New writ "system"

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a shrouded figure
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by a shrouded figure » Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:23 pm

I’ll definitely be making a new character tonight to test how this works for leveling. I’m very curious if this translates to “go find new writs” or “enjoy the grind”.

What level can I expect a newbie to be after completing all the Cordor writs solo?

JubJub
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by JubJub » Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:37 pm

So does this only apply for new characters? If you have a Lvl 26 will writs you haven't done now appear since there is no more writ lvl restriction?

Archnon
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Archnon » Tue Sep 21, 2021 12:36 am

This seems like a cool change.

My question: For the repeatable courier and patrol writs, do you still only get XP for the first run or now do you get it on all the repeats?

And is writ XP for courier writs still capped at level 20?

**EDIT: Answered one of my own questions. You do not get repeat experience for repeated writs.

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garrbear758
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by garrbear758 » Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:40 am

Archnon wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 12:36 am
This seems like a cool change.

My question: For the repeatable courier and patrol writs, do you still only get XP for the first run or now do you get it on all the repeats?

And is writ XP for courier writs still capped at level 20?

**EDIT: Answered one of my own questions. You do not get repeat experience for repeated writs.
Did you get adventure xp the second time? You should still get that and gold, just no direct xp.
You've done it [Garrbear], you've kicked the winemom nest. -Redacted

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garrbear758
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by garrbear758 » Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:41 am

JubJub wrote:
Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:37 pm
So does this only apply for new characters? If you have a Lvl 26 will writs you haven't done now appear since there is no more writ lvl restriction?
Should be retroactive.
You've done it [Garrbear], you've kicked the winemom nest. -Redacted

Duchess Says
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Duchess Says » Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:42 am

One question.. Isn't high level characters going back to do level 3 writs in areas they didn't start in going to be a bit of a problem? If I read it right, they can do this can't they? Those areas tend to be competitive enough, not to mention the power imbalance.

Red_Wharf
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Red_Wharf » Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:05 am

Duchess Says wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:42 am
One question.. Isn't high level characters going back to do level 3 writs in areas they didn't start in going to be a bit of a problem? If I read it right, they can do this can't they? Those areas tend to be competitive enough, not to mention the power imbalance.
I am sure they have considered this when they pushed the update live. It might be a problem now because we'll likely see high level characters coming back to do low level writs they haven't done yet, but in one or two weeks this will end. After that I believe we'll see players doing as many low level writs as they can, leaving the high level ones for later. In other words, we'll probably see slightly overleveled (in comparison to the writ level range) characters, not high level characters, doing low level writs.

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Kalos
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Kalos » Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:32 am

I must admit as a casual player I am not sure I am a fan of this change. I think a good thing with repeating writs that people are overlooking is how nice it is to find others at your level. I have made countless friends by casually walking the sewer rat patrol a few times and running into others, or clearing the archives. And, like others had mentioned many character types are restricted from some writs.

Also, I am not sure allowing characters with their high level friends to do writs is really a positive, as that will take away from players without those resources. So now you have to compete with them or tag along while they destroy everything in their path. I see this as "grinding" a lot more than just taking the same writ a few times.

As a player who puts very little emphasis on rushing through low levels or "gotta get to 30", I guess I will have to wait and see what kind of impact this has. It's new so we'll see.

Archnon
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Archnon » Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:27 pm

garrbear758 wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:40 am
Archnon wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 12:36 am
This seems like a cool change.

My question: For the repeatable courier and patrol writs, do you still only get XP for the first run or now do you get it on all the repeats?

And is writ XP for courier writs still capped at level 20?

**EDIT: Answered one of my own questions. You do not get repeat experience for repeated writs.
Did you get adventure xp the second time? You should still get that and gold, just no direct xp.
No I did not. There was no second time XP writ experience on courier writs. I did get a lot of adventure XP and money.

JubJub
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by JubJub » Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:44 pm

So far I like it. I do think the xp might be a tad high though, doing the Earl and Queen of Vamps writs netted me a total of 19000xp + 19000 adventure xp.

