Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing

Quote from GM Haliste: http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Ebon%20Gate%20Festival/view/13037

Deep Sea Diving

Upon entry to the Abandoned Waters, (and with the appropriate diver's license from the SimuCoin store) you will be suited with a gnomish air helmet. This helmet will last for 30 minutes. During that time, you have up to 10 searches within the sea. This number is based on where you are searching. If you are searching in the shallow waters (we'll call this level 1), then you have 10 searches. If you are searching in deeper waters (we'll call these levels 2, 3, and 4) then you have 5 searches.

On Level 1, there are no obstacles. On Levels 2 and 3, there are obstacles that you will need to counter. (IE: jellyfish, squid, etc.) These obstacles can be countered by using an appropriate item (harpoons, bellows, and fishing nets); these items can be found while playing any game - digging, mini-games, Deep Sea Diving, and fishing.

Levels 2 and 3 provide an initial bonus, but in order to maintain or improve that bonus, you must appropriately counter those obstacles. Failure to do so will drop this bonus slightly, though it will never drop to zero. You can LOOK at any obstacle (or counter item) to get information about it. You have a limited amount of time to initiate a counter.

Level 4 (which is a Premium only area) provides a bonus without obstacles. In addition, there are seashell caches to be found in this area. There are no caches on Levels 1, 2 or 3.

You need to keep your body moving while you're in the deeper areas of the sea. The bends are unpleasant and will result in scrambling back to the shallower waters, which will also remove any bonus you may have accumulated.

Items needed for the 2017 Quest can be found exclusively in Deep Sea Diving.

2017 Quest

The 2017 quest is a progressive quest that will require participation from many players.

The quest is broken into 4 phases and is currently on Phase 1. In order to move the quest to Phase 4, players will need to participate! Once everything opens up on Friday (10/6), the "how" should become apparent. Some may have already figured this out based on NPC responses. There is an individual cap on participation, but continued participation beyond that cap still progresses the quest as a whole. Quest components will drop in Deep Sea Diving and can be traded/sold to other players.

Sometime after the quest reaches Phase 4, a reward item will become available to all players. This item does not require a Pass (Games, Services & Raffles, or Shopping) to obtain, but it will attune to your character. In addition, it carries a silvers cost of 250k. In its base form, it is a zesty item that anyone can use. For participants who are at the individual cap for the quest, it will provide some mechanical benefits that will progress over the next 5 years based on quest participation in this and subsequent years, similarly to the Heart item from the Necropolis at previous Ebon Gate events. And finally, for those who choose to convert to the new deity, there is a third mechanical benefit.

Note that in order to access the Tier 3 benefit, you must be converted to Ghezresh AND you must have participated to the full extent in that year's quest.

Fishing

It will cost 50 seashells to enter the fishing area. Once inside, (make sure you take your fishing gear with you!), you will remain until you catch a fish. After a successful catch, you will be removed from the room. Caught fish will need to be CUT to receive your prize (and maybe a filet). Fishing will yield items that are not found in other games, but can produce both Unique and Jackpot items.

Fishing does not require any specific skill, though a bit of survival may help you cut out a filet. General knowledge of the fishing system will help, as fishing can be a bit time-consuming, especially when unfamiliar with this activity.

You will need a fishing pole, fishing line, and bait, all of which can be found in the Fishing Shack down on the pier in Caligos Isle, though you're not required to purchase items from this shop - ANY fishing pole/wire/bait will function the same.

Conversion to the new deity will require an item found in fishing. Those who do not want to convert will have an alternate path if this item is found. This item is also tradeable.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy DFQing!

~ Haliste ~ The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor SGM, Events

Quote from GM Haliste:

There's no hunting/combat involved in the quest, so you could wear your skivvies and do it if you wanted.

~ Haliste ~ The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor SGM, Events

Omrii: Okay, thanks Haliste. You're way better than Wyrom.

Quote from GM Haliste:

Will there be a method to determine if you've "capped" your participation for the year so that you can make sure you don't miss out on that year's quest item functionality?

Absolutely.

~ Haliste ~ The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor SGM, Events

Omrii: Okay, thanks Haliste. You're way better than Wyrom.

Hate the model for the quest line. Fuck this simucoin for everything bullshit.

We all let it happen.

@ordim Not buying a diving pass now, might have tried it out before this announcement. No way will I support this model though.

@sabotage said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim Not buying a diving pass now, might have tried it out before this announcement. No way will I support this model though.

I don't mind SCs so much as I mind: invest in this item for 5 years and not know what it will do.

@allereli I also truly hate that there is a premium only section of a SC event.

@sabotage said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@allereli I also truly hate that there is a premium only section of a SC event.

I'm probably not on the same level of hate, but there is a little hate there.

5 of the new/teased scripts are locked behind sea shells. 10 stores so far seashells only. but dont worry, the people who just want to shop can just buy a shopping pass!

Quote from GM Haliste:

quest pieces

The Ezreshi in the sea caverns will also sell these for seashells. She's an avid collector of those shells.

cost for DSD

100 SC per entry; entries are a maximum of 10 searches per.

Not much written about this Ghezresh...

Oh, there's a bit written - but not anything you are privy to yet. More will unfold as things open up next week. You have the entire month to make a decision.

General Tickets

Nothing awards general tickets here. This is all seashells, which is now the EG currency.

~ Haliste ~ The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor SGM, Events

Omrii: Okay, thanks Haliste. You're way better than Wyrom.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

5 of the new/teased scripts are locked behind sea shells. 10 stores so far seashells only. but dont worry, the people who just want to shop can just buy a shopping pass!

Wait...Are you serious? That is some fucked up bait and switch crap right there. @Wyrom

Would you like your "I told you so" now, or would you like me to wait until the event officially starts?

Guys, let's actually do the event before we start judging.

Can't you get seashells from Digging/games?

Dont those cost silver only?

...doesnt that allow you to buy everything in the stores without diving a single time?

As for the quest...yeah, Im not a fan of them locking it in a 'YOU MUST DO DIVING' thing.

@hjfudge said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Can't you get seashells from Digging/games?

Dont those cost silver only?

Yes, you can get seashells from Digging and mini-games

those cost silver after a games pass ;)

Well I mean yeah...before you had to buy an EG ticket too. I dunno whats changed :)

@hjfudge The cost for everything. If you get all 3 passes the price is the same as the old EG. Its being told one thing and it turns out to be another. "You can just buy a shopping pass and shop at all the stores" without mentioning that some of those stores require the game pass to farm for seashells. Feels like a "You can keep your healthcare provider" statement.

@God You realize EG has started...right? I am complaining about things that are either specifically mentioned by GMs or are already setup and running at EG.

But I mean..you can buy a shopping pass and shop at most of the stores.

Theres quite a few things for just good ole silver.

I dunno, I just...maybe I should be mad? or madder? more mad? But its like...I was gonna buy all 3 passes anyway! And its cheaper cause 'free monthly simucoins'

But your definitely right to be mad about the quest thingie. Thats shitty.

@hjfudge Everyone gets mad at different things. You have every right to not be mad, I was just explaining what I was mad about since you asked.

I completely didn't even mention the quest requiring SC to get the "extra" reward, but I guess you could make a parallel to "unlocking" the heart from last EG. I don't like the way the game is heading further and further into random loot micro-transactions. I hate that there is even a chance you could spend $1000 and literally just come away with junk.

This is why I don't mind DR. You spend your money and you get a minimum return with a higher return based on your skill/character class. You know what the possible rewards are before hand and can make educated decisions on what you want to do. These other events are basically the "open a box for a random reward" you find in all the shitty mobile games. It could be the best thing ever, but most likely its a thing you already have 50 million of.

I want more DR events and no more DM/diving/DR dig events.

You didn't have to buy into Delerium manor to unlock the heart, it was part of the base EG ticket/experience. Likewise, you didn't HAVE TO play games (or use the general ticket currency at all) to buy regular shop items from the vendors. Sure, a lot of people WILL buy a games pass and earn seashells but making the main stores only sell in that currency is explicitly saying "Look, we are forcing people to buy passes, even though we gave everyone the illusion that you could pick and choose what you wanted to do, but we made some choices for you".

While I'm planning on buying all the passes and stuff... a few thoughts:

A) Putting quest items behind a paywall is moderately crappy. B) I'm waiting to hear what's going to happen with the mentioned (but never elaborated on) ability to turn general tickets into other currencies C) For 100 SCs a go, Deep Sea Diving better come with a motley assortment of ridiculously satisfying prizes. *C-1) Games launch in two days... I DESPISE this policy of not teasing hoppers until just before an event opens. Why should I be planning to hit the games hard? I've been given ZERO reason to at this point. Give me something to get excited to spend my money on!

