TL;DR: CURRENT RAFFLEBONES SUCKS. REPLY BELOW WITH YAY=(Agree) NAY=(Disagree)
Starting this thread to hopefully highlight how much of a positive addition Rafflebones (Pre-nerf’d) WAS to New World. After thinking on it since his patch, talking to people in in-game chat, listening to notable Streamers/Content creators share their feelings, I’ve come to the same conclusion they have on his recent iteration: Its terrible o.0
I’m an end-game player w/ 2300+ hrs. I’ve spam’d dungeons/mutations to the point that I salvage gear that many others are grinding for. I have 5 Builds each over GS620 as well as being Level 200 everything - but have put BiS rolls on the proverbial back-burner until changes are made to said items being crafted w/ junk perks (gathering lucks, wards, etc.) when considering costs in required mats /item. I’m aware that I’m mostly a PvE’r, while still loving to PvP. But the OPR queue times are ridiculous w/ my servers steadily declining Pop and obtaining wars slots is more of a ‘political’ scenario. One can only farm open-world bosses before you obtain the drops you set out for. And as much as I do LOVE chest runs, I can only take so many mediocre pulls (even w/ MAX luck like 'ya boy) before I’m wiped. Cause let’s face it: spamming chest runs gets boring QUICKLY. So I cant emphasize enough how much of a ‘Breath of Life’ RB was for me when he entered the scene.
I started hunting him later than most and only experienced the excitement for the week leading up to the infamous 3v3 arena patch that ended him. In that 5-6 days I did nothing (other than make CD’s for 15min) but hunt him (Solo). That’s several hrs DAILY for that week and only killed him 10/11 encounters. Missing him once in Myrk for being curb stomped by the corrupted bear. I’m for sure a ‘hardcore’, everyday NW player and feel its fair to say that RB was a ‘less than common’ encounter so I can’t understand why he was nerf’d, especially to this extent. I know there was an even more niche group of players that maybe figured out spawn behaviors/patterns but even then, whats AGS beef w/ that? If people devote their time to playing your game and wanna hunt RB all goddamn day, why take that away? Think how many people that can only log 1-3 hrs daily MAYBE, that never encountered him then and for sure will never see him now.
I’ve went through countless phases of reporting infinite #'s of Bots and battling them for nodes. Patiently enduring numerous combat bugs/exploits, all the while defending the game and staying hopeful cause I do love this game and only want growth/success. But after the RB nerf and watching the overall concurrent player base RAPIDLY decline I felt I had to say something. I try to rationalize if AGS’s intentions for RB was this all along. Idk if this was one Devs dream or a Teams collective idea for RB but it sucks. I know I speak for many others when I say that his 1st iteration was the ‘happiest mistake’ they’ve made to date.
My suggestions in another thread:
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Change his re-spawn behavior - add more spawn locations and set static de-spawn timers like 5-15min for example. This might decrease encounter rates while still keeping the hunt alive.
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Decrease amount of shards rewarded - I think its easier than its ever been to obtain umbrals IMO so only receiving 50-200 shards wouldn’t be a disappointment. Maybe just replace shards w/ gold.
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Change up his loot ‘table’ - maybe decrease probability of pulling best named items. This would make acquiring those named items that much harder and gamers will still want to grind for them.
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Spawn whisper/announcement - If a player is in the same region that RB spawns in have a message that’s whispered or announced in chat that ‘RB has been sighted’. This would maybe prevent players from feeling that they’re completely wasting their time aimlessly searching.
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At the very least please shed some light onto what “Not a Guaranteed spawn” truly means - Not a guaranteed spawn that day?? To re-spawn immediately or in ‘x’ amount of time??
These are just some of the ideas I’ve thought up and don’t think these are definitive answers to god knows whatever negative impacts AGS seen w/ RB. Hopefully RB is restored cause this is one change I can for sure say was wrong. I’d be super interested to hear any ideas/suggestions ya’ll might have in mind.