Cove map piece drop rate idea

[Sidewaysgts86]

Yes, another cove suggestion. Full of em eh?

As most of us hopefully know by now, the cove is a pretty big "group" effort to kick off. For those that dont know, it requires a lot of people to turn in map pieces collected via prying them from the cold dead fingers of pirates (usually). Once enough map pieces are turned in globally on the server, access to the crystal cove quest is granted for 40 mintues. I actually love this concept. The problem? When its quiet and not many people are on, its nigh impossible to get the cove event going in a "timely" fashion. Its quite often many, many hours before the doors to the quest open.

My suggested solution (should people feel this is a problem as well)?

Increase map drop rates, and the quantities in which the maps are dropped, based on how long its actually been since the cove event has been initiated. I live in australia and by the time im on its basically "night time" where the bulk of the population who plays the game lives- which means my chances of running the cove much are pretty **** slim. Im lucky to see the doors open 2 times over the course of my entire night. Id like to see the rates increased over time to the point that even a relatively "small group" of people trying to open the doors could do so after an hour or two. Maybe base the amount of the increase not just on time since the last event, but on the actual amount of map pieces being turned in.

If its been a long time since its opened, and not many map peices are being turned in, its safe to say its "pretty dead", and will be a loooooong time before the doors will open- which is disappointing for those of us who are on during quiet nights who would like to run this quest but cant.

[btolson]

I'm not certain they can dynamically adjust the actual drop rates like that, but perhaps after the cove has been shut for an hour, then at the hour mark and every ~10 minutes thereafter every character in the game world receives a stacking buff that grants +10% chance of getting map pieces.

By 80 minutes of cove closure you'd have roughly double the normal drop rate (which is as far as I can tell about 30%), and at 2 hours after cove closure you'd have a guaranteed 100% chance of getting a map piece from every kill.

[Silverwren]

I've got a workaround for you, and feel free to pass it on so that the rate of maps being turned in increases.

Buy a Pirates Grog, then go to the Harbor and run Kobold Assault. Drink the grog and finish the quest. By the end you'll have 70-75 map pieces and a whole lot of Dubloons. Rinse and repeat.

I turned in around 400 map pieces last night by doing KA 3 or 4 times. I just wish there was a faster way to turn them in.

[agarcor21]

It works! I ran twice in elite in 30 minutes and I received 125 map pieces and many doublons. 40 highlevel people will open the door in 15 minutes with the grog. I hope this weekend people will colaborate farming maps.
The grog is really cheap and you can get your doublons back in the first two minutes in kobold assault.
I am level 20 and I didnt try in hard, normal or casual.

[Silverwren]

Yeah, I usually use my level 18 PM to do the gathering. It's just easier to stand in the entrance and let my Death Aura do all the work. Anything outside of that gets a Firewall. I can just sit back, eat a samich and watch all the loot roll in. Just don't try a mass charm on them, because unless you do the killing you get no drops.

I wanted to try this in Gladewatch Outpost Defense and see if it would work with the Hobgoblins and Bugbears but I never got around to it.

[FranOhmsford]

Its quite often many, many hours before the doors to the quest open.

What Ghost Town Server are you on? Wayfinder?

Even at the worst time of the day on Cannith - Cove opens Every Hour!

I think maybe you're getting mixed up with Mabar!

[TPICKRELL]

I think they should change the basic mechanics.

The cove should open every 2 hours (or some such), and map turn ins would shorten the time. Every 15 or 20 map turn ins knock one minute off the wait time. That way its guaranteed to open in two hours but at peak times would open more frequently.

[Sidewaysgts86]

What Ghost Town Server are you on? Wayfinder?

Even at the worst time of the day on Cannith - Cove opens Every Hour!

I think maybe you're getting mixed up with Mabar!

Im on sarlona. Whats your server?

TPICKRELL, i like that idea too.

[Vellrad]

Drop rate would have to be at least 100% to even consider doing this dumb public wilderness area.
Or mobs dropping something else than doubloons that gets mass destroyed.

[Daemoneyes]

Would love to get 1 Dragonshard per Map turned in instead of the Dubloons.
This way i think more People would actually help to open the cove instead of just standing around and waiting for others to do the work.

[FranOhmsford]

Im on sarlona. Whats your server?

TPICKRELL, i like that idea too.

It's in my original post!

BUT I did run Cove on Sarlona too {if only on the first day of this year's Event} and had no issues with Cove's opening regular.


Now having said this I did notice a massive drop off on Cannith yesterday!
5 PM GMT and Only 3 Instances of Smuggler's Rest with the Cove about to open! - After 90 minutes of being closed!
And 5 PM GMT is NOT the Dead Hours for Cannith - That would be 8AM to 2 PM!

Still hardly Hours though!


I'm gonna make a suggestion here {which includes Mabar}:

Devs...

1. Open Smuggler's Rest Year Round! - Make it an anything goes PvP instance with the Village being safe!
{MUST be Level Instanced - Like last year's Mabar only better! - 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 etc. with people able to move up one instance for the challenge But NEVER down!}.

2. Open Cove itself Once per 7 days - On a Rolling Timer {starts again upon closing}.
The Cove Remains open for 24 Hours!

