Quote (HoneyBadger @ 26 Apr 2018 00:50)
I don't remember a time when the system was as you describe and I think I was playing when catacombs were added. Although admittedly I mostly played Arena til it was removed. (RIP Arena RIP MCC :cry: )
As I recall prior to the 3D maze system the most used tactic was "Blacking" were the driver would find a long straight section in the maze to run back and forth over the black previously explored spaces to spawn waves of mobs.
This method was used primarily because with an unskilled or lazy driver the group can level up much faster than exploring but also because it dodged Ep's especially Seven Shamans which often caused them to reform the group sometimes losing players. Strong groups could handle shamans but they were seen as a waste of time, the attitude was "good items never drop and an undeserving noob gets them when they do."
When the 3D maze visualization was added the driving controls were changed as you were now "facing" in a given direction. Players could just rotate the direction they were facing to spawn waves by repeated turning left or right "spinning." Some people got dizzy from the watching the spinning maze and complained which brought us the
whistle.
The point of mentioning this is that given a choice the majority of players choose the fastest easiest route possible despite the reduced rewards, heck white items for the well did not even drop when "blacking"
Given a choice between waiting 2 hours for a group to form followed by a 2 hour climb most players would still take that option over a 4 hour solo or duo. (times specified are just used make a point)
History aside taking away the random spawns on prexplored spaces defeats the whole purpose of the both the maze and random teleport spins and makes rooms mostly pointless.
Presently some of the community including myself actively hunt for mazes with rooms, enjoy events and farm or
buy maps with bonuses to EP's and Rooms.Pay attention and drive intelligently if you want to minimize those "trash" spawns and accept that randomness happens, maze complexity varies & some spins are good or bad.
Allowing mostly elite players to farm EP's faster while paying less attention the game does not help new players outside of some strange trickle down economics argument.
New players can play just fine with gear they find or buy for cheap what they can't do is play with people that refuse to play with them.Thanks to the recent update
you can now buy whites and fight just well bosses for the drops if you want. Plenty of 70 to 100ee items from wells you could donate to new players.
Also a change to Trap Doors was recently suggested. Paul seemed receptive to the idea. Basically altering the mechanics so that rather than primarily just being a difficulty increase, drops in TD's would better reflect the greater challenge. I think this would be a better version of what you are seeking that adds to the game rather than subtracts.
Reading this post you can easily tell that it was written with SC players in mind with complete disregard for those players on HC.
Bolded PointsFirst point - The majority of players choosing the fastest option with reduced rewards are SC players that only care about gaining GPs
Second point - Maps on HC both dont exist and if they do are horded. They never hit the open market. With the whole 5-7 players on HC the chance a decent map drops that isnt lvl 0 req is so minor you can almost consider it impossible.
Third point - Any new HC players better be ready for bufcore or spending a pretty penny. No MQ gear even of mediocre variety exists readily accessible if at all.
Forth point - I check the market for whites every day when I log in... Yesterday I saw the first white in almost a week appear... it was a t1 dagger... Nobody on HC sells whites so we most definitely cant "just buy whites and boss if we choose"
Something needs to be done to either reduce the number of actions required to traverse the black space or add in mobs worth fighting (EPs) into the black space. Before he changed the directional movement system to 3D you hit a corner and the very next action you were on to unexplored space again. Now we have to turn then go forward which requires two actions. Some might say oh its just one more action but that single movement action can spawn 1-9 more enemies which means it could account for like 15% of a level and you didnt even make progress. You just turned 90 degrees to be facing the right way. Now look at something like this:
12 spaces takes 24 actions to traverse. Thats 24 chances to spawn enemies. This little walkway could give you enough xp to do a full level or more depending how large of a group you are playing with and the number of mobs that spawn. Now if you consider that a bad spin could land you over 50 spaces away not including any turns you have to take. Im sure everyone has had spins that take several levels to make it back to unexplored space. Rooms definitely helped with that problem but only because before a bad spin was a map killer.