Thordin Report post Posted July 2, 2006 As a reply on scandium's request for formulae in new ency, Entropy has replied... These new items are advanced items, new players can't use them anyway.Which is why we want some surprise in the game as well. Which brougth an idea of mine. It would be nice, if these formulae remain hidden and only access to them (for limited time of course, let's say 2-4 weeks after update) was via NPC scattered in Illirion. That would encourage exploring and teamwork in guilds. (along with beautiful screenshots to personal collections ) If it's not possible for any reason, pretend I didn't say anything Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trollson Report post Posted July 3, 2006 Whose to say secret formulae are not already out there?... I think what you suggest is what is going to happen through contents. To take the idea a bit further: It would be interesting to have some formulae which are never published, but could be discovered. Characters would have to experiement to discover them. Though there are problems with doing this with the current mixing system; a lack of feedback for one. Either the ingredients form a correct recipe, or they don't. Finding a hidden formula would just be a rather tedious process of trying every set of ingredients; not really fun. It wouldn't be too hard to add some feedback though; rather than just having ingredients being valid or invalid, apply a bit of fuzzy logic; a distance measure to the closest valid forumula (1). When characters get close, stuff happens, giving some feedback (an interesting message, a chance to lose ingredients, or produce an item on-the-cheap). So, characters' discover a secret formula: If they then published it for all to see, then the secret would just become another common item; and such things are hard to add into the game. The formula would have to be significant enough that players want to keep it a secret... (1) Plenty of distance metrics which can be made to do this job. If this needs to be more restrictive, then only determine distances against formula the character has knowledge & nexus of (this could be a general rule). Characters would have to find the hidden book of some knowledge before they could search for the right recipe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cycloonx Report post Posted July 3, 2006 The formula should be somewhere in a book on c2, contests are a little unfair for the people who aren't on on that moment and have a fair chance to never know the ingreds of no one tells them ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thordin Report post Posted July 3, 2006 The formula should be somewhere in a book on c2, contests are a little unfair for the people who aren't on on that moment and have a fair chance to never know the ingreds of no one tells them ... Agreed, it should be some hidden secret books scattered around all Illirion to explore it, maybe most of them on new maps? Contests are very good and splendid to take part in them, however, only small fraction of players will be present when it will happen, which is not fair IMO, for all players live in different time zones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LabRat Report post Posted July 3, 2006 Players find the new formulae, normally entire guilds go mixing random items until they are found. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cycloonx Report post Posted July 3, 2006 Players find the new formulae, normally entire guilds go mixing random items until they are found. it can get difficult though if there is like 1 weird item in the ingreds no one would ever try, or let's say 50fe, who in godsname will try 1fe, 2fe, 3f, ... 50fe? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kalach Report post Posted July 3, 2006 Players find the new formulae, normally entire guilds go mixing random items until they are found. it can get difficult though if there is like 1 weird item in the ingreds no one would ever try, or let's say 50fe, who in godsname will try 1fe, 2fe, 3f, ... 50fe? 1,2,3,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1000 is usually a decent starting pattern, if you're sure FE would be involved, and the other person is not trying to be purposefully obtuse. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thordin Report post Posted July 3, 2006 Players find the new formulae, normally entire guilds go mixing random items until they are found. it can get difficult though if there is like 1 weird item in the ingreds no one would ever try, or let's say 50fe, who in godsname will try 1fe, 2fe, 3f, ... 50fe? 1,2,3,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1000 is usually a decent starting pattern, if you're sure FE would be involved, and the other person is not trying to be purposefully obtuse. Did you possibly tried to find a correct formula for for example c2 telering you didn't know the recipe? This is insane! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanyel Report post Posted July 3, 2006 (edited) Trying to guess the formula is insane, good luck for those who want to try, though. Madmen were worshipped in some cultures... Edited July 3, 2006 by Gilean Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cycloonx Report post Posted July 4, 2006 Trying to guess the formula is insane, good luck for those who want to try, though. Madmen were worshipped in some cultures... lol, that's why they worship me irl Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trollson Report post Posted July 4, 2006 Searching out formulae... This is where it would have been wonderful to include short notes in hyperspace bags. Would have made for great treasure hunts, with the final bag containing the knowledge book, and others containing clues or titbits of information: "it takes 17 items to make", "use lots of fire", "Mydrain mixed in water and lost his life". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thordin Report post Posted July 4, 2006 You want to tell me, that after you read KNOWledge book, you DON'T KNOW, how to make certain item? It is not written in that knowledge book? I think, that the books are containing both PROCESS and INGREDIENTS to create certain item, don't you think so? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trollson Report post Posted July 4, 2006 You want to tell me, that after you read KNOWledge book, you DON'T KNOW, how to make certain item? It is not written in that knowledge book? I think, that the books are containing both PROCESS and INGREDIENTS to create certain item, don't you think so? Read what I wrote again: "...the final bag containing the knowledge book." Not all items require knowledge, so scattering clues and titbits is one way to introduce the recipe without either directly publishing it, or relying on pot luck experimentation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
