Treasurehunting: Give me an incentive...

[imported_Jimmy Pop]

RTLFC

Simply put a 1% chance per chest level of having a Runic Kit spawn.

So a L6 chest would have a 6% chance of a runic hammer, bow tools, sewing kit or saw. And it could be any level of those items.

That would make it worth doing chests again.

Heck - just put ML and Tok items in chests while your at it. I never understood why a map I get off Miasma doesn't have ML items in the treasure. - Oh yeah, lazy programming.

 

[imported_Sarphus]

In case you didn't see the idea when I posted it before...

I think treasure chest loot can be improved without changing it. All you have to do is add a system where players can turn items into resources. Basically, you would use some skill to remove a random property from that item and turn it into a resource to be used with crafting in some way.

The actual balancing factors of a system like that are something that could be fleshed out by designers. The consept is still sound... You're basically turning previously-useless items into resources.

You could even add something to alchemy where an alchemist can distill these craftable resources to take a bunch of low intensity items to distil into a single higher intensity resource. A system like that effectively makes ALL loot relevant. It just takes a lot more low-end garbage items to eventually build a high intensity resource.

I could see the resources being applied to items in a number of ways...

One possibility would be to allow crafters to create unpowderable base items that can have these resource mods applied to them by a crafter.

Another possibility would be to allow crafters to attempt to apply these resources to existing items... Any system like that would need serious blance considerations. If the items never break and can constantly be improved up to the highest possible mods, the system eventually caps out and outlives its usefulness (just like item drops do as better items are introduced)

Another possibility would be to create new craftable items with "mod sockets" on them. Crafters would be able to add or remove mod items to these sockets. Every time you attempt to add or remove a mod from an item, there's a chance it will be destroyed. If items are being created with too much power, applied mods could be given a lifecycle (accelerated by use), so players need to continually have their mods applied. Item repair could refresh the timers on mods to some extent. This is my preferred way of implementing a system like this because it would make decent items reasonably attainable AND it would re-create a crafter economy in UO. Rather than having players randomly roll mods on items, they collect appropriate resources and try to apply them to the item they want to apply it to. Also, I think the mods should have the mods applied to them from the trade window if possible or through some sort of "socket apply deed" like the item repair contracts. You don't want to create a system that encourages scammers

EDIT
I had some other things I thought I should mention to tie what I'm posting back in with the thread... in other words the "why I posted this"

A change as I'm suggesting here would effectively make treasure hunting a process of devouring all the items in a treasure chest (converting them into stackable mod items). The next step would be getting the mods distilled into higher intensity mods, which would reduce the mods down to a smaller number of stacks. From there, the treasure hunter can sell his distilled mods to crafters who in turn sell modded items or item modding services. So it's a basic idea with a far reaching impact and a permanent fix to treausre hunting. I firmly believe this idea would fix treasure hunting forever...

 

[Guest]

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T Hunting has two main dislikes for me:

-&gt; Scrolls
-&gt; Too many crappy items

If it is a 'treasure' chest it should have good things in it.

Why go through the bother to bury/hide a weapon with UBWS only on it?

My proposal:

1 - Remove all scrolls
2 - Reduce loot to 5 weapon/armor/jewels for low level and 20 for 6th level
3 - Mods on items should be similar to the max loot for the creatures that spawn. IE Level 6 should have high level (max mod 100% intensity) items found on ancient wyrms
4 - Introduce more 'tmap only' loot even if its just deco stuff. The candelabra is an example. Its an ok deco item and holds *some* value due to the fact you can only get through t-hunting.


That would be better. I hate sorting through so much junk and scrolls. Alot of times I grab the gold, mouse over a few items,and then remove the chest.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree about the scrolls. First of all, they are the best source of income off a chest.

Next, scrolls are useful in filling books. Which sell pretty well on my vendors.

To change chest up abit, I would do things like put special clothing (old-time designs and names on it), put 'ancient powerful weapons'- like a Silver Katana of Vanquishing- Demon Slayer.

I think an upgrade in the overall loot is needed, but I like the scrolls and regs in them.

 

[Guest]

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is the dev team planning on changing something to t-chests in some other way?...

