Zone Development Update - Tier 10.67

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[Draca]

Development Update:


As I said I would, I want to keep everyone updated with the development of Tier 10.67, and to put it simply, it's going quite well.

First off, thank you to everyone who responded with ideas for a different zone from Karnors Castle, I decided to go with Veeshan's Peak, and it's a much better space for sure. My original storyline remains in place, with a few modifications and additions.


Development wise, NPC's are all spawned in place, with a couple rough passes on combat tuning (they're challenging) already done. Spells are generally designed, however not yet available in the game. 1 of the 2 boss scripts is generally done, and functions as intended, with just a bit of tuning to complete on the encounter as a whole, and then complete the 2nd boss script. Itemization is planned, and several items are complete, again, with some possible tuning required.


I am sure that my process is not the most efficient, and I am learning a lot as I go, but I appreciate both the patience, as well as all the kind words people have had for me. EZ Server is an amazing community, it's bigger than any one person, and has been shaped by numerous developer/GM's over it's life, and I only hope I can uphold the standards to which everyone is accustomed too. More than that, I am absolutely enjoying this process, despite some steep learning curves.


My plan is have this available for open beta testing on November 1st, with Live release on Nov. 15th.



I want to thank the following people for their help with various stages of testing and opinions:

Miriya, Soron, Slippz, Tankus, Ogru, Natedog, Falconkick, Dimurwar and Icestriker

I appreciate all the help.

Venril could probably use a little help as well....



Maybe Rangers too...

[wachna]

Thx for the update draca. Looks promising. Just a bit too early for me.
But I think a lot of „old“ players will return in Nov to play 10.67 with their toons.

Will the requirements stay at 5 UA parts?

Edit: any recommendation about a possible group of toons to prefer zoning in there? With the low as hell drop rates of gss I (and many „newer“ players would habe to choose wisely which toon will get 5 ua pieces. As for example will there be some items for specific classes only or something like this? Will VP help to make casters great (again) pr is it just like always: melee shit down?

[Natedog]

I love this zone, hope it works well.

[Miriya]

To answer Wachna, it's most likely going to be a "Let's wait and see".

 I would just play the toons you enjoy and think would make a well rounded group.

[wachna]

Well I always liked my necro but as he doesnt do shit since many tiers he will fall back in order behind ranger or bard or crap like that.

Since GSS are needed 3 times for all toons to get into sleeper i have to devide if I want a full group to be able to join the fun or if I should focus on rogue and pally so that they can join my warrior and have fun

So it will be a) spending days/weeks in SR to get some GSS for many toons and decide for an order to enter ST and VP or
b) stop SR and gear Warrior, Rogue, Pally, Necro (why?) and Bard up as much as possible in ST to kill a little faster in SR

Mongo

[Miriya]

Mongo, one of my toons I just leveled up is a necro and i think he's awesome.  He's the only toon I will use for a SR ZP.  Once mobs are together, Death 4, Incisor. Epidemic and FD to clear aggro.  Does a ton of AoE damage.  He has UC3 and mana neck.  I don't use pet so not sure if mana neck is really beneficial.  In my younger days I grouped with someone who had 4 necros.... mobs just melted lol

But you're right, it's hard to know what class to spend on especially with the rarity of GSS's.  Some classes are surprisingly good.  We'll usually find out later on when someone tests and pushes the class to the limit.

Who said rangers can ZP and tank a zone?  /cough Falcon     We didn't know it could be done until it was done 

[wachna]

Have you tried ZPs with a necro before?
It wont work ... there will be nobody who can tank the mobs. If you FD (when it works) the mobs will turn around and attack each other.

The damage with death 1, 2, 3 and 4 (they stack) + incisor is not that much. It is a nice addition and fun to watch but that‘s it.
Your pet will get shattered by a gnoll in a sec.

So yeah... there is not much fun with a necro in higher tiers. i regret giving him 3 GSS to stand around in ST to get some loot which doesnt help at all. But he was my first character back in 2011 and I still got some love for him.

And that is why I really hope to get some caster improvements for VP and a possible T11 some day. This is also why I would not concentrate on nerfing stuff before balancing chars to a almost similar level of performance (with the needed gear of course).

As it stands right now I wont be doing VP for a very long time because I have to finish SR and ST first which will take many months with my play time/play style. But I hope to see many player returning to enjoy the zone draca designed.

[Draca]

Mongo, to answer your question, no there's no classes you will absolutely require. Mobs in this zone hit incredibly hard, fast and rampage, and have large hitpoint pools, so a class to tank, and some classes to spank, and a paladin of course.

[wachna]

Thx for info draca. So I know how I will continue playing after my vacation :-)

[gunson3]

I would like to help but don't think I will be available Oct. 17



                                       Soron

[Sarthin]

I wasn't sure where to post this. The 10.67 thread is a mix of a lot of stuff, including T11 ideas.

Let me start by saying that I am really happy that you decided to take it upon yourself to spend your spare time working on this sandbox, Draca. I hope you are as thick skinned and endurable as you say you are Speaking from personal experience, I know how easy it is to focus on the negative and in EZ's case being previously lack of new content and GM presence. We're lucky to have you aboard! Even though the EZ experience is different for everyone and we all plead our own cases at times, I am sure your work is greatly appreciated throughout the EZ community. Keep up the pace and good work

I loaded up my 27 characters on the test server last night and gave Veeshan a spin for a few hours. I am planning of spending the next days on and off the server testing for various stuff. I'll post my thoughts on the zone continuously as I test it in the coming days/weeks. I just got back into the game recently, so I have really no grasp on how close this instance is to the finished product already, all though from what I've seen so far, it seems solid. That's why I wanted to start off by saying that whatever suggestions I have for tweaks, adds, changes and what not, should not necessarily come first if they are deemed valid. I think I speak for all the people on the server when saying that the first priority is to get something fresh out as soon as possible, as long as it's working as intended. Various tweaks can always come at a later stage.

