[Durzo]

Bonjour good folks,

How goes it?

Just a few suggestions here for ye olde PvM.

I suppose currently there exists a fairly large PvP scene on IN; which I'm all for (once I get back into the swing of things and start practising my PvP again), however, I quite enjoy PvM and all of the things it brings. Though I feel there could be a few things that come into play (and believe me I know some of these things would be fairly large undertakings for the scripters here) to make this a bit more fun.

I'm not entirely sure what the stance is on having a comprehensive system of uniques/artifacts that will drop with a very low % chance on all monsters, but I feel that it could add much more of an incentive for people to hunt monsters, to form massive groups to go and kill very highly rated monsters; for the chance of 'Greater Artifacts' or some such. I would propose there being 3-6 tiers of uniques/artifacts to keep it interesting, with the highest level having a small number (4 or so) of possible uniques/artifacts which would probably be non-weapon based so as not to have some ridiculously overpowered weapon (though if their were a lot of arti/uni weapons that added stats boosts, it might be able to level out the playing field if it came to melee etc). I know Silver weapons exist; but frankly I get a little dismayed knowing that there aren’t too many ‘drops’ to look forward to. I know this is the nature of IN, the hard grind (mostly for crafters) to the top – but I feel that my proposition below is something that could add a great amount of diversity and excitement in the world.

My proposal would be thus:

All of the various monsters around the land would be defined by level. The creatures could be ranked somewhat like this, with all various levels marked by example creatures and the corresponding unique levels that they could drop.

• Level 0: Mongbat -- No chance of uni/arti drop
  Level 1: Zombie -- Level 1 uni/arti drop
  Level 2: Ettin -- Level 2 uni/arti drop
  Level 3: Ettin Lord -- Level 3 uni/arti drop
  Level 4: Drake -- Level 3 or 4 uni/arti drop
  Level 5: Dragon -- Level 4 or 5 uni/arti drop
  Level 6: Balron -- Level 4, 5 or 6 uni/arti drop
  Level 7: Ancient Wyrm -- Level 5 or 6 uni/arti drop
  Level 8+ (I'd say 10-12 levels max on creatures -- most of these would have to be newly created monsters which really take a team of 10+ people to defeat, the only difference here being that there will be a very slightly higher % chance of these monsters dropping a unique)
  

Unique/Artifact Ideas:
If they were to drop, what would they be? I think a lot of imagination (ha) could go into the creation of these and the various benefits they would have for players, both in a PvP/PvM context. I imagine lower ranking uniques might be armour/weapons that add small stats boosts, or some kind of additional benefit that you can’t get off anything else. More highly levelled uni/artis perhaps could be items of jewellery that provide HP/Mana regen properties. There could be a push towards newer creature creations that are of a certain ‘type’. E.g. Lizard/Serpent/Dragon but different; each of these classes could have a set of unique weapons, levels 1-6 that provide a higher amount of damage inflicted on these creature types. Much like we have with certain craftables already.

Some examples I have off hand:

• Element based weapons/armour: You could go to town with this and have a whole set of fire/water/earth/lightning weapons/armour. Where weapons have a 1/x chance of dealing additional elemental damage when striking. The armours could perhaps give resistances to elements (if possible).
  
  E.g. ‘Kryss of Lightning’ – a faster, specially coloured (but lower damage) kryss that has a 1/40 chance of striking down with a bolt of lightning, dealing additional damage to a foe. I know this is predominantly an effect that can be scripted, rather than it actually casting lightning.
  
  Special staves; perhaps staves with charges (like wands) but with the ability to be reloaded. These would be highly damaging weapons that would encourage a mix of melee/magic outside of the normal style. (I can see these being overpowered if not set appropriately) – it could encourage RP as well. More mage guilds etc.
  
  E.g. Ancient Fossilised Staff, +5% to magic, +10 to intelligence, 15 charges energy bolt (re-loadable with charges of energy bolt – perhaps 5 scrolls counts as one recharge for a staff?)
  
