Suggestion: Pause / Choose XP pot bonus

[SiliconScout]

Hey there, I am thinking this might be a really nice enhancement for those of us casuals out there.

Basically I am trying to run up to 30 so I can epic and racial TR and a couple of days ago (last time I played) I got into a VON 5/6 EH run. I hadn't run it at all that life so I figured that I would buy a 50% pot and make the most of the bonus, and I did.

Now though I find myself logged in this very minute unwilling to quest. I don't see any really high XP / Min runs up. Right now there is a DA farm, something that I would normally jump in on, and an Orchard slayers who isn't actually running anything.

So here I am looking at the LFM and thinking "nope not going to waste my POT on that" I tossed up a wizking opt farm and didn't get any takers (there's a reaper run going on right now) so I post here instead of playing.

When my 50% finishes in 5.5 hours I will have the 20% pot I am usually running available.

Right now though I am choosing NOT to quest because the pot I paid money for would not be optimized.

My suggestion is to allow one or both of the following

1. Allow us to pause the pot bonus and timer just like we can bravery streak
2. Allow us to PICK which bonus runs (and counts down) when we have more than 1 type of pot running.

Either, or better both, of these would mean that I would be joining that DA farm or soloing out in evening star, maybe even doing some Gianthold I dunno but I wouldn't be posting here I can tell you.

[SiliconScout]

Just checked back in and wow .... in the time it took me to post that the 2 epic groups died (face it they were already dead) , the reaper group finished or filled and right now on Thelanis, on a Saturday of a long weekend no less there is a whopping 5 LFM's up

• Bloody Crypt (4-7)
• The Pit (6-9)
• Haywire (8-10)
• Rainbow (15-17)
• Palace of Stone (16-20)

WOW ... Thelanis usually represents better than that. Maybe we should get that default server tag for the first time ever.

[Saekee]

I think you are making a good suggestion & your reactions about preserving those valuable countdown minutes on expensive potions are more common than one might think

[glmfw1]

You are allowed to create LFMs yourself if you want to run something at high XP/Min. Pick something you like and you think others are likely to join, then post the LFM. There could be 5 other people like you sitting around not questing, all thinking "I wish there was an LFM for something high XP/Min, so I can get the most out of my potion".
If noone is proactive, then there will never be any LFMs, and if you always wait until things are active before joining, then the people may fill up before you join or figure noone is interested and give up and do something else.

[SiliconScout]

You are allowed to create LFMs yourself if you want to run something at high XP/Min. Pick something you like and you think others are likely to join, then post the LFM. There could be 5 other people like you sitting around not questing, all thinking "I wish there was an LFM for something high XP/Min, so I can get the most out of my potion".
If noone is proactive, then there will never be any LFMs, and if you always wait until things are active before joining, then the people may fill up before you join or figure noone is interested and give up and do something else.

I tossed up a wizking opt farm and didn't get any takers (there's a reaper run going on right now) so I post here instead of playing.

Not sure if you read my original post but you can see I did, I actually sat there with one up and what is probably the most popular XP /Minute quest even. No takers and after many LONG minutes of sitting there NOT playing I got frustrated enough to post here because I thought hey ... if it wasn't for this stupid pot running I'd be questing right now.

For the record I swaped it for a spies AND even a Gianthold Saga, and there was nothing happening on them. You will also note that I posted that numbers were very low for the server. Gonna guess a big piece of that was because there weren't many on.

So normally I would just solo something and put it up an "in progress" or an open LFM but because I paid cash money for the pot I want to make sure i get the most out of it and running solo is sub optimal. And yes not running anything at all is better return on the investment.

Eventually I jumped onto an alt for a bit because I just wanted to play but then I was annoyed that I couldn't play the toon I wanted so I just said screw it and jumped off for some PUBG instead. Again it's still better ROI for me but probably not what's best for the game.

So my suggestion still stands and allow us to choose or pause the pots so we don't feel like we are "burning" them for limited return.

I suppose Alternately make them a LOT cheaper so if I end up burning 2 hours in very suboptimal XP or a failed run in reaper even I don't really feel I wasted anything.

[skorpeon]

I suppose Alternately make them a LOT cheaper so if I end up burning 2 hours in very suboptimal XP or a failed run in reaper even I don't really feel I wasted anything.

