Spamfunet Nanny Forum

Is it just my opinion or the new made uniques can't be compared with the old ones?

Where is the line drawn between old and new?

I know of a few recent additions that are very welcome in my arsenal.  Of course, you can also find me hunting down Carrion's Sword of Infinity quite often as well.

Maybe we just remember them as better.

don't know ... the recent years ... i would say from 2001/2002. maybe after the mud changed when lots of wizards retired and some areas dissapeared as well.

People don't take the time to code intriguing backgrounds for uniques like they used to. I mean, look at Brom's Demonblade, Leowon's Darkbringer or Sorrowsong. Can you honestly point to any newly created uniques that matches the thematical value these weapons do, for example?

That is a sad loss for the mud, somewhere along the way the uniques lost that constant reminder. Today they may have a story that you understand if you get it, or use it for the first time, but after that it is just a lifeless tool.

As far as 'powerful' goes, it's only natural that things can't be as good or better than old things, the nature of inflation (or the efforts to stop inflation).

When it comes to thematics, and I am a big fan of the background story, the items you suggest are absolutely excellent.  I would, however, suggest that there are a handful of new items that also approach this level of detail.  Of the top of my head:
Nasigoreng's Roamer
Asarnil's Axes of Inti and Mamaquilla
Mirage's - well all of Grondal's equipment

There are other items with good background as well, if we choose to look at them , they just aren't all uniques.

I think the game has changed to the point that Uniques are no longer as important as they once were.  Unique weapons still hold people's interest, but how often do you see unique armours offered on the Trade line?  It's also so restricted now within most guilds that the collection of unique items is pointless.  There are some exceptions, of course (Knights, Adventurers, Masters, etc.), but overall as the restrictions were increased within the guilds, the interest in eq decreased.

Some of my favorite old time items that have been downcoded or removed:

Fafnesbane's Gram
Ebharing the Sword of Death
Knatul's Staff of Power

Down with guild restrictions on EQ!

Oasis

well what can i say?
yes, Kherec has a point and a good one, but i don't think it's fair. while i won't comment on items background story - that is after all the creator's business - the 'power' of most of the new ones can't be compared with the older ones. Imo this diminishes the players interest for an area and for the item itself, which in the end leads to an area rarely visited.

Uniques don't have to be powerful to be interesting. They aren't ALL about killing, which is one of the points of having uniques...If all uniques did the same things...even though they may have a unique name...are they really unique? Just a thought :) Although, a good background story can make it more interesting and fun :)

/Snafu :D

I know I've been able to add some really cool unques to the game in the past year or two (not gonna say anything more about them than that), and I've seen plenty of wizards adding great stuff too.  There are a lot of great new unique items/weapons/armours/etc.. out there in the MUD, the problem is people stick to what they know and don't go off trying to find the new ones.

Personally I'd go looking for new unques because they aren't that well known and haven't been abused and downcoded yet.

I agree with Wolfenhex. Most players stick with what they know and are too lazy to take the time to find new good items. They know what's good and what's not because they hear it from other players. Which completes the circle.

But, there's a whole nannyworld out there filled with very good uniques that most players don't know about. Lots of times I offered such uniques on the trade line and I could hear people think: "Hmm, those are not the words 'silk gloves'...don't know...won't buy."

Those who like the background stories are usually also the ones who explore and take the trouble to find these items. The lazy players might hear rumours, and will ask dirs to this new good unique. If it's not too difficult, like when it needs exploring and stuff, the item might become popular.

As a player who enjoys exploring greatly, and who has some favorite unique items that remain unkown to most players...

I humbly request that we cease this line now - the less people know about the swords Silvermoon and Roamer, The axes of Inti and Mamaquilla, the small crystal, the white staff, the amulet of divine power, the beam of light....
Well, the less who know, the more often the items are available for me!

Yavathol (voted the most unlikely to bid for silk gloves)

So how about createing a list of unique items and list in what area (not dirs of course) they are, similar to the list Kherec made over the healing. That way people might be encouraged to go out and explore new areas while hunting for these items.

