long till there will be quests galore to sink your teeth into.

And by all means, feel free to post any quest ideas you might have in this post. As it will be a great help to us.

Journey well and travel safe!
Tarrax
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, mr. Ironwolf...get on IRC :wth:
 
It is true the the lower levels are very difficult. However, the experience is very good. So I died LOTS, more than I ever have in live, but still leveled fairly quickly, probably quicker than I did in live. As the experience slows down, the skills will start to keep up. Don't lose hope!

Dumping training points is ok, if you need it. That's what they are there for, anyhow, so don't be shy with them. I always end up with a huge excess laying around on higher levels, so I don't worry about spending them.

I did notice when I was a noob that the mobs were fairly sparse, but that was likely due to the fact that the server was not used to the boom that came about six weeks ago. I had heard Wiz was looking towards adding a few more creatures, but I am not sure he expected it to keep booming, so I suppose in your case it might have just been that there were too many newbies and not enough mobs. (this was all in newport)

I haven't leveled in the evil areas, but I also thought that steamfont had a GREAT newbie zone. . . you can really level up there for quite a while, at least the first 10 levels. If you get frustrated with Newport, check it out. Do some exploring! Time and again I have seen threads with this complaint and that complaint, only to have Wiz pop in and say: "go explore and maybe you will find what you are looking for!"

Speaking of which, I was surprised you saved all your money to buy cloth armor. That's too bad. I would have recommended that you spend your money on bandages, so you can level up a bit faster and get your bind wound skills up as well. Soon enough, you will move to BB, and all the gnolls drop cloth and leather. . .or something (been a few weeks). Once you move to the warrens, you can get soft leather, and then . . .you get the idea. You don't have to get 50pp to start off with to twink yourself in the baz anymore. You can fight for what you wear, and do it proudly!

I love the day/night population thing. Annoying, at first, yes. But realistic! and immersive! I now know what vendors are open at night and which aren't. I also know if I am travelling and it happens to be daytime, it might be a good idea to drop by the nearest city to complete the quests I have been working on. It really makes the game more 'real'.

I liked it this way, personally. It made the game challenging. There was nothing to make the game less challenging than Live dumbing down everything for the lower levels. Don't do it!!!
 
I had no trouble soloing as noobie on WR. I didnt even know you could DC at the time.

The fast leveling was actually something i liked because it just let me get to the more interesting levels which are level 20+

I did find a bit of an issue with skills and spells tho like described above. But i got around it by spamming my spells for a while. Infact i remember finding someones corpse and i just stood there casting spells on it for about 20 minutes and it really boosted my spell skills. As for the other skills i used a few practice points to boost it. But i havnt tried playing as a melee class yet.

My main reason for posting this, is because im interested in those points you get when you level. Will they ever be required at higher levels for anything? Because at level 65 i think ive got like 300 unused skill points :O

If they will never be used, then maybe low level players should just use lots of them to boost their characters while leveling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom