Make people starting at level 20

[Litho]

chadz, that idea would be really cool for testing out builds!

the main thing I don't like about peasants is that it gives people a really bad first impression of the mod. They're also really useless and can't do anything but hide, leech xp, and mildly annoy people with stones and pitch-forks. like 20% of the server ends up being completely useless chaff at any given time. Starting people off at level 5 or 10 with some starter gear (a cheap crossbow, shield, and a spear?) would let them contribute a little at least, and try out a few different play-styles before they commit to what sort of weapons they want their character to use.

cRPG as it is now is very unfriendly towards newbies. They start off as a peasant and can't do anything but get killed, and any mistake they might make developing their character can only be fixed by starting over or retiring 30 levels later. Add some sort of re-spec ability, and start newbies off with a crappy spear or a shield at least (think militia instead of peasant), and it'd really help with first impressions.

Heck, just starting peasants off with a shield would go a long way. I know that a peasant can buy cheap gear pretty much after 1 or 2 games, the problem is that most new characters like to stick around for several games so they have some actual experience and money to spend when they log out and risk losing their spot on the server.

Also, another thing: Not everyone plays cRPG for the grind, so don't think that having a huge grind is a desirable gameplay feature (obvious, but some people in this thread seem to think otherwise). Being able to build a character and see how it fares in M&B combat is cool, and cRPG offers a lot more customization than native MP. That's why people like it! Being a peasant offers no customization at all, you're the same jerk with a pitchfork as every other peasant, and even if you buy some gear you're still useless until you have enough stat points to meaningfully distribute (and even then, you're probably still useless).

[Astinus]

How about a char that gets immediately pushed to level 25, but does not gain any xp/cannot advance?

Would allow cRPG haters to play Strategus.

That's would be awesome, hate you

[Bulzur]

How about a char that gets immediately pushed to level 25, but does not gain any xp/cannot advance?

Would allow cRPG haters to play Strategus.

Well, that's an idea. But it would take time to get implemented, and i'd rather you take that time for the cRPG lovers, rather than the haters.
But it sure could be a nice idea to bring in new people (Try now cRPG, have a free lv25 and spend your skill points. Go fight now !)
And then they'll all understand how great it is, and start making lv1 people to be able to improve onself.


No for the "start at lv20". I like playing as a peasant, killing people with some awesome finishing blows, and more particularly going to the cRPG site to update from 3/3 to 15/3 in one go, thinking "Ah ah, i'll show you now !". Even though now that there's the "C" hotkey, i tend to update everything ingame.

[Salamol]

Heck, just starting peasants off with a shield would go a long way. I know that a peasant can buy cheap gear pretty much after 1 or 2 games, the problem is that most new characters like to stick around for several games so they have some actual experience and money to spend when they log out and risk losing their spot on the server.

Also, another thing: Not everyone plays cRPG for the grind, so don't think that having a huge grind is a desirable gameplay feature (obvious, but some people in this thread seem to think otherwise). Being able to build a character and see how it fares in M&B combat is cool, and cRPG offers a lot more customization than native MP. That's why people like it! Being a peasant offers no customization at all, you're the same jerk with a pitchfork as every other peasant, and even if you buy some gear you're still useless until you have enough stat points to meaningfully distribute (and even then, you're probably still useless).

With the latest patch, they don't need to log out to put their new stuff on. There are about 50 body armour items alone which are less than the 100 starting gold, which is just about as many as body armour over 100 gold. I don't personally feel it is a huge grind at the moment, I went from 1 to 28 in just a couple of days and I don't feel all that much more useful/useless than I did to begin with - the 1-30 helps new players learn the game, or new characters learn their new class. What I feel cRPG did right was that simply landing a hit on a player as a peasent felt like a victory, you don't have to have a huge K:D each round to be a valuable member of the team.

I know "servers arn't cheap" and all that, but perhaps the level 25 thing can be done on a seperate server. That would be (or I would guess) easier to work with, plus you know that you are testing your build on opponents who arn't in tincans or just wearing peasent armour. Also... gold would be needed for these characters... and the figure you choose for this needs to reflect what you would earn/spend in "regular mode".

[Astinus]

Hey dudes you missed something in the OP: starting at level 20 would have been only for those who chooses it, not an enforced thing...

[Cris]

How about a char that gets immediately pushed to level 25, but does not gain any xp/cannot advance?

Would allow cRPG haters to play Strategus.

I would love this for alts!

We could have our normal properly grinded characters, and lvl 25, no exp gain, never the best at its class (nothing maxed out, no heirloom) but good enough to do something with characters.

Please do implement it.

[Bulzur]

Hey dudes you missed something in the OP: starting at level 20 would have been only for those who chooses it, not an enforced thing...

Ah ah ah ah. Nice fair thing. You can go lv20 now, and still gain xp, or you can play a peasant during 4 hours at least, dying and getting frustrated, then being lv20.
I wonder what people will choose. 

No, seriously, this "i'm new and lv20 and still improving" is a very bad idea. You don't want to live the hard pesants day, but you still want to be lv30 among the big ones ? No, sorry, that's not fair. You can be lv 22 or 25 all your life, if chadz had his idea for cRPG haters. But no way we'll give you a free lv20 who can still improve. And now with the new xp gain, you can't argument that you can't lvup as a peasant, cause you always die first, since it doesn't matter anymore. Live with it.

[Astinus]

Ah ah ah ah. Nice fair thing. You can go lv20 now, and still gain xp, or you can play a peasant during 4 hours at least, dying and getting frustrated, then being lv20.
I wonder what people will choose. 

No, seriously, this "i'm new and lv20 and still improving" is a very bad idea. You don't want to live the hard pesants day, but you still want to be lv30 among the big ones ? No, sorry, that's not fair. You can be lv 22 or 25 all your life, if chadz had his idea for cRPG haters. But no way we'll give you a free lv20 who can still improve. And now with the new xp gain, you can't argument that you can't lvup as a peasant, cause you always die first, since it doesn't matter anymore. Live with it.

Hey dude you won the price, you discovered why I suggested it in first place: because almost everyone hate being a peasant and prefer to start to play wihtou "dying and getting frustrated" for those wasted couple of hours as peasant
But there are some people who seem to enjoy it so why don't letting them being one?

But since I love the idea of a lvl 25 character for strategus or build experiment I'm fine and everything else is just chit chat

[Kophka]

chadz's idea of a lvl 25 "starter character" is a really great one.  Bravo!