Etceter Crag Mine changes

The changes to this mine make it not worth mining. The increased archers and thugs on the first level are fine but when you have to face 4 at time suck. In the rooms on the first level with ghost and hardened skeletons really suck. Ghosts are hard enough alone and should of remained on the third floor. The 2nd level is another wave of increased thugs and archers which come almost at the same time. The change to large slimes in the rooms was over whelming. The big slimes have a almost instant respawn rate. Overall I only went to two rooms on the second level before I said screw it all. The ore has been reduced through out the mine as well. So far with these changes this mine is not worth going to at all. A inexperienced blacksmith is going to have a extremely tough time now finding the iron needed to skill up with these changes.

 

Etceter is much more chaotic now for sure, but I don't really mind that, and assumed later they would add tougher creatures in there. I would try Serpents Spine mines for your iron ore needs or spectral mines now, good bit in both of those.

 

I have found there are other places that have had this type of change. Kinda threw me off a bit. Also some places have a total map change

 

It's just silly from an RP perspective though watching ghosts fighting bandits, fighting skeletons... for some reason, a bandits happened to be neighbors with angry ghosts and skeletons... because that's a good place to build a hideout

 

Like the haunted house from Harry Potter?

 

It's pretty silly though... bothers me more than the difficulty.

I walked in the first time and I saw that the bandits were a bit harder and that there were archers, and that was okay and made sense; and at least you got better loot -- though you have a choice of carrying the loot or the mined resources, mind you. Then, I walked into the mining chambers and saw skeletons instead of slimes, and I was thinking that it felt a bit too much for exactly one skeleton to happen to be lying in each and every mining chamber... coincidentally as if someone consciously placed them there, hmmm... but okay, whatever. Again, good loot. Then I turned the corner and saw a ghost fighting a bandit... and... that just blew the top off my silliness meter.

 

Of course a lot of the high level areas are silly from this perspective. Even outside the mines were a bit too populated, and I mentioned that Vauban Pass looked like a wolf and bear convention.

I would have rather asked the devs to nerf this and take away silly income stream of endless mobs from high level players than to punish lower level players.

 

My point was to highlight the changes to etceter mines especially the instantly respawning slimes. Over all this mine needs another tuning pass for sure. Overall the spawning needs to tune down a bit in my opinion and it wouldnt hurt to tune down the ghosts a bit. I am concerned more though because it was a great spot for a inexperienced adventurer to mine.

I just made a trip to spectral mines and looks like they increased the ore respawn rate there. I ve only been there a couple of times before and I do not remember the ore respawning like it does now. Spectral mine is still fairly high level though too. I still have orange skeletons spawning there at my current level. They also got rid of the Solania catacombs entrance , which was a quick way to get there.

Later I ll check serpents spine when I feel like playing more.

 

Diary of an Etceter Crag Miner:

Entry 1:
I enter the mine full of promise and hope, ready to fill my inventory with much needed ore so that i can make that full suite of meteoric plate mail and enchant it all so I'm able to fight better. I enter the mines and immediately see that the bandits have gone from green to orange so guess they made it a bit tougher. No worries I think to myself as I charge the bandit in front of me. After a few minutes the bandit is dead but I find 2 archers are shooting at me so move to engage but they are tricksy archer and begin the much loved game of "catch me if you can" so I spend the next few minutes running around, waving my sword around ineffectually while they tag team me. By the time the first one is dead I'm dangerously low on health and can't understand how. Its at this point I realise that all the running around has attracted more archers and there are now 4 left (not counting the dead one). After I res at the ank I manage to kill 3 more before dying again. Res and return kills off the last one just as the first respawns so he dies as well before I head into the passage way out of sight. of more spawns. I break down the wall of the first mining room and I'm immediately set upon by 2 ghosts. I kill one before having to res and run back to kill the other. I grab the ore and move onto the next room. Inside is a hardened skeleton and a ghost, both of which I manage to kill and grab some ore before trying the second passage. Moving into the centre of the large chamber on my way to the second passage I see that the archers are back but only 2 this time. For an added challenge my light goes out as I'm trying to fight them and result in another death while I run around in the dark bouncing off walls. The second passage is much like the first and contains either 2 ghosts or 1 ghost and a skeleton. Since I'm prepared for it now I only suffer 2 deaths while mining out the 4 rooms and decide to head down to the second level.

