Why is level 1 so hard?

[mysticii]

every time im at level 1 with respectable attack and defence for the level,
a level 2 NPC creature comes along and kills me with ease!?!?!!?

on other levels i can hold my own against higer level monsters.

the only exception is the advantage of the wyvern, besides that i c no way to beat a level 2 NPC creature at level 1.

[JCP]

The main reason - and I have gotten a lot of complaints about the game being "much harder" right after a dk - is that with a small amount of hitpoints, the battles normally don't last long enough to recover from a bad random number.

With more hitpoints, there's time enough to withstand one or two bad rounds. In a short battle, those one or two bad rounds make a big difference.

Also, since levels give "absolute" numerical advantages instead of relative ones, there is the same problem in any battle, including pvp, where small differences mean a lot more at lower levels.

Let's examine a difference of +1 in attack versus defense.

A 3 attack has a +1 advantage over a 2 defense, but +1/2 is a 50% advantage.

A 30 attack has a +1 advantage over a 29 defense, but +1/29 is a 3.4% advantage.

A 50% advantage means a lot more than a 3.4% advantage, especially when you don't have that many hitpoints.

A 3.4% advantage means the combat is pretty much up to luck, good or bad, and you just have to hope your hitpoints hold up.

[Talon]

My own personal observation about being Level 1 fodder, mounts make a bigger difference particularly the more exotic mounts/familiars. My own mini-dragon takes care of most problems at level 1.

[feahyarmen]

I said it before and I say now: as Talon pointed out, mounts effectively helps you a lot. A *lot*. So the ridiculous low fee to refeed your mount is a big unbalancing issue in my opinion. I improved my DK speed by 20-25% only for that reason.

And mysticii, hear JCP. In level 1, the ratio difference between 1 and 2 monster levels are:


YOU YOU
SUCCESS = ---- versus ---------
THEM THEM + 10


Apply some mathematics and you'll realize that with THEM minor than 10, SUCCESS rate varies significatively between levels, and can reach the double in some cases. It happens even above 20 DK.

However, the good news for you (and sadly for farmcreatures TM) the sames applies to PvP. It's a lot safer to kill farmboys 2 levels above at lower levels if you're Reeve (10DK) or up. In my case, I feed almost only with Reevs and Stewards :twisted:

(I'm almost sure to hear SneakAbout pointing out that SUCCESS is composed of many more variables in intrincated ways, but hey, it's still a linear relationship! :wink: )

[JCP]

I said it before and I say now: as Talon pointed out, mounts effectively helps you a lot. A *lot*. So the ridiculous low fee to refeed your mount is a big unbalancing issue in my opinion. I improved my DK speed by 20-25% only for that reason.


That's what I figured. Until we can make it more expensive (which is necessary for game balance), the feed store is disabled.

The problem is that the Central Server has more powerful mounts than the DragonCat Server, and more powerful mounts shouldn't be recharged for such a bargain price.

[Sneakabout]

As much as I liked being able to reload me Wyvern, ye be right - it is far too unbalancing...

[Moonchilde]

I said it before and I say now: as Talon pointed out, mounts effectively helps you a lot. A *lot*. So the ridiculous low fee to refeed your mount is a big unbalancing issue in my opinion. I improved my DK speed by 20-25% only for that reason.


That's what I figured. Until we can make it more expensive (which is necessary for game balance), the feed store is disabled.

The problem is that the Central Server has more powerful mounts than the DragonCat Server, and more powerful mounts shouldn't be recharged for such a bargain price.

And hopefully I'll have time to make that mod for you this weekend JCP. I've been truly slammed at work this week and thus haven't gotten to any of the things I wanted to do this week for logd.

[JCP]

Paid work comes first.

It's just now with the forum active you can see all of us waiting anxiously for the next addition to the code.

[Talisman]

If you don't have a cure for this yet...

Try using a base rate of 200 x Lvl (or whatever, as previously suggested by someone) and setting that as the standard rate for a middle of the pack type mount. Then apply a percentage modifier (+/- X%) based on the type of mount.

This way, Coconut halves for a level 5 player might be (200 X 5) - 75% = 250 gold while a Wyvern might be (200 X 5) + 75% = 1750 gold.