New stuff
Well, it seems that it will take a little while until I'll start working at the map editor, so in the past few weeks I did some 'clean up' stuff. Things like adjusting some monsters to be more useful, changing some spawns, removing the TS 'loop hole', adding a few new special days, etc.
Right now I am working at two potions that will decrease the attack and defense levels by 5, up to -30 of your current level. They will use dragon scales, and will require a high potion level, which takes care of a few issues: Too many dragon scales in the game, top potioners not having enough potions to do for their levels, and some fighters who fall in between monster levels will now be able to gain more exp. Now the attack and defense levels increase every minute towards their nominal value, even if you are hungry, so this kind of training will be quite expensive.
I am also working (right now in the design stage) at an awards system. It will be similar to the top players list, but it won't be based on levels. Instead, it will be based on 'achievements', like how many rostogols stones lost, how many rare items harvested or manufactured, how many Leonard kills, etc. It will be reset every month, so even somewhat new players will have a chance to be there. There will be no in game advantage if you win those awards, it will be just for fun (and some glory :D). I am hoping to have this sytem implemented by the end of March or earlier.
Right now I am working at two potions that will decrease the attack and defense levels by 5, up to -30 of your current level. They will use dragon scales, and will require a high potion level, which takes care of a few issues: Too many dragon scales in the game, top potioners not having enough potions to do for their levels, and some fighters who fall in between monster levels will now be able to gain more exp. Now the attack and defense levels increase every minute towards their nominal value, even if you are hungry, so this kind of training will be quite expensive.
I am also working (right now in the design stage) at an awards system. It will be similar to the top players list, but it won't be based on levels. Instead, it will be based on 'achievements', like how many rostogols stones lost, how many rare items harvested or manufactured, how many Leonard kills, etc. It will be reset every month, so even somewhat new players will have a chance to be there. There will be no in game advantage if you win those awards, it will be just for fun (and some glory :D). I am hoping to have this sytem implemented by the end of March or earlier.
posted by Radu at 3:05 AM
7 Comments:
I hope you will get a few potions out of one set of ings or that would be a bit too expensive, but that's rather obvious.
Anyway, arent there any better ways to limit number of scales in game? Like finaly fixing pinning bug, giving dragons higher magic resistance(I hope that's the one), longer respawn time or perhaps less dragons in invasions?
Desertus
The pinning bug is more of a feature, that's why I didn't fix it yet. It is good because it removes a lot of arrows from the game :)
The number of dragons is fine, and their spawn time, the problem is that their scales are only used for armors, and the dragon armor also requires other special ingredients, so people usually don't wear them too much because they are afraid not to break them.
It seems that players have been quite misled. Some have made their decisions based on two entries in this blog, assuming that after the new archery AP potions are introduced, they will still be able to shoot pinned dragons.
As we see after the recent update, both ID and BD maps have been changed in a way that makes pinning of these creatures impossible. Additionally, a number of dragons in invasions seems to be reduced (granted, we do have a new invasion monsters).
After introduction of AP potions Hulda has experienced a sudden rise in pk activities around ice dragon spawn, that was actually fascinating even for the victims hehe. With map change it is all gone and regular (no-invasion) ice dragon is currently useless for rangers. I suspect a number of players visiting thhis map will decrease tenfold.
As you have said, not the number of dragons, but the number of uses for dragon scales is an issue. People do need more dragons - to break their stuff and take their bricks. I'm talking about fighters here, but for top rangers it is critical as well, since they are simply unable to train effectively on anything else.
As a person who is not interested in pk but who invested 900 kgc in AP potions I feel disappointed. I have spent roughly 3 millions gc's for arrows to get to the top of the EL ranging list, but I feel the recent changes make further leveling in ranging nearly impossible. Basically at my ranging level dragons are the only creatures that allow to advance in skill at reasonable pace.
I have heard you saying that thanks to AP potions high ranging is not required now, however those few people that are really dedicated to that skill do not share that opinion. They compete and they would love to sink several next millions to reach higher levels.
With all that in mind, how do you plan to keep people interested in ranging and spending millions for that skill with no prospects for better experience nor income? Do you believe a fun aspect of ranging is enough to keep people using this skill?
It seems that players have been quite misled. Some have made their decisions based on two entries in this blog, assuming that after the new archery AP potions are introduced, they will still be able to shoot pinned dragons.
I never said that the dragon spawns will always be as they are now. I just said I won't fix the dragons algorithm to make them unpinnable (which is pretty easy to do anyway).
And the red dragon cave didn't change in quite a while.
As a person who is not interested in pk but who invested 900 kgc in AP potions I feel disappointed. I have spent roughly 3 millions gc's for arrows to get to the top of the EL ranging list, but I feel the recent changes make further leveling in ranging nearly impossible. Basically at my ranging level dragons are the only creatures that allow to advance in skill at reasonable pace.
There are plenty of creatures you can shoot at your level, especially during invasions, but not only. There are giants in the game that you can train on, or you can just PvP train.
testraxeRadu,
Many thanks for your reply.
There are plenty of creatures you can shoot at your level, especially during invasions, but not only. There are giants in the game that you can train on, or you can just PvP train.
Radu, I invite you to try PvP ranging training with my character. I will gladly make a demo on the main server. I deal way too much damage with a training bow an arrow to make it reasonable solution. The amount of HE's and SR's to heal used even by armored character would be very high, and in terms of experience dozens of times less rewarding per resources used compared to melee (a/d) PvP training. One possible solution to allow ranging PvP at higher levels would be to introduce a new, preferably makeable arrows with significantly lower damage than current training ones, but that would partly negate a concept of ranging being a money sink (I assume purchases of training bolts and arrows contribute the most to that function).
As to giants - yes, I do that. The problem is that for the next ranging level I have to kill over 400 giants. And we are talking about relatively low levels here.
I agree there are opportunities to shoot creatures during invasions (limited greatly by the time zone I live in though).
New Bulangiu and Mare Bulangiu can make a difference, so far I have had a chance to participate in shooting 2 Bulangiu during one invasion, getting nice experience at a very high cost though. Yet again, for the next level it would take me to shoot more than 10 Mare Bulangiu's ALONE (and you know that is impossible since both rangers and fighters will join, and idea to shooting such creature alone goes against its purpose to stimulate team play).
Taking that into account, I believe that in order for ranging to continue to be an effective money sink in a long run, we need some more targets/maps suitable for training ranging at higher levels. I'm looking forward changes you've just suggested regarding invasion monsters, I hope I'll be able to participate and waste some more arrows :-)
Well, the idea is that all skills are different, and require different levels.
For example, an archery skill of 50 is pretty much all that you need (provided that you have the perks and a night visor). For fighters, things are quite different, they need level 150 or so.
But I do plan to do something about the archery training, you will see when it's done.
Many thanks for that, awaiting patiently then :-)
Since max damage with ranged weapons is level dependant, there is a reason to rise levels way beyond 50, at least in my opinion :-)
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