Since players now get training points for completing both area and level
quests, it has become more profitable to do more quests, since these translate
into customizable stat-ups and make your character more powerful than if you
choose to do none/few. As some of you have already figured out, the number of
training points you get for completing a quest is based on the difficulty of
the quest. Easy quests give less, and harder ones give more. It's that whole
free market/supply and demand thing.

Recently, a topic has come up news that seems to have popular support, and
that is "let players do level quests, even if they are above the level cap for
those quests. making us reinc to do them is annoying, and we're just going to
bring a couple of highbie friends anyhow.

I want to be very clear about this: This is not a good idea. You do not want
to see this happen.

First of all, the logic in that argument is rather disturbing. It sounds a lot
like "oh, you know I'm just going to kill that monster anyhow, you may as well
give me free named eq". But I'll let that slide for now.

The main issue is that the difficulty of the quest is what assigns the bonus
(in terms of training points, as well as any other bonuses like eq and cash
that might happen at the same time). Area quest difficulty is set in a much
more abstract way, because the players involved can be any power level. True,
a lvl 10 newbie isn't going to be searching under Lord Soth's bed anytime
soon, but he's no more or less capable of solving a non-combat puzzle than a
lvl 100 with a bazooka (well, in theory anyhow). The strength of the monsters
in an area is a factor, but not the major factor, of the area's quest. Level
quests do not work this way. They are based on the assumption that the player,
or party, is a certain level or lower. This makes a huge difference. While the
non-combat part of the quest remains a big factor, the monsters involved are
much more so. A 5k monster with lightning bolt will shred a lvl 10 newbie in
seconds, slow a lvl 30 down to a crawl, provide a decent challenge with some
mild risk to a lvl 45-50, and anyone stronger than that will wipe it out
nearly risk-free. Yes, merchants too, ask them.

Now it is true that many, even most, quests are not broken by bringing along a
few party numbers of high power level. Whether these are friends of yours
helping you reinc, or newbie helpers assisting you as you try the game the
first time, is not really important, but we all know having friends is a BIG
help in this game (it's up there with information and ability to play 23 hours
without taking a bathroom break. We know you're doing it, you sickos) However,
as I have pointed out more than once, many (hopefully most) quests have
"hidden" parts that must be done by the player to get the award. Some of these
quests are relatively simple to "drag" players through. Some of them are not.
In my opinion, a _hard_ quest is one that cannot be "dragged" through so
simply. These are more worth the higher levels of difficulty than those which
go "ok, just hold the sword and type say 'sofa king' three times. no, that's
it". They tend to be more involved, take more thought, time, and effort, and
(at least for me) are more fun. They deserve bigger rewards.

So here's the punch line. Let's say that players can get level quests above
the level cap they have now. This gives an effectively permanent exp bonus as
level costs are reduced, extra training points, and (many times) cash and
prizes as well, for players far stronger than the quest is designed for. If
that is the case, the admin of BatMUD, to keep things balanced, will have no
choice but to go through eacn and every quest under level 75 and re-evaluate
both the difficulty and the rewards as if they were completed by a 9man of lvl
100's. In all likelihood, the difficulty of each of these would drop to
easy/very easy, and the extra rewards, if any, would be reduced or removed
entirely. This would royally screw all players of the _intended_ power level,
and we have no intention of doing so. Despite what many of you seem to think,
it _is_ possible to do a quest your first time through, especially with the
good job the newbie helpers have been doing of late. I'd rather not let their
efforts go to waste just because Stompy McBadass and his ss+ want to
streamline their reinc process.

"but wait! why can't you make the game remember what level you did the quest,
and hand out a reward appropriately?"

I'd love to, but the fact is the game hasn't been recording that info. It
would be very unfair to anyone who has done more than a handful of quests.
Since I can't make that tune correctly back-compatible, I'm going to leave
things the way they are rather than break them. Besides, you know someone
would find a way to do lq150 "solo tiamat" while level 1, and get 50 bazillion
training points.

"but wait! every lq under level 50 is already 'easy' or 'very easy'!"

It is true that, in general, lower level lq's have easier ratings. Various
factors make this so -- the presence of higher-level party members, the quest
creator assuming a lvl 20 player doesn't have 300 commands and a wand of
megadeath(666/100), etc. But there are some tougher quests at lower levels,
and there can always be more added later. BatMUD's newbie process has changed
quite a bit over the last few years, thanks to the active participation of
some dedicated wizards. Our newer players are getting better, faster, than
they have in the past. I, for one, would like to give them the option to
really show what they can do, and get an appropriate reward for it, rather
than limit them to 'challenging' or less.

Shinarae Lluminus