Feedback on new areas:

LONOmakesWAR · Post by **LONOmakesWAR** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:09 am

Lets give the builders some feedback on the new areas

After my first trip out there i must say I love the new exterior areas and the road had a nice flow to it that made you feel like you had traveled a great distance.

The town is great and has a unique feel to it, it was easy to RP an exploration because there was much to see and investigate. Even if the DM hadnt provided some entertainment there was plenty of IC info to dig up.

I havent noticed any major bugs or typos or anything yet, but hey nothing wrong with all positive feedback right?

papaya taco · Post by **papaya taco** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:24 am

Constructive Criticism - The Maw:
*Laugrim is ridiculously huge. I'd like to recommend adjusting his scale ratio in the downwards direction.
*Scalps being miscellaneous items instead of miscellaneous stackables makes for a cluttered inventory.
*I can't seem to HIPS from anything out there. This might be because I'm a noob shadowdancer, but even the men-at-arms - fighters - were spotting me with ease.
*The risk vs. reward ratio is very poor. I get more xp per kill in the Tower, better and much more frequent loot, can salvage a few traps, and it's a whole lot easier. Are those adamantine weapons the Maw spawns are using...? My view on difficulty might be a little skewed, as it was my first time there, and I was a solo ranger. I didn't manage to finish the quests, either, as I had to turn back due to exhausting all my healing supplies. I did kill Laugrim, though. That was cool.

Happy Thoughts:
*Scalp quest a la Baldur's Gate? <3
*Spawns that spawn far away enough so I can actually Track them? <3
*New content <3

Starkwold · Post by **Starkwold** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:50 am

papaya taco wrote:Constructive Criticism - The Maw:
*Laugrim is ridiculously huge. I'd like to recommend adjusting his scale ratio in the downwards direction.

I have no problems scaling him down, if that's the consensus. I wanted something large and terrifying.

*Scalps being miscellaneous items instead of miscellaneous stackables makes for a cluttered inventory.

There is a bug right now with stackable items and quests that require a certain number of them that has kept me from using them. Until then, it must be misc thin.

*I can't seem to HIPS from anything out there. This might be because I'm a noob shadowdancer, but even the men-at-arms - fighters - were spotting me with ease.

The Bandits and the Korgov Men-At-Arms are very alert. This may be changed if it becomes a problem.

*The risk vs. reward ratio is very poor. I get more xp per kill in the Tower, better and much more frequent loot, can salvage a few traps, and it's a whole lot easier. Are those adamantine weapons the Maw spawns are using...? My view on difficulty might be a little skewed, as it was my first time there, and I was a solo ranger. I didn't manage to finish the quests, either, as I had to turn back due to exhausting all my healing supplies. I did kill Laugrim, though. That was cool.

This all depends on your level. The Thoroughfare Coast was designed to be a hunting area. The bandits are relatively easy to kill and warrant conservative amounts of XP. They pack a punch, though, and should be approached cautiously. Every bandit drops a scalp. You may want to consider the reward that scalp gives you, and factor that into your assessment.

*Scalp quest a la Baldur's Gate? <3

papaya taco · Post by **papaya taco** » Mon May 07, 2007 8:10 am

I have no problems scaling him down, if that's the consensus. I wanted something large and terrifying.

I recommend setting him to troll height or a bit higher. Right now he looks like a giant, angry anorexic. Increasing his girth might help, too.

Edit:
Also I was complaining about the difficulty of the things past the bandits. They're okay - I think. Their weaponry just threw me off a bit.

A few issues with the new content. This might not be the right spot, but it'll be seen here:
Tasha's not taking her rattle. It's still in my inventory even though I gave it to her.
You can't turn in bandit scalps until you kill Laugwart or whatever his name is.

Further edit:
Aucklorn Mill is beautiful.

Stormknife · Post by **Stormknife** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:16 pm

The Bandits and the Korgov Men-At-Arms are very alert. This may be changed if it becomes a problem.

I think it may be a miscellaneous bug with HiPS itself. Hannah tried activating it in front of Draco (0 ranks in Spot, but I did have see invis running) and he could still see her.

I don't know if the rusalka is on the day/night timer out there or not, but she was only there once when I headed out to the lake.

kikkelipoika · Post by **kikkelipoika** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:26 pm

as with most other quests, the new ones seem to have very crappy xp rewards. These new quests seem to degenerate the new content to new grinding areas, which is a shame, for the areas themself look very cool. Dasaria is in dire need of non-farming quests, to make it possible to get levels without farming and grinding all the damn time. If i liked grinding and farming, I would never have quited WoW. I haven't found any new dungeons yet, so my judgement on whether i'm disappointed or delighted isn't at all final.