@ordim I meant the SC item to uncurse it.

Oh yeah. Previous years I guess it was a T5 hopper win. There was some released that way but adding it to the SC store was new from what I can tell.

I'm not sure how I fully feel about that. There were some released in the games so it was rare and truly optional to buy for SC. It also didn't prevent the main functionality of the base item, you still got spells, you just had a chance of being cursed using it.

It seems like they replaced the crappy "prize wall" from old EG that maybe had one or two cool items to buy with tickets with a small selection of shops that only deal in seashells.

I think the only crappy part about that is that it seemed like it was most of the "cool" new scripts that were teased.

But then again, there were complaints before that there was nothing cool to use general tickets for, so I'm guessing they did this because of that feedback.

And didn't Haliste say that the NPC in the sea caverns will sell the quest items for seashells?

I imagine people may have stores of extra sea shells to sell for silver for those not wanting to get a games pass if the drop rate is as high as the general tickets, but I dunno. You can use seashells to do the fishing game, too.

I do want to know what the mechanical benefit of the quest item is, though, considering you may have to CONVERT to get the highest benefit.

Also I am pretty sure @Wyrom said from the very beginning that some shops will sell tings for silvers and some for seashells, so not sure if it's a bait and switch. At least the majority of the shops seem to be using silvers, though.

It's pretty simple to fix - offer items for EITHER silver or seashells and move the quest item drops into the EG games. Done. All problems solved. Deep sea diving remains its own thematically connected but mechanically separate entity and the seashells/booby prize/tickets become useful for buying fun stuff.

@ordim

That would defeat the purpose of Simu's objective. They have this all hashed out in terms of Price:Cost:Benefit and personally I don't mind. Why?

Because I'm doing an experiment, spend exactly 50 dollars on EG this year and compare the output/benefit to my character from all the years past that I did EG for a flat ticket price of 50$.

Simple. And I recommend everyone here to try to keep at least mental notes (writing it all down is better though!) as to your spending and what exactly you got out of EG this year.

@livderaderalleur said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

It seems like they replaced the crappy “prize wall” from old EG that maybe had one or two cool items to buy with tickets with a small selection of shops that only deal in seashells.

I agree that the prize walls were pretty crappy and I think they should allow conversion from General tickets to seashells this year at a reasonable rate. maybe 1:1 conversion for the people who bought into the SimuCon campaign

Just keep track of your spending and see how it goes. judge after the fact not before it actually happens.

Not a fan of a quest item being put behind a paywall like this, but I'll reserve judgement until I get a better idea of how many simucoins it takes to cap your participation.

@riend Just to be clear it doesn't seem like the quest item is behind a SC wall only the upgraded version. Whatever that is.

@sabotage said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@riend Just to be clear it doesn't seem like the quest item is behind a SC wall only the upgraded version. Whatever that is.

SOME part of the quest item is behind a paywall, that's enough to get my panties slightly twisty.

@riend said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@sabotage said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@riend Just to be clear it doesn't seem like the quest item is behind a SC wall only the upgraded version. Whatever that is.

SOME part of the quest item is behind a paywall, that's enough to get my panties slightly twisty.

paywall okay, random factor paywall, not okay

The silence on the issue is deafening.

The quest item is not behind a random paywall. Every quest item required purchase to Ebon Gate though. We've done a lot of work on balancing this out, so I'll just ask for everyone to wait until we're open before passing judgment. I don't know what silence is deafening, we just announced it.

So for clarification, we can participate in the quest AND get the quest item without diving?

If so, good. I know to get the higher tier we'd have to convert, which is fine.

So to be clear, Simutronics has no issues with putting this item behind the process of collecting X amount more dollars from their player base participating in DSD when in previous years it was included in the base ticket price?

This is the further erosion of what people get for their money. You didn't really give anyone the option to not buy a games pass, SOMEONE has to buy one to gather seashells to buy items, you didn't REALLY give anyone the option to avoid DSD, its now tied to unlocking the EG item.

To me, it doesn't matter if 1 person has to pay $1 to progess the quest at that point, its still a shit move any way you cut it. Same thing with the seashells, its one thing to change up the currency to YET ANOTHER currency in the game, but to then only have shops that will take that currency just goes that much further down the road.

@hjfudge said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

So for clarification, we can participate in the quest AND get the quest item without diving?

If so, good. I know to get the higher tier we'd have to convert, which is fine.

The quest isn't an individual quest like most are thinking. I'm trying not to say too much on the subject, as I'm not the designer. But there are ways to participate in the quest without ever diving.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

So to be clear, Simutronics has no issues with putting this item behind the process of collecting X amount more dollars from their player base participating in DSD when in previous years it was included in the base ticket price?

Because that's exactly what this is the further erosion of what people get for their money. You didn't really give anyone the option to not buy a games pass, SOMEONE has to buy one to gather seashells to buy items, you didn't REALLY give anyone the option to avoid DSD, its now tied to unlocking the EG item.

To me, it doesn't matter if 1 person has to pay $1 to progess the quest at that point, its still a shit move any way you cut it. Same thing with the seashells, its one thing to change up the currency to YET ANOTHER currency in the game, but to then only have shops that will take that currency just goes that much further down the road.

It's a pay event. I'm still not following you. Are you asking for seashells to be something outside of a pay event?

DSD is 100% optional.

A frankly, you've burned any "wait and see" on the previous stunts with the smithy. I have little to no faith that you are acting in the best interest of the players anymore and are merely hitting targets for how much money needs to come in. I had no problem dropping big money when I felt I was getting something worth it and the system was fair. Now, not so much.

There is an individual cap on participation, but continued participation beyond that cap still progresses the quest as a whole. Quest components will drop in Deep Sea Diving and can be traded/sold to other players.

So you think we're not acting in the best interest in the players because we had some staffing complications? Okay.

I didnt even mention staffing complications, where are you getting that from? How do staffing complications factor into directly tieing in the additional purchasing of simucoins for deep sea diving?

You've put in place a system where what was previously part of the base entry fee is now tied to simutronics earning X amount of money IN ADDITION to the base price from previous years.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I didnt even mention staffing complications, where are you getting that from? How do staffing complications factor into directly tieing in the additional purchasing of simucoins for deep sea diving?

You've put in place a system where what was previously part of the base entry fee is now tied to simutronics earning X amount of money IN ADDITION to the base price from previous years.

You mentioned the smithy as having "little to no faith that you are acting in the best interest of the players anymore." So you're putting all your eggs in that basket currently.

As for the base price, you don't even have to buy in.

It's not about ME buying in, it's about ANYONE having to buy in to get what people got at the base price last year.

base price + doing the necropolis , to be super specific. But they didnt have to buy a simucoin entry to the necropolis.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

It's not about ME buying in, it's about ANYONE having to buy in to get what people got at the base price last year.

It's not comparable to last year. It's not a black ora heart. It's not the Necropolis. And the heart didn't exist for years 2011 and 2012. The intensity isn't necessary. It's a lot different at Ebon Gate this year.

So as intensity goes down the amount we have to pay goes up? Is that how gemstone will be balanced moving forward?

No, your intensity isn't necessary in posting when you want to have information shared.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

So as intensity goes down the amount we have to pay goes up? Is that how gemstone will be balanced moving forward?

Ordim, take a breath. In years prior, one had to shell out $50 to be able to join the quest for the hearts. Someone may not have have even wanted to play games or go shopping last year, but still had to pay $50 just to complete hearts and what not. This year, you don't have to buy ANY pass. Yes, quest items will drop in Diving which costs 100 simucoins per entry, but players will also be able to trade/sell items to other players. You yourself may be able to pay nothing but silvers in order to get max participation from the quest.

You yourself may be able to pay nothing but silvers in order to get max participation from the quest

This is a bullshit line of reasoning and exactly what my contention is. NO ONE should have to buy into DSD for the EG component. The same thing with seashells, the primary shops with teased scripts shouldn't be locked behind someone buying seashells.

If people really don't have a problem with this then it's only going to get worse. This is exactly the stuff people were warning about months ago and now here it is. I'm sorry responding immediately on a forum and not bending the knee to the discord channel so I can have a near real time conversation is seen as so intense. I'm also sorry you felt the need to address that instead of the underlying problem. It's very telling.

Once again, you don't have to buy into DSD. I'm not sure why you keep bringing that back up. DSD is completely optional. You can do everything via the games.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Once again, you don't have to buy into DSD. I'm not sure why you keep bringing that back up. DSD is completely optional. You can do everything via the games.

he brings it up because in the information provided, all of the quest items are found in DSD, and because of that I stuck the quest info section on the DSD page. I'm not saying that he's reacting to where I put something on the Wiki, I'm explaining that my reaction to the information provided was to put it with DSD.

