Blight Update 174 Discussion

[Aywren]

Dalimond/Chiconis requiring attunement. The reason behind this is simple, they are cities on the Dalimond Peninsula. They are not travel hubs, nor are they the centers that they once were pre-merge. Now they are part of the land and part of the quest overhaul and so they are destinations to be visited just like any other (Bristugo, South March, Heart, etc).

The quests on New Trismus and on Lesser Aradoth will be updated to reflect this change (they won't be requiring you to visit the cities). Other destinations over time may also become attuned.

But, there will always be a way to get to isolated lands. For example, you can travel from Lesser Aradoth to the Dalimond Peninsula via the bridge at Sable Shores. And accordingly that is where the quest line for the Peninsula begins.

That works for me -- I was mostly worried about the low level dragon quests, but if destinations will be changed for these, I don't have a problem making the first run out there for attunement.

I always wondered why I could portal around the world freely even at a low level, to be honest. If I remember correctly, some of that had to do with the way Istaria was originally designed around T1 characters (?) As a new-ish player, I look at the long list of portal destinations and have no real clue where the cities are located in the world, what their level of content or significance is... and part of that may be because I never had to "make the run" to these places.

There is definitely a different feel about entering a new, unexplored city for the first time after having traveled a long distance... vs. portaling to the city just to try to put a name with a location. It also makes the world feel bigger to a new player to not have all locations already unlocked from the starting island. It gives the sense of something unknown waiting to be found.

I guess my next question would be, then -- is there a thought for a revamp of level 10 dragon questing? I may be getting ahead of myself, but it would be nice if the quest line for the level 10 skills was condensed into one or two trainers (as they are in NT), rather than scattering between many different trainers in two cities. I felt the quest line for dragons in NT did a fantastic job of teaching me the ropes -- I learned all the basics and leveled to 11 without any trouble, from those quests alone. I would love to see that continued.

[Nisse]

I have not done the quests with visits to Dralk and Chiconis being spoken about, but I think it's important for young dragons to know about these places and their parts in our dragon's world.

With the community being so strong here, I don't think it would be very difficult for a low level character to get an escort of high level players in order to complete these two objectives.

[Andurel]

ok what happens if you have binded your char on Shephard mountain ? and cannot portal to Bristugo because you are not attuned there?
Bristugo is the only destination you can go to from Bristugo

On the whole i think that it has become more difficult for players who like crafting more than adventuring and that group is growing.
many of them are low level adventures and high level crafters and are building their plots. they still should be able to walk savely with there disk and portal to their plots.
But they wont be able to, because low levels dont seem to be able to do the attunement quests

[jerk-o]

If you recall to brist, I think you'd be able to still recall there, at which point you'd be able to talk to the guard that attunes you

[Drevar]

Just a quick FYI for those who might be confused. Attuning to a portal location and binding to a shrine are two different things.

Attuning allows you to use a destination listed on a portal. If you are not attuned, the destination will show up as Unavailable in the portal list.

Binding is what sets your Recall destination. Once you bind to a shrine, you will be able to recall to that area even if the shrine is no longer there. There were no changes made to binding.

Drev

[Andurel]

Sorry Jerko and Prevar you dont understand.

I advise you to look on Blight, make a char and try to get attuned to Bristugo, Dalimond and Chiconis

After the patch you must get attuned to several places otherwise you cannot use the portal to it. Bristugo is 1 of them

But when you have binded your char on a shrine on Shephard mountain and you want to go away there you take the portal to Bristugo, which is the only destination from there. But Bristugo is not available for you because you are not attuned there yet. So how do you get of Shephards mountain again?

[Andurel]

Found out that for getting atuned to a place you need to have an adventure school on L 20 or a craftschool on L 20. So that problem is solved
The skulks near the bridge and the wolves near dalimond are not hard. low levels can easily pass them

[dorrin]

i realise that i'm wasting my time, but i have to voice this.

chiconis and dalimond are racial cities. there are so many things about this change that don't make sense and don't seem well thought out.. just kindof a "wouldn't it be an interesting thing to change...". level 10 dragon quests are the tip of the iceberg of why this shouldn't be changed... but as i said, i realise i'm wasting my time. i just can't shut up.

this kind of change is unprecedented and sadly i realise is probably a sign of things to come. requiring people to attune to a RACIAL CITY fundamentally changes the world (if all cities eventually require attuning). they're not settlements... they're CITIES. why wouldn't a portal go from one major city to another? porting is a standard form of transportation in istaria.... it'd be like requiring people to WALK from say new york to philadelphia before they would be allowed to drive on the road connecting them. it's just plain stupid.

[Nisse]

I'm going to compare wow to Istaria here for a moment, bear with me. I know, I know. Apples. Oranges.

In wow, the main standard transport mode for level 1-60 players is the 'air taxi' system. Settlements as well as major cities throughout the game world are connected via flying creatures. To connect different flight points, you need to go out the first time and talk to the flight master in the location.
This includes the major cities, and it sometimes can require some legwork.

So, I don't think it's such a bad thing at all, when one views it as making the game world a more challenging place to experience.

[Andurel]

for what it is worth, I agree dorrin
But i am also thankfull for all the work the devs are doing.

[dorrin]

i'm sorry.. i've GOTTA clarify this...
requiring attunement and not allowing it 'til level 20 adv or craft forces a dragon doing their level 10 quests to WALK to chiconis EVERY TIME they need to see any trainer in chiconis. this is a BAD IDEA.

if this is NOT what's going to happen... either the trainers are going to be moved out of chiconis (WHY?) or in fact you're NOT required to be level 20, please say so.

