1. Context / Background: On my first playthrough, I did take the time to smell the flowers and explore, and I cannot imagine that Crate does not take pleasure in the fact that they have succeeded in creating a world which encourages players to do that. Just by playing through the game and doing the occasional Bounty, I was able to achieve Revered with all factions (except Barrowholm) without too much effort, which I nevertheless did invest in order to get some Revered faction items which were better than what I had found in solo play. All very enjoyable.
Once I got Revered with Malmouth Resistance right before leaving Elite, I discovered their handy experience potion. With this, I was easily able to hit Level 100 in early Ultimate, and that without any more exploration.
GD seems odd to me in the world of ARGPs in that hitting level cap is usually gated behind large investments in Experience. Crate chooses to have this differently, and so be it. But that has with it a
2. Problem: Quest rewards are with very few exceptions payed out in the resource of Experience. (The exceptions involve precious mastery or attribute points, reputation, relatively common or uninteresting items or blueprints or very low amounts of iron or components.) The problem is that this resource is overabundant, especially now with the addition of the experience potion. Tie this in to the (apparently: purposefully) low experience gate in reaching level cap, and you have some excellently executed and lovingly crafted quests for which, in Ultimate, there is no inherent incentive to complete because the reward is redundant. You are better off spending your time elsewhere. That’s a shame. Therefore, a
3. Suggestion: Barring a significant investment in game redesign in which maximum level cap is gated behind a large wall of experience (which I for one would not mind but which for obvious reasons is impractical) make the rewards for Quests, particularly Side Quests, in Campaign Ultimate offer more tantalizing material rewards, namely: decent blueprints, or barring that, at the very least not tuppence. If GD is designed so that top builds are not reached by grinding experience for levels, and if GD is designed so that power comes more readily through gear than leveling, then give us some quantum of incentive to do the quests in Ultimate. Otherwise, your lovely narratives, in which you have invested much time, become superfluous and the game loses another modicum of immersion.
Thanks