Yeah I have been here before, although do not buy store pots, but use the ones from house D occasionally when I can get them.

Finding the right group can be difficult but I tend to be pretty open minded and do occasionally also lead dailies. I can pretty much run these solo also and am not so slow. But normally people do join especially if I type out the quests we will run. I guess I should have these written out in a text file that I can copy and paste into the LFM panel, then I can quickly edit it and paste it as we go.

Luckily last night I got into a great group last night that ran Ravenloft from the beginning to end, first time I have ever done that, and must have netted me a lot of xp as we did it on Epic reaper 1.

Gotta cash in the saga today, I really should have had a pot running!

[Sorcerio]

I always wanted to have 1 minute xp pots. Cheap or easy to get in mid-high silver dice rolls. Drink it right before completing a big xp quest or completed saga and boom that's it. Could call them XP Shots (rhymes with pots).

[silinteresting]

your looking at this the wrong way, you have to look at why you bought the pot.
you bought the pot to boost a quests xp and the pot has served this purpose. you
didnt buy the pot to run a series of quests just a single quest so everything you
run after the said quest is a bonus, nothing more nothing less.

your seeing it from a half glass empty perspective and not a half glass full.

your friend sil

[SiliconScout]

your looking at this the wrong way, you have to look at why you bought the pot.
you bought the pot to boost a quests xp and the pot has served this purpose. you
didnt buy the pot to run a series of quests just a single quest so everything you
run after the said quest is a bonus, nothing more nothing less.

your seeing it from a half glass empty perspective and not a half glass full.

your friend sil

No, I really did not, not at that price. I could have purchased white plume mountain or the pot in essence (white plume would have been slightly more) and I bought the pot with the thought to maximize and finish off my epic life in the next 6 hours of questing.

If it was JUST for that quest I might have been willing to pay 100, maybe 150 DP for that 50% boost. I was running a 20% already so in reality it was an extra 30% that I bought.

I understand what you are saying but I really did buy that pot with a specific use and goal in mind and the fact that the damed thing is running AND the LFM is bare / not joining up basically means I am not playing because I have it.

By the way XP shots ARE a damned good idea and I honestly thing a 95 or 125 DP cost on the 50% might not be a bad idea. Though give it say a 3 minute timer or a "the next quest you complete" trigger. I would have bought many of these over the years in comparison to the pots.

[silinteresting]

No, I really did not, not at that price. I could have purchased white plume mountain or the pot in essence (white plume would have been slightly more) and I bought the pot with the thought to maximize and finish off my epic life in the next 6 hours of questing.

If it was JUST for that quest I might have been willing to pay 100, maybe 150 DP for that 50% boost. I was running a 20% already so in reality it was an extra 30% that I bought.

I understand what you are saying but I really did buy that pot with a specific use and goal in mind and the fact that the damed thing is running AND the LFM is bare / not joining up basically means I am not playing because I have it.

By the way XP shots ARE a damned good idea and I honestly thing a 95 or 125 DP cost on the 50% might not be a bad idea. Though give it say a 3 minute timer or a "the next quest you complete" trigger. I would have bought many of these over the years in comparison to the pots.

I got into a VON 5/6 EH run. I hadn't run it at all that life so I figured that I would buy a 50% pot and make the most of the bonus, and I did.

your words not mine.

your friend sil

[SiliconScout]

your words not mine.

your friend sil

Yep ..., your point?

Cherry picking quotes without full context is a fun game I guess but there is no contradiction in my words particularily when combined with my OP. I bought the best XP pot the game has to offer to maximize the XP of one of the best quests (first time especially) the game has to offer and I got that maximized bonus.

At the price point of that pot however I fully expect to get solid / near optimal XP for pretty much the entire duration of the pot, Von 5/6 was to just the appetizer on that XP buffet, thus instead of playing I wasn't questing because I felt I would be wasting the pot I paid for.

Either (or both) my suggestions would have avoided the situation where I didn't quest when I wanted to. Alternately the XP shots item would have been something I would have purchased instead.

Do you actually have an issue with any of the three suggestions or are you just pulling at tangents attempting to derail the thread by the way? No accusations intended, honest question, it seems to be the latter to me and that would be unexpected if I am being honest.

