EZ Server

Ladies/gents/trolls,

I bring to you the first "Planned Updates" thread. These will be kind of a springboard for driving content innovation. We'll try to post these with some regularity, but there is no set date/pattern yet as it's obviously all brand new. The lists do not convey any form of importance by order, merely a list of items in no general order.

Very Soon:

• Necro "Death" Spell and Quest Line  ON HOLD
• Consistent, Tiered Platinum Gains  DONE
• Overthere PVP Tweaking ON HOLD
• (Almost) New Currency Introduction  DONE
• TOFS Tiered Platinum Gains (for real this time)  DONE
• T8 Hand-to-Hand Item Created/Added  DONE
• T8 HP Values  DONE
• T7 Wandering Trader made static with 100% uptime  DONE
• Spell Fixes  DONE
• Raise HoH Token Drop Rate  DONE
• MCP Lottery Turn In  DONE*

Bit Later:

• Epic 3.0+ Aug Conversions  DONE
• T9 Spells/Epic Augs DONE

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Very Soon, Detailed:
1 ) ON HOLD Necro "Death" Spell and Quest Line - More to come, no spoilers. ;-)
2 ) DONE: Plat has been added to T1/T2 bosses & minibosses, T3/T4 spawned bosses in airplane, and MUCH better t8 plat bag drops.
3 ) ON HOLD Overthere could potentially be a lot of fun, but right now it's kind of a weighted scale type of thing.
4 ) DONE: AAXP Crystal and the Credit Rework
5 ) DONE: Floor 5 and above has cash added. The Ice/Icy Shades are aggressive now too.
6 ) DONE: Item added and is dropping
7 ) DONE: T7 was a bit too high on a few things, T8 was too low on a few things. Both sides resolved.
8 ) DONE: He will appear 100% of the time right inside the zone.
9 ) DONE:: Various fixes
10 ) DONE: Increased drop chance by ~12% for tokens and 40% for charms.
11 ) DONE: Hunter did this months ago. Turn in 4, unstacked MCP tokens for 1 random boss. Props bossman.  :-)
 

Bit Later, Detailed:
1 ) DONE: http://ezserver.online/forums/index.php?topic=4227.msg53863#msg53863
2 ) Once the first item is resolved, the T9 augs will be trivially easy.

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With these threads, the biggest thing that is desired is feedback. If you feel we missed something or if something should be a high(er/est) priority, let us know and explain why. Simply demanding problem XYZ be solved because it annoys you isn't going to work for you.


-Hate

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EDIT: I've been informed that I should note that the lovely girlfriend (that has taken the moniker 'Loveborne') has written most of these queries so far. She has been taking an interest in SQL and is writing the queries (once I provide her with the data). So...thanks to her for helping me and for putting up with my shenanigans. <3

when you are fixing T8, anyway to clean up the loot tables, I am pretty sure that no one is looting the original TOV gear...just saying.

ToFS any way to look at the reason why I have 9 tofs II's in my bank and cant catch a break on a 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? its prolly just my bad rng tho :(

not sure what the T8 hp fixes are....scary?

who needs plat in ToFS? I want crafter's guild materials! ahhaha
no, serious, awesome thing to look into needs attention

I'd suggest removing the t1/t2 augs from t5 drops (they are a complete waste / annoyance there), and I would pose a serious concern about working on pvp at all.  There are 2-3 classes that will dominate pvp, and eq1 has pretty much always been terrible for pvp.  It could be used for special occasions or whatever, but balancing a zone around pvp just doesn't seem worth the effort to me (and never really worked that great before tbh)

Off the top of my head, I'd also look at getting fippy darkpaw to be a static spawn, its pretty annoying to go through 15 instances/spawns to get him up.

I don't think you'll get any arguments from anyone about this idea...

I would like to see an improvement of drop rate of the items required to make T9 armour, specifically the drops from Shadowed Men, Wisps, and Fish, as the numbers per spawn are very low compared to other mob types.

Potentially Sore Subject

I think finishing the UW aug system should be on the radar/high list.

For 2 fold, It has been awhile since the nerf and I think people will want to have worked on it for some time.

I also think it ties in with the epic changes and item diversify direction and hp reduction on higher tier damage.

My suggested fix/new UW system

Revert to old recipes, given hp nerfs etc and clicky nerfs I think this fits.

Implement aug recipes built around the 10k/50k exp tokens that incorporate some of the stuff from the new recipe, EoFS essences, 10mil plat sinks, EoN, with some more variety.

