Why Mounted Elves in Dungeons changed

Topic seems to be an issue about staff alteration without explanation vs. the mechanic itself. The idea for this change was mine, and I didnt explain it because my time is limited. My time cleared up enough today so you all can have the luxury of an explanation. I dont get paid for this...

Without laying out too many numbers, lets look at some facts. In the outerworld you get ALL Christmas spawn in all locations (deers, elves, darkelves, ice golems, Yetis, ect...). This means mounted elves are mixed into a larger pool of monster and therefore less common. As of 2 years ago, Dungeons got elf, darkelf, or deer spawn set to specific areas. This means that the odds of finding a mounted elf in a dungeon location where they are known to spawn is far higher then looking for them blindly in the outerworld. Additionally, dungeons are not that big and the number of trackable mounted elf spawn locations in the game can be contained in 2 runebooks. This means a single player can very quickly scout all dungeon locations that might spawn mounted elves. The smaller locations to search combine with the higher rate of spawn meant players could reliably find mounted elves more often in dungeons.

Now lets look at some actual numbers.
An experienced player with knowledge of where the mounted elves spawn in dungeons and their timers could pull in an average of 1.2 scrolls/hour. The 1.2 scrolls/hr factor came from the old rate of spawn in which a mounted elves overall chance at scroll was over 20%. Players could find 4-8 mounted elves per hour (still can). At an average of 6/hr with the 20% chance, you get 1.2 scroll/hr in dungeons.
Now lets look at the other end of the game. A new player who in almost GM all skills fights any event spawn they find (not just mounted elves) and gets a rate of 0.15 scrolls/hour. That factor comes from the fact that they lose time searching in the outerworld or dungeons without past experience. Additionally, they take longer per-kill and with a rate of 1/50 - 1/200 scrolls on most holiday monsters. Now lets see how those numbers stack up if new and old players invested the same number of hours into the game.

200 hours at 1.2 scrolls/hr = 240 scrolls
200 hours at 0.15 scrolls/hr = 30 scrolls

A players experience level should award them more scrolls for sure. However, the imbalance is too great to ignore and it also devalues scrolls for newer players and the server risks becoming flooded with thousands of scrolls. Therefore, some of the mounted elf adds in dungeons were removed to "slightly" bring down the rate at which scroll enter the game from that method. Yes, mounted elves in the outerworld still have 6 minions but they are mixed into the larger spawn pools and their spawn range is 10x larger then most dungeons. In addition, mounted elves in dungeon STILL have a greater chance at scrolls. Even if that chance in very slight.

It is expected that the max rate of scrolls this year (2022) is lowered from 1.2/hr down to 1.0/hr for any given player. This means instead of getting 240 scrolls, you may only obtain 200 (bummer). This also means scrolls stay a bit more rare. Keep in mind new guys who have NO CLUE how the Holiday event works can sometimes farm at a rate even slower the 0.15 scrolls/hr. Additionally, lots of players dont spend 200 hours on this 4 week event. Most spend closer to 50 hours overall, and others may spend as many as 300 hours. More time invested will still equal more scrolls. Now that you've wasted 5-10 minutes reading my explanation, you've decreases your scroll/hr rate . Happy hunting out there!

Thank you.

"My time cleared up enough today so you all can have the luxury of an explanation. I dont get paid for this..."


this sounds incredibly arrogant coming former a player who turned into staff but still plays

Still getting a good amount of scrolls, just have to get more creative in where you look for them. As someone who has been farming the event since it started years ago, it was pretty easy to have a book marked with all of the typical spots and scout them frequently. I personally don't mind the change and like that it gives variety. At any rate, appreciate the communication on it.

I definitely think we need a reward store refresh, as well as items (even something as simple at hue changes) within the scrolls. I think most of the existing items and hues has existed since around 2016 or so.

Thanks for giving us the luxury of explaining why the event was nerfed... Still makes no sense to me....

Why do you care about the amount of scrolls that are spawned per hour on the event? Are we trying to fix the economy of the server? There's only one play style being bashed on the event, why not just buff the other ones?

