Frustration to the max

[[bulletproof]]

As a level 40 character it takes a lot of combat to gain any significant experience, so I attack groups of dark knights and sea raiders for high XP, preferably alone.

As a result, I play dead in fields very, very often.

For the love of christ, I am absolutely freaking tired of losing that ultra-rare Spirited Hunter or those Large Bodkin Bags when I get knocked unconscious.

Therefore I propose a sort of anti-frustration measure to ensure these items dont get lost. At these high levels all I want to do is fight hard enemies with my awesome weapons. I get hundreds of thousands of gold, so money is not a factor - finding and keeping items is. I propose a sort of "insurance" on rare items that keeps items "locked" in your inventory. I have no idea how to work this into the game and make it seem realistic in the context of medieval times, as I know that in real life enemies would steal good items off of your body in seconds.

Perhaps it could be a skill - lets say that you need at least 20 agility to get a special skill that "hides" rare items better from enemies. It could be called "packrat" or "conceal" or something - it doesnt really matter what it's called or how it fits in, to me, just that I can work up some way of protecting those valuables in my inventory. I would honestly pay 50 Thousand gold to ensure that my Spirited Charger doesn't get stolen.

I almost broke my chair just now when I was looted of my Spirited Hunter. I'm not going to be able to find one for another five hours.



thought: I know the obvious thing for me to do is play on unrealistic save mode and reload when i lose a rare, but that detracts from the game to me. Adding a skill that is in game would be more fluid and less of an exploit as quick saving.

 

[DaLagga]

Just buy a new spirited charger every chance you get. I've got 3 extra in my inventory just as backup. Also, it seems to me that mountain/forest bandits are the best to fight for exp. Listen to the reasons before you laugh.
1. They are MUCH easier to find than dark knights/war parties/etc.
2. They travel MUCH slower and thus take less time to catch.
3. Given how fast you can take them down, you actually get more exp in the longrun.
4. They are VERY low risk.
I rather like the idea that just becuase i have my uber weapon doesn't mean that i will have it forever. Whats the fun in having everything forever? If that were the case, then you might as well just remove all shops once you have your desired setup, except maybe a few too sell your loot to. Personally i'd like a system where armor/weapons degrade (very slowly, but after a while it will happen) until they break and cannot be repaired. This would force you to always be in the market for new weaponry. Saga of Ryzom used this system, and it worked great. Although a storage area of sorts would be essential...

 

[Thucydides]

I had to spackle over a hole in my wall for that very reason. Yes, I take games too seriously, but I was high at the time. I second the idea. EMPHATICALLY.

 

[Vinz Klortho]

As a level 40 character it takes a lot of combat to gain any significant experience, so I attack groups of dark knights and sea raiders for high XP, preferably alone.

As a result, I play dead in fields very, very often.

For the love of christ, I am absolutely freaking tired of losing that ultra-rare Spirited Hunter or those Large Bodkin Bags when I get knocked unconscious.

I understand the frustration, believe me. But that's the risk we take for doing something very hard for very high reward.

 

[Effidian]

I gotta say that I'm against it. The whole idea of realistic is to make it painfull to lose. As you stated, at higher levels you don't care about money so if you lose a battle and just lose money, who cares?

The other day I was playing and not paying attention (for some reason). I lost and they took my spirited charger, spirited hunter, spirited warhorse and 40,000 denars. I was floored... but of course it was my fault for not really paying attention. If I wanted no risk, I'd play on save anywhere.

I've never lost my large bags of bodkin arrows though. That would be a pain, although I'm lucky enough to fine those more than spirited chargers. If I lost a piece of reinforced black I think I'd cry.

 

[Whitmire]

As a level 40 character it takes a lot of combat to gain any significant experience, so I attack groups of dark knights and sea raiders for high XP, preferably alone.

As a result, I play dead in fields very, very often.

Uh. Sounds like "I'm playing on Difficult, but the game is too hard. Make the game easier!"

How about playing it on Easy?

I don't think it's the game's fault if you want to go solo against the toughest guys in the game, and they beat you up. High rewards = high risk. Whether you want to take that risk is all up to you. If you want to commit suicide, go ahead.

If you're feeling suicidal, and you want a back door in case things get too tough, enable quitting without saving!

In other words, my opinion is that there should be no way to insure your weapons and armour, because it encourages suicidal actions.

Actually, a way to do this already exists in the game: enabling quitting without saving.

 

[nox]

As a level 40 character it takes a lot of combat to gain any significant experience, so I attack groups of dark knights and sea raiders for high XP, preferably alone.

