Poll: Item Level Restriction - bring it back?

[WyreZ]

I vote NO. Do NOT bring it back.

I don't think there's anything wrong with players who want to dominate everything. I feel that it's very important in a game that it has a versatile playstyle - a design that caters to the tastes of many players. Let's face it, the character base is quite small these days.

To elaborate - Some players like to dominate everything on the server. Some players like to utilize teamwork to overcome challenging situations.

I like the flexibility and freedom to do both. I like that the game allows players, should they choose, to behave in a way that is ILR-ish anyhow. There's nothing stopping players from going "ok, let's make a group of lowbies who can only use what they find, and are not allowed to accept powerful items from other characters".

For me personally, I enjoy playing most of my characters as they get into mid level - L15-25ish is great fun for me!! Because of this, no ILR means I can get to play the bit of the game that I enjoy most sooner. And surely a GAME is to be ENJOYED, no? I work hard in real life, and so I'd like my downtime to be a little easier!

Above all though, my initial point, I feel, is the most important one - A versatile gaming experience allowing people to play the way they best enjoy. This means, letting the power gamers powergame, and letting those who prefer or seek a challenge, do their thing. ILR forces people to 'seek their challenge', which in turn forces a longer levelling process and more of a 'grind', I feel. Except I've never felt that "Grinding" was particularly fun, especially when trying to level up on a low-player server where you might not always be online with someone else, let alone someone in your player range or in the right faction.

-WyreZ-

(Novak E'lyn
Kami Xier
Tyr)

[baugnesh]

Turning ILR on won't make everything in the epic zones more challenging, just the classic areas where challenge has already been scaled correctly. What makes you lose interest is 90% of 'epic area' spawns being animated punching bags with hp. It's incredibly easy to get 48-55ac and some concealment which makes everything you encounter very easy to deal with. There's no need for a tank, or dedicated healer, or support. What one would want to believe from a contrarian perspective players who are running around leveling up toons aren't hooked on domination. Domination is boring to anybody or will get boring very quickly even to the inexperienced player. I'm too old to deal with video game ideology so I won't dwell on that topic other than saying a video game is where a person goes to escape, how they choose to escape is their prerogative. I do agree challenge is an issue but ILR is not the major problem. Some spell nerfs (SoV 1 Round on Fail, WoF +Will Save, Improv Invis 25% conceal for example) and even some tweaking of less useful spells would be a great change. Epic spawns having more variety (Bards, Druids, Mass Healers, Stealthy Rangers, A Crit Immune, A Spell Immune each in the mobs, throw in a spawn tossing out some deadly creature abilities here and there Etc). ALL Immunity Items changed to things like Immunity KD = Discipline +10 True Seeing = Spell Per Day & +20 spot). Change Spell Resistant races from 11+1 spell resist to 1 spell resist per level, if possible -10 if in daylight would all be steps in the right direction. NWN is funnest when you rely on your class abilities to survive, not items or OP subraces.

Just thought I would offer my input, I'm not voting on ILR cause I don't consider it an issue, having it on or off won't hurt my feelings either way or change the server much.

[raradra]

Above all though, my initial point, I feel, is the most important one - A versatile gaming experience allowing people to play the way they best enjoy. This means, letting the power gamers powergame, and letting those who prefer or seek a challenge, do their thing. ILR forces people to 'seek their challenge', which in turn forces a longer levelling process and more of a 'grind', I feel.

I see your point, but honestly Nordock wasn't built for power gamers it was built for role players. We've never disallowed power gamers but we don't build or change for them either. That's what the action section of the server list is for

[Otherworldly]

Would it be a good idea to mention this on the facebook group? As has been pointed out there may be some people who left simply for rl reasons momentarily that'd be interested in having a say as well as some who may have left because of things like this being turned off. I vote yes, by the way. I hated ilr when I played classic which is one thing that kept me away from epic for so long. However, when I finally did play it and got in to it I felt that the ilr being turned on only made perfect sense on a module that added 20 more lvls and loot to go along with it. On classic you hit 20 and the best stuff you'd find, with one or two exceptions, was in the epic store. That put not only an ILR on the best gear but kept it from even being moved from one character to another for future use. On a server that lvls far beyond the epic store and regular classic zones keeping classic rules such as no ilr just isn't balanced in the slightest. The first time I played epic, when I'd been on a break back in about 2010-2011, I was able to get to epic lvl in less than a week with ilr on. There's no reason that ilr should prevent you from lvling very quickly if that's what you want to do and you know what you're doing (think bagnors shield and garbalogs for example), what it will do is balance parties so dm's have more motivation to interact with us and so that there isn't a time where a low lvl group finds one portion stuck watching on while another twinked portion hastes through all their enemies and moves on before theyve even made it to the battle. But, that's, just like, my opinion, man.

[Paul_Kettlebones]

Rara makes an excellent point.
I initially voted no simply because when I find something legitimately or take the time to craft it myself, I think I ought to be able to use it. I don't twink, I don't just pass powerful gear to my friends not do I want them to do that to me. It makes the game easy. It destroys the role play and ruins the immersion. If this is your play style that's fine and I respect that but there are other servers for that. This is a role play server and that doesn't include whatever role played excuse I have in my head as to why my 30th level character will be passing his uber gear down to the new 1st level build I want to try. That's not role play to me so I don't think it belongs on a role play server. With that in mind I changed my vote to yes to reinstate ilr.

[raradra]

Would it be a good idea to mention this on the facebook group?

You're welcome to but honestly I'm really only interested in the thoughts of those that play here.

[Lliira]

Otherworldly - you can mention it on the Land of Nordock Facebook page, but I wouldn't post it on the Richterm's Retreat Reunion page. It would open a can of worms, with people who haven't played in years giving their opinions.

[raradra]

Yes, Lliira says it much better than I did

[Otherworldly]

Hehe, I understood what you meant Rara I honestly was worried about the same thing myself so I thought I'd check with the other players and the DM's to get their thoughts before involving people who frankly aren't really involved.

[Xillie]

Hiya, just came by ingame and heard about this poll.
I voted against it, assuming there is not going to be a (semi) vaultwipe accompanied.
Im wondering how it would help the server, if I understand it correctly it is because DM(s) find the one or two people soloing on the server at low level having too valuable gear to deserve or otherwise make possible an interaction with that DM.
Im sorry to say that I would consider it a case of "changing the rules halfway the game", too bad this wasnt definitely decided from the get-go where it appeared it was. I also think that lowlevel characters can always be challenged on their weak points even if they have haste, AC and damaging weapons.

In general, I would suggest less destabilizing "changes" that may improve the experience of those who ask for "more challenge" or something, that do not affect the essential concepts of other players who, especially nowadays, may be challenged by very differential aspects of the game. IOW, on the scale of "pleasing as many as possible" I consider a proposal like this a specific direction for specific tastes. I would suggest perhaps considering both running a ILR and nonILR server which would show that an idea like this can break up players much faster than bringing them together.

greets and see you ingame,

Xillie