Rewards for Exploration - Consumable Items

[Etherdrifter 2,515]

Currently, exploring on wurm can net you...  Erm...  Well, barring finding a unique, nothing you couldn't easily find on your front doorstep, or craft at home!

So, below are some suggested rewards, to be worked into exploration themed activities (treasure chests!) and events (rifts).

 

1.  Karma stones - single use stones that call up either summon corpse, or home portal.  Pretty simple, but something people would likely want and use.

 

2.  Blueprint Fragments - Unique statues, furniture items, and the like.  Put together the blueprint, use it, and the character unlocks the recipe permanently and consumes the blueprint.  Number of fragments required balances item desirability/utility.

 

3.  Ancient Scroll Fragments - Extra spells that can be learned by using the scroll (consumed).  Lock some to specific gods (A transmutation spell for mag!), give certain spells as upgrades to existing ones (a rejuvenate that actually grows reeds back!), and some new spells everyone can learn (Loadstones for your horse anyone?).  Number of fragments required balances spell utility.

 

4.  Wagoneer/Mail Token - Allows one free Wagoneer/Mailbox use (tick box to confirm use).

[Ajala 581]

I approve of this message.

[TheTrickster 2,279]

3. No thanks.  Most would ONLY be useful as trade goods (in my case ALL would only be useful as trade goods.  Takes away from the "no classes" and sandbox nature, to me.

 

5. Crafted items in materials a player couldn't use to craft the item. (e.g. sandstone or even just rock mortar & pestle, marble bowl, ivory sword)

6. Crafted items in materials not otherwise available (e.g. obsidian, ivory)

7. Skins or skinned items

8. previous gifts (festive bedrolls, saddle sacks, checkers sets, chocolates, etc)

 

I posted something about this somewhere, but the search function here is woeful.

[Etherdrifter 2,515]

2 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

3. No thanks.  Most would ONLY be useful as trade goods (in my case ALL would only be useful as trade goods.  Takes away from the "no classes" and sandbox nature, to me.

 

5. Crafted items in materials a player couldn't use to craft the item. (e.g. sandstone or even just rock mortar & pestle, marble bowl, ivory sword)

6. Crafted items in materials not otherwise available (e.g. obsidian, ivory)

7. Skins or skinned items

8. previous gifts (festive bedrolls, saddle sacks, checkers sets, chocolates, etc)

 

I posted something about this somewhere, but the search function here is woeful.

 

These are all non-consumable barring the skins though?

 

Also 3. was really there for those of us who have 0 use for crafting recipes

[TheTrickster 2,279]

1 minute ago, Etherdrifter said:

 

These are all non-consumable barring the skins though?

 

Also 3. was really there for those of us who have 0 use for crafting recipes

🙂 Yeah, I spotted that, too.  I was mainly addressing your first paragraph rather than your title, as it were.  Suggested rewards that are not something you could easily find on your doorstep or craft at home.

 

I also found one of the times I posted about this: (pasted as quote rather than link to avoid derailing).   Heh, I notice way back then I was saying treasure chests finable by exploring rather than maps with directions.

 

On 1/18/2022 at 4:23 PM, TheTrickster said:

You know what I would really like?  Treasure chests. Not maps with those horrible Wurm directions.  Just chests spawned in areas not travelled for a long time, caves and mines long abandoned, with tools and weapons that have had skins applied to them.  Maybe skins from the monthly release, or the old Jackal skins, but also maybe completely new skins (possible even pre-release of upcoming marks store skins).  Items made of otherwise impossible materials (e.g a hammer made out of gold ore, a marble butchering knife, stuff like that).  This would mean that there would be items that could ONLY be initially acquired by going out and looking for them (and not a tile by tile archeology grind, but actual exploration of the Wurm world).

 

They wouldn't even have to be chests.  Old barrels and amphorae, cupboards etc.  It would be especially cool if those were skinned to identify them as something special (but then an explorer would probably have a poke around in them even if they were plain vanilla).

 

<sighs wistfully>

 

Of course, hanging stuff on walls, or at least display racks, would then become even more important.

 

 

[TheTrickster 2,279]

I guess, really, I don't have a problem with blueprint and scroll fragements, which would obviously then be trade goods, as long as complete and usable items were the "main event" of the find.

 

Even stuff you normally buy from a trader or the marks store - SP, Orbs etc.

 

A rarifying thing, like a rare bone but an artifact, would also be nice (as long as they are genuinely rare in occurence) -  give people some fantastics.