Since the UW as is becomes mostly a shell to customize I think this fits, and will create a larger demand for EoFS of all levels because more recipes will utilize it, and i think it will accomplish the ultra rare vision of Hunter's for the highest/most powerful augs if the recipes are done correctly.

This makes getting an UW easier again, because it is also less powerful, and the ship has sailed on it being uber rare.  If done correctly could make making it a true ultimate weapon a rarity with maxed out augs.

I know it is a sore subject, but I wanted to put this out there.

T1 essence drops.   Doesn't seem to be working properly...155 turn ins over the last couple days and only 1 essence.   Got 1 essence from 100 fires and 0 from 55 waters.  RNG sucks  :)

T8 1h have less HP than some of the T7 items. I was too conservative with the HP.



Right now it's lopsided towards rangers -> warriors -> anyone else. Looking at something a bit more chancey. Would like to create a small patch of ~10 chests that stay invulnerable for 3-8 minutes. When they spawn, server sees message. When they go vulnerable, zone sees a message. While invulnerable, it becomes somewhat king of the hill. They won't be close enough that 1 aoe lets you kill them all, but likely close enough that a ranged character will not be able to drop most of them from the center of their spawn (which will be in one of several places in the zone).  Chests will have 1hp, 0 all-resist. This way anyone on has a small shot at it. Yeah some stupid high ranger/warrior will likely try to charge you over it, but even lowbies have some chance at stealing something.


T9 needs to be looked at as a whole. I'm somewhat unsure about the zone as I was focusing so hard on T8 that I never got up to T9.



This is another shitstorm for another day. It is on the radar, but not in that sense. Don't worry though, weapons aren't going to be jacked/nerfed/removed. I'm a dick, but I'm heartless. :-)



This and HoH tokens were part of that damned UW server-wide nerf. To slow people from obtaining UWs faster, ALL essence/token rates hit the floor. Over time, going to bring them back up into a useful state.

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Added one more item to list above!


-Hate

I still say the easiest way to manage UW difficulty is to make a completely separate essence chain to farm to get the 100. Having UW and other, pretty much mandatory crafters hall goodies share the core essences, then ratchet down drop rate really punishes newer players just trying to get their foot in the door. Would be better to see the UW quest with more separation from the others, IMO.

The UW itself is a giant problem that will need to be addressed at one point anyway. The server-wide nerfs to slow UW production will be lifted/corrected in a gradual fashion (to prevent essence flooding and overnight loss of value).


-Hate

Please don't do this!  lol   lots of us out there have been working way to hard to get what we have now.   For instance, since money does not drop anywhere anymore,  i finally have the essences needed for lvl 1 and 2 but don't have 20million pp!   It would really suck to lose every bit of progress made and lose 100's and 100's of essences because of the crazy requirements get changed to make it even more crazy by having to start all over.

Hello peeps

Here are some ideas that would get me back into the game.  Don't expect everyone to agree, but these are my desires that I can think of:

1. Make content for 1 group max.  I personally don't enjoy having to log in 2 groups just to attempt breaking into T8.  If somebody wants to log in 2 groups to DPS stuff down faster so be it, but content shouldn't be designed that way. Saying "why don't you find people to group with" is silly... there's a reason we all 6box+ as it is.  T7 boss takes either the correct UW, or almost 2 groups..  That is silly.

2. UW - There's half a dozen avenues to pursue.  I guess going back to the pre-nerfs a few months back would be most desired.  We should get rid of that mindset that only X amount of people should own one, because thats not how it works in reality.  Design the game around owning a UW.

3. Get rid of that deathtouch trigger at the entrance of TOFS floor 8 or whichever floor it is.

4. Make Loping Plains a little longer of a repop.  It's great that some people can clear it that fast, but for breaking into the zone it is not fun fighting bosses with repops.  If people want to slaughter that zone, then they can repop it.

5. That Ninja aug.  Don't remember if this got changed or not.  Chasing down a 8 hour repop was not good.

5a. Threat rolling over should be fixed, not earned.  That is a server/EQemu issue, not something players should have to buy or farm. I'd  add Ninja or similar item to Noobie Vendor.

6. SoA - reverting a lot of the changes that made it a PITA.

7. PVP - How many people PVP on an even remotely frequent basis to warrant effort put into changes?  I never understood the focus there and am confused why this would continue.    


Thats all that comes to mind..  been gone a few months so I cant think of too much.  Will keep editting in ideas.

Some good items on this list, I'll add one more that I know quite a few people agree with.

