Book of Dark Rituals balancing suggestion
Sun, 09/21/2014 - 14:36
I have a simple suggestion to stop this mindless game-killing grind for books:
make books available for pages! Like, 500 pages. Or divide pages into several "chapters" and make players complete chapters for books. Chapters should be trade-able so that more players could combine them into books.
This will be similar to monster pass - devilite ID card, or whatever its called (tortodrone fight pass).
Such books should not give Black Kat Cowl at the end of fight. Instead, they should simply give materials. To fix things, Black Kat Cowl should be craft-able from mask with enough materials.
This will make more people able to get black kat cowl, black kat raiment, and other types of armors. Currently, I doubt there will be much of anything but Black Kat pieces - they all use same ultra-rare materials, after all.
Please leave your opinion of this suggestion here. I'd like to know what people think.
Personally, I have already defeated 24 black kats (maybe more) but haven't gotten the book yet. Did 80 walks though Candlestick Keep level. And its very annoying.
I was quitting the game prior to this event, but I kind of like it. Because I can get myself a Black Kat Cowl! And Raiment! If I'm uber-ultra-damn-lucky... 6 books are out of question, but I need a minimum of two to get a raiment, trading invites with others to amass materials. Which is ridiculous, in my opinion. You're not required to team up with people to have fun during a game, you're required to team up to make an item just because being in the team gives you a material you require. Bad choice IMO.
Sun, 09/21/2014 - 19:08
#2
I think that the book being rare is in itself an issue too for two reasons- the first being that it makes all of the whisker/black kat items more costly in terms of money, luck, and time as opposed to being decent at the game and proving yourself.
The second reason being that the Margrel boss fight is fun. It would become dull if we were made to fight it 500 times, but it's the heart of the event and if we're going to display it (keeping it hidden was a respectable decision until the advent of whiskers and craftable black kat gear) we should REALLY display it and make it an excellent centerpiece rather than play the fool.
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 09:03
#3
+1 Fehzor
Yes! It is a super fun and original fight, because it takes place in a weird area--it's a fun challenge.
Last Katastrophe I made sure that the 3 people in my Book party had never fought Margrel before. I wanted to get as many people as possible to experience it. :)
With all the whinging about "OOO keeps doing costumes and not content" OOO really shouldn't set the bar so high that it prevents players from doing the content they have designed.
Fri, 09/26/2014 - 09:44
#4
100 +
Awesome idea dude....
Make it like 150 for a chapter> 5 chapters for a book>5 black kat skins for a cowl.
Or chapters could be rare. Maybe in the middle of books and pages. But keep the rare drop chance though.
Great idea!
Fri, 09/26/2014 - 11:24
#5
Well here's an idea
This idea seems pretty neat! Having 100 pages or so for a chapter would be good.
I think a neat way to work with chapters is to have the chapter you craft be "randomized", so to keep the random chance aspect... With a fair distribution (20% each chapter) Or a progressive one (30% 25% 20% 15% 10%) to encourage trading. An idea to keep players playing would be that you could fight other kat tribe souls. We could fight bosses for each weapon type - Scraith for melee, Preowa for guns, and Torair for bombs. Those three could be the fights for chapters 3-5. For chapters 1 and 2, perhaps it could summon a bit of the story?
For chapter 1, we could fight through hordes of dust zombies with 3-6 black kats at the end. This could resemble how the kat tribe was taken by a curse, and brought destruction upon the owlites and in the process, themselves. The black kats could act like the "boss" here, as multiple would spawn at once. I would say 5 waves of around 20 dust zombies, and the 5th wave spawns a totem, and on the 6th and final wave, the black kats spawn near the elevator with a radius push (to ensure no insta-kill of the kats) and soon after around 12 zombies spawn around them with a totem. (This is all in moorcroft still) After all enemies are defeated, 9-15 (depends on difficulty) ancient pages will drop, and all players will get a new special token called "wicked testament". These testaments could be traded (in groups of 10) to Montague for a wicked whisker.
For chapter 2, we would fight through a battlefield replication of the battle outside of the owlite school for magic. Kats would spawn en-mass, and many dust zombies would join them on the battlefield, all in various statuses! Again, 5 waves of enemies: first wave is normal themed, second is poison, third is freeze, fourth is fire, fifth is shock. However, the final wave is curse themed - you have 4 black kats spawn in 4 corners of the map: the elevator area, the train station, the crypt to the east, and in the main lobby. Oh, and carnavons spawn all over the map. What makes this bit much harder is that totems are spawned all over the map as well, but the wave ends automatically after all four black kats are killed. This time, 12-18 ancient pages will drop (again, based on difficulty) and 1 wicked testament would drop. The four black kats resemble the kat tribe heroes who led the army of kats to their own demise.
Chapter 3 - 5 would have a fight similar to Margel(reskinning time!), but not quite. No black kats would spawn - instead various spookats would (fire for melee, freeze for gun, poison for bomb). Scraith(Melee) would focus more on the bite attack. Preowa(Guns) would take advantage of the flying status orbs that float around, and would teleport around a bit more. They would also have a new attack, in which would be similar to the tortogun's charge, but deal freeze/shadow damage instead of shock. Torair(Bombs) would also teleport around a lot, but would drop bombs that explode (doing damage) and then fire 3 projectiles that hunt down players like the status orbs that float around in the Margel fight, but inflict poison instead of curse. After defeating one of these bosses, players will obtain two wicked testaments and 15 to 21 ancient pages.
Overall, this makes farming for black kats still viable, doesn't take the book out of the picture, adds new content to the event, and makes the new kat armors available to everyone. Also, if you do all of these bosses solo, you'll end up with a bit of a loss because you'll only have 8/10 tokens for the whisker, so the book is still a better choice. This still makes running bosses in a group the better choice, and reduces costs drastically between players (We should never have to pay anything to fight a boss, EVERY time we want to fight it), and just makes this event more fun to do.
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 18:32
#6
I totally agree with Fangel
"(We should never have to pay anything to fight a boss, EVERY time we want to fight it)". I understand going through lots of obstacles like fangel explained up on his/her post. But making grinding the obstacle and a Hilariously crazy amount of grinding to just fight the boss one time is beyond what i would say "Hiding content". I think the revamped idea is the best idea to have come to the katastrophy event.
The Book of Dark Rituals being rare is not the problem. It's the increased pressure into getting one due to the added rewards being necessary to make the new armors. Brought up here.
The fact that Black Kat Cowl has its own line wth Black Kat Raiment having its own as well and that Wicked Whiskers are exclusive to defeating Margrel makes those two simple additions to the event the real problems holding back its flow and purpose, on top of the issue of the event being what the name implies in the first place (a timed grind).