Draconi, I'm Very Disappointed!

[Tina Small]

Earlier today, I was quite excited that my less-than-GM lumberjack was able to get crystal shards while lumberjacking.

However, after experimenting this afternoon and evening to determine whether or not this boon was facet-specific, I'm forced to conclude that you can only get the crystal shards from lumberjacking in Ter Mur. After hours spent jumping between Ilshenar and Ter Mur, it was painfully obvious that the shards don't spawn anywhere but Ter Mur. I suspect but still don't know if you've used the same rules for having the delicate scales go to fishers, or perhaps crystalline blackrock to miners. (Have not heard yet of anyone mining up crystalline blackrock anywhere.)

I hesitated a little bit at releasing this information, because it means that the safer areas of Ter Mur with trees will now be crawling with people whacking at trees. However, I'm hoping that other people will be just as aggravated about this as I am and will send in feedback forms.

By limiting the crystal shards from lumberjacking to Ter Mur only, you're practically inviting the scripters to take over the area and leave nothing for anyone who is dumb enough to try to compete honestly with them by lumberjacking while you walk along.

I'm VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED in this decision. I hope you will consider changing it soon or, better yet, will join us here to tell me that I didn't do enough testing and the shards spawn elsewhere and I have too little patience and the RNG was unkind today.

 

[Cyrah]

Well you must have gotten the only 2 there were. Tried all over Ter Mur on a gm human lumberjack with ornate ax and got none.

 

[Pfloyd]

Well you must have gotten the only 2 there were. Tried all over Ter Mur on a gm human lumberjack with ornate ax and got none.

20 minutes on a human lumberjack and i got 1...didnt even leave town

 

[sablestorm]

On the flip side, if the scripters are there competing with honest players rather than chopping away in the more remote areas of the world, isn't it possible that they will be more likely to be paged upon and so eliminated from the game?

 

[It Lives]

I was disappointed too, two hours of logging in my local area nadda, first 1000 logs in tel and I got one shard.

 

[Jhym]

Well, if you want to be disappointed about such things, you should extend it to the fact that none of the new special ingredients spawn outside of Ter Mur.

I can't go to the lost lands and kill silver serpents for skins or other stuff. I'm also pretty sure daemon bone and dragon blood don't spawn outside there either (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't killed any dragons or daemons recently.)

It would make sense that they limit it for a while, so that you get everyone interested in the new lands and keep us busy with them. But I'd like them to gradually introduce all the new ingredients to the other facets eventually. Perhaps at a much reduced rate.

 

[Drazasamus]

I'm also pretty sure daemon bone and dragon blood don't spawn outside there either (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't killed any dragons or daemons recently.)

i believe you can get daemon bones from the doom mobs right?

 

[Silverbird]

I suspect but still don't know if you've used the same rules for having the delicate scales go to fishers

I fished up some scales in Fel. But you might have to consider that fishing in Ter Mur seems to be somewhat pointless .... no boats and only fishing from shore leaves out most reasons for fishing at all.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

I'm also pretty sure daemon bone...

Spawns in Doom. It's used to summon the bone daemon which gets you the golden skull.

But yes, I too am curious why only the Silver Serpents in Ter Mur and the Abyss spawn the silver serpent venom.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I *think* the imbuing resouces are Ter Mur only, but the others can be found elsewhere. Someone who I know hadn't upgraded brought me some silver serpent venom, I guess he could have bought it, but he claimed he got it in blighted grove - along with some faction silver.

I guess the crystal shards must spawn roughly on a par with brilliant amber. Three packies full of boards collected around the refugees has done wonders for my lumber stocks, I even found some frostwood, but zilch for my crystal shards stock. Did get an amber though.

 

[Aurelius]

But surely, the problem isn't certain resources only spawning in certain lands, since that makes perfect sense - as long, of course, as there are certain things unique to each land, not one place where people who paid for the latest expansion can gather everything with relative ease....

The problem, and solution, is the age old one - fix the ways scripting can be abused.

 

[Helbrass]

I think Deceit bottom level where the lich lord spawn there is also silver serpents and they spawn the venom too.

 

[Black Sun]

I'm not sure, but I think a guildmate of mine got shards in fel. She's not on right now, but I ICQ'd her for confirmation.

Also, deamon bones do spawn outside Ter Mur, and not just doom. Something else drops them because I have some in a chest at home that I looted before the release of SA.


[Edit]
Nope, no shards in Fel. I must have misunderstood her.

 

[legendsguy]

i have an idea.. why don't we just give everyone 120 imbuing and a bottomless bag of ingredients? if you didn't buy SA, then go buy it and go to tel-mur. end of story. and if you have to hack at a lot of trees to get your precious shards? good! some of us have to actually HUNT for these things instead of just macroing while you watch tv. i hope it never gets so easy that you can craft the ingredients easier/faster than they can be hunted for.

consider this a happy little bonus for being a crafter.. it certainly isn't something you're entitled to. hell, you didn't even know about it until a couple days ago.

 

[The Fallout]

I got silver serpent venom from a fel despise champ... I am pretty sure at least.

