QOL requests

[Obscenitor]

After coming back to the game, and seeing some of the great QOL changes (home gate, erimal spells, charm credits, separate vah QP dropping from tarlisha etc.) and thought, why stop there? There are a number of things, even dating back to 8 years ago when I last played, that make a whole heck of a lot of sense given the recent direction of other changes.

First, Runic 2 - currently, the pages only drop in Spires off bosses. Outside of niche spells (ritual, dark scribing, absolution etc.) this is the only spell where there are no alternative sources. An easy change to me would be to make these a rare drop off Kaezulian mobs throughout Ikisith (maybe with scaling drop rate % based on difficulty).

Second, gleaming steel sword (vah) - this only drops off ED maps. Nobody wants to do ED maps because there is literally only 1 item that anyone wants (and it's the sword that has a low drop rate). Contrast this to 10 years ago when there were active guilds throughout the tiers and you could muster up a PUG raid. Easy solution would be to put this quest drop on well-illustrated maps (they are in the same zones as ED maps, just a much much higher difficulty). Putting sword on the loot table (higher drop rate than ED makes sense) would certainly propel them into something guilds do actively instead of when there is nothing up to kill (which is rare these days). Alternatively, you could make this a 100% flagged drop on ED maps.

Lastly, rohk augs - this is a perfect example of content that you have to do over and over and over on your toon until the day you die or the server gets unplugged. These augs should be flagged as quest augs so you can remove them and add to your new gear instead of every guild that reaches/passes tier 10 farming this mob forever until your eyes bleed. Maybe make it cost plat or bits or some other farmable component.

This is just my suggestion but I think the playerbase will generally be in overwhelming support of these changes, this is also meant to be a discussion so if you think of a better solution or have other ideas for high impact QOL changes to make this server better, by all means.

 

[gtoo]

These all seem like very reasonable ideas from a very reasonable gnome.

Runic 2s are a nightmare - please please open up access.

Vah sword may have been a plat sink (buying EDs) at one point but now it really is not. I don't see why this should not be a flagged 100% drop from ED maps.

Rohk augs - [Quest] would make so much sense, or put in a plat/bit sink for the rich and famous to use to not kill this poor guy endlessly.

 

[iBluNT]

I agree with everything, but I can probably find a few threads about all of these topics individually. They've been begged for, but it doesn't hurt to try again.

Kurtail was fun for the few weeks it lasted when it dropped R2 frags. I can see why they got taken off the loot table, but I really think the fight should've just been made harder. Nobody wants to drag 17 unwilling folks out to get your frags from Spires. Other zones should be able to host these, but there aren't many great options atm.

 

[Ceto]

First, Runic 2 - currently, the pages only drop in Spires off bosses. Outside of niche spells (ritual, dark scribing, absolution etc.) this is the only spell where there are no alternative sources. An easy change to me would be to make these a rare drop off Kaezulian mobs throughout Ikisith (maybe with scaling drop rate % based on difficulty).

"kaezulian mobs throughout Ikisith" sounds a bit vague, I would hope that this is locked behind raid content still at least. I rather liked seeing the R2 frags dropping off that one dragon outside of Spires in Field of Bone, but it didn't take very long before that was gutted .. now that dragon serves no purpose and is just sitting there and drops nothing of interest. I agree there should be other ways to obtain R2 but the intent was definitely to keep it locked behind raid mobs of some difficulty. Could potentially put these into Tur'ruj and just suggest that "the orcs stole the spell fragments after they raided spires" or something to that effect.

These augs should be flagged as quest augs so you can remove them and add to your new gear instead of every guild that reaches/passes tier 10 farming this mob forever until your eyes bleed. Maybe make it cost plat or bits or some other farmable component.

Agreed 100%, you should be able to remove these augs from gear without destroying them, having to kill the dumb golem over and over again doesn't make much sense. 10,000 Yclistinite Bits to remove the augs was nothing to sneeze at, and now that a good chunk of Rogues' class progression is locked behind this currency, it really isn't abuseable, broken, or too easy to spend 10,000 bits to remove one single augment.

