Stuck on lvl 8... any advices??

[Niles09]

The other day I finally managed to get so much xp that I was half trough lvl 8 (80.000). It have taken me the last tree months to get that amount. I play about 5-6 hours a week, it aint much but Ive seen people raise above me from lvl 1 in a few weeks.

Its not that xp means so much to me, the xp requirements from pnp doesnt suite an online RP nwn game. But honestly some new abilities, feats something would really make things more interesting. And the worst thing is to see your friends raise above you, so you cant explore without being either useless, or one of you taking all the monsters. Ofcourse its still fun, but it would be more fun in same lvl.

What do I do wrong? I've use about 3-4 hours on trips with others, to see the world, that usually makes 3000-5000xp. The most of the other time is used on conversations with other PC's and the last time I've been crafting alot. In tree weeks I've raised from lvl3 in tailoring to 9. The first 25.000xp was from a DM quest tree months ago, Ive now they bring alot of xp, but there is never any quest friday 10:00PM GMT.

I could need some advices!

[orth]

At 5-6 hours a week that is how you're going to see your progression.  Some people play 10 times that amount a week and we have to cater the XP for both extremes.

[Filatus]

Still, you adressed this problem before and the best solution remains the same. Try to spend those 5-6 hours on a quest. You don't really level by bashing monsters on Layo, except maybe if you move your character relatively early to Dregar and team up with the highlevelled players there. But then again, sometimes central can be completely empty.

So, just join quests, they're all filled with quality RP and led by very good GM's.

[cappyra]

My Advice...  spend time developing your character.  

Don't let your level signify your character. . .

The Levels will come with time.   I have been here almost a year and am only level 17.  I have seen people that I met when they first started... and I was around level 12 or 13...  have surpassed me.  

Just have fun and RP.


That being said...  If you need a faster leveling fix...   jump on a different server... make level 20 in a week, get it out of your system then come back to the best place around =D

[miltonyorkcastle]

yup, no other way around it.  if you can only play 5-6 hrs a week, it's going to take you ages to level.  I know because I used to be in the same predicament.  I couldn't make quests and game time was just plain limited. There are a number of people that started near the time I did and have blasted almost to epic while my highest lvl character still sits at 14th.  just settle down and find something else you like to do, and make the quests when you can.

[Niles09]

cappyra - 11/10/2005  3:50 AM

My Advice...  spend time developing your character.  

Don't let your level signify your character. . .

The Levels will come with time.   I have been here almost a year and am only level 17.  I have seen people that I met when they first started... and I was around level 12 or 13...  have surpassed me.  

Just have fun and RP.


That being said...  If you need a faster leveling fix...   jump on a different server... make level 20 in a week, get it out of your system then come back to the best place around =D

Cappyra, honestly read my post. I do enjoy the roleplaying as I said, the xp system from pnp doesnt work on a server like Layonara. And as I said I spend about and hour a week just talking with people, and ofcourse we also stops up on the run and talk, I tell you I've RP'ed my char right into her most hidden thoughts and out again... Just one new feat would do nice, I've been lvl 8 for tree monthts. If you've been here a year and you're already lvl 17, then I can tell you, that in 8 months when I have been here a year I will be about lvl 11 with this speed.

[miltonyorkcastle]

oh, one more thing, I have found the levels 8-10th to be the hardest to get.  after that, it seems things get a bit easier.

[Niles09]

very well, I shall hang on until I get to lvl 10. Anyway this weekend is a lucky one. Miracly enough no schoolwork. No essays, reports and since Leanther is placing a quest on a saturday, Im going to be in Aels recon quest friday, Leatnhers quest saturday, and the end of Aels CDQ sunday  

[Doc-Holiday]

I spent ... what... Six months? with Weston at levels 8-10... maybe more... but then I don't focus on levels... but more with interacting with people. Nothing is more frustrating than being lv 20 and having no friends or even a developed character... most of my interaction builds my character, influences spells taken, and feats taken.

[ZeroVega]

 Alright here's my advice, listen good. I had a character that I made in October 2003 I believe. I played him for a year. Never got past level 9. There were characters that I helped from level 1 that I saw pass me in a month. Now I let it get to me (I attribute it to my immaturity due to age) and I stopped having fun with my character, which stinks.
   The fact is, had I kept on that pace I would have eventually made ten, then eleven, and maybe my original character would have been around to see Layonara V2. The people who leveled faster than me, well they were just freaks. *waves to Pan* Playing on loads of quests and RPing for hours and hours a day. They deserved every level they made. So what you've got to do, is take your mind off levels. As a matter of fact, try not to open your stat sheet, at all, and just do what you can. Levels come a lot faster when you don't think about them.

