The Shattered Vortex

Dristin

Draiman said:

Could we put like a tent or roof or something around the portal for vampires? Cause that's 30s of the sun beating on me and me not curing and it's super annoying.

Fine, fine, you silly vampires. It is now indoors.

Serrice

But now you can't easily escape a portal gank. Can we just flag it sunless instead of indoors?

Zsadist

I'm pretty sure outside the portal is not Open PK. So you shouldn't be killing people right outside it. Inside it, sure. But not outside. Course, I could be wrong.

Dristin

Yeah, that's the idea. It's supposed to work like Hunting Grounds. I updated it to HELP PK yesterday.

Kadvar

Draiman said:

Could we put like a tent or roof or something around the portal for vampires? Cause that's 30s of the sun beating on me and me not curing and it's super annoying.

It is an Ankyrean artifact, enchanted with the following powers:
darkness

Chump.

Pypo

Something has been making me curious about this event. After looking into the place I was amazed to see there were still druids fighting against the sect, but no shamans to be found! It seems the same with the warrior types there doesn't seem to be paladins, and/or Infernals among the ranks. I was assuming the fresh troops were supplied FROM our major cities to back UP the two fighting groups.

I wanted to ask, did the vortex itself take place in a different timezone that has been lost to us, with only NOW being re-discovered? If the dawn patrol ever won this...would the druids lose access to their spirits, moment they stepped out? *laughs* Its so much fun I wish there were more areas like this out there in world. Dangerous, but at same time fun for a basher-type.

Areka

It happened when the Indoron Empire was still a thing (centures upon centuries ago).

Dristin

To answer the multiple questions:

1. If you're looking for a specific yearish range, I put it around the 30s MA or earlier - before any of the players were even in the game. Thus, why no players know anything about it. It was definitely at the start of the third mortal epoch/end of the second mortal epoch.
2. The vortex itself was unknown as to what rested within it, just that the casters had the strength to make it happen and figured it would kill whatever got sucked into it. So, that's why so many thought they may have just imploded or died rather than being sucked into another world entirely. It's one of those unspeakable tragedies that people eventually decide not to pass on to the next generation as they feel it has no relevance but showing a terrible time in their past. So, when this vortex is being discovered, it is technically being discovered for the first time by those that weren't sucked into it.
2. The reinforcements are just general npcs but are intended to be from our current cities. You can think of them as just people who took up arms and were willing to fight, not necessarily being of any particular guild/class. You don't have to have a class to be willing to fight!
3. The area is timelocked. To say much else about what would happen if they came out is something I'm not looking to specifically touch on right now. But, there will be a time when it is addressed.

Lim

Hi @Dristin and gang,

the overwhelming damage from the Indorani still seems to be the problem. I think there's something about the worm's hit that fires two times.

http://pastebin.com/Dh5Lqeee

Dristin

I took off draining health and the damage not being able to be blocked, so that'll improve it some.

Pypo

Hey @dristin thanks so much for the responses! I was confused for a bit there as I explored the place, but you really solved what I was wondering. I wonder if there may be secrets to re-discover of indorani of the past that might improve or empower indorani of the present! *cackles*

Lim

it's a place locked out of time, so you could go up to them and introduce yourself as FROM THE FUTURE

Serrice

I wonder if past Indorani are disappointed at how bad future Indorani are. "Oh, you mean you CAN'T one shot people with your chaos worm? Gtfo."

Dristin

Serrice said:

I wonder if past Indorani are disappointed at how bad future Indorani are. "Oh, you mean you CAN'T one shot people with your chaos worm? Gtfo."

I will not confirm nor deny this being a possibility. Cause, YOU NEVER KNOW. I can, however, confirm something about the npcs - they are crit immune and tough to help simulate fighting regular players (to an extent). I know it's not but so realistic for obvious reasons, but that is the general idea.

Lim

'how many ents you even need, bro?' 

Alexina

Serrice said:

I wonder if past Indorani are disappointed at how bad future Indorani are. "Oh, you mean you CAN'T one shot people with your chaos worm? Gtfo."

This just seems like a weird comparison because mobs and players are never really going to be comparable power-wise. I can clear out the entire demonsbane camp in half an hour or so, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am stronger than the entire Aztob faction. Meanwhile, there's no actual visible fighting between the two sides if you go there. Dunno. It's a bit like the average high level mob saying "Oh, you don't even have 10,000 health, if I just had some health vials your ass would be mine."

Anyway, as for the area itself, it feels a bit weird that the general XP level is way up at the Volcano level (the reinforcements actually give more, most of the regular mobs give less), but the mobs are so much weaker. In the Volcano, aggro mobs means that you actually die sometimes, or at least that you have to leave the room to heal up. There's no real danger bashing here, at least not compared to the massive xp gains you're getting.

As a vampire, with fire vulnerability, this is the most damage I'm taking:
As a falcon swoops before you, it flares its wings brilliantly. It stops mid-flight to strike violently at you with its beak. Pain courses through your body and fire erupts throughout your veins.
Health Lost: 1589, fire, none

My first impression is that it's a fairly nice area. There's generally no competition, and with Xaanhal, Tiyen, Volcano, and Tcanna, there's always someplace for endgamers to go bashing now.

