Lockboxes

You know what FL is missing? Random drops. That's right old school WoW nerds. RANDOM DROPS.

I would submit to the peer panel the idea of random drop lockboxes.

Concept: Creatures around Aabrahan have goodies they obviously want protected, so they keep them in lockboxes/trunks/chests/ect.  Even more obviously, these goodies caches are locked.

How it would work: Mr. Elf paladin and Ms. Dwarf (insert op combo here) are out hunting undead these and those. All the sudden, Mr. Elf Paladin notices a strongbox on the corpse of the undead beastie! Mr. Elf Paladin does NOT know how to pick locks, so he has to employ the use of a class that can pick locks. (Bards, thieves, ninjas?)

OUTCRY: BUT THIEVES AND BARDS ARE SCARY, WE DONT WANT TO GO NEAR THEM.

Solution: We implement a new NPC, much like the armor repair shop in Falen Dara. You go to the shop, you give the NPC the box, they unlock it for a fee. Outcry squashed.

Ok...but what's inside?

Goodies! Easy choice is a random sum of gold. Maybe even a random sum of CPs. Perhaps even a random socket? Sky is the limit here. Non rare good items? Diamond bracers?  You guys have more imagination than me, post some ideas of what should be inside.

What does this add to the fine world of FL?

Nothing for you PK driven monsters. However, for those of us who just want to play to play, it adds an element of fun. Plus, with the new STOW command Morl put in, you can easily 'stow boxes backpack' and have a full backpack of lockboxes to pop when that blasted DK decides he needs to kill your groupmate so he can apply for demon, leaving you with nothing to do.

I love PK. I do. It's what made me play, and made me stay. But we know this game can't survive on that alone. Because it's a GAME. We have to make it enjoyable to people who are here to PLAY, not COMPETE.

So...I have submitted my idea to my panel of peers. You may now rip it apart.

Good idea. Random boxes with random items. We need a random item generator with a mix of item properties and a database of names to mash together to make it work.

We should also have a random mob generator and a quick creation link at character creation which randomizes all selectables, including names.

I think this could be a fun "Farming" aspect of the game.  I find myself bored to tears when I log in without an enemy unless I need to refarm consumables I burned.  I like the idea but I think we should leave it to the thieves/bards/ninjas to unlock them.  I think this will be fun in two aspects 1.) It will force RP between characters and promote bartering 2.) If you cant find a thief you're now stuck with a bunch of boxes that your enemies can take.  I think it would be best set at a lvl 45+ player level in order to obtain and be set and a % drop rate based upon mob kills of that level.  We'd have to designate certain mobs as to not allow abuse by aoeing low level mobs.

What I'd like to see in the boxes are (Listed in priority):

1. Nymph Hearts

2. CPS

3. Gold (10k min but more if the drop rate is bad)

4. Random preserved herbs

5. small chance for a nectar potion

6. Small chance for a AOE potion from Avalon (Forget the name)

7.  Sphere's of Life/Diamond Bracelets

1. Glimmering Staff (Mediocre chance)

2. Astronomical chance for 500k-1m gold

If we offer another way for nymph hearts to be gained can we make them also rot?

I find this idea completely unremarkable.

I see no point in it and I hate random loot back from the days of diablo 2 when I had to grind hard. One of the main features that made me like FL so much (coming from diablo 2 of course) is that if I want to find certain piece of EQ, I know which mob holds it.

This idea is random and brings nothing to FL in way of atmosphere, RP or PK.

But I am not surprised, it comes from Zoichan after all :P

xoxox

It's a good basic idea which can be easily made into a terrible one. Besides, we already have random drops: Arena.

5 hours ago, f0xx said:

I find this idea completely unremarkable.

I see no point in it and I hate random loot back from the days of diablo 2 when I had to grind hard. One of the main features that made me like FL so much (coming from diablo 2 of course) is that if I want to find certain piece of EQ, I know which mob holds it.

This idea is random and brings nothing to FL in way of atmosphere, RP or PK.

But I am not surprised, it comes from Zoichan after all :P

xoxox

Of course it doesn't bring anything to FL in the terms of PK or RP. But it does bring flair. Yeah I said flair. It brings something that a new player will see and say 'Huh...that's neat. Wonder what's in that box.' And while they are wondering what's in the box, guess what? They are still playing.

It's novelty. 100% novelty. But again...we're playing a game. Novelty has to have it's place.  I'm not suggesting that uber EQ should drop from the chest. Gold...CPs...a few consumables maybe (I agree with you on nymph hearts,) and maybe a non rare piece of equipment. In my head, I didn't imagine these things dropping all the time. They should be few and far between, and nothing that would drastically change the way PK functioned.

