The current level requirements were made 4 years ago, before we had any real "data" to go on, and they are pretty basic. Cost increases go up 1000 OM per level (with the exception of the first increase, which is that way because the initial starting OM was 4000 before it was raised to 5000). It's ... fine, I guess. But four years gives a lot of time to watch the system in action, and to think about how it might be improved.
For quite a while now I've had the idea of changing the level goalposts to do two main things.
1: Speeding up the low level progression, so that new players and characters can quickly become competitive with SP, especially in competitions like DA.
2: Putting a steeper curve at the higher levels to keep high-level characters from being runaway freight trains of SP usage.
The majority of our long-term players sit around the 10,000-30,000 range, and I feel they should have a little more SP to play with since, with player rotation, the majority of our memberbase will likely always sit around that level range. I don't want people to have sunk years into the site and still feel like they've not reached any real power. Those first couple of level increases are rather painful right now.
Here's the idea behind the numbers below: you get up to level 3 quickly, and then slow down, leaving the majority of active players in the 3-6 level range. At level 6, you're pretty good, and every level beyond this point will feel like a hard-earned milestone. At level 10, cost increases go up to 3000, because you're already very strong. At level 12, which I feel should be the 'soft cap' of sorts, cost increases start going up exponentially.
So, here are the proposed changes to levels. Included are the cost increases between each level, for easy reference.
1: 5000 (Starting OM, Tier 1 Super Moves Unlocked)
+1000
2: 6000 (Tier 1 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+2000
3: 8000
+4000
4: 12,000 (Tier 2 Super Moves Unlocked!)
+6000
5: 18,000
+7000
6: 25,000 (Tier 2 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+9000
7: 34,000
+11,000
8: 45,000 (Tier 3 Super Moves Unlocked!)
+13,000
9: 58,000
+15,000
10: 73,000 (Tier 3 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+18,000
11: 91,000
+21,000
12: 112,000
+25,000
13: 137,000
+30,000
14: 167,000
+36,000
15: 203,000
+43,000
16: 246,000
+51,000
17: 297,000
+70,000
18: 367,000
+90,000
19: 457,000
+101,000
20: 558,000
Bear in mind, this doesn't change what you actually buy with OM, itself. I'm pretty happy with OM pricing for things across the board. We pay so much attention to it and we've frequently rebalanced. So ... someone with 200,000 OM, even without the SP, is still gonna have a shitload of things that give them an advantage over a low-level player. Stats, powers, alternate forms, a carnival of moves.
Most folks would gain a level. Only one character - Gildarts - would lose a level. I'm willing to make an exception for Sammy so she can stay level 12 even though she's under it, if she wants. That said, I think that most high-level folks will greater appreciate their alts being more competitive more quickly. We'll see more SP use early on, leading to more fun and interesting fights as a whole on this site.
Where to put the unlock goalposts was a separate matter entirely. However, this update seemed like the best time to look at those, too.
I decided after some furious self-debate to move the requirements for Tier 2 Transformations up a bit. Right now, I feel like you unlock them before you even really have enough SP to make it worthwhile to buy. Thus it's not that exciting when you do unlock them. It certainly wasn't for me. I didn't even buy one for Samus until she was already nearly level 6. Of course, people who already have those can keep them.
Tier 3 Power-Ups are meant to feel rare and impressive. But that's pointless if nobody ever gets them. Level 10 seems like a good point. They'd still be rare, but 3 people (Gildarts, Proto Man and Guu) would actually have them, and be feared.
Putting Tier 3 Super Moves inbetween, at level 8, gives a nice inbetween goal to shoot for, and I feel like Super Moves get a lot more use and utility, that's where players are creative. This spread also gives a nice series of unlocks every 2 levels after level 2, so characters are never too far away from the next exciting goalpost.
After doing this, I also decided to look at the "XP curve" for the other long-term purchases. Frankly, things like Stat Increase X, Level 20, and such, were always meant to be theoretical limits that were never actually reached. With that in mind, I wanted to implement more of an exponential curve. Here's what those changes would look like:
Stat Upgrade I 1000 OM
Stat Upgrade II 2000 OM (3000 total)
Stat Upgrade III 4000 OM (7000 total)
Stat Upgrade IV 7000 OM (14,000 total)
Stat Upgrade V 11,000 OM (25,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VI 16,000 OM (40,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VII 22,000 OM (62,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VIII 29,000 OM (91,000 total)
Stat Upgrade IX 37,000 OM (128,000 total)
Stat Upgrade X 46,000 OM (176,000 total)
Power-Up Boost I (+1/2/4) 10,000 OM
Power-Up Boost II (+2/4/8) 20,000 OM (30,000 total)
Power-Up Boost III (+3/6/12) 40,000 OM (70,000 total)
Power-Up Boost IV (+4/8/16) 80,000 OM (150,000 total)
Power-Up Boost V (+5/10/20) 160,000 OM (310,000 total)
Stat Upgrade IV is actually slightly cheaper, it's worth adding. These changes don't affect anyone right now.
