Suggestion - Add more to the King's Forest

[Livana]

The King's Forest is a huge and nice looking zone but it feels pretty empty. It used to be a pain to traverse this zone but the addition of horses has made it a lot faster. The random encounters that give Commendation rewards are cool. However the enemies spawn in groups of 2 (solo) and are widely spaced out. I'd suggest bumping the group size up to 3 or 4 and adding some rare named encounters as well.

[Aelonwy]

The King's Forest is a huge and nice looking zone but it feels pretty empty. It used to be a pain to traverse this zone but the addition of horses has made it a lot faster. The random encounters that give Commendation rewards are cool. However the enemies spawn in groups of 2 (solo) and are widely spaced out. I'd suggest bumping the group size up to 3 or 4 and adding some rare named encounters as well.

I agree that King's Forest is way too empty. Part of that is that there are far too few quest entrances, partly its because some rare/random encounters are still broken after ALL these years (Wrath of the Dryad), partly its because some random/rare encounters are just too dang rare (Big Red, One-Man Wolfpack, Surface Breach, Ghost Story), and finally yes part of what makes the forest seem dreadfully, absurdly empty is because not enough mobs spawn per group when you are soloing or even duo-ing the zone. You have to have a full group to spawn a worthy number of mobs per encounter.

My best suggestion is that they make Menace of the Underdark free-to-play, it is after all exactly 10 years old as of yesterday. Then they can add extra P2P packs off each MotU wilderness zone - King's Forest, Underdark, Demonweb. People have been begging for MORE Underdark content. I know I would purchase further adventures in the Underdark, and perhaps they could branch out into some Mind Flayer content that ties the Mines of Tethyamar in a bit tighter too.

[Annex]

A few weeks back, I ran some King's Forest quests for the first time in about five years, earning Favor for some new characters in need of Eveningstar Keys. This reminded me why I stopped playing Menace of the Underdark. The entire expansion features pretty good quests locked behind long, boring wilderness runs. I have no intention of returning to the King's Forest or any other Menace of the Underdark quest for another five years.

If I want to play a horse riding simulator, I will fire up The Lord of the Rings Online.

If the the developers place a quest pack in any Menace of the Underdark Wilderness, that is a Quest Pack I will not purchase.

I am very tired of being held hostage by players who want gigantic wilderness zones. (Raids, too) The developers can stop pitting players against players with regards wilderness areas any time they want by adding always on, free guides to wilderness areas. If they do not want my money, they can keep doing what they are doing.

[Aelonwy]

I am very tired of being held hostage by players who want gigantic wilderness zones. (Raids, too) The developers can stop pitting players against players with regards wilderness areas any time they want by adding always on, free guides to wilderness areas. If they do not want my money, they can keep doing what they are doing.

I happen to love enormous wilderness zones but I also love quest entrance guides. Ravenloft was perfect in that respect. I could wander the countryside soaking in the despondency and general malaise of the Domain of Dread and take the quests as I found them or I could teleport back and forth from the tavern quest hub if that were my inclination and most importantly my time allowance. I both like and feel greatly disappointed by Sharn's upper city quests which while allowing me to explore the city in the quests themselves have little to no interconnectivity giving me no sense of the spatial relationship of the quests to each other. Feywild... I enjoy Feywild but it had many disappointments, not getting a teleport out to at least the shrine of the snowy area and a teleport out to the shrine of the pixie village were perhaps the most bitter. It was the least they could do for the convenience of their players... except NO the literal least they could do is ignore our requests and do nothing.

So I definitely agree that should King's Forest ever gain new quests, the guide needs to be able to teleport you to a variety of locations around the map and not just the one.

[Arthuvin]

Yeah, I think that the entrance to druids deep should be in there too, not that bland simple chart.

[SocratesBastardSon]

Yeah, I think that the entrance to druids deep should be in there too, not that bland simple chart.

I love that idea, with the possible exception of the hospital (a quest chain need not take place entirely in one area; Sentinels of Stormreach has the Bargain of Blood, for instance). I am one of those who really likes King's Forest, and I enjoy having the option for low stress, mindless slayer areas that are big and immersive when I don't have the time or motivation for more demanding content. Plus I still view it as one of the -- if not the -- best slayer area in the game.

Moving the Druid chain there makes excellent sense. Most of it could even be kept in the two villages closest to the entrance. I hope that the devs also develop new content that is placed there like they did for The Cerulean Hills and Searing Heights. Making it more of a destination with the addition of quests would be a huge plus, IMO.

+1

[Axcarth]

I love that idea, with the possible exception of the hospital (a quest chain need not take place entirely in one area; Sentinels of Stormreach has the Bargain of Blood, for instance). I am one of those who really likes King's Forest, and I enjoy having the option for low stress, mindless slayer areas that are big and immersive when I don't have the time or motivation for more demanding content. Plus I still view it as one of the -- if not the -- best slayer area in the game.

Moving the Druid chain there makes excellent sense. Most of it could even be kept in the two villages closest to the entrance. I hope that the devs also develop new content that is placed there like they did for The Cerulean Hills and Searing Heights. Making it more of a destination with the addition of quests would be a huge plus, IMO.

