Forays and the Intrepid

Thanks to the grand efforts of Jayden, Farrah, Gamoneterik, Ahmet, Siduri, and Iakimen, the foray board belonging to Russell was rescued from the clutches of dread Aran'Kesh, and forays are now available to all Achaeans!

A "foray" is the name given to a difficult task or challenge undertaken by a group of Intrepid adventurers. Each foray takes place in a unique, isolated setting, found among dozens of possible remote areas of the wilderness. The trials you may face are varied, ranging from confusing puzzles that must be solved to overwhelming denizens that must be defeated. One singular theme unites the forays, however, and that is that none can be completed alone. These are no ordinary hunting grounds, and the combined might of an Intrepid group will be required if you hope to succeed and claim their rewards.

To engage in a foray, you will need to be in a group and visit the foray board in the common room of the Wander Inn, in New Thera. From there, you will be able to review which forays are available (using READ BOARD), and see any additional information on them (such as a minimum or maximum group size) with READ BOARD <foray name/number>.

SIGN FOR THE <foray> FORAY is used to accept a foray from the board. This will automatically add the foray to your entire group's repertoire.

Once your group is assembled and you have accepted a challenge from the board, you are ready to begin your foray! You will have an Achaean day (real hour) after accepting your task to discover the foray's whereabouts.

Each foray has a number of possible locations where it can appear, all contained within the wilderness. These invariably follow a distinct theme (such as mountains or coasts) and most will have a hint either in the description or with a specific clue (use the INTREPID command to view your current foray status). Once you are ready, enter the wilderness and begin exploring!

As well as the experience and gold acquired from a successful foray, (not to mention the prestige of being a victorious member of the Intrepid), each foray has its own unique talisman that can be obtained. Some of these are rarer than others, with the rarest of all opening a brand new, special foray location to be faced down.

In addition to the Achaean day time limit to discover a foray's location, each foray has its own time limit for completion. This timer begins once inside, can be seen using the INTREPID command, and has devastating consequences when it expires. You should endeavour to complete these challenges promptly if you hope to emerge victorious!

Forays are unique in that they are flexible to the levels of the group undertaking them. As such, a group of three dragons facing down Aran'Kesh, the Fleshrender (for example) will find a similar challenge to that faced by a group of level 70 adventurers.

Teamwork cannot be emphasised enough. Many forays will require cooperation and strategic thinking, rather than brute force, to overcome.

As of today there are five forays and six talismans in the Forays set.

Whilst this concept has been touched in other IRE games, none have quite implemented it in this fashion and we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback!


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Comments

  • Sorry @Jayden I ninja'd you!

    Well then, I can hardly say that I expected this to be the adventure of the day. Just what I needed to bring a smile to my face at that moment, as well. 3

    Huge props to @Farrah, @Siduri. @Ahmet, @Gamoneterik, and @Iakimen for being a joy to work with - even if we utterly failed a couple times over - and to everyone else who was gathered at the Wander Inn for the event. I would've taken basically everyone if I could, I was super disappointed when I had to pick people.

    And thank you to those at IRE that put this thing together. Rough as it was, it was an absolute blast!

  • This looks interesting.

    Sad I missed out on taking part in the opening!
    - (Eleusis): Ellodin says, "The Fissure of Echoes is Sarathai's happy place."
    - With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
    - (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
    - Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
    - Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."



  • i was there for most part.. but has to leave for dinner. 

    2015/01/12 Tecton, the Terraformer has bestowed His divine favour upon you. It will last for approximately 1 Achaean month.
  • AhmetAhmet Wherever I wanna be
    These things are brutal.
    Huh. Neat.
  • Ahmet said:
    These things are brutal.
    QFT. Would also like discount on bulk trips to Ugrach.
  • RIP. Super fun though!  :p
     <3 
  • JinsunJinsun TN, USA
    Our intrepid clue was so vague, we didn't even get close to finding the spot and looked over every bit of coast on the mainland as well as a few islands. We got so tired of looking, didn't bother going to Meropis. Was just boring.
    image
  • AhmetAhmet Wherever I wanna be
    Haven't seen any open off the mainland. Furthest north has been tundra area. Not sure how bad yours was, or if someone just missed it.
    Huh. Neat.
  • https://ada-young.appspot.com/pastebin/l0xBvJV1

    It shouldn't be "reflex move or instantly die" tbh.

  • Edit:

    00:56:00.907 Horald, Captain of The Margam lifts you off the ground, clutching your body in his strong grasp before hurling you across the deck.

    BitCHHHHHHHHHHH
  • KayeilKayeil Washington State
    Interesting concept, but not keen on the fact that it apparently counts for exploring... especially since it appears some areas are not even accessible without certain talismans.
    What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

  • AhmetAhmet Wherever I wanna be
    @Kayeil theyre relatively small, and not all that difficult to get into (except the mirror tower my god is that thing evil). And the talisman one of course, but we'll see!
    Huh. Neat.
  • KryptonKrypton shi-Khurena
    Presumably the Margam wheel talisman also brings you to a new area?
  • KayeilKayeil Washington State
    Ahmet said:
    @Kayeil theyre relatively small, and not all that difficult to get into (except the mirror tower my god is that thing evil). And the talisman one of course, but we'll see!
    Yeah I guess... just lots of deaths, I am assuming, to get all the rooms? I have barely even scratched the surface of exploring the Underrealm because I can't survive. Maybe really should pick up serpent just for phase and exploring someday. How many people would you recommend taking in general? I'm a little confused by it saying 3 dragons would face the same stuff level 70 adventurers would... that sounds... too easy compared to the deathsights, so I think I am reading it wrong.
    What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

  • KryptonKrypton shi-Khurena
    edited March 2017
    The help file means three Dragons, and three level 70s, would each find their own scaled forays equally difficult.
  • Anyone know anything about the scaling yet? Like can I go with lowbies or would a dragon in the group mean anyone below level x will be one-shot?
  • Hmm...this adds some interesting gems to possible reveals and discovery in lore. It should be interesting to see what obstacles, areas, people and adversaries are found.
  • I thought the admin said they wouldn't go down the route of instances like WOW?