I might try a lower lvl writ once or twice just to see what the rewards are like but over all I don't think the rewards are going to make up for being able to go to RDI. Orclands etc and getting more gold and xp. So I agree initially you might see alot of higher lvls doing lower lvl writs but I think most will see it really isn't worth their time.

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garrbear758
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by garrbear758 » Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:34 pm

JubJub wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:44 pm
So far I like it. I do think the xp might be a tad high though, doing the Earl and Queen of Vamps writs netted me a total of 19000xp + 19000 adventure xp.

I might try a lower lvl writ once or twice just to see what the rewards are like but over all I don't think the rewards are going to make up for being able to go to RDI. Orclands etc and getting more gold and xp. So I agree initially you might see alot of higher lvls doing lower lvl writs but I think most will see it really isn't worth their time.
Rewards currently scale from 1000-10000xp and half that for gold. There are very very few that give 10,000, and I tried to reserve those for iconic or notably hard dungeons. Earl is probably a bit too easy for that tier and should come down, but overall it'll even out when you can only do those dungeons once, and they eat up a lot more time and resources than just doing orclands for the 999999th time like everyone used to.

More importantly, with there being no level restrictions, the higher writs need to be worth doing over the easy ones, and there isn't really a better way to do that than significantly upping the reward.

One of the concerns I've seen is that higher levels will just go do lowbie dungeons and push them out, but when your option is to do a writ that gives you 8000xp vs one that gives you 1000 and no xp for monster kills, why would you ever go do the 1000. If that does become an issue, we will decrease the xp/gold return if you are significantly above the recommended level, but I want to see how things go before resorting to that.

I'm gonna keep an eye on things and may make some adjustments, but overall I think we're in a relatively good place now.
You've done it [Garrbear], you've kicked the winemom nest. -Redacted

Babylon System is the Vampire
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Babylon System is the Vampire » Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:56 pm

I haven't been playing much of late, which means I also haven't been saying much, but I just wanted to chime in and say the changes over the last month or so to writs have all been awesome save for one or two. I really dislike the new "any level can do this" thing mostly because I don't see the positives nearly matching the potential negatives, some of which I am certain were already covered in this thread that I admittedly didn't read. I just don't see "mentor rp" out weighing the bad sides, in particular the fact that now high levels are going to be in dungeons too low for them more often then before. I realize that a lot of people see the pve content as a means to an end, meant to get done with as fast as possible, but i actually enjoy it and want it to be challenging personally.

Anyways, thats all I got, good stuff all around for the most part.

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Party in the forest at midnight
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Party in the forest at midnight » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:30 pm

I don't see why high levels in a dungeon is an issue. If a high level is doing a writ they'll be done it sooner than a low level party, and respawn is real fast. You can only do writs once, and I assume can still only do 3 per day. So people aren't going to be farming the Cordor sewer writs every day non stop. And if level 30s looting books from Bloodmoon doesn't cause issues, I doubt people doing the writ will be.

What it will do is give people a reason to do some of the more difficult and unfun writs once people are at a level where they can effectively complete it. There might be fewer people clogging up popular dungeons. People will have more reason to do the sailing writs or spriggan writ instead of grind Orclands on loop once in epic levels.

Duchess Says
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Duchess Says » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:36 pm

garrbear758 wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:34 pm
One of the concerns I've seen is that higher levels will just go do lowbie dungeons and push them out, but when your option is to do a writ that gives you 8000xp vs one that gives you 1000 and no xp for monster kills, why would you ever go do the 1000. If that does become an issue, we will decrease the xp/gold return if you are significantly above the recommended level, but I want to see how things go before resorting to that.

I'm gonna keep an eye on things and may make some adjustments, but overall I think we're in a relatively good place now.
Though keep in mind if an epic goes to a low level dungeon it's not for one 1000xp writ but probably three of them near each other for a very quick and easy 3000 or so. The good news is they'll probably do so very quickly and not linger but there's already so much competition for some low level areas it's probably not ideal for them to be hanging around, not to mention they can easily kill any level appropriate PC trying to do a writ who's in their way.

