Yes, you guys are super cringe for making a big deal about this, every single other sandbox has ways to monetize skill gain; IE: You pay gold you get faster exp. No one is boosting anyones mastery for free. Its a service, that costs gold. Players have to spend time in game to get the gold necessary to pay the parcel runners. Its just allowing people to grind in a different way instead of hitting tribesmen.
Honestly kind of appalled im the only one in the thread sticking up for this divergent game play. Feels bad to be the only sandbox gamer in a supposed sandbox MMO community. Starvault needs to think long and hard on if they want to continue to appeal to the current 800 players playing the game or seek a broader audience because you guys are just as much as to blame for the holding the game back as Starvault is. You give poor feedback that isn't conducive to the game, not conducive to growth and not conducive to good game flow, in the end you're only hurting yourselves (and starvault) by poisoning the well.
Unless the parcel/exp route is overtuned vs how much time it takes to run the parcel then this thread is the most unwarranted crybaby whining i've ever seen in regards to a very common Gold->Exp Sandbox pipeline.
I think you are wiling out w/ some of these terms: "Divergent gameplay."
It's been years imo since SV listened to my feedback, man, and it's only gone downhill. There are many places where gold can get you something, there should be some places where it can't. Shud just make it so you can pay x amount of money and be full spec. Of course people can boost their alts or their friends for free.
There is the idea of removing these soul-bound mechanics (which is the root cause,) then there is the fact that people seem very against the game being 'easy to level,' in regards to gameplay. People seem against that. I recall you said that these sort of things are end game content. I'd appreciate it if MO made it much easier to level and made it more about playing than speccing. As it is, it's wack to level up a character especially with advanced skills. It's wack to level up mastery, and this seems to be a way that circumvents the wackness, which is COOL, except that it's controlled by the same people who control everything else.
Again, an initial problem is making it so that you need prom to level up your mastery, which cannot be gained in as many ways as you should be able to. THEN there is the problem of boosts becoming ridiculous and, as it was mentioned by someone else, completely cancelling each other out with two maxed players (so it only affects nubs.) This is gg for the people who are gonna get boosted, sure, but it's not gg for the game or players.
Talk to ODINSEED and the others if you wanna know whose feedback has fucked up the game. Most of the people here want something similar to a 'hardcore sandbox.' Unfortunately, if something is actually hardcore pvp, the soul bound buffs must be removed. If there are some, they should be very minor, and making people grind for them is terrible for the future of the game.
Also, I know plenty of games you can't pay to spec your character haha. I think you might have two problems. One is that you see things in a very black and white, somewhat shallow way, and the other is that you let your own bias affect your feedback. That is, what is good for you is good for the game. It's almost like you don't you're doing it, to be fair.
I ain't mad, but I want a game that is completely level and lets the strongest minded / most intelligent / most skillful (3 different types that co-exist in the kind of hardcore sandbox I imagine) succeed. This game seems worse on that level than even MO1 was. SANDBOXES DON'T HAVE QUESTS BROTHER haha.