Blight Update Notes for July 12th, 2005. - modified -

[Manga]

The following updates, fixes and additions were added to the Blight shard on July 12th, 2005.


Additions/Changes/Fixes:


Construction Update - The least efficient construction contribution ratio has been changed to 3:1 rather than 5:1. The optimal ratio remains at 2:1.

Journeyman and Expert Metal Bar Formulae have been changed to the following:[*] Steel Bars require 4-2 Nickel Ore and 2-1 Iron Ore[*] Cobalt Bars require 4-2 Cobalt Ore and 2-1 Nickel Ore[*] Mithril Bars require 4-2 Mithril Ore and 2-1 Cobalt Ore[/list]

In conjunction to this change we have modified the following resource regions.[*] Added a small amount of Iron Ore nodes to the Nickel Ore resource regions[*] Added a small amount of Nickel Ore nodes to the Cobalt Ore resource regions[*] Added a small amount of Cobalt Ore nodes to the Mithril Ore resource regions[/list]

We will be monitoring the effects of this change to the Metal Bar Formulae closely.


"Sir Aidan the Reasonable", a Technique Resource Consigner has arrived in Bristugo and is ready for business.[*] Guild Community names formatted to be more easily identifiable as a Guild Community. (Ex. ?-Saritova-? is now ?Guild: Saritova?[*] All formulae involving Tannin and Uncut gems now give the proper experience.[*] Blighted Essence of the appropriate tier is now found on all Withered Aegis monsters.[*] Fixed several broken links in the ?Ancient Clothing? quest.[*] Improved the treasure drops for El Caliente, the Giant Chicken.[*] Giant Chickens will now drop eggs upon death.[*] El Caliente is no longer a 40' monstrosity.[*] Ancient Clothing quest now requires Kenaf Spools instead of Ironsilk Spools. Also, gives Quickstep II potions instead of Quickstep V.[*] Corrected "Craft 50 Bronze Hinges" Tinkerer quest to properly accept Hinges, not Gears.[*] Techniques descriptions updated to reflect name change for Venomous Stalker Leg Hair.[*] The northern location for Balit's quest ?Discover the Fate of Balit's Companion? corrected.[*] Cedar Treantwood Totem will no longer display a pink no asset box when equipped.[*] Anti-Lycanthropy Salve, Lycanthropy, Lycanthropy Ward, and Trial Anti-Lycanthropy Salve augmentations will no longer display a no asset box.[*] Lycanthropy Ward now gives a bonus to strength and dexterity.[*] Balit's Quests are no longer repeatable.[*] Blighted Dragon Claws now use the correct Scalecraft Recharge Kit.[*] Blighted Topaz Tipped Dragon Claws and Blighted Turquoise Tipped Dragon Claws now behave like proper Blighted Equipment.[*] Civil Unrest Quest Reward updated to offer more appropriate amount of coin[*] Snow and Frost Ogre Splinters now have proper icons.[*] Crushing Ogres in Old Rachival now correctly drop Crushing Ogre Splinters, which Memni asks for in the Lasting Embers Dragon Quest.[*]Corrected several typos and progression problems with the Burning Archer Epic Quest. Players having difficulty with the eighth step should delete the quest and speak with Thurid to get it again. Please make sure you have Tomas' Note to give to Thurid when speaking with him.[/list]

[Kulamata]

With respect to the metal bar changes:
AAAaaarrrggghhhhh!

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Hopefully the added fields of resources for the alloys will be enough to prevent any dragging or porting around to multiple fields in order to make the bars you need.

Mithril's gonna be tougher now (in all honesty it was really freaking easy before), but at least cobalt and nickel will be easier.


*Sheds a tear for El Caliente*

http://www.sskyler.com/elcaliente.jpg

[Kulamata]

Old Steel: 2 iron ore, 1 bar, + 1 nickel ore=1 steel. Gather 3 ore.
New Steel: 2 nickel ore (bar?) + 1 iron ore= 1 steel. Gather 3 ore. If the nickel ore does not make a bar, you lose the weight advantage you at least got from the two iron ore making one bar. But balanced by the reduced smelting requirements.

Old cobalt: 2 iron ore, 1 bar, 1 nickel ore, 1 cobalt ore=1 cobalt bar, gather 4 ore, the "cobalt grind".
New cobalt" 1 nickel ore, 2 cobalt ore, 3 ore, no iron, a major improvement.

Old Mithril: 2 mith ore = 1 bar.
New Mith, 2 mith ore + 1 cobalt ore.