Finally (and far more important than the above, in my opinion), I looked at the costs for increasing your Powers Cap. As mentioned in the Powers page, we like the feeling that Powers are unique and character-defining. On a previous RPG I was on, the admin had all the powers, and even he said it wasn't fun. The Power Cap cost increases seemed hella high when I implemented it, but long-term, just like these other numbers, the cost increases were too "flat" and needed to be more of a real exponential curve. With that in mind, I made these:
8000 OM is the default Powers Cap.
Tier 1 Powers Cap (12,000) – costs 2000 OM
Tier 2 Powers Cap (16,000) – costs +3000 OM (5000 OM total)
Tier 3 Powers Cap (20,000) – costs +5000 OM (10,000 OM total)
Tier 4 Powers Cap (24,000) – costs +8,000 OM (18,000 OM total)
Tier 5 Powers Cap (28,000) – costs +12,000 OM (30,000 OM total)
Tier 6 Powers Cap (32,000) – costs + 17,000 OM (47,000 OM total)
Tier 7 Powers Cap (36,000) – costs + 23,000 OM (60,000 OM total)
Remove Powers Cap – costs +30,000 OM (90,000 OM total)
For reference, 37,300 is the cost of all powers.
I believe a couple of people with the Tier 3 Powers Cap currently might lose 1000 OM, here, but not a big deal.
With these changes, you can expect to see some changes to alt unlock requirements as well (I actually worked on those first, then put that on hold until I was done here, for obvious reasons).
Since these are large balance changes and the level goalposts have never been moved before, I wanted to check that this isn't going to wildly upset anyone before I implement it, and give a "heads up" before I just drop it in updates.
For quite a while now I've had the idea of changing the level goalposts to do two main things.
1: Speeding up the low level progression, so that new players and characters can quickly become competitive with SP, especially in competitions like DA.
2: Putting a steeper curve at the higher levels to keep high-level characters from being runaway freight trains of SP usage.
The majority of our long-term players sit around the 10,000-30,000 range, and I feel they should have a little more SP to play with since, with player rotation, the majority of our memberbase will likely always sit around that level range. I don't want people to have sunk years into the site and still feel like they've not reached any real power. Those first couple of level increases are rather painful right now.
Here's the idea behind the numbers below: you get up to level 3 quickly, and then slow down, leaving the majority of active players in the 3-6 level range. At level 6, you're pretty good, and every level beyond this point will feel like a hard-earned milestone. At level 10, cost increases go up to 3000, because you're already very strong. At level 12, which I feel should be the 'soft cap' of sorts, cost increases start going up exponentially.
So, here are the proposed changes to levels. Included are the cost increases between each level, for easy reference.
1: 5000 (Starting OM, Tier 1 Super Moves Unlocked)
+1000
2: 6000 (Tier 1 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+2000
3: 8000
+4000
4: 12,000 (Tier 2 Super Moves Unlocked!)
+6000
5: 18,000
+7000
6: 25,000 (Tier 2 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+9000
7: 34,000
+11,000
8: 45,000 (Tier 3 Super Moves Unlocked!)
+13,000
9: 58,000
+15,000
10: 73,000 (Tier 3 Assists and Transformations Unlocked!)
+18,000
11: 91,000
+21,000
12: 112,000
+25,000
13: 137,000
+30,000
14: 167,000
+36,000
15: 203,000
+43,000
16: 246,000
+51,000
17: 297,000
+70,000
18: 367,000
+90,000
19: 457,000
+101,000
20: 558,000
Bear in mind, this doesn't change what you actually buy with OM, itself. I'm pretty happy with OM pricing for things across the board. We pay so much attention to it and we've frequently rebalanced. So ... someone with 200,000 OM, even without the SP, is still gonna have a shitload of things that give them an advantage over a low-level player. Stats, powers, alternate forms, a carnival of moves.
