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6 months later - Thoughts on the Treasure Chest Loot "Upgrade"

How much do you do maps now compared to your previous frequency of doing them (pre publish)?

  • I used to do them with some frequency but the publish ruined them for so I no longer do them.

  • I used to do them and my frequency has stayed about the same.

  • I didn't used to do maps but with the new publish I do them a little more.

  • I didn't used to do maps but with the new publish I think it's way better and do them a lot now.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Keven2002

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Hi All,

Little back story for this thread... I vaguely remember during one of the previous treasure hunting "tweaks" several years ago that the loot in chests was cranked way up for a little bit (some really awesome stuff could be found in chests) before it was scaled back.

I've returned after about a 4-5 month layoff (combo of being busy & bored with the content) and before I went on hiatus I was hitting the new treasure chest content pretty hard (luckily stocked up on frags for the current content). Unfortunately once the "newness" of the content wore off after I had gathered a couple of the various new drops I started to question if the treasure hunting revamp really did anything for me... and the answer ultimately was no, I felt like at worst the loot intensity was lower and at best it was the same (less quantity). I felt like after the 100+ chests that I did that there wasn't one item that I'd consider great (and worth all the time).

Fast forward 5 months later - I haven't read anything about any type of tweak being made to treasure loot so I wanted to see what people thought (see poll). Have I possibly missed something while I've been away and treasure hunting actually has some worthwhile things or has my experience above been pretty much everyone's over the past 6 months?

Thanks!
 

MalagAste

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There are things I like about it and there are things I hate about it... but overall I am disgusted with many things so can't really give a good answer especially this time of year when my feelings are messed up. Ask me again in a few months. Maybe when I don't have to T-Hunt to do content.
 

DreadLord Lestat

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I tried them out for a little while. I can complete them more quickly than before and I can still solo them all as I did before. I have also lost interest in them and rarely do them anymore. I liked the imbuing stuff that was in each chest, I liked the stupid green bag item even though it usually went in for points. I enjoyed collecting the deco items like the coffin pieces which I never completed. The remove trap idea was cool for treasure hunting but the stupid things that spawn and cannot be looted are a waste of time. If I have to kill it, then I should be able to loot it. Overall I cannot say that I don't do them at all but they are few and far in-between. I let the sub on that account lapse until I feel like doing them again.
 

Jelinidas

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It is a failure. I haven't even played my TH in months. At some point will dismantle him and stone the skills. This entire year was a waste of our small Dev teams time (imo). Im hoping for a better 2020. On a positive note, to keep the pom pom wavers happy, I do like the Triton although I hardly ever use him much anymore.
 

Victim of Siege

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Hi All,

Little back story for this thread... I vaguely remember during one of the previous treasure hunting "tweaks" several years ago that the loot in chests was cranked way up for a little bit (some really awesome stuff could be found in chests) before it was scaled back.

I've returned after about a 4-5 month layoff (combo of being busy & bored with the content) and before I went on hiatus I was hitting the new treasure chest content pretty hard (luckily stocked up on frags for the current content). Unfortunately once the "newness" of the content wore off after I had gathered a couple of the various new drops I started to question if the treasure hunting revamp really did anything for me... and the answer ultimately was no, I felt like at worst the loot intensity was lower and at best it was the same (less quantity). I felt like after the 100+ chests that I did that there wasn't one item that I'd consider great (and worth all the time).

Fast forward 5 months later - I haven't read anything about any type of tweak being made to treasure loot so I wanted to see what people thought (see poll). Have I possibly missed something while I've been away and treasure hunting actually has some worthwhile things or has my experience above been pretty much everyone's over the past 6 months?

Thanks!
I cannot take your poll because you forgot the "I used to do them and since the publish my frequency has greatly increased" option. The chests are quick and easy and i can roll through a lot of them fast. i can also target what i am looking for and chase it. the loot in the chest was never my "end goal" and if they have some nice items it's was a win, and the new chests are the same. i have pulled a few nice items here and there since the change and have greatly padded my stocks of relics. all in all i am going to say that IMO this was a great change and i have enjoyed it.
 

GarthGrey

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I would rather have seen Treasure Maps turned into a multi-quest. Dig up a chest, get a clue(s) for something else. Not a dig/chest...dig/chest...repeat. Dig chest, read note, go kill this or that, another chest, clues that form other clues, with the finale being a final chest with something worthwhile in it. A Treasure map should be an adventure, and today's maps aren't. At least in my opinion.
 

