30 replies to this topic

[ZeroTigress]

The Bounty Boards is a questing system conceived to help orient players coming from another MMORPG and to cater to pre-Renewal RO players that like to take things slow and explore the world of the game. If you're a veteran player looking for an actual leveling system, please participate in Campitor's leveling project.

After 5 long years of beta testing, the Bounty Boards Project is now complete and officially launched. Many thanks to everyone who participated in the unnecessarily extensive beta testing of this ambitious project. This system has since been imitated on other official servers, but never duplicated.

Story

Tool Dealers from Prontera, Geffen, and Alberta gathered in Prontera's tavern to lament their recent hardships.

"I've been running low on monster materials to offer locals since the adventurers haven't been selling much to me," cries the Prontera Tool Dealer.

"Yeah, and there's so many more monsters roaming about since Satan Morocc broke free," adds the Geffen Tool Dealer.

"Why don't you guys offer bounties for those monsters and loots?" wonders the Alberta Tool Dealer.

"Bounties?" repeats the Prontera Tool Dealer.

"Yeah, we've been doing it for years," continues the Alberta Tool Dealer. "Why, just the other day, we had a Rune Knight and Soul Linker come in with a massive Faceworm tooth. And they took care of the Faceworm Queen, too. Haven't had a problem traveling through Payon Forest since."

"That's ingenious," exclaims the Geffen Tool Dealer. "I'd love to be able to travel between here and Geffen with less monsters to deal with."

"I've got quite a few monsters in mind for my bounty ads," says the Prontera Tool Dealer thoughtfully.

The Alberta Tool Dealer helps the Prontera and Geffen Tool Dealers compile their bounty boards, selecting monsters that have been most problematic in each area and deciding on a Zeny rate to reward the adventurers. Once word got out about their project, other Tool Dealers in towns across Midgard hop onto the idea and open their own bounty boards. (Rumor has it that Lighthalzen's Tool Dealer may have some connection to a mysterious organization, hence their odd bounty requests.) Soon every Tool Dealer in Midgard, Jotunheim, and even Alfheim had regional bounty boards to entice adventurers from all over.

How it Works

• Bounty Boards will usually be found near a town's tool shop. However, there are some Tool Dealers that have decided to set up their boards elsewhere in their respective towns and cities. Consider the lore of a town to figure out where the Tool Dealer's Bounty Boards will be.
• Boards are separated in tiers of 20ish levels to fit with the 15-level restriction for EXP earnings in a party.
• You can only accept quests from Bounty Boards that you are within the level range of. However, if you level past the level range after hunting your chosen monsters, you will still be able to turn your kills in to the board you accepted it from.
• You will be paid 100 Zeny x Monster Level for each monster you turn in. The economy hasn't been going so well for Tool Dealers.
• Eden Merit Badges (EMBs) will be rewarded upon every 4th turn in, regardless of the monster chosen. So if you choose to hunt the same monster 4 times in a row, you will get an EMB.

Happy hunting, and may Ullr and Skadi smile upon you!

Player Challenges

Bounty Master

• Complete 1 Bounty Board quest in each town on one character (Prontera, Geffen, Morocc, Alberta, Payon, Izlude, Comodo, Aldebaran, Lutie, Umbala, Niflheim, Juno, Einbroch, Lighthalzen, Verus, Hugel, Rachel, Veins, Malangdo, Lasagna, Mora, Splendide, Eclage, Manuk, El Dicastes)

Bounty Master Hall of Fame

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Fellowship Challenge (RO version of the Nuzlocke Challenge)

• Create a party of at least 3 members and complete 1 Bounty Board quest in each town.
• Any party member that dies must be kicked from the party. (Party Leader is exempted.) Resurrection is obviously banned for the challenge.
• Challenge ends when the Party Leader is the only one left alive, or when Bounty Board quests from at least 9 towns have been completed.
• You may not invite more party members for the duration of the challenge.
• You may not use Kafra teleport, Warp Portal, or any other teleportation convenience to travel from town to town. Exceptions are ship and airship travels.
• Cash shop gears are banned. All gear used must be acquired in-game.

Post stories of your Bounty Board adventures here!

Fellowship Hall of Fame

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Edited by ZeroTigress, 14 February 2020 - 08:23 PM.

[Essmikayl]

time to make new char for low and mid level bounties heheheh, i love this kinda challenge.

[ZeroTigress]

If you'd like to be in the hall of fame, be sure to screenshot all of your completed bounty quests. (Must be full screenshots.)

