New EM Event Change - Needs feedback from the UO Community

[Promathia]

Please visit this link for the poll in the Rares Collectors forum:
http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-rares-collector/256627-should-event-items-go-highest-damagers.html

Mesanna announced tonight on Sonoma that after this next patch a new script is going into effect where top attacker and healer will get the EM item drop automatically in their backpack. Overpowering spells and pets will have their damages adjusted accordingly.

This patch COULD already be on Origin because the recent event on Origin where they released the Hamhocks, all went to Sampires templates.

Interesting....

If it was given directly to the backpack to RANDOM attackers, I would agree with it. But to go to the TOP attackers? Time to go make a Thrower then

 

[iamSnippa]

very very very bad idea.

 

[Fridgster]

By making it the highest DPS on the outside might seem fair, however the whole idea of EM events is to draw in everyone young and old (skill wise) If you limit the prizes to the top DPS then you really do take away from that concept. I agree with the above statement... it's just not a good idea.

 

[THP]

Please visit this link for the poll in the Rares Collectors forum:
http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-rares-collector/256627-should-event-items-go-highest-damagers.html






If it was given directly to the backpack to RANDOM attackers, I would agree with it. But to go to the TOP attackers? Time to go make a Thrower then

If it was given directly to the backpack to RANDOM attacker- YES PLZ!!!

to be honest always thought the top damagers got the event items anyways....ive had looting rights loads and only once in maybe +100 got a drop

 

[MalagAste]

This has been the way for years now... At least it has on GL's. Top damager and a random looter...

I have often disagreed with the process and felt that the item should go randomly into the pack of one of those who did enough damage to receive looting rights.

But some don't feel that way. Certainly would help.


Course I'm still partial to the end all drops and make all items "clickies".

No more only 20 items dropped... but maybe that's just me.

 

[Crysta]

Random = good... anyone has a chance

Always top = very very bad for all but the few people that count as that

 

[Promathia]

This has been the way for years now... At least it has on GL's. Top damager and a random looter...

Top damagers dont always get a item, never have (Atleast at EM events).

GL Events are half bagged/ half immovable box (The box cant be looted from the corpse, thus making bag looting scripts useless).

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Its been top damager for a while now, but there hasn't been any WoD/Pet weighting or direct-to-pack delivery before...

I have to agree that the 'top damager' only benefits the twink-template-of-the-week and screws over pretty much everyone else. The fair change would be a random distribution to those with looting rights.

Or they could simply ditch this method of item distribution and reward everyone through a clicky. Less items over all (say 1 clicky a month), but everyone participating gets a memento.

EM events are way to focused on the items (or the lack thereof) as it is.

 

[Promathia]

Its been top damager for a while now

No, no it hasnt. I know LOTS of people who do events, and I know for a fact not every drop is to the top damager lol

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

GL Events are half bagged/ half immovable box (The box cant be looted from the corpse, thus making bag looting scripts useless).

The way its been done on GL for the 20 item drops is :

10 go to the top damager in an unlootable guardian locked box.

10 go to a random person with looting rights in a bag.

There is also a rare chance that someone could get a box AND a bag...or multiple drops through the course of the night.

 

[THP]

pretty sure its ALWAYS been top damager wins

make all event clickies....one per account..and everyone attending the event comes away happy...be it 10 people at the event or 200....the attendance would then depict the item rareity......

everyone would be happy and nobody would be bitter.....*fingers crossed*

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Well, one thing for sure.... this thread should be good!

 

[Promathia]

pretty sure its ALWAYS been top damager wins

No, no it hasnt.

Maybe GL has (Tho ive gotten the box in my loot, and I know for a fact my character wasnt doing alot of damage)

But besides GL, EVERY shard is random loot. It would explain why its always the same people getting drops on GL tho

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

pretty sure its ALWAYS been top damager wins

Nah. Well, not on Atlantic at any rate. I have gotten an EM item at two different events when I had only started hitting the critter after it was less than 1/4 life left.

