Poll: Level caps

[Altorin]

The actual caps don't matter - you should reach the final level as you slide into the end of the game.. that's how it should work.. not like MMOs, that are so top-heavy that the game doesn't start until you're level capped, or other games like Fallout 3/oblivion, where if you do everything, getting to the cap is way too easy.

 

[Devildoc]

I love low level caps, like 20 in Guild Wars.

I was going to say this. The level 20 cap (which can be reached in as many hours if you travel, or are born in Cantha) is amazing. It's all about your skillbar and your knowledge of the game, not about how many million hours you've grinded. Same thing for GW's weapons. A "perfect" butter knife does as much damage as a "perfect" Killer Longsword of Awesome On Fire.
That said, although GW2 will have a very high level cap (or even no cap at all), I'm still looking forward to it very much.

I'm not looking forward to GW2 as much, I mean, it seems like it's taking a lot of the fun aspects of GW that put a different spin on MMOs showing you don't have to keep grinding to make a fun game. I think they're looking at current activity of the game and thinking, why don't we have as many players as WoW? I think it's a bad way to look at it, instead they need to compare it to a console game, because like console games, all the campaigns and expansion are *beatable*, and I think once people beat the game, they shelve it for the most part, just like a console game. That's not a bad thing considering it' has no subscription fees.

With GW2 they're trying to focus more on it being an MMO and probably going to have to have sub fees.

 

[Shapsters]

I like Oblivion levelling, level 100 on everything!

 

[ohellynot]

guild wars level cap.
So annoying

 

[Caliostro]

One of the things that I both loved and hated was the fact that you pretty much had to pick 1 of the "best" skills in the entire game: Grim Reaper's Sprint, Explorer or Ninja.

If you were a melee guy, Ninja was mandatory, otherwise it was a toss up between nearly endless VATS or having your entire map revealed.

Personally I went with Explorer, simply because at that point I was such a powerhouse already that Grim Reaper's Sprint just felt so excessive and unnecessary... I barely use VATS anymore anyways...

 

[Clashero]

I love low level caps, like 20 in Guild Wars.

I was going to say this. The level 20 cap (which can be reached in as many hours if you travel, or are born in Cantha) is amazing. It's all about your skillbar and your knowledge of the game, not about how many million hours you've grinded. Same thing for GW's weapons. A "perfect" butter knife does as much damage as a "perfect" Killer Longsword of Awesome On Fire.
That said, although GW2 will have a very high level cap (or even no cap at all), I'm still looking forward to it very much.

If I recall correctly, they were going to keep the game subscription-free. True on becoming more of an MMO and less of a GW. I suppose there will be a campaign like in the original games, which you can "beat", but it will bring some changes which are more reminiscent of WoW (high level caps, playable races, few instances, etc). Supposedly the levels work on a diminishing returns model. The power difference between levels 10 to 11 will be much higher than 99-100, for instance.

I'm not looking forward to GW2 as much, I mean, it seems like it's taking a lot of the fun aspects of GW that put a different spin on MMOs showing you don't have to keep grinding to make a fun game. I think they're looking at current activity of the game and thinking, why don't we have as many players as WoW? I think it's a bad way to look at it, instead they need to compare it to a console game, because like console games, all the campaigns and expansion are *beatable*, and I think once people beat the game, they shelve it for the most part, just like a console game. That's not a bad thing considering it' has no subscription fees.

With GW2 they're trying to focus more on it being an MMO and probably going to have to have sub fees.

 

[scotth266]

I like the way that games like Jade Empire or Mass Effect do things: you might not be fully leveled the first time through, so you can try again, with harder enemies and more levels to allow you to reach a state of ultimate badassery after a few playthroughs. It gives a very cool sense of progression.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

As far as fallout 3 goes the game is very beatable by like level 16...and what difference does it matter if the cap goes to a million because the games difficulty auto-adjusts anyway.

 

[Nomad]

I don't like caps, it takes away the roleplaying element. Why would a person suddenly stop developing once he or she reaches a certain level? Makes no sense. I'd rather they kept the experience requirements amazingly high to reach the upper levels than make an outright cap.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

i liked oblivion's leveling system, where you could raise skills regardless of levelling up or not.

But i don't like low level caps personally, that said i hate it when you can max out everything without care or thought for specializing.
I'd like to see a decent game that rewards you for specializing.

 

[Originengel]

I am a fan of a leveling system in which there is no leveling, you gain experience still but instead of gaining "Levels" you just raise your stats and skills, and gain new skills over time by gaining more exp.

1st Skill would be about 1,000 exp to get, and then each additional skill could use an algorithm so you could "eventually" be very powerful with time. I.E. As you gain exp you can specialize yourself into an assassin, but to turn yourself into more of a Magician you'd have to spend even more exp than someone who went straight Magician. It would be possible to be everything but be near impossible.

Edit: to refine my idea a little more.

 

[Scarecrow38]

Well I suppose in real life it's impossible to be awesome at everything. RPGs are meant to mirror real life or a hypothetical believeable universe. So it is fair to say that you can only develop trees a certain extent if you choose to be a jack of all trades rather than a specialist.

 

[GloatingSwine]

The problem with "raise skills by using them" systems is twofold.

First of all, they're inflexible. If you suddenly find halfway through a game that you want or need a particular skill that you haven't developed, you're screwed. Either you take ages bringing the skill up to a usable level by highly repetitive actions or you restart.

With a point buy system you can dump points into the skill fast and hard to bring it up to the level you need.

The second is that they tend towards imbalance. Low levels of skills are very frequently of limited utility, meaning that you are stuck using something that doesn't really do you much good until it gets to a point where it is useful. Training up a skill that you wouldn't have used if it didn't lead to something you wanted is not a fun gameplay experience.

This is what eventually killed replay of Oblivion for me. There are character builds that will be interesting at high levels that simply aren't fun to play until they reach those levels, but you can't build the character without going through the unfun bits.

 

[Valiance]

Offline, I don't like level caps.
Online, they're required.

 

[Spudgun Man]

Don't see the point in them myself, why should you have to stop at a certain level. What if you want to roleplay a god among men who can use his sword to slice time itself into little ribbons?

 

[Biek]

I just hate any level caps. It's not about what I unlock, it's about emailing your friends with a opener such as :- "My level on WOW is 70 now. That's 7 higher than yours! Keep at it, weaker man."

Look at it from the bright side. A level cap will also limit the oppurtunity for someone to do that, once you reach 70 yourself, the only difference can be made through equipment, even though in the end its still a matter of who spends the most time on the MMORPG. Would you rather get ganked by a level 70 character than a lvl 17451435 youll probably never ever catch up with?

Besides, anyone actualy saying something like in your example is safe to be considered a no-life.