Put very limited time and resources towards PvP, I know it was near to Hunter's heart, however, the majority of the server has little to no interest in it and every time I see effort put in to PvP, it is like throwing resources to address 1% of the population vs the 99% of us who couldn't care less about it.

Edit- Just realized marxist said something similar, my bad, but I second eliminating or not paying further attention to PvP

Edit 2 - Hate, put numbers instead of bullets on the top list, then you don't have to go back up and count down the bullets to realize which point you were just reading about :P

I have to agree with the Loping plains repop. Breaking in my dps was unable to clear the zone b4 repops... i still can't. I can get halfway with 2 groups before I start to see them again. I think the short respawn is better designed for zones such as ToFS which i think is perfect. This should be on par with anguish imho.

I know you told me it's a step away from impossible, but I would love to see if Akka could get the auras going.  :-X

Oh and eh... last thing... i know we all love the old zones... but with the options available I would love to see the newer zones implemented into progression. ToV zzzzzzzzz ugg. Didn't we all spend enough time there when we played live?

Also need to make your post look like Skittles have exploded all over your post like Hunter did

So this is why I am ripping my hair out spending 5 + hours a day in HOH for little to no tokens in result to all of the time spent? It took a good 45 hours of farming to get 600 tokens which equaled out to 46 essences. Glad to know there is a reason it went to shite, hopefully it does get back to being reasonably instead of the current state it seems. Thanks for the info on that Hate!

we want mo money. thx

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. You can't build content around the UW at the current state. I think Hunter was on to something when he was wanting to knock back the HPs from IX + , there are way tooo many HPs and DPS involved in that item. Building content around that would be absolutely ridiculous , not everyone has the hundreds of hours involved in 1 part of it just for another rank. It's better to be Ultimate and if you get it great, if not that's more resource time going into your DPS group.

I hate to put it like this, but currently content is built around UW. ask anyone T8+ if they need or don't need UW10/11

When I first proposed this the idea I had was to allow, for a time, trading old essences for new. This way no one was out anything.

I don't think changing the quest for UW is the best idea, I think the problem lies with the UW itself, and probably shouldnt have been created.  Best bet imo to fix it at this point is to cap it off and not upgrade it anymore, people can still max out what exists and make a kick ass aug (can look at reducing hp or whatever if it helps with creating and balancing content).  I don't think the dps from the weapon is really game breaking, most players that I'm aware of use 2+ groups at higher stages, and with max augs or even adding another group, dps is high regardless of having or not having the uw.  This is just an idea to make it so balancing content around a UW is no longer required, and leaving it so it will still be worth having, please comment if you have any thoughts on implementation, whether you agree or disagree, alternate ideas, etc.

UW was not hard to get before the nerfs.  If UW/SoA and whatnot is reverted, it will not be hard, trust me.  People literally knock out UW1-4 in a weekend now.. and that's post-nerf.  

You cant build content around NOT having a UW, it makes it too easy for those (those = 99% of veterans here) that have the weapon. You say there are way too many HP in the item, try tanking T8 without one when you die in 4 seconds, it is not fun.

simple facts of UW:

1. it is required for end content
2. anyone mention UW and people get on the edge of their seat nervous
3. if it changes people get super pissed

it is what it is, really. quest is long, quest sucks and people know they need it so that makes it suck more

I am out of town right now but when I get back I have a few ideas to throw out there. Lot of good ideas in here.

i am a casual

UW has never been an option to me in my mind. i wouldn't mind bleeding edge content require UW. please dont make UW a requirement for zone X if zone X is not the current top tier zone.

i know people put a lot of time in to their UW and i respect that. It is hard to balance around it. i am glad i only play the game. i don't have to program it to make everyone happy.

game breaking > UW > Epic

its tough to change UW because a lot of people have donated money myself included to make theirs. Its not just a time effort but real donations.

Ladies/gents/trolls:

Save the UW discussion for another thread. This will be addressed in a VERY open manner in a month or so. For now, just leave it be and focus on the original post.


-Hate

Saying UW isn't needed for progression is like saying vehicle transportion is not needed by anyone to get to work. It's a mythical utopian universe you are living in.

I had a nice long post typed up before this was posted, but it looks like that will be going in a word document for now.

Sorry Hate wasn't trying to beat the hornets nest.  I removed my post.

Tankdan, just remember that a lot of people progressed into t8 with no UW, so your statement is flawed.  Also, that analogy for transportation, is way off and incorrect.  There are millions on this planet that walk to work everyday.

