Information Request

[josephm]

This isn't really nessicary for Nevrax to do, and yes it does 'nerf' the difficulty of the game. However, I do believe that nerfing the 'guess where the heck and who the heck I'm looking for' guesswork is for the better.

The rites are nice in that they detail the exact task you must accomplish in order to establish yourself with the factions. However, the tasks themselves are still incredibly vague. For example, Shua-Lao Zhuangi has me deliver an order to Shu-Quan du. Not Captain Shu-Quan du, nor 'Shu-Quan du located in the blah district' or Shu-Quan du, located in the officer's building of blah'

The same goes for foraging. We could use hints that relate to previous experience such as:
'seek out the dry bark, it can usually be found near dry straw'.

Outright aid, northern edge of mektoub waterhole. Or references to mobs (Gingos love to tear up the boles of Yana plants and because of a narcotic effect it induces on them, this usually sends the bark showering in all directions)

References to geographic locations, 'Every animal must have water, including the kitin, like other animals they will exude secretions to warn other animals off so that they will always have water for them selves'.....this means near any water in the region but it narrows it down greatly.

As for crafting missions, there should be an allowance so you don't really have to craft every single plan in the game. Yes if I want that new buckler plan I should craft shields. However I should not have to craft magical amps and matching socks to go with them!

How about if on craft missions I could kill a required Q mats, choice basic etc per request and take it to a crafter I have to find (like the last event) and get 3 guns crafted so i could fill my shield requirement.

I can get by with what's out there. Imo it's not very fun. I'll just do it because it gives me fun in other aspects of the game that I still think are great

[raynes]

I do agree with you about better hints. But just wanted to shoot some info your way on the delivery missions.

Reports go to Cheif guards or Sargents
Messages go to Messengers
Orders go to Overseers

In Zorai cities you can usually find the Cheif guards or Sargents by looking for the ramp with 2 guards at the bottom. They will be through the door at the top of the ramp.

The overseers are often found through the door at the top of the ramp with on guard.

[usinuk]

Even a simpler request for many of the prereq missions. Turn on the mission option for directions on the map, so if you want to find someone, you can. Works only for the final mission.

[sidusar]

I haven't gotten to rites yet, but just for the normal missions I think they should give more hints. Specially for the foraging missions. Delivery missions at least tell you the name of the person to deliver to (and as far I've seen, it's always a person with a function, never one of the people or guards just walking around town). Quartering missions tell you what animal and of what level you're supposed to kill to get the material you need. But foraging missions tell you absolutely nothing about where to look for the material, and unlike people and animals, material deposits aren't plainly visible.
(While foraging up to level 40 all over the training island, I've only found two locations that had a few mission materials. So unless there's something I'm missing here, these missions are completely not worth the time it would take to actually go out and search everywhere until you find the material.)

[zumwalt]

To go along with this list, I would like to see some sort of star next to the mission that is a pre-requisits mission to a rite, what we have not is a long list of missions, the only way we kinda know they go with rites is they make a special sound.

However, even though they do, when you complete them, it only sometimes completes a rites bubble, that or its broke the rest of the time.

[iphdrunk]

To go along with this list, I would like to see some sort of star next to the mission that is a pre-requisits.

Or, in case that it can't be done, it would be nice to know what missions you have already done at least once, so it is easier to look for the trigger missions (for those rites that are "hidden" and need to be triggered, I still think that most rites should be given and the prereqs just pointed out)

Regards,
A.

[dc77066]

Missions can be annoyingly hard. Even the delivery missions. They did make some changes for the "urgent" ones and added additional time. But even then they can be a challenge. I think they forgot to take into account that Trykers have to swim. I'm not sure I can make the Corsair to Fairhaven timed delivery even with my mount! (BTW, timer doesn't stop if you crash or stall due to lag). Fortunately none of the rites missions have been urgent (atleast that I've seen). Delivery to traveling NPC's are a big challenge too. Its one thing to run around Fairhaven looking for the Overseer but having to run around all Jena's creation for a Hunter, Hawker, Patroller, Prospector, Journeyman... Some stick to certain areas, others have stopping points where they stay a while but they can travel great distances. Be'Riplan Jichy is my favorite example, she visits each corner of Liberty Lake (North of the Corsair camp, South of Windermeer, East of Crystabell...). Hawkers seem to take a day off from time to time. "He's on Dainty Island... No, he's not... He was yesterday!!... Well he's not here now!!!"

Foraging missions is a whole other ball game. I found one that was seasonal... very upsetting. Again not a rite mission. There isn't any real design for mission mats. They tend to be farther out from the cities (Pyr is an exception as several hug the outer walls) and tend to be grouped in sets of three or four. Ones that are seasonal tend to be alone. The groupings change from land to land. Whats seasonal in one land may not be seasonal in another. Tracking will turn them up but its not reliable as you never know what its tracking until you get there. I turned up more Excellent source spots that way.

Should they make it easier? That was the original post's point. Mission targets should appear on the compass (something that happens for newbie welcomer missions and the barman rite primer mission). That would certainly make the "Delivery to Liberty Lake" missions easier. Even the ones where the NPC wants you deliver a message to an NPC less than 20m away. She could have saved the 700 dappers and just shout it over to the other NPC. Or the "Locate the wildlife thats standing behind me!" missions. Hints would be good for the foraging missions... maybe they should "pop" when you get close to them - kinda like the Kitin secretion nodes (which are still popping in BB).

