Fixes for Restless Isles:

[FranOhmsford]

Take a step back here and look at the pack on a general play scale. There is no pack in the game right now that needs epification more than Restless Isles. In 4 years of playing DDO, I have NEVER run the Titan rain because NO ONE runs it. It sounds like a blast but not having run it is a terrible shame.

Oh I agree - I'd love to see Restless Isles Epicced!

With epification, simplify the access process. Think about it a second. In Restless Isles you first you have to talk to multiple people all over the place on different maps, then you have to flag for the flag for the pre-raid for the raid!!!! WHAT???? With the test of time this access process has strangulated the end product making it not worth running.

Like E-Orchard you mean?

And leave the Heroic Version the same as now like Orchard?

NO!

I want new Quests in Epic Restless Isles {Like E-3BC not E-Orchard or E-GH!} and I want the Heroic Pack to be buffed up so as to have people want to run it again.

Epifying 3BC was a great success, it went from a neglected pack to a must run pack for many.
Please do the same sort of thing for Restless Isles, I enjoy the quests and would like to run it with others and not be forced to solo the content each life.

Actually E-3BC didn't turn 3BC into a must run pack at all!

3BC was a must run pack long before E-3BC came out because of the added Loot and the upgrade to Heroic XP there!

The Epics apart from Two Toed Toby are pretty rarely run from what I can tell and wouldn't be run at all if it wasn't for the Saga!

3BC was always a great pack {Heroic = Best Slayer Zone in the game - STILL!} - The reason people didn't run it was NO Loot and weak XP - Once those two things were fixed it became a must run pack {Epic had nothing to do with it!}.




Actually I said above that I'd prefer the Devs to give us new quests in E-RI like they did with E-3BC and NOT the lazy retreads from E-GH or E-Orchard.
BUT
E-3BC had it's own problems - A truly awful end-quest and E-Prove Your Worth being basically a death trap! Along with too little decent loot {unlike E-Orchard} and low XP {except for Two Toed Toby}.
Both Epic Slayers are bad for me for completely opposing reasons - E-Orchard = too many mobs {way too many} per instance, E-3BC = too few {way too few} per instance.

Give us the Quest Design of E-Toby, E-Ghost of a Chance and E-Garl's {utilising the parts of the quests not utilised in heroic versions} along with the Loot design of E-Orchard!
And have the Slayer Zone be balanced properly - The Heroic Slayer is actually decent at 300+ mobs per instance on a full clear and 1500 max. The Epic version should be 500 mobs per instance and 7,500 max NO MATTER HOW MANY PLAYERS ARE IN SAID INSTANCE! No King's Forest shenanigans!

[Robai]

1) Missing Beholder in Slavers of the Shrieking Mines {Optional Uncompletable}.

Agreed.

4) Raid Groups have to use Greater Teleport to get to the Raid because the entrance to the Raid is in a Public Instance only reachable through the Non-Raid Slayer {Give the Slayer a Raid Setting.}.

This is a unique way to get to the raid. I really like this, this is a bonus!
That's why it's not just another pack, it has something unique (actually many things are unique there), not to mention this makes Greater Teleport spell more important (also makes UMD skill more important).

5) The Map - Like all Inside/outside quests {and quests on multiple levels} the map simply doesn't work.
Surely it's time to work out how to make usable quest maps for these instances {The Pit, Tempest Spine, Chains of Flame, Restless Isles Slayer etc. etc. etc.}. Players shouldn't have to go to the wiki for a working map!

Agreed, but maps in DDO are messed up in many places, not just in Restless Isles.
As for mechanics for exploring area I like it, also I like that quests can be just shared and then you can use the shortcuts.

[cdbd3rd]

In this area, as well as a few others, map functionality needs attention. Just because some folks have run the area enough over the years to memorize it does not negate this.

Remove the quest requirement for the rare, or have him proc 100%. (As mentioned earlier, there are a few rare mobs that proc 100% in other explorer zones. This one certainly should be one of them.)

[cdbd3rd]

In this area, as well as a few others, map functionality needs attention. Just because some folks have run the area enough over the years to memorize it does not negate this.

