Is funcom penalizing casual and new players? Warning... Long...
It seems to me that with the latest few patches that the people hardest hit are those of use that are casual players and new players.
1. Mission money reward has been reduced. Currently my lvl 52 is making less than he did at lvl 40 doing missions. Doesn't really hurt those with tons of time on their hands. They can either a camp the terminal until a good reward item show up, or just do more missions a day.
2. Shopping is a pain and takes tons of time. This does really hurt the 14 year old(or unemployed) who has 8 hrs to play each day. I have 1-2 hrs to play each day, that is 6-7 hrs less to run around shops to find something.
3. Soloing past lvl 50 is currently impossible(well not quite but damn close). I used to be able to do 3 missions in about 2 hrs. Often they were in the same spot, and running was minimized. I could actually kill the mobs in the mission. Now I have spent 2 hrs on one mission. A) more time is spent on running to missions. B) MOBs are damn hard to kill. C) The cost of supplies almost out weight the cost of doing missions.
4. Before you say "Join a group then stupid.". I have always felt and will always feel that when I join a group I make atleast a 2hr commitment to be with that group and lvl. If I only have 2 hrs to play that day. It is unfeasable to find a group, travel to hunting grounds and efficiently hunt. The time left for hunting would be close to 1hr or less. So I feel that I'm cheating the rest of the group of something if I join and have to leave that soon.
It seems to me that most of these changes have come about since FC found that some players had too much money. Granted sure some players have tons, but they've put the time in to make the money. I was actaually looking forward to the day I was going to get to lvl 50+ and make some money. Now that I made it there and money is just as scarce I'm not sure what to do. This game is getting really old really fast since I feel that my progression is too slow. Then you run into people lvl 150+ who feel that leveling and money is tooo easy, etc. etc. Why should I care or be hurt by the fact that some powerhungry powerleveler feel that leveling is too fast? By the current rate, I'll be 150+ in another year maybe two.
It all boils down to what I expected when I started to play AO. I expected to be able to get to lvl 100+ within a year with casual play. Then start a new char to try out some new aspects of the game. Roleplay a bit here and there. Have an apt to deck out with all the money and phat loot I have accumulated. Partake in the story from time to time.
Maybe it's because I feel that the game I play should take me away from the daily toils of life. I struggle enough in RL to pay bills, pleasing my boss, spending time with my wife, family and friends, working out and practicing in a team sport of my choice. So when I fire up a game, I want to be able to get away from that. It's my way of trying to escape from reality for a few hrs a day. I'm not saying I want a game where I'm a god and everything goes my way, but the level of stress and tediousness should be somewhat lower than in real life.
If money was more plentyful, shopping and lvl was easier, maybe you'd seem more people sitting in the bars and clubs of Rubi-Ka and chatting and relaxing. What we see now is people begging for money, running like crazy to get to the next mission area, running from shop to shop to find items, shouting for groups to hunt with in all inapropriate places. Maybe more people will have time to partake in events, and maybe duke it out in the arenas or attacking a stronghold of the opposing faction.
Just my 2 cents worth, or maybe I should say "oere"(I work and live in the US so I don't have the special chars on this keyboard. :-) ) since I'm norwegian. :-)
