Give us your feedback on the January event!

[Ibn]

Use this thread to post your feedback on the January event: Assault.

You can read the Dev Notes, Rollout, and other documentation here (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=334).

There are no known issues at this time.

[Vlad Morbius]

I picked up a new crossbow work 5, not bad. The new small non life hunt ground is just that, very very small....about the size of Holtburg lol! In their defence, i did not get a chance to go into the new dungeon :rolleyes:

[KPD157]

I was surprised to still see Scarecrows where I was hunting I couldn't get a Mask made and thought it would be another year but now I can keep looking :)

The Gifts are neat very festive and I have yet to see the new Higher Wield Weapons and the New Withered Creatures will respond on those two topics later heheh :)

[Ibn]

Folks, I understand that the downtime is making it very frustrating, but please keep downtime and boot comments out of this thread. This is for commenting on January *content*.

I'm going to strip the downtime comments out and merge them into a thread that's running on the General Forum. That will make it easier to keep all of the downtime complaints and questions in one place.

[Twizted One]

lol I like any patch where we get free stuff :)

[Paraduck]

I really enjoyed the sewers dungeon. I know some will probably disagree, but I like the aesthetics -- it reminded me a lot of the Acid Stone Vault. The ability to see other sections of the dungeon through grates, as well as small rooms that you may not be able to access really gives you the sense of something that isn't quite linear (even though it may actually be) like many of the dungeons.

Just shows that you don't necessarily need all this new tech to make something fun. :)

Edit: I forgot to add that the small hallways make it incredibly hard to just run through to the end of the dungeon. You're actually forced to fight some things!

[Milon]

I knew we were getting g00dies for New Years! :D Thanks Ibn ;)

[Mei-Ling]

The gifts are great!! Really fun!

I got one of the new wands so far.. looks really cool haven't tested it yet but will really soon... and now I'm dieing to check out the sewers as well..

Thanks Paraduck for the description.. I've got to see that now.


Mei-Ling, lvl 108 Gimp Axe Barbie, Bunny Clan, VT

[evanescent01]

It's concerning that the community relations representative doesn't recognize the expressed frustration as relevant to the this thread. Bear in mind that all the player community knows of the January event is forced eviction related to coding errors (billing server) -- feedback thus far relates to how poorly this event has been released.

If I had my choice between a more static fee for service experience with acceptable uptime statistics (e.g. quarterly updates) or new content that completely disrupts game play, I'll choose a more static but reliable service.

Listen to the players -- implement a release management process with decision checkpoints that eliminate this sort of outage following system changes. This sort of event is stressful for everyone but sweeping it away into a different thread reduces the reality that the January event cost every single player in the game 1/30th of their total monthly experience. I hope the other 29/30 aren't going to follow this alarming trend.

[Brandias]

I, like others, love any update that includes free stuff :p However I, unlike others, am a complete uber newb on some stuff and it becomes frustrating as well, the very hot place we all hope to avoid eventually. Like new areas. If you are going to give us new dungeons and new areas (for which I am grateful, dont take that the wrong way) give coordinates! and/or shortcuts! How about a map that actually tells a person where the so-called Direlands are located? or Caul? All I know is that the VoD is where the big skull is on the map. I think.

Now maybe you think we should be getting this info from our allegiances, and in small tidbits I do...though my allegiance is slowing dying now. But I hunt solo most of time and I got to say, most of the time I am lost. Especially in dungeons, but that just seems to be me on that one ;) .

I have not made it on the servers yet to play, and everything you have written about sounds real good...if I can ever find any of it.

PS: more portal gems would be really nice...even if the out of the way cities cost more than the norms. Or maybe even sub and new sub gems that let you skip fighting the creatures and jumping to your doom (for the lower, unbuffed characters). I would pay nice pyreals for those. And please, please, please keep adding writ items each update. Eventually I will have what your asking for :rolleyes:

[Mei-Ling]

Brandias, I totally understand your frustration... I am always lost but that is just the way I am.. I use Maggies site for coords to the new places.. every month I bookmark the patch page and use it like crazy... by the way, I'm in a thriving, uber active clan ... look me up on Verdantine if interested.

