Thoughts on Owl's Nest changes

A couple of things I've noticed about the changes to the Owl's Nest mine, and my thoughts on them.

1. All of the nodes have been confined to two small chambers, which includes one which has been added. This is undoubtedly so that all the nodes would be guarded by wolves, instead of unguarded, so that the area could be less easily botted.

There's some logic behind the change, but it also makes grinding the mine more monotonous; you're now moving back and forth between two small rooms, though, of course, perhaps stopping in between to fight the re-appearing mimics. It was nice before finding nodes in corridors. It also makes the feeling of the rest of the mine a bit duller without the luminescent crystals. Would it be possibly to keep a handful of nodes unguarded in corridors and other areas, maybe spawning slower, just to make things more interesting?

2. The wolves are now respawning. They respawn so fast that by the time you circulate back to one of the chambers, they're there again. Its as if you never killed them.

This change I dislike the most, because it breaks role-playing pretty hard. Where are all these wolves coming from? And so quickly? But its similar to the changes in Etceter Crag Mines, where we moved from some spawning slimes in the chambers, to skeletons that happen to be laying there and ghosts who happen to be trapped there, and who get into fights with the bandits. And instead of the bandit leader, we have the wizard. The two mines just felt infinitely more believable from a role-playing perspective before the changes. I know you guys need to prevent botting and also create appropriate risk, but there's got to be a better way to do this that doesn't break RP. There's a similar problem with the mimics respawning so you can kill them again, but the crates and barrels remaining broken. Breaks suspension of disbelief.

Also, the speed of the wolf respawn now made Owl's Nest an easy place to harvest wolf mats; hides and carcasses.

3. There's a lower yield of ore nodes per hour; about 2/3 of what was present previously.

I guess this is something I have to defer to the dev team on for whatever their balance prerogatives are. Although, I personally never found the yield unbalanced comparing to other mines.

4. There's an imbalance in favor of iron nodes versus copper, while before there was an imbalance in favor of copper nodes over iron. On one test run, I got 2-1 iron over copper.

I'm not sure whether this is good or not.

5. Granite yield on mined ores has been reduced to 1 instead of 2.

All I can say is I'm glad that I did a lot of mining in previous releases. This is going to hit hard on people who are making walls, pavers, etc.

6. Hard to tell, but it feels like sapphire yield is higher. On test runs, I've gotten double amount the sapphire as I did in previous releases.

This isn't necessarily good. Sapphire prices are already low, it will drive them down further if true.

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What I'd really like to see is for there to be a hidden passage to some deeper levels of the mine, with higher level content. So, there you could have more nodes, but have them more protected, while new players could still mine in the top level.

Also, we have hidden passages between the mine and Ravensmoor Ruins, and to both Owl's Head and Kingsport Sewers. Though its not clear how the mine connects in any way to Ravensmoor, which is on the complete opposite side of the Vale. It would make some sense to have some "Vale Passage" -- some new scene -- that goes between the mine and Ravensmoor to connect them. You could do deeper levels to the mine, and then have some exit in the deeper level to the "Vale Passage", and then some exit from that new scene to Ravensmoor Ruins.

 

I haven't played yet and haven't seen the current version of Owl's Nest yet, but from your description it sounds like an improvement to me, even if it could still be a lot better. This has been one of the really ridiculous zones in the game for quite a while. About as unguarded as possible, an in-zone vendor, and upgraded to tier 5 producer xp at some point. New players would go there and leave with the expectation that this is how gathering works in SotA, even though it doesn't work this way anywhere else other than when Etceter mine was also ridiculous.

 

Hello some players work for a guild . I mine for my guild i need a easy place because i have no time to raise my fighting skills no way to get golds except if i sell some granites and some sapphires , you can imagine i'm poor but happy .
Please stop to make it more harder again and again not all can play 24 on 24 7 days a week and many players play for a guild .

 

I think I was mistaken about this. I did about a full run (compared to what I did in previous releases) and I think the sapphire yield is about the same. Last test, I did about a half-run, and think I got lucky. Sometimes it works like that; you get a lot half-way through, and then the next half of the run you get nothing.

Also, it would be cool if it were like other mines and there was at least one spare pickaxe there you could use in case yours broke.

 

Can some one explain why every node has to be guarded?
And don't give me the Risk Vs reward BS answer and no every Node does not need to be guarded to prevent Bots, this is just a really poor way of implementing a mining system, no thought has gone into it at all , and the devs have ruined a big part of the game with this P#$s Poor System, they though of.

 

Couldn't agree more. I'm definitely getting the feeling that the devs really don't want crafters in the game. I don't understand why they don't remove the gathering nodes altogether, and just have certain mobs drop crafting materials. That's effectively what is being done, but in a sinister and complicated manner.

 

the wolfs are not the true problem i got 2 tins and 2 nickels no tungsten for 40 iron ores and it is long ... For 100 i will get 4 ?

 

Agree with both. This is not balancing at all. It's it's just mindless control. What they are doing is in effect doing brain surgery and learning as they go.
This type of balancing takes a real math expert. Chris and Starr are not experts in that field. Game balance is a very specific skill. You can't eyeball things like they are doing.
It's not rewarding or fun to make every resource the only reward in game.

They said we would be building the world. With these insane gold syncs, huge break rates and endless guarded resource grinds this game just is not fun for crafters. Then you have to ask yourself why even raise combat skills if crafting sucks? The only reward is more resources.

What do they think we get out of combat if a character does not craft and needs resources?
What do players do if they just like to craft and hate combat?
Why is it so taboo to force players into PvP but it's OK to force them into PvE combat?

 

I share the concerns listed above. While Owl's Nest was a bit too easy, I found myself spending most of my game time there because it was the only place to mine without constant interruption. I'd much rather have a higher failure rate than have every node guarded. And how can you effectively guard it? If only combat experts can get into mine anything, let them bloody well make their own items. I enjoy playing a crafter. I don't mind harvesting (in most games). But, I don't want to fight every 60 seconds for some scrap of material that should be an easy mine. There are other ways to make it non-botable. (OK actually there is no way to make it non-botable, but you can make it very difficult to effectively bot without guarding it.)

Or, at least make it worth it. If a miner (80) could grab on average 30 copper between each kill of the spawn, fine. If you get only 6, why bother?

 

Oh yea, I forgot to count the amount of tin, nickel, and tungsten... I have no idea from experience how it compares to previous releases...

 

After my run i got 128 iron ores 100 coppers 2 tungstens 2 nickels 4 tins hard life !

 

Owl's Nest was imbalanced in such a way that was going to harm, not help, casual players in the long run. If it had continued another month or two, casual players might get locked out of the economy altogether by the legitimate gameplay of hardcore harvesters being able to grossly outcompete a large part of the population in gold, skill gain, and eventually land ownership from the raffles.

I do certainly agree and sympathize that harvesting isn't yet scaled to providing much satisfaction if you're time is limited to put into it. Harvesting is my preferred gaming activity that I normally get a lot of enjoyment from, but even so I will often choose to not log in if I only have an hour or two to put into it.

So I get your frustration and would like to see alternatives too, but an open-ended grind zone isn't the right place for a solution because it will end up making the problem worse instead of better.