[/ QUOTE ]

A monster balance/loot pass (including treasure hunting/fishing/etc.) is definitely something I'd like to see us do sooner rather than later, and I know I'm not the only one on the team that wants to see this *looks at Jeremy especially*.

(no promises)

This particular topic has came up frequently this past week. I have proposed budgeting time for this, we'll see what we can do. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, feel free to discuss your thoughts on this, and if you happen to come to the Jacksonville Townhall this weekend, talk to me in person

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I wasn't going to make the drive down there from South Carolina, but if I could get sometime or even in a small discussion group, chances are, I'll go.

Let me ask you this, would I stand a better chance of that or if I was to schedule time to come up to Fairfax, I have a weeks vacation week after next that I am not doing anything.

 

[imported_Lord GOD(GOD)]

I'd like to see several things done with maps.

A group map implemented, requiring say 5-20 people upon digging up the chest to complete a random champ spawn on the island. As this would probably be difficult to complete the chest loot would be relavent to the opposing group of whichever champ spawn it was. So if you spawned arachnid the chest loot would contain all the normal items but some/all of the weapons would be high level reptile slayers - maybe equivalent to a val hammer crafted item, including some new decorative items such as skulls of various monsters.

This wouldn't replace normal maps btw, it would be in addition to.

I'd also like to see collectable sets of named no property armor, which when you have the full suit can be turned in to a deed for a suit of armor (like the ones from the heritage tokens) but retaining the name 'A suit of Indestructible Armor Of Invulnerability' etc etc, as per the old names armor had. Possibly weapons too.

Useful alacrity scrolls added to the chest loot. (e.g. NOT item id/forensic)

The chest gold to be bumped to include the total level of monster gold available on the chest, effectively doubling it.

 

[Cybrdragon]

Replying to thread in general.

I don't really have any suggestions. I just wanted to say that I haven't really played my T-hunter in several years now in any meaningful way. I would definitely dust him off though if changes were made to bring the loot and experience up to date. I used to really enjoy T-hunting. Same goes for my fisher, but that's in a different thread.

To Leurocian: Some of the best/most creative additions to the game were done by you. I wish you had had the time to follow through more. I'm really glad that you're back with the team. I would love to see some more ideas like paragons and their martys. I suspect as lead designer, you may not have the time anymore to do such "quickie" additions to the game that you used to. Those were exciting days! Maybe you could still delegate some of the old ideas you had but didn't have time to implement? *crosses fingers*

 

[Guest]

What would be awesome is if treasure maps were just made ridiculously rare from now on. Legacy maps would still be able to be used but the same loot as before. New maps would be really rare drops but also would give better loot (not just a big with exactly 1000 * the level, a few gems, a library of scrolls and some useless weapons)

Need to have an incentive for newer players and lower level cartographers. How about Cartography influences your map's yield for good loot or increase in getting a map (cartographer tamer hybrid template. Easy with a soulstone.)

Scale the map's levels greater. So level 1 would still be pretty novice, but level 5 would be really really hard. Make the reward for the work you do worth having and not just a gold-farming exercise. How about putting a truely random loot pool in there.. MIBs too. MIBs could pull out things like cups or a table. Treasure loot could include mushrooms in the chest, or spawn around the dig site, strange flowers.. inside could be some connected bottle graphics or dirty plate graphics. Reuse some really quite awesome house additions. 9th anniversary items aren't really items, theyre just deeds that you can't position properly and aren't easy to store (white deed * 50?). Plus they are't exactly something you can pick up in-game from a renewable source.

Finally, its good that you could get some nice things from the magincia rubble but once you have a piece of rubble that looks like lumpy cake mix, you probably don't want any more. A diverse loot pool and unpredictable spawn would make it more interesting to do a treasure hunt. If you're bored you could think "I'm going to do a treasure hunt, I won't know what i'll get but its bound to be good".

