Make Lady Mel Harder

[ahorton12]

and while we are at it. i think Batwings should be moved from netopir to a different beast in the new content. since it is part of the goc quest. we vets spend alot of time farming him and not needing those mice. whereas new players doing goc need the mouse. just an idea. always seemed like a wierd place for the item to drop with its other use.

[grunger]

i like the idea of lowering her drop chance and putting epic weapons for epic players. when your playing dungeons and dragons you dungeon master doesnt drop holy swords to palidens at level 1. you need to be an epic level for epic power weapons there.

This is not "dungeons and dragons". Even if u get a nice wep from lady mel, it's still a new wep, still need leveling and a lot of things to become a great wep. I kill lady mel for 2,5 years and i got like 3 good weps.

[Yoda]

I am all for leaving things how they are if it means getting the patch in and getting +V and +N working on the new projects.. then maybe re-examine things that exist.. or if yuo like we can run them in circles tweaking old stuff forever

[Alex]

I tend to like more the idea of the drop chance to be in line with the difficulty of the boss as has been mentioned and proposed. Lady Mel in my opinion is far too easy for her drop and I personally would like to see no pets and no stealth allowed. If you are too weak for Lady Mel, grind it out a bit more and eventually you will be good to enough to fight her. You will eventually get there and will be happy to see mid level and vets like you are there. People should not be sending messages "can someone please help me with Lady Mel". Its a 7 mins walk just to watch someone get a 4x58 and/or an imp that he/she doesn't even deserve.

I would also like to see also a 10 second hide max at Lady Mel similar to the new Oaks. No need to hide there. If you need to go log out. Avoids potential conflict in who's turn it is.

With regard to investing in pets, they are still needed to complete GOC. No need to kill Mel in 2 minutes vs 10 minutes. Doesn't make her spawn faster!

[Isaac Newton]

Hear, hear! It's an outrage that us little people have that small chance of getting a good weapon from Lady Mel! And batwings? A travesty that some of us peasants might actually get to loot the shoes needed for god-mode. Those things sell for millions of gold. Something like that should clearly be moved to content only available to people who already have those shoes plus hundreds of millions of gold pieces worth of other gear.

This is just what Excelsior (or any shard) needs, veterans complaining that somebody else has some small chance of getting good gear.

Isaac Newton

[Alex]

Neither Imps dropped at Mel or Batwings dropped by Neptopir are needed to be considered endgame. More endgame items such as SOT or Bone Crusher are dropped in Doom Gauntlet. That place was meant and remains an early to mid level player spot. SOT, Jackals Collar sell for 2 million, Bone Crusher 1 million, while an Imp in crystal for 700k. From a gold standpoint Doom gauntlet exceeds Lady Mel, especially for the mid level players. 4x46 or 3x58 sell for around 750k to about 2 million depending on the stats and their drop is rare. The even RARER chance a 5x46 or 4x58 drops is so rare that it doesnt make economic sense to go to Lady Mel if you are looking to make gold. However, she is a peerless boss and does have a chance to drop an end game weapon so in turn her difficulty should be according to that.

[krypto]

Hear, hear! It's an outrage that us little people have that small chance of getting a good weapon from Lady Mel! And batwings? A travesty that some of us peasants might actually get to loot the shoes needed for god-mode. Those things sell for millions of gold. Something like that should clearly be moved to content only available to people who already have those shoes plus hundreds of millions of gold pieces worth of other gear.

This is just what Excelsior (or any shard) needs, veterans complaining that somebody else has some small chance of getting good gear.

Isaac Newton

+1

Btw my acc is 850 days old, i like playing here, but i dont invest neither large amounts of time neither large donations on monthly basis. I play aprox one hour a day and mel is one of mobs i kill occasonally. I probabilly killed her 200 times, with pets, bio and solo, and i NEVER got 4x58 or 5x46, even 4x46 i got only once, which tells u drops are really rare or i m really out of luck if its so common as some would like to picture. I like her the way she is, so basically anyone that has his way to get in there can kill her if he knows how to.
Same goes for other peerles monsters. Never got rare wep out of travesty, NEITHER the DOG, even tho i killed her about 100 times.

Just my 50 cents and please do not kill the game, cause last days i think some things go that way.

[Nightstarwolf]

The usual, wrong way...
In the moment, the even already overpowered players get bored, a cry for making things harder is heared.
Like the richest man crys for more money....
They totally forget (or maybe dont want to know), there are more than just 5 ppl on the shard and the shard does not exist, to make those 5 ppl happy.

Lots of mobs are far too hard for medium players, becourse they lack on the high EQ.
Getting that EQ is mostly just possible by paying millions and millions to those, who get them easy by their tons-relayered EQ.
And exact those cry for harder mobs. *headshake*

The game is already out of balance really, not need to push it more and more into the wrong direction.

Truly said, I would make it reverse.
Making the most mobs easier to stop economy go more worse by overpricing
and also offering a fair possibility to EVRY player, to reach goals.

