09-17-2019, 12:15 PM
DISCLAIMER: Everything written below is subject to change/opinion. Not everything I write will be a good change, but a change IS NEEDED for the sustaining of your loyal players.
Hello,
Everything tends to get pushed up in the feedback discord channel so I'm creating this forum post. Currently there is a significant issue with endgame content variety. Lets state some facts. Succubus queen on hard mode x15 is an expected droprate of 57-64 gobi stones, say 80 elixirs, 20 s3 raid coupons, low rate on sealed raid scrolls, 2 prime runes, 4+ epic runes along with X -1 runes. Now x15 Zecallion and Blood Lord on hard have an expected droprate of 15-30 gobi's or less, no elixirs, an irrelevant amount of s3 raid coupons, same sealed raid scroll drops, rarely a prime rune, possibly 2-3 epic runes. Now these rates are obviously not 100% accurate, other than the succubus rate, but they are reasonably correct in my extensive experience. Now we can expect possibly 30-40 paradise stones from x15 s3 bosses on hard (remember paradise stones are about 1.5x more used in amount when enhancing). Basically this makes s3 bosses irrelevant for the intent of enhancing other than some bonus (low reward) farming.
When comparing the drops of everything else to succubus queen, you can see a significant difference. Now what does this translate to as gameplay for your average end-game player? Well, logically this means you'd farm x15 succubus queen daily and possibly participate in some other raids for the little bonus of stones/drops. Now what is really happening is dedicated players are farming succubus queen on a second character which means x30 succubus is commonly done.
Now, for a fully geared player you can expect to spend 3-4 hours killing succubus queen x30. Considering most players value their time, this is the most rewarding gameplay for timespent.
So what are we left with? Geared players farming succubus queen for 2-4 hours a day depending on the existence of an alt, Possibly some other raids for rare drops like with Yohaad, and a major lack of incentive to farm anything else with their valued time.
I've been an active member on Windictus for quite a while, and have had the hardship of watching close friends/respected players quit due to the stale and boring grind. They spend atleast a hundred hours gearing their character to beable to farm these bosses above, but find themselves attracted to only killing the most rewarding boss logically.
Now remember that being fully geared does not just mean having a +18-20 weapon. You require alot of additional damage for faster clear times, translating to over 12 rare enchant scrolls added, atleast 7 infusions to gear, +15 or greater armor (5 pieces), obtaining rare accessories, waking stones and countless BCE for oj drops which are nonexistent on the market. With all these requirements to become a relevant player, you still need to complete the grind of +18'ing your weapon. Don't forget, as a player you still need to master the boss inwhich you plan on farming and your character itself.
As you can see, reaching an endgame status is extremely difficult.. especially due to the inactiveness of the market (self sufficient gameplay). I'm only stating what is required to achieve well performed runs on these end game bosses and I am not complaining about the process of becoming well geared.
---------------
Now lets get into what could be done to enhance the enjoyment / variety of endgame content.
Let it be said that hero mode bosses are completely useless with their time-to-reward values. The only boss that is done (with a full party of well-geared players) would be hero yohaad for his essence bonus & hero bce. Hero succubus queen, zec and blood lord are a complete waste of time for their rewards. Mind you, hero mode takes alot of skill and about 3x the time to complete along with the proper gear. With what is currently inplace, Inorder to reach more challenging gameplay I am asked to invest 3x the time and alot more attention (less zombielike gameplay - harder) only for the reward of an extra 5-10% boss drop value "speculated". This means I may get 1-2 more gobi stones, elixirs, runes or 1 sealed raid scroll if I'm lucky.
Do you see the issue? 3x the time spent and much more challenging gameplay for a total bonus reward (x15 runs) = of what I might get from a couple succubus queen raids.
So what can be done?
Well, for starters you can generalize the drops that succubus queen contains across all nif bosses (zec bloodlord queen). This may include reducing the raid cap from 15 raids to 5-10 raids for nif bosses to ensure they aren't power farmed by the hardcore players. An alternative would be to add a bit of a nerf to succubus queen's drops prior to balancing all drops based off herself.
You could add and increased rate for valued items specific to each boss. Ex. Succubus queen for prime runes droprate along with a decent bit of stones etc, Blood lord with an increased rate of epic runes along with a decent bit of stones, Zecallion for a higher rate of stones and low droprate of runes. This can even touch on the drops of r7 scrolls or r6 scrolls (ex. zec has a chance for heartless es, blood lord weeping es, dead es etc *low rates*
There is much potential in hero mode aswell, you could significantly increase sealed raid scroll drops or add exclusive scroll drops for weeping es and valued r7 es like echo, righteous etc or even arcane as a special rare drop. Hero mode nif bosses/s3 could also drop 2x the amount of enhancing supplies *subject to change*, risky quality coupons, sealed flute packages, increased prime/epic droprates, blessed magic elixirs, the crit book itself as a rare drop, seal pouches (enhanced), lvl 80 accessories/mats, oj solids/smooths, mythical/spellbound es.
