EZ Server

What the heck is going on??

For anyone who isn't aware, or isn't able to enter Veeshan's Peak yet, prior to this update, bosses were on a standard spawn and respawn timer, which included being popped in any new instance. I was of course aware of this, but did not properly take into account how voraciously people could farm them, Raulfer in particular. In hindsight this was a foolish oversight, as given the chance I would have done the same as a player. Nevertheless the amount of loot that was being generated from these bosses was definitely not intended, and required action. Locking out the zone was the quickest avenue for me at the time, as I was at work, and didn't have time, at the time, to implement and test fixes.

What are the fixes?

There were several changes made, most notably being that the bosses are now triggered at random by killing mobs throughout the zone, more difficult the mob, higher the chances of spawning a boss. Loot was largely left the same on the trash mobs, in fact several items were added to their loot tables that had been requested. There was also a small reduction in damage output of mobs across the board, so it should make it a bit easier to break into the zone, although the mobs will still take some time to kill, and are certainly still not easy.

So the big guys got us nerfed?

No, they simply exposed an issue that would have eventually presented itself anyway. Players who run large group have an advantage, and can steamroll their way through content, however they also have a lot more mouths to feed, and in order to maintain their advantage have an incredible amount of farming to do to completely outfit their teams for whatever content is next. While scaling sounds effective, because of EZ's ridiculous stats, it's not. I also don't feel that content should be made more difficult for larger groups, as that's simply punishing someone for doing something anyone else could do should they choose, run a larger group. Veeshan's Peak is not supposed to be easy, it's not required for any progression, it's designed for maximum gear equipped players to run through some relatively difficult content, and get some appealing loot. 6 man groups will have some difficulty if you are just barely squeaking in with the minimum 5 UA pieces, so some back farming may be required.

What else can we expect?

There will likely continue to be some tuning, both mob and loot, as well as spawn trigger odds. I know it seems easy, or you can say "it's just a few extra GSoA's floating around, what's the big deal? Just leave the loot alone!", but certain aspects of this server must be kept consistent, making it rain loot in a zone doesn't fit.

I think u did a great job with this zone Draca its challenging but not over the top hard and no DT is a BIG relief from sleeper.  Most things are dropping at a reasonable pace except the powerless rings.  Killed 50+ soul dragons and not a one.  At that rate I can finish mine in 6 months then the rest in a few years.  Please consider upping the drop rate on those, ty.
 

I have had 2-3 days hard farming and no rings drop. Today I got one off a Dragon and one off Raulfer... so they do drop, but variance can be a pain. Keep it up and they will pop, I'm sure :)

Any UCv4 sightings after the adjustment?

I've been at it every day, but I have yet to see one of those after tune. I did get a Flawless Gemstone today though. That's a first for me.

UCv4's are intended to be rare, it's an incredibly powerful item, and as it bypasses a substantial quest, it's rarity is intended. I have logs of the drops of the higher end items, and some have been higher or lower than they should be, others seem right in line with what I intended them to be. Adjustments will likely continue for another week, until I'm happy with where it's at.

Loot tuning is simple in theory, much more difficult in practice. Being as this is my 'practice zone', you guys get to learn with me!! Learning is fun!

I agree on this point, and the Powerless Rings have received an increased drop chance. Still not a common item, nor should they be, but should find them more frequently than before. This change was pushed to prod tonight.

/cheers

For anyone who doesn't pay much attention to the in-game changelog, here are the most recent additions (notations in red)
Also, re-download the server files for the new cleric spell mentioned in this list.