We all should remind, this is Ultima Online, not WoW !!

[Cornbread]

The usual, wrong way...
In the moment, the even already overpowered players get bored, a cry for making things harder is heared.
Like the richest man crys for more money....
They totally forget (or maybe dont want to know), there are more than just 5 ppl on the shard and the shard does not exist, to make those 5 ppl happy.

Lots of mobs are far too hard for medium players, becourse they lack on the high EQ.
Getting that EQ is mostly just possible by paying millions and millions to those, who get them easy by their tons-relayered EQ.
And exact those cry for harder mobs. *headshake*

The game is already out of balance really, not need to push it more and more into the wrong direction.

Truly said, I would make it reverse.
Making the most mobs easier to stop economy go more worse by overpricing
and also offering a fair possibility to EVRY player, to reach goals.

We all should remind, this is Ultima Online, not WoW !!

You're obviously missing that we all started as noobs and got the way we are by killing and farming the same mobs as everyone else does. Yes I'm one of the people that thinks it should be harder. I might go kill her once a week, if that. I've never even gotten a weapon worth looting from her. That being said every weapon I have ever used has come from Mel drops. The point of this conversation is it is ludicrous that you can stealth from entrance, avoiding all mobs, to her then pop out whatever pet you have handy and kill her in a matter of minutes. She drops up to a 4x58 weapon, imps, elven notes, ointments, a GoC item and decent gold. With a respawn timer of 30 minutes and no requirements, such as keysets, required to spawn. Even if it's not made harder a keyset should be required or a longer respawn. As previously mentioned just switch the loot tables of her and Dreadhorn would be quite an adequate solution. That way there's a keyset and a mob that's still fairly easy to kill albeit with many more HP that is still accessible to everyone and we're not removing a source of those high end loted items and weapons.

[Nightstarwolf]

How just setting such mobs with a delay-timer for the char.
Like quests have.
So Lady Mel cant be farmed like some do.

Its known, evry one started with a clean new char.
I dont see any reason to talk about something logical.
Its also not ment to make that Mob be possible for new created chars.
Noone said so.
BUT...
...also noone said, it should be more harder, so more less ppl can manage her.
Item prices will raise unneeded, economy will go more unbalanced, it is already.
IMHO, it not the prob to make mobs harder, its the prob to offer "the high guys"
something intresting to do, to avoid getting them bored.

I dont think, its needed to let 99% of the shard suffer, becourse a few dont know,
what to do.

[Dramoor]

How just setting such mobs with a delay-timer for the char.
Like quests have.
So Lady Mel cant be farmed like some do.

Its known, evry one started with a clean new char.
I dont see any reason to talk about something logical.
Its also not ment to make that Mob be possible for new created chars.
Noone said so.
BUT...
...also noone said, it should be more harder, so more less ppl can manage her.
Item prices will raise unneeded, economy will go more unbalanced, it is already.
IMHO, it not the prob to make mobs harder, its the prob to offer "the high guys"
something intresting to do, to avoid getting them bored.

I dont think, its needed to let 99% of the shard suffer, becourse a few dont know,
what to do.

You are really showing idiotic answers today with your replys to everyone. check it out "Bro"
We as vets believe we should be Entitled to some extra bonuses having purchased massive amounts of luck, and or worked our way up with relayers, Just because you think that those items should be worthless because you are new and don't have any, does not give you a case to expect that a player on day 1 to get the same chances of the end game weapon drops as the vets who put in work, and earned eds to purchase luck/relayers. So get off your I am a newbie and deserve the same as vets horse, and walk around a bit.

[fingers]

I am fine with leaving Lady Mel as easy as it is at the moment. I am also against nerfing its loot or selecting a set of skills that couldn't be used in the dungeon. As mentionned by an other player, time spent on this would be time that not spent on developping new content.

That being said, I am happy to read that +V plans to add keys that we will need to collect before summoning lady mel. IMO, it will put that peerless boss at par with most of the others (Shimmering, Paroxysmus, Dreadhorn).

Best wishes,

Polar Beard

[Nightstarwolf]

Dramoor...thx to show, what the real prob is by behave.
You think, you "bought" special rights on this shard by any reason.
Thats the real "idiotic" part, just to take your word from reply.

Noone said, a "newbie" should be able to deal with same things, a vet can.
Its hard enough as it is...no need to make it more harder, just becourse a few are bored.

If you think, you bought the right to decide, how things run on the server,
my guess you maybe choosed the wrong game or should probably start your own server.
Just becourse someone has a "new" char, doesnt mean, he/she is a newbie.
I`m fairly sure, there are some ppl around, who have more playtime in UO than you.
Just becourse they dont "buy" their world like others do, they arn`t newbies.
If you call them still that way, seem you are the "newbie".
Not to the shard for sure, my guess, but in an other way.

