I did spec wrong as I was initially going for cav with one hander as thats what I enjoy in M&B. I changed my mind when I saw the horse prices, now I am speccing as archer.
Well, it's not impossible to go cav straight away, but you'll have to compromise a bit. Go light armor and stick with the cheaper horses. As a dedicated 1h cav myself, when the upkeep patch hit, i immediately switched my Cataphract horse for my good old Steppe horse and i've been doing fine, money wise.
I don't make a profit, but i don't lose money either. I can usually afford 70 to 80k of equipment without losing any money. The trick is to win more rounds then you lose. You can achieve this my discussing tactics with your teammates while dead, using the flags from the batallions to show people where to go and generally just stick together and encourage your team to really try and win. I wrote a guide on using tactics ages ago, it's under the guides section.
Going archer for a generation is a good way to start, because you'll make a nice profit and you'll be able to buy more stuff. Once you get a buffer of 50k, you can try some of the more expensive items and horses. But if you stick to the rouncey or steppe horse and don't use that mount every round, going cav is afforable too.
How is that normally possible in this mod? I barely made it to 20ish in 5+ hours during the uber-crazy free exp spree with DTV.
The gold and xp gain on DTV is 1/3 of the gold and xp on Siege and Battle mode. That explains that, probably. Still, 5 hours to level 20ish isn't that bad, right? If you get lucky on a battle mode and get to run an x5 streak a few times, you can probably do it in four hours or less.
Older players have 'loomed items, are much higher level, and play with clans of similar players. Additionally, you get new gear much faster than you get more levels. Because of this, new players stay useless much longer than they otherwise would. If they buy good items, they start losing money quickly and can't use them. If they don't buy good items, they literally can't kill a decent high level player 99 times out of 100.
Basically, the penalty is much harsher to those who are just starting, even if you don't take accumulated gold from the past into account.
Is isn't really true. On my main character i retire often, so half the time i'm level 30, a quarter of the time i'm between 25 and 30 and a quarter of the time i'm below level 25 (which i consider to be a lowbie). Many of the 'older' player do that. I also make a lot of alts and with those i have to start on 0 gold like everybody else.
There are a handful of level 32 players and a couple of level 33, but that's it. Basicly, level 31 is the soft cap and not many players go beyond that. In theory, players can reach level 35, but that would take months of playing and doesn't really give that big of an advantage.
Pre patch, the gold gain was incredibly slow, so there were no real rich players. So no fortunes were inherited from the pre patch era. It's much easier to make vast sums of money after the upkeep costs were introduced.
New players stop being useless after a couple of evenings of playing. If you average x2, you are level 25 in 13 hours, at which point you have earned plenty of gold (10-15k) to buy good equipment.
Also, people seem to forget many of the lower tier weapons are actually really good. Take a look at the normal (not Elite) Scimitar for example. It's not top tier but stats-wise it can compete with the most expensive weapons. Or take a look at the Flanged Mace. I consider that to be the best blunt weapon for 1h. Yet it only costs a measilly 3k. You can earn that weapon the first night you play and be able to afford a reasonable shield with that.
I have two friends who started playing mere days ago and they both can hold their own already and are making kills. They are killing decent, high level players already.
The problem here, i think, is that some new players tend to go for top tier equipment before they are ready for it. Like another guy said, get a little nest egg, a buffer of 50k gold or something, before you buy the more espensive stuff. And if you are still trying out new gear and equipment, don't go for the most expensive stuff just yet. First go for the cheaper stuff and try that. Some of it is really good.
