Simply enough the reason why people didn't and dont use the Warrens... is the Warrens SUCK, and so does the loot table.
You see the key is Risk Vs. Reward. Make it very risky and make it very rewarding. Whats the point of going into the warrens and killing 250+ roamer mobs just to spawn the specialized named mob, which then has crappy drops.
I envision 2 types of zones.
Imagine this... Shialoh's Labratory... this zone will be accessable by anyone but would have the trivial loot code. Lets say for levels 25-35. A place to go after Pal caverns. A zone set so that it can have intentionally several completely separate camps lets say 8, and a few intentionally open soloable areas. A decent mixture of mobs, casters and tanks that require stratagy to kill. Now all the mobs here will be powered up so that in order to really kill the yard trash you have to be on your toes even if you are 35. But then there are randomized named mobs that spawn from killing the static camp spawns.. and I mean like every 20 or so kills a named would pop. Newbie spells, USABLE armor that is on par with today's game. For instance a Plate breastplate that gives 25 ac 5 int 5 wis 5str 25 mana 25 hp with some minor effect. A 1hs weapon 13 damage 24 delay with some minor effect. Allowing people to learn their class and their roll in a group. People would use that.
Now Shailoh's Torture Chamber.. only allows people 35-45 to enter. Inside its set up with yard trash mobs that require at least 1 full group to kill nothing soloable. And major named mobs that require no less than 18 to kill, that would give items that would allow a guild to power up its characters in preparation for higher level raiding. Such as Warrior weapons that would have procs to increase aggro... Mana pres III items... Improved healing III. The mobs set up so that definate strats have to be used to kill the mobs.
Now I realize there are some zones for the purpose of powering up and gearing your guild Kael and other Velious era zones are great for this purpose and alot of Luclin areas. These area's are set mostly for those characters 50-60 and I think the currently loot tables are below par. Why bother spending weeks with your guild getting COV faction (or whichever you choose) and raiding to get gear that in for about 200 bucks on the internet you can buy plats and just hit the bazaar and arm yourself to the teeth and level straight up to 65. I think some changes should be made to make gear more accessible for levels 25-45. 45+ reasonably has enough available in my opinion as of right now, and of course 60+ levels are flooded with easily accessable gear options.
This is what I had in mind... not crap like the warrens. Sort of the higher level game on a smaller scale.
The reason people are rushing to get to 65, and buying plats online are simple. The game really doesn't start or have much of a challenge currently until 65, and the gear we need to start raiding is too expensive to save up to buy, and too hard to solo and quests for the subpar items are too long too hard and require too much assistance.
Edited, Tue May 25 19:06:54 2004
Gates of Discord Getting Re-Tuned
Brenlo from the Developer's Corner indicates the Gates of Discord is receiving some re-tuning. Note: This is still on the Test server only. It is not live yet.
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Gates of Discord is being tuned to rework many of the experience areas to better balance the expansion for all classes. It is our hope that this re-tuning will allow for more group diversity and better use of individual class skills while maintaining the challenge of the new content. We hope to roll out these changes within the next 2 weeks.
Zone experience modifiers were increased in all zones from Tipt/Vxed and beyond.
- To make it more appropriate and rewarding for the intended player level ranges.
Natimbi, Qinimi, Barindu, Riwwi, and Ferubi should be tuned more appropriately for their intended level ranges.
- To make the zones more appropriate and rewarding for their intended level ranges.
NPCs will no longer hit for max damage as often. Knights in particular should find it easier to tank mobs they previously had difficulty with.
- Grouping restraints were too tight. This caused groups to require a warrior/riposte tank with multiple healers.
Ikkinz -- Guilds no longer have to flag every member of their guild in order to complete Ikkinz. Only one person needs to complete all events/raids to start Ikkinz 7. At that point, all players who complete Ikkinz 7 will get full credit for the zone.
- Based on customer feedback.
NPC innates have been adjusted to behave a little more reasonably.
- Based on customer feedback and designer logic. The innates that were placed on the NPCs were inappropriate and were making encounters too difficult.
Zone travel has been made easier. Animal aggression was lowered (faction placed to dubious) and See Invis percentages were reduced on several NPCs.
- Based on customer feedback. Players needed invisibility all the time and were getting swarmed by NPCs. These changes will help reduce these issues.
Spell drops have been increased.
- Based on customer feedback.
Increase the rate of cash drops
- Based upon customer feedback
Note: Please keep in mind that these changes do not affect every zone.
We would like to thank all of the folks on the Test Server who have been helping with the re-working of the encounters and we hope that you enjoy the changes when they go live in the very near future.
Thanks all!
The EverQuest Design Team
