Update Discussion: September 21, 2018

[srand]

The update notes are here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?1771-Update-Notes-September-21-2018

Discussion in this thread! (But please remember to report any bugs through the in-game reporting system as well. This is a big update with a lot of moving parts, so your help in finding and tracking down problems - so we can get them fixed fast! - is much appreciated.)

[Rick Sanchez]

Thank you so much for all the hard work we are all very excited to get in and try it all out!

Im really interested to see how the monster critical hits system will work out and am prepared to laugh a lot when some low level boss puts me in the ground unexpectedly. Any chance there will be new death types related to crits?

[INXS]

At least now GK will be fun.

Fertilizer and Rennet stacks to 5, thank you !

[Daguin]

Thanks for implementing a lot of commonly suggested tweaks this patch! I'm most excited about the new stacking numbers and the storage sorting options, but I'm least excited about getting crit'd and losing Joeh slots.
https://www.askideas.com/media/87/A-true-definition-of-compromise-a-little-give-a-little-take.-Max-Baucus.jpg

[Grobyddonot]

In my eyes the Casino will never become a true lvl 40 player hub. The teleportation Casino Stone is amazing, finally a great thing for the fast travel. Please, more of those for different locations/dungeons and DO NOT nerf it, ever. But that is pretty much the best thing about the casino, a really quick access to it and Rahu, which makes me happy. Other than that.. Casino has NO council storage, no cotton gin and the guild vault if ofc a new one, which means, and I've said it in the game multiple times before the patch came out.. Serbule is still the winner. The only equal thing between them is that Casino has 4 cows as does Serbule. Other than that.. Casino is not as compact, players have no access to the best storage they have: expanded Serbule Guild Storage (and some Guilds dumped hundreds of thousands of Councils into them, if not millions) and the council storage, that is also great, but not cheap at all. Casino beats Serbule as a place for events, such as the Poetry Jam, because the average fps is higher.. Still, our mules and biggest storages as mentioned above are in the Serbule. Plus, having a Casino Stone makes it a no brainer to stay in Serbule and just tp to Casino at any given time. I'm not sure about this, but the gardening area (garden itself) seems to be a bit too small, 5-10 high level players will have a hard time growing 12-15 items in it at the same time (Serbule wins again). Player Vendors placement is weird IMHO, i'm too lazy to go to the D section in the Serbule Keep, there is just no way that I'll run all the way through the casino, down and up the stairs, etc just to buy a poetry book or whatever. The Overall design is nice, but having a meditation pillar and not having a council storage machine makes me surprised.

Casino Games depend way too much on RNG, they should, but.. If you have a bit of a bad luck you won't advance in both of those games and the other way around.. I've sacrificied a chicken, danced with a tambourine while praying to the RNG God and guess what.. In Monsters and Mantis I got all the way down to the 3rd or 4th floor without even reading or paying too much attention, plus I've found like 4 artifacts, so I just cashed out and got 4 tokens. The next round my luck was so bad, that I was struggling with the first fight on the second floor... Still fun, but not all the time.. My goal is to farm tokens, but when I get down the 3rd floor having no tokens yet.. It just makes me feel like I'm wasting my time in the casino. 3-5-of-a-kind Candy Crush.. It's only good to lvlup the Gaming skill. I'm not and probably never will be good enough to get to good rewards in that game, and that's fine, it's not my cup of tea, but it's really easy to make 300 points in it, if you're paying a bit of attention.

Overall the games feel like the cash sink combined with grind to me. Cash Sink is fine, but I don't like it when the results of my grind depend highly or almost completely on RNG. imho. So, Eliminating that much grind could be a good option. Other players have already made the suggestion to create the versions of those games where you can pay, for just an example, a starting price of 50k councils, but have each artifact be worth 100 Casino tokens (ofc that's too much but 10k to 1 art - 10 tokens seems reasonable! 2 times more cash sink!), otherwise it just takes way too much time to get something really useful. I have no problem with wasting all the councils in the Casino, I'm having a problem when I start to compare Real Time vs Reward ratio of Casino and pretty much any other activity in the game.. Work orders.. Farming mobs.. clearing dungeons.. whatever.

Also, I've just found and reported the bug with the "Great Cloth Gloves" work order.

ps: So, an update, that took so much time to design doesn't even increase the cap of any skill by 10? Not even skills like Compassion? Makes me sad, because I was hoping for some progression or at least some groundwork to help raise the skill cap in the future. Except for the gaming skill and it's not very useful as far as synergy levels go.. yet.. but alright.

ps2: New Icons for some stuff in the game, including bc beakers.

[Unruly]

> So, an update, that took so much time to design doesn't even increase the cap of any skill by 10?

Updates very often don't update every single thing in the game. This one's a content update with a number of suggestions thrown in.

[Greyfyn]

There's A LOT more added in game than shows up in the Patch Notes, so check into the casino before worrying about the update not being as big as expected.

There are some significant aspects to the game introduced here. I don't want to spoil your explorations, but DO LOG IN before someone else spills all the details!

