September Version Update Preview: Part Two (09/03/2008)

[Katlan]

I just hope the EP/DC/EM mobs XP-change affects lowbie (1-20) soloing & isn't just for higher lv's. I know a lot of ppl resent lv'ing new jobs, not because of PT availability, but because the lowbie lv'ing to get to Qufim is tedious as hell and mind-numbing boring (lol) by the time you decide to lv "X" job. I know it affected my decisions. So if this update changes soloing for those lv's I will be happy to pick up a few forgot jobs and get them up to sub-job lv

[Jkun]

It means lower level exp just got less tedious, then as soon as you hit 10, level synch it up. Maybe it's part of the plan to draw in new players, since levelling a job past the dunes for the first time isn't really orgasmic in my opinion.

[Eruantalon]

The xp update changed the xp rate increase from a jerky stair-stepping graph to a gradual incline as the same was for 1-50. While 75's probably took the most butt hurt from this, some people who were close to level hurt as well. After the update if the amount of xp difference would put you over your level, you would be placed at @1 from your next level.

But you have to realize SE's QA.
Create new content
Release new content
Make players test new content instead of testing it themselves
Listen to players bitch about new content being [too strong][too hard][lame]
Wait until next update to patch new content.
???
Profit

SE's programming style is "Better to make it 'Super Ultra Gundam Retarded' hard and nerf it later, than to release new content that's too easy for everyone"

[Khamsin]

I wonder why they said they wouldn't reset your disc anymore, but if you've already cleared 100, your runic key will allow you to get back to 96... when they could have just said the runic key will now allow you to get back to 96. Your disc can reset, all that matters is you have the key now.

Will you no longer get runic keys anymore and your disc will just stay at 96? Or will you get a runic key AND your disc stay at 96 (which is pointless since you have the key now to port you)? Will everyone get runic keys upon completion of the 100th floor, instead of just the disc holder?

[Kaylia]

Fuck...we were almost done with Nyzul...now they make it retarded easy. So many wasted tag that could have been used in assault. Piss me off they reward slackers who havent started, but meh, I've the admit the requirement were kinda stupid.

What's about the title requirement now? It wasnt mentioned, but is it the 2nd quest? I thought it was a part of the first one.

[edit]
nvm, they were talking about nyzul ws, and not relic.

[Damen]

Just pulled up the previous update notes:

July 2005
"-Slight Adjustments in Experience Acquisition
The player will soon be able to earn experience from monsters of a slightly wider level range than previously possible. As a result, experience points earned by defeating "decent challenge" and "easy prey" monsters will slightly increase. "

Versus:
"Previously, enemies classified as "easy prey" or "a decent challenge" would provide a relatively paltry amount of experience points, leaving career-minded adventurers understandably dismayed. No more, however! Vanquishing these monsters will now lead to substantially larger helpings of EXP,"

That kind of peaks my interest. But if they're not touching EM experience points I think it's safe to assume that exp will still be less than 100 fro EP/DC mobs. I'm banking on adding chain bonuses.

[Havok]

I think that only the disc holder would get the runic key still, but since everyone's progress is recorded, the rest of the party won't have their progress reset from completing floor 100, and be stuck without a runic key. I think that's what they are saying lol

[Aemora]

So does this mean that...

1 Group Enters.

Person A does Floor 1 > 6.
Person B does Floor 6 > 11.
Person C does Floor 11 > 16.
Person D does Floor 16 > 21.
Person E does Floor 21 > 26.
Person F does Floor 26 > 31.

Then you have just Person F continue on his disk, and all players will have the data recorded on their Disks (I mean, you need to enter to get a Runic Disk, rite?)

Or...

Each Person has to do 1 > 6 to get a Runic Disk, then they can progress however the hell they like. Once each person has reached Floor 100, they all get that Key Item clear thingy?

Idk, I've never done Nyzul 'cept to clear 1 floor to get 5 tags for Assaults >.>

[Keyln]

I wonder why they said they wouldn't reset your disc anymore, but if you've already cleared 100, your runic key will allow you to get back to 96... when they could have just said the runic key will now allow you to get back to 96. Your disc can reset, all that matters is you have the key now.

