08-03-2018, 07:25 PM
There are a lot of points that monKa makes that are relevant. The 3m starting gold and items were definitely an unforeseen consequence of the Jump! Potion. Yes, things may have gotten a bit out of hand depending on how many and how often it was abused, but in the long term, this is not a huge deal. Why? Because of the idea of gear progression. Like you mentioned, the fun and endgame starts for Vindictus at around 18k attack, 80 balance, and 90 crit. 18k Attack can be achieved through a +10 lv80 enchanted weapon, along with armor enchanted with offensive stats. 90 crit is a bit harder to achieve, though should be obtainable with a decent amount of effort. The suggestion to baseline the stats at this point is a valid suggestion, but you have to keep in mind the current state of the server. This is an one week old server, not a server that has been operating for a long time. Yes, I understand this is a private server, but that does not mean everything is given out as freebies.
I understand that many of you may have played on Awakened and are simply looking for a replacement, but since I have not personally played Awakened or know of it at all, I can not make any points regarding about how the two server differs. Judging from what I have read about testimonies of Awakened, it seems to be that gear progression is a problem because of "some reasons". Aside from braidtassel who has simply been asking for a complete freebies server, most suggestions made on forums are reasonable because there has to be some degree of work to be done.
Let's look at why servers can't be completely freebies. A server costs money to host, including a domain and the actual server itself. A freebies server will simply not last; as great as a freebies server sounds, I don't believe the owner has the money to just support the server out of his or her own pocket. Where is the incentive for people to donate in a freebies server? Sure, a donation is an act of gratitude, but there are only so many gracious people out there that are willing to donate just because they want to help support something. Incentives are given so that some people are more inclined to spend a bit of money to help out with server costs. As much as the owner wants to help out the players, you guys simply do not see the balance that has to be had between making things easier, and spoonfeeding everything. An economy is needed because it gives those who donate an edge. Call it pay2win, but nothing is free in this world.
This directly leads into the idea of gear progression. As stated earlier, a server can not run if no one is willing to support it. There has to be a fair balance of free to play, and pay2win. For starters, this is a new server and it needs players, and some of the "gatekeeping" elements of gear may really deter people from wanting to stay on the server. Though it may be tempting to simply spoil everyone so that more players join, there has to be player retention and something to work towards. From what I have gathered, people will not stay if they can not get their perfect +15s. Currently, the enhancement progression is as follows: 1-10 is basically the baseline guarantee, there is no reason that you guys should be complaining given out plentiful enhancement runes can be. Sure, it might have been a result of a consequence, but it was made available. Perhaps a fix could be to include a few extra runes are allotted to new characters; definitely enough to get to +10. From there, +12 can be guaranteed with enough play time. +13 and on, there are special runes in the donor shop that protect from destruction, but resets the enhancement level by 1. Essentially, in a two enhancement attempt with two runes, you have a 11% chance to enhance successfully twice, 44% chance to break even, and a 44% chance to double downgrade. This is assuming you decide to go through with both runes. Assuming you stop on initial success, and only double enhance on failure, the math works out to 33% for success, 22% for break even, and 44% for double downgrade. The system of punishing RNG is present, yes, but with a +12 as a baseline, a +15 is not actually all that rare with this system. Looking at the balance of F2P and P2W, donor coins are able to be traded and sold on the marketplace. Yes, the current economy is fucked, given that the gold rates and starting gold and everything is not optimized. Yes I agree that there are some changes that has to be made. But please, the owner probably has a life too and rather than hounding him or her about the same issues, simply let things play out a bit and give feedback on what's working and what's not.
Similarly, the enchant system is currently at too high of a premium. I agree, the runes are too expensive given the gold people are able to get. This basically spells the same situation as the main server where people are too afraid to enchant, because of the fear of blowing up gear. In addition, people are afraid to enchant, because they are afraid that they will lose their time spent farming a scroll. These are all understandable issues, and further testing will be done on how to best solve this without simply spoonfeeding it to the players.
As a player just like you guys, who had the advantage of having about a weeks worth of extra play time, you will see how rewarding the server is if you simply aim small. I had to solo S2 content with the free expedition gear a week before the server launched to farm for my Arma weapon, aside for the orbs. +15s are not needed to enjoy the game; there is almost no point in this game when everyone has a +15 weapon, because the bosses get cheesed in under 5 minutes.
This has been a long post, but hopefully, it clears up some questions about gear progressions.
There are definitely a lot of things that still have to be improved on, but please bear with it, I'm sure the owner is doing his or her best in the time that he or she has. I play both the main server and this, and honestly, while Nexon is great at giving out freebies, their pacing with gear is horrible. It's a quick rise to bare minimum for end game, into a huge stagnant. The goal of the server is to have steady progression. The rate at which you progress to getting to the "bare minimum of end game", will be similar to the rate at which you progress to the perfect gear you all so want :3
I'd say everything thus far has been a good step in the right direction, so l definitely appreciate what the owner has done.
