Balance? You don't want "balance", you as the fox just want let into the henhouse. You just want to be able to rape anyone you come across with no barriers. You say you want the "realism" of a post-apocolyptic world? Well, then let's just have total game permadeath. You engage in combat and you die, your account is cancelled, game over. In "real life" you don't get to respawn a few moments later. You die. This would never happen of course because IT'S A GAME. It's not a full on combat to the full 100% game either. It's a game like many others that feature crafting, society building, and combat. PVP is not the be all end all. Neither is crafting.
Few blacksmiths, yes, but lots of farmers, weavers, tanners, masons, and carpenters. In this game, we aren't Mongol or Native American horse tribes (which probably had the maximum percentage of fighters per population of any group, ever, but I'm too lazy to look it up and find out for sure). We're not especially nomadic and we do build defensive structures, so a few blacksmiths wouldn't cut it.
Whats the thrill in nerfing my character though combat, risking all my gear in the process, when i could just sit in my safezone and craft to progress?
The safezones and penalties (if implimented) towards those who choose the combat route are why 90% of this game is sitting at their totem weaving baskets. Its not balanced.
fact of the matter is, theres not enough combat characters. its no fun killing crafters who dont even fight back...but theres nothing else for me to progress on.
if they made combat characters more appealing, there would be people to fight against, who fight back.
this is why the whole game, aside from a handful, are crafters. We got too much crafting....what need is there for all those crafted items?
its the games policy towards protecting crafters is what is nullifying a need for combat characters, which is why so few are.
by that note, can I not also say its unfairly biased that fighters get the thrill of person to person combat to level..when us crafters have to stand around and grind inanimate objects to gain levels, with possibility of failure and loosing that sawblade that we searched days for in the process? its unfair and unjust that the fighters have a higher risk factor, and sense of thrill while using their gameplay style vs us crafters.
and that fighters should have to grind on test dummies for hours on end to gain points, with the possibility of breaking his weapons on the dummy.
its 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other..grass on the other side of the fence thing...
then why are you a fighter, if the risk/gain/thrill of doing so is what you abore? its like me asking why would I go sky diving..risking my life..for the small gain of a rush for 45 seconds of free fall...its the risk/thrill itself that makes the one doing such actions enjoy it..not seeing the risk as a negative.
lol...90% of the game is sitting around crafting because that's what 90% of the community chooses to do with thier time...CRAFT. Why is there a need to come into a game and force people to play your way? Seems like the community has already decided how they want to play. Go play a freakin shooter or something ....
Reduce the amount of xp that crafters gain from crafting. It would force them to leave the tribal boundaries to hunt and level up.
So once your camp is built and yoru walls up. Why will anyone trade with you and what will you craft if there is no need for combat? How do you think the game will survive if there is no need of your services? Will you pay 15 a month to craft baskets?