I've been playing this server on and off for a year now. Mostly off, but recently I've came back into it over the last few weeks. I've gone from level 2 to level 52 over the course of a month or so, and for the most part, it's been rather enjoyable. For the most part.
Grinding is something that is inevitable on this server. It's basically an unofficial Harry Potter minecraft MMORPG. Grinding is, and probably should be the way to level up, as from staff perspective it would drive incentives for people to spend more time on the server and potentially purchase more things. From a business standpoint I get it. But I must say, only being level 52. The grind doesn't feel fun.
There is a cap to xp on this server that I'm not sure how or why it works, but as you know you get the most amount of XP from killing mobs 3 levels above you. And as you level up more, that value goes down. As the beginning there are frequent mob changes as you level up, but as you get ot the intermediate tier things slow down horrendously. The gaps between quests grow longer. Year six probably takes as much time to complete as years one to four. It's really quite irritating.
At level 52, the level 55 mob (mermaid) is on the island of Ireland, which you only access with a quest at level 56 (I'm assuming, I haven't done it). By the time you're level 56, you'll be too high level to grind ANY of the mobs in ireland and would just go for vampires instead.
I've heard it's even worse once you graduate, with like 4 whole levels of no quests. This seems to be a thing that the community has generally just accepted. A "keep the chin up and carry on" mentality, like we're doing homework or something. (Oh yeah, and we also have to do homework to get any sort of good XP, literal homework).
Now, I know all the other ways to level up outside of quests and mob grinding. I know every trick. None of it gives you enough to do it quickly. For classes you have to wait. For daily activities you have to convince other people to play with you. It's really quite the chore.
Now, what do I propose to fix this? I think that the arbitrary bottlenecks should be removed, and that there should be a mob of each level made somewhere on the map. Now 100 different mobs is definitely a challenge seeing as there's only 56 (by my count) at the moment. Perhaps even 10 new mobs between level 50 and 80 to begin with. In and around the locations where they should be.
I also propose there to be more quests. I'm sure that this isn't something one can just do, and that the incredibly hardworking staff on the server are working on more quests for events and things. But there being less quests in year 6 and year 7, when quests are needed the most seems silly to me.
If the grind could be varied in other sort of ways, that I'm sure the very clever staff could come up with it would also be appreciated.
Whenever possible, I would recommend from a game design point of view, horizontal progression as well as vertical progression. So instead of just making things worth more xp, allow a more varied manner in which to get xp. Like a wider attribute of stats that act like an MMORPG. Like fishing or something, and you can fish to get more xp, and can buy upgraded wands like you can get brooms. It could also be a more fun way to get money. There's lots of different ways it can be done.
I thank you very much for reading this, I wish you a great day or night. Thanks for your consideration.
Grinding is something that is inevitable on this server. It's basically an unofficial Harry Potter minecraft MMORPG. Grinding is, and probably should be the way to level up, as from staff perspective it would drive incentives for people to spend more time on the server and potentially purchase more things. From a business standpoint I get it. But I must say, only being level 52. The grind doesn't feel fun.
There is a cap to xp on this server that I'm not sure how or why it works, but as you know you get the most amount of XP from killing mobs 3 levels above you. And as you level up more, that value goes down. As the beginning there are frequent mob changes as you level up, but as you get ot the intermediate tier things slow down horrendously. The gaps between quests grow longer. Year six probably takes as much time to complete as years one to four. It's really quite irritating.
At level 52, the level 55 mob (mermaid) is on the island of Ireland, which you only access with a quest at level 56 (I'm assuming, I haven't done it). By the time you're level 56, you'll be too high level to grind ANY of the mobs in ireland and would just go for vampires instead.
I've heard it's even worse once you graduate, with like 4 whole levels of no quests. This seems to be a thing that the community has generally just accepted. A "keep the chin up and carry on" mentality, like we're doing homework or something. (Oh yeah, and we also have to do homework to get any sort of good XP, literal homework).
Now, I know all the other ways to level up outside of quests and mob grinding. I know every trick. None of it gives you enough to do it quickly. For classes you have to wait. For daily activities you have to convince other people to play with you. It's really quite the chore.
Now, what do I propose to fix this? I think that the arbitrary bottlenecks should be removed, and that there should be a mob of each level made somewhere on the map. Now 100 different mobs is definitely a challenge seeing as there's only 56 (by my count) at the moment. Perhaps even 10 new mobs between level 50 and 80 to begin with. In and around the locations where they should be.
I also propose there to be more quests. I'm sure that this isn't something one can just do, and that the incredibly hardworking staff on the server are working on more quests for events and things. But there being less quests in year 6 and year 7, when quests are needed the most seems silly to me.
If the grind could be varied in other sort of ways, that I'm sure the very clever staff could come up with it would also be appreciated.
Whenever possible, I would recommend from a game design point of view, horizontal progression as well as vertical progression. So instead of just making things worth more xp, allow a more varied manner in which to get xp. Like a wider attribute of stats that act like an MMORPG. Like fishing or something, and you can fish to get more xp, and can buy upgraded wands like you can get brooms. It could also be a more fun way to get money. There's lots of different ways it can be done.
I thank you very much for reading this, I wish you a great day or night. Thanks for your consideration.