An important aspect of the latency issue is what I would call the latency ratio: What fraction of time a player spends in this stage of not doing interesting things (in particular, not having interesting combat options or having to rely on tedious tactics to survive). This is particularly important for players who are new to the game and don't know what they're doing, because it largely determines whether they stick with the game in the long term. (And of course, these are the players for whom the ratio is the largest.)
Setting the character up at what is now xp level 5 radically reduces this ratio. The player has reasonably diverse combat options from the start with most classes.
I think it's a mistake to believe dlvl 1-5 makes things nice for new players. In reality, it makes a slower, less engaging start to each of their many, many games. And again: The threats at these depths are so trivial and uninteresting they don't actually teach the player anything. The only way to learn about the game is by getting to greater depths and the main mechanism of learning is getting killed by new monsters and new situations. It is therefore critical to reduce the gap between the interface with new things and the start of the game in a game that involves so many restarts.
Setting the character up at what is now xp level 5 radically reduces this ratio. The player has reasonably diverse combat options from the start with most classes.
I think it's a mistake to believe dlvl 1-5 makes things nice for new players. In reality, it makes a slower, less engaging start to each of their many, many games. And again: The threats at these depths are so trivial and uninteresting they don't actually teach the player anything. The only way to learn about the game is by getting to greater depths and the main mechanism of learning is getting killed by new monsters and new situations. It is therefore critical to reduce the gap between the interface with new things and the start of the game in a game that involves so many restarts.
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