3. Add a couple of quests to the Village {Not Challenges - Quests!} for lowbies {F2P Lvl 5 would be good - lots of P2P quests at that level with very few F2P}.


Mabar Dragon Raid
--------------------

1. Open this instance Every Sunday! For 24 Hours! EST 12 Midnight to 12 Midnight!

2. Give it a 3 day Raid Timer {One completion per group per Week!} - Up the Scales Drop Rate to 3 Scales per player per completion!

3. Make the Instances better on the Lvl ranges - 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 etc. would be my choice.

4. Tweak the instance so that a Standard Raid Group {12 Man} can put 1 player on each lever and 2 in each room and have a decent chance of Success!
Remember that this instance does require Splitting of the Party!

5. The Undead can still invade the Graveyard at Halloween! {The Dragon Raid's 3 day Timer would be annuled for the Event of course}!

[Silverwren]

1. Open Smuggler's Rest Year Round!

2. Open Cove itself Once per 7 days

Mabar Dragon Raid
--------------------

1. Open this instance Every Sunday! For 24 Hours! EST 12 Midnight to 12 Midnight!

2. Give it a 3 day Raid Timer {One completion per group per Week!} - Up the Scales Drop Rate to 3 Scales per player per completion!

5. The Undead can still invade the Graveyard at Halloween! {The Dragon Raid's 3 day Timer would be annuled for the Event of course}!

I'd have to say no to all of this until the lag issue has been resolved, no matter how long it takes (and also because the events would lose their flavor after a while). In fact I think all events should be put on hold indefinitely until the lag is dead.

Lag is not limited to the event itself. It's affecting groups running normal quests outside of the event and it seems to coincide with the doors to CC opening. It needs to be dealt with.

[FranOhmsford]

I'd have to say no to all of this until the lag issue has been resolved, no matter how long it takes (and also because the events would lose their flavor after a while). In fact I think all events should be put on hold indefinitely until the lag is dead.

Lag is not limited to the event itself. It's affecting groups running normal quests outside of the event and it seems to coincide with the doors to CC opening. It needs to be dealt with.

The Lag from events is specifically because they're Short-Term and Many people are in the same place {even with multiple instances}!

If Mabar and Crystal Cove were open year round {with Staggered* Opening times for the Actual Quest and Raid} then people wouldn't have to throw everything into running them!

The Cannith Challenges certainly didn't cause lag after all!

We'll always have lag!

*When I say Staggered I'm saying that clearly the Dragon Raid and the Crystal Cove should NOT open at the same time!
The Dragon Raid being Open for 24 Hrs {with the caveat that any one character can only complete it once in those 24 hrs!} and you won't see everyone trying to jump in at the same time!

With Crystal Cove -

2. Open Cove itself Once per 7 days - On a Rolling Timer {starts again upon closing}.
The Cove Remains open for 24 Hours!

You might want to quote the entirety of what I wrote under #2 - Not just the first 7 Words!
Again - It would be open for 24 Hours - People wouldn't have to rush to enter any more!

[lorenpechtel]

I've got a workaround for you, and feel free to pass it on so that the rate of maps being turned in increases.

Buy a Pirates Grog, then go to the Harbor and run Kobold Assault. Drink the grog and finish the quest. By the end you'll have 70-75 map pieces and a whole lot of Dubloons. Rinse and repeat.

I turned in around 400 map pieces last night by doing KA 3 or 4 times. I just wish there was a faster way to turn them in.

Yup. The only reason to hunt pirates is the treasure maps or if you are just starting. Once you have enough doubloons to buy a grog go hit kobold assault. It's much faster and easier than pirate killing unless you're really low level. One waring, though--grog is bugged, don't summon anything in KA. Pet kills don't get drops.

I did a lot of farming in KA and I think I was pulling something like 200/hr while mostly doing other things. (Fully buffed and on casual the kobolds simply couldn't touch me, I could safely afk in combat. One blade barrier dropped everything near me, one firestorm dropped all the ranged attackers, go pay attention to another screen until there were a bunch of yippers around me again.)

Now to get her to accept quantities! Turning in 1,000 map pieces got tiring, not to mention all the gem trades involved in making a rum.

[lorenpechtel]

It works! I ran twice in elite in 30 minutes and I received 125 map pieces and many doublons. 40 highlevel people will open the door in 15 minutes with the grog. I hope this weekend people will colaborate farming maps.
The grog is really cheap and you can get your doublons back in the first two minutes in kobold assault.
I am level 20 and I didnt try in hard, normal or casual.

The drops are per kill and unrelated to CR. There's no reason to go above casual.

[Silverwren]

If Mabar and Crystal Cove were open year round {with Staggered* Opening times for the Actual Quest and Raid} then people wouldn't have to throw everything into running them!

Yeah, but then they would lose their specialness. Everyone looks forward to those events as a distraction from the normal grind. At least I do anyway. If they were around all the time I think they would eventually just turn into another ordinary thing to do, and then we'd all be asking for a special event again.

The Cannith Challenges certainly didn't cause lag after all!

That's just because 75% of the populace didn't rush to get in, and there were multiple challenges to do, not just one, so even if there was a rush it was spread out over different challenges and different levels.