Cormyrian Sceptre - what?

[geoffhanna]

Is this a caster stick or a beater stick?

I'm about to grind the challenges to find out but I wondered if anyone already knows.

Wouldn't be much use as a beater stick.

[StormKnight]

I pulled a level 20 Cormyrean staff out of the end chest of one of the Druid challenges. It was a beater stick.

[Feather_of_Sun]

There's two different staves. One is melee, the other caster (the War Wizard's Staff).
The scepter is currently appearing with melee effects. That will be corrected in Update 15- I suggest waiting until then to purchase caster scepters from the challenges.

[Impaqt]

There's two different staves. One is melee, the other caster (the War Wizard's Staff).
The scepter is currently appearing with melee effects. That will be corrected in Update 15- I suggest waiting until then to purchase caster scepters from the challenges.

ANy other fixes to the system then?

[barecm]

I have created 3 bows so far with the new challenge loot systm. All three are lvl 24. All 3 have 1-2 decent stats and the rest stinks. Not worthly of being lvl 24 items for sure. I would prefer something along the lines of the other crafting / ingredient style loot building. Let us grind ingredients for a blank, then we can grind ingredients for the effect we want in the form of a shard or whatever. Then we can add the shards to the item to build more what we want instead of this stupid random effect deal that NOBODY wants. Have we not learned from the past on this yet devs? Dragon Touched armor was an attempt and it was not well recieved. So why try to force this down our throats again with even more randomness? I get you want to build in more replayability, but this is just stupid bad.

[Ertay]

Once more: random caster weapons are almost guaranteed to be complete garbage. On a melee weapon, lightning damage instead of acid damage is a nuisance, and could at least be remotely useful on certain occasions, depending on what you are doing. On a caster weapon, an element that you can't spec in means it is absolute junk and worse then vendor trash, for all intents and purposes it is like it had no enchantment at all.

Assuming you aim for a combination of 2 elements (in a pool of 10) and at least 1 matching lore version for those 2 (2 in a pool of 10, so 1 in 5), we are looking at 1 in (10*9*5) = 450 chance to pull something you can actually use, and thats only if you don't care which lore you get, which is not very likely.

Who thought this was a good idea?

[oweieie]

Who thought this was a good idea?

Only Turbine. They've been told repeatedly since beta by every single player that it was a bad idea. It's something that has been done once in a while in games for years and years and everyone has hated it. It is simply bad design. And it turns out... it was a bad idea. I've gotten a couple things from challenge turn ins (and won't be getting any more thanks to it not being worth the XP) and they've been ****. Total waste of time.

Whats worse is the new challenges are **** too. Like everything else in the expansion they're all "go kill everything". They're not even good "go kill everything" they're "stand there an kill everything." BLAH. Worst challenges in the game by far.

[mikarddo]

Assuming you aim for a combination of 2 elements (in a pool of 10) and at least 1 matching lore version for those 2 (2 in a pool of 10, so 1 in 5), we are looking at 1 in (10*9*5) = 450 chance to pull something you can actually use, and thats only if you don't care which lore you get, which is not very likely.


Your math is not fully correct. Since you dont care if you get A+B or B+A for elements you are looking at 1 in (10*9)/2*5 = 225 or 1 in 450 if you want a specific Lore.

However, thats for getting that exact combo - if you are instead counting any useful combo (maybe not for you but for someone else) then the odds go up considerably as there are quite a few such combos. Obviously most will still be crappy though.

A fairly simply fix would be to always make the lore match one of the elements.

[Terminus-Est]

Your math is not fully correct. Since you dont care if you get A+B or B+A for elements you are looking at 1 in (10*9)/2*5 = 225 or 1 in 450 if you want a specific Lore.

However, thats for getting that exact combo - if you are instead counting any useful combo (maybe not for you but for someone else) then the odds go up considerably as there are quite a few such combos. Obviously most will still be crappy though.

A fairly simply fix would be to always make the lore match one of the elements.

The loot binds on acquire... so if it isn't useful for -you- it isn't useful period. See the issue?

[Nibor]

However, thats for getting that exact combo - if you are instead counting any useful combo (maybe not for you but for someone else) then the odds go up considerably

Since we're talking challenge gear, which is all bound to character - useful to someone else isn't really helpful.

Forcing the Lore to match would go a long way toward helping narrow down the number of items possible. Does someone really want Fire and Healing spellpower and Sonic Lore on an item? Should probably be forced that way on ALL staffs like that, not just the challenge staffs, honestly. Just change the loot gen mechanic.

[Ertay]

Your math is not fully correct. Since you dont care if you get A+B or B+A for elements you are looking at 1 in (10*9)/2*5 = 225 or 1 in 450 if you want a specific Lore.

However, thats for getting that exact combo - if you are instead counting any useful combo (maybe not for you but for someone else) then the odds go up considerably as there are quite a few such combos. Obviously most will still be crappy though.

A fairly simply fix would be to always make the lore match one of the elements.

The first part is correct of course, thanks for that. I have to disagree with the second part though. When I look at my casters, they have 2 or 3 elements they really care about at most, and some not enough to warrant a lore for them even then. Anything else will be used so rarely that it does not warrant a permanent gear slot, much less so occupying both hands. Being btc though means that anything but a perfect combination will be vendored mercilessly.


Since we're talking challenge gear, which is all bound to character - useful to someone else isn't really helpful.

Forcing the Lore to match would go a long way toward helping narrow down the number of items possible. Does someone really want Fire and Healing spellpower and Sonic Lore on an item? Should probably be forced that way on ALL staffs like that, not just the challenge staffs, honestly. Just change the loot gen mechanic.

