A Way to Find Loot outside Missions; Outdoors Hunting; Dyna-camp Ideas etc

[Balderac]

Mission boreness finally got to me too.. I finally stopped playing my level 113 MP, now I play Dungeon Siege, and suddenly I remembered that its possible to have FUN with a game, not just mission, mission, mission, work, work, work...

Maybe a account cancel is coming up... Dunno yet.

[CratroX]

quote:
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Originally posted by Reclaim

"FC did a decent job up to level 80ish, then got bored "

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THis is very true, i bet all agree when i say from lvl 10-20 until 70-80, this game was fun, cuz of the outdoor hunting grounds.
Build more outdoor hunting places, and DON'T make lvling be the main thing to do in this game, there is more to AO than beeing first to 200!!!!

Let people make 200 in a month if they want to, but make Rubi Ka interesting on lvls below too, so ppl might stop and do other things than "killing, killing, killing, ding,"gratz", "tnx", killing, killing, killing...."
AAAAHH!!! u get the picture

[_____________Cloudeh]

I think EVERYONE Should have the chance to get a Special Item / Make it so its not one place or mob that drops it.

I mean, lower down you need help to get nelebs.
Higher up you can probably solo it, best if your a healer class.
I just you my fear nanos on mobs and they run away and pull neleb to a empty room.

I have only been to TLR Dungeon Twice "for other people" and not for myself but thoe mobs where pretty easy back then, and i did use a hammer heh.

But higher one, you need a team, two, three, four team of uber people to get a item that everyone and thier dog wants, and its stupid.


Missions is boring, its fun making new chars hunting outside, then you get to lvl 80 and missions are the only real way.

Team member 1: Hunting outside is more fun, lets hunt outside.
Me: Yes but they give almost 1/6 of the xp!
Team member 1: yeah so, this is a outside missions team
Me: It will take 6 times as long! you kill the mobs in mission as fast!
Team member 1: Nah!
You left the team.

81 Sol LFG missions Team.

At the current moment id like to do mission, for the tokens, for the loot and rewards and chests.
And the XP rewards, But I really do like the tokens, almost got me 400 now.

IF only they could make mission outdoors, to clear an area of mobs kill a big boss, quests would be good too.
One day, one day, and mission that involve PC players to interact with, ofcourse the end result is XP/Money/Tokens/Items.

[___________Freestuff]

Dungeon Siege is worse than missions. Same thing over...and over....and over...






regardless, we all know that making mob have unique loot is a bad idea. Guild Storm will just camp it anyways, corner the market on the item and drive the price up. Thanks Funcom!!!!!

[_____________Rolller]

I have not posted on this board in over 3 months ... but I had to. THER MUST BE AN ALTERNATIVE TO MISSIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! Come one FunCom you guys made a humongous and pretty game. Let us use it! To be honest your missions while unique are the most boring part of your game. You are however forcing all players into them. Please give us a reason to go out and hunt outdoors. Please ... I beg of you. I am at my limit mindless mission hunting and I am only level 127.

[______________Noreth]

I take it your one of those puinish anyone that doesnt want to play like me types. Some days, I truely wish your type would stick stand-alones. Your idea is heavily flawed by its very ill thought out approach. You see, With mission one can finaly avoid the biggest thing to ever hurt a MOG; "griefers." Your approach would force those of us that are just slap happy to finaly be clear of them right back at them. I can see just fine putting the same possible items on overland spawn. I cannot see putting it on it only.

Let me paint you folks a scene: Picture the rare spawn zone, you're so happy as you can finaly fight these mobs. You load up for bear as it where and head for it. Something is odd when you arrive though, there's some person 70 levels above you there and, they are slaughting everything at record speed. You say ok but, I should be able to get at least one or two. After some time and utter failure to compette you get set to leave, at this point that "fine soul" offers to sell you for a outrageous cost what you should have been able to get for free.

Not only will this happen if you turn anything worth having into overland only but, the well "I'm just hunting for my alt" crowd will swarm as well. I see nothing in basic wrong with making overland hunting worth while. I see a huge problem with your approach to it. I'd think simply "cloning" the same items at random (Yes at random, if not I would bet my god forsaken soul on my scene being daily fact.) overland drops. There should be options beyond missions well and good. But let's not punish those that don't want to hunt overland.

You say you feel overlands been punished. Well just remember that as a adult you learn that attacking the area you feel hasn't, doesn't make any sense iether.

