#Suggestions
[Suggestion] Mountain of Eternal Winter Facelift
Nov 8, 2022, 21:21 (UTC)
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Last Edit :
May 31, 2023, 11:42 (UTC)
# 1
Title: Mountain of Eternal Winter Facelift
Family Name: Meatballia
Region (NA/EU): EU
Suggestion/Comments: The more I explore it, the more I think there's a real need to improve the overall experience of spending time in the Mountain of Eternal Winter. Rewards are underwhelming, mechanics are sometimes unclear and some zones are quite a bugfest.
There are many aspects that need being looked at when it comes to the region that launched with so thundering drum rolls. And I'll try to break them down the best I can.
Edits: Added the request for the return of ice fishing. Added a suggestion for trade QoL improvement in Camp Balacs and Arwina's Tail. Would've commented more about grinding in EW, but it seems everyone, not just PA forgot that zone is larger than Jade Starlight Forest.
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1) Dread Winter Tree Fossils
| Problem: Unknown cooldown. Aside from being few and far between, we always have to scour the place on multiple channels in the hopes of finding an active fossil to run our dailies on. |
Solution: Lower the cooldown for the fossils. For the amount of energy needed to activate it, a long cooldown makes little to no sense. After all, the statues of the Sherekhan Necropolis can also drop treasure pieces, take a lot less energy to activate and have barely any cooldown at all. Solved. |
| Problem:Unrewarding experience. Neither easy, nor hard more are making it worth the time to clear the fossil, the energy spent on it, let alone deal with the problem mentioned above. | Solution: Increase the quantity of the Eternal Winter materials that can be obtained from the spot and either the value of the trash or the amout of the regular consumables (black stones, caphras stones, etc). Edit: even after 2 zone buffs, there's a major disconnect between the gearscore requirements and the rewards offered by the grind spot. |
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2) Murrowak's Labyrinth
| Problem: Burrows and Elites spawn in hard to reach and - sometimes - inaccessible spots. Midair, fully inside the props that create the cave, high up on the wall. Not fun, not challenging. Just annoying. | Solution: Restrict the possible spawn points of the above in areas not partially or fully covered by the caves decor. |
| Problem: In for the long haul to Vercedes, but how long the haul? Going in alone or with 2 more friends seems to have no effect on how quick we can anger Vercedes. Is it time, is it rounds, is it victims? How much? How can we know if we have the time to fight to the end, when we don't when that end comes? |
Solution: Add some visual cue as to how far along the way to Vercedes the adventurers are. Be it by adding a counter of sorts or by increasing the frequency at which generals spawn during a round. Solved. |
| Problem:Two tree rounds of improvements and still unrewarding. While skill xp is good there, there's a lot less reason to grind for it nowadays. Other than that, everything else is average or below. EW crafting materials that can drop there are more of a myth than a reality. Blackstones even barely drop, same goes for Caphras Stones or, god forbid! Forgotten Witch's Tokens. Add to that the fact that the boxes we exchange carapaces for also drop 1 (one!)of each blackstone. | Solution:Increase the drop rates and the drops amounts. After all, it's a 280AP spot, with no node investment available either. Can't have the valuables drop less than at desert nagas... I mean, it clearly can, as it seems, but should it? |
| Problem:Where's Tory? So what about adventurers that can't pull 7+ rounds, cus their playtime is short. Or because another activity, be it a dungeon run, a NW, a world boss, pulls them out of the Labyrinth? Between the low quality and even lower density of any kind of valuable drops, the carapaces exchange is completely unavailable. |
Solution: Allow Tori to escape the lair of Vercedes and see the sun again.