Wyvern · Post by **Wyvern** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:42 pm

To earn 190,000 xp, you are never going to escape from a certain amount of grinding. It is the nature of the beast. What helps break it up is engaging dialogue in the form of quests, preferably multi-part that encourages you to explore. This is achieved by simply adding more and more quests, something that we are trying to do. Dasaria 2 has already surpassed Dasaria 1 as far as actual number of quests go believe it or not so I do believe we are on the correct path. Unfortunately some of those will have an element of grinding however. But some people do enjoy that. Personally, while I enjoy just going out and killing stuff, I would love to see the day where we have enough quest content that enables you to get to 20th. But that is a lofty dream, but it is worth aiming for, even if we never reach it.

kikkelipoika · Post by **kikkelipoika** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:17 pm

The problem i have is that leveling feels too much like work. Leveling should be something you don't even notice, like an added bonus to the content that is awesome all by itself. Now most of the quest content is just means to an end. Besides, RPing a reason to clear a specific dungeon the eleventh time is hard as hell to do credibly. The goal should always be the content that becomes available after certain quests, not leveling up. Ofcourse if people level up too fast it's very stupid also. The difficulty is in making enough content to support non-grinding playstyles, and the amount of work required is enormous (which is why i'm not really expecting it to happen). Anyway, i hope you get some additional talented designers in the future.

And about grinding being fun, i'm not really sure how anyone can say that. I'm still having nightmares about my wow days.

papaya taco · Post by **papaya taco** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:23 pm

There's a certain kind of satisfaction in obliterating your enemies.

Maybe not 100 times in a row, but the first few times, it's there.

kikkelipoika · Post by **kikkelipoika** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:26 pm

papaya taco wrote:Maybe not 100 times in a row, but the first few times, it's there.

and that's exactly why i hate grinding

Stormknife · Post by **Stormknife** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:30 pm

I'm not a huge fan of grinding. There's times I love it, there's times I hate it.

I'm glad that the option is there though. Dungeons are great, but you don't always have the option of getting a party together. Grinding lets you level up without having to worry about that.

Vay · Post by **Vay** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:39 pm

kikkelipoika wrote:The problem i have is that leveling feels too much like work. Leveling should be something you don't even notice, like an added bonus to the content that is awesome all by itself. Now most of the quest content is just means to an end.

Open up the toolset and make it better. I'm sure everyone's just forgetting to click the magic "don't make this quest feel like work" button on their mods.

Seriously... I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, but it takes TONS of work, thought, and trial and error to make new content for a PW. On top of that, throw "appealing to multiple players' play-styles" into the mix, and it's damn near impossible to please everyone. Everyone on the building team has been and still is busting their asses to make new content for our entertainment with NO COMPENSATION. I'd say given those circumstances, everything that has come to this PW (and to Das 1, for that matter) is freakin' amazing.

kikkelipoika wrote:And about grinding being fun, i'm not really sure how anyone can say that. I'm still having nightmares about my wow days.

Again... different strokes for different folks. This isn't WOW. Period. Likening this server to that is not a very good way to show appreciation to the DM staff or the builders.

kikkelipoika · Post by **kikkelipoika** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:27 pm

Vay wrote:
kikkelipoika wrote:The problem i have is that leveling feels too much like work. Leveling should be something you don't even notice, like an added bonus to the content that is awesome all by itself. Now most of the quest content is just means to an end.
Open up the toolset and make it better. I'm sure everyone's just forgetting to click the magic "don't make this quest feel like work" button on their mods.

Seriously... I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, but it takes TONS of work, thought, and trial and error to make new content for a PW. On top of that, throw "appealing to multiple players' play-styles" into the mix, and it's darn near impossible to please everyone. Everyone on the building team has been and still is busting their asses to make new content for our entertainment with NO COMPENSATION. I'd say given those circumstances, everything that has come to this PW (and to Das 1, for that matter) is freakin' amazing.

kikkelipoika wrote:And about grinding being fun, i'm not really sure how anyone can say that. I'm still having nightmares about my wow days.
Again... different strokes for different folks. This isn't WOW. Period. Likening this server to that is not a very good way to show appreciation to the DM staff or the builders.

why the hostile tone my friend?

Minuvas · Post by **Minuvas** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:45 pm

I really liked the Thoroughfare, the path and the wilderness felt very Romanesque.

My only concern is that as the areas seem to extend further, and further out...the Generic spawn point is still in The Mistyvale. Simple travels are becoming tedious especially after restarts or server crashes.

Do we have any chance of looking at persistent spawn points for the future?

Post by **Vahene** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:47 pm

Dungeons are great, but you don't always have the option of getting a party together. Grinding lets you level up without having to worry about that.

I agree.

Anyone that knows me OOC also knows that I absolutely DESPISE grinding.. primarily because I solo my characters as much as I can, and when you do that, it is absolutely unavoidable. In fact, I have to be in a mood to hunt, otherwise, I'll just stand around and RP for hours on end.

Grinding allows you to get ahead, and trust me, in Das1, you had to grind in certain areas.. case in point: beetles. I still have nightmares, but I'd love to see them transplanted into Das2. If I could figure out how to actually create an area (and no, I haven't been in game for the past few days to see the new updates before anyone asks), then we would have beetles submitted.

Personally, I'd like to see multiple options for every age group, so that if you did want to solo, you could. Das1, you could solo with most professions until about level 15 or so, in which it was beneficial to group especially if you were going to koa'lisks (think "lizards from hell", also something i'd like to see back).

And if we're going to compare NWN2 to WOW .. let's compare it to something that actually fits the definition of grinding: Everquest.

K