Defense viable in PS?

[Xanthan]

I\'ve been playing for a week or so now, mainly charging
around on my own and joining ad hoc groups until I learn enough
about the game and the guilds to pick one to join.  This is my
first MMORPG experience, and in many ways I love it.

However, I am considering
giving up on Planeshift until it\'s more mature because I can\'t find
a way to advance my defensive abilities.  I trained up in the only
magic I could find that\'s defensive, bought all the armour I could
find (it\'s all leather) and trained up physically and in light armour
and body development, and stored up on healing potions.

Even still, pretty much any monster can beat me into the death
realm in seconds if I don\'t exploit what I suspect are unintended quirks and bugs in the game, and I could only afford all this because
of similar bugs.  Surely the intent is not to have us hunting rats for
years before we can afford to take on a gobble?

What am I missing?

Xanthan

[Karyuu]

Greetings,

The system is still being tested and balance constantly adjusted. Everything is a test, so the character progression is far from perfect :) Defense suffers in this, and many are forced to go on the offensive if they are to survive the various critters that hunt outside of the sewers. No doubt this will be changed as the game evolves.

Also, not all skills are available, body development possibly being one of them. I am not sure on the current update.

Still a pre-alpha tech demo ;)

[Xanthan]

No wonder everyone is power-levelling.  What other choice is there?  Fixing this might increase the amount of actual role-playing.

[Zan]

The best defence that is currently working is a high agility stat and your full defence stance Something else that always works is running like hell as soon as a fight looks like it \'s going badly.

[Karyuu]

Originally posted by Xanthan
No wonder everyone is power-levelling.  What other choice is there?

Mining?

A lack of defense when it comes to fighting doesn\'t increase power-leveling, nor does an increase of defense increase the amount of roleplay. They are game mechanics.

Crafting will soon be available for players, too. There will be many things to do outside of fighting.

[SuburbanPlankton]

Crafting will soon be available for players, too. There will be many things to do outside of fighting.

I think that this will solve many of the problems that people are currently complaining about.  Currently there is no real alternative to fighting if you want to improve your skills.  Even if you are not PLing, mining takes an awfully long time to generate PPs, and even longer to make enough money for training.

At this point, there is no other way to earn money or PP.  Hopefully our options will increase soon; even simply turning on the furnace in Ojaveda will increase the opportunities by 50%.

[Neryam]

Is power-mining really any different from powerleveling?
Powerleveling:
Click
Wait
Move
Click
Wait
Move
Repeat

Mining:
Click
Click
Move
Click
Click
Click
Move
Repeat

I mean after a while you just start mindlessly clicking the \"dig gold\" button.. :/

Yes isn\'t it wonderful how you can go 300 damage 4 times before a rogue dies while the rogue does 20 damage 4 times and you die?

[Karyuu]

At least with mining you have to move around a bit, since the same spot won\'t yield ore eternally ;)

[Rerogo]

I\'m irritated because the ore density (though it may be quite realistic) is to low for my taste. But I may just be trying to get too rich too quick.

[Seytra]

There have been some discussions on the deficiencies of the mining system as it is ATM, and what could be done to improve it. Recently, there even has been something like this for the killing aspect. However, all in all, mining is better suited to let you chat than is fighting, due to the lower frequency of clicking, and also due to the fact that there is no competition for limited resources (ie., spawns), thus less aggression so it can, contrary to killing, even be enjoyable, and might permit some RP.

[Neryam]

And why are rat hides worth more than their weight in gold?  :rolleyes:

even if its gold ore