"Classed" hunting/fishing contests

[croli]

Since the outcome of both the hunting and fishing contest seem somehow predefined according to who is attending (be a level 100 and get the prize) I propose the following:

1. there should be classes. Maybe four, maybe more, and divided by level (cut at 25, 50, 75 for example)
2. there are winners in each class, and the prizes are different. While highbies (level 75 and above) get a nice-looking trophy cup, the lower classes get really useful equipment, like a nice spear, a nice fishing rod or something like that
3. hunting and fishing are different things, but there is no reason (except for different coders perhaps ) to have Astug and Degtog differ by that much. Degtog should tell us how much time we have left, for instance. Also the hunting contest has a 15 minute "warning period", while fishing begins almost instantly (3 minutes). And in hunting there are more people getting exp than in fishing, which is double-dumb because fishing is a low-exp activity to begin with and therefore (in my eyes) should be rewarded more... see the orienteering contest as an example.

Hope some wizard finds time to implement these ideas. I think they would make these contests more popular.

[croli]

Forgot this one: make Degtog and Astug "keep" the score at least until reboot, telling people that "Sorry you missed it, but the final scores for the contest were...[long list]".

[minny]

Well if players really wanted to have a chance to win these contests, then maybe they should go and join the fishing/hunting guild. What if there was just 1 player in a particular group that participated? That's a guaranteed prize for the player...

[croli]

Well if players really wanted to have a chance to win these contests, then maybe they should go and join the fishing/hunting guild. What if there was just 1 player in a particular group that participated? That's a guaranteed prize for the player...

Well, that's all nice and dandy for you, but I first started winning the fishing contest when I was on at odd times (that is when Thakkrad and Mila were not participating ), and I wasn't in the fishing/hunting guild then (meaning it was after my reinc from militia to ranger). I never stood a chance when I was a lowbie with 3 levels in both fishing and hunting. At least for me as a ranger these 9 levels would have been totally wasted time and money.

So much for that.

Oh, and as for the "guaranteed victory", well, that is how it should be, shouldn't it? It would at least be better than winning the orienteering contest and killing Treltag before anybody else comes and claims second and third price Anyway, you can't be against contests because it could be possible that there's only one participant, that has happened quite often in both the rat epidemy and the archery contest.

Also look at point two in my idea: do we really want highbies to win every time and get even more of what makes them win? Do we really need Thakkrad (to take an arbitrary example) to walk around with a +130 spear of hunting? No, I have no idea if he has such a thing, but I heard some rumours about what you could win if you got the chance. Since I created my first character here in december 2002 only very few who were not lvl90+ have won the hunting contest, and mostly because the lvl90+ players just weren't on or didn't bother.

So, I still think it's a neat idea

[felgand]

First of all, it is not possible to get an effective +30% hunting item from the hunting event, nor anything remotely close to that. Besides, it is possible to create a hunter character that has much higher hunting skills than could currently be done through special equipment, and that is not beyond any player over say...level 25. Secondly, when you base an event off a couple of skills and stats, it's simply natural that higher level players have an advantage, an unavoidable skewing of results. I disagree with Croli's suggestion, it artificially favors folks at the top of their tier (levels 24, 49, 74, etc.) and would cause the same "problem", albeit on a smaller scale. In fact, I think the only change necessary would be to increase the exp bonus for hunted and trapped animals during the event. That would already garner enough popularity for joining in the contest.

[iluth]

I'm with Croli on this one, even though i'm a decent hunter, i will never do as well as a templar dragging an air priest behind him, but i don't think the events should be split into classes, just balanced up a bit better.

The player who lands the last hit gets the weight for the creature, so the templar hunts over on the glacier until he gets a mammoth, the healer just heals so there's no way he's going to land the killing blow, he's just happy to be there for the exp. This is how sriel and mila end up with those massive hunting scores which nobody else can compete with. Basically if you can't solo it, it shouldn't count as hunted.