I'm not saying this is a problem that needs to be fixed but I think it's worth mentioning and keeping an eye on. Like today I was on a new character in a low level dungeon, struggling to slowly win a fight against a boss as a level 4 should, and someone way overpowered just ran up, killed it and kept going. Once, fine, that's annoying but part of playing online games but if that keeps happening? I just think epics in lowbie areas ought to be generally discouraged not rewarded.

Curve
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Curve » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:56 pm

I would be interested in knowing if this type of thing is happening more often than it always has. Doubtless it will be watched by the powers that be. I'd suggest writing up a quick report with a screenshot when this happens (without interaction, not just because you think that someone is too high level for an area)

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garrbear758
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by garrbear758 » Wed Sep 22, 2021 1:27 am

Duchess Says wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:36 pm
garrbear758 wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:34 pm
One of the concerns I've seen is that higher levels will just go do lowbie dungeons and push them out, but when your option is to do a writ that gives you 8000xp vs one that gives you 1000 and no xp for monster kills, why would you ever go do the 1000. If that does become an issue, we will decrease the xp/gold return if you are significantly above the recommended level, but I want to see how things go before resorting to that.

I'm gonna keep an eye on things and may make some adjustments, but overall I think we're in a relatively good place now.
Though keep in mind if an epic goes to a low level dungeon it's not for one 1000xp writ but probably three of them near each other for a very quick and easy 3000 or so. The good news is they'll probably do so very quickly and not linger but there's already so much competition for some low level areas it's probably not ideal for them to be hanging around, not to mention they can easily kill any level appropriate PC trying to do a writ who's in their way.

I'm not saying this is a problem that needs to be fixed but I think it's worth mentioning and keeping an eye on. Like today I was on a new character in a low level dungeon, struggling to slowly win a fight against a boss as a level 4 should, and someone way overpowered just ran up, killed it and kept going. Once, fine, that's annoying but part of playing online games but if that keeps happening? I just think epics in lowbie areas ought to be generally discouraged not rewarded.
This happened pretty frequently before this change as well for looting reasons. Hopefully it dwindles when people realize how much worse the award is, but we have a few solutions we're considering if it continues to be widespread.
1. Decrease the gold and xp reward if significantly above the recommended level.
2. Make chests only spawn gold if significantly above the monster ecl for the area.
Both are kind of a pain to do and a lot of work, so I really hope we don't have to, but we will if it becomes necessary.
You've done it [Garrbear], you've kicked the winemom nest. -Redacted

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Ork
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Ork » Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:45 am

I had to kick out a higher level from a low-level area where I know prior to this change this behavior wasn't happening. Very sad for my 3 neurons craving XP.

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Talvenlapsi
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Talvenlapsi » Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:15 am

I actually did put bug report on this, but I'm unsure if it's bug or a feature; if it's a feature, please make it /not/ be feature!
When you abadon writs you don't get a chance to take them again.. As someone who regularily takes writs, might not do them the exact day, and next time abadons and takes another writs to sync with another adventurer, I hate that I've lost writs by abadoning them, because I wanted to do things with another player :(
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Babylon System is the Vampire
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Babylon System is the Vampire » Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:03 am

Party in the forest at midnight wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:30 pm
I don't see why high levels in a dungeon is an issue. If a high level is doing a writ they'll be done it sooner than a low level party, and respawn is real fast. You can only do writs once, and I assume can still only do 3 per day. So people aren't going to be farming the Cordor sewer writs every day non stop. And if level 30s looting books from Bloodmoon doesn't cause issues, I doubt people doing the writ will be.