  HP/Mana regeneration items. These would be suited for level 5-6 I would say with a maximum of 1-2 of either type (e.g. 1 mana & 1 hp only, or 2 mana, or 2 hp). The regen level would not be massive, but it would definitely be beneficial. If PvP’ers were brave enough to equip something so rare in a fight, then it’d really add some interest in that sphere too.
  
  E.g. Ring of Life: A ring that when equipped will add +2 to strength, and +10 to max hp, with a regeneration rate of 2hp every 5 seconds.
  
  I also think it might be possible that, on level 9-10 monsters only that there will be a 1/2500 chance (maybe more) that something like a rare dye tubs could drop. Or for a lesser 1/x chance, custom skill books (perhaps random skills). Maybe directions to a rare mount location, or whatever can be thought of!
  

Though I’ve listed mainly weapons/armour/combat items – there could be many more items that would serve a non-combat purpose. (Things to boost crafting skills while equipped?) This could also lead to a craft overhaul, new craftables only reachable with 110+ skill, with a diverse number of options. This could lead to greater competition between the craft guilds. These would have to be insanely rare; and be able to give an edge to any of the crafters world wide who want to be legendarily renowned. To add to this; perhaps there could be a set of staves that are only available with 120% carp/120% tink, so the person in question would have to acquire 3-4 of these ‘craft boosters’ in order to start making these.

All in all, if the % remains low enough, the market/world will not become too saturated, and if the diversity of items was great enough this would diminish even further.

Second proposal:
A level system for players!

Whereby, experience points are gained in a similar vein to fame/karma, and players level up for some form of benefit, (e.g. +1% to a few combat skills with a max of 15 total say? Or even boosting the stat cap to a max of 15-20) Obviously the harder (or higher level) creature that is killed provides higher exp points.

E.g. Level 0 = 2 points, Level 1 = 4 points, with level 10 providing around 200-250 points.

Proposed level up times could be: From level 0 to 1 = 500 points, then 1000 points, 1500, 3000, 5000, 10000 etc.

This could also lead to a certain small zone being designated where uni/arti drops are more common (not by much). This would mean there would be an uprising in PK guilds/Anti-PK guilds and give them a real reason to jostle for position. To prevent the other guilds from getting superior equipment, or even to ambush them on a hunting trip in the off-chance they have found unis.

Third Proposal:
Familiars/War Beasts for hunting/PvPing

Custom creatures that can level up (and not just with the basic skills they have already) and aid in PvM/PvP might add a fair flavour to the shard. I’m not talking about simply training a dragon and making it mighty (although this can work!). I’m talking about a set of creatures which start as level 1, and have various different abilities (I wasn’t going for a Pokemon allusion here…but eh), highly skilled melee/hand-to-hand or mages, or a mix of the two, or ‘bombers’, casting explode or using powerful explosion pots, poisoners, the list goes on…

My proposal is that these are buyable from stones, and trainable in a different way than normal creatures. I.e. they could level up in the same manner as players could (as per my other proposal), you could select which skills they could have, which would affect the uses they have in various hunting. I’d say if the idea of ‘familiar’ was introduced, the stats and skills (irrespective of the form they take) would all be balanced at level 1 with the trainer having the option to send them down a various route of training. More-so, I think that people could only ever buy one. With the ability to resurrect the creature at a specially set up ‘vet’ for a high cost. Perhaps the creature would shrink and automatically go to your pack when it dies, or is ‘tele’d’ away and you can get it back from the vet. The higher level the creature is, the more it would cost to get back and so forth.

Just some ideas I’m throwing around; I realise that this would be a huge project, but for me, these are a few things which would really mix things up and make Imagine Nation an even better place than it already is. In my head great measures would have to be taken to have everything perfectly balanced.

Cheers guys & please feel free to discuss/disagree/input whatever you like towards this.

- Durzo