+1

+1. Totally agree.
I really like KF atmosphere and it would certanly give it more "life" if some more quests (new ones or not) will settle there.

[mobrien316]

The Ravenloft wilderness area/pack was ideal in my opinion. For anyone who wants a large explorer area, they have it and they're happy. For anyone who wants to teleport to the quest without minutes of pressing "w" on their keyboard, they have that and they're happy. Everyone is happy, including the people who sometimes like to do explorers/slayers, and sometimes want to go right to the quest.

I really don't get why they didn't continue doing that after Ravenloft. It was too popular? Too many people were happy?

[Annex]

Please do not put the Druid's Deep chain out in the King's Forest making it harder to get to those quests. That quest pack is decent and I do not want to lose it.

[ahpook]

Please do not put the Druid's Deep chain out in the King's Forest making it harder to get to those quests. That quest pack is decent and I do not want to lose it.

OR, put the quests in the Forest with a druid outside the gate that will teleport you to any of the quests in the forest.

[Bogenbroom]

I'd agree that I'd like to see some more content in the King's Forest. The Underdark as well. Those are both nicely done explorer areas that could use more quests. That said, I'm not expecting them to drop more 20-24 lvl quests any time soon, unfortunately.

[Arthuvin]

OR, put the quests in the Forest with a druid outside the gate that will teleport you to any of the quests in the forest.

That's exactly what I thought when I read Annex worry. It's a good solution

[Annex]

Although I strongly dislike most wilderness areas, the Borderlands and Saltmarsh are actually pretty good.

With the Borderlands, I can mount up and reach all the quests in a minute or so. All the quest entrances are in one place, so I can run from one quest to the next in seconds without getting lost. The rares always spawn in the same places so running that circuit usually generates decent experience. The rares drop Quall Feather Tokens if I feel like collecting steeds.

Saltmarsh spreads the quests around but there are so many quests, so close together, that riding from one to the next only takes a short time. Completing all 10 quests comprises a Saga, which is fantastic. As with the Borderlands, rares always spawn in the same locations so running that circuit usually generates decent experience. The rares drop Artifacts, Named Items, and Sentient Experience making the effort super helpful

Quests in the King's Forest are too far apart, finding them is a pain in the behind, rare encounters spawn in random locations making them hard to find, and rare encounter rewards are useless.

Let's turn this around to eliminate my objections.

1) Add 10 new quests to the King's Forests as part of a Saltmarsh sized expansion.
2) Quests may be run in any order.
3) Space the quests so that riding from one quest to the next only takes a few seconds. The quests all lie along a logical path with a minimum of backtracking.
4) The 10 new quests comprise a Saga.
5) Make all 10 quests Short and Medium with maybe one or two Long ones, but even the longs ones are easy to navigate.
6) All quests are easy and fun, like the Borderlands and Saltmarsh.
7) Change all the rare encounters to spawn in specific locations, thus allowing players to run a circuit and visit all of them.
8) Add Level 20 items with a Set Bonus to the rare encounter chests. These items also drop in Impossible Demands, The Lost Thread, The Unquiet Graves, the 10 new quests, and the Druid's Deep quests.
9) Add Level 20 artifacts to the rare encounter chests.
11) Add 1,000 Sentient Experience thingys to the rare encounter chests.
12) Put the Druid's Deep chain in the King's Forest.
13) Put the quest giver for the last quest in the Druid's Deep chain right next to the quest entrance. In this way, players will arrive there having naturally completed the previous three quests.
14) Make a Heroic version of the King's Forest that drops Level 15 versions of everything.
15) The Heroic version of the 10 new quests is level 15ish.
16) The King's Forest is now Free to Play. Alternately, purchasing The Druid's Deep and the new Quest Pack gives access to the King's Forest.
17) Drow are not over powered like in the Mines of Tethyamar quests.

Now, a player can take Impossible Demands, The Lost Thread, The Unquiet Graves, the first three Druid's Deep quests, the new Quest Pack quests, head into the King's Forest, and make one gigantic circuit, completing 17 quests with only a short run from quest to quest. If desired, the player can visit the rare encounters as well. Now the King's Forest is worth visiting. This also completes a Saga.

The level 15 version of this run serves as an alternate leveling path to Sharn. The level 20 version becomes the main leveling path after the Borderlands.

That is the sort of King's Forest update I could get 100% behind.

[ahpook]

Although I strongly dislike most wilderness areas, the Borderlands and Saltmarsh are actually pretty good.
...
All good ideas except the repackaging of the quests as heroic. I dislike the repackaging of content and giving it to us as both heroic and epic (it is not epic to rerun the same content that you ran at level 15). I doubt that SSG will ever agree with me but I will still complain about it whenever it is brought up.

[Axcarth]

... Quests in the King's Forest are too far apart, finding them is a pain in the behind, rare encounters spawn in random locations making them hard to find, and rare encounter rewards are useless.

Let's turn this around to eliminate my objections...

I agree with all of this (some minor differences) till 13)... I guess it's the lucky number xD
As I said before, I really like KF, but it really needs some love.

[Annex]

The best solutions always lie over the mountains of possibility on the plains of compromise.