Generel feedback on al the changes...

[tarashon]

Howdy all.

Had a blast today with various deaths but also good rescue missions etc.

It appears to me that the new "Touched" state of certain mobs adds a lot of fun and challenge / uncertainty to the game zones - all for the better in my opinion having play tested them both single player and in 3man group tonight.

The combination of "spearheads" in the monster groups ( 1 in 10 app ), and lower death toll combined with the new PC Scrying device makes for great fun. Sure chances of dying are slightly higher with the "Touched" around but death toll is only halved now. And having the option to port back to the dead party member and res/battle off/continue the adventure really made it a lot more fun. No more complete coming to an halt and I for one surely enjoyed it. And several times we saw how those "touched" can be game changing experienced when appearing in the wrong places as the wrong mob. I find it really awesome

How do you guys find it, and should we try to expand on the whole concept, fx making a 10or20% chance that the "Touched" is indeed not a normal "Touched" but perhaps a "Planes Touched", even more powerful.Iff we can get Seeker in on this we might also have like MINIMUM % chance of extra special summoned mobs have completely special stuff. could include forge tokens, special healing potions and perhaps even "tokens of +1 to a stat", but i am talking ULTRA rare stuff here, but I'm kind of falling in love with the idea of the CHANCE to be there...

( Basically adding an new loot table to the "on_enter" script currently used on encounter spawn and checking for it and adding the item(s) to the creature )

What is YOUR opinion on this ??

PS.
And how do you find the changes now ? - cool...too hard...too weak... whatever ?

/tara

[Li'l Rose]

I like the idea of the touched creatures, but I have not seen any yet. I've just completed the first part of Ralfe's Botanica quests. Not really noticed the custom AI, as the fungus guys seemed to just run up and die on my weapons. I found the skeletons from Tobias's quest to be much tougher, but I guess that was because I used slashing weapons. I did try the bigger mushroom guys, but they drained my stoneskin rather quickly, so I turned back. I did like the rogue chests added to the sewers, as it is nice to gets some good buffs and a 1000 gold token.

I do like the idea of the plane touched creatures as well. Always nice to get a little surprise and a little extra challenge.

Oh, and I also loved the new Halfling area. It is very well done, and so pretty.

[icywind1980]

I really love the teleport device and the touched creatures. I don't always see the name ''touched'' on them, so it's kind of weird to be great-cleaving my way through a stack of mobs, only to find one that won't go down. I also play the game on lowest possible settings because of all the placeables. It drains my system resources very quickly, so sometimes I don't even see the glow, unless I tab over them. But I think the server is a lot more fun with these changes. I'd be interested in seeing tougher ones, but maybe not until level 20+

[tarashon]

Thx for the replies.

I was considering the very same for the "Planes Touched", to be something of higer level content. the reason you haven't seen "Touched" Rose, is that it is deliberatly not implemented on the "starter areas series" of quests. The changes will simply be too powefull for a level 1-5 character ( app ) , so those first areas dont spawn "Touched".

I believe the same could be the deal with further improved "Planes Touched" so that characters should be level 20-25+ or so before encountering them, making them an adition for basically epic players.

/tara

[Twilighteyes]

So after about a month of gameplay here I figured it's time to drop a line or two on my opinion of the changes. Again this is my OPINION after playing a defensive caster druid.

Leveling from 1-20 has been easy with the addition of the "Gaia" quest line and the bounty hunters. In my opinion it is almost too fast as you end up out classing quests that you may have missed when chasing others. My experience in this was: leveling via bounties/Gaia line and being a much higher level when tackling the mines of tamburast and orc gate.

The tools NEEDED for characters to survive are available (though players like me tend to not here advice and suffer a death before investing in things like ghostly visage rods). The addition/improvement of the roaring dragon hirelings was/is much needed and VERY helpful. The spell (and spell effect) changes like immune to KD via clarity, haste via camouflage and overall empowered healing spells give players a fighting chance against the environment.

Environment/window dressing... OMG! Tar, I just gotta say "WELL F'ing DONE!!!" I loved the re-vamped Orc Gate zones, The new Talkash areas and the "transitional" areas of the moors and frontier were MUCH needed!!


Again my opinions and criticism will come later today..

[tarashon]

Thanks a lot for the feedback so far and looking forward to the rest

/tara

[Twilighteyes]

**continued from above**

Now for the not so wonderful..

With the large amount of quests and server spanning objectives it gets very EASY to forget which NPC your supposed to be doing what for.. Perhaps journal entries could be worked in eventually? I know we have Mischa to tell us what we still need to do but...

Monster drops and placeable loot: maybe I have not come across the quests yet (most likely) but I have several "trophies" from mini boss kills and I have ZERO clue as to what I do with them.. Perhaps a hint in the item description? Maybe combined with a skill/stat check? Example: kill tiramosh - gather heart - roll successful skill check (onAcquire- skill check script fires) success = "you remember overhearing talk at the Bowmaidens camp of a dwarf looking for remains of powerful undead."..

Now if there IS a quest for these trophies and I have just not found it yet then yeah, that's on me..

Forge items, loot and drops being marked as plot/stolen.. I can see why this needs to be done but could it be possible to incorporate maybe a "pawn shop" to sell off these items? Granted it would have to be at a fraction of their cost (10% or so) but at least a re-coup for "leveling gear" once it becomes less useful OR a bracer found in a chest that isn't useful to a class. Maybe have the shop owner persistent so others could purchase these items for use..

Of course I'm not at all happy with resting, summoning and buffing before transitioning into the next zone only to lose both my pets but I'm pretty sure that's just a bug with the engine itself as it happens on all the servers I have ever played on.