Solved, as Tori spends less time alone than Wuju, meeting adventurers more often now. |
| Problem: Murasto is a pleb. Nothing special about the Queen's right hand. The bug has a couple of extra attacks, but it melts just as fast a general and it drops just as worthless a loot as any other elite 99% of the time. It spends half of its lifespan summoning its aids that neither help it in any way, nor are they dropping anything if we ever bother to wait and give them a chance to fight. |
Solution: Rework Murasto to be a more intimidating foe and improve it's loot table. Also, add drops to the elites it summons. |
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3) Erethea's Limbo
| Problem: A fun experience gated by an incredibly rare drop. How rare? 7 tokens in 170 embers rare. | Solution a): The most obvious one would be to increase the drop rate of Forgotten Witch's Tokens in all grind zones (if Tree Fossils can even be called a grind zone). |
| Solution b): You could also allow an exchange for a certain amount of crystals, so that the adventurers that can only tackle the 250 AP tree fossils can have another way to access the mountain summit, while waiting a few days for the cooldowns to reset. | |
| Problem: How to do a daily that requires a token that barely drops once a fortnight for the casual grinder? | I see two solutions here aside from just ensuring a way for the players to get a token daily. Solution a): Turn the Erethea's Limbo's dailies into weeklies, vastly increasing the rewards offered. |
| Solution b): Convert the Token into a key for the end chest and let the adventurers explore the place without it, but double the amount of challenges they need to pass in order to access the treasure room. |
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4) Erebjork
| Problem: Zoomy much? When the Wane/Dreadwinter Guardian finally decides to grace us with her presence, she behaves as if she has a jet engine under her garments. | Solution: Put some cooldowns on Erebjork's skills, especially her Infernal Nemesis. It is, again, not challenging, just annoying to always have to chase her around. The cat and mouse game we're playing has the roles reversed, due to this incessant skill spamming. She's supposed to be a terrifying guardian, not a Road Runner wannabe. |
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5) Lifeskilling and questing
| Problem: Everything's new, yet everything's the same. Same textures for the new trees that can be harvested in the region, regardless of the materials they yield. | Solution: Give the snowfield cedars a new texture. Distinct. Easily recognizable. |
| Problem: Why so many plastic plants? Trees, shrooms, everything is made of plastic in The Mountain of Eternal Winter. | Solution: Let us gather the resources you've laid down for us? |
| Problem: Level requirements for random lore quests. Why does one need to be level 60 to learn about a random otter's bad luck with the ladies? Or to help the other otter fish? | Solution: Remove the seemingly arbitrary level restrictions for quests that have nothing to do with fighting. Be they daily quests for fishing or lore quests. After all, some quest chains are available early on, but just the first in the series. After that, it's "well, you're too young to understand, adventurer!" |
| Problem: Potentially false advertisement? :P |
Solution: Bring back the ice fishing, snowboarding and make the alpaca a relevant mount, please. I mean, if the silver ain't a reason to visit MoEW, if treasures aren't there (since not even Afuaru cares to investigate), at least make the place more fun! |
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Problem: Underwhelming exchange options for: |
Solution: Add more variety and better options for the exchange: - An Ouk Pill of Time and Tide for 15 Crystals instead of 1 for 6 (because crafting anything requiring them is extremely prohibitive - even more so for dedicated lifeskiller) - An Ember of Frost for 300 Crystals (because, again, there's very little variety for 250AP players when it comes to what is basically an alternate starting zone and not just that, an area whose entire cuisine is centered on lifeskilling... but with no place for lifeskillers that spend their resources on the tools of their trade to scrape by with, say seasonal gear) |
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6) General Mountain of Eternal Winter
| Problem: Either there's nothing of value there or no one told Afuaru that there's this new, beautiful place to explore. | Solution: Please PA, buy Afuaru a warm coat and send him to EW as well. Maybe he will be better than us at finding Forgotten Tokens, Ouk Pills and all the other yummies we've mostly only heard about. |
| Problem: Trading in the Mountain of Eternal Winter is perilous at time. Camp Balacs has a narrow exit which, even without Forest Breeze can easily send the wagon into the river below, while Arwina's Tail area around the trade manager si littered with various objects that make turning a very poorly rigged wagon very difficult. |
Solution: 1) Widen the exit from Camp Balacs and make it so it doesn't go perpendicular on the river's shore. 2) Redistribute the furniture near the Arwina's Tail trade manager (since, there's literally no other spot where a 4 horses wagon can park but there). |
Thanks for reading!
Last Edit :
Nov 8, 2022, 21:46 (UTC)
# 2
Big +1. As a fellow and daily visitor of Eternal Winter zone i do like it, really, BUT it could be so much better. Especially the hype that went along with its release, quickly fade out seeing how the zone is still lacking a lot comparing to all old zones. They are not even equal. Without caphras dailies and flame of frost i think it would be already dead content.
Despite the lacking reward experience i do consider place fun, i will still visit it for dailies, but i really hope PA can realize that the whole place needs as u called it a "facelift". Very well written feedback and solutions. I pray they will take it into consideration (-∧-)
Last Edit :
Nov 9, 2022, 12:23 (UTC)
# 3
Those are all good points and solutions. Even if not many players right now visit the place and can't really throw much into that topic, it is important to improve this kind of content instead of letting it just hang and slowly die off. Lot of work went into creating the Eternal Winter zone for new story purpose, but it shouldn't mean that the moment when story ends the zone is left behind burned bridge.
So i hope they take some of those points above seriously, because as of late PA went into habit of releasing new content that is still worse and less rewarding than good old orcs and others. And yeah, since it was so hyped upon release, maybe polish the work a bit so the hype can actually continue, right now EW is irrelevant in its existance in terms of real rewards.
Last Edit :
Nov 9, 2022, 13:56 (UTC)
# 4
Regarding the specific trees of the region, it is kinda the same problem with Thuja Trees.
But yes more than agreed.
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Lv 62
Narchillian
Last Edit :
Nov 9, 2022, 14:04 (UTC)
# 5
I still remember gathering some Snowfield Cedar. Well, atleast trying to gather it. Most trees I wanted to chop were, as Harth said so fittingly, out of plastics. Existing for decoration and nothing more. And that kinda killed EW for gathering for me. The region was eyecandy, sure, but gathering there? As if. Being able to recognise Snowfield Cedar on a glance would be a huge improvement. And even more so would be making every tree gatherable.
