Necropolis

Samael was there for the first fight, but as the whole room pulled onto me, i was killed in a fraction of a second. When i resurrected, Samael was nowhere to be seen... I'm now desperately trying to whittle down the numbers of skeletons one by one but it's taking longer and longer to resurrect. Is there any way of completing this quest, or do I have to be high level with masses of enchanted gear? Seems a little daft for a starter quest.

 

It is not meant to be a starter quest.
There should be some way to get samael back again, did you get a whistle or something?
There should also be other less aggressive ways to get forward and bypassing some of the dangers.

 

There was an answer from Lum the Mad in another Necropolis thread that might help you. It said:

"You're not intended to be completely new. 2-3 skull is about the target. If Samael/Kardan can't get past the bridge you can teleport him by right clicking his group member entry... we'll also fix the bridge"

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...necropolis-revamp-thoughts.63941/#post-663129

 

most of the skeletons are yellow to me, the large ones are still orange. I'm able to solo most 2-3 skull areas, but this place you get jumped and rended before you get a chance to defend. I had to run through, open the far door, run like heck and not look back.

Needless to say, i eventually completed the quest but felt more like i had done the quest as brave brave sir robin!

 

I hope you fully understand the problem, then.

What is THAT supposed to mean?

If the area is intended for people who can fight in 2-3 skull areas, then why is the FIRST ENCOUNTER in the Necropolis 4 skeletons with yellow and orange ranking? You know, the first encounter that you can't back away from, I might add, since the exit is locked and there's not enough room to run away. I can barely handle a single orange ranked enemy by myself for crying out loud.. and if it's intended for 2-3 skulls, why is the scene leading up to the Necropolis 5-SKULL with a Wallmart Greeter that doesn't actually give sound advice?

Yeah, that would've been a nice thing to know about. The game failed to mention that tidbit... you know, because everybody that's around 2-3 skulls knows how taming works /sarcasm.

If you hadn't mentioned it, I never would've found out about the whistle.

Currently, the least aggressive way to bypass the dangers is to sneak past enemies... which you can't do unless you grind Camouflage like a lunatic.

 

I feel like people don't properly respect how creepy and scary and full of death the CITY OF DEATH is

Sounds like they should call out the summoning whistle more clearly - that's good feedback

In my experience, there is quite a bit of variance between some scenes in the same tier. It's a guideline, not an exact measure. The difference between 4 & 5 skull zones appears to be even larger, meaning that there are some 4 skulls that will kill you while you can solo parts of a 5 skull. It is definitely about numbers. Getting mobbed is hard to deal with even with lower level creatures - a few spiders that are green to you can still destroy you if you're not on your game.

The obvious solution is to respond in kind .. bring friends, have a picnic!

Pulling one or two creatures out is recommended for any soloist. If you run far enough some will leash. Usually you can gauge it and keep one or two with you while the others run back, allowing you to pick them off a few at a time. Believe me, I understand your frustration!

Good luck with your adventures.

 

I'm saying that, as a designer, MAYBE the city of DEATH shouldn't be your first card on the table.

The Necropolis is a solo instance.

The first encounter is a guaranteed 2-monster pull and that's ONLY if you already know what's ahead... meaning you had to fall for it first (and die vs 4 monsters) to figure it out.

You cannot leash the first encounter as it is too close to the entrance with no way out. The only way you can technically leash that first encounter is if you keep pushing forward and open the door that the two creepy undead lich-looking things are guarding... for anyone who doesn't know what lies ahead, that's practically asking new players to suicide.

Again, Portalarium has designed a game that requires knowledge that the player doesn't have yet.

 

I went into Necropolis barrens and Necropolis before and after the new release.

During the first time I was fully aware of the danger. This was even before I knew what the 5 skulls on a post meant. I died a few times and just strong armed by way into Necropolis by running away from everything.
I didn't get far into Necropolis, but I didn't really expect to. I fought off a few skeletons but the spiders were killer and the earth elementals were the bane of my life. I was about a solo 2 skull area at the time. I had to use magic to escape and I learned my lesson.

