Restoring some of the variety to the game.

[Brafu]

@Alecto

I can't really say if your path info is correct or not, but I know they dramatically shortened a lot of the roads and distances some years ago. I can't remember for sure, but I want to say they cut the run from kal to pal by half (among other changes in other area's).

Also, if someone is trying to run from sol to kal, without bothering to figure out about mounts, boats, fly items (or get a fly from a caster), then they deserve to be sitting on the road forever. There are so many recup rooms around that, at most, it should take 2-3 tic (with a normal mount) to get from sol to kal. There are at least 3 recup rooms on the road between sol and kal, and each will easily let you regain enough v to get to the next one (or a bit further).

That is exactly why I dislike fly pots everywhere, It simplifies the game and requires players, especially new players, to think less about the fundamentals of the game, and instead just gloss over them.

But, again, maybe I'm just being nostalgic and the things I have mentioned are just an annoyance factor that should be done away with. All I know is that I enjoy challenging and complex games, and I hate it when a game I love starts to shift away from those things.

[SArT]

I bet Gulca could do the loop Alecto describes in under 1 tic.  Any takers?  He still has gulief I believe.

[Alecto]

In the late 90's it used to be a prerequisite for any KoS squire to make a lap around Krynn and buy a ham, a herring, a pork chop and turkey leg and, of course, Otik's spice potatoes.  They had to do it in under an hour.

I'm pretty sure a legend thief who has their fade lined up with the number pad could make it in 3 tics...it would take someone with Gulca's skill and tenacity and patience to get it to within 1...

[SArT]

In the late 90's it used to be a prerequisite for any KoS squire to make a lap around Krynn and buy a ham, a herring, a pork chop and turkey leg and, of course, Otik's spice potatoes.  They had to do it in under an hour.

I think I joined with Gambit around that time.. I remember Dan giving me a lot harder challenges than that.. maybe it was a couple years after that.

[Zozen]

All solo around L25 as a druid.. '97 maybe?
retrieve the Bloodstone of Fistandantilus
learn/kill the Riddler
something else

Hum... good times.

edit: and as a side note, what I loved about the game was the difficulty of learning how to do things. How I spent months and months initially just around Solace puttering around from L1-20 and getting in high level groups occasionally as a 16-22 thief/druid/paladin/ranger/whatever and just lying about what level I was (it wasn't so noticeable because of how large the groups were and how shitty everyone hit anyways.) It took me a very long time to get over 25 that first year because I wanted to play so many different classes.

[Alecto]

There were so many great KoS quests...
solo Khisanth (sounds easy, but i failed with a level 25 paladin 2x before i figured out i could use TWO heal potions)
Learn/make staff of the elements in N. Ergoth
Lead bandit swamp on 3 and complete quest
Learn "wings of sorrow" quest
Find and kill the komodo dragon solo (could only be done solo back then...)

That is really something a lot of clans don't do anymore...set a goal for a new player, give them nudges towards the right answer, but never just tell them outright.  That's how I learned what little I know about foghaven vale and it is why I still get frustrated with the Archimedes multi-zone quest (seriously, is the crytic owl quest still active or not?)

[snax]

I know crytic/corak was the hard thing he'ld give casters to do.

But I was a bigger asshat then (denial + 0 meds + wearing a rat suit at chuck e cheeses for like 5-6 bucks an hour or maybe it was sears back then? eh i forgot) and I remember once asking him for a quest to join KOS.  I think it involved me escaping the abyss without an imm letting me out?  Or maybe it was to solo cyan using training gear or something really really ludicrous...there were multiple tiers to his assignment...anyways it was patently a joke to say 'hellzn0 mate' but yeah I did ask for one back in the day.  I never finished the first step of the way.

Maaaan I've been an asshat by true definition worse than most of the asshats who have been deleted, there must be an endearing quality to humoring a crazyass person like me.  Something like an immortal guy is thinking 'well it will keep him off the streets and away from social situations where he could do more damage''

(a bit self depricative, but reflecting on the ''good ol' days'')

[lurker]

I remember when noryl was just a warrior I used to group with.

[Anthony]

[Jorquin]

on the topic of "adding some variety to the game" i actually think standalone quests / events would be really cool.

like a once a month scenario/event where say palanthas falls under siege by the dragonarmies of takhisis, or a contingent of crazy evil necromancers take over garnet and start raising an undead army to assault vingaard, or an ancient black dragon comes and nests in bandit swamp for a week, etc.

unfortunately i'm not sure how feasible it would be from an implementation side

[SArT]

Okay, back on topic as well (and atypically dropping my normal sardonic nature):

I have suggested this before.  It would be really cool to see solo (or 2 man) instances, like done for mages in Wayreth or the cleric quest, around the world.  Not class specific as has been mentioned several places before... but hard instances with high risk and high reward.  Obviously you couldn't enter flagged.. but sure you could log and run there to avoid pk from warring clans.  But then, would you rather people just not be able to play?  It adds some mystery back to who is on and killable.

