Malice - frustrating and unplayable

So as part of the Love quest I must go through the Malice dungeon. This just seem like a broken quest, and poor development QA?

You are forced to play this instance solo..what level could possibly do this quest solo?

You will be gang rushed by about 7 spiders in the beginning. Run through, and close the gate behind you? Not so fast, spiders will just somehow pass right through the door ... yet.. and this is the fun part.. if you close that door, your ghost cannot go through this closed gate to get to the rez shrine. Now only choice is to restart game and appear back outside of Spite for a long trek back.

But wait there is more - try going through the right most passage? You will immediately be ganged up on by 2-3 archers, 2 mages, and about 2 foot soldiers. Of course these like all archers in this game crit about 30% of the time at range and disable your movement. Plus they can shoot through the walls at certain angles.

If you are lucky enough to somehow kill them, then there is skeleton archer further down the hall behind wall which he can shoot through yet he cannot be seen or targeted (of course he also crits 40% of the time). Rez shrine through the wall as well but inaccessible from all paths I can see.

I bought a disguise recommended by the Undertaker which seems to be no help. Not clear even the use.

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I understand this is early access, but Malice has been in the game for a long time now as I recall, and the love quest is supposed to be the most polished?

Anyone have any tips on completing this broken quest? I am happy to hear all spoilers as the immersion is long gone for me -- just to check the box that the quest is done. I find myself hunting forums and wiki to get some idea of how to get through this and every other quest so far.

 

I finished the quest back around R31 and was probably around adv lvl 60 or so.

My only tip unfortunately would be to grind more levels and then come back

 

I have troubles beliving that after reading the rant.
Polished dosen't nessesarily mean balanced.

Non the less think this is important Feedback and should go to the feedback forum. I am not playing the main Quests untill final release but what you describe sounds broken.
Sure, high Level chars can do the seven spiders but the game Progression brought you to malice NOW and not 20 Levels later so it should be doable for you now.

 

Ultima games don't usually cater to a linear progression. It's not really in their DNA.

Malice is the end of the quest line. Its not supposed to be a race. It's not supposed to be a typical MMO quest line to reward some sort of useful item.

Its supposed to be a story. One you are living in.

If you are unable to finish it...then explore the world and come back when you can.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately -- depends on how you look at it -- this is not an Ultima game.

 

Now that we have this reticle on top of our head, it seems to be a lot like Ultima 9 to me.

 

I went to Malice at around lvl 60 as a fighter with about 450 health. Those spiders are pretty tough when you got many on you. I probably died 3 or 4 times in there. As always, kill the archers/mages first as they hit you hard.

It's a solo instance so you might want to come back when you'll be stronger.

 

I did it in R31 when I was level 77A. I died once during the boss fight at the end during that run. I don't plan to attempt it again until I am at the same, or perhaps greater, level.

 

This is what I call the "flow" of a game.
Think about the Dragonlance Saga. How interesting and logical would it have been if the heroes would have "grinded" before entering Xak Tsaroth to face the dragon?

If you tell a story there should be a flow to it. Every quest leads to us being able to complete the next quest without having to grind in between.

Especially when Richard Garriott was explicitely stating that he doesn't want to encourage level grinding in SotA.

 

That ship sailed when the game became a traditional MMO. Best part will be that you'll eventually be able to clear the enter dungeon, expect the boss, who will require enough additional grinding to render the rest of the dungeon trivial.

 

I agree. What you said dawned on me in the 'Love' story line as well: That maybe I was not supposed to be rushing through the quest line linearly from NPC to NPC to complete it right then, and instead gradually completing it as part of broader adventures over time. I do think that other MMOs have trained us to think smaller scale, except for the true epic quests in other games.

Unfortunately the only thing telling us that in SOTA are spiders.

 

Thanks everyone for the insights. I think I am in the high 40's right now in level, so maybe I need to come back and try later. I thought maybe the disguise allowed me to walk past some of the undead... somehow I think that guy sold me a bogus costume for 550gp! Never trust travelling performers

 

Also... which kind of disguise you purchased? There are different disguises offered by different NPC.

 

So I am lvl 54 atm and I am not having any trouble clearing the area, but what I am having trouble with is finding a way to open the barrier. I have cleared the whole area two fold and still found nothing to open it. Any clues on that? What am I missing?

 

Hello An Corp, you need to level some range attacks for the archers.. just get them in range with obsidian arrow, fire arrow and searing ray. The spiders are another thing... for that you will need to tank them a bit at least... you can run all that passage, go upstairs and when the spiders are climbing the stairs just jump down, they will de-aggro or will aggro the ghost (that will help you to battle them -not sure if this was the intended behavior-). In my run the problem wasnt the mobs, the real problem was the 'puzzle' to continue the dungeon after advancing a bit far and the final boss. Maybe you just need to level more to run through that instance. For sure, to run through it your char need to be able to take on pairs of hardened skeletons at least.

 

Lot's of games have this problem in my opinion. You have this pressing, world saving issue to attend to, but instead, you're asking someone if they need help collecting apples, or thinking, 'well, I'm sure the princess will be ok a few more weeks in the dungeon while I get better at archery.'

If game developers want us to take our time, explore the world and level up, then the story needs to be constructed in a way that promotes that thematically. The pressing, save the world quest shouldn't come up until we can deal with it without any distractions. If our progression is designed to be gradual, the story should match. But if I'm trying to stop the apocalypse, the little old lady who needs apples can wait.

 

I realized once you selected one disguise you cannot change your mind - not very logical. I didn't find all npcs offering disguises in the first place and now are stuck with the actor's disguise.

 

I don't even remember needing a disguise, but an NPC gave one to me out of the blue, and I went inside Malice.. not right at all..

 

Did it today at L71 and all Death and Blade spec, so my healing was zero. Definitely rough but managed other than the end fight. Had to come back to finish the boss

 

Clue: you aren't the first adventurer to have tried to figure it out. Some made notes. Not all of them got out.

It's the same puzzle as the lich quest In the mine.