[INXS]

Great update a lot of new/tweaked things. the hub great design, only thing i noticed you put only 4 cows not 5!

[MrKen]

I like that you created a new gardening area, but if you want the casino to be a new hub it falls short on the storage.
The NPC is supposed to store gardening supplies and tools but does not store bottles, fertilizer, strange dirt, or cotton. These are pretty common things for gardening and I would consider them part of gardening supplies and tools.

[Ashreon]

My only note at the Casino gambling feels very underwhelming.
Candy Crush has so few turns you hardly even get to play as consecutive strikes in one turn does nothing but make a lot of ding noises and Mantids and Monsters.. well.. RNG needs to be on your side big time for it to even go.. remotely smooth

The rest is mighty nice tho.

[Fifth]

( double )

[Fifth]

Then again, who built this is officially forgiven everything until the end of time...

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/4/6/6/1/4/snow.jpg

[Firedance]

I love the new area. It looks good and has a lot to explore. Great job.

[Grobyddonot]

Updated my first post in the thread with some of the initial feedback.

[Windslicer]

A few replies, then my general take on gambling in the casino.


Casino has NO council storage, no cotton gin and the guild vault if ofc a new one, which means, and I've said it in the game multiple times before the patch came out.. Serbule is still the winner.

Actually, Casino does have a cotton gin.


Casino is not as compact, players have no access to the best storage they have: expanded Serbule Guild Storage (and some Guilds dumped hundreds of thousands of Councils into them, if not millions) and the council storage, that is also great, but not cheap at all.

This is the exact opposite of my experience so far. I currently have 6 different NPCs that have their own storage tabs in casino, which is astounding and so exciting for me. This is one of the potentially biggest pulls for this place becoming a hub (along with the cottin gin + gardening area).


I'm not sure about this, but the gardening area (garden itself) seems to be a bit too small, 5-10 high level players will have a hard time growing 12-15 items in it at the same time (Serbule wins again).

Agreed, seems a little small.


Okay, so my take on gambling. I've made it through to high rollers and have found that the lootmasters can be a viable way to earn some cash. I definitely needed to be engaged and working hard for the puzzles but I could turn a profit of 1-2 gems per game which seems like a decent place to start for a game with relatively little risk, i.e. not gonna die to a mob's crit.

The only thing I was a little bit disappointed in so far is that I can't seem to figure out how I'll ever obtain a windfall stone. I feel pretty proficient at the lootmaster game but the windfall stones don't appear (and take this with a grain of salt, in my 37 levels of gaming I've only seen 3 windfall stones, so it may be more random than what I've observed) until the 6th row of items in the game and I can't see how it's gonna be possible to complete that round with the stone as the winner before running out of turns. If the stones were just a little bit more attainable I think I could see myself playing the game every now and then to make a little cash or mix up y playing experience.

Overall I love the hub. I've been craving more storage space and this is the answer. The gardening experience (as long as it doesn't get overcrowded) was really nice for me and I've been enjoying the casino, hoping that maybe it will be easier to get a windfall stone some day.

[Grobyddonot]

Actually, Casino does have a cotton gin.

Then I must be blind. I ran through the entire Casino two times and didn't see it. Not saying it's not there though.




This is the exact opposite of my experience so far. I currently have 6 different NPCs that have their own storage tabs in casino, which is astounding and so exciting for me. This is one of the potentially biggest pulls for this place becoming a hub (along with the cottin gin + gardening area).

Overall I love the hub. I've been craving more storage space and this is the answer.


The experience is subjective, no doubt. Just saying, I have 3 mules (living in Serbule) equipped with cloth gear with pockets. And to give it a bit more perspective, 1.5 years ago I was kinda complaining about storage slots costing so much councils (19k/slot for me at the time) and other players have told me not to, because their next slots would cost over 100k councils each. Same with the guild storage, not even mentioning the players, whos mules have their own "private" 1-player guilds just to get that extra storage, just to give you an idea of how much storage slots other players have already accumulated.

That being said, more cheap storage slots are always welcome, ofc, but there is only so much stuff you can grind and keep at the same time, most importantly, remembering that you have it, when you collect work orders or whatever, even if you have accumulated stacks of metal, wood, cloth, flowers, etc. (but yeah, I'm also using Kur and Rahu storage, including guild chests). As much as I would love to, I simply don't have stuff to put into all the Casino Storage, maybe it'll be filled with the vendor trash.. I'm a hoarder, not the most obsessed one, but the point is, I'm constatly losing track of how much of what I have. Kinda impossible to remember the numbers as it is... I went as far as creating spreadsheets with the work orders and the numbers of the materials I have for them...

And it makes even less sense to me to move all of my stuff into the Casino... Just for the sake of it being there? A sink of time... Especially without the Council Storage Machine... That's the biggest minus, because I can easily access it in Serbule, Eltibule, Kur and Rahu already... So what I'm really saying is, I prefer 1-2 big storages over 50 small storages spread all across the game, it's convenient. The reason we invest a lot of money in the storage slots is comfort and convenience, not because we don't have 3 free slots in Tadion's storage on one of the mules...

