A litany of Icewind-related complaints.

Areas full of hostile baddies just itching for a fight, and ready for you to practice combat against.
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Marcuson
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Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:29 am

A litany of Icewind-related complaints.

Post by Marcuson »

I don't generally like to complain, and I don't like people who complain a lot, but I had a deeply unpleasant experience with Icewind that I want to speak about.

• Climbing estimates (received when looking at a climbing exit) are not particularly useful since they don't provide feedback on the skill differential. If you have 100 Climbing, and you examine a climb that says you're not able to make it, you have no idea if you need 50 more skill points -- or 400 more.

• Wechuge now have abilities and skills that allow them to punch far above their combat rolls. The experience and drops they offer when killed make them no longer worth hunting -- and few PCs have an investment in the non-combat skill points required (Climbing, Skinning, Meditation, Perception) to make the hunting ground feasible to begin with.

• Meditation skill and Willpower do not ameliorate save-or-suck fear abilities. If you fail, you're stuck in 14 seconds of roundtime.

• Ice. I question the wisdom of adding an environment whose sole purpose is to frustrate the player.

• I am convinced that stealth is bugged for the new wechuge, since I have never been able to find one by searching and am always surprised when they spring from hiding. (Granted, I only have only tried this with 200 Perception.) Oh, and looking at their corpse causes the corpse to disappear.

Before these changes, Icewind used to be a relatively popular hunting area. Now, however, no one goes there. And why should they? There are more-accessible places to hunt with better rewards. Players understand this, which is why wechuge pelts no longer appear at the market.

I don't want to hear, "These problems are because you're not playing a Warrior." Zotikos can kill Liberi in Northwest Valeria all day long without any issues, where he can receive lots more experience and rewards. Warriors don't get any special abilities or skill caps when it comes to Climbing, Perception, or Meditation -- the three biggest issues when dealing with the new wechuge.

So who, exactly, is Icewind meant to be for? What's the purpose behind the wechuge's design? Why have mobs that no one is going to bother fighting?
Squeak
Posts: 109
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2023 6:26 am

Re: A litany of Icewind-related complaints.

Post by Squeak »

While I can't account for Wechuge and their abilities:
Marcuson wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 12:45 am • Climbing estimates (received when looking at a climbing exit) are not particularly useful since they don't provide feedback on the skill differential. If you have 100 Climbing, and you examine a climb that says you're not able to make it, you have no idea if you need 50 more skill points -- or 400 more.
This. I like that it is intentionally left vague, but a rough estimate to how much more you'd need would be nice. Even if it was something along the lines of, "You feel you'd need a {little, some, substantial} amount of practice before you could tackle this climb." Just something a tad bit more informative than, "No. You can't."
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