But I will digress and let everyone know I wasn't trying to troll.

Fuzzy,

Don't worry friend. I am not upset at all. Just trying to keep conversation on topic and in a positive direction. There will be plenty of aggression/pissing/shouting/puppy-kicking when it comes times to address the UW. :-)

You also don't need to hide/remove your posts. No one is going to get crucified or punished.


-Hate

My post copied from the 2-10-14 update thread with some changes:

Remove all coin from T1+ mobs, make bags stackable.

Tier1/ToFS1:            (10k)  Tiny Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 25% Key Mob
Tier2/ToFS2:            (20k) Small Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 25% Key Mob
HoH(T3)/ToFS3:       (40K) Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 100% off Shadow, 25% Key Mob
AirPlane(T4)/ToFS4: (40K) Plat Bag. XX% drop off bosses, 25% Key Mob
Tier 5/ToFS5:           (50k) Big Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 100% off White, 50% Key Mob
Tier 6/ToFS6:           (75k) Large Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 100% off OMM,50% Key Mob
Tier 7/ToFS7:           (100K) Giant Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 50% off Greed, 50% Tserrina & Advisor Svartmane
Tier 8:                      (150K) Enormous Plat Bag. XX% drop off trash, 100% off Vulak
Tier 9:                      (200K) Hunter's Wallet: XX% drop off trash. Lore for Hunter's Wallet should be: "It's the one that says, Bad Motherf-er"

XX%= The current drop rate of plat bags in T6.



Some random updates I wanted to ask for but never got around to, figured I'd throw them out there and you can add them if you agree whenever you get a chance.

Make stackable: Crafter's Guild Ores, Essence of Norrath.
Small chance(3%?) for Magical Blue Diamond ore to drop from T6+ bosses.
Add the Guardian's Charm focus onto Ultimate Charms.
I had a couple others but can't remember them now.

some of you might have noticed that Qvic drops the 76k plat bags occasionally. I was seeing around 3 of them every 2 clearings.

It is important to note that even people in Qvic/CT era need plat. I think the 76k plat bags are too much for that level, but they do need something worthwhile.

This will help them afford crafters guild and get their first strike augs going. It would also help them buy higher tier drops from other players which is nice for everyone.

the amount of plat in the bags is irrelevant if the drop rate is set properly.  also, can we get plat bags to be stackable?

ohh ohhh stackable!!!

can I +78 that?

I disagree. Amount of plat and drop rate matter. I would rather clear the Qvic bosses and get a couple of lower qty plat bags / reset then have to go out of my way to kill mobs for a higher chance at getting that 1 plat bag in the zone with more plat qty.

In the long run, it doesn't matter, you'd end up getting the same amount of plat. But yes, the illusion of 'yay, a plat bag' I guess can be addicting to some minds

Gems drop like candy in Qvic.  Use those to sell and make strike augs.  Making low tier strike augs is frigging DIRT cheap.  When you get t4+ is when it starts to get pricey. And is pointless to start working on UW when you first start out on server so that is not a useful argument either.

Plat drops are fine through t6....they need to be really looked at from t7 on....mainly in t8-9. Hunter made mobs in HoH drop big time plats not too long ago so that zone is fine...t5 drops small to large plat bags and t6 drops plat bags like crazy.

I literally either think that or say that every time i click on one lol.

and the longer it takes to get one the more rewarding it can be. moderation is the key to happiness

Not just an illusion.  Most MMO's are basically run by

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

not a single junkie ever took this approach lol

And not one true junky is ever truly happy.

I have not read all the posts so I do apologize if I ninja’d some ideas.
I agree with the previous posts that PVP is getting more attention than necessary. I would suggest putting it to a vote and let the community decide just how much work should really go into it.
I would like to see the blue diamond plate get rolled back to “anyone can use it to level your character status”. It would be great to put the “easy” back into “EZ”...at least until level 70.
I would also recommend making the UW be tier’d to the zone you are in and the stats match accordingly. For example after the initial starting quest, you would 25 Qvic essences and 1million plat for level 1, maybe 50 CT essences and 1.5 million plat for level 2 and so on.  Until you get flagged for a zone you cannot use the weapon if you progress the weapon beyond the tier you are flagged for. As new zones are introduced the weapon would be increased in stats to match the progression of the zone. Even add an Epic slot at T8 or T9 so you don’t feel like you have wasted time in the Epic quests.
I would also like to see jail be active in the public zones and the aggro increased to 20 mobs, if this is possible.
I think most of us get that not everything will be balanced at all times but the constant messing with items that have been worked for, is very annoying.

