Treasure maps

[Captain Kryptus]

Would anything spectacular come from treasure hunting?

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33097

[Death]

Nah, treasure maps have been well past due for some love, both on AOV and on OSI. Because loot has gone through many changes, treasure maps have not caught up with the times. They used to be worth doing but aren't now, and here's a few reasons why:

-The gold drop is too low in comparison to today. The gold you get from the highest chests (Level 6) can be obtained by killing 5-6 miasmas. Quite a difference in time VS rewards.

-The loot is paltry. Loot in GENERAL in pretty shoddy, but treasure maps it is that much more pathetic. Treasure maps aren't modified by anything other than their levels and by default, it just doesn't compare.

-The reagents are pretty useless if you consider that players can get gold easily, in a very short time frame, then purchase bulk reagents themselves. Also, LRC has made reagent gathering a thing of the past. Unless you are an alchemist or a poor mage, you don't need these.

-Gems have no purpose right now. You could sell them for gold I suppose but in terms of actual "treasure" material, they are well suited to a treasure chest but are mostly just filler.

OSI has plans for treasure maps in the future so let's hope they do a good job in bringing them up to date. If not, AOV has had some ideas in the past of incorporating statues made of different materials inside the chest (called relics). They could then be sold or traded to different npc's for unique items, with the prices fluctuating daily or weekly.

All in all, I fully agree that treasure maps are not worth doing for mid-high level characters. Although they are fun, the whole treasure map system is not only limited in design (Tram and Fel only), but also limited in reward.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33099

[Anonymous]

All you say is true but isnt it true you get an arty in the the last level treasure chest?

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33103

[Death]

All you say is true but isnt it true you get an arty in the the last level treasure chest?

That would make only level 6 treasure chests worth doing. The artifact is a small incentive to do them, however. Only 3 or 4 artifacts that drop in the chests are actually unique to treasure chests.

The artifact does not exactly fix the treasure chest problem, as there are 5 levels of chests that are not worth doing. On top of which, people who do level 6 chests are likely to just grab the artifact and leave.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33109

[d.]

In order for treasure chests to be worthwhile, they need a serious ravamping. I believe what would best fit for AoV would be:

Increase gold in chests to:
level 1- 50k
level 2- 100k
level 3- 150k
level 4- 200k
level 5- 350k
level 6- 500k

These numbers may seem steep initially, but if you look at the amount of time it takes to do t-maps compared to other methods that yield lots of gold (champ spawns, farming supremes, resource gathering + smith quests, etc) the amount of gold seems adequate.

On top of gold, the actual items in chests should be changed. All loot from t chests, regardless of level, should have 100% intensity mods. The levels of chests would affect the # of mods, as well as the number of total items. For example:
level 1- 5 items, 3-4 mods per item.
level 2- 10 items, 3-4 mods per item.
level 3- 15 items, 4 mods per item.
level 4- 20 items, 4-5 mods per item.
level 5-30 items, 5 mods per item.
level 6- 45 items, 5-6 mods per item. (6 mods occur on occasion on normal loot)

This may seem like they would generate extremely good loot, but they actually might still not be good enough then. Simply because, even if the mods are 100% intensity, getting a 3, 4 or 5 mod combination of good mods on an item type that is useful is only a very small chance. T maps are also much more timely to do than to just farm high level mobs. Even if these changes were to be made, it may be easier just to farm things such as balrons, yamondons, dragons, hiryus, etc.

The chests could also have % chances to give things such as Deco arties, arties unique to only t-chests (each level chest having a slightly different % chance of an arty, level 6 maybe being 10%).

I'm not sure what others think, but I think a change such as this seems reasonable. Right now, it's just so much easier to plant a character down at a champ spawn or balrons to make more money and farm better items than T-chests. T-chests need to have excellent loot in order for it to be worthwhile to farm maps, make a char to specifically do the maps, and find the location, dig it up, kill the mobs, pick it and loot it.

