Acrylia Caverns

[Neferata]

What's the deal with this zone?.Why is it so neglected?.

Is it laggy as hell or something?.Seems weird that a higher level zone like this would be almost totally ignored.

From what I have heard it is a real pain in the ass to key for inner acrylia,But it seems like that would make people even more curious.

I can understand nobody being there with PoP out now,But did anyone ever really go there at all?.

I dunno,Maybe it's just my server.Seems like this is the mystery zone of EQ or something.

[ilian]

I bet grieg's end, or erud's crossing are less used.

[EllessarBard]

Think he means Inner Acrilyia... (not the outer area that works well enough)

Because its unfinished. Its a bunch of ring events that don't work well; a couple mobs that drop 'ok' loot (whee, *another* knight weapon!). Parts are unitemized; they removed access to the boss mob.

wheee.

[Ukerric]

I think the original Acrylia was supposed to be the "other" Vex Thal. So that one guild would go to Vex Thal, and another to Acrylia, and they wouldn't step on each other's toes.

You know how they had to scramble to make Vex Thal in the end? Why should Acrylia be finished.

And Absor said it: "would you have us fix old things rather than add new ones? I think not" (or somesuch to the same effect).

[Aellis Freewind]

And Absor said it: "would you have us fix old things rather than add new ones? I think not" (or somesuch to the same effect).

I dont get it why we would have to make a choice between two options we paid for.
- Fix old things: we paid for an expansion and pay every month to have a working game.
- Add new ones: we paid for Planes of Powers expansion to have new ones.

Guess their point is: "Haha you paid for an unfinished expansion, gotcha!! Now lets go on so we can prepare a new unfinished expansion to sell ya!"

[Esmo]

everyone left AC (not Inner Acrylia but the whole zone)


The only thing that was the least bit fun in AC was the RoF but since its bugged to hell, the space is way too small and the PITA vs Reward generally sucks *nobody* ever goes in there anymore.

Why the hell did they design an encounter for 40ish people in a room that fits 12 people??!! Even with *everyone* shrunk the room is WAY too crowded to have any fun and actually concentrate on whats happening around you.

If they fixed the RoF bugs, the burrower spawn and reduced the PITA factor people might actually go there. IMO it had the makings of a decent dungeon. Too bad they didn't let it pan out...

[Aldous]

for a while it wasn't negelcted, hell it was so used that magicians/wizards/enchanters used to bind just outside the door. this was when it was the greatest ae zone going, (6 minute respawn). i bound outside it and when i died elsewhere i'd just ask the naked dead wizard bound next to me for a xloc

at this time the 6 minute respawn was too fast for a regular exp group, but this was fine the zone had a purpose. and it kept the quad training wizards and ae groups out of the zones others were exp'ing in. send all the ae'ers off to middle of nowhere to do their thing and leave some shrooms up in FG for the melee who'd finally found somewhere they could solo in peace... great, no?

then they nerfed it, put in magic immune mobs, fire immune mobs, more then tripled the spawn time. which killed ae tactics in there.

when they nerfed it they could have easily itemized the zone, rare drops off any mobs, or just put a loot table on the rare spawn magic immune of fire immune mobs. but they didn't, when they nerfed it they didn't add any reason for people to go.

the zone itself was pretty tough for an appropriate level groups, the named if they were dual weilding hit hard and fast, there's all types of mobs in there (an idea i really like) including lots of sk's (which in a fast kill exp group, ht has a significant impact on a mob's damage ouptput), enchanters who can screw up your group pretty fast, CH'ing cleric mobs, wizards (who after the AI changed used big nukes) etc. not to mention that grimlings have high AC (very high at the start of luclin iirc). the snare immune mobs who run at 25% can cause problems too.

so a tough zone in the middle of nowhere, with no loot = crap

[GloynHolyforge]

Frankly for mid-tier guilds...Burrower is easily one of the best Risk vs Reward mobs in Luclin. But that is the only reason to step inside Acrylia at all, the IA key is far more of a pain in the ass than getting VT enabled (grimling wars are gay). Bristlebane has one guild that is pretty much fully IA ready, but they killed alot of the encounters in that area that just makes it piss poor.