Got any specific examples of recent items being continually adjusted?


-Hate

Hate youre not posting with skittle colored text. Go spend some time with bubba and reflect upon your mistake.

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Got any specific examples of recent items being continually adjusted?

-Hate

i love to see a revamp of Kael Drakkel or Dragon Necropolis

i would also love to see another zone like  ToFS where all level of progression can enjoy.

Wow, great first post...  EZ never meant easy, and it is already painfully easy to go from 1-70...

Hehe that's something Hunter and I discussed. In the coming months, you will see a few of them pop up. Optionals are fun :-)


-Hate

/veto dn.

DN is x900734 better than Kael.

Especially if there is a teleporter to the zone. Getting there was half the battle

Not specifically those zones but more optional content zones.


-Hate

I will cry if you do either of those zones as a progression. Optional I wouldn't mind, but progression total 2 year old baby tantrum.

*edit* I do enjoy the idea of a faction grind....

One thing that comes to mind is the mana neck. it was trade-able, then wasn't. then was, now not again i think. was just a large canni to help with mana, now it is like a NS aug for pets. the first time it was made not tradeable, i decided not to touch it for awhile. i knew some people who go it stuck on wrong toons.

and not so omuch one specific item more fog of change. not here to gripe, just listing a few of the changes in last few months. the WW off of t7 bp. the change in recipe for UW. the drop rate of essences ( esp t7, down then up then wayyyy up then wayyy down) there was a point there back in nov/dec you literally had to check the boards every other day atleast to see changes, for fear of being banned for something new, see what the new nerf was or how to get around.

please don't take this as a specific gripe to any one of these changes. you asked what has been changes and this highlights some key points and feelings. 

I agree with this, but just remember, ToFS was optional to begin with and now its pretty much required since Hunter decided to make resists a thing. I may be the only one but I hate ToFS, especially farming up resist stones for a group so I can reasonably hunt in there.

That was a misunderstanding of Hunter and a player. Some one tried to spin off that it was some kind of exploitative @#%$&. It was not the case and I got him to fix them (...twice).



WW was, as I've stated dozen times, was due to level gaps. I had to set the amount to an extraordinary amount due to the level gaps (70 vs ~80s). The mobs ignored so much of it at the time of the ability's creation that it HAD to be stupid high. While I was MIA, Hunter changed the level on the players and lowered the mobs. When I got back, I NEVER thought to check on again. So...yeah, I'm sorry for that one again but when Hunter changed levels it DID jack up my original setup.
[/quote]




That's quite alright, I didn't take it as such. Part of that was me, part was Hunter, and then a few nuts thrown in as well. Barring the first month or so where we get a handle on things and correct a few longstanding issues, things should be more consistent and stable.

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Thank you for the info though. It was nice to see some specifics instead of generalized posts.


-Hate

Yeah... I'm aware :-\

Hunter and I spoke numerous times about this very thing. Something will eventually be done to address it, but it will not be in the immediate future (next 30 days).


-Hate

It would be nice if there were parallel optional zones

Maybe resist stones drop in 3 zones instead of 1.  Maybe there are equivalent mobs in the 3 zones for essences, maybe there is a rot like vendor that trades different zones into what you need, or get renamed to Master essence with several sources of ~equal difficulty/time commitment.

I was working the Tserrina/Advisor camp of late, and that is the most boring camping experience I have ever experienced in all of my EQ experience on any server.  Just my opinion

In short would love an alternative to climbing ToFS.

Speaking of TOFS, just a tiny thought:

can we make the lower tier (1&2) Heroic Resist stones stackable?

This ... that is all!  (good idea bud :) )

ya it would suck to lose some of those zone to progression as i'm just starting T5... and that took me forever .. as i do not have a lot of play time.

I'm not sure how hard it would be , but maybe make some of the classic zones like  Kael Drakkel, Dragon Necropolis, spit paw, running eye / Beholder, solusek .Karnor, and Seb to name a few.
where you can make an instance with way point as raid only, with the option of picking from what level you would like ... Cazic to T9 level for the AAXP grind, if possible the option where it can drop some of the loot from that tier ... essences, resist, charms, pages, and some jewelry.

 

I like the idea of alternative grinding/farming zones.  Would be awesome to pick the difficulty and with that difficulty the mobs drop that tier essence, tokens, resists etc at perhaps a lower rate. Change in scenery to the usual farming zones (TOFS, T6, HOH, etc).

