Its less about the indivdual wanting to level 1-60 him/herself then it is ones desire to see that other people half to put actual effort in to get to cap. The problem any fast level servers tend to have is population consistancy, I was a raidleader on an Instant-cap 60 server for a while, the problem we had was bringing new un-geared 60s to raids each week because we would lose 4 or 5 people every week, they would just not log in or leave the guild.
If you make it easy, People are more likely to leave as they wont feel invested in the slightest bit.
Again (I've said this acrost multipul threads)
I think the best solution is a leveling rait of about 1.25-1.60, the latter end being the TBC Leveling buff, I feel with that value set. People would find,
- Reaching Cap would still be considered an acomplishment and part of the game
- It wouldent be so unbearably slow that players may quit half-way through due to bordem
- Lower-level dungeons would still be relevent
- Questing/Leveling content would actualy not need any scaleing for this, the problem with x1 is that the game was very grindy there arnt really quest for levels 34-39 and 46-50 you basically grind mobs
An instant 60 will always face those issues, you're absolutely correct. However, higher rates don't mean there is no feeling of investment. Let's take that big private server that doesn't deserve to have its name on our forums as an example (I'm sure you know the one). It has 14x rates and an incredibly consistent raiding core, despite the terrible state of gameplay that it's offering. I raided on this server for years, literally. During that time I did see people come and go, you're absolutely right but you're going to have that on any private server. It's not limited to WoW either, private servers of pretty much every game suffer the same fate. Sure, you'll have the small group that stay loyal but that's not enough if you want a true vanilla experience, which requires masses of players.
On higher rates those people that do only stay for a month get to 60, engage in 5mans, drive the economy, level professions, dabble in a bit of PvP and so forth. On 1x rates, those people rarely even get to level cap. This leaves a huge void across the board in various places. Just go and look at Rebirth, properly. Look at the auction house and wider economy; it's stagnant. 5mans? Nuh-uh, not likely. They're 90% guild runs so the "vets" don't have to suffer with the pugs. Even then it's rare because most players don't need them for gear, it's for mats and other things the guild may need.
I'll address your bullet points in the same order for the sake of simplicity:
1) I agree, there is an accomplishment in reaching level cap at 1x. So do it? What's being proposed is allowing the individual to make the decision themselves, rather than driving those who aren't interested in leveling again away from the server. Set your xp rate to 1x and we'll see you at 60. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that.
2) I have literally leveled 60-70+ chars to 60 in a vanilla environment, so boredom is unavoidable on that front for me personally but this isn't about me. It's about the server. The problem is, not many people have my tolerance for the mundane.
Most (not all) players are bored of leveling in vanilla. We have seen this project stutter twice now, with rates being a key issue on both occasions and it doesn't seem like anyone is learning from the errors of the past. If someone's not having fun, they won't play as much and eventually they'll quit. It's a game after all.
3) Lower-level instances wouldn't be relevant, because the population would be drastically lower with people spread across all the levels. Finding 5 people within the same level bracket who are willing to stop questing to travel half way across the world for the
chance (groups fall apart) do an instance will be extremely difficult. A case could also be made re: group composition too but if you have 2 people in a low-level 5man who know what they're doing, you can work around it.
4) The lower level content wouldn't need scaling with improved rates. Those that choose to level on the higher rates would need to suffer the consequences. It's that simple. They've managed before, they'll manage again. It's a decision for the individual and the trade off involved.
Please don't take any of the above in the wrong way, it most certainly wasn't meant to cause offence or appear as if I'm trying to flame you. That's just not my style. I appreciate someone actually throwing something constructive into the ring.
Figaro said:
lol 14 x rates
wtf is this ?
Instant will be better than this highrate. You will save few days with mindlessly killing all mobs on your sight.
The two biggest vanilla servers that have actually stayed around and continuously maintained a good population have similar experience rates. This is all despite the terrible state of their gameplay. Keep laughing at the suggestion but it's painfully obvious for those who have their heads screwed on that we'll be here in 12 months time talking about Kronos 4.0 if these plans don't change.