I thought I saw some info on the magic casting items but only wands and orbs were mentioned as I recall... I too prefer the look of the staffs for my mage toon... hopefully a full range of casters will be available.

Another thing I was wondering was if there will be low work items.. so far everyone I know that's found one of the new items they have all been work 7 or higher.. my gimp tinkerer has never landed a rend on an item with a workmanship above a 6. If anyone finds a low work item that would be great to know.

[Nefarious]

brandias, if you use decal just get oracle of dereth.

[Oz of FF]

New grades/types of weapons and casters was a very nice addition, but can you tell us if you are planning another tier soon ? I invested heavily in a set thats now worthless. I do not want to start again on a full set if 400 base weapons are coming soon. Please give us some indication of where this is going.

The new hunting area is nice, but needs improving. The monsters die too slowly. Me and a mage make about 20 mill an hour there, and avg 30 mill an hour easily in VOD. Mage/melee/archer balance seems well done, but monsters still need to die faster.

Also, its too segregated. Magic casting monster packs need to be broken up - afterall, this area was aimed at no life characters, which usually does not include a mage who would have higher magic D. If magic casting packs remain, at least lower their war magic skill so the no life, and ALSO, low magic D characters can fight them. No one wants to hunt lugies all day long. Variety is nice.

Overall, good work.

[MVOFJR]

Agree with the idea that the withered area definately needs work. I mean I have a melee character who has very high skills, and in order to engage in combat there I had to drag the critters away from the spawn 1 by 1 because I was getting hit for 150+ points of damage per spell. I mean if this is supposed to be a melee/archer friendly place, one would think a super high magicD should not be required.

Also, the variety of monsters are VERY poor. There are only 4 different types of monsters! Where are the withered armordillos, gromnies, shadows, etc....????

And last but certainly not least, whats up with the size of the withered area? I mean, its so tiny! Seems more like a glorified POI than a serious hunting area.

This was definately a let down from what I was expecting from the info provided in the Lttp a few days ago. I hope this area is not nearly complete and that it will be improved soon.

[KPD157]

I was surprised to find them basically just like fighting in the VOD area in difficulty. I do beleive they must have almost the same Health as their counterparts in the VOD. I was hopeing they would be halved in health at least. I might be wrong about the Health though I cannot see their stats. Before I saw it for myself I felt that the monsters would need more firepower or maybe even Phantom abilities but now that I have seen how deadly they are even without needing to Vuln and Imperil them I think such a change would be overkill at this time :)

Spawns are very close and dangerous indeed but that just seems to promote the difficulty of the area. Its basically like VOD minus the need to Vuln or Imperil. I won't really be able to test it much unless I bring a higher level character that I checked it out with to the area. I didn't manage to kill anything so I don't know how good the Loot is but I suspect its of the Highest Tier.

Another Thing I wasn't able to figure out since I couldn't kill anything was just how fast the Spawns respawn? In General if anyone knows it would be nice info to add to my Critique of the Area :)

All in All on the whole I thought the Area was pretty much inline with what Turbine has promised and I beleive when I am higher in level I might be able to actualy fight there :)

[Yan_HG]

The new withered creatures are a nice start, though I believe I make less exp hunting the withered raiders than I make hunting mutilators in the bottom of the arcade. I can't be certain the loot is much better either since with the mutilators I get more to sift through. The chests throughout the dungeons seemed to have lvl80+ quality loot except the few locked ones which seemed even worse...? Nothing terribly exciting. I was rather hoping for a rare drop key off the monsters there which would open an armory chest deep in the bowels of the dungeon, but as it turns out, the dungeon's bowels are quite shallow, and the keys you do find need to be run out to the VoD to be used.

I noticed you had decided not to wither any of the really good exp creatures (Obliterator, paradox, quidiox, high-level margul) and this could very well be the reason I'm not making as much exp in the withered dires as hybrids/mages can make in the VoD or the caul. Perhaps if I could find other pure melees to fellow with there, the exp would be better, though I doubt it would hold a candle to the exp mages make off Margul.

It is... acceptable... but I feel it does little to narrow the gap in the ability to make exp. Oh, and I'm not sure if this has been asked, but why do the ranged weapons and casters get those awesome looking status symbols? I'm still stuck swinging around an elongated butter knife...

