Drachvald: Still Relevant?

Avanish Hope stands ever vigilant that more content will come for us for now we have a difficult front door for the region and some wide open spaces for frolicking

for now. . .

 

We shall stand vigilante that our pet dragon will be returned to us! Frolicking has been less interesting since it wandered off.

On other notes, we would love to have some higher end group content in the area, so we don't always have to wander to other parts of the world.

 

That's sort of like going from Alaska to Russia via China. If you zoom your (very nicely done) map out a bit, everyone will see that Hidden Vale is right there to the north.

This would be really cool.

The new North Drachvald Spur is in the current release. It is nice, but still small enough that all it's secrets can be unlocked in an hour or so. It's a 3 skull, so not much challenge there for most people of a high enough level to make it to Drachvald. There is supposedly a high level encounter to be put in by lighting the signal fire, but as far as I know, it is not functional yet. If this encounter creates high level mobs that don't require a group to hunt, then it would go a long way to solve the lack of 5 skull scenes in the area.

Embracing the German theme, we should be the sole area for harvesting ingredients to make obsidian beer

 

Drachvald Spur was designed for true gamers, people who have a certain maturity and finesse. Thus it has to be small and tucked away when you account for the extreme rarity and limited number of qualified players. It would be advised that venturing or establishing your home there comes at the risk of finding yourself in an environment which can make one feel inadequate at best. Many productive and satisfying days await the elite who venture through Vauban pass.

 

Obsidian Beer

 

I miss Drachvald.

I miss the potential beauty and reclusiveness. I miss how nice Spite and Graff turned out.

But so far it unfortunately seems very much that the decision to move Lux from there was the right one.
The number of claimed lots up there is still slowly falling.

It was announced/supposed to be a harder end game region with tougher mobs but also with greater potential yields. It was also supposed to have more resources which would elsewhere be rare. Like the gems.
Right now that vision seems to be very far into the future. Since even when they have un-cloned a scene, they never compete / surpass with the more accessible scenes in central / South of Novia.

We still have a chapter house up there but it's our least used one.

In the first maps of the Kickstarter there was a ferry marked that looked like it would go from port Graff to Hidden Vale.
Alas when I pressed the question then Richard and Starr said in a hangout that that was never planned nor would they consider it.


But at least Bloodbay provided one more way there outside the underground and Vauban, so maybe there is still hope.

 

Definitely true for Spite. Many vendor owners active elsewhere in the game have stopped stocking their vendors there. The public vendor is empty. I don't mind the inaccessibility of Drachvald, but always assumed there would be a return for it. The area is unique and visually well crafted, though. I think the choice needs to be made: either make it more accessible or more profitable. One of the two. I'll probably stay there forever anyways.

 

Regional economies would maybe help that. If there would be resources in the currently very remote areas of Drachvald or Norgard it might be worth going there.

 

North Drachvald Spur is amazing. I was totally surprised by the landslide. I climbed up to the abandoned ski lift (because that's what it looks like) and lit the bonfire. I dropped down to what looks like a mine entrance but found out that I needed a key, so I searched all over the place for it, killing all mobs. Finally, when I was overloaded and ready to leave, I checked my pack and found a Drachvald Spur Bandit Key. D'oh! Oh well, I'll have it for next time.

 

"Your key is in another castle". (Don't want to spoil it for you).

 

Yeah, back in this thread last year, he posted the following:

So it seems like the first statement isn't (yet) true? I'm no miner (lumberjack and fisherman here), so any hardcore miners out there can speak to that?

And I do wonder what hidden city lies undiscovered in that region. It would be neat if the city only appeared on the map based on specific triggers (e.g. puzzle solving) pr events (e.g. celestial mechanics of some sort) or combination thereof.

 

It's been a little while since I've been there, but afaik that mine is about the same now as it was then. It's one of the clones, but with a broken mine cart that won't take you to the top like the others. It has copper ore, gold ore, and emeralds. It's not bad, but it's nothing special, and I don't think a lot of people go out of their way to mine there.

 

There are amethysts garnets diamonds onyx aswell but with a focus on emeralds no citrines that I know of tho

 

Spindrift passage is handy and close through Graff and a good source of crystal and ore too.