10 replies to this topic

[Sleeping]

So I'd been thinking hard on how to make a new item interesting and unique, but remain within the boundaries of game engine. It's what I'd come up with so far, an alternative drop for Aet'thol with 1% drop rate:

Library info for Crystalline Soul Prison:
Armor base: 2, Can be worn by: clerics, druids, fighters, mages, paladins, rangers, thieves, pacifists, Description: What appears to be simple glass vial hang upon silver chain is actually a dark magical artifact. It’s enchanted with the ability to steal very souls of powerful beings and transfer their energy to it’s wearer., Level needed to equip it: 30, Strength modifier: 0, Intelligence modifier: 0, Dexterity modifier: 0, Constitution modifier: 0, Wisdom modifier: 0, Charisma modifier: 0.

Concept is so, you originally get the "uncharged" amulet and then "use" (/give command) it on bosses to capture their spirits for your use, turning the amulet into a stat modding one, corresponding with a boss you give it to. The boss would be destroyed in process, similar to how you can "kill" roc with rotten rats. For example, give that amulet to Spider King and recieve Arachnae's Soul Pendant, which grants you +1 Char.

Spider King is here with you.
Spider King attacked you with jewelled gauntlet for 69 damage.
/give Spider Crystaline
You gave a Spider King: Crystalline Soul Prison.
A Spider King gave you: Arachnae's Soul Pendant.
You absurbed Spider King's fighting spirit into your pendant, it's body falls dead.

Note that you don't recieve usual boss' drop, nor gold if you attempt to kill it in this way.

Should you desire to switch the amulet to another stat mod, give it to jewel-maker npc in Crafting Tower to change it back into original "uncharged" form.

Following bosses would be corresponding with following stats:
Time Knight - Knight's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1str
Atrinum Monarch - Monarch's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1 Int
Giant Chameleon - Beast's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1 Dex
Crystal Giant - Giant's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1 Const
Blue Dragon - Dragon's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1 Wisdom
Spider King - Arachnae's Soul Pendant, 2ac, +1 Char

Comparing profits from killing Aet'thol with new drop added against two other amulet droppers:

Imhotep:
Completing Pyramid of the Mortal God and killing Imhotep takes around 40 minutes. Imhotep himself drops Golden Ankh 5% (1mil worth), Triangle of Thunder 5% (1mil worth) or Withering Scarab 5% (500k worth) and 15k gold. Also along the route you gain additional 35k gold and have chance at Anubis Mask 2% (250k worth). So in total you profit:
1mil*0,05 + 1mil*0,05 + 500k*0,05 + 15k + 35k + 250k*0,02 = 180k per trip or 270k per hour.

Aet'thol:
Unlike Imhotep, getting to Aet'thol is simple and fight is almost risk-free. Getting inside crypt and killing it takes 7-12 minutes (10 minutes average). Aet'thol drops Lich Dust 20% (30k worth), Amulet of the Lich 10% (150k worth) and now Crystalline Soul Prison 1% (1mil worth) and also 2k gold. So in total you profit:
30k*0.2 + 150k*0.1 + 2k + 1mil*0,01 = 33k per trip or 198k per hour.

Wolf Lord:
Same arguements. Wolf Lord takes 10 minutes to kill, drops Feral Choker 2% (1mil worth) and 2k gold.
So in total you profit:
1mil*0.02 + 2k = 22k per trip or 132k per hour.

So adding new drop to Aet'thol increases his total drop worth by 30%, making him more profitable then Wolf Lord to hunt (rightfully, as he is also more difficult to kill) but significently less profitable then Imhotep. I did not take exp gained on each boss into calculation, although it also would favour Imhotep trips over others.

Edited by Sleeping, 15 June 2008 - 08:06 PM.

[Crane]

A very interesting proposition, and I quite like it.

I don't think a jeweller will be able to return the amulet to the Crystalline Soul Prison though, because it is a captured soul instead of an extra jewel that constitutes the talisman... that would take an exorcist, necromancer or a skilled sorcerer.

