Hi Everyone! I thought with all of the changes that are going on this month with regards to monster balancing that it was time for a little bit of a developer diary.
Monday March 10, 2003
I finished up the new weapons for the various weapon wielding creatures in the world today and tested to make sure that they were appearing in the world. Scariest thing I've seen is a skeleton wielding a katar bearing down on me.
Today was the first run at testing the content of the world to get a feel for what we were going to be facing now that the spawns are hammered down and the monsters have the right weapons and expected balance. We saddled up, The Wumpus and I, outside of Shoushi just to get started.
The Wumpus made a Battlemage saving those twp points for purchasing mana conversion at level 5. I took the stock Bow Hunter, we entered the newbie academy and emerged level 5 ready to face the brave new world.
Using only the Level 1 buffs that are afforded at creation we set out about doing the Lou Ka outpost quest. We managed without a death and wandered back to Lou Ka for our reward. After finishing this the real test was on.
We cruised the roadway toward Hebian-To along what is now conidered the 1-20 newbie areas. We ran into some maddening encounters with Great Mattekar, Laigus Lugians and Blood Shreths. We ran around in circles a lot to keep a monster tied up while the other character blasted away with an Academy bow or spells. We made the run to Hebian-To and then hunted from the ledge of the library for a while. I went through 3 250 stacks of arrows before we sold at about 150 burden and we upgraded to 50 AL armor. We then left for the Newbie areas of the Gharun'dim desert. We hunted here for a good long time running through and taking on the Shadow Children Tumerok Scouts and Uber Mosswart spawn guarding the runed chest outside og the Yaraq Newbie border.
All tolled we hit level 10 in under 2 hours, we accrued some fine wealth including a +90% +4% Melee D bow for me and a suit of roughly 87 AL armor. Things went very well and there were times that I was harried and died and times when I was launching arrows into pincushions. By the time that we hit level 10 most if not all of the content was within our grasp without fear of death. The Wumpus upgraded to all level 2 spells in that time as well. I have a nice necklace of Pierce Pro 1 and that is about it. But I do have 10k in pyreals after buying up some healing kits and other necessities. We call it a day after testing to level and outfit our characters to 25.
Tuesday March 11, 2003
Today saw some refitting of weapons on creatures some renaming and some other fun things on old friends. The Wumpus was busy testing something else that I can't really talk about but it took him the greater portion of the day so the testing was left up to me.
Today's focus was on Low Level hunting. Starting location Khayyaban.
Level 25
Strength: 80
Endurance: 80
Coordination: 170
Quickness: 150
Focus: 60
Self: 30
Health: 100
Stamina: 125
Mana: 30
Arcane Lore: 115
Bow: 204
Melee Defense: 200
Item Magic: 94
Healing: 130
Fletching: 163
Magic Defense: 78
Equipment:
Leath Coat AL 87 Covering Upper Arms, Chest and Girth.
Chain Basinet AL 92
Chain Gauntlets AL 50
Chain Leggings AL 50
Sollerets AL 100
Bow +90% Damage +4% Melee Defense
Level 2 Item Spells (Blood Drinker 2, Swift Killer 2, Defender 2)
5 Treated healing kits and 50 each of Greater Fire, Armor Piercing and Frost arrow heads.
Khayyaban, the lovely desert town surrounded by desert rabbits and lifestones near convenient hunting. I run through town and hit the lifestone at the top of the valley that leads to the valley oasis. Always was good hunting there and I want to see what the redistribution has done.
I buff the bow and head down the valley. I see level 44 Lich Lords and wonder if I (Level 25) can handle them. I fletch out 100 Greater Arrows (Down to 32 stacks of Greater Fire heads. Hrm fletching is still very low. Kicking myself for not actually hunting to 25 to at least find level 2 critter jewelry.) Wield Up and open fire.
Kill Lich Lord in a few arrows. It's level 44 I am level 25 I hit about 60%, not bad. I loot and find a +90% +5% bow. Upgrade. That 1% isn't much but it helps.
