[CF List] The 'dis'economy of crossfire

[Todd Mitchell]

 Andreas Vogl wrote:
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      Christoph Bergemann wrote:
     
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      > [...] you should remember that levelling is one of the
     
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      > motivations to keep on playing.
     
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      Exactly. And this is also the reason why we so much need to
     
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      increase the level gaps. A maxed-out player lacks motivation
     
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      to keep on playing. We lenghthen the process, so people can
     
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      enjoy the game for a longer time.
     
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I say : Amen to this.

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      Second, aside from leveling, there's also the aspect of
     
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      players improving their equipment. This will not be spoiled
     
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      in any way, but rather get better: There is more time
     
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      to look for low/medium equipment before your level is so
     
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      high that all you need and want is the top stuff.
     
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Testify brother.  More players will increase their weapons and armour if
they know they won't have outgrown it or found something better in a few
hours playtime.

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      > About monster experience: I [don't ?] think if level gaps are to be
     
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      > increased monster experience needn't be reduced, [...]
     
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      In my opinion the amounts of monster's exp is not terribly
     
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      broken, it is just the level gaps being too low.
     
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I don't think we should get off this easy - monster xp might not be too bad
and changing the xp tables is great fix for the game but there is still some
tweeking that needs to be done.
'dis'economy isn't just a money problem and removing money isn't the answer,
neither is jacking up the prices or adding in big ticket items- the answer
lies between.
I really think it is a problem that you can buy skill scrolls like magic and
praying with the proceeds of just one random treasure room in a level 4 or 5
map.

This contributes to the inflated speed of xp gain as well.

I understand one of the great pieces of the game is the ability to grow your
character, but by level 15 you could have picked up the majority of skills
and where is the character growth then?  Everyone starts looking a lot like
everyone else and playing the same way (cast a spell, do some praying, big
sword, nasty armour...).  Dito for permenant stat increasing.  Since you can
keep 'rolling' stats until you get them quite high, then you add racial
modifiers - you can max out your stats very quickly.
These things should be the result of some pretty major adventuring (either
in cost or better yet in questing).
Of course your level 60 character will be quite well rounded, but at level
12?  It kinda takes some of the fun out of it.  It also hurts the multi
player aspect since everyone is a one man show.

Some of the magic items you can buy in shops seem a bit on the cheap side as
well -  you have level 7 players saying 'geez I guess I'll pick up that ring
of combat and that amulet of reflection since I have the spare change and
maybe a  few dozen spell books for later on".

Changing these things makes it harder on the new guys - but hey the most fun
I have had has been that hard grind to level 15.  (and yes I did buy
whatever I could to expand my abilities rather than role-play my class).
Changes like this also would require map changes and new maps - it would be
a long haul - it will never get perfected (but it could be better right?) -
people will cheat and trick their way around it - that's part of the fun
too.