High Seas Update: Treasure Chests & MIB Treasures

Dot_Warner

Keep the current timer for DH in Fel, allow Tram's to be quicker. 

Bilbo

Urge said:

Tim said:

No Problem LilyGrace 

Just the we can't do something because it will upset the PvPs is one of my hot button issues.

Must stop rant here must stop rant ..................................Be good no rant.

You need to be tolerant to different playstyles and how others enjoy this game.

Sadly how many times have they done PvP Balance Pubs that affected PvM and when the PvMers bitched we were told to deal with it and ignored by the DEVs.  %1000 agree with @Tim

LilyGrace

Well, like I said, I wasn't sure what players and devs might think or feel about reducing wait time on using DH & RT. That's why I framed it as I did. I still can't think of any reason why training in those skills couldn't offer occasional gains on failed attempts. At least that would take some of the sting out of what a mind numbing bummer the wait is.

Edit: And I can't see why RT would need the same wait time as DH. 

Dot_Warner said:

"Keep the current timer for DH in Fel, allow Tram's to be quicker."
I don't know if that's even possible.

Tim

Urge said:

Tim said:

No Problem LilyGrace 

Just the we can't do something because it will upset the PvPs is one of my hot button issues.

Must stop rant here must stop rant ..................................Be good no rant.

You need to be tolerant to different playstyles and how others enjoy this game.

If they were I would be. Yes it is just a minority of PvPs but aaaaggggg

Rhombus

I have been a Treasure Hunter since day one of their introduction, cannot imagine how many I have done of all levels. Now I mostly do level 4 fel and level 6 with the occasional 7 if I am feeling sociable enough to find a tamer to take care of the spawn.

Loot for me is Sot's and Alacrity scrolls for my vendor.

With the loss of mining I could finally get to try discord, but if not remove trap is fine.

Am I the only Bard? I have no problem soloing any map with the exception of a last Greater Dragon or Ancient Wyrm as then I need to log on my archer to finish it off.

Peace 120

Mining 81.8

Music 120

Provo 120

Carto 100

Magery 120

Lock picking 100

Rhombus

Faeryl said:

Parnoc said:

My THunter never touches a soulstone, his skills are there and stay there!!

I have no idea how people that switch skills get it done, must take forever to dig just a few maps.

I have never seen a paragon Renegade Changeling..... really?  Would that even be possible to kill?

They can get extremely nasty if you happen to get two or three together. More so if one or more spawn paragon.

Last time I tried to solo a level 7 Ilsh map, I had to give up and bail, because my greater dragon could barely scratch it before dying.

Did one with a guildmate once... entire contents of the chest decayed in the time it took us to kill one.

With a larger group and a couple of them spawning initially... lots of death.

I have a bag of roughly 45 level 7 Illshenar maps from doing so many level 6 there and I have never had a paragon pop, are they not colored differently or noted in their name? And because of the hassle of Renegade Changelings I only do them when they are close enough to that champ spawn near Spirituality so I have help from the pixies, or North of Sacrifice.

coldasice_209

Kyronix said:

Thanks everyone for the great feedback so far!

Couple of things I'd like to mention as we continue the conversation, also disclaimer that none of this is set in stone so if things change down the line - take nothing I say here as firm!

From a user experience point of view, it's clear there is a discrepancy between doing T-maps in the CC vs the EC.  Trying to provide some balance for CC users is something we would have to further investigate to find what solutions we can offer within the context of that client. 

The "blocking the chest" issue is certainly annoying, and something I had a chance to try and dig into when we did the Elemental Titan arc - cleaning up the chest digging process is high on the list.  

As for skills - I'm not keen to start consolidating skills or forcing redevelopment of T-Hunter templates.  Using telekinesis to set of traps has been something that's been done forever - changing that in favor of forcing remove trap isn't likely going to be met with open arms.  That being said providing some extra reward for investing in that skill is more along the lines of how we could address telekinesis.  Someone mentioned secret compartments with special rewards that would get "destroyed" by telekinetic powers - that could work.  I'm not a fan of allowing mages to unlock higher level chests.  Allowing lock picks to craft a lock pick set to allow others to though? That would be a better solution I think.

Someone mentioned swapping mining out in favor of cartography for finding the chest - would have to investigate but it's an interesting idea.

I think we have a situation where some folks like to do treasure maps solo, while others enjoy doing them as a group.  The goal is to preserve this.  It was mentioned here that treasure maps 1-6 should be solo activities while 7+ should be group activities.  I agree with the premise, but that leads me to my next point...

We have too many levels of treasure maps with not enough ability to vary what's inside between each level - sure we can bump intensity and add specialty items, but ultimately we are pretty hamstrung.  I think a situation where we have 5 overall levels of maps would streamline things a bit.  Say 1-3 are solo activities, with 4 and 5 lending themselves to more of a group activity.  Where the current lineup of maps would fall into this new scheme remains TBD, but it illustrates a broader point.  Part of this is having Dread Pirates drop a more flavorful map experience that I teased in my first post.  Looking forward to hearing feedback here.