Actually even better, rotate the loot pool. Maybe every day the loot pool randomises so that you won't always get a certain type of loot. So you won't always get cups and broken chairs but you might get some other weird and wonderful under-used graphics for a change. Or better still, have some human intervention, maybe so that every week or even month, certain items are added to the loot pool that might have some strange name or weird hue. This wouldn't even have to be an announced addition each time it happens, which would make the change of items and the full list of items purely speculative, generating discussion and debate on the forums even more. Items may be speculated as being very rare, or more common, or no longer obtainable. People would kill monsters to get more maps to try and get some named, hued, special graphic or special propertied item that may or may not exist tomorrow. Or maybe they will get a one-of-a-kind item that will only spawn once on a shard, or perhaps that item will never spawn at all. Maybe some new player will get it, not know what it is, and throw it away.

tl;dr - Any new addition or change will eventually get old. Content needs to be cycled and you should leave players more "in the dark" rather than feed them a list of what to get and how many things to kill to get it. Numbers, charts, facts, figures are all very informative but detract from the fun and exploration of the game.

 

[Guest]

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Simply put a 1% chance per chest level of having a Runic Kit spawn.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think that it is a bad idea to have the "chase" items for any system be something that can be obtained in other ways. Stacks of reagents are nice because they're sort of a universal resource that comes from many systems. Runics on the other hand are the one of the ultimate rewards of BODs/Heartwood ... if you add them (even the low end ones) to treasure chests, then you've weakened the attractiveness of those systems.

Assorted treasure hunting ideas:
1. reduce cartography requirements of chests: L1: 20 skill (so any unskilled humans can dig them up), L2: 40 skill, L3: 60 skill, L4: 80 skill, L5+: 100 skill.
2. have a small chance that a treasure chest will contain another map (based on cartography skill of treasure hunter ... think of it as something carved into the floor of the chest)
3. map fragments that can be collected and assembled like a large BOD, assembling either a special high-level map.
4. runes to secret locations.
5. antiques (actually, I think it would be cool if a small percentage of any IDOC loot, instead of dropping to the ground, went into a pool to be distributed amongst treasure chests).
6. cartography power scrolls


assorted other fishing ideas:
1. remove the shoes from deep water
2. reduce minimum fishing skill to pull up serpents: 50 for normal serpents, 65 for SOS bottles (but no ancient SOSes until 100) - there's a very long "dull" curve for starting fishers ... though I am split on this as a part of me likes the idea that you really have to be patient to fish.
3. a deep sea champion spawn (I'm sure there are some PvPers would be interested in an oceanic raid?)
4. have the fisherman's library collection accept anything "recovered from a shipwreck"
5. NPC ships (merchants, pirates, stranded civilians, ghost ships)
6. fishing powerscrolls (above 100, have a chance of fishing up kraken instead of serpents? Or a chance of better chests? Or more steaks per fish?)

 

[randommatter]

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First of all, thanks for the runic change...

I used to do t-maps for leather LRC and MR 2 armor, then compile LRC and Mana Regen suits and sell them off, plus I sold the rare occassional good piece of jewelry or weapon (very rare)...

So now that we can create LRC / MR suits with spined runic kits with relative ease, and craft uber weapons with bronze runic hammers, is the dev team planning on changing something to t-chests in some other way?...

Give me something. I don't care what. Brainstorm about it. Putting armor and weapons in a t-chest (or monster corpses for that matter) is a waste of my time now...

We've switched from relative balance (Start to Post Ren) to Monster Uber Loot with Crap Crafter stuff (ML Quest Item period to Pre Runic Change) to Crafted Uber stuff to Crap Monster Loot (Now)...

I guess this post is bigger than treasurehunting alone, but it's what I mainly do, so I'm fixating...

*prepares a sacrificial offering of a sheep in front of a Leurocian statue*

[/ QUOTE ]

I think a great idea would be to have 1 POWER SCROLL or 1 Stat Scoroll in the level5+ treasure chests. (Random drop just like a spawn). It would unlock a whole new world for trammalites, and give pvp'rs a reason to go to tram. It would also interupt the lock down that larger guilds have on scrolls.

Perhaps a bunch of loot, and level 2 has 105's, 3 110s, 4 has 115s , 5+ 120s... (But just a chance... like max intensity is 120, but you could end up with a 110).

Would be nice... After all, these are TREASURE CHESTS.... it only makes sense that someone LONG AGO BURIED TREASURES in them... treasures are not trinkets, they are riches, important items, and POWERFUL items...

Mull it over.

 

[Guest]

bump

 

[GarthGrey]

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First of all, thanks for the runic change...

