NEW STARTER LEVEL Z

A rather strange new level for a beginner to start on: No map; multiple mons in early fights; new mons; all stats found were cursed and worth no dollar value tho one had to ID them to learn that; Once ID'd said if used would cause the loss of one stat (Brawn, Judgement, etc.); Stats if used, add age it said.

I don't see anything in the new Z that would help a beginner. Was this your intention??

Mike

You either mis read what the store tells you, or the store is mis reporting. The new starter manuals are only "cursed" to keep you from selling to the store (which could become free storage for them) -- they are USE or LOSE items. No alignments.

People were seriously abusing the starter dungeon, farming it for stats AND it was too easy. This version is more challenging, for sure.

As soon as I can get a MAX ANY Guild level set on those items, I intend to take away both the cursed bit and the Use or Lose on those items. Yes, money will be an issue for new chars.

Since we cannot reply/comment on Announcement postings, I will use this string to suggest that the age penalty (12 weeks) for the stats found in the Z/Starter level is a bit severe in my opinion. In order for a new character to max their stats (the purpose of the Z level), a lot of stats are required to max. With the 12 week penalty, the new chars age swiftly grows from the teens to over 30 and into the 40 age. Maybe in the longer game, that factor is really not important but it seems extreme in a starter level designed to raise stats on new chars.

Mike

It's a trade off, IMO. Easier to find, easier to run the area; vs ages you a bit more.

Gives true newbies an avenue to build "real" chars sooner. In my mind there has to be some sort of cost associated with this level of largess. And no one is holding a gun to anyone's head... if they don't like the extra age, run the regular dungeon for tomes.

That is my thinking-- but I do appreciate the feedback and we will see how it plays out.

JPA