[jackybah]

Actually, Casino does have a cotton gin.

This is the exact opposite of my experience so far. I currently have 6 different NPCs that have their own storage tabs in casino, which is astounding and so exciting for me. This is one of the potentially biggest pulls for this place becoming a hub (along with the cottin gin + gardening area).



Hey Windslicer,
Currently I am trying to add the basic information for the Casino and its NPC's to the Wiki.
I must also have missed the Cotton Gin, and since I have not worked yet on my Favor with the NPC's I do not yet see Storage options for them.

Could you provide me with the location of the Cotton Gin and with the names of the NPC's that offer Storage ?

Thank you !

[INXS]

It's in the room with the tailoring Lady NPCs, they placed it in a corner kind of tucked there.

[Windslicer]

Hey Windslicer,
Currently I am trying to add the basic information for the Casino and its NPC's to the Wiki.
I must also have missed the Cotton Gin, and since I have not worked yet on my Favor with the NPC's I do not yet see Storage options for them.

Could you provide me with the location of the Cotton Gin and with the names of the NPC's that offer Storage ?

Thank you !

Yes as previous poster said the cotton gin is in the room with the tailoring NPC, Eveline Rastin.

The NPCs I have storage with so far are:
Mandibles (can store Food and Cooking Ingredients) requires Favor
Kib the Unkillable (can store Equipment and Ammunition) requires Favor
Tavilak (can store Gardening and Tools) requires Favor
Ragabir (can store Potions and Alchemy Ingredients) requires Favor
Otis (can store Anything) requires Favor
Qatik (can store Anything) requires Red Wing tokens


I don't have favor with everyone so there may be more! :)

Cheers!

[jackybah]

Thanks Guys !

I tried to update the wiki -

Also Big thanks to Sims for updating most of the NPC's with detailed Storage info

[HasturGA]

In my eyes the Casino will never become a true lvl 40 player hub. The teleportation Casino Stone is amazing, finally a great thing for the fast travel. Please, more of those for different locations/dungeons and DO NOT nerf it, ever. But that is pretty much the best thing about the casino, a really quick access to it and Rahu, which makes me happy. Other than that.. Casino has NO council storage, no cotton gin and the guild vault if ofc a new one, which means, and I've said it in the game multiple times before the patch came out.. Serbule is still the winner. The only equal thing between them is that Casino has 4 cows as does Serbule. Other than that.. Casino is not as compact, players have no access to the best storage they have: expanded Serbule Guild Storage (and some Guilds dumped hundreds of thousands of Councils into them, if not millions) and the council storage, that is also great, but not cheap at all. Casino beats Serbule as a place for events, such as the Poetry Jam, because the average fps is higher.. Still, our mules and biggest storages as mentioned above are in the Serbule. Plus, having a Casino Stone makes it a no brainer to stay in Serbule and just tp to Casino at any given time. I'm not sure about this, but the gardening area (garden itself) seems to be a bit too small, 5-10 high level players will have a hard time growing 12-15 items in it at the same time (Serbule wins again). Player Vendors placement is weird IMHO, i'm too lazy to go to the D section in the Serbule Keep, there is just no way that I'll run all the way through the casino, down and up the stairs, etc just to buy a poetry book or whatever. The Overall design is nice, but having a meditation pillar and not having a council storage machine makes me surprised.

I think you're underestimating the Casino.

Storage:
I've found 7 NPC's that provide storage so far, each of which tend to be pretty spacious. Key among them is Qatik and his expandable storage via tokens. Don't know what the cap on this will be but I'm looking forward to finding out. Combined with the new ability to see all NPC storage in a zone from any NPC, the storage is substantial. Where Serbule has it beat isn't in volume, it's that Joeh, Ivyn, Marna and Tadion all now store anything while in the Casino, only Otis and Qatik store anything. I was somewhat disappointed that Eveline Rastin doesn't store tailoring, leatherworking, and textile manufacturing items but I'll hope that changes in a future patch (oh how I'd love somewhere to store all that cotton, hides, rolls, thread, cloth, dye pots, and so on). The only other weird thing is that Tavilak's gardening and tools storage doesn't let you store things like water bottles, dirt, and bone dust... in other words gardening tools.

Skill support:
Literally every skill that requires some sort of "toolbench" has it in the Casino. And there's a compact farming area that doesn't require running across town to get more water and has close at hand storage as well. No more trips to Elitbule Keep just to get to the cotton gin. Given the specialized storage (other than cloth/leather), there's tons of storage for each of the skills.

Location, location, location:
On this one, the Casino is a clear winner. Connected to Rahu on one side (which makes Rahu and the points beyond far more accessible) and Eltibule on the other, the Casino provides quick access to two distant zones. In fact, with the portals between Rahu and the Casino, they're almost one large extended city and I'm treating them that way (especially since that gives 4 extra NPCs with storage that are only a free portal ride away). On top of that, there's the direct portal to the daily dungeon. And during events, the admins/guides have been creating portals to and from Serbule and the Casino so it's incredibly accessible even for mules. And the stage area in the Casino is actually pretty nice for the poetry jam and drawings.