And you keep saying that except it's not entirely true by Haliste's posting- Quest components will drop in Deep Sea Diving and can be traded/sold to other players.

Sure, I personally don't have to buy into DSD, but SOMEONE does and I personally think thats a shit move.

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Ebon%20Gate%20Festival/view/13084

The Ezreshi in the sea caverns will also sell these for seashells. She's an avid collector of those shells.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

The Ezreshi in the sea caverns will also sell these for seashells. She’s an avid collector of those shells.

if staff can edit their posts, why don't they?

So quest components will be sold for seashells? Why isn't that in the very first post, why wasn't it mentioned at the first questioning of anything?

Wait, what? It's in that post though.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Wait, what? It's in that post though.

I mean the main post with the announcement

Most people use legacy viewing. So once it's read, it's not visible anymore. But it was posted yesterday at 10:30pm ET.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Most people use legacy viewing. So once it's read, it's not visible anymore. But it was posted yesterday at 10:30pm ET.

so someone on staff should have gone to the wiki and corrected the info :)

We're still working on final QC of the event. Correct info on the wiki means nothing when we can't open October 6th.

Something like that should really be said from the start. It doesn't take much to say "Quest pieces will drop alongside other stuff in Deep sea diving or can be purchased via seashells to aid the cause".

That's why she posted it. It was an oversight not to mention it originally.

Well now I'm only partially upset that seashells are not a prize wall like currency but I'll stick around long enough to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

We're still working on final QC of the event. Correct info on the wiki means nothing when we can't open October 6th.

if it can be corrected on the officials, it only takes 2 more seconds to paste into a talk page to give a heads up.

Also, considering the shop list and event info page have been cited numerous times by players and staff on the officials, and maybe even the festival info verb(?) it really shouldn't be left on the backburner like that.

Did we learn any lessons guys?

Group hug!

Even if you did have to do DSD, it's cheaper to do this year's quest than it was do to the previous quest over the past 5 years. It cost $50 to get into EG, and the quest WAS blocked by a paywall. The resulting item is useful, but not overwhelmingly useful. Many people don't have an orb/heart and can never get one because they don't like paying for EG.

This year you can get a quest item for a fraction of the price.

EG is not generally the "mechanical" event of the year. It's a scripty fluff-fest with a handful of neat / useful items. Frankly the budget for EG is cheaper for anyone with multiple accounts / characters than ever before because you don't have to pay for all the passes for each character.

You can still buy any of the items you want from the seashell stores with silvers. Just pay someone else silvers for seashells, and buy the crap you want.

Seriously lrn2dealwithchange.

I'm confused Ordim, you're OK when the quest pieces can be acquired for seashells but not OK if they can only be acquired by DSD. You do realize that seashells can only be exclusively acquired through DSD right?

Also, who cares? Because from what Wyrom is stating, you can pretty much do the entire EG storyline without paying a cent and just trading in-game items.

@Ordim - Chill out for a minute

@god said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I'm confused Ordim, you're OK when the quest pieces can be acquired for seashells but not OK if they can only be acquired by DSD. You do realize that seashells can only be exclusively acquired through DSD right?

That's not correct. Seashells will drop in games also.

@god said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I'm confused Ordim, you're OK when the quest pieces can be acquired for seashells but not OK if they can only be acquired by DSD. You do realize that seashells can only be exclusively acquired through DSD right?

Also, who cares? Because from what Wyrom is stating, you can pretty much do the entire EG storyline without paying a cent and just trading in-game items.

That is incorrect.

Seashells come from DSD and the games. (Which require a games pass?)

Apologizes for missing that update, or misinterpreting that update as meaning "The base quest item can be bought for seashells, instead of 250k silvers".

@Ashraam-VanEyre For participants who are at the individual cap for the quest, it will provide some mechanical benefits that will progress over the next 5 years based on quest participation in this and subsequent years, - so there may be a way to gain "limited mechanical benefit" by spending silvers only, it's yet to be seen how it comes close to approaching the usefulness of a 1x (or more) per day item.

It's certainly cheaper for multiple accounts, not so much multiple characters on one account, depending on how many characters you want to get a service pass for profession specific raffles.

Sorry, you have to buy a "changes pass" to deal in changes.

so it's even better! Seashells drop in games.

So um I just want to play. Is it Friday yet. Let's see how it all goes. I am sure I will Get plenty of quest items I will sell at mostly reasonable prices. Whether it's the point or not it is how it is going to be

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

We've done a lot of work on balancing this out, so I'll just ask for everyone to wait until we're open before passing judgment.

I don't like that the teasers never mentioned that these new scripted items would require seashells. And its not like 1 or 2 scripts, its almost half the announced new items. When I say we need better communication, this is the type of thing I am talking about.

They also didn't tell you how much silver they would cost or if they would even be on sale in a shop. They could have been priced out of your range or limited in release. We don't typically tease pricing in teasers.

But the great thing here is, you can make a choice on whether anything is worth it to you without spending a thing. You didn't have to buy a ticket to EG a month before it runs and then find this information out like it has been for the last 20 years.

@wyrom Thats what you're going with, that they didn't announce how much an item would cost so items for sale for seashells is fine? Even though teasers are for GM's shops, like always. You can do better than that. I'll know for next event to ask about the teasers if they will be sold for silvers or alt currencies. Lesson learned I guess.

EG has been unlimited entries for a while. You could buy it 2 weeks after it started if you wanted to or on the last day. Yes, its optional. Most everything in life is, I get it.

um i believe eg was only one or two weeks period, so hard to buy it 2 weeks after it started?

I think the point was made.

@sabotage said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom Thats what you're going with, that they didn't announce how much an item would cost so items for sale for seashells is fine? Even though teasers are for GM's shops, like always. You can do better than that. I'll know for next event to ask about the teasers if they will be sold for silvers or alt currencies. Lesson learned I guess.

EG has been unlimited entries for a while. You could buy it 2 weeks after it started if you wanted to or on the last day. Yes, its optional. Most everything in life is, I get it.

That's not a defense or anything, I'm just stating we've never really teased pricing at all. GM Haliste and I went through the entire shop list and tried to make sure there was enough inventory on both the seashell side and silver side. I also know you're against alternative currencies beyond one or two. So maybe it will help to understand why they are being used.

Since the inception of feeders, staff has to create a pile of items that they think will be enough incentive for players to participate or feel they are getting their money's worth. Most times, we're spinning our wheels when we do this in the lower tiers. Either because the items aren't very useful in a broad approach or because you're participation is at a higher level and you're finding dozens of the same items.

What alternative currency allows us to do is shift prizes into a value and allow you to pick out the items you want, instead of having hundreds of an item you can't sell or do anything with. We study the data from previous runs to know what the average times someone will play a game and try to formulate costs that work.

The reason silver doesn't work here is because it's not meant to skip the gaming part of "earning" it. These items were intended to be the random prizes you won. So it gets shifted into a different currency only because that's the term we use. If we created a system where you could trade 5 of your feeder items for the next tier up, it is essentially the same thing. Currency translates better to you. It's instantly understood by the majority of players. If we used digging from 2015 as an example, and we said, "You can trade 98 conch shells (T2 prize) for a loop of twisted leather (T3 prize)" that would be an extremely convoluted system. Item management would be ridiculous and most people wouldn't understand. Keep in mind there were 394 T2 prizes and 378 T3 prizes. The charts we'd have to make for trade-ins would be absolutely bonkers. But sometimes, I think if we did it this way, it would be more accepted than alternative currencies because your perception of it would be entirely different.

In some events, we tried to also solve a common concern where players spend cash to go to an event, but the event then requires millions of silvers to get anything worth it to them. This is a core problem with an event like RtCF. This is what birthed the original Duskruin's pricing model.

Feywrot Mire was more of a twisted carnival in a swamp. So a prize wall was just a description of a shop we made with a lot of items. Most those items were from the feeders. We reviewed the feedback and data and found barely anything sold. People wanted cooler/neater things. Caligos Isle has just split the "prize wall" into themed shops. The inventory you're seeing across a number of shops would have been the "prize wall" at Feywrot Mire.

This year, games will have a mix of prizes and seashells. Again, using feedback from last year, going purely tickets as the prize was not as exciting for most players. Even though they could then purchase the exact same prize from the prize wall that they would have found, players were more likely to hang onto all tickets for bigger prizes or the secondary market. Now we're trying a mix.