Next on radar level 53 Risen Knight. Yikes! Oh well gotta test this.
Start firing. At edge of radar miss, miss, miss. He starts moving crit 32. Uh-oh he has a shield and a cestus. This bodes poorly. He closes I get him for a total of 63 when he reaches me. Clobbers me in the lower arm for 68. Owee! Hit again and he's at 30 some odd %. He hits me again and again and lifestone. *grumble* Time to exact revenge.
Run to body collect. Repeat attack. Get a lucky shot in on his run in. I crit for 36. He closes and I kill him. Vitae halved and I loot finding Bow 3 shoes. Now this is more like it. Wear the shoes. I'll sac the AL for these fine shoes at the moment.
Next up Sotiris Hollow Minion. Craft Frost arrows. Again horrible return oh well. Begin assault. He is level 44, me level 25. Plink miss, miss miss miss, hit 11. Not good. He closes. 48 in lower arm. Owee. Second hit in chest for 8. Managable. Try to heal. Heal 43, he hits in chest for 12. Again I can handle that. I get him for 55 from 5 hits of 11 and I miss about 50%. He kills me with a single crit for over 70 ouch. No revenge there.
I tried these guys again. Didn't like them. Conclusion: Too much health. I am hitting fairly well but I can't deal damage fast enough to keep up with them, then again I am hitting them far below when I should.
Hunt continues. After 1 hour I have made 3 trips back to town at 150 burden. Made over 100k in pyreals and upgraded my armor all from loot drops. I now have Coord 3, Regen 3, Blade Pro 2, Pierce Pro 2, and Bow 3 available to me. I also found and killed one Lord of Decay! Only one though. But that is what I wanted to see.
Time to move. Head out to Arwic. Run up the hill and stone. Look around. Drudge Lurkers. Time for some drudge love.
Plink. Hit, miss, hit, hit. They are level 44, I now have Coord 3 and Bow 3. They close. Doing well. Spells starting to come in. Resist 1 in 10. Hmm. Not bad. Kill one 2 others spell me down. Return to lifestone. Clear spawn move on to grievvers.
After another hour I hit 26. Still no Armor 3 this sucks as I spend a lot of time running and healing but it makes things interesting cause I am obviously hunting above my level. At the same time I am killing things fast enough to see the bar move more often then I die. Good session.
Earnings were well over 100k during this part of the adventure and I'm out of arrowheads. This is not good, but on the other hand I now have a choice lockpick or alchemy. I take alchemy.
Conclusions: Huntin at low level is harder than at newbie. I can get places that I want to go and survive without all my life buffs but it is very dangerous and I am finding that the lifestone hunting area is more than enough for me. Good spawn rate and plenty of things to find. Sotiris Hollow Minions need further adjustment, not a lot just enough to curb them from electric can openers to hand can openers.
Tomorrow: Mid and High level testing.
Hope this gives you a feel as to what things will be like for you archers. I'll get another one up tomorrow with The Wumpus' details as well.
For now,
Orion
PART TWO:
March 12, 2003
Saddle up we're making a run into Kara and then into the desert of Dryreach before we finish up in the northern crux of midland. Things aren't going to be pretty as it appears The Wumpus is again going to be busy with other testing.
Time to get to level 50 and see how well we do.
Stats:
Strength 110
Endurance 120
Coordination 210
Quickness 200
Focus 140
Self 80
Health 160
Stamina 220
Mana 150
Spec Skills:
Arcane Lore 200 (around 250k to raise)
Bow 275 (Expensive at 900k+)
Melee Defense 280 (Still cheap at around 150k)
Trained Skills:
Alchemy 225 (180k ish)
Fletching 225 (180k ish)
Magic D 180 (390k to raise)
Item 165
The Wumpus comes back from a smoke break and says okay let's do this he rolls up to 54, wears some GSA.
str: 120
end: 180
coord: 60
quick: 120
foc: 210
self: 210
hp: 201
stam: 300
mana: 301
life: 265
war: 265
creature: 217
item: 217
item tink: 140
jump: 160
loyalty: 58
magic def: 165
mana con: 183
run: 250 (uber)
staff: 65 (uber)
He buffs with 6's and banes up. While I spawn some loot armor to see what the fates have in store. I luck out with a +110% Bow with +11% BD4 Coord 4 and Minor Bow. My BP is 188 with Imp3, Quick 4 and Minor Invuln. Boots ate Al 227, vambraces are 212 with str4 and Imp 6 aluvian only (WooHoo!) My helm is the helm of the simulacra. Pauldrons are nice prots lower al (160ish) and have imp 5.
Time to make arrows. This costs me a fair bit but in the end I have enough peas on me to surive in the field for a long while. I am making deadly arrows at about 80% but elementals are coming through a lot less (40-50%). I wear a Focus 4 hat and equip the coord item, also luck out and get Fletching 4 gloves. Wearing these I am able to suceed at 50-60. Not optimal and hella expensive but I can survive provided I make enough in the field.
All tests are with accuracy bar at 100%
First stop Kara, The Wumpus attempts to buff me. I am angered and slap him silly! Granted we are hunting as a team but I want to see what I can do without his buffs. I dispel myself (via an internal command) and rewear my items. I hate this cause I need to do the arcane enlightenment dance. Cap on focus ring on, now wear arcane 5 item wear other items and voila I am ready again. Now for the hunt.
We portal in and there are wasteland rats waiting for us. He starts casting. Sees resists at about 10% of the time. I am launching arrows like a man possessed I am easily hitting them at 60-70% for around 27. (Rat is Lvl 79)
Clear spawn. Gigas Raider is next. He casts. Resisted, cast, resist, cast, lands. Cry of joy! I launch and hit 85-95%. Easy fight, moving on now to tougher creatures (Lugian is only 61.
Putrid Moarsman:
Shoot, miss, miss, hit, hit, hit, miss, miss ,hit. Reasonable as Moarsman weighs in at level 95. He tears me a new one with acid and fire. I live though through healing and team work.
Sephal Niffis(67):
Easily 90% hitting and for fair damage. Resisting his spells about 50%. Mage lands no problem.
Shadows: (Umbris 85, Lieutenant 61, Panumbris 79)
I am 95-100% on Lieutenants. 80-90% on Panumbris. Umbris are a drop to about 65-75%. Wumpus is wailing away and mashing keys keeping the Oak Golems off of us, he is amazed to resist a couple of the Umbris spells. I only resist one of their but handle the Lieutenant about 40-50%. Panumbris closer to 30%. All in all a much more comparable fight and right where I want the mid level shadows.
Oak/Obsidian Golems (70 and 61):
Archer does better than the Mage but not by much. Easily handling these bad boys at about 80-100%
After about 1/2 hour craft more arrows, until now using primarily deadly fire. The switch to normal deadlies is here as we are in the field. Fight revenant he drops good loot. I end up with a Bow +120 +8% BD 4, Def 4, Strength 5.
Revenant was tough was only hitting about 50% (He's only 61 must be those missing body parts that give him his limber nature.) Mage does much better against him.
Scary things happen when we face Sclavus. They come running with shields and UA's they swing fast and hit pretty hard 4-6 through full banes on the mage. I'm evading so no biggee! OW!!! 36 on a crit. Thankfully that is a normal hit from me.
Faisi (85) about 60-75%, Ulu (70) about 85-95%
Altered/Augmented Drudges (85/85) About 50-70% Hard to gauge they still die fast. Especially when Wumpus vulns.
45 minutes are gone. We tally XP nearly 800k Not bad at all for landscape hunting.
Time for Dryreach, only staying there abou 10 minutes want to see how the new Tumeroks look and feel.
Well then.
Tumerok Gladiator (74)
Hit him very reliably (80%+) he's got fair loot and mucho xp 14k+ certainly worth the 4 arrows.