For clarity the suggestions would be

1. Ability to pause XP pot timers
2. Ability to choose which XP pot you have drunk is being counted down.
3. New item "XP Shots" that have a much shorter duration of a couple of minutes for something in the neighborhood of 100 DP

[SiliconScout]

Any chance of heard from SSG on this idea? In particular I really like the "XP shots" idea the most. Mainly because I think it is the easiest to implement and monetize and thus the most likely to be brought into the game. And should that happen I think it would be a great addition or at least one that in the future allows me to keep on questing!

[bracelet]

I know it doesn't really solve the problem, but early SRE in Orchard and Thunderholme can be a way to burn off the pot so you can get back to questing. Maybe start an LFM with an alt and if you get enough takers, switch to your main as things heat up. A free slayer pot from cannith or daily dice can juice things up. And hires can increase spawn rates too.

I agree with the sentiment though. There have been many times I have not played because there is a pot running that I don't want to "waste".

[SiliconScout]

I know it doesn't really solve the problem, but early SRE in Orchard and Thunderholme can be a way to burn off the pot so you can get back to questing. Maybe start an LFM with an alt and if you get enough takers, switch to your main as things heat up. A free slayer pot from cannith or daily dice can juice things up. And hires can increase spawn rates too.

I agree with the sentiment though. There have been many times I have not played because there is a pot running that I don't want to "waste".

Well it could be but let's be honest it would be better to put that group through some high XP quests instead for the most part.

The biggest issue at the time was that there was a combination of nobody with an LFM up or joining the one I posted combined with my Pot running. Now if I had thought ahead I might have keyed up those areas for a quick topper on the kill count and that would not have been do bad, alas I didn't expect to see an Con 5/6 (been forever since I saw one at Epic that wasn't a closed group) so the decision to buy the pot was actually made while I was in the quest.

[Robbenklopper]

That suggestion of OP would be wonderful. Doing all sagas, activate the pot for 2 Minutes to Grab all xp awards and pause the pot. Then do all slayers to -1 before reward, pot on, recall, slay the last 1, pot off. Could belong for about 100 ER/TR. Why not

[SiliconScout]

That suggestion of OP would be wonderful. Doing all sagas, activate the pot for 2 Minutes to Grab all xp awards and pause the pot. Then do all slayers to -1 before reward, pot on, recall, slay the last 1, pot off. Could belong for about 100 ER/TR. Why not

See this is how you debate something. And fair point it is open to a lot of potential exploits. Let's take that off the table then.

That still leaves us with

1. Ability to select the bonus on the pot that is cooking but only a la Bravery Marshal.
2. XP shots that last for a very short duration or perhaps a single quest completion.

Option 1 still has some potential to be gamed but it would at least require other XP pots to be running in order to get the choice so that would be "better"

Option 2 which Sorcerio brought up is REALLY what I think this should be though, it's a fantastic idea.

[aumerle]

Completely agree with the idea of pausing xp pot status. Another example is - you have a pot still running when you hit 30, you intend to TR but before that you want to farm some heart seeds. The pot will likely run out during the heart seed farm and you get nothing from that portion of it, but if you could pause it and resume it after the TR then you could actually use the rest of the pot.

As a side note - I would have joined your WK group if I'd been on, probably grouped with you before there as well since you're on Thelanis and that's about all I do between 20-30

[Robbenklopper]

See this is how you debate something. And fair point it is open to a lot of potential exploits. Let's take that off the table then.

That still leaves us with

1. Ability to select the bonus on the pot that is cooking but only a la Bravery Marshal.
2. XP shots that last for a very short duration or perhaps a single quest completion.

Option 1 still has some potential to be gamed but it would at least require other XP pots to be running in order to get the choice so that would be "better"

Option 2 which Sorcerio brought up is REALLY what I think this should be though, it's a fantastic idea.

Option 2 with lasting for a single quest has lots of potential, really good and fair idea!
Option 1 I drink 50% pot, i drink 5% pot and choose which one active ... still exploitable

I generally have not problem with a drank pot perma active. Sure, i´m a little sad i still waste it on "unefficient" quests, but after all, those low-xp don´t tend to be as bad as they are after 1st time.

[Vish]

Don't use pots
You won't have these problems

[SiliconScout]

Don't play game
Won't have these problems either