jorb wrote:Siqle wrote:Fuck off with this please, in no way shape or form is skill decay a fun mechanic.
Instead of simply dismissing everything that remotely smells like it without further thought we should explore the relative truth of that statement. Because while there might be some truth to 'skill decay not being fun', it would be bad reasoning to simply carve that in stone without having explored the side effects (and how these compare 'fun' wise) of not having it.
So we should face the question of stat decay really being less fun than:
- not being able to catch up to people who started earlier (unless pay to win to obtain stuff to boost development using tokens)
- being bored after becoming king of the hill as no contenders can ever arise and slaughtering noobs became stale
- seeing others having q1500 carrots and quitting from seeing no point in grinding for a year
- and whatever other reasons people here come up with why only a new world is fun
There is IMHO no distinction when stuffing a character on a constant basis to keep it having the highest numbers on the server, regardless if the goal is to raise the numbers (in the current system) or replacing what drains to keep them where they are (stat decay) - the effective grind is the same. It's also irrelevant what number is attached to the best item you can make, as long as it's higher than what your biggest foe can. I think this holds true at least for a comparison between the top factions.
Where the current (decay-less) system IMHO completely fails though is that it is impossible to find a balance for the whole server. We see this clearly in PvE combat where you're guaranteed to get destroyed by something, then you reach a certain level and it becomes doable but a short while after you can walk through herds of them in basically godmode, killing them left and right - the timespan where struggle with the environment is actually fun (because it's engaging) is quite short, after that it gets boring quickly. I think the same effect can be observed in PvP, given two oppenents of the same player skill the one with better gear and stats will (most likely up to guaranteed) win, always. Where is the point in grinding up crafting abilities to be able to make a qX item myself when the ones who can make it now at that quality will be able to make a qX+200 one then?
It feels like the endlessly raising numbers choke the life out of the game, it's fun a short while but after a few months it gets meaningless or depressing (depending on where on the curve you are).
I think the current system (with endlessly increasing numbers) is way less fun than one with where numbers are kept in check (by stat decay) could be.
IMHO we should try a world with stat decay (according to my calculations 0,025% of absolute level lost per ingame hour looks to give reasonable results) to find out how well it plays, preferably in concert with A Plea for Decay (World) to clean up derelict settlements.
Postscriptum: having though about this for quite some time I come to the conclusion that stat caps can not be made palateable to the average user complaining about an idea containing that word, as these seem unable to entertain an idea (to see the full benefits it would give) when triggered by keywords into a kind of pavlovian reflex that clouds their ability to think clearly.
Hence I retract everything about statcaps and instead instead suggest BUFFS.
Postscriptum 2: Charts that visualize the result can be found here.