( EXPLAINED ) Swamp Stuff in General

[Balkoth]

Since I can't edit the previous thread...

- the spiders drop their brains on the ground as well
- the spiders having *6* more AB than the bison and being in the same zone seems to be a rather massive jump in power. Someone easily felling the bison while possessing 45 AC is going to get completely mauled by the spiders.

[Balkoth]

The spiders seem to spawn awfully close to the player at times -- would be kind of bad for a mage.

[Balkoth]

Snake +2 AB seems more reasonable for a jump in power. Each point of AC for the player just matters so much on this world.

Snake spawn points seem lacking -- first time through the swamp edge yielded 9 Bison Hearts, 8 Spider Brains...and 5 Viper Fangs.

[Balkoth]

Swamp gators have *34* AB -- jump of *12* from the Bison in the previous area.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me glad I'm doing these "quests" WAY above level at level 19 with fairly "pimped out" gear from the initial forge.

They also are dropping their quest items on the ground.

[Balkoth]

Found an inaccessible cave at the end of the lake area, no area transition. Result of first run through areas: 9 Bison, 8 Spider, 8 Gator, 5 Snake.

[Balkoth]

Second run: 18 Bison, 15 Spider, 15 Gator, 10 Snake. Third run will finish Bison/Spider/Gator but will need to farm more snakes specifically...

[tarashon]

Well that intire setup is special in the sense that it is indeed designed to be severel distinct areas in one, rather if not extremely clearly seperated from eachother. ALso the Arcanum mage specifies the difference between the the different monsters so playesr are infact made aware before hand.

Finally the jump of 12 from bison to gators is a somewhat misleading comparison as the whole questline clearly pins out that it builds up from bison - viper - spider - gator.

As for the final cave in the gator swamp its indeed made to a future encounter which might very well be either a zone pinacle quest like youve mentioned in another thread or part of a much more far stretched quest spanning severel zones and continents for various bosses / components etc...

/tara

[Balkoth]

Well that intire setup is special in the sense that it is indeed designed to be severel distinct areas in one, rather if not extremely clearly seperated from eachother. ALso the Arcanum mage specifies the difference between the the different monsters so playesr are infact made aware before hand.

Especially given the remoteness of the area, I'd reconsider that. It just makes a lot more sense to wait until you can handle the gators and then do it all at once. I definitely understand the Arcanum mage distinguishes between them, but the idea of returning to the swamp *solely* to farm the gator area (which also means having to wait for the gators to respawn)...is probably worse than simply ignoring the gators and grinding elsewhere.

I think in general the server would be improved if areas were more "level clumped" -- meaning you were expected to rampage through a series of areas that spanned a few levels rather than farming one particular area (and then you were expected to gain a few levels by clearing out those areas). Continuously clearing out the whole swamp gives a wider variety of foes and landscape than just grinding the spiders or just farming the gators.

That doesn't mean they all have to be equal difficulty, but right you get something like the following (using an arbitrary "power" rating):

Bison: 100 (baseline)
Vipers: 120
Spiders: 170
Gators: 250

That could be reduced to be more like

Bison: 100 (baseline)
Vipers: 120
Spiders: 140
Gators: 160

Could just do something like add 2 AB, 2 AC, and 20% HP per mob type or whatever.

Finally the jump of 12 from bison to gators is a somewhat misleading comparison as the whole questline clearly pins out that it builds up from bison - viper - spider - gator.

When someone says "questline" I think "series of quests I can complete with continuous playing" -- meaning that once I can complete one quest I can move on to the next. Which means you need to be able to handle the last quest by the time you get to it. And since you're not going to get a massive power jump between starting the swamp and getting to the gator part...we're effectively comparing the first part to the last part.

[tarashon]

Swamp will remain as it is allthough there will be some endboss+ eventually in the gatorswamp cave.

Also we cannot really add more spawns in it since it would ruin its present atmosphere and make it one big encounter stack. So basically re-run it some times or dont do the quests and loose those xp...

Won't be the end of the World anyways and tons of areas to visit regardless.

/tara

[Balkoth]

Swamp will remain as it is allthough there will be some endboss+ eventually in the gatorswamp cave.

*shrug*

Just be prepared for people to ignore the swamp until they can handle the gators. It's stupid to go all the way out there three (possibly four) separate times (once for gators, once for spiders, and possibly twice for bison/snakes but likely just once).

Also we cannot really add more spawns in it since it would ruin its present atmosphere and make it one big encounter stack. So basically re-run it some times or dont do the quests and loose those xp...

It's only the snakes that are the problem -- there's far less snakes than bison/spiders/gators.

Won't be the end of the World anyways and tons of areas to visit regardless.

...I'm not so sure about that last part. I've been having to grind experience in the same few without any quests for quite a few levels now. At this point the only quests I haven't done that I know of are the two Gatherer quests in the Lizard Swamp.

The only areas remaining to try to explore (and potentially/likely die horribly) that I've found are...

1. whatever is past the 54 AB Old Grumpy Orc. Can probably take him on now with the Tolmar Armor and other gear. Maybe multiple areas?
2. whatever is in the Torn Lands with the Talos Stormbeetles. Can hopefully survive now, managed to take over 250 damage in 2 seconds the last time I went there. Likely multiple areas.
3. see if I can get into the locked/trapped door in the Cave of Darkness (NOT the Sanctum with the Harp). That mainly relies on the trap on the door not being infinite until disarmed. And there may not even be anything past that door for all I know.
4. whatever is east of the initial Lizard Swamp area, bridge with 40 DC lock. Given the initial Lizard Swamp area has no-save Knockdown bolts I'm not having high hopes for something "further" into the general region (though since the Lizard fort seemed to be in the north part of the initial area the eastern bridge may lead to other stuff).

That's not counting the stuff I technically know about but clearly won't be able to do for a while (like the Vindictive Spider, Cyclops Knights, Mummy Crypts in Torn Lands, Anoy Tolls, etc).