Will you no longer get runic keys anymore and your disc will just stay at 96? Or will you get a runic key AND your disc stay at 96 (which is pointless since you have the key now to port you)? Will everyone get runic keys upon completion of the 100th floor, instead of just the disc holder?

From what I understand reading it, once you get your runic key, you don't need the runic disk anymore, as the key will act like a disc and warp your party to whatever floor you want (in a multiple of five up to 96). It's a key item anyway.

Now, the big questions are:

1) Does everyone get a runic disc at start who doesn't have one already? (Currently, only the person who registers with the spire gets the disc.)

2) Does everyone get the runic key upon completion of floor 100? (Provided that they're eligible otherwise.)

3) Should we be afraid to fall asleep and be replaced by the pod people? Apparently the SE dev team has been replaced...

[Kaylia]

Just pulled up the previous update notes:

July 2005
"-Slight Adjustments in Experience Acquisition
The player will soon be able to earn experience from monsters of a slightly wider level range than previously possible. As a result, experience points earned by defeating "decent challenge" and "easy prey" monsters will slightly increase. "

Versus:
"Previously, enemies classified as "easy prey" or "a decent challenge" would provide a relatively paltry amount of experience points, leaving career-minded adventurers understandably dismayed. No more, however! Vanquishing these monsters will now lead to substantiallylarger helpings of EXP,"

That kind of peaks my interest. But if they're not touching EM experience points I think it's safe to assume that exp will still be less than 100 fro EP/DC mobs. I'm banking on adding chain bonuses.

Not sure SE understand the meaning of "Substantially". A 10% increase is probably substantial for them >_>


But really, if it turn out EP mobs give as much xp as goblin's pet, this game is going to be a lot more fun, or at least, the grinding part. At this point, there is almost no new players, and everyone is fed up with grinding. Making it easier would allow everyone to level more job easily, and give a new breath to the economy.

[Kaylia]

So does this mean that...

1 Group Enters.

Person A does Floor 1 > 6.
Person B does Floor 6 > 11.
Person C does Floor 11 > 16.
Person D does Floor 16 > 21.
Person E does Floor 21 > 26.
Person F does Floor 26 > 31.

Then you have just Person F continue on his disk, and all players will have the data recorded on their Disks (I mean, you need to enter to get a Runic Disk, rite?)

Or...

Each Person has to do 1 > 6 to get a Runic Disk, then they can progress however the hell they like. Once each person has reached Floor 100, they all get that Key Item clear thingy?

Idk, I've never done Nyzul 'cept to clear 1 floor to get 5 tags for Assaults >.>

Before
-Whoever picked the floor will have his disk saved when he complete floor 5,10,15...etc. Only him could use his saved data to go back to those floors.

Now
-Everyone who attended the run will have their data saved, as long they were on this floor already. If you join a party on floor 60, your disk won't be saved, and you will still be at 0. In other word, everyone will have to do 1-100 in order, but it doesn't matter if you're the one who picked the floor or not. So, ~20 successful run at most for to get everyone their disk.


That's how I understand it

[Xanthe]

Here's how I understand it:

Currently the purpose of the Runic Key is to note that you have completed Nyzul Isle Investigation from 1-100 once before on your own Runic Disk. It adds the bonus on further completions of guaranteeing a weapon drop of your current job. It is also required in order to proceed in the Mythic Weapons quest. The Runic Disk only marks your current progress through Nyzul Isle Investigation and is subject to reset after completing floor 100.

The changes coming up appear to consolidate most of a Runic Key's functionality into the Runic Disk. Your completion progress will be tracked and no longer resets after 100. By completing floor 100 using your Runic Disk one of the two weapon drops will be guaranteed to be of your current job, but this guarantee starts on the first run up rather than only subsequent runs like now. As a result the Runic Key is now only a key item required to pursue the Mythic Weapons, and initially to rehash everyone's Runic Disk data that has already completed floor 100. Progress is tallied on everyone's Runic Disk as long as everyone starts from a common point each disk has data recorded for e.g.:

A: Floor 11
B: Floor 6
C: Floor 21
D: Floor 51
E: Floor 16
F: Floor 96

In order for everyone to have progress updated each run, the initial starting point would have to be floor 6. Everyone's progress would be updated accordingly from that point on. If you started at floor 21 instead, only C, D, and F's progress would be updated and A, B, and E would remain with their previous progress.