[__________HardBoiled]

I have several suggestions, some of them are not mine ,:
1. Utilize the real estate in the game. AO has largest R/E of any games that I know of (EQ(perhaps), AC, DAoC) but it is very poorly used. Mort is the glaring example. I understand that deserts happen but flying over terrain and seeing no mobs over it, no places to congregate, no landmarks is very very boring.
2. Certain "families" of mobs should have propencity for certain types of loot. Not my idea but I support it.
3. Organize mobs in the camps that are about the same level range, have some diviation distribution but within a managable %.
4. Make mob that is grey to a toon or a member of a group give no exp and no loot when killed to aleviate camping by higher levels for twinking purposes. I am staunchly against no-drop items.
5. Give a mob a random chance to drop ANY RAREST item in the game. Make that chance small. To further increase insentive to hunt outdoors.
6. In conjunction with points 1 & 2, 3 , localize the mobs in the zone by comparable levels. I do not mind a zone with lvl 50 mobs and lvl 150 mobs but I dont like them mixing. I remember there used to be an idea of exp. pill that would save some exp gained without the benefit of save terminal. Might draw some cash from the game and also encourage folks to travel to hunt.
7. Increase the loot quality for outside mobs that are far from transportation points. Encourage folks to travel further and explore.
8. Remove the non-drop requirements from Cars, Planes and Boats.

[Archerror]

Norath, didnt really get the post.

I prefer hunting. More fun. More risk. Better XP.

I remember the first time i charged the borg base near Avalon with 2 full groups, people dropping by the wayside 2 dox frantically trying to heal the tanks and pet classes did their best to keep up and all towards a goal. Once inside we were SO psyched! (granted we were all like lvl 55 or something) but still, it was fun to look around and see people being able to use their profession to the fullest.

Aimed shooters, NTs and dox behind, pet classes and mid ranged adv and solds in the middle and MAs, Enfs all doin what their class said they should. Now in cramped ass missions, we all become the same. Pet classes need to use weapons to be effective because it is all close combat.

Bah, I want to hunt outside. To be in an open enviroment, where randomnesss comes into play. Where a vulture might swoop in and the team members actually have to split up to face multiple mobs.

I have done maybe 3-4 single missions in my career. I am level 80. I team mission or hunt, even for lower XP, because I cant stomach the grind that is missions.

i THINK there should be choice. Choice = tradeoffs though. I think loot should be in missions. Makes sense right? Since most are in civilized areas, buidlings or encampments or caves. And XP should be fought for outside. The old fashioned way.

Just my opinion.

ArchRave
LVL 81 MP

[Cosmik]

Got some good news on this. Just finding out more details and wanted to post here now to just say I've read it. Be back soon with more information.

[Bionitrous]

I've always thought that Fixers should be able to 'hack' all those orphaned reclaim terminals that are scattered around the world to at least save your location, if not your experience.

The Bureaucrat will eventually be able to save your experience if you know you are going down and he's got enought time and you got enough NCU for him to slap his upcoming nano on you.

[____________Cyblade7]

Originally posted by Cosmik
Got some good news on this. Just finding out more details and wanted to post here now to just say I've read it. Be back soon with more information.

WOOT!

Bring on the outside hunting again!!

After lvl100 I've been stuck in a building looking at walls for the last 44 lvls.

Bleck!

Give me outdoor hunting again! Give me a high level area like Lush NW Mine! Thats what I'm talkin about.

[_________________mot]

Anyone who knows me knows i've been asking around for a good hunting spot, i'm so damned tired of missions it's not funny. *bump*

[DaveDread]

Sounds intruiging Cos, huury back... 8)

[Zarenic]

Funny Hextorr how you would like to hunt outside. It seems to me you like to hunt more than mobs outside. I would agree with you, because I too would like to hunt outside. But unfortunately most of the good outdoor hunting spots are 25% gas zones. And of course the only time I did, your lame ass had to come and ruin it. Hunting outside? No thanks, I'll just stick to missions inside where I don't have to deal with the likes of people like you.

Milan "Zenforth" Laurence
100 Doc
Omni-Pol RK 1

I hope you quit sooner than later.

[Pneuma]

My vote is for better RANDOM loot (i.e. MOB boss ql) & focused areas to hunt with UNIQUE NODROP items. MOB lvl mixing is somewhat of a reality, but I totally agree that it's to widely varried. I also like the suggestions for more save areas in the pol/may zones & removing the NODROP from vehicles. Spread us out in the zones we have before you give us more.

