View source for Post:Tuesday Tidings - 74 - Wilderness Shuffle - 07/20/2021 - 20:04

{{Post
|a=DR-ZADRAES
|t=Tuesday Tidings - 74 - Wilderness Shuffle
|d=07/20/2021 20:04
|n=1881
|f=Discussions with DragonRealms Staff and Players / Game Master and Official Announcements
|c=d
|p=Happy [[Tuesday Tidings|Tuesday]], folks!

This week is another hunting area update that frees up some space to use in yet another future update, but I'm not quite ready to spoil that just yet! For now '''(and the TLDR)''', the wilderness area with Inkhornes, thicket vipers, black leucros, rock guardians and forest geni has seen some tweaks!

Firstly -- they've all been separated into their own chunks of the wilderness. No more overlapping with one another. The shape of the maps ([[RanikMap11|11]] and [[RanikMap11a|11a]] on Elanthipedia!) remains the same, but some directional exits were removed and portals (paths, gaps, etc) were added to better divide these large chunks of rooms into smaller, single-critter homes.

Secondly -- most of the creatures in this area were split into two smaller zones -- one available to everyone and another only for Premium folks (generally a step-up in difficulty from the open-to-all!). The spawners covering these creatures were greatly simplified, even with the Premium split, from 15 total down to 9, and they should spawn better across the board. The Premium chunks will spawn slightly more (noticeable with more people in the area) and slightly more often.

(And just to cover it -- all but the forest geni had variance before. Some of them had hand-set stats from the olden days, and it could lead to big swings in difficulty if you had a 'normal' spawn vs one of the variance ones. This should be smoothed out, but that does mean those of you right on the edge should take care -- they may be a little harder than before! Generally their skills came down when standardized, but their stats went up!)

For the critter-by-critter particulars:

<table style="border:1px solid black;" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
    <td>'''Creature'''</td>
    <td>'''Level'''</td>
    <td>'''Variance'''</td>
    <td>'''Comments'''</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Inkhornes</td>
    <td>5</td>
    <td>none</td>
    <td>While I'm sure no one really comes out here to hunt these guys, particularly with the challenges of finding the way in, I didn't want the area to lose them entirely, so they now inhabit the first handful of rooms when you enter from the NTR.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Thicket Vipers</td>
    <td>27</td>
    <td>-1 to +1</td>
    <td>When you take the track and head DOWN a few rooms later, thicket vipers remain in these rooms, 26-28 range.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Premium Thicket Vipers</td>
    <td>30</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>The "gap" near the open-to-all vipers is now a Premium viper area, 28-32 range.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Giant Black Leucros</td>
    <td>34</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>Moving back towards the start of the area, if you take the SPOT portal you end up with leucros covering the box maze just before the deadfall. One room in this chunk gained a SE directional so that it connected properly. No more Inkhornes here to be annoyed by. These leucros cover 32-36.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Premium Leucros</td>
    <td>38</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>I had the hardest time finding a way to squeeze these guys in, but I found a spot! The slope that leads to rock guardians moved east a room, and a new narrow path replaced that east/west directional -- the Premium leucros can be found along that path. A new ladder was added to the top of the maple tree with protective Estate Holder magic, so no sneaking in from above! These leucros cover 36-40.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Rock Guardians</td>
    <td>42</td>
    <td>-3 to +3</td>
    <td>The existing rock guardian area was simply split -- the eastern/entry point is open to all and covers 39-45.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Premium Rock Guardians</td>
    <td>45</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>As above, these guys are still where they were before, just the SW corner beyond the ledge requires Premium to access. This ledge no longer needs to be searched out -- it should always be visible. These cover 43-47.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Forest Geni</td>
    <td>50</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>Forest geni are also still where they were -- beyond the deadfall and down the trail you have to search. Many directional exits were cleared -- if you're looking at Elanthipedia's map (11a), there are two box mazes -- the northern one is open to everyone and is only forest geni covering 48-52.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Premium Forest Geni</td>
    <td>52</td>
    <td>-2 to +2</td>
    <td>As above, these guys can be found in the southern box maze. The directional east/west-ish exits were cleared, and it's accessed from a new "gap in the undergrowth" in the same room as the trail leading into geni. As the (current) pinnacle of this area's progression, these guys cover 50-54.</td>
</tr>
</table>

As with the update to Baearholt's [[Ulerith]] worked on, with the new Premium sections and their respective bumps, Premium players should be able to step between these creatures for a decent progression covering ~25 creature levels. Non-Premium folks shouldn't see any major disruption to how the area progresses currently, and hopefully the shift from hand-set stats will help with that, too!

You may notice -- the area immediately beyond the deadfall all the way up to geni is now lacking creatures! This is intended, ''for now!'' Something bigger, meaner and nastier is in the works, and the local wildlife may have started to feel threatened by it. What could it be? When will adventurers discover it? Stay tuned, because it's coming in a future TT update!

This is live in Prime, Plat and TF! We'll be monitoring these changes over the next few days to see how traffic in the area works out! If you notice anything odd, feel free to respond here on the forums and/or drop a note in the <code>#worlds</code> channel on [[Discord]]!

Big thanks to [[Koror]] for the last minute QC on this one! Next week is a mystery!

[[Zadraes]]<br>
(for the team!)
|sub=Tuesday Tidings, Estate Holder-only areas,
}}