 

Marble jars of dyes and inks, gold/bronze/silver etc lunchboxes with high ql and non-perishable foodstuffs.

 

Waybread!  (Now, don't tell me that isn't consumable  😄)

 

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by TheTrickster

[Katrat 2,296]

3 hours ago, Etherdrifter said:

Currently, exploring on wurm can net you...  Erm...  Well, barring finding a unique, nothing you couldn't easily find on your front doorstep, or craft at home!

So very true.

 

3 hours ago, Etherdrifter said:

2.  Blueprint Fragments - Unique statues, furniture items, and the like.  Put together the blueprint, use it, and the character unlocks the recipe permanently and consumes the blueprint.  Number of fragments required balances item desirability/utility.

I like your ideas but I really like this one. I would love some new items never seen before. A golden throne comes to mind though that might be a bit pretentious. Anyway a stone throne that can be made of marble or slate etc. would be cool. Also I'm trying to think of good travelers items that would even further encourage traveling as well. Perhaps an item to enhance speed like a horse whip or visibility like a wagon/storm lantern? At any rate I assume the new recipe would go into your crafting window lists once used?

[Ecrir 887]

Number 2 sounds great, you could also add some old stuff that way, like a blueprint for the spyglass, etc. Perhaps it could also be interesting to add blueprints for some of the older skins (or just let the skins themselves drop as rewards), for example automatically adding skins once 2 years have passed since they showed up as a monthly skin? That way something new can be found through exploration every month, ensuring that there's always something new to hunt down.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Ecrir

[Ajala 581]

I wouldn't call anything "blueprints" though. Bit anachronistic.

[Finnn 3,298]

seems like too fast and too easy money grab, what about challenge and limitation to the amount of hoarding and mechanic to balance loot and not just have this be content for 5 people speeding around to collect 90% of the "rare" collectables

 

imagine a speedy somebody on low graphics.. and you'll have somebody just milking this content singlehandedly

[Etherdrifter 2,515]

7 hours ago, Finnn said:

seems like too fast and too easy money grab, what about challenge and limitation to the amount of hoarding and mechanic to balance loot and not just have this be content for 5 people speeding around to collect 90% of the "rare" collectables

 

imagine a speedy somebody on low graphics.. and you'll have somebody just milking this content singlehandedly

It rather relies on the exploration mechanics being well designed by the developers doesn't it!

[Finnn 3,298]

Without mechanics how to obtain such rewards, balance, etc details.. this seems like just a santa wish list.

[TheTrickster 2,279]

6 hours ago, Finnn said:

Without mechanics how to obtain such rewards, balance, etc details.. this seems like just a santa wish list.

Yes, it IS a wish list - because we don't know what the rewards will be so people are expressing what they hope it will be.

 

The mechanics seem, from what we have been told, to be two-part.  Firstly obtaining a map/clue/whatever from some random roll while grinding.  Then there is the challenge of finding the treasure, which may involve multiple stops and clues etc.

 

The items won't just be out there for explorers to find (which is what I wish would happen).  I think stuff being out in the boonies, away from regular traffic, would be a lot more of a challenge than something like an MOI while levelling a field or mining some ore.

 

I am not sure what balance is lacking - that people who don't go looking should have as much likelihood of finding stuff as those who don't go looking?  The fact that that would be rewarding explorers for exploring instead of grinders for grinding?  Meh.  That's the same argument as the one about loot drops from uniques, IMO.

Edited May 27, 2022 by TheTrickster
roll not role

[Katrat 2,296]

48 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

2 hours ago, Finnn said:

Without mechanics how to obtain such rewards, balance, etc details.. this seems like just a santa wish list.

Yes, it IS a wish list - because we don't know what the rewards will be so people are expressing what they hope it will be.

Exactly and from what the OP suggested part of the balance comes from the number of "blueprint fragments" that must be collected to make each item just like archeology. The better the item the more the fragments. Another is how often these can be found and where.

[TheTrickster 2,279]

I am more and more leaning AWAY from the idea of exploration rewards being consumables, unless that is only a minor element of the reward.  This is supposed to be treasure  - not just some kind of in-game economic reward.  The more I think about it the more I would like to see something rare, not rare as in dark blue text and shimmery (but that could be good, too) but something that doesn't exist in Wurm otherwise - either at all or even just very sparsely.  Stone mauls, bone knives, glass or quartz bowls.  Both visually attractive and functional (with a particular bonus to function, perhaps).