Lastly, event participation has grown quite a bit. Outside Ebon Gate, having an event see participation counts into the multiple hundreds was not very likely. GemStone IV saw around a 6% participation rate at the majority of our events. Obviously things like RtCF and auctions sold out, but sustaining those sort of events were not something we could do. We're now seeing about a 20% to 25% participation rate. While there may be components to these events you dislike or loathe, it seems like we're finally hitting a formula that reaches a broader spectrum of our playerbase. And it's not just about ROIs. Yes, some of you participate because you can spend $100 and make $120, but someone is causing you to make that money. Someone is buying in the secondary market as well as from the primary market. So the demand is high across the board.

@wyrom I understand the need for alternate currency. The part I don't get is why every single event has to have its own currencies. It makes it harder for the player base to keep track of their value. I liked the prize wall idea, just the items seemed "meh". I like big ticket items or services. A lot of people have put a lot of time into their items so a new satchel with a new script isn't something I'm looking for. My bag will probably never get made again by a GM again. I loved that spell preps were on the prize wall, they just seemed to be the underwhelming ones. I think you could have done well with the new bolt spell customizations offered at the last DR. I would love to see this expanded into CM customizations for the squares but I'm getting off track. I would bet that the biggest sellers were the pelt and gem bags or the spell preps for the prize wall. I honestly couldn't even tell you what else was offered.

It would be much simpler to have 4 currencies. Silver, DR scrip (it would be to hard to separate it out at this point), General Tickets (for games that play with silver), and Premium Tickets (from games that require SC). You would be able to set their value and they could be used at multiple events. I realize that this wouldn't be "in character" but not every aspect of everything has to IC. I don't need a reason why this merchant would accept premium or general tickets from another event. I paid money for them and want to be able to use them. What should it matter if I spent money at DM and got tickets I never used but now there is an item at EG that I do want. I spent the money either way. Splitting it for every event leaves me wondering, am I ever going to be able to use these? I know I asking myself about that regarding general tickets.

Unfortunately, when we went down this road, we just didn't know the proper path.

Conversions will happen though, which will consolidate the concerns a little bit.

@wyrom

Yeah honestly Wyrom I like the alt currency idea and all but there is absolutely no reason to have 50 alt currencies other than to confuse your customers. One alt currency , "general tickets" or whatever, for everything is fine. Plus, it feels like you're progressing when that single alt currency stacks up after each event. Rather than "Oh I got 2000 seashells, 1000 general tickets, 5000 bloodscrip, 9000 vellum scrips, 1000 doorknobs, 700 kitchen sinks, 10000 Cotton lint, 987 feral cats... omg what is this?!!"

Whoa hey, everyone calm down, there's more than 3 posts in a 24 hour period on this board, must mean someone is INTENSE or MAD or needs to chill etc etc.

I will be giving fishing lessons tonight. 5pm et on four winds isle. And 9 et in the landing. Just some simple tips and instructions.

Nice, man. If you haven't already, let Newsby know so she can get the word out.

9 pm Landing?

yeah sorry i edited it

I'll still be at work (hurray overtime), any chance a log could be posted? =)

I have that ensorcell for you I can give you a quick lesson then later tonight

I'll try and be around, outside of my workout days I've been at at work ridiculously late and logging in through the web FE makes my heart bleed.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

But sometimes, I think if we did it this way, it would be more accepted than alternative currencies because your perception of it would be entirely different.

Alternate currencies might be a little more accepted if you didn't make them so burdensome for the players to use and organize.

@Wyrom

I like the idea of the shops being the new "prize wall" and the games just giving seashells so you can buy the prize you really want.

I do not like the idea of having a single alt-currency. I think it would cause the prices of things, specifically the nice mechanical things to be blown out of proportion more than they already are. When something costs 500000 bloodscrip because there are millions of bloodscrip in the system, that's a problem.

I wouldn't be against trading general tickets for seashells, but I would be against allowing any alt-currency to be transferred to bloodscrip for the reason above.

@alastir I was going to post earlier but I think what you just mentioned is exactly why they have to have alt currencies, because of the discrepancy with how much can be earned vs. the value of what can be bought with them. If there was a single alt currency, then either the items at both EG and DR would have to be on the same level, OR the prices for items available would have to be essentially the same, neither of which is possible or even really desirable. And while an exchange of currencies is certainly a good idea, I would imagine it's not a simple thing to implement given the issues I just mentioned.

And while I see the reasoning behind the alt currencies, I'm wondering if long term it was wise to use seashells as I'm assuming at some point EG will leave Caligos Isle, unless that's not the case. Not that you couldn't come up with another alt currency to replace seashells if it moved, but I think Simu would be doing themselves and us a favor if they just settled on BS as the DR or higher end alt currency and "X" as the lower tier EG or other similar low/mid tier event currency. That way "X" could be applied to other events that may have items/gear on par with EG, unless they just plan on using seashells as that "X" currency for other similar events.

You would just convert the seashells in a few years, if you didn't use them on items or services before the final run closed, to general tickets for Delirium Manor or future events.

I think there will at least be an exchange from other currencies to general tickets. Then, you can convert when some shops like the one posted today offer the same item in multiple currencies.

Or, the permifyer or other services that offer a player market controlled conversion opportunity.

@roblar I could definitely see that working if they allowed a total conversion of all seashells at a 1:1 ratio when the event locale changed. That's assuming that any other non DR/EG event they do between now and that change only uses silvers and not another alt currency. Unless prior to said event they allowed the total conversion at 1:1 again. So the low/mid tier alt currency is now seashells, but then in 2018 there's a "Cavern Spelunking" event in the Sea Caverns and they use "clams" as the alt currency and you can then do a total 1:1 conversion of however many seashells you have.

All of that being said, maybe Simu does need to let the populace know more or less what their long term plans are with alt currencies.

It would have been good to include in the teasers when something was restricted to seashells

A map going forward in general would be nice. They do very good year in reviews...what about if they were like 'These are the plans for the next year!' post along the same lines?

@alastir That's a different issue than having too many alt currencies. The problem you are addressing is that people are buying into a pay to win system but not receiving what they feel is an item or service that fits their needs, so they stock pile waiting for something that does, or sell off to others who do want a product or service. Combined with people moving away from silvers, blood scrip is in a position to become a currency that can more directly be converted to mechanical gains than silvers are.

What further increases the production of bloodscrip is the lack of post cap hunting options. This makes the arena a prized choice for many to grind exp etc because it allows them to pay to hunt things, filling their exp, rewarding them with a treasure they feel is worthwhile (blood scrip and random item(s)) and is easy to get to with zero fear of losing any weapons or otherwise having to deal with unwanted mechanics.

Having too many currencies in a game is a quick way to confuse and dissuade players from engaging.

@hjfudge said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

A map going forward in general would be nice. They do very good year in reviews...what about if they were like 'These are the plans for the next year!' post along the same lines?

if I recall correctly, they stopped doing those (prior to Wyrom becoming PM) because the goals were seen as promised projects and led to the "RSN" issues

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Having too many currencies in a game is a quick way to confuse and dissuade players from engaging.

I think there is some merit to the argument of having Premium tickets (Duskruin) and Basic tickets (DM/EG). My only concern is when people stockpile them. (Because they have, do and will.) What happens to the pricing then for the rest of us who don't.

@allereli

Hmmm yes, I can see that. People tend to...go a bit overboard on reading into things. MYSELF included at times!

But! I think the pros of such an outline outweigh the cons. Im always a fan of more information, though.

@alastir said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Having too many currencies in a game is a quick way to confuse and dissuade players from engaging.

My only concern is when people stockpile them. (Because they have, do and will.) What happens to the pricing then for the rest of us who don't.

Then they would have made their choice, received immediate satisfaction, gotten something they valued at the time. While the one who did not spend and stockpiled will have the benefit later, maybe, at the cost of whatever they sacrificed on earlier. Risk/reward and all that.

@roblar said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@alastir said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Having too many currencies in a game is a quick way to confuse and dissuade players from engaging.

My only concern is when people stockpile them. (Because they have, do and will.) What happens to the pricing then for the rest of us who don't.

Then they would have made their choice, received immediate satisfaction, gotten something they valued at the time. While the one who did not spend and stockpiled will have the benefit later, maybe, at the cost of whatever they sacrificed on earlier. Risk/reward and all that.

That about nails it on the head. It's not an easy thing to fix by any means. Economies of any scale are delicate things that don't always play by the rules.

Despite how it may seem, I think for the most part that duskruin balancing of costs is pretty fair. There are some things I really don't agree with (Smithy service charge when using bloodscrip) but I think the high-end shop is mostly working as intended.

We wouldn't allow conversions into blackscrip, bloodscrip, ethereal scrip, seashells, or silvers. But we would allow conversions into general tickets and another general type scrip. The long term play is not to introduce tons of currencies. Just to do what is outlined in my above post.