What it will do is give people a reason to do some of the more difficult and unfun writs once people are at a level where they can effectively complete it. There might be fewer people clogging up popular dungeons. People will have more reason to do the sailing writs or spriggan writ instead of grind Orclands on loop once in epic levels.
At the end of the day its mostly preference, since if I run into a level 18 doing the goblin fortress at the same time I am as a level 6, I'm not going to tell them to go away over a handful of xp. I just prefer my pve to be challenging, and I can easily see this leading to it being much less so. I was never a fan of level 30s looting books from bloodmoon either.

As for the rest of your post, I think this is all accomplished by making them one time only anyways. The only thing the extra level adds to that is now one can say "Oh I never did writ x as a lowbie, let me go get that easy xp now". I don't have an issue with the faster xp for higher levels, I'm all for that, but again...I don't want to have to run into them on my level ranged character. The writ guy won't pay you for this may be cheezy rp, but at least it was a built in way to tell someone that is essentially going to ruin your one time in dungeon x going forward to get lost so you can enjoy it.

Chosen Son
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Chosen Son » Wed Sep 22, 2021 12:33 pm

I imagine this will sort itself out in a week or two as the backlog some chars have is depleted.

Archnon
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Archnon » Wed Sep 22, 2021 1:20 pm

Chosen Son wrote:
Wed Sep 22, 2021 12:33 pm
I imagine this will sort itself out in a week or two as the backlog some chars have is depleted.
I think this is true for epics. However, the group I see being a consistent contributor to higher levels on low level writs is people coming off the boat from Skal at 16 with a world full of level 3 writs to do.

MRFTW
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by MRFTW » Wed Sep 22, 2021 2:20 pm

Archnon wrote:
Wed Sep 22, 2021 1:20 pm
Chosen Son wrote:
Wed Sep 22, 2021 12:33 pm
I imagine this will sort itself out in a week or two as the backlog some chars have is depleted.
I think this is true for epics. However, the group I see being a consistent contributor to higher levels on low level writs is people coming off the boat from Skal at 16 with a world full of level 3 writs to do.
In fairness the first wave of mainlanders arrived on Skal recently and have been doing exactly the same, so it works both ways 😅

Good Character
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Good Character » Wed Sep 22, 2021 2:55 pm

So far really enjoying the most recent change. The XP gain is considerable, and really hammers in that desire for people to visit the entirety of the server.

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Party in the forest at midnight
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Party in the forest at midnight » Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:02 pm

The vast majority of characters start out as mainlanders. Arelith is an island, mainland is the Sword Coast.

If epics are traveling to Skal to do writs that is really crazy, they're spending huge travel time and putting themselves at risk of a mod. Straight up, the writ giver there should refuse to give writs to anyone level 15+. And I'm disappointed that this has to actually be a consideration.

I also forgot about Skal entirely when I wrote my post, I was thinking of award level 15 start as being the only scenario where that would happen. I can see Skal start chars being a big problem.

If restrictions or diminishing returns are added, I hope it will be primarily for writs under level 10. It's a bit annoying leveling a character and traveling to each writ giver making sure I'm not out-leveling any writs. Because the level range varies for writs in the same area, I was grabbing writs with the lowest cutoff point in 3 different areas rather than doing a cluster of 3 writs in the same area that have different cutoff points. It was a problem for my Skal start character, trying to get writs completed before I outleveled them. I haven't leveled a char under the new system yet so I don't know how it compares.


Otherwise, could there also be an option to toggle adventure XP gain every 5 minutes? Ideally I would rather save all of my adventure XP for epic levels, they are not fun to grind.

Archnon
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Re: New writ "system"

Post by Archnon » Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:37 pm

Party in the forest at midnight wrote:
Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:02 pm
The vast majority of characters start out as mainlanders. Arelith is an island, mainland is the Sword Coast.

If epics are traveling to Skal to do writs that is really crazy, they're spending huge travel time and putting themselves at risk of a mod. Straight up, the writ giver there should refuse to give writs to anyone level 15+. And I'm disappointed that this has to actually be a consideration.
This is already in place. Skal caps at 16 according to the announcement. People heading there are likely under 16 or are confused and going to be met with disappointment.

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