Games:
Yeah, I'd like to see more games but you left one out... the arena. Work on your favor with NPCs and they'll give you tips for the day on the various arena fighters. With that you can make some smart bets. I do wish that I could see the health/armor/energy of the fighters as they fight but I'm guessing that's a bug.

NPC Vendors:
I'm waiting to see. They're spaced out all over but then I don't get the weird turning problems that plague the NPC vendors in Serbule. I've also had a bit more of a problem tracking down a vendor search golem as easily as I can find one in Serbule. Perhaps just post a couple in specific locations rather than have them move about?


You also went on to bemoan the lack of other changes with this patch, largely ignoring the new recipes for a number of craft skills (and those 20% boost potions), the 200 or so new work orders, monster crits, pet crits, and a pile of bug fixes and minor enhancements.


For me, I'm moving all of my crafting inventory to the Casino as soon as I finish raising favor with the NPCs there. Having everything in one place trumps everything else. And having Rahu a free portal away, makes it more like two cities in one (including two work order boards and bunch of extra NPCs that will buy my stuff). I'll use Serbule and Kur for less frequently used storage. If players move their shops to the Casino, there won't be much reason for me to go to Serbule other than for my extra storage, secondary sell-off vendors, and a couple specific vendors to hit their buy used tab looking for stuff.

[Lyramis]

I think our great architect Dorimir planned the casino quite well. It's fun to run around and poke your head in all the various rooms. My favorite room is Mandilble's kitchen with the little plates of eggs and mystery meat, the kettle, and the mugs lying around. It's all so cozy. Eveline's curtains are cute and make her easy to find. I really enjoyed chatting with all the NPCS and it's hard to pick a favorite but Kib would be it if I had to pick one. Like another poster said, there is no obvious or natural place in the middle of all the action to just stand around (like the well in Serbule) when you just don't feel like doing anything or need a 5 minute break, but maybe it's not needed. I guess time will tell.

The multiple storage places are a happy surprise to me but I found them too specific. Others have already mentioned the issues with the gardening one, but there are others that are too restrictive as well. The ore/gem storage needs to be able to store hammers and rivets if one wants to use it for blacksmithing. The alchemy ingredients/potions storage should include the few animal parts left that aren't already included so that it can be used for shamanic infusion mats. Otis leaves his spot so often for fighting that it would bother me too much to put crafting in there...so he has seeds and flowers. In the end, I couldn't move any of my crafting stations to the casino. (I left blacksmithing in Kur, tailoring, carpentry, fletching, and shamanic infusion in Serb, leather working in Rahu, gardening in Elti, and cheesemaking, mushroom farming, and brewing in Serb Hills.) I used the casino storage for stuff I use less often. It helped open spaces in all my crafting areas which was a happy thing!

Access to the casino is perfect.

I think it's fantastic that it is not required to play the games in order to get the casino chips!

I am looking forward to trying out the nimble gear and making the potions.

Having poetry jams in the theater is way better with all the space than the inn.

I love Qatik's daily quests with the included teleport.

Some fun stuff in Qatik's shop

More work orders always awesome. Thank you!

[Dibbuk]

First of all, this is just MY opinion. Here are some suggestions I would like to see:

I like the casino location, and the portals available.

I would like to see player vendors moved from the various alcoves to the player vendor area.

Put a council storage chest in one of the alcoves.

Put a Master Storage bookshelf in another alcove. The Master Bookshelf would allow access to all storage in all zones and dungeons.

Add games like Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow, and Baccarat.

As an extra, allow well-heeled players to be "Banker" for a game for a set amount of time: Player deposits X amount of councils and/or chips to act like the House for a specific amount of time, or someone breaks the bank. At the end of specified time, the player then keeps any profit and pays out any losses. To avoid one person or group hogging the bank, have a cool down timer on being Banker.

[Grobyddonot]

I think you're underestimating the Casino.


Could be, but..



Storage:
I've found 7 NPC's that provide storage so far, each of which tend to be pretty spacious.


I don't need 5 specific storages, 1 npc-expandable for tokens and even more Guild Storage in the Casino itself. I'm not saying it's bad, whatsoever, all I'm saying is that I don't need them right now. And while I'll be more than happy to expand and use the expandable, non-specific Storages a bit later, they're not a must for me atm. And I don't really like nor need any "specific item" Storages at all. It's very subjective.



Skill support:
Literally every skill that requires some sort of "toolbench" has it in the Casino. And there's a compact farming area that doesn't require running across town to get more water and has close at hand storage as well. No more trips to Elitbule Keep just to get to the cotton gin. Given the specialized storage (other than cloth/leather), there's tons of storage for each of the skills.


Yeah, true, I know. Still the Council Storage machine is missing. And that's a drag for me, again, very subjective. I'll explain why in the "location" part.



Location, location, location:
On this one, the Casino is a clear winner. Connected to Rahu on one side....