Tabby Kapak

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For us too, the exactly right option is not among your 4 picks, as it is actually a combination of 2 and 4: frequency will be the same ie. sporadically several runs of 8 in an hour, then months nothing since not finding the time for it. Malagaste is right that the current event influences getting them done more.
We do feel it is way better now than it was before, much better loot, from residue to relic frag level. And also that we don't have to drag all them gems, regs, etc one at a time makes it so much faster and thus more fun. The Power Scrolls in Fel also feel like a nice add.
We DO feel however that the chance to remove trap on a cache level chest should be a LOT better than it is now, GM should allow those to go in one go, maaaaaybe allow for a failure here or there once in a while. But as it is now, we need 4 tries on every chest, it makes us dread trying hoard, let alone trove! (Haven't tried those yet since we needed quick frags, while those guardians will take more time.) Still, that doesn't ruin the fun, we actually wonder how the loot will be at those top levels, since in Cache we already found several usable pieces.
Oh, and we like the design of the new bags for reagents, gems and gold. (And the fact they are merely 1 stone.) :) :)
 

Theo_GL

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You poll is missing options. What do you check for 'I used to do them before and I do them even more. '

Your only options if you used to do them is 'I no longer do them or I do them the same amount'.

Fail.

I still do maps. Do them more now because of the frags and how they are even easier to solo now than before.
Stacking up the Blues until they change it. I now have over 400 blue scrolls. I'll never need to buy an alacrity again.

I just wish I had held my Fel maps till after the publish. I completed most of them before the pub.

These maps also killed the peerless. No reason to do any peerless anymore besides the one for the Apron. All the peerless ingreds drop on the artesian supply maps which are easy to get in mass quantity.
 

MalagAste

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You poll is missing options. What do you check for 'I used to do them before and I do them even more. '

Your only options if you used to do them is 'I no longer do them or I do them the same amount'.

Fail.

I still do maps. Do them more now because of the frags and how they are even easier to solo now than before.
Stacking up the Blues until they change it. I now have over 400 blue scrolls. I'll never need to buy an alacrity again.

I just wish I had held my Fel maps till after the publish. I completed most of them before the pub.

These maps also killed the peerless. No reason to do any peerless anymore besides the one for the Apron. All the peerless ingreds drop on the artesian supply maps which are easy to get in mass quantity.
Besides the off tiny chance of getting a crimmy or a paroxy was there ever much need or reason to do peerless? Besides boredom?

I mean I don't see much point in them no one is going to use ingredients anymore anyway. Outside crafting a scrappers with the super-slim probability that it might give you a slayer that you didn't get from invasions or whatever else that is actually better... really don't see the point anymore like most everything else the drops from those sucketh ... save maybe the 1 or 2 hair dyes you can still sell well off of Lady M most everything else is Meh.
 

petemage

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Not a fan of having to do various different levels and packages just to get the same loot as the old level 6 and 7s had. Also don't feel any challenge for those low level maps spawning ogres and the like. You need a database now to figure what drops an mana phasing orb and what not. The high level ones taking the most effort don't even have a chance to drop most of the items. Yes, every item is waaaaayy easier to get now, but I can't call that progress..
 

ShriNayne

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The Treasure hunt 'revamp' was the reason my husband and I stopped playing, the only good thing about it is that I now get a lot less tendonitis in my hand....
 

petemage

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I also believe the elephant in the room is clearly CC vs EC.

For CC users, who had no chance whatsoever to find anything in the chests, the reduced loot is a blessing. They probably didn't do much high level chests due to being not able to loot it and can do much more now. They prefer 10 chests with 10 items each over a single chest with 100 items, regardless having to spend way more time one those 10 chests.

For EC users, who could see what is what in a neat sorted grid, the reduced loot is just a horrible offence and doing 10 instead of 1 chests just an unneeded grind.

We all know devs don't use the EC... go figure... stone age ftw...
 
Last edited:

ShriNayne

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We played in the EC and rarely took anything much from the chest, it was never about the loot for us really. Making useless skills useful was no excuse, they could have done that in so many other ways. T-hunts had nothing to do with High Seas. :(
 

Uriah Heep

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I also believe the elephant in the room is clearly CC vs EC.