Second time I barely leveled up, I still can't solo a 3-skull area and get killed by a lot of mobs. Actually earlier yesterday I died in a one skull area when I was swarmed by three orange wolves.

I'm a n00b and am not good at games.

What I am good at is story.

I was always afraid of Necropolis. And thus, I respect it. It is called Necropolis, which means city of the dead, so yeah, being a mortal (in theory, I mean you can't really kill something that constantly resurrect) character I should be afraid.

With Samael at my side, this place was a breeze.

Yes the first fight wasn't all that fair, with four large skeletons, but Samael did about 80% of the damage and I just poked my polearm or shot an arrow through some skeleton ribs while he cleaned up. Yeah I had to summon him a few times to keep up with me using the whistle he given me (the bridge was a major problem, because those spiders were killing me).

Long story short, or tl;dr as they say, I feel that RPing helped me. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at that, people even have said things to the effect of: "That's what all you RPers say, ruining balance in the game is fine as long as it has a story reason, but the reality is, a video game is a video game and it needs balance."

Fair enough. I think Necropolis is balanced. As long as you are doing what you are supposed to. I stayed on the path and followed what Samael said and got through with only dying three times to the spiders as Samael didn't cross the bridge with me. I listened to what people said, asked questions and learned and was scared of dying. I didn't charge into battle (I never charge into battle actually).

This is just my opinion, and everyone can have their own opinion, but I am VERY HAPPY with the changes to Necropolis. I am still afraid of it, and, maybe, will want to explore it in the future... but I think I'll still be very, very afraid of it.

The entire Quest of Love so far has been very fun and enjoyable and immersive as a role-playing experience.

So, thank you, Devs!

 

Why the passive aggressive stance versus me here?

It makes very little sense to hint flack my way when all I did was try to help Dargalin since he asked about it.
I didn't design this, nor did I defend the design. I just gave hints regarding the resolution.

Feedback like that is better aimed at the devs and posted in the feedback forum.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/release-34-dev-feedback-forum.709/

And for the record I agree that it is not a very nice starting player experience to have an A-B-C that leads to certain death. I've been adding feedback that this there are better ways for release after release now.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...cugel-until-after-you-helped-a-refugee.51002/
Which you should know since you have replied in them.

You and I have even had this kind of thing before about the exact same topic.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...nderstand-the-path-of-love.47375/#post-521350

So why aim such at me? I don't get it. We are on the same side here.

 

Sorry, the frustration wasn't meant to be aimed at you. I just replied to you specifically because the "you're not supposed to be there yet" answer bothers me. Not because you agree with it or anything but because that's the best answer we have.

Don't mind me, I'm just the angry dude who's shouting besides you and not at you. I'm angry because veterans to the industry should know better.

I apologize if you felt targeted.

Here are my problems with the current implementation of the Spirit-Talker NPCs:

• He's behind you and waits for you to attack before engaging the enemy. Meaning you're taking all the hits first. Against the skeletons and earth elementals, I'm always near death by the time he joins the fight.
• He's invincible. Meaning everything he does feels like a cheat and it ruins the player experience. Once I managed to get Samael to attack the Earth elementals, I just stood there (in the distance, because I was already neath death) watching him eliminate the elementals with no risk what-so-ever. Not because I can't play like a hero, but because my best course of action is to not participate.
• His dialogue should appear on the screen even if I'm not looking directly at him. I had to pin the chat window down (so that it'd be visible 100% of the time) because his dialogue wouldn't trigger the chat window to show up. So I nearly missed all his warnings.
• Stealth doesn't work AT ALL in the Necropolis. Either because the skill is broken in there or the NPC triggers the enemies to attack.
• He doesn't respawn at the entrance of the Necropolis when you die. People who are oblivious to the whistle (like I was) would at least be able to find him back there. You should be able to talk to him again to trigger the whistle and he could say something like "You know, you could just blow the whistle I gave you" so that he's actually explaining that you wouldn't need to run back to him all the time.

I am by no means angry at the changes; It's just not good enough in my book.