The Forum

[quote="SPELUNK"]So I have noticed the game has been pretty quiet lately and I was thinking a lot of this (and this has been shared by people before) is that new players to the game do fine but then get scared off by the difficulty of starting, and also difficulty of obtaining items that allow you to effectively level. These changes are aimed at 0-110 rather than beyond as I know there's already a lot of feedback being given to that and it might deserve it's own spot. [b]The CON issue.[/b] CON is important, but it's also super boring and there's no way you can put prospective players off better than require them to stay at level 1-15 for 80-100 hours (more than most full single player games) in order to not lose out on being effective later on. I'm sure there are multiple opinions on this and I have no strong view on what solution might be best but something really should be done. Either blanket fix everyone to 30 con, or do something like you start with 26 and then are able to quest or punch your way to 30. There are multiple new players I have spoken to and helped give advice to that I no longer see because the grind was too much and they didn't feel like they were progressing. [b]Gear[/b] The next issue for many players is once they reach level 70 or so and they start taking Shanis & BLG they really struggle because their gear isn't adequate to be able to hunt these effectively, leading to uninspiring hunts and slow stat gains causing them to quit. I believe wholesale changes to mobs along the hunting path in terms of drop list would be beneficial to all new players without affecting the balance of the game in any way. Here's what i would suggest: [b]Melee[/b] 1. Add BoF tier drops to Cyclone Shanis, with Tablet of Lesser Evil a decently regular drop also. Also drop Orc Tribe Pendant tier accessories. Add frogs, herbs & LL also. 2.Add Apus tier to Hoarde Shanis with a more regular EP drop, as well as more regular Nahwans along with frogs herbs & LL, as well as small rubys and Bone Armor. 3. Add Stinger tier to BLG, along with Nahwans, RDT, Bone Armor & Frogs, LL & Herbs 4. Increase drop rate of Psycho Bow tier weps at Boar as well as upgrades and smalls with maybe medium rubys. [b]Magic[/b] 1. Add Shiro Staff to Prismatic Shadow, also add Blue PoD, CT & proc vials with rare drop rate, increase drop rate of warp/vortex 2. Add Shiro & Azure (rare occurrence) to Nightmares, also add Blue PoD, CT, Tablet of Mac/Virt/Lore as well as OE/FP, small gems and MA/MD accessories. 3. Increase drop rate at Valks (I don't have much experience here so happy for someone to chip in!) [b]Upgrading[/b] The 2 main upgrades for new players are looking for to help with upgrades would be speed of weapons and evasion. If we made ToE and DP work the same way as RDT/DT, except with the limit of 5 upgrades I think it would make getting in to upgrades much more accessible for people. Also a general bump in success of upgrades across the board would be welcomed to make the game more enjoyable for everyone. [b]Bosses[/b] Currently a large number of the bosses are very outdated in drop file, I would suggest making most of the relevant bosses (Dionaea, Tiresias, Gorshak, MBL etc.) drop Shak tier weapons and Titus, with lower bosses dropping stinger tier weapons at high rates. I won't get into negamare as I think that probably deserves it's own suggestion thread. There's a lot more that can be done to keep improving Soma but these were the things I thought of that would really help newer players as well as keep people interested in the grind to 110 and beyond.[/quote]

[quote="HOGAN"]+100 to this. Stuff like this needs to be the next patch not a level cap increase. [/quote]

[quote="SALKOOTH"]+1 And everyone should be behind this. Also as an amendment +50 stat mobs should be removed or the differences made more subtle so that people can more freely hunt at Raps, Stiges, Trolls, Kobs, Sand Crawlers, Riders and all the other golden oldies that made this game great.[/quote]

[quote="VALASI"]+1 - a lot gets put into 110+ (which is amazing), but updating existing content is equally important for newcomers and folk not quite end game And totally agree with upped drop rate of valks. Got naff all in last 3000 valks :( but I could just be unlucky [/quote]

[quote="HOGAN"][quote="SALKOOTH"]+1 And everyone should be behind this. Also as an amendment +50 stat mobs should be removed or the differences made more subtle so that people can more freely hunt at Raps, Stiges, Trolls, Kobs, Sand Crawlers, Riders and all the other golden oldies that made this game great.[/quote] The stats of the mobs people hunt should just be mirrored. It's so fast to level 60 you can sack off half the low level mobs and mirror them with the long grind mobs like Shanis so we can have some variety. The tyt graveyard could easily be made in to a level 70+ area with perhaps slightly worse drops than equivalent vod mobs.... Or just varied drops. [/quote]

[quote="FRINGE"]a hero wep equivilent to a +3 bof/apus tier wep. unupgradable. untradable. given when you have full hero set. would probably help new players to hunt more effectively until they are able to start buying / making stuff[/quote]

[quote="DIOS"]Tablet of iesssr evil should require zero skill to encourage lower levels to upgrade noobie items. And should also drop more at all mobs shanis and below.[/quote]

[quote="SAL3M"]+1 to all the stuff above. I also think that mobs/quests should drop cookbooks, armor plans, weapon designs etc that give +10 to crafting in their respective crafting skills to take the needless hours of grind out of crafting at least to 100 skill.[/quote]

[quote="DOFLAMINGO"]+1 Offering alternative mobs with mirrored or similar stats and tweeking drop files to be more relevant and useful to the level of the players hunting them would be refreshing for everyone bored of grinding the same mob for ages. Shanis and BLG need alternatives to keep people engaged the most at present. Lesser TOE and relevant wep drops would be exciting for newbs if Lesser TOE required 0 skill like tabs do. They could be finishing a hunt with a wep drop they use and a crack at upgrading its speed slightly.[/quote]