Makes sense. Caravan city equals caravan quests.

Since it is widely recognised that non caster classes suffer greatly, with +x ab no longer piercing damage reduction, and with the whole "Non faction members have no chance at loot", a lot can be fixed with a few tweaks to the loot levels. And with the focus on consumables not being necessary for quests, i suggest we take a mechanical discussion on how to improve all of it at once.

• AC: Add AC bonuses to top tier crafted loot, and make +1 ac amulets and rings available in the general prestige stores. It does not stack with magic anyhow, so this will help non caster classes ALOT. Make +1 ac available in crafting, and on some higher level quest loot. Make second tier faction loot +2 AC for cloaks and helmets (that way, armors stay within the range of the current setting).
• Stat bonuses: In nwn2, stat bonuses did not stack with magic. This was a cool ass feature, and will help open up more balanced builds. +1 to str, int, dex, cha, wis should be non rare, you can make +1 con dm loot only. Even +2 stat loot can be used while not breaking the server, as long as the bonuses do not stack with magic in any form.
• AB bonuses to top tier crafted loot + faction weaponry, will help non magic users, and since it is already hardcoded that it does not stack with magic, and since it does not break damage reduction, you are golden there.

Stop making useless loot. If it is to give prestige bonuses, just leave prestige bonus items. But it serves no purpose to spend alot of time making loot that no one would ever use.

To offset the increase in loot levels, I propose we do the following:

• Make potions at least 1,5x as expensive as they are today, if not twice as tough. Make crafted loot something people would want to actually buy. Currently no one buys anything unless it is the top tier, meaning everything before that level is just waste.
• STOP making weapons with HUGE damage output, crafted or otherwise. It makes zero sense that you have made ordinary weaponry that in any other version of this 20 year old server would be EPIC, while keeping any other type of loot the same level range that you would find on Nadas quest, back in the old days. It makes no sense, and it is not balanced in any way.

I doubt dont it, honestly. And I am neither angry nor bitter, I love this place and have the highest of respect for the work you lot do. And that is actually my final point; you have a hugely loyal player base. 99% of the issues this server has,
comes down to either you lot being pressed on not having enough time, and the communication between Admin team and community. I was not bitter at Spiffy for taking two weeks to make a uniform or never having time to finish my grove entrance, because I knew it was not for lack of wanting to do it. It was because he lacked time. Being honest and transparent in what is being done, what direction Things are going, turns frustrations into understanding.

Example, the HP situation. It seems you guys see the sense in theory, but see a huge issue in the potential rebalancing of monsters. Now everyone are on the same page (if that is the case).

@Zool said in Increased Transparency from Admin Team:

I think your character also got an entire grove to be the guardian of, with NPC "support" to go with it - that's another pretty chonky step that would have taken potentially most of a characters lifetime in the past - it's pretty simple to get those things now, mostly if it's not claimed, grab it, if all are claimed, challenge for it.

This shall not turn into a "all me" thing, but this is actually a good example to use to explain my point. Spiffy told me I was not a guardian, as I was not really promoted, so I was not a real guardian (yet). And he got super busy right after, so I never even got actual access to the grove that I was supposed to guard.

It is just one of those experiences, where it seems as if stuff behind the veil of admin stuff is not entirely coordinated. I never knew which DMs were active / inactive, got passed on to another dm whenever I wanted to update my plot ticket, ask for advice, had clarification questions about setting, factions etc.

And I know I am not the only one who feels as if the entire admin team are so stressed by the workload, that pinning one down who will give you another answer than a: this is only my own opinion, or b: we will discuss (which leads to no info returning to the player who asked).

Ill add my two cents, since simply “leaving” serves no one. Since I came back, it has seemed as if the DM Admin team have been extremely defensive towards constructive criticism or suggestions for improvement, no matter how well intentioned it was served. And that has been something I have never experienced before, no matter who sat on the team. It has felt like the dm team have put on a mindset of “Everything we have done has been perfect, either shut up or leave”. Which has been extremely off putting, when considering that the server only thrives if the Admin Team and the players work in combination to create the best possible server.
If discussing something about the server, and anyone raised a red flag, the conversation just ends. Period. No explanation, no trying to see it from the player side of things. Just ignoring it until it goes away.

So Ill give my honest feedback, and if it is dismissed as it has been, so be it.

• This server feels like it’s only half finished, as if you did just enough to get it launched, but then departed from it. There is no metastory visible to the player base. The EU timezone is dead in the water, despite a new storyteller. The focus seems to be more on developing cool features, rather than making the server come alive.

• There is being put huge efforts into a crafting system, with 90% of the items so bland or useless, that the only reason they will ever be crafted, is for someone to advance their craft, and then just throw it out. Why focus so much on that, when there are huge loot gaps for non faction personnel.

• The factions have a HUGE potential, but the “content gap” is huge, and there is ZERO help to the many concepts that fall outside of the narrow focus of each faction. The factions ARE awesome, but a lot of concepts have no home. The focus on “go in a faction or go without loot” may sound good on paper, but in practice is kills motivation and creativity. You are severely nerfing yourself if you are not in a faction.

• There is zero advancement or support outside the midnight to 6 am EU time zone. It kills motivation when you log on discord or the forum in the morning, see people advance in factions, advance in stories, but you are left in the dark.

• Without blowing my own horn, I created a lot of awesome stories, which are rippling across the player base still, and I did it with only a single 10 minute encounter with Ace. As whenever I asked for help, support, guidance, I got a distinct feeling that Cormyr seems like a curse word, and all my efforts were just ignored. I felt seriously ignored. Ace did what he could, but he too ran into a wall for progression. And I was still the “rank” I had after 2 days in game.

• You lot told me that progression was a lot easier now. I for one did not see ANY advancement, outside Naresh getting a promotion after his and his groups constant work to push their plots. And that took well over a month.

Honestly, I figured summer was more fun, because beyond LordAce being encouraging, there seemed to be no interest in helping me or help me progress my stories. So why bother trying to make stories that could help entertain or involve the rest of the player base.

Damn… the mercs are neutral? Ouch.

Protection against evil costs around 100 and works.

@Lord_Acererak said in More balance ideas! Specifically regarding hp, classes, and xp, ready your salt shakers:

9 and 10 should feel like, "oh man. I'm old. How can I shape myself into more of a leader and less of a follower, as I've achieved this."

Not that you -must- be a leader, or -must- be doing this, but understand this is the max level of our server, you're stronk and this should be reflected.

In that case, progression is way too fast from 4-8. 8-10 works. 4-8 way too fast

You could and you can Latok. Especially with a fighter. Knowing how quests scale is the key. The starter quests can take anyone from 4-6 in one sitting if no ECL. With a reset along the way you can get to mid 6-7 easily. And with a few quests with allies you can go to 8. Took three quests to go from 7-8.

Also Zool. You can go from 4-8 in 8 hours of playtime. No dm exp, pure quest. And we are not talking an Old CB Train, it was very easy and with a bare minimum of help from others. So do not be afraid of something breaking with this suggestion, already is.