Obscuration Potion

[NiteHawk]

The Obscuration Potion was introduced in the last update, it's a potion that when used, means a person cannot be tracked for a certain amount of time. The person is NOT invisible and still can be seen in a room like normal. The potion lasts for two minutes and costs 200 gold. They are stackable up to three.

Tracking times all still the same, though we talked about nerfing it, in the end we did not, and you can still track for 5 minutes.

I like these, they are staying, but we can balance them in terms of time, cost, and even stack amounts. To be honest even now they are a bit expensive to happily drink constantly.

So people, what should be the duration, cost, and stack amounts of these? I'd like to make sure they are balanced and fair for everyone.

[NiteHawk]

Made into a poll.

[Lateralus]

I'm not a super big fan of these but if they have to stay I guess I say lower to 1 min nonstack and 100 gold. Keeping the price low imo helps the actual noobs who need them so there is no point pricing the potions out of their range.

idk how much it will really help I mean you can get pretty far outta town to go level in 1 min. It's not like people are drinking these while leveling just for getting from town to leveling or wherever they are going I guess.

[NiteHawk]

I'm not a super big fan of these but if they have to stay I guess I say lower to 1 min nonstack and 100 gold. Keeping the price low imo helps the actual noobs who need them so there is no point pricing the potions out of their range.

idk how much it will really help I mean you can get pretty far outta town to go level in 1 min. It's not like people are drinking these while leveling just for getting from town to leveling or wherever they are going I guess.

You contradict yourself though. If you aren't a fan of these it sounds like it matters, but then state it's not such a big deal for 1 minute --What's the actual issue of having the item? 8)

I don't think it's fair that a slayer can hunt all newbies for 5 minutes either with no way to combat it, just to state. But to be honest I don't think it hurts pking as much as people say either because they aren't exactly cheap.

[Lissy]

I see these as more realistically useful for OADs than for avoiding PKers because it doesn't save from a simple visual inspection of an area. For that reason, I chose the option for 1 min/100g/not stackable - I view it as something you use strategically. I would probably choose to price them higher, though, so it doesn't become a default tactic and instead adds variability to the game. I'm not worried about pricing noobs out because I don't think this is really a useful tactic for them to routinely avoid PKers anyway. It should be treated and priced as a luxury item.

[Reaper]

I see these as more realistically useful for OADs than for avoiding PKers because it doesn't save from a simple visual inspection of an area. For that reason, I chose the option for 1 min/100g/not stackable - I view it as something you use strategically. I would probably choose to price them higher, though, so it doesn't become a default tactic and instead adds variability to the game. I'm not worried about pricing noobs out because I don't think this is really a useful tactic for them to routinely avoid PKers anyway. It should be treated and priced as a luxury item.

In a test of these new potions when there were over 30 people online and quite a few people lvling. I went from Dreadlands to Refinery to Drevlar and never saw one track. I veered from the road slightly in each area but did not go deep into the lvling areas, as I was just testing the likely hood of finding someone running around. They very much help lower levels, and like I said that's fine. It just sucks quite a bit of fun from the game from us few pkers. I think it's great for the game as it's a bit more pve friendly now, and that seems to be what most people want.

I personally found a lot of fun in finding a random track and slowly autosneaking around trying to find them. Now, you simply have to run around every square in the game trying to find someone and you don't even know when to autosneak, so they just run when you enter the square.

It really was a major nerf to pking despite what some of you that don't pk may think. I do think that if they are def staying in the game, that making them not stack would be a lot of help. I still hates them though lol.

[Lissy]

Absolutely true that I don't PK much. There are lots of variables that could effect one test run though (novelty of potion, people spending more time within one area and not crossing crossroads very much, etc). Would you be willing to do a few more test runs? If you don't find anyone, you can PK me as a consolation prize.

[Reaper]

I should have been more specific. My tests were for lvling areas. You can find tracks going from town to town, because no reason to hide your tracks doing that. Outside of the town areas however I never saw one track going into the lvling areas.

You really only need one potion to be effective, and I think that's what Lat was saying. Whether it's two minutes, one minute, stacks, or doesn't stack. The effectiveness is the same. You quaff one potion, run to your lvling area, and you just hang out there and lvl all day. Once you are there you don't really need another one because no one can find you unless they are running around every square in every lvling area looking.

I'm not saying you can never pk because of these potions, it was just a huge nerf to it. Which really sucks, because the chance of actually getting a pk isn't super high to begin with even if you do find someone.

I know a lot of people that have been pk'ed or don't do it think that we just find you and boom your dead. The problem is that 80% of the time you HAVE to land two backstabs to kill someone. This doesn't happen as often as people might think lol.

[Lissy]

Would it be possible/beneficial to make the potions last a certain number of squares, or a much shorter length, so they were more tactical rather than a blanket protection?

I do think it is important to confirm the problem by trying multiple runs at different times, after the novelty of the potion wears off, etc. I would do this but I don't have a slayer yet (I also have never been PKed (except by Tyrargo...), though, so I don't really have a horse in this race).

[Reaper]

I think it's just something I'm going to have to get used to. I appreciate that NH is looking into balancing them a bit more. Also, having them not stack is a very nice idea. I personally wish they weren't a part of the game, but that is one person in a sea of people lol. I'm not over here /tableflipping or anything about it. I think the square idea is kinda cool and makes them more tactical instead of time based. It would also help with the oad aspect of the potions as well. That might be a pain to implement though so might not be worth the effort.


Also suggested by discussions in discord... What if they were stackable but worked kind of like a flashpot(not the invis part just the idea) in Rok. For instance they only lasted like 10 seconds. That would make them more of a tactical item. They could be used for quick escapes or veering from the roads into lvling areas. You could get creative with them like using autosneak to confuse people where you went.