I also think it's a bit unfair that those at or near eoc are making suggestions to change things to make things harder for those that will traverse the path behind. Sure, make changes going forward but to make things harder for everyone else? :/
I think Pardoux's response at 13 is a good one to this.
The problem in my book is two-fold:
1st of all... EOC is not some eternal thing. To simplify my explanation: level 400 was "EOC" once. The "EOCers" now need to remember that in one thousand levels, the decisions made will NOT be for EOCers. Well, if HCS creates another 400-plus levels in 2016 like they did in 2015.
2nd: I got some "crap" recently due to a misunderstanding of my comment, but hey. The gist of the the jive was that EOCers are an extremely small population of the game. I'm stating here that I have zero resentment for players at EOC. I also happen to think they are key and I'm really happy when some new content comes out for them. And hey, it's because EOC now is where I might be eventually. It's good.
The "issue" for me is that EOC is (and yes, you can look at the top 250) less than 250 players in a game that according to the HCS statistics (which I don't really believe but seems dubious and I have no idea how it's evaluated) on their page says has over 700k players.
So while writing this, the following popped into this thread (edited for my own ends):
The focus should be on how to grow the game... not to make it exclusive for only the pro's to succeed.
I don't agree with the entire post or even what I've quoted. I would have stopped at "the game..."
I will apologize openly and admit that my recent thoughts are unformed but I truly hope this recent text wall is on topic.
Over and over again, I hear some people stating that the game needs to be more challenging. I myself believed that. I miss the days where I was required to "think" each level.
Personally, I do think a lot about what I'm wearing or will wear and what buffs to use. But what I probably should have realized ages ago and am only now getting a grasp of is that I don't believe that players here want to think.
What I'm beginning to think is that all this talk of over-powered buffs/pots, blah, blah, is an ignorant whiner stance.
This is not at all a shot at Pardoux who I happen to think is a great player who actually cares about the game and is my ally. It's just that I think about the player base in general and I begin to realize that they probably are not at all interested in thinking.
The game itself has moved way past that as far as levelling is involved and that type of evolution seems to me to be something that shouldn't even bother to be turned back. Yes, I'm sorry to say.
In my non-stop game experience, my number one goal has been to "teach" players about the game. This has become increasingly difficult due to the ease of leveling. Trying to convince players what they don't need is the major obstacle. Now I have players several hundred levels above me that insist on getting all buffs and using all potions. It's a bummer.
And this conveniently just appeared (also edited according to my whim):
The game has gotten simpler and simpler with more overpowered buffs and, especially, potions. What's so wrong with making it a little bit challenging again ?
So basically, I don't disagree with that. But my thought process nowadays (and let me put the emphasis on that last word) is that it's inefficient.
Everything in FS strives to make killing those innocent mobs easy. Leveling is geared towards "non-thinking". In other words, here's your one-hit setup... overbuff and do the "1-8, r".
My doubt is...would making that more difficult really help the overall game? A number of us would enjoy that, myself included, but that is NOT my read of the FS population. And let's face it, there are few of them who would like it. And, only in my opinion, I think we are missing the point: this game is not challenging for anybody that wants to level and making it "challenging" would not make it more attractive. So, really cynical... yeah, let's make that "1-8, r" harder. That would really get me thinking this game rocks!
I've always been about teaching players about stats. With the super sets, buffs, potions, that has become irrelevant for leveling.
The challenge has been transferred to other game aspects... most of them were related to PvP for forever. That's actually how I really learned about them. But now with Titan Hunting, there's a similar impetus. So be it PvP, GvG or Titan Hunting... I think that those are the aspects to concentrate on if we want players to "think".
In short, leveling, for me, is a lost cause. Making it more difficult probably won't do anything to improve the game. Well, that's what I think... since about three weeks ago, lmao.
Edited by Egami, 14 January 2016 - 05:40.