Exploration: Part 1 - Public Testing Round 2!

[TheTrickster 2,287]

Do the chests decay quickly if left?  Are they accessible by others?

[Tomatoes 276]

15 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

Nice!   Honestly I am just picturing something as simple as an outline with "forest" or "sand" written in it.

thought this might be what they would look like to start with as well, however color is kinda nice imho. makes it more of a challenge to find the locations.

 

15 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

For a chest out in the wilderness (no towers, no villages) with just a map and no text clue, in mountainous and wooded terrain, it is an exercise in frustration

Keep in mind not every map is the same size, nor the same scale, and i think that is intentional as well. I do see it as fine as we are  able to use the map hint in combination with the map dump for most cases, although some of these hints could be a bit less nebulous

out of curiosoity what is determining the ql of the caskets/maps? RNG or something else?       Nm, figured it out

 

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Tomatoes

[TheTrickster 2,287]

I just dumped over a dozen maps.  I have given up - the new mechanic is so much worse than the old.  I found the one chest that I had already located on the map before I logged in (the one above, over an hour) but for every other one, one of the clues was so useless that the only way to find the dig spot was going to be a slow grind of digging for treasure every few tiles.  Some were the glitched "between xyz and ." error, but others were just too vague.    When the map is easily matched (i.e. there is a road or distinct feature) finding the dig spot is okay, but without that it is just tedium.  With each clue I worked through, my patience for the bad ones diminished.  I just couldn't face it anymore.

Edited June 1, 2022 by TheTrickster

[Tomatoes 276]

 

1 minute ago, TheTrickster said:

I just dumped over a dozen maps.  I have given up - the new mechanic is so much worse than the old.  I found the one chest that I had already located on the map before I logged in (the one above, over an hour) but for every other one, one of the clues was so useless that the only way to find the dig spot was going to be a slow grind of digging for treasure every few tiles.  Some where the glitched "between xyz and ." error, but others were vague.    When the map is easily matched (i.e. there is a road or distinct feature) finding the dig spot is okay, but without that it is just tedium.  With each clue I worked through, my patience for the bad ones diminished.  I just couldn't face it anymore.

Agreed, any and all of the ones that were just text telling me to find a location was just too hard - i dont know oracle that well, and it felt like some would require a decade of living on the server to know where to look.

[kochinac 1,395]

Been testing it whole morning, didn't get any cool rewards as i found only novice clues, but loot list looks much better now. Overall it's fun thing to do from once in a while. Showing hint on ingame map is a nice qol touch. I didn't have too much difficulty to find chests when they are near some obvious markers like roads, tar pits, stone fields etc, however when in section of map thats deep in forest without any obvious markers nearby, literary when x is in the middle of green field on treasure map it can be quite hard to pinpoint exact location where to dig for treasure. Guard towers are also still hard to find, expecially in those damned willow woods, but i guess on familliar server should be easier and @Yagacould even add layer with towers on community maps so players can list them like for mission structures already.

Showing hints on map can be a bit clunky from time to time, they stack when clicked on several clues one after another, and they dissaper from ingame map after certain time. not sure if that was planned mechanic? might be more cleaner to show only one hint at a time, and move the shown hint after you click on different clue, not sure what others think.

Wish i could find some more difficult clues to test them, but had no luck in finding them

[Yaga 2,892]

22 minutes ago, kochinac said:

and @Yagacould even add layer with towers on community maps so players can list them like for mission structures already

 

Working on it. Guard towers are already on the maps, on the Resources layer - but we'll probably move them to "Special Places" and allow them to have placeable name tags. Maybe they will also be searchable like mission structures. Not quite sure yet. 

 

[Tomatoes 276]

24 minutes ago, kochinac said:

might be more cleaner to show only one hint at a time, and move the shown hint after you click on different clue, not sure what others think.

why not have the show hint option show it, then hide it? like a toggle, so that way you can choose how many you want up(ML dependent of course)

 

 

[kochinac 1,395]

Just now, Tomatoes said:

why not have the show hint option show it, then hide it? like a toggle, so that way you can choose how many you want up(ML dependent of course)

 

 

whatever, main point is that in current state looks a bit chaotic and not much manageable. i'm ok with showing multiple hints, but would like to be able to clear them instantly from map...

