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Post by FunkySwerve on Aug 6, 2005 4:49:23 GMT
I'm posting this mainly to get a general feel of the community's attitude towards areas like the Abandoned Farm and the Lair of the Guardians. No major changes will be made, unless opinion is overwhelmingly one-sided, but it would be helpful to know in planning for HG2 when NWN2 comes out. Please disregard the last choice, it was an accident.
Funky
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Post by TheS0S on Aug 6, 2005 7:33:18 GMT
Other: Mostly, I agree with "Hate 'em, but I'm wasting my time otherwise," but I think it deserves more of an explanation.
I don't so much hate the areas themselves, so much as it is I have to GO to the area over and over because it's the only decent place to get exp. It's not that the areas are bad. . . it's that there aren't enough options. You get sick of one place over and over, but I don't want the exp to get toned down. What's the fun in a game if the pace is gruelingly slow? Rather, I'd like more challenge and monster diversity to make getting your exp a bit more work, and maybe some fun new areas and side plots. Like the tower? That's a good side area. It could have more depth, but it's really good. And pretty fun. A nice mix of monsters now, too. Good challenge. Fun EXP.
Now, when I say this, I don't mean buffing up all the monster's saves and stats and giving them 234 damage mods. What I mean. . . I guess it's best to express though example. . . A really weak caster that runs away but summons a REALLY strong monster. He's got unbelievably good magic defense and weapon defense, but he can be killed pretty easy with spells like Banishment, and gives the party decent exp. The second option would be to track down the fleeing summoner and kill him, therefore unsummoning the monster. Or every now and then encountering passive monsters that can be charmed or dominated and work well in the area they're in, like with an attack that the monsters around them are weak to. Does that make sense?
I suppose what I'm trying to say is I don't dislike the PL areas, I dislike their simplicity, and the lack of options. I'd rather have a more interactive world where a wide range of tactics can be employed to great effect instead of a few areas where you use the same weapons and the same spells on mediocre monsters with no intelligence. I'd like to see the little used abilities and spells put to use to make things more interesting instead of a constant grind.
Blah, hope this wasn't just useless babble and that I got what I was trying to say across.
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Post by FunkySwerve on Aug 6, 2005 19:10:39 GMT
More tactics is what I'm all about, it's why I removed the death and mind immunes from most critters. You can certainly expect to see more of the "special tactic" category of encounter in the new areas copming. It's not at all what Im asking about here, though.
Funky
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Post by TheS0S on Aug 6, 2005 20:52:07 GMT
It's not? If you only wanted the options provided, why did you include an 'other?'
I said I basically picked the fourth option, and then I elaborated on it, because the poll asks "How do you FEEL about them?" I feel that if I go elsewhere, I'm wasting my time because the EXP sucks. If I stay there, I'm bored to all hell because the only choice is to do the same things over and over, and that I wish there were more options with more interesting encounters that made you work more for your exp.
So, if I could put my own option on the poll. . . it'd be. . .
"I dislike the power leveling areas. I don't think exp should be significantly decreased because extremely slow leveling would be no fun, but I wouldn't mind a small cut to exp. Instead of removing the areas, I'd rather see more variety in the spawns that would make getting your exp more of a challenge by mixing up what tactics would be needed to gain said exp."
Also, expanding the areas available to level would make it so certain areas wouldn't be tagged as 'PL' areas, because players could fan out based on preference instead of streaming to _____ area at ______ level.
Eh, whatever.
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Post by Argon on Aug 7, 2005 14:24:02 GMT
I don't have anything against powerlevelling areas in themselves, but the problem I always run into is that if you want to join a group, you can pretty much be sure the group's going to be in a PL area. It's not often you can talk a group into exploring somewhere where they're not going to get decent exp or loot. So you end up exploring those areas by yourself, which #1 really penalizes your exp (since so much of the exp depends on being in a group) and #2 makes it hard to do much, since to do justice to most areas you should have a balanced party. (I hate walking by all those chests when I'm soloing as a tank......)
Ideally, I'd vote for exp to be levelled out a bit, maybe have some areas be a little better with exp but bad loot, and some areas be a little worse with exp but good loot, but on the whole being pretty even-keeled.
