When this game first came out, my initial impression was, "Wow, its so easy to level in this game! 3 missions and I get a whole level". That was the first week, and actually in open beta too.
Now with the changes to the Episode arc in the F2P format, leveling is RIDICULOUSLY fast! Early on, episodes give you an entire level and then some of experience. It tails off around when you hit captain and admiral to about 1.5 per level, then by VA it was down to about normal with 2.5 episodes per level.
BUT with the additions of the DOFF system, the Borg invasion event, and the Mirror Events, you can get A LOT of experience just by doing not much of anything really.
Here is what I did in general to get to Vice Admiral within just a few days:
~1-2 levels acquired via DOFF completed assignments.
~4-5 levels of experience from the Borg event and FED Mirror event
As Lt., I had to stop the episodes at "Stop the Signal" until I hit Lt. Cmdr so I did do a couple of non-episode missions at that point.
The rest of the experience from Lt.Cmdr up was ALL just from the episodes, and I'm still ONLY half way through the Cardassian story arc :mad:
I started the character last Sunday IIRC, got to VA on Saturday, with two days in between not playing at all. Total time to hit VA had to be about 20 hours of gameplay or less.
Now my problem with this is that players ALWAYS find the fastest way to level, and stick with it. That means they will skip the dailies, skip the patrols, skip the other content that doesn't give much experience and just focus on the Episodes, DOFF system and events that give good experience.
If the point of the changes to the F2P system and currency is to have people actually play all the content that the game includes, then this isn't working. My character has yet to do an Exploration, any of the post-Lt. level patrols, or any of the other acquired missions other than the episodes. My "In Progress" mission list is so long its not even funny and I have no motivation to complete ANY of them at this point as a VA.
If I were a F2P player at this point, I would spend maybe another week trying out the other content, then stop playing all together, or maybe another week after that trying to level another character. During the first month this came out, most of the people I knew who first joined the game left because they got their characters to max level and didn't find anything fun to do, so they didn't re-sub. I'm hoping some of them come back when it goes F2P, but I suspect when they find they can blow through levels so fast they will play for maybe a few days and stop again and this has me concerned...
IMO, leveling needs to be leveled out (No pun intended). Patrols, Episodes, etc. all need to be balanced out again so that each Tier can be enjoyed and you can actually progress through the Episode arc in a reasonable rate and not be stuck not even wanting to finish them . I think I spent maybe 3 or 4 hours playing as a captain before I hit Admiral and had to get ANOTHER new ship and new equipment, which is madness...
I really hope there is some internal discussion about this and its not set in stone already.
It's a test server. We only have a limited time to achieve the leveling goals, and they want to see the game tested end to end. The current level of XP gain from storyline missions will certainly not make it to Live, and they already said that they buffed the SP curve just for testing.
What about the Borg and Fed Mirror events? You can get almost a whole level doing the Borg event at lower levels.
Beta testing. if you're making characters start from level 1, but you want level 45+ content tested without allowing imported characters yet, you have to give people a quick way to get to high levels.
Comments
Beta testing. if you're making characters start from level 1, but you want level 45+ content tested without allowing imported characters yet, you have to give people a quick way to get to high levels.
All exp has been increased. The leveling time is not realistic
But congrats on VA anyway