Mansion of the mourned changed?

[jezer]

I two ran Luhhan in westwood the other night with full pets and got 1.7m xp. I half ran an aged prison wight in skeep last night and got 2m xp even. I simply don't bother doing xp at the moment solo, because 3hrs solo = 1hrs group. There is a HUGE CHASM in the xp given by some area's compared to others. My top example is only 4x diff. I bet I can find areas 8x better than another area, for time/xp. Killing a maenad on BH takes more effort for 50k than a poor man in oly for 500k.

Typically shadow keep and murkwood runs suit me the most. Most days people are running these areas so I can't. Not being able to relo or far gate makes it inconvenient to go to another continent. There really isn't solo xp on BH (>1x40), and too weak for Lyme without groups. On a good day I get shadow keep to myself... only to find the second runs yield 30% less in the next run, or even less when you factor in age xp. (A total of 50% less)

So slothmud is group orientated... do you know how hard it is to get leaders and groups running some days... do you know what it's like to play in a non US time zone on weekdays? Loose players to boredom, it's a simple equation.

Here's another simple equation... 29.3b for me till 5x40. 3m xp per run. That's a little under 9800 solo runs... at 10mins each... 67.82 days of consecutive playing and hitting shadow keep to get 5x40... BTW this is only 33 levels away for me. Who is going to do this and still feel like playing? I dare you to stick to your guns, say slothmud is a group mud... do nothing about solo xp...

In my opinion there are three factors killing solo xp on sloth.

1, MAJOR HUGE differences in area's for xp (10x diff and higher)
2, Kill history stamp is too heavy for solo
3, Melee Dam by < 3x40 compared to magic is a fraction low (tested in the arena) OR xp given for Mob Hit Points is too low (Maenads have more hp than a poor man in Oly, seems xp to dependant on dam and mob level than the simple fact more hp's makes a low level mob harder to kill)

[Gimlet]

[quote="Toxis":3skca777]Please, someone design a good group gold area please.

-Toxis[/quote:3skca777]

not good enough to just bot for xp?

[*juggleblood*]

Word. What Al said.

[Toxis]

Great, two pricks on the mud now.

[*juggleblood*]

Al is all talk. He's a sweetie at heart. I on the other hand am the right hand of Cthulhu.

[img:35ih06y4]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DyGGlXVMdOg/SQ2gWTrHzCI/AAAAAAAABKc/48O45ZTUpZs/s400/cthulhu4prez-preview1.png[/img:35ih06y4]

[*juggleblood*]

back on topic, since there's still interest in this discussion.

1. comparing group and solo xp just isn't that helpful. if you read this whole thread you'll understand the rationale of the admin. feel free to disagree of course. Are there really that many players who want the group xp multiplier nerfed?

2. yes, xp values between zones vary quite a bit. Stop comparing things to skeep please. When this rendition of sloth opened up, we got barraged with complaints about skeep, because the new xp formula nerfed the xp there big time. So as a concession to the players and in honor of skeep being so popular historically, it was brought back up somewhat artificially. It wasn't just skeep tho, Splork put xp bonuses on a LOT of areas to encourage people to try out new stuff. So xp and difficulty are certainly not perfectly congruent across zones. It's trial and error.

3. If you have specific ideas on how an area could be improved, follow up on them. I got a pm on Hive for instance saying it was a deathtrap. Then the same player pm'd me back saying that no, it's ok, he was just pissed that he died. Another player gave me some positive feedback on hive changes and said it would be great if certain bees were slimmer. But then when I reply and ask which bees, I get no answer. I get reports that there's a mob in theris which is unhittable. I reply 'which mob?' and get no answer. I finally had to check the ac of every mob in the zone and figure out which one was the problem.

I would love it if xp, gold, fun, and challenge could all be optimized. But it's a lot easier said than done. The devil is in the details.

[jezer]

[quote="juggleblood":39sttszl]Another player gave me some positive feedback on hive changes and said it would be great if certain bees were slimmer. But then when I reply and ask which bees, I get no answer. [/quote:39sttszl]

I replied, the board is screwed up with that PHP Failed thing. It lets the posts through when it does that, not the PM's. My point to making the bee's skinner was related to the fact +14 dam is a hard task to scrap together for a 1x40, and it's who hive is suited for xp wise. So a fraction skinner on the workers/drone at least. Fighters and sentries what ever I guess. Just an idea.

One area that needs a tweak imo is westwood. It used to be small groups could start there, but tomb has taken that spot. Mobs are just too thick for the xp. A group of 3 can't even really get decent xp there.

[size=150:39sttszl]SHADOW KEEP[/size:39sttszl] is 4x better

What if Westwood was a bit more like ogres? It would be great to encourage 3-4man xp groups there.

[Gimlet]

I'm not comparing group and solo xp

I'm comparing the vast disparity between how group and solo xp are treated on th mud.

When the admin sees good xp made in popular group areas, they bump up the "unpopular" areas to make them in line with the popular ones.

When the admin sees good xp made in popular solo areas, they nerf it to make it in line with the ones nobody runs.

[*Splork*]

The blanket statement is simply incorrect Gimlet. The only solo area that has been touched since the beginning of this version of Slothmud is Mansion, which was, at one point, probably dealing out 10-12x the xp rate of any other area and the majority of the player base knows it needed adjusting.

At around that same time, I amped up the exp in over 40 other areas, and plenty of them were solo. So Im not entirely sure where your last post is coming from because you of all people knows this stuff:)
[
Splork

[Gimlet]

heh yeah i dunno why i posted that either....got carried away after reading jezer's posts

[Thraxas]

group hug

[*juggleblood*]

hug request accepted

One other thing to consider when we talk about zones being incongruent, is that a mob that is very easy for one player can be very challenging for another.

With regard to Westwood for example, it might be crap xp for one player, because it's thick, but to a smaller player it could be awesome xp because he don't hit well. Think about how choppy valk mobs are, and the noobs love em.

I can remember leveling rub as a noobie on the boys, girls, and ladies of westwood. They were pretty good if I remember correctly. And I remember grouping with other noobs on the bigger mobs. To larger players, those mobs would have been a waste of time.

I realize the xp formula affects things. Players can just figure out which mobs are best for them now. I'm a bit skeptical that a low level area like westwood would change much. I still think it's decent for a low level tank (-8 ?) and a few lowbie followers. If it's not, explain to me why pls.

[jezer]

[quote="juggleblood":62p5vzql]westwood[/quote:62p5vzql]

Villagers and what not are fairly exceptable, as good xp for lowbie high ac characters. Not as good as murkwood, but ok. They also have more coins, but they flee

As for the bigger mobs, [u:62p5vzql]I think they just have two many hitpoints[/u:62p5vzql]. Lets think, 4 man group, high warrior/mage/small cleric and a necro.

9 Attacks say, a lil blast. 300-400k for the lowbies... 700k for the tank. 1-2 mins per mob. Meh. Shrug. I dunno, maybe your right... you just don't see 3-4 man BH xp groups much, they run too slow. Why would you run westwood? Go run wights/stalkers at the end of the day.

[*juggleblood*]

I do see small groups. While people in the western hemisphere are bumbling around in small groups, you are probably sound asleep. I remember when I was in Riyadh, I could catch parts of the big xp groups, but generally activity was low during my prime playing hours.