Things must be earned...skills, money, whatever.
So it was in old days, so it will be.
And things are need to be balanced too.
Crying for such like the threadtitle gives, is just unbalancing the game.
Sure, it may be hard for those, who nearly reached evrything,
got tons of money, best EQ and maybe deal evry mob on the shard like
peanuts, but thats just like it goes one day. Reaching the top, thats it.
If you want another goal, well the game is more than just bashing a few pixels.
Some players hold their own events, others create their own town,
just for example.
I also heared, in a MMORPG, roleplaying should be possible, if finding some friends
to do with. Oh, btw...that shortcut does not mean
(M)y(M)oney(O)ffers(R)ights(P)lus(G)oals

btt...
Reading the comments, a few nice points come out.
- making her loot accountbound
- making the area non-solo
- adjusting the loot
- solving stealth-prob
Thats far more effective than the babycry for making evrything harder over and over.

[Ilsanor]

UO in general and EX specifically has been about freedom to do what you want, in any way you want. Yet, a large portion of the 'improvements' suggested here seem to be focused on exactly the opposite.

*Locking pets out of Lady M. - Why? If someone chose to play a pet-slinging tamer and invested millions of gold into his imps then please tell me why should he be denied entry? Because it's not the preferred playstyle? Because the godmode-relayer-solo combo is better/easier/more expensive/more cool/etc.? Perhaps we should then equalize the field and disallow the use of relayers at Mel. *Then* all the vets would have it harder.

*Account-binding of the GOC items - Again - why? If I chose to get my money by mining and selling ingots and then buy myself a GOC and not bother with running around killing stuff and turning it for the gem it's my choice. I'm probably putting in as much time in getting the gold as you are in obtaining a GoC to sell. If you follow this account-binding kind of logic further we should perhaps make everything account bound - items, resources, pets and whatnot. I mean - if I can't buy a GoC, why should someone be able to buy resources to make himself a pair of Sgail pants in an hour instead of spending a week or two to get all the ingots himself? One of UO's appealing points is the lack of 'levels' and (basically) a disregard towards stats when it comes to equipment - if you can afford it, you can most often use it. Thus, if you are determined enough (or wealthy) you can skip some (or most) of the grind that makes other MMO's boring after a certain point. Heck, if you donate a few thousand bucks you can have a fully relayered char on day 1. Can you use it? Probably not. Do you get a sense of accomplishment? Again - not really. But it is possible because it's UO. Don't try to take it away just because you have "paid and played" and someone has not.

*Making Mel keyed. - That one I actually like. You limit the farming by simply upping the amount of time required for each run. Clean and efficient, as long as getting the keys doesn't turn out to be harder than killing the boss. Which can happen, since the best candidates for the key drops are the same monsters that drop GoC piece. A nice solution would be to make the Tram Grove into a "Mel farm" (mosters there would drop the keys, Lady Mel is keyed and has 'normal' drops) and Fel Grove into a "GoC farm" (mobs drop pieces, Mel is not keyed, drops the book but no imps and reduced loot table ). That way people going for one option don't interfere with the other.

*No-stealth - the idea has it's merits, but if you die you are basically forced to use the corpse stone and (if using pets) the pet summon stone. Unless you're good enough to handle an abcess without any gear.

We as vets believe we should be Entitled to some extra bonuses having purchased massive amounts of luck, and or worked our way up with relayers

It's up to +Colibri to decide what exactly you are Entitled to, but I believe that forcing other players to conform to your power standards is not one of those things. On the other hand we, the 'other players' feel that your 800+HP does not entitle you to call someone's opinions idiotic just because they are different than yours. From what I hear +Nyx and +Veritas are working tirelessly to add some new vet-specific content to keep you occupied. So please, be so kind and wait for it to happen and leave the 'regular' stuff alone for the time being. Recently it seems that the more we hear about content tailored specifically for the vets, the more the same vets cry about being bored and changing the existing stuff to fit their level of power. Just follow your own advice and be patient - you will get your content.
Also, a little side note - UO was not designed for the levels of power that relayers add. You know you are using something that the game has not been designed to handle, so don't act surprised that things are getting too easy.

[Legendaries]

Night star, you have literally cried about how new players have such a hard time with things and how vets are trying to change things that shouldn't be changed on at least 4 threads. Maybe you should stop commenting about things without having any backing behind what you say. You talk about how it messes up the economy if Mel becomes harder, how? All you do is pretend everyone is belligerent and attacking everything about you when nothing Dramoor said was out if line. Yes he's a vet but that doesn't mean he "bought" this realm. The real person who should be getting their own shard is you. Maybe then you can cater to all of your needs and not care about anyone but the new players. Forget the players who have kept the shard going throughout its life. And I can't wait to hear a post about how I'm threatening you, even though I haven't said one threatening thing .

It may be up to +Coli to create these boundaries but he should take into account players who have been here longer before people who have played less than a month. No one who is a bet at anything likes someone to come in and pretend they know it all just because they read a book about it or played on a different server.