Starfall wrote:I'll defend the concern about XP, even though I wasn't there for this battle, because it's about XP for me. Not necessarily getting XP from DM collapses, but losing it against impossible odds/in unavoidable fights.
This isn't a dig on anyone for this, or about taking a position on whether or not the DM Wednesdays are "too much". I just think dismissing XP loss as an invalid concern is wrong.
One collapse right now takes me about 3 hours of focused, dedicated hunting, alone, in a prime location, without interruption to recoup. Interruptions, being partied (I can clear a plane solo before respawns so parties don't speed it up for me), and my own ability to maintain interest that long slow it down. It's a huge reason I don't play a violently confrontational character and why I don't appreciate being forced into violent confrontation IC. Hunting is godawful boring. And even though Starfall walks away intact far more often than they don't, it's hard to view collapses as anything other than a PC/DM/npc mare forcing me to spend time doing the one thing I hate in this game. It's not about XP itself, it's about time. And that's time I could be spending doing literally anything else, in game or out of game.
Dina wrote:Yeah it takes a while to hunt back what you lose when you are higher sphere and the spawn rate on the mares take longer now. I remember being in Thresh Caves and not having to wait an eternity for an ago to respawn.
Ghazgkull wrote:To echo what was said above, the amount of non-roleplaying play time required to regain lost XP is the biggest issue to me. Second biggest is the time cost to regain lost items. If it weren't for those things, having OP darkmares wouldn't be a big deal.
At 7th and 8th sphere (and to a lesser degree 6th), the XP numbers are just broken. And the darkmare battles are a place where it really can be an issue. Because it puts a real disincentive on the strongest characters to participate.
Starfall, Dina, Ghazgkull - I just wanted to ask, are you putting in plenty of RP reports? That's how my character nearly always used to get XP, being a non-hunter. Not trying to say this means the darkmare thing isn't a problem, if it is a problem - just a reminder that XP can be obtained in ways that don't require choosing between XP and role-playing.
Efforts yield rewards, not words alone.