As far as what's in the chests - it's pretty clear there is a preference for quality over quantity.  One way we could accomplish removing some of the clutter is keeping some of the resource based loot to the lower level chests while preserving the item/equipment based loot for higher level.  This keeps incentive on the lower end maps while keeping the higher end maps free of excess clutter.  This way you could then decide what type of loot you want and do the map accordingly.  This would of course require a balance pass for which creatures drop maps, which has been asked for as well.

As far as T-Map loot (and SoS loot as well) for items - this is complicated.  Deco, recipes, resources, gold, gems etc - that's easy.  For equipment and artifacts it's another story.  We are in a really tough spot when it comes to artifacts, whether they be randomly generated or pre-made.  We constantly run into a situation where the majority of the player base is incredibly well equipped.  This leads to encounters having to balance for the increase player power.  Rinse and repeat, and we get the debilitating power creep we have today.  When it comes to artifacts, unless something has 100% mana leech, a swing speed that can drop down to 1.25 with maxed stamina, and AI it's pretty much "crap".  The same premise applies to a handful of desirable properties for most all templates.  Of course this is a multi-faceted problem that is the result of nearly two decades worth of itemization, but it's arguably the biggest hurdle with keeping player engagement high.  We aren't keen to open the flood gates and start loading treasure chests with clean legendaries but we also recognize that opening a chest to "crap" isn't fun either.  

This is part of a much larger conversation on how to rebalance crafted items vs randomly generated loot vs pre-made artifacts - but in this context it is relevant so I wanted to bring it up.

So at this point - what does that mean for equipment in T-Maps & MiBs?  Well at this point we aren't trying to do a complete redesign of the entire itemization, so don't expect anything too groundbreaking.  We should, however, at least be able to sweeten the chest.

As for SoS chests - adding more deco to the pre-fish is an easy thing to do.  I've got over 100 SCUBA dives on shipwrecks IRL, so I'm sitting on a laundry list of stuff to fish up from the deep.  As for the stuff in the chest, I don't think SoS chests compare really to T-maps in terms of the difficulty of the encounter.  Beyond the acquisition of the MIB itself, getting the chest is pretty easy.  In order to bump the loot in the SoS chest to be on par with treasure chests the encounters would have to bump to compensate - something I don't think many fishers (including myself) are keen on.  Will have to think about some novel ways to make naval treasure more interesting.

I think that's it for now - look forward to your comments!
Please keep the option to solo higher level t maps alive as not all of us enjoy playing the game with a group. The idea of better loot is amazing and long overdue for sure.

Cazador

@Kyronix the power creep is soley your guys fault. I don’t know if was due to lack of testing, or lack of time looked at the system and noticing it was dropping 12 mod Max Intensity jewls. The problem now is like you say. Making things useful in that element becomes very tough as you’ve stated. There isn’t much you do other than revamp all the mobs and balance out hp/stam/int to higher values tbh, which would include a rebalance if damage outputs etc..not worth it. Resists are irrelevant, most mods are irrelevant, and what I mean is getting caps isn’t very difficult. Imbuing was a nice system, but it became stale once it was “beat” so you added reforging, also a semi ok system. A lot of RNG but kept crafters crafting. Then you introduced 10MOD legendaries. It killed crafting overnight. So with that being said. There isn’t much you could add to treasure loot that would give much incentive to revamp it other than a few 30-40 people who THunt and RP. The vast majority of us won’t ever roll a THunter. It’s not worth the investment when we can virtually stand afk at roof, abscess, underwater boss and get easy legos. I’ve tried to think of fun additions to add to make it worth doing. It always comes back to legendaries that’s what people seek. Or items of similar strength.

popps

Cazador said:

@ Kyronix the power creep is soley your guys fault. I don’t know if was due to lack of testing, or lack of time looked at the system and noticing it was dropping 12 mod Max Intensity jewls. The problem now is like you say. Making things useful in that element becomes very tough as you’ve stated. There isn’t much you do other than revamp all the mobs and balance out hp/stam/int to higher values tbh, which would include a rebalance if damage outputs etc..not worth it. Resists are irrelevant, most mods are irrelevant, and what I mean is getting caps isn’t very difficult. Imbuing was a nice system, but it became stale once it was “beat” so you added reforging, also a semi ok system. A lot of RNG but kept crafters crafting. Then you introduced 10MOD legendaries. It killed crafting overnight. So with that being said. There isn’t much you could add to treasure loot that would give much incentive to revamp it other than a few 30-40 people who THunt and RP. The vast majority of us won’t ever roll a THunter. It’s not worth the investment when we can virtually stand afk at roof, abscess, underwater boss and get easy legos. I’ve tried to think of fun additions to add to make it worth doing. It always comes back to legendaries that’s what people seek. Or items of similar strength.

"There isn’t much you do other than revamp all the mobs...."

Unfortunately, making existing mobs "tougher" simply hurts, and quite significantly, new and returning players who then have an impossible challenge to deal with, not having neither those 12 mods items nor the skills, often, to deal with such "beefed up" monsters...