[________________Crin]

First off, I want to say that while missions are extremely boring I don’t want to see the game move totally towards outdoor hunting either. No one has suggested that, but I think it needs to be stated. A while back Funcom asked what in the game needed the most improvement and we told them missions. Well that is all that they have worked on since. I don’t want the reverse of that to happen here.

Oh and btw Funcom, if you haven’t guessed, missions are still messed up. The problem is that they require too much time, are cramped and have too little variety. Throwing more loot at them doesn’t fix any of that. Ok back to the post.

AO should have a dynamic reward system. Each playfield should have it’s own experience/loot multiplier. This multiplier should affect the amount of experience or quality of loot giving out in that area. If there has been a lot of experience given out, the multiplier should decrease to entice player to move on and would reward players that constantly explored. For PvP areas the multiplier should be side specific so that if Omni has controlled the area for a while, Clan players would get huge bonuses for hunting there. Finally, PvP areas should be given an automatic bonus to the multiplier.

Team missions should be given out as loot for outdoor mobs and the loot modifier would also affects its drop rate. These missions should be much smaller than the normal team mission and should not have the requirement to kill all the mobs to get a token, but have strict time limits. Players should only have to complete the objective and get out within the time to get the token or boss mob loot. These missions are where the teams get the really good loot so the current system for only giving out uber loot in team missions can stay.

The strict time limit is there to make the mission exciting and to provide a need to avoid mobs as well as kill them. The limit can be as simple as a timer or something a little more fun like spawning mobs of increasing difficulty as time goes by so if the team takes too long the mission will be too difficult to complete.

Basically, instead of limiting the amount of loot a player can get in a given time period by increasing the time it takes to do missions, players are limited because missions are failable. The benefits to this system over the other is that it is more forgiving to teams that have to change its members and it breaks up the tedium by alternating between hunting inside and outside quicker. Finally, it allows more skills to be useful to teams. For example, an Agent could sneak down a corridor to determine if it is a dead end so that the team doesn’t have to waste time fighting through it.

The team missions that are given out as loot should be in an area that is difficult to fly into. This will force the team to travel on the ground to get to them, providing a different outdoor hunting experience. To prevent flying directly to the dungeon, the area can be filled with mobs that will root flying vehicle making is necessary to land nearby and proceed on foot.

[______________Scorus]

Originally posted by Halofire
High level people will camp low level hunting grounds /places where unique loot might be found etc...

This is one of the only problem i see with this idea.

The only problem, but a dealbreaker. Funcom claims to hate camping and yet refuses to acknowledge much less implement all the great alternatives that have been mentioned here. They just keep turning out camping dungeons and NPCs.

The only thing more boring than the same old missions is waiting for four hour spawns hoping that no teams of reds show up to take it away...

Scorus

[Hypgnosis]

I havent done a solo mission in nearly 20 lvls beacause of mission burn. Hell I still miss the days of the temple hunting grounds. Now that was exciting and fun! Those spiders really scared the crap outta a team. Mort's fun but already getting old. It's discouraging to hear that it only get's worse from here on out, not better. Bring on the large and varied outdoor hunting areas that this game should have. If it were spread out enough overcamping and zone lag would not be a problem. It's ironic that as beautiful and varied Rubi-ka's landscape is, we end up spending so much time inside rooms that look no better than than fps from 4 years ago (half life comes to mind, and at least it had great level design). The static dungeons are an improvement, as are team missions. But there are too few of the former and the latter are far to big most of the time and still consist of the same indoor monotony.

Doc Ralishaz
lvl 80
Opposing Force

[Verdeloth]

Major bumpage for better hunting!

[Silirrion]

Well, one solution to nick from EQ might be the trivial loot code. Basically if a high level player killed a mob that yielded no exp they would get no loot. While EQ was too established before they thought of this, they didn't roll it out all the way so as not to annoy the playerbase.

However thats not the case in AO, and could be done. This would mean that High Levels could not farm low level areas, also as the QL system ensures the items wouldn't be all that useful, make them nodrop and then they can't pass them down to twinks.

AO does need more focus on outdoor hunting, missions are great but shouldn't be the be all and end all.

Hopefully they can get round to this now that missions are fixed and working ok (pet pathing still needs help though )

Also the players are slightly to blame too, there are many underused hunting locations, but people would rather have the percieved 'safety' of missions and areas close to cell scanners.