Second, gleaming steel sword (vah) - this only drops off ED maps. Nobody wants to do ED maps because there is literally only 1 item that anyone wants (and it's the sword that has a low drop rate). Contrast this to 10 years ago when there were active guilds throughout the tiers and you could muster up a PUG raid. Easy solution would be to put this quest drop on well-illustrated maps (they are in the same zones as ED maps, just a much much higher difficulty). Putting sword on the loot table (higher drop rate than ED makes sense) would certainly propel them into something guilds do actively instead of when there is nothing up to kill (which is rare these days). Alternatively, you could make this a 100% flagged drop on ED maps.

Yes - although I don't think making it 100% droprate on ED maps is a great idea, would like to see it added to WI maps with at least double the droprate on EDs though. Could even make it a random drop off bosses in Bloodstorm Tunnels and just say "well, it was buried in Oasis but it sank into the tunnels!" or something lore-wise, maybe retcon this into the dialog of the NPC who tells you where to find the sword.

 

[DodoBot]

QOL might be the best way to easily retain players (and get some old ones to come back)​

I like this thread. It reminds me of a Classic QOL thread that @Kedrin posted years ago. That thread turned out to be prophetic, as nearly all of the items in it have been implemented... 7 years later. Adding a few logs to the fire, I'd propose the following:

RE: Bango's Original Post:​

Runic 2 Components - I like this in theory, but the mobs should be difficult. Examples of what should be a frag dropper could start at the 6-Man Kaezulians: Administrator Korl, Claw Commander Era'velu, and Supreme Ritualist Ofgats. I'd say guarantee one frag, but make them random. To offset the difficulty in farming due to randomness, split the archetypes with Korl dropping Knight, Bard and Ranger Pieces; Claw Commander dropping BL and Healer Pieces; and Ofgats dropping Caster Pieces. Expand the list of six man kaezulians as necessary...

ED Map Sword - Don't change the drop rate but DO add it to Well Illustrated Maps, and why not Crumbling Maps. Update Crumbling Maps in General. Let's clear some bank slots!

Rhok Augs - This is a no-brainer and should be implemented ASAP

1. Option 1 - Quest Flag the augs... lacks flavor in my opinion.
2. Option 2 - Create a repeatable quest for a special means to remove the aug (maybe a super solvent). Perhaps get the people in PoFire involved, since we are dealing with rogue elementals. Takes longer to do this, but it is the most fun lore wise and could give additional reason to go to FR / PoFire.
3. Option 3 - Reinstate the LOIO Aug Remover. Easiest. I think Bits probably need a tweak in general.

Per Kedrin's Original Thread:​

Combine Companion Health and Companion Strength into one effect

• Companion health was changed from an effect that only had to be swapped in when zoning or summoning a pet into something you had to have on at all times. I feel this was a good change however changes that should have followed never happen.
• Companion Health desperately needs to be on more items
  • Beastlords are forced into using one of two items
    • Mask of Multiplicity (T10)
    • Chestwraps of Furious Rage (T10)
  • Mages have it even worst
    • Adamant Construct Bindings (T9) wtf…
    • Mask of Multiplicity (T10)
• Companion Health needs to scale much better then it currently does
  • There is no reason why companion health should be a simply linear increase of the pets base hp
  • My ranger bird pet gets 164 more hp from CH7 to CH8 and wearing a CH8 item as a ranger is almost impossible
• Only two classes truly benefit from Companion Strength (Mages and Beastlords). It can be argued that necros should also be on this list however I would much rather see them use their Relic pet more once it is finalized. The mana problems shouldn’t be that hard to fix.
• Combining these two effects would help itemizing for pet classes a great deal without granting them much power. This would also help future itemization for pet classes.

Combine Spell: Relic: Essence of the Wild and Spell: Relic: Essence of Tarhansar into one spell

• I don’t even feel this one needs a reason. Why hasn’t this happen yet?
• You could replace the open Relic with a new wolf pet [-Alarcon- Or something else to address the current gap between Shamen and Druids / Clerics]
  • The current “best” Shaman wolf pet already has problems due to its low level
  • The new pet could simply do a bit more dmg, have a bit more hp to live longer and cast a lower end slow to help in exp groups

• Combine Companion Health and Companion Strength into one Focus
• Combine Spell: Relic: Essence of the Wild and Spell: Relic: Essence of Tarhansar into one Spell

These are still good ideas 7 years later. I support them.