The Mithril is not "harder" it is more tedious. There has been a dreadful tendency to equate mindless repetition with difficulty and accomplishment. It isn't, it's just boring.

Forcing tedious tasks to take longer is NOT the same as adding content, nor is it an adequate substitute. It is, however, a failure of imagination.


edit: It is nice to see the cow back, very nice.

[Seranthor]

I dont see the precious T5 metal listed in this patch, is there a reason to intentionally inflict additional hardship on the jewelers and the dragon scale crafters?

t1 jewelry requires bronze (not an alloy)
t2 jewelry requires silver (not an alloy)
t3 jewelry requires gold (not an alloy)
t4 jewelry requires platinum (not an alloy)

t1 dragon scale packs require bronze (not an alloy)
t2 dragon scale packs require silver (not an alloy)
t3 dragon scale packs require gold (not an alloy)
t4 dragon scale packs require platinum (not an alloy)

[LaughingOtter]

I think I can live with the changes to steel and cobalt; it actually makes cobalt a great deal easier to produce. Mithril, though....

Forget the questions of game balance and the very harsh hit this deal to T6 construction - although those two issues are very real.

Mithril is rooted in heroic fantasy as the paragon of metals. True-silver. The metal of choice for the arms and armor of heroes. Makingmithril an alloy goes against that traditionandreduces it to, well, dross.

It is bad storytelling, and that is why I would ask that this change not be made.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

The improvement from steel and cobalt is not having to port or drag to two different fields of resources to make a single resource. You just have to balance your inventory with the appropriate ratio of resource A and resource B. In my opinion it's much more tedious and boring to gather only one resource, same nodes, over and over and over then to be required to scout out two types of resources and have to think about if you have too much cobalt or to little nickel. I do think that requiring three pieces of ore from two types of resources is overkill. I'd rather see 1 mithril ore and 1 cobalt ore combine to make one mithril bar, at optimum.

With mithril I saw people that'd do nothing outside work that one resource and every possible school that uses it. That had to be one of the most boring ways to craft, and in the end I see these people understand little about their schools or not even make items belonging to the school, they just saw an easy way to level fitter / miner / jeweler / blacksmith / armorer / outfitter / tinkerer / weaponsmith.

[Death-knell]

Well I have to say I'm very disappointed in the change to mithril, crafting was not a great joy to start with. But this change is not well thought out and brings no enjoyment, game balance or additional storyline.

IT JUST INCREASES THE MINDLESS DRUDGERY!!

[AA0]

I am really against this change. People did power level mithril for crafting, but whats to stop them all from turning to marble and doing it now? Its only a small distance from a portal and settlement, are we gonna nerf that too?
Lets make proper fixes instead of nerfs.

[kengar]

My only real concern with these changes is it's going to mean a lot more porting for cobalt, unless the "small" amounts that they're adding to the resource field is half of what is there for the primary metal.

Steel: No real change, it just changes my hitting the nickel spawn first to hitting the iron spawn first when I go out to Aug.

Cobalt: Changed from 18 bulk resources needed to 30 bulk resources, given that for me (or any other dragon), steel bars are a single trip. This change means (ignoring the small amounts of nickel added to the cobalt spawns for now):

1. 25% more trips for nickel ore than steel bars, since the bars are lower bulk.
2. Twice as many trips for cobalt, since we now need 2 ore instead of one, assuming optimal smelting.

Faster, probably, but definitely more ports. If the blight client really does fix the port-lag issues, I won't mind much, but if it doesn't I'm going to hate cobalt more after this change than I do now.

Mithril: A good bit harder, but it was too easy, honestly.

I think the mithril fields on Order/Chaos are going to be packed until this goes live.

PS: I hope that this does simplify things by providing enough of the lower tier resource that we don't have to port specifically to get it. I'll keep an open mind and probably check the various metal spawns on blight at some point before this goes live, but I'm not expecting the added spawn to be half as much as the main spawn, which is what we'd need.

[gusi]

[*]Steel Bars require 4-2 Nickel Ore and 2-1 Iron Ore[*]Cobalt Bars require 4-2 Cobalt Ore and 2-1 Nickel Ore[*]Mithril Bars require 4-2 Mithril Ore and 2-1 Cobalt Ore

[/list]

I'd be all for this change, IF it was more along the lines of;

- Steel Bars require 4-1 Nickel Ore and 1 Iron Ore
- Cobalt Bars require 4-1 Cobalt Ore and 1 Nickel Ore
- Mithril Bars require 4-1 Mithril Ore and 1 Cobalt Ore.