[dorrin]

i'm thankful for the work they do that creates a positive change in istaria.

[dorrin]

it's NOT more challenging.. it's simply more time consuming. there's a HUGE difference.

[velveeta]

i realise that i'm wasting my time, but i have to voice this.

chiconis and dalimond are racial cities. there are so many things about this change that don't make sense and don't seem well thought out.. just kindof a "wouldn't it be an interesting thing to change...". level 10 dragon quests are the tip of the iceberg of why this shouldn't be changed... but as i said, i realise i'm wasting my time. i just can't shut up.

this kind of change is unprecedented and sadly i realise is probably a sign of things to come. requiring people to attune to a RACIAL CITY fundamentally changes the world (if all cities eventually require attuning). they're not settlements... they're CITIES. why wouldn't a portal go from one major city to another? porting is a standard form of transportation in istaria.... it'd be like requiring people to WALK from say new york to philadelphia before they would be allowed to drive on the road connecting them. it's just plain stupid.

i gots to agree with dorr on this matter. i have no prob with doing the attunements and/or providing escort service (minds out of the gutter! ), but i think requiring attunement to the major port hub and racial towns is not logical nor is it kewl beans.

but, again as dorr says, it is done and can't be undone. not all the gods decisions can be understood or interpreted, so must be lived with.......

[StalePopcorn]

It's only been released on Blight at the moment. Doesn't necessarily have to go to Live...

[dorrin]

you can probably count on your fingers the number of times things have not gone live from blight, and those were likely only game-breaking issues.

i'm sorry... i'm infinitely grateful that virtrium have kept horizons alive, but as with many dev crews, they have their vision of where to go with the game, and generally once they decide, that's what happens.

[Raptress]

Wait, the attunement has a level requirement? Why?

If I run at level 1 to these places, especially if we're talking about Bristugo, I should be able to attune there. I made it there, let me attune.

Dorrin brings up a good point about there being a level requirement, again concerning hatchlings doing their level 10 quests: Do you expect them to run there every time? And if you move the quests out of Chiconis, then I disagree with that move from a lore standpoint. The dragon cities have always been a fairly large part of playing a dragon because of these quests, and having quests to further your abilities be in the dragon cities makes sense because of course the most experienced dragons would live in dragon cities.

I do not agree with making the racial cities attuned to, especially if Bristugo is too. I definitely don't agree with there being a level requirement on attunement to racial cities and Bristugo.

[moldryn]

...
The quests on New Trismus and on Lesser Aradoth will be updated to reflect this change (they won't be requiring you to visit the cities). Other destinations over time may also become attuned.

I don't think the Attunement change will end up making it take more time for the level 10 quests. Amon has said they'll be changed. The level 10 quests currently come from Gerix in Kion and have you go to the trainer to complete. Personally, it will be less annoying to start and finish at Gerix (which I anticipate).

Moldryn Swift
Chaos

[LOVWYRM]

I too go with Dorrin- especially if there is level requirement.

[walkerglassmire]

I don't think the Attunement change will end up making it take more time for the level 10 quests. Amon has said they'll be changed. The level 10 quests currently come from Gerix in Kion and have you go to the trainer to complete. Personally, it will be less annoying to start and finish at Gerix (which I anticipate).

Moldryn Swift
Chaos

Except, the entire point of Gerix's quest line is to teach all the new dragons WHERE the trainers for all of their skills are. It rather defeats the purpose of that if you again cut the trainers out of the loop. Might as well move Gerix to New Tris, or Skallkar and do all the lvl 10 questing there like the bipeds normally do.

And even beyond the hatchling argument, as a game, and as a community, we are trying to both grow the game and increase the sense of community. Even though the racial cities are no longer travel hubs, there are going to be a significant number of people, biped and dragon, going through them with the new areas to explore. Chiconis, and Dalimond for that matter, were thriving centers of activity, mostly people lazing and chatting, as a good community should. We would have new folk wandering through all the time, becoming involved with the goings on.

Also, as a point of community building, Guilds are a major factor (or at least I hear they are) in the world. Especially Guild centers, aka, the guild towns. There are very few places one can get to the guild towns from, and the main one is Bristugo. Even brand new players (not even talking mule alts or the like) can join any guild at Level 1. And, I'm certain that they would like to be able to visit their guild's home. That means slogging across half of Lesser Aradoth, across the bridge, and then half way across the Peninsula to Bristugo. I can't imagine ANYONE wanting to do that more than once. Then to get there and be told that you must be lvl 20 in order to never have to make that run again?!?

Or even a lore direction. The portal system holds the entire Realm together. Used to be portals at darned near every town before the WA showed up and wiped them out, or we destroyed them to keep them from using them. The entire world is VERY dangerous. But, people still must get from point A to point B. And I don't mean the Gifted, I mean regular folk. Merchants, etc. They would be using the portal system too, as it's rather WAY too dangerous for normal folk to be wandering the roads at large. I can't see them needing or wanting to have to cross all that distance. And, not many will ever reach lvl 20 in any school, yet, they still live outside of Lesser Aradoth.

I'm sorry that this got kinda rambly, but still, the major cities, the major places, have no need to be attuned, and even LESS reason to have a level limitation to said attunement. I say, leave Dalimond, Chiconis and Bristugo off the need to attune list, and GET RID of the level limit. It makes ABSOLUTELY no sense. Peace out.