Entry 2:
More archers but these are not so bad once they are spread out and can be taken on one or two at a time. I come around the first intersection and find 3 archers and a bandit which with a bit of luck, kiting them around corners and healing like a mad man I finally manage to kill without mishap. Moving down the corridor I come to the first breakable wall which is guarded by...yet another archer. I smash down the wall and move in cautiously to find a rather large slime, one of those which splits up as it takes damage. I get it to split twice before I have to run back down the corridor and fight a running battle down the corridor before managing to kill them all. I return to the room triumphantly to claim my reward and find that the big slime is back. This time I figured it was because of the running battle down the hall way so fight and kill all of the slimes in the room instead. I survive with a mighty 14 health (out of 425) and grab my pickaxe. Apparently having +60% to gathering speed, 20% for grand mastering swift gather and 40% for a potion of Expedience is not enough to grab the ore node before the slime comes back to interrupt it. I decide the room is pointless and head down the ramp, take a sharp right and head down the corridor. Another giant slime in the first mining room with the same problem. Using sneaky tactics this time I manage to lure the second spawning giant slime of hatefulness down the corridor all the way to the archer spawn and run around the corner. Once I'm satisfied that the archers are attacking the slime I head back for my prize. I manage to get 2 ores before the slime comes back, presumably killed by those god awful archers and I leave heading down to the third floor.

Entry 3:
This is much better!
Only a handful of ghosts to contend with. The occasional skeleton to deal with. This could be my new home maybe? I round the corner and find 3 ghosts having a picnic in the middle of the corridor. I have come so far at this point it would be rude to just leave so I charge them. Not content with three against one they call for reinforcements and another runs around the corner. I kill one before returning to the res point. I come back and kill another one before having to res again. 3rd attempt I manage to kill the remaining 2 and grab a few ore nodes for my trouble. I decide this is too much like hardwork and hit recall to go back to town to smelt the ore at which point I crash and have to re-log. Luckily I'm still in the mines when I log back in so I start on the world map and since the recall scroll was used prior to the crash I decide to walk home and start to craft.

Entry 4:
2 hours of "mining" with miticulous collection at level 90 resulted in 12 Copper ore, 140 Gold ore and 69 Iron ore. I also happen to have 9 heavy war hammer, 8 longbows, 1 two handed sword and 16 warhammers. Before smelting the ore I decide to head to Greymark forest to grab some swords to melt down for metal scrap so I can stretch the ore a little further. After an hour of trying to fight there I come back with 12 swords, 46 wands and 23 bows.

Entry 5:
Beginning to think that Portalarium hates Melee, Miners and Blacksmiths. Maybe I should take my 53 adventuring level and head back to perennial trail for the next 3 months until I can actually kill enough stuff to be able to make a suite of armour.....

 

I understand the need for balance but this like trying to balance them by putting a truck on the scales.

Increase the spawn rate
Make the original mobs harder
Put in tougher mobs

One of these would have been fine but all 3 together is overkill.

 

The slime's have an almost instant respawn rate.... it needs to be tuned down. The archers and ghosts I can handle....

 

Just went through for the first time since the patch and I think that the changes are very good. The way it was before, the zone was ridiculously easy for the amount of resources available, and now it is not, which is a very good thing. The ultra fast slime spawns are a bit much, but that's a pretty small issue compared to the complete imbalance of resource availability that existed before.

 

I was there a couple of hours ago. Doctor Shroud and I ventured all the way down to the gem room. Apart from the slimes I liked what we encountered there. The respawn rate on the slimes, however, is ridiculous.

 

Don't forget to add tamers to that list!

 

Agreed! Took a group through here tonight. All great except for the nearly instant slime respawns. Seems like it should be toned down to a couple minutes in between. Was a fun night!

 

It looks like ore respawn rates have been increased in some other mines also.

 

Has anyone else had the bug that no nodes were spawning in MP even though you are alone in that scene?

 

Hmm...almost as if there was a pattern in here...

I'll add my own: in a room three "floors" down, I was not able to mine a single node before the big blob was back, tickling my back...

Other than that, RP matters aside, the "raw" balance feels much better, both in the foothills and in the mine itself.

 

I think you mean 2nd floor, there are no slimes on the third floor. (people don't count hallway elevation changes as floors, only the ladders between floors)
But the Big slimes are instant respawn, kill one, and before you can finish mining the first node, interrupted by the respawn.

 

My issue is chain lighting seems to be chaining through mine walls now and aggroing everything in the whole damn mine. It shouldn't be jumping so far and doing damage. Especially through walls.