Death XP and New Players

[Geras]

So I saw the notes from the OOC meeting re: how it's hard for new players to get to a point to be competitive with established players due to accumlated XP, and may I suggest we just add a catchup mechanism?

So for the first 100k RPXP earned on an account, you get a 100% bonus to your XP earned rate.

For the second 100k, it's a 50% bonus.

That's it.

I think that would strike a good balance at making this game accessible to new players while making sure a strong character is something you earn.

Thoughts?

[Taunya]

Competitive in what way?

I've not really had any trouble earning enough xp to raise a skill I focus on, and you do start with a good chunk of bonusxp- 50k-ish I think?

[Voxumo]

Should note that it's likely even easier now for new players to catch up skill wise with older players, since skills are the only real xp sink anymore, whereas in the past there was purchase silver that competed for xp, and did not provide death xp.

[vaxin]

I think we need a new XP sink. Assets may have regulated the gold supply, but it removed the major XP hole.

[Starstarfish]

I think we need a new XP sink. Assets may have regulated the gold supply, but it removed the major XP hole.

And given that to my understanding, some people got an RPXP refund from silver purchasing when that change went in, it might have arguably doubled it down.

Possible ideas:

- Up the RPXP cost for higher App levels. This will also encourage people to buy cosmetics on grid instead as an alternative.

- Have a really high cost to open a skill you didn't chargen with.

- Allow asset/resource purchases outside of chargen with RPXP but for really inflated prices.

[Gerolf]

Putting on my Curmudgeon hat for a moment...

Why?

I mean... Why should a cyan get advanced to the same "level" as me when I have put in four years of dedication to this game playing GLs for the vast majority of it? I don't think it would attract new players.

You are a cyan. You are a poor farmer from the coast, or the daughter of a successful merchant. Learn the game, work your way up. When you have a proper grasp of the game both mechanics and theme through RP and experience you will have the XP to do something great.

[Voxumo]

Putting on my Curmudgeon hat for a moment...

Why?

I mean... Why should a cyan get advanced to the same "level" as me when I have put in four years of dedication to this game playing GLs for the vast majority of it? I don't think it would attract new players.

You are a cyan. You are a poor farmer from the coast, or the daughter of a successful merchant. Learn the game, work your way up. When you have a proper grasp of the game both mechanics and theme through RP and experience you will have the XP to do something great.

Kind of have to agree with Gerolf here. It took me like 6 characters before I really understood the game and started creating compelling characters such as Kain. No amount of extra xp is going to help what can really only be learned through experience.

[LonelyNeptune]

I do agree with Gerolf to some extent. The reason we have RPXP is to have a sense of progression in the game.

However, with the removal of purchase wealth and addition of assets, things got a little harder for new players. Purchase wealth was an XP sink that doesn't refund XP on death, which is a little less XP getting reused by veterans ad infinitum. Now, to get a decent income it's strongly recommended to get a level 2 asset in chargen, which is a big chunk of starter XP for newbies.

You can get the free level 1 asset and wait, but getting assets after chargen is much harder. Most level 2 assets in the marketplace are 3000 silver. The average income per week of a level 1 asset is 63 silver, it will take you 47.6 weeks to save for a level 2 asset. Almost a year! And that's assuming that you save every coin and don't spend it on doing stuff in the game.

Having this kind of gradual progression in the game isn't bad, but it certainly means that it's ideal to buy assets for XP ASAP, and brand new players aren't as capable of paying for things upfront. For older players who might have gotten a nice big chunk of death XP, it's no big deal.

It's tough to come up with a solution for this - to make the game feel less punishing for newbies while keeping the sense of progression for oldbies. Some of Star's suggestions are good ones. Possibly brand new players could get a level 2 asset instead of a level 1?

[Taunya]

I'd be in favor of at least starting cyans off with a bigger chunk of bonusxp.

With the introduction of assets, the choice for new players is pretty much between having means and being incompetent (getting a higher tier asset and sacrificing a lot of skills), or being competent and broke (getting the skills you need, but only a tier 1 asset). Not all of this is intuitive to someone just starting out, which could cause frustration. Adding to this, one might unknowingly end up with an asset that's consistently horrible like infrastructure has been.

If they've dug through the forums or asked in visnet to figure things out, like LonelyNeptune says, it makes more sense to go the incompetent route since you can gain skills on-grid much easier than you can silver for a new asset. That might not be the most fun thing to play for a lot of people, but then neither is being penniless. A bump in bonus xp should help make a more balanced character from the start.

As-is though, there's a few things which have helped, or things that could help.
The bump to starting silver when you choose your class definitely helps with getting started.
Having a roster job asset can help in the long-run too.
For characters that join guilds, I think guildleaders could consider actively helping them acquire an asset, or at least using guildpay to pay out an good-performing asset's worth of salary weekly. Either should help drive more players towards joining guilds over taking a roster job. The former has a chance of paying off for the guild as a whole as well, if it's a tier 2 asset with a resource attached that the guild could use, albeit with the risk that the player might disappear.

[Geras]

Maybe just let the terms of aquiring your first asset not change outside of chargen?