 

[Promathia]

Nah. Well, not on Atlantic at any rate. I have gotten an EM item at two different events when I had only started hitting the critter after it was less than 1/4 life left.

If anything, its only GL. The theory they posted sounds like it could be right, but thats ONLY GL. I havent seen another shard implement that same concept.

 

[Deaol]

They should just leave it as it is...

And the drops should definitely not just appear in peoples backpacks... looting is how it should be.. and if people don't know how to loot.. well.. , I don't even think the em's should be putting the items in bags..

Isn't the point of these drops to be rare?...

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Isn't the point of these drops to be rare?...

It sure as hell shouldn't be.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

It sure as hell shouldn't be.

Errr ummmm... why not?

 

[olduofan]

This has been the way for years now... At least it has on GL's. Top damager and a random looter...

I have often disagreed with the process and felt that the item should go randomly into the pack of one of those who did enough damage to receive looting rights.

But some don't feel that way. Certainly would help.


Course I'm still partial to the end all drops and make all items "clickies".

No more only 20 items dropped... but maybe that's just me.

agree 100%

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

No more only 20 items dropped... but maybe that's just me.

Nah, I agree with you here 100%. I have always been partial to 10 or less

 

[Storm]

I would have to know the exact details of any new system before I could say yes or no to it!

 

[Storm]

I tend to like the random idea that way the events are not mainly one or two templates !

 

[Reth]

I tend to like the random idea that way the events are not mainly one or two templates !

I haven't played the game long, but that's exactly what'll happen if top damage dealer gets drops.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Errr ummmm... why not?

Because fueling the obscene rares market isn't something the EM program was designed to do. With all the x-sharding and hoarding that goes on, its better that more items make their way into the hands of more players - some of whom might actually keep them.

These items were meant to be mementos of the event/arc/holiday, not the contentious, grief-filled get rich quick scheme that they have become.

No more only 20 items dropped... but maybe that's just me.

Nah, I agree with you here 100%. I have always been partial to 10 or less

Malag is in favor of clickies, meaning WAY more than 20 items... It was just worded poorly

 

[G.v.P]

How the heck do the figure out top "healer?" Just decide like a referee?

 

[aarons6]

i think its dumb that not everyone that participates gets something..
its not like its something you get to do more then once..

its an event, everyone that is there should get the special item.

 

[Storm]

Until I hear this from mesanna or someone from the team I am not going to put to much thought into it!

 

[HD2300]

Lets play spot the EMs

I think the focus of the EM program to cater to the small minority of p(l)ayers is bad for the game. I think EA should open up their tools and let EMs develop global events that anyone, anytime can participate in. These global events can still drop rares, like 1 in 10000 chance after a kill a unique rare item drops, and when the event ends that item will never drop again.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

 

[Eärendil]

Only Top-Damagers? NO WAY!!! I was one of those lucky people finding an Event-item in my loot share. I participated in dozens of events and never got anything until that day. And I certainly wasn´t the top-damager... Everyone should have the chance, even those players that drop occasionally summons and concentrate on healing the others. If not, you will meet only those rare-hunters, damage-pros, and the cross-shard-traders there...

And yes: Everyone should get something, a nice equipable such as a sash with "I survived XY", "I defeated..." and so on...

MAKE IT MORE ATTRACTIVE TO EVERYONE, NOT LESS!!!

 

[Petra Fyde]

Top how many? 10? 50?
and what does this mean?

Overpowering spells and pets will have their damages adjusted accordingly.

Too much self righteous indignation
not enough information.

 

[HD2300]

Ooookayyy. wink wink. Ems, dont post here.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Lets play spot the EMs

Ooookayyy. wink wink. Ems, dont post here.

Never said they didn't. However, you were obviously implying that there was one or more in this thread. And since your negative feelings towards the program have been repeatedly stated, you weren't doing it to be nice.

 

[HD2300]

^^ So my feedback is, instead of getting the 30 EMs to run an event at a specific time and day that only a small minority of p(l)ayers can attend, refocus their efforts instead to develop global month long events that all p(l)ayers can participate in at anytime. Why not instead provide more new content that all p(l)ayers can enjoy, not just a very small minority?

