Why the implementation of the "burnt key" is terrible

I don't disagree. It's not how I would have implemented it, and I would love for them to add an alternate, difficult but straight-forward method to earn a key (and there have been some good suggestions in this thread on how to do that). But if they don't, I feel better about how the key works. I don't feel like I should spend all of my time in OF 1 and wait. I can go about actually playing the game, and in doing so at least have a shot at the key. Again, not ideal, not the way I personally would have designed it, but something I can live with.

Yea, so, even if you have to do something to become "eligible" you still have to sit around in Obulus Frontier doing nothing else to have a shot at getting one. That's unacceptable. You shouldn't be punished for partaking in the rest of the expansion's content.

I'm hoping it works more like this: You do list-of-things-that-we-don't-know, timer starts for you, if you zone into any instance of OF after the timer expires (or if you happen to be in the zone when it expires) you get a key. But until the devs say one way or the other, we don't know.

My theory based on discord:
- Do a key quest, get added to list of people who did key quests (unclear if Frillik counts since not technically inside OF).
- Since time-window of key awarding appears to be rather varied, I'd wager a burnt key is RNGed among those on the list every #X of keyquests completed on server.
- Looks like you also have to be IN Obulus Frontier when that #X is reached as I've not heard anyone receiving key while NOT in OF

No way to know - whether your chances scale with number of key-quests you personally contribute in the time-window, or just true/false "did at least 1 quest"

There was no magic thing anyone did.

It was a pure RNG lottery and those people won it.

I am also of the opinion our devs need to tell us EXACTLY what we need to do in the future to be eligible for a burnt key.

All this guess work crap is making me not want to play. And I'm one of those play every day, yearly subscription type of people.

That would put the key on "farm" status, so then it would have to be removed from the game.

They didn't tell us exactly how the duck portal worked when it first came out, why would they tell us this? It's supposed to be a puzzle. We'll figure it out eventually through deduction and info sharing.

So far from what they've said we know that you have to DO something (i.e. no AFKing), and that it can be gained in any instance of Obulus. I'm pretty sure they aren't going to share more than that.

Right, but then you would have to remove every single item in the game that has ever been in game since the launch of Everquest 2, except for the duck helm and the burnt key bracers.
Using your logic, anything that we can reliably get through repeated runs of a given source (aka "farm") shouldnt exist.

The key would have to be removed, because if everyone knew exactly how to flag their character to get one they'd all be hitting the "GIMME A KEY" button and going AFK in Obulus to wait for it to show up.

So just had a discussion with someone in shout in OF. He had gotten a key last week. Claims he had done absolutely nothing the day he got his except kill something in OF. Claimed no PQ's, no key quests, had done nothing outside of the zone as he had logged right into it. So dunno who to believe now..does it randomly go out to anyone that has killed a mob in the OF in which it lands? If so really not that much different than the duck portal except killing stuff can give it to anyone in that has also killed something. If so best way to test would be to get a zone full of ppl mass killing and see if keys can be forced that way.

Also want to point out again..that said person was trying for *another* key. REALLY needs to be one per person.

Wouldn't bother me to be honest. My opinion is more cool powerful items should be added through questing. And not through RNG.

It's terrible, Wurm is right it never should be rng from the begining except for appearance item. You giving things out that good and people will all try to farm it. In the end everyone sits in OF and nobody answer to grouping/alt or other content.

Just implent something let us grind it out, devs did great on ethereal coin and the rng there, please don't repeat the failure you had and do something you had success story with.

make it a merchant that sells the burnt key for 200 no-trade token that you get along each key quest completed.

People are not playing this game...

I would also like to see a way for people to work toward earning access or just remove it completely from the game.

The burnt key is awesome sauce- Awesome job devs

I don't see what they would lose by providing alternative ways to earn a burnt key. People like the poster above who think it's awesome as is can continue to try their luck with the unknown flags, and those of us who prefer a more straightforward way to earn it would be happy. Seems like a win / win to me.

Was there this much angst over the duck portal? Is this just because people aren't 100% sure how to get it, so they're complaining? I don't get it.

Can't speak to the duck portal, and since it's now old content, it's irrelevant. My reasons for disliking the burnt key mechanic are laid out in the original post, others have stated their reasons for not liking the current set up. The answers you seek are in the thread.

My point was that this isn't really functionally different from the Duck Portal. It's the same "after [random server timer X] has been met, randomly award to [someone who has met the requirements at that point in time]". In TOT, that required a certain activity: mindlessly slaying trash mobs. In KA, it's some other kind of activity that we don't yet fully understand (hell, it could be the same thing as TOT, who knows!).

Quoting my earlier post in this thread:

Even with the RNG/luck component of the duck portal, you felt you could at least help tip the balance a little bit in your favor by killing things in Thalumbra when the 12-hour(ish) window opened. With the burnt key, it appears that the mechanism for eligibility is designed to be difficult/unlikely to be figured out, and the delay between eligibility earned and the actual granting of the key makes it even tougher to narrow down the possible trigger. And it compounds the "RNG portal grants good gear" five-fold, by granting five good-to-BIS items and an orange adorn.

It's great for the people who get it (and I wouldn't turn it down if it showed up in my inventory), but is an awkward mechanism for a game that was often differentiated by the ability to actively work towards a goal to improve your character. Even with rare drops from bosses, you could work specifically towards a piece of gear or tokens or XP; the burnt key doesn't currently seem to allow or encourage that effort towards the reward.

Surely there's two issues here, one is the item is great so you naturally feel you need it / want it or even as a paying customer deserve it. The other issue is that the burnt key is random and based purely on luck. Frustrating at the least!

However like a scratch card or a lottery you've got to play to win but there is no guarantee of a win, this is surely the same approach taken for the burnt key.

Play to win and you might get lucky. This item is all about luck that is it. So it can't be a goal to achieve like other gear that you know you can farm or at least aim towards. IF it dropped for me i'd be over the moon but also accept i was very lucky.

I simply won't sit in OB in the hope i get it i'll continue to play the game in OB doing key quests etc and maybe i'll get lucky.

I think trying to tip the mechanics in your favour defeats the object of the key. It is purely random and luck orientated.
This leads me to go back to point one above, you feel you want it and you deserve it which is the bit that means you feel the whole system is unreasonable and ********!