A Different Methodology for Equipment Changes

A forum for discussion of the object changes...one thread per item please. Read the first post!
Mikar Darkraven
Sojourner
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2002 5:01 am

A Different Methodology for Equipment Changes

Postby Mikar Darkraven » Thu Nov 20, 2003 6:51 am

Hey all,

I just poked in to the mud and saw the equipment changes. I am not an active player as of late, and I do not know the full extent of the changes, but did have a few quick comments.

First off, I think lessening hps across the board was/is a good idea. I recall being in groups where after a spellup, only 2-3 people in the group would have less than 900 hps (i.e. the rogues, and rangers). Unless something REALLY went wrong, you were pretty much cruising through zones. The challenge no longer became one zone, but how many zones you could string together in a few hours. It made for some fun mudding, but the players were a bit too powerful.

And now for my main thought. One thing I dislike about equipment balances is that it always seems that 2-3 zones get picked as the uber zones. The result is you ask someone to do a zone that is a high-level zone but not one of the uber zones, and you get the response "That zone sucks. There is nothing good there." From what I hear, Seelie, SPOB, and Muspel were the picked uber zones for this go around. This to me is no coincidence, because whenever new zones have been introduced into the mud in the past, they have always had the best equipment until a new zone goes in that has better equipment and the endless cycle continues. Is Seelie or Muspel anymore difficult than Manscorps or MD? I don't know the answer to that because I have not been around, but I would presume not. The only difference is that they are newer and less known by the mass of players, at least for now. But people will learn them more and more, and the zones will be done to death until that equipment is the norm and is considered to be out of balance. By assigning a point system to each zone, you cause the player base to do the zones with the highest points more often, thus flooding the high point zone's equipment into the mud and in essence reducing the value of that equipment, which in turn reduces the points assigned to that zone. Then what? Downgrade again and the cycle will be repeated.

It is unfortunate that people rarely do Jotunheim anymore except to check rares. It is unfortunate that goodies very rarely go into underdark to fight the drow, duergar, or kuo-tan. It is unfortunate the other unique and interesting zones like Drulak Castle, Labyrnth of No Return, Astral Plane, Air Plane, Citadel, etc. are very rarely done. This mud is going on 10+ years of code, and one of the true beauties of TorilMud is without a doubt the diversity of the zones. Why do you have level 50 players that have the best equipment in the game but have only done 5 zones the whole time they have mudded? You have to ask yourself, what is more important. . .to have balanced equipment that makes the player base do the same 2-3 zones over and over again, or to balance the equipment in such a way that makes the player base have to do ALL the high level zones.

A better method might be:
1)Make a list of all the high level zones
2) Make a list of all caster/fighter equipment slots
3)Evenly distribute the best items in the game throughout the high level zones. Make sure each zone gets one truly uber item for both a caster and a fighter. Also make sure the accompanying items in the zone that are not uber are worthwhile. Example, Jotunheim used to be such a popular zone because it had a few uber items (ringmail, skull earring, torque, but also a handful of non-uber items that were still nice, i.e. mistweave, farsee bracelet, nightshade, etc). You have more than 40 slots so that means you can spread the uber equipment across 20 or so high-level zones.
4)If you want a truly uber zone with really hard to get equipment. . .make that the exception, thru rares or a beefed up tiamat that takes 16 hours to do.

If I had a level 50 character with no equipment, what would offer me a better mudding experience. Knowing that I had to do SPOB and Seelie 30x in a row to get the best stuff in the game, or knowing I had to conquer ALL the highest level zones in the game to get the best stuff, and then have to find rares or fight tiamat to fill in a few holes. For me it is the latter.

I realize the admin has put a lot of time and effort into the current changes. I also do not know the full extent of the changes so some of what I am explaining above may not apply.

Anyway, just some ideas for you all to debate.

Hope everyone is doing well both in the Realms and beyond. I will stop by here and there as work and school permits.

God bless,

Mikar
Jhorr
Sojourner
Posts: 515
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2001 6:01 am

Postby Jhorr » Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:34 pm

Most insightful Obi-Wan. I agree it's a shame that some well-written zones (e.g. Jotunheim, SF, TF, vault) are rarely done because the equipment has been downgraded to junk in comparison to some other zones (e.g., you know which ones).

Balance the eq, but don't make deserving zones irrelevant.
Pheten
Sojourner
Posts: 209
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2001 6:01 am

Postby Pheten » Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:44 pm

Why do you have level 50 players that have the best equipment in the game but have only done 5 zones the whole time they have mudded?

So true
Kifle
Sojourner
Posts: 3830
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 6:01 am
Location: Huntington, IN USA
Contact:

Postby Kifle » Thu Nov 20, 2003 1:23 pm

Very well put.
Nokie
Sojourner
Posts: 786
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2001 6:01 am
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Contact:

Postby Nokie » Thu Nov 20, 2003 1:58 pm

I remember back during sojourn1 when knights test and that other zone, mythernia (or however it's spelled) were removed. At the time many people complained because so much good eq came from there and high levle people lost nearly half of their equipment.

The gods berated the players, stating that a players' equipment should be diverse and from many zones.

Alas, as Mikar & others have demonstrated, we're moving back to a point where all of the good eq comes from a very short list of zones, and everyone is going to end up looking the same.

Let's try to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
belleshel
Sojourner
Posts: 526
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2001 6:01 am
Location: Northeast

Postby belleshel » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:32 pm

Good Post!
Dalar
Sojourner
Posts: 4905
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2001 6:01 am

Postby Dalar » Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:34 pm

Nokie wrote:
Alas, as Mikar & others have demonstrated, we're moving back to a point where all of the good eq comes from a very short list of zones, and everyone is going to end up looking the same.

Let's try to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

I want to dress up as Ellendil. Who wants to be Herfas Dimpli and Drennor?
It will be fixed in Toril 2.0.
Aremat group-says 'tanks i highly suggest investing 20 silver in training weapons from cm to cut down on the losing scales to shield'
Areandon
Sojourner
Posts: 81
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2003 1:34 pm
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Postby Areandon » Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:54 pm

Good post. Seems to be this is the best way to balance all eq and make the game more fun. It will probably be a hell of a lot of work, since the admins have to go over every piece of eq in the game.
thanuk
Sojourner
Posts: 1902
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 5:01 am
Contact:

Postby thanuk » Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:59 pm

Areandon wrote:Good post. Seems to be this is the best way to balance all eq and make the game more fun. It will probably be a hell of a lot of work, since the admins have to go over every piece of eq in the game.


I dunno, I feel like they could just ask the players what the best items for each slot are, and would get a pretty standard answer from each, as long as quest eq is not being considered.
Mysrel tells you 'have my babies'
You tell Mysrel 'u want me to be ur baby daddy?'
Mysrel tells you 'daddy? No, I think you have the terminology wrong'
You tell Mysrel 'comeon now we both know i would be the top'
Mysrel tells you 'can be where ever you want to be, yer still getting ****** like a drunken cheerleader'
kiryan
Sojourner
Posts: 7275
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 5:01 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA and Flagstaff, AZ
Contact:

Postby kiryan » Thu Nov 20, 2003 10:13 pm

and another classic that was destroyed.

roots
and tonights winner in the Toril EQ lottery is demi belt and skull earring!

Return to “Object Changes”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests