Sieges

Add an second layer of loot, like something that gives some sort of bragging rights and is only interesting for higher levels.
The real high levels have it all so spiking the cabalists with artifacts is kinda silly, and giving them maybe 200 gold and some tier 5 mats (like 5 silver bars) will not make them "prime farming" but worthwhile for groups.

Bragging rights, maybe some sort of banner or whatnot, trinkets for the easily amused and bored upper crust.
Something decorative non tradeable, an trophee

Throwing gold or artifacts at high level players is pointless, but the loot can be geared to make it worthwile for groups.

 

You are funny. Hardworking dedicated, as well as new players dedicated, everyone is already getting crappy loot.

No, my proposal is not a penalty, it's a game mechanic that prevents farming specific mob for loot, by high level player. So you, well they, enforce it on account level, so you wouldn't go around it by creating alts, if you wanna create more accounts, whatever - need to buy a game key etc. The characters on your account would have diminishing reward from killing the same boss over and over again. You can have the same chance of getting a rare, but base loot should go from 1 kill - super loot, 2 kills - good loot, 3 kills 15 gold 6 mandrakes. Everyone will be happy that way. This can be done on daily/weekly basis. In other words - you only get opportunity to farm that boss once a day, or once a week. The rest of the time, you get crap loot, like now.

This way new players won't be discouraged, and you won't affect the economy too much, since farming will be limited.

 

What!? That's the most fun part of it! The first weekend after launch, I was clearing the sieges outside Aerie, then going up the hill by the ankh to watch the cabalists attack very surprised new players. Then when they would respawn, I'd say, "hey, careful, there's a cabalist down there."

 

(To be fair, it totally happened to me once when I was new.)

 

You're BAD! lol

 

I have never killed things for bragging rights? What? Why ? I kill things for exp loot or cause there in my way

 

So you think when you have a game where you have to kill hundreds or thousands of things to get the item you want, you should also make it harder as time goes on? To make it harder for people to farm what they have to farm to get what they want ?

 

@Chris if your can. Can you please post how meny cabalist i have killed and what number I rank in most killed please. Then add the fact that I still had to buy at least 4 things, cause I couldn't get them. Some of you are confusing what the issue was when this started. Way too small loot. And it is x-20 gold (same as an earth elm) and some garlic or mandrake. The low end need's work. To start at least double the gold. And then add idk obsidian chips maybe black pearls or something. Should be more than what you get from far lesser things.

 

Well they keep trying to get loot better and if they are not doing it then imo it is our job to keep telling them that no they have not succeeded yet in doing this right if that is the case. Here are R53 release notes about what will happen in a few days. Releases are always the last Thursday of a month for those who don't know bringing bug fixes, performance improvements, and more content and additions to the game. See notes from below for the release coming in a few days.

• Crafting & Economy: We will add more loot to the game like Worn Armor (to complement the Rusty Weapons) on humanoids. We will also introduce the system where player-crafted gear sold to merchants will start appearing as loot in the game. Finally, the drop rates for rare items like artifacts and rare components will be greatly increased in Offline Mode.

• Worn Armor: When fighting low level humanoids you will often find rusty weapons as loot when you defeat them. Players have often asked “why don’t we also find rusty armor?” Starting in Release 53, low level humanoids will drop worn armor which can be equipped or salvaged for patterns. These will come in all armor types and a cloak: Rusty Plate Armor, Rusty Chainmail, Worn Leather Armor, Worn Cloth Armor, and Worn Cloak.
• Player-Crafted Gear as Loot: Player-crafted weapons and armor sold to NPC merchants now have a chance to appear in loot, specifically as one of the possible items in supply bundles. These items are somewhat sorted by power, so the more powerful items will appear in supply bundles found on more powerful enemies. Which bundles exactly? You'll have to discover those bundles for yourselves!
• Offline Drop Rates: In Online Mode, the drop rates were tuned based on the assumption of player trade. For example, the rarity of recipes was meant to be offset by the fact that they would be sold on player vendors to other players and/or they could be taught between players. In Offline Mode, none of that works, of course , and therefore the game was unnecessarily difficult—in some cases, veritably impossible. For R53, the drop rates for almost everything has been increased in Offline Mode. This means that resources (ex. ore), artifacts, recipes, gold, and components will now all appear at much greater frequency.
• Lot Deeds and Homes Loot: Place Anywhere and Player Owned Town Lot Deeds will now appear occasionally in Rare Supply Bundles along with an assortment of Home Deeds. Which bundles exactly? You'll have to discover those bundles for yourselves!
• Decorations Loot: We have begun adding more decorations as loot items. Toadstools (literally mushroom chairs) can be gained by defeating the mushroom creatures (Psilocybin, Amanita, Conocybe Filaris, Paxillus Involutus). Additionally, various items that were previously only found in NPC homes (and would therefore trigger virtue loss as stolen items) can now occasionally be found in chests in adventure areas (just beware of mimics!). Also, animal skins and heads can now be used to craft Animal Skin rugs!
• Crafting Failure = Durability Loss: Triggering a failure when adding Enchantments and Masterworks to gear will no longer automatically destroy the item. Instead, it will simply decrease the durability of the item. When any gear reaches 30 durability (or less), no further Enchantments or Masterworks are allowed (which is the same durability threshold as before). We decided to eliminate item destruction since we were adding the ability for player-crafted gear to become loot and a source of income or resources for crafters. This now gives them the option when they fail to either salvage for resources or sell the lower durability item to merchants to put it into the loot table.
• Ring of Chrysopoeia (artifact): This artifact now benefits Enchanting along with other alchemy crafting.
• Player Vendors Sitting: We extended the time to 14 days before they will sit down. We also gave them the ability to sit in a nearby chair if one is available, instead of just sitting on the ground.
• Harvestable Resources Visibility: Garlic, Nightshade, and Mandrake Root are all now easier to see. Garlic also has been made larger, with leaves added. Additionally, Nightshade and Mandrake Root have the whole plant pulsing, instead of just parts of those plants.
• Aeronaut Boots Fix: These can now be Masterworked and Enchanted.
• New Recipes & Patterns:

