Make unique hunts more accessible instead of reworking them

[Flubb 773]

Alright, holster your tomatos, I'm just spitballing something here.

I can see that the current mechanisms cause a lot of grief and people are more inclined to go for the "rift" variant.

At the same time I recognize that the "hunting" part per se is widely apprechiated, so making uniques work like Rifts would be pouring out the bath with the child in it.

So the general gist of this thread would be how to make the hunting more accessible, effective and appealing, rather than throwing the whole system overboard.

It should also be noted that a "rift site" event type doesn't neccessarily exclude the hunting - I'll post my idea for that in the respective threads, but it's out of scope here.

 

So let's take a step back and look at what people like about the hunting.

I got the sentiment from Nordly's thread that "bumping into a unique", or the possibility thereof, is a thrilling aspect and would be a shame to go.

How likely is that though? Given that we have a nearly 5 year old black dragon at Xanadu...not likely. Unless that one's a pet in dire need of liberation.

 

Suggestion #1

What if:

 

[18:38:56] You hear a terrible roar in the distance [coming from the northwesteastsouth]. (Dragon)

[16:36:13] A bone chilling cackle reverberates through the air [from the yougetit]. (Goblin leader)

etc.

 

Uniques could occasionally let out these "sounds", giving away a vague position, which is heard by

- either all players in a certain distance (scaling with server size),

or, to account for Xanadu's vast expanses of uninhabited land and low population (density) on other servers

- the K nearest groups of players (a "group" being players that have eachother in local)

 

The latter would ensure that the unique is actually being heard, even if it ends up somewhere impossibly remote. Up to discussion.

The effect it would (in my mind, ideally) have is give you a similar thrill of "bumping into the unique", but being far more likely without giving away too much about it. People would have to go look for it, but a slight hint that the area is worth looking for in might get more people involved who would otherwise not care for hunting uniques. Dedicated hunters could also be passed those hints, it'd be like they are listening to "local rumors" for legendary beasts.

 

Suggestion #2

The idea of tracking giving hints to a uniques location has also been discussed here (shameless, but undercover self pitch, giving clues via tracking was my idea later in the thread.)

I bore this idea in mind when I put the direction hints in the "roars"/sounds in brackets, as I think those cues could do without direction hints if Vaelir's idea was implemented eventually with clues to unqiue locations as a "high tier reward". It'd feel underwhelming to get tracking that high just to get the same info just by being close.

 

 

Anyway, thoughts and further ideas are apprechiated. If anyone comes up with more ideas I'll put them up for display up here.

 

[John 254]

How is the current system not accessible? If someone manages to find, pen and kill the unique before you're able to you can just try again when the unique respawns.

[Wargasm 1,927]

Uniques get found in like 10 minutes these days.  I don't see the point.

[Flubb 773]

20 minutes ago, John said:

How is the current system not accessible? If someone manages to find, pen and kill the unique before you're able to you can just try again when the unique respawns.

 

No offense, but that's a rather obtuse question given the three threads in light of which this was posted. Especially with the griping against the system you mention those threads are yet again revealing.

Your wording is also weird; I didn't call it outright inaccessible. I'm suggesting to make it more inviting to people before going overboard like some other threads.

 

2 minutes ago, Wargasm said:

Uniques get found in like 10 minutes these days.  I don't see the point.

 

Perhaps they are anywhere but on Xanadu, where some seriously old uniques are lurking about. I'm willing to concede the point that having played only on Xanadu makes my perception biased there, where I have never, even remotely, just "stumbled upon" a unique. You're probably right and it will not have the same impact on smaller servers, but I imagine a simple cue like that could get people more involved even there.

[Daryan_AT 75]

I think the OP didn't mean geographically inaccessible. He means, that it is often the the same group of players that catches and properly secures the unique, which is often killed then in private - the next spawn is long time later.

Many players want to have the uniques to be a more available to lots of players - in a public event, always.

