A little bit of something

[jilliana]

I'll apologize as this is a twofor.

First thing:
Earlier this evening I spent some time with a newer player on a task. I'll be honest to say that I admired the guy for his tenacity and willingness to get things done. The saddening part was that I knew that if he quit, he wouldn't get the credit for all that hard work and bloodshed. Turns out, we had to quit because it was just two much.

So then an idea came to me! The idea was that perhaps there could still be some minor reward for if a player is unable to complete a large task. Personally I don't think that it's beyond a guild master's ability to say, "Hmm. Wow. You look messed up! I see you tried so hard. Here's 15 guild points for your hard work." My point is that it be something instead of making a player feel like he spent an hour trying and failing and getting absolutely nothing for it aside from an emptier bag and some riln, there could be a little extra something something. This is especially nice for those tasks where one gets 15+ MOB.

Second thing:
Is it possible that the MOB on the Concord be looked at? They don't go topside, and when they do, it's very rarely. They cluster in the engine room or whatever that's called and that's overwhelming, even for more experienced players due to the spam and so much happening.

Thanks!

[Dakhal]

That would be because it's winter. Infested hate the cold, they're not going to go topside so long as it's cold.

Anyhow. I shall now go and self-harm my character to go back and claim I worked hard doing my task!

I think it could be exploited and tasks in general really aren't my favorite things to do, so iunno.

[Marauder]

Actually, Jirato brought up an interesting idea when we were talking about the Robber Camp. For singular mob kill tasks, making it so if someone else kills your mob or you wound it but it doesn't get killed and gets removed from the area for some reason, it still gives you SOME credit, but not nearly all.

For large kill tasks, I feel the number should be way, way lower until you're higher up in skills. 18 mobs is not a good number for a character under the 750+ zone. Maybe more like 5-8 for people who don't have multiple combat skills above 500 but have them higher than 250. 3-6 for people who have <250. The 13-18 could be for the 1000+ in multiple combat skills range, honestly.

[jilliana]

That would be because it's winter. Infested hate the cold, they're not going to go topside so long as it's cold.

Anyhow. I shall now go and self-harm my character to go back and claim I worked hard doing my task!

I think it could be exploited and tasks in general really aren't my favorite things to do, so iunno.

It's not cold in Tarueka on the Concord.

Marauder, you pretty much wrote quite well what I was thinking of writing but forgot. I completely agree with that idea. All of it!

[Marauder]

It's not? That seems erroneous. If it's cold around the town, it should be cold on the deck.

But yeah, scaling tasks to be harder later on is better because by then people have a better grasp of the game and are more likely to be "out there" socially and have friends to help them.

[Kiyaani]

I noticed that the Concord is sometimes set at a different temperature than the surrounding area. The environs, town and farm may be chilly or temperate but the Concord will still be cold. Not sure if it's intended so I bugged it. It could be that since the ship is on the water and it's usually colder on the waterfront that it was intentionally set that way. If the infested are not coming topside it's really likely that despite the other areas being warmer the ship is too cold for them to venture out.

I know you said it wasn't cold. So if it really wasn't you might want to bug that too. I noticed them patrolling around normally when the weather was right, but maybe they weren't for you.

As for the credit and tasks - lower mob counts and partial credit sound great to me. It's discouraging to know you can't finish a task because it's just a bit too hard or the mobs aren't readily available. So having that partial credit would help keep players engaged.

[Bryce]

For a culling task, what about something like this: "Hey, there are a bunch of infested in Tarueka, they need culling. Go see if you can thin their numbers, and report back in a bell." Then for each infested you cull during that bell (or hour, for the uninitiated), you get a task credit. Once the hour is up, no more task credit for infested kills. Go back, turn in the task, get credit and pay based on how many you took out. Then it's not "you have to get X amount," it's just "do the best you can within this timeframe and report back."

Credit for contributing even if you don't get the kill or aren't around when it happens would also be nice.

[jilliana]

I love this idea! It's so perfect!

[Akila]

Problem with that is it will have to take into account the weather.

I'm currently on a cull task in an area it's cold. Wandered around for 20 or so minutes and saw not a single mob, so I'd be penalised for not being able to kill any in a certain amount of time. No inside areas there either.

[Bryce]

They should probably take the weather into account regardless.

[Liani]

I like both bryce and Marauder's ideas. it truly is discouraging when you feel that you just need help with all of your tasks. I understand that this can create interaction, but it's also nice to be able to do some stuff on your own.

[Marauder]

They should probably take the weather into account regardless.

Yeah. Winter should lock some tasks or make those tasks much less prevalent and maybe less strenuous but also less rewarding. You can't exactly kill a bunch of things in the Tarueka Environs during Winter, for example, so why not cut it down to kill two-three things and reduce the rewards somewhat?

I'd also like it if some tasks were either removed or made far, far less death trap-ish. Templar hauntings, for example, generally require multiple people all of the time or you end up with nine or twelve NPCs draining your energy and killing you in two or three rounds because past seven assailants (or eight, I believe, depending on if you have Multi Opponent Combat), there's no way to defend against attacks besides abilities that will proc regardless of having no defensive rolls

Also on the Templar side, I've heard there's no nethrim in the Abandoned Stone Canyon Mine and yet it still sends you there for a task that you cannot complete. Should probably fix that or remove the task entirely because Templars and Wyrvardn pay the highest prices when dropping tasks and mechanically impossible tasks do not need to ever exist for them.

Overall, there's several guilds that could use some serious task tuning, but it'd be easier to start with the common tasks and work your way to the specialized ones.

[Jirato]

I will implememt Bryce's suggestion when I have time, moving this to the top of my list. I love it.

Will take a look at the function that searches through appropriate task critters, and if they are infested, check the areas temperature as well.

[Kiyaani]

Awesome. Thanks, Jirato.

[jilliana]

Also on the Templar side, I've heard there's no nethrim in the Abandoned Stone Canyon Mine and yet it still sends you there for a task that you cannot complete. Should probably fix that or remove the task entirely because Templars and Wyrvardn pay the highest prices when dropping tasks and mechanically impossible tasks do not need to ever exist for them.

Overall, there's several guilds that could use some serious task tuning, but it'd be easier to start with the common tasks and work your way to the specialized ones.

Wyrvardn get the same exact tasks as Templar but for the path. They also get the same exact tasks as the Mercs. So yes. That abandoned mine in Stone Canyon task needs to go for sure.

Thanks Jirato! Started this post last evening and forgot to hit submit! :)

[ironcross32]

I love the idea about do so many in a bell and report back. I do feel if that is made the case, however, there should be something in place to prevent an exploit where you get 3 to 5 buddies, more experienced players or what have you, who do most of the heavy hitting. I don't know how would be a good way to measure this. It wouldn't be fare to make you have to land the killing blow, because you should be able to group up if you need to, and if you do do a lot of damage, but someone else lands that fatal blow, well that kind of stinks for you that you got kill stolen. Yall GM's probbaly will be able to come up with a better idea, something that's not a total pain to implement, but that prevents exploitation.