The problem I've seen on more games than just FFO, is when certain players who have played for years begin to use game mechanics to gain an advantage. In the case that these players ever actually influence changes to be made to the game, there is always a chance, and usually a pretty high one, that they will benefit the most from that change.

This gets a whole lot uglier if this type of player ever designs anything for the game that only they and their friends know about. In a MUD that I played for a while, there was a guy who built some areas that he hid 2 special items in, a helmet and an axe. The lore skill in this game was made so it showed which stats were changed by an item, but not the hidden resist or weakness. The helmet had terrible stats, but a hidden resist to all weapons and magic. The axe had great stats, but gave a hidden weakness to lightning.

This mud allowed item names to be restrung, so this guy and his friends would restring the helmet so nobody would know what helmet they were actually using. He pretty much handed out the axes that made people weak to lightning, and I'm sure everybody knows where this is going.

Lucky for FFO, nothing that bad has ever happened, that I know of anyway. There are some things that go on though, that really have alot of similarities as far as one group of players having a game-alering advantage over everybody else.

On FFO, this advantage comes from having the best gear. I know last hosting that there were alot of people who did Garland way more times than I did. I did Garland probably between 8 and 10 times last hosting, and I never really got extremely lucky with the drops. From what I saw, almost all of the really good gear come from frost dragons.

I haven't seen any really good gear yet this hosting, but I still see the same in-equality in gear that there has always been. There are a handfull of people who have great gear, while the rest are still using weak gear, if not even some from Silas.

It seems like the more that is done to prevent this kind of thing from happening on FFO, the more it actually happens. An example of this could be putting limits on how many times somebody could do Garland. Plain and simple, that just makes the good gear that much harder for less experienced and less manipulative people to get.

In the end the masters of manipulation will still end up with tons of epic gear, while everybody else is left with crap for gear. This is how unscrupulous people will make their characters, and those of their chosen followers, even more unbalanced in comparison to the rest of the FFO players.

Key sharing will be the key to bypass the security features put on Garland. With such a low level cap, it wouldn't be hard to create new characters from a different IP address, just to do Garland. I'm sure we have some people here with the "talent" to do Garland 50 times, from 50 different IP addresses.

Anyway, I'm just stating what I see. This is the biggest problem FFO has. I think things like this should be the biggest concern for Terulia, because it is a serious problem.

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Terulia and FFO will have two different systems regarding eqipment and skills. I understand where you are coming from though Sahsa.

The way the system works for Garland now is a lot better than last server. As you said you made what 8 Garland alts? I personally made about 5-6. If you had a group of 4 dedicated players who wanted to farm Garland they can/could. This breaks the game community for people who are unable or don't want to farm Garland, (which shouldn't be the case anyawys). So the new system is to balance between the two types of players.

About FrDragon's. Have you been there this version? Yes you might be able to get really good gear from them and or items but you can go other places that give good experience and or items, aka ruins and whatnot. (300% more champs)

I read your story about the Mud you play. Nobody has any advantage like that over other people, except for the "FFO Basically" doc. So don't worry about people getting their items unfairly.

If you have a group that can eventually go and do FrDragons go ahead and try. Im sure in a month from now there will be more people able to do such a mission. Rather then just the powergamers.

If you want to talk about unbalance in past FFO versions let me tell you a story. I remember when.....

-Experience loss in the higher levels would have to be regained in hours
-Extra income from NPC went into the treasurey, (Irendi Castle under the rule of Norkia was making 200+k a day just from houses collecting gold
-Towers were OP
-Just two players could farm FrDragon's , 3.5 and get way more experience, gold, and uber gear really fast.
-There were no army for domains
-No DS
-Gear didn't work
-Melles sucked
-etc etc

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With the changes made from last server to this server I don't see how it benifits, just "one group". It's to even out players.

Also new players if they like the game a lot they will eventually get better and learn to interact with the knowledgeable playerbase.








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The only problem that I can see that might arise it the type of content that FFO delivers. Once you obtain your epic lance of uberness and become the most powerful, what then? What happens if you kill all your enemies and they quit......what makes people want to play FFO and keep them there?

I know for you Sahsha that you are a non-PvPer and that's fine. A lot of the community is, yet what makes you want to come is building up domains and talking with friends and questing.

Other people have other ambitions for the game world and that's great. I just hope that once wars start to happen and people "will" burn domains down things won't be taken to heart.

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Zasha wrote:

this advantage comes from having the best gear.

Between my three main characters I have nearly 360 total logged hours, and since the server started I've probably put forth 15 to 16 hours a day into playing FFO.

Back when my Red Wizard's logged hours were around 190, and it was my only character, I had the best gear and the best profs. Why? The second best Red Wizard in terms of gear and profs had only 120 logged hours. Neither of us idled much. That means I put forth an extra 70 hours of effort than he did.

However, since I've made my Ninja and even moreso now that I made my White Wizard, all of my character ranks have fallen. I went from being 1st in everything to around 20-40 depending on when the last time I trained was. Despite my huge influence I have with my Red Wizard, my Ninja is probably only the second or third best as compared to people who only have a Ninja.

Yes, FFO is unbalanced, because gear can create an unhealthy distance between characters. Now, tell me how often people fall ass-backwards into this good gear without even trying? How many people log three or four hours a day and yet get all this kind of good stuff?

Of course it is unbalanced. It's an online game, and the people that have all the free time in the world to play it are the ones with the advantage. When the Burning Crusade came out and one guy got a new character to Level 80 in two days, do you think everyone cried out that it was unbalanced that he stayed up 30-something hours in a row for a damned game?

JebusLovesEverone wrote:

Nobody has any advantage like that over other people, except for the "FFO Basically" doc.

I don't know, even if we have access to it, most of us answer just about any question someone asks. I've even compared the damage reduction of various armors in front of Dsay and everything. The most use I've gotten out of it is drooling at how awesome the 5th Ace looks and wishing they'd freakin' drop.

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Shane wrote: When the Burning Crusade came out and one guy got a new character to Level 80 in two days, do you think everyone cried out that it was unbalanced that he stayed up 30-something hours in a row for a damned game?

The Burning Crusade's level cap was 70. Wrath of the Lich King brought it up to 80. When Cataclysm came out, it brought the level cap up to 85, which was on 7th of this month, at 3 AM EST. People were level 85 the same day by 3 PM EST. People managed to get 14 million some experience points within 12 hours, and that is not easy by any means. The difference between FFO and World of Warcraft? World of Warcraft is as close as you can get to a balanced game. You can't exactly compare the two properly.

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Sup, you missed the point.

Also, haha@
Oondivinezin wrote:

World of Warcraft is as close as you can get to a balanced game.

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Your comparing oranges to giant apples.



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