Lim

I'm not sure that it is better to bash in the vortex since you can't crit the mobs.

Nonetheless, I think it should be intended that it be a lucrative place to bash. Hence the open PK concept. Higher risk, higher reward. 

Anyway, please everyone visit this place more. 

Alexina

You're probably right that the crit immune mobs makes the area worse in terms of xp gain for than the comparable endgame zones, but that's more based on a gut feeling than actual numbers. I guess that after reading all these other posts, I was thinking I'd head into a dangerous area (at least with damage/aggro mobs like the Volcano, or perhaps even more difficult), but I'm never going to die to mobs here, only to other players. That might be intended as part of the design of the area, but I figured I'd offer feedback anyway.

Open PK bashing zones are a long standing feature of Achaea, and people often go there both to get XPs, to get PKs, and to kill honours mobs. People frequently die in these areas, and they even die the mobs there (due to heavy affliction stacking, wandering aggro, or just mobs having the ability to outdamage fully artied people if they don't pay attention). It's pretty exciting that we're starting to see places sort of like this in Aetolia too. So, well done!

Serrice

Alexina said:

This just seems like a weird comparison because mobs and players are never really going to be comparable power-wise. I can clear out the entire demonsbane camp in half an hour or so, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am stronger than the entire Aztob faction. Meanwhile, there's no actual visible fighting between the two sides if you go there. Dunno. It's a bit like the average high level mob saying "Oh, you don't even have 10,000 health, if I just had some health vials your ass would be mine."

It was a joke.

Lim

If anything, I hope it becomes significantly lucrative in the vortex to entice people to risk entering. The fear of dying can be pretty strong and hard to overcome. My biggest fear is that the area fizzles out after a while just like the fracture, view, and the hunting grounds. 

Zsadist

Edit: In hindsight, I feel like would people would miscontrue my post as a complaint or something. Carry on!

Draiman

Would it be a bad idea to ask that hoods and what not be disabled in the Vortex? It's open PK, you should be worried when you go in, and not invisible.

Isande

@Zsadist Awww but now I'm totally curious why I was mentioned, seeing as how I've had nothing to do with the Vortex as yet. No fun! :P

Oops, clicked on something - Aha, found it and fixed! Sorry Drai.

Zsadist

Actually, my post was entirely about that point Isande. But again, it would probably be misconstrued as a complaint. It was nothing bad, I assure you.

Alexina

Draiman said:

Would it be a bad idea to ask that hoods and what not be disabled in the Vortex? It's open PK, you should be worried when you go in, and not invisible.

It would be a bad idea. It's the same reason you're not disabling artifacts in the Delos Brawls and whatnot too -- people invested a lot of credits into buying these artifacts in the first place. Either make hoods go away completely or keep them as it is, devaluing them over time by setting up areas where they simply provide no benefit is not very cool at all.

Xarian

Alexina said:

Draiman said:

Would it be a bad idea to ask that hoods and what not be disabled in the Vortex? It's open PK, you should be worried when you go in, and not invisible.

It would be a bad idea. It's the same reason you're not disabling artifacts in the Delos Brawls and whatnot too -- people invested a lot of credits into buying these artifacts in the first place. Either make hoods go away completely or keep them as it is, devaluing them over time by setting up areas where they simply provide no benefit is not very cool at all.

I'm not sure that that makes sense. Hood currently works in 73/73 areas of Aetolia (yes, there are more, but you get the idea). Adding a new area where it doesn't work doesn't devalue hood; it still works in all the places it did before. If anything, the bigger Aetolia gets, the more valuable hood becomes. Hood is like a sneakiness force multiplier.

Dristin

I'm going to go ahead and throw this in here that this is not the thread to discuss hoods and need for lack of hood areas. Carry on.

Alexina

I'm going to point out that it's not a bad thing that the participants of this game contribute to discussions regarding specific features they feel are important to them, such as the aforementioned topic of hoods or no hoods in an open PK area that was recently released. You wanted feedback, and now there's angry red mod text when people are providing it.

GG. Well played. Etcetera.

EDIT:
To clarify, this is the first open PK zone in Aetolia with the additional benefit of being a really good bashing zone. The manner of which people are able to (or not able to) locate each other does not seem entirely unimportant. Just my cents.

Razmael

You are free to discuss hood. Just make a new thread so it's not derailing this one as asked. There's no need for the passive aggressiveness.

Malok

Keeping on topic in regards to the Shattered Vortex, I just want to reiterate how neat the area is. It's certainly not perfect, but it's great to be able to have that one more thing you can be doing when you tell yourself 'I am bored right now, theres nothing to do'. Things like this are what takes away the ability to say stuff like that, so kudos again. I am skeptical at the usefulness of the things you can buy, but I suppose in my case, being that the whole thing is tied to the Indorani, that certainly isn't the entire point.

As an idea, I think it'd be interesting if the NPC corpses you turned in for the non-reinforcement rotated in what it was. For example, one of the NPCs wants treants. I think it'd be cool if they sometimes wanted warped turtles instead, etc.

This area has a lot of potential, I genuinely hope it keeps getting improved and people don't stop going there.