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Oct 6th, 2025
In the past few months there have been a number of changes that affect all Medievians. From the introduction of wild equipment, to zone trending, and even smart mobs, the way we interact with our world and it interacts with us have changed in monumental ways. I took to the streets and asked some local heroes about their experiences and feelings in this changing world. I haven't really been playing much. Changes have been much and severely geared towards Frostblood. Been wiping any chance for new players returning or solo at all. I believe all these changes are severely limiting any chance for newbies or new players returning. Why are newbie xp zones trending? Makes zero sense to me. Not everyone has 9 characters. I haven't been too happy with the changes lately. Why make the game so hard? It's not really enjoyable for me even. Staying ahead of the game changes is getting harder, and making mobs wayyyy harder. Anyhow back to square one. Newbie xp zones shouldn't trend I'd say. The increase in mob strength is one of the reasons I'm rarely doing anything at all. They seem to be strategically placed changes that helps when bankers would show up. I wouldn't say anyone specific, but it does benefit bankers. Why would the tree in stone need to be stronger? It's like 5 rooms into cpk. (Re: trending): It's fine. Well, it's manageable. But I'm not a new person to eq. Can be super annoying to someone learning eq. Depending on what happens at what time, when and where you are can make things almost undoable. For example fighting a fireshield mob when you will be lagged in !magic and then it becomes !sneak as well is no fun. Mobs shouldn't be made smart and then increased in power after. Wild eq is cool. Good idea and concept. I think everyone agrees that trending makes things harder to run. I also don't really feel the upside when zones are trending down. It's barely even noticeable, as opposed to when they are trending up: it can be nearly impossible to run some zones. Wild equipment, I'm totally on board with, and it's a really cool feature for people that are playing a lot, although this has also resulted in a few people having HUGE prof sets. I did notice that prof caps have recently been put into place, but I am unsure if that really solves this problem or not. AI mobs have again made everything harder, and when combined with zones that are trending up, can make them seem nearly impossible to complete. My personal opinion is it's really cool, but it should be dialed back a bit to be a rare thing that happens, not something that happens 10 times a boss fight. What no one is talking about is how all of these changes are affecting the gap between the new player and the elite player, which I think is probably getting wider! When applied to gameplay like cpk, new players don't even stand a chance, and many old players don't either. I wish everything didn't take so long. There isn't anything I feel like I can just hop on and do that is fun haha. I don't understand why they added some of that stuff in. The risk with most of the zones is very high, and learning to run them is SOOOO time consuming. They make the bar impossible for any adult to actually learn the game. At least IMO. I realize it is a difficult balance to keep the consistent players interested, but who on earth is actually running this stuff?. What amuses me is... it was "too hard" with solo play. You needed groups to do things and "no one could get groups". Now it's too easy for mp forms... and solo is just forgotten. So let's make it harder! I enjoy a challenge, but it ceases being enjoyable when every attempt is just a fail. I had to stop running Ely, as it was already a challenge before. With trending and the random effects, it is just too hard for me now. I think it's awesome that we have coders actually coming up with and implementing new ideas. I just question some of their choices. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. The changes to zones have been interesting but mostly challenging. Based on my experience soloing with a MP form, the trending has only really made things more difficult. I have not been able to recognize any value proposition that makes a trending zone easier. Combining the new mob mechanics with trending has only penalized the up-and-coming gamer. For example, I had the chance to try Melthas in Thar during/after a quake. Trending aside, the new mob behavior caused me to squad wipe a split form. I believe this mob's difficulty has been increased substantially in the month or so since I had last made an attempt. This makes the 2nd deviation (83rd - 98th) percentile equipment-based experience significantly more difficult. I have not attempted the 99th percentile zones and do not intend to do so by myself. The risk and reward aspect severely penalizes the players not in the allied group of elite players. I don't know that it is worth changing this aspect of the game as this group is in their own league. Trending low benefits should be as drastic as the high end. Regarding wild items: the wild mechanics are really nice and have made some tangible improvements to players across the board. Regarding smart mobs the smart mob changes are cool but cruel. The concept changes make for a great experience, but the average player experience has not changed in 30 years. The formation mechanics are largely still the same, the offensive spell casting has seen multicast as the biggest change. From Shadmire to Elysium one thing is sure: adventuring has become a lot more challenging. And a lot more unpredictable. Be smart out there! -Tasia. All Rights Reserved. For more information contact: Webmistress: Soleil |
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