Hunting Areas

Zsadist

Any of you who know me or see me, usually know that I'm hunting if I'm doing nothing else. However, because I hunt so often and see many other people doing the same, it has come to my attention that there are not enough hunting areas. Yes, I know there is Fengard and Ayhesa and Nal'jin Depths, but xp/gold wise, those areas are fairly weak and pathetic for someone who is 100+.

As it stands, the only 99+ areas that are worth hunting are Xaanhal, Tiyen, and Volcano, and hell, more times than not, these areas are always hunted out. I do hope I'm not just the only avid hunter in Aetolia who thinks this, nor do I hope that I am the first, however something needs to change.

So, to change this, can more 99+ hunting areas be created that are just as good of xp (obviously) as Tiyen and Xaanhal?
OR
Can the cooldown on the Xaanhal instance be lowered? Right now its at 1.5-2 hours reset, perhaps it can be lowered to 45 minutes or something. That would add in a faster spawned area and would -probably- appease most of us who hunt alot until more areas can be created.

Zsadist

Or.... just thought of this.. as a completely alternate idea, lower the cooldown on the knife in the toolset. Being about to resurrect a hunting area once a day seems abit rough. Perhaps lower the cooldown to 2/3/4 hours?

Alexina

It feels like hunting areas has been becoming more and more crowded over time. For a long while, it was basically me and Darliea in the volcano; these days, I bump into Ezalor, Daskalos, Shixblix, Carthenian, Rowena, and occasionally others. When Tiyen was released, only a handful was able to hunt there. Now, it is not uncommon to see people bashing there to get endgame (I believe I saw Trent there quite a bit before he was Tekal), not to mention that -a lot- of people bash there as their main hunting area. To me, this becomes an issue mostly when I use chalices and chocolates. Most of the time, I can just do something else but these boosts have timers, meaning I am 'wasting' them unless I actually bash while they're active.

The recent change to statpacks will boost a lot of peoples' health which means that the top-end areas will be receiving even more visitors (previously, the +speed statpacks had the drawback of lower health which is no longer the case to the same extent). Similarly, a lot more people have a higher amount of defensive artifacts compared to when the first of these top end areas were released.

I actually agree with both of Zsadist's solutions. Reducing the timer on the Xaanhal instance simply means that a lot more people will be able to hunt when they feel like hunting. Gold drops could be adjusted if necessary, although I have a feeling that Tiyen is already far more rewarding for those that are looking for gold. Adjusting the recently released hunter's toolset wouldn't be so bad either, mostly because I feel it is completely underwhelming compared to the compass-inlaid bracer.

Perhaps other people feel like chiming in on the subject?

Macavity

I am not sure how doable this will be in the coding, but here is my suggestion..

Level scaling areas...  In other words lets say a level 40 goes bashing in Fengard, and the mobs are a challenge to them and they get a decent amount of XP for their level.

Then a Level 100+ goes to fengard, and find that the mobs are tougher like Xaanhal area and the XP is scaled up as well to give them a boost.  

This would be tricky for those that web up and bash together but I am sure that can be worked out, but what this does is put ALL areas good for bashing regardless of what level you are.  Thus opening more places to bash over all.  I think places like Moghedu and Azdun should be unaffected or any other such places that are meant to be on the low end of the scale. 

I hope this makes sense

Daskalos

The problem with that, I think, is that 1) You can't powerlevel younger chars and 2) what happens in mixed-level  groups?

Macavity

I really think that powerleveling younger characters should be a rule to forbid it but that is just my opinion.  I think if you actually powerlevel someone up then they miss out on some experiences and getting to know the game and skill set better.  EVEN if they are an alt, more so in this case for knowing their class or other side.  

As for the mixed-level groups, my prior post already addressed that, and that would be left up to Admin to determine the best course of action on that.  Personally I think it should average the levels of all those in the web and base the area on that.

Areka

I would like a hunting area where the fumes from the ground are intoxicating and thus everyone in it is drunk. 

Toz

Areka is here, sniffing desperately at the ground.