    (Party): Mezghar says, "Stop."
  • Sobriquet said:
    I thought the admin said they wouldn't go down the route of instances like WOW?
    New Admin, new era. This is something I am incredibly excited to try, the more little fun PvE things they throw in the better. Some days I am really not feeling up to the stress of progressing combat, and all I do instead is bash bash bash. 
  • Daeir said:
    I really like this, yet am incredibly hesitant at the same time. Scaling PvE content? Great! Instances? Eeeeh.

    Instances are dangerous territory. Lots of Achaea's charm is derived from its almost complete "open world" feeling. The only gameplay system that's instanced outside of forays is diving, and it wasn't really that popular to begin with.
    Diving is not truly instanced. As in, you need a ship, a bell, and while you dive, you are still completely exposed to the outside world: freak seamonster attack, or pirates, or whoever else wants to sink your ship while you're underwater.

    Top it with fishes who kill dragons, and really bad gold/experience payout, all contributed to making diving extremely impopular unless you're actually farming for fish scales or larder food. This is different in that regards!

    image
  • Daeir said:
    I really like this, yet am incredibly hesitant at the same time. Scaling PvE content? Great! Instances? Eeeeh.

    Instances are dangerous territory. Lots of Achaea's charm is derived from its almost complete "open world" feeling. The only gameplay system that's instanced outside of forays is diving, and it wasn't really that popular to begin with.

    I agree with @Daeir here. Scaling and improved PvE content is awesome and it sound like a huge amount of thought and work has gone into this, but not keen on the idea of instances in Achaea. 

    One of the big reasons against these "hunting instances" in the past was the fact people with a price on their heads (Mark, Bounty etc) could essentially go bashing without their counterpart being able to follow. While these foray's are not risk free from a PvE point of view, they do seem to be able to completely bypass the PvP risk that comes with being hunted while hunting..

    How long do the Forays last?, does this time count against the Mark Contract in place?, are they completely isolated from someone outside the group?

    (Party): Mezghar says, "Stop."
  • Sobriquet said:
    Daeir said:
    I really like this, yet am incredibly hesitant at the same time. Scaling PvE content? Great! Instances? Eeeeh.

    Instances are dangerous territory. Lots of Achaea's charm is derived from its almost complete "open world" feeling. The only gameplay system that's instanced outside of forays is diving, and it wasn't really that popular to begin with.

    I agree with @Daeir here. Scaling and improved PvE content is awesome and it sound like a huge amount of thought and work has gone into this, but not keen on the idea of instances in Achaea. 

    One of the big reasons against these "hunting instances" in the past was the fact people with a price on their heads (Mark, Bounty etc) could essentially go bashing without their counterpart being able to follow. While these foray's are not risk free from a PvE point of view, they do seem to be able to completely bypass the PvP risk that comes with being hunted while hunting..

    How long do the Forays last?, does this time count against the Mark Contract in place?, are they completely isolated from someone outside the group?
    These are fair concerns, I'd like to know:

    If you pray you lose the foray?
    How do bursts and such work?
    Is there a limit to taking and completing forays?
  • Minifie said:
    If you pray you lose the foray?
    How do bursts and such work?
    Is there a limit to taking and completing forays?
    1) No.
    2) Like normal, but sometimes you just get slapped down again immediately after bursting, so you just doubled down on a bad idea.
    C) Yes. You can only take them if they're available, though I am not sure what determines availability at all at the moment, I only did some last night with Ahmet and crew.

    As for time limits, you have a day (1 hour) to find the foray and enter it, but entering it starts the timer, which varies per site. As best I recall I saw 35 minutes, 45 minutes, and 1 hour last night, but I'm not certain about the first, and I'm not at my desktop with the logs right now. 
    Accipiter said:
    Anyone know anything about the scaling yet? Like can I go with lowbies or would a dragon in the group mean anyone below level x will be one-shot?
    Scaling is weird. I was with 3 dragons and 1 other non-dragon (myself not a dragon, level 85), the dragons were, in some spots, getting three-shot, and I was getting one-shot on some stuff. But at other times, it was a total non-issue and I was just getting murdered by failing the puzzles instead.
  • The areas scale on a per mob basis (so some mobs might scale more aggressively than others). Everyone in the group will influence the scaling, but high level people are going to tilt it their way more than low - stacking a group with low level people won't work.

    Once a foray is completed/failed, it goes on cooldown for x minutes (half as long if it was failed). After that timer is up its available for an intrepid to accept at the board again.

  • Makarios said:

    Everyone in the group will influence the scaling, but high level people are going to tilt it their way more than low...

    Does this work on a per-level basis, or are there "brackets" that the combined level of the group will land in?
    - (Eleusis): Ellodin says, "The Fissure of Echoes is Sarathai's happy place."
    - With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
    - (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
    - Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
    - Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."



  • So, accepted the Barrow foray yesterday, looked all through the darkenwood and northreach in the wilderness and didn't didn't find anything. Could anyone help us out with that the entrance looks like if you find it?
  • @Accipiter It looks like a regular wilderness exit (A ? I think), and we found ours for this foray in the southwestern region of the Darkenwood forest.


    However, I would not be surprised to find out they move each time the foray is run. I can guarantee you it is there somewhere, just have to keep looking.
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