Very off topic, but I feel like ranting. :-)
On Sat, 3 Jul 1999 silky@... wrote:
>
> Yesterday I was hunting in CB, and thinking of lore stuff a lot - place is
> full of it.
Just the shield and tunic. Maybe the dwarven axes too. The
warlord bracer and screaming mace are not (pending) lore.
> For example, I WEAR the dwarven tunic (pending lore at the moment) what if
> I want to ALSO get the screaming mace - the tunic is a component.
I happen to feel that was the intent of the quest all along.
Do you want the tunic (and shield and bracer) or the screaming
mace more? This is unlike a lot of quests where the item you
receive is either much much better than what you turn in, or
is utter crap. I happen to feel the dilemma you face adds
character to the quest.
> Another example, I can't wield 2 dragoon dirks.
<sarcasm>
I'm sorry you have to operate at 98% potential effectiveness
using a different weapon in your second hand instead of
another dirk. Just think - if you were wielding two dirks and
found another better weapon, you'd have to operate at 98%
effectiveness until you could get another of that new weapon.
Why doesn't Verant just make the mobs drop two of each weapon
at a time? Oh the horror.
</sarcasm>
The game is perfectly playable using a different weapon in
your off hand. What you are complaining about is a "want,"
not a "need."
> While I think it's a good thing that folks are discouraged from camping and
> accumulating a dozen of an item, and then squirrling them away, or hauling
> them to the furthest reaches for sale - selling these items IS a legitimate
> trade.
Unfortunately, the current game mechanics VASTLY favor
spellcasters for collecting and selling items. Until this is
fixed, any argument for making this easier is basically an
argument for improving things for about half the playing
population at the expense of the other half.
> By basically ruling out getting another, if you already have one in
> hand - you are guaranteeing that the folks hunting these critters are gonna
> be higher levels - and have already moved past personal use of said item.
But that is a smaller problem than we originally had.
Originally we had both high level players and correct level
players camping and farming. Now it's pretty much been
reduced to high level players (who won't use the item because
they have better stuff) camping and farming. Because the
problem is now smaller, it can be addressed with a more
specific fix. Divide and conquer.
> I've already noticed this shift. The only thing that it DOES help with -
> they get one, move on to sell it, but then they are right back. Since they
> are much higher levels, very easy to swipe a kill of one of these mobs from
> someone around the 'appropriate' level to be hunting them.
Brad McQuaid said they're going to try changing it so group
damage is summed, instead of just the person with the highest
damage getting the kill. While that means a group of high
level people camping and farming would be unstoppable, no
longer would an individual high level person basically nullify
the value of a zone for several dozen appropriate level folks.
And if they are camping and won't let you get in a turn,
petition it - they are effectively kill stealing from you,
since you are just trying to get your fair share and they keep
taking it.
> This also of course presents a problem if your friend dies, gives you
> consent to loot - and you BOTH have an item - his is gonna poof.
This is a non-issue. Check with your friend to see if you
have any duplicate lore items before you loot. Then you give
him your item before you loot his. The only fix that's needed
is for you to get a message saying you can't pick this up
because you already have a duplicate, instead of the item
going *poof*.
> Not sure what the answer to this problem is - I do think Verant had good
> intentions with this change, and I agree something needed to be done,
> however - is the way it's been implemented causing more new problems than
> it solved of old?
I think it's much improved. The high level farming problem
existed before. You're just noticing it more now because the
appropriate-level farming problem is pretty much gone. (The
appropriate-level farming problem still exists with classes
that cannot use an item camping to sell it over and over.)
> One change I think might mitigate the problems - and keep the original
> intent - let someone only have one of an item in their inventory or bank -
> but equipped doesn't count. If item in question, say the tunic is equipped,
We are on opposite sides of the world here. :-) See below.
> In short, there is no perfect solution to camping - Verant made a good
> faith effort towards stemming it, if we could just get them to now address
> the sideissues that the change itself made - I do believe we'll be a whole
> lot closer to the original intent.
The solution I liked was to keep list of flags on each
character of all the lore items in the game. Once you loot
that item off a monster, the flag gets flipped. You can NEVER
loot that item again. You killed Crush, you got your tunic,
hurrah, now move on and let someone else get a shot at Crush.
If you really really wanted two dirks or a second tunic, you
could negotiate with your druid friend (since he can't use a
dirk or Crush' tunic) so that he'd loot a second and give/sell
it to you. If you need to loot a friend's corpse, since he's
not a monster, there are no problems.
Of course the ultimate solution is to randomize things more so
that Crush doesn't always show up in the same place. That's
effectively what the burnt out lightstone solution did to
wisps, and kill stealing and camping of wisps has virtually
disappeared. That and randomize the spawn times a bit. So if
you manage to space out Crush and Dvinn and the Royal Guard to
where you can tackle them one at a time, that wouldn't
guarantee your safety if you camp at the site - for all you
know the three could spawn simultaneously next time.
--
John H. Kim
kim@...