@wyrom

You know I was going to throw this up with more details on it but whatever. Wyrom, consider selling 2 versions of each item sold for scrip, tickets, seashells or whatever. One version is the "regular" version that everyone already knows and a "personal" version would be a character-bound weapon/armor/item that will always be part of that character.

We are doing that with a few things at EG to see how it goes.

@wyrom Nice, obviously the "character-bound" version would be significantly cheaper etc. to offset. Something tells me if applied to desirable mechanically-benefical objects there's going to be a lot of demand even with it's zero market value.

Quote from GM Haliste:

• A cat had the warden's tongue. The horror! He is now a bit more verbose when speaking with him.

• The FESTIVAL verb has been updated to reflect the requirement for a Services pass for the Live Games.

~ Haliste ~ The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor SGM, Events

Omrii: Okay, thanks Haliste. You're way better than Wyrom.

@wyrom Are the major/minor services from last year going to be in effect this year as well?

@wyrom The biggest issue I have with the seashell "prize wall" shops is that 99% of the brand new for 2017 scripted items that have been teased are being sold for seashells only. This doesn't feel like a selection of items that "would be t1-t3 hopper prizes anyway," and it takes away from the shopping fun and new item excitement of EG, imo. There is a significant portion of -casual- EG attendees that don't enjoy playing games and digging more than here and there, and those attendees are now faced with either grinding out games to have access to the new super cool items, or buying seashells from the playerbase at whatever rate is determined.

I do understand the marketing strategy behind it, but I don't think the option of setting prices for these new items should be given to the aftermarket playerbase and I wish the casual or first time attendee had better access to the new 2017 items.

@Sabotage what do you mean? Like will 2016 wins affect 2017?

@Satia, there are 14 new scripts available in shops, with 8 of them being for seashells. Most of those are pretty low end in terms of costs in seashells. We also made sure a lot of demanded items were silver based.

I think he means if will the major win/minor win system be used this event (like on LOOK TICKET) to limit 1 major win per account (or was it character?).

@roblar I'm a huge fan of one raffle win per account per event, but I'd love to see MAJOR raffle wins this EG.

@wyrom I may have worded my question poorly, but what Roblar said. Are you using the Major/Minor service win system this year as well?

We'll announce that on the officials.

Before or after tickets go on sale?

Service week isn't tonight. No need to buy that pass.

Quote from GM Wyrom:

In just a little bit, fishing will begin tracking all your catches.

This will be a seemingly invisible update, but with this data, you will be starting down the road to earn fishing title achievements!

Phase one of this update will be the system update. Phase two will be the achievement (title) update.

I will post here when each phase is live. Phase one won't be long. Phase two will be a little longer.

Wyrom, PM

This message was originally posted in Game Design Discussions, Fishing. To discuss the above, follow the link below.

http://forums.play.net/forums/19/213/3324/view/1

when I PRAY for checking favor, its either not tracking it all or it only tracks the recent favor gained? sometimes dropping/donating an item makes the amount returned with PRAY change completely back to nothing or less than what i had?

Witch-balls sell for 5k seashells... they sold 2 years ago for 35k silvers.

Considering how much seashells some things sell for, I'd think they'd drop more often, but maybe that's by design.

its the highest priced seashell thing thats NOT permifier - very oddly priced compared to other items.

@Wyrom or anyone else for that matter. Is there any way to get a list of what items we may want to consider keeping for quest purposes or some other importance? I've got exoskeletons, claws, notecards, and a ton of other things from games that don't say much via analyze and I have no idea whether it's junk or not.

Also, there's no trash bin in the pawnshop. Might want to add one.

ANALYZE tells you the quest items, there is a lot of lower tier items with no analyze though, like tunics and sandals.

@ordim Thanks Ordim. Can you paste the analyze for quest items?

Also, I'm getting items like this: "a sheet of torn ecru paper". Analyze: You analyze your torn ecru paper and sense that the item is largely free from merchant alteration restrictions.

The creator has also provided the following information: Your paper can be altered, but must remain 15/15/15. Messaging references "a,piece of, " The paper may not have a long description or a show. (those three lines in monster bold)

You get no sense of whether or not the paper may be further lightened.

This is an item for the 5117 Ebon Gate quest. It cannot be altered and cannot be used as alter fodder. This slab of limestone will disintegrate at the conclusion of Ebon Gate.

Last part will changed based on the item.

Oh yeah, i'll post on officials too but, FANTASTIC idea putting loose paper in the prize hopper! I'm going to fill so many boxes.

@ordim Oh, it's for those paper holding boxes! LOL! I feel like this is all so much more crap than previous years. My goal for games was to earn seashells, but I've only found 48 seashells after spending 200k on games. Has anyone found if there is any other activity that typically generates seashells more so than games?

diving

5 dives, 315 shells

@roblar Thanks!

seashells from digging is NOTHING AT ALL like ticket rate from last EG...

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

It was one of the complaints from 2016 that digging/games weren't as exciting to find tickets the majority of the time. So we reduced the prizes in the lower tiers by about 75%, but made sure there were things you could win. This is going to be an area where people are going to love it or hate it and we can't win both sides.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

It was one of the complaints from 2016 that digging/games weren't as exciting to find tickets the majority of the time. So we reduced the prizes in the lower tiers by about 75%, but made sure there were things you could win. This is going to be an area where people are going to love it or hate it and we can't win both sides.

what happens is that it makes it so that people have to sink more money into getting a reasonable amount of seashells. the difference between digging and diving is staggering. I very much preferred not having to get rid of a lot of crap.

I don't know how anyone could love it. We have to sift through hundreds of junk items to pawn or drop. The number of items is overwhelming and not enjoyable.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

It was one of the complaints from 2016 that digging/games weren't as exciting to find tickets the majority of the time. So we reduced the prizes in the lower tiers by about 75%, but made sure there were things you could win. This is going to be an area where people are going to love it or hate it and we can't win both sides.

The people who like all the junk are idiots.

The solution is to give tickets, and allow them to buy the junk in a shop if they want it that bad.

You can't even pawn all the items, so you have to figure out what has value and what doesn't.

I can understand some people thinking it's not exciting to get just tickets/seashells for lower prize tiers, but being overwhelmed with complete garbage, a lot of which isn't even pawnable, is 0% enjoyable.

@allereli said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

It was one of the complaints from 2016 that digging/games weren't as exciting to find tickets the majority of the time. So we reduced the prizes in the lower tiers by about 75%, but made sure there were things you could win. This is going to be an area where people are going to love it or hate it and we can't win both sides.

what happens is that it makes it so that people have to sink more money into getting a reasonable amount of seashells. the difference between digging and diving is staggering. I very much preferred not having to get rid of a lot of crap.

DSD also costs a lot more. We balanced it on how many seashells someone gets at 1500 SimuCoins. Games and digging also carry more chances to get uniques and jackpots compared to 15 runs of DSD if you sink the time in.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I don't know how anyone could love it. We have to sift through hundreds of junk items to pawn or drop. The number of items is overwhelming and not enjoyable.

Just keep in mind not everyone is completing 100s of digs either. I realize those who come to a forum to talk about it are a lot more dedicated.

@alastir said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What happened to giving just tickets/seashells for T1-T3 prizes? There's so much worthless/useless crap in these prizes. It was so nice at the previous EGs.

It was one of the complaints from 2016 that digging/games weren't as exciting to find tickets the majority of the time. So we reduced the prizes in the lower tiers by about 75%, but made sure there were things you could win. This is going to be an area where people are going to love it or hate it and we can't win both sides.

The people who like all the junk are idiots.

The solution is to give tickets, and allow them to buy the junk in a shop if they want it that bad.

You can't even pawn all the items, so you have to figure out what has value and what doesn't.

We'd have to slow down the rate of seashells even more, since they are balanced currently.

Considering that 100ct jars were 250 bloodscrip, and they're 250 seashells, you're valuing them the same? That doesn't seem right. In the past years, we saw EG tickets selling for about 600:1 while bloodscrip has almost always been over 1000:1.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Considering that 100ct jars were 250 bloodscrip, and they're 250 seashells, you're valuing them the same? That doesn't seem right. In the past years, we saw EG tickets selling for about 600:1 while bloodscrip has almost always been over 1000:1.

We don't balance on player markets. You can get 250 seashells very quickly in DSD.

It doesn't sit right with me that junk prizes have returned and we're paying double to dig/game than the last few years. It's a bottleneck and a silver sink. Maybe that was intended. The T4 prizes seem to be much worse than previous years as well.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Considering that 100ct jars were 250 bloodscrip, and they're 250 seashells, you're valuing them the same? That doesn't seem right. In the past years, we saw EG tickets selling for about 600:1 while bloodscrip has almost always been over 1000:1.