Agreed, great location overall, but for lvl 40 players? I doubt it a tiny bit. Nvm though. Here is the deal. I have a couple of mules (pretty much 60+ slots of universal storage on each of them), who are all in my guild (so I stopped bothering with a 8 slot transfer chest forever, actually I own 2 copies of the game on 2 different Steam accounts, on different devices, I understand that the vast majority of the players don't have the luxury to run 2 storage mules at the same time) , and the guild storage in Serbule is ALREADY expanded, not my biggest one though, but I will expand it even more. Plus My expanded "Council Storage" (Hulon, etc.)...

And here is the point, where the greatest teleportation item in the game (so far) comes in. The Casino Swallow Stone.. It is not consumed when you are using it. It's a free (6 tokens and 1 inventory slot, ok), endless teleport right into the Casino from any point in the entire game. It doesn't matter if a mule or not.. Swallow the pebble - get into the Casino.. So, why even leave Serbule? You see, with the Casino (and Rahu) being now so easily accessible, it just makes no sense to abandon the already-given Storage in Serbule. But that is just my opinion. That Stone frees up your primary portal bind and alternate circle bind.. plus there are always mushroom circles too.. (Ikr, not everyone has a high lvl teleportation with most or all the recipes learned + enough farmed resources to just spam teleportation whenever), but.. it's all just from the point of view of a player who's been playing for quite a bit of time already.. I understand, that a new player will absolutely love the Casino, it makes the "life" so much easier now.



You also went on to bemoan the lack of other changes with this patch

No, I'm not moaning about the lack of the changes, I'm expressing the fact, that I was upset, that no skill CAPs were raised to 80 or even to 35 (Sushi Making) this patch. And the reason for that moaning is exactly what is already mentioned above with playtime and I love raising skills, really do (i don't have them all maxed out yet, obviously), but I would love to be able to already grind them all the way up to 100.. even with the huge cost of millions to unlock the cap. Well, it's not a big deal, it will come sooner or later, so I'll just max out whatever else I can and go save some councils till the next patch comes out, I guess.

And one last thing.. I picture this game at lvl 100-125 already, so I see myself as a mid-lvl newbie... My goal is to get to the max level and use whatever is available there.. I have maxed out Alchemy, but I never craft/use any potions.. It seems just like a waste of time to me.. Why would I need a sword potion if my sword skill is maxed out? I'd rather max out other skills than focus on the 2 skills mid-game.. ikr.. I'm a crazy person, hence my "unique" way to play and enjoy the game... like lvling up every possible skill (except druid and lyc). Gaz Keep is not the end game content to me.. to simplify it a bit, it's only good to lvl up orcish, otherwise pretty much useless, so there is no point in running it all the time really..

[NickzMagic]

^
the casino stone is one use

[INXS]

Yeah i'm loving it so much i'm pulling everything that i use on a normal basis from Serb storage to Casino once i get it all unlocked, was already based in Rahu this is a like a Rahu upgrade to me.

On a different note, we got all that nerfing to rebalance the game then we get boosting potions so it's back to dps boost, we going backwards now?

[Grobyddonot]

^
the casino stone is one use

No, it's not. Who told you that? Have you bought and used it yourself? I have them, they do not disappear (not consumed) when used.

[Quanzhigao]

casino stone not being consumed would be busted.

[Grobyddonot]

casino stone not being consumed would be busted.

Great opinion. I bought them, I have them in my inventory, they're not consumed when I use them.

If they would be consumed on use, they would be kinda bad. High-lvl speed travel in PG is far from great as it is, at least we got this one Stone that makes me happy.

[NickzMagic]

Great opinion. I bought them, I have them in my inventory, they're not consumed when I use them.

If they would be consumed on use, they would be kinda bad. High-lvl speed travel in PG is far from great as it is, at least we got this one Stone that makes me happy.

whats your IGN/are you on now?

[Grobyddonot]

I'm not on now, but i'll be in like 2-2.5 hours from now. main is Grobyd.

[NickzMagic]

Back to the topic a bit

I'd love to see more gambling in the casino, atm it doesn't really feel like a casino at all. Replace some of the loot master machines with strait up slots

With the bug that sells gear, how about having him sell 'random' magic stuff - It kind of pointless for NPC's to just sell white gear. Have him sell gear for really expensive and once purchased it's random rarity

[Daguin]

Great opinion. I bought them, I have them in my inventory, they're not consumed when I use them.

If they would be consumed on use, they would be kinda bad. High-lvl speed travel in PG is far from great as it is, at least we got this one Stone that makes me happy.

I think they are designed to be one-time-use for moving mules or lower-level players to the casino. Haven't actually bought or used one, so just speculation.

