Low Level Improvements

[Kashisjonny]

Specifically I'm talking about Cordor but feel free to add in Underdark comments. I simply don't have much experience there.

As it stands right now I personally believe the first few levels are a bit of a nightmare to drag yourself through, especially if you are new to the server.
Gold is hard to come by. Healing items are expensive for that level. Population script makes a walk in the forest dangerous as hell...
I feel it serves to dissuade people from playing the server if they have to struggle too much at low levels.

A few suggestions to make everything easier for new and old players alike

Make the speedy quest optional - it takes a while to wander around throwing packages at people. It's also pretty boring. Giving people the chance to just skip to level three is something I feel we need these days.

Take the populating script out of the bramble woods - some days you may wander in and find goblins. Then another day you walk in and find hordes of hobgoblins and worgs. A bit of a kick in the teeth if you aren't expecting it. Would just leave these monsters to naturally spawn in their fortress and leave the woods for low levels.

Give the jeweler decent prices - I'm presuming she is still buying at cheap as dirt prices. Increasing to Wharftown prices would be extremely helpful.

Increase gold drops - most spawns drop something like 5 coins each. Just a little increase would be nice.

Increase the bandit area - good leveling spot just a bit small. Giving them their own dungeon akin to the Wharftown boys would be great.

[Fire_play]

The only thing I can agree with is the bandits. I feel we could get more out of that area but that's about it.

[Dalenger]

Make the speedy quest optional - it takes a while to wander around throwing packages at people. It's also pretty boring. Giving people the chance to just skip to level three is something I feel we need these days.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and would agree with this 100%. I already know where elfis is, thank you very much.

[Naiphe]

I think the healing kit prices are what make lowlevel leveling hard work.

Even at the cheapest (Macys prices et al) they are 200g a stack. I've tried a monk, a druid and a cleric so far and have found that even the rats in the ships will give you trouble and sometimes use 2-3 kits per pack. Luckily I found out early that traveling to Wharftown will net you a nice profit in jewelry which most starting level mods drop, despite the travel costs, in comparison to selling them in Cordor.

Not sure of the answer here. Perhaps its simply make the starter areas like the rat ships and sewers easier?

Also the salt mephits in the Cordor mine have 10/- damage reduction, which is an absolute nightmare even at level 10 as a totem druid :s

[HurinWillSmite]

I'd suggest Cordor crypts for a good place to gain xp and gold. Ofcourse being low level you should PROBABLY turn around before the lower levels.

[Death Above All Else]

There are new alternative ways in Cordor that a low level can make decent amounts of gold. As well, some expanded areas that provide decent exp.

I rolled a new character to try it and found it rather balanced compared to the old version. Before I used to give up on characters as I found the low level hump ( mine was until 10) to be hard to reach in a reasonable time while not removing myself completely from RP.

But now? I find it actually makes it so I can accurately play the character from the start and progress appropriately. One trip through the sewers, not going into the overflow and such, lead to an extra 400 gold. You just need to find the methods for the gold.

[Irongron]

I have been trying to improve the low level experience in Cordor, not least with more rewarding spawns and more exploration options. Though let me make a couple of points here.

First off, the spawns. I use the same special system to spawn unique creatures in many areas, especially the sewers and farm buildings. TAKE NOTE! 'Tab Sight' will not find these for you. If you approach a body of water, a rusty sewer pipe or other feature a creature may rise up, fly down, tunnel out of the earth and so on, but you need to actually go there. Opening a door and doing a tab sight to see if there are creatures nearby won't cut it - you must actually explore. The main four sewer areas probably have close to 50 unique creatures.

Also, jewellery. Another of the merchants in Cordor buys it, for a far more agreeable price. It's a pretty obvious location.

[msterswrdsmn]

The only suggestions I would have that weren't listed would be removing the random trap spawning in places like the Cordor Sewers. Traps spawn randomly on doors, and there are tons, TONS of doors in the sewers.

The hobgoblins that spawn in the bramble woods could use a toning down as well. I was rather surprised to see a hobgoblin bully consistantly hitting my level 3 character for 12 damage or so a pop.

[Irongron]

I removed the traps from the main four sewer areas weeks ago.

[Kuma]

To be honest the hobgoblins aren't a big deal if you have a friend or two. The various mephits (sewer, mine, etc) do have some insane DR< and the Giant Bats that are dotted about are rather damage-heavy, I will say.

Bandit caves could absolutely stand to get revamped, with a boss, too.

I already know where elfis is, thank you very much.

Evidently not. Spoiler alert, head to Mayfields with a friend who is good at picking locks.

[taoofbalance]

Similar to how you can give rat tails to the Captain and get gold and XP, it would be nice to see something like this for the 'Rat Catchers Guild'. Or maybe change it up with the spawn of those sewer beasts, kill one of those and bring back a scale and get 5XP a scale. It'll promote more than just farming those ships constantly and gives some incentive to explore the sewers.

