Custom changes:
Quests
The main reason why we change the rewards in some quests, is an excess of material rewards that leads to the collapse of the server economy.
A quick review on original armors-upgrading path: scale armor - quest, dark armor - quest, noble armor - quest (35 level), knight armor - quest (40 level), crown armor - quest (50 level), blue robe and golden armor - quests (60 level). That means every armor, except for DSM and MPA is to get from quests. Why would then anyone care to try to loot them? And why in the hell would anyone want to buy an armor? Or shield? Only in range of 32-35 def you get 7 shields from quests! SEVEN decent shields per player! The market is overloaded or literally flooded with these items.
When 8 people complete Banshee Quest, how many of them are going to use their gaint sword? One? The rest is being immidiately put on the market, where there is not enough demand (not even close) for all that stuff. When Cip introduced quest system back in 7.2 only half a year later they were adding Djinns, because in short time values dropped that severly it basicly destroyed the whole economy on many servers.
According to a research included in Stephan Börzsönyi (one of Cip founders) master's thesis about "Macroeconomics of a Virtual World" - back in 2006 server Fortera generated 67 fireswords weekly, of which... 64 were sold to NPCs. We don't know that, but the other 3 possibly too - for addon. That implies a dead economy in which people don't trade among themselves but only with NPCs, where every transaction means printing new money. The whole thesis can be found here:
Macroeconomics English
Some people requested exp-sharing, while others strongly disagreed with the idea. Just to clarify: we're NOT going to introduce exp-sharing. The reason why team hunts are not viable is way different in our opinion.
Back in the days team hunts worked quite well. But monsters that people used to hunt in teams were those that lost the most in their loot value due to overload of quest rewards. Behemoths? Giant sword and steel boots come from quests. Heroes? Crown armor, crown shield, crown helmet, fire sword, war hammer come from quests. That includes every major loot except for crown legs. Black knight? Again, everything except for legs can be obtained from quests: knight armor, warrior helmet, knight axe, dragon lance, boots of haste... Warlock? Blue robe, golden armor, skull staff - all in quests. The list goes on. Even for demons it changed alot. Of course you can still loot the rares: MPA, MMS and g-legs, but giant swords, fire axes, demon shields, platinum amulets, devil helmets etc. they are all supplied by quests (demon shields even by two...). It also impacts the rares' prices greatly, when they have only slightly worse equivalent for much, much lower cost.
That is why we say:
"No more free items just for running past black knight for 5 seconds and such!"
The changes we propose were deeply thought out, and we are sure that they are necessary to maintain the correct economy of the server.
Anticipating questions, items like bright sword, guardian halberd, are available as loot from custom monsters.
Below is a list of changed quests. It does not include any of custom quests - those you will have to find by yourself.
- DTD - noble armor (no crown helmet)
- Crusader Helmet Quest - to be discovered (part of another mission)
- Orc Fortress Quest - 10k, stone skin amulet, 8 small emeralds
- Bright Sword Quest - 8k, 50 power bolts, red gem
- Black Knight Quest - nothing; level gate is removed, so that it can be hunted right away
- Deeper Fibula Quest - elven amulet, dwarven ring, serpent sword, 6 small diamonds, time ring; level gate is removed, so that it makes a decent hunting spot
- Banshee Quest - boots of haste, amulet of loss, stealth ring, stone skin amulet; quest might be slightly harder at one point
- Fire Axe Quest - red spell wand, life ring, BP GFB, BP UH, paralyze rune, 2x soulfire rune, 4x fire bomb rune, 2x energy bomb rune
- Necromancer Quest - 5k, blue spell wand, 2x BP UH, 2x BP HMM'S , BP explosion
- Vampire Shield Quest - ice rapier, 2x BP SD
- Behemoth Quest - 30k, life ring, 5 small diamonds, 5 small sapphires, 5 small ruby, 100 power bolts; level gate is 60
- HOTA - to be discovered
- DHQ - to be discovered
Armors
Another thing that works bad for the economy is the fact that over years people realized how little they benefit from having better equipement (except for a weapon). Armor plays a big role in the early game, but the formula is linear and as the levels grow it becomes less and less relevant. 2 armor points between 4 and 6 give exactly just as much as 2 armor points between 14 and 16. However, when we are a low level hunting low-tier monsters in Rookgaard the potential difference is relatively much bigger - both in relation to our total health and damage we receive - than when we are 100 level having much more health and hunting harder-hitting monsters. Upgrading leather armor to chain armor is definitely worth, but DSM to MPA hardly noticable. It wasn't that important back in the days, as people dreamed of better equipment regardless and were more willing to put their effort in it. Even high level paladins and mages often used full-set. Nowadays almost everyone would prefer spending that cash on runes (or saving it) whilst using junk gear.