The Gor'gorak is random drop too.

I'm not against the idea (we were gunna do random drops for bard instrument materials), but we would need to make it fit in to the FL style somewhat if we did do this. It wouldn't just be drops, they'd need some function aside from some mildly interesting look.

Plus, the frustration of having a box you can't open is considerable. Either make keys drop or otherwise available, or don't lock em. Or, make the contents worth the extra step. Few people will carry a box around if it contains three nymph hearts. Instead make it like one part of a lengthy trek to a treasure vault or something.

EDIT: Disregard my idea.. I don't like mine anymore, lol.

1 hour ago, Volgathras said:

The Gor'gorak is random drop too.

I'm not against the idea (we were gunna do random drops for bard instrument materials), but we would need to make it fit in to the FL style somewhat if we did do this. It wouldn't just be drops, they'd need some function aside from some mildly interesting look.

Plus, the frustration of having a box you can't open is considerable. Either make keys drop or otherwise available, or don't lock em. Or, make the contents worth the extra step. Few people will carry a box around if it contains three nymph hearts. Instead make it like one part of a lengthy trek to a treasure vault or something.

You see I differ in opinion. I think we need more things that don't function other than a 'mildly interesting look.' Novelty makes the game fun. There are those who don't play solely for pk. Which sounds funny coming out of my mouth because I love the PK aspect of the game. But I think we need to evolve into something with more to offer.

I would never, especially with our smaller, yet growing, pbase, (that's a lot of commas, I bet I screwed that up) offer up a suggestion that only one or two classes can offer a solution two. That's why we open a locksmith shop where a NPC will open the boxes for a cost.

I like the idea.

If we go for it I'd also volunteer to make a set of maybe 20-30 things that can randomly land in that chest. And I agree with Zoichan it should be locked, however no lock pick shop, let's see some player interaction.

However we could make add some more things to be able to be bought with rp points, like pick lock, detect invis, comprehend languages, detect align.

19 hours ago, Zoichan said:

Random drops.

By the way, (sorry for the off-topic,) have you guys (IMMs) ever actually made a random drop of some cool absolutely unique item, for a player whomever happens to run on it to find? I once found a ring lying on the ground, that made user (when 'used') invisible, and I've never seen that ring again once I died to a mob (it propably had rotdeath-flag). Makes me suspect that the ring was dropped there by an IMM just for someone to find.

1 hour ago, Zoichan said:

Which sounds funny coming out of my mouth because I love the PK aspect of the game.

Slaying doesn't count as PK.

That ring you're talking about was the 'one ring', found in the Shire. You know, 'one ring to rule them all - Sauron' sort of thing. It got removed when Hamlet was inserted into Shire's place.

Cool ring though.

Obviously that ring goes in one of the random box drops.

Double yes to having comprehend languages in the Bazaar. Freaking Thulgan and his ghetto language...

10 minutes ago, Zoichan said:

Double yes to having comprehend languages in the Bazaar. Freaking Thulgan and his ghetto language...

:D I wish it had longer duration. :P

>tell thulgan Here's a question.

Thulgan: [demonic mumble jumble]

>c com

>tell thulgan Say again?

Thulgan: Here's an answer.

>tell thulgan Thank you.

You no longer understand all manner of speech.

Thulgan: [demonic mumble jumble]

It sort of feels breaching RP to make someone in Thulgan's position to repeat everything he says. Although, the demon-kin self chooses to cause such a situation.

That's why I just pretend to understand him on my morts. I'm not asking Thulgan to repeat himself. He'll eat me.

@Anume I'll code it if you make a list of 20-30 items on the IMM only thread. Then we could add another 20-30 items ONLY found in lockboxes (anywhere from decent non-rare armor, to a kick-ass non-rare weapon. And armor that does cool things. Like the ring of invis that @F-3000 was talking about.

Belt of scrolls? :cheese:

15 hours ago, Morlhach said:

@Anume I'll code it if you make a list of 20-30 items on the IMM only thread. Then we could add another 20-30 items ONLY found in lockboxes (anywhere from decent non-rare armor, to a kick-ass non-rare weapon. And armor that does cool things. Like the ring of invis that @F-3000 was talking about.

If I'd be you, I'd go through the items in old, disconnected areas and pick some of the sweeties from them. :P

[Edit] A thing that would support the idea about "borrowing" obsolete equipment would be, that imagine the emotional flood when you find something out of a lockbox that you recognize from long gone past. ;)

[Edit] Also, a silly thing, I know, but how about a tiny chance for a totally random item from all existing possibilities appearing in the box? There's lots of "crap" out there, so it's not going to be the Shield of Gear every time. :) (Unless you force us to "saev".)