Vikland Treasure Hunt Feedback (SPOILERS)

Finally found one of the treasure hunt letters today and went through and documented each of the steps. Here are just my thoughts about the currently implemented system:

I found the Vikland Hastily-Written Instructions note. This sent me off to find the Loose Stone. I found the loose stone, and then found Vikland Instructions With a Daemon Drawing and the Fragile Vikland Key With a Daemon Etching.

I then read the Vikland Instructions With a Daemon Drawing, and that had a number of step by step instructions on how to find the treasure. However, because I've been exploring every inch of Vikland, I read the final location where the chest was buried and knew immediately where to go. I then wondered, do I need to follow these instructions to then find the treasure? No you do not have to, if you happen to know the location mentioned in the final instructions. I then went there, after a bit of walking around that area the Vikland Instructions With a Daemon Drawing item is destroyed and then a message I found the chest, and then the chest appeared. I then used the Fragile Vikland Key With a Daemon Etching on the key hole to unlock the chest. I then opened the chest and it was the basic standard Chest loot (133 gold, a scroll, reagents, gem fragments and some arrows).

It seemed a bit off from a "treasure hunt" kinda feel, since I do not have to follow any of those nicely written instructions where to go to find the final place. The second time (the next day) I got the same instructions and key. I didn't have to do anything but run straight to where the treasure chest location is.

I think this possibly could be designed a bit differently, to give it a more "treasure hunt like feel". On finding the Vikland Hastily-Written Instructions note we head off to find the loose stone. At the loose stone we find 1/3 treasure hunt clues and a glowing gem.* This number 1/3 letter directs us to the Large Statue. Somewhere on the Large Statue is a locked container (base of the statue?). We then use the glowing gem on the key hole to unlock it. Inside is number 2/3 treasure hunt clue and another different glowing gem. This could be randomly selected and could be a letter and gem that directs us to the daemon statue, the kobold one etc.... we then follow the instructions to the statue we are directed to visit. Then at the statue base(?) is another locked container and key hole. Unlocking this with the glowing gem gives us the final number 3/3 treasure hunt clue and the key for the chest, and where to find the treasure chest. Where the treasure chest is located could also be several different areas as well and would be a random location. And then when we go to the spot where the treasure chest is, all 3 treasure clue letters are destroyed and the chest appears. We then use the key we were given to unlock the chest.

This is obviously a bit more complex and involved, but I think would be more "treasure hunty".

Also curious on other peoples feedback as well.


*The Glowing Gem would just be an actual "key" object with a different looking icon. You would need several different ones with different names, like Large Statue Glowing Gem, Kobold Glowing Gem, Daemon Glowing Gem etc... This could at least introduce "something different" than the standard use key on chest key lock thing. This would function exactly like a regular key, but when used to unlock the key hole, could have some neat flavor text like "As you hold the gem closer to the locked key hole, it glows brilliantly and then shatters. The key hole is now unlocked." Just a crazy idea, throwing that out there.

 

My experience today was that I found an instructions and a key, followed the directions which incorrectly said to go northwest from the Witch and Demon statue. Wandered around the obviously proper location for about 10-15 mins, with nothing happening.

Then a couple of hours later I was walking through there, and it unexpectedly spawned while I was running by, at the same moment as a Ferocious spider attacked me. By the time I had finished off the spider, the chest was gone. It couldn't have been more than five minutes. So now I have key but no instructions for that one.

 

Yeah lots of things are weird.
Normally when I kill a Troll in the Troll Bridge I get lots of loot.
Today I killed two of them and got 15 gold on each one. LOL
Not worth the amount spent on the XP to kill it.

 

The first part of the treasure hunt was fun! After I found the instructions from the loose stone things started to get odd.
I went to the large statue and tried to follow the written instructions from there. However, this seemed to get me nowhere. So I just read the last part and went to the spot, since I already discovered the spot while looking for the large statue. It seems to me that the written instructions were actually pointing me in the wrong direction.

Digging for the treasure seems to be initiated automatically once you are at the right spot, but you have to stop it by moving. Hmm ok. But then my pet was covering the chest so I couldn't target it and I had to move a bit more. Chest went poof.
I still had the quest entry "Loot the chest" but since I didn't have the instructions anymore, I couldn't find the chest again.