Remove the quest requirement for the rare, or have him proc 100%. (As mentioned earlier, there are a few rare mobs that proc 100% in other explorer zones. This one certainly should be one of them.)

And the missing optional should be fixed - or the quest prompt removed.

[ValariusK]

Restless isles has a ton of fiddly bits in it. People won't run it in general because the aggravation of getting a group together and there for it through a public LFM isn't justified by the XP or loot or even the favor. Forget about anyone joining in progress in one of the quests, its just not happening.

I have a suggestion in general, not just for Restless isles. Have each server track how often each quest is completed in each level range. Don't count any completions that are 0 XP given (obvious favor only runs).

Any quest in the bottom say 10% of quests in terms of runs gets a bonus of say 50% until the next recomputation. I suggest weekly computation.
Any quest in the bottom five or so gets a bonus of say 100% until the next recomputation. Have the in-game NPCs make the players aware of these facts, maybe even through in-game mail like the Twelve Favor npcs use.

[Wipey]

Yeah yeah it's not about the xp but ... I can do Shadowcrypt in five minutes one more time to get same xp as Ghola and Slavers together. Not to mention boring run through wilderness that poses no threat whatsoever. 50k or so xp in one hour at heroic level ? Sorry, nope.
The quests are gorgeous and different ( like pretty much every pre Motu stuff, must be awesome for newbs first few times ) but need thrice the xp.

[FranOhmsford]

Yeah yeah it's not about the xp but ... I can do Shadowcrypt in five minutes one more time to get same xp as Ghola and Slavers together. Not to mention boring run through wilderness that poses no threat whatsoever. 50k or so xp in one hour at heroic level ? Sorry, nope.
The quests are gorgeous and different ( like pretty much every pre Motu stuff, must be awesome for newbs first few times ) but need thrice the xp.

People always come up with this argument when saying why they won't run CoF {despite it giving out the same total xp or slightly more than VoN 3}.

It's a completely invalid reason and I'll explain...

- You run the Dailies let's say twice each.
That's VoN 3, Spies, Wiz King and OoB
Maybe on EN/EN or EH/EN.

- After the second run you're not only getting significantly less xp from them but also stopping the ransack penalty from going away for the next day.

- So people add more quests to their Dailies, only with these they don't run them twice, once will do.
VoN 4, LoD, Servants, Spinner, Rift, Chains of Flame are all good xp {well ok LoD is quick more than good}.

- Some people choose instead to run 2x Mirror {I absolutely loathe that quest!}, 2x What Goes Up {Another I dislike and I don't really want to run WGU on anything other than Elite because of the Saga Conundrum.}, 2x Two Toed Toby {this is good once you're in higher Epic Levels}, 2x Orchard Quests {OK yes these help but again I save them for Lvl 28-29.}.



Now let's look at your example - Shadow Crypt vs Ghola Fan/Slavers/30k+ XP from Slayer.

Yes the second does take longer - I used a Slayer Pot yesterday and ran a complete Slayer Clearance {33 minutes, 17k XP}, Slavers {25 minutes, 17k XP}, A half Slayer Clearance {50 mobs away from 1500 200xp from rare turning up a second time}, Ghola Fan {25 minutes, 20k XP + first time in 5 years picked up Stave of the Seer and Royal Guard Mask = YAY!}.
Then finished off last 50 Slayer Mobs for another 15k xp!

Shadow Crypt with Elite BB = 50k!
Second run of SC if you grab Window = 30k+
BUT:
1) I don't even do a Second Run most of the time - I usually end up Soloing SC so no Second Run anyway.
2) SC is a Lvl 9 Quest which I run at Lvl 11, I don't run RI till 12 - They are not competing with each other!

I could run Tempest Spine a second time, I could wait 2 hrs for a VoN 5 Group or I could just take 13 {I'm always soft capping before I even start Lvl 10 quests}....There's a lot of Lvl 11 Quests.
BUT
I like RI!

And the XP isn't as bad as it's made out to be - XP/Min is bad yes but XP/Min and XP/Quest are two totally different things!
Could the XP be made more interesting for more players? HELL YES! But tbh even if it gave 50k per quest people wouldn't run it and we'd hear these same arguments that "I can just run SC, VoN 3 a second time"!