For CC users, who had no chance whatsoever to find anything in the chests, the reduced loot is a blessing. They probably didn't do much high level chests due to being not able to loot it and can do much more now. They prefer 10 chests with 10 items each over a single chest with 100 items, regardless having to spend way more time one those 10 chests.

For EC users, who could see what is what in a neat sorted grid, the reduced loot is just a horrible offence and doing 10 instead of 1 chests just an unneeded grind.

We all know devs don't use the EC... go figure... stone age ftw...
Really? lol

Making the t-hunter killoff a CC vs EC thing?

Never play except for CC, wasn't a problem. Normally looted it all, what wasnt usable either got smelted, unraveled, turned in for points, etc. Problem was that there was very little desirable items with desirable qualities coming out. Still holds true, they just fixed it whre there isn't as much to unravel or turnin for points.

Sure, these chests now have a lot of 'artifacts', but still very little usable - regardless of what name is one it.

A turd is a turd, whether it says legendary or minor.
 

ShriNayne

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I don't think the Dev team even understand why the loot is bad, just having an artifact with a ton of skills/stats that don't go together does not make the item worth keeping, but they either can't or won't listen to people telling them this.
I was happy with t-hunting as it was, it didn't need 'fixing' and I don't think most people who played a t-hunter regularly actually did it for the loot!
 

petemage

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Really? lol

Making the t-hunter killoff a CC vs EC thing?

Never play except for CC, wasn't a problem. Normally looted it all, what wasnt usable either got smelted, unraveled, turned in for points, etc. Problem was that there was very little desirable items with desirable qualities coming out. Still holds true, they just fixed it whre there isn't as much to unravel or turnin for points.

Sure, these chests now have a lot of 'artifacts', but still very little usable - regardless of what name is one it.

A turd is a turd, whether it says legendary or minor.
Well I open my post with "I believe" and I have read a couple opinions that say the junk was a problem for them. Maybe I'm reading it all wrong, but then I really don't understand those people actually stating the loot is an improvement :D
 

Keven2002

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Thanks for the feedback all! Apologies that I offended some people with leaving off the "I did maps before but do them even more now".

Seems like it's a bit of a mixed bag (as with almost everything UO) on the T-Hunt "upgrade". I think I got my answer though for the most part. It looks like people that are doing more maps now (or just like the change overall) like it because the maps can be targeted based on what you are looking for and generally speaking the chests DO have more higher level items (like legendary) in them than before. I think that I'm probably similar to the people who think that the change either was lateral or worse because my thoughts on a "loot improvement" was that we would get more usable items as @ShriNayne kind of mentioned in her last post (legendary doesn't do any good if the mods don't compliment each other).

I was kind of hoping that with high luck and doing certain types of maps that a hunter could get some equipment that would compare to some items you would get from the roof or clockwork but it certainly seems to have fallen short there (at least from what I remember pulling from the roof). I actually have pulled some better jewels off a handful of Krampus runs over the past few days then I remember getting from any of the 100+ chests I did. I'm not expecting every chest to have maxed complimentary legendary items but after 100+ chests I kept absolutely zero items which falls very short of my expectation.

I doubt it will happen but I hope a Dev will look at this thread and be able to take the feedback to tweak the mod combo's so that items are usable.
 

BeaIank

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I like the new treasure chests, but still do them the same amount I did before, which isn't very often.
One thing that bothers me is that higher level chests seem to have less of the "unique" items. I never got a skeleton key from a hoard assassin chest nor got any resources from hoard and over artisan chests.
Reagents only appear in very low level mage chests too, it seems.
 

Adell of Catskills

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I noticed just after revamp we got tons of blue and pink scrolls. Did some recently and rarity seems to have been reset

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 

Keven2002

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I noticed just after revamp we got tons of blue and pink scrolls. Did some recently and rarity seems to have been reset

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
That wouldn't surprise me as it seems pretty normal for them to tweak something down if it's too frequent/good. My initial post was to see if maybe the items being generated had been tweaked up (more max intensity / better mod combo) to be more inline with "loot upgrade" but I think the definition of "upgrade" varies depending on who you talk to. For me I don't like the fact that with 100 remove trap I still get guardians spawning on mid level chests which I must kill and then I don't even get loot from them.... only to open the chest and not get anything useful to me (in my opinion). That being the case, I likely won't do many treasure chest anymore even though it was one of the few things I did with regular frequency when I was bored (before the publish). I will reconsider it if/when they improve the mod combos or the mod intensity that populate on the chest items.
 