ADDENDUM: I probably would prefer to simply kill the Time Knight or Blue Dragon for its regular drops rather than use the amulet to soul steal, and possibly the Giant Chameleon too, although a Dexterity amulet is tempting...

Edited by Crane, 15 June 2008 - 08:17 PM.

[Desendent]

I like the idea

Gives more variety and makes you want to kill aethol more lol

[shomer]

not supported, it would make it way too easy to kill steal at a boss

[Crane]

not supported, it would make it way too easy to kill steal at a boss

Hmmm... that's a point.

[Desendent]

maybe the boss would have to be at full hp to do it

[Defeat]

I like the idea and as Jason points out, there could be a way to make it so that you can't steal kills. Full HP to kill with that item is a good idea. Can that be put to play though? Is it within the game's boundaries?

[Sleeping]

not supported, it would make it way too easy to kill steal at a boss

Let's see. .

On main server, I don't see people bother with boss stealing much. Also it's much more simple (and profitable) to move in with 20 alts at mort as been happening for long time already.
On 1alt server, competition is fierce BUT remember that the person using crystalline prison would have to unequip it and hold in inventory for a short bit. That is somebody risking 1mil item to cause you lose 100k-150k worth drop. I think the chance to drop amulet makes it as pretty legitable tactics for rival clans.

Note that amulet is meant to be rather rare and also that the person "stealing" boss gains nothing in terms of drops or gold. If boss stealing is that much problem, you can put some cost to "uncharge" the amulet to make reusing it expensive or remove the option to "uncharge" it all together.

Edit:
I see two solutions:
1. Remove the option to "uncharge" the amulet.
That means even if use it to purposely grieve other people, you can attempt so only once every 100 Aet'thol kills. Also unless you try it with TK, BD or GC you would end up with mostly useless amulet.

2. Don't kill the boss as you steal it's spirit.
This option takes away some beauty from the idea but deals with the boss stealing completely.

Edited by Sleeping, 16 June 2008 - 05:37 AM.

[Gaddy]

I would like to point out that Sleeping cannot view monster stats---thus, his statements about monsters are estimates, and some of his estimates are pretty far off on drop rates and such.


I don't like the idea of making a 1-boss drop that could be made into so many stat mod amulets. We currently have bosses dropping str, char, wis, int, and dex mods.
I do not see reason to make one drop all of them instead of being able to create other bosses that create the stat mod amulets.

[Sleeping]

I don't like the idea of making a 1-boss drop that could be made into so many stat mod amulets. We currently have bosses dropping str, char, wis, int, and dex mods.
I do not see reason to make one drop all of them instead of being able to create other bosses that create the stat mod amulets.

I'd try to disprove this point with my calculations to illustrate that new drop won't make Aet'thol more profitable to kill in compare to other bosses (although some numbers could be flawed).
To avoid it coming into direct competition with other amulets, you can:
1. Switch crystalline prison to another, stronger boss (say, High Priestess, Resca or Sleeper).

2. Decrease ac on pendants (to 1ac or 0ac), so it would be less useful then true stat modding amulets.

3. Limit "charge" options to few stats, say Str, Dex, or Char.

Once again, the drop rate is meant to be significently lower then for other stat modding amulets and the fact that you have to miss out another bosses' drops creates another disadvantage (not if the second option is taken from previous post).

The reason I started this suggestion, is not to directly improve Aet'thol (or any other bosses), nor just add another stat modding amulet (although I try to balance it) but to prove that the concept can work and so pave the way for more "soul stealing" items in future. Imagine, like you start out with some Rusty Dragon Slayer Sword then use it to absurb dragon souls, increasing it's power through stages every time. Or a Soul Gem, to charge which you would have to absurb number of bosses in a certain order. It's brand new and promising idea. =)

Edited by Sleeping, 16 June 2008 - 06:04 AM.

[Gaddy]

That doesn't change that a single monster could yield a stat mod amulet of any kind though...
If you get big parties, you kill any boss pretty quickly. Aet'Thol being an hourly boss makes it a bit more catchable than Imhotep, etc.