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Halloween Celebrations
- Thread starter Selene
- Start date
Whatever98
Squire
in fact, to make it a more accurate representation, and give you a better understanding of the alternative perspective, i'll also punch you in the face repeatedly whilst you try to solve it.
oh, and the answer is also invisible, because you have your GFX settings wrong
have fun
otimpyre
Sorceror
Maybe next year they can make a kiddie section in halloweentown with big red flashing arrows that say this way for rares. Call it mongbat city or something and every mongbat drops noobie tickets. Then they could have a prize counter where you can turn noobie tickets in for rares. This will also free up halloween town for seasoned vets who look forward to this event each year. I miss halloweentown already.
Whatever98
Squire
you know T2A had some puzzle type things too.
wonder how you could figure those out... oh look, what's *this* < link
well how amazing, an entire website, aimed at guiding you through uo! you'd have thought people would want to explore this stuff, that's where the fun is after all! but only for other people ehy mate?
all those vets that look forward to halloween must be sooo unhappy they cant explore it all again
where as all the people who dont know, and say "fk halloween town" those people have a great time exploring!
if you cant tell, this is sarcasm -_-'
tbh i've been to halloween town for the last 3 or so years, and i never even knew there was more of it than the first area, but it didn't matter so much, because the drops in the first area weren't that bad.
this year there seemed to be no drops at all outside the inner stuff. i know someone is saying they got something from a mongbat, but i killed a LOT of stuff, and only got two crappy pieces of obsideon, which i then lost from a badly designed deathtrap secret door, which opened for some unknown reason, then wouldn't let me back in, after i had no choice but to run through lava, because i fell off a bridge, and couldn't recall from the area, and im not a mage to teleport over it. so yeah, im pissed off at stuff being made only for specific types of character, and only for specific groups of people.
i dont understand why you guys are so defensive about it, and so convinced that nothing is wrong. could it be that the player base you are not making content for has left the server already. that the stuff is beneficial to the remaining players, and thats why they dont want it changed?
wonder how you could figure those out... oh look, what's *this* < link
well how amazing, an entire website, aimed at guiding you through uo! you'd have thought people would want to explore this stuff, that's where the fun is after all! but only for other people ehy mate?
all those vets that look forward to halloween must be sooo unhappy they cant explore it all again
where as all the people who dont know, and say "fk halloween town" those people have a great time exploring!
if you cant tell, this is sarcasm -_-'
tbh i've been to halloween town for the last 3 or so years, and i never even knew there was more of it than the first area, but it didn't matter so much, because the drops in the first area weren't that bad.
this year there seemed to be no drops at all outside the inner stuff. i know someone is saying they got something from a mongbat, but i killed a LOT of stuff, and only got two crappy pieces of obsideon, which i then lost from a badly designed deathtrap secret door, which opened for some unknown reason, then wouldn't let me back in, after i had no choice but to run through lava, because i fell off a bridge, and couldn't recall from the area, and im not a mage to teleport over it. so yeah, im pissed off at stuff being made only for specific types of character, and only for specific groups of people.
i dont understand why you guys are so defensive about it, and so convinced that nothing is wrong. could it be that the player base you are not making content for has left the server already. that the stuff is beneficial to the remaining players, and thats why they dont want it changed?
Phelon
Knight
Deathdragon71785
Sorceror
Look this is simple. the people that are greatly against a change at this point are the ones that are greatly profiting from it...
Not every one is disabled, stay-at-home parents, Soho's, unemployed, or other. Not every one has time to sit on there ass in front of the computer like some of the people that are commenting against this guy and me. you wanna sit there and comment about this but some people achieved stuff way to fast and it looks like some one knew more then they let on on alot of item and locations. Rates should have been adjusted regardless. whats the point of the free sever but to make money off donations , how do ya do that? hmmm getting more people on here or keeping them on here? cant keep noobs if they cant get shit or even middle class stuff from a event.
