Valg,

Would you consider maybe allowing the mage to select the "type" of rod he asks about a hint for...if say the hint timer on requesting a _specific_ rod was maybe..double (maybe not double, but some time longer) that of the normal "discuss"?

Old rod system, once you found your rods basically allowed you to gather (assuming you were able) whichever rod whenever you wanted to get it.

Sometimes you NEED a black/amber/sienna rod specifically as you have the other rods.

What do you think Valg? Is there any tweak that could be made (extending discuss timer etc) that would allow the mage to select the type of wand they receive a hint on?

Bear in mind, I also don't know if the change I am asking for represents a horrendous code change or not, and if its too difficult to code that is fine.

I think this ends up being a 'rich get richer' dynamic.

Right now, it's going to be much easier for lower-to-middle skill mages to acquire one, two, or all of their wands relative to the old system. (See Abernyte's posts on this for an example of someone who has been around a long time but never found one wand type on multiple characters.)

If some mages end up temporarily without all three wands on occasion, in part because they are accumulating spares, I don't view that as a big problem.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

As I understand it, there's a timer on how often you can get a wand hint from a guildmaster. Do you always recieve the same hint once the guildmaster has decided which one he'll give you? Or does he pick between the available wands each time?

If the former is true, it's quite possible that the only location you know about is not realistic to obtain a wand from. In which case, a mage could be stuck without knowledge of where to find the other two for a very long time - a fresh wand hunt without hints each time.

Granted, any spot should be doable with a team of heroes or simply if you are the right class for the job, but a character could live out their whole lives without the stars ever aligning sufficiently to be given the support that certain spots would require.

If you keep going around to different guildmasters you can get different hints. Sometimes you get repeats, but eventually you will get all three. It might take 40 minutes time spent asking tops.

>As I understand it, there's a timer on how often you can get
>a wand hint from a guildmaster. Do you always recieve the same
>hint once the guildmaster has decided which one he'll give
>you? Or does he pick between the available wands each time?
>
No, you don't get the same hint but you can. Hints are given randomly from every source that isn't currently undergoing your repop timer. You may get one for Sienna twice, one for barrier, and one for amber, as example. But different guilds will often give slightly different hints for the same sources.


>If the former is true, it's quite possible that the only
>location you know about is not realistic to obtain a wand
>from. In which case, a mage could be stuck without knowledge
>of where to find the other two for a very long time - a fresh
>wand hunt without hints each time.
>
You're given the chance to discuss hints roughly every 11-12 tics which is considerably shorter than the recharge timer for sources to repop anyway. You shouldn't have to do any searching other than if you aren't able to figure out the hints.

>Granted, any spot should be doable with a team of heroes or
>simply if you are the right class for the job, but a character
>could live out their whole lives without the stars ever
>aligning sufficiently to be given the support that certain
>spots would require.
>
I've done a bunch of Magi in the past and it was very rare that I ever found all three of my sources. Even with my most recent character, I didn't know where one of them was and I broke down and took the very expensive attunement edge. Thanks to the new system and the hint I was able to push and did eventually find both. I'll also say that in my experience, very few places can't be done with just one person, so, help from one other person should make every spot doable.

I remember an incident where my Elite Warlock got help from an Emperor and Elite Blade to gather his black wand, a lot of fleeing and sleeping up (maybe half an hour or so) and a few close calls later, the Emperor actually died, there was trouble at the palace and the attempt had to be aborted. I picked barrier attunement for that character afterwards.

I wasn't thinking about this as a rich gets richer type of thing (I'm not really concerned about wand counts - that was a bad example).

The specific example I can think of, is if as a hero I burn through my last sleek black, what I do prior to logging is gather another (because you can still log into raid situations etc)

The 'Randomness' of the new system has the likely potential to turn what would've been a 15 min exercise or less of gather my black into a 30-45 minute exercise if everything goes right (assuming I don't luck out with RNG giving me my black location)

Time is precious to me in ways it never was before, and I'd argue that the same is true of most of our (likely) aging playerbase (sorry to any ACTUAL young people).

allowing people to choose the type they would like a hint on would remove this "burden".

Having said that, it presupposes that your guild master currently has info on all your wands and is therefore in a position to tell you about the one you are interested in.

As an alternative I would propose that a given guild master will only give one hint per rod location, and that once the hamsah guild has told you your amber hint, your next hint from hamsah would be black or sienna, unless you collected the amber in the interim.

If you needed another clue to find that amber, you go to a different guild.

Go grab the wand that pops out before you grab the next hint. The guildmaster won't give you a hint to a wand that isn't obtainable yet. Therefore if you grab the shield and aura the next hint you'd get is defo a barrier hint.

If I'm sitting on 3 ambers and 3 sienna's...I dont necessarily need 4/4 before I go get a black. Thats all. In essence the only thing this change "changes" in regards to my ability to harvest wands is my ability to choose which wand I wish to gather. If they restore that functionality (if it can be done easily). I think they will address most of the 'complaints' people have.