New content / Old content

[flat75]

First of all let me get something clear: I like this game. But there are thing disturbing me, causing frustration and slight anger. I've seen lot of threads urging new content to be placed into the game, ("Kitins Lair for example")
I've seen lots of player ideas remain unanswered, seen some old players quitting for various reasons, seen some new players joining.
What I wish to write about is my opinion, opinions are based on facts, but they are not facts themselves. So read it with a grain of salt, will you? It will contain some rant and rave, with some idea how to address the issues I feel bad about.

Atys is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to Atys. (excuse me for quiting the revered Douglas Adams)
Yet however most of this huge space remains unused for practical reasons.
There are striking inequalities between some Q250 regions of Atys, which are normally the residence of high level players. All I've even known, including myself gained most of it's high levels in Void. Just like that. Mostly along the Armas-Gubanis-Cratchas-Jabs-Kinchers-Plods sequence.
Void has large mostly aggro-free regions, with some well-defined spots making hunting easy. And all the time levelling there, I was never alone. Never. at least 2-3 names were always on /who list.
Some other regions are not so lucky. Heretic hovel. Lagoons of Loria. Grove of Confusion.
However you can meet diggers there, hunters are much more rare, if you exclude those hunting nameds.
Even most of the digging happens in (about) two small area: near SS, and near kami TP.
I've never heard EVER someone going to HH for any reason other then killing nameds.
So how come there is a HUGE region like GoC, and barely 3-4% of it is frequently used?
Practical reasons. Other than the two aforementioned spot, digging in the deep GoC is incxredibly unpractical. Can be done, but noone does it.
Okay, okay, I get it. it's Q250 region so it must be DANGEROUS.
Well, mission accomplished. It is so dangerous, that its barely used. And it still beats HH which is not used at all.
Bad level design. Full of aggros, sometimes in wandering large groups, make 98% of that region unusable for any practical purposes.

You know what? I dont want new content. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO USE the content already in place.
I know, some of you will say train your levels up. Well I did. Does not help. Im AoD, above 220 in melee, yet reaching depth of GoC take 30 minutes or more.
Guess what, I'm not gonna dig somewhere, if it takes that much time to reach that place, and even if I'm there i get attacked every five minutes. Kinda .... frustrating.
I have only small experience concerning other Q250 regions? Wanna hear?

Heretic Hovel: Mostly its an aggro filled maze, which is fun, cos you never get a chance to sneak past 5 cuttlers in a 10 m wide corridor. Yeah you can fight your way though: most of us did it at least once or so during treks.
Its unusable for hunting or digging, so its a transit region. Would it really hurt so much if players would be actually ABLE to use that region for something other than named hunt?

Lagoons of Loria: During our last trel there was a point where we were attacked by about 20-30 kinchers. No, Im not joking. We were standing, fighting knee-deep in kincher carcass. First time even during trek I had to use space for targeting as I couldnt see from the dead kinchers all around me.
Luckily with two teams we made it througth.
But standing there I was wondering about: what is it all about? Monster Placement Tools Gone Wild #4 or what?

Void: Hello Voidians! (yes, actually I heard that greeting) Some people practically live in void. It's just a nice region you know, you can run away if you get attacked, you can get rezzed, because there are PLAYERS there.
Unlike previously mentioned places, it's usable (well, this is the ONLY usable) region for hunting, and I suppose digging too.
You can actually stay alive in void, even if you are lvl 150. Wow.

Can actually somebody tell me why HH, GoC and Lagoons seems like aggro-filled barren places, where people go only when needed?
As far as I'm concerned, I dont need new content: I want to use those regions. For hunting. For digging. For just exploring. Finding rare mats. Come on, it's not that hard.

GoC: well on thing for sure, you can actually dig here. Mostly. Althouth I never actually managed to find all types of armor mats, (only 2 types of resin, wood, oil and sap) you can dig grindmats. As long as you are not disturbed by the fact that you have to dig at the same spot for like ... a month? Maybe more. Quite entertaining. I suppose. At least for Zatchel and his cuttler companions and the jugulas all around. Harassing diggers all the time is fun for them I think.