Tumerok Major (79)
Argh! Noticably tougher. I'm only hitting him about 40% but he is worth much more, loot is comparable to gladiator but xp is about 18k
Tumerok Priest (Level 70!!!) What the heck is that? He's a giant push. Yikes no he's not. I am 80% on him and it's interesting and fun.
Tumerok land is fun amazingly, and though the loot is much lighter we pull down 250 k in about 15 minutes. One thing to watch out for is their missile attacks 11 through the banes on Wumpus' GSA and I was getting tagged by three at once for anywhere from 10-33. Owee!
One last thing for today. Time to see what a couple of 50's can do when buffed with 6's. Time to get crazy. We buff fully with 6's and head to the northwest around Stonehold. This is now High Level area. We are smack dab in the middle of Midlevelville this will be a challenge.
We're not going to have much time as Wumpus has more to do and I need to start squashing bugs and write this up for you guys.
I get crazy and see a Pyreal Golem. Craft a 50 Deadly Acid's and begin the assault. With full 6's I am 60/40 on him (60 is hit) he is level 105. I solo him to 1/2 when the Wumpus joins in and debuffs him. That's right I said Wumpus debuffed him. No resists here though his spells are cutting me to ribbons and I need to use the landscape to escape his wars. Heal and jump in on him again.
We kill him and move onward. Coral Golem is much the same. No resists for me here. But at 90 I don't expect to resist him often if at all.
Banderling Enforcer/Thrasher Camp (105/105)
Ugh! I'm only hitting them 50/50 with level 6 buffs XP is nice and all (more than double the Tumeroks but I'm hunting above my head here and it is obvious.) We take the camp down. He's landing about 75% fully buffed.
Last attack is on a newcomer so we won't mention it here.
Finally I see a spawn of Olthoi Warriors. Hmmm. Should I? Should We. We try. Bad move. The 5 of them come running. I'm not evading and their 7-36 is adding up fast. I hit twice from close range for 50 a pop but I got 12 shots off...not a very good ratio. I die despite Wumpus healing. He runs off he was able to land on them abou 1/6 spells.
Conclusion:
It's still there for the player that wants to hunt out there in the wilderness alone. It's going to be quicker with a friend or two, this hasn't changed. My loot was more than enough to cover the cost of my arrows including the failures. Granted I wasn't going to make 400k in that hour and twenty minutes but I had a lot of fun and there was some danger on the creatures that could hit me.
When I am hunting things that are around my level I am doing very well and even the Lithos Raiders 22 damage from a boulder is avoidable. I'd rather face them then the Extas chucking for tens, because I am hitting that Lithos a lot more.
We ended the session after earning about a quarter of what is needed from 50-51 for me. Roughly 1.2 million after a session of 80 minutes.
Tomorrow:
High Level.
PART THREE:
Gather round and hunker down today we tackled the high level hunting areas. We handled it a little differently today than before because on the whole it seemed that people wanted to see if the one school archer was still able to survive with low buffs. So here is todays set-up for me.
Level 70 Bow Hunter (1/2 through 70)
Strength 120
End 140
Coord 230
Quick 210
Focus 150
Self 100
Health 180
Stam 240
Mana 180
Arcane 220
Bow 300
Melee D 310
Alchemy 250
Fletch 250
Healing 240
Magic D 180
Lockpick 250
Item Enchantment 200
Today I am going solo for a while before I hook up with Wumpus. We're going to tackle the dires today. It's going to be interesting.
My buffs today consist of:
Bow 5, Coord 4, Strength 4, End 4, Magic Res 4
Armor 5, Pierce 4, Cold 4
My Bow is +120% +8% and I am buffing it with 5's while I solo.
I head to Tethana. It's always been one of my favorite places to hunt.
I arrive and I am safe, I decide to run straight for the town and see how the plains outside the city are for me. Acidic Diamonds, Enforcers, Thrahser, Tiatus litter the landscape and I am panicking with noone here to debuff this is going to be rough. (Note: I still didn't imbued.)
