Well, I can't see the point of changing the EXP system this way. I mean, if you're headshotted, you may be level 31 or 40, you're still headshotted. Arrows don't give a fuck what level you are.
In fact the only disadvantage of gaining EXP over time is that we don't have any huge melee nor "teamplay" (aka random shieldwalls) anymore; but I guess everybody knew that even before the Unholy Patch of January. However I can't complain without trying to propose solutions, so here we go.
To begin, three easy steps :
1 - Remove the upkeep.
2 - Remove battle mode.
3 - Remove siege mode.
To continue, three not-so-easy steps :
1 - To keep the effects of upkeep (which are mostly to avoid tincan-ism), the shop ought to be changed. I always wondered how, in a realistic point of view, all the items could be buyable in the same shop; and that's the idea :
Make only some items available in the shop (10~20). If the player wants to get other items, he clicks on a button like "travel to another city" and the items are changed after 30 hours. However, during this time, the player isn't able to buy anything. Also, I doubt that a merchant would be honest to sell only brand new items; he would probably sell worn-out clothes and used weapons. (But he could sell better items too.) Oh, and stones should be free.
2 - Yeah, that looks pretty strange, but the battle mode cannot bring teamplay. At all. And if people don't know, the over time money system was set to encourage teamplay and discourage solo-players. For a better teamplay experience, a new gamemode could be created. Here we go :
It would be called something like "King & Queen", and the main feature would be that one team has one king -chosen within the less-armored male-players- and one queen -chosen within the highest-level female player-. The team would have to keep'em both alive during the round. If they keep the king, they win and everybody earns like 100 gold. If they keep the king and the queen, everybody earns like 100 gold, and the next round it will be doubled. The goal of the other team is to obviously kill the king and the queen. If they kill the king everybody earns 100 gold and if they kill the queen, etc etc... Also, every kill would give about 1 or 2 gold. Finally, I dare say that this gamemode would make the order system "useful".
3 - For this one, The castles would be kept but the flags removed. Also, one room would have to be added to the castle: "The chest rooms". No respawn, but the attacking team would have more players to compensate. Thus, The goal of the attacking team is to raid the chest room (or ninja inside), and steal gold. The gold in every chest would depend on the number of player on the server. So when you would enter the room, you would have to "activate" the chest to pick about 100 gold. You could do that as many time as you want to, so yes, one player only could take the whole treasure. When one of the team is exterminated, the round is over. The gold left is given to the defenders, so if the no gold is taken, this can be considered as a win for the defending team. This gamemode should be for better-than-peasant players, especially for the attackers.
So here's my idea, and don't worry, I know it's unrealistic and impossible to be done. I was just, like, giving some ideas.
P.S : Casual gaming doesn't exist. It's an sales argument; if a game is good, people will play it.
P.P.S : Pardon my english, it's not my native language
P.P.P.S : I totally agree with the unique items idea.
P.P.P.P.S : If
this guy could replace rebecca black, I'd be happy as well.