I don't think it would be a good idea, Kadagar, it would encourage lazyness even more  ;) There are ways to know who created an item, if you accidentally stumble into it (by buying it on tradeline for example) and decide you like it so much that you are rdy to put your life at a stake to be able to use it again  8)  So everybody can create his own list of favourite items with the area they are to be found in. I still remember how happy I was when i found my first unique (it was the Slakksword). Not the first unique i happened to own, but the first I actually knew how to get  :roll:

I think Kadagar may be onto something there.  I wouldn't suggest listing the items, but maybe a counter or something to tell you how many you have wielded/worn/used.  I'm not sure that's even possible from a coding standpoint.  

I know that I'd be interested in a club that gave you a ranking or something based on items you've discovered.  Maybe it would spark more interest in trying different EQ.  Just a thought.


Oasis

I'm also not sure how feasible such a club would be, not just from a coding standpoint, but also because many people get their uniques from friends or Tradeline without ever learning how to get them.
We already have a club that gives rankings for exploring new areas, and other than a handful of the members of the club (which is only a small fraction of players) it hasn't truly encouraged more exploration.

I think that if a player wants information on where an item can be found, then the simplest way is to purchase the item from the Trade line, or ask someone who has it.  Plenty of resources for narrowing down the areas that an item comes from.  After that, it should be up to the players to locate the items and secure them for themselves.

I think it would do no good to create such a list, in fact I believe it would hurt the mud a lot (the point of uniques is to reward the explorer, the curious ones, who fetch and try things out, that is the whole concept behind uniques). Wizards would be forced to make it absurdly hard to get their uniques and/or downcode them because every worthwhile unique would be grabbed if such a list existed. Especially with the "if it's used too much it has to be too good and should be downcoded"-mentality that the administration seems to have.

Comparing healing places (healing is a critical part of survival) and uniques is absurd, one has nothing to do with the other for one.

If a player knows that there is a certain unique item in a certain area, he will probably be more inclined to explore that area in search of that item, whereas if he has no clue whatsoever that this item is in this area, he will probably just ignore the exploring and stick to what he knows already.

I am not suggesting a club or whatever in Nanny that would list these items, but rather on this forum, like Kherec's post about the healing.

Sword of One-hit-slaying, Foo's area.
Armour of Invulnerbility, Bar's area.
Shield of Constant-blocking, Foobar's area.

Then the player will see that the Sword of One-hit-slaying is in Foo's area, and thus, he will explore that particular area in hunt for this item, and while doing so, he might stumble into puzzles to solve, monsters to kill and treasure to be looted.

As far as I have seen it, there are two major reasons to why players explore areas. One is to find good kills, and the second to find unique items. The Explorers' club is a joke. I've yet to see someone who actually explores areas in that club, instead of doing about a thousands east-west combination to get their exploration point. So, if there is a list of unique items and in what area they area in, I am sure that more people will start exploring.

I agree that the means to get 'explored' in that club is flawed, meaning the only ones who really get 'explored' status for an area is those that abuse the system, not the ones that actually do explore the whole area.

Sadly there's no non-abusable way to make such a thing, so the current way is about as good as any.

And about the list, I suppose it would do very little harm if it's just the name of the item and if it's a weapon/armour/misc type of item and who made it ... but still, I think if the list would be so sparse, it wouldn't be necessary.

I think that there are a lot of unique items in Nanny that very few players know about, and if they never know about them, they will never be used. I don't care either way. I have my own list already, so I am covered. :)

I am actually troubled by this train of thought for several reasons.  Not the least of which is that I am in the Explorer's club and have made an actualy effort to explore every area.  I won't pretend that I have never used the "east-west combinations" to mark an area as explored, but I will say that those were the extremely small areas in terms of number of rooms (and yes, I am sure that they were that small - eg Vasques, Catwoman).  I won't suggest I have a map of every room of Nanny, but I do know of a handful of rooms that only a few of us have ever gotten to, and a handful of uniques that only a small number of players ever procure.  Those people that I know have found such things are also quite advanced within the Explorer's club, and I can promise you that a good number of us do more than "thousands of east-west combinations."