[PenguinNinja]

The only problem I see is a lack of areas actually worth going to... I've regularly solo'd up to level 7 by looping the bandits and the kobold chief in the farmstead, in about a day, and basically I've found it's not worth going anywhere else.

[Nitro]

If cordor had some system similar to the lasso capturing that Andunor has I think that could help alleviate the problem by a lot, being able to go out and capture a level 3 derro for some 180 gold and 15 XP every time you go out really helps with the healing kits early on.

[Death Above All Else]

Cordor has multiple ways to get gold. Gold is now a lot easier to come by than it was prior to the update.

Speak to every merchant, find what they need or will buy, and then you will understand how easy it can be. I don't want to give away too much.

But, kits? Yeah, you can get them easily now.

[Griefmaker]

Death Above All Else is correct about gold being easier to come by in Cordor for those who shop about.

[Vaerg]

snip

[Stath]

I'd suggest Cordor crypts for a good place to gain xp and gold. Ofcourse being low level you should PROBABLY turn around before the lower levels.

Best place to level is alrernatig bwtween brambles and kovold mine. Cordor crypts means a quick death. Removing level 3 speedies is a good idea. Remove worg dr. It is ridiculous at that level unless you are a str based 2 hander. Make new noob healing kits that dont work anaboabove lvl 10 and are cheaper.

Underdark: dear lord make all the variety of sewer slimes five more xp or tone down their damage. Ive seen them murder multiple characters in 2 rounds.

[Naiphe]

I tried the crypts once on my monk, who was level 6? or so at the time. I literally couldn't hit the tiny beetles down there unless she rolled a 20.

[Torrtorr]

My main problem, as a low level player, is often finding dungeons entirely empty except for the boss room. I went through some small orc dungeon (with the ballista on a cliff and traps below) and found only the boss at the end. Did not encounter a single orc dude in-between.

Same for the Sewer bandits, following the same route I can get entirely different spawns sometimes, no spawns at all, or spawns only in the meeting area/bandit cafeteria with the leader.

Low-levels are rather painful and not being able to get out of them quickly is not fun.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I think the most painful time to level is between 3-7.

I'd try to improve it the following ways:

1) Make the Iron Mines fun again. I appreciate its thematic facelift, but ever since its too large and too empty and becomes tedious (not fun) to traverse. The boss is also extremely difficult, requiring a niche party composition and often demanding you back track to avoid.

2) either make low-levels less about conditions or make lesser restoration potions more abundant/cheap.

Allips and spiders are the bane of existence because of ability damage. I think it's too penalizing for low level scrubs. Ability damage should be used at higher levels when you have access to more spells and items.

3) more variety of goblins in the brambles.

4) give the bandit lair a boss.

5) increase the drop rate of Lifesalver salves (rather than tinker with healing kit prices).

6) incentivize more equipment drops in low level spawns. While jewelry is not viable unless you go to Wharftown, noobs can make good money off of crossbows, longbows etc- and this works because they typically have more inventory space than hoarder-epics. More equipment drops.

[DreamOfCream]

I personally think the biggest problem is the danger is not closer enough to Cordor. Cordor is massive now, it takes so long to walk places - I like how in Andunor you can step outside and there's action. It helps a lot with players that do not have a lot of time.

[Iceborn]

I personally think the biggest problem is the danger is not closer enough to Cordor. Cordor is massive now, it takes so long to walk places - I like how in Andunor you can step outside and there's action. It helps a lot with players that do not have a lot of time.

For this, perhaps distributing a few teleport-npcs like Andunor's gondoliers would be a good solution?
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about new Cordor.

[taoofbalance]

I personally think the biggest problem is the danger is not closer enough to Cordor. Cordor is massive now, it takes so long to walk places - I like how in Andunor you can step outside and there's action. It helps a lot with players that do not have a lot of time.

For the low levels all you need to do is go into the sewer or crypts.

[Cralus-Fox]

So I left Arelith about 3 years or so ago and am just coming back now so I thought I might give my perspective on low-levels now vs then. I've only just come back so I'm not above level 3 yet but what I will say is the speedy quests seem to require a bit more walking than they did before also the temple package is labelled to be delivered to the temple district which of course doesn't exist any more. Also the armoury isn't marked on the map so it could be difficult to find. The Levelling experience in the sewers seems much as it was my guy getting nearly killed by traps a few times but I think that's fair as it encourages bringing along a rogue.

As an aside it's good to see the old place still running even if all the changes are disorientating I'm sure I'll get used to them.

[CragOrion]

I must be in the minority. I actually find lvls 3-7 not that hard to get through, its the 7-11 range that seems to always drag on for me