Abominable Low men on 11/16/2011 07:04 AM CST
Links-arrows 1
Reply Reply
with abominably low locks.

Krag yetis appear not to have had their locks upgraded when they were given 50 extra levels. It shouldn't be necessary to degrade picks to get merely modest experience from like level critter boxes. (you can't get good experience from degraded picks because they are so flimsy)

Locks down around 200 is far too low for critters in the 70s.

-350 is about the minimum that is reasonable for a critter of that level designed to have dead easy locks. (hard critters are up at the 700-900 lock range at this level)

I know there are quite a few critters with abnormally low locks after level revisions, which have been sitting there for ages due to the abandoned lock and trap review, but this one is so far out it really ought to be remedied even in the absence of a general review.
Reply Reply
Re: Abominable Low men on 11/22/2011 03:00 AM CST
Links-arrows 2
Reply Reply
>I know there are quite a few critters with abnormally low locks after level revisions, which have been sitting there for ages due to the abandoned lock and trap review, but this one is so far out it really ought to be remedied even in the absence of a general review.

I agree that they have lower quality locks than one would expect, but not amazingly so. Perhaps not ideal, but they are not far enough outside the norm to take a more detailed look before a general lockpicking review.
Reply Reply
Re: Abominable Low men on 11/22/2011 05:27 AM CST
Links-arrows 3
Reply Reply
Locks of -200 are amazingly below the norm for level 70 critters. I don't know exactly what their range is but I've had several very basic locks off them. This is about right for low end locks off a level 25 critter. A level 70 critter with the attributes of a level 25 critter is amazingly low. I don't think I've seen a very basic lock off a like level critter since the level 30-40 giants, which themselves have abominably low locks due to being upgraded in level without having had their lock range changed.

These locks are so low that they penalise training in lockpicking.

The less training you have, the more experience you will get all the way down to 1x.

Characters should not take experience penalties for like level hunting.

-400 as the low end would be low quality locks which are less than ideal, but once they get below -350, like level smiths are taking experience penalties for training lockpicking, and that shouldn't ever be happening.

150 below that is not less than ideal, its grotesque.
Reply Reply
Re: Abominable Low men on 11/22/2011 03:14 PM CST
Links-arrows 4
Reply Reply
My anecdotal observations from when I used to pick more...

Glacier and stone valley locks/traps have a tendency to be on the low side of the scale, all of which had an upswing in level way back when. Eidolons are particularly difficult in comparison to other creatures of like level for whatever reason. While yeti boxes didn't seem to improve, minotaurs certainly did with Magi having traps near the top of the scale at times. The Scatter boxes are mildly unimpressive despite being the now-highest level area in the game in comparison to the difficulty of Nelemar boxes.

Nothing particularly useful to add except that we already have a pretty solid setback at gaining XP vs. the TP investment to fully 3x picking and disarming. Below average locks for a given level certainly don't help the situation.

The L behind the Laphrael

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a shoe.

http://www.gsguide.net/index.php?title=Laphrael
Reply Reply
Re: Abominable Low men on 11/23/2011 05:19 AM CST
Links-arrows 5
Reply Reply
I don't think they get anywhere near LM rep range either, not unless you train 1x or under.

They don't help the NPC situtation either. People are paying about 1k per box less than they ought to.
Reply Reply
Re: Abominable Low men on 11/28/2011 12:34 PM CST
Links-arrows 6
Reply Reply
I changed my mind on the experience value. I am actually getting more experience off those low locks than I thought I would. I'll go along with Finros and say "less than ideal" is a fair description of those locks for exp generating purposes. They might even be generating more experience than a typical like level critter box should because its a lot less risky to go for the top experience with a copper rather than a vaalin lockpick. I still say they are abominably low for NPC cost and LM rep reasons.
Reply Reply