Crafting missions need to be made easier. "Spend 120 crafting points and I'll tell you a story" Range weapon Rite is a bit much. I'm saving that for when Tetra says Range weapons are fair and balanced.

[angus858]

There is one positive thing about the delivery and foraging missions as they are now. They encourage and reward exploration. Once I saw how these missions worked I explored every town and area of Cities of Intuition and mapped the locations of every important NPC (ones with titles other than Guard). I enjoyed the exercise because I like exploring. I'm now working on maps of foraging mission resources. After patch 1 this became the only form of exploration open to me. I hope these missions don't get dumbed down. There should be rewards for patient exploration just as there are rewards for patiently wacking creatures for combat xp.

Crafting missions may be different. I don't do those. It does seem unfair that people should have to craft every sort of item to do crafting missions.

Indobi

[sidusar]

There is one positive thing about the delivery and foraging missions as they are now. They encourage and reward exploration. Once I saw how these missions worked I explored every town and area of Cities of Intuition and mapped the locations of every important NPC (ones with titles other than Guard). I enjoyed the exercise because I like exploring. I'm now working on maps of foraging mission resources. After patch 1 this became the only form of exploration open to me. I hope these missions don't get dumbed down. There should be rewards for patient exploration just as there are rewards for patiently wacking creatures for combat xp.

Problem with this is that the rewards for most quests are too small right now, nowhere near the effort it takes to complete them. You could make a lot more dapper in the time it takes to do those missions by just going out foraging or killing things. And if you're doing it for the fame, you can just do the easier missions over and over, like the "deliver this to the person standing next to me" or the "locate the animal behind me" missions mentioned above. Which as far as I've seen give the same amount of reward as the "deliver this to the other side of the land" and the "locate the animal that can only be found after wading through hordes of aggresive predators" missions.

[josephm]

Thanks for the great respones guys!

Thanks Raynes. I suspected such but I was not absolutely sure.

I don't really think that the mission rewards are unbalanced. Keep in mind there are a plethora of rites that are/potentially available. I believe Nevrax is placing emphasis here should be that you wan't your character to be able to 'do more' rather than be able to 'kill more'.

I ran the first rite and obtained the 50 stat upgrade. It my seem rather paltry when added on to my 1500ish natural stat. However, consider how long it takes me to level at ~175. The time I spent getting that 50 sap involve no danger, and took hours less than gaining 5 levels. Granted I don't get 50sp, new spell toys, higher resistance etc, but for the time spent, I think it was well worth it.

Many of your suggestions are great, especially the compass. To take it one step further, and encourage exploration while not on missions; perhaps when you need a person available in the compass, you need to have met them first. My reasoning for this is that while running HoP fame missions, my guild ran into some Trykers (yummy!) that were looking for So-he-fuangi (at work..not sure first rite big bubble mission giver name).

This person happens to be far far south, back in northern CoI, typically south of Kipee hill. We directed the people and bid them farewell. My point is that while I do want a bit more explicit directives, we should gain these through exploration. I think it just ads a little more to running around with nothing to do when you're bored. Go meet people!

As for foraging, my 140ish skill has a very high advantage over lower level foragers. I can prospect for 20 meters (have sp to buy 40 meters) and in a few levels can get 60 meters. I understand that I do deserve a bit easier of a ride for having a longer game experience with no content and I should get up to speed where I need to be.

My complaint with foraging however, is taking in to account the early days of my foraging...just for regular materials, and 5 meter prospection. Tracking is a bit messed, since we can't do it for mission mats. So while we have specific tracks and prospects, when we disable specific crafting materials, we are still forced to jumble those in with the mission materials. (maybe this is available in a rite...but starting out would be rough).

If these stanzas are available through rites, it seems a bit backwards to me. Rites in the beginning should be easier and get progressively harder for greater rewards. If these stanzas were the first recieved instead of extraction stanzas, or focus or anything like that, I would understand.

I love the idea on being able to see what tasks we have previously run!

angus858 I feel you on this one. It's hard for lower levels to be able to purchase grind materials. Once those are gone it's harder for higher levels to grind ALL things. While there should be a reward for diversity, there should also be a reward for specialization. Specialization would mean more advanced but limited choice, and vice versa.

My understanding here, though I am far from a great crafter (q110 shields and 40-80 in all other things), is that at my level I can currently afford to powerlevel my craft by selling higher level mats, many I can kill easily for and making millions over night. Should Nevrax continue with this line of craft ritual, (I believe it creates less diversity through lack of specialization) perhaps the grind mats Q150, 200, 250 should be re-introduced.

The idea of 'free popping' mission mats is also one I'd like to entertain. I must check with Plarf, but I remember we were led to believe that over time, through higher levels of foraging, material sources would begin popping as you walked by. The more people, of higher level, the more likely the materials would pop. Of course I believe this should be level related...100 forage pops mission mats in CoI, 150, Maiden Grove, 200 HoP, 250 Knot and Umbra Trnch of trials pr etc., Void and it's PR, Nexus etc. remaining extreme.

What do you guys think?