Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
Forays: A Review.
One of the most enjoyable facets of the game recently for me has been forays and the joy of trying new forays or trying to cover old ones. I'd like to open this thread to anyone who has anything meaningful to contribute, but I have my own things to say hopefully to an administration who will listen to me (albeit with a hefty grain of salt).
Before I begin, I'd like to say this is not about renown, it's about the forays themselves. I enjoy renown and think it's an excellent system, but I actually enjoy foraying and would like to more than I already do, and perhaps be able to enjoy some of the forays that are somewhat ridiculous currently.
First and foremost, I think Idea 535 had a great amount of merit, which I have included below for those who weren't able to see it before it got the maximum level of support:
I think the first issue with forays is now everyone wants to do them for renown, which is heavily understandable. I think that with all of the foray groups (and renown), we've seen plenty of citizens come together for PVE as they have never done before. This is good. I think we should have -more- of this, or try to work on improving/debugging a facet of the game that has given us quite a lot of enjoyment.
I think the second issue is a bit more complex. There are methods of improvement so that each foray could be more enjoyable for the current base of players:
First, I do not think it's too much to ask for some more time on Aran'kesh/Fortress. If there is an accident once or twice, the pray sequence will literally forfeit your chances at success. Now, one could say that this time limit exists so others can undertake the foray. That is why I think that the foray should have a hard limit of instances (5 or 7), to which groups can go undertake them. This may be a challenge to program, which I understand, however, you could simply make each foray entrance static (like with the dragon quest), which may help with minimizing bugs. However, the worst thing is to get through a foray, and then someone perishes, and that simple death cost the group the foray.
Secondly, I wish the NPC's attacks were tuned down a bit. The Reckoning Boss's had excellent mechanics so I know it is possible, but I feel that some of the current forays are far overtuned. Vulkuz steals items from players which dramatically lowers the desire to even figure that puzzle out, while the kill rooms are quite literally a way in which a group can lose their entire prospect of completing the foray. Furthermore, several means of travel are blocked because of the presence of god monoliths everywhere for no apparent reason. Why would I not be able to use my earring of Sinope in the valley of the avian? I understand the difficulty, but then you must also consider what we get for our difficulty.
Foray Completion Rewards:
For completing Icosse 12+ times (which was relatively challenging before, yet now requires a very artied player): a one time use kai banish.
For completing Aran'kesh 12+ times: a ten-time use foray finder. This is a wonderful example of a -good- foray reward.
For completing Dquest: a dent to gold cap (can't pick up the 10-20K gold drop), and some great exp. Remove boss gold drop?
Now, Dragonquest, that foray has been silently buffed again, and again, and again. Why? I would understand if yank bashing is not the way to do it, but when one questions the two NPCs, they offer nothing other than the uniforms which remove 'aggro' from the goblins. But if this isn't the way to do it, then why not just remove yank bashing, instead of tuning him up more?
This is less of a rant and more of a request for the administration to look at forays, which now presents a great opportunity for cities to interact with their citizens in a constructive and potentially appropriately difficult manner. I'd like anyone else who has thoughts can speak up, though try to keep it respectful- trying to be constructive here.
Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."
Comments
Needs to be more options for solo and groups in general.
What does makeup have to do with the adventure system?
My point was around solo adventures in general and rouges.
rouge1
Rouge.
More on point: Forays were initially (falsely) advertised as:
Maybe look at actually making that true, would be a good start. Because uh. Yeah they evidently do not work as advertised. Unless that 'group of level 70 adventurers' really means 20+ level 70 adventurers. And even then they'd probably still wipe.
2. Remove the talismans that have combat implications. Swap them to be foray-only usable items (boulder rolls in a straight line killing any denizens on the way, moved to ogre fortress, sarcophagus from barrow you can DROP in a room, sucks in the group and heals them/applies starburst over 5s then kicks them out, destroyed on use, mirror stuns the foray boss for a short duration, limited charges and a 1m cooldown)
3. Monitor completion vs groups in them and tweak as necessary. Aran'kesh should be easy run, but the reward is pretty bleh. Moving up the chain adds more beneficial and useful rewards. Only allow incredibly tight failure checks on forays with longer durations.
Boom, forays are foray contained rewards, people who want to earn them will do more forays, for the most people will do the easiest for renown and move on. Moving PK-usable talismans off will also mean they don't have to be balanced to such a ridiculous degree, and can actually be, you know, done and played.
Of course this has been feedback given since not long after their inception. So uhhh, breath not held.