 

EDIT:   Actually, that could be good.  Have a list of materials not otherwise available - quartz, obsidian, ivory, amber, ebony etc, and then any Wurm item can be distinctive.  It would exist in a form that could NOT be crafted. Don't tell us what materials are available or what items are possible - let those be discoveries.

Edited May 27, 2022 by TheTrickster

[Finnn 3,298]

1 hour ago, TheTrickster said:

Yes, it IS a wish list - because we don't know what the rewards will be so people are expressing what they hope it will be.

 

The mechanics seem, from what we have been told, to be two-part.  Firstly obtaining a map/clue/whatever from some random role while grinding.  Then there is the challenge of finding the treasure, which may involve multiple stops and clues etc.

 

The items won't just be out there for explorers to find (which is what I wish would happen).  I think stuff being out in the boonies, away from regular traffic, would be a lot more of a challenge than something like an MOI while levelling a field or mining some ore.

 

I am not sure what balance is lacking - that people who don't go looking should have as much likelihood of finding stuff as those who don't go looking?  The fact that that would be rewarding explorers for exploring instead of grinders for grinding?  Meh.  That's the same argument as the one about loot drops from uniques, IMO.

rewards better scale with traveled distance :X 

[Etherdrifter 2,515]

17 hours ago, TheTrickster said:

I am more and more leaning AWAY from the idea of exploration rewards being consumables, unless that is only a minor element of the reward.  This is supposed to be treasure  - not just some kind of in-game economic reward.  The more I think about it the more I would like to see something rare, not rare as in dark blue text and shimmery (but that could be good, too) but something that doesn't exist in Wurm otherwise - either at all or even just very sparsely.

But you can sell these to other players, so they would be an in-game economic reward?

 

The trouble is, every item can be see as an "in-game economic reward".  At the moment, the only items that feel like real "rewards" for exploring are objects that decay away (unrepairable, and taking damage on use such as shatter immunity fluid and skill rings); but the bar is pretty high to get those (a lot of rifts).  Most of the original items suggested are a one time use that is handy to have (not likely to be valuable, but useful to everyone), or a one-time character buff that cannot be passed on when used.  They're something different than what is already out there.  Also, note, quality isn't linked anywhere in there!

 

17 hours ago, TheTrickster said:

 Have a list of materials not otherwise available - quartz, obsidian, ivory, amber, ebony etc, and then any Wurm item can be distinctive.  It would exist in a form that could NOT be crafted. Don't tell us what materials are available or what items are possible - let those be discoveries.

This kind of reward is going to appeal to your builders and socials, but not your achievers (unless they offer some major advantage over existing items that are easier to obtain) and explorers (nothing interesting mechanic-wise there).   It's also going to lead to RNG hell with quality, runes, materials, enchantment shatters, the question of improvement...

[Finnn 3,298]

Is the point to have content to enjoy and explore.. or to farm and milk it to sell stuff to others that cant/wont go through the content and skip it all for few coppers?

If no drops are non-tradeable..

[TheTrickster 2,279]

6 hours ago, Etherdrifter said:

But you can sell these to other players, so they would be an in-game economic reward?

 

The trouble is, every item can be see as an "in-game economic reward".

If that is the way a player views everything, yes.  But an item is not inherently an economic reward - more it is something of value.  If that something of value is useful to you then there is value in keeping it but if it is of only limited (or no) use to you, someone else may value it more thus making it tradable.  Items 1 and 4 above are not merely consumable, but are themselves forms of currency - i.e. their usefulness is purely economic.  Bits of things (fragments of blueprints and scrolls) are also close to being currency unless there is a high likelihood of an individual accumulating whole sets without needing to trade.

 

Unusual objects are definitely of interest to explorers - it is not just because of mechanics.  Often it is because of the search/journey and that story becomes "imbued" in the object (at least it does for me).  "Keepsakes" are a feature of my exploring, and for those to exist I need to be able to keep them.   I did suggest that these objects have enhanced functionality, so that would I think appeal to "achievers" (I think you mean grinders, min-maxers or something like that - a specific measurement of achievement).  Of course, once there are additional materials in which objects can exists collectors would happen.

 

I am not saying don't have consumables; I am saying don't replace keepables with consumables.  If I could only have the consumables OR the objects, give me the objects.  

 

6 hours ago, Finnn said:

Is the point to have content to enjoy and explore.

For me, definitely.  

 

[Archaed 2,280]

Searching for fragments of something already exists in archaeology, I'd hope treasure hunting doesn't just become the same thing honestly.