Per My Own Opinion:​

See my longer threads for LOIO QOL and Murk QOL suggestions.

• Move Runes to the Song / HoT Buff Window to free up buff slots and further incentivize their use.
• Improve cash loot in under-utilized exp zones. See Deepshade, MielD, Highkeep, and Windstone. On Windstone in particular:
  • Add a shortcut quest to skip to the bridge in Windstone.
  • Add a handful of cash nameds who drop BOEs in the back of the zone. Since they're pirates, you could add a bunch of random loot from all over the old world.
  • Make the gem guys in the first part of the zone drop more gems and rare ores (to save the poor miners, JCers, and Smiths)
• Move Blades Spell Line to Mages (Make the last spell non-relic or quested) and give Wizards a Relic for a Raid-Wide Evacuate with a long cooldown or a reasonable component (IDK, pick a dropped gem).
• Shorter spawn time overall, but bigger +- modification to highly camped 6-man timers.
• A Keyring for Gate Necks - Ambient Accumulator Anyone?
• Reclassify some old very low tier raid content [Dreadfang, Halls of Misery, Stormkeep, Stormseye, DHK (4 zones)], Old World Bosses as 12-man content.
  • Tweak encounters as needed. Improve the drops to be in line with t5-7 18-man stuff.
• Update Bind Wound and add some minor tradeskill bandages and other cures that could be applied with the skill.
• Additional Tradeskill Tweaks (Drops and Tailoring).
  • Add Giant Blood to Storm's Eye and Stormkeep drop tables. Maybe add some cool hide to DHK drop tables.
  • Add rare ore to high level elementals to reduce need for mining. Perhaps add some rare fish to Kedge / PoWater.
  • Make Violet Ointment Less of a pain in the butt to make (Remove the Urn). Buff the top-end tailored items (if they weren't already).
• BRING BACK NADOX

Good luck getting the train rolling guys!

 

[Ceto]

ED Map Sword - Don't change the drop rate but DO add it to Well Illustrated Maps, and why not Crumbling Maps. Update Crumbling Maps in General. Let's clear some bank slots!

Crumbling maps are in Ikisith. The Vah are not in Ikisith. The Vah have nothing to do with Ikisith. I have heard this as justification for not putting them on Crumbling Maps in the past. WI maps, sure.

Move Blades Spell Line to Mages (Make the last spell non-relic or quested) and give Wizards a Relic for a Raid-Wide Evacuate with a long cooldown or a reasonable component (IDK, pick a dropped gem).

Mages are already broken top tier DPS right now and Wizards generally fall short of them except when heavy immediate burn is needed (even then, not ahead by all that much), so as it stands, doesn't sound very good to give them even more utility. If mages get nerfed and wizards get buffed, maybe then this will be a solid idea.

Make the gem guys in the first part of the zone drop more gems and rare ores (to save the poor miners, JCers, and Smiths)

This sounds good - could maybe make deepmetal ore a rareish (say, 15%) drop off of the white con "an amberite tor"s only, and add the other good ores (starting at obsidian) at a moderate (35%?) droprate to all amberites. Would help people stop suffering mining deepmetal all day.

Improve cash loot in under-utilized exp zones. See Deepshade, MielD, Highkeep, and Windstone.

- Highkeep has good cash loot if you go to the basement or camp 4th floor nameds. It's actually a good farm spot, but not enough mobs to keep a ~T7 group occupied. Honestly, at best the zone could use faster respawn timers. Maybe lowering the respawn timers by 5-10 minutes would do the zone some good.

