Area underpopulation...

[Nemesis Revised]

now that there are widely visited areas in ns4 such as the ice giants, giant mountain, amazons, sunken isle, etc;

let us pay attention to areas in the game that are uncommonly and even rarely visited. what are these areas?

- haddon mirk and haddon crypt [uncommon]
- yuanti areas beyond old town north (the one that leads to red dragon) [rare]
- marsh areas (the one that connects yuanti and blackhills) [rare]
- sme black hills maps [uncommon]
- underground mummy passages (near the vampire crypts) [uncommon]
- niragawa maps [rare]
- vampire maps [uncommon]
- etc (there could be more)

==>such areas are good places to explore and inspires player adventures. it's not getting enough attention however. im supposing it could be a number of possibilities:
1) players are too lazy to go that far to explore since they can find xp at better areas.
2) areas dont attract benefits worth seeking (aside from xp), such as items, etc.
3) backwater maps are just too far, and bind points are too far aswell


i'd suggest such areas to perhaps give mre (xp-wise, item-wise) to players to inspire adventures there.

for example: the yuanti areas. xp is okay (around cr9); but the mobs are a killer. esp when the meleers are backed up by those crazy fireball lizards, it's really too much to try to challenge them given the fact that the place takes a bit to travel to. perhaps it'd be better to raise the cr they give by 1 or 2.

another example: haddon mirk is a nice play to level, good xp, good drops. problem is, alot of melee types are afraid to drop by cause the wolves and worgs' fear spells can easily get to them at their level.

another example: marsh areas (between blackhills and yuanti valley). these areas mostly have animals; nothing much to kill really.

another suggestion would be to open more jobs for factions near such areas (this takes a bit more work however). such jobs could be for mid levels 13-16

example: SL could be taken up to a certain job that they have to collect worg hides from the haddon mobs. RK would have to deal with yuanti's. TC would have to hunt nirwaga hides. NC would have to collect mumm
y ashes; etc.

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devs are quite busy with planar stuff, fixin bugs, etc. hopefully in the future this post can be reread and such areas can be given more meaning so that players can visit them more often than just frostdale,sunken,giantmountains, etc.

[JesterOI]

A good rule of thumb is: The farther you get from a town or bind point, the more powerful enemies should get and higher xp.

Why go all the way to haddon to kill ogres/wolves/myrdraal's when you can take 2 steps outside of avendell and get that same thing pretty much?

Haddon does have a higher concentration of berserkers which is good but still... it is far away.

There's no place with a good concentration of cr11's...

Haddon is the perfect place to do a small upgrade if you remove the bind point from li'norarla.
Boost wolves to cr10, worgs to 11, pack leaders to 12... beef them up a bit too.
Redo the ogres there. Make the raiders cr 11, hunters cr12, berserkers cr13. beef them up a bit to match CR's. Probably rename them to distinguish them from giant mountain ogres. Ordean Radier, Ordean Hunter, Ordean Berserker, bang! done.
Can leave Kronk and his room alone, it's a cool finale the way it is.
Can leave the shadows alone too, they good the way they are.

The mind spells on the wolves/worgs are fine... make a balanced build, use a spiked helm and wisdom ammy, or bring a friend with protection vs good/evil (devs make sure the wolves are an alignment to be affected by this.)

Also put a transition between the two northern screens of haddon mirk. I know I would find it a much more attractive destination being able to go in circles! Being able to do a circuit that doesn't involve backtracking is a good thing. (Take the Durrena heights circuit for example, people love it... and they would love mirk if it could be done in a circuit too.)

I think this change would definitely attract more tourists. It would also help lighten the load on the current high traffic areas.

[TGPO]

STOP!!!

Your telling everyone where I go to level peacefully.

Seriously though there are lots of places that dont get the traffic that they deserve. But I look at it this way, I dont mind the walks, and I dont miss the powergamer attitudes that are found in many of the other places.

[JesterOI]

You can't disagree that you would like atleast some of the changes to mirk that I mentioned.

Even the smallest change of adding a transition between the two northern quadrants would be awesome by itself.

And it is a little bit of a walk after all, I'm willing to bet traffic wouldn't increase that much, but the benefits to those who do take the walk would be worth it.


As for powerlevelling... I don't even use ogres whatsoever.

