Newbie zone feedback request
- Thread starter Xeldan
- Start date
/agree Wiz
Justa a thought, can you touch up Greenmist by maybe making mob pathing lure players to where they are supposed to be fighting?
Like a bunch of Kobolds wandering back and forth between Erudin and their log?
And if there are other type of mobs, they could wander along a different path so people or mobs fighting one path dont get in the way of the other.
(The bandits were pretty easy to find.)
Justa a thought, can you touch up Greenmist by maybe making mob pathing lure players to where they are supposed to be fighting?
Like a bunch of Kobolds wandering back and forth between Erudin and their log?
And if there are other type of mobs, they could wander along a different path so people or mobs fighting one path dont get in the way of the other.
(The bandits were pretty easy to find.)
General Newbie area thoughts
My wife and I played EQ for years, and we like what Dalaya is doing for the most part. We didn't like the way EQ was going at all, and Dalaya seems to be much more "our kind of game".
* The exp debt works well, its less frustrating than losing levels yet its a decent annoyance enough to makes you be careful when you hunt.
* The quests are fine (although there could be more of them to do). The issue with the game quests isn't about the quests themselves, but rather with the daytime/nighttime system for the quest npc's. Its unbelievably frustrating to need to do turnins, but find you have to wait 4 hours for the npc to repop. For us, we did that once, but we simply decided that quests aren't worth doing if the odds are so poor to find the turn in npc up. The day/night system really just forces us to log off, and come back 4 hours later (most likely we don't come back for several days though).
* NPC Merchants. Again, this is with the day/night problem. We always found in EQ that we needed the NPC merchants much more at low levels than we did at higher levels. The need for cash & supplies is much more important, you need to do the run more often since you tend to sell the "junk" loot even when its low value. Every copper counts. At the same time, its a long and annoying process to find the npc merchants who are up at that time. I was thinking that maybe an npc merchant for newbies might be good, one who stays up all the time but only buys the junk loot (ie have a payout cap of 1 gold or so). At low levels we get overloaded fast with lots of low value items. Waiting (or running about overloaded) is just pure frustration, and adds nothing to gameplay.
* NPC merchants that repop from day/night don't seem to hold their items, although this might be from the fairly common server reboots. Again, at lower levels we need to buy simple things like cloth items (ie got more than enough cloth sleeves, but few cloth pants). When the merchants depop and lose their inventory, it probably has a much larger impact on low level players. At higher levels, we usually only checked the merchants for tradeskill goods, but at lower levels they have reasonable items to equip characters with.
We enjoy the game as it works now, but the day/night system just impacts our characters negatively. Its frustrating to be full of gear that we know sells for little, overweight, with quest items, and have to wait hours before any turn ins can be done. The forced downtime at night seems to be something that pushes you away from the game, rather than wanting to make you go out and hunt more right then and there.
It also doesn't seem casual player friendly, since I have logged in several times in a row only to find out it was still a couple of hours before I could go sell. I needed to sell so I had space to go back out and hunt, yet selling was so hard to do.
Sometimes we see an item we want to buy, run to the bank to get it, and see the merchant depop as we run up (happened to me twice now). All I wanted was a robe that was selling for 3 gold or so, but was better than the startup robe. I checked them later and the vendor had nothing but standard items on them.
My wife and I played EQ for years, and we like what Dalaya is doing for the most part. We didn't like the way EQ was going at all, and Dalaya seems to be much more "our kind of game".
* The exp debt works well, its less frustrating than losing levels yet its a decent annoyance enough to makes you be careful when you hunt.
* The quests are fine (although there could be more of them to do). The issue with the game quests isn't about the quests themselves, but rather with the daytime/nighttime system for the quest npc's. Its unbelievably frustrating to need to do turnins, but find you have to wait 4 hours for the npc to repop. For us, we did that once, but we simply decided that quests aren't worth doing if the odds are so poor to find the turn in npc up. The day/night system really just forces us to log off, and come back 4 hours later (most likely we don't come back for several days though).
* NPC Merchants. Again, this is with the day/night problem. We always found in EQ that we needed the NPC merchants much more at low levels than we did at higher levels. The need for cash & supplies is much more important, you need to do the run more often since you tend to sell the "junk" loot even when its low value. Every copper counts. At the same time, its a long and annoying process to find the npc merchants who are up at that time. I was thinking that maybe an npc merchant for newbies might be good, one who stays up all the time but only buys the junk loot (ie have a payout cap of 1 gold or so). At low levels we get overloaded fast with lots of low value items. Waiting (or running about overloaded) is just pure frustration, and adds nothing to gameplay.
