Design Team Preview (03/17/2005)

[kengar]

?Uncommon Rare and Very Rare Loot Tables?

I'm with those that think they should use the attuning pointed out, and only drop from uncampables. I don't know if you saw my suggestion on making certain loots uncampable, but basically, it was "when the mob pops, check to see what the expected lifespan is (as in, is someone farming that type of creature at that spawn?), and if it's short, no rare or very rare loot." So you couldn't farm by sitting in one place, you'd have to move between spawns if you wanted any chance to get the rare or very rare loot.

?Elemental Archers receive 10 Bow skill per level.

Excellent. I don't even play an ELAR, but I feel sorry for anyone that only gets 8 points per level in their best offensive skill (except for Healers, for obvious reasons). You might want to look at Battle Mage as well, though I'm not sure what should be done there.

?Dragons now have innate armor boost of 8 per level instead of 4 per level.
?Dragon scales now offer some basic armor protection. These values are by tier, with Tier 1 scales offering 5 points of inherent armor protection, Tier 2 10 points, Tier 3 15 points, Tier 4 20 points, and Tier 5 25 points. This change affects new and existing dragon scales.

Between this and the changes already on blight, my Dragon is going to be much more viable as a character. I still have two playability issues however.

?Dragon Breath of Fire has been changed to 30 second recycle time and the Area Effect removed to be replaced by a more powerful Area Effect Breath of Flame Burst (to be added at the next patch.)

This is one. Dragon Breath needs a damage increase. Its damage isn't much more than a claw swipe, and it's a slower attack, so it's got even less of an advantage taken over time. The only time I use dragon breath now is when I'm fighting multiple creatures or when I'm fighting something I believe to be vulnerable to flame damage. Regardless of the timer, removing the AoE effect means I'll be using it less often, unless it gets a damage boost.


The second issue is, would it throw things out of balance to double the duration and recycle of the various breeze spells? The spell casts too slowly to use in combat, and if you cast it before you pull, 20-30% of the duration is expired before you start taking damage.


Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about these changes, even the ones that aren't about dragons. I just think that as long as you're addressing dragon issues, I'd like to take the opportunity to voice my opinion so that other potential dragon issues don't get overlooked.

[Snowdonia Honeythorn]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Goriax wrote:Can the HZ engine even handle no-trade items? I can't recall seeing any. Yes that's an old trick which was around LONG before WoW. EQ was using it for years.

I agree this is great news. My first assumption after hearing that was that the hoard bonus to AC would go away but he didn't say that. I guess we'll just see.

Yes. Manga showed this on IRC the other day:
http://community.istaria.com/images/temp/Demon_Flurry.jpg

Notice the Attuning feature.

Ok I REALLY like that. Finally a way to have no drop items without it being no drop from initial looting.

The Uncommon, Rare, and Ultra Rare loot, IMO, should be totally random across all mobs within a given level range. People are going to camp regardless of how hard a mob is, group or solo. At least if they added these items across a level range instead of on certain mobs everyone will have the same chance as everyone else whether they are camping crap or not. Insisting these drops should drop on nothing else but group capable mobs is just another form of forced grouping which is something Horizons has featured as not needing/having.

[imported_Rhyssa]

Please please please don't add any of these new really good drops to the spiders and fyakkis on the Satyr islands.

[Jaraiden]

These ?Sneak Peaks? are headed to Blight?

For you know who?

?Son of Gigaroth?
?Uncommon Rare and Very Rare Loot Tables?

Interesting. Will be good to see if properly done.

First of all, the WA won't entrust their weaker forces with such rare items.

Second, the non-WA races (generally wild) should be seen as competitive, thus the weaker ones won't have such rare items (as their stronger kin would have taken them).

Third, the named monsters, the strongest of the monster races, should have them at random times. If Mhedron is camped and thus killed 4 times in an hour, he could not be expected to each time have the same percentage of a rare item. Doesn't make logical sense that he is respawned with a rare item in his claw (or same %). Perhaps, after being killed X times, that percentage would kick in.

For the next 2 weeks in no particular order?..

?Reworking Blighted Weapons so that they are more desirable that in the current form the first rework should hit Blight this update.

Great, stronger Blighted dragon claws. I'm sure by now tier V Blighted dragon claws are out, just have not fought the level 80+ WA dragons that are using them (per Blighted item lore). Am happy to find, later, a tier IV Blighted dragon claw ("more desirable version").

[Stranyr]

Loot at DAoC,EQ, UO, AC etc. they all have one thing in common, permanent loot (although there are ways in each game to limit the tradability of some loot) and look where they are, something that in the first year was UBER incredable loot is now trash or maybe a loot collecter might have it just to be complete.

They Devs have to constantly increase the power of Uberloot to make it Uber, because the old stuff doesn't go away.

If I were to go back to Asheron's call right now, 1 year after the last time I played seriously in nigh on the best gear you could own, I would be in paupers clothes, with equiptment that people slough off on there mules, or give to newbs.

Partly knowing that cycle isn't a part of HZ is what keeps me hear (not that I am saying I will leave)I would doalmost anythingto keep that cycle from coming into exsistance in HZ.

I am not saying that the charges have to be low, only that it would be good to have charges, something to remove the uberloot so that it doesn't become common, (something that drops at a .001% will still drop, and over time there will be so many of them available that finding one doesn't really mean anything anymore :\)

While Attuning Can in fact help alieviate this issue, it still can't stop the farming and the items becoming plentiful.

Hopefully The devs take the future into account.