I went back to the loose stone and got a new set of instructions. Dug up the chest again and had trouble opening it. So while I was checking my inventory to see if I had the right key, the chest poofed again.

After hearing from Anpu what he found in the chest, I decided not to try again.

So this little quest went from Big Fun to Disappointment pretty fast.

 

I agree that this treasure hunt seems a bit underwhelming.
If the intention of the treasure hunt is to be more like a daily quest (in this case, just for the treasure; I did not see any XP reward), then a simple "find the note & key, turn in both to claim reward" may be satisfactory (like a "find the runestone, turn in runestone" quest).
If the intention of the treasure hunt is to be more of a puzzle, then I think a more involved hunt would be more enjoyable, more challenging, and more "treasure hunty" (to use Anpu's nicely succinct phrase ). I think a multi-step quest as suggested by Anpu would be great. Maybe even have a piece of a map in each chest, so when you get all 7 pieces you can form a final map for a grand hunt - for which loot should be some more worthwhile, such as an orange bundle, a random drop of one of 3 decorative treasure maps, and perhaps a random drop of one of the following titles: Treasure Hunter, Discoverer of the Vikland Treasure, or Seeker of Buried Treasure. Having the variable drop of deco maps and titles will increase the value of repeating the quest.

The treasure hunt does seem to have some potential issues:
1) The treasure chest times-out way too quickly (as discussed above by others). The chest often disappears by the time you finish killing the spiders (whose attacks prevent you from interacting with the chest). Why not have the chest stay visible until it is looted?
2) I have only gotten one type of note so far (the Vikland Daemon note), and I have looted just about everything each time i have been in the zone, including chests, the loose stone, killed creatures, skeletons, and dead bodies (including all the bodies on land and in the sea). I have gotten 3 different keys tho. If this experience is also occurring with other players, maybe it is worth double-checking to make sure all of the notes (and keys) are in the loot table.

Also, as a side note, with the Vikland virtue shrines, the negative truth shrine activated (decreased my truth) when I ran nearby it (I did not click the shrine and did not come in contact with it, but i did have the runestone in my inventory ). I am not sure if this is something specific to the negative truth shrine or if it is a universal issue with the virtue shrines. Did anybody else have this issue?

 

I would read the chat log, and read the actual words that were displayed, and what probably happened, was you got the message that this is a shrine that can lower your truth. But not the actual message stating it has lowered your truth. (Just a guess).

 

Yeh, I had to double check. But chat logs did say my truth was indeed lowered just by passing (and not touching) the virtue shrine. Also wierd message saying I had already used the runestone, but i had not (which is why the virtue hit triggered).

[10/29/2022 3:46:34 PM] [3:46 PM] Your reputation has already been affected by a runic monolith today.
[10/29/2022 3:46:34 PM] [3:46 PM] You sense that offering a Vikland runestone will negatively affect your Truth reputation.

@Sannio...can the shrine trigger when you are close to them, but not actually standing on them or clicking on them? Maybe the area of effect for the interaction is larger than the size of the shrine?

 

you CAN do that, but it will also trigger if you just walk over it just right, which you may not be expecting or ready for.

 

Where does the treasure hunt actually start? I spent an hour or so killing elves and spiders but didn't loot any letters, is there a specific mob they are on?

 

Spoiler: Starting the Vikland Treasure Hunt

There may be more than one way to start the hunt, but for me, the treasure hunt started when i looted an already-dead body and found a note (the note is a quest item, so, in your inventory the title has a yellow color). There are several loot-able, already dead, NPC bodies in Vikland.

Spoiler: Where are the dead bodies?

I found 3 types of loot-able dead body NPC's.
1) Dead viking type bodies - these are often located near or at the top of a hill, and typically have a tent and campfire next to them (there is one body with no tent and no campfire: it is located at the bottom of a little cliff below the elven Shack on Stilts). I am relatively sure I got a map/note off these bodies. They also drop the Vikland Amulet of Testimony.
2) Dead generic SOTA adventurers - one of these bodies is located within the elven Shack on Stilts. There are also several of these bodies floating in the water next to the various islands (including next to the large islands, and next to the small rock formations that rise just above the water). There is also one that floats next to the Pirate Shipwreck. Near the large islands, the bodies are often located on the west side of the island, where avatars are less likely to explore.
3) Skeletal remains - I can't recall if there is more than one of these, but the one I can remember is next to a fallen pedestal inside the Large Obsidian Corridor.