I personally do not like the XE system at all, but if that is what we have to work with for now, then so be it. Perhaps the owner will find a solution to this, we don't know.
tl;dr: there has to be a balance between donors and free to plays, otherwise the server won't last. To do so, the current enhancement system relies on mutual dependence.
I understand that many of you may have played on Awakened and are simply looking for a replacement, but since I have not personally played Awakened or know of it at all, I can not make any points regarding about how the two server differs. Judging from what I have read about testimonies of Awakened, it seems to be that gear progression is a problem because of "some reasons". Aside from braidtassel who has simply been asking for a complete freebies server, most suggestions made on forums are reasonable because there has to be some degree of work to be done.
Let's look at why servers can't be completely freebies. A server costs money to host, including a domain and the actual server itself. A freebies server will simply not last; as great as a freebies server sounds, I don't believe the owner has the money to just support the server out of his or her own pocket. Where is the incentive for people to donate in a freebies server? Sure, a donation is an act of gratitude, but there are only so many gracious people out there that are willing to donate just because they want to help support something. Incentives are given so that some people are more inclined to spend a bit of money to help out with server costs. As much as the owner wants to help out the players, you guys simply do not see the balance that has to be had between making things easier, and spoonfeeding everything. An economy is needed because it gives those who donate an edge. Call it pay2win, but nothing is free in this world.
This directly leads into the idea of gear progression. As stated earlier, a server can not run if no one is willing to support it. There has to be a fair balance of free to play, and pay2win. For starters, this is a new server and it needs players, and some of the "gatekeeping" elements of gear may really deter people from wanting to stay on the server. Though it may be tempting to simply spoil everyone so that more players join, there has to be player retention and something to work towards. From what I have gathered, people will not stay if they can not get their perfect +15s. Currently, the enhancement progression is as follows: 1-10 is basically the baseline guarantee, there is no reason that you guys should be complaining given out plentiful enhancement runes can be. Sure, it might have been a result of a consequence, but it was made available. Perhaps a fix could be to include a few extra runes are allotted to new characters; definitely enough to get to +10. From there, +12 can be guaranteed with enough play time. +13 and on, there are special runes in the donor shop that protect from destruction, but resets the enhancement level by 1. Essentially, in a two enhancement attempt with two runes, you have a 11% chance to enhance successfully twice, 44% chance to break even, and a 44% chance to double downgrade. This is assuming you decide to go through with both runes. Assuming you stop on initial success, and only double enhance on failure, the math works out to 33% for success, 22% for break even, and 44% for double downgrade. The system of punishing RNG is present, yes, but with a +12 as a baseline, a +15 is not actually all that rare with this system. Looking at the balance of F2P and P2W, donor coins are able to be traded and sold on the marketplace. Yes, the current economy is fucked, given that the gold rates and starting gold and everything is not optimized. Yes I agree that there are some changes that has to be made. But please, the owner probably has a life too and rather than hounding him or her about the same issues, simply let things play out a bit and give feedback on what's working and what's not.
Similarly, the enchant system is currently at too high of a premium. I agree, the runes are too expensive given the gold people are able to get. This basically spells the same situation as the main server where people are too afraid to enchant, because of the fear of blowing up gear. In addition, people are afraid to enchant, because they are afraid that they will lose their time spent farming a scroll. These are all understandable issues, and further testing will be done on how to best solve this without simply spoonfeeding it to the players.
As a player just like you guys, who had the advantage of having about a weeks worth of extra play time, you will see how rewarding the server is if you simply aim small. I had to solo S2 content with the free expedition gear a week before the server launched to farm for my Arma weapon, aside for the orbs. +15s are not needed to enjoy the game; there is almost no point in this game when everyone has a +15 weapon, because the bosses get cheesed in under 5 minutes.
This has been a long post, but hopefully, it clears up some questions about gear progressions.
There are definitely a lot of things that still have to be improved on, but please bear with it, I'm sure the owner is doing his or her best in the time that he or she has. I play both the main server and this, and honestly, while Nexon is great at giving out freebies, their pacing with gear is horrible. It's a quick rise to bare minimum for end game, into a huge stagnant. The goal of the server is to have steady progression. The rate at which you progress to getting to the "bare minimum of end game", will be similar to the rate at which you progress to the perfect gear you all so want :3
I'd say everything thus far has been a good step in the right direction, so l definitely appreciate what the owner has done.
I personally do not like the XE system at all, but if that is what we have to work with for now, then so be it. Perhaps the owner will find a solution to this, we don't know.
tl;dr: there has to be a balance between donors and free to plays, otherwise the server won't last. To do so, the current enhancement system relies on mutual dependence.