[MythicalFox]

Okay, I'm not really sure who thought of the current level ranges in the new boards, but I think some are outright unreasonable. Take for example the Scaraba bounty board: The previous range was 120~150 (if I'm not mistaken) and now it's 140~160. The grind exp at level 140 at Scaraba is not that great anymore, and plus, at level 140 you're off to much harder maps. Another example is the Rachel bounty board: Necromancer (a monster of about same level as Scarabas) is within the 120-140 bounty board, but that mob (not to mention Banshee as well) is WAY too difficult for a lvl 120~130 average player to kill.
As for the Lighthalzen bounty boards: The Bio4 (along with NCT) was the most effective way to level 140+ characters. It is a damn difficult map to face alone, and thus most players preferred to stay at High TI until lvl 150 before trying Bio4. Reducing the range to 140-160 makes support classes have a real hard time to hit max level, since currently we don't have new maps to explore the leveling alternatives. I really think bringing back the range to 140-175 while we still can play the game would be for the best.

Those examples I have mentioned are my arguments as why the new level ranges weren't set with how the players grind in mind. There isn't a consistent logic to it.

However, I can't tell how this system will behave after the server's back from the big update.

As for the act of taking bounty board quests, some other little changes brought a bit of annoyance. When accepting all the quests for a single board, we get one dialogue for every quest that was added to our log, instead of just one message that said "all the quests have been accepted", or something, like it was before. We have to hit enter a couple times until all quests are in. It's a minor thing, but it can be a little annoying.

Regarding the EMB reward, VIP users only get 1 Badge for every four turn-ins. A full BB would reward a VIP double EMBs, and I think this should be carried over to the new system.

As for the things that have improved, I really appreciate that the bounty boards are easier to find now that they're actually in front of the tool shops (..... even if the one in Aldebaran was kinda unfortunate, but since now we have taxis over there it's okay). The 4th turn-in reward is also a very fine addition (although I brought up the EMB issue over here). And I absolutely love it that we (as VIPs) get to choose how to distribute the bounty EXP for every turn-in.

I'd really appreciate to have the iRO staff take in consideration our feedbacks.

[ZeroTigress]

So basically you want a system designed for explorers to be redesigned for speed-levelers.

[ComboBlaze]

It'd be cool if these bounty boards overlapped a bit if it really is meant to be done by parties, because not all parties will have all its members in the same range of a board (level 100 players can't get the boards for a 110~115 juperos party etc.).

[ZeroTigress]

You could... level without the boards. They're not there for people to rely on to level up, they're there to supplement whatever people are already leveling on out on the world maps.

[ninJedi]

Bounty Master[list]
[*]Complete 1 Bounty Board quest in each town on one character

Q> What if we can't take bounty boards for some of those towns due to lvl restrictions? Use alt as proxy for those quests? Or new characters entirely? kek

[ZeroTigress]

Q> What if we can't take bounty boards for some of those towns due to lvl restrictions? Use alt as proxy for those quests? Or new characters entirely? kek

It's more of a challenge for new players, but veterans are welcomed to try on fresh characters if they wish.

[hellokitty]

Question, did people complain about the previous bbq?really confused why it was changed....it was working pretty well..now people are complaining about it..

[YongkySH]

reduce the kill count at lower level, with slightly lower exp reward? or even increase the completed quest needed to get EMB from 4 to 8 or maybe higher?

 

by the time you kill 150 monsters, you will already out leveled the boards/not in the monsters exp range anymore

[ZeroTigress]

Question, did people complain about the previous bbq?really confused why it was changed....it was working pretty well..now people are complaining about it..

People are mad because they didn't put the effort to write up a proposal that managed to get approval from iRO AND kRO in order to get implemented.

reduce the kill count at lower level, with slightly lower exp reward? or even increase the completed quest needed to get EMB from 4 to 8 or maybe higher?

by the time you kill 150 monsters, you will already out leveled the boards/not in the monsters exp range anymore

In accordance to how the system is meant to be used, this is not a huge deal. It's only a problem for people trying to use the system in a way that's not intended.

[KriticalAssassin]

Yeah, some of the level ranges like scarabas really don't make sense, that board pretty much now starts when people would be leaving that area rather than when they would start it.

With boards only varying range by 20 levels, such as if it is 120-140, some monsters scale in at 130, which is decent the whole way through, while some come in at 120 or 140, making them not so great at either the end or beginning of the required level range.

Some of the locations are kinda weird, I understand the idea is to have them near toolshops, but some of the toolshops in towns are in odd locations, and for some such as the NCT board, being moved to an odd location away from the place it's been for years where people were used to it.

