Post by *Edwards on Jun 8, 2011 16:52:26 GMT -5
Edwards,
[...]
As I am sure you know, there are two distinct characteristics that define players. These are skills, and items. It is our belief that both need to be kept in balance with each other to keep players actively involved.
We furthermore understand that some initial time must be spent macroing - Both of our chars have spent that time to reach moderate levels (4 and 5). At which point, we commenced hunting. 5 hours a night. Sometimes more. During this time, we looted thousands of items, and took the time to ID them all. After the week was over, here is what we found collectively: 1 GM weapon, a few Powerscrolls, and perhaps 4 gm skill items each that were usable. Looking at the other players on this shard, we would have to continue to hunt like this for a year or more to equal their items. It is our thought that loot levels have fluctuated so much during the past months that some players took advantage of the good loot periods to gear themselves up to a level at which we can not compete. Thats great that they took advantage of it - but it leaves us new players feeling left in the dust.
There is more than just a loot problem though, your entire methodology of monsters and hunting is, we believe, flawed. It did not take us long to figure out some stuff. Among them: Legendary Spell Books drops the exact same loot as a evil spellbook, despite being 10x as hard. An undead flayer drops the exact same loot as an undead flayer, despite being 10x as hard. There is a ton more examples like this, its just not correct.
Then there is the fact that you have taken the time to spawn plenty of purple boss monsters, when they will not even drop things that players want. Spellbooks, Omero's, Xarafax, transcendence scrolls, astral weapons, etc, can not be found on these monsters. This would be ok, if there were plenty of lesser monsters spawned across the world that we could go hunt. I mentioned this to you earlier - but spellbook island only has 5-8 evil spellbooks, and they only respawn once every 6 hours. That should be closer to 30-40, and respawn every 45 minutes.
We know you did this on purpose to make these items rare - lets take for example, the omero's pickaxe. The only monster it can be found on is an ogre. Where do you find ogre's on this shard? There is no spawns, save the one ogre that spawns outside cove, and even then - the spawn time is long. We think that is a bad move, as the playerbase increases, there will not be any to be found.
There is no consistency in dungeons. Dungeons used to have theme's and different difficulties. We all remember Destard as the place for dragons. Tainted mage's do not belong in every dungeon. Each dungeon needs to have it's own separate identity, with an abundance of certain themed monsters in each one. And each dungeon should be themed towards a different type of hunter. There should be a dungeon that is possible to do with just mages, and likewise for each class. Right now - its just random, and with a bunch of really good purple monsters.
The monsters themselves are way disproportionate in difficulty too - the purple monsters should be not only rare, but require a group of 5 or 6 heavily geared players to even attempt to take down. That's what should make them purple. People should run when they see one
Please do take note: We do not want things easy. It should be hard, but it should be do-able. Right now, things are just a little out of whack. The server needs to be geared towards the new people, and helping them, and making playing fun and exciting. Any new player that starts here should be addicted, and stay forever, not get discouraged to the point of not even wanting to play anymore.
We think this is the biggest and most important problem that Forgotten Zulu has. We don't expect you to just go poof, and fix it, but we want to offer our help to help you make some changes - so let us know what we can do. We have faith in you.
[...]
[...]
As I am sure you know, there are two distinct characteristics that define players. These are skills, and items. It is our belief that both need to be kept in balance with each other to keep players actively involved.
We furthermore understand that some initial time must be spent macroing - Both of our chars have spent that time to reach moderate levels (4 and 5). At which point, we commenced hunting. 5 hours a night. Sometimes more. During this time, we looted thousands of items, and took the time to ID them all. After the week was over, here is what we found collectively: 1 GM weapon, a few Powerscrolls, and perhaps 4 gm skill items each that were usable. Looking at the other players on this shard, we would have to continue to hunt like this for a year or more to equal their items. It is our thought that loot levels have fluctuated so much during the past months that some players took advantage of the good loot periods to gear themselves up to a level at which we can not compete. Thats great that they took advantage of it - but it leaves us new players feeling left in the dust.
