I propose a few solutions to the current issue of Pauper Ponds (A main hub) being inaccessible by new PC's who want to live there.
#1 Leave 98 unlocked at all times or give it an unlock button, not every ring need be locked.
#2 Make the Ringrunner in Ticker selling the key only charge 200g instead of 1000g
#3 Make Darkskull tower quest available to all PC's rather than Peers only. (Perhaps the non Peer version is a break in quest bubble and doesn't provide a gold reward)
Just my thoughts.
Make 98 keys drop at the end of the ring 100 quest, maybe? Or have there be a solo quest that gives 98 keys in 99?
There are already two solo quests that potentially give a key 98 in ring 99.
Perhaps buying the Key to the 98 should be cheaper/easier.
There are currently three ways of obtaining that key. One based on luck, the other on being a Peer, the third on buying it.
While the "luck factor" can be the most frustrating one, it is also one of the simplest ones.
If the price of the key at the vendor was reduced it would make access to the 98th easier for pretty much all PCs, except kobolds.
Let us also be fairly honest, saving up around 400-500 gold in Ring 99, currently, is very easy. It might take one, or two, days of questing at most, unless somebody spends most of their gold as soon as they earn it. But the 99th Ring has so many different quests, explorables and Seams, earning a few hundred gold pieces (especially below level 6) is almost trivial.
There many interesting solutions can be around Pond. Add underwater areas what can connect few areas and ring 99th as well. Add more sewers areas/tunnels what can be connected with one or another area in Ponds. Maybe more passages from Mongrelwoods, maybe more passages from canals. Many good possible options!
Another good thing what can help fix this it is special Pondscum start for new characters in 98th ring. With key or not. Or with other item what will help open door.
Although having the vendor sell the key to ring 98 at such a steep price probably can do with being looked at (half the price?) since breaking into that Ring no longer represents a novel experience given how most of the playerbase has settled into the setting now, the consequence of unlocking it completely, beyond destroying the lore of the Rings being challenges to overcome etc also include removing the RP that is incentivised for PCs who do not have keys to interact with others to find their way through or tag along with a keywise PC while they work towards acquiring a copy of their own.
A way of acquiring a key in either the Ponds, Drips or Mongrelwoods sounds like it could ease the way for monster races or total loner/outcasts though.
Quote from: Mia on July 29, 2019, 10:03:29 PM
There are already two solo quests that potentially give a key 98 in ring 99.
I have done the two solo quests next to the Ring 98 ringdoor multiple times when I used to dink around on a bunch of alts.
I have never,
never, obtained a key before from those two quests; and I have done them at least twenty times.
I think it'd be cool if the gate was actually smashed open or there was a break in the wall to get in.
Those bloody savages who don't care for the king deserve it.
Traveling from the Peerage Ward to the Pauper's Pond seems extremely easy, though I would recommend that new players bring companions to safely complete the hop and skip involved.
All it took was an invisibility potion for me...
I think a monster/outlaw needs a DM to oversee them entering the Peerage.