Perceptions
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:56 pmThis is a rant, by definition a argumentative and emotional response to something that one doesn't believe.
In this rant I am voicing my distaste over the deliberate changing of a particular mob and his environment. The Dark Rose Lord, keeper of the much sought after Dark Rose Armor. A very low drop rate at that, in over 40 killings only 1 pair of gloves and 1 gorget dropped. The rate is fine, it requires an investment in time and risk to aquire it. Solo and Duo tactics centered around handling the spawn in the area, and the kiting the mob using Honor and Perfection to dump an investment of arrows into him. It takes time and tactics but doable.
I would wager that those who have a set of this gear followed some technique of this to make him managable. Going toe-to-toe is a bit silly as he hits right through what i see as the 'progressional' set of gear The Star Hunter set. That set posed no problem to aquire aside from 15 hours of time dedicated to the aquisition of star pieces to buy all the items from the quest stone in Wind.
Im not opposed to change, servers do it all the time. Its called balance. However, this is not balance. At least not that I've seen. I'll grant you that a 'safe spot' ledge likely needed to be corrected. Spawing insta-respawn daemons on the ledge doesn't seem to me to be the right thing to do, simply make the spot unteleportable etc. And from what i understand coding efforts are being made to keep from luring the Dark Rose Lord out of his area. In the current state of change, with double the spawn and instant re-spawning his area isn't workable as a duo or even small party. If this was a mob that required a group of 5+ players geared with it all combining barding, pets, and ranged/magic attacks at the lord to bring him down, then the drop rate of the gear should be near 100% otherwise what's the point? You'd never get a group together like that to continually attempt to take him down espically when everyone wouldn't be rewarded with some of the gear.
It comes down to a standard CBA...weigh the cost and time to do said action versus the benefit. The changes made will simply make it yet another region of the game that no one will go to and a mob no one will hunt. Thus, retro-activly rewarding those who already have it and taunting those who don't with "Well this exists but you'll never aquire it"
My Brother (Silent Death) and I have both played UO since its initial release. 15 years and counting we've put our time in a variety of OSI and RunUO shards. WP offers something unique and we appriciate that. We also appriciate that those who program customs on a shard like to see their creations enjoyed by the players. But, to simply be told things of "You can't do this" or "Your too young to do that" undermines your player base. As owner Ghost you are free as you noted to change things as you see fit. But father figure and protector is not needed. There is a great tendancy on this shard that when questions are aksed to not divulge information. A simple question of "Oh interesting, the entrance to Khaldun is not where it normally is, does anyone know the location?" is met with "Well you cant go there your too young, its too dangerous, etc". A simple "double click the heart on the pedistal in the Pyramid, but be careful its really tough in there would do.
Back to the matter at hand. The Dark Rose Lord and said armor. We dont even want it as adventure gear, just standard pixel crack to collect and put on display in our castles is all. Hence no sweat off our back if you really dont want anyone else to have it. However the changes made because of the feeling that we don't deserve to have it since we haven't put in our time is just wrong and childish.
Besides, its the crusaider and cursed gear that the cool kids are wearing, but i suspect those Dungeon bosses will change too. As I watch the veterans go about compeating with each other for soloing the bosses (which include luring the cove boss down the hallway of traps to leave the amazon and hunters behind) or the fire boss (which includes luring him to the top of the roof where there is only one amazon to deal with and room to manuver) the "tactic" then must be frowned upon in general, and that all these mobs "should require" several players to handle.
Its been noted in other posts that recent changes to BIO's have been made, requiring double the amount of organics to make and seeing the quanties halfed off the bosses. This was speculated to be a result of some new players being given bios to go hunting with. I agree with the posts about the begging and the free stuff. My brother and I expect nothing less than working hard to obtain what we get in this game. We dont ask for free stuff, we give tons of stuff away (Free Dark Rose Shields, Cape's and Swords since there is no shortage of those dropping of the lessor knights). We promote the concept of comunity and enjoy or times hunting with the active players to do champ spawns or a few people dying for my cause to get teleported into the Doom Lever Puzzle room (thanks again, those rocks hurt!). But to modify a system such as bio creation becasue some younger players got their hands on one, seems wrong again and only retro-rewards those who have one and damns the new players who dont.