And finally the bio 4 board, it's been the main method of party play for people to 175 for years now, IMO it could just be changed to 150-175 or back to 140-175.

 

So if some boards level ranges get adjusted from 20 to 30, that could fix the problems where some of the mobs are kinda pointless for their assigned level range. And possibly streamline some locations of boards.

[hellokitty]

Yeah, some of the level ranges like scarabas really don't make sense, that board pretty much now starts when people would be leaving that area rather than when they would start it.
With boards only varying range by 20 levels, such as if it is 120-140, some monsters scale in at 130, which is decent the whole way through, while some come in at 120 or 140, making them not so great at either the end or beginning of the required level range.
Some of the locations are kinda weird, I understand the idea is to have them near toolshops, but some of the toolshops in towns are in odd locations, and for some such as the NCT board, being moved to an odd location away from the place it's been for years where people were used to it.
And finally the bio 4 board, it's been the main method of party play for people to 175 for years now, IMO it could just be changed to 150-175 or back to 140-175.

So if some boards level ranges get adjusted from 20 to 30, that could fix the problems where some of the mobs are kinda pointless for their assigned level range. And possibly streamline some locations of boards.

+1. I do understand that the intention was for players to explore other maps, but those others maps are horrible... And on my part (not sure about others) I take time to do quests whenever I'm bored or don't wanna lvl at all. But if I'm in the mood to grind, like really grind, this BBQs really do make a big difference, so for me quests=explore other maps, grind=BBQs.

I do hope there can be a middle ground or an adjustment that can be made with the said proposal, well just my opinion.

[CaptainSunbear]

Seeing as there is feedback being provided by players, I want to drop my two cents after talking with various players who have completed the higher level bounty boards. Additionally I have completed several bounty boards on stream for people to see and I end up talking about the bounty boards themselves as well as their impact with given events and of course the character I am using to kill them.

When I started 2 years ago I applauded the bounty board system and I leveled up all classes with it, melee, ranged and magic classes
So I do have “experience” running the bounty boards and there were a lot of things I enjoyed and a lot of things I did not enjoy from them.

Before I begin I have a few questions based on the responses from this thread, mainly for you ZeroTigress.

1. You mentioned: “In accordance to how the system is meant to be used, this is not a huge deal. It's only a problem for people trying to use the system in a way that's not intended.“
The question is:
How is this system intended to be used?

2. You mentioned: “
So basically you want a system designed for explorers to be redesigned for speed-levelers.” as a response to someone asking about changing the level ranges for certain mobs that would provide more exp.
The question is:
If this is a system designed for explorers and not for speed-levelers, why is it that there’s exp rewards which work in conjunction with VIP to provide both base and job exp as Base/Base exp or Job/Job exp?

3. Given how the game’s exp mechanics work in the game, did you take this into consideration for all of the mobs and calculated exp based off the penalties based on level? Or are these just approximate ranges to fit leveling into?

4. Did you intend to change the zeny reward at the end of each mission? (This goes tied into the feedback) if so, what was the reasoning? Explorers need zeny too! (Again this is also part of my feedback I just wanna know the answers so I don’t blindly make a statement without knowing the truth of each of these)

5. Understandably the nature of the boards is exploration; however I applauded the fact that people had bio4 as a leveling spot, NCT as a solo spot or party spot, I seen plenty of both for NCT but mainly partying for bio4. This was before the revamping.
Given that there’s limited spots this was an absolute blessing. Is there a reason why these weren’t kept? Additionally why did verus have to be cut off to 170? Had it been a 175 spot and adding bio5 for the people who want the risk for the reward would have ultimately made the endgame BBs something that would give people choices.

Having choice in the bounty board system was the greatest thing for me, but limiting to bio5, and yes I am aware you can do raw exp for the other maps, but the idea is that people enjoyed having choices of where to go. Was there a reason why you chose this should not have been the option?

Once you answer these, I can write my feedback including everything. I just don’t want to write anything and say something when I could have an answer to these doubts. I respect the work and effort, I just don’t want to assume anything.

Thank you.

[hellokitty]

I would also like to add, if it was meant for exploration, shouldn't all BBs of all levels should follow BBs with cd?like the lvl 91-99 on where you can't just spam let's say dark priest as it has a 3hr cd, after doing GH BB you should move to a different map to get more exp rewards, that actually forces players to go to different maps and not spam on only 1 map.

[Ashuckel]

it's not a "hey visist all of rune midgard" kind of exploration, but rather making ppl explore rather unconventional maps more worthwhile, thus the additional exp rewards, instead of sticking to the best exp/h possible maps.

