Happy Frostval! You are just in time. Pull up a chair and join us around the fire. *Hands you a frothy stein of peppermint moglinberry juice* We are about to talk about Level Capstones & Daily Tasks.
We gotta admit, you did a good job (>_> tooooo good of a job) when we last raised the level cap. Some players hit the new level cap in just 2 hours! O_O Which, of course was followed by a flood of comments like...
The team thought long and hard about this... the answer is: LEVEL CAPSTONES
Glad you asked. Normally, when you get to max level you stop earning XP. But not any more. With level capstones, you will continue earning XP from quests, monsters, and daily tasks. But instead of leveling up, you will earn "Capstones". In fact, you will get 20 Capstones each time you level up. Use these to acquire exclusive level-cap armor and weapons.
This is a great way to reward our most advanced players in between level cap raises... and to make sure no one ever feels like they are wasting XP by playing our newest storyline content. Future plans include allowing you to power up gear (Perhaps Weapon Fusion will finally live?) with level capstones. However we do it, it is important that capstones be a way to further power up. But first things first.
But wait... what if I have played all of the story before you raise the level cap?
Well, good news.
First, our plan is to only raise the level cap alongside new storylines. And second, we are introducing...
Every day, you will earn a large chunk of XP for doing Daily Tasks. We called them tasks instead of quests... because it includes more than just combat. You will earn XP for chatting, fishing, crafting, and whatever new tradeskills get added to the game. This is the perfect alternative to simply grinding monsters for XP after a level cap raise.
If you are a casual player, this will give you a huge reward for hopping in game and playing on your limited gaming schedule. Eventually this will work hand in hand with our upcoming Dungeon Finder system too.
Oh yeah, that. Well, the players who most effectively did that found really easy-to-kill monsters that were worth way more experience than they should have been. Honestly, our players are smart and they will always find a way to min-max the game. That can be considered pretty fun in its own right. We are not out to ruin their fun, but can we all agree that it should not be possible to level up in just 2 hours? The easy solution is to adjust trash mobs by about 50%.Just the XP for leveling, we are NOT touching class XP... not with a 10 foot pole. We got some heat on this from the PTR server. But I do not think anyone communicated to the awesome players testing why the change was done. The new daily tasks and quests will give them more XP in less time. If someone still wants to power grind their way through, they certainly still can. And we will be watching and adjusting things accordingly.
"The goal is to make everything more rewarding"
Yup, simple goal-- make everything more rewarding. It will certainly make questing and daily tasks rewarding if you are in the process of leveling up. Players at the level cap will be rewarded with exclusive gear for playing everything including new story content. We will be keeping an eye on this system and improving it... both now, and as we release new trade skills and features. Eventually, we would like to see every action you take in the game give you a little bit of XP.
We intend to release these systems just before the vampire and werewolf infested Darkovia: Part IV. Which means all players will benefit from the XP from the story quests.
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