[edwar368]

I have to agree that the new withered creatures are a dissapointment. As a level 150 axer it takes me ages to kill one of the withered creatures. They either need xp values appropriate to their length of time to kill, or need their stats tweaking downwards. This is certainly not a reason for me to unspec life! My life is not that high, but high enough for me to hunt Lugies, dillos etc in Vod and my solo kill rate there is so much higher than the new area

[Shaolin]

So their methods work again, string people along so they play the next patch, with the promise of more improvements...

When will you learn to vote with your subscription.

[Full_Eclipse]

Umm geting hard to defend turbine when you pull crap like this.
I meen have you guys ever actualy played the game?!?!?!
Why , oh why, would you take the most avoided vod creatures basicaly imp them and give them to us to kill. I couldnt have been more disapointed in the the new area. Anyone who goes to vod and knows what they are doing avoids tumeroks bandies lugians and drudges. I meen cmon people wth are you thinking??!?! Went out there to hunt and with my 145 lighting rend bow took me 145 arrows to kill one bandie for 500k xp!! Was making like 6 mil an 8 mil an hour!!! These creatures in vod are avoided cause they are not worth the xp compared to the time it takes to kill them!!!!! If you want people to stop macroing this is not the way! Why would we hunt here for 8 mil an hour when we could go solo and macro making 12 mil an hour and easy as hell critters. You just make no sense! Cmon wheres our virindi, dillos, gromnies, hell even the undead are better than this. I realy would like to know how you all chose what critters to put out there. Im just totaly mind boggled. Any how fix this. Cause right now it sucks. PS kinda small to not to bad for white worlds but im from DT. Kinda crowded spot to hunt high lvl monsters while haveing to pvp for it. OMG, i just cant get over it!!!! Im outta here.

[Hamfast]

I fear do to the timing, I have yet to get out of town... I will tonight... but from what I have seen so far:

Fireworks are awesome...

Balloons and Champaigne Bottle need to be wieldable... Balloons as a "Bludgeoning" type weapon (Mace?) the Champaigne bottle either a mace or a casting device...

The Tiara messes up my hair, I run Buffy Buffbot in Holtberg on VT, I made her with the longest hair I could, put her in a Pink Dress and a pink Eye Patch (Yes, failed a dye job just to get it)... the tiara lasted less then a few seconds on her head...

Party hat... well, it's a hat...and it messes up my hair also

[Renswic]

Using the instructions you are able to fly the ballon. Unfortunately, the instructions are unclear on several points. The most important point would be how to land.
You jump to safety as the balloon begins to head out to sea.

ye olde typo :D

loving the balloon quest, the stone hold one was a disapointment thou, and how stoned were you guys when you made the new altalts, theres a reason my olthoi atlat hands on my 'ugly weapon' wall. and the casters? comeone +2% to mob hits? way to make an overpowered class even more overpowered

[Zeds]

since I have not been able to be in game for more than a few minutes at a time as yet due to the bug you guys "found and fixed" yesterday, and the sudden crash to deasktop tonight and subsequent inability to log back in...

I have no opinion of the patch substance ,

I am starting to have an opinion about the service /stability though...

and it is not a good one.

[Chupon]

Don't do these feedback threads too often

Withered area -- Needs ALOT of work. as of now there's 3 dungeons, all of which contain an attuned/bonded weapon, so only the characters of that class would have any reason to go in there. Half of the monsters outside are what most people consider trash in VoD and avoid fighting. Spawns are too dense and too close to each other.

Defiled Temple quest -- I liked the layout, but did not like the spawn rate. This felt like another quest that required grouping. I hate grouped quests. One of the core things I like in a game is soloability. With the Ancient Temples, Burun kings, and now this, I'm beginning to wonder if the era of solo quests is coming to an end.

Banderling Village Quest -- Great! loved it, even if the reward isn't something I can use, at least I can give it to another character, unlike the withered items.

Not too sure why you moved the blind snowman to a rather remote location though.

Haven't done any of the other quests, will do them tonight.

[Ibn]

From what little I now know and have seen, I fear the new casting items are limited to only scepters? !!:(!!