As it stands now, EW doesnt offer anything thats fun or interesting to gather. Only frustration.
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Lv 60
Abundantia
Last Edit :
Nov 9, 2022, 18:39 (UTC)
# 6
I brought the topic of gathering up before too. I went back there and discovered more plastic. The shroom variety, this time. But the thing is... The Mountain of Eternal Winter is damaged on all fronts. So I tried to pack in a bit more on what I experience when going there.
I could, for example, ask Why do we have 2 elixirs to help us with frostbite when we have no reason to spend time on the path up to the summin 99.99% of the time? I think I know the answer, though. It was either planned to affect all regions and PA decided not to, as to not anger ppl allergic to desert illness oooor... cut content. Everything in EW feels like it was based on good-to-great ideas and then chopped to bits in the editing room.
Last Edit :
Nov 10, 2022, 09:11 (UTC)
# 7
On top of everything above i would also like to mention, that daily quests in Jade Starlight Forest tends to be most of the time problematic.
Problem 1: Quest with plucking beards requires an item that drops very rare. So rare in fact that sometimes in 1 hour its still not done if bad rng is on us. Increase the chance of receiving a plucked bears overall OR change the quest to simply kill X amount of smth else, maybe lamps?
Problem 2: Quest with killing 3 elite spawns of each type is way too rng. Change the quest to simply kill 9 of the rare spawns, no matter what type they are.
For me, personally, dailies should be designed to be doable in 1 hour, because most of the important buffs last 1h (aka tent buff). Rebuffing for again 1 more hour if i do not intend to continue or simply have no time is a waste of buff. Same problem has Vercedes quest in Murrowak's Labirynth since the quest is gated behind unknown amount of time/killed bugs.
So please, PA. Have a look at this topic and fix the zone u built such a hype about, into something to be actually hyped about.
Last Edit :
Nov 11, 2022, 07:36 (UTC)
# 8
On: Nov 10, 2022, 07:58 (UTC), Written by Unikornu
Problem 1: Quest with plucking beards requires an item that drops very rare. So rare in fact that sometimes in 1 hour its still not done if bad rng is on us. Increase the chance of receiving a plucked bears overall OR change the quest to simply kill X amount of smth else, maybe lamps?
Wouldn't make much sense, as we already have "simply kill X amount of smth else" which, as mentioned in Problem 2, also malfunctions at times.
The thing here to consider is what is the daily targeted at? People that tend to spend their entire day in one spot will have no issues completing the dailies. People that can spend a couple of hours may also get the dailies done. It becomes extremely hairy, however, if you have limited time to play - say a couple of hours a day - and want to hoard the rewards from the dailies. Then, you'll just need a bigger shrine to Rngesus or leave the uncompleted dailies for... another day.
"Collect invisible items from slain mobs" was always a staple in the mmos. And players always loved hated this mechanic.
On: Nov 10, 2022, 07:58 (UTC), Written by Unikornu
Problem 2: Quest with killing 3 elite spawns of each type is way too rng. Change the quest to simply kill 9 of the rare spawns, no matter what type they are.
In the time it takes to pluck 5 beards, you can get a lot more than 9 rare spawns. So we could have even 15 elites as a target for the daily quest.
Last Edit :
Nov 11, 2022, 07:59 (UTC)
# 9
On: Nov 11, 2022, 07:36 (UTC), Written by Harth
however, if you have limited time to play - say a couple of hours a day - and want to hoard the rewards from the dailies. Then, you'll just need a bigger shrine to Rngesus or leave the uncompleted dailies for... another day.
That ^. Dailies at EW are perfect for ones with limited time, if their target is to get some caphras together. However if every of those locations has a daily locked behind RNG it becomes really annoying. Looking for active fossil, waiting for Vercedes to spawn, plucking beards and hoping that one certain type of elite will spawn.
The first two can be already fixed by improving the mechanic overall, with CD on fossil which maybe at last, could be officialy written how long it exactly is and the mob counter for the Vercedes spawn.
Also on top of everything that has been already written, i have one more question.
Where is Afuaru??? Is the Eternal Winter region too cold for him to visit, or loot is so poor not even he wants to be bothered with it? Not that i like the little bugger but his presence still adds to extra loot, especially if we count caphras or get another chance on witch token or more embers. Please PA, buy Afuaru a warm coat and send him to EW as well.
Last Edit :
Nov 12, 2022, 07:54 (UTC)
# 10
On: Nov 11, 2022, 07:59 (UTC), Written by Unikornu
Where is Afuaru??? Is the Eternal Winter region too cold for him to visit, or loot is so poor not even he wants to be bothered with it? Not that i like the little bugger but his presence still adds to extra loot, especially if we count caphras or get another chance on witch token or more embers. Please PA, buy Afuaru a warm coat and send him to EW as well.
Great idea! Thanks! Edited.
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