Hidden vale zone difficulty

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Zooty, Aug 27, 2019.

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  1. Zooty

    Zooty Avatar

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    When this area was funded via the kickstarter it was implied that it was additional content so I think people were expecting it lean more towards end game content. I also vaguely remember it being announced a while ago that the hidden vale difficulty would be increased, we saw this with the swamp and keep but then progress seemed to stall.

    I would suggest that the 5+ skull zones Greymark forest, Moors of Northshire, Deep Ravenswood, Wyntons folly, Ravensmoor, Mysterious swamp & Ruined keep are left alone as they are already perfect.

    The following zones could be upped in difficulty, they don't need to be re-made and I quite like that generally the zones are smaller than those in Novia just that the mobs made harder (rather than spawning a hardened skeleton you could make them elite skeletons etc.) to offer some extra variety to the usual rise/fall/UT/swamp grind.
    North valeway
    Kingsroad
    South valeway
    West ravenswood
    Owls Nest
    Plains of righ inis
    North ravenswood
    Northmarsh
    South marsh
    Wyrmsands
    South ravenswood​

    Not sure the best way on deciding how difficult to make the zones whether it be take their current difficulty and add 6 or roll a dice and add that number to the difficulty. It would be nice to have an extra 11 zones that are worth visiting past AL 100. It also would be nice to see some quests that would require you to visit multiple zones such as the 4 Ravenswood zones (maybe hunting down and outlaw who moves between them?) or clearing north & south valeway of bandits so the roads are safe.
     
  2. Belladonna Rose

    Belladonna Rose Bug Hunter

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    Nice ideas . It was stated once they would progressively increase the levels in those zones. Frankly North and South Valeway and Kingsroad i always recommend to new players as they are good zones for low level . Especially Kingsroad. That is a good low level zone for new players that want to do harvesting. Minimal risk and good resources. Its also a good zone for beginner tamers as well. The remaining 3 Ravenswoods and the marshes would be good to bummp up for sure. I doubt they will dink around with Owl's Nest Mine as that is a quest zone. Not main story arch quest but regional quests. So dont think that will get a revamp anytime soon. Just wish they would fix or bump up the ore out take there. Totally not worth going there for ore at all anymore.
     
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  3. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    Kingsroad, North Valeway, and Owl's Nest would be nice to leave low-level. The others should be boosted significantly, imo.
     
  4. Turk Key

    Turk Key Avatar

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    I would like to see them take the PRT towns and make them both towns and adventure zones combined. Northwood would be fantastic with zombies, elite skeletons, werewolves, and flesh eating lagomorphs.
     
  5. Vladamir Begemot

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    They should probably move those over near starting areas though. By the time you find Hidden Vale those spots are too easy.
     
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  6. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    It takes like 5 minutes to run anywhere in the world, and you can get to Owl's Head from the Lunar Rift almost immediately. It's not like the Vale is *actually* hidden...
     
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  7. Vladamir Begemot

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    That's not how the new user experience works. But maybe one in 10,000 makes it up there on accident while they are still low power.

    I think the rest get up there and go "ah, would have been cool if I arrived here ages ago. Still nice, but not remotely a challenge."
     
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  8. Fenrus MacRath

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    I personally, would like to see that whole island become UBER end game, Everything on par with Ruined Keep/ Mysterious Swamp or harder. I would take it even farther and make the roving encounters WAY harder and much faster on the overland map.
    The new players have the outlands to cut their teeth and the end game content really needs a BIG boost.
     
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  9. Jason_M

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    I agree that there should be *some* lower end stuff on the island, but maybe tier 3 should be the lowest. Most players can well handle tier 1 by the end of one outskirts and tier 3 after a few days. By the time they reach hidden vale, even if they did chance upon it early, a tier 1 seems kind of silly.

    Seeing deep Ravenswood get bumped up to Ulfheim level and most of the other scenes getting +2 to their tier would be great.

    Maybe there could be a dungeon under ruined keep - a bone pit from the troll's lunches - that leads to a frightening tunnel of ravenous dead :eek::eek:

    Maybe one of those empty towns can be taken over by a dragon - and a dragon worshipping cult that is bent on scaring any interloper away. :D

    I hope some creative revisions can be made! I'm excited just writing about it :):)
     
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  10. Sulaene Moon

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    *raises hand* Yup, happened to me last week. I finally made it up there and it's not much of a challenge anymore. Little too late for me I guess. Neat zones though.
     
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  11. SmokerKGB

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    I think you guys need to "Stop" thinking "endgame" content and support us low level chrs... I play casually, so I'm like adventure level 72 with my highest chr, so it really peeves me off when a level is made "More" difficult than the last time I was there...

    It makes me feel "shut out" of the game... Just like what happened to UO, it's happening again here in Sota...

    You are just driving ppl away by doing this... So stop, please...
     
  12. Synergy Blaize

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    I don't think anyone is suggesting that ALL zone Tiers in Hidden Vale/Novia should be upped. (The team don't have the time or resources to do this anyways)
    If they change up some of the Tier 3 zones for "end-gamers", there would still be the currently available zones for mid-level players.

    All over Novia there are so many Tier 3 zones, that many players have never entered as it really doesn't take long to surpass that Tier level (Even as a Casual Player) & not bother zoning in.
    So much of the current Tier 3 Zones are languishing and wasted resources....

    Side-note: I don't think any change should be made to Deep Ravenswood. (Which is higher than Tier 3)
    This is a great zone for Level 70'ish players.
     
  13. Jason_M

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    That's a bit unfair. At level 70 you can handle tier 5 zones solo. Tier 5 and below are the vast majority of scenes - I'd wager more than 90%. There is an absolute void of scenes between tier 5 and tier 10. Wynton's Folly is a 6, Ulfheim is 8, K'rul is either 6 or 8, Blackblade Mountains is in there somewhere. There are no tier 7 or tier 9 scenes that I'm aware of.

    So when mid-level folks like @SmokerKGB get up to level 80-90, they will know a true lack of scenes :p
     
  14. kaeshiva

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    Because of changes that have happened through the course of development, there is simply not a need for many Tier 1-4 scenes, anymore.
    In the beginning sure, but the addition of outskirts and doubling of XP progression has made this a bit moot.
    By the time you do the three outskirts questlines you've really outclassed Tier1-2 almost completely. It makes sense to have a couple of lower level scenes surrounding those outskirts, sure.
    But when I see that they've redone new scenes that are visually fantastic but ...its Tier 2, so its really not worth anyone's time to go there compared to the alternatives.
    With Hidden Vale, there's simply no reason to have Tier1/2 stuff there anymore - its something else that made sense early on but doesn't now.
    I've made a couple new characters to fiddle with and I appreciate that I "know what I'm doing" and its not a true reflection of the new player experience, but I might experience 3-4 low tier scenes before I'm ready for Tier4/Tier5, and there's simply no reason to ever visit the other ones other than a single pass to see what's there and never return.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2019
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  15. Bedawyn

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    I'm afraid it IS how the new user experience works. Because the NUE includes the new player not being able to find essential recipes or other stuff, asking others, and invariably being told to go to Owl's Head.

    Absolutely there with you. This game is supposed to be have 5 episodes ... or at least two. "Endgame" should be in the later episodes, not in Ep. 1. And not everyone wants to play by rushing through the hardest things they can possibly kill. Some of us want recreation to be relaxing, not a constant adrenaline rush of challenging orange and red mobs. I'd much rather leisurely explore green or yellow scenes with an occasional more dangerous one when I have time to give it the energy it needs. No, I don't expect everyone to play like that -- but too many people seem to expect everyone to play like them, and to want to prevent people who don't play like them from having a game to play.

    The entire time I've been playing, they've been working on new high-tier dungeons and promising new episode 2 lands to come. You're getting your new high-level content. So maybe it's not coming as fast as some would like, but nothing in this game comes as fast as some would like. That's not a reason to take content AWAY from the rest of us.

    (And for the record, I still get smashed immediately on entering Tier 3 scenes and many Tier 2s. Because my playstyle means relying on my own skill and the choices I'd actually make in a real situation, not relying on artificial buffs, fancy gear, stats analysis, or higher-level players holding my hand. Those who want to do so are welcome to it, but I'm quite happy progressing slowly as I am, with many months of zones still to explore -- or I would be, if others didn't keep saying people like me didn't exist and the game should only cater to them.)

    Clamor for Episode 2 by all means, but leave Episode 1 alone for those who are still playing it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2019
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  16. Vladamir Begemot

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    Really? You found yourself in Owl's Nest while it was still challenging? And Kingsroad?
     
  17. Belladonna Rose

    Belladonna Rose Bug Hunter

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    The reasoning for me is that our town offers free housing for new players. Once they get there and until they get more familiar with moving around its nice they can have a couple low end zones that arent over saturated with other new players so they can work on skills. They like going into Kingsroad for harvesting so they can start making furniture and such for their homes. Everyone forgot all about Hidden Vale for the longest time and then they bumped up a few zones and now its the Cat's Meow again. Owl's Head Sewer, Ravensmoor and Ruined Keep...even Deep Ravenswood and Mysterious Swamp are high end. Wynton's Folly is big with the phoenix. So leave a couple low tier zones for the new players who want to live in the Hidden Vale.
     
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  18. Bedawyn

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    Kingsroad and the Valeways weren't too challenging, just the right amount at the time, given that the character had no desire to be an adventurer but just wanted enough recipes and resources to get settled down somewhere safe. I had to fight through battles that the character didn't want but the player enjoyed, but didn't feel like I was risking to much for too little reward. West Ravenswood was challenging enough that I had to sneak around to get what I needed there, enough to feel like a place she shouldn't have been wandering without a reason, and the overworld encounters were scary enough to avoid them. Owl's Nest I also skipped, because I already knew by then that I can't trust the Tier ratings, and stumbling by accident into the Forest Cave in West Ravenswood nearly slaughtered me.

    The ONLY Tier 2 scene that hasn't nearly slaughtered me within a few hundred yards of the entrance is East Perennial Trail. And that's okay with me. The world SHOULD be dangerous for people who aren't warriors.

    And I know a lot of people will just say I'm "doing it wrong" because I'm not playing their way. But since their way has them complaining about running out of content in a few weeks, and my way is going to give me months and months of enjoyment, well....
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2019
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  19. Vladamir Begemot

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    In other words: If you meet them and tell them to go up there, they will be some of the few who get it as new content. If they play without being told what to do they will be tier 5 before they see that conent.
     
  20. Bedawyn

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    I don't think it's quite as simple as that. After all, I'm one of the ones who, almost always, rabidly rejects what everyone else tells me to do -- including you telling me to just run through the control points. :) I only gave up and followed people's advice to go to Owl's Head because I liked the name "Ravenswood" and was considering the area as a permanent home. In fact, that advice may have been the ONLY thing I've done the way veteran players told me to. And the impression I've gotten is that players who follow instructions to fast-track everything are a lot more common than those of us who actually play the game as if it were an RPG.
     
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