What should be done?
1,. Decrease overall aggro levels in those regions to match that of the void, or even further.

2,. Create one or two additional TPs in all Q250 regions. If you create two, make one of that usable by neutrals too. I know, blasphemy. But they are players too.
Create some background story if you wish (OMG marauders is coming, Karavan and Kami decided to reinforce their bases in high level areas! Sending partols to kill monsters, etc, etc We need to get prepared!) or something.
It would result booming exploration around new TPs, much better use of existing content. Up to say 15% of the region. wow, that would be soo coool.

3,. Make players able to deal with aggro-infested spots.
Say, if you kill a monster, on the loot window, there should be a button "bury". If you bury a monster, you dont get tthe loot, but it won't respawn for an hour. Or two.
Whoa, all of a sudden, it would be possible to get in an area, kill of monsters, and dig for an hour. Or two.
Maybe diggers could ask help from guildes to clean up areas. Maybe diggers could flock together in an effort to clean up an area. Wow, social aspect.

4,. Take a look on material spots: I think all Q250 area should contain all types of mats. Ok, I may be wrong here, but think about it. I've never seen so far Q250 choice forest anate fiber. Only Buo and Dzao. Of course it might be there, but noone digs it, because its unreachable or too far from TP.

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And now, since I already got the hang of it, I let my fantasy fly. Further I will describe some modifications, additions which will never see the light.....
Some of them would be easy to implement, some not.
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5,. Recognizable equipment icons, with durability bars on it.
- each type of armor (med. light heavy) should have different icons. Creating icons is not a big deal. Do it. Now. Game is out since what 4 years, and the icon of heavy vest is the same as a light robe. No, mister, do your homework and create icons which helps us differentiate between equipment. While you are at it, find a way to illustrate the boost in it (if any: HP boost: red drop, for example) Durability bars to see how it is breaking down, and you know what? Some quality indication: say small star for fine, larger for choice two large for excellent , and gold star for supreme. All toggleable by preferencies of course. You dont have to see if you dont want.
Whoa, I can tell what is that equipment by just looking at it! Isnt it awesome?

6,. Filters. Grade and quality filters on house panels, guild house panels.
Yay, that would be great. Just like the one on vendors, you know what I mean dont you?
Whoa, it does not take 5 minutes to find an armor - among 45 others.

7,. Warehouses. Conveniently accessable thru stables. Have to pay to buy, have to pay weekly (irl) maintenance fee. Up tu industrial size, say 20.000 bulk. Yea, some of us actually need it. And willing to pay dappers for it. Packrats. I know. Please dont say the "you can start a new character, bring it to mainland start a guild and buy a guildhouse and store stuff there" argument. NOT CONVENIENT.
What, you dont want to allocate too much space for player data? Bad luck, Google stores over 1Gb for me , guess what: for FREE.
Whoa, finally I can hoard my I-will-need-it-sometimes-later items.

8,. Containers.
For the love of god, ultima online had containers. Just to help us keeping things organized. Say, keeping armor set, jewel sets in them. While you are at it, make an "equip all" button on containers, which would surprisingly try to equip all stuff in there, say a jewel set.
Make a "make default" button on it too, which would mark all equipment in it to be placed inside if unequipped. Make containers renameable. Heck, why not all equipment renameable. Why shouldn't i call my sword "Bloodspiller"? For anyone else, its "Choice Hobenyx or whatever sword of damage", but for me its the BLOODSPILLER. Hey, cool name.
You see where is it heading, dont you? I rename one of my container as "digstuff"
place my digging armor and jewels into it, make it default, I rename another container "fightstuff" place hp boosted jewels and armor in it, make default and ...
I open my digstuff, click equip all - and ready to dig, meanwhile all my armors jewels found their way to "fightstuff" container, which i can drop off to mektoub. Whoa. Complete redressing with 4 clicks! Now, that is convenient.
Containers bulk 5 + stuff in it, weight 5 + stuff in it.
Unless you want to create some special containers, say as a mission reward or buyable item at 5 million dappers+ which actually bulks and weights less then the stuff in it. What an unique idea! I bet NOONE has ever thought anything like that. They would be like container (or bag) of .. holding. Wait, that sounds familiar. Nevermind. People would kill each other for it. Heck, why not? Make it craftable item from one special new-opmat (available only at one -new op) and people WILL kill each other for it.

