Forays

Atalkez

Alright, so we've had Forays around for a little bit now, long enough to really see how they are going and how often they get tried/accomplished, etc.

I really think the rewards need to be massively adjusted upwards, for these. There is simply no reason to even attempt them, because the losses far outweigh what you get in return. Even for a Dragon, if you die 10 times, that's a fairly big experience loss. While it's not anything major realistically, you're getting next to no gold for it, the experience is paltry, and you get 1 talisman piece. If there is an honours line to be had, only the person that lands the killing blow even gets that. It's kind of ridiculous.

That's as a Dragon. As a non-Dragon? Forget about it, it's literally an xp sink for no gain. They are extremely hard to complete (Margam has still only been done twice, as far as I'm aware), you die repeatedly, and you get nearly no reward for the above. Is it any surprise that they've become stagnant, with no one doing them?

If you complete a foray, the entire group should get a non-trivial amount of gold. I'm really not sure why this isn't already the case, considering the hard-coded limitations on how often they can be attempted/completed. We want them to be end-game material, but they don't even reward as well as an hour spent bashing Moghedu. At the very minimum, they should pay out better than what an hour of bashing Annwyn returns, imo. 25,000 gold per foray member for the easy ones, 50,000 gold per for the medium, and 100,000 gold per for the top 2 (Icosse/Margam). Failing a gold increase, they should reward with enough experience to outweigh ANY lost experience (regardless of level) - or simply not reduce experience for dying while in the foray.

I like the forays, and would like to see them done more often. They will not be as they currently are rewarded, however, from what I can tell.

Penwize

Given the hesitation I expect the admin to have regarding simply adding gold to the economy, why not mimic an already (fairly successful from what I can tell) functional reward system for PvE activities: ship trades!

Ship trades already rotate out two decently worthwhile rewards every day, why not extend that system to other PvE activities?  Forays are a very good candidate for this, I think.  You'd see significantly more participation in Forays if they rewarded something like 25 bound credits, a fair chunk of gold, a neat themed minipet, or whatever else on a rotation, with rarer things popping up from time to time.

Klendathu

Penwize said:

Ship trades already rotate out two decently worthwhile rewards every day, why not extend that system to other PvE activities?

That's someone who doesn't shiptrade frequently

All joking aside, the only problem I have with forays is finding people who want to attempt them. I'm actually not bothered by any 'financial' reward (gold, credits, etc), but if you're part of a group that completes a foray, I think you should get the honours line too, even if you weren't the person to land the killing blow.

Nazihk

Klendathu said:

All joking aside, the only problem I have with forays is finding people who want to attempt them. 

Yeah, but this problem stems from the problems that Atalkez mentioned. Nobody's really interested in doing them because there's no incentive to do them aside from the content itself. 

Sobriquet

As an artied level 108 Char, the one Foray I did attempt was just infuriating. The only thing that really made it fun was that I attempted it during a no xp loss event so the deaths didn't really matter. Once that was taken away, they just didn't appeal for the reward of doing them given the difficulty and risks involved. I didn't realise the honors line only goes to one person too, which makes it even less appealing.

I love the fact there is something which is difficult and requires teamwork to complete and the sense of achievement alone should be enough for some of the harder ones (Look at Tenebrus and the spawn quest for example), but maybe there needs to be more of a balance here?

Tysandr

No xp loss forays?

Reyson

High risk high reward seems a good model for end-game activities. Bound cr would be cool, or better talisman pieces (maybe can select a dragon colour you want, and get a rare for that?).

Farrah

Would be cool if everyone in group got an honors line for completing the foray.

Some of them are so teamwork based it kinda sucks when you finally do it and that other guy (-cough- @Atalkez -cough-) gets all the credit.

Cooper

My biggest gripe with them is how long it takes to start one. The wilderness map is massive, and the areas you have to go to for some of them can take absolutely forever to get to. It is not fun to trek through the wilderness for 20 minutes.

Farrah

Cooper said:

My biggest gripe with them is how long it takes to start one. The wilderness map is massive, and the areas you have to go to for some of them can take absolutely forever to get to. It is not fun to trek through the wilderness for 20 minutes.

Actually, yeah. If I could get to them faster, I'd probably do them more, even with the current rewards. The time commitment is a major deterrence, compared to the rewards.

Ahmet

Each one has set starting points. Once you've done it a few times, you get the hang of where they'll be.

Morthif

Margam's starting points are in every corner of the continent

Cooper

The starting points are also not set for all of them. They can be in a general area, but unless you have a few key artefacts it still takes a long time.