Well, just to be sure. We're not talking about 'first someone hacks our server, then we close planeshift for a month or so and when we're up, we let you pick a free minigame'
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Because at first, gaining levels and cash was way easier than now, newbies might not keep up, but that's not the point.
What I would like to see is:
1. When your player is weaker than (lets say 3/4, but pick your own point) of the players, you gain a bonus. until you reach that level, you get more experience than you would usually do.
2. When you are not logging into the game for X amount of time (let's say 2 weeks). you gain a temporary bonus of some sort too. If you were training alchemy last time, you gain some more alchemy stuff, if you were training sword you get a good sword. This is to help people get back on track with their characters' skills.
The overall point would be:
1. get players back as soon as possible
2. help people keep up with their characters growth in case they thought it's too hard and left the game 'for now'.