[Dellaca 75]

Just wonder how those guard towers will be  marked on NFI and SFI servers , there in a lot without any specific names and  also  same people have done many towers in same area.

[Rocklobster 309]

I logged into test and did a fresh 18ql map,  besides the big circle hint being way off (it wasn't even in the circle) i completed the clues no problem. Then the hell of 40ql map, in over an hour of searching the supposed hint area, i found nothing via archaeology to even hint at the location direction to the abandoned deed i need, i expanded way out and nothing. Like someone said earlier, unless you have 10 years knowledge of the test server, your screwed. I do not like this mechanic at all.

[elentari 2,660]

Unfortunately I don't think this is a good step in the right direction.

 

The old system of "hot" and "cold" at least gave me the info I was going in the right direction. 

 

These current map clues coupled with perhaps my inability to distinguish grass from trees or steppe has led me to fail to find one treasure on my own. 

 

On the old system I managed to dig up 2 treasures in 1 hour. In this new system of randomly searching and randomly digging I couldn't dig up any treasure at all without having help from someone on the test server. See the link below for how my map looked. On one map I wasn't sure if those symbols on it were supposed to be mission structures, guard towers or deeds. On the other one it was basically a hit and miss digging for 20 minutes (that's really awful and not challenging) to find one treasure that contained a rook, a gem, a sleep powder and a 50 ql pelt. Randomly digging without having any input or feedback if you're close or not is not fun or challenging. It's just a luck / lottery system. 

 

https://imgur.com/a/f75o89j

 

I don't see how this is an improvement sadly. The old system at least gave us a decent sense if we were closer or not. These maps are too confusing to be accurate even if we couple them with the ingame map. And realistically we'll all be using map dumps not the ingame map to determine where a treasure is. 

[TheTrickster 2,287]

11 minutes ago, elentari said:

On one map I wasn't sure if those symbols on it were supposed to be mission structures, guard towers or deeds. On the other one it was basically a hit and miss digging for 20 minutes (that's really awful and not challenging) to find one treasure that contained a rook, a gem, a sleep powder and a 50 ql pelt. Randomly digging without having any input or feedback if you're close or not is not fun or challenging. It's just a luck / lottery system. 

 

https://imgur.com/a/f75o89j

YOUR maps I can work out.  The north of I21 and the south of P23.  That would only get you to the "old" stone's throw, though.  After that is spamming "dig for treasure".

 

I like the little drawings on the maps - I actually wish the whole maps were done that way.  However, the text clues have for me at least been hopeless and without some kind of range or direction finding the final zero-in is just agonizing.  It is all then compounded by the multiple stages, because that just multiplies the chance that you will get one of the dud clues - and it multiplies the time spent hitting "dig for treasure".

 

I like that the devs took feedback about the loot on-board - but with all of the "we can only find it with examine" to then take that away feels like the message just didn't get through.  The hint is no replacement for examine once close to the dig spot, and the clues are too unreliable in their usefulness to make up for the lack.

Edited June 1, 2022 by TheTrickster

[Archaed 2,280]

Honestly the whole finding hints I feel won't really work until we're on live, the deed names are auto generated, and there's no info regarding them. So that part I'm willing to wait and see until live at the end of the day 

 

along with whatever else comes. 

[Sinnjinn 509]

Maybe a good middle ground would be to give the distance message when you 'dig for treasure'?  It's a pretty slow action, and would be really tedious to spam it and would really encourage using the hints as much as possible, but it's there if the hint is nebulous.

[jaytoo 687]

I'm ok with the difficulty. It seems like everyone expects to find every map in 30 min on here. I'm fully expecting some maps to be unsolvable and that's fine to me. Just make sure the epic rewards reflect the large amount of work put in and then it's fine.

[Sinnjinn 509]

5 hours ago, TheTrickster said:

Do the chests decay quickly if left?  Are they accessible by others?