I open the can of whoopass. It sputters. But not horribly. With deadly lightnings I take down a camp of tiatus. The open plans fight is not my hook-up though. And I get wrecked by boulders without the bludgeon pro. They are ringing me for 11-33 a pop. Armor is good nothing under 250 and average to all. Enforcers are tough, but I can kill them. Acidic Golems I am amazingly resisting about 1 in 20 spells.That 33 million into Magic D paid off.
After hunting down a coupld of new faces, som grievvers and other wonderful dires creatures. I am tallying my deaths 3. Tallying my costs about 2 stacks of arrows all tolled, and tallying my xp 500k
The next part of the test starts when Wumpus and I hop in. We are running the test a little different. We are grabbing one of each camp and focusing on it.
I upgrade the bow to Armor Rending here and he is level 70 as well his war and life buff to 353. We begin.
Lugian. It's close and when he gets walloped he needs to heal, he is vuln, war, war. Then it dies. I kill in about 10 arrows. XP is well worth the expenditure though. And the amount of time is about the same taking into account a resist or two on the Tiatus. Oh by the way the Tiatus is now 105.
Enforcer. Here he wins the race. But again it is close.
Thrasher. I win the race, and take much less damage in combat thanks to my melee D.
Golems. Oddly we are close on the Diamond, though in the end he wins speed wise.
Gold Golems. I win speed wise.
We are pretty even through here. Except I die 3 times. Not having the right buffs still hurts. But it's not that bad.
Wumpus is fully buffed with 6's, again I have the same stats from earlier.
We head to the swampy areas and meet up with a bundle of static tumeroks. We find that the revamped High Priest is tougher to kill but still has health for his old stats. This needs to be fixed. Likewise with the Moarsmen.
We also fight a Coral Golem Viceroy. The two of us take him down in about 5 minutes of fighting and though his loot is still on the light side we end up looking at a nice increase in XP. The fight was harried and crazy and we wished we had a melee to keep the hurt on him while we dealth with the caustics.
We end the day on a run of Coral Golems and a few more desolation moarsman. I hunted for half an hour alone before...and earned 500k.
Together we brought in 2.5 Million in an hour of landscape hunting.
Now if I had been hunting with the AR bow all along I see my total doubling to 1 million. All I can say is that it was fun and dangerous all at the same time.
I am out of the office tomorrow so Monday you will get a write-up on the Extreme/Obsidian Plains and Tuesday will be the start of the Melee Play days.
Also i hope to explain a little more in depth here later next week. Until then have fun all!
PART FOUR
Monday means Monsters of the Extreme Variety
Today is going to be scarier than anything else I have tested so far. I am gong it alone today, and I am tackling the Extreme Direlands and the Obsidian Plains.
Same Archer as I started with before levelled to 90 now. His armor has been buffed a bit so that he is in unbaned 275 everywhere. I am buffed with full 6's.
My base stats are as follows:
Str: 150
End: 160
Coo: 245 (Should have gone higher)
Quick: 220
Focus: 190
Self 120
Health: 210
Stamina: 280
Mana: 220 (Should have left it lower)
Arcane: 250
Bow: 333
MeleeD: 342
Alchemy: 282
Fletch: 282
Heal: 272
Lockpick: 282
Item: 225
Magic D: 200
Missile D: 220
Item Tinkering: 300
Those are the base stats. Now at this point I am fully buffed with level 6 protections and all necessary creature spells. I teleport to the extreme direlands to see what life is like.
Bow is 130% AR with +8% Melee D buff with full 6's.
Your first glimpse at a new creature is here.
I come upon a new camp of Shadows. They are not very friendly and weigh in as follows:
Shadow Maelstrom: 100
Tenebrous Shadow: 105
Abyssal Shadow: 110
The full camp is standing there before me looking like a wonderful bag of XP. I begin the fight. Taking the Sinister first. I open with a crit and clean its clock for 180. I was hopeful this was a prequel to the fight, simply not to be. The Tenebrous and Abyssal close QUICKLY. They start swinging. I am dodging pretty well so I am not that worried about it.
