Shattered Kingdoms

No, because then you're starting to take out a LOT of incentive towards GM. Equipment being freely holdable at Master makes more sense.

This topic has been discussed before but I would like to bring up some points.

A) IF a character is to be considered “complete” at master, then they must have full access to all equipment. Until the importance of equipment and enchantments (because they raise the gear’s quality) diminish significantly this will be a must.

B) IF a character is to be considered “complete” at master, then they must have full access to all pets, herbs, animates etc. Without including those certain classes are still FORCED to GM.

C) IF a character is to be considered “complete” at master and the levels from 41-50 are to remain, there needs to be a tangible reason to obtain those levels. If extra benefit is needed, I would suggest that for every level 41 and up a stat point is awarded. This would allow for an extra 5 stat points or a total of 10 for leveling further. That combined with the advantages of being higher level (spells are more powerful, better saves, etc.) should be more then enough compensation for those that want every little bit of PK advantage to keep them leveling.

D) Hording would have to be put on a very tight leash. This is important because hitting master for those that know how does not take long. Thereby allowing for storage characters or even having lots of character just eating up equipment. I think the de-hoarding system that is currently in place might need to be tweaked. Possible suggestion, slight increase in hours needed to hold on to any given piece of equipment. Also, the system would check for “lump sum” hours and adjust for it. By that I mean, let’s assume you need to log five hours a month to hold onto the Can of Wup [REDACTED]. If the character has logged five hours but all at one time, that would not count toward the required hours needed to hold on to the item.

Another possible suggestion would be to require an amount of time per item held. For example, for every level of item you hold, you are then required to log at least 1 minute for the month. If you have three level 50 items you are required to put in 150 minutes (50*3*1=150) or if you have 10 level 15 items the same time is required. (Note: I would not actually suggest it be a per level of item but have it tiered {an example: lvl 0-20= no minimum time, 21-30 = 10 seconds per level, 31-40 = 20 seconds per level}. Also note, this would then hit actual hoarders harder then those just having what they wear). I have a couple other more involved suggestions but from a player’s perspective they are unimportant on how they work

E) There are very significant benefits to making a master character a “complete” character. Players can be competitive without being forced to GM, but GMing still is advantageous. This allows for much greater flexibility in the game playing and game focus.

Lei Kung

When I say that a character is "complete" at Master, that isn't the same as saying they are Grandmaster. Clearly GMs need to be better or else we may as well just end the game at level 40 instead. When I say that they are complete, my goal is that they be competitive but at a disadvantage.

The problem with dropping thieves at Master is that it negates anti-hoarding against the people in the game that tend to hoard the most. If anything, dehoarding needs to happen more at top levels instead of less.

In general, I believe that player-enchanted gear makes a bigger difference in PK than nonplayer-enchanted GM gear. Therefore one idea is that there should be a way to target the enchant spells such that the item level and enchantments would max out for a specific character level.

Would this make characters more competitive at non-GM?

Baby steps.



It should help, in some situations. But my Master level char is wearing Mentor or Master level mithril. Mentor is about when I pick up the higher quality gear, because I have to start fighting NPCs which'll damage crappier stuff. There's not much room for meaningful enchants there, I don't think, if the enchanting is targetted to cap out at lev 41. I suppose that's sort of the point, but 1 enchant vs 8 is more or less the same as 0 enchants vs 8, isn't it? If I could get half as many enchants as a GM and still keep my gear, that'd be a start, I think. Just trying to think of this from the practical standpoint of what my Master level char is actually wearing.

Peace,
Bux

1 enchant x 13 slots. I like the idea. It'd give a nice buff to master characters. Not too much, and it still allows them to enchant a suit without worry of losing it.

And I think that thieves (both log out and NPCs) should stop stealing at Champion.

You may be right, Rusin.

Peace,
Bux

I choose not to enchant my own gear because I don't want to lose it. Having had a single GM in all my years on SK, there has always been a very high risk of my losing gear that I enchanted myself. Or at least a risk I perceived as very high, and since I still don't know where or how to get the gear myself, once I get gear I don't like the idea of losing it.

I am curious about the idea of caster-level limiting of enchanted gear and how the mechanics would work. It could be a very viable possibility provided it allowed for what I stated above. Meaning exploding gear because it goes beyond caster-level wouldn't be a good idea from my perspective. Perhaps over-enchanting the gear for that caster-level meant fading the gear much more often than exploding it, that could work well I think.

I still like the idea of thief-caps or possibly instead of a hard cap, an overall change in the thief code. For levels 1-5 below item level, reduce the thief chance to 33% of current chance and for levels 6-10 below item level, reduce the thief chance to 67% of current chance. This would affect the whole spectrum of char levels. I must say that putting this thief system in place will still prevent me from enchanting my own gear prior to GM but it may make the masters more complete.

It's still easy to determin an items value when you enchant it, and consider if you should enchant it more, or level thieves will get it. I don't see the reason why a simple Master should run around with armor of the same quality as a GM's armor. I say no, that's one of the things that matter for you to hit GM.
Perhaps make the difference smaller, so that you may have a GM set at mid chamipon, but surely not at master.

One issue that hasnt come up is request with a high cha can gain items beyond your level (which normally would be stolen).

It comes back to most high level gear is given to people of lower levels, or was the product of a large group (if this is not the case perhaps the eq in question should be reviewed). Clearly such things are too powerful for a single lower level person to maintain for long. PCs will PK people who have powerful items they can not protect why shouldn’t NPCs. Logging in dead would suck thieves are a middle ground, I still think there should be a help log_out_thieves to help newbies realise why they have been looted.

I think the main complaint is to do with enchanting perhaps simply limiting thieves from enchanted items at master/champion which ever. If an item is base level 50 it will still get stolen from a 46 level char. If how ever the item is level 45 and has been enchanted to level 50 it will not. That way there is some eq that is too powerful for low level chars (probably scripted) but one is not worried to enchant something because they will speed up thieves.

That would be nice too. Considering Scouts are one of the only ones that needs to get GM to get all their things.

I know you think otherwise Dulrik but think about it. Warlocks get Fire elementals at level 40. Necros have to wait to 49 to get wraiths and Scouts have to wait to level 50 to get high end skins, herbs and pets.

They have it the worst if they are not 50 where almost no other class does. That doesn't seem balanced.