Shattered Kingdoms

Yes, but on top of the lowered duration, the NPCs got an entire arsenal of offensive spells at their disposal...

A hold person spell with the old duration would mean certain death now - while the new one, is merely ownkebab insane.

EDIT: For a jman, that is.

I'm pretty sure the world has to asplode now.

In light of this monumental event, our will must be done.

I've not minded Hold Person in the past. But that's because it was placed on NPCs that needed or deserved that protection.

Giving it to bakemonos, who already live in an area designed to block most pets, strikes me as overkill. Not everyone wants to group to level. Nor should there be much difficulty getting to level 21, where many class-defining abilities appear: Charm Person for sorcs, Conjure Elemental for warlocks, Spirit Aura for shamans, etc.

If you want to make getting higher levels a pain, go ahead. I think it's silly, but I realize others have reasons for disagreeing. But why put such obstacles in the way of lowbies?

Code changes are the cause of this difference in those and many other NPCs. There's nothing really that I can do to make them not cast it. What do you suggest? I'm sure Dulrik has plans to continue to fix casting NPCs. Please be patient?

A

I think group levelling should become more of a necessity.

That is all.

I agree, at least at higher levels.

Every time someone mentions that they want to make grouping required on SK i cringe. Group levelling CAN'T be a necessity on a game with a small number of players, especially with the RP restrictions involved on SK. What's the average number of players online, 30 to 50? So out of that many people you'll need to find a group of characters within five to ten levels of you, similar alignments, compatible personalities, complementary classes, and a desire to go out and grind on NPCs at that particular moment rather than look for equipment or do a quest or roleplay.

I've played on MMOs that require groups for levelling. It can take hours to get an acceptable party together, and that's with thousands of people on a server and no roleplaying restrictions.

The more you coerce players to play together, the bigger the community grows.

This is something that can be shown quite easily.

Yes, because the emphasis on group PK that was added with CRS has caused the playerbase to just explode.

There needs to be a sufficient number of people to allow mandatory grouping before it would cause an increase in players. If every time you log on to a game you're unable to gain any experience because you can't find people to level with you're not going to hang around very long.

And regardless of how easily it can be shown to grow the community I still think it's a bad idea. It introduces too much downtime where all you can do is sit around twiddling your thumbs hoping for people to show up so you can play, which penalizes people who don't have hours on end to sit at a computer so they can gain a level or two.

There's a difference between being unable to do something, and being benefitted by doing something.

To coerce someone doesn't imply you make the game unplayable alone, it implies you make a great incentive to group.