* NPC merchants that repop from day/night don't seem to hold their items, although this might be from the fairly common server reboots. Again, at lower levels we need to buy simple things like cloth items (ie got more than enough cloth sleeves, but few cloth pants). When the merchants depop and lose their inventory, it probably has a much larger impact on low level players. At higher levels, we usually only checked the merchants for tradeskill goods, but at lower levels they have reasonable items to equip characters with.
We enjoy the game as it works now, but the day/night system just impacts our characters negatively. Its frustrating to be full of gear that we know sells for little, overweight, with quest items, and have to wait hours before any turn ins can be done. The forced downtime at night seems to be something that pushes you away from the game, rather than wanting to make you go out and hunt more right then and there.
It also doesn't seem casual player friendly, since I have logged in several times in a row only to find out it was still a couple of hours before I could go sell. I needed to sell so I had space to go back out and hunt, yet selling was so hard to do.
Sometimes we see an item we want to buy, run to the bank to get it, and see the merchant depop as we run up (happened to me twice now). All I wanted was a robe that was selling for 3 gold or so, but was better than the startup robe. I checked them later and the vendor had nothing but standard items on them.
But there isn't any point in going to sell if the quest NPCs aren't there as well. Also, you can't buy all the things you need at night either. Overall, it drives us away from Dalaya, since its a time consumer to have to wait jsut to do quest turn ins.
Yes, I usually just sell the quest items at night out of frustration. Even if we did play another 4 hours, its unlikely we would be in the same area. Its just easier to skip quests all together, and its not that the quests aren't fun to do.
The way I look at it is that for 5 hours out of every 10 the quests are broken.
Yes, I usually just sell the quest items at night out of frustration. Even if we did play another 4 hours, its unlikely we would be in the same area. Its just easier to skip quests all together, and its not that the quests aren't fun to do.
The way I look at it is that for 5 hours out of every 10 the quests are broken.
Wiz said:
The Wolf Fur Collar quest in Halas from Jalos McDerrick comes to mind, since he was kind enough to depop while we were in Halas. He also returned to work promptly at 6am. He doesn't work nights. :brow:
When we saw him so clearly depop and repop again at 6am (I was right beside him when he appeared) we simply assumed that all quests follow the same schedule of the merchants, it really seemed a clear enough pattern. If that isn;t the case - SUPER!
I really wouldn't have anyidea if this was working as intended or broken, but since you say none of the quest npc's should be despawning we apparently stumbled into a bug that appeared "normal" in a negative sense.
I think one in Underhill does this too (he asked for tinkering parts, is near the T intersection coming from the zone out). He was there when I first was walking about talking to npc's, and later wasn't there when I wanted more info about the exact parts he wanted. Since the normal merchants were gone at the time it didn't surprise me he was missing as well but I just ignored it at that time. I would have to check him again to be sure he despawns at day rather than night.
I just started today. I am playing in Newport which seems to be one of the better newbie zones. These are my opinions so far.
Lack of 1st level MOBs. While MOB density seem pretty good most MOBs are 2 or 3rd level. This makes that first level a little problematic. Further the only 1st level MOB I find is the moss snake which has LOS problems. The beetle and gnolls stand out well while it is easy to miss those little snakes. Adding a few large rat spawns would make for a slightly smoother start.
I would also add a clearer message regarding 'death fatigue'. I am not sure what this is but I seemed to stop attacking after I died. Other players mentioned it was due to 'death fatigue'. I did not notice any message regarding this effect but then I only played for 30 minutes before I had to head back to work.
Lack of 1st level MOBs. While MOB density seem pretty good most MOBs are 2 or 3rd level. This makes that first level a little problematic. Further the only 1st level MOB I find is the moss snake which has LOS problems. The beetle and gnolls stand out well while it is easy to miss those little snakes. Adding a few large rat spawns would make for a slightly smoother start.
I would also add a clearer message regarding 'death fatigue'. I am not sure what this is but I seemed to stop attacking after I died. Other players mentioned it was due to 'death fatigue'. I did not notice any message regarding this effect but then I only played for 30 minutes before I had to head back to work.
