Update Discussion: September 10, 2020

I'm usually clamoring for more difficult content, but I think the difficult content should be ranked in the order of the quest down stairs. Trolls= easiest, then the ensign area, followed by the cold area with hippogrifs, small step up to the droaches and finally Mino and bear area and aberrations are for pros. All of the non-ensign areas need to be cranked up a bit, and something needs to be tweaked down with ensigns, or really just the cock calls. But I like how the cocks yell by the hippogrifs!

I also see it as an issue that we're really talking about only darkness damage when everyone in the group is going to take fire and cold damage.
If I had free reign, I would probably make the ensigns stun shorter, make their area more spread out so its easier to pull a specific amount, increase the cold damage dealt by the hippogrifs, and make the make the bears and aberrations have nearly double the health and up their damage but let them have a ~25% chance of dropping an extra random piece of gear, because their loot tables are trashy.

Back to the ensign area as is-- based on the average pile of tombstones I've seen at the start of the 2nd floor, part of the overall problem of death being so likely is that having 2 fairies in a group becomes a massive liability because everyone is just going to run out of rezes or risk needing to wait for them to run back. The zerg strategy is messy and there are game mechanics that nearly promote this.

Just a note that we made a small server-side reboot yesterday to tweak the new dungeon. Since I only did a server reboot, these changes had to fit into the existing build, so they're just small data changes. Will make some more changes in the next full update. (But the next full update is a week or two away, and I wanted to get something better in place sooner.)

- Ensigns' shout radius is reduced from 30 to 20
- Ensigns' security cocks have been replaced with elementals
- Modest increase in density in the bio deck

I believe a group of six level 70-80 players should be able to handle two Ensigns without much trouble. If nothing else, Ensigns are easily mezzed, so you can control flow that way. I don't expect typical groups to be able to handle more than three Ensigns max, though, so I've tried to organize the spawns to prevent that. There are some wandering ensigns and elementals to keep things chaotic, but the chickens that could pull massive Ensign pileups are removed from that area.

Edit: elementals, not golems

The changes IMO were a big improvement. Figured I gave ya feedback on why I liked it

--The ensign's new shout range makes managing how many you fight more easier.

--When I first read "golem", I thought of the constructs in labs and not the existing elementals, which makes more sense because those elemental assets are already in the zone. Some people I hear were devastated that the cocks might have been totally erased, but they were overwhelmed with joy that they still exist on the path to cold feather. The different verbiage used on the update notes vs here is where that stemmed from. My thoughts-- I'm happy those golems are there. They're a challenging monster that just wrecks armor, so the whole area still needs to be taken seriously while making it feel more fair.

--The bio deck change is great. It looks like you added maybe 2 or 3 groups of pathing monsters. It's kind of a poke in the eye to those builds that rely on long refreshing skills, which is good. On this floor I can say I was in combat longer than on any other floor which is nice because it does feel like a group vs an army.

Thanks for the feedback! Oops, I meant to say Elementals, not sure why I called them Golems. Will fix the login notes.

Finished levelling candle making last week. The grind is real, but exactly as it should be imo. Easy to get low level fats, harder to get the typical and smooth fats.
I am wondering if when designing dungeon difficulties, all bufs (and candlemaking provides yet another buf for certain classes) are taken into account. Another 8% crush or nature damage is nothing to sneeze at (for instance for DC, only a handful use fire resistance potions which makes life a lot easier).
If all these bufs are a side show, content could become very easy for those players that do use them.
I would be in favor of letting players put multiple candles on the ground, for others to use.

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Originally Posted by Silkt

There is some sort of inventory bug in the Hogan's keep dungeon. I entered with over 40 slots open in my inventory but the first loot box, I think called junk box, wou;d not open, said "i did not have inventory space" I got the same message at the chest where you open with the finger. When I tried it a 2nd time it told me to wait 24 hours as I had already looted it. I bug reported the first chest but not that 2nd as the respawns hitting before I could type a report along with the bullshit 5 minute secret door crap plus having to play inventory manager because nothing stacks drove me to a rage quit, log off.

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Some feedback on this, your error message writer needs sacking or reeducation in the English language, after a few drinks switched my character to way over skilled for a level 30ish SOLO, as per patch notes, dungeon once I got the 4th key, had 3 from first time in, and killed the final boss, surprise surprise I could loot the chests on the way out.

If you wish to force players to complete a full run before they can loot earlier chests again have your error message state something of that vein, not "your inventory is full".

There is also no way a solo player, that would be getting upgrades as drops could get anywhere in this dungeon, if it is truly intended as a solo dungeon similar to the war caches either the mobs need nerfing or thinning out. It drops mainly level 30 gear with some 40 from chests, a lvl 30 could handle most of the mobs here as single pull but with the density that doesn't happen. But again as much as I love lots of this game increasing spawn density to increase difficulty does not improve player enjoyment, especially those of us with disabilities or increased years or in my case both as a broken old veteran nudging 60 years old. Also respawning outside after a death and having to pay to reenter will annoy a lot of people, I think the only reason I will re-visit this content is to get the candle recipe book and that will be done in a build to just faceroll the content to get where I want.

Current format I would say it is "difficulty tuned" as a good location for player skills in the high 50s that has just met Maraka and needs loot for favour and under 30 gear to break down.

@Silkt - thank you for the feedback. The "your inventory is full" message is probably caused by an item with a max-allowance. In other words, it's "your inventory is full [of the special item this chest drops]". So you don't need whatever plot token is in that chest since you already had one. The messaging for plot-items can obviously be improved, and I'll try to do that next time I'm working on the inventory system.

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Originally Posted by Citan

@Silkt - thank you for the feedback. The "your inventory is full" message is probably caused by an item with a max-allowance. In other words, it's "your inventory is full [of the special item this chest drops]". So you don't need whatever plot token is in that chest since you already had one. The messaging for plot-items can obviously be improved, and I'll try to do that next time I'm working on the inventory system.

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Thanks for the comment back, if it is the keys causing the issue maybe they could be moved to be a lootable item from a boss mob rather than a "auto-loot" chest item that prevents the chest from being looted?