A "soft" level cap?

[Fists of War]

Has this been talked about yet? If not, I think that at least looking at having a soft level cap instead of a hard one would be worthwhile for Blizzard.

For the uninitiated - a "soft" cap is where you can level up infinatly (spelling?) but as it becomes exponentially harder, no one becomes extremely overpowered. A hard cap is what we are used to, with a set maximum. The benefits of a soft cap are that those hard-core levellers can keep on trying to gain levels, and get better. It would be much more prestigious spending a lot more time on PvM, as if you did you could be the highest level on Bnet. Of course, you might be thinking that people can become very overpowered, but if you look at this - a list of hours it might take to get to certain levels.

levels 1-90 = 100 hours of play
levels 90-95 = 50 hours of play
levels 95-100 = 100 hours of play
levels 100-105 = 300 hours of play
levels 105-110 = 1000 hours of play
levels 110-115 = 5000 hours of play

As you can see, a system like this would effectively have a cap, but those ultra-hardcore players could spend obscene amounts of time just to get that extra level.

I'm in a bit of a rush so I didn't put the arguement accross as good as I could have, but I hope you get the general idea...

[The Italian Oak]

Ehhh, that would be hard because can't people just "chill" in a game?
And that is a lot of hours lol. I think I would lose my job and respect for myself if I played for 5000 hours

[mouseman]

This would result to a lot of no-lifers ;>

But it would be cool to see someone try hit the level 200 or something :)

[vetrox]

Ehhh, that would be hard because can't people just "chill" in a game?
And that is a lot of hours lol. I think I would lose my job and respect for myself if I played for 5000 hours

I don't think you got it... Fists of War wasn't talking about idle gametime, he was saying players would need 5000 hours of constant PvM to get from level 110 to 115.

This would result to a lot of no-lifers ;>

But it would be cool to see someone try hit the level 200 or something :)

More like 105-110 ;)

Can't say I really see the point of a soft cap though. Reaching lvl 99 is hard enough imo... :p

[phool]

I would be for levels above, say, 95 providing cosmetic benefits only (as in people can see you're level 103, but the game's calculations assume you're level 95, and you get no stats/skills/health/mana/etc for levels gained past 95), but having no hard cap on level in the manner you describe.

[Sein Schatten]

I would be for levels above, say, 95 providing cosmetic benefits only (as in people can see you're level 103, but the game's calculations assume you're level 95, and you get no stats/skills/health/mana/etc for levels gained past 95), but having no hard cap on level in the manner you describe.

That is a cool idea. Maybe you get some special emotes to show off or some other visuals to show off.
Or you can make it similar to D1. It had a softcap and a hardcap.

[Fists of War]

That is a cool idea. Maybe you get some special emotes to show off or some other visuals to show off.
Or you can make it similar to D1. It had a softcap and a hardcap.

Oh, I kind of remember that from D1. I think the extra levels should actually have the same benefits as other levels, but because it would be so hard to get them it would be just a "respect"kind of thing, as some people have suggested.

[patriach owen]

yeah man i love phools sudgestion... like some cool emoted or even being rewarded with some gold or a new skill... (not an OP one maybe just a normal attack style thing with a different animation...)

[lumpor]

Yeah, soft caps seem nice. It will feel good to know it's not completely impossible to max that extra skill

Hackers may be a problem though

[voraginous]

I would be for levels above, say, 95 providing cosmetic benefits only (as in people can see you're level 103, but the game's calculations assume you're level 95, and you get no stats/skills/health/mana/etc for levels gained past 95), but having no hard cap on level in the manner you describe.

Very cool idea. :thumbup:

[sicilian]

Maybe the levels above the soft cap could just give you a nominal increase to health and mana, but no additional stat and skill points. That way you can still balance classes around a certain number of skill points, and you wouldn't be able to infinitely increase your strength or vitality, but you'd still gain some benefit from putting in the additional time.

It would be easy to implement that way. Level 99 -> 100 = X% more experience than 98 -> 99, results in +10 to health and +5 to mana. The experience keeps scaling even though the monsters don't give you any more, so it becomes harder and harder to get a benefit.