9., Tutoring
I would like to be able to "downgrade" my skills, so i could train together with my mate. Here is how it should work:
- Only one skill can be tutored at a time, you select the skill (say in skill tree) right click - tutoring, enter lvl you want to tutor.
at that moment all your actions that require higher skill or have stanza in it that requires higher skill become unusable.
During fight, you are considered as lvl x, where x is the number you chosen.
You can not obtain xp (none at all) on skill you are tutoring.
Example: my heal is 212, i with to lvl with my freiend who has ele 175. I begin to tutor my heal skill downto 170. At that moment I can only use healing as if I have 170 skill. Regarding all aspects my heal is 170. But, if we kill something, I cant get healing xp. Lets say will kill a mob, and i've used heal and DoA, normally i would receive 1500 xp doa, 1000 xp heal, my buddy would receive 2500 ele.
He does receive 2500 ele, but I get only 1500 xp doa, 0 heal.
Whoa, from now on, you can help your low level guildies even more! Huzzah!

10,. Companion TP
For only 50K (80K, 100K as you wish) dappers Kami and Kara would allow you to buy companion TPs, which would not only TP you, but all your packers and mounts within 10m of you if you use the ticket.
Whoa! Mektubs begin to be useful, not just as packing space in the stable.

11,. Craft to ....
You should be able to choose destination for your crafted item. Say packer 1 - if its near enough. Packers would have a "sell all to npc" button, which brings up a new window showing all the items you wish to sell at once.
Whoa! Crafting and selling made easy, convenient.

12,. Recently sold tab at vendors
There you should see the last 30(50, 100) items you sold to the NPC in the last hour. should you change your mind, (or you accidentally sold it) you can retrieve here for say 20% overhead.
Whoa! No more "fsck i just sold my q250 amp!!!!"

13,. Landmarks.
Need more zoom. For digging. You know sometimes mats are only a few meters away from each other. Maybe I want to mark them all up. Oh, yeah, eliminate the "Cant place more landmark blabla". And back up my landmarks on your own. At any time I want all my interface and landmark data mirrored. If one file fails, read the other and correct the failed one. My files were corrupted 3 times in 4 months. After the first I begun to backup them, but pls, do it for me, will you?
Whoa, no more "Im gonna pull my hair and eat it, i lost all my landmarks"

14,. Equip item to hand
How come i can't create macro or shortkey or something that puts my sword into my hand at one button press?

15,. Toolbar
Not enough space. Double it. Ok, half of the toolbars will not have shortkeys. So what, at least I dont have to change back and forth. Or wait, make it possible to rotate toolbar with 90 deg, and let me pop up toolbar from main, so i should have multiple toolbars on screen. Shortkeys work only for main toolbar.

16,. Target distance. Can I see the distance to the target, plz?
I know if i right click at radar, and choose "current traget" it will show, but if I change target it goes away..
I want to see that on target bar. Thats it.

17., Radar color coding. Please make aggro monsters have different color. Also make sure that they are rendered last, so non-aggros cant cover up aggros. I would totally appreciate it.

18., Exchange window.
Need more slots. 10, 14, 16, 20 maybe. While you are at it how about being able to see the other persons free bulk now, and after the trade?
If after the trade goes negative, trade will fail. AND I SHOULD actually see it before trying.

19., Alternate drag and drop system. If activated in preferencies, Ctrl would mean multiple selection. So i press crtl, click the items i want to drag, and drag them together. Or something like that. Maybe crtl-shift click would mean from here to there, like shift in windows.

Thank you for your time reading it. ( Please do not post in this thread regarding your ideas. )
EDIT: Please dont respond with your own ideas about how to fix opwars/pvp/one handed/ranged/whatever, which was not even mentioned in my post.
Feel free to respond with positive/negative criticism about my ideas, your ideas connected with any subject mentioned in the post.
Negative criticism about my style or personality would be preferred in PMs, pls.
Negative criticism, pointing out my mistakes, your opinion about the above subjects, even if they are different then my own are very welcome.

