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Main Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Letsplayforfun on September 23, 2008, 11:00:59 AM

Title: Loot power
Post by: Letsplayforfun on September 23, 2008, 11:00:59 AM
Quote from: Thomas_Not_very_wise;88664I wish it was more common.

I also wish to point out that the loot power in this setting is 3 times more powerful than what it had been in the underdark.

I tend to agree with this, but a little feedback on this topic would be interesting.

What's the general feeling about it? Do you agree? If so do you like it or not? And for DMs: is it intended?
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Post by: Egon the Monkey on September 23, 2008, 01:30:19 PM
There's a lot of 1/day stuff going round, more so than before, when all that was really common was the Vomit Rat summon pipes.

However, there seems to be less unconditional stealth gear going round than before, or maybe I'm noticing less.
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Post by: Yalta on September 23, 2008, 01:36:43 PM
Not sure i do agree. I have seen plenty of 1/day items but most of the enchantments are weak/useless and are often found in the trash.
 
I have seen plenty of charged items but often they are attached to heavy items, meaning its only practical for most PC's to carry one around.
 
Also whilst charged items are more frequent, coin is a lot less frequent. Most new EFU-A characters have a lot less than they did as new PC's in EFU, from what i have seen.
 
With the only trader giving 12gp per item i can see this staying that way. In EFU if you did a 4-5 quests around Sanctuary with a small group and got a fair share you would have plenty of coin (1000+) in a couple of resets of the server. Here you may have next to no coin after a week+ of playing.
 
I would urge a bit of wait and see from the DM's. Give it a couple of weeks. If things are getting loot crazy then turn down the rewards, if not it can be left as is.
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Post by: Oskar Maxon on September 23, 2008, 04:11:02 PM
I think it's good that the coin is low, as it reflects the setting better. Many items are "better", thought, but the are also a lot of more flavourful items. I've noticed a lot of items giving more skill point bonuses than before, and thought this is powerful, I think it's a good thing. I remember when I started playing Riddle on efu, focusing on the conversation skills and likewise, and getting a +1 Persuade/Intimidate/Bluff item was a good thing if it did not have any penalties. Now I find items with +2, +3, +4 between the three skills quite often. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but generally, the more flavour of the items makes me tend to it being a good change.

What's really good is that when you arrive that +1 dmg club/sword/axe whatever is actually usable, and you'll likely be keeping it for awhile, not having an enchanted one two days later.
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Post by: lovethesuit on September 23, 2008, 04:17:34 PM
Loot? Absolutely, EfU would never have stood for this. Maybe there's a reason there's so much good stuff and so little gold, however. I know of at least three relatively common items that have 10+ charges of Grace/Strength/Endurance, and I know a very easy place to get an item with around 8 charges of Ghostly Visage. Bonuses to intimidate are very common on almost every item I see, almost as if Ymph were saying "Well I'm not the Underdark, but I can be scary too! Look, skulls on my amulets!" Not to say it -isn't- scary, but I find anthropomorphizing my surroundings to be very enjoyable.

It's been said before by player and DM alike, but the consumable "bloat" from EfU is gone. People struggle and fight over these items, rather than simply pooling 3000 coins and spending them on an assortment of potions. It makes a lot more sense to the setting, and makes even a paltry 10 coins very valuable. What I like the most about the powerful loot is that everybody has access to it, and nobody is higher up than anyone else; really, we're all scrounging in the dirt.

Why contain it? It's cool.
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Post by: petey512 on September 23, 2008, 04:45:26 PM
I do like the improved loot.... but purchasing healing is a pain in the butt. Every time my character gets poisoned I have to give up an entire weeks worth of gold. The vermin infested tower was a good place to get healing gear.... until recently.... perhaps someone complained that healing rods were much too common. I think it would be cooler if the magical items became more of a currency than the actual gold.
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Post by: Howlando on September 23, 2008, 05:31:16 PM
EFU ambient loot was almost exclusively for the trash.

EFUA ambient loot tends to be more useful.

But I would definitely say that the loot in EFU was much higher than in EFUA, at least for those characters that did the harder quests. In EFU there were plenty of characters with maxed out AC and saves in the mid-teens and up with easily twenty thousand GP worth of consumeables. Not so much in EFUA.

Over time loot/gold/XP will inflate, which I think it should, but hopefully it will be a slow, contained, careful inflation.

We'll be keeping a close eye on things.
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Post by: Sr.N on September 23, 2008, 06:02:14 PM
You can heal poison/disease for 10 gp? Unless I am mistaken.
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Post by: 9lives on September 24, 2008, 12:21:05 AM
I believe they mean poison/disease ability damage.
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Post by: Vlaid on September 24, 2008, 12:34:39 AM
I'm enjoying the ambient loot, granted I've only seen the VERY low end of the loot tables, but it's still feeling like the loot you find, you will actually use. It's a big improvement over EFU where unless it was in an extremely dangerous quest, or was a DM quest, you weren't likely to find something that useful other than a very small bonus to a skill you may or may not make much use of.

The lower amount of coins in the economy is doing a great job of keeping everyone from toting a belt full of wands, which I'm betting will make pvp less of a consumable arms race.
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Post by: djspectre on September 24, 2008, 12:50:37 AM
While yes potions were always loved by all in the underdark, this will too again happen. Mainly because people will buy potions from brewers and never use them. Also as characters die in pvp, they will be looted and thus the victor's stash will be increased. This goes on and on as characters die.

I have a feeling that what we see now on the island is similar to what was seen in Sanctuary during the first few months of the servers existence.

