Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 8:40 pm |
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Not just to Xclusive, but all interested in the topic of uniques and champ weapons;
We have gotten far, FAR away from the original intent of this game and it's uniques.
I think it is because the world itself and the world of gaming has changed so much in 25 years.
Back in the 80's and 90's it was not only acceptable to try and be exceptional but the stated goal of most serious gamers. If you built the highest, faster, strongest character during the 1,000's of hours you spent to get there you found your 1 unique that was your signature item. (Mine was a Purple dagger back in the old days.)
Then your fully maxed bad ass character with your 1 signature unique put you on top of the mountain as a God among gamers.
The modern world thinking of rewards for everybody and an easy route for everything has also seeped into gaming and made most people think exceptionalism is now somehow a bad thing. Those of us that play this game for nostalgia liked that old world, but if we are going down this road of we are ALL winners and we all get a trophy then lets go all in...
As it stands now we are creating a system where Everybody can have a "trophy" and NOBODY can keep one long enough to enjoy it or mean anything. They are actually becoming useless for gaming purposes. (I stopped collecting Fire/Ice sets a long time ago for this exact reason.) At least that is the direction of all the changes I have seen on this server from the original game we all loved so much. The new world think is injecting 2 different types of fixes to the old unique system.
1) "Inactive" players automatically lose items they may have spent 1,000's of hours obtaining and keeping.
2) "Active" players now also lose items they may have spent 1,000's of hours obtaining and keeping.
(How either of these fixes belongs in what was once a world of gaming exceptionalism I hope someone will explain some day. But that's probably a topic for another thread.)
The reality of these fixes...
* They are completely useless to the modern casual player when they disappear and you have to go get them again every time you have time to play. Taking them away, especially in shorter time periods goes against all logic that this is helpful for the more "casual" player that has a life and may not sign on every week.
* Making their disappearance and appearance Random makes them useless to almost everybody, but more useless again to the 'casual' player that might get one a couple times a year only to lose it before they can enjoy it next time.
$$$ This has nothing to do with helping the casual character to get or enjoy them and now it has made it so even the most dedicated players don't bother. This entire thing is only about Jealousy and redistribution of wealth! $$$
Here are my suggestions to bring us all the way up to modern "everybody gets a trophy" thinking.
So the "all in", everybody can have what they want answer is...
PROFESSIONS!!!
All the very best uniques should be creatable in Professions. This area has never fully developed and we basically max 3 of the 4 professions at a max level very low and then ignore them. The one exception being blacksmithing is still only maxed by 1 or 2 characters in the history of this server.
For uniques;
Anything that can be found in a chest/bones should be buildable at very high level profession with difficult to obtain materials
For Special drops; (like Math cap or Mem Lane ammy)
Anything found on a mob boss should also be buildable but with materials from that mob boss. This could also eliminate the annoying RNG for parts of the item drops.
All of this deserves another topic line and full discussion, but I believe Professions is the way to go.
Z