#1 - Sept. 30, 2014, 1:33 a.m.
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Collecting Followers:
Assumed logic: While questing, grab all the followers you can as you find them. While there is a limit, you can deactivate and reactivate them as necessary.
Counter-Intuitive because:
-Followers will keep generating missions for their lvl regardless of whether or not you want them to. Deactivating a follower does not stop this from happening.
If you recruit follower(s) you don't have any plans on working with, you're stuck with them and the missions they generate until you get them caught up with the followers you actually are using.
Unintended "solution": Be VERY selective of what you recruit. Don't just recruit it because you found it.
Suggested solutions: Either give players some more direct control over mission generation, or at least let players deactivate followers at any time (and have the deactivated followers stop generating missions).
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Profession followers and buildings:
Assumed logic: Once you have a lvl 2 building, go out and get a profession-appropriate follower. Immediately assign that follower to the building and don't look back.
Counter-Intuitive because:
-The follower's lvl actually affects how productive that follower is when assigned to a building.
Unintended "Solution": There are a few options here, but none seem like they were intended. 1): Play a very convoluted juggling game with work orders and missions to maximize output. 2): Utterly ignore profession building assignments until a follower is lvl 100. 3): Get two profession followers. Raise one to 100 while having another (preferably at least moderately lvl'd) working the building. Discard the moderately lvl'd one at a later point in time.
Suggested solution: At the very least, state this in-game (it isn't conveyed in any meaningful way currently). Maybe just remove the lvl effect entirely? I can see a lot of people considering this a hindrance to their profession lvling if they have so spend a week or so just getting the follower prepared.
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Success chance and mission lvl:
Assumed logic: Send followers out on missions based on the mission success chance.
Counter-intuitive because:
-The base exp for a mission is cut in half for any followers 1-2 lvl's below the mission lvl. Additionally, the bonus exp is also reduced. Notably, this is not displayed or conveyed to players in any way short of trial and error.
Unintended "Solution": In most cases, a mission's bonus exp is equal to or only slightly more than the mission's base exp. This being said, an underlvl'd follower successfully completing a mission gets roughly the same exp that a same lvl follower gets for failing that same mission. With this in mind, the most efficient way to gain experience is to favor lvl over success chance.
(The only exception to this would be the lvl 100 missions whose bonuses are significantly higher than the base exp. In these cases, sending in a lowbie with relevant traits and abilities might be a better idea than a lvl 100 with nothing useful to contribute.)
Suggested solution: At a minimum, display the actual experience a follower will receive. This currently isn't shown in-game. Another suggestion would be to either cap the experience that a follower can gain or just not decrease the experience at all (or only in the case of the lvl 100 missions).
(It's really unclear why this reduction even happens. for the most part, mission base and bonus exp only increase by 100 per lvl. At higher lvls, this incremental increase becomes somewhat insignificant, but the effect of the experience being halved remains very significant. A lvl 90 mission is worth 100 exp and a lvl 91 mission is worth 200 exp. Therefore, a lvl 90 follower sees no difference in exp gain from a lvl 90 or lvl 91 mission. On the other end of things, a lvl 98 mission is worth 900 exp while a lvl 99 mission is worth 1,000 exp. In this case, a lvl 98 follower on a lvl 99 mission only gets 500 exp - the same amount that would come from a lvl 94 mission. This is a very significant exp reduction despite the hypothetical gain (100 exp) being very mediocre for that lvl.)