Not every one is disabled, stay-at-home parents, Soho's, unemployed, or other. Not every one has time to sit on there ass in front of the computer like some of the people that are commenting against this guy and me. you wanna sit there and comment about this but some people achieved stuff way to fast and it looks like some one knew more then they let on on alot of item and locations. Rates should have been adjusted regardless. whats the point of the free sever but to make money off donations , how do ya do that? hmmm getting more people on here or keeping them on here? cant keep noobs if they cant get shit or even middle class stuff from a event.
Deathdragon71785
Sorceror
otim, i do have alot of respect for ya i really do but you are getting alot outta this year so it would greatly affect you if you was looking to sell items later on as well as you april, Das3 i dont know who you are but i would suggest you try it from a 5x gm char before going off and talking all that.
I AM TALKING ABOUT A RE BALANCING OF THIS
I AM TALKING ABOUT A RE BALANCING OF THIS
das3
Sorceror
Exactly. And we/I am are finding the stuff just the same now. Except I heal more now, stop hitting a mob now and then to wait out blood oath / Remove Curse or click my remove curse talisman and... well, usually doing it with more LMC now too. And luck. Or a 6 focus. Still have to find some good keybinds for those spellweaving spells tho. And always forgetting to restock on pots. Not used to those radiant scimitars yet. Well, that's all about those monster 'buffs' I can think of.
Yep. Who likes to to stand around for 3 hours pounding at a mob. Or carrying 2k arrows around to pepper a boss with.
With none about to poke fun at. Or laugh at when they die. Or have my back and I theirs.
Booooring. And then, at 1/4 health a bunch of zerglings show up (Cause you know, you only have to deal 1/16 of the damage the top damager did to get a chance on shinies. At least when the mob is over 6000HP. Smart f**kers). Makes me feel dirty. I don't like that. But willing to do it anyway if I want the shinies.
I know the sense of accomplishment that comes with that new corpse name popping up. SOLOED! Ummm, are you playing a tamer by any chance? Yeah, that's not soloing.
Lone wolf. BTDT
Projecting much? And BS. There's 3 bosses in the outside area, all drop rewards. They even bumped up Peinsleuths drops. (Oh IC, and I'm not allowed to have a vendor named Kuntz. And Moody. Pfff) There's Grimm on the pumpkin fields. Drops.
You even don't have to kill a single mob in that area to get something!
Yay, seems you have taken up my advice on leading by example. I'm kinda proud now.
Again, that's the peoples fault and no way H-Towns. But I'm kinda getting an idea why none is talking to you. Ok, I am getting annoyed. This is probably the last post I'm directing at you.
Hard, meh. And doing it alone... I guess there comes a time for all of us where one has to reconsider the MM in MMORPG.
There're ways tho. Honor for some dexxer types. Ethereal Voyage, Invisibility, smart luring, red lining but those things will get you only that far. To a quick death and/or the realization: some things aren't meant to be done alone.
I'd call that 'clever'. A nice easter egg. *shrug*
EDIT: Oh story line. Forget it. H-Town is still optional tho'
I don't know... if your CoT is screenwide I can see a problem (or more like can't. Everythings gone with a setting like that). I have CoT always on and not having a single problem 'finding' the entrances. It actually helps having CoT on.
Hypothesis: I dare you to find a lit candle in a dark room. With tied eyes. And soaked in gasoline. I'd give you 50-50.
Of course I'm arguing from my perspective. Do I have any other. And I don't care enough about other people or their opinions to be a hypocrite. I think. It's self deception if it's anything. But hey, I wouldn't know, would I?
Take it or leave it. Believe it or not. I'm done leveling Compassion on you. And only you.
Whatever98
Squire
trying to understand you is a puzzle in itself
yes this is an mmo, but it's a true mmo, where players are supposed to take the roles of NPCs, so shop keepers, blacksmiths, fishermen, etc, are all players. it is not a WoW style mmo, where players make a party and run an instance -_-'
being a lone wolf in UO is perfectly acceptable, or at least it should be. that's why uo is such a great game, because it gives players OPTIONS.
and if you're thinking of champ spawns as an example, the original designer of the champ spawns is one of the main guys that designed WoW, the game that is responsible for killing the entire MMORPG genre (f'kin hate WoW...)