- First off, I love that I am being greeted by Phara Dar. I still remember how it felt like to finally kill him back in the days. As you've said yourself, this is your first real project for EZ and with that in mind I was not surprised that the zone setup was simplistic in terms of various npc's and quests. This is totally understandable. Makes sense to start off a bit minimalistic and work your way from there as you gain more experience with the work.

- As soon as I had exhausted the quest dialogues, I started killing. I am really happy to see the focus shift to smaller packs of mobs with high hp and dmg output. Get a bit of that old school feeling that even a few adds can mess you up seriously. Even with 27 toons, all of which are equipped with UW 10 to 12, UC and many with earring maxed, it took quite some time to kill mobs. It felt like I shouldn't focus on more than 2-3 mobs at the same time unless I wanted a wipe. The Iksars are especially angry, along with the enslaved dragons, which is fine I think. They aren't all clustered up together.

- I like the roaming npc's. I was (un)fortunate enough to get ambushed by one... with an enslaved dragon as a pet. I really love the work on those. Makes sense according to the story you've built. I would love to see more dragons enslaved, different models on them and make them a bit weaker than the ones you have currently added. The current ones are tough as hell, which is fine. Adding more of the same difficult is not what I am proposing. I'd just love to see more dragons in that zone, seeing that it's the dragon's lair originally.

- The loot table is encouraging for sure. It motivates me to continue through out the zone. I like that most corpses have something. Makes it feel rewarding to spend time on killing just one or two mobs. Maybe a quest or item recipes could be added to upgrade strike augments? One of the goals here is to work towards making your crew stronger to be more efficient in clearing the zone. Can't save everything for T11... won't come out ever then hehe.

- This NPC philosophy with high HP/DMG also encourages people to focus more on classes individual abilities and gives an incentive to upgrade those augments to get max out of your DPS. Also felt good to have to rearrange my healing, making use of my clerics, druid and shaman again and not just depend on riposte and auto pally heal. There are quite a few neat tricks to help you out if you have the right classes.. nothing game breaking at all and I won't divulge anything. People should experiment on their own with their classes abilities. It's part of the fun.

- I guess some people will break into VP with all their toons, but for quite a few players I guess they will start off much smaller. I do think the HP of the NPCs in the first section could be tuned a bit down. This to help people less fortunate in DPS/amount of flagged toons having a way to break in with new characters without relying only on T10 farming. The GSS drop rate is from what I can see around 1/10, so I totally get what you mean by making them more available. Like I said in an earlier post though, makes more sense to have a way of getting them without relying on trades or the tedious T10 farm. I've equipped 6 toons in full UA using T10 and many people have equipped a lot more..

I will keep adding stuff here when I got the time.

Good job!

[wachna]

Thanks for all the information. This is very helpful to imagine what VP will be.

What I still dont get: of a guy with 27 toons that are quite well equipped cannot complete the zone how is this even possible? Or are you holding back the information to not spoiler stuff?

I like the fact that more toons will get involved but this also leads me to my main question: how many toons will be needed?

Anyway I am hyped for VP like many of us. And I am sure Draca has done a great zone that we will enjoy for a long time

[Sarthin]

I don't recall saying that I couldn't complete the zone. I am pretty confident that I would be able to do that. I've only tested the zone for a few hours and I have overcome everything that I have challenged. I do move around in the zone without too much confidence though. I know a small mistake or blink or fail to heal can kill me pretty damn quick, so I'm a bit on the edge when playing there... which is a good thing. My goal is to test various things, not complete the instance.. that is unless Draca decides to let me keep the loot and transfer it to live 


Draca: the adjustments at first stage seems fine. Took about 1 min. for 7 toons killing one mob. I think it's fair now, considering not everyone will enter with a full team to begin with. I like the idea when a zone gets progressively harder further in. Reminds me of Sebilis back in the days. To begin with people were killing the easy frogs near entrance and moving further in when they got tougher.

[Sarthin]

how many toons will be needed?

Indeed that is a good question. It's probably a nightmare for a dev to balance anything on this server. We have a very wide range of players. Some I know have always just used one group, even to break T10. Some have 12 and some way over 20. I guess the approach is to tune it so you make sure a well balanced group of 6 could do it, albeit slow, while the more toons added the faster you clear stuff. Mobs still hits just as hard, so there will always be an inherent risk of dying. The bonus of more toons is a wider variety of tools to help smooth things out and make it more efficient.

[Sarthin]

Stage 2: Raulfers Elite Spectral Guard took me 5 minutes to kill

I used 7 toons, 5 warriors and two paladins. They all have UW12, Earrring maxed, UC v.3 or Gorgon's and full UA. It's not the most optimal group DPS wise, but still a bit long fight even though loot is good  

Edit: Took in all 27 toons and killed him again. This time I used 1 min. 23 seconds. So you see it's tough to balance.

Spending all that time leveling up 20+ toons should have it's perks too. That's a lot of time invested for sure.

Anyways, it's good to test things out on the general public. Tweaks can always come later based on feedback when live.

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