[Frons Von Frik]

loooks good- but my thing is when is it going to hit live? I feel like this is just the first baby step in the right direction .. finally!-.. its good to hear though...especially since all of it is way over due... Keep pushing that content out :) [B]

[anjinson]

Well as both a 100 ELAR and 100 Ranger I guess I'll get to see first hand if these changes help the ELAR. At the moment,there is no comparison between the two.
The Ranger runs circles around the ELAR. Actually, the ELAR (like many of the classes) has been almost unplayable for some time. So this can only be a move
in the right direction.

[Vesuvius]

Good to hear about the upcoming dragon changes. Perhaps all those suggestions in the past werent for nothing ;)

I would suggest making the 8ac per level for adults only. (Same or better for ancients). Give a little difference between the adults to the hatchlings :)

[Fireclaw]

Good to hear about the upcoming dragon changes. Perhaps all those suggestions in the past werent for nothing [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img]

I would suggest making the 8ac per level for adults only. (Same or better for ancients). Give a little difference between the adults to the hatchlings [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img]

I agree. Maybe 4ac for hatchlings, 8ac for adults, and maybe 14ac for ancients.

[Snowdonia Honeythorn]

It would make more sense 4 > 6 > 8. Something that increases at a set, steady rate.

[Kulamata]

It's the young 'uns we need to keep from being discouraged. As it is now, they see DRAGON, get excited, trial, die, get frustrated, leave.

Whateveryour sense of how things otta be, the game has to be FUN first. And getting repeatedly killed by critters two or three levels below you isn't fun.

Hatchlings just don't have enough margin formost beginners to be able to thrive. Most beginnerswon't play very well, and, given the current state of the New Islands and tutorial, may not have, or even know of, scales and spells that are level-appropriate. And if they do know, do they have the means to buy them? More armor will helpremedy a lot of ills.

[I]Reading what I've written,it would be good if hatchlings were"born" with more innate armor. The effect would fade with leveling on a percentage basis, so the effect would be greatest when most needed. Easy to implement too.

Cutting back on capabilities to fulfill a vision of the game nearly killed it. Let's not start rolling back the improvements before they are even implemented, let alone evaluated by the player base.

[Sajid]

Good point Kulmanata, and the dragon's need PRIME BOLT instead of FLAME BOLT from the trainers. Man that is a killer for many first time dragons, and can be changed easily and quickly.

[oluviel]

Irecently started a dragon on blight, and i have to say they never had it easier combat wise. Compared to a year ago dragons are much more powerfull and easier to level. The 800hv bells often drop on the newb islands make the process even quicker in the early levels. You get your first breeze which actually keeps you alive at those low levels right from the trainer. When i was at those low levels the only npc a dragon could kill at equal levels were mages and you had to jump them.

My chaos dragon is 100/100 i started on dec 13th when the game opened. The only thing driving away new players is not the difficulty. What keeps the dragons still here today? what kept us here when we could barely kill something 4 levels below us? What kept us here when our hoards were leaking like crazy?
Hell what kept us here when our hoard did absolutely nothing but 4ac per lvl?

Those were what truely made dragons difficult and people stayed, but they were staying for the people around them. They stayed because you had somone beside you to joke with about the fact that we were so weak. What do players see on the tutorial nowadays? Nothing a barren wasteland with nothing but tumbleweed and mindless npcs. I'm not sure if these problems can ever be fixed with the stigmatization horizons has developed for itself in the mmorpg community. But it is certainly not Class difficulty that is keeping people out of the game.

[Sibbe]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Goriax wrote: Can the HZ engine even handle no-trade items? I can't recall seeing any. Yes that's an old trick which was around LONG before WoW. EQ was using it for years.

I agree this is great news. My first assumption after hearing that was that the hoard bonus to AC would go away but he didn't say that. I guess we'll just see.

Yes. Manga showed this on IRC the other day:
http://community.istaria.com/images/temp/Demon_Flurry.jpg

Notice the Attuning feature.

Loot at DAoC,EQ, UO, AC etc. they all have one thing in common, permanent loot (although there are ways in each game to limit the tradability of some loot) and look where they are, something that in the first year was UBER incredable loot is now trash or maybe a loot collecter might have it just to be complete.

They Devs have to constantly increase the power of Uberloot to make it Uber, because the old stuff doesn't go away.

If I were to go back to Asheron's call right now, 1 year after the last time I played seriously in nigh on the best gear you could own, I would be in paupers clothes, with equiptment that people slough off on there mules, or give to newbs.

Partly knowing that cycle isn't a part of HZ is what keeps me hear (not that I am saying I will leave)I would doalmost anythingto keep that cycle from coming into exsistance in HZ.

I am not saying that the charges have to be low, only that it would be good to have charges, something to remove the uberloot so that it doesn't become common, (something that drops at a .001% will still drop, and over time there will be so many of them available that finding one doesn't really mean anything anymore :\)

While Attuning Can in fact help alieviate this issue, it still can't stop the farming and the items becoming plentiful.

Hopefully The devs take the future into account.

the weapon looks very cool, maybe add a decay (irreversible)to those too, so the thing Stranyr discribes doesnt happen

[Amerelium]

...I'm working on a tutorial that will be placed on the EU community website - if people like it you can of course place it in the US one as well - the beginning stages of the game gets a lot better if u know a few basic things about 'smart' gameplay, and know how to use the interface to full effect. The interface in Hz is so much better than other games of this type is sometimes think people don't use it like they could simply out of old habits...

[Warzen]

What about missing mobs? Or are we not going to implement them?

Existing Bugs?

T6 forms? Oh yeah we are waiting on level cap. (I didn't notice that either). We are too ******** busy relooking at housing storage and making new shields! Just tellus the best shieldthen delete the other15 forms (5 beginner, 5 J-man, 5 expert).

Where canI find a copy of you bug database? Just for historical purpposes, apparently you have no intent to fix them.

[Vlisson]

any new Design Team Preview?

good job at moment, i love to read the new stuff published atm