[Tedulas]

Yeah, the Dreaded C button, I used to press "C" all the time and I kept a look at how much XP I was getting after every three kills about with my other characters. But with Leolaka I am preventing that from happening and I seem to level quicker, watching my XP jump if I open it not as often or look at my AC and see if my mage armor has worn off.

[Rayenoir]

I concur with Cole (yeah, your account is miltonyorkcastle, but you'll always be Cole to me .  level 8 was the longest for all three of my characters who got that far, oddly enough.

[cappyra]

[/QUOTE] Cappyra, honestly read my post. I do enjoy the roleplaying as I said, the xp system from pnp doesnt work on a server like Layonara. And as I said I spend about and hour a week just talking with people, and ofcourse we also stops up on the run and talk, I tell you I've RP'ed my char right into her most hidden thoughts and out again... Just one new feat would do nice, I've been lvl 8 for tree monthts. If you've been here a year and you're already lvl 17, then I can tell you, that in 8 months when I have been here a year I will be about lvl 11 with this speed.[/QUOTE]

Honestly Niles09 I read your post.  Your character was approved in mid June so you have been playing your character about 5 months.  At 5-6 hours a week thats between 90 and 100 hours total game time. I am certain there are folks that spend that much time online in a single month... (week even =P)

Your character is also a Drow... which means you get less XP than most characters due to having a special subrace.

In addition I didn't say your weren't RPing your character... I said develope your character.  Maybe even request a CDQ.

The single best and most enjoyable way to get XP is go on a GM lead quest.  So if you only have a 6 hours to play in a week...  try to set aside a block of time for when you can go on one of these quests.

Other than that... I don't know what to say.  There are other servers where you can level quickly.  It depends on what you want I suppose.

Good luck =)
 

[Shadowblade225]

You'll know everything I'm about to say but it never hurts to be reverberated, but *shrugs* if it were up to me I'd remove the CR ratings upon PC examination and have the level of your character hidden - only known to the DM and yourself - not other players - doesn't really address your frustration though.  I still see a few higher lvl players say to my low lvl PC words marking superiority when they should have no idea how strong I am.    We all, whether we'd admit it or not get caught up in this lvling issue.  It's no fun.  Never is.  Like orth said 5-6 hours isn't much time, and unfortunately due to game mechanics, most who just simply have the time to play more level faster - it's that simple.  I suppose what I'm getting at is yup, that extra feat is nice but no matter how much you know the server is about RP, character developement etc..., which I'm sure you do very well, know that:
  1 - leveling simply just to "compete" with your friends or "hang with them in combat" when you venture out can be lots of fun, but hollow.  Yup, you know this, you don't do it - well we all do it, but the point needs to be said again and again - its hollow - unless the original intention is purely to be strong enough to aid them in some worthy cause - but this can quickly change to competition if you're not careful.
  2 -  Never let the jealousy of the lvling game take hold of you.  This server is about fun and enjoyment and is perhaps the only server out there so dedicated to character developement - real developement - not hack and slash - you know that too.  And yup, jealously, I've been jealous many times, and I'm willing to bet almost everyone else has of that person who you seemingly helped get started - only to find he or she leveled quickly far suprassing you and now acts like your boss - the "high level arrogance" I call it.  Many of those folks (in fact all that I've seen) lack in their RP - they don't do it too well - they don't understand their characters.  But then layonara corrects for that in a way called the ECDQ among others. 
  So yup, you may never reach the ECDQ, never get close, and it's frustrating, it stinks seeing yourself surpassed, not being able to be useful to your friends, we've all been there, it will continue to happen unless this game becomes your life - and to those folks, I pity them.
  Keep it enjoyable, keep it fun, and like cappyra said, focus on your RP, do your best to block out this urge or frustration to level in order to continually party with your friends.  Continue with your schoolwork, take care of your RL matters as it sounds like you so studiously do and remember that this is simply a game - nothing more.  You know this one as well. 

[Tedulas]

Shadowblade225 - 11/10/2005  7:15 PM Continue with your schoolwork, take care of your RL matters as it sounds like you so studiously do and remember that this is simply a game - nothing more.  You know this one as well. 

 Layonara won't be fun for you forever you know! People who rush the game usually "Wear out" the game wayyyy faster!

[Niles09]

Ive actually played my hole summer holiday away, cappyra, thats the reason for my char drawing running very very late . Anyway Ive developed my char as far as I can without a CDQ, at the moment I am requesting one, but Im the last in a bit of a line.
Shadowblade, I have two weeks on a hack'n slash-fast-leveling-not-at-all-RP-server. It wasnt fun in the long run. I enjoy that you've time to RP and develope your char in Layo, but sometimes you happens to be in a combat. At my point its beginning to be a rutine. Alone: summon dire wolf and sneak attack, if overhelmed escape in darkness. Works every time. In group: sneak attack... It would be nice to get the hide in plain sight that would add excitment. It would be nice to get a pet companion, so you've able to RP even more.
About Gmq quest, Ive just been at one, bloods attack on Mistone with seabattles and all. It was great, but now I gonna go, homework is calling

