Just south of the gondola, there are two separate hunting areas for Snowbeasts. In the first, they are mixed in with Granite Gargoyles. In the second, they are mixed in with Frostweavers.
Snowbeasts on the wiki (and from my experience) have a skillcap of 75-105.
Granite Gargoyles are close, but higher than that (and un-huntable for someone who can just barely survive snowbeasts) at 95-125.
Frostweavers are ridiculously higher than that at 180-260.
What is the point of these hunting zones where the range of skill is so varied?
Someone wanting to hunt snowbeasts can barely survive at the start in the gargoyle area and will almost immediately get ruined in the frostweaver area (know this from personal experience).
Someone wanting to hunt gargoyles will probably do fine in that area, but will learn less than a dedicated granite gargoyle area due to learning less when clearing out the snowbeasts.
Someone wanting to hunt frostweavers will get sick of wasting time not learning anything while clearing out snowbeasts.
This just seems like a wasted hunting area that nobody will ever want to use.
COMPGEEK78
NIKPACK
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/10/2021 07:14 PM CST
<<What is the point of these hunting zones where the range of skill is so varied?
I think it was for lore reasons. Early in the game's history, lore always seemed to trump playability and there's probably a reason for all those creatures to be there. Not that players know these reasons so it feels ... awkward at best. There's a ton of lore and worldbuilding that goes into the game that players never see.
<<This just seems like a wasted hunting area that nobody will ever want to use.
You and the GM's agree!
A few of the Tuesday Strike Team projects have been to separate these kinds of hunting areas.
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Discussions%20with%20DragonRealms%20Staff%20and%20Players/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/1813
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Discussions%20with%20DragonRealms%20Staff%20and%20Players/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/1786
Maybe snowbeasts will be another they tackle soon.
Nikpack
I think it was for lore reasons. Early in the game's history, lore always seemed to trump playability and there's probably a reason for all those creatures to be there. Not that players know these reasons so it feels ... awkward at best. There's a ton of lore and worldbuilding that goes into the game that players never see.
<<This just seems like a wasted hunting area that nobody will ever want to use.
You and the GM's agree!
A few of the Tuesday Strike Team projects have been to separate these kinds of hunting areas.
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Discussions%20with%20DragonRealms%20Staff%20and%20Players/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/1813
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/Discussions%20with%20DragonRealms%20Staff%20and%20Players/Game%20Master%20and%20Official%20Announcements/view/1786
Maybe snowbeasts will be another they tackle soon.
Nikpack
DR-ZADRAES
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/10/2021 10:45 PM CST
Noted.
Also, things didn't always teach the way they do now. My level 30 MM (with absolutely terrible skills/stats) was hunting Adan'f with magics years and years ago, a few magic (and other!) system rewrites ago. Mixed creature areas were less dangerous and annoying at points in the game's history, and people's training styles were different. There wasn't the push to train everything always from the start, so maybe you had a lower weapon or armor set when those other creatures mixed in.
History and context of the time matter. It is weird today, but wasn't always so.
And in an initial check...snowbeasts may have more active spawners in the game than any other creature. They're all over the place and definitely need some cleanup to reduce some unnecessary overlap. They can apparently spawn in the rooms near the gondola on the north side, if you have more than 1 player in the area (weirdly this also covers the single room on south side with the wrecked catapult). There's definitely an area just before the nimbus creatures that's only snowbeasts, but again on the north side.
I'll add the garg/snowbeast/frostweaver areas to strike team's spreadsheet of projects to look at in the future. No ETA on when it'll be claimed. In the meantime, if you can make the jump north side, there really is a better snowbeast-only area there now.
Zadraes
Also, things didn't always teach the way they do now. My level 30 MM (with absolutely terrible skills/stats) was hunting Adan'f with magics years and years ago, a few magic (and other!) system rewrites ago. Mixed creature areas were less dangerous and annoying at points in the game's history, and people's training styles were different. There wasn't the push to train everything always from the start, so maybe you had a lower weapon or armor set when those other creatures mixed in.
History and context of the time matter. It is weird today, but wasn't always so.
And in an initial check...snowbeasts may have more active spawners in the game than any other creature. They're all over the place and definitely need some cleanup to reduce some unnecessary overlap. They can apparently spawn in the rooms near the gondola on the north side, if you have more than 1 player in the area (weirdly this also covers the single room on south side with the wrecked catapult). There's definitely an area just before the nimbus creatures that's only snowbeasts, but again on the north side.
