question

[randie54]

It seems that all the things that make this shard good are now out of reach of the players.  Why is that?  And I don't mean to be disrespectful, Raist.  Just a question.

[Raist]

Can you give me some more specific information on this?

[randie54]

For instance, evo armor.  Before you could eventually have enough money to buy one piece.  Now you no longer have any hope of getting any.  You need what, 160 reward scrolls to get one and you get one reward scroll ocassionally?  Also, firerock.  You have to have 120 inscription and I don't even know what else in order to have a slight chance of making a book.  Your only other option is to pay a player (who?) at least 1M gold to buy one?  I'm sure the list goes on.  I really think you have the makings of a great shard but if the players you have don't stay, because it is impossible, what do you have?  Thanks for listening.

[Raist]

Not everyone has discovered all the ways to get reward scrolls. There are easy ways, and there are hard ways. If you guys want me to tell you everything, then why bother playing the game?

Regular Champ Bosses have a chance to drop scrolls.
T-Map Treasure Chests have a chance to drop scrolls.
Most named mobs you come across have a chance to drop scrolls.
The Holy Grail Quest gives reward scrolls.
Swamp Queen Quest has a chance on giving reward scrolls.
Every Peerless Boss has a chance on giving reward scrolls.
The Vampire Bosses in The Vampire Dungeon and the Midnight Coven Dungeon have chances on giving reward scrolls.
Any of the 6 bosses in Lair Of the Six can give reward scrolls too.

And those are just a few of the places that you can CURRENTLY get reward scrolls as there are several other expansions that have not been released on the shard yet and you can also purchase reward scrolls from the online store, which have been recently reduced in price along with several other things.

On Inscription:
The inscription system creates all the speciality books. The materials for the books aren't that difficult to get. Not even the fire rock crafting book has difficult mats as the two peerless boss drops are almost 100%. Yes, it also means you have to have 120 inscription for a 50/50 chance. The reason being is that fire rock crafting should be a semi-rare ability, because it can make some very great base gear, and with spellcrafting on top of it, you can blow away pretty much any dropped item, arties included.

Most of my staff is busy outside of shard business, as am I, but I do have projects I'm working on that will make things more appealing. I am currently in the process of preparing the next shard patch, which is a large one that is going to introduce new armor graphics and new mounts as well.

[matg0d]

The server is getting harder, i understand that way, but there is some content that is getting out of reach.

The first point i would like to ask, is from where the decisions are coming from? I hear that is too easy, that is that or that. But i didnt see an open poll or something like that, to really ask players, if what bring them here is a more challenge server, or a server with more content, that they can reach, with work, WORK, not slavery, cuz for me, having to farm for days, weeks, months, to get a...weapon, or a piece of armor, cant be called "work for it", its more to be turned in a slave of the server. IF ofc the player stays here, and didnt get bored by not finding something else to do to reach that.(please read the entire post before cursing me for that).

FIREROCK system:
Even for someone that have inscription 120, is quite hard to make the book to sell, i mean, need alot of resources that arent much easy to find.
Or to the people that have the skill to make firerock items... Fire rubys is quite a impossible thing to get, in the numbers it is used by the skill.
Edit:
Most firecraft items have more then five props(weapons are the ones im familiar), soo spellcraft isnt much powerfull on it, as you can only change what is already there, but i agreed that it should not be a easy skill to have, but in the way it is now, we just recycle items, we dont have a source of rubys to do anything new.

Death Maw
Sounds a quite hard dungeon to do, funny as far i remember of it, if with a merc, you need alot of caution either way, and in some  points, even the imba old mercs, died in few secs, what it is suppose to be now...? Without a really big party, when the evos get finally deleted, that place will be just out of reach as far i can think, and a bit pointless anyway, one RS for killing champs, peerless, uber bosses, stronger mobs with a quite crazy spaw... Something to be balance a bit.

PVP rewards
The rewards for PvP points are a bit pointless, even if we create some magic bot to afk farm it( what is agaisnt the rules i guess), it would take a month to get one decent reward. A content, that is in fact, a nice content, but out of reach for months and months without a good player base.
(And a player base isnt something we download and put here, i know it, but we could balance that system a bit, to encourage people in fighting it, some kind of reward, not soo hard to get, that is usefull, or that have a good demand on the economy.

Pet Breeding
Sounds an amazing system, really. But how much effort it takes, to turn the content unique, i mean, we can go in any shard, train taming, and get a pet, train it status and be done, or in the harder ones, have to be a slave looking for months for a spaw.
Here, is easy to find a pet, with a bit of effort, to find a max lv 30. Then we can level it, what is something that demand a bit of time for one pet. Someone else(player base issue) have to do the same, then, find eachother to breed then, wait a bit, to get a bit stronger pet, then we have to repeat the above steps to turn it into a stronger pet, and to take another step into the direction of that content...That turn to be boring and use quite a good time, and atleast two players to finally have some content that is unique, i mean, a pet really more powerfull than an OSI like one.

(For what we would want it? Well, we have few mobs as content, that are quite more powerfull, we also dont have a great player base, soo we need some ways to do stuff by ourself, in short terms, power to take down things that in a OSI like shard, would need a help of quite a few players, otherwise, there will be original content "out of reach" by the lack of players)


another Point to be called:
Reward Scrolls, How much they worth, how much Money worth.
Money is easy to get for someone that get a weapon with area damage and whirwild.
Reward Scrolls, for newcomers, is something beyond reach mostly.
Now, how the economy will flow, if i can get money, even faster then the newcomer, the good stuff, the unique content, is selled with RSs or real money, the newcomers cant get neither RSs to buy superior items, neither the superior items by themselves, and is hard to me to get them too, and is useless to sell what i could manage to get in terms of items, for gold, that a can farm easyly.
When i say I, i mean, A veteran, someone that already have some superior stuff, that could sell it to new players, middle age players that are looking for it.


That was just a few points i could take from the top of my head, sure that will pop more eventually, i hope more players could come here and open their mind to the community.
A game, a server, dont have the core on some .exe, it is on the community, and what we wish when opening this tread, is making it stronger, we wish and hope that the staff allow us to participate more in the construction of this Server, that much of us, really like.

I just wish that we could build a way that make us all happy.
That make a newcomer that get here, see alot of possibilities, and not alot of "farming ahead".
Im not saying it should not be a piece of the game, but if we could manage to make it something diverse and funny, it will be beneficial to everyone.

Thank you for your attention.
I apologize if I offended the staff's work with this post, my purpose is to work, share my opinion and turn The Expanse better and better with each step we take, cuz i dont need to think twice to say this was the best shard i ever played, and i wish that he stay in that way, offering all the help i could provide.

[Raist]

[michtymog]

[randie54]

Thank you both for explaining some of the things and reasons.  I understand better now and look forward to growing with the shard.

[matg0d]

Thank you both to know that some of or questions where indeed in your plans.
those points i made where a collection of things i get from different players, im glad all of them where discussed.

And im aware some of those points where quite biased to players that didnt wish a harder game, but as long it is a concern for the staff to make the shard experience harder while it still been something funny to do, i agree with the points related here, and still let my offer in helping the shard up to use, and hope that more players do the same.


Staff, thank you for your attention.