The natural progression of things seems to be, Create NEW monsters, quests, and challenges that offer even better rewards that conform to that mold of "group effort required to obtain". Don't go backwards and 'lockdown' the existing content because some people can do it easier than others. All i hear is how "Steel Steeds are needed to do this or do that" or "Without a Bio you can't do this or that". As we make our efforts to aquire the tools, gear and skill to aquire these 'necessary' parts to adventure in the world and achieve what we want it becomes discouraging when content is shifted drastically because of player sucess. Its a bit of a morale blow when you complete something or achieve something then see it changed because ovbiously its too easy if _you_ can do it. As it is, my brother and I arn't Uber players. We both have a tamed Su Cide, use a bow and occasionally honor or fling a spell or two at something. There are pleanty of mobs in the game we can't solo/duo and require bigger and better (progression) stuff to achomplish this. Restricting the ability to obtain this gear seems a bit unnecessary. The gear along isn't a game changer. Its a progression and stepping stone to bigger and better things.
If the concern is the rate at which things are aquired, then modify the drop and percentage tables. Is there some pre-concieved concept of how frequent a drop should happen? For example this Dark Rose Armor: How long ought it take for a player to aquire a full set? IF we had kept things the way it was, a 1 in 20 average drop, with what 9 pieces to be had then factor in duplicates....you are looking at over 300+ kills to get a set. Thats as it was. For a dedicated (8+ hours a day) player, using the kiting and spawn handling it took about an hour each time. Call it at MAX 10 a day...you are looking at near a month to put together 1 set. (30 days). Aparently this is too _easy_ and too frequent.
With the initial change to a near 4 hour timer for the lord to spawn, then in an 8 hour day your are looking at 2 kills a day, so 10 days on average for one drop, works out to be well over 3 months (likely 4 to 5 with duplicates) to get even one set.
However, this is now no longer the case as new code is in place and has yet to be seen...we'll await the reset to see what it looks like, but if he is no longer kitable and requires groups to take him down once...then again as stated before, unless this set should take a year+ to aquire then the drop rate better be near guarenteed else the benefit doesnt even = the cost.
Owners will run the shard as they see fit, players will do what they want to serve their own goals, but when direct involvment reacts to player persuits under the perception of "worthyness" or "longevity" then I see that as a negative slap in the face for simply playing the game. In not so direct words being told "Silly newbie you arn't allowed to have this so i'm going to make it not worth your time to persue anymore".
Like I said before, we just wanted it more for display than anything else, now empty tables and books will mark the place of the various pieces untill some veteran tires of owning their set and is willing to part with it for gold or tokens.
End Rant. There is still pleanty in this game to do and enjoy.
In this rant I am voicing my distaste over the deliberate changing of a particular mob and his environment. The Dark Rose Lord, keeper of the much sought after Dark Rose Armor. A very low drop rate at that, in over 40 killings only 1 pair of gloves and 1 gorget dropped. The rate is fine, it requires an investment in time and risk to aquire it. Solo and Duo tactics centered around handling the spawn in the area, and the kiting the mob using Honor and Perfection to dump an investment of arrows into him. It takes time and tactics but doable.
I would wager that those who have a set of this gear followed some technique of this to make him managable. Going toe-to-toe is a bit silly as he hits right through what i see as the 'progressional' set of gear The Star Hunter set. That set posed no problem to aquire aside from 15 hours of time dedicated to the aquisition of star pieces to buy all the items from the quest stone in Wind.
Im not opposed to change, servers do it all the time. Its called balance. However, this is not balance. At least not that I've seen. I'll grant you that a 'safe spot' ledge likely needed to be corrected. Spawing insta-respawn daemons on the ledge doesn't seem to me to be the right thing to do, simply make the spot unteleportable etc. And from what i understand coding efforts are being made to keep from luring the Dark Rose Lord out of his area. In the current state of change, with double the spawn and instant re-spawning his area isn't workable as a duo or even small party. If this was a mob that required a group of 5+ players geared with it all combining barding, pets, and ranged/magic attacks at the lord to bring him down, then the drop rate of the gear should be near 100% otherwise what's the point? You'd never get a group together like that to continually attempt to take him down espically when everyone wouldn't be rewarded with some of the gear.
It comes down to a standard CBA...weigh the cost and time to do said action versus the benefit. The changes made will simply make it yet another region of the game that no one will go to and a mob no one will hunt. Thus, retro-activly rewarding those who already have it and taunting those who don't with "Well this exists but you'll never aquire it"
My Brother (Silent Death) and I have both played UO since its initial release. 15 years and counting we've put our time in a variety of OSI and RunUO shards. WP offers something unique and we appriciate that. We also appriciate that those who program customs on a shard like to see their creations enjoyed by the players. But, to simply be told things of "You can't do this" or "Your too young to do that" undermines your player base. As owner Ghost you are free as you noted to change things as you see fit. But father figure and protector is not needed. There is a great tendancy on this shard that when questions are aksed to not divulge information. A simple question of "Oh interesting, the entrance to Khaldun is not where it normally is, does anyone know the location?" is met with "Well you cant go there your too young, its too dangerous, etc". A simple "double click the heart on the pedistal in the Pyramid, but be careful its really tough in there would do.