I think a couple of devs developing new content for the 100% would be better for UO than the current EM program developing content for a small minority, but maybe turning the 30 EMs into 30 new part-time devs developing content for the 100% might be even more beneficial. That is my feedback.

 

[Jhym]

I've always felt that for EM events :

1) there should be one or two "generic" items or rewards that everyone who participates can get for a limited time. Books, sashes, foodstuffs, etc.

2) there should be a group of "uncommon" items or rewards that are dumped onto various monsters (or chests, or other containers) that can be gathered by those who are working on the event, no more than 50, usually 25 or so. Minor weapons/armor, special clothing, named items.

3) there should be 1 to 5 items/rewards that are "rare" and given by the EM to those people s/he notices helped and did the best at following the storyline, whatever the EM decides is appropriate with general guidance at the top. Unique items, artifact level items, and special named items.
These toplevel items could be tracked by which accounts they are given to, so that if favoritism is alleged, the EMs can be checked up on (which I'm fairly sure is already active.)


Most of the items at this point should be cursed, brittle, or otherwise have some disadvantage (if people don't like the "unique" items, make them account-bound and no-sale.) If people really are so bitchy about items cross-sharding, then add no-cross-sharding as a property. I tend to agree since I'm very much interested in shard history STAYING on each shard.

People need to get over the money aspect -- if you go to events looking for a quick buck, then at least you're participating. You may wish to remember that a lot of the past of humanity involved mercenaries that didn't give one lick about why the kingdom's battle was going on as long as they were paid.

Enjoy the events, but stop getting bent out of shape about what others get out of it. When I can go to one, I don't get mad that I missed out on things, as long as I don't get rez-killed by uber monsters that go after characters that don't have millions to pay for suits and training.

 

[Aurelius]

"Mesanna announced tonight on Sonoma that after this next patch a new script is going into effect where top attacker and healer will get the EM item drop automatically in their backpack."

If that's the player who does the most healing to other players and pets in the fight, that is a truly excellent addition to EM events.

 

[Gheed]

I dont think it will be all that bad. At least folks can't script public corpses that way and nothing will decay if it is missed. The only thing I don't like about it is that, (IIRC), a client crash will wipe your claim to the drop. So I hope they find a way to que the point log for a few minutes so folks that crash wont loose their claim.

 

[R Traveler]

Please visit this link for the poll in the Rares Collectors forum:
http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-rares-collector/256627-should-event-items-go-highest-damagers.html

Mesanna announced tonight on Sonoma that after this next patch a new script is going into effect where top attacker and healer will get the EM item drop automatically in their backpack. Overpowering spells and pets will have their damages adjusted accordingly.

This patch COULD already be on Origin because the recent event on Origin where they released the Hamhocks, all went to Sampires templates.

Interesting....

If it was given directly to the backpack to RANDOM attackers, I would agree with it. But to go to the TOP attackers? Time to go make a Thrower then

WHAT? Is it called "favoritism", to say something important to selected group of players?

 

[LordDrago]

"Mesanna announced tonight on Sonoma that after this next patch a new script is going into effect where top attacker and healer will get the EM item drop automatically in their backpack."

If that's the player who does the most healing to other players and pets in the fight, that is a truly excellent addition to EM events.

LOL

I can see the new "healing gimp" template for em events now:

Vet
Heal
Spellweaving
Magery


vet a pet
banadage a player
greater heal someone else
and gift of renewal

max mana regen
Mana increase
etc.

 

[R Traveler]

LOL

I can see the new "healing gimp" template for em events now:

Vet
Heal
Spellweaving
Magery

vet
lore
heal
anatomy
magery
sw
medit

FTW

 

[Warpig Inc]

1. Say 7 are on the boss as the highest damager chance. "Who's the better killer" game.

2. Mass of smaller spawns during the fight. Spawns of 10 where random one or two have reward.

3. Em has backpack drop of like 5 at the end of the battle. Theese are for the players that ran a rez point. A rez point done in style and not some Noble Sacrifice spam point. Just rewards for those noble of heart and showman of sorts.