We don't balance on player markets. You can get 250 seashells very quickly in DSD.

Still, it's kind of angering to people who paid 250 bloodscrip for those jars when they can pay a lot less now using seashells.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Considering that 100ct jars were 250 bloodscrip, and they're 250 seashells, you're valuing them the same? That doesn't seem right. In the past years, we saw EG tickets selling for about 600:1 while bloodscrip has almost always been over 1000:1.

We don't balance on player markets. You can get 250 seashells very quickly in DSD.

Still, it's kind of angering to people who paid 250 bloodscrip for those jars when they can pay a lot less now using seashells.

What do you mean? They can get 250 bloodscrip in a single run at Duskruin Arena or 2 to 3 in the sewers. Digging/games is going to take a considerable amount of time. And DSD is competitive to the sewers.

What T4 was better? Give examples. Anecdotal stuff is the worst.

Like spell prep tomes and stuff.

Junk is the worst!

My T4 was a 905 scroll. Which is pretty laughable.

But I'd prefer things to be balanced around those of us who DO run 100's of times. Not around people who only play 5 times.

I shouldn't have to spend hours trying to manage inventory just because people who don't play think it's not as exciting to get tickets.

Last year we had spell prep tomes, herb bundling kits, some decent armors and runestaves, crystal holders, imbue boxes, musical instruments that created dancing things in the room, weapon displayers, UAC gear, scripted clothing (like Toffit), and lots more.

I don't think the number of seashells should be a concern anyway. The only thing to really spend them on are the illusion gloves. People are going to leave the event with a ton of seashells.

Wyrom, you stated on the officials that "It was said that getting tickets the majority of the time last year was the least fun aspect of digging and games. So we reduced the numbers by 75% of last year's prizes to listen to the community."

But how much of the community said they didn't like it? Was it really represntative of the whole community? Wasn't it the community that swayed you guys to change to the ticket-only tiers? Why did the community sway you back?

You can buy quest pieces at 250 shells per. At the rate difference finding them in the games vs diving that could be decent to use

@alastir said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I don't think the number of seashells should be a concern anyway. The only thing to really spend them on are the illusion gloves. People are going to leave the event with a ton of seashells.

So why do you want more seashells then?

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Wyrom, you stated on the officials that "It was said that getting tickets the majority of the time last year was the least fun aspect of digging and games. So we reduced the numbers by 75% of last year's prizes to listen to the community."

But how much of the community said they didn't like it? Was it really represntative of the whole community? Wasn't it the community that swayed you guys to change to the ticket-only tiers? Why did the community sway you back?

That's why we compromised on the numbers. There aren't nearly 400 T2 prizes anymore. There are under 100.

@durakar said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

You can buy quest pieces at 250 shells per. At the rate difference finding them in the games vs diving that could be decent to use

Only briefly though.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

So why do you want more seashells then?

That's why we compromised on the numbers. There aren't nearly 400 T2 prizes anymore. There are under 100.

I have in my spreadsheet 181 items so far, and I'm still finding new items.

Despite your post on the officials, I'm still finding lots of things that can't be pawned.

I'm slowly working on my selling script, so at least I can offset some of the increased silver cost with the games I guess. (A few of these items may be pawnable such as the cards and pin)

What about the seashell bundling bucket or whatever? Are they as rare as a T5? Maybe it's sleep deprivation, but I'm not enjoying anything about EG right now. I didn't know people didn't like tickets only, so I was expecting games and digging to be like last year. Instead of having fun with the digging slot machine, I'm working furiously to catalog the junk prizes and write a script to sell/drop the items I don't want (which is like 95% of them).

Maybe I'm sleep deprived, but I have no idea how anyone is enjoying this more than just getting tickets for the lower tiers. We're being bombarded with items we have to do something with. Some can't be pawned. Some can't even be emptied out of containers. We're paying extra to pay double prices and get a lot more stuff that's worse than what we saw in past years. I bet a lot of people are spending as much (or more) time standing in a pawnshop than they are digging and gaming.

"But I’d prefer things to be balanced around those of us who DO run 100’s of times. Not around people who only play 5 times."

I kind of have to agree with this -- I'd like everyone to be happy as well, of course, but if you're going to lean one direction... I would think it would be favoring the people who sink tons of time into DOING the thing, rather than the people doing it a couple of times for kicks. Having said fluff items available is a great thing, but I think the problem with last year wasn't JUST the absence of things dropping, it was that the prize walls felt a little lackluster; I thought the selections were fine, personally, but that's what I generally heard. Of course, I also heard a lot of people were pretty happy about the lack of huge mountains of crap... but that's also entirely anecdotal.

Another obvious point in favor of less junk would be sparing the system (and us) from having huge numbers of items pawned/dropped/left scattered everywhere. It just gets... messy, and creates far more screen-scroll when people pick up/sort/sell things. Dropping the number by 75% certainly helps a lot, but I would be hugely in favor of going back to nothing under T4. That felt like SUCH an improvement last year, it's rather unfortunate to see it take even a small a step back... but again, that's just my opinion. It's still certainly far better than all the years before last.

I can't personally fathom WHY anyone would complain about NOT having to deal with junk, because I can't wrap my head around why finding your dozenth pair of sandals/incense/whatever would qualify as "more exciting"... but to each their own, I guess. A few solutions suggested were either a FLAG that might automatically convert junk prizes (before/during actually generating them as loot) into a marginal amount of shells or whatever -- which might also help balance more shells into digging and help it feel less "grindy" for those larger goals -- OR a second digging area where such would occur as an alternative to the "junk pile" digging areas.

So this is definitely where the tiered system of passes has been a good thing, at least for me. If I'd have spent the $50 up front, I'd be far more disappointed in the games. Now at least I've only spent $15 on the 1500 simucoins to do games. My thought going in to games though was that I wanted to generate enough seashells to buy one of the new climate wear tunics. Those are 1000 seashells. At my current rate of 50 seashells per 200 digs, it will end up costing me 4 million silvers to buy one, which is just insane and of course I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm not saying I'm not interested in buying anything else, but at this point, I wish I would have held off on buying a games pass and just waited until the secondary market for seashells establishes itself and bought seashells for silvers.

Edit: @Wyrom I see how you mentioned on the officials that you quadrupled the rate at which seashells drop, so we'll see how this goes. While I still have some misgivings, I appreciate that you were responsive to some of the feedback being given.

One of the reasons I liked EG last year was that tier 3 and 4 items had a chance to be something really neat (it was almost like there was a handful of items that should have been a higher tier in each). Spell preps, the enhancive cloaks etc.

This year I've gotten tunics and sandals with zero analyze... what the fuck is that?

Yeah, the shells increase sounds awesome.

I'm also noticing that what the pawn pays for some of this stuff has been drastically cut. Yesterday I feel like some of the fishing wire and fishing hooks were selling for 6k, now they're selling for 713 silvers and what not. I'm sure the 6k was never intended, but at least at that point, I could do another 6 games for that 6k. Now I can't even do one other game for the 713 silvers.

@viekn said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I'm also noticing that what the pawn pays for some of this stuff has been drastically cut. Yesterday I feel like some of the fishing wire and fishing hooks were selling for 6k, now they're selling for 713 silvers and what not. I'm sure the 6k was never intended, but at least at that point, I could do another 6 games for that 6k. Now I can't even do one other game for the 713 silvers.

I'd personally be ok with less silver return if the seashell rate was put back to parity with the ticket rate from last year.

@Wyrom You mentioned that everything from games should now be pawnable. I believe this item wasn't left over from last night... You offer to sell your tentacle-carved runestone to the pawnbroker. The pawnbroker smiles faintly and says, "I'm sorry, but I have no use for that."

You analyze your tentacle-carved runestone and sense that there is no recorded information on that item.

Edit: Just found same issue with... A slimy squid tentacle A grey-tinged flacon a carnelian pumpkin candle decorated with hunter green vines a large roll of cotton a damp lump of sea moss all incense - honestly, just take this out of the hoppers please.

he said on the officials only items dug up after the change

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@viekn said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I'm also noticing that what the pawn pays for some of this stuff has been drastically cut. Yesterday I feel like some of the fishing wire and fishing hooks were selling for 6k, now they're selling for 713 silvers and what not. I'm sure the 6k was never intended, but at least at that point, I could do another 6 games for that 6k. Now I can't even do one other game for the 713 silvers.

I'd personally be ok with less silver return if the seashell rate was put back to parity with the ticket rate from last year.

Agreed.

Lol, @Wyrom, not sure if this was something meant to drop this time. It was a T4 drop from the Deep Tidepools... "A salt-stained leather ticket pouch" - This is a scrip pouch designed to combine and hold your tickets. You can remove a specific number as well. It can be altered but should remain something that would make sense to hold tickets.

