EZ Server

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Description:

Ok, time to piss off the bulk of the server again...

I am considering writing up a system for players to "buy" their spells through plat and components. The player would be able to take a variety of components, combine them in the magic box, and receive the spell (standard NO DROP tag on the spell, of course).

*Each class with spells would get a class focus. ALL spell combines would take a focus to differentiate which class is making the spell. [Very cheap, under 50p]
*Next would be an elemental ink (fire, cold, disease, poison, magic, nature, and holy) to help determine which spell would be made. [Very cheap, under 50p]
*The next component would be a tiered vellum.  This is where a small plat investment comes into play. Prices below are ballpark suggestions.

• QVIC - 10k
• TACVI - 20k
• T1 - 50k
• T2 - 75k
• T3 - 100k
• T4 - 130k
• T5 - 225k
• T6 - 300k

*Lastly, matching tier essence.

In full example: I want to make Yamakagi's Fiery Passion Inferno II (dropped from whatever in the Abyss). I would combine wizard focus, fire ink, Abyss Vellum, and Essence of the Abyss into the Magic Box to create the spell scroll.

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Questions:

There are very often times when a player is stuck farming for a particular, critical spell that is absolutely required to progress (i.e. Shylo's Bolt of Doom or Yamakagi's Fiery Passion Inferno). Sometimes it will involve MANY MANY hours of unnecessary farming to find this one obscure drop.

Why not increase spell drop chance? This would result in tons of spells rotting left and right. It makes a spell drop feel less exciting and gives a bit of a fast lane to gearing the caster.

Why bother adding something so expensive? See the first notation in this section or try power gearing/rushing a new caster alt. You will understand immediately. It adds a way to obtain a spell, albeit a slightly expensive way.

Why use an essence? This is the only part that I am unsure. If another component is added that drops at same pace as essences, it is useful for only casters and freely (or cheaply) traded. Essences are already heavily strained with the variety of uses, but I cannot find another way to easily replicate the difficulty for this final component. If I simply remove it from combine requirement, then this becomes a fast track to gearing the casters via spell research. The Vellum cost could go up ~25% or so to remove essences, but not really sure.

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Now, could anyone post reasons why this should/should-not be used? If so, could you explain just a little bit on why you feel the way you do? I will like go into much more detail if this idea takes hold and/or it seems that others seem to express interest in it.


-Hate



EDIT #1: Focus, Ink, and Vellum are vendor bought in Caster's and/or Crafter's Guild(s).

Sounds good bud,

No essences though.

This would be a good time to help the economy a bit. Just create a recipe for the parchment that requires one to max a tradeskill (research maybe?) once you can make the parchment then it can be sold to other players. I guess the worth of it would be how difficult it is to make.

Edit: I would actually make it a requirement to be a spell researcher to make the whole spell. Make it tradeable and thus creating a market for spells. You could add in the melee dropped items too.

I have 18 toons to gear up and I haven't had any problem finding spells for them.  What sounds unnecessarily annoying is having to round up a bunch of different components for the same spells on every toon.

Nobody does the T1/2 combines because they're annoying and this sounds like the same thing

Apologies, updating original post. The vellum, ink, and focus would all be vendor bought in Caster's and/or Crafter's Guild(s).


-Hate

Cool, this way plus the drops from old way still in play

neato

I love the idea of an alternative way to get spells that drop in certain zones. I tried to get all my spells starting with QVIC a while back, I think I spent a week straight in there and didn't get them all, I never got Tempest Blade or Harmonious Composition or Howl of the Huntmaster, and I know theres a Tempest Blade II, but I've cleared T2 I don't know how many times and never gotten that one either.

I would gladly pay whatever price for the components and then something OTHER than essences from the tier so someone in QVIC couldn't create a spell from T7

So ... does this mean that pallys who never joined the caster guild would have to go farm a kit in order to complete their spells?  Or, can this all be done by one member of your box crew that does have access to caster/crafter?