Next thing you are nerfing champ spawns and harrowers because they spawn too much platinum as well, did you check the amount of plat that has been printed this year?

I might be in the minority here, but this change suits me well, I now have a chance to kill the mounted Spawn i find in the dungeons without getting wiped. 1 mounted spawning 6 adds always wiped me in the past so much so that I spent half the event a few years back training and retraining my Dragons. Now i see them and know i have a chance.
Thanks Keza

how does this help - your competition will kill their spawn faster, allowing them to find you faster.

I think he meant in a way that he couldn't deal with the spawn itself? Not even referring to pks

I can't really understand why having a lot of scrolls is an issue.... maybe if rewards were updated scrolls would retain value anyway.
You've got a lot of loyal people playing this server and I'm not sure why the idea would be to penalize them for playing.

NOW EVEN ONE IS AGREEING WITH ME!!!

really appreciate all the work you guys are doing for this place , even if weewoo wants to come on here and cry about it .

I'm sure it's quite a challenge to try to come up with sensible game mechanics and also keep a majority of players happy. And even though I hardly play lately I still appreciate all the work that goes into UOR which allows us to indulge our 1999 nostalgia with a twist of Christmas.

I love UOR and wish this place would last for many more years. I think most people appreciate the contributions of the staff and the free, time-consuming labor. But personally, I wish this post didn't feel like throwing a plate on the table…

You know he looks like.

Chris used to say that if you do something, then do it right and wisely. I agree with this. And this means that notification of any changes is a mandatory functionality.

Heart of the matter A+
Style D-

I know it's too late this year, but some sort of points system per char/kills should be implemented to guarantee a scroll after so many kills without a drop. When you farm for 8+ Hours straight and get 0-1 scroll, that's pretty stupid no matter what "the numbers" say.

That's my rant...

Thanks for all you do to keep this place going!

Love it. Make it a 1/500 probability. Fuck it 1/1000

im more on the .15 scrolls per hour, and i am all over the place with 3 blessed dungeon books.

I just wanted to point out that this isn't how probability works. Doing something 6 times with a 20% chance doesn't mean you have 120% chance at success. By this same logic, you had an 80% chance at failure for each rider, times 6 would mean you have a 480% chance of failure per hour. Having a 20% chance is not the same thing as finding 0.2 scrolls every 10 minutes, also. You're basically saying that before, players had a 100% chance of finding a fraction of a scroll, which simply isn't true.

Or maybe you're agreeing with them?

Thanks Keza for the explanation. I have spent easily over 40 hours on this and so far despite killing a ton of spawn including numerous bosses, ~teenish aboms - overland and especially dungeons because I know their drop rate is better I have only gotten 4 scrolls, (lots of gold however), a chunk of ice, and about 50 hc. So I have to call BS on your numbers because according to those I should have roughly 5x that using your 200 hour comparison. I fare better with my time fighting arctic OL and buying scrolls. I have to join Leeloo and whine about this and we never agree on shit. Thank you for what you do here but we as players invest as much time in our life to this server as well. Without you there would be no server. Without us there would be no server. Let's get along

FYI I roll with a GM tracker/disco/provo bard and EV everything and I am mobile and kill these very easily so my kills/hr is really up there. I also have 15 books dedicated to all the areas I have hunted collectively for the last 3 years in and out of dungeons.

One last thing before I go to work - this is from Anniversary Bag post.
"So to be clear. Logging into your friends accounts, trying to use methods to access extra accounts using non linked IP addresses and other tricks used in the past will not work. Over the last few patches we have slowly expanded the tools that allow us to find and identify accounts that are invalid or exceed our normal account rules. If your reward bag is denied be prepared for the staff to review any accounts linked to you, the account history, and any other relevant information to determine if this account deserves a reward."

Why not employ these "tools" to screen out the cheaters and give the true new players their own dungeon that further scales up their chances without messing with ours? Ok done now, gotta work.