I used to do t-maps for leather LRC and MR 2 armor, then compile LRC and Mana Regen suits and sell them off, plus I sold the rare occassional good piece of jewelry or weapon (very rare)...

So now that we can create LRC / MR suits with spined runic kits with relative ease, and craft uber weapons with bronze runic hammers, is the dev team planning on changing something to t-chests in some other way?...

Give me something. I don't care what. Brainstorm about it. Putting armor and weapons in a t-chest (or monster corpses for that matter) is a waste of my time now...

We've switched from relative balance (Start to Post Ren) to Monster Uber Loot with Crap Crafter stuff (ML Quest Item period to Pre Runic Change) to Crafted Uber stuff to Crap Monster Loot (Now)...

I guess this post is bigger than treasurehunting alone, but it's what I mainly do, so I'm fixating...

*prepares a sacrificial offering of a sheep in front of a Leurocian statue*

[/ QUOTE ]

I think a great idea would be to have 1 POWER SCROLL or 1 Stat Scoroll in the level5+ treasure chests. (Random drop just like a spawn). It would unlock a whole new world for trammalites, and give pvp'rs a reason to go to tram. It would also interupt the lock down that larger guilds have on scrolls.

Perhaps a bunch of loot, and level 2 has 105's, 3 110s, 4 has 115s , 5+ 120s... (But just a chance... like max intensity is 120, but you could end up with a 110).

Would be nice... After all, these are TREASURE CHESTS.... it only makes sense that someone LONG AGO BURIED TREASURES in them... treasures are not trinkets, they are riches, important items, and POWERFUL items...

Mull it over.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice idea, but the Feluccans will probably want them to spawn in Felucca chests only, so they can camp those sites and pick off the hunters and call it Risk vs Reward.

 

[Guest]

OOOOO I like that map fragments idea.

Also occurred to me that it would entertaining if the chests drop a random piece of a much larger item. Something not unlike the collectors quest statues, only for something larger that when finally its like one of the museum statues.. just more like life-sized.

 

[Guest]

Treasure hunting was always one of my favorite things to do. I would milk the spawn (keep some treasure in the box to keep critters spawning). Also take everything! I would put the scrolls in my blank spell books and would end up with most of the higher levels filled, it made it much easier for my scribe to finish off the books. The gems and unneeded scrolls would get sold to the Haven banker (he would buy anything). I don't know about the new Haven banker.

Treasure hunting is great, I just miss Haven.

 

[LAH Architect]

Random chance for a piece of Magincia Rubble to spawn in T-Chest.

Background Story :

An infamous gang of ninja stealther pirates that used to throng the waters of Magincia procured a huge amount of Rubble during the deamon invasion and made off in their ships, hiding them in chests scattered throughout the lands. Their hope is that with time, these rubble pieces will become very valuable collectibles for the rich.

Chance of Rubble in chest :

LvL 1 : 1%
LvL 2 : 2%
LvL 3 : 3%
LvL 4 : 4%
LvL 5 : 6%
LvL 6 : 10%

Types of rubble varies from the super wide spectrum available and it will always be a surprise : will it be another plant , some dirt, a rock, a fern or a PALM TREE ??? A broken chair, a firepit ?

A hardcore group of players level farming Miasma endlessly for LvL 6 paragon chests (LvL 6 map inside) gets 200 chests in 24 hours, they may get 20 rubble (after digging up 200 nos. LvL 6 maps) but these can be worthless pieces to very valuable pieces. Some newer players will rejoice anyway just to get by themselves whatever rubble. Add tag on rubble to include "rubble : recovered by xxxxxx player" .

Magincia Daemon Invasion spawned 10,000 pieces of rubble conservatively per shard. Say new rubble spawning via T-map system nets a busy shard 25 rubble per day (250 lvl 6 t-hunts per day done) , this system can last :

So that will take 10,000 / 25 = 400 days ( more than 1 year ) to match the Magincia Invasion Rubble given out in 1 month's span.

 

[Guest]

Since changing PS drops is very controversial, what about Scrolls of Alacrity? They are so new, I don't think many ppl are married to their drop system.

I like the map fragment idea.

