Update 29: Level 30 Overview

Developer Vargouille posted about what is to come with Update 29 and the Level 30 Overview

New Character Features Gained from Leveling Up to 30

Here’s our current plan for what characters receive from gaining levels 29 and 30.

Notes:

• Number of Twist Slots: This is +1 compared to whatever you currently have. You might or might not have gotten an Epic Completionist slot yet. The 4th slot you have costs 4 Fate Points to unlock tier 1, the 5th slot costs 5 points to unlock, regardless of what order you gain your extra slots. If you drop below level 29/30 (Reincarnation), then you lose those Fate Points and slot until you level up again.
• Reincarnation Flagging: According to our tests, if you flag for Reincarnation before Update 29 (make it so Character Select shows the big REINCARNATE button), you will be able to reincarnate after Update 29 without any further changes. You won’t have to gain additional XP or levels, etc.
• The Normal feat slot is similar to the slot you get at 27 – it can hold lower level feats that you can usually get (aka: not Epic Destiny feats).
• The Epic Destiny Feat slot can hold lower tier Epic Destiny feats that you qualify for, or new options only available here at level 29. Like other Epic Destiny Feat slots, this cannot hold other kinds of feats.
• The Legendary Feat slot can only be filled from a specific list of new feats.
• Epic Reincarnation and Iconic Reincarnation will require being level 30 after Update 29.

Drac says – It’s good to see them getting some information out as I know alot of people have been wondering how the 30 will effect them in when 30 hits.

 

Epic XP Curve

We’re changing the Epic XP curve! The average amount of XP required per level (on average) is staying exactly where it is, but the “curve” is now entirely flattened to be the same XP requirements for each Epic level.

• Total requirements for level 30: Neither we nor most players wanted to see level 30 requiring ~10 million XP. That just seemed like too much, especially in comparison to today. We’re landing at 8,250,000, which is reasonable for two more levels after 6,600,000.
• Level 28 is the same: Under the old curve, you needed 6,600,000 XP for level 28, and that’s still true. This also required an average of 825,000 XP per level (6,600,000 / 8), which is what we’ve flattened every level to require, including past level 28.
• Why flatten the XP curve?
  • It makes sense for characters to spend similar amounts of play time at each level, rather than new levels coming slower and slower over time. For comparison, consider the old Heroic 3rd life XP requirements and levels 18-20. While that’s a different case overall (from 1-20), we want to get away from that feeling that the last few levels are just so much harder.
  • XP per epic quest doesn’t increase much with increased level, which takes away from one reason to increase XP requirements over time.
  • Unlike the normal “start” of an XP curve, there’s no great reason for designers to rush characters through the early Epic levels. That’s not where most of your abilities come from, either from a power perspective or “cool new things to use” perspective. By the time a character is epic they’ve got lots to do, and Epic Destinies are on a separate track. Given that, it’s largely nicer to space the “dings” of gaining a level out more – yes, they come slower early on, but you never reach that large gap at high levels where it seems to take forever to get those final levels. (Players may remember the old Heroic 3rd life XP curve being somethign like that at level 18/19.)
  • Based on quest and XP distribution, it makes sense for the lower levels to require as much XP as higher levels. Though we’ve relaxed a lot of “restrictions” on epic questing, many players do still play quests around their character level, and/or in increasing order.
• Existing Characters after the change: Similar to when we updated the Heroic XP requirements, existing characters would lose neither XP nor levels when this change goes live. For instance, if you have 800,000 XP the day before U29 launches, you’ll be level 22 with 800,000 XP. After U29, you’ll still be level 22 with 800,000 XP – you wont revert back to level 20, even though a new character reaching epic levels would only be level 20 with 800,000 XP. That character would need to reach 2,475,000 XP to reach level 23 (like any new character), and the XP bar won’t begin filling up until you reach 1,650,000 XP (the new normal requirement for your current level).
• Bank Note: If you are “banking” an epic level before Update 29, you may want to take that level before the update goes live. Depending where you are on the curve this may get you to that level much sooner than otherwise.

 

 

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We’ll have some more details to share in the near future, including specifics on some feats, but please keep comments on those specifics to those threads.

Thanks for reading. If you have general thoughts on the structure of Feats with new levels, or Twists of Fate and Fate Points, or the XP curve/flat line, etc., let us know!

 

Drac Says – Agian, there has been much talk about how much XP we will need, so it good to see them letting us know what’s going on.

 

So, what do you think?