I'd love to be able to get more groups out and about, exploring places more, instead of always having low levels doing bandit camp until they can do crypts lvl 3 until they can do strange tower until they can do east road bandits until they can do farm until they can do guardians until they can do drow.
The good news is, changes that have been made are definitely improving things, so I'd say keep up the good work, it is appreciated!
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Post by Grogbot on Aug 7, 2005 20:56:37 GMT
I'd love to be able to get more groups out and about, exploring places more, instead of always having low levels doing bandit camp until they can do crypts lvl 3 until they can do strange tower until they can do east road bandits until they can do farm until they can do guardians until they can do drow. Here here! Original PoA had quests that you had to complete - Hero quest, Anduin's staff etc. in order to get to higher level areas. Now the Anduin's staff quest is a real pain in the arse, but the idea was good - eith have many more areas attractive to parties or have a variety of things you need to do to complete the game/reach the attractive areas. I remember when the great "loot redistribution" occurred, and this got the whole community back into "explore mode". Unfortunately, and I'm as guilty of this as the next man, most of us nowdays just mule/inherit/transfer from Senior Characters. I think this is a good aspect of HG but there needs to be more things like the "water ring" in Kuotoa ... keep the PL areas but make them harder to get to .. or, perhaps, give bonuses/secrets to those groups who have completed quests. For example, the chest behind the Abandoned temple might only be openable if you have a key from the Ogre Lord ... Anyway, i agree, keep up the good work! And thanks! Grog |
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Post by themonk on Aug 8, 2005 23:10:35 GMT
Many times I have gone out solo, just to explore, and I find that rather than getting a balanced party together, I will try to balance my PC to be able to at east be able to defend himself in most areas....By the time I get to lev40, I still cant do all the areas solo, and make a fairly weak party member. Its all in leaning how, I guess. But when working with a big party, it there is any really good loot to be had, you have to be quick or lucky to get the best stuff. So I like the idea of Good XP in areas with little loot...but Great Loot in areas you can cover with a buddy or just solo....Now if I could just figure out those bitches in the sewers....
themonk
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Post by FunkySwerve on Aug 9, 2005 7:01:21 GMT
Great comments, please keep em coming...more quests are on the way soon, but I'm holding off till the server is switched because I would now have to work on three seperate versions of the mod to support changes to both Advazion's server and the upcoming Dungeon Server server. More tactical encounters are the order of the day, for certain. Thus far many of the changes tacticwise have been to give players more options, like disarm or mind spells; soon, however, the tables will turn, and you can look for critters that are both very difficult and have hidden weaknesses. Everything from specific spells having nastier effects to much-benighted bludeoning damage vulnerabilities. Some areas will require extreme planning and caution to make it through, I have at least one upcoming area in mind when I say that. ^^
Funky
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Post by Phantanya on Aug 20, 2005 22:28:09 GMT
I voted other so here is why. It's all about variety. I love it when I am finally good enough to get to say the farm and do some nice lvling...but like most folks feel it gets very old very quick. I like to explore. I don't get to do as much exploring as I would like because most parties feel they have to PL. When I played Ultima online they had a "Power hour" and it was a real rush. Double xp for any area. Like the monk I too find that going solo is the only way to get any exploring done and the areas that are do able solo are running out for me. Lets face it, solo can be downright dangerous!
Peace,
Phantanya
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Post by POTS on Aug 26, 2005 0:32:33 GMT
I love the high xp in pl areas and in the case of the fields etc the high gp too, but i do wish there were more areas than one per level range to get acceptable xp (espicialy when 2 groups are in the same lvl range). Of course i realise that this will be less of an issue with all the new areas that are planned.
How bout bringing back the crazy queen xp (muhahahahah)? Well i had to ask.....
Thanks as usual to you and the team funky.
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Post by Master Jaxx on Sept 7, 2005 22:41:42 GMT
I notice people hardly go to the Web anymore except to fight the Queeny for her loot drop. The XP on Lvl 1 is pretty deplorable...
At one time when the farm wasn't available it was one of the better PL areas...it'd be nice to see it in it's former glory ; an option for some decent xp instead of just a 1 time loot run.
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