This post in its entirety is mindboggling.

You're clearly doing something that's obviously non-survival, repeatedly. Soloing groups of enemies, and dying.. to grind exp?

I think your achiever mode is screwing you out of a good time.

 

[[bulletproof]]

Okay, i get you guys. I agree that it would devalue special items if they were not irrecoverable. I would like to see, then, a more realistic or predictable market system - i want to have some idea where the best horses would show up, instead of just roaming from north to south and east and west to find something good, which appears entirely randomly.

And yes, fighting hard enemies should be hard.

Keep in mind that I posted this minutes after i lost those items and i was reeling from hitting my leg in frustration.

 

[NeoKnight]

couldn't you save before the fight and then exit? (depending on whether or not you choose the realistic option) and keep replaying the fight till you beat them or something like me with my lvl 3 character I was crazy enough to fight the forest bandits at that lvl. ok so I didn't beat them but hell I came pretty close that 1 time! In any case I can keep trying to beat them over and over and over till I actually do since I saved before I started the fight.

 

[Kniggit]

Or you can be a sucka, enable cheat mode, and cheat started a new game and did that, it kinda sux

 

[Vinz Klortho]

i want to have some idea where the best horses would show up

Glad you understood. Knowing where things pop would be nice indeed. I have to imagine Aramagan has set that to a lower priority until he gets combat perfected.

Hitting your leg, solo'ing dark knights... you're some kind of masochist, ain'tcha?

 

[The Pope]

In my opinions soloing large groups of black knights is meant to be risky. What annoys me is that if you have a large group and get killed in between reinforcement times, your entire group vanishes without a trace and you get robbed. I've had fights where I brought 37 men, lost a small number of them and got knocked unconscious. After that, I would lose all the troops who didn't do any fighting and a fair few items too. It doesn't happen often but it is amazingly annoying.

 

[[bulletproof]]

I've resorted to going shirtless with a felt hat and charging on foot with my men at decent level enemies. It's damn fun, but arrows go pokey on my skin.

Not that this has anything to do with the thread.

 

[Zuwxiv]

How about a bank? You could store your special stuff there, but when you take it back they charge you tax/interest. So you can have a spirited charger staying safe in the stables while another is with you..

I managed to find a spirited charger... I sold everything I had and was just barely able to afford it. Goodbye money. But since I bought it I have doubled my money....

Maybe it has something to do with killing everything.

On a side note, I fought a huge battle... a 103 man war party vs a 73 man war party (and I helped the 73 with my 38 men).

In the end, it was a massacre. All 103 Swadians killed, and the other war party gained men after taking back about 10 prisoners. I lost 5ish. Huge battle, simply awesome, I gained a ton of xp.

 

[Manifold]

I would like to see, then, a more realistic or predictable market system - i want to have some idea where the best horses would show up, instead of just roaming from north to south and east and west to find something good, which appears entirely randomly.

Yes, this would add a lot of character to the world.

 

[Whitmire]

i want to have some idea where the best horses would show up

I think that having to look for good equipment is part of the play. It's nice when you finally come by that reinforced coat of plates while you're looking for armour. If I could buy everything in one place, it wouldn't be half as exciting.

However, it could be nice if there were some places that were known to produce good sets of armour, like a famous smithy, weapons, horses (perhaps a horse market?), bows, arrows, but these should be spread out all across the country. How they would work is that there would be an increased chance of finding something of a good quality in these places renown for their goods. They should not be made too powerful, so that the "going shopping" feature would not be lost.

 

[Tzarius]

I'm fairly sure the stuff Marnid & Borcha carry can't be looted, so you can give them the critical stuff.

Now if only they could go into debt, instead of conning the hero out of his money...

 

[[bulletproof]]

I definitely do like shopping and being rewarded while journeying, Whit, but right now everything is totally randomized. I'd like to see what your second paragraph says so that shopping can be more focussed - not so that I have one place to get everything, but rather more of an idea. For example, why not have more Steppe horses show up in the North East (assuming the sea is the south, the NE is the Veluca / Bandit Castle region) where you fight Steppe Bandits? How about having special Chargers show up in iron producing curaw, where it would be easier to smelt the armor for those types of horses?

It would take some time and imagination to implement, but it would make shopping less of a crapshoot and add character to the world.

I think some sort of safebox / bank system is a great idea. I'd like to store horses in some stable (perhaps the one in Zendar that's already modeled?) for safekeeping in case I lose one in battle.