You have not even started on the path of this Virtue.
Phelon
Knight
das3
Sorceror
Agree. Some parts need a fine tuning. Do they need dumbing down? Don't think so.
A newbie area. I'm all for that. Problem is: It's easy, it gives rewards, people (and for the most part not those this was intended for; I'm talking capped) will farm this 27/4. Nothing won there.
Thing is, UO is a MMORPG. There aught to be a moment when a player needs to team up (Gank anyone?) be it vet or newbie to accomplish anything.
And if that moment/time is that of October, I'm fine with that. Fine too if staff finds a way to cater to everybodys need too (Bahahaha. Yeah, right
). Or if vets get off their asses and/or high horses and take care of a poor newbie sod. That's fine too. I don't want to bore you with another of my anecdotes, let's just say I did my part and that's one of the primary reasons I enjoyed this years halloween events. Oh and yeah, I got a second trash barrel for my house. That rocks too.
Phelon
Knight
Whatever98
Squire
right, lets get away from this bickering, and give some actual feed back.
i really like the staff here, and i appreciate you guys putting in the time and effort to create these events for us, but in my professional opinion as a qualified games designer, and a 9(ish) year demise veteran, there are some simple tweaks that should be done to make them much more fun and to give access to the content you have created to a much wider audience.
1. either the clues are too difficult to figure out, are not apparent enough, or the entrances to the areas are too well hidden.
- call me a dumbass, call me impatient, whatever, i don't care, the fact of the matter is that most of your players are not finding most of your content. use bread crumbing, use funneling, use sign posting.
your job as a content designer is not to make the content as hard to find as possible, but to lead the player to it covertly. they should be effectively led down a path, but not realize they are being led. exactly the same as a good film or book will show you things about characters, but should never state them directly, they are telling you important plot information, they're just doing it covertly. failing this (because i know it actually is difficult to do effectively, that's why people are paid to do it in the industry), put up some kind of guide, the place is years old now, there are people who have fully explored it and have profited greatly from it, there is no benefit in keeping the content exclusive to them anymore, when the incentive to explore it through trial and error has decayed, and the difficulty has increased.
2. create scaling difficulty of monsters and appropriate drops. you could have used the same items as are gained from trick of treating for the lower level monsters. that is enough incentive for people to farm low monsters, and they have the OPTION of how they wish to gain those items. meanwhile further into the dungeons, better items drop, this should have at least 4 tiers of difficulty and item drops, different item drops for each tier. players can fight at their appropriate level, and get items which they can use, keep, or sell.
3. use monsters that are food for various classes. as many players as possible should be able to take part in the event, regardless of what class they are, there should be something for them to kill, and something they should avoid/have some challenge with.
(i even took my fisher through and tried fishing the lake, to no avail)
4. TEST TEST TEST. if you're using puzzles, get a staff member that hasn't taken part in building the puzzle to then have a go at it, see how long it takes them to figure it out. if it's too long, add some breadcrumbs, change the intractable object to something more prominent, make the clue clearer, or the monsters harder/weaker, or the spawn faster/slower. it's a fine balance to make things fun and work as desired; games companies hire about 10 times as many quality assurance testers as they do designers and programmers because this is an extremely important part of the design process.
5. the drop rates were reduced this year, and tbh i didn't mind that so much, i like the rarity of items to be kept intact. but when people are losing hope of ever getting anything, and are leaving... that's too much :/
again something which can be fine tuned with testing.
i really like the staff here, and i appreciate you guys putting in the time and effort to create these events for us, but in my professional opinion as a qualified games designer, and a 9(ish) year demise veteran, there are some simple tweaks that should be done to make them much more fun and to give access to the content you have created to a much wider audience.
1. either the clues are too difficult to figure out, are not apparent enough, or the entrances to the areas are too well hidden.