I've not done a single one because all I hear about is how buggy they are (fully acknowledging that may be 'old scoop' at this point) but I also don't usually have 4 hours to sail, foray, whatever. My time ranges from like 10 minutes to 10 hours but always with the caveat I may need to logoff at any moment. Sailing and forays (time sinks) aren't conducive to that.
OFF-TOPIC: It also would be great if the Adventure list wasn't dominated by seafaring and high level denizens. I know riding the elevator, rps, a spar, etc., are easy, but they also give very little renown. Would be super if there were other exploration or quest adventures that gave good renown.
Anyway, something is better than nothing, so I'm not complaining with the way things are. Thanks!
Good job @Astarod .
For most forays, this very occasionally made a foray about twice as difficult as it was meant to be (which, in reality, made it impossible in those rare cases). Most of your regular foray experiences will remain unchanged
For the dragonquest foray, this made the Foreman scale infinitely, very rapidly becoming the single strongest mob that players have encountered, by several magnitudes.
Neither of these should occur any further, and the Foreman should no longer be the menace that he once was.
Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."
If left unchecked for long enough? Around 770,000 damage per second.
Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."
I actually rather like that idea just because it would help with transparency and people not thinking @Ictinus and crew are just out to get them. And it would show that bugs are, indeed, being addressed.
Are you talking about the bug where you had all three harpoons working but it wouldn't cause you to light the beacon because of the item respawn rate? I bugged it and they fixe it awhile ago.
Also, I hate to ask, but recently (last night/early this morning) there was another possible bug with Dragon Quest (@Phaestus- please don't hate me!!!). You see if you have people who aren't dragons join you, they still get the 1,000 renown, if you carry them through the foray. If this wasn't a bug, that would be pretty wholesome because then I can kinda do some grunt labour for non-dragon citizens, but if it is I think everyone should be careful about having novices sign up for the foray for renown.
Thanks for the fix though, I'm noticing a lot of differences in some of the foray bosses/minions I've been pitted against recently, though I would still like for there to be more time on Borgron. I think 30 minutes is a bit of an overkill when it requires a sacrifice to start (all the ogre brutes/mages at entrance for some reason), and then with all of the questing that you have to do (I -adore- the questing aspect of it, lemme just say), I just would rather not feel like I have to sprint around the last 10-15 minutes.
Thanks for all your help so far admin!
Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."
I will say our record for Borgron was 9m to spare, with no deaths, but you can usually get him down with a few wipes as long as you regroup quick.
Have 'solved' a few others enough to get to the final boss, but not beaten any of the others just yet. Duos it seems a little overtuned on a few things, but that just forces us to get more creative- the only complaint I have atm is barrows stealing an item if he kills you. That seems really punishing for no good reason, especially since he seems like one of the busier fights anyway?
There are a couple problems I'd like to present: there is no way to control aggression, so even if you have a fully artied person (which seems to not matter in this foray), it's hard to keep him under management. The tentacle tattoo also doesn't stop his ground attack, so even if you fly, it doesn't consume his balance with his regular attacks, causing you further mana damage and bleed stacking- not to mention stacking loki, entangle, and the challenge it is -to- fly.
I'd like this altered so that one of the following happens so it is possible for a non-artied person to tank him:
1. Tree/Shield balance consumption. Shield or Tentacle should offer some respite, currently not offering much to his overall aggression. Simply put, there's no way to block his advance once he starts on you, save exiting the area which doesn't seem like a worthwhile foray mechanic. I'm not saying that he not break shield, or that tentacle can be the only attack within fly balance, but I think the rate at which he loki's and tentacles is unreasonable.
2. Remove the tentacle, create a situation where if you have a certain affliction, Borgron straight up prevent fly. This way you have to strategically cure so that you are able to escape when he attacks you, offering a challenge, but also respite.
3. Slower attacks. The affliction rate, along with the mana damage and bleed rate seems over-tuned. I don't think it's unreasonable to politely ask for this to be tuned down since I don't think that forays should be set with the expectations of artefacts (shield of absorption, regen 3, sip 3, reserves 3.. the list goes on).
I'm not -trying- to complain, I just want this looked into because out of the forays that are currently available, other than Aran'kesh and Dragonquest, this is one of the lesser difficult ones mechanics wise, or used to be before this change. If there is a hidden mechanic for mitigating damage, or empowering the ogres that assist you, I'm sorry I bothered you. Otherwise, this seems to just be a tanking issue which I don't think is feasible with borgron ignoring shield/lyre, among other things.
Again, thanks for your quick response! - just would like you to look into this.
Aegis, God of War says, "You are dismissed from My demense, Astarod. Go forth and fight well. Bleed fiercely, and climb the purpose you have sought to chase for."