I will dive in and give some feedback:
-- Concept is cool.
-- @ level 1 a naked barbarian warrior could walk through yard trash like it was not even there. This took a while however. For the sake of "fluidity" it might be nice to speed up Time To Kill on mobs a bit. Not saying 3 swings and move on!
-- Although I did not play a caster, the one person I talked to in game indicated buffs did not seem to do much. Again, I am not saying go hawg wild and "do it all like live here"... but a custom spells file might be something to look at "requiring" for your server. For others -- You simply back up Spells.us.txt and drop the new file in. No stress no worry, when you are done testing, and wish to go back to what ever you were doing, revert back to your original spells.us.txt file.
-- Spells wise: I think having just a few spells that scale up will work real well. Spells as a time sink / content diversion get to be more annoying than "challenging".
-- Items wise: I admit, I attacked the wolf in the old tutorial :P I was naked the whole time I was tinkering around on your server. Personally, as long as Time to Kill Mob is balanced, and obviously group game play is balanced, I don't really care what kind of stats are on items. HOWEVER
It would have been real nice to put some real basic kind of yard trash weapons and armor on the Yard Trash Mobs
Not a lot of content, just a little bit here and there. Think of it as "Player Debug Items" hehe
Personally, I look forward to your bringing back this server. I have other ideas for a server if you are interested in that would probably fit in with your general mind set. I will keep an eye on this thread. Oh...easy ideas.. im not into ball busting just for bragging rights
Have a good one sir!
Having thought about it a bit, my feedback was a little short on useful detail.
-- Time to Kill Mob = Obviously if you speed up TTKM, then Experience Per Kill needs to be lowered so where that Level Per Hour is maintained.
-- Mob Balance = When I start a new character of any kind, I like to feel somewhat challenged, but not literally on the edge of my seat. This is one of those "Devil in The Details" things. Your concept was exactly that: A Concept. You said flat out you needed feedback, so you knew "It Was Rough". I am not at all bashing, just stating, so that "we" are for sure on the same page. I personally think something like 3 to 4 mobs in a row, and then "Gotta Rest" whew! would be a reasonable start. Thing is, I really do not want each mob to last a couple minutes a piece, it begins to feel more like button clicking at that point. Now LATER on down the road, when im going up against MUCH Larger mobs, I expect things to take a while, and I expect to feel well challenged over a much longer duration that when I am a naked newb. Just putting the obvious out there with this, please do not be offended, as different Developers have radically differing points of view! I have seen devs state "A few swings or couple spells and move on! Keep it fast paced!", then I have seen devs say " Several minutes per kill right from level 1! Keep it slow paced." and many things in between.
-- Geography: I have a few ideas here. Devil is in the details type of ideas. More than willing to share, but would like to see if you are at all interested first.
-- Loot:
- Lowest loot point = Mob Drops. As for direct use mob drops, keep it simple here. Mob drops should be more about Supplying a combination of Questing & Trade Skilling than about "Most Uber Drop."
- Mid loot point = Basic Quests. "Go get these items, and I will make for you..." and other types of quests that are more or less related.
- High End Loot = A combination of general mob drops, Quest drops off mobs, and Actual Player Trade Skills. Do not force every player to TS, but make TS type players suddenly relevant to the extreme high end. A system that allows for real item customization via augs that are ts / quest combinations might be a nice change of pace. Less Individual Items, and far more flexibility for those relative few. Personally, i do not need to see 3218 "Different" weapons that are all 12/19 with similar stats adds ect.... *YAWN*...a few that i can customize would be nice
--- The biggest thing so many people miss when it comes time to Set Up A Server, is the biggest thing of all is a combination of Attention To Details, AND, The Devil is in The Details. In other words, you really gotta think a combination of small details that "snowball" and Large ideas that Frame It All. Balance for what your vision intends can be quite difficult when you dive into the Trenches.