The fact is that hero mode on these relevant bosses is about 2-3x the difficulty / time investment. Why should the drops not reflect this factor? Currently I'd say they are 1.4x the reward rate vs the 2-3x investment increase.
Increase item variety in s3 coupon shire shop, give s2 bosses a droprate of para stones (small #'s) with 10-13 & 13-15 runes (tradeable).
Again, the intention is not to make it easier to enhance/enchant and reach endgame. It's to add options for players and revive dead content that sits unplayed.
Conclusion
Reward your loyal players with fresh content instead of giving them a singular raid to grind. Give them incentives for doing raids that benefit ungeared players (things they still need at their level).
VINDICTUS IS NOT JUST A FARM GAME, it's meant to be fun and challenging while being rewarding.
QOL Suggestions
Reduce cost: Path change coupons 25 to 20m, fusion rune 2.5m to 1.5m, premium fusion rune 3.5m to 2.5m, weapon fusion rune 5m to 3.5m, premium weapon fusion rune 7.5m to 5m, Replacing combination material 20 orbs to 15 orbs, premium marketplace listing coupon 2.5m to 500k (increase market potential), succubus chocolate 3m to 1m, enhancement rune 10m to 6m, unstable enhancement rune 4m to 2m, magic powder 10 seals of dedication to 5 seals, Daily mission completion tickets 60 fragment remnant to 40 fragment remnant, Yohaad sealed power 400 essence to 350 essence, Crimson tokens max listing fee <200k each.
make yohaad broken essence from golden time tradeable, make title emblems buyable. Include blessed magics powders as a more common drop from raids etc (two moons is still done for them even with an abundance of magic powders due to previous QOL updates).
Make donor wings dye-able or add a hidden option. Everyone looks the same with wings. We shouldn't be forced to wear wings (we are going to wear them for the luk/scrolls etc), it's a good update but it is cosmetically forced. Perhaps fit these wings into the secondary weapon slot for the option of being hidden (I don't know if that works, but it's an idea).
Weeping es is way too rare from sealed raid enchant scrolls. They are basically non existent these days. I highly suggest making them a specific drop from certain raids as a rare drop. Old players are generally the only ones with this es. The higher amount of items within the game = greater market flow, which reflects the ability of new players to become well geared using their gold / trading items (reduced self sufficient gameplay, doesn't speed up gameplay outstandingly). Clearly changes of early game enhancing isn't really needed, other than decreasing the rarity of 10-13 runes imo.
Consider changing the price of succubus wings in the donor shop to 600 crimson tokens. They are untradeable I assume (if not will be bound when fused) and considering they give no stat bonus why are they more expensive than wings?
Thanks for reading.
Lefty~
Hello,
Everything tends to get pushed up in the feedback discord channel so I'm creating this forum post. Currently there is a significant issue with endgame content variety. Lets state some facts. Succubus queen on hard mode x15 is an expected droprate of 57-64 gobi stones, say 80 elixirs, 20 s3 raid coupons, low rate on sealed raid scrolls, 2 prime runes, 4+ epic runes along with X -1 runes. Now x15 Zecallion and Blood Lord on hard have an expected droprate of 15-30 gobi's or less, no elixirs, an irrelevant amount of s3 raid coupons, same sealed raid scroll drops, rarely a prime rune, possibly 2-3 epic runes. Now these rates are obviously not 100% accurate, other than the succubus rate, but they are reasonably correct in my extensive experience. Now we can expect possibly 30-40 paradise stones from x15 s3 bosses on hard (remember paradise stones are about 1.5x more used in amount when enhancing). Basically this makes s3 bosses irrelevant for the intent of enhancing other than some bonus (low reward) farming.
When comparing the drops of everything else to succubus queen, you can see a significant difference. Now what does this translate to as gameplay for your average end-game player? Well, logically this means you'd farm x15 succubus queen daily and possibly participate in some other raids for the little bonus of stones/drops. Now what is really happening is dedicated players are farming succubus queen on a second character which means x30 succubus is commonly done.
Now, for a fully geared player you can expect to spend 3-4 hours killing succubus queen x30. Considering most players value their time, this is the most rewarding gameplay for timespent.
So what are we left with? Geared players farming succubus queen for 2-4 hours a day depending on the existence of an alt, Possibly some other raids for rare drops like with Yohaad, and a major lack of incentive to farm anything else with their valued time.
I've been an active member on Windictus for quite a while, and have had the hardship of watching close friends/respected players quit due to the stale and boring grind. They spend atleast a hundred hours gearing their character to beable to farm these bosses above, but find themselves attracted to only killing the most rewarding boss logically.
Now remember that being fully geared does not just mean having a +18-20 weapon. You require alot of additional damage for faster clear times, translating to over 12 rare enchant scrolls added, atleast 7 infusions to gear, +15 or greater armor (5 pieces), obtaining rare accessories, waking stones and countless BCE for oj drops which are nonexistent on the market. With all these requirements to become a relevant player, you still need to complete the grind of +18'ing your weapon. Don't forget, as a player you still need to master the boss inwhich you plan on farming and your character itself.