I also would like to point out that there are still a number of things that are underdark specifc: Zhurkwood themed items, rothe stew, etc. None of which existed on these tropical islands.

ambient loot from the underdark was often useless. There is no difference between the 300 Washed Up chain and Rusted Greataxes we are finding now than there were with the Sinews, ragweed and other junk because they are so prevalant, they have become a waste and are left behind. The junk pile by the teleporter on the zig often has 3-7 pages of rusted armor and weapons.

I don't know, I like finding items with cool charges of stuff on them, but....I dunno, something doesn't sit right with me about it.
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Post by: LackofCertainty on September 24, 2008, 02:26:51 AM
Quote from: djspectre;88819ambient loot from the underdark was often useless. There is no difference between the 300 Washed Up chain and Rusted Greataxes we are finding now than there were with the Sinews, ragweed and other junk because they are so prevalant, they have become a waste and are left behind. The junk pile by the teleporter on the zig often has 3-7 pages of rusted armor and weapons.

Bolded the important part.


I personally hate this.  When I made Marin, I bought what I could, then immediatly had to start grouping up to get better stuff.  It hasn't been long at all, but in the time I started playing till now, the "cast off junk" piles have turned into loot magnets.

In the Cast off junk piles, I've found:
Scimitar with +1d4 massive crits and +1 intimidate
Leather with +1 to something like 4 different skills
Studded leather with various skill bonuses
Chain shirts
An old large shield with +2 saves vs fear
All sorts of washed up equipment
various other weapons with massive crits


It's ridiculous in my mind and it ruins the experience for lower level characters.  It makes it so that most of the equipment that people find in dungeons is completely useless.  Why should I hold any washed up equipment I find, when people get the stuff for free out of the trash.  Why should a new player save up to buy this sort of stuff from other people when they can just check the trash and get it for free?


My suggestion would be make a new vendor that buys stolen items-- (aka all the weapons/armor/trinkets that the current vendor won't buy)  --for 1g each.  Make it so that he doesn't resell anything (if that's possible) or resell things for ridiculous prices (like 4 or 5 times what it'd cost from the normal vendors)  It would encourage people to dump their excess special loot for a minor compensation instead of just piling all sorts of equipment into those "cast off junk" piles.


(sorry it this came off as a bit of a rant)
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Post by: petey512 on September 24, 2008, 03:36:30 AM
I disagree, the crappy stuff in the trash is for newcomers with 80 gold.
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Post by: Vlaid on September 24, 2008, 03:45:56 AM
The trash piles is sort of like the stashes in ranger grottos.

You take what you want, and try to leave something behind for the next people. It's really kind of a cool thing, I wish it would save across resets to make it even cooler, if it was even possible(is it?).

It helps newcomers a lot, and I get the feeling that's why people leave the stuff in the trash. If it's not useful to them, take what you can carry or sell, and ditch the rest. It's not so unbelievable.
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Post by: DenGrasse on September 24, 2008, 08:25:03 AM
Quote from: LackofCertainty;88842...
I agree. If stolen stuff can be sold out (for little payment), even as raw material to smiting/etc., shall be better for all.
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Post by: Goblin Butcher on September 24, 2008, 08:40:21 AM
I like the thrash system, if you don't like it, feel free to throw stuff in the trash pits instead! Even items being bought for one gold would be bad imo. The reason this stuff is thrashed is because its ~incredibly common~

Nobody wants to buy it, not even for one gold, I do like the idea of someone else using what I cannot and having to go through the embarrassment of rooting through ~refuse~ to get it!
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Post by: DenGrasse on September 24, 2008, 08:49:32 AM
Quote from: Goblin Butcher;88897...The reason this stuff is thrashed is because its ~incredibly common~
Nobody wants to buy it, not even for one gold, ...
everyone steel weapon or armor is iron, base material for smiting etc. Simply iron-scrap. Without iron mines, this is the only one source of iron.
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Post by: Goblin Butcher on September 24, 2008, 09:09:23 AM
DenGrasse, once metal rusts to a certain point it can't be salvaged, what could be made is bastard steel, which isn't very strong, nor suitable for weapons/armors.
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Post by: johanmaxon on September 29, 2008, 02:55:11 PM
I like the new way it is. First I was too, "Oh my, what an powerful items, what have the DMs done!!" But, after playing a while I can see this smooths out with less gold/potions.

I like it.
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Post by: Ommadawn on September 29, 2008, 04:11:11 PM
I like the new loot too, and don't consider it to be imbalancing. Ymph is a very dangerous place, and getting nicely themed loot with charges with a corresponding drop in potions and gold works well. From what I have witnessed, it also encourages people to use those items on others rather than the very personal nature of potions. How many people have been saved from the fugue by pearls, hm?  :p

All in all, good work IMO.
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Post by: Likeafoxindeed on September 30, 2008, 11:00:59 PM
I dont actually think its that hard to earn coins. On my barb i could get a good few thousand coins a day. Some quest reward very nicely and "junk" you may not want somebody else likely will so sell things : P Also egon the monkey should be forced to resign his character to become a potion vendor!
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Post by: Likeafoxindeed on September 30, 2008, 11:08:09 PM
oh coolest item i found has to be +1 breastplate +2 lore 1 charge use control undead. That was awesome. Loving the new loot in all. Especially when u point out to a human palladin there wearing a cloak made of human hair.
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Post by: AClockworkMelon on September 30, 2008, 11:23:58 PM
This may not be a powerful loot item or anything... but I've noticed there are sets of armor turning up everywhere! I remember having to buy it on EfU, but here I keep seeing it on lots of the quests I've managed to run in my short time on the Archipelago.