[Uxtalzon]

1. Match 3 game is boring and still bugged. Matching 4 more than once in a single turn doesn't give additional turns, matching 5 more than once seems to only give +1. Because of this:

- More items added to the pool, means more icons, but the newly-added items are too fresh. Example: Carrot, Femur, Poppy... I won the carrot. Emerald appears as the next item. The chance of me matching emeralds without wasting turns is stupidly hard.
- The chance of finding match 4 or 5 depends solely on RNG, the starting grid when the game starts, and what comes down after a match is made, also RNG. What items are displayed are another RNG. Then, they are designed to be a grind to gain Gaming skill. On top of all that, there's really nothing of value worth winning to me, so the concept of spending time and councils, piling one RNG on top of another... has me pretty disappointed.
- This would have been better off as a lotto or slot machine. I'd rather dump money FAST knowing my chance to win is abysmally small, than grind over and over for that sweet sweet tiny blip of experience.

2. Monsters & Mantids is very interesting. I like it. But again, simplicity and RNG took over:

- Start game without Crush attack? End game, start over.
- Literally just happened today. Start game, fight Ranalon, rolled nothing but 1s and 2s while it rolled 5s and 6s. I lost my first battle. Just how ridiculous is that?
- Just more RNG and luck-based encounters and finding hats. Otherwise, you eventually lose out to harder enemies even if you do manage to hang on.
- Hats that give bonus from doubles activate even when rolling a single die sometimes. Some die don't even "roll" and just slide onto the screen.
- Every single action and encounter is RNG. There's already quite a few on the highscores who have managed to beat the odds, or find the best "way" to win each battle. If it gets fixed, what then.
- 1 token per cultural artifact that can all be lost if player dies, not very enticing.
- "Cash out" should not give money, but tokens for a rounded amount or something.

3. Storage, nothing but compliments so far.

4. Travel... kind of wish the game was bigger, otherwise it's already feeling like a giant loop with many shortcuts. As a newer player, I considered Serbule Hills -> Rahu to be a big undertaking. Hell, I couldn't make it through Kur without runspeed help. Now it's just too easy, or it feels that way.

5. Monster Crits. Not happy at all. Everything gets a crit chance and damage is doubled. Was there any consideration of the consequence?

This is just disheartening. For one thing, archers and ranged attackers aren't in sync with their attacks vs. when you actually get hit, and now they're doing critical hits and very often. You're dead before and after you heal yourself. This means semi-easy trash mobs in one of the Gazluk caves can seriously beat me in just two or three hits, while that mob has EXTREME REGENERATION and can literally out-heal my damage unless I use my big attacks. This just makes DPS > all even more so. No point in tanking unless you like dying to constant bad streaks of critical hits. I'm only now more convinced I need to pick ranged and fast DPS and nothing else.

I just started transitioning to legendary Gazluk gear (with transmuting mods and augments) and I'm literally dying faster than the level 50 gear I've replaced before the update. This across-the-board crit modifier to all mobs level 30+ should really apply to group-only content.

With the formula stated, higher level mobs in the future will crit even more. Hooray? Level 100 mobs would have nearly 20% crit chance every attack, for double damage. Even rage attacks, some of which were already high damage are now sure-kill hits. I haven't been to any high-level dungeons since the update, and frankly, I'm less inclined to. This basically gives certain mobs a chance to kill a player every time it attacks.

6. Dangerous Blacksmith recipes.

This update is just full of RNG, isn't it? Well, I have 4 or 5 legendary weapons stored. Some have already made weapons with +300 damage. So will this be the new meta, spending hours surveying slabs to create an ungodly weapon that can take down anything? You already just gave monsters crit chance and damage in response to overpowered players, and you release a potentially unlimited damage modifier? lol

7. New Alchemy recipes, the 20% damage boost potions..... again, reinforces my belief that pouring all my effort into DPS is the way to go.

Unfortunately though, I'm a Sword user. I need Pemphredo Eyes. I've cleared Labyrinth twice and luckily found a few eyes on vendors, but I have just barely more than a dozen in total. Compare that to other potions like one requiring "Beak" which can be bought in unlimited amount. I don't get the disparity.

8. Pet Crits, Storage sort, etc. I have no input because I never used them. I come from the lands of EverQuest which requires most players to have a good memory.

9. Daily Excursions - I really like these, but players plow through named just as fast as regular stuff. Anyone slightly behind won't get credit, which sometimes means going all the way through to the end (Yeti cave, for example). The quest items dropped do nothing. Maybe reverse that, so kill credit is no longer a thing and just requires the group member(s) to just loot their piece?

-----------

I have many compliments and not just complaints. I like randomly winning vegetables with which I can store at the casino, and over time they'll add up enough so that I can use them for a round of cooking. More NPCs means more favors, more quests and dialogue, just more things to do.

Anyway, there's my wall of text, and it took me 3 hours to type out. Stupid Dysphasia.

[Dibbuk]

Bought a casino stone today, and I can tell you that it IS consumed on use.

[Yaffy]

7. New Alchemy recipes, the 20% damage boost potions..... again, reinforces my belief that pouring all my effort into DPS is the way to go.


Don't worry about the 20% base damage boost potions. I have seen a lot of players thinking these potions are super strong buffs they should have 100% of the time. But they're really not good for stacking huge amounts of damage.