Back to the matter at hand. The Dark Rose Lord and said armor. We dont even want it as adventure gear, just standard pixel crack to collect and put on display in our castles is all. Hence no sweat off our back if you really dont want anyone else to have it. However the changes made because of the feeling that we don't deserve to have it since we haven't put in our time is just wrong and childish.
Besides, its the crusaider and cursed gear that the cool kids are wearing, but i suspect those Dungeon bosses will change too. As I watch the veterans go about compeating with each other for soloing the bosses (which include luring the cove boss down the hallway of traps to leave the amazon and hunters behind) or the fire boss (which includes luring him to the top of the roof where there is only one amazon to deal with and room to manuver) the "tactic" then must be frowned upon in general, and that all these mobs "should require" several players to handle.
Its been noted in other posts that recent changes to BIO's have been made, requiring double the amount of organics to make and seeing the quanties halfed off the bosses. This was speculated to be a result of some new players being given bios to go hunting with. I agree with the posts about the begging and the free stuff. My brother and I expect nothing less than working hard to obtain what we get in this game. We dont ask for free stuff, we give tons of stuff away (Free Dark Rose Shields, Cape's and Swords since there is no shortage of those dropping of the lessor knights). We promote the concept of comunity and enjoy or times hunting with the active players to do champ spawns or a few people dying for my cause to get teleported into the Doom Lever Puzzle room (thanks again, those rocks hurt!). But to modify a system such as bio creation becasue some younger players got their hands on one, seems wrong again and only retro-rewards those who have one and damns the new players who dont.
The natural progression of things seems to be, Create NEW monsters, quests, and challenges that offer even better rewards that conform to that mold of "group effort required to obtain". Don't go backwards and 'lockdown' the existing content because some people can do it easier than others. All i hear is how "Steel Steeds are needed to do this or do that" or "Without a Bio you can't do this or that". As we make our efforts to aquire the tools, gear and skill to aquire these 'necessary' parts to adventure in the world and achieve what we want it becomes discouraging when content is shifted drastically because of player sucess. Its a bit of a morale blow when you complete something or achieve something then see it changed because ovbiously its too easy if _you_ can do it. As it is, my brother and I arn't Uber players. We both have a tamed Su Cide, use a bow and occasionally honor or fling a spell or two at something. There are pleanty of mobs in the game we can't solo/duo and require bigger and better (progression) stuff to achomplish this. Restricting the ability to obtain this gear seems a bit unnecessary. The gear along isn't a game changer. Its a progression and stepping stone to bigger and better things.
If the concern is the rate at which things are aquired, then modify the drop and percentage tables. Is there some pre-concieved concept of how frequent a drop should happen? For example this Dark Rose Armor: How long ought it take for a player to aquire a full set? IF we had kept things the way it was, a 1 in 20 average drop, with what 9 pieces to be had then factor in duplicates....you are looking at over 300+ kills to get a set. Thats as it was. For a dedicated (8+ hours a day) player, using the kiting and spawn handling it took about an hour each time. Call it at MAX 10 a day...you are looking at near a month to put together 1 set. (30 days). Aparently this is too _easy_ and too frequent.
With the initial change to a near 4 hour timer for the lord to spawn, then in an 8 hour day your are looking at 2 kills a day, so 10 days on average for one drop, works out to be well over 3 months (likely 4 to 5 with duplicates) to get even one set.
However, this is now no longer the case as new code is in place and has yet to be seen...we'll await the reset to see what it looks like, but if he is no longer kitable and requires groups to take him down once...then again as stated before, unless this set should take a year+ to aquire then the drop rate better be near guarenteed else the benefit doesnt even = the cost.
Owners will run the shard as they see fit, players will do what they want to serve their own goals, but when direct involvment reacts to player persuits under the perception of "worthyness" or "longevity" then I see that as a negative slap in the face for simply playing the game. In not so direct words being told "Silly newbie you arn't allowed to have this so i'm going to make it not worth your time to persue anymore".
Like I said before, we just wanted it more for display than anything else, now empty tables and books will mark the place of the various pieces untill some veteran tires of owning their set and is willing to part with it for gold or tokens.
End Rant. There is still pleanty in this game to do and enjoy.
