I feel like it was last summer that bloodworms came to crocodiles on the NTR. Whatever the timing, it has been some time. I figured I would try to hunt the marsh today, and found that the area continues to be too challenging for me. This is particularly frustrating because I started hunting crocs almost 4 years ago, and I still cannot be in the area safely. I am also unhappy that the hunting ground, which I thought was one of the best in the game for younger characters, has been relegated to characters of significant circle who want to backtrain weapons, and further train already notable first aid ranks.

I am a cleric, and I've never really kept pet bleeders, so i only have 93 ranks of FA. I realize there are folks my circle (43) with many more than that, but I still don't think there are many characters of the circles who would want to hunt crocs who have that. I have 24 agility and 80 skinning, and using a knife it took me a number of attempts to remove a non-engorged bloodworm, each incurring a 27-30 second roundtime. Even engorged bloodworms took several attempts, though the roundtime was only once 30 seconds, usually being 10-12 seconds.

The ease with which I was afflicted with the worms continues to seem out of line, in my opinion. In moving through 8 rooms, I got 3 bloodworms. I do not believe I would have survived this with 26 stamina had there not been empaths on the stone road. I would not mind the worms if I could hunt for 20 minutes before I had to leave the swamp to wait for them to become engourged, but I didn't see any crocs before I saw the worms.

I am frustrated that shortly after the area was adjusted to include water and the worms, we heard that the difficulty would be reviewed, but I have not percieved any significant adjustment. I would assume this means GMs are happy with the area, after so much time has passed. I continue to have these stated concerns and would ask is this area is indeed going to stay as it is or are changes planned, or at least possible?

Such suggestions as a simple decrease in the difficulty and frequency of the worms would be one way to solve my worries. Another idea was to segregate the swamp such that there are areas where young (or not so young) hunters can be free of worms, but can hunt and learn the swimming, both of which seem geared to a lower level.

I would love to have an area, close to the "core" areas of Haven and Crossing where young hunters are concentrated, in which characters can train swimming and first aid through the practicioner ranks toward ardent levels in a hunting enviroment. The natural learning that comes of hunting grounds with incorporated survival challenges is, in my mind, vastly superior to pet bleeders, and dedicated swimming training in a repetitious manner. I do not, however, feel that crocs currently works toward this end, as it could.

Thank you for your consideration.

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-Gheist

I tried this shortly after Damissak increased the gen rate to make this a more workable solution, but found that the rate was still painfully slow. In any case, i recieved a blood worm on my first move after "go reed" in both attempts to use this technique today. :(

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-Gheist

>That's really strange, Gheist, because I move around in crocs a lot, and have only gotten more than one worm on me once.

After a long break from DR, I came back and went to crocs one day to find the area quite different. Errm, had many more than one on me before I died :(

Tulkas

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>You have generously given away 0 awards to other characters.

hmm, i think they must prefer human to dwarf. They seem to go after my human paladin much more than my dwarven cleric. you'd think the armor would stop 'em from biting... but it doesnt...


~ The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
That which hath been is that
which shall be,
And that which hath been done is that
which shall be done;
And there is nothing new under the sun.

>which I thought was one of the best in the game for younger characters

Devil's Advocate here:
I want to remind you that before the worms infested the marsh, there were a series of critter changes, and currently, crocs are more difficult in terms of defense training that snowbeasts. After I topped out learning evasion in snowies, I was still able to pick up another 15 lessons in crocs before having to head onto vipers...

In a nutshell, they aren't for younger characters any longer...

Kythryn

I was hesitant to post on this since I haven't been to bloodworms since the introduction of leeches ... there well could have been tweaks to how they spawn and attach, I don't know. However, when I was doing the swamp circuit regularly my best results came from dragging along a rather high circle barbarian with considerable stamina. I made a lot of jokes about parasites being attracted to the smell of a barb but this guy was getting like five times as many worms as I was.

Our swimming skills were nearly identical as was our stamina, the biggest difference I could find was that when we were in the marsh he'd carry my bags. He would have at least some burden and I would be unburdened, I always assumed that was the key. Unless you think Towint put in hunter-specific code to make anyone in a combat guild more susceptible than empaths? Nah, he wouldn't do something like that. ::twitch::

Passionata

>Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Gah, knock it off Towint!
heh...

Kythryn, who can't wait for all the notes back from Simucon...(pouts)