[hellokitty]

Uhmm..so what new maps became more worthwhile after they implemented the new bb?cos it feels like a nerf for me as of the moment.but hey, don't get me wrong, I also appreciate the effort and time that was been made for the changes, maybe I just need to adjust to it and learn new routes to use in leveling via the bob quests.

[Ashuckel]

All maps became better(I'm talking of a BB doesnt exist perspective vs BB exists. How it is balanced it's up to it's proposer and iRO/kRO discretion). BBs isnt there to shift the weight in what are the best leveling places, but to make maps that are just outright horrendous at least stop at "not good". It's a fact that most ppl will always pick the most effective method of doing something/playing a game, even if that ultimately ruins their fun in the long run.

Edited by Ashuckel, 07 November 2019 - 10:46 AM.

[CaptainSunbear]

All maps became better(I'm talking of a BB doesnt exist perspective vs BB exists. How it is balanced it's up to it's proposer and iRO/kRO discretion). BBs isnt there to shift the weight in what are the best leveling places, but to make maps that are just outright horrendous at least stop at "not good". It's a fact that most ppl will always pick the most effective method of doing something/playing a game, even if that ultimately ruins their fun in the long run.

Spoilers for my feedback response:

I went to ice dungeon, the only benefit was kinda the food items that drop there, it’s not the best thing for physical classes to go inside vs ice titans, maybe magic yeah.

As for desert wolf you can do melee or magic classes and the reward itself is the blood of wolf that you get from them. They have their incentives but the matter of the fact is, guild dungeon investment system is better for obtaining food items. Exp wise desert wolf probably wins due to the smoother nature of the mobbing in comparison to the ice titans and snowiers. Technically only some maps become really good spots.

People can choose for fun or they can choose for levels, or they can choose for an incentive such as food items. Exp wise it’s decent but there’s better spots at certain levels.

What ashuckel mentioned remains true. People will choose the most effective method of playing the game because people don’t wanna be stuck at early level. They wanna reach max and be strong too, I think my streams dedicate a lot of time to bounty boards but if I had to choose one spot for leveling I’d probably do that, but then again, we are showing leveling spots and boards the pros and cons and which class can benefit from doing them

[ZeroTigress]

Ashuckel pretty much explains it better than I could. The boards were developed for people that prefer to level on the world maps. It was not meant to be depended on for leveling. The goal was to help people learn where better leveling areas are and eventually wean themselves off the boards; they are supposed to suck as a leveling option.

[CaptainSunbear]

Ashuckel pretty much explains it better than I could. The boards were developed for people that prefer to level on the world maps. It was not meant to be depended on for leveling. The goal was to help people learn where better leveling areas are and eventually wean themselves off the boards; they are supposed to suck as a leveling option.

So this means that nothing mentions, asked, or commented on will provide any changes or adjustments on the current bounty board system?

This is the final product in other words?

[Squishyyy]

I actually like the bounty boards. I think the numbers are arbitrary, but for a proposal it's a very solid and seamless integration. I think both the bounty boards and spotlight have given movement to an otherwise stagnant game. I definitely prefer them over gramps and TI parties, but do agree that in terms of exp efficiency they feel like they add more to soloing.

Edited by Squishyyy, 07 November 2019 - 01:11 PM.

[ZeroTigress]

I anticipated people will hate the system and that's fine, because those who hate the system aren't the intended audience.

However, if you wish to push for quests to be added as actual leveling options, you can submit your ideas to the Gramps and Adventurer's Guild feedback thread: https://forums.warpp...eedback-thread/

The Bounty Boards Project is done. If you want to usurp the project from me, that's up to the iRO team if they want to do that to me again. You'll have to come up with a compelling reason to take an idea from the person who put the work into getting it approved and deny their right to it after waiting for 5 long years to see it completed.

Edited by ZeroTigress, 07 November 2019 - 01:20 PM.

[ninJedi]

...those who hate the new system are too used to the older one

reworded it ^^

Just to say, I really enjoyed discovering the bounty board system when I was new to the game. Nowadays, I don't really rely on them to level anymore but finding some in your lvl range while you're grinding is still refreshing and their xp boost is still pretty appreciated.

But it still seems really weird to hear that it won't get worked-on or tweaked anymore, considering that some of the newest additions might have not had enough player exposure to generate a proper opinion on them yet.

And although I agree with some players with how some bounty board levels don't seem to reflect the lvl-range of monsters that they target, I also think that extending some of them to "take you all the way to lvl 175" is pushing it too far.

Edited by ninJedi, 07 November 2019 - 02:54 PM.