Taking 1 and 2 in effect and number players that show to the event. Those locked on the ankle of the boss for the top damager reward rights will be less likely to let go that bone. Why risk lesser spawn 1 in 5 chance when you need to pound the boss. Players on the sidelines doing clean up can play the odds with the side spawn. Faster the heros kill the boss the less side spawn happens. 7 off the main / 5 from EMs rewarding EMs (Emergancy Medic stations) / best 6-9 sidespawn dropped ...... nice round number of event greed filled.

Now heaven forbid. The event players attending ignore the boss and farm the side spawn. The boss is sundialed in on an old fashion hourglass and will escape.


I'd like to also add. Have the boss drop, Healer, and sidespawn drops different colors. Something that is done across all the shards in a unified manner. Would add to the collectability historic value the item from museum displayers point of view.

 

[canary]

I support the 'clickie' idea, after all that means that EVERYONE who supports EM Events will have a memento of their time playing.

And they still will be 'rare'. On most shards (no whining please 'Atlantic/GL is HUGE'... I said 'most'), I see typically 20-40 people tops at events. In the context of the entire gaming populace it isn't MASSIVE. It also would give people a reason to show up weekly to be part of the fun if when these hand outs would happen so they are encouraged to show up.

Some people don't want to play a greater drag tamer or sampire or whatever flavor of the week character. They shouldn't be penalized as such.

The more people that can play, have fun and take away something that will serve as a keepsake or memento of their time invested is a good thing. And hey, if you DO want to sell it there is still a market to those who want doubles, live on another shard or just plain did not participate. It is a shame that Mesanna and most of the EMs are blind to this.

 

[Merus]

First, I really like the pack drop idea. It can be hard enough to get the mob targeted with all the moving around and casting that goes on at EM events, much less getting back to loot the monster corpse when you are already trying to find your own corpse. Very much in favor of that change.

Moving on to the "who gets the drops" piece. IMO, there are so many varied templates that make the mob fighting easier. Healers are a great example, nice to hear they are considering giving them credit for thier efforts. How about the bard? On the occasion that the mobs can be discoed, everyone fighting that mob benefits from that skill, but no credit is given for participation. How about the tamers? I hear lots of complaints about a herd of greater dragons... but in reality a good slayer mage/warrior can do far more dps than the dragon. I think the group benefits most from having a few very high hitpoint creatures for the mob to tank on. I am probably getting a little off track, but I think you get the idea... Unless you are a xshard toon just there to loot the corpses as they go public, I think most templates contribute to the fight. So how do we divy up the drops?

Personally I would favor more of a two tiered system (ignoring programming complexity). It would be great if the system could measure and assign a weight to actions as the mob is killed. Everything from healing, barding, pet tanking, and damage dealt should be included. A minimum weight should be established, similar to the minimum damage to secure looting rights, to be factored into the item drop. From there I think it item drop should be mostly random, except that (here is the second tier) those in the top 30% of the weight for that mob should have a small bonus applied to their chance. Ideally the bonus would be weighted so that roughly 60% of the time the RNG should give the drop to somone in the top 30%.

I believe a system like this would have an advantage over a purely random distribution from anyone who secured looting rights. It would reward those who select a mob and fight it until its dies, rather than running around trying to get enough damage to secure looting rights on as many mobs as you can.

 

[Merus]

LOL

I can see the new "healing gimp" template for em events now:

Vet
Heal
Spellweaving
Magery


vet a pet
banadage a player
greater heal someone else
and gift of renewal

max mana regen
Mana increase
etc.

How about Mysitc Weaver spamming GoR and Cleansing Wind? Then a few WoD at the end just to get that extra damage bonus.

