Post by Azherae on 2022-09-23 14:26:58
I actually don't see why people want this tied to skill level.
That feels more to me like one of those annoying 'unfriendly loops' that, while it doesn't necessarily make players quit, is another thing in the 'Whoops, all Penalties!' pile for gameplay.
Players who start early will get their skill up faster so that even at-level opponents who can consistently beat them won't get as much drops. But it's gathering. You have to gather to level it, right?
So 'you have to go out there and do the frustrating thing so that you can slowly gain enough skill to be less frustrated by it later'? At that point there are so many other games that have equally 'annoying' loops. If we thought everything was going to be fine (and some do), then we wouldn't care about this anyway, and if we don't, then adding bonuses to those who gather the most, seems to be the exact opposite of the game's design.
It's just another non-engaging stopgap. "Do X thing until something passively changes."
But worst from the economic side is that IF we assume that all players get attacked and lose equally on average, then this just says 'high level gatherers are innately more profitable than low level (good) because they are at less risk (bad, imo)'.
At least if the high level gatherer is going into a high level area to be more profitable, their risk probably increased. With a level-based or even gear-based system for mitigating drops, monopolizing more common resources against new players (who can't even kill you) would be even worse than it already will be.
And if we think Common Resources won't be worth gathering in that way, we have other problems.
That feels more to me like one of those annoying 'unfriendly loops' that, while it doesn't necessarily make players quit, is another thing in the 'Whoops, all Penalties!' pile for gameplay.
Players who start early will get their skill up faster so that even at-level opponents who can consistently beat them won't get as much drops. But it's gathering. You have to gather to level it, right?
So 'you have to go out there and do the frustrating thing so that you can slowly gain enough skill to be less frustrated by it later'? At that point there are so many other games that have equally 'annoying' loops. If we thought everything was going to be fine (and some do), then we wouldn't care about this anyway, and if we don't, then adding bonuses to those who gather the most, seems to be the exact opposite of the game's design.
It's just another non-engaging stopgap. "Do X thing until something passively changes."
But worst from the economic side is that IF we assume that all players get attacked and lose equally on average, then this just says 'high level gatherers are innately more profitable than low level (good) because they are at less risk (bad, imo)'.
At least if the high level gatherer is going into a high level area to be more profitable, their risk probably increased. With a level-based or even gear-based system for mitigating drops, monopolizing more common resources against new players (who can't even kill you) would be even worse than it already will be.
And if we think Common Resources won't be worth gathering in that way, we have other problems.