 

[Heimi]

I'm also pretty sure daemon bone and dragon blood don't spawn outside there either (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't killed any dragons or daemons recently.)

i believe you can get daemon bones from the doom mobs right?

Dragon's Blood spawns elsewhere, I cut up a Rikky and got over 100 Dragon's Blood.

I'm curious though, what do crystal shards have to do with trees?

 

[Cyrah]

Got some shards in Ter Mur. Not in 20 minutes. Ha!

They seem to be one step below amber in rarity.

It is nice surprise though. Tyvm for that devs.

 

[UOKaiser]

Can you only get them on upgraded accounts or any account will do? I was lumberjacking after the patch for a while on a non upgraded account in malas. Nothing but I assumed because it wasn't upgraded.

 

[Deb]

I agree about the ingredients should be found only in Ter Mur...people should
buy SA if nothing else to help support this awesome game of ours to keep
it going.

 

[Tina Small]

Quotes from Draconi made on September 8th in a thread Bombastic Fail started for the purpose of discussing why the high-end imbuing ingredients were out of reach of most crafters (http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=156088):

So, while sure, someone might actually try to "corner" the market on things, they'll quickly find themselves competing with average players being able to undercut their efforts fairly effectively.

I believe it's critical to the balance of Imbuing to spread the ingredients out, and not have all the top tier, high-class item properties be at the mercy of a small group of easily exploited items, that, through demonstration over the years, have appeared in far more number than should ever be possible to create in the game, and, at this point, are a resource we cannot balance in a new system.

In the testing I did yesterday on two shards (Lake Austin and Pacific), I was gathering the crystal shards at what I thought was actually too fast of a rate when I was actually chopping at trees in Ter Mur. Eight shards in one hour is TOO fast.

My disappointment stems from the fact that the area where the average non-scripting player's lumberjack is going to be able to lumberjack is very small and will easily be dominated by a handful of players, especially on the busier shards. And if fishing is going to work the same way, the areas to fish in Ter Mur are even fewer and smaller in area and will also be easy for a handful of players to exhaust quickly.

I would much rather see the drop rate on the crystals be slowed down from what I experienced yesterday and be able to get the crystals anywhere in the game on an SA-enabled account, pretty much the same way things are being handled with the Seeds of Renewal (i.e., your character taking care of plants doesn't have to be in Ter Mur to get the Seeds of Renewal), the imbuing ingredients you can now now craft ANYWHERE on an SA-enabled account from readily available items (e.g., vials of vitriol, bottles of ichor, crushed glass, powdered iron, void orbs), or that you can get on an SA-enabled account by going to Ter Mur and handing in craftable items made ANYWHERE. At least it would feel as if there is some consistency in the efforts to "spread out" where you obtain all of the ingredients from methods other than hunting.

Having two or three ingredients spawn in small easily exhausted/easily dominated areas doesn't seem to be much of an improvement for most non-scripting players over making them drop only from monsters whose spawn rate can be manipulated by someone being a jerk and pulling the high-end mobs across the dungeon so they don't have to deal with them and/or so no one else on the shard can obtain specific ingredients for the rest of the day.

 

[Cyrah]

Tina, 8 in one hour?

Try two in two and a half hours. So I disagree they are too easy.

Maybe others will post results.

 

[Black Sun]

Can you only get them on upgraded accounts or any account will do? I was lumberjacking after the patch for a while on a non upgraded account in malas. Nothing but I assumed because it wasn't upgraded.

I would assume that only upgraded accounts have access to Ter Mur and the abyss, so logically if they only spawn there, only upgraded accts could get them.

But then again both my accounts are upgraded, so I don't know if non upgraded accts can get into the new lands.

 

[Tina Small]

Tina, 8 in one hour?

Try two in two and a half hours. So I disagree they are too easy.

Maybe others will post results.

Yeah, I saw your post. I can only tell you what I experienced, though. Maybe 8 in an hour IS fine, considering that if you were hunting maybe you'd get that many resources or more in an hour. I just know I'm disappointed at the decision to stick them all in one easily controlled area. And if the drop rate isn't even as high as 8/hour, that makes it even worse.

Oh well. Someone else will, I'm sure, come along and shoot me down for even suggesting a change that makes things a bit harder for the jerks in the game that always jump at the chance to monopolize anything they can throw on their vendors and sell for a huge profit. Makes me sick and made me really hesitate to even say anything about the situation. But it just doesn't feel right to me when it looks as if everything else that's being done to help people who don't want to play the hunting life-style find a way to get the ingredients in a reasonable manner. I happen to enjoy killing stuff to get the resources, but I know a lot of people don't want to play that way.

And then you have the folks on Siege and Mugen who might just have one character that's their crafter. How much does it help those people to be able to gather specific ingredients with their crafter when the resources will only spawn in one or two fairly small areas that everyone will now know about? Maybe all lumberjacks on Siege are also swordsmen, so they can defend themselves. Maybe I shouldn't even worry about stuff like that...but I can't help it. This situation annoys me because it doesn't make sense to me when viewed alongside the other things that are being done. It really doesn't.