Most folks would gain a level. Only one character - Gildarts - would lose a level. I'm willing to make an exception for Sammy so she can stay level 12 even though she's under it, if she wants. That said, I think that most high-level folks will greater appreciate their alts being more competitive more quickly. We'll see more SP use early on, leading to more fun and interesting fights as a whole on this site.
Where to put the unlock goalposts was a separate matter entirely. However, this update seemed like the best time to look at those, too.
I decided after some furious self-debate to move the requirements for Tier 2 Transformations up a bit. Right now, I feel like you unlock them before you even really have enough SP to make it worthwhile to buy. Thus it's not that exciting when you do unlock them. It certainly wasn't for me. I didn't even buy one for Samus until she was already nearly level 6. Of course, people who already have those can keep them.
Tier 3 Power-Ups are meant to feel rare and impressive. But that's pointless if nobody ever gets them. Level 10 seems like a good point. They'd still be rare, but 3 people (Gildarts, Proto Man and Guu) would actually have them, and be feared.
Putting Tier 3 Super Moves inbetween, at level 8, gives a nice inbetween goal to shoot for, and I feel like Super Moves get a lot more use and utility, that's where players are creative. This spread also gives a nice series of unlocks every 2 levels after level 2, so characters are never too far away from the next exciting goalpost.
After doing this, I also decided to look at the "XP curve" for the other long-term purchases. Frankly, things like Stat Increase X, Level 20, and such, were always meant to be theoretical limits that were never actually reached. With that in mind, I wanted to implement more of an exponential curve. Here's what those changes would look like:
Stat Upgrade I 1000 OM
Stat Upgrade II 2000 OM (3000 total)
Stat Upgrade III 4000 OM (7000 total)
Stat Upgrade IV 7000 OM (14,000 total)
Stat Upgrade V 11,000 OM (25,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VI 16,000 OM (40,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VII 22,000 OM (62,000 total)
Stat Upgrade VIII 29,000 OM (91,000 total)
Stat Upgrade IX 37,000 OM (128,000 total)
Stat Upgrade X 46,000 OM (176,000 total)
Power-Up Boost I (+1/2/4) 10,000 OM
Power-Up Boost II (+2/4/8) 20,000 OM (30,000 total)
Power-Up Boost III (+3/6/12) 40,000 OM (70,000 total)
Power-Up Boost IV (+4/8/16) 80,000 OM (150,000 total)
Power-Up Boost V (+5/10/20) 160,000 OM (310,000 total)
Stat Upgrade IV is actually slightly cheaper, it's worth adding. These changes don't affect anyone right now.
Finally (and far more important than the above, in my opinion), I looked at the costs for increasing your Powers Cap. As mentioned in the Powers page, we like the feeling that Powers are unique and character-defining. On a previous RPG I was on, the admin had all the powers, and even he said it wasn't fun. The Power Cap cost increases seemed hella high when I implemented it, but long-term, just like these other numbers, the cost increases were too "flat" and needed to be more of a real exponential curve. With that in mind, I made these:
8000 OM is the default Powers Cap.
Tier 1 Powers Cap (12,000) – costs 2000 OM
Tier 2 Powers Cap (16,000) – costs +3000 OM (5000 OM total)
Tier 3 Powers Cap (20,000) – costs +5000 OM (10,000 OM total)
Tier 4 Powers Cap (24,000) – costs +8,000 OM (18,000 OM total)
Tier 5 Powers Cap (28,000) – costs +12,000 OM (30,000 OM total)
Tier 6 Powers Cap (32,000) – costs + 17,000 OM (47,000 OM total)
Tier 7 Powers Cap (36,000) – costs + 23,000 OM (60,000 OM total)
Remove Powers Cap – costs +30,000 OM (90,000 OM total)
For reference, 37,300 is the cost of all powers.
I believe a couple of people with the Tier 3 Powers Cap currently might lose 1000 OM, here, but not a big deal.
With these changes, you can expect to see some changes to alt unlock requirements as well (I actually worked on those first, then put that on hold until I was done here, for obvious reasons).
Since these are large balance changes and the level goalposts have never been moved before, I wanted to check that this isn't going to wildly upset anyone before I implement it, and give a "heads up" before I just drop it in updates.
Curious about me and the characters I play? See the 'Staff' page! See also the rosters for my characters Samus Aran or Enel if you'd like to see examples of well-formatted rosters. Hope you enjoy the Omniverse!
![[Image: MUsY55C.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/MUsY55C.jpg)
[float=right]![[Image: sN7AejK.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/sN7AejK.jpg)
[/float]
But I'm still a few hundred OM away.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)
