Orc head bounty system

gDarDog

Feels a bit too good to be true to me. It pays out gold/xp dropped per each head and every orc on the 7-10 quest drops a head. You could probably get an extra 500xp + 1000gp if you are bothered to collect them all. I would suggest lowering the benefits of it, or just remove the item drop from this quest specifically as the mobs are massive.

Calantar's Cave (7-10)
Party Size: 2-10
Quest Giver: Mr Blisterfoot, located in Calantar's Road, Blisterfoot Inn

Cadiz

could make it so only ritualists dropped heads so there is some bonus xps/gps for collection to help those high level wand/potion crafters

Swifty Willownall

I thought this was part of a DM event or something!

Can confirm, you can 100% pick up all the heads. There's at -least- 100 orcs on that quest and at 5 exp each, it's a huge bonus of gold and exp.

I think the gold/xp bonus from the bounties is capped at 250 xp 500 gp. But it's still an additional boost. That said it's not a very rewarding quest so this is really the only upside for it right now.

Echo

Should probably remove them from the quest spawns if possible. That might mean making all new ones for the quest since I think they use the same ones as in CARES.

Will take a look at it. For now, I guess, dont pick up heads from orc quests. And I'd also add dont pick up orc heads from DM events without DM permission.

Acemvi

I sort of thought that was the whole point of this quest. It’s otherwise a mindless slog where you just go from room to room in a fairly linear fashion.

I don’t know if this is intentional design (surely not) but very few quests have reasons to do them despite difficulty or length due to standardized XP and gold rewards. Getting rid of the heads entirely instead of putting a simple cap on them just makes it more likely people will never touch it (like Ants).

The questing experience in CoA is already dire, let’s not artificially lengthen the time needed to invest in it by nerfing every additional source of XP.

My recommendation would be to reduce the number of mobs (and therefore heads) but make them tougher to compensate if need be. I’d still do this even if I was only getting 500 XP for turning in the heads (after all of them are funneled to my PC).

Dire Rabbit

@acemvi said in Orc head bounty system:

I sort of thought that was the whole point of this quest. It’s otherwise a mindless slog where you just go from room to room in a fairly linear fashion.

I don’t know if this is intentional design (surely not) but very few quests have reasons to do them outside despite difficulty or length due to standardized XP and gold rewards. Getting rid of the heads entirely instead of putting a simple cap on them just makes it more likely people will never touch it instead (like Ants).

The questing experience in CoA is already dire, let’s not artificially lengthen the time needed to invest in it by needing every source of XP.

My recommendation would be to reduce the number of mobs (and therefore heads) but make them tougher to compensate if need be. I’d still do this even if I was only getting 500 XP for turning in the heads (after all of them are funneled to my PC).

I agree with basically everything in this post.

@echo An easier fix than this would be just removing the XP from the bounty I guess, but it seems like a bit of a non issue to me. It just makes this quest that lacks in loot compared to some others have a reason to be worthwhile.

foley

@acemvi said in Orc head bounty system:

I sort of thought that was the whole point of this quest. It’s otherwise a mindless slog where you just go from room to room in a fairly linear fashion.

I don’t know if this is intentional design (surely not) but very few quests have reasons to do them outside despite difficulty or length due to standardized XP and gold rewards. Getting rid of the heads entirely instead of putting a simple cap on them just makes it more likely people will never touch it instead (like Ants).

The questing experience in CoA is already dire, let’s not artificially lengthen the time needed to invest in it by needing every source of XP.

My recommendation would be to reduce the number of mobs (and therefore heads) but make them tougher to compensate if need be. I’d still do this even if I was only getting 500 XP for turning in the heads (after all of them are funneled to my PC).

Ace brings up a lot of good points. The bounty system is a really nice way to help the awful high level questing experience. Instead of removing it, why not just limit how many things drop in the quest?

The real problem would be more that a group could give them all to one PC and powerlevel them.

Puffy

Its unlikely to be removed, we just dont want it to be silly crazy amounts.

Cadiz

https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/56155/desert-gobbos/4

the additional goblins aadded to this quest after that bug report now has them dropping loads of ears there too

Echo

Will adjust gp/xp payout next time I do mod work if no one gets to it before then.

Open to suggestions for how much each it should pay.

JoeKickAss

@echo said in Orc head bounty system:

Will adjust gp/xp payout next time I do mod work if no one gets to it before then.

Open to suggestions for how much each it should pay.

I personally would hold off until more bounties are included.

It's kind of the point of the bounty system - to go to dangerous areas and get xp/gold.

Ethika

@joekickass yea I agree with this, add some more scary creatures like beholders in the underground tunnel/stone lands. Add bodaks to deadwell etc etc and have these scary fellas drop a decent bounty item

Echo

@joekickass said in Orc head bounty system:

I personally would hold off until more bounties are included.

Why? I change 1 number in a script now instead of waiting weeks or months for new creatures to be added.

JoeKickAss

@echo said in Orc head bounty system:

@joekickass said in Orc head bounty system:

I personally would hold off until more bounties are included.

Why? I change 1 number in a script now instead of waiting weeks or months for new creatures to be added.

because at least we can hunt orcs right now

Sparr0w

Some suggestions:

Remove the turn in xp and let the xp reward come from the bounty turn-in.

Or reduce the quest level from 10 to 9.

Could also increase the party requirement.

I think removing the quest turn in is the wrong way to go. This will still mean the quest is imbalanced, in favour of certain members of the party looting and having more room in packs, etc. Some players could be unaware of the bounty entirely, or not find it worth the trouble to pick them up.

I still maintain it's not really even worth changing, but if you do want to change it I think just removing the bounty items from quests would be the best idea, as that was you can ensure things are still scripted to be even and spread appropriately.

Swifty Willownall

It's important to keep in mind too that bounty values do not decrease based on level, or even ECL. An orc head to a level 9 PC is far more valuable than to a level 4 PC.

HellzYeah

I have to say that removing heads (or the bounty for heads) from this quest will place it solidly in the "Not worth" category for me.

It's boring, there's no lore besides the cringe dialogue at the start and absolutely nothing inside the quest other than "There are orcs in a cave."
The loot is largely worthless, and there's not really any gold or consumable loot to make up for it.
It's mostly just a slog through encounter after encounter with very little else going on for it.