I'm not really feeling your same pain in the spell hunt.  I tend to run 3 casters in most every case and have never left one tier for the next without having all my spells before I have all my gear.  Most likely a product of having 18 toons rather than good luck with spell drops, but still... haven't seen a major issue. 

Either way this falls I would prefer to see any additional game mechanic like spell research become an addendum to... rather than in lieu of the current system.

I think he was just referring to not having to use essences...

Also the mana costs would like invalidate a newbie using T7 spells.


-Hate

or just make it buy a item from the vendor in that tier to combine with.. therefore they could never really get anything higher then they are in.

Touché.


-Hate

Still cool still going to keep old way in? i.e. spell drop from mobs too?

Oh yes. This is basically an expensive IWANTITNOW option for people with cash to burn or people who have been stuck in one zone for far too damn long. (Case in point, I've only found 1 Shylo's Bolt of Doom in hundreds upon hundreds of kills.)


-Hate

Definitely this. Then whole idea and make the 4th part buyable from the tier it comes from. Keeping essences out of the equation is ideal.

I love this idea.  I don't know how many tokens I have gone through trying to get the paly T3 stonewall spell.

After more than 200 hours spent in The Abyss, the fiery passion of lol finally dropped for me. I almost felt bad i dont box a wizzy. The sad part was noone wanted it in /ooc either. This system looks like a great idea to me :)

Ok, I've got almost all the info I need collected and the layout setup. I am awaiting for one last batch of goodness to go live and a small collection of unused IDs (so I can build a turnkey setup). Once I get this info, I'll likely dump an entire day into writing the actual system. It won't take more than a day or so.

Here is what I have decided to do with the drops. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment now if anyone sees a problem here.

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Each recipe will take a class focus, a variety of elemental inks, and a tiered vellum.

The class focus should be 10% drop chance from ANY boss QVIC and on. This sounds like it would be easy to get, but one must consider that it's 10% chance for one of 12 classes. That's a fairly low chance (but across a ton of NPCs).

The elemental inks will be vendor bought for very little (5-50p a piece).

The tiered vellum will be NO DROP and bought from the zone vendors. This will prevent players from getting spells outside their respective tiers. This will be the huge cost component.

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The inks will vary with the spell. Pulling from my info, here are some examples:
Spell: Hateborne's Glacial Gift T6 Vellum, Frost Ink, Wizard Focus
Spell: Cloak of Anarchy T5 Vellum, Magic Ink, Disease Ink, Poison Ink, and Shadow Knight Focus
Spell: Breath of Nature II T3 Vellum, 2 Nature Ink, 2 Holy Ink, Druid Focus OR Shaman Focus

The last one is either/or since it's usable by both classes.



I will find some way to post all the recipes as it's simply too much to info to put into one of the in-game books or an in-game say menu.

Any questions?

-Hate

All the relevant data has been submitted to Hunter. It's now in his hands to read over, test, etc.

Assuming I didn't massively break something, it should be good to go soon. Bloody near all of it was made turnkey to expedite implementation. I'll keep this thread open until it goes live, then I'll lock this one up. If you have any questions, now would be the time to ask. :-D


-Hate

Good work Hate! I am really forward to a different way of acquiring spells.

When this goes live, any chance we can get an up to date listing of spells and their locations? I know some spells have changed and others have been added in between the first large sets of spells and now. Thanks.

Thanks HB! This is awesome!

Why not just take the No-Drop tag off spell scrolls and allow them to be sold?  Then you can /auction WTB "XX" spell for xx plat....?   Would take away the need for essences used on everything and make it so you wouldnt have to spend countless hours farming x spell.  Still looking forward to that new pet stonewall spell that you listed weeks ago=)

Essences aren't used for this. Bots could farm the scrolls. Bots can farm this too, but takes more effort. Scrolls can be stockpiled so heavily that they lose their value this way either.


-Hate