Put seashell in my pouch - "The leather pouch can't hold seashells.

Like others here have said, I'm surprised that there's no items in the spell prep, herb bundler, etc. Grade. In both my games and dsd, the BEST things I got were the tickets, as they're the only thing that wasn't pawned or out in the case.

If I can end up with 4 of them in 30 minutes, it's junk.

At this point the tickets are the best thing short of jackpots. I'm hoping the rare adjust changes this.

@Wyrom Can you also fix the items that can't be emptied out of a container into another?

There may be other items, but the ones I can remember are the incense and maybe the candles.

A mechanical toy snake just did it.

Also, I'm still getting stuff that isn't pawnable, and they were definitely generated after your officials post. The globes and incense, and maybe others.

Phase 1 will be live Saturday morning/afternoon. Fishing is a painfully long QC process.

Wyrom, PM

If a mod gets a chance, it may be worth it to pull the major posts about the quest/games updates into it's own thread and leave this thread to discuss festival game balance.

I bet the fishing event is going to be a surprise hit this year. I hope QC finds all the quirks and adds in decent prizes.

https://gswiki.play.net/EbonGate2017prizelist

trying to put together a list of prizes

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

DSD also costs a lot more. We balanced it on how many seashells someone gets at 1500 SimuCoins. Games and digging also carry more chances to get uniques and jackpots compared to 15 runs of DSD if you sink the time in.

I hate how the SC per entry and the SC per week are generating the same currency. Either do one, or do the other, but not both. I'd rather see shovels for SCs and a better digging return than weekly passes and garbage.

@allereli said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

DSD also costs a lot more. We balanced it on how many seashells someone gets at 1500 SimuCoins. Games and digging also carry more chances to get uniques and jackpots compared to 15 runs of DSD if you sink the time in.

I hate how the SC per entry and the SC per week are generating the same currency. Either do one, or do the other, but not both. I'd rather see shovels for SCs and a better digging return than weekly passes and garbage.

I think a large group of people do not want to see EG turn into GENERIC SC DIGGING/SEARCHING game. I know I certainly don't.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I think a large group of people do not want to see EG turn into GENERIC SC DIGGING/SEARCHING game. I know I certainly don't.

so you get useless garbage. fuck that. From the talk I've seen, you can't even recoup the cost of a pass unless you do games for 24/7 that week. I'd like to see the breakdown of feedback where a majority said they wanted garbage returned to the feeders.

Last years EG hoppers were AMAZING. T1-2 was tickets (good amounts), T3-T4 had an amazing array of items from junk to spell preps, it felt like you could find something amazing short of a T5/jackpot.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Last years EG hoppers were AMAZING. T1-2 was tickets (good amounts), T3-T4 had an amazing array of items from junk to spell preps, it felt like you could find something amazing short of a T5/jackpot.

and this year you get shit

Quote from GM Palvella:

As GM Haliste stated, the Live Games are more closely related to raffle wins than games like digging and diving. Digging and diving games are automated. This is the reason they are grouped with a merchant/services pass instead of a games pass.

The following live games require a services pass to participate:

Salvaged by the Sea - A new scavenger hunt/puzzle game which employs some added logic components.

Sing Me an Epitaph - Create a poem to match various scraps of paper within the 15 minute time limit.

Anemone Anagrams - Unscramble the words to solve the puzzle (Fun Fact: Anemone is an anagram for "name one.")

Search and Rescue - A scored game of hide and seek with the residents of Caligos Isle. How many Caligots can you find?

Entrails Toss - Toss entrails and score points based on hit location.

Pick Yer Poison - Who doesn't love a drinking game? Be the last one to NOT get a bad drink.

First, second and third place winners will be escorted into the lighthouse to claim their prize. Note that there is more than one prize list; the prize list MAY be different for different games. Some prizes are able to be redeemed on the spot and some may be delayed services that go through QC.

~GM Palvella

I'm curious how are the DSD prizes in terms of junk to useful ratio and seashells of course?

the same as digging really. You either get seashells (with a high chance of a 'cache' or ~100-200 seashells) , a quest item, or a box with the same trash items from digging. On average, you end up getting ~6k seashells for $50.

@ordim

That doesn't sound too bad.

On the otherhand, since zero teasers have gone out about jackpot items in the dig and DSD I'm going to assume jackpots won't appear in games of any format this year?

@god said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I'm curious how are the DSD prizes in terms of junk to useful ratio and seashells of course?

After 50 Dives, I didn't get a single useful. Just junk and seashells. It's the best way to get seashells, yeah, but otherwise, you just get junk.

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

the same as digging really. You either get seashells (with a high chance of a 'cache' or ~100-200 seashells) , a quest item, or a box with the same trash items from digging. On average, you end up getting ~6k seashells for $50.

Not basing this on experience, just from official posts, but I'm fairly sure the caches of 100+ seashells only appear in the premium-only DSD area, so keep that in mind. (also please correct me if I'm wrong, don't want to mislead anyone)

A GM should add a new phrase to the MOCK verb.

You say to Maylan, "You, madam, are a blackened mermaid's purse!"

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

A GM should add a new phrase to the MOCK verb.

You say to Maylan, "You, madam, are a blackened mermaid's purse!"

I got a mermaids purse while diving, actually

@mark said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

the same as digging really. You either get seashells (with a high chance of a 'cache' or ~100-200 seashells) , a quest item, or a box with the same trash items from digging. On average, you end up getting ~6k seashells for $50.

Not basing this on experience, just from official posts, but I'm fairly sure the caches of 100+ seashells only appear in the premium-only DSD area, so keep that in mind. (also please correct me if I'm wrong, don't want to mislead anyone)

You very well may be correct! If that is the case it just further solidifies how terrible an event DSD is from a return perspective. The writting and design continues to be top knotch. "balancing" and pricing continue to decline.

@archsenex said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

A GM should add a new phrase to the MOCK verb.

You say to Maylan, "You, madam, are a blackened mermaid's purse!"

I got a mermaids purse while diving, actually

wink wink

@Wyrom

Just a suggestion ...

In this room: [Caligos Isle, High Promontory] In those rare moments when the fog lifts from the area, the view of the western sea is nothing short of spectacular from this promontory outcropping of basalt. Peering down, however, is ill-advised for the faint of heart, as the drop-off is steep and the surface of the churning water is a long way down. A long length of knotted hemp rope dissappears over the side of the cliff, and a plank and chain ladder vanishes upwards, all but lost in the thick, grey mist rolling down from the higher peaks

Add a hut: Inside the hut you sell the following: * a brown leather bellows * a wooden steel-tipped harpoon * a woven fishing net Remove these items from the hoppers.

Add the seashell bucket for sale in this hut, for silvers.

YAY WYROM

But can buckets get an odds boost?

Thank you for restoring the seashell to ticket situation.

@ordim I didn’t see the post. Can you reference it?

@viekn http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Ebon%20Gate%20Festival/view/13360

Thats the digging changes.

This is the DSD changes - http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Ebon%20Gate%20Festival/view/13367

I'm getting about 2-3 seashells per box now.

I like the changes. My only regret is doin stuff before the QoL changes.

But I dont regret it that much. 2 wins so far. 1 Sig Verb + 1 Jackpot. Hopefully more to come.

@ordim thank you sir. And than you @Wyrom.

@hjfudge What was the jackpot?

@god A 3x a day Mystic Focus ring. Im not at my computer or I'd give the description. Nothing huge but, a nice little boost to my CS

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

What T4 was better? Give examples. Anecdotal stuff is the worst.

Runestones with sorcerer runes seems like a bad T4 win. And I have a sorcerer.

a huge roll of silk is a T4 - but shouldn't be.

Ouch. That's super lame.

@sabotage I've got around 20 at this point

3 for 5 trying it first time tonight.

one more exoskeleton from fishing and I might hurt someone.

@riend

exoskeleton?

a dead crab toy.

@Riend Agreed. Exoskeletons and gems for fishing is meh.

The T4 prizes are disappointing given that shovel and game prices doubled. I wish digging and games didn't open so much earlier. I feel like everything is spread even thinner, but at least the junk prizes are gone.

But I mean, I've gotten T4 prizes that are a scroll with one average spell on them. Are they fully charged or whatever?

Fishing, while very frustrating at times, has the best chances at getting spell preps. Come bitch and moan with us as we watch our alts dig away.

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

Is fishing an artisan skill or everyone have the same skill from the get go?

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

What do you mean?

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Fishing, while very frustrating at times, has the best chances at getting spell preps. Come bitch and moan with us as we watch our alts dig away.

This is insane btw. Why fishing would have nicer stuff than diving boggles the mind.