I think that might be difficult, due to the specifics of each tier.

For example t6 has 15 bosses

t7 has the intrigue spawning systems.

t5 has the kill task

I think if you only are farming essences or plat it would work but most people still need the drops for uc2 from t6.

Interesting idea might be hard to implement, or go unused unless you only need the essences from that tier.

I was thinking of it as more of an AAXP grind and the bosses of those zones would only drop essences, resist, charms, plat bags, Jewelry and maybe some pages for that tier, not necessarily progression pieces or an alternative for those tiers.

would be nice to revisit some old zones ... and have fun reminiscing

Fair, it would be a cool system.

i was also thinking may making lower Guk a high level, ... say PoStorms or a bit below that ... make farming for the fighter / caster guild stuff a bit more interesting

That wouldn't work.

You need to get the caster/fighter guild stuff BEFORE you get 2.5 and BEFORE you can do QVIC. Meaning you need to go from point A to point C to get to point B.


-Hate

PoStoms is before you do Potime 1.5 ...so that would still below Qvic

PoStorms = Plane of Dragons.  :-P


-Hate

I was thinking BoT .... not sure how i mix that up

(http://thereyouare.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/left-turn-at-Albuquerque.jpg)

Stonehive for a comparable Aug resist zone ! Random weapon skins and maybe some random stuff ??

Oh and valdeholm for next progression!!! Love that zone

Stonehive, not big enough or complex enough for my tastes.
Valdeholm is much better and has been added to my list for real estate to consider "building property on".  ;)


-Hate

Yea, was thinking stonehive for a resist only type zone since it's small but pretty!

o.0. could make charm upgrades all stackable + tradable, possibly turn them into a currency for players and possibly expand on that for other quest ideas + recipes, etc. (they are worthless to higher end players a lot of the time)

A few of my favorite zones:

Riftseekers Sanctum (OOW exp). Plenty of mobs, plenty of named, good layout.
Stillmoon Temple (DoN exp). Good sized zone, deep encounters, looks good.
Thundercrest Isles: Same as above, more mobs
Crystallos (SoF exp): GREAT raid zone, lots of fun.....not huge but enough to keep ya busy.
Toskirakk: (SoD exp) Huge, lots to kill, great layout.
Korascian Warrens (SoD exp) Lots to kill, complex, great opportunities for traps and nasty surprises.
Kernagir, the Shining City (Underfoot) Good size, lots of mobs, looks amazing

There are others, but these are some of my favorites that some players may have never seen (later expansions).

ashengate, frostcrypt, solteris, ssra temple for new raid zones.

I also like the idea of revamping some leveling zones, though I would want them to be a non-tier/raid zone; lower guk (would have to figure out a fix / remove lguk loot from fighter / caster guild), lake of ill omen and maidens eye come to mind

Can we see about allowing combines of 2 or 3 V1 charms into a V2 charm?  It will make grinding out a UC more reasonable.

Or possibly upping the rate of v2 charms in HOH slightly...

I'm a middle of the road UC T4 geared epic 4.0 Strike 7 guy.. I usually box 3 or 4.. but as far as progression goes.. man.. Getting those suckers up to to 1200 resist just to get into TOFS's 3rd level was a chore and it's still dicey at times.. I couldn't imagine trying to navigate TOFS 3 for v2s.... without Strike 7s... without UCs... without 4.0s... Without T4 gear.. and I'm extremely gimp by server standards these days..

So if you're newer to the server and grinding your way up... You pretty much need UC toons to (ESPECIALLY since you won't have the dps of higher level augs)... to... to.... farm up UCs?

How does that make any sense? I get the idea that the T7-T8 guys need to plow HOH for tokens and you don't want to make it easier on them to get their UC2s and such.. But making V2s practically non-existant in HOH (the ... natural...progression...zone...for.....V2s...) just provides a gauntlet people without elite gear can't run.

I'm  not sitting here saying 'zomgz make HOH v2 candyland'.. I'm just saying TOFS3 (and really.. 4... People needing to make UCs for their core toons aren't spamming down TOFS3 bosses..) isn't terribly feasible. Now the second floor is candyland once you hit 1k resists, but slowly building stones (and still only amassing v1s) isn't going to help you much in TOFS3 (where there still isn't a whole hell of a lot of v2s).