Windstone, MielD, and Deepshade definitely all need full revamps on trash drops:
- Deepshade has good items but they don't vendor for anything (the intent was likely to encourage player trading of BoEs, but now the server pop is too small for any real economy).
- Windstone supposedly got looked at but is still pretty awful (adding rare ores in would help).
- MielD is and always has been absolutely miserable to visit outside of novelty purposes, nobody will do it outside of the rare circumstance of "I'm at Tier 5 trying to progress and don't have a raiding guild so I'm bringing my group of friends here to see the zone" or just needing the Mielech's Fury spell (so they kill the mosquito boss one time and never come back). If the rewards were really solid, people would probably go there for experience & platinum like Emberflow. Would certainly make the zone more healthy.

As for R2 fragments off of 6man content ... sounds okay, but that's not enough to matter. I would still suggest adding them to Tur'ruj or something.

 

[DodoBot]

Crumbling maps are in Ikisith. The Vah are not in Ikisith. The Vah have nothing to do with Ikisith. I have heard this as justification for not putting them on Crumbling Maps in the past.

Have definitely heard this before too... but the Vah aren't even native to Dalaya. They were in the lands of magic before their fall. AFAIK the four killed Malath and wrecked his home, and the Vah ended up scattered (did the four crash the LoM into Dalaya like an asteroid? IDK, I wasn't around). This is really old lore that you can get into under Malath's article, but very little is available on the wiki. See the dialogue from the quest below.

The dialogue for this portion of the quest is as follows: You say, 'What's the fourth thing?' a traveller says 'A might sword, symbol of the empire. Expanding to ease the strain, pushing inland when there was nowhere else to go, spreading dominion over the lands of magic, the vah reached the height of their power at the point of a sword'

Given that the vah are connected to another dimension, is it not possible that one of their swords ended up in ikisith? Are there any vah NPCs on that continent between the refuge and resistance factions? Are all non-iksar / dark elves on ikisith just slaves brought over from the mainland or their descendants? What actually happened with the LoM? Just food for thought because if we can make it fit from a lore perspective, adding the sword to Crumbling and Well Illustrated Maps is a good idea from a QOL standpoint.

I'm genuinely curious. Perhaps a *really* old player could chime in here.

 

[AngryCow]

I've asked about Malath lore before and it's kinda unknown in general what the exact intent that Wiz had was. Personally I like to think that the Lands of Magic were Dalaya's second moon. Which would make Malath a moon god which is why he's a bit distinct from other deities and also why The Four would be pretty suspicious of a celestial deity. Then they broke the moon and pieces of it crashed into Dalaya, ie Cmal. To my knowledge there is zero vah connection whatsoever to Ikkisith. It's not impossible that part of the LoM landed on or near the continent but currently there is no in game content to support that that's true.

 

[Obscenitor]

Any comment on if any of these great suggestions will be a thing?

I was chatting with someone recently about the Rohk augs. I can undestand why there would be hesitation to add a quest flag since they aren't from a quest.. but what if the Rohk drops were changed to be quest items that begin a quest chain which results in the same augs rohk drops today? Can make them thematic.. ie. for rohk's amber you go kill/find quest drops in fiery zones like RSM/Fire Grotto or even raid zones like PoFire (but maybe make it something off trash with a quick-ish respawn so as to not add further content cock-blocks).

 

[stever]

Or even just a quest with one of the 3 non-kos bloodfire mobs who are in Rohk’s building. “If you find any augments that the Hand has personally crafted, return them to us with 100,000 platinum and 60 of the same type gem and we can provide them with an enchantment that will cause them to never perish!”

The gems would all be vendor bought maybe you don’t even need to add that. A plat sink to make these quest versions does not seem like too much of an ask. As soon as new content is released and current bis SH bp’s and legs are no longer the best armor, Rohk is going to become a bottle neck once again and forever as new high tier content is released.

I realize that a lot of people have had to destroy augs (myself included) and it sucks that a fix wasn’t in place then, but a solution to this going forward would allow for up and coming guilds/groups to try this fight every so often.

 

[Kedrin]

It's even more sad because a way to remove these augs for a steep price was already in the game and working yet it was removed because it was deemed bad. The red men literally want these augs, and a great deal of other systems, to be a pain in the ass.