That's why we decided to also re-balance mid/end-game armor pieces to make using them more rewarding and create bigger gaps between each stage. Including the god-like items, that originally had more collector's value than practical. Here's the list:
- warrior helmet: 8 -> 9 (+1)
- crusader helmet: 8 -> 9 (+1)
- ceremonial mask: 9 -> 10 (+1)
- royal helmet: 9 -> 11 (+2)
- dragon scale helmet: 9 -> 11 (+2)
- demon helmet: 10 -> 13 (+3)
- winged helmet: 10 -> 14 (+4) [+40 speed]
- horned helmet: 11 -> 16 (+5)
- golden helmet: 12 -> 17 (+5)
- HOTA: to be discovered
- knight armor: 12 -> 13 (+1)
- crown armor: 13 -> 15 (+2)
- golden armor: 14 -> 17 (+3) [shinning]
- dragon scale mail: 15 -> 19 (+4)
- demon armor: 16 -> 21 (+5) [3% fire protection]
- magic plate armor: 17 -> 22 (+5) [30% mana drain protection]
- knight legs: 8 -> 9 (+1)
- crown legs: 8 -> 9 (+1) [weight 65 -> 45]
- golden legs: 9 -> 12 (+3)
- demon legs: 9 -> 13 (+4) [weight 70 -> 50]
- dragon scale legs: 10 -> 15 (+5)
- steel boots: 3 -> 5 (+2)
- golden boots: 4 -> 8 (+4)
We hope those changes will bring back the excitement and satisfaction we used to feel when upgrading our equipment, and help the economy by tweaking items supply and demand.
Druid
Another small changes are introduced to spells. We slightly change the druid's spells to maintain a better profession balance. We believe that the changes we propose will increase the utility of the druid's profession. Below you will find all of the changes.
New spells, unique for druids:
- Extinguish ('exana flam') - removes burning condition for 30 mana (3 mlvl required). Yes, that includes soulfire.
- Discharge ('exana vis') - removes energy condition for 30 mana (3 mlvl required).
- Desintegrate Spell ('exito tera') - spell inspired by original Cip god-spell 'alito tera'. Works the same as desintegrate rune, but is casted instantly and works on the square in front of the character. Takes 60 mana (7 mlvl required).
Changed spells:
- Paralyze - will now take 600 mana instead of 900 (for both creating and using).
- Mass Healing - will now take 120 mana instead of 150.
- Heal Friend - will now heal 160-240 as a base, which is the same power as Mass Healing (opposed to 80-160 original exura sio). Mana usage stays at 70.
- Wild Growth - will now take 150 mana instead of 220.
- Undead Legion - will now have a bigger radius and take 400 mana instead of 500 (might be tricky but good for trapping).
- Poison Storm - will now take 400 mana instead of 600.
- Cancel Invisibility - will now be available for druids, instead of sorcerers. Will also take more mana - 250 instead of 200, but will have a chance equal 20% to break target's stealth ring (like in old Tibia on PvP-Enfo servers).
Other changes
It is possible to use "bring me to", but only when NPC is busy and for 3x higher cost.