[Shadowblade225]

Well I suppose all I can say right now is that I have a lvl 6 elf that's been lvl 6 since June - yup June that's going through the same situation that you struggle with.  His initial "group" of adventurers are now, oh about level 14-15 or so.  Most have leveled fairly quickly.  This elf would be a complete anchor to this party in combat, no more then a soul stone devourer.  He tends to party alone 90% of the time.  But that's his way, probably not yours and it's easy for me to say such things given I also have a character who is practically epic.  I will say however, that 5 months is a bit long to spend on lvl 6, but then there really is no set time for a character to be at a specific level. So *shrugs*.  Either way, just know that there are many others out there who are going through the same thing, and while little consolation, you eventually will level and get that "hide in plain site" feature that will make for some interesting RP and combat.  Just be patient.  All I can say.
    EDIT: If your character is a forrest loving elf send me a pigeon in game.  If he is a forrest loving Drow, hide your face from him and make sure not to tell him - at least not right away 

[cappyra]

Derrick is level 17...  and has yet to do his first CDQ. . .

But I have developed him as a character through my interation with other players, my interaction with the world, and the forums.

I'll say this one more time.  Don't let level define your character.  Don't let a feat define your character.
If you can't HIPS. . .  then roleplay steathiness.  Use your dicebag...  most people will play along I gaurantee it.

In my opinion... leveling does not get easier.  You just tend to forget about it when you have over a quarter of a million XP staring you in the face to the next level.  You just relax and have fun.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

I have two things to say, then I'll get on, play, and get my Layo fix. (I'm missing "The Early Years of SNL" for you people. Rahh.)

If you want XP, go on DM quests. Period. That's all there is to it. The rest is fine, sure; grab a single tank and let him run you through Haven a few times; jump up to level seven in a week. I can easily see that being pretty good RP, too, but that's beside the point: Your focus right now is on the XP, right? *He shakes his head.* Go on DM quests. RP through the DM quests. DMs will give you more XP if you're constantly typing away into your chatbox, generally speaking; the more you play your character in front of a DM, the more that DM will know that you're actually interested in developing the character. Also, the people who RP the whole way through a quest will generally add more to the quest, and make things that much more fun. Don't worry about the XP until the quest is over, and then start doing the Happy Dance over the 10k XP you've just accrued.

Or, gods forbid, don't worry about the XP at all, and just have fun.

Second thing? There are plataeus in levelling. On Layo, it seems to be 8-10. In PnP, in powergames, it's usually 10-13. RPing, it's usually much lower, around 5-8. Just my copper or three on that one.

Cheers.

[IdiotNoob]

I made level 17 in two months on Layonara.  That was playing about 6-8 hours a day.  I quit angrily shortly thereafter.  My character was well drawn in my mind but I'd not been around to really impress him on other people.  Empty shell.  I then went and played on Bastions of War for a month.  It's team PvP, zero RP, like Cap said it gets it out of your system (it's funny I actually played with one of the DM's here... getting the 'game' out of your system is sometimes useful).  Then since I'd very effectively burned bridges here I ran around from server to server trying to find the next best thing.  Didn't happen.  So I made my own server, it was beautiful but devoid of the player base, or as important, the squared away GM's here (you don't truly respect this side of things until your hair has turned grey from the nightmare that is finding good DMs).  So what's the moral of this useless tale?  Fast levelling is the root of all tragedy in the universe.

That said, you're a casual gamer and have a very different problem then a lot of people are trying to focus on here.  It's really sad that balancing a world requires that you real time base it edging towards the maximum instead of the minimum.  If you go too far in one direction, then you are flooded with high level characters with no substance, if you go too far in the other direction, casual gamers are just stranded.  Unfortunately the former creates worlds with no substance themselves... so casual gamers are out of luck if the server wants a rooted and rich environment.

You're always going to suffer this fate not 'investing' a substantial amount of time, so the first thing to do is realize that the most you're ever going to get out of the game is the inter-character relationships and adventure.  And if the adventure you momentarily find lacking due to lack of progression and inability to go someplace 'new' (and they will all become old at some point you should know... avoid the locust behavior and find contentment in flat out rp)... befriend a dwarven battlecleric a few levels higher then you and go hunt giants.  That's what I did.  Thanks Harg.

Your time limitations seem to not allow most GM quests.  I'm assuming your 6 hours a week is spread out.  I'd maybe PM folks like Idii or Enzo and ask them for advice.  Forums rarely get you anywhere except down the road of two cents (see IdiotNoob's post).  The folks that have been here a long time are nice folks that know the ropes.  If you're cool about what you ask, I'm sure they'll be cool back.  I mean... no one is purposefully unhelpful until you give them a reason to be.