 

[THP]

make all event clickies....one per account..and everyone attending the event comes away happy...be it 10 people at the event or 200....the attendance would then depict the item rareity......

everyone would be happy and nobody would be bitter.....*fingers crossed*

pretty much what i said.................

 

[Warpig Inc]

It is all about the lotto. Keep talking numbers. Sure have the cauldren of dispair at the end of the event everyone clicks. Everyone gets a unique titled wizards hat from that event. They can still bump up the pot that has a random chance. 1 in 50, 100, 1000 that wizard hat is instead an Orc Helm with mage armor with same title. Something that can be imbued at 450 cap and a character can wear and dance about the latest bank sitting hotspot.


Items cannot be given with mods, period. Smart events have items that can be imbued enhanced with the 450 cap.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I will offer my initial thoughts in a separate post. (Those who don't care are free to not read it, but then you better not read this either.)

But I will here offer some facts that I feel are being lost in the shuffle.

In no particular order.

• As far as I can tell, all we have on this proposal for the moment is a one-line statement by Mesanna, and as far as I can tell there's no further explanation or document or anything. For example will all drops be like this in the future? Just some of them? How will they discern "top healer?" Will rezzes count? Will healing one's own self count? Will just casting healing spells count?

We need to know more before we can really comment beyond the basics. Details can make this seem better or worse or both.

• The top damagers on GL do not appear to always get the item. How do I know? Because I don't think I'm ever the top damager, and I get items now and again. Why do I think I'm rarely if ever the top damager? Because I have a character with no Bushido and I don't bring slayer weapons to EM events.

• The issue of favoring clickies to the exclusion of other kinds of item drops is frequently brought up whenever the issue of EM items drops is brought up. My dear friends Malag and Martyna support making all drops clickies, I do not. However, what's more-relevant now, I think, is how we treat drops under the current system. Meaning, assuming we'll have a combination of clickies and other drops, how we will handle the non-clickies. That's what's at issue here.

• The extent of drops appears to be misunderstood. On Great Lakes it appears to be 1 drop, per EM, every 3 to 6 weeks, averaging out to 1 every 4 weeks or every month, per EM. I mention this because someone said "one drop per month" would be a lower drop rate than we have currently and, judging by GL's experience, this is not the case. Sometimes folks say, or rather they whine and shout and cry, that GL's drop rate is actually underneath the average but I've seen little if any evidence that that's actually true. Our drop rate seems to be commensurate at minimum.

-Galen's player

 

[Sauteed Onion]

I don't think there's anything wrong with how event items have been handled previously, although, in my opinion I do like the click the clickable thing at the end method where people get an item commemorating the event style. The downfall of that is the x- sharder's who will stealth on into the "prize" area and click away at the statue and ferret away the Event goodies to sell to their prospective audiences or whatever they intend to do with it. That being said, I propose, that if it is truly possible to gauge how much a person heals and reward them for that effort, and we know it's possible to gauge how much damage a person does to X mob, then why not make it so that only the people that deal x amount of damage throughout the event and heal x amount of life or status effects throughout the event are the only ones who have privileges to click the reward clicky at the end? Or is that just askin to much?

Honestly, in current form, I don't feel there is anything wrong with event rewards as they have been.. and don't see why it's in dire need of changing, save for the people upset that people are selling them for lots of gold in game. If it is changed, I hope the method I described above is the method that is implemented, and everybody can get a chance as long as they are putting forth serious effort.


This was a post by me in a previous thread pertaining to the same subject.. Kudos

 

[Aurelius]

LOL

I can see the new "healing gimp" template for em events now:

Vet
Heal
Spellweaving
Magery


vet a pet
banadage a player
greater heal someone else
and gift of renewal

max mana regen
Mana increase
etc.

Whilst that's not an appealing way to go, it at least keeps more players and their pets active and fighting rather than waiting for a res or dodging back to heal... and would you really rather it remains a pure damage event where the people helping out have absolutely NO chance of anything?

 

[Crysta]

Just want to stress a point I really couldn't make well last night when I was tired.

To top damager = bad

Random to anyone that has looting rights = good