Just ditch the maps.

[goodspeed]

Come on its been years now. The player base aint there anymore. Just ditch the goofy map pieces and put a 20 minute timer interval on the cove access zone.

That or put the gems and shards needed to buy and upgrade things out there on the random monsters in smugglers.

But no matter what, ditch the goofy maps already.

[TheLegendOfAra]

Personally I've always felt that they should just leave the zone open all the time.

So group of 6 friends runs around killing mobs for a while, and once everyone gets their compass they can head right into the zone.
There is really no reason to have it timed at all; it serves no real purpose at this point, and it's almost as annoying a system as the map pieces.

I'd say do this for any and all events of the sort that exist now, or will be created in the future, but I could see a real problem with that for Lagbar.
Also, Maximum disappoint that they still have not managed to fix lagbar to a playable state.

[MangLord]

I'd suggest a base 1 hour timer that map turn-ins reduce by x-amt of time, but the OP is right. (say that you turn in one map piece, it counts down the timer by 2 seconds.) CC isn't run nearly enough to warrant the 1000's of map pieces needed. Even with the new lvl 24 gear, once the first weekend is done, it'll be a ghost town and prohibitively boring to open the quest. Especially if you have to solo it and earn 150 shards a run. Simple changes could make the event a lot more interesting to casual gamers instead of them blindly dismissing it as too much work with no fun.

I'm painfully close to upgrading my 24 Spyglass on the first day, but could not convince my more casual pals to do a couple runs with me, as they claim "Cove is too boring and hard". I disagree, but it made me think that a special event should be fun for everyone. You could say that fortune favors the bold, but this is a game and I see the event as a chance for the less competent player to make some good gear.

Akin to the guild renown upgrade, something that would make the event somewhat more attractive would be a minor xp reward. Similar to the uncommon heroic deeds, what about 100xp every so often? It wouldn't be enough that people would farm the Cove area to level, but I'd be satisfied seeing my current rank earn a little boost after an hour or so farming maps.

[joker922]

Come on its been years now. The player base aint there anymore. Just ditch the goofy map pieces and put a 20 minute timer interval on the cove access zone.

That or put the gems and shards needed to buy and upgrade things out there on the random monsters in smugglers.

But no matter what, ditch the goofy maps already.

agreed, ditch the maps already.

[Eth]

No, just ditch crystal cove entirely and never bring it back.
Make the items available as loot in 3BC.
Kthxbye.

[Qaliya]

Provide a reasonable reward for turning in the map pieces (i.e., not useless doubloons we already have tens of thousands of) and the problem goes away by itself.

[Elucidus]

Agreed. The map pieces do not work. Taking hours to open up 40 mins of real play time is ridiculius. Best answer set a timer and allow map pieces to shorten that timer. No more than an hour sounds good.

Edit: and not to mention if you are running if off peak times. Forget it.

[Kaytis]

I think just keeping it open is the best solution.

Failing that, a real incentive to collect treasure maps is needed. I am thinking perhaps a 1 in 1000 chance to get a +3 to +4 stat upgrade tome, a 1 in 4000 chance to get a +4 to +5 stat upgrade. and maybe 1 in 10000 chance to get a +5 to +6 stat upgrade tome. Cove would be opening pretty regularly if they did that.

The current system is completely broken due to lower populations. Something will have to give.

[Jiirix]

At least give us green dragonshards as turn-in. 1d6 per map piece and I would farm those between the coves. Honestly I do something in the house until the cove opens....

[Qaliya]

1d6 per map piece and nobody would even run the dungeon! :)

Just make it SOMETHING. I mean, I remember making this suggestion 2 years ago.

Apparently they had the named maps giving XP last time and took it out. Why? No idea.

[Saekee]

No, just ditch crystal cove entirely and never bring it back.
Make the items available as loot in 3BC.
Kthxbye.

Or even just add it somewhere in House C. It has the same mechanic as the other challenges.
I would have the trinkets drop in random quest endchests of heroic 3BC, though, so I agree with you there.

[Scrapco]

Edit: and not to mention if you are running if off peak times. Forget it.

That's the big one right there. Ran all day yesterday, and at peak it was ok, but by the time my Aussie friends showed up, it was dead. It was fun running around and killing stuff, but no chance of the door opening with 5k to start it.

[FranOhmsford]

Cove still isn't anywhere near as annoying to open as Mabar was!

It may get that way in the future though so Devs hear our Cries!

