Daniel Speed (not verified) on August 29, 2006 - 19:36.
It seems to me that what you're avoiding saying is simply that traditional "levels" are a broken mechanic by attempting to build all this stuff around them to prop them up.
Sidekicking is not entirely permeable: As I remember my time in CoH (and it may have changed) a sidekicked character could not enter the danger areas that were locked to certain level ranges that they were not within naturally.
However, your answer about EXP scaling raises an issue - I've been assuming, since you've been talking about items and exp, that you're talking at least about mixed pvp and pve zones. What mechanic are you using to actually encourage people to spread out, and how are you attempting to ensure that new players of level 1-5 aren't crowded out of a particularly good area that's rightfully theirs by veteran players looking to milk it? Once people find something that's easier to grind and gives them the best relative reward, as long as that remains true, they will continue to grind it - your system has no diminishing returns mechanic that might mitigate this.
Your server will only take so many people in one area, and that's precisely one of the reasons that most MMOs push people from area to area as they progress. You could deal with this through ridiculous amounts of instancing, but then you'd lose most of the point of permeable barriers (I'd think) or you could spread the world into huge numbers of zones with little individual uniqueness, but that'd probably hurt you in compared to WoW and it's beautiful construction.
Re: Precisation about the "recruiting system" for Warhammer
It seems to me that what you're avoiding saying is simply that traditional "levels" are a broken mechanic by attempting to build all this stuff around them to prop them up.
Sidekicking is not entirely permeable: As I remember my time in CoH (and it may have changed) a sidekicked character could not enter the danger areas that were locked to certain level ranges that they were not within naturally.
However, your answer about EXP scaling raises an issue - I've been assuming, since you've been talking about items and exp, that you're talking at least about mixed pvp and pve zones. What mechanic are you using to actually encourage people to spread out, and how are you attempting to ensure that new players of level 1-5 aren't crowded out of a particularly good area that's rightfully theirs by veteran players looking to milk it? Once people find something that's easier to grind and gives them the best relative reward, as long as that remains true, they will continue to grind it - your system has no diminishing returns mechanic that might mitigate this.
Your server will only take so many people in one area, and that's precisely one of the reasons that most MMOs push people from area to area as they progress. You could deal with this through ridiculous amounts of instancing, but then you'd lose most of the point of permeable barriers (I'd think) or you could spread the world into huge numbers of zones with little individual uniqueness, but that'd probably hurt you in compared to WoW and it's beautiful construction.