Since this thread is supposed to be about Unique items, I'll return to that topic specifically.  In my opinion, the areas that get explored the most have things to offer besides unique items.  It seems to me that the most popular areas have a few things in common, and unique items has nothing to do with it.  These areas tend to be easily accessible, good sized, well balanced with kills to alignment and level, filled with some areas requiring at least a bit of thought on the part of the player (puzzles, quests or just secret entrances) and each of them also seems to have a 'second' area for those in the know behind the first.  I am not sure how else to explain that last one, but I will suggest that Leowon's is one of the most popular areas.

Even with that popularity, there are quite a few uniques in Leowon's area that are not commonly sought or often found on the Trade-line.  This isn't due to down codes, but rather, I believe, player laziness.  Players walk by unique items all the time and rarely notice (some of this I attribute to the fact that so many people are in brief mode).  I don't think that such a list will help encourage people to explore at all, quite to the contrary, I dread making parties so I can hear people saying "Hey, this is Foo's area, let's get the sword of one-hit slaying! I don't know where it is, but take me to it and get it for me!"  There's enough of this attitude out there already.

I have had it suggested countless times that unique items are the responsibility of the Wiz that coded them.  I suggest it is also their responsibility to advertise them if they wish to see them used more often.  Mirage has some great uniques and some great areas to explore, he also has made a free map available to anyone who cares to see it, that shows where entrances to subsections of his area are located.  Short of giving a personal guide to players on entering the area, I can't imagine a more helpful way to direct players to what they are looking for.

I, for one, think uniques and their where-abouts should be a reward for those who explore simply to find out what is out there - like I do.  I was exploring before the Explorer's club existed and I will always explore - it's what I enjoy most in the game.  If that means I stumble across unique items and puzzles so be it.  I do not think that this work and knowledge obligates me or anyone else, to share one shred of that information with the rest of the players.  Those who want to find certain uniques, I would be willing to give hints to those who approach me politely and those who have made an honest effort, but I don't wish to supply all the players, indiscriminately, with any such information and think that doing so would be a tragedy to Nanny.

In Leowon's case, it's not laziness, it is dreadfulness ... people are simply afraid of their lives ;)

Not to mention most of us do not need money and don't want attention drawn to our favourite uniques, so we definately don't offer them on the trade line, but rather keep it within our closest group of friends or even sell it in shop when noone is looking (so we can go get it later on).

Kherec, you must have read in my mind ;) Still i think Leowon's is one of the most exciting areas around :)

Perhaps there's another whole issue there - how difficult the guardian of any particular item might be.  There are a few items that I really have to work up the courage to go for, for fear of life and limb.  Others simply seem to be too long/too much work for the item in question.
That's a whole other issue.

Still, there are plenty of easily attainable items that have not been retrieved in a while, that I have noticed.

In either case, giving a list of items with areas that they are in would not solve those problems; so, again it comes back to what would be the benefit of such a list for the Mud as a whole?  I see only cost to the actively exploring players.

I have my goto areas when I hunt for exp, I have my list of 50+ items if I ever want to get an unique item, I have my list of even more items when I play with my Viking and ever run out of items to sacrifice, I know in what areas a certain quest starts in, and I know where pubs are, so I am pretty much covered, I would say. So for me, I have no need whatsoever to explore new areas. If a wizard creates a new unique item, I can probably find one just as good, or if not as good, then close to it. So, with this in mind, I wouldn't go out and explore just an area on random hoping that I *might* find something useful (and considering the amount of uniques distribuated over the amount of rooms, what are the chances of finding something good). However, if I knew that a certain item was in a certain area, then I might just go and try to find it if I was bored and had nothing to do.

There is a list in the Book of  Knowledge of items of true power - but no directions.

Hey, I've explored Blanka's newbieland in a perfectly legit way! :P