In reality bonuses to % base damage aren't very good for many heavy DPS builds because they don't scale with % bonuses to skill damage or flat damage bonuses. If you don't have any damage boosts they will increase your damage by 20% which is really good, but if you've stacked up a lot of damage mods the damage they'll add is minimal. If you're really playing a crazy nuke build a 20% base damage boost can improve your damage by 1-2%. There's no real reason why you can't use them to slightly boost your damage, but it's not a very big deal if your build is heavily focused on damage already.

The boost base damage potions and other base damage bonuses are much more helpful for builds that don't have a lot of damage mods in the first place, since to a build with few damage boosts they're probably the most efficient way to gain damage.

[Uxtalzon]

Don't worry about the 20% base damage boost potions. I have seen a lot of players thinking these potions are super strong buffs they should have 100% of the time. But they're really not good for stacking huge amounts of damage.

In reality bonuses to % base damage aren't very good for many heavy DPS builds because they don't scale with % bonuses to skill damage or flat damage bonuses. If you don't have any damage boosts they will increase your damage by 20% which is really good, but if you've stacked up a lot of damage mods the damage they'll add is minimal. If you're really playing a crazy nuke build a 20% base damage boost can improve your damage by 1-2%. There's no real reason why you can't use them to slightly boost your damage, but it's not a very big deal if your build is heavily focused on damage already.

The boost base damage potions and other base damage bonuses are much more helpful for builds that don't have a lot of damage mods in the first place, since to a build with few damage boosts they're probably the most efficient way to gain damage.

edit: I realize what you said on an extra +20% damage not being much overall, but I consider adding everything together as a whole because its how my mind works. Yaffy your name is so freaking cute! :3

I meant like how mods add up as "constant" values. My gear adds base +23%, +23%, Calligraphy adds approximately ~15%... and then specific mods boost specific skills even further. When I say "constant", I mean a bonus that won't wear off because I have infinite resources to make them, so Calligraphy bonuses are 9 hours and the new alchemy boost potion (notwithstanding my whine about hard and rare Pemphredo Eyes are in comparison to other potion recipe ingredients) I'd always have on hand. No potions or buffs and just gear alone, my Precision Pierce does over 1000 every time and it's base is 165. Add the other buffs I can always keep on me, it should peak 1800+. Thankfully the mods also add extra delay to it to lengthen it out a bit, but... I have my eye on another combat skill entirely that does about ~3x the DPS. Just too lazy to level it. :P See my concern?

Also, my guild went for Gazluk keep last night. As I thought, mobs doing critical hits were even killing Deathkon1, highest armored player in the damn game that I know of. A single critical hit from any elite was about 60% or more HP, so any adds or multiples were white-knuckle moments. Anyone could die in just a second, without any saving grace. Everything there had 11.25% chance of critical hit EVERY. SINGLE. TIME... Which meant double damage. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME... On EVERY. SINGLE. CRITICAL. It was painful and stupid. I'm wet behind the ears in healing, but there was two psych healers and a priest. My Pep Talk heal isn't heavily modded, but one crit from any elite mob did more damage than my single big heal would cover.

Then we fought the golem. Extra 5% crit chance, 16.25%, meaning 1/6 every time he attacked would be a critical hit. If t was a critical hit, that person died. Like I warned or described, this chance basically gave certain mobs the chance to deathtouch. He threw a few critical rage attacks, killing his target but the entire group was nailed for close to 80% of our HP if not dead. It was a shitfest. Wiped two or three times, but muscled through with just two alive the final time. As much as people give Deathkon1 grief, he pulled off impressive survival moves that kept the group going.

edit2: I would point out that the group had at least 4 very experienced Gaz...lurk...ers..? Less experienced or first-timers would never leave zone-in or make it beyond the hallway.

[Niph]

My feedback:


1. Storage
I have reached soulmate favor level with all NPCs in the Casino. The storage options are nice, even though it will take me a while to get many slots from Qatik. However, it feels like there is less storage available because it's not generic. But I certainly don't mind more of it, it will just take time to adjust.


2. Monster crit
I went on to Gazluk Keep to see the new system in action, and boy it hurts. It's particularly tough with Infiltrators as these also benefit from the DoT patch that happened a few month ago. In practice, GK is still doable but you must keep your finger on the emergency heal ability all the time, and not loose your health bar from sight.


Note that with this change, builts based on mitigation like mine have been affected a lot more than those based on evasion. Here is why: say a mob hits for 100 and I mitigate 50, with my friend evading 50% of the time. We both take 50 damage on average. But now mobs crit, and when they do they hit for 200. I mitigate 50 and take 150, my friend evades still with a 50% chance, and on average takes 100.
So it seems that evasion builds are king now, at least on trash. But on boss, not so much (for a dedicated tank anyway): if the boss crits, and you don't evade, you get hit for full and possibly one-shot. In the words of Otis: "ME CRIT, ME KILL!". At the same time, a tank based on mitigation still removes a bit of the damage and perhaps survives.


