I chatted for a bit with CalmTempest and he suggested I mention it here. First of all, my initial question was this:
How is RP progression supposed to function for "new seasons" with re-leveled characters that keep RPs? Does the character spawn with 3L9 at level 1? or does it all appear once you ding level 50? What if you want RPs in the BGs but don't want to be over-ranked and disqualified? has any formula for this been mentioned?
I was then told that the plan is to start RP progression at level 10 with 1 per level, meaning at level 24 you'd be 2L4 and at level 39 you'd be 3L9 (assuming you reached at least 3L9 on this character in the first season.)
Now I'm a hardcore elitist lvl 50 8v8 player, but I feel like this will really sandbag the BGs for both new characters and new players in general who come in after season 1. For one thing, the traditional cap for Thid is 1L4, so perhaps this could be adjusted to start after level 20, so at 24 you'd be 1L4, and at 39 you'd be 2L9. This would still be rewarding while also creating less of a gap.
Imagine powerleveling to 39 in 2 days on a new character or as a new player. "Lets go take a break and check out Molvik at 39?" "No thanks, don't want to get farmed by 3L9s, this is a new 1L1 char." Is the conversation that you will see in chat. It's one thing if you are 4 months late to the season and people have already grinded to 3L9 the traditional way - that's on you. However I feel this is going to create a 3L9-or-bust mentality for Molvik because the traditional grind to get there will be so overwhelming vs the day 2 3L9s that it's just not worth it and people will just skip the battlegrounds entirely.
It's one thing for this to be the case at level 50 in NF RVR, but at level 39???
I don't really even plan to participate in BGs, but as a hardcore player, I can see where this is going and it's not a good idea to support your more casual players, or to bring in new players, or for old players to create new characters unless their only goal is end-game 50 RvR.
RR cap scaling for future seasons
Re: RR cap scaling for future seasons
I had the same considerations like you when I tried to imagine how things turn out on season rerolls.
Your worry of 8mans roflstomping everything with 3L9 chars is something I personally worry less about for 2 reasons:
- 8mans will level very fast through bgs and will soon find no targets to kill anymore until the rest levels up or alternatively, they only have each other to fight against. By the time organised 8mans will be lvl 50 most casuals will be around 30 to 45.
- There is an easy way to fix it by having caps grow through the first days, instead of increasing it every month you just have a cap for day 1 new cap for day 2 until about 3L9 at day 7. By that time, all 8mans will be in rvr fully geared with few exceptions.
My worry goes into another direction: even with optimistic projections we can expect about 500 to 700 players per realm. If they get evenly distributed throughout bgs at the beginning, its all fine as it is rightnow. But later on many bgs will lack the critical mass to have action going and will die out because of it. If that happens to lvl 1 to 9 bgs, its hardly a loss but leveling through rvr is genuinely fun and should be kept up to a certain degree.
My suggestion:
- Have certain days of the week affiliated with one or two bgs while they get an rp/xp bonus. Or keep it event based, say on day x there is a reroll event where everyone is invited to level an alt through bgs with continuations on higher bgs on different days so slow ones or late joiners can get their alts level ready.
- Make the mob spawns even denser and the respawn fast like the lvl 10-14 bg to create incentives to be there while it is relatively empty. In that particular bg, the boss area is one that has many encounters and fights just because everyone knows there is likely to be people there.
Your worry of 8mans roflstomping everything with 3L9 chars is something I personally worry less about for 2 reasons:
- 8mans will level very fast through bgs and will soon find no targets to kill anymore until the rest levels up or alternatively, they only have each other to fight against. By the time organised 8mans will be lvl 50 most casuals will be around 30 to 45.
- There is an easy way to fix it by having caps grow through the first days, instead of increasing it every month you just have a cap for day 1 new cap for day 2 until about 3L9 at day 7. By that time, all 8mans will be in rvr fully geared with few exceptions.
My worry goes into another direction: even with optimistic projections we can expect about 500 to 700 players per realm. If they get evenly distributed throughout bgs at the beginning, its all fine as it is rightnow. But later on many bgs will lack the critical mass to have action going and will die out because of it. If that happens to lvl 1 to 9 bgs, its hardly a loss but leveling through rvr is genuinely fun and should be kept up to a certain degree.
My suggestion:
- Have certain days of the week affiliated with one or two bgs while they get an rp/xp bonus. Or keep it event based, say on day x there is a reroll event where everyone is invited to level an alt through bgs with continuations on higher bgs on different days so slow ones or late joiners can get their alts level ready.
- Make the mob spawns even denser and the respawn fast like the lvl 10-14 bg to create incentives to be there while it is relatively empty. In that particular bg, the boss area is one that has many encounters and fights just because everyone knows there is likely to be people there.