As you can see, reaching an endgame status is extremely difficult.. especially due to the inactiveness of the market (self sufficient gameplay). I'm only stating what is required to achieve well performed runs on these end game bosses and I am not complaining about the process of becoming well geared.
---------------
Now lets get into what could be done to enhance the enjoyment / variety of endgame content.
Let it be said that hero mode bosses are completely useless with their time-to-reward values. The only boss that is done (with a full party of well-geared players) would be hero yohaad for his essence bonus & hero bce. Hero succubus queen, zec and blood lord are a complete waste of time for their rewards. Mind you, hero mode takes alot of skill and about 3x the time to complete along with the proper gear. With what is currently inplace, Inorder to reach more challenging gameplay I am asked to invest 3x the time and alot more attention (less zombielike gameplay - harder) only for the reward of an extra 5-10% boss drop value "speculated". This means I may get 1-2 more gobi stones, elixirs, runes or 1 sealed raid scroll if I'm lucky.
Do you see the issue? 3x the time spent and much more challenging gameplay for a total bonus reward (x15 runs) = of what I might get from a couple succubus queen raids.
So what can be done?
Well, for starters you can generalize the drops that succubus queen contains across all nif bosses (zec bloodlord queen). This may include reducing the raid cap from 15 raids to 5-10 raids for nif bosses to ensure they aren't power farmed by the hardcore players. An alternative would be to add a bit of a nerf to succubus queen's drops prior to balancing all drops based off herself.
You could add and increased rate for valued items specific to each boss. Ex. Succubus queen for prime runes droprate along with a decent bit of stones etc, Blood lord with an increased rate of epic runes along with a decent bit of stones, Zecallion for a higher rate of stones and low droprate of runes. This can even touch on the drops of r7 scrolls or r6 scrolls (ex. zec has a chance for heartless es, blood lord weeping es, dead es etc *low rates*
There is much potential in hero mode aswell, you could significantly increase sealed raid scroll drops or add exclusive scroll drops for weeping es and valued r7 es like echo, righteous etc or even arcane as a special rare drop. Hero mode nif bosses/s3 could also drop 2x the amount of enhancing supplies *subject to change*, risky quality coupons, sealed flute packages, increased prime/epic droprates, blessed magic elixirs, the crit book itself as a rare drop, seal pouches (enhanced), lvl 80 accessories/mats, oj solids/smooths, mythical/spellbound es.
The fact is that hero mode on these relevant bosses is about 2-3x the difficulty / time investment. Why should the drops not reflect this factor? Currently I'd say they are 1.4x the reward rate vs the 2-3x investment increase.
Increase item variety in s3 coupon shire shop, give s2 bosses a droprate of para stones (small #'s) with 10-13 & 13-15 runes (tradeable).
Again, the intention is not to make it easier to enhance/enchant and reach endgame. It's to add options for players and revive dead content that sits unplayed.
Conclusion
Reward your loyal players with fresh content instead of giving them a singular raid to grind. Give them incentives for doing raids that benefit ungeared players (things they still need at their level).
VINDICTUS IS NOT JUST A FARM GAME, it's meant to be fun and challenging while being rewarding.
QOL Suggestions
Reduce cost: Path change coupons 25 to 20m, fusion rune 2.5m to 1.5m, premium fusion rune 3.5m to 2.5m, weapon fusion rune 5m to 3.5m, premium weapon fusion rune 7.5m to 5m, Replacing combination material 20 orbs to 15 orbs, premium marketplace listing coupon 2.5m to 500k (increase market potential), succubus chocolate 3m to 1m, enhancement rune 10m to 6m, unstable enhancement rune 4m to 2m, magic powder 10 seals of dedication to 5 seals, Daily mission completion tickets 60 fragment remnant to 40 fragment remnant, Yohaad sealed power 400 essence to 350 essence, Crimson tokens max listing fee <200k each.
make yohaad broken essence from golden time tradeable, make title emblems buyable. Include blessed magics powders as a more common drop from raids etc (two moons is still done for them even with an abundance of magic powders due to previous QOL updates).
Make donor wings dye-able or add a hidden option. Everyone looks the same with wings. We shouldn't be forced to wear wings (we are going to wear them for the luk/scrolls etc), it's a good update but it is cosmetically forced. Perhaps fit these wings into the secondary weapon slot for the option of being hidden (I don't know if that works, but it's an idea).
Weeping es is way too rare from sealed raid enchant scrolls. They are basically non existent these days. I highly suggest making them a specific drop from certain raids as a rare drop. Old players are generally the only ones with this es. The higher amount of items within the game = greater market flow, which reflects the ability of new players to become well geared using their gold / trading items (reduced self sufficient gameplay, doesn't speed up gameplay outstandingly). Clearly changes of early game enhancing isn't really needed, other than decreasing the rarity of 10-13 runes imo.
Consider changing the price of succubus wings in the donor shop to 600 crimson tokens. They are untradeable I assume (if not will be bound when fused) and considering they give no stat bonus why are they more expensive than wings?
Thanks for reading.
Lefty~