Well I guess I had a tough crew of Gnoll Pups 
After rerolling a new guy I found several Gnolls were actaully 1st level. I guess my first guy just ran into an elite set of gnoll pups. Also using the standard UI the effects window was just a little too small and did not display any buffs. After resizing it the 'Death Fatigue' debuff showed clearly. SO basically ignore my previous comments.
After rerolling a new guy I found several Gnolls were actaully 1st level. I guess my first guy just ran into an elite set of gnoll pups. Also using the standard UI the effects window was just a little too small and did not display any buffs. After resizing it the 'Death Fatigue' debuff showed clearly. SO basically ignore my previous comments.
Stinger's Bog is a little barren. I am a Bst and the quest giver asks for 2 stunned gators and 2 stunned leeches. I've killed around 30 of each and have 2 gators and 0 leeches. I'm still killing them now that they are green, been trying to 3-4 levels to get these items. Is there some sort of low drop rate? is there something special I have to do to get them?
knightwalkr
Dalayan Beginner
re
How about something like this levels1-3 there are people your guild master sends you to lets say the warrior trainers say in the arena. That when hailed attack and you can battle them to learn the basics.
How about something like this levels1-3 there are people your guild master sends you to lets say the warrior trainers say in the arena. That when hailed attack and you can battle them to learn the basics.
Syrie Cinders
Dalayan Beginner
Sundered Mountains:
Another consideration is the loot tables.
The skitterlings, vulfweres, feeders, hoppers, plants, etc that make up the majority of the L1-12 mobs in Sundered are on the beast (non-humanoid) loot tables.
Therefore... cash drops are very light, fur/fang/etc drops sell for a pittance, and nothing has a chance to drop cloth/leather armor or simple store-bought newbie wepons.
Consequently, it is very hard (comparitavely) to "get started" in SoD if you're starting out as a frog.
There are also (comparitavely) precious few quests to do for supplemental cash/armor/weapons.
NP has tons of humanoid critters for armor/weapon/cash drops, and there are TONS of turn-in/fed-ex quests for early plat.
Stinger's has fantastic sell prices for some mob drops, like alligator hide that sells for 6-7 gold I believe?
Greenmist has similar opportunities, again with humanoid loot tables from skels and lizzies.
Summary: Much harder for newbie frogs to buy armor/spells/weapons. Seems they have it harder than any other starting race. (Although as I read the other posts, this may be intended to keep players like FROAKFROGG from happening again... if this is the case, then just add this handicap to the race description during character creation.)
Another consideration is the loot tables.
The skitterlings, vulfweres, feeders, hoppers, plants, etc that make up the majority of the L1-12 mobs in Sundered are on the beast (non-humanoid) loot tables.
Therefore... cash drops are very light, fur/fang/etc drops sell for a pittance, and nothing has a chance to drop cloth/leather armor or simple store-bought newbie wepons.
Consequently, it is very hard (comparitavely) to "get started" in SoD if you're starting out as a frog.
There are also (comparitavely) precious few quests to do for supplemental cash/armor/weapons.
NP has tons of humanoid critters for armor/weapon/cash drops, and there are TONS of turn-in/fed-ex quests for early plat.
Stinger's has fantastic sell prices for some mob drops, like alligator hide that sells for 6-7 gold I believe?
Greenmist has similar opportunities, again with humanoid loot tables from skels and lizzies.
Summary: Much harder for newbie frogs to buy armor/spells/weapons. Seems they have it harder than any other starting race. (Although as I read the other posts, this may be intended to keep players like FROAKFROGG from happening again... if this is the case, then just add this handicap to the race description during character creation.)
Another quest NPC who dissapears at night or is behind a locked door is Sergeant Halsey for the Newport Ring Quests.
Should these sorts of daytime only quest NPC's be bug reported, or is posting them here enough? Wiz said that quests should generally be day & night, but the more I do the more it appears to me that quests are daytime only.
It woudl make a massive difference if the quest NPC's were not also merchants (who depop at night), and not positioned behind locked doors. Some of them are behind locked doors but you can look or jump through a window, and see they are not up either.
Should these sorts of daytime only quest NPC's be bug reported, or is posting them here enough? Wiz said that quests should generally be day & night, but the more I do the more it appears to me that quests are daytime only.
It woudl make a massive difference if the quest NPC's were not also merchants (who depop at night), and not positioned behind locked doors. Some of them are behind locked doors but you can look or jump through a window, and see they are not up either.
