07/15/03 Areas Update:
- Just letting you all know that there are significant changes in the works
within the areas sphere. Consider this a teaser/head's up/warning. =]
Specifically we've decided to try to balance every piece of equipment in the
game. How, you ask, can we do such a thing? Well, thanks to Dugmaren, we
now have an extensive point system that takes into account the item stats,
the zone difficulty, the quest/fight difficulty, and compares the item to
all similar items. Needless to say it's a very complicated process, but
hopefully you'll all find it very fair. Some items will be downgraded, but
many will be upgraded significantly, breathing new life into zones that are
currently ignored due to a perceived lack of appropriate risk/benefit ratio.
The bitching No.1. Ummm. Okay, lets look into this new system... What will happen if you will do this? First of all, it will make the things “equal” (well, why not to implement my very old idea of “newbie item, lev.1 item, lev.2 item… levN item, SpankyItem, UberspankyItem”?) With making every item the same, you are shifting balance even more towards top hours-playing goodies. Let me explain: right now, with appropriate skill and knowledge of Faerun, you can gather a small evil group to do an item or two. With those items (well, like Decorated eyepatch, for example), you can with some time gather a reasonably decent equipment set. What will happen if good items will come from Clouds/Scorps/MD-only? The people, who are capable of playing in the big groups, will benefit, while the others will suffer greatly, because their life will be even harder. I bet a also alot of people will quit because of it.
The solution? Okay, there is a solution, in my opinion. Create more mini-zones, which will contain only 1 or 2 good items, and which will be doable in mid-sized high-level groups, or big-sized mid-level groups. This way you will allow people to have fun of zoning and getting something from zoning, even if it isn’t Uber-10hourslong-multispank-zone. You want to force people into zoning in the abandoned zones. Why? It is already considered “stylish” to wear the item with the same stats, but which is harder to get. Not even mentioning the fun of traveling into a long-forgotten part of the Forgotten Realms. (Personally, I’m just enjoying the process, even if I will not get a new shiny item from it). And if you really want to breath new life into the old zones, just change couple items in them which aren’t currently any good, into somewhat better items, there is no need in changing equipment in the whole zone.
Look, all the new zones are like "50-only, 5-hours-at-least" zones. Why? Alot of people just cannot join those zones because they dont have as much time, because they have logged to have 1-2 hours of fun, not to see the 10-hours long CRs when you are forced to stay and cannot even log off to have some sleep because your pcorpse will rot in 18 hours.
The bitching No2. Also, the question no.2 is the good vs. evil balance. Okay, I agree, implementing the idea of giving the fog to other classes you did a great step towards improving the situation… But – it is 8th circle. And there isn’t left enough high-levellers, who are capable of casting this spell… while newbies still suffer. If you keep the statistics of rolling, I can bet my prime eq set that good/evil newbie rates are shifting more and more towards goodies, because all the new evil people I see now are mostly old-timers or their alts. Why should newbies join evils? They can’t zone, unless they will be lucky to ICQ all the necessary high-level classes online, they hardly can exp. And yes, they are joining the ranks of the goodie cannon fodder, allowing goodies to zone even more. That’s the avalanche effect I was bitching about ages ago… and now evils are finally under that avalanche. The transportation system? Well, if you’re lucky, there is a gater online. If you’re unlucky, your group will walk back by themselves if they will die. Other planes? Well, theyre inaccessible as well – we have a group, but there is no gater among us.
The solution? Well, maybe this will affect the evils into a somewhat better way... Lower the squid’s shift/rift level, maybe globe of darkness level. Maybe ease up a bit their exp tables. You knew, I’ve almost forgot when I had luck of seeing a shifter online. And when I see a squid online, it’s mostly an old-timer – squids probably have lowest number of mid-level newbies (yep, there is a lot of low-level calamari, but they tend to abandon squid class, I think)
Well, I highly doubt that my opinion will be heard, but I have some principles, and one of them is – fight until you still can move. Don’t idle. And thus I am not. Yep, you are the Keeper… but the game becomes less and less fun to me recently. I don’t want to be a goodie, and I’m more and more pressed to… The only solution to this will be to quit, it seems.
Once again, I am just trying to be constructive and to avoid pure bitching in the "OhEverythingBecomesWorseNowadays"-style. PLEASE, AVOID POSTING THINGS LIKE “EVILS SUXXXX IN GENERAL, THAT’S WHAT I THINK”. Im trying to discuss my opinion on the changes that will affect whole Faerun. If you can post a CONSTRUCTIVE ideas here – you’re welcome.
WBR, Ruagh, the Bitching Prophet of Doom.