[Nemesis Revised]

well usually if i'd follow the levelling trend for SL players it'd be:

1) rats (levels 1-3; 1-4)
2) orcs (3-5;3-6)
3) underdark foos (6-8; 6-9)
4) yuantis (8-9;8-10)
5) haddon mirks shadows and worgs (7-10; 7-12)
6) haddon mirk ogres (9-14+)
7) haddon crypt (13+)
gnoll valleys and tunnels (10+) [even under darkness those archers hurt bad]
9) gnoll pits (13+)

perhaps one of the difficulties however in places like haddon are the magical properties carried by worg/wolf. dc is quite high and once u r paralyzed, ur a goner. i'd suggest to lower the dc on those paralysis or fears for that part. coz if u compare it to doing ogres near the archaeologist camp and poison but not paralyze you to death :p

yuantis on the other hand, though they are easy to hit; being fireballed a lot of times s really tough; even if u r drow or svirf, i'd notice the fball still goes through not because of luck but because of frequency.

haddon crypt is another toughie. with mobs having death spells and dispels, even a well-mixed group can have a hard time.

im saying that places like these, takes a bit more and usually casters are good in such areas. non-caster melee presence will have a tougher time. if there's a need to improve traffic on such areas, it would be nice to have a bit of change on the benefits each offers

[CrazyJ]

I've never even heard of some of these areas...

only place I've ever seen Niragawa are occasionally just south of Melencia.

[Death Dealer1]

i don't understand the transition between the 2 northern maps in haddon..it already pretty much makes a big circle between the 4 maps. just like it did on ns3.

[|-Ifrit-|]

Actually TC believe that all creatures have a right to live in the forest, Thats why in the intro they dont chase the bugbears, So killing the TIgerfolk for a TC job is well.... wrong

[Elagneros]

Yeah, I can see both sides to this argument.

There's a lot of cool areas around out there that are ok for leveling, but few people go to them because they're out in the boonies and leveling on the mountain is a lot faster. And of course when you've got a party, it's easier and faster for everyone to just meet in Avendell and go up the mountain than hike out to the Yuan-ti Wastes or the Mirk. This is especially true in an online environment where people will drop out of the party at any time, where a pick up XP party on the mountain or in FD is just so much easier. And then there are areas that have a lower CR than the areas one has to travel to get to them. For example, the western end of Old Wyrm Road. To get there you either have to pass through the Bottomless Pit or the Ash Mountains. Bottomless Pit has yuan-tis, the Ash Mountains has demons and baby dragons. What's on the Wyrm Road? Big cats and maybe some brown bears. Heck, the whole Black Marsh and Wyrm road tend s to be overlooked because there's really nothing out there that's worth the time.

Another thing that could be done is make those neutral shards out there usable by everyone, and add a few more particularly north of Avendell. I posted a thread last night suggesting quests for the right to bind to some of these shards.

But I've also used some of those lesser traveled areas for XPing. The mountain tends to get pretty crowded, so there's more competition for XP up there, and often you'll get pkers hunting up there as well. I rarely use the mountain for serious XPing these days. But it also can be a bit slower going in some of those places.

[Throst54]

i don't understand the transition between the 2 northern maps in haddon..it already pretty much makes a big circle between the 4 maps. just like it did on ns3.

it'll lessen lag (if people actually use them) and it will make things smoother as the respawn times will be quicker

Actually TC believe that all creatures have a right to live in the forest, Thats why in the intro they dont chase the bugbears, So killing the TIgerfolk for a TC job is well.... wrong

could argue TC finds that killing off some of the tigerfolkto bring balance.... heck you could make it so you had to kill an exact amount to be successful

[JesterOI]

could argue TC finds that killing off some of the tigerfolkto bring balance.... heck you could make it so you had to kill an exact amount to be successful

It's called "culling"
Ever see that one episode of south park where they culling everything?

[Death Dealer1]

no, i mean there is a transition that goes across the north zones of haddon. if you go around them the transitions lead you all the way around the mirk in a big circle...why would you need another one?

[Joran]

Even the smallest change of adding a transition between the two northern quadrants would be awesome by itself.

Yeah, this is what DD1 is talking about. The transition you speak of already exists in the mod, it goes between the two northern quadrants.

[JesterOI]

woah...

[Joran]

woah... :shock:

p\/\/ nd !!!