Mavar

 

[LeBaiton]

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What would be awesome is if treasure maps were just made ridiculously rare from now on. Legacy maps would still be able to be used but the same loot as before. New maps would be really rare drops but also would give better loot (not just a big with exactly 1000 * the level, a few gems, a library of scrolls and some useless weapons)

[/ QUOTE ]I too would like to see t-maps be more rare again, reflecting their change (provided Leurocian manages to get it on the agenda)...

My proposal: Before implementing new t-map rarity, patch the servers and change each and all existing t-maps (banks, stored in houses, in character's backpack, vendors) to a decoded and completed status (this would mean they could still be turned in at the Library for points! Just make sure to exclude current rares: youthful t-maps, ilshenar t-maps!!)

Then:

- Remove t-maps level 1 to 3 from the lichs in that little poisoned room in Doom.
- Change the Hag's quest t-map levels 1 to 4 to only give 3, 4 or 5's in Trammel, and 4, 5 or 6's in Felucca* (this will require a change so that you won't be able to do the quest chain in Tram, then recall to the Hag in Fel to turn it in).
- Keep t-maps drops in Puzzle Chests in Khaldun, but change it from possible 1 to 5 to 3, 4, 5 and 6* only. You're in a dangerous place, leave out level 1 and 2 maps please.
- Make t-map drops on monsters a lot more rare.

* = There currently is no way of getting a level 6 map for Felucca. All level 6 maps are for Trammel only...

This change will make t-maps rare at the start of things, but this will pick up after a while. You'd get rid of old stock, I personally have 1400 maps in storage at the moment, would love to get rid of them if the change means we get something we can work with. I.e. giving t-hunters a viable future...

Fishing will still be a good way to get level 1 maps. Throwing fishing nets will still be a good source to get level 1 and level 2 maps. Hag quest for 3, 4 and 5. Fel Hag for possible 6's. Khaldun for 3 to 6. All map giving monsters for all other types...

[edit]: Altered my suggestions...

[edit 2]: Removed the "remove maps from paragon chests" suggestion due to an oversight from my part...

 

[Guest]

WHOA!So I should lose all my maps just because of a new system coming in? No Way. Right now I am not doing a lot of maps. That doesn't mean all the ones I currently have should be made useless. Donating them to the library currently is useless to me. That would mean I lose several hundred maps, that makes no sense at all. And changing the map loot level to a specific land I don't like either. Sorry but you lost me on this idea. Normally I agree with your new ideas but I can't go along with these. I shoulsn't have to start collecting maps all over again just because of a request to upgrade the loot. I don't play fel because I don't want to. I shouldn't be forced to play there to get maps I can already get elsewhere. I don't see the need to be required to play in Fel to get higher level maps just to enjoy the T hunter character. The land division is there for a reason some people don't like to pley Fel. Leave it that way.

 

[LeBaiton]

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And changing the map loot level to a specific land I don't like either. Sorry but you lost me on this idea.

[/ QUOTE ]I didn't propose higher levels in Fel only, Duncan. I think you've misread my post, or skimmed it too fast...

Felucca currently has no level 6 maps in place. But now that you mention it, if they remove maps from paragon chests, that would mean no more Trammel level 6 maps, so I guess that wouldn't be a good change. That was an oversight from my part, and I'll edit that out...

Truth is, it's so easy to get t-maps at the moment, it's rather ridiculous. I can collect a bag full of level 1 to 3 maps from just the liches in Doom (guaranteed map every corpse) in a limited ammount of time. I can do the Hag quest and get a guaranteed map level 1 to 4 everytime I complete the quest. I can go hunt paragons and every paragon box will have a t-map level 1 to 6...

All I'm saying is, if they tackle the system and change it to yield possibly good items, or t-hunting specific items, you can't neglect the old ways of gathering t-maps...

 

[Guest]

This is what I was referring to
"Change the Hag's quest t-map levels 1 to 4 to only give 3, 4 or 5's in Trammel, and 4, 5 or 6's in Felucca* (this will require a change so that you won't be able to do the quest chain in Tram, then recall to the Hag in Fel to turn it in).
"

I do agree that it seems too easy to get some maps. I have yet to get one from a para, but then I haven't killed that many. Equalizing level 6's on both facets is a good idea. I just really don't want to lose all my current maps.