Note: the is some randomness to where these dead bodies will spawn. So, at a given spawn location, sometimes a body will be present and other times not.

There are several loot-able chests in the scene. Although I have not gotten the initial quest-starter note or any of the subsequent notes/maps from the chests, i think it may be possible that they do sometimes spawn in the chests. The chest locations include
a) several in the vikland town, inside the buildings.
b) one inside the Pirate Shipwreck
c) i think there is also one that can spawn inside the elven Shack on Stilts
d) One that can spawn in the Obsidian Corridor (although this spawned as a mimic the one time I found it there).

So far I have gotten keys & maps/notes (which are part of the treasure hunt) from already-dead bodies and from elves that I killed.

So, I think to start the treasure hunt quests, you have to loot a note from an already-dead body. After you finish the first treasure hunt, i think subsequent treasure hunt items (notes & keys) can drop off already-dead bodies and off the elves (and perhaps the chests?)

 

Thanks, found it with that help!

The loot needs improved to make it worth your time really, it's a bit poor. Quite fun to follow the clues though!

 

That's not exactly the easiest kind of change to notice "in the wild", with with the bad contrast of grassy backgrounds. Not everyone has perfect color vision. It would be much better if the cursor changed to a shovel when over the hitbox. I had earlier spent at least five minutes trying to scrub my cursor all over the whole area, back and forth at least twice, then gave up for a while.

I am sure that when it popped for me, I was just running by, and I was definitely not trying to look for the chest. It is possible that when the spider appeared and I started to attack it that I accidentally clicked or E-keyed on the treasure because I happened to be standing over it. I don't know if I had my weapon drawn, but you might want verify that it only pops the chest when your weapon is sheathed.

 

Has anyone succeeded in digging up the daemon/sea monster chest?
I've run up and down the length of the spine several times, mousing all over the ground beneath and adjacent to it, at no point did my cursor turn green and I haven't seen any other visual indicators.
I have the key with daemon etching in my pack, which I assume is the correct one.
The compass/map waypoint for the sea monster spine is in the middle of the adjacent bay, which I suspect is incorrect placement since I swam out there to check and could see clear sand below with no bones (besides, the giant spine on the beach is so freakin' obvious). Not sure whether that's related to my inability to find the chest, and not sure whether the chest is failing to appear when it should or whether I'm just somehow missing it every time. Do I need to mouse over a specific pixel when standing right on top of it or something?

 

@Vaentorian
The daemon chest is in the sand inside the rib cage of the serpent bones. For these treasure hunt chests in vikland, the "trigger" area is actually rather small (perhaps 3 times the width of the mouse cursor). For me, when searching for the trigger spot, i had to sweep the mouse relatively slowly to find the spot where the mouse cursor turns green. When I swept the mouse over the "trigger" area more rapidly, I always missed it.
I do think the trigger areas should be enlarged more...it is frustrating when the game requires you to hit a bullseye in order to find the chests.

 

Thanks @Rinaldi !

I went back and spent another 5 minutes combing the same stretch of ground I'd been looking at previously, and on the third pass I finally found the tiny patch where the chest was buried. The contents definitely weren't worth the hour or more I spent hunting for it, doubting myself, running backwards and forwards to different locations.

I agree that something needs to be done to improve the process of locating the chest within the area indicated by the clues, there's no particular skill in it, it's time wasting with no purpose. Either a larger area that can be highlighted by the cursor; or a change in the appearance of the ground there (maybe a dirt pile like in Tanglemire? though I doubt they can be easily repurposed like that); or even have the task highlighting waypoint show up right on top of it (instead of "start searching near the statue") - or something to make the exact location clearer.

I like the treasure hunt concept with the directions to different parts of the scene, but the final step was a huge let down unfortunately.