Adell of Catskills

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That wouldn't surprise me as it seems pretty normal for them to tweak something down if it's too frequent/good. My initial post was to see if maybe the items being generated had been tweaked up (more max intensity / better mod combo) to be more inline with "loot upgrade" but I think the definition of "upgrade" varies depending on who you talk to. For me I don't like the fact that with 100 remove trap I still get guardians spawning on mid level chests which I must kill and then I don't even get loot from them.... only to open the chest and not get anything useful to me (in my opinion). That being the case, I likely won't do many treasure chest anymore even though it was one of the few things I did with regular frequency when I was bored (before the publish). I will reconsider it if/when they improve the mod combos or the mod intensity that populate on the chest items.
Each level chest has set time that if you wait, you succeed without dumb guardians. Before that time each attempt will spawn one. Unfortunately I lost paper I wrote times on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 

Keven2002

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Each level chest has set time that if you wait, you succeed without dumb guardians. Before that time each attempt will spawn one. Unfortunately I lost paper I wrote times on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
Ahh this is good to know! So basically if I dig up a level 3 chest and wait X amount of time (based on the level I'd guess) before attempting to pick the lock then the first attempt will not spawn a guardian?
 

Adell of Catskills

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Ahh this is good to know! So basically if I dig up a level 3 chest and wait X amount of time (based on the level I'd guess) before attempting to pick the lock then the first attempt will not spawn a guardian?
Yes I do that on hoard maps. 3 at a time dig and kill spawn, mark rune and do next, come back after 2 or 3 digs


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MalagAste

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IMO the only mods that compliment one another are commonly found on Mage items... the DEVs clearly do NOT know what DEXers need or want on items...

Other than the splintering crap that you pick up I have yet to find much of anything usable by DEXers... if it has one thing it doesn't have others... necessary for use. Weapons most often lack mana leech... which is vital... armor lacks stamina boosts and things like that most of it has the mage property... and I like the bonus you get from crafted stuff as far as the mana properties go anyway.

But I have yet to ever find a weapon that was of any use at all for a DEXer...
 

Obsidian

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I do treasure maps more now than before. I do wish the imbuing ingredients were in more chests. I also think the cartography glasses are too rare and should all spawn with +5 Carto. I love the fact that I do not need mining and 100 carto gets me to find the chest location much easier than before.
 

PlayerSkillFTW

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Still have yet to see a good Legendary Dragon Armor or Legendary Samurai Armor piece.
 

LeBaiton

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I still do the same ammount of maps as before.

I think the changes are good, though I miss being "rewarded" with special items in high level t-chests.

I know the higher intensity items are a reward by itself, but it's just odd that marties and other stuff like special resources are limited to stash and supply maps while cache, hoard and trove maps get shoved.
 

BeaIank

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know the higher intensity items are a reward by itself, but it's just odd that marties and other stuff like special resources are limited to stash and supply maps while cache, hoard and trove maps get shoved.
This is a bit of a slap on our faces indeed.
The higher level chests should provide more of those special resources. Yet they simply remove them altogether.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Yeah that is strange. If it was an attempt to give less able t-hunters a reward for their efforts, that's a cool line of thinking. There is very little an up and coming player can do that's actually worth their time doing, but why not include them in higher level maps, too?

Maybe there is an intensity scale for the overall quality and content of the loot, and including those special items negatively affected the intensity of the randomly generated loot? Seems dumb, but I've seen dumber.

I do tmaps as much as I ever did, and was really excited by some of the new art. The bags I like a lot, and the bonnet, garland, glasses are very cool. Now if only I could find any of these in a chest that's actually worth using...

I can honestly say i have not yet swapped out a piece of any of my characters suits with anything I've looted out of a tmap chest. A rare chance at a good combination of properties is absolutely understandable, but from what I've seen the intensity isn't there (compared to roof, exodus, scalis, even krampus as one poster mentioned) and realistically the chance is closer to 0.
 

SugarMMM

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I just throw all maps into my tables because I'm too lazy to add another post it note on my wall with the names and what level they've equivalent to.
 

