Antiquities: The Decaying of an Fun Game Mode

hashii

Hi,

I have taken a small hiatus during Firesong DLC, and came back but haven't really done antiquities for a while. I restarted doing them in the Telvanni Peninsula for the new furnishings. At first it was fun, I got the new Stained glass - it was pretty easy to get. But I later checked the number of leads required to fully complete the music box or some of the other master-ranked furnishings. With High-Isle/Galen Chapter, there seems to be a steady increase in the number of leads it takes to get furnishings.

For Music Boxes:

• It used to be 3 leads for a music box (Summerset), total 9 to complete the codex.
• Then increased to 5 leads for a music box (Galen), and 15 to complete the codex.
• Now, it's 10 leads for a music box (Necrom), and 30 to complete the codex.

For Master Ranked Furnishings:

• You used to get most furnishings directly from the source
• Later, some of them were broken down into multi-part leads that combine into a furnishing. Like the Shipbuilder's Drafting Table requires 3 mini-leads, and total 9 for the codex.
• Now in Necrom chapter, multiple Master-ranked furnishings require 3 mini-leads and total 9 for the codex.

The increase in these leads wouldn't be an issue if the drop rates are higher, and the sources of getting the leads are more direct. Some of the leads are layered upon layered on multiple stages of RNG. For example, some of these require getting a treasure map for a particular zone, which is an RNG. Then getting a lead from the treasure map, which is another layer of RNG.

A few questions to consider:

1. I can understand from a game design perspective having a challenge to achieve something. But my question is, at what point does it surpass the feelings of achievement from tackling a challenge and become a chore? Personally, I will be skipping the grind for some of the new furnishings. I dedicated some time for the Trifold Mirror, but will not have enough time or energy to allocate for the other ones.
2. Think long-term in a few years. If many more zones follow the same pattern, the whole antiquities system gets mired in excessive bloated grind. Begs the question, was it worth it in the end? Spending all those hours of valuable time and life grinding for these things? The game already has a lot to do which takes up a lot of time. It can be overwhelming for a new player. I currently have close to 5 years invested in the game so far.
3. The purpose of a game-mode is to generate excitement, challenge, and something to look forward to and collect. When the antiquities system was first released, it checked those boxes. But now, it's slowly becoming an unnecessary bloated time-sink that yields minimal enjoyment.

Potential Solutions to Fix this:

1. Have multiple direct sources to get the leads
2. Increase the drop rates so that it doesn't become a full-time job trying to get these furnishings
3. I get that MMOs try to implement grind to increase time-sinks/player play-time retention. But make it so that finishing the entire codex can be completed within a reasonable time for a job-working person, within a guaranteed X amount of time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

katanagirl1

Yes, as the amount of content goes up every chapter, the increased rate of grind becomes exponential instead of geometrical and becomes an impossible backlog.

evymyu233

i give up,i dont want to play card game

Necrotech_Master

i dont necessarily mind there being more multi-part antiquities, but i am in full agreement with the drop rates, especially from sources such as treasure maps

DarthCuddlefluff

They need to have a ton of antiquities. I mean like they should be releasing 50 separate things per chapter. Also just an FYI don't buy the Apocrypha maps rn for the Apocryphal well. It is busted like the music box leads and they refuse of acknowledge it or say that they are working on it. It will probably be fixed quietly in a patch. I check with 5 new maps after every update but no dice so far. I have done over 180 maps looking for it. That is over 70 mil I am not getting back to find this out.

kaisernick

hashii wrote: »

[*] Have multiple direct sources to get the leads

THIS is 100% needed, the fact that multiple leads are in treasure maps, which are very very hard to get is insaine [snip]

[edited for bashing]

MoonPile

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

They need to have a ton of antiquities. I mean like they should be releasing 50 separate things per chapter. Also just an FYI don't buy the Apocrypha maps rn for the Apocryphal well. It is busted like the music box leads and they refuse of acknowledge it or say that they are working on it. It will probably be fixed quietly in a patch. I check with 5 new maps after every update but no dice so far. I have done over 180 maps looking for it. That is over 70 mil I am not getting back to find this out.

:0 !!

I just want the mushroom book (openable, whoa!) and the cliff racer skeleton model, but I'm not willing to spend millions of gold or hundreds of hours farming the maps to maybe get a chance at one lead for one. I've only used maybe 5 maps so far that I got free or cheap, and got GARBAGE.

So I have to ask, after so many maps did you get either of these? Or anything good?

prof-dracko

MoonPile wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

They need to have a ton of antiquities. I mean like they should be releasing 50 separate things per chapter. Also just an FYI don't buy the Apocrypha maps rn for the Apocryphal well. It is busted like the music box leads and they refuse of acknowledge it or say that they are working on it. It will probably be fixed quietly in a patch. I check with 5 new maps after every update but no dice so far. I have done over 180 maps looking for it. That is over 70 mil I am not getting back to find this out.

:0 !!

I just want the mushroom book (openable, whoa!) and the cliff racer skeleton model, but I'm not willing to spend millions of gold or hundreds of hours farming the maps to maybe get a chance at one lead for one. I've only used maybe 5 maps so far that I got free or cheap, and got GARBAGE.

So I have to ask, after so many maps did you get either of these? Or anything good?

Wait. You can OPEN the mushroom book!? No wonder everyone has been wanting it. I just thought people were really into mycology lately.

MoonPile

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

Wait. You can OPEN the mushroom book!? No wonder everyone has been wanting it. I just thought people were really into mycology lately.

Yeah! Amazing right? You can even turn a couple of pages... though they both share the same texture I also overlooked it on PTS because it looked like a normal closed book, albeit with a pretty cover. Didn't know until a guildie said so.

Here's a pic of it on PTS, open:

*also makes me feel we players are a bit pitiful, in a funny way, to be excited about this. "woooow an open, interactible book!" haha, I can't even get the scraps because they're so grind-locked.

MidniteOwl1913

I think I hit my grind limit with the watching lead. I just can't do it any more. And since I have no interest in Necrom there is very little to tempt me back to it.

Erorah

AND all this is for BOUND FURNISHINGS; none of the Antiquities are Tradeable. So why the block behind walls of RNG and Grind?

It is not like the traders will be flooded with Blessed Daises of Almalexia!

/boggle