Just something to consider for the little guys. I've grinding my way up to 1.2k resists on 4 toons in a couple days and i'm meandering through the bottle neck.. but the guys coming up behind me arent going to have full T4.. 4.0+s... UCs... meaningful ROAS.. Full Strike 7 augs.. etc.. And they are going to hit a wall.....

Just an example: when bored I spam down Heavens Avatars in repop instances on my monk while i spam down willowisps with my warrior (who's still only about 4/5s done with his UC.. And I usually can finish 2 SLSs before i see a single charm drop. And thats about 3-4 heavens clears (i could kill faster, but sometimes i like just two boxing).. Maybe thats bad RNG but that's one v2 per hundred Heaven Avatars on average. Or one v2 per 20 greater lightstones (and i gotta repop instances when i pop ancient wisps and i chase 'em around to level ground and smack em so its not a constant /tar /stick AFK bot fest)...

Just please consider it. Making things more annoying for the backtracking top tier players is something you have to weigh in.. But you shouldn't completely trample the new and unwashed masses trying to progress from scratch, either. A monkey hitting keys randomly could get 100 v1 charms in a day.. but it'd take him weeks upon weeks to finish a single UC if he has to resort to TOFS 3/4.

If you're gonna allow combining V1's into V2's (which I do not recommend) then make it a sizable number of V1's. Ten wouldnt bother me, to be frank.....V1's are ridiculously easy to get now, which is fine (early players need the help compensating for all the beefed up changes in the game to offset UW, UC, etc). At the very least I'd say 8 v1 per V2.

The path to a UC shouldnt be wide and bump free.

v1s will not be usable on v2 level combines. That part will stay. Some of the damage done because of the server wide adjustments due to the UW will slowly be undone. HoH will see some small bumps to make it less ridiculous. Avatars of Heaven have not been a charm sweet spot in many months (Hunter removed it).

ToFS is a faster form of charm farming for those with the gear/levels to do so. It was not intended to become the primary/only source (but, due to UW and their global nerfing effect, it did). Many before you have done the resist grind and will do so after you. Hunter and I did discuss a few tweaks to make it slightly less...ridiculous.

As for the "little guys" bit, things are easier than ever right now. V2s are a bit awkward, I will admit. v2s aside, the grind is much easier than it was previously. Characters are much stronger and more durable than when I did my first two UCs. My SK was missing ~10 sorc and ~10 brawler when I reported a pet exploit that Hunter gave me a UC code for. Obviously I could have just finished the UC on my SK and use the awarded one on another character, but I chose for the immediate benefit to tank. I also want to point out that my SK did not have ANY stonewall from level 1 to about one fifth of the way done with T5. I was clearing through HoH (which had decent drop rates) with a single group, doing 1-2 avatars per pull.


tl;dr - I'm aware, gimme time to get situated and start tweaking thing slowly. To school, in snow, uphill, both ways, etc


-Hate

A UC is much faster the better you get at farming in terms of gear and method. Don't simplify it too much, tofs already allows you to practically finish one in a day

Ya V2 really suck ... I'm still working on my resist .. Is  3  level of ToFS allot better the HoH?

Yes. 5 is the best, but I wouldnt do 5 til your whole team was 1600+ resists.

Hate could you possibly increase the spawn time in loping plains. Plllzzzzzz

Suggestion for the Easy Experience v1/v2/v3 items:

-Make an upgrade available for the difference in credits between each level, similar to how the UCs are on the Reward Item Vendor. For example, create a v2 upgrade for 250 credits, which can be combined with the v1 Easy Experience Item for a v2 Easy Experience reward item. Likewise, a 500 credit v3 upgrade to be combined with the v2 easy experience item. That way the items would build into each other and not penalize you for buying the first one before the others came out.

You aren't penalized. If you buy rank one and want to move up to rank two, email me. We can simply correct that with some intervention, much the same way that Hunter would have done it. Though a combine friendly route will be devised.     

-Hate

if you buy the easy experience v2 and have allready V1, then  you have to pay only 250 EZ for the v2, I dont see any penalty in it  :)

Slot 21 add to Tserna Staff ??

Fantastic; didn't know that was an option.  :)

Oh, agreed totally. Once you are set up TOFS 3-5 would be an amazing way to farm charms and resists for your new boxes.

The only issue is if you aren't set up at all and trying to actually progress as a newer player and HOH isn't a place where charms drop (adjusted for token reasons) and TOFS3 is just... a completely ugly place until you get 1300+ resists and at least T4 4.0 UCs on tanks/heals.