I like the rifts, you can't easily manipulate them as you can do with uniques.

 

In a change, a Dragon lair could spawn, green laser in the sky, little baby dragons roam the area, similar to rifts, and the end boss is the dragon mother herself.

[Vaelir 60]

7 hours ago, Daryan_AT said:

I think the OP didn't mean geographically inaccessible. He means, that it is often the the same group of players that catches and properly secures the unique, which is often killed then in private - the next spawn is long time later.

Many players want to have the uniques to be a more available to lots of players - in a public event, always.

I like the rifts, you can't easily manipulate them as you can do with uniques.

 

In a change, a Dragon lair could spawn, green laser in the sky, little baby dragons roam the area, similar to rifts, and the end boss is the dragon mother herself.

 

Agree, it is more realistic than "Go lure it inside a cave and wait for my friends to log in"

[Vaelir 60]

To reply to the OP directly, 

 

There was a lot of criticism with regards to giving away the location of uniques, or spawning them through tracking. 

I personally would like to see the Uniques not included in the tracking suggestion, as it takes away their rarity, but I do like the idea of the roars in local chat occasionally.

 

I would also suggest, in cases like the 5 year old black dragon, that these mobs should "age" like all others and just respawn if not found within a certain time limit?

They could also go hungry and die to stop people hoarding them in a cave. 

[Baloo 709]

Public unique slayings could be improved if only prem players were allowed to participate, i.e. no alts allowed or no drops to alts (don't know how that could be implemented tho), as that diminishes the returns for the fighting group.  Also only fighters who actually hit the unique should be part of the roll.

 

[Arishok 92]

Global message: A Black Dragon was witnessed descending upon village of Port Wurmville.

 

CraftingMain: "Omg!! Some dragon just tore through my land... killed 2 sheep and destroyed half my tavern... think he was heading north"

 

IamVeryBadAss: "Ok...lets round up some folks and try to head him off..."

 

Noob32: "... is there no way to pen him?"

 

IamVeryBadAss: "No, they break through any structures, but we have a few ways the devs introduced to ground him, and perhaps slow him down. Refer to the wiki."

 

Sometime later...

 

HopefulAdventurer:  "ok, we all wiped trying to kill him, he flew off the the southwest... probably to lick his wounds.  Almost killed him.  Give it a few weeks, and he'll be back looking for food."

 

RanOutOfNames: "Terrifying beast really."

 

LootWhore: "Hate that I missed it, was trying to load all my alts up on meh cart. We should go back to the old way... was way better."

[Finnn 3,303]

How about evil lore deity spawning a dragon like rifts.. and fighting waves of mobs before the unique comes in the end?

ez pz gg event, no more dramas, good well known and tested open raid event.

[tamat 265]

On 3/21/2019 at 11:02 AM, Baloo said:

Public unique slayings could be improved if only prem players were allowed to participate, i.e. no alts allowed or no drops to alts (don't know how that could be implemented tho), as that diminishes the returns for the fighting group.  Also only fighters who actually hit the unique should be part of the roll.

 

the point of uniques is the drops, that why people get and kill them fast, i dont mean scale/hide or blood, most players who participate on public and private hunts have at least one set.

[LordLouis 850]

2 hours ago, tamat said:

the point of uniques is the drops, that why people get and kill them fast, i dont mean scale/hide or blood, most players who participate on public and private hunts have at least one set.

 

The point of uniques is to divide the community and make everyone hate each other as far as I can see. People try bring the community together they get hated on, griefed and have groups of people working together to prevent it.  

Its mid game anyway, end game - find a friendlier game to play, nothing but toxic left here. 