If it was made so you couldn't join a party if you signed up to the event, it would make the event based on skills and stats and stuff again. Rangers do in theory have advantages when it comes to at least finding animals, because they get to train rural concealment, move silently and hide in shadows higher than any other guilds. But mammoths and air priests negate those advantages.

[felgand]

I'd place my bets on Sriel and Mila soloing a mammoth...it's not really that hard to do. In fact many classes, if not all of them, are able to do it with reasonable ability with that amount of exp, skills, blessings ...and let's not forget the almighty mounts at their disposal.

[iluth]

I'd place my bets on Sriel and Mila soloing a mammoth...it's not really that hard to do. In fact many classes, if not all of them, are able to do it with reasonable ability with that amount of exp, skills, blessings ...and let's not forget the almighty mounts at their disposal.

Maybe they can solo a mammoth, if they can kill enough to win the event then that's fair. But it's obvious when soembody nails 3 mammoths within 1 hour of the hunt event starting that they're not soloing them. Especially if you use the pwho command and see them winning the event while partied with an air priest

I'm sure the wizards are aware of all this stuff already but don't see it as enough of a "problem" as long as people participate in events it doesnt really matter who wins.

[oren]

I really really like this idea and hope it gets some serious consideration. I don't know how many times I've been in a fishing contest, and actually have a chance to place, when a high level player (70+) happens to log on with around 20 minutes left in the contest and ends up winning or placing high in it. Now I realize these players have put some serious time into the game, and deserve to beable to get perks by winning contests like that, but it is frustrating for lower and mid-level players. I think a class system like this would be a great solution. Just my 2 bits.

[allanon]

How about a "can't win the event twice in a row" rule be implemented? If someone gets in first place for fish/hunt event twice in a row, they get recognition (in the scores), but no actual prize...maybe just a large exp reward or such. Then everyone else moves up a rank for prizes -
2nd 1st, 3rd 2nd, etc...

Used in addition to classing system, it would give even more people a chance to win...and it would give more of a "shuffle" to who tends to win in each class. So instead of the same lv100 player winning the event every time, that person can only win every second event...and whoever usually comes in second can get first.

Of course if someone knows they can't get the prize, even if they come in first, that might discourage them from joining in the first place...since there are better ways to make exp...but then again that is good for everyone else participating, right?

Edit:

Occurred to me it would probably make more sense to just make it so a player can't get a prize if they place the same as they did last time. Ie. if you place third twice in a row, you'll only get the prize first time; second time you get exp-reward instead. Then in Event 2, whoever came in fourth gets the third place prize.

A player could do 1st-2nd-1st-2nd repeatedly, or some similar pattern, but that means that they get a bit worse prize for every second event anyways...

Oh, and of course the exp-reward is higher depending on what place you got in (the second time).

(I hope someone out there can make some sense out of this...I'm at a loss for better words to explain it.)

[arthor]

yup, good points.

[apex]

The thing is, for those lvl 100's that are winning every time, that EXP-award would be near useless- they are mostly exp-capped anyway.

[khade]

so make it a choice between an exp award and a large pile of money

[solar]

The thing is, for those lvl 100's that are winning every time, that EXP-award would be near useless- they are mostly exp-capped anyway.

AND

How about a "can't win the event twice in a row" rule be implemented?

It only takes one mammoth to win an event, and Thakkrad leaves them often alone.

You don't have to solo the animals, you can have a party to bring them down, afaik!

So stop whining and trying to take all the fun out of the events. Those events aren't daily, you know, so any rule to discourage winning should be flushed down the toilet!

And there is already a money prize implemented if you are bright enough to skin your kills.

Sigh.

[artic]

ok, so instead of a lvl 100 winning the event, someone close to the top of yur class will win. so if theres a class 10-25 lvl, and u are lvl 15 you might still feel a bit disadvantaged. However being 10 levels away from the guy who won might feel a bit more encouraging than being 60 levels away.

So just to make newbies feel like 'oh, just 2 more levels and i can win next event' i think its a good idea.