Everyone currently gets a Runic Disk the first time they enter Nyzul Isle Investigation. I would assume that if all member qualify for progress updates after floor 100, they will all be awarded the Runic Key key item.

[MarkM.]

Before
-Whoever picked the floor will have his disk saved when he complete floor 5,10,15...etc. Only him could use his saved data to go back to those floors.

Now
-Everyone who attended the run will have their data saved, as long they were on this floor already. If you join a party on floor 60, your disk won't be saved, and you will still be at 0. In other word, everyone will have to do 1-100 in order, but it doesn't matter if you're the one who picked the floor or not. So, ~20 successful run at most.


That's how I understand it

I agree with how Kaylia explained this. Even if you have a group that 2 or 3 people have 100 access, if you do 4 runs a week, barring some extremely gay bullshit like "Kill all flayers while activating lamps and avoid discovery by gears." You can get everyone 100 access.

As a disc holder, I am ready for this, my group has 2 disc holders with 100 access, and getting like 2k points a week sucks ass. It will be nice to be able to rotate this more so I can acquire more points.

[Eruantalon]

Everyone in the party needs to have a disc. One person will use their disk to enter. If you clear the next floor for your disc, you get the update.
Example
p1: F30
p2: F30
p3: F25
p4: F35
p5: F30
p6: F30

You do floors 26-30 and clear. Player 3's disc is updated to floor 30
You do floors 31-35 instead and clear. everyone but Player 3's disc will be updated to floor 35

If you cleared your Disc after floor 100, the key item will allow you to go anywhere in increments of 5.

[Alistaire]

I also think this could mean chain bonuses for EP-DC, partially because of the way it's worded, but also...there's really no other way to "substantially improve" xp, especially for DC mobs without running right into that 100 xp mark for EM.

[Jonel]

Everyone in the party needs to have a disc. One person will use their disk to enter. If you clear the next floor for your disc, you get the update.
Example
p1: F30
p2: F30
p3: F25
p4: F35
p5: F30
p6: F30

You do floors 26-30 and clear. Player 3's disc is updated to floor 30
You do floors 31-35 instead and clear. everyone but Player 3's disc will be updated to floor 35

If you cleared your Disc after floor 100, the key item will allow you to go anywhere in increments of 5.

I think this is correct.

[Kaylia]

I agree with how Kaylia explained this. Even if you have a group that 2 or 3 people have 100 access, if you do 4 runs a week, barring some extremely gay bullshit like "Kill all flayers while activating lamps and avoid discovery by gears." You can get everyone 100 access.

As a disc holder, I am ready for this, my group has 2 disc holders with 100 access, and getting like 2k points a week sucks ass. It will be nice to be able to rotate this more so I can acquire more points.

Unless there is major screw up, you can generally beat the gayest setup with 5 ppl (3melee, a brd and a rdm). Almost every wipe I've seen were caused by avoidable aggro that were trained, and eventually mpk'd everyone



On another note, people on floor 95 should probably kill their disk asap, because you can expect the 100% drop rate to be nerfed (on the head piece)

[Xanthe]

I think this is correct.

It had better be. It's what I said 5 posts back.

[Aemora]

So everyone does 1 > 6 individually to get a Runic Disk. Then we all climb together to Floor 100. Then repeat Floor 100 6 times to each get a Runic Key? Seems pretty lol >.>

(We do Salvage, but express interest in the Nyzul Weapons over Nyzul Gear)

[Byrd]

The complaint of "it used to [be hard|be tedious|otherwise suck] and now it does not, which makes all the time I originally wasted on this previously-poorly-designed activity seem like even more of a waste" is not, and never has been, a valid retort to an update.

Glad to know Dr. Spider-Dan, PhD, feels my feelings aren't valid. I guess I will have to fix those to meet his approval.

QQing aside, I am curious to know if floor 100 Askar/Denali/Goliard drop rates will stay at 100% (with the disc holder in the zone). There's really no reason for them to do so anymore.