Solo Artist Challenge 2 - Rebooted - brainstorming thread

[Izmael]

Re: strings

I've been away in the countryside for the weekend, but all the while I was thinking about the SAC2 and the rules. The more I think about it, the more I bump into the puppet strings.

This item is peculiar in the way that it lets any class become an enchanter. Combined with their own class' abilities such as healing or tanking, the result is obviously hugely imbalanced. My first thought was to simply ban the use of strings. You could argue that a Reaper lets any class become a cleric. True but, IMO that's not NEARLY as imbalancing as being able to insta charm stuff 10 times in a row.

Face it, many classes won't be able to solo for shit without strings. A cleric without strings won't do very much anywhere. Is it fair? Probably not.

However, EQ isn't fair. Life isn't fair to start with. So maybe we can accept that and the fact that some classes are better soloers than other classes.

I tend to think that strings should be simply banned, along with a few other items that are too imbalancing and/or hard to attain for the average player - such as Red/White Dragon Tooth, Trakanon Tooth, maybe some Sky or PoM clickies, things like that.

Of course, that will mean that a cleric (druid, warrior, mage... etc) will have a much, much harder time gaining ranks in SAC2 for most dungeon-type zones. But is this really a problem? It will simply mean that achieving Velketor rank 3 on a druid is just as brag worthy as achieving Velketor rank 6 on an enchanter (just an example) and will get just as many oohs and ahhs.

As for other clickies, I tend to this there should be a compiled list of forbidden clickies, some of them only forbidden up to a certain level. For example, Ivandyr's Hoop would only be allowed for players level 40 and higher, or something like that. With level-capped zones, clickies such as Wort or DS potions should also be reviewed and banned in zones where they would be too imbalacing.



Re: zone level caps

I'm very keen about this. For example, Kaesora SAC2 would be only open to characters level 40 (or something) and below. Achieving top tier in a zone should be ROUGHLY comparable to achieving top tier in other zones - and level cap is the only way I can see to add sub-60 zones to the mix. Matter of fact, these zones should be so much fun - it's harder to solo, at least on an enc, when you're 40ish than when you're 60ish for many reasons. I think forbidding deleveled and highly geared characters is also a good reason. Who knows, maybe Blackburrow will be part of SAC2 and open to character up to level, say 15. A deleveled warrior with NToV gear will plow through that content and that's probably wrong.

On a side note, think how much fun a zone like Runnyeye would be in a SAC, with a level cap of around 37. Or Paw with a level cap of 40. Or Cazic Thule...



Re: Tecmos comments

I think you bring up some valid points. However, I firmly believe that the ruleset should be

1) simple - kill all of these mobs solo to achive that rank
2) strict - every single mob of that rank must be killed

This way, when you say "I'm SAC2 rank 4 in Seb", everyone immediately knows what you have done and what mobs you've killed (or at least can look it up quickly).



I never liked the SAC1 kills that got help with pull and such. Either you can go in a zone, solo a mob, loot its dead body and walk out like a boss, either you can't. There's no in between for me.

This will probably mean that enchanters will achieve the highest ranks overall. Again, there's nothing wrong with it. Everyone knows enchanters can lull their way past mobs and waltz around many zones easily. Nobody is impressed by that. A cleric achieving rank 2 in HS will be praised by everyone, while an enchanter achieving rank 5 in the same zone will be ignored because it's relatively easy.


Solo only

I like the idea. Solo only, period. Of course some stuff will be mostly undoable, such as Ixiblat and what not. Is it that much of a an issue though? Some stuff is undoable even duoing or trioing and that never was considered an issue.




Anyway, thank you everyone for the comments. Keep them coming. I will start working ASAP on a ruleset and maybe a quick and dirty web site just to put the ruleset on.

[Tecmos Deception]

I understand not putting kills that need clickies or outside buffs on the same level as kills that don't. That's obvious.

But why the opposition to letting a SK post in the thread and get credit for something just because he needed haste and regen to do it? Why the opposition to letting someone get credit for some crazy kill just because they used a strong clicky?

Just put in another few letters of code for it. It's not like the original SAC was overwhelmed with competitors, right? You'll probably see even fewer this time around. Why not set the pure solo kill as the ideal but permit people to fall short of that as long as they make note of it?