[NightKid]

/cry Acrylia is still one of my favorite zones in the game. From the jam-packed fun AE days to the desolate soloing skellies time just before PoP came out, it was a flat out good zone. The Ring of Fire, the Restless Burrower, the inner events....this was designed from the start to be a fun as hell zone. Too bad Sony has their head up their asses.

Based on how much of a pain the inner key was, I think it's safe to say that it was designed to rival VT or at minimum Ssra, lootwise. Unfortunately that didn't pan out, as only one major guild to my knowledge really keyed up for inner (Ring of Valor) and after beating Takahashi a few times, Sony took out one of the main mobs to do the ring events and fucked the whole zone. Sony is fucking lazy and we let them get away with it, basically. Sadly, I think if one or two more major guilds had put the effort into IA, Sony would have worked more on it and upgraded the loot, VT style.

R.I.P. Acrylia Caverns =(

[Kneesmasher]

It is such a shame that all that Dev Time is wasted. Right now on Torv anyway, the only people that go to Acrylia are looking for their Lucid Shard. And since the shard is very easy to get compared to some others, they get in, get the shard, and get out. It takes about an hour max.

It is obvious that Verant or whoever the Dev was that put all the time and effort into creating the Grimling, all the different classes, the look, the Ring event, and Inner Acrylia never got it right and has either never been allowed to fix it or just never did. They spent a ton of time and effort, but screwed it up by not understanding the dynamics of the game as it relates to those who actually play it. (Nothing new there, I understand that!)

It would be a great zone for a revamp. The Grimling should dig a bigger cavern around the Ring of Fire event, they definitely need to reitemize the encounters and make it a worthwhile zone again, even if it is a pain in the A$$ to get to.

Such a shame. I am amazed that Verant is willing to just turn their back on all the work that has already been done, but the zone has been broken for a very very long time...

[Keystone]

www.ringofvalor.com
cleared through and killed tashakhi a couple times with very shitty loot, then were told that tashakhi was being taken out temporarily for tuning/loot adjustment and hasn't been put back in yet. that was like 10months ago now.

click the news then the inner acrylia shit is all near bottom of first page i think.

[Feron]

After killing Tashakhi and learning that the original designer had left Verant/Sony(the one that told us Acrylia would have loot that would blow our minds and it'd be so worth it in the long run, etc), I tracked him down to try and get a glimpse on what his vision of Acrylia was.

This letter is dated May 9th 2002. It and page upon page of player feedback of what Acrylia should be was sent out but fell only on deaf ears... I still have tashakhi's shroud in my bank though nostalgia keeps me from deleting it to make more space as the chance of a revamp with retro-loot upgrades is about as high as me getting killed by a satellite falling out of orbit. =P For anyone who was interested in the development of Acrylia, this letter should bring a tear to your eye.


Gabriel

I had finished implementing the Arch Mage and Foreman events but didn't
have the time to tune them. The difficulty of all of the events was to
be extremely challenging for a group of 35 and the rewards were to be a
good step up from NToV. I had created many FT5-10 items and had
suggested that they be made into focus items as well. I'm sad to hear
that the obelisk key was forsaken, it wasn't ditched by me. I do
understand the pressure that the team was under and only one other
designer was up to speed on implementing the scripted events I did with
EQs dated engine and tools. They have a lot to do and not nearly enough
time to do it.

When the non-targettable Foreman is up, killing the surrounding
Grimlings in a timely manner should make him targettable. From that spot
back, it seems my design was forsaken. The end boss was to be on par
with the emperor and loot should be at least as rewarding considering
the time required to get there. I hope time allows them to make another
pass at the zone to at least make it feel solid and to reward players
appropriately for their effort.

It was tough to leave EQ, the hardest professional decision I've had to
make. There was just no way I could turn my back on this opportunity.
This is a group of really talented, hard working guys with extensive mmo
design and play experience. I don't expect we'll be letting anyone
down=).

Best of luck!


Steve Burke (Akkirus)
Senior Game Designer
Sigil Games Online

[Snarf-O]

Didn't know that designer now works for Sigil too, looks like they get all the good guys

[Feron]

You couldn't tell? The only talent SOE/Verant has left at this point is broadcasting about how I need to buy their next expansion =P I'm half expecting a "Please, we promise this one won't suck!" at the end of each broadcast as they sink into further desperation =P