Received interesting email re level limit

[Ben]

I'm posting an email here we received because it sort of needs to be answered for everybody, I guess. Well, it really shouldn't, because this sort of thing has been addressed NUMEROUS times over the years... but over those same years I have realized that many people are allergic to reading back over the announcements and game updates forums, and that I do need to repeat myself every once in a while. So here goes...

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FROM PLAYER
TO ADMIN

After reaching level 58+, I find almost nothing I can kill for XP.

Some level 60's told me that you have to get 600% of experience required to advance at level 57 in order to reach level 60.

Is this true?
If so, it seems completely counter-intuitive.
When you reach 100% experience to advance, how would you know to continue to 600% and why only at level 57?

The only thing that gives me any experience is the demonic rat and I can't
kill that without healing so it would take me forever to get any significant
XP from those occasional encounters.

My nobility is up in less than a week. If there is no way to advance to
level 60 for me, its difficult to justify investing any more time in the
game. (Role Playing with no adventure component is pointless for me.)

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Now, to address this for everybody...

Since there is confusion, I'll state the obvious that I have stated elsewhere about a million times (okay, maybe only about 20, but still. =)) This game is an incomplete product. Basically you are paying to play this game as we slowly develop it in whatever free time we can manage to scrounge up, which is sometimes a decent amount, but very often nothing. The "top level" available is raised as new content is added, but if all we did was raise the top level, cool things like storyline developments and supplemental hunting for lower levels, not to mention things like battle system revisions, new armor and weapons, new towns and NPCs, would not be made. We try to balance... sometimes growing upward, sometimes growing outward. Sometimes this is a slow process, sometimes it is fast. This is the nature of a game created by a bunch of people who have full time jobs and families and just do this as a hobby.

If you lack the patience for this type of development process, you should not play. The people who enjoy our game are people who get involved in the story and the community... for people who are obsessed with killing stuff and leveling, our game quite frankly stinks.

The point is there is always going to be a lid at the top of the game, because people will ALWAYS level faster than we can build. There is no way for us to build fast enough. If I somehow pulled enough content out of my butt today to allow levelling to 65, Islander, Edenn and JKD would be level 65 by a week from today. =)

It is not like people did not / do not have advance notice of this. This forum is a tool for you to figure out what we are doing and thinking. There is a very handy pinned thread in this very forum, which you can also read by clicking this link: http://www.darkgrimoire.com/bb/ftopic22 ... EL+60.html , which nicely explains. Even says in there that even though I raised the max level to 60, there is no new content, and I have not updated that thread to say otherwise. If people read the forums, there is no confusion. Please read the announcements and game updates forums.

The top level will be increased eventually (in fact, I suggested that it will be raised fairly soon in the next several months in another post... again, people please read the forum for information. There is a ton of it.) Look here: http://www.darkgrimoire.com/bb/ftopic69 ... ious+.html

The focus in this game has been and always will be NUMBER ONE: Community and roleplaying between the players, and NUMBER TWO: Storyline and roleplaying between the players and NPCs. The whole system of movement, magic, and fighting is just an engine to allow NUMBER ONE and NUMBER TWO to happen within a cohesive fantasy environment. Everything in the game, from the engine itself to the way the rules are made and enforced, can be seen as creating a safe and fun environment and organized structure/world for roleplaying.

Anyways, we have players who are level 60 and have been level 60 for a long time. Heck, certain people... namely those three I mentioned earlier (as well as some others) have been at whatever the max level is for over a YEAR now... and they are still here. I might be wrong, but as far as I can see, the reason they are still here is because they have integrated themselves into a great and wonderful roleplaying community. And they are rewarded... our long term players are as much a part of the game now as many of the admin-run NPCs. They earn titles, earn fame and infamy among the populace, and become bubble-celebrities within this fake but breathing world. THAT is what the game is about, not trying to reach whatever level ceiling happens to be in place at any given time.

SO, if you are the type of person who enjoys the type of game I described in the last half of this long-winded post, feel free to stay. If not, then don't. Simple as that. We are good at what we do, and we are not changing to satisfy the power level people anytime soon Don't pay us $5 a month if you can't "justify" it... we probably aren't the type of game you should be playing. And don't say I didn't give you advance warning... you only have to read the forum. =)

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(As a side-note, I don't think I have EVER played an RPG that didn't have a level cap. And games that are done being made can never get better... WE get better all the time. With our goals and game-type in mind, we are still the best game available and the best team at what we do. And a large part of that is because of the players...... you will notice that in NUMBER ONE and NUMBER TWO, players are mentioned in each. There is a reason for that... this world exists because of the admins, but the world BREATHES because of roleplaying players who "get" the game. So thanks to all of you.)