There are a few content changes going to test server soon with the 47 update, and I'll be keeping an eye on impressions.
First:
I've changed adventure writs to award 500 faction per writ. The previous number of writs required to go from 0 to ally faction was 267. The new number is 80. That is, of course, still 80 writs per faction. Pending how this works out, we'll probably be changing tradeskill faction amounts too. I'm expecting that a lot of the status reward for writs will be devoted to your guild's guildhalls in the future, so I'd like to see a little bit more personal reward involved. In the future, I'd like to tie a few more rewards to the factions as well, but we'll have to see how things play out. With so many options for content these days, and Kunark factions requiring much less work to achieve, city writs needed an update.
Suggestions I've heard so far regarding this include:
- Writs should award faction based on level (lower level award less faction).
This is a little more difficult to change than how it's currently set up. And since there's already the expectation that the writs all have the same faction reward, I'm not particularly sold on this. In addition, it's frequently more difficult to do writs at lower levels than it is to burn through them later on.
- There should be some reward for players who have already done the writs to ally.
This is a fairly decent point. But in the end, there are a few things that make me wary of this. Content gets easier as time goes on - it's a natural progression. If we get into this, then there's a different precident for how we work. Does a level cap increase mean that people who beat a raid boss before it went in get something special that no one else can get? It certainly hasn't been the case in the past.
I think in the end that this change will be beneficial to just about everyone. If you're max faction with one, then it may become a goal to get all of the factions maxxed. If you already have all of them maxxed, then maybe that alt you've been playing has a reason to go through it again when helping the guild gain status for guild halls.
Second:
Kander has lowered the difficulty on Karnor's castle, added a couple of named critters, spread out some of the loot a bit, and thinned some of the population. We'd like to get this zone in shape so that it's more appropriate for smaller groups of players entering that level range. Please take a few friends with you and see what you think of the zone. Do keep in mind that we're shooting for smaller groups of level 72-76 players with average treasured/mastercrafted gear.
Third:
Sebilis and Chardok are going to have their loot and named mobs tweaked. Differences of note: I've changed most of the named to have longer spawn rates, but they will have no placeholders. So as you move through the dungeon, either something's up, or it isn't. Most people don't end up 'camping' in EQII in the same fashion they did in EQI, so this should help to make the experience work more along the lines that people are used to with instances. Treasured will no longer drop from named in Sebilis and Chardok. Some legendary will be better than other legendary drops, but treasured from named should be gone for these two zones. The longer spawns (Kotiz, for example) will still have their chance of dropping fabled items as well.
So if you have a chance, make sure to check them out when we update test with 47 and let us know what you think.
Thanks!
Edit: Fixed formatting.
LINK
(Ilucide) Changes in 47