And it'll get adjusted. I admit its superhard with all the overlap in content/resources for so many of these zones thats its hard to make it possible for the lower tier players, without making it exploitable by those in much higher tiers backtracking for essences/tokens/armor/pages/etc. for their new boxes. Luckily better minds than mind are here to tackle that issue eventually :)

btw - if making hero stones stackable is a pain in the rear, maybe eliminate the middleman and allow 8 hero 1 stones in a magic box to be combined directly into a single heroic 4 stone. I thought of this while combining stones from jail, true story. (i totally spaced waypointing into guild instance... call it double loot fever lol).

That already works.

This is where I’m at ... I have fully geared  12 toon with T4 and 4.0, and 100s of token in the bank, with only 1 UC completed, 1 just about done ... needs 10 more sorcerers and 10 more guardians, then 4 toon with there main charm at 31

Now I’m working on resist, my war at 1150 ATM, I’m going to bring him 1200 before I start the 3rd floor … see how that goes

I have been told to do my UC and  strike augs.  Before T5 … but at this point I think I’m just going to go for T5 as is and work on my resist and gear for the 5th floor to finish off my other UC

This thread has been moved to updates and the original post will be updated as things are completed. Keep an eye on these for updates.


-Hate

Nearing completion.


-Hate

10 ) DONE: Increased drop chance by ~12% for tokens and 40% for charms.

Thanks!

2 ) DONE: Plat has been added to T1/T2 bosses & minibosses, T3/T4 spawned bosses in airplane, and MUCH better t8 plat bag drops.


-Hate

first, not complaining.
second RNG .. yeah yeah yeah ...

not sure what your definition of "alot" is, but i made 500k from t8 tonight. got more scales than plat bags. 500k is better than 0 ...
but not enough to even upgrade one aug from 2 clears. : (

sigh enough of this QQ bullshit..Every damn day its QQ this QQ that. It is a joke to make $$ in this game. (and I don't even sell shit to players)

I'm on a T8 Clear and pushed over 2M already

2 runs and you expect to upgrade everything, I want to stay in QRG and kill the Test Dummy and loot T9 Essences..

Can't run a straight line to the bosses and expect perfect drop rates and mad lootz

can you do that now? gonna go try

Me too  ;D

not QQ'ing, whi i started with "not complaining".
i realize the plural of anecdote is not proof. just trying to provide perspective.
it is a little depressing, that to raise plat to do aug upgrades, T6 ( or possibly T7) is still the most efficent place to go, requiring you to backpeddle to be productive.
this breaks the trend. some plat in t1/t2. 200k or so per HoH clear. 400-500k per T5 clear. 700-1.2m for T6.
then a slap in the face in T8, 0 plat for longest time, now my 1 data point says 500k.
i won't complain till i have cleared t8 10+ times with consistently getting sub 1 m per clear.

Just because it's the furthest progression zone does not mean it will be the highest yielding cash zone. With 10 or so clears, you could see roughly 3-5 EBDs drop. That's a considerable boost to your average income. :-)


-Hate

Also wanted to thank you, Hate, for getting rid of all the trash loot in T8 as well.  Thanks for streamlining this tier.

Updated list. Only two items left on the first planned updates thread!


-Hate

In O.T. you could always look at making a reward currency for pvp. Overload the mobs in the zone forcing you to choose a faction. 2 factions. Each side has kill quests and collection quests. Rewards of high end hp/mana food, hp augs, strike augs, and random items for rewards off a vendor. Could use the LDON system for it, some how. Nothing over powering but an alternative to farming up essences in zones to create those strike augs for lower end players. Wouldn't go past V's for rewards though.

I know you put it on hold but just throwing it out there. Kinda follows the model of most pvp in games today.

Not a big deal at all - but wandering trader in Loping Plains will despawn from the entrance if you spawn another one from a trap. Easily resolved by creating an instance, but thought I'd post it anyway.

Thanks for all the hard work Love & Hate.  Yes, I put the GF first because it sounds better than Hate & Love :)

Thanks for the info. I just updated the timer info for him. He should be static. Only downside is that it may spawn multiples. I will rewrite the script soon enough. Working my way through them all.


-Hate

Just brought up new toons and with 2 4.0's on the bard and a 4.0 on the cleric they cant get flagged for T5... just wondering if its  the 4.0 aug that wont trigger the flag?

Working on that now. Sorry for delay :-(


-Hate

UPDATE: Temporary fix in place for Abyss flags. Tested fairly thoroughly. Permanent fix expected this evening.


-Hate