Alright My mind is beginning to unwrap some ideas on how to restructure our experience on our server in order to promote RP a Dis-wade heavy Grinding.

My First question is one I think has not been asked.

Is Heavy Grinding a bad thing? What are you views on it and why?

(Heavy grinding being running to dungeons killing everything in it leaving selling the loot and returning with little interaction.)


That being asked, is the RP experience script a valid representation of RP reward. If not why if so why?


Now some technical questions.

How much exp can be gained through an hour of heavy grinding?

How much exp can be gained through an hour of Heavy Camp Fire Chat/ other forms of RP?

How long do your playing sessions last? One hour? Four Hours?

How much Exp do you gain in a average hour of playing?

How long on average do you think it takes for players to reach level 20.

I am asking this because I am working on some math for a new idea. Please be honest and constructive with your replies.

~ Heavy Grinding - Not bad... not good. It can be accomplished with RP. Killing stuff is the PURPOSE of some of my characters. The lack of RP is the issue, not the grinding.

~ The RP script is about right, but past level 20, it will essentially allow characters to progress only through talking or being in DM events. This poses a problem to characters who are a social recluse, or characters whose focus is on battling foes. OOC time allowed online is a limiting factor for DM events, and thus, XP.

~ 800XP/hr could be attainable with a non-powerbuild while RPing and grinding. Alternatively, concentrating on the grind will net roughly the same to 1000xp/hr.

~ I net about 400xp/hr chatting. If I'm chatty. Some of my characters are content in shutting-the-heck-up.

~ My sessions last 45mins - 2hrs in general.

~ On average, I gain about 400xp/hr through "smooshery," talking, and being idle (Paws writes books!)

~ Not sure how long it takes to reach lvl 20. My last server had similiar XP gains and I saw lvl 20 once... after three years. And it wasn't even Paws, it was an alt. (Curse my low AC!)

I'm going to be blunt.

I don't like it when players try and legislate their idea of RP worth and balancing onto a server. I've seen it happen numerous times and it has killed many servers I have loved, in particular BGTSCC.

Keep as hands off as much as possible, this is my philosophy. Concentrate on your own RP, on your own building, and leave other people to mind their own business. Don't push an agenda, no matter how well-intentioned.

Good playing experiences start from the ground up on you and you own character sheet, concept, archtype and what you are and are not willing to do while roleplaying in a SHARED environment. This playground is everyone's and the more accepting and open it is without promoting a single vision of experiences, the more successful it will be.

I know that Victor is just trying to improve things as he sees it, but I really want people to remember that this kind of process is nothing new and it continues to drive servers into the ground and eventually destroy them.

Leave people to play as they wish and stop trying to make new rules to tell others how they should be playing.

Q:How much exp can be gained through an hour of heavy grinding?
A: Can varie depanding on character class/AC/BAB/DMG and if solo or party. my guess is about the 1k.

Q:How much exp can be gained through an hour of Heavy Camp Fire Chat/ other forms of RP?
A: Again depend on character type and faintly how good a type players is lol. Avarage i can get 300-400 by hour. Personaly i think the system partly smack down the silent, less social character but what.

Q:How long do your playing sessions last? One hour? Four Hours?
A: too many hours free to spend

Q:How much Exp do you gain in a average hour of playing?
A: If i am on a character below 20 i might get between 300-500 if not dungoen crawling, if i do that it might be 800-1.2k in a party

Q:How long on average do you think it takes for players to reach level 20.
A: depend on how people do it and how long time they got to spare each day. Hard for me to say how long on avarage.

Is Heavy Grinding a bad thing? What are you views on it and why?
Not really, for many characters it's a huge part of their existance, as has been said above, killing things with no RP is the problem. But really, a huge part of my Black Archer character is training, and because I won't level nearly as fast for standing about typing about how I am shooting arrows, I go and kill stuff.

How much exp can be gained through an hour of heavy grinding?
Depends, if you're a low level mage, it can be pretty damn low, if you're a fighter type guy, you can rack up thousands if you're going fast. I know on my Archer, if I get Improv. Mage armor I can crank out 1-3k xp from beastmen.