 

An interesting idea (of which I think the Devs already have in mind) would be a mechanic where players actually can stop sieges from happening in a town for a temporary time (say maybe 48 hours of New Brittanian time).

You have probably noticed that most(?) all of the major Virtue towns all have a Moon Tower. All of them aren’t functional, except Owls Head. Players could then possibly do a quest that gives them a free recipe for a component or material needed to power the Moon Tower. Players could then craft or harvest the needed materials. And if enough materials are finally collected, the town then will have temporary protection from sieges.

There’s other things to consider (many people like to group up and do sieges), but this would be interesting if anything. It would be fascinating to see what the players would do...

 

I'd like to see some "uncloning" with city-specific scenes for the major NPC towns.

 

Actually, it's already the case. I got some of the best artifacts I have (at least those that I use the most) from very low skill enemies, like earth elementals, hardened skeletons, or even low archers. It's just that it is more rare. But not impossible.

Also, when in a party in the very first release when artifacts were introduced, when everyone was expecting to get the artifacts from the troll or the dragon in the Rise, I was the first to get one... from an elite elven archer. Surprises with chance !

High level players get more artifacts, that's true. The problem is not what they loot. It's what the others don't loot and how the prices are fixed in the market.

The most casuals should not kill their first cabalist and only get one obsidian chip. They should have a minimum compensation for the effort. And I mean, how a Dark Lord is supposed to be credible with 6 gold coins in the pocket ?

Of course, more treasure means more inflation. But prices are already overestimated anyway. Giving a better minimal loot means that more people COULD be able to afford those prices.

 

I agree, I have gotten artifacts from low level mobs too. On reflection how can one explain the constant envy against the high level player loot? Even the assertion that these players "SET" prices does not make sense. If they put up an item for sale at ridiculous price it simply won't sell. Are we saying that the player who gets an artifact from their low level mob activity will try to sell those items at a more reasonable price for the masses? I think not. They price them for the highest price they think the market will bear. If the item does not sell, well then everyone has a decision to make. Reduce the price or keep the item stashed away essentially wasted. Setting prices in our economy is impossible unless you have the ability to corner the market on supply. If the supply is available through all types of game play then the market will settle where it will regardless of the desires of the scalpers. Really this thread is about the throw away loot and gold. It is absurd that the higher level mobs drop 5 gold and a mandrake root. I do not have a clue why this is and have accepted it as it is. Just dumb.

If one does not adventure much, then getting a good drop is almost impossible. Buying a drop that someone else gets is impossible too because the lack of adventuring results in less cash on hand for purchase. Is the only recourse for that person to champion limited supply to all, complain unfairness, or sell off all your possessions at ridiculous prices so you can afford the item you wish to acquire? I don't know. I guess I should bow out of this conversation altogether.

 

There used to be a strat guide to kill Cabalists, does anyone know where that is or have a link?

 

The only thing I've gotten from cabalists besides a single digit number of gold pieces are 2 sets of boots which don't seem to be that impressive. I guess my cabalists were fighting naked with no weapons and only boots to wear on some weird dare to cure their boredom.

I see a lot of discussion on how much of a pain sieges are to pass through and how often they are. It seems to me if you were to make the cabalist loot worth going after, "higher" level players would start clearing more sieges and solve the issue for lower level players who are having trouble leaving towns. I'm sure a loot pass for these guys is probably buried among the developer tasks , but since the directly affect most players in one way or another and especially the crop of new players coming online and trying to run through these gauntlets when they are still trying to figure out all the other skills and commands, this is something that should be looked at sooner than later.

I will predict that with all the engineers using bows in R53, there will be even less siege clearing because it will just be too frustrating for most people to clear the sieges despite engineers dropping some of the more useful loot in the game.

 

If the devs had had more time and $ to build out the concept of sieges better, I would also have suggested they provide the town residents some kind of small benefit for keeping sieges cleared (they defeated the evil attackers) or a minor negative effect for not (the attackers seiged the town and looted). Maybe these could be realized at the devotionals, the more seiges stopped the better the buff.

Because right now... there is basically nothing. These kinds of things would help with the concept that what we do has real change in the game which up to this point has been terribly weak in design.

 

Cabalists should start dropping T-shirts that say "I killed a cabalist and all I got was this T-shirt." Just a picture of a cabalist would be enough, really.

 

It's no coincidence that the obsidian symbol looks a little like it's flipping you off.

 

black Shroud?