Zsadist

I don't know, just cause they make a rule against powerleveling, doesn't mean that it'll be adhered to. I mean, lets look at Metagaming and Seconds. The rules clearly state that metagaming is against the rules, as is playing two characters at once. However, I have seen many people metagame with very little to 0 consequences, and the Seconds rule is never truly upheld unless it can be proven. My point is, just because the admin make a rule, doesn't mean that its going to be acknowledged and followed.

That being said, I like your idea of scaling areas, but I agree with Daskalos (amazingly) that it could be abused to powerlevel people.

Areka

Arbre

Zsadist said:

the Seconds rule is never truly upheld unless it can be proven.

It is INCREDIBLY easy for the admin to prove seconds, so I don't know what you're seeing that they ain't.

Macavity

@zsadist actually the HELP SECONDS is enforced very well.  The Admin/Gods all are sent alerts when two characters played by the same person is logged in, and they are to deal with it asap

Zsadist

@Arbre, I can't see anything that the admins can't. @Macavity, Really? I didn't know that. Well, thats good to know. In that case, its just Metagaming that isn't upheld. Anyway, we're getting off topic of this thread.

I still like your idea Mac, but I don't think it'd be a great fix to the hunting area problems in the end due to the ability to powerlevel and find a loophole to the xp gain.

Damonicus

Well could always turn Tiyen and Volcano into instances like Xaanhal. Not sure what the timer would be. But it would give everyone that option of bashing it without having to worry about it being bashed out. Probably at least Tiyen as the Volcano does have a honor line somewhere in it.

Omei

Zsadist said:

@Arbre, I can't see anything that the admins can't. @Macavity, Really? I didn't know that. Well, thats good to know. In that case, its just Metagaming that isn't upheld. Anyway, we're getting off topic of this thread.

Metagaming technically isn't against the rules, since we actually do not strictly require players to engage in roleplay. Enforcing RP is a cultural matter in Aetolia. It doesn't mean we like metagaming - I despise it, myself - but we give our players free reign as to how they choose to play their role, and trust that more seasoned players will guide them toward a better standard.

When metagaming becomes outright griefing, then we step in. You have to understand, though, that this is a very difficult thing to determine.

Irruel

I think the answer is a new area or three (near Delve) should open up >.>

Zsadist

@Omei: Its not against the rules? Hrm, interesting, I always thought it was. Personally, it should be against the rules, but yes I do understand how difficult it can be to prove. However, since I have you here in this thread, could you tell me how simple it would be to change the cooldown on either the Xaanhal instance or the knife cooldown? And also, if its even a possibility to be considered to assist with the limited 99+ hunting areas?

Teani

One could also argue that making some of the other high-end bashing places more lucrative when it comes to gold or XP would be a good thing. Right now there are some places that are only hunted when there's nothing else to be hunted. Bump up xp gain from mobs in Naljin, and all of the sudden you'll see more people hunting there.

The same would go for some of the lower level areas. It's ridiculously easy to gain high levels now compared to how it was before, and some of the lower level places are not used for bashing anymore. I remember spending lots of time in Scidve bashing duggers, but I don't think that many players actually go there to hunt nowadays because they blow past the point where it's lucrative enough to be worth it. In turn, this leads to a bunch of people who haven't really explored the areas of the game and can barely find their way around.

In short, perhaps looking into xp-gain from mobs in most areas would be a good idea, make them all more interesting.

Rowena

This is one of my main issues. There isn't much worth hunting endgame due to the amount of endgame players now. In addition, the hardest hunting mobs are not challenging for some people so there is room for a higher tier of difficulty. 

Top of my wish list for Aetolia is more high level hunting areas (( preferably instanced for less competition )) and just under that would be some horrendously difficult areas (( populated by mobs like The Creature )) to truly challenge and reward the games best hunters solo or benefit others in a group. A ground designed for two endgame players for example that was possible, but risky to farm for players invested in hunting. 

As a short term fix, I'd like to see the Abyss portion of Tiyen become instanced. 