The main thing i wanted to say: why demanding new content, when we can't even use the majority of the old content?

[sehracii]

I'd prefer to see Void made more difficult to match the other areas.

[jamela]

It's only human nature to take the path of least resistance (think I am muddling together two common phrases ), the tougher paths can be much more exciting and fun, though - you just have to think of what it is you really want from your game. Nice post, flat .

Once a path has been established for easiest achievement, it always seems to become the only way for any sane person to follow, but that's not necessarily true. In taking the fast lane a lot of people miss out on learning skills and tricks which make life more satisfying and fun on the side roads. Such as controlling aggro spawns.

Sorry to have only addressed your initial points as yet, and for any unfair assumptions I made.

[ratara]

Hm.... I'd like to second most of this post!
(6 am...havent slept...to tired to type anymore :P )

[flat75]

Originally Posted by sehracii

I'd prefer to see Void made more difficult to match the other areas.

Its always easy to create challenges for yourself.
For example: Dig a bag of mats in HH without armor and jewels and amp. Nothing, just a pick.

My reasoning was that most of these areas are challenging enough to be not usable. At least practically.

[flat75]

Originally Posted by jamela

It's only human nature to take the path of least resistance (think I am muddling together two common phrases ), the tougher paths can be much more exciting and fun, though - you just have to think of what it is you really want from your game. Nice post, flat .

Thats absolutely true. But if its more fun, how come almost noone ever goes there to have some fun?

I wish GF would create a "player activity" map, which would show them which mobs get killed most, which spots harvested most. Then they would see how much unused area is already in the game.

[tr808]

Originally Posted by flat75

17., Radar color coding. Please make aggro monsters have different color. Also make sure that they are rendered last, so non-aggros cant cover up aggros. I would totally appreciate it.

This just made me giggle... ur basicly saying make it easier for me to spot agro.... i have no problem withthe way it is now... now i actually need to watch my screen instead of being some geek watching a radar bleeb..

Thank you for your time reading it. Please do not post in this thread regarding your ideas.

U cant tell me to not post my own ideas forums are ment for discusing ang bringing new ideas, u cant exclude people to post their own ideas in this tread... they could actually benefit ur own ideas perhaps?

The main thing i wanted to say: why demanding new content, when we can't even use the majority of the old content?

Take a step back, think about the people playing already for 2 years+ Yay this guy wants to numb the game down! (making life easier in GoC lol, instead make Void harder please! )

[flat75]

Originally Posted by tr808

U cant tell me to not post my own ideas forums are ment for discusing ang bringing new ideas, u cant exclude people to post their own ideas in this tread... they could actually benefit ur own ideas perhaps?

Take a step back, think about the people playing already for 2 years+ Yay this guy wants to numb the game down! (making life easier in GoC lol, instead make Void harder please! )

As a thread starter I feel I can actually ask those who wish to post not to post their own, unrelated ideas in this thread. That would derail the original purpose of the thread.

You: "this guy wants to numb the game down!"
Me: "What I wish to write about is my opinion, opinions are based on facts, but they are not facts themselves"

Thanks for reading and trolling around.

[tr808]

Seems to me u have a problem with critism

[flat75]

Originally Posted by tr808

Seems to me u have a problem with critism

No, in fact I like it! As long as it's constructive.

You have not said one argument why "opening" up old content would be bad for the community.

Come on, try it. I'm sure you can come up with something originaly along the "its top region it should be dangerous" or "if you are too weak dont go there" lines.

But even if you do, that does not explain why even those do not visit these areas, who actually can stay alive. Which is the main point of the thread expressed multiple times.

Yes, you can go there and stay alive, yes, you can have some fun mass-killing jugulas.
Yet, noone goes there to lvl or to dig.
For most people, an accessible GoC or HH would be just as new contents as Kitin Lair.
Except, this one is already there....