Lower the Post Requirements for Levels

[Protégé (Gone)]

The level requirements are pretty steep. 1-4 is fine, I'm not really worried about them. But getting up into the higher levels is where it grows huge. I mean, 2,000 posts would be an incredible amount. At Firefox University, the top poster, who has been around since January, only has 2,000-something posts, and that's counting all of his OOC ones. Lowering it would make it less intimidating and make people more likely to RP because it seems more attainable. Also, we don't have to worry about people making really horrible posts to get up to that level, because the instructors will see to it that they don't rise up that high in rank. It doesn't have to be lowered all the way down to the old setting of 1,000, maybe just 1,500 or something. The others could be lowered also, but that would really only be if the decrease from 2,000 was dramatic. I'm just voicing my thoughts here, but I think it would be better, because while people may post like 5,000,000 times a day when they first start, that energy eventually declines and they are posting on a slower speed, and we don't want to make it so it seems they have to stay for years to get to the highest level.

[Ariadne]

I agree with Protege.....2,000 post is just too much. I think that there should be other ways rather than posting to go higher in rank

[Rianne Herculides]

The post requirements are high because it keeps us from having a -ton- of high level people, because when you think about it whenever you get higher in something like an army the levels of people for rank and skill begin to diminish when it comes to numbers. You make high post requirements, it makes it so that the truly dedicated and those willing to make the effort can get their characters powerful and strong.

At least this is how I think it used to be explained

[Ariadne]

I understand what youre saying but shouldnt there be other ways to go higher in rank rather than just post in RP`s and etc.?

[Protégé (Gone)]

The instructors would keep us from having an incredibly large number of people who were high, and also, we could have people be tested again for level 7. The requirements to pass that test could be really well, and that would mean that it wouldn't matter how often you had posted, but how much skill you gained at RPing from the posting.

Also, Adrienne, I disagree that there should be ways other than posting. By making it so it is only posting, we make it so that everyone can go the same way, and has the same opporitunity, for the same price. If we make other paths, someone may just use those ways instead of posting, which means they could be incredibly skilled with minimal work.

[David Augustine]

Well, I don't see a problem with it really. Besides, you need 2,000 posts to reach the highest level. And each level up is simply doubling your current post count (or at least for most of them). It is basically used to keep the number of higher level individuals down. However, in this rp it's not just the number of posts that's required to reach higher levels. You now need to pass your trainer's test, which I believe is better than the tournament wins.

However, I do see your point of view about the level being steep. Perhaps adding on more levels or allowing mixed classes of warriors and mages once reaching a certain number of posts would be beneficial. Because once you obtain the current final level, there doesn't seem to be that much more to do. A person would be treating it like other games. Alright, I got to the highest level and now I won't play this game any more or something to that affect. However, this addition wouldn't need to be added until the number of level 7's greatly increases.

[Protégé (Gone)]

Heh, from what I hear, the instructors will be much more strict than the judges at Old Avaren. Wouldn't be suprised to find it much more difficult to go up with them around. But I agree, it'll work better than the tournament system. I mean, I was frustrated when all that I got to do was wait...and then win when the opponent was inactive.

But I see a problem with adding onto levels. How do we do that? For example, an elementalist. How can we add onto that? Put in that you can only alter pre-existing materials? The person would surely just make sure every topic already had the materials. And plus, the dragoon was the elite spearman, with pretty much nothing better. We'd almost have to add in stuff under him if we wanted to add in more ranks. And how far could ingenuity stretch to add things?

[David Augustine]

I think you're misunderstanding my suggestion. I know that a dragoon is supposed to be an elite spearman, but what if people want to go beyond that and learn another art? My suggest is if you are going to lower the post levels, why not add the option of your character being able to boarden their horizons? Such as once a person becomes a dragoon, maybe that same person would want to learn some magic or the arts of a paladin as well. That's what my suggestion was really about not literally adding more levels to each branch.

[Mira Nightingale]

My opinion on this is just having OOC posts count towards the total amount. I've been a meber on another site for almost a year, and I have about 2,500 posts including OOC ones. Only posting in character, which takes time since you wait for replies, will take a long time.

Not many people will ever get up to 2,000, which I understand is the goal. Only active members will, and then there will always be a greater amount of new members than active, older members. One improvement I do like, however, is not requiring tournament wins. But, in the end my opinion is just that ALL posts should count.