I don't know how quickly they decay, but they ARE accessible by others.  Similar to an arch cache, there are no perms protecting the contents

[Wulfmaer 413]

Really, the one I came across was not accessible.

[Vorticella 958]

I found one that was next to someone's corpse and was able to open it

[kochinac 1,395]

i found bunch of dicovered chests where people left trash rewards inside, i was even able to dump my trash in them... not sure if they will stay, and how long, but it doesn't look like they are going away unless you take everything from them

 

Whats more curious is that they often helped me find my own chests, probably someone else had same clues as I, i dug next to them and my clue was revealed

Edited June 1, 2022 by kochinac

[Lisimba 779]

5 hours ago, Dellaca said:

Just wonder how those guard towers will be  marked on NFI and SFI servers , there in a lot without any specific names and  also  same people have done many towers in same area.

 

Guard towers have an inscription with the name of the builder and a random three digit number, the clues refer to this.

[Skatyna 443]

17 hours ago, Darklords said:

• •  
    • Gold/Silver/Electrum lump
    • Leather
    • Pelts
    • Ropes
    • Paper/Papyrus sheets
    • Fragments of a dioptra
    • Different kinds of high quality rope

 

lets be honest - everything I have highlighted in RED in the quote above are completely useless and unnecessary. Nobody wants the filler trash and 99% of players will leave it to decay trashing the areas. Get rid of it completely. Instead you can add chances to get past item skins that were monthly skin at some point or a special jackal skin. It makes no sense already having design and development done on the items but us being unable to get them no more. Also new players are completely excluded from past skins. Make use of that.

 

Moonmetal lump every now and again could be also added. A little more of that precious metal overall could open up new market possibilities in game too.  

 

Rest of the reward list items seems ok, some less, some more valuable, but they all are of some value to be worthwhile the treasure hunt. So better make the chest contain 1 or 2 items of some value in total, rather than filling it just for the sake of filling...

Edited June 1, 2022 by Skatyna

[goemo 10]

39 minutes ago, Skatyna said:

 

lets be honest - everything I have highlighted in RED in the quote above are completely useless and unnecessary. Nobody wants the filler trash and 99% of players will leave it to decay trashing the areas. Get rid of it completely. Instead you can add chances to get past item skins that were monthly skin at some point or a special jackal skin. It makes no sense already having design and development done on the items but us being unable to get them no more. Also new players are completely excluded from past skins. Make use of that.

 

Moonmetal lump every now and again could be also added. A little more of that precious metal overall could open up new market possibilities in game too.  

 

Rest of the reward list items seems ok, some less, some more valuable, but they all are of some value to be worthwhile the treasure hunt. So better make the chest contain 1 or 2 items of some value in total, rather than filling it just for the sake of filling...

Well depending on the paper q it could be very useful. Try getting some 90q+ paper as arch. Playing since steam release and never had even 1 of them. Apparently chance at finding 11-12 fragments in chests with those

[Tomatoes 276]

1 hour ago, Skatyna said:

lets be honest - everything I have highlighted in RED in the quote above are completely useless and unnecessary.

you missed the bit just before that:

19 hours ago, Darklords said:

Filler items are now selected from the following pool

it sounds like its temporary till it goes live, and the actual rewards will be better, but not things we are told about.

 

[Tpikol 1,057]

25 minutes ago, Tomatoes said:

it sounds like its temporary till it goes live, and the actual rewards will be better, but not things we are told about.

or, and i dont know anything about coding but maybe he means literally they use some kind of points system to generate the rewards and the leftover points after there arent enough for another good reward, go to filler items.

[Shydow 540]

53 minutes ago, Tpikol said:

or, and i dont know anything about coding but maybe he means literally they use some kind of points system to generate the rewards and the leftover points after there arent enough for another good reward, go to filler items.

I am pretty sure this is correct. Not every item is going to be the high-end items. The filler gives the chests some character, plus the post said they'd be of generally higher QL, which is useful. I don't think it is a bad idea to have these.