- Lose the Map Turn Ins now - Don't wait till it's too late like you did with Mabar!

- Put CC on a Timer so it opens on the Hour every hour!

- Re-Tool Smuggler's Rest to give out Gems to use in CC so we can concentrate on getting Shards once in there!

- Allow one entrance to CC per open rather than two!

[Violith]

Cove still isn't anywhere near as annoying to open as Mabar was!

It may get that way in the future though so Devs hear our Cries!

- Lose the Map Turn Ins now - Don't wait till it's too late like you did with Mabar!

- Put CC on a Timer so it opens on the Hour every hour!

- Re-Tool Smuggler's Rest to give out Gems to use in CC so we can concentrate on getting Shards once in there!

- Allow one entrance to CC per open rather than two!

even with guarenteed 1/hour... losing the 2x per open would kill it just as well. CC is the fun part, the entire map turnin/explorer is whats killing it. so to have 20min of fun for an hour of waiting.... just doesnt make sense when you could be questing and having fun all the time.

[FranOhmsford]

even with guarenteed 1/hour... losing the 2x per open would kill it just as well. CC is the fun part, the entire map turnin/explorer is whats killing it. so to have 20min of fun for an hour of waiting.... just doesnt make sense when you could be questing and having fun all the time.

With 2 runs you'd have 20 minutes standing around time.

With 1 run you'd have 40 minutes to go do something else with your group - An Epic Quest or two on your Epic Characters - A couple of Kobold Assaults on your Lvl 4s - A Tempest Spine on your Lvl 10s etc.

Yes - I know there's plenty of short quests {especially if we go by the standards of Zergers} but 20 mins = Not gonna chance joining that IP Inferno, going through 4 loading screens minimum just to get there and another 4 back. Whereas 40 mins = Let's go do something else while we wait!

[Violith]

With 2 runs you'd have 20 minutes standing around time.

With 1 run you'd have 40 minutes to go do something else with your group - An Epic Quest or two on your Epic Characters - A couple of Kobold Assaults on your Lvl 4s - A Tempest Spine on your Lvl 10s etc.

Yes - I know there's plenty of short quests {especially if we go by the standards of Zergers} but 20 mins = Not gonna chance joining that IP Inferno, going through 4 loading screens minimum just to get there and another 4 back. Whereas 40 mins = Let's go do something else while we wait!


did the change the turnin/timer mechanic? Cause before the maps turned in while it was opened were wasted and the countdown didnt start until the cove closed. Mabar had the same problem. so, it'd be an hour wait each time, it'd just allow people to collect ~300shards every 1hr40min, instead of ~150 every 1hr20min, granted people could collect more but thats probably about the average.

[FranOhmsford]

did the change the turnin/timer mechanic? Cause before the maps turned in while it was opened were wasted and the countdown didnt start until the cove closed. Mabar had the same problem. so, it'd be an hour wait each time, it'd just allow people to collect ~300shards every 1hr40min, instead of ~150 every 1hr20min, granted people could collect more but thats probably about the average.

Well that's proof that you didn't even read my entire suggestion!

I asked for the Cove to open every hour on the hour and for the map pieces to go away!

[Fnordian]

Opening every hour on the hour (could be 40 minutes open, then 20 minutes closed) would be terrific!

However, I wonder..is there any logical reason that the developers don't want this to happen?

Let's see...if it opened more frequently and required less effort, people would acquire the crystals and gems they need faster so they'd likely spend fewer days playing the event (although the ones they did spend would be a lot more satisfying). This could be solved by adding additional items, increasing the number of gems/crystals needed to update (could be annoying though if increased too much), or adding some other cool goal or reward to work towards.

Players would also ignore the island after the initial run or two to get compasses since they can be bought in the barter box. If they did change to once per hour (removing the map turn-in requirement), perhaps removing compasses from the box so people would still have to do a bit of island running (or buy at DDO store) would be a possibility.

[BigErkyKid]

Did two runs, I have all I need and even got extra items from it just because.

It is like a simple challenge that happens on ocasion and includes some mostly outdated loot.

The mechanics are annoying (map turn in) and there isn't anything particularly fun in killing the respawning pirates.

The "challenge" is really just a matter of having people familiar with it but it is no better than a regular cannith challenge.

This is where this event belongs. In the challenge packages.

World wide events need to be somehow interesting and fun and this one is neither. How it has made it for some many years still surprises me, specially since it tends to bring negative side consequences.