- call me a dumbass, call me impatient, whatever, i don't care, the fact of the matter is that most of your players are not finding most of your content. use bread crumbing, use funneling, use sign posting.
your job as a content designer is not to make the content as hard to find as possible, but to lead the player to it covertly. they should be effectively led down a path, but not realize they are being led. exactly the same as a good film or book will show you things about characters, but should never state them directly, they are telling you important plot information, they're just doing it covertly. failing this (because i know it actually is difficult to do effectively, that's why people are paid to do it in the industry), put up some kind of guide, the place is years old now, there are people who have fully explored it and have profited greatly from it, there is no benefit in keeping the content exclusive to them anymore, when the incentive to explore it through trial and error has decayed, and the difficulty has increased.
2. create scaling difficulty of monsters and appropriate drops. you could have used the same items as are gained from trick of treating for the lower level monsters. that is enough incentive for people to farm low monsters, and they have the OPTION of how they wish to gain those items. meanwhile further into the dungeons, better items drop, this should have at least 4 tiers of difficulty and item drops, different item drops for each tier. players can fight at their appropriate level, and get items which they can use, keep, or sell.
3. use monsters that are food for various classes. as many players as possible should be able to take part in the event, regardless of what class they are, there should be something for them to kill, and something they should avoid/have some challenge with.
(i even took my fisher through and tried fishing the lake, to no avail)
4. TEST TEST TEST. if you're using puzzles, get a staff member that hasn't taken part in building the puzzle to then have a go at it, see how long it takes them to figure it out. if it's too long, add some breadcrumbs, change the intractable object to something more prominent, make the clue clearer, or the monsters harder/weaker, or the spawn faster/slower. it's a fine balance to make things fun and work as desired; games companies hire about 10 times as many quality assurance testers as they do designers and programmers because this is an extremely important part of the design process.
5. the drop rates were reduced this year, and tbh i didn't mind that so much, i like the rarity of items to be kept intact. but when people are losing hope of ever getting anything, and are leaving... that's too much :/
again something which can be fine tuned with testing.
das3
Sorceror
You have not even started on the path of this Virtue.
Leaving it at that and staying on topic.
If you want me to fling some poo at you in private, send me a PM.
das3
Sorceror
I dare you folks calling him anything! That's my job! From now on and forever more I shall call you... whatever.
*cough* Professional. *cough* Qualified. *cough* Job *choke* Right off the bat I see a 'problem'. Well, Demise staff are volunteers. Unpaid. AFAIK. I don't think I need to point out any finer points than new content (new event area) or testing to underline the unfairness of drawing comparisons between a professional business and a volunteer project (I'm kinda bumped you'd even do that. Or not know that). It's about manpower and time mostly.
Things get worse with your inside view. However, none is gonna run any DB queries for spawned items etc for you here (or is there?!), so you're off basing your arguments on (IMO biased) personal experience and assumptions (I didn't experience any decrease in drops. The 'public' bosses, mind you).
Which brings me to the next point: intend. Your pro tuned mind is aiming at a 'player base'. I'd put you on the idealistic part of the pro-idealist scale, so you're aiming at the whole population. Demise events have always been on the tougher side. Pink Harrower of Love? Should ring a bell. Maybe Demise IS catering vets with those events. Cause it's 95% of the population (I'm pulling this number out of my buttock)?
Personally, I think it's a mix of laziness, lack of time, motivation and ideas; and part overlook, that the halloween events been what its been. I'd put 90% on lack of * and 10% on overlook, tho I think the changes in difficulty are negligible and concerning one area (the crypts, western part) only anyway. Negligible cause Demise had time to get accustomed to casting necros and nothing really changed in the crypts from my perspective (That's two years old. Haven't been around for a year).
You've hit the nail on the head with your sarcasm in one of your previous posts: I'd love to have a new (event) area to explore. Drops: I don't care. Difficulty: Give me plenty. If it's too much I'll roam around there anyway, cause you know, there are OPTIONS.
But I know this is a huge time/manpower investment so it probably won't happen. If there is anything I would have done different this year... make the area a non-logout area. And add stealables to the mix.