I'll add the garg/snowbeast/frostweaver areas to strike team's spreadsheet of projects to look at in the future. No ETA on when it'll be claimed. In the meantime, if you can make the jump north side, there really is a better snowbeast-only area there now.
Zadraes
SORTIK
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/11/2021 06:50 AM CST
On a geographically related note - the amount of climbing needed to get over the log and into the Ilithi la'tami area seems to be somewhat significantly more than the amount of offense/defense ranks needed to hunt them. Might be handy if that climb was a little lower. (I know it's in a popular area for training Athletics, so making it too easy would probably also be detrimental.)
PHUBB
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/11/2021 07:33 PM CST
Thank you Zadraes,
The snowbeast area north of the gondola is a good stepping stone to other hunting areas, but the spawn there makes it difficult to hunt effectively under the current design paradigm. It is especially challenging if you tend to hunt at times when others are not around, because the room arrangement and spawn mechanics do their thing to make it harder for things to get to you.
It would be awesome if the spawn mechanics for the Northside snowbeast lair could be peeked at when the Southside area is tweaked too!
I really appreciate all the small updates coming from you and the Strike Team! I follow the forums, even when I've not been subbed, and seeing the stream of small updates is what made me decide to resub a few months ago. I'm super grateful you guys gave me the "excuse" to come back to a world that I love!
Thanks!
The snowbeast area north of the gondola is a good stepping stone to other hunting areas, but the spawn there makes it difficult to hunt effectively under the current design paradigm. It is especially challenging if you tend to hunt at times when others are not around, because the room arrangement and spawn mechanics do their thing to make it harder for things to get to you.
It would be awesome if the spawn mechanics for the Northside snowbeast lair could be peeked at when the Southside area is tweaked too!
I really appreciate all the small updates coming from you and the Strike Team! I follow the forums, even when I've not been subbed, and seeing the stream of small updates is what made me decide to resub a few months ago. I'm super grateful you guys gave me the "excuse" to come back to a world that I love!
Thanks!
MAGHRIT
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/11/2021 09:43 PM CST
>>Hunt
Is your friend. And it works perception to boot! If you utilize that verb, it makes it much easier to keep things going in mindstates. You can jump right to that critter after the RT is done by using Hunt 2, Hunt 4, Hunt 9 if critter is in an open room with no one in it. And if your perception is good enough, you'll see hidden characters if they are stealth hunting. It works. Just have to use it. The spawn rate in one room may not be alot, but use the hunt verb. Its how we do it in Plat. Critters don't always spawn in the room your in, they might find you eventually, they may not before they de-spawn. But try the hunt verb. It should help alot.
~Dalkin/Jim~
DR-ZADRAES
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/12/2021 05:18 AM CST
I made some minor adjustments to north side spawn that should help. Not a full review, but fixed some goofy settings that were hampering things a bit. May not be a great area, but it's not as bad as it was. May re-visit in the future when we tackle the south side.
Zadraes
Zadraes
COMPGEEK78
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/12/2021 11:54 AM CST
Thanks Zadraes, for both an explanation of why it is the way it is and for making some improvements to the north side. I've been in there and it was definitely slow spawns, so thanks also for the tweaks. I'll check it out tonight!
PHUBB
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/13/2021 07:18 PM CST
Thank you for the speedy response. You rock!
DRSCOTT
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/23/2021 06:14 PM CST
>I'll add the garg/snowbeast/frostweaver areas to strike team's spreadsheet of projects to look at in the future. No ETA on when it'll be claimed. In the meantime, if you can make the jump north side, there really is a better snowbeast-only area there now.
Another creature like this is Adan'f Shadow Dancers mixed in with regular Adan'f, and when you kill the lesser Adan'f you often don't even get to loot them. Massive waste of time unless you want to backtrain I guess. I wouldn't mind some regular Adan'f but they're pretty frequent.
Another creature like this is Adan'f Shadow Dancers mixed in with regular Adan'f, and when you kill the lesser Adan'f you often don't even get to loot them. Massive waste of time unless you want to backtrain I guess. I wouldn't mind some regular Adan'f but they're pretty frequent.
SORTIK
Re: Snowbeasts South of the Gondola
02/23/2021 09:42 PM CST
An area with only spirit dancers would be pretty neat.
