I understand the reason why the difficulty of skill raising was raised. What Serpardum said, "no more master blacksmiths in a day" still holds true to me. However, it's almost impossible for a newbie to become good at more than talking to people these days. Blacksmithing, carpentry, peasantry, etc. takes time and money which one may not have. Even fishing, you'll drop the pole more times than you'll catch fish. How is one to make a decent living without killing 1,000 trolls after spending a year chopping up pigs in the fields? You tell me...even I barely made it, until I got into fishing (the time before you dropped poles into the water).
Have you ever played a Final Fantasy game? On average, it takes a player about 80 hours to become a full fledged master at every skill. Now I'm not saying it should be the same for Illarion, but it shouldn't take a year to become good at only one skill...I spend more time skill raising than roleplaying because I want to be decent at something. Skills are sometimes incorporated into an actual role of a character. You don't want a dwarf known as 'Bobathan the blacksmith' selling you shoddy items, but giving up on his role because it takes too long to peform decently.
I'm not one of those wankers that go in demon caves with expert friends and a hefty supply of vases so I can raise my fighting skills quickly. I take it slow, one at a time, fighting some pigs, zombies, scorpions and the occasional orc...but it's to the point where I don't want to roleplay as an assassin anymore because it's all I do on my off time...yet I still suck at it (unless I bring out the awesome staff made by Muten
) It's getting to the point where I have to live another life outside of my own just so I can be progressive in something. I, like many other people, don't have TIME to live another life. I'm 15, I go to high school, I have loads of accounting and core class homework every night. It's also a game on the internet, and most people that play this don't own their very own internet system and computer; they use their parents or relatives, whom don't let them on any old time of the day. It's easier to access Final Fantasy, because you don't have to tie up a phone line while you're playing; and connection is never lost. Yet it STILL takes longer on here to advance. I tried my hand at carpentry, but, apparently, 250 hand made items isn't enough to figure out how to make another piece of wood beyond a staff that looks like an old piece of KFC.The 'realism' factor is sort of true...yet, also a bad excuse. When I fish in real life, I don't drop my pole into the water at all, let alone 5 times after I catch about 15 fish. (I don't do that anymore in the game, but it took quite a hell of a long time to get past that stage...)
Death. The worst part about any game, but even worse here...not only does death come easily to the commoner, but an astronomical amount of work can be lost in a surprisingly short amount of time. Blast...finally good at something, then you call a dwarf silly then WHAM...there goes your work. (Worse reasons for death have happened, believe me)
A GM posting would probably say 'then this game isn't for you.' But it MUST be for me, for I dread delving once again into the idiocy of Runescape and Tibia, where more namecalling, powergaming, etc. occurs than actual roleplaying. Let's face it, there are no actual free yet good games on the internet like this one. Welcome to Illarion. A colorful world full of roleplaying (and quality roleplayers) with different races, attitudes, monsters, and sorts of adventure. Beautiful graphics, good combat system, great music/sound, and all for the low low price of NOTHING. The skill raising difficulty was a good idea, but it was executed poorly, in my opinion. Remember, this is still just a GAME not another lifestyle. Games should be more fun than work.
If you have any replies, they would be appreciated.
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