Fix Drakespirits

[sweatygopher 88]

Do you notice that the veterans are all saying drakespirits are fine, while the new players are saying it's not and that my post is about how unfair they are to new players?

I've tried your suggestions, I haven't ignored them one bit. I asked for help, one person showed up. Wasn't enough to kill it. So we logged off. I logged back on, went out to go hunting in the HOTS area and found lots and lots of crocodiles and trolls, and most of them old. I could find barely any low level creatures. This is my main concern. If there were more low level creatures, I could level up fight skill a lot easier, but the bulk of creatures are spiders/crocs/trolls. I can't remember the last time I found a wolf!

[SmeJack 5,798]

FS is even EASIER to grind w/ archery, 70ql longbow w/ 30ql war arrows will kill wolfs and bears in 4-6 shots

Just incase you missed that. Shoot your trolls, much safer from a distance and those spiders are delicious gains for low levels.

Also of note, I ran into a drakespirit with my alt last night who has 4 FS, he followed me in my boat because the wind was terrible so I sailed to a guard tower where he was immediately distracted by them and allowed my passenger to flee. Once he finished off the guards someone led him to a deed where the templars, myself (my alt) and another low fight skill player killed him....just like that...was almost too easy in fact.

[Cornchips 3,037]

Have you actually gone hunting once or just sat on the forums refreshing this page until someone posts?

[Bernd 0]

Well, my experience as a "late" joiner was that a champion spawned on my back, it hardly stops targeting you and you cannot outrun it even on a normal horse, but with 3 or more fatal attempts I lured it to the starter deed were it got buisy clearing it of its 20 guards and I returned to my business. The next day I read in chat that it had made its name and was still harrasing players from time to time. These creatures don't spawn on you every week, you can have your peacefull months.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Bernd

[Zaramoth 66]

I'll say i grind a lot, i got 50 blacksmithing the day epic came out, and i got to 60 chain smithing in 3-4 days too. So i guess when i say i went from 0/10 fs to 70 in 3 days, i guess you could stretch that to about a week for a normal person, really the only hump is the first 20 fs, after that if you have a horse its really really easy to gain fs. I would die a lot too, random trolls, uniques whatever. But then i'd kill 1 bear or unicorn and be fine again.

Never had to use cotton either

[Bart 954]

ussually im really lazy when hunting, take a butchering knife, anything over very light just make a HC and slap it on, carry on

50 FS to 70 FS in 3 hours for me, although i did luck out and find a greenish lava spider spawn so i was getting like 0.5 per kill

Edited October 12, 2012 by Bart

[Suntzu 644]

I posted a very clear and simple FS tutorial that is stickied here: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/65362-easy-guide-to-pvp-grinding-on-epic-get-in-the-game/

It doesn't get any easier.

[Joanavon 553]

I posted a very clear and simple FS tutorial that is stickied here: http://forum.wurmonl...et-in-the-game/

It doesn't get any easier.

Nobody said it was a mystery. They said it SLOW and BORING.

[Alyeska 2,621]

Nobody said it was a mystery. They said it SLOW and BORING.

[sweatygopher 88]

Ok so i tried and tried to get FS up, and finally figured it out. You need to have really nice gear. Makes a huge difference. Before I was only wearing what I could make, which was 40 QL studded leather and a 35 QL sword (15QL shield). Now i have 60QL plate armor, a horse and a sword/shield 70QL and my skill gains are like 3x as fast if not more, because i take significantly less damage and can fight the harder monsters without dieing that give more FS. Thanks for the help everyone. Hopefully I'll be drakespirit proof in a week!

[sweatygopher 88]

I still think they are due a nerf. I doubt most new players are going to have high level gear readily accessible, and most of the people who try this game are people who want to "go it alone" first and experience everything for themselves, then join a village when they're ready. So those people who do that are going to be instantly turned off by this seemingly invincible NPC that chases them down and kills them over and over again.

I like the idea suggested earlier that they should "take a moment" to walk through walls. So basically, walking through walls makes them move like we would on tar. I think that would ultimately make it better for everyone.

Edited October 14, 2012 by sweatygopher

[KaiH 1,126]

"go it alone" usually doesn't work well on a pvp server.

There are no epic mission critters on freedom, so those would have a better chance there anyway.

Overall it is better to 'not' "go it alone" right from the start on all servers; once a player has enough experience in Wurm that might be a new challenge though - even with a fresh toon.

New players are not a good reason for adjusting a 'once in a month' critter - it would take the challenge out of it in my opinion.

[sweatygopher 88]

I suppose the best questions to ask are -

What are they providing to the game? A challenge? Are they keeping players playing? Or are we losing potential prospective players because of them?

I personally think that, in no offense to Rolf do I mean this... that they're really, really dumb. They are using the old Keller model, which is just a human being "ghostly". They are not the super cool dragon, or cyclops. They are just a normal human model that is super powerful. Is their loot worthy of killing them? Or are they literally just serving the purpose of annoyance? Can a game attract new, potential players when one of the functions is purely to annoy and cause grievance?

I suppose I'm not the best person to answer that question, but I haven't seen anyone jump in joy when they see a drakespirit, no gump, etc.. and I've seen half the server if not more constantly complain about them in global chat.

If we lose even one potential paying customer, and they aren't the reason people stick around to play this game I don't see why we're keeping them as is in their current state. They need a rework, not necessarily a nerf, but they need something to change.

[Alyeska 2,621]

Oh yeah, they dont look like SUPERCOOL DRAGONS they should be removed or nerfed or changed. Really, if you care much about graphics and how the creatures look I think there are many, many other games that have supercool dragons (as a matter of fact, even the "real" dragons in wurm just look like an ugly dog)

Drakespirits are spawned as your enemy wins missions if im not mistaken, they're an offensive attack from your enemies to you. They're fine how they are now, a challenge but not immortal. Yes, they're supposed to be annoying you. So are the other effects from missions. What do you want, that those missions would spawn your enemies puppies and rainbows instead?

For what's it worth, I really enjoyed those critters. They were removed from freedom for obvious reasons (they were never supposed to even spawn there as theyre related to epic missions) but I liked them as a challenge and wouldn't mind seeing them back. After three or four days they starve anyways so it's not like they will pile up over time. I won't ask for them to come back to freedom in consideration of the others who do not desire to fight, but if you play on a server dedicated to fighting you should be more excited about a creature that actually puts up a fight instead of just being two hits down.

And yes, of course things are more difficult to the new player. That's the whole point of skilling up, so life gets easier. If someone really quits the entire game over a difficult experience with a mob (a mob that is not immune to archery, does not lock target on you, and does not follow you over half the server) I doubt they would enjoy a pvp experience. A pvp exprience where you die, lose affinities, lose gear, lose everything, even including the work and upkeep you put into your deed.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Alyeska