Mistral Lake initial (and rather bare) release!

[Tessa]

I wanted to come and agree with the sentiments posted regarding scavenge areas/static lockboxes. One of my characters, while a Mistral citizen, has to spend most time down south to benefit from scavenging and accessing boxes to pick. I would suggest making perhaps places like the koalite mine, the area with the infested diggers scavengeable/contain more opportunities for practice.

[Spidercat]

Even if we might have one of the more valuable scavenge spots up north, the fact most starting rogues and treasure hunters half to hoof it far south to gather lockboxes is a bit unfair. It does add to the concern where people might not be wanting to make a mistral character because it's far from yet another things they want to do. Some spots around the mine/caravan and graveyard would help. especially with a strongbox/coffer in the shed at mistral's graveyard, and some boxes at the end of mine tunnels.

[Karjus]

I've bugged a few, but any chance staff can look at the outdated rumors?

[Karjus]

And maybe the fact we still don't have any NPCs?

[Dennis]

Minor request, as the Quacken has seemed to move in permanently. Can you add a CHAT line to the duck where it just quacks expectantly in return?

Having lived in Mistral Lake for a time, I would like to add on to the request by Karjus to inject life into NPCs at Mistral.

Shadgard's stores are manned by individuals such as Relena, Tor, etcetera who exist in the world, and have a lot to say. You often run into them at the bakery, inn, or see them shopping at the marketplace. You get the opportunity to see them at the gatehouse as they take turns defending the entrance. However, Mistral's NPCs barely appear, or if they do, they have little to say or add. I don't mean to ask that Mistral NPCs need to have schedules that put them in places that're in player pathing, but having life breathed in at the level of the population would help a lot with warming up to the place. I think it can be an odd dystopian governance where people are ruled by fear and oppressions, but that could be better conveyed. I feel like this element added a lot to Shadgard's hometown vibes, whereas Mistral feels atmospherically cold and uncaring due to the lack of have no such interactions for the general people. What NPCs you do see are nameless, faceless entities with not much to add.

I've seen a large number of faceless, personality-less people! This includes the guard who was always stationed outside of the Performing Arts Hall, who is now stationed elsewhere. I wish they had small problems and things to chat about. Wants, desires, wishes.

I understand that Mistral's a bit more dreary, but cold shadow cloaked towns can still enjoy the world building!

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I am here to beat a proverbially dead horse on Mistral's metalworking and stoneworking industries.

With the months-long demand for iron standing, I wanted to ask yet again for a steam crusher alternative. I think it's disappointing that citizens of the Dominion have to travel to an opposing faction to use their steam crusher, with the alternative being to crush things for hours by hand. This is just an inconvenience to anyone with a handcart and workhorses who can make the trip, but new characters or players who are trying to establish themselves and genuinely want to be a part of the town have it hard.

Additionally, the lack of minecart access to a market and the workyard is really hard on new characters who can't afford a handcart. I've seen them physically carrying individual chunks of copper one by one to the workyard. If it feels unrealistic to extend minerails to the market and other places due to the wooden boardwalk nature, I'd still love to see a systemic solution, like handcart rentals at the stables that are fined and recalled after expiration.

I have bugged this before, but the workyard's container order or priority feels wrong. The game's inbuilt PUT syntax is nearly impossible to use. For example, if I'm forging buckles and I have one in the trough, a partial one on the anvil, and I wanted to put the partial one in the forge I can't simply do "put buckle in forge". This works just fine in Shadgard, and even in Stormholdt. Can this be looked into? I circumvent this issue with use of the TRANSFER command, but I recently learned that not every new player knows the transfer command. This impacts annealing as well.

UPDATE EDIT: As of a few updates ago, neither of these are relevant anymore as we have no fear of losing access to Shadgard resources with the pivot away from CvC, as well as the PUT FROM .. INTO .. syntax now allowing us to directly target the anvil to trough setup.

[Serity]

With today's update, a whole bunch of new lockboxes were peppered throughout the northern regions, as well as more throughout Valeria. I've compiled a list of new numbers by zone (such as 'Abandoned Caravan: X scavenge locations'), so for those who are curious, you can check that out here (spoilers ahead, of course): https://pastebin.com/raw/YPR9ZwzP

Many thanks to the staff for treasuring up the north!