Keven2002

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@Innoxicated - I actually couldn't agree more with you! I think that as @MalagAste said the combo of mods hasn't ever really been purely Dexer or Mage (although I do think that previously pieces would at least have useful mods like Mana + Stam + HP instead of now where its Mana + Reflect Dmg + Durb Increase) but I think with the chest loot the intensity of the mods (and lack of them) makes some of the legendary items I've pulled complete junk, they really do give "Legendary Artifact" a bad name and seem like they should be labeled differently.

The biggest mystery to me is how luck AND chest quality come into play. I've dug up a few golden trove chest and I can't remember keeping anything (max luck suit). I understand the whole balance of items and that not every chest should have the best items ever in them but if we are going off odds based on positive factors then I'd assume digging up the highest chest with the highest chest quality (gold) with the high luck possible (in Fel) more than once would at the very least produce something worth noting. The odds of digging up a gold trove chest aren't great so I'd think that combined with max luck would produce at least 1 item (even if it was a smith's hammer) that was something I would at least keep instead of trashing.

If I can't find something in the scenario above then I don't have much hope at all to find anything worth spending time chasing with a lower level chest (level or quality or facet), which is why I don't really have the desire to treasure hunt anymore. I was hoping maybe it was just me but everything I'm seeing supports this; I haven't seen anyone say they have pulled amazing loot from the chests to suggest the loot was upgraded in terms of mods/intensities. Oh well. :(
 

Uriah Heep

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If you get lucky enough to find a mediocre legendary, odds are great that it will either weigh 50 stone, or require 125 strength. My wife has been finding a lot of those
 

Innoxicated

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As much as I griped about the loot not being as good as I hoped it would be after the revamp--meaning 0 'l33t' items... a few keepers, they just happen to be the kind the UO hoarder keeps in a chest in the house, likely to never see the light of day--i will say I'm still in favor of the new tmap experience.

I found nothing to keep pre-revamp, tbh, and I've got more relics than essence and residue combined, squared even. So finding next to nothing still beats absolutely nothing, I guess.

It would be cool if the loot tables for top end maps were closer to the equivalent of maybe a peerless? Minus the arti drops, that would seem a fair reward for the dedication of a char slot to this content.
 

MalagAste

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I agree with that... I have a tamer with a very high luck suit and my archer who has nearly no luck and uses bushido and sometimes gets the luck from perfection... but he gets much better stuff than my Tamer in her high luck suit... as a matter of fact her luck suit we used for ages gave more luck to OTHER people in my party than it ever did me...

We'd drop party and you could see the difference when the luck suit worked... but other people always got the good drops like the mask of travisty, crimmy and such... I almost never got those... but you could see the noticable bump in quantity of items sometimes... but yeah... as far as the color of the chest so far I don't see much better loot in gold chests vs others in the quality of loot.

But I've always maintained that you'll find 100x more mage worthy stuff than you'll ever find dexer worthy stuff. I have NEVER found a weapon worth keeping and using besides the splintering crap I really don't care about because I don't care to PvP.... though a few of my characters do carry a splinter item... just in case.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
I agree but think that mages benefit from a wider range of properties in the first place. Hpi, mi, mr, hpr, lrc, lmc, casting focus, etc. I find plenty hpr, mr, lmc pieces with +stamina & +mana, but unfortunately from my experience reforging there isn't a package with stamina and hp. And the only way to find these is with exceptional luck.. The RL kind. And so far my lucky batman boxer shorts havent been much help.

Also have you ever found yourself wishing you could add mage armor to a legendary piece? I haven't yet, lol, but have removed it from many, many studded/bone pieces. Many.
 

Keven2002

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I'd agree with you both here that the loot for mages seems to be more/better than it is for a dexer because mages do benefit from more things but I don't think there are many "keeper" weapons period.

I think part of the problem with the weapons is that a weapon absolutely has to have 6+ mods with almost all max intensities to be usable (otherwise reforged/imbued weaps are better) and in addition to that all the mods must be complimentary (and on a desirable weapon); which I think we have sort of debunked for chest loot anyway. I actually did a ranger trove map last night for mysterious frags and saw about 5 items with 40% SSI (bows and knives) but the other mods just weren't things needed on a dexer weapon like stam regen or defense increase. If there were 10 mods on the weapon (all mostly maxed) and these were on there it would be fine but since these type of properties are using up 2 or 3 of the 6-7 mods it makes the weapons useless. I don't think I've kept a single weapon from the new chest.

On a positive note I did see 4 blues and a pink in the chest which is good that those still appear to be unchanged since the publish.
 
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