[Mordraug 2,542]

Funny, on Sklotopolis private slayings are forbidden.  The capturing team does get the gloating rights and the whole "thrill" being amusingly used to defend the status quo on WO.  One I helped capture, the 4 of us who kited and penned it could have technically taken it down, we even joked about it at one point when the dragon got stubborn on us.  We didn't, everyone had a good time in the end, and I've been sporting scale armor for ages (and since all the dragons are available at all times, even without winning a set I could have made a couple more sets by now from the scales, but heck I mostly give the scales away).  In case you're wondering, I still see lots of normal metal armour in the community so dragon armors are confirmed still a rarity.

 

Even the lowliest of newbies can come swing at the damned thing (we got enough DPS from us "elites" or whatever we get called behind our backs) and roll on the loot.  Ample community donations for the raffles, 0 drama.  While we do have overkill with the dragon armor sets, we've lost so many to newbies who quit a week after that their market value remains steady.

 

I stand by my usual statement that Wurm's fine, it's the WO community that sometimes shrieks possibilities down from becoming a reality and thus keeps the game way less appealing to new players than it should be.

[Fairyshine 3,183]

I believe the biggest bone of contention is...the rare bones (excuse the pun) and the tomes.

 

Yes, the scale and blood are important and I know a few people who go to the dragon fights (if they ever find out about them) to collect the scale and hide, which is why dragon fights are closed groups (to allow biggest drops for the scale and hide.)  This is also why, as Mordraug said, the dropping of a whole dragon's scale and hide in one go (to be used to create a few sets of armor which become the loots for the participants lucky enough to be drawn in the raffle) is a fantastic way to ensure people actually get something great and immediately useful out of it, even if you happen to be a noobie lucky enough to get the set.  Collecting bits and pieces on WO can take a long, long, long time for enough to make a set...but still, they cause less drama over all.  People can sell the bits and pieces off for not a lot of silver in most cases.

 

But the tomes and bones?  Lots more money, so lots more drama.  Given the tomes will now just drop via uniques, there have been lots of suggestions to make it more accessible for the common Joe Wurmian, and there has been massive resistance from the people who already have tomes hoarded up ready to be sold or traded or hoarded for longer (or to apply to new chars someone buys/works up later).  The big concerns raised focused on how the tomes will "loose their valued" and be "no longer unique" to just a few.    It has nothing to do with opening it up to the bigger populus who really has very little chance of ever going to  dragon fight, let alone getting a tome or a bone.  It has everything to do with the same group of people who trap the dragons and want to have access to the loots just within those groups.

 

I suggested that charges or bits of charges be available via other means like at rifts or even botanize and forage. I know bones can sometimes be found when you dig, so extending similar ideas to tomes would obviously make sense.  The same can be said for finding scale and hide via say archeology on the spot a dragon walked or slept ...but keep this away from just where they were killed because then, the same people who trapped and killed the dragon, will archeology the spot and same problems will just continue.

 

If the drops are spread and distributed in a wider, more accessible manner, the dragons themselves become less valuable in terms of real money commodities.  If that happens, they will be more like trolls, rift beasts or whales...not as valuable with far less drama, and far more fun. 

 

Just my two cents and obviously just my own opionion, I am not trying to say one group is wrong or another group is right.  The dramas around dragons and how it breaks friendships and alliances and how tomes and drops cause so much hatred between players, are things which makes me as a person dislike Wurm Online.

 

Also, @Mordraug, you are called the dude with the rare glimmer small shield and the seryll barding on his hellhorses...in case you wondered   

 

 

[Mordraug 2,542]

20 minutes ago, Fairyshine said:

Also, @Mordraug, you are called the dude with the rare glimmer small shield and the seryll barding on his hellhorses...in case you wondered   

 

 

Close enough... now if we could get Elfin's "General Mordraug" (last troll invasion, was spelling slaughter with laughter) to stick....... *calls propaganda chief*.

 

Pieces of unique loot from archaeology mixed with uniques dropping more pieces of and less/no complete megaloot would rock at many levels.

 

And yes, WOsians, sorcery charges are hella rare on Sklotopolis even with our megasharing habits.  Winning a charge is still a solid 50-150s profit depending on which one.