@archsenex said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Fishing, while very frustrating at times, has the best chances at getting spell preps. Come bitch and moan with us as we watch our alts dig away.

This is insane btw. Why fishing would have nicer stuff than diving boggles the mind.

They don't have better chances than DSD. Perception is different though.

I've caught maybe 10 fish? and I've gotten 3-4 spell preps. I've done 2 50 count DSD passes and I got 1 custom sanctuary token/trinket. \

I dropped $100 when the T4 change was made to DSD and got 1 more 50 count and held off after the results of that.

It's still a bit of a mess though - Prizes are off, its a pain to navigate and get to the premium area (should just put you there if premium) and the RT is higher than what I remember from other similar styles.

I will say this: I wish I had held off on my 50 ct pass till after the DSD changes to what they are now. Its a far better experience NOW than when it first opened.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@archsenex said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@ordim said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Fishing, while very frustrating at times, has the best chances at getting spell preps. Come bitch and moan with us as we watch our alts dig away.

This is insane btw. Why fishing would have nicer stuff than diving boggles the mind.

They don't have better chances than DSD. Perception is different though.

Oh, the odds of getting a T4 are much better on DSD, no doubt. But spell preps and custom bolts etc. seem very, very slanted to fishing. My understanding is that the original prize lists those were ONLY on fishing, and some were moved.

However, as it stands right now... getting a scroll with 402 on it isn't very impressive to me compared to a Spell Prep.

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

What do you mean?

Let me rephrase...no boxes, but rather more seashells in the boxes vs loot. Box volume is the same, however when compared to digging, I felt that diving now is providing more "loot." It might just be preception, but I felt like the odds for seeing tiered items increased in diving and decreased in digging.

That was exactly what they did. Removed all junk from tier 2-3 prizes and replaced with tickets (like last year). Now items are only T4 and above.

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

What do you mean?

Let me rephrase...no boxes, but rather more seashells in the boxes vs loot. Box volume is the same, however when compared to digging, I felt that diving now is providing more "loot." It might just be preception, but I felt like the odds for seeing tiered items increased in diving and decreased in digging.

they increased greatly in diving, as they should because of the cost

@archsenex said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

What do you mean?

Let me rephrase...no boxes, but rather more seashells in the boxes vs loot. Box volume is the same, however when compared to digging, I felt that diving now is providing more "loot." It might just be preception, but I felt like the odds for seeing tiered items increased in diving and decreased in digging.

they increased greatly in diving, as they should because of the cost

Ahh thanks. It absolutely sucks, but completely makes sense. I was afraid of that.

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@archsenex said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@wyrom said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@erous said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Not sure why boxes seemed to have almost entirely disappeared from digging and moved to deep sea diving. Just an odd observation.

What do you mean?

Let me rephrase...no boxes, but rather more seashells in the boxes vs loot. Box volume is the same, however when compared to digging, I felt that diving now is providing more "loot." It might just be preception, but I felt like the odds for seeing tiered items increased in diving and decreased in digging.

they increased greatly in diving, as they should because of the cost

Ahh thanks. It absolutely sucks, but completely makes sense. I was afraid of that.

Digging is still much better for getting a best prize... if you do about 10 hours or more of it.

I've barely slept, and been digging for almost the whole time EG has been open, and no T5. It's really discouraging.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I've barely slept, and been digging for almost the whole time EG has been open, and no T5. It's really discouraging.

Statistics suck, that much I can't help you with

You might be an addict when...

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I've barely slept, and been digging for almost the whole time EG has been open, and no T5.

@flimbo I did a crazy and took 90% of my EG money and spent it on a weekend long Halloween outing with the wife.Will it pay off? We'll see!

@mogonis Although one can always get lucky, I've found with games like this, it's better to have a goal in mind as far as how much scrip/seashells/etc. you want to generate and stop when you reach that amount. Any T5/T6 jackpots you hit along the way, great. But you're really taking a risk of just throwing good money after bad if you go much past that.

Anyone know what the status of the quest currently is and if we know any more specifics about Ghezresh yet?

My goal is to get a T5 that's actually worth something. And then get a few more. And then a jackpot or two!

@viekn said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

Anyone know what the status of the quest currently is and if we know any more specifics about Ghezresh yet?

It was stated in the chat that we are still in the tale end of Phase 1.

Quote from GM Wyrom in the Discord:

@A⌋姆ìℜ 💬, fishing is not impacted by anyone else in the room.

Anyone die from fishing yet? :)

Cross posting this question of mine from the officials to make use of the tags here...

In response to someone else's perception about the value of seashells, @Wyrom stated.. "There is value, but there will be even more value this weekend when we roll out a new system. We wanted to monitor the event for a week before putting this out. Hopefully it will be more apparent at the time of launch."

@Wyrom my one week games pass ends tomorrow. Is there any way you can provide a teaser/primer on what this system is so I can decide how many seashells I may want to grind out over the next 36 hours?

Thank you.

@viekn Iiiiinteresting.

Weighting/Padding vending machines that take seashells gogo!

But that wouldn't be a new system.

@mogonis said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

But that wouldn't be a new system.

Ding ding ding!

@mogonis Maybe you string the shells together until you have a cover for your armor/weapon THEN it adds padding or weighting to it when you put it on it.

The new system is a non-combat alternative to Duskruin. Basically Wave Rally around Caligos (I first thought about pod racing). Seashells are used to buy and upgrade your jet ski. Fast times get you nice rewards.

@riend said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

@mogonis Maybe you string the shells together until you have a cover for your armor/weapon THEN it adds padding or weighting to it when you put it on it.

I'm pretty sure attaching shells to weapon and armor would be weightening, an entirely less desirable process.

@wyrom I'm not trying to be difficult, but you already replied to someone else in the officials EG thread on a different question they asked after I had already asked my question on the new system, and you replied here with nothing more than to indicate it wasn't WPS. If you are unable to answer my question, I understand that, but at least let me know that you just can't answer it because of reasons or if you just won't be able to answer until a later time. I bring it up because again my time is limited and you seem to have already posted other responses on the two different forums without addressing my concern.

I got my question answered on the officials...

Information will be available when it's ready to be shared. Seashells are considered incidental loot with Ebon Gate (the opposite of what bloodscrip are considered at Duskruin), and the purpose of the games are to find something exciting (T4 through T6). If the main draw in what you're asking about is if you should powerhouse through your games pass for seashells, you'll be massively disappointed in the release.

That confuses me when I consider his first statement about adding value to seashells. But I'll wait to see what the new system is.

I think he's saying not to expect a Duskruin-esque High End shop. You aint gonna get to add Undead Bane with seashells or some crazyness.

But I am not him, I know nothing. Im just, well, guessing :)

Right, and no one should expect that. I'm thinking he meant to say that the new system is something else to spend seashells on, and not necessarily something that will spike the value of seashells.

I also think it means that if you are playing the games SOLELY to get the seashells to spend here, you will feel like you wasted your money. Expect to get less out of the ticket shop than the silver cost for the tickets.

Combined with the normal output of the games, however, it increases the value of playing the games. But it won't suddenly turn your 10 hours of games without a T5 into 10 hours of games with a T5

I figured as much, but wanted it confirmed to be sure. The way he put it was exactly what I needed to hear.

I dunno, some of the T5's...well, lets just say I value some of the T4's I found over a couple of the T5's! Damned 'only 40 uses and bye bye' wristbands

@hjfudge said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

I dunno, some of the T5's...well, lets just say I value some of the T4's I found over a couple of the T5's! Damned 'only 40 uses and bye bye' wristbands

I need to know how long they last. They would be great in duskruin if they last longer than 10 minutes per charge...

They're 40 sips, and then the wristband crumbles into the ether.

I get that.. but after you sip, how long does the enhancive last.

They're not enhancives. They appear to be instant recovery (and probably with a cooldown).

EDIT: Well, it's confusing. The GM said the enhancive is in the sip, but the boosts are high. What would a +40 Stamina Recovery enhancive actually be? Is it just the wrong word to use?

my understanding is that they're literally max allowable enhancive in the system for spirit and stamina recovery. +40 stamina recovery is as good as it gets, +3 spirit is as good as it gets.

Maybe each sip lasts a single enhancive charge. It'll randomly go away?

I wish I could test to find out, but with it being so limited, I dont wanna! Someone else drink it and tell the results :D Or, better yet, can we get a GM to give us some specifics here?

|I think we're going to get a prize wall that includes some of the T2-T3 prizes| |-|

@alastir said in Official: Ebon Gate - Diving, Fishing, Questing:

|I think we're going to get a prize wall that includes some of the T2-T3 prizes| |-|

I believe we are ALSO getting that. I don't think it's the big thing.