Basically, it becomes a huge deterrant for new and returning players to want to play UO if they will then have to face monsters so much made tougher....

Uriah_Heep

They should reverse the pwer creep, lighten up items spawning by 5%, wait a month, lighten up mobs 5%, rinse and repeat.  Until it gets back to a liveable level.  And cut every gold drop by 25% while at it.\

Urge

Uriah_Heep said:

They should reverse the pwer creep, lighten up items spawning by 5%, wait a month, lighten up mobs 5%, rinse and repeat.  Until it gets back to a liveable level.  And cut every gold drop by 25% while at it.\

Mervyn has suggested this for a while and I think he may be correct. A limited durability and slight drop rate increase would keep both supply and demand coming smoothly.

Uriah_Heep

And make everything only repairable one time...no more lifetime goods lol

Pawain

@KHAN @Captain_Lucky @other guy asking.

We may get these as a reward but I cant find the notes of todays update.

• Barbed Whip of Plundering
• Bladed Whip of Plundering
• Spiked Whip of Plundering

KHAN

Pawain said:

@ KHAN @ Captain_Lucky @ other guy asking.

We may get these as a reward but I cant find the notes of todays update.

• Barbed Whip of Plundering
• Bladed Whip of Plundering
• Spiked Whip of Plundering

THANKS! *Looks for the "like" button*

Kronal

Pssst @Kyronix 3 words to sweeten chests and MIBS....... Pet Power Scrolls

KHAN

Pawain said:

@ KHAN @ Captain_Lucky @ other guy asking.

We may get these as a reward but I cant find the notes of todays update.

• Barbed Whip of Plundering
• Bladed Whip of Plundering
• Spiked Whip of Plundering

So, that sounds to me like they might just be in the High Seas content. @Kyronix ,Any chance on having them in Treasure chests? Or am I missing something?

Captain_Lucky

Pawain said:

@ KHAN @ Captain_Lucky @ other guy asking.

We may get these as a reward but I cant find the notes of todays update.

• Barbed Whip of Plundering
• Bladed Whip of Plundering
• Spiked Whip of Plundering

Wait. What? Did I even comment in this thread? lol

Kyronix

Guess you'll have to wait and see - as I've mentioned we've got a deployment plan for whips, very exciting stuff!

KHAN

Kyronix said:

Guess you'll have to wait and see - as I've mentioned we've got a deployment plan for whips, very exciting stuff!

SWEET!

CovenantX

Kyronix said:

Guess you'll have to wait and see - as I've mentioned we've got a deployment plan for whips, very exciting stuff!

 

   Hopefully you factored in the failure rate of reforging for what you want (100% elemental damage / 70% hit area / both?) into the whole process of farming for the whips.  

  Perhaps the whips should spawn with a random 100% elemental damage type, at least they'd useful at the start.  that would be far better than grinding for 20mins for one whip, reforge it and it becomes useless as it's always fun to spend a lot of time and make absolutely no progress due to RNG.

Pawain

Captain_Lucky said:

Pawain said:

@ KHAN @ Captain_Lucky @ other guy asking.

We may get these as a reward but I cant find the notes of todays update.

• Barbed Whip of Plundering
• Bladed Whip of Plundering
• Spiked Whip of Plundering

Wait. What? Did I even comment in this thread? lol

I think I meant to tag CovenentX. I know more than one were interested in Whips.   You are the other guy.

Parnoc

How do you open the Maritime Cargo chests?

KHAN

Parnoc said:

How do you open the Maritime Cargo chests?

@Kyronix This! How do you open them?

Kyronix

That's not your cargo! You can't open it!

KHAN

Kyronix said:

That's not your cargo! You can't open it!

We figured out to go to Buc's! Will there be any different/more "rewards" other than the 3?

Kyronix

Wait and see!  The Rising Tides are-a rising!

KHAN

Kyronix said:

Wait and see!  The Rising Tides are-a rising!

GOTCHA! Good. LOL

LilyGrace

KHAN said:

Kyronix said:

That's not your cargo! You can't open it!

We figured out to go to Buc's! Will there be any different/more "rewards" other than the 3?

Has anyone tried the Captain of the Guards in any towns? Maybe we'll get prizes other than the town banners from them? 

Oh! Monty!

Sliss

Uriah_Heep said:

They should reverse the pwer creep, lighten up items spawning by 5%, wait a month, lighten up mobs 5%, rinse and repeat.  Until it gets back to a liveable level.  And cut every gold drop by 25% while at it.\

That is pretty much a game equivalent of suicide. A controlled power creep is necessity to keep players interested. This is the reason pretty much every MMO has it. Nobody wants to spend hours/days/months farming that ring that is just as powerful as the one they already have.
If you start going in the opposite direction, i.e. decreasing loot quality, people will just stop logging in. 
What I am trying to say is power creep is just fine if it's done properly. 

hunter11

man every single thread i look at its people talking about 12 plus mod items and how new players need them and so on... look if everyone got them nothing would be special about them plus you dont need 12 mods ill kill anything anyone with 8 mod items its silly to think you need all that extra stuff you can do a lot with basic legendary items