How much exp can be gained through an hour of Heavy Camp Fire Chat/ other forms of RP?
Really depends on how much you're talking, generally most of my characters aren't too talkative, so anything I have it probably an underestimate. But anywhere from 100-1,000.

How long do your playing sessions last? One hour? Four Hours?
Longer than they should for the average person.

How much Exp do you gain in a average hour of playing?
Depends on what I'm doing, if I'm standing about in Starwood waiting for the drow NPCs usually 200 xp per hour, (Assuming I'm alone) probably about the same for campfire stuff. Killing mobs, 1-3k if the group is fast.

How long on average do you think it takes for players to reach level 20.
Depends, people can play a character a lot for months and never hit 15, or they can play for a week and hit 15. If you're really trying then it more comes down to character build and tolerance for grinding. I hit lvl I believe 6-8 in one night because I was trying (Starting at lvl 2).

Once again we have people basically making a case that anyone who does not spend the majority of their time around a campfire is not roleplaying. Many of us made characters who are ADVENTURERS, which usually means they go on adventures.

One of my characters I will use as an example:

Karaz RubyCarver is an assassin. He comes from a history of slavery, and doesn't trust many people. What does that mean? It means that he often hunts alone, and doesn't feel comfortable sitting around a campfire with strangers (and not much more comfortable with friends!). This is not a character who will ever likely make it past level 20, but I knew that when I made him. What I didn't expect were people trying to punish me for *not* being OOC and sitting around the fire in contravention of his RP and whole personality.

Does this mean Karaz doesn't RP? Absolutely not! He often RPs with his employers, and with other assassins who he knows he can talk shop with. He roleplays with people he comes across. I don't like to see yet another thread trying to assert some form of roleplay superiority for those who do not adventure as much.

For the record, I do have characters who do much more RPing then adventuring, but that is based on their personality. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because people actually go out and do things, instead of just talking about them, that that are not playing a role.

It is up to each player what roleplay is correct for their character. People telling others how to roleplay are people who wants to control everything around them.

I completely agree some players are not into RP around the camp fire.

That's why I am looking for a base line on what kind of experience can be gained doing so vrses the experience gained grinding vrses the over all experience gained.

http://dalelandsbeyond.forumotion.com/t5198-timed-exp-script#29664

The link to the idea behind this survey.

Well, this coming from a new player who has literally spent the last week doing nothing but sitting around the Shadowdale campfire role playing I must say that it feels as though you don't get much, putting numbers to it, and excluding the amount I've gained from dm events and whatnot I can say that in the last week I've gained about 9900 xp for a weeks worth of role play, meanwhile my buddies have gained all around 60-100k through grinding and what not.

After about three days of sitting around the CS camp I sort of stopped gaining rp xp, I don't quite know if that one was just because I was unlucky or if it was some sort of limit to how much xp I could make there at a time *shrug*

(After getting some sleep I think I will come back to try and clean this up to be more coherent, sorry all I'm just running off of 4 hours of sleep over the last 3 days)

I agree with Ming Ming.

From my experience rp improves by players demonstrating to other players good rp by example.

Lead by example, give each other positive critique in real time in game. By the way that also means giving people compliments and telling them when they do something right that you like or respect. The best way to do it is to invite a newby into an active highly advanced rp session that you are having with someone, then guide them through it. It is not the staff's responsibility to elevate the rp in the server ITS THE PLAYERS. Staff have enough to do.

I've seen your approach done many times victor phonix and I've seen that kind of approach of hitting people on the head as a very bad method. The idea that I'm the best rper and I know the lore better then you therefore your ignored, undermined, or slandered is a very effective way to lose mature roleplayers and gather equally minded judgemental and negativistic players.

All players are works in progress and need advice, pointers, and most importantly, a positive, non-jugmental, and supportive community to help them grow as players and as people. That is something that I like about Dalelands because for the most part many of the players and staff are positive and leading through example to other players and staff.

Lam