[FranOhmsford]

Opening every hour on the hour (could be 40 minutes open, then 20 minutes closed) would be terrific!

However, I wonder..is there any logical reason that the developers don't want this to happen?

Let's see...if it opened more frequently and required less effort, people would acquire the crystals and gems they need faster so they'd likely spend fewer days playing the event (although the ones they did spend would be a lot more satisfying). This could be solved by adding additional items, increasing the number of gems/crystals needed to update (could be annoying though if increased too much), or adding some other cool goal or reward to work towards.

Players would also ignore the island after the initial run or two to get compasses since they can be bought in the barter box. If they did change to once per hour (removing the map turn-in requirement), perhaps removing compasses from the box so people would still have to do a bit of island running (or buy at DDO store) would be a possibility.

You missed where I stated it should be reduced to one time entry per opening.

This would help keep it viable for longer and would allow people to go do something else in the 40 mins before it next opens rather than standing around on the ship waiting for 20 mins.

I also stated that to keep the smuggler's rest zone viable with no map pieces Gems should drop there rather than in the Cove itself {This would also allow groups to concentrate on getting high Shard counts in the Cove.}.


Of course - After a while the number of players running it would slow to a trickle but that's already happening:
The Uber Vets and the Closed Group Players {not all closed group players are uber vets but this game - especially challenges - is much easier with a full group} get what they need fast and go back to regular content.
Cove's been brought back a number of times so even so called lesser players are close to getting everything they need from it now AND with less Ubers to run with those of us who don't have a closed group and haven't got what we need have basically given up.

I haven't run Cove in 3 or 4 returns now as I'm not capable of Soloing it at higher levels.
If it was made into a standard Challenge {yes a number of the Cannith Challenges are very similar to CC} I still wouldn't run it!

People complain that this game has been made too easy to solo but Cannith Challenges and CC most definitely aren't easy to solo and yet we rarely see Groups for Cannith Challenges and when CC comes round it's Pot Luck whether we get a viable Pug Group or not.

[Oxarhamar]

You missed where I stated it should be reduced to one time entry per opening.

This would help keep it viable for longer and would allow people to go do something else in the 40 mins before it next opens rather than standing around on the ship waiting for 20 mins.

I also stated that to keep the smuggler's rest zone viable with no map pieces Gems should drop there rather than in the Cove itself {This would also allow groups to concentrate on getting high Shard counts in the Cove.}.


Of course - After a while the number of players running it would slow to a trickle but that's already happening:
The Uber Vets and the Closed Group Players {not all closed group players are uber vets but this game - especially challenges - is much easier with a full group} get what they need fast and go back to regular content.
Cove's been brought back a number of times so even so called lesser players are close to getting everything they need from it now AND with less Ubers to run with those of us who don't have a closed group and haven't got what we need have basically given up.

I haven't run Cove in 3 or 4 returns now as I'm not capable of Soloing it at higher levels.
If it was made into a standard Challenge {yes a number of the Cannith Challenges are very similar to CC} I still wouldn't run it!

People complain that this game has been made too easy to solo but Cannith Challenges and CC most definitely aren't easy to solo and yet we rarely see Groups for Cannith Challenges and when CC comes round it's Pot Luck whether we get a viable Pug Group or not.


Alternately we could send cove to the same plane that Mabar has gone to.

Also many of the Cannith challenges are quite easily soloed. Speak only for yourself there are plenty of guides on the forum of how to solo these.

[Azithoth]

Also many of the Cannith challenges are quite easily soloed. Speak only for yourself there are plenty of guides on the forum of how to solo these.

i don't find it all that difficult either

[Fnordian]

You missed where I stated it should be reduced to one time entry per opening.

This would help keep it viable for longer and would allow people to go do something else in the 40 mins before it next opens rather than standing around on the ship waiting for 20 mins.

I also stated that to keep the smuggler's rest zone viable with no map pieces Gems should drop there rather than in the Cove itself {This would also allow groups to concentrate on getting high Shard counts in the Cove.}.


Of course - After a while the number of players running it would slow to a trickle but that's already happening:


One time per opening would still be more frequently than now, which is perfectly fine by me but would also result in players getting all their items faster. However, since it is only a once or twice a year event, I don't suppose that's a big deal. I was simply trying to think if there was any logical reason why the developers might not want automatic openings.

Moving acquisition of gems to the island mobs instead of the ones in the cove is a good idea. (Sorry, yes I did miss that suggestion.) That would work for me!