There is more than just a loot problem though, your entire methodology of monsters and hunting is, we believe, flawed. It did not take us long to figure out some stuff. Among them: Legendary Spell Books drops the exact same loot as a evil spellbook, despite being 10x as hard. An undead flayer drops the exact same loot as an undead flayer, despite being 10x as hard. There is a ton more examples like this, its just not correct.
Then there is the fact that you have taken the time to spawn plenty of purple boss monsters, when they will not even drop things that players want. Spellbooks, Omero's, Xarafax, transcendence scrolls, astral weapons, etc, can not be found on these monsters. This would be ok, if there were plenty of lesser monsters spawned across the world that we could go hunt. I mentioned this to you earlier - but spellbook island only has 5-8 evil spellbooks, and they only respawn once every 6 hours. That should be closer to 30-40, and respawn every 45 minutes.
We know you did this on purpose to make these items rare - lets take for example, the omero's pickaxe. The only monster it can be found on is an ogre. Where do you find ogre's on this shard? There is no spawns, save the one ogre that spawns outside cove, and even then - the spawn time is long. We think that is a bad move, as the playerbase increases, there will not be any to be found.
There is no consistency in dungeons. Dungeons used to have theme's and different difficulties. We all remember Destard as the place for dragons. Tainted mage's do not belong in every dungeon. Each dungeon needs to have it's own separate identity, with an abundance of certain themed monsters in each one. And each dungeon should be themed towards a different type of hunter. There should be a dungeon that is possible to do with just mages, and likewise for each class. Right now - its just random, and with a bunch of really good purple monsters.
The monsters themselves are way disproportionate in difficulty too - the purple monsters should be not only rare, but require a group of 5 or 6 heavily geared players to even attempt to take down. That's what should make them purple. People should run when they see one
Please do take note: We do not want things easy. It should be hard, but it should be do-able. Right now, things are just a little out of whack. The server needs to be geared towards the new people, and helping them, and making playing fun and exciting. Any new player that starts here should be addicted, and stay forever, not get discouraged to the point of not even wanting to play anymore.
We think this is the biggest and most important problem that Forgotten Zulu has. We don't expect you to just go poof, and fix it, but we want to offer our help to help you make some changes - so let us know what we can do. We have faith in you.
[...]
It is our thought that loot levels have fluctuated so much during the past months that some players took advantage of the good loot periods to gear themselves up to a level at which we can not compete.
It was worst before. It has been always rough to find items. It has been recently modified and it will be reported in the next maintenance.
Legendary Spell Books drops the exact same loot as a evil spellbook
True, they are from the same "race". But loot level is way higher with a legendary spellbook or watever the monster is.
but spellbook island only has 5-8 evil spellbooks, and they only respawn once every 6 hours.
I spoke with you yesterday and warned spawning will be fixed soon. It's just not correct the way it is... but as said before, this will be ok soon.
the omero's pickaxe. The only monster it can be found on is an ogre. Where do you find ogre's on this shard? There is no spawns,
That is because you didn't search correctly. There is tons of Ogre in Despite lvl 2. Again, you're prolly facing the same problems as the spawning problem which, again, will be fixed soon.
There is no consistency in dungeons. Dungeons used to have theme's and different difficulties.
True. But it's the first time someone report it. I warned the staff about it a couple of months ago. I managed to respawn 3 dungeons by myself but couldn't go further since I have no time for spawning. And since, these dungeons were modified so I would have to restart even today. There is a lackcism in spawning dungeons, but myself I can't do much about it. I'd suggest you to adress this to the other members of the staff team.
The monsters themselves are way disproportionate in difficulty too - the purple monsters should be not only rare, but require a group of 5 or 6 heavily geared players to even attempt to take down. That's what should make them purple. People should run when they see one
They were very difficult to kill before and because of complaints they are now easier to kill. I agree with this idea, but the majority does not want to stand for hours in dungeon killing purp mobs.
Well, I'd like to get some help for sure but it ain't easy at all. Atleast, this is mainly why our scripts are available for public. If you really want to contribute I'd suggest you to look at the npc descriptions into the scripts. If you feel a change should be made, edit and send it over me. My duties is to make systems work and there is still a lot to do. I do understand PvM represent atleast 30% of the game, but time is something that I can't afford a lot and especially during summer time.
Thank you for this helpful message.
-Edwards