This way, they're at par with all other construction resources, no matter the efficiency rate. 5 at min, 2 at max. Seems "fair" to me.

[baldarou]

I'd just like to say I agree with Gusi on tha above modification. That is what I had imagined to be the best method of all the ideas.

[Joaqim]

Urgs, making THE magic metall a freaking cobalt alloy[:@][N]
Maybe making it harder, but well going along the long painfull Steel-Cobalt road I was quite happy to have single comp bars again....
Better make Bronze the same way, with seperated copper and tin, so ppl see early enough what they are starting to do[^o)]

[Syllis SunFlower]

Honestly, I have to say, as a jeweler, not only is this bad storytelling when it comes to the mithril changes, since no jeweler in their right mind would work with alloys (alloys are too hard), it's also doesn't fit with the heretofore pattern of jewelcraft. 1 metal, 3 types of gems per tier, but no thought was given to an alternate metal for jewelers, which I understand would take far more work thanwhat was done, and which thedevs don't have time for right now.
Yet honestly you are proposing this change at the top of thefood chain for all crafters who have busted their butts to get there and felt that mithril was a reward for all their hard work. But after months and months ofbeing relieved and pleased, *yank* there goes the rug out from under them. I agree totally that this seems more tedious than anything else, and I'd like to go on recordas saying I don't like it, agree with it, or support it.
Here's hoping that you decide against the mithril change, it's not a change for the better, it's merely something that will add more work to the game. And I don't know anyone who logs onto a game for more work.

And as a side note, I have 5 toons, 4 of which craft, and each has leveled their crafts the hard way, so I'm not protesting this change merely because I grew pampered with how mith is now. I only have 2 metal classes that even work mithril and don't really plan to go any further than that. So before anyone decides I'm just watching out for my own tail, I'd like them to know I'm not. [;)]

[Dragoniade]

Really, there was more important thing that make metal more tedious as it is.
Why is metal such a pain in the ascii? What's the reason? Why not make wood, stone, vegetable a combined ressource too? It make as much sense as making EVERY metal alloys, when they aren't.

Add REAL content before replacing working content with boring and useless stuff.
Remove alloys completly. period.

[Pharcellus]

Umm.. most jewelry metal IS alloyed.

You don't find a lot of 24 karat gold jewelry for sale because it is too soft in its pure form to make wearable jewelry. Also, cheaper jewelry is 10k-14k.

Sterling Silver is not necessarily 100% silver either, as pure silver has an annoying tendency to tarnish quickly when worn.

[evilkarl]

Some nice fixes and I like the changes to steel and cobalt especially the addition of extra nodes to the respective resource fields this imo will make those two metal less tedious.

While I agree mithril is traditionally a pure metal and not an alloy it is also typically rare and this is not true in istaria. Too many people only ground on mithril cause once you hit 80 in one metal working class and could dig mithril it was super easy to just stay there and grind many schools.

The extra step will require at least some planning or thinking and management vs the mindless grinding.

Edit: Jewelers can now enjoy the fun other metal workers had in the past..but not to same extent.

[Syllis SunFlower]

Pharcellus,

True but most jewelry is made in factories these days. Traditional artisans did not use alloys (aside from trace metals that could not be removed due to inferiorprocessing techniques)because they were too hard to manipulate by hand. If we were were going by what could be made today I'd be demanding guns and rocket launchers in game too. [:P]

[Tantalyr]

*Immediately logs in and runs to the mithril fields to make as many mithril bars as he can before the change. His silos sigh under the weight*

[PJ]

My only concerns are as follows. (All resource amounts are considering optimal)

Previously, a steel bar wasmade from 1 iron bar (2 iron ore)and 1 nickel ore. 3 ore total

Now you got the same amount of exp per steel bar made as you would have for any other non alloyed bar or resource of the appropriate level (gold bar/cotton spool/etc)
And you also got some exp for smelting the iron bar.

In general, it worked out that you got combined the smelt -> iron exp and the smelt-> steel exp you got about 1.5 timesthe exp for making a gold bar or granite brick or cotton spool, while spending 1.5 times the resources (3 resources vs 2 resourcse)

The only real difference between their efficiencies was the extra porting around to get both resources to make steel vs a simpler t3 resource.

Now for cobalt it was still about 1.5 times the exp for the total smelting process, but 2 times the resouces (4 versus 2) and even less efficient process for all the porting required.

But now we have 3 ore required for all steel, cobalt, mithril bars. But there's only one smelting process, so hopefully all the exp is scaled up appropriately