Razorback Destroyer spawn adjustment

@Ravalox
Regarding your QA Server Patch notes, you said:

I've just spent over an hour there on QA and your "adjustment" was about an 80% reduction of the Razerbacks .
I find this to be very disappointing - to say the least - and with all the tamers in the game now, I seriously doubt that I will be alone with this sentiment, since this is the primary source for taming gear that all tamers desire.
(The last thing we need is more rage quitting.)

Would you please respond here as to what precipitated this (I see no gentle way to put this) big NERF.

Respectfully,
Robert Frost

 

The obsidian pantipticon, in my experience is far superior to the razorback drops for tamer gear. That being said, the spawn in the location your talking about did not need to be nerfed in my opinion. Unless I'm missing something. Why would they nerf the spot that isn't the best? I'm very confused. Is it easier to farm? Seems strange

 

I've spent a great deal of time at both locations, and I'll have to disagree.......

 

Panopticon is better for some things but south boundless was better for rings. Which are the hardest to get to epic especially since you need two of them. I haven't been to the zone yet on QA but if they really cut it by 80% that seems like a really bad idea.

 

All the razorbacks that you used to find, have ALL been replaced with 2 that spawn way further up.
That's right, I said 2

 

How many were there?

 

There were 12 specific locations where a boar could (and did) spawn.

 

I spent a a good amount of time there in QA today and had 3 total spawn while I was there. I think this will put folks seeking tamer artifacts that do not have Episode 2 at a disadvantage as this was the primary place to harvest tamer artifacts if you do not have Ep2.

I guess the big question is why now? I understand that the original design wasn't meant to be that way but it has been that way for so long if it is not causing an issue why change it? Was it causing an imbalance in XP or artifacts? Were folks abusing it somehow? Was it causing newer players to die there too much? If so fantastic I'm all for the change but if not it just seems like such an odd change to make at this point in the scenes history.

 

WOW

 

@Sannio
I want you to know up-front that those of us who've been here for years recognize your work on scenes to be excellent !
Having said that, after reading your post above (several times) - here's feedback from a player that has spent more time in that scene than any other (with the exception of my guildy who I hunt with).

But that is exactly what you've done, my friend. The current QA spawns exactly 2 Razorbacks - that's it.

I'm not a mind-reader, so I have no idea what you consider "randomly-high" for any given spawn, but having hunted the Razorbacks there for 2 1/2 years, I certainly wouldn't consider that Razorback spawn to be "over-kill" by any means.

Only you and other dev team members know exactly what caused you to make this radical change after years, but the only thing I can think of is that one or two lower level players "complained" after having been killed by a Razorback there.

I'll tell you this, my friend - that if you implement this change, you will hear many more complaints from the abundance of Tamers out there who would now have to pay very, very high prices for their arti gear to say the least.

Making the scene a Tier 2+ tells players to expect some mobs in the scene to be more difficult than normal Tier 2 - and that should be sufficient. Removing 80% of our Razorbacks is - to be blunt - a very serious nerf, and one that will have repercussions beyond your expectations.

Leave the Tier 2+ name change, and scrap the rest.

I say all this with the utmost respect for you and all the devs who work so hard for our game.

Sincerely,
Robert Frost

 

There are Razorback destroyers in other zones too. I just ran from one in a roving boar encounter after the boars were killed

 

Thank you, @ConjurerDragon for your input. I am aware of the single Razorback that comes in boar encounters.
Unfortunately that is way too insignificant compared to removing 80% of the prime Razorback spawn scene.
That simply can't happen for the good of all Tamers and the game itself.

However, if you ever decide to become a Tamer, reach out to me and I'll take you on some taming hunts and help you learn and understand what it takes to be a top level tamer. It would be my pleasure, after reading many of your excellent forum posts.

 

Sannio, you might want to double check this. What you are saying sounds more reasonable than what I am seeing after several visits to the scene on QA. I have yet to see more than two destroyer boars spawned at a time and a couple times now I have seen only one in the fresh instance and the vast majority of respawns are small boars.

My feelings are a bit mixed here. I have never understood why there would be so many destroyers in a level 2 scene, or even a 2 plus scene. Its not the same as some other scenes that have an area that is a bit harder- no one who was really still at a tier 2 scene level would have any hope of killing a destroyer boar. Maybe a few obsidian boars or one or two ferocious would be appropriate but the destroyers don't fit in. On the other hand this scene has been like this for a long time and artifact drop rates have been set based on players being able to find enough destroyers to kill. The only other scene we can reasonably do this in is episode 2 and has a difference balance of artifacts dropped (bears and wolves are helm heavy). Even how this scene is on live currently it takes a long time to gather enough ringmaster rings to get two epics- I did so but almost never use them because the time to replace them is so high.

I would suggest one of three things be done here. 1) Since new players level so quickly these days and this scene is no where near a starter zone maybe it can be switched from a tier 2 to a tier 6 or so, with other mobs in the zone replaced by higher level ones. I wouldn't want to switch out too many lower level zones but we do have a lot of tier 2 for how quickly it is out leveled. 2) Switch these destroyer spawns to something more mid level for the 'plus' portion of the zone AND add a grove of destroyer pigs to a different higher level but still episode 1 zone. or 3) make your changes which seem to move the destroyers away from the entrance but actually but make sure like your post said there is an average of 4 or more destroyers at a time with respawn rates to support that so you aren't just encouraging people to need to reload the scene after each 2 pig kills. I dislike scene flipping but putting desired items on mobs with slow or no respawn pushes players to do just that.

 

Keep in mind this IS a scene that has one of the virtue armor pieces in it. Changing this suddenly to a tier 6 scene doesn’t feel like the right approach. Also this scene even having a Destroyer level of creature in the scene at all is honestly completely crazy.

I do get the approach of trying to make the scene actually useful, but just plopping down a destroyer level creature in it just doesn’t feel the right approach to that.

These destroyer level creatures could be in a better scene that makes sense. And should be in scenes all players have access to. Could possibly adjust the overland boar encounter as well.

 

there are several examples of high level creatures in low-level scenes, though not to the amount of "boar town". the fero black arachnid in blood river forest comes to mind but i know there are others as well.

i agree i think the important thing is that an area like this needs to exist somewhere in Ep1 accessible content. if its somewhere else then so be it so long as it exists. might be fun to find an unused scene, bump its level, and add boar town.

 

Blood River Forest is not a tier 2 scene but tier 3 and *1* outstanding creature can be avoided far easier than a bunch.

 

Then don’t go to that side of the map. hehe