ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

My lvl is 50/301% and I have 2 prides to explore. I want to explore everythink but there is no bonuses.
My proposition is to add some extras for every 100% exp above 50lvl or other grants.
For example veteran skills for legendary heroes to chose;

Hard Skin 10% to armor and armor hardines,
Falcon's Eye 10% to accuracy,
Troll's Roots 10 to hp reg,
Giant's Power 10% to dam,
Librarian 10% to mana, hate etc,
Demon's Madness 10% to combat speed, spell speed,
Genetic Experiments 12 to chosen stat,
Chosen One 3 to all stats,
Runner 20% to movement speed,
Witcher's Child 10 to spell power and phisical power,
Genius 0,2 to chosen talent,
Healthy 10% to life, stamina,
Dragon's Skin 20 to all resistances and saves,
and many others.

PizzaPL

The point of having a level cap of 50 is to limit the power of your character to that level. these bonuses are not only much more powerful than regular levelups, they boost your power above what should be possible for the player character.

Yes, but bonuses contribiute to deaply exploration of world and better fun. Do not forget, it would be possibly to obtain in the last part of game. I recieved 50lvl very early and game becomes a little boring. For example I have more than 600 energy in my fortress but I do not need more exp from the Far Portal expeditions because no bonuses. To gain more than 100% exp above 50 lvl is not easy and there are not many players with as great exp as my. I spent a lot of time hunting for the adventure's party and other monsters. To get one of listed gifts above would be good encouragment for tenacious players. Of course those grants are only my proposition and the level of bonuses can be changed.

PizzaPL

I also proponent of lvls/bonuses beyond 50, they would give something to look forward to and explore more talents combos. Because they mostly do with exploration, and most of opponents of level beyond 50 are playing on roguelike difficulty anyway, I suggest add level beyond 50 for adventure mode only.

The problem is balancing the late game for a big range of character levels. Having it all designed for 50 makes this easier. In the late game there is still new equipment to look forward to, and some extra stuff from the alchemist quests if you haven't completed them yet.

Grey wrote:The problem is balancing the late game for a big range of character levels. Having it all designed for 50 makes this easier.

The balancing scare don't prevent introduction of whole new classes on the monthly basis. Here is it only ~10 new levels with progressive exp cost. Just to remove cap and make sure later game dungeons are scaled in the corresponding range. If players start complaining - rebalance in the next version. It's going with new classes all the time. Anyway it wouldn't affect previous levels - so existing gameplay wouldn't break.

And then when people get to that new cap, they'll ask for more, and then for more ?

darkgod wrote:And then when people get to that new cap, they'll ask for more, and then for more ?

It will be very difficult to get to new cap - exponential xp cost. It's essentially soft threshold instead of hard. And cap removal is planned for infinite dungeon campaign, correct?

yes but the infinite dungeon is a special mode

Postman wrote:

Grey wrote:The problem is balancing the late game for a big range of character levels. Having it all designed for 50 makes this easier.

The balancing scare don't prevent introduction of whole new classes on the monthly basis. Here is it only ~10 new levels with progressive exp cost. Just to remove cap and make sure later game dungeons are scaled in the corresponding range. If players start complaining - rebalance in the next version. It's going with new classes all the time. Anyway it wouldn't affect previous levels - so existing gameplay wouldn't break.

New classes means new variety and new choices. Extra levelling in a way reduces variety, as it moves away from specialist builds and more towards "do it all" characters. Part of the fun of the talent system is having to make hard choices between different options, and this especially comes into play in the late 30s and early 40s when you have to plan how your remaining points will be spent. Limiting players to having to choose certain build paths produces more interesting characters (in my opinion) whilst also improving the replay value of the classes.

Grey wrote: New classes means new variety and new choices. Extra levelling in a way reduces variety, as it moves away from specialist builds and more towards "do it all" characters.

I have already replayed that argument before myself before posting actually New levels could be used t increase variety. One way to increase variety with new leveling is to randomize it. Bonus level can have random talent/foundation distribution and partially stat distribution. Another way is to focus it - biggest stat & most filled school increased(beyond 5 maximum points). Those methods could be combined.

There's already some late game content that does that (potion from the sandy place boss, and the alchemist's rewards (which you can choose to suit your needs)). Perhaps more content like this wouldn't go amiss.

That is essentially the same, but require more effort to iplement I think...

The rewards for being a completionist and gaining a lot of XP beyond clvl 50 is the additional loot you find and whatever rewards you gain from side quests. That said, I think some side quests could do more. For example, completing the Orc Breeding Pits could reduce the frequency of orc patrols, and maybe reduce the number of orcs that await you in the orc prides.

Another option is to reduce the amount of XP gained--but we don't want to force players to do all side quests to achieve clvl 50.

A final option is that when the zone difficulty is leveled up or down according (partially) to the players level, don't adjust XP gained as well. For example, if you enter Dreadfell(1) at clvl 17 or clvl 25, then kill a vampire that is quasi-leveled up to match you, then both players (clvl 17 and clvl 25) would gain the same absolute XP amount (even thought the vampires that were killed were different level).

That's quite how it works for levels, and the breeding pits DO reduce patrols