Cannith Crystal made Newbie Friendly - NPC Gives Hireling Contract the First Time

[Dulcimerist]

In the current dev-started thread regarding nerfing tough quests, Cannith Crystal in Korthos was mentioned as a tough one for new players:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...nto-the-ground

Instead of changing this quest, how about simply updating the NPC quest giver to educate new players about hirelings the very first time a player speaks with him? Similar to how Baudry and Fitzpat give bags to new players, Baldar could give a new player a Byron Scoutsword hireling contract, perhaps with interesting dialogue like introducing Byron as a friend of his. Then Baldar could let the player know where to look for hireling contracts in the future when the free contract expires. This helps to educate new players, while also making Cannith Crystal a bit more manageable for a new player to run for the very first time.

I actually didn't know anything about hirelings until I saw someone pop one out in a PUG when I was around level 6, well past Korthos and Harbor quests.

(It would also be nice if a one-charge Summon Monster 1 clickie was given at the end of The Grotto, which could also be helpful to new players in Cannith Crystal and other low level quests.)

[Kutalp]

In the current dev-started thread regarding nerfing tough quests, Cannith Crystal in Korthos was mentioned as a tough one for new players:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...nto-the-ground

Instead of changing this quest, how about simply updating the NPC quest giver to educate new players about hirelings the very first time a player speaks with him? Similar to how Baudry and Fitzpat give bags to new players, Baldar could give a new player a Byron Scoutsword hireling contract, perhaps with interesting dialogue like introducing Byron as a friend of his. Then Baldar could let the player know where to look for hireling contracts in the future when the free contract expires. This helps to educate new players, while also making Cannith Crystal a bit more manageable for a new player to run for the very first time.

I actually didn't know anything about hirelings until I saw someone pop one out in a PUG when I was around level 6, well past Korthos and Harbor quests.

(It would also be nice if a one-charge Summon Monster 1 clickie was given at the end of The Grotto, which could also be helpful to new players in Cannith Crystal and other low level quests.)

Nice ideas.



About Cannith crystal I would agree the Crystal breaks too easy on Elite and the lag doesnt help at all.

The Grotto. I wish The Grotto was updated so starting as Veteran did not send us to Stormreach market but gave an option to play the Grotto (starting at the beach) and then start at Korthos as veteran if we choose to.

Personally, I would really like to see the beach and the other parts of Korthos and surrounding islets as an expansion right after we comlete the starter quests; for sure...Yeah, ok the child of an explorer inside lol. These areas might also be unlocked as social areas aswell; out of the quests.

There is so many great maps and quests at DDO that, they deserve new quests and even social spots (additional areas out of quests) build around them. (Cerulean hills, Sorrowdusk isle, Ataraxia's haven, Black anvil forest (Old Eberron goodies)...You can add the entire old content. Thyre all simply wonderfull as much as the fresh developed quest and areas are.


The idea of good old quests and areas dumped forever does not make someone who plays the game for a long time happy either (Some are gone forever). Call it being sentimental or not; but many old quests has that vibe. If there is something good and has a history it should be revised and passed to next generation. There could be new bonus quests carved out of older quests (and stories) and areas/spots as other side stories which would be delivered with new expansion packs (?)


My humble opinion.

[Loromir]

I think a simple fix to Cannith Crystal would be just add some HP's to the crystal so it doesn't break so easily.

[droid327]

This is really just the earliest instance of a problem throughout DDO - escort missions with failure conditions, especially older ones made before the current system of difficulties, dont scale well into the higher end. Mobs get huge damage multipliers, NPCs dont get equivalent HP scaling. So you end up with a Cannith Crystal that can get two-shot by Elite cultists.

I recently ran into it trying to finish Small Problem R1...I had no problem with the quest itself, but then trying to escort Brawnpits back, he got his butt handed to him by the end boss and I couldnt really do anything about it.

Personally I think failure conditions should just be gone from DDO altogether. Nothing's more ragequit-inducing than sinking 15 mins into a quest and then having to start over because, usually, an NPC dies and there's not much you can do about it, especially on high difficulty. Threnal. Sands Caravan.

All those types of missions should change to where the NPCs can rez themselves when combat ends like in Detour, and you just get optional XP for "Dot not let Derpy McSuicide fall" or "Preserve more than X doohickeys", or in this case "Do not let the Cannith Crystal get disabled" and change the base objective to "Defeat the Cultist saboteurs"

[TitusOvid]

I like the idea of introducing hirelings in this way. It helps on more than 1 level.

Cheers,
Titus.

[Xgya]

That's one of the neatest newb-friendly ideas I've seen in a while.

Introduces hireling contracts, gives help in the one quest in Korthos that's arguably the hardest to solo, with the contract lasting enough to help through the Collaborator (that also has a huge swathe of mobs charging at you) and even some/most of the island.

Full support.

[Wizard1406]

Nice ideas.



About Cannith crystal I would agree the Crystal breaks too easy on Elite and the lag doesnt help at all.

Agree... a cleric or barbarian hire can easily handle all the further away spawning cultists. But for the cultists that make a bee-line for the crystal, the player has to handle this. Hires, pets and summons are too slow to react most of the time.

You basically have to be able to one-shot those cultists (or no-fail CC) or it's game over. Some classes can do it easily, ex. Grotto geared 2hand barbarian, others need several tries to get lucky or have to postpone elite for a higher level.