Aside from those small issues I will say that alangara in it's current state is a deeper and more enjoyable place than what it has been. Granted it is still undergoing changes and luckily we as a group get a voice in it's shaping! So again this is just my opinion from playing lvls 1-20 over the last month.

[tarashon]

Hi Twilighteyes and once again thanks for taking the time to make these feedback

Now to address the issues brought forth...

As for guidance to quests this is an ongoing project. As of now you have perhaps visited the Arcanum Librarian, In Castle Balder library, actually keeping track on all Arcanum bounties and inquisitor quests ?

As for quest journals these are part of future projects including the complete removal of questgems and going over to databse... So as long as it may take it is a "planned update".

Various items....

As for what I can pt. remember the only specialdrop at this moment not needed is indeed the "Heart of Tiramosh". All others are part of quests that you can take on level 20 , except maybe the Grand Gator that is part of the RSS Bolten level25+ quest.

I can see what you mean with the concept of having some sort of remarks on those drops but on the other hand I am also biased against it. I do believe that there should be some sort of "self-investigation-ratio" expectations on the players and obviously it is quite possible to ask other players about given drops etc.

Heck' we even have "The tavern" section on this forum ment for in game RP, so you could make an post there of your char going there asking the Innkeeper and the guests there what given item is for and any other player could answer it with their char....

Selling stuff...

Plot items are there to make it possible to find nice stuff - often directly to boost certain classes at certain levels - and having them plot ( none sellable ) is absolutely VITAL, not to ruin server economy. This also goes for the Forge system that in its new state is extremely none-confirmable to the normal economy.

"Technical explanation"...
What it does is it simply count number of current enchants on an item and transforms this into a token account needed on top of the actual ones for what you wish to give an item. This works on PLOT items also. Now if we were to make Forge items sellable , even for a fraction, what happens when you go find an item with 4 enchants on it and give it the fifth and then go sell it .... ?

What you COULD do is to not give your Forge items more then 4 enchants. Then you can always update them as you grow in levels ( for those powers aply'able for this ).

The infamous poofs...

What to say... it is indeed some sort of Bioware bug to which I am aware of no current solution. However with the new rest restrictions even at level 20 you have about 5 hours ( 15 RL min ) of rest timer which should mean that when your done with any challenging area your rest timer is more or less ready again. Also basically all areas are designed so nothing spawns on enter - you have to move a little into the area first. This basically means you COULD go in and then summon/buff...

Once again thanks for the feedback and hope this answers your questions

/tara

[Li'l Rose]

From reading Twilight's posts, I feel there are a few things I should mention.

First of all, I too would like to have a way to remember my quests, without cluttering up my already messy inventory.

I do love the beautiful areas, and the various options for appearance crafting.

The quests are quite fun. However after about level 15, I am tired of doing mostly bounties.

Some quests are still pretty hard for the recommended levels. The Gala quests for example. My level 22 had trouble collecting the flowers, only to discover the next part of the quest was for level 18. I think was for needing 10 hearts.

I am finding the rest restrictions too long. Most servers never go over 20 minutes, even for level 40 toons. Warchief told me he has to wait 30 minutes, and he not even level 30. I am guessing that level 40 is much higher.

Would love to see the farm become available for all toons from your account. However only main toon should be able to obtain and plant seeds.

What I find annoying for most areas, is that creature spawn points are mostly placed for one direction only. Once a quest is completed, and have to return through areas, all the creatures spawn behind. This can be easily fixed by adding more spawn points for encounters.

Most of the class changes and spell changes, I do like. Trying different builds is always fun.

I do find that the bosses are pretty challenging and fun in parties. Would love to see more caster bosses though, as the melee bosses tend to focus on one character only. Perhaps give the boss circle kick feat to make it change targets. Would keep everyone on their toes. I did like that little dread spider mother, was fun battle, despite my dying too much.

Is enough for now I guess. I do not know much about lack of epic quests yet, but yeah, is lots already for lower levels. Overall I am enjoying the server, as it is a nice change to see as much focus on area appearances as it is to making creatures challenging.

[tarashon]

Howdy Rose and thanks for your input

As for resting restrictions they all ready have been altered from maximum 10 hours ( 30 min real life ) at level 29+, to 8 hours ( 24 min real life ) for a level 36+

Due to the huge amount of spellslot gear available this will not go lower. As for melee classes there is plenty of options to buy extra versions of various boost gear such as knights belt and Rods of the friendly Ghost etc

Also it should be noted that rest restrictions are to make sure people's specialpowers and max level spells are not constantly available...

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Seeker is looking at aswell Farm options as ways to implement our current "no-teleportation-area" into the PC scrying device.

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Chainging the spawn points is first off not something just "easely done" since this is a fairly huge module. Changing all encounters is a HUGE work. Secondly having the spawns work one direction is perposely done so ( most places ) to give casters etc a change. Most tough mobs will rip apart casters if they swarm them from behind so basically this was done to give casters a fair chance. Moving back allows for either warriors to stay behind in groups or will usually have the casters pets/hencman at the rear and thus prime target.

Some EPIC areas have spawns more "randomly" directions which affects the hardiness level for groups significantly.

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Having the bosses use more spells and / or circkle kick feat sounds like a great idea. Obviously they will proberly get much tougher now but i like the idea of making boss fights less static so I'll be taking this into advice when creating new or changing old bosses

When the generel EPIC EXPANSION is done I might also be starting to look into more scripting based changes to various bosses...

I hope this "answers your requests" Rose

/tara