Evening folks. I've got to make this short and to the point, so no fluff. I'm looking for critical feedback on my first area now that it's been open for a short time. Try not to give away any detailed secrets - you can always use my email for that.

But if something just doesn't seem right or there's a reason you wouldn't ever go back, I'd like your input. It might have been something that slipped through testing (e.g., mobs that dent...bastards!)

I can't promise that I will be able to respond, but I will read every post that's written.

And as always, moderators feel free to remove posts that are inappropriate.

I'm looking forward to making this challenging area even more fun for you all!

Fjarn

I hope this becomes a regular thing when new areas are added or old ones are revised.

The two mobs that were still breaking weapons have been fixed. I checked them out, and the fixes are live!

The one-handed two-handed mace thing has been fixed.

Also, the recruit at the entrance should properly warn low level characters of their impending doom.

Again, thanks to everyone for bringing these issues to my attention. I couldn't have fixed them if you hadn't. If something else seems broken, let me know and I'll take a look.

Fjarn

The bow from the area is freaking heavy - 20+ pounds? And why is it all bows are always lower averages. There's like 2-3 bows I know of anywhere in Thera that are above average 25...I would think this kind of area would merit some cooler hunter loot. It's not like they're OP...

Like how it ties in multiple CF cultures/areas/cabals as well.

I'll figure out what the stuffed toy does eventually!

-The insta-death upon return was more than annoying. I understand you don't want people to walk around in there as a ghost but coming back after death to an ANNIHILATE from the thorns was pretty lame. I'd rather it just blocked you out like most areas and not add another death to my list. I also dislike areas in general that you can't retrieve your corpse from but aren't area explore so you get to sit at the pit for awhile but I digress...

-Having a goodie mob with gear that can't be requested is another pet peeve. Most goodies won't slay a mob for gear so a mob with something he won't give by request will either get killed by those who don't care about RP or just never seen. You can't exactly rely on non-goodies to kill it and you somehow get it from them. (Not sure also, but if it's a good-only item then it'd be really bad that ya can't request it)

-Dent sucks, ya.

Beyond those, it's a pretty neat area. I haven't been able to fully explore it (mostly because I died on return and left in frustration) but it looked good besides that.

>-Having a goodie mob with gear that can't be requested is
>another pet peeve.

As far as I know, that isn't a problem with this area, but you might think otherwise if you're not paying enough attention.

(Or there's a legitimate design flaw, in which case, if you could shoot us an e-mail or something with specifics that'd help.)

Goodie mob - Do you remember which mob it was, specifically? It might be a bug, or it might be user error. I'll check it out if you can give me a little more info.

...completing the "tracker" quests doesn't seem to clear them from your quest screen? Seems to be stuck on there even though I did a few of them.

I'll try to find that mob again soon.

It seems odd to me that a certain non-giant mob can dual wield a two handed mace and another mace. If you disarm him (assuming it's not an illusion), he will rewield it, but the dual wield restrictions kick in and he removes his offhand weapon to rewield the main. That just seemed kind of buggy to me, like it should be one or the other. Maybe that mace was meant to be one handed?

Other than that, I think it is a pretty nice area, very well written and quite interesting. Some of the mobs take an insanely long time to kill solo, but that's all part of the fun. I am hoping to go back with a few different characters to look around and find things I am sure I missed my first time through. Def. more of a group exploring area than a solo one. It's definitely taken a point of con or two from me.

And yeah, dent sucks. Nobody likes that skill. Then again, if you don't wear metal armor, dent does not do anything.

Good job on the area I must say.

Nice catch, that mace was tweaked during item balancing. I'll get with the item folks and see what my options are to fix it.

~

Cf is far from the game it was years ago when a skill like dent was humorous. People aren't that into checking out new places when the mobs destroy the armor they have with no guarantee they will find something better inside. Once I heard they dented, I have not checked out the area because of it. If I had a shapeshifter, sure. I would love to take it on. But I would rather not lose 2 or 3 pieces a fight if I cannot down them quick.

There are some neat items in the Abandoned Camp (at least the little part of it I've explored). The purpose of a new hero-level area is to provide some intrigue and challenge to the hero ranks. If there were zero risk involved, the area wouldn't be any fun. By making mobs do nasty things, you make it a challenge to explore, and hopefully the reward worth something. Think about how Whistlewood is a place few people actually take the time to tackle, despite the really nice goodies available. It's a very challenging area with tough mobs who do nasty things, so not a lot of people end up going there individually.

Basically, its risk vs reward. If I think the risk outweighs the reward, im not going to be eager to check out an area. On the other hand of that, there are times when the reward far outweighs the risk and you go anyways.

I just won't go there knowing that mobs will dent. Most of the items I have now are rare, or extremely difficult to obtain. Going there = week of gametime to regather all those things.

I'd use different set, but I just cannot carry so many items to replace rare things.

Instead of dent, you can put there a lot of other things (maybe even new skills), and your area will not lose it's charm.

And good work, Fjarn, thank you very much for your work!
Keep it going, CF needs more cool new areas

hmm?

My class don't have such skills. But let's imagine I have.
I spent 3-4 weeks on gathering really good warrior set, hunted for some uberthings (like blademaster gloves), killed few ancient dragons for their molten cloaks and something like this.

I'm going in and disarming like mad. But some dents will come, and very likely that my superthing will be destroyed. Now, let's see. I'm a warrior, how the hell will I go to regather them? I can't kill blademaster alone, I can't kill dragons alone.

So, I will need a decent group to regather those things. And decent group is a problem, in most cases.

Now, I have only next choices:
1. don't use superthings there and carry a lot of trash in invenory (annoying and sometimes impossible, especially for giants);
2. use everything and spend few more weeks waiting for the decent group to regain dented things (and likely someone else will gahter it while I'll be sleeping/working/etc);
3. don't go.

I will surely pick #3 and will keep picking it until I make a shifter.

But I don't tink this area was meant to be a shifter-only place

It's only my opinion, though. I'm sure people will keep going there, but for me it's not an option now.

Neither blademasters nor dragon armor would be destroyed by dent. I agree dent is a lame skill, but maybe you should actually try something before coming to a conclusion about it.

I didn't say exactly about those things. It was an example. Okay, I've took not best things as example, but there is a mazk of anazu, rod of corruption, strange bracers and etc etc etc - a lot of things.

If you are posting just to flame a bit, don't bother.

Rod of corruption won't get dented, for example. Dent doesn't target weapons.

I generally find I need to switch out about 3 items to prevent myself getting dented. Occasionally I'll pick one piece of gear over another that would otherwise be slightly better, because it can't be dented, if I know I'll be fighting denting mobs a lot (which is the case with some of my characters).

Since dent only works on metal, iirc.

You could even have your metal changed to wood.

I can't agree with you guys more. I hate mobs that dent, and that wasn't intended to be included in the area. I tweaked which mobs used what weapons and a few slipped through the cracks. This is on my list to fix asap- it was not even a part of the risk/reward equation.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

You can add this to those mobs:

ACT_DONT_DESTROY_GEAR * mob won't destroy equipment (e.g., dent, breaths)

and re-upload (make sure you have the latest version first)

WARCRY: ACT_DONT_DESTROY_GEAR

I got to explore it a little with Evyza and what I found I really liked. I wanted to go back with more people to explore more fully, but no one ever seemed to want to. The little bit I experienced left me slavering for more and I'm certain that I only discovered the smallest portion of secrets. Good work.