Partially Used: The Mystara Merchant and Teleport Scrolls

I noticed today that the mystara merchant's teleport scroll stock has been cut down big time. And I can understand why, teleporting, as fun and time-saving as it is, can also be a major farming tool.

But I think that limited the scrolls to an open merchant stock won't really solve the problem of making wizard/sorc/fsm masters unique in their more robust ability to teleport. Yes, it limits the number of teleport scrolls available, but the end result is still 1 player goes up to the merchant, and buys out all the scrolls. Teleporting *is* limited by that means, but rather than everyone having a small ability to teleport, a few select players who jump the store get the ability while anyone else is screwed, and nobody wants to sit by the merchant waiting for the inventory to respawn.

So....

Remove the store aspect all together. Instead, have the priest sell the scrolls to each character via the dialogue. Each character can buy X amount of scrolls per game day or such through the dialogue. Have the option to buy 1, 5, 10 or 15 scrolls at a time. Buy all 15 at once, or buy just 1 if you need just 1, but the end result would be you can't buy more than 15 total within a set period.

This will accomplish the restricting of UMDing teleporting (making wiz/sorc levels more desirable if you want to teleport around with more ease), but not make it so 1 or 2 players benefit from the merchant while the others get shafted because the merchant is out of stock.

I can agree with the idea that the current system makes a tool of convenience into an inconvenient quest to catch the merchant with scrolls in stock... it is le suck.... we dont have control over when we are able to log on... and if the dude has been bought out each time we log on over a week or more... we are just screwed... thats not fair at all. same thing applies to once per reset items and spawns....

I dont like the idea of a limit of 15, however.... maybe one stack of 50 in 8 hours of timeplayed. Those being real life hours, not game hours. Thats roughly 6 teleports per hour.

Farming also... is only a huge problem because some encounters are set for LONG respawn or no respawn until server reset. As our player population grows, this is only going to get worse, even without farming.... folks are going to have the same problem aerodolth did.

The spawns simply need to be faster. Fast enough so that one person teleporting around cannot get a pattern down to keep anyone else from being able to get them.

I like Dave's idea for a stack of ___ scrolls for 8 hours of time played. I have no idea if that'd be a PITA to implement, but it seems like the most elegant and palatable solution.

And pleasepleaseplease no more 1 per reset, well, anything. It's just a big contest of who can get there first after a reset. At least 2-3x Miow's wandered into an encounter she couldn't handle, died, gone back with a token, or 5 minutes later more prepared... and it had despawned and wouldn't respawn. So not only did she not get to defeat them, no one did that reset, or at least not for a long ass time. At least once I can think of off the top of my head (the place with the undead guarding the dragons), a party of four of us discovered the cave, explored, got all he way to the end to the boss room... and found an empty room. That sure was a letdown.
Perhaps something that leaves it spawned until defeated, at least, and maybe more like a 1/2 hr respawn time at most?

I think repsawn of 15 minutes should be the maximum in almost all cases with maybe one or two exceptions.

What'd be cool too is if the regular baddies respawned a tad faster as well in certain areas.

While it does cause lag now and then with AoE's on huge swarms, or with certain enemies in general (growing skellies, anyone?), I've found while DMing, players tend to have a blast when there's hordes of enemies to take down, even if those enemies are moderate to low challenge. As a player myself, my two favorite spots to go to are the Orc training camp and tesh portal room, simply for the fact that there's just oodles of baddies to satisfy my great-cleavage orgies Even the last room of the goblin caves can be fun since there's just a load of the little buggers in there.

Granted you don't want say, the roadways from Vale to Tradeholm overrun with bandits, but say, flayers, the frost giant enclage, the drow temple, ect... those types of areas it'd be fun if there were simply more of the enemy about, and would make sense too... you're stepping into their home turf.