Instead of making you completely invisible to (most) NPCs, the reworked Invisibility Potions will decrease NPCs’ ability to detect you by reducing their detection ranges. NPCs will not aggro onto you as long as you stay out of their reduced detection range. However, if you get too close to an NPC, they will attack and follow you around like normal.
Here are some estimates for the decreased NPC detection:
Tier 1: -25% Detection Range
Tier 2: -40% Detection Range
Tier 3: -60% Detection Range
Tier 4: - 90% Detection Range
Tier 5: Completely Invisible to most non-boss NPCs, no matter how close you are to them
Exceptions:
Bosses and minibosses can still detect you in invisibility, no matter the tier
Sharks and sea monsters can still detect you in any invisibility tier, so as to not make Shark Repel Potions useless
Atlanteans that are Mutated and higher can still detect you in invisibility tier IV and lower; much more powerful Atlanteans can detect you in any tier of invisibility
For Sirens, the invisibility effect would be far less effective against them. Invisibility tier IV and lower will have their detection reduction cut in half (EX: -40% → -20%). Invisibility tier V will only reduce Sirens’ detection range by around 75%, instead of completing making you invisible to them. (could also be applied to Atlanteans, dragons, and other Dark Sea monsters)
In the future, Atlantean-ized monsters (Sirens, Satyrs, Centuars, etc.) will detect you in invisibility, no matter the tier
Reason
One of the Invisibility Potion’s most common uses is avoiding fights against dangerous NPCs, specifically those in the Dark Sea. Making the potion completely useless in the Dark Sea would discourage players from brewing the potion. Players will also have less incentive to explore Diving Spots/Underwater Structures to collect the potion ingredients (Jade Pearls and Obolus Scales).
Ultimately, I felt that making Invisibility Potions, no matter the tier, nearly useless in the late game would be unfair to players who utilize the in-game mechanics and tools available to them.
However, I can see why Invisibility was heavily nerfed for the Dark Sea. Completely avoiding most fights while still benefiting heavily from DS expeditions, especially in ranges where players aren’t even supposed to go yet, does sound very cheesy.
i mean i agree that this should be a thing in general (its stupid invisibility 1 makes you completely undetectable by any npc except atlanteans and sirens) but you still shouldnt be able to completely bypass atlantean fights and cheese your way to the insanity 4 layer. atlanteans smell you after all, at the bare minimum they need a rather large unavoidable detection area that covers all chests
you cant handle the atlanteans there, and thats normal. the dark sea isnt even designed for you to go past insanity 1 yet. thats why dark sealed chests got buffed yet again, cuz some people complained the first few layers of the dark sea werent viable. if we let players cheese the last layers of the dark sea then we remove the buff, making the dark sea way worse without invisibility potions and bearable with them
Having a reduced effect against atlanteans and sirens is fair, but people just would never use invisibility potions ever if they end up completely useless in the dark sea lol.
Also complete true invisibility even in the dark sea at T5 is also fair because of the massive cost of a T5 invis potion for comparatively very little duration.
I mean if high tier invisibility was obtainable literally any way that isn’t how it currently is (non guaranteed drop from a 5 minute respawning sea monster that spawns in a very random spot in a sea) then I would agree but given how rare esca actually are I’d say it’s a fine payoff to loot like one island for free in exchange for 10
you can still get 2 hours of invisibility out of 10 esca… assuming the changes to aura potions didnt affect how long they last on the thrower specifically. thats like a huge expedition, or even two expeditions if you split the potions. plus as far as i know obolus has a fixed spawn per server? should make farming him not completely horrible.
add to this the rework of luck, which while initially a nerf might just make dark sealed chests even better than currently with luck 5 (its kinda like if, for every chest opened with the new luck 5, you were opening 3 chests with a slightly better old luck 3).
i dont think itd necessarily be extremely op to give tier 5 invisibility that power cuz nobody wants to grind obolus anyway, but invisibility doesnt need to have the chance to be gamebreaking again either even if its annoying to brew
Counterpoint, although the further ranges of the dark seas aren’t meant to be done, they’re still in game.
For some people, their fun in the game comes from really long dark sea expeditions, where you have to put everything to the test. If you mastered potion making, you should be able to use it to make the game easier.
Like, when the game is actually on full release, you shouldn’t be able to hide from atlanteans like that, but for the time being, we should have other ways to go past them without having to fight
I don’t see why invisible potions should have existed in the first place, I find it as a flawed item as it doesn’t suit a Game like AO and how looting is set out
even so, I think it would preferably be better if invisible potions are left useless for the dark sea and find other uses in the non difficult stages of AO
First, you’re being anti fun. If it wasn’t meant to be explored, vetex shouldn’t have added in the first place. Specially when the most insteresting structures and islands spanw later on.
Second, you talk as if the only risk in the dark sea are atlanteants. The further you go, everything gets more tricky, as it should, but that scales in a fun way. Being one shot by a creature with aimbot is not fun.
So you’re telling me that a potion, that can only be crafted from a specific item, that drops from a sea monster that’s obnoxious to find and farm people just ignore it, this item shouldn’t be able to do the only thing it is useful for?
Like, i would understand removing this feature once hunting them is actually plausible, but now? You’re just punishing people for trying to have fun in their own way…
Like, you would already have to hunt obulus and pray for a drop inbetween every expedition, how is that broken?
You’re just cheesing content that can already be dealt with. Not being able to do dark sea rnages 3 to 5 effectively reduces the scope of the game rn, why y’all think this is a good thing?
I dont do dark sea expeditions.
I’m complaining about how this will just make more evident the fact that level cap is detrimental to the game
“Range 2 should be skillfull” there is nothing skillfull about being 1shot by an enemy with aimbot. Atlanteans arent even meant to be seen as minibosses for crying out loud. This just means 3/5 of the dark seas will now be virtually locked because of the level cap. In a way, its removing access to parts of the game we can access now
I’ve gotten a grand total of 3 obulous scales across all my gameplay on all of my slots, and as far as I know there’s no consistent way to track down Obulous. T5 Invis pots need 10 of the scales, and they’re rare enough to the point where I would say that if you’re willing to burn one on stealthing a dragon’s den to steal 10 sealed chests, then you’ve paid enough to deserve to be able to do so. Going out of your way to grind Obulous for is not going to be more efficient than just running dark sea without T5 invis.
As for lower tier invis pots I would say the detection range reduction is a little too strong, 50% potency for a single jade pearl basically guarantees you don’t get any encounter you don’t want to as long as you don’t turn blind corners, and 80% reduction would raise a similar issue to before where a well-stocked player can basically just cheese the dark sea. You can’t grab sealed chests from right under the noses of an atlantean anymore, but it would trivialize the dark sea for too little cost.