[Protégé (Gone)]

OOC posts should not count at all. They are easy, normally made of very simple posts, and require almost no work at all. The only way that they would be made to count is if every member threatened to leave, and even then I doubt it would be changed.

Also, David, I think that if it were to be a person could become a paladin, it would work something like this:

Person RPs until they are dragoon. Person then has to make more posts (proceeding on a simliar ratio, so saying x is posts required for dragoon, it would be 2x for the first level and ect.) and train themselves along the path of a cleric to become a paladin, although I doubt you would be officially called a paladin until you trained yourself to the 5-7 levels of the magic tree, just to be fair. But it is an intriguing idea (dunno if I spelled intriguing right).

[Aleph il'Aranroth]

Why can't you just make OOC posts count in certain areas? Like if we set up OOC boards with strict guidelines, and only those OOC posts count. That way, we don't have to do only IC posts, which really is hard, but we also don't have people doing stupid one line stuff that gets them closer to being a dragoon or something.
I would like to point out that aside from having to wait for replies, some people don't do many IC threads at one time. I rarely, if ever, have more than 4 going at once because it gets too hard to keep up with them all and remember which ones I'm in.

[Protégé (Gone)]

I have a feeling that if people often use one liners to get ahead, the class instructors will reject them for going up a rank, no matter how well they do on the test.

Plus, what could we put on special OOC boards? I mean, suggestions already count, though that really only counts because suggestions are useful, although sometimes people get a post just saying "Oh yeah I agree." If this keeps us, I wouldn't be suprised if that system were to change. Character bios also give a post, but you only make one.

Also, I agree that it is trouble to wait for replies. I myself keep myself in few topics at at time, though that is purely so I do not end up with conflicting events. But I am getting better at separating them. However, you must deal with it and be patient.

[Mazus]

1: Protege, deal with it. It is high, so no the people who gets there deserves it. I like how much posts you need to go to te next level.

2: David, I agree with you, that there should be something else after level 7. But then again, it would be hard to keep making it up higher positions. But I still like your ideal.

3: I agree that OOC posts shouldn't count. People would just spam the OOC boards. Also, it doesn't have anything to do with the role-playing of one. People who get to level 7, deserves it. It would be unfair for the people who try, to get passed by people spamming the OOC board, or because the posts gets lowered for the levels.

That was my two cents...

[Delia Ellatar]

The whole reason that the post count is so high is that only people who are truly dedicated to raising in rank will ascend to that level. There shouldn't be very many people at that rank at all, and if you're too lazy to put in the work that it takes to get there, you really shouldn't be complaining when other people have earned it.

As for OOC posts counting, I completely disagree. I've seen OOC posts as short as 1 word. If you were to, say, respond to a related word game 2000 times, you would not have earned your post count at all. Also, I think if you were being considered for advancement in rank, if the majority or even a large portion of your posts were OOC you would be denied anyway.

[Cain Ellatar]

Okay, to start things off. I have no true intention of lowering post number in order to advance in level. After all, the highest ranking positions are supposedly the elitist of elite, or something along those lines. If everyone had those positions, then nobody would be special at all. It does indeed take a while to amass all those posts, as it is a rather exuberant amount, yet shows real dedication to the site if they manage to advance that far. RP-ing is a game, after all and if people got to the end too quickly they would lose interest and leave, as has already been expressed.

As for the tournament. It really didn't work out. That's about all that can be said for it. Yet there needed to be some way to prevent people from essentially spamming their way to the top. That's where being tested at a certain point came in which will be, I imagine, a lot easier than winning a tournament. After all, all they do is decide whether or not you are a decent RP-er, not an elitist. After all, no matter how skilled you are, if you got pitted against someone overall better at RP-ing, then it really hasn't judged you as an individual, it's simply shown that the person facing you was a bit better.

As for mixed classes.......that IS an interesting thought, one that I had actually toyed around with. Yet for now, until someone actually gets close to mastering their first class, I don't think it's really much of an issue.

As for OOC posts. The posts made in the Out of Character Chat board don't raise your total posts. Posting your profile gets you posts and posting in the suggestions board gets you posts, as those are usually meaningful posts, much as posts made IC. There is no real reason to make the majority of OOC posts count, however, so they won't.