Edit - I decided to edit this as I immediately got OOC tells about how broken Praenomen is. That kind of stuff is why until now I haven't bothered with forums. All the presumptions really get to me. It's a pretty simple request really - More hunting grounds for endgame players, preferably instanced, because of the number of them now and content geared towards "hunters." It might not be your cup of tea, you might find it pointless but some people enjoy hunting, for rank, for levels and for gold no matter how grindy it is. 

Xavin

People -are- right, though. Certain classes are -way- better equipped to handle bashing at a faster curve than others. Classes like Praenomen and Bloodborn, despite their relatively slow and soft-hitting bashing attack can really tank a ton of mob damage when compared to some other classes.

I think there -are- issues regarding bashing, but I'm not certain it's something that just tweaking one or two things would actually fix.

Alexina

Eh, I've said blood affinity is overpowered for a long, long time, but people always said it was fine because of their slow bashing. With these new statpack and enhancement changes, all classes are tankier across the board -AND- have +balance on top of it. While I think looking into balancing bashing across classes, all of this doesn't change the fact that there's now half a dozen or more people bashing the Volcano, way more than that in Tiyen, and that Xaanhal still have a two hour respawn time. I think we all would prefer new areas, but really, the quickest way of alleviating the shortage of bashing zones would be to reduce the timer on the Xaanhal instance. I'd wholly support any other solution as well; if you feel like releasing three brand new bashing zones around Delve in the coming weeks, I'd be so, so happy.

Irruel

Am I the only one that seems to have less max health than before, due to the health malus from +speed?

Not that I think the speed increase is even worth the health loss in a pack built purely for PVE.

Alexina

Most people I've talked to seem to have more health. There's three different statpacks with 15 con (with an extra point obtainable through enhancements), compared to the old dexterous having something like 12? If you used to bash in Powerful, you'd most likely have equal or less health.

Essentially, picking a high health statpack with increased speed, a damage resist of choice (blunt, cutting, or one of the elements, depending on your bashing area of choice) still leaves you enough points to get +xp on top of that if you're making a purely bashing statpack.

Irruel

I get that, certainly for PVE builds anyway.

I bashed through the aberrations quest in a PVE pack, because I was dying too much otherwise (wish I'd figured that out earlier than half way ). But the low strength I had as a trade off meant aberrations were taking annihilating crits and fighting on.

So, the situation isn't quite as simple as that, but I do take your point.

Rowena

I use Stalwart despite the low strength. I find I hit hard enough. Red amulets and orbs buff everyone's bashing damage output if they bother to obtain them as well. 

Zsadist

Regardless of whether a class is tanky or not, or how hard a class can/can't hit.... that still doesn't take away the fact that there are still far too few 99+ areas to hunt.

Ezalor

Claiming that Bloodborn is a good bashing class is mixing up their PK and bashing. Bloodborn are nowhere near a top bashing class even with the Potence change. Average at best.

EDIT: Actually the Potence change was pretty much cancelled out by Stillmind change, so yeah.

Veovis

After the armor nerf, the Potence nerf, and the Stillmind nerf Bloodborn are absolutely nowhere near a top bashing class. When I was GM, shortly after they were released, we were a top bashing class and definitely over-powered as far as PK.

Now, even with a strength artifact, level 1 knuckles, and an amulet of protection it still takes a while to kill mobs when using Potence and Stillmind. 

Bloodborn, in their current state, aren't terrible for bashing, but they're not great. It's not uncommon to see most of the guild using Teradrim or another class.

Xavin

Keep in mind frenzy scales poorly with strength. The tank of Bloodborn is more related to things that aren't so obvious. Things like sanguispect and mend make your ability to soak damage pretty decent, though I will admit that it has been quite a while since I've bashed as a bloodborn. That said, I based to tekal/azudim on praenomen without using affinity.

Alexina

Please more endgame areas like Tiyen and Xaanhal.

Xavin

Alexina said:

Please more endgame areas like Tiyen and Xaanhal.

They just added a new 99+ hunting area