The sinister is standing at the same distance launching arrows at me. Fire arrows. Deadly Fire Arrows. Ow. 11-30 through my armor and spells, guess that new yumi he is using is doing the trick. I focus on the tenebrous that is debuffing me. I am 70-80% to hit it and it takes me about 12 arrows to kill. XP gained 47k. Next the Abyssal. In between heals and drinking potions, I am deadlocked with this creature. It is not easy to kill. I get back to full and pull out of the sinisters range to avoid the added damage from him. As I am not dodging him reliably. about 1 in 6 if that.
I begin to unload on the abyssal. 60-75%, it was a harried fight. I end up killing it with about 20 arrows and net 51k. Next the sinister. Close a little and unload, 5 arrows later (total of 7)he falls before me. For I am Mighty! I net 42k off of him. Their loot is nice about the same as Umbris. They are costly to fight though.
I move to Bloodletter and Ascendant spawn. The Ascendant are crippled quickly. The Bloodletter closes with me and I am hitting about 50% in close quarter fighting. I vary my attack height and blammo a hit, followed by another. My ratio to hit increases to 60% and on average 7 arrows it is dead. Nice XP too.
Next up Platinums and Pyreals. They still hang out with one another. I unload and handle the camp very easily. I even resisted the Platinum once. Well once was good enough for me.
I move on to quiddity rift, plink 89, plink 79, plink oh crap it's sending it's minions. It heals pretty quickly still but I think I can beat the regen if I stay to fight. Those dam executors are still mage food though and I am forced to retreat. (I didn't bring my phantom.)
Tuskers are out here too, I take down Assailer and Rampager, no problem.
Looking around I spy a group of Olthoi Warriors. I start the fight and notice a little one approaching me. Oh cute. Oh so not cute. What are these little things? Where did they come from and why are they breathing such potent acid on me? (On a side note: It wasn't acid they were breathing on me. It was electricity. A bug that I just finished fixing. Now they breath acid that hurts a lot. I'm serious.) I need to explain that by now I am toting around a Clumsiness 5, Slow 5, and Vulnerabilities. Life is pain at the moment and I am running for my life. I get away and turn back to them to take down that little ring leader. I do so, but it takes me a bundle of arrows (8ish) but those Olthoi are much more worth the arrows.
New Tumeroks out here as well. Interesting. I check them out. I am 60/40 on the one over 120 and the one at 115 is roughneck! Though I need to heal against their arrow onslaught I am still better than 60% on all of them.
I finish the first leg of the test in about 1/2 hour. I've grabbed a total of 4 million xp and enough loot to more than cover my costs. I ran away a lot, healed a lot but was able to handle the spawns very well.
Part 2. Obsidian Plains.
Thicker spawns, more of the same type of monster with newer Virindi and some grievvers as well as other frightening cohorts thrown in for good measure. It's not easy living in here until I find a gully that I can pull to.
I hunt here for about half an hour as well and become very careful about pulling tactics. Running means not stopping until you find a portal. Very, very, very scary. I dodge the Olthoi Warrior's friends (They've got big nasty breath I tell you!) and end up closing out the hunt by buffing the bow for another 45 minutes. I stop after half an hour on the plains.
Now I am keeping the plains description short.
I had originally intended on making it a separate post that went into great detail of the adventures involved, but decided that there was far too much fun there to be discovered. It was like taking a Paladin into Hell. Running, jumping, freaking out and screaming while disturbing my co-workers while mashing keys to survive a never ending onslaught of attacks and spells. Scary, scary stuff.
Tomorrow I close out the adventure logs, and go into hardcore testing. But all day tomorrow is dedicated to running a melee through the same gauntlets that we took the archer through.
Until then.
Orion