Anyway, the game has moved and is now more favorable to dedicated tanks. Big plus as far as I'm concerned (even if I'm not a tank).


3. The new casino


Well, the two games aren't my cup tea it seems. I eventually worked on my strategies to not just get ridiculously low amounts of xp, but I don't have the patience to wait for lucky rolls to obtain high scores. I find match-3 games, after the hot fix, well-balanced and it's nice to have an alternate way to obtain some items. About M&M, like others, I think the Prey ability is weak. By the time I get a hat that would heal me if I roll a double, and therefore when it's an acceptable strategy to slow down the fight and roll a lot, it doesn't heal enough to offset the damage taken. I find myself using Execute a lot more, and in a more efficient way, than Prey. Maybe it becomes powerful later in the game, but I wouldn't know, I don't think I ever reached level 4 having Prey.

4. Excursion quests

I did the four quests offered by Qatik. There is a large disparity in difficulty and duration. I found Wolf Cave to be the easiest and fastest, followed by Winter Nexus. Ice Cave (Yeti cave) is long and there are plenty of opportunities to wipe, for example when you drop down a pit. Dark Chapel is difficult, probably too difficult (impossible?) for a group of level 40, the intended level (but only such a group can confirm).

[Rick Sanchez]

My feedback:


1. Storage
I have reached soulmate favor level with all NPCs in the Casino. The storage options are nice, even though it will take me a while to get many slots from Qatik. However, it feels like there is less storage available because it's not generic. But I certainly don't mind more of it, it will just take time to adjust.


2. Monster crit
I went on to Gazluk Keep to see the new system in action, and boy it hurts. It's particularly tough with Infiltrators as these also benefit from the DoT patch that happened a few month ago. In practice, GK is still doable but you must keep your finger on the emergency heal ability all the time, and not loose your health bar from sight.


Note that with this change, builts based on mitigation like mine have been affected a lot more than those based on evasion. Here is why: say a mob hits for 100 and I mitigate 50, with my friend evading 50% of the time. We both take 50 damage on average. But now mobs crit, and when they do they hit for 200. I mitigate 50 and take 150, my friend evades still with a 50% chance, and on average takes 100.
So it seems that evasion builds are king now, at least on trash. But on boss, not so much (for a dedicated tank anyway): if the boss crits, and you don't evade, you get hit for full and possibly one-shot. In the words of Otis: "ME CRIT, ME KILL!". At the same time, a tank based on mitigation still removes a bit of the damage and perhaps survives.


Anyway, the game has moved and is now more favorable to dedicated tanks. Big plus as far as I'm concerned (even if I'm not a tank).


3. The new casino


Well, the two games aren't my cup tea it seems. I eventually worked on my strategies to not just get ridiculously low amounts of xp, but I don't have the patience to wait for lucky rolls to obtain high scores. I find match-3 games, after the hot fix, well-balanced and it's nice to have an alternate way to obtain some items. About M&M, like others, I think the Prey ability is weak. By the time I get a hat that would heal me if I roll a double, and therefore when it's an acceptable strategy to slow down the fight and roll a lot, it doesn't heal enough to offset the damage taken. I find myself using Execute a lot more, and in a more efficient way, than Prey. Maybe it becomes powerful later in the game, but I wouldn't know, I don't think I ever reached level 4 having Prey.

4. Excursion quests

I did the four quests offered by Qatik. There is a large disparity in difficulty and duration. I found Wolf Cave to be the easiest and fastest, followed by Winter Nexus. Ice Cave (Yeti cave) is long and there are plenty of opportunities to wipe, for example when you drop down a pit. Dark Chapel is difficult, probably too difficult (impossible?) for a group of level 40, the intended level (but only such a group can confirm).

That is a great summary for this and one thing I have to say is awesome is you have the favor maxed out for all NPCs. However I have to say Im hooked on the MnM it reminds me of the old text based games that hooked me for hours on end. I just wish there was a bit more free action but since its a mini game Im happy with the current build. The Prey ability does seem to make it harder to progress late game but if you power the others skills and remain healed its not too easy to keep all 3 attack skills high level.

[Mcnasty]

The way I see it my Idea was taken and hacked up in a bad way,The casino is a fail so far,I hope it get's better over time,I have grown patient. most of this games first shot's the begging is kinda raw and need's tweak's.

[reyhanph7474]

Excellent
Excellent
Excellent:)
Thank you for your efforts
Thanks for sharing

[bbattey]

The new Casino was enough to finally convince me that it was practical and beneficial to move my home base from Serbule to Rahu -- including 3 mules. I've emptied much of my Serb storage and am now functioning primarily with Rahu and RWC storage. (Another gain is that the login/logouts for muling also seem faster in Rahu.) Only wish I saw more people hanging out in Rahu.

Also the reorganized Work Order system does seem more logical to me, and the wider variety of Tailoring orders is welcome.

I probably won't play the Casino games much, since I'm not really in Gorgon to play other games, but I am enjoying the quirky humor of the Casino, perfectly in keeping with the whole Gorgon attitude.