Yes, this would be very helpful in recuding the enormous amounts of random trash produced by cormyr lootgen items. Maybe even have a quest reward window pop up with 10 different variations of item you traded for, so your chances of getting somthing useful wouldn't be so horribly bad.

I'll hesitantly say that I'm ok with lores that do not match automatically for random loot tough. As long as you get to pick rewards from a list and they are tradeable to boot, your chances of acquiring them one way or another are decent, and a matching lore for one of the elements on every staff could mean too few possible combinations actually.

[Rian]

Personally, I'd prefer it if the Cormyrian weapons were done similar as to how the Antique Tokens from sands used to be. You turn them in and you get a choice from a list of what pops up. I think it's just too random for the effort people put into it that could be for the most part disappointing.

[mikarddo]

The loot binds on acquire... so if it isn't useful for -you- it isn't useful period. See the issue?

Point taken.

[geoffhanna]

Thanks for the response. I'll hold onto my simoleans until the next release. :)

[oradafu]

There's two different staves. One is melee, the other caster (the War Wizard's Staff).
The scepter is currently appearing with melee effects. That will be corrected in Update 15- I suggest waiting until then to purchase caster scepters from the challenges.

While on the subject of quarterstaves, will the new 2[xdx] quarterstaves have metal-based properties anytime soon? I pointed out this problem back in closed beta when people were complaining about having to run Devil Assault for metal-based handwraps. You fixed the handwrap problem, but I've not seen or heard anything about a fix for quarterstaves. Not even a "it's tricky, trying to untangle the code" or "tough teatas, you have to live with it, kid".




Personally, I'd prefer it if the Cormyrian weapons were done similar as to how the Antique Tokens from sands used to be. You turn them in and you get a choice from a list of what pops up. I think it's just too random for the effort people put into it that could be for the most part disappointing.

Yes, I much preferred the old Antique Token turn-in for Antique Tokens. I wish both places would be changed back to the way it was before the barter box.

[Postumus]

This could be salvaged if it were transformed into more of a reign of madness crafting type system.

Challenges/quests could drop random ingredients (yayyyy more ingredients) which you can use to upgrade your base items to have the effects you actually want.

If they were really smart, they'd just make recipes with existing ingredients.

For instance to change your Cormyr item from lightning to impulse you'd need X challenge ingredients, X glowing ingots, and X watcher's eyes.

I just wish they'd pick a freaking mechanic and stick with it from one expansion to the next. Crafting/upgrading in this game is downright schizophrenic.

[countfitz]

Don't waste your time Feather. Other than the OP, nobody cares at all about your BS cormyrian weapons.

Please spend time on something else.

Unless you want to make decent turn ins, that is.

[Rian]

Don't waste your time Feather. Other than the OP, nobody cares at all about your BS cormyrian weapons.

Please spend time on something else.

Unless you want to make decent turn ins, that is.


I care, they look cool! :D

[danotmano1998]

Don't waste your time Feather.
Unless you want to make decent turn ins, that is.

I second this.
Let's lose the lottery turn ins and make something that is useful/worthwhile?

(Look at the Cannith Challenges for examples.)

You said yourself, Feather, that lottery loot is not a good idea. Please apply this to the challenges as well.

Thank you!

[Lufia]

too lazy to read through all this but it is 100% a beater stick, at least the lvl 24 scepter turn in...made me sad

[Entelech]

Agreed. It hardly matters if it gets "caster" or "beater" stats. There's a 98%+ chance of it being utterly worthless vendor trash regardless.

Handwraps of Pure Chaos?
Docent of Underwater Action?
Half-Orc Only +4 Intelligence Helmet of Sustenance +15?

That stuff is fine for random chest loot, but when you need 80+ runs to get enough Platinum Tricrowns to do anything (since the yields are borked) you expect better.

Since you're kicking Epic Crafting to the curb, you need something to take its' place in endgame. This loot could have been it, but the opportunity was wasted.

On the upside, though, nobody will care that the loot and the challenge currency both are Bind to Character.

A pity. With the time you spent on that system and on all the Elminster voiceovers, you might have been able to fix enough bugs to prevent half your playerbase from taking a break from the game.

[Razcar]

I suggest waiting until then to purchase caster scepters from the challenges.
You know why the Shroud is, and has been, so immensely popular over the years? It is because of one thing, and one thing only - the Shroud's loot system. You can put a target in your sights, and then work towards it.

That's a great system.

Totally random ones - pulling a lottery ticket out of a gigantic hat - are not.

Don't listen to what that speaker at your last dev conference said, or your boss, or your old teacher. They are wrong. Instead, please listen to us, your costumers: most of us don't like slot machines. They make us care less, and play less.

[oweieie]

You know why the Shroud is, and has been, so immensely popular over the years? It is because of one thing, and one thing only - the Shroud's loot system. You can put a target in your sights, and then work towards it.

That's a great system.

Totally random ones - pulling a lottery ticket out of a gigantic hat - are not.

Don't listen to what that speaker at your last dev conference said, or your boss, or your old teacher. They are wrong. Instead, please listen to us, your costumers: most of us don't like slot machines. They make us care less, and play less.

Had the system had anything to redeem it, the ****** loot wouldn't have mattered so much. But they're boring and stupid challenges that amount to sitting there and killing stuff in a room, they're all pretty much just Devil Assault, which is just about the most boring and uninteresting quest imaginable. And Turbine in their infinite wisdom nerfed the XP. So we now have... no fun, no XP, no loot. Good job!

[Siro]

There's two different staves. One is melee, the other caster (the War Wizard's Staff).
The scepter is currently appearing with melee effects. That will be corrected in Update 15- I suggest waiting until then to purchase caster scepters from the challenges.

Any word on either changing the items to bind on equip or providing a quest reward type list of items of the selected type to choose from? There's a big petition about it in the MotU public section of the forums.