[Draca] [Spells] Necromancer spell Epidemic will now include Incisor of the Unholy IV as intended
[Draca] [Ogru] [Faction] Turning in a Hill Giant Eye to The Shady Swashbuckler will now give a faction increase for every character in raid -- this used to split a certain amount of faction amongst a group, and had a group sized limit, this was removed and replaced with a set amount of faction for all players in the raid.
[Draca] [Quests] Sunderock faction weapon collection quests now accurately report the number of weapons required as 100 instead of 50
[Draca] [Quests] 100 Boss List 5 of 5 in Abyss incorrectly listed Serras as a boss, when it should be Sarras. This has been corrected
[Draca] [NPC] Black Priest of Reanimation has been simplified, and should no longer crash the zone, or de-sync characters. --spawning this NPC is quite involved, and doesn't happen a lot, but the script for him was basically removed, so he's just a normal fight.
[Draca] [Spells] Ancient Stonewall and Warrior's Defense line of spells have a new icon. Newest spell file from VP release required.
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Script adjustments for door bypasses
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Corrected typo's in Phara Dar's dialogue
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Universal Teleporter now lists Veeshan's Peak as a custom zone
[Draca] [Sunderock] Repop point relocated out of the infamous tree
[Draca] [Items] Legendary Ring of the Ages I - IX click effect was misassigned, they have been corrected
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Bosses in VP are now spawned at random by killing other mobs in the zone
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Some of the mobs in VP have had their damage reduced
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Loot has been adjusted, with a few added items   -- there has obviously been quite a few loot adjustments, some are listed, some were minor, and are not
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Adjustments made to frequency of Rampage and Wild Rampage attacks -- now removed. Never intended it to feel like a Sunderock mass rez party, and Rampage does not tune very well.
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Spell orbs are now tradeable
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Adjustments made to hitpoints and damage of some enemies  -- primarily reductions
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Raulfer and Venril Sathir are now upset enough to say something when they are spawned
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Enraged drolvarg mother now has a 3 minute depop timer, was 2
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Enraged drolvarg mother will no longer attempt to avenge every pup's death
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Venril Sathir and Rallos Zek will no longer broadcast their disappearance serverwide
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Drop rate of several quest/spell items has been improved
[Draca] [Items] Master Essence of Platinum has been properly set to Lore/No Drop as it was intended to be.  -- these were added to the loot table as a bonus item, and had to be quickly adjusted as they dropped far too commonly. Current drop rate seem reasonable.
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak] Rampage and Wild Rampage has been significantly reduced on trash mobs, it was resulting in more grief than the strategy intended.
[Draca] [Spells] Cleric AE Healing spell 'Holy Cataclysm' now available through Veeshan's Peak spell orbs
[Draca] [Items] Due to the blocking of Ignore Death's effects in Veeshan's Peak, I have added in the ability to trade augments within that lore group. Speak to the Hive Queen. -- I know the alternatives are not amazing, but it's something.
[Draca] [Items] Powerless Ring of the Ages should drop a bit more frequently in Veeshan's Peak -- still by no means a common drop, but more frequently at least
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak][NPC's] Several of the higher end mobs in Veeshan's Peak may react differently to Mesmerize or Pacify-type spells.
[Draca] [Veeshan's Peak][NPC's] Removed tunnel vision special attacks from NPC's in Veeshan's Peak. Was having unwanted effects on fights. --tunnel vision should allow a mob to focus on one player character (tank preferably), and generate more hate towards that character. This was not working well in practice, and isn't necessary, so I removed it.

Is there a new spell file for the cleric VP spell?

Yes, here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SKGDWMHNdbNlrPwc0p9jb3NBFloR_4Gr

Will update the proper links on Monday. On a motorcycle ride this weekend.

Thanks for doing some tuning in VP, Draca.  I was going to make a post about it. Last week I was there and kept on wiping on one of the mobs which I could not get past (one of the dragons).  Was hoping 9 decently geared toons could get pretty far.  We'll see how it goes.

It's a much more enjoyable experience now. You should be OK with 9

Again Draca Kudos for VP and all your efforts to improve the server.  Another suggestion, could the bosses not poof if the raid gets wiped ?  VP is challenging with some of the single mobs that can wipe 24 chars almost immediately (think Sathir was the bus that hit me 3 times) - little timer that could say 5 mins to get back to zone ? Thanks

I think I will need another 3 toons minimum, Otto.  Still not enough dps it seems.  Makes me wonder if i'll even need more if Sam is wiping a ton with 24 lol