I disagree with Jorquin's idea above but just because that would involve the governing clan raping everything including other characters trying to participate... but take that idea and make it a controlled instance that everyone can enjoy and you have GOLD.

[Jorquin]

it would be difficult to control entry to any one-time quest / seasonal zone area, barring some staff member physically distributing a certain amount of one use rentable zone item that is absolutely required to open the area - but this would leave the door open for a range of other issues such as playing favorites, players crying wolf about "cheating", bullying others for their "entrance items", etc.


having an instanced area wouldn't help greatly either, since 99% of items that are halfway decent are limited, so it can still be repeatedly farmed by the "governing clan" as you put it. you could auction "entrances" to the area, but that still leans towards the groups with more people / muscle that can accumulate coins at a faster pace. using saveable timers on characters wouldn't really work either, since large playing groups could strategically cycle through their "unsaved" alternate characters to spam the area several times.


realistically if something like this was to be done, you'd have to take one of two stances - both of which are in some way flawed.

option 1)      just implement said temporary quest area / seasonal zone area and leave it open to the players to run it as per a standard zone - this leaves the door open for the ass-hat death shield and bullying behavior that we are all unfortunately familiar with, or general "locust" mentality of large clans that swarm over a new area like a plague and strip it clean of anything greater than a 1 dex belt as fast as possible to keep in their chests or rent on their 4th alt (ruining the fun for others)

option 2)      have entrance to said area controlled by either a coin fee for your group to enter or item required to enter method - either of which would likely have to be controlled by some high level staff member (whether by physically distributing some item, loading it in a random location and advertising some clue for said item's whereabouts to players or whatever). this would inevitably lead to altercations with players, tantrums, people feeling like they're getting screwed, whining that favorites are being played and other pleasant interactions which would make whoever running the operation wonder why they are wasting their time. furthermore anyone that would be high enough level to do such a job likely does not have the time to do it anyway.


if any clever cookie could think of another way to operate stand alone quests / seasonal zone areas that safeguard against BOTH large clans being ass-hats / totally ruining the fun for others AND causing players to cry about how unfair the whole system is and that wild immortals stole their fish whapper, i'm all ears.               

[Brad]

As far as the entrance item for a said quest. Let it be known the whereabouts of the quest entrance(portal) but don't give any hints as to the key load locations (that open the portal)around the world.

Is there any way to detect characters that enter the portal? If there is, limit it to one token for group size... and only allow the characters to enter once.

The trick here is to make it to where if you had been in the special zone before you can no longer carry the key. So you cannot carry the key...or enter the zone. You get one shot. If you die you can get a summon in....based on the names the portal just let inside.

There will always be a way to abuse any system. Maybe those are a few ideas you can weigh that might solve some of the problems.

The more I write about this the more i realize how big a project this would be to code. It is a great idea but maybe its not very realistic.

A few ideas to toss around anywho.

[Alecto]

If we are talking about making a 2 person version of heal or rose quest:

Just make the entrance a 2-players-only ordered room that's tagged "peace" so that pk flagged folks can't get it and have entrance disappear after 2 players are in zonelet.  Kind of like greenen backdoor and evil side uth wistan entrance combined.  Tag all zonelet rooms no_summon and no_relocate.  When someone dies or leaves zone it procs the entrance back (or when it repops).

Could it become a hiding place for a non-flagged hunted person - definitely - but that would be part of the fun.

Really, to make it super-risky could make zonelet no_recall as well.  Win or die.

Of course you could always just load the zone item on a random kender in game and have a staff member shout that its on a kender.  Make the item no_locate and watch the glorious kender carnage begin!

[SArT]

if any clever cookie could think of another way to operate stand alone quests / seasonal zone areas that safeguard against BOTH large clans being ass-hats / totally ruining the fun for others AND causing players to cry about how unfair the whole system is and that wild immortals stole their fish whapper, i'm all ears.               

I feel these areas already exist to a point.. from class / level specific auto port instances, to ticketed 1 person entrances.  I would suggest we do not have a "key based" entry, but rather a purchased entry.

I do not know if you can auto tailor a mobs level to the level of the person entering so I am not going to go into my ideas there... so that said it would be level specific.  What if the merchant sold tickets and one could buy the ticket in any major town.. then even from peace activate the ticket to be ported into the instance?  This exists already in game as anyone who has held the mushroom hilted knows.

If it was a 2 or more person instance then they would have to be grouped but only one ticket would be used.

1. Legendary Rainbow Ticket (legendary; 2 player)     50000
2. Plain purple ticket (level 15; 1 player)                        5000