Okay this is just and idea sparked by a topic in the "Regarding these ultra-pro PK discussions thread". Feel free to read, brainstorm, and add to or take away from this. Please read it fully before posting and please post kindly. It's just an idea that popped into my head I thought I'd put out there to see what people thought. I don't think it's perfect so I won't be offended if you agree. I just think it's a possible step in the right direction. Could just reduce high end gold drops and add different benefits to high end farming like make magics more rare and scale with mob difficulty as well as a slight chance to drop something "extra special", reduce weight of cut leather so skinning dragons is more profitable. Increase boss gold drops and add mini bosses. Dexxers won't feel so useless as a viable farming option. There's definate benefits to being able to take out harder mobs for tamers/bards other then insta-gold. Tamers/bards become more interactive in the community as they hock their power/vanqs, fort/invul, slayers, and "extra special" goods. With more people farming more places (because it no longer seems a waste of time for dexxers) PK's have more options of where to attack which takes pressure off the USUAL farming spots. Low end boss mobs allow every playstyle to enjoy the boss system to some degree and have the ever so rare chance at something special too. (though less special since it's a lesser boss) Recap of possible benefits. This would boost the player driven economy, dexxers/mages won't mind as much that they can't kill high end stuff. It will utilize more of the world as a viable playing location by giving little forts, caves, and weak mob groups meaning again. The surprise mini boss adds excitement to the most boring locations, Roleplayers will love it, guilds will have fun claiming orc forts and graveyards for their own. PK's have more places to check reducing the chance that any one location will be visited. Far fewer high end magics will increase their value so the tamers/bards can still make their fortune along with the leather they sell to tailors. With fewer magics meaning expensive magics, gm weapons/armor will become a common alternative giving tailors and blacksmiths a share in the world economy again. In the end tamers/bards will still be the most profitable, it just won't entirely be insta-gold form. They'll have to sell their loot to make their fortune. Or horde it all for themselves.
I think a lot of those ideas are great. I think holding a orc fort to gain a buff, or if you hold it long enough you have access to their spoils would be fun. Also, having a random powerful dragon in a cave(or a random cave pop up) guarding a cache of treasure would be awesome. I remember buying the original UO many years ago, and saw on the box a dragon guarding a ton of gold. I was disappointed that they did not have anything of the sort. Its to bad that not all classes are viable. One thing World of Warcraft did well was give all classes some sort of job during PVM. It would be nice to incorporate something similar to where farming high level drops alone, no matter what the class, would be very difficult.
I imagine if you played it right, Full set of invuln plate with parry and a weapon to keep the monsters attention, the dexxers would play the "tank" with either other melee's bandaging him with the support of casters healing, at least thats how i wold go about it IF I wanted to play a dexxer successfully. If your attacking a powerful mob with studded armor and an axe you're going to get hurt, there have always been meat dexxers and damge dexxers, usually you try to get the meat in first, then have the two handers come do some damage. With some supporting bandages on the meat.
Although it's a radical change and I'm not really sure I'd like Ren to change quite that much, there is sense in this idea. I often wonder about players attitudes towards loot - the majority I've found just take gold, maps, and magics they're interested in off of corpses and leave everything else. You could about become wealthy just cleaning up after people. I think, here's the bounty of the world laid out for them - scrolls, gems, meat, leather, bottles - and it might as well not even drop in the first place. This really has gone through my mind more than once.