Let me know what you all think.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33113

[Death]

In order for treasure chests to be worthwhile, they need a serious ravamping. I believe what would best fit for AoV would be:

Increase gold in chests to:
level 1- 50k
level 2- 100k
level 3- 150k
level 4- 200k
level 5- 350k
level 6- 500k

These numbers may seem steep initially, but if you look at the amount of time it takes to do t-maps compared to other methods that yield lots of gold (champ spawns, farming supremes, resource gathering + smith quests, etc) the amount of gold seems adequate.

On top of gold, the actual items in chests should be changed. All loot from t chests, regardless of level, should have 100% intensity mods. The levels of chests would affect the # of mods, as well as the number of total items. For example:
level 1- 5 items, 3-4 mods per item.
level 2- 10 items, 3-4 mods per item.
level 3- 15 items, 4 mods per item.
level 4- 20 items, 4-5 mods per item.
level 5-30 items, 5 mods per item.
level 6- 45 items, 5-6 mods per item. (6 mods occur on occasion on normal loot)

This may seem like they would generate extremely good loot, but they actually might still not be good enough then. Simply because, even if the mods are 100% intensity, getting a 3, 4 or 5 mod combination of good mods on an item type that is useful is only a very small chance. T maps are also much more timely to do than to just farm high level mobs. Even if these changes were to be made, it may be easier just to farm things such as balrons, yamondons, dragons, hiryus, etc.

The chests could also have % chances to give things such as Deco arties, arties unique to only t-chests (each level chest having a slightly different % chance of an arty, level 6 maybe being 10%).

I'm not sure what others think, but I think a change such as this seems reasonable. Right now, it's just so much easier to plant a character down at a champ spawn or balrons to make more money and farm better items than T-chests. T-chests need to have excellent loot in order for it to be worthwhile to farm maps, make a char to specifically do the maps, and find the location, dig it up, kill the mobs, pick it and loot it.

Let me know what you all think.

The initial plan, which didn't get implemented due to other immediate changes, was to be something along these lines:

-An update on loot which would affect treasure chests and be scaled according to the level. Intensity wise, high end treasure chests would be well around 400-550 mod intensity range (There would be a specific amount of loot in the chest that would be this range, roughly 20% L6 chests, I cannot recall the exact numbers I sketched out right now).

-Treasure maps available in all facets. We would either create some kind of reticle system using the in game client map and convert all existing maps to use this system, or I thought it would be fun to have a "hot and cold" type system, where wandering around with the map would inform you of your whereabouts in proximity to the buried treasure. Of course, the chests would hold loot appropriate to the region and timeline in UO history (Tokuno = tokuno weapons, AOS = AOS style weapons and armor). I still plan on trying this out in the future, it's on my list of stuff to experiment with.

-An increase in gold, in terms of actual checks instead of gold pieces. What d mentioned earlier in terms of a gold boost is not far from what we were thinking. Level 6 chests would not be that high however, due to future ML changes (Miasma and swoop paragon chest drops containing L6 maps).

-A unique spread of treasure chest only artifacts, similar to the changes made to the leviathan. A fairly even distribution of decor and useful items, themed towards pirates, thieves and brigands. It may also be an idea to have artifact drops apply to all levels of chests, L6 chests giving 100% but lower levels giving 20% less chance of obtaining an artifact and more chance of giving a common artifact.

-Special "relic" statues made of different materials that could either be displayed as trophies or turned in for appraisals and traded at dock/ship stations, where cartographers normally are. The prices and rewards for turning in certain statues would change daily so just like stocks, you would have to decide when to sell your relics.

Some of the main points to consider about treasure maps:

-There needs to be more incentive to do lower level treasure maps.
-There needs to be more items worth grabbing from the chest to increase the danger of the spawn for those who want more items.
-There needs to be more variety in map locations, loot types and rewards. Not every map should be the same thing. Think about those who buried the treasure, they each have a unique way of doing things.
-Current map loot needs to adjust to the modern days of ultima.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33114

[Anonymous]

I think d.'s idea for the treasure chests is very good and i would do them if the system was like this.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5133, old post ID:33119