I have only ever used casting staffs. I have never cared for wands, orbs, or even scepters.

Please, please say it isn't so? :(

I know some people would wear a twig for armor if it had good AL and a major, but I want the look of my staffs.

*keeps fingers crossed*

I am sorry to say that currently the wield-req casters can only be found in scepters. We may introduce staves, wands, and orbs in the future.

[Ibn]

Balloons and Champaigne Bottle need to be wieldable... Balloons as a "Bludgeoning" type weapon (Mace?) the Champaigne bottle either a mace or a casting device...

We had originally planned to make the balloons wieldable, but we ran into the issue that they are essentially sticks, like flags are. So either the balloons stick out straight when your arms are down at your sides, or they stick out behind you when you raise your arm and point. Both versions looked terrible, so we made them no-wield.

[KPD157]

I was just wondering Ibn if Drains of any kind or Life Magic Based Bolts effect the Withered Creatures?

[Ibn]

I know you wanted the new wields to look special, but cutting out 3/4 of the types of casting items (staffs, orbs, wands) ?? How about just adding the new tech to the old art..... :( :( :(

As you said, we wanted the new wields to have a unique look, to have the glowy effect that you see on them. Unfortunately there's no way to simply add that to the old items -- we need to create a new item for each one.

[Yoshitsune]

I saw the Elysa's New Years Resolutions and I'm troubled. As a joke its kind of lame. Why is Turbine becomeing political? Why the devisive statement? What does "less socially restrictive wedding cake toppers " mean? You do know that not everyone that plays AC comes from Mass?

I mean AC is a game. I play to get away from Tsunami's and mud-slides, from Blue and Red States, from Injuctions against prayer at the inauguration. Come on content-wise I haven't had a chance to play. When I could lastnight you were hip deep in the Login Server issue. Then I had my 8:00 to 6:00 job (sneaking AC tidbits from the various fansites). I'm sure when I'm on I'll love the changes I'm really looking forward to a set of 350 wield Ginsu Swords. But small even slight pudits like the one sited makes me worried that the direction AC wants to go isn't one that I do.

[Ibn]

I was just wondering Ibn if Drains of any kind or Life Magic Based Bolts effect the Withered Creatures?

Bolts, yes. Drains, I don't think so... let me check... no. Right, they're immune to all non-projectile magic. Drains are not projectiles, so they are immune to them.

[Ibn]

"May" has no meaning to me, you will or you won't. Do you have plans to introduce them? No. or you would have said that.

We don't have specific plans, as in, a date. We want to do it, we know what needs to be done to do it, we do not know when resources will permit us to do it. I am not sure if this counts as a "we will do it" or a "we won't do it" under your definition. We knew that players would be upset about this, but to finish the work would have required either additional delays on introducing the weapons or removing new art from other things. (And no, just cutting the "fluff" content like New Years gifts would not have been sufficient.)

[Ibn]

I saw the Elysa's New Years Resolutions and I'm troubled. As a joke its kind of lame. Why is Turbine becomeing political? Why the devisive statement? What does "less socially restrictive wedding cake toppers " mean? You do know that not everyone that plays AC comes from Mass.

I think you are reading too much into this. We did leave it open to interpretation, but it's just as likely that Elysa is complaining that there are no wedding cake toppers with traditional Gharu'ndim regalia.

[Kart]

how about more challanging monsters meaner and tougher, baby step tweaks don't do much for the game but give more junk that we don't need and making what was that...bandit weapon useless

[Oz of FF]

Ibn, what's the current plans regarding higher base wield weapons ? Are 375 and 400 wield ones coming ?

How about in the next 6 months ? If more than 6 months, I can see investing into another set, but if less than 6 months, I'll save my salvage.

You understand, new stuff is nice, but when it renders extremely nice things we have acquired virtually worthless, players like me get concerned.

I'd really would like to know some kind of time frame if higher base ones are coming as I have an extremely good set of weapons, via old standards, which cost me much time and valuables to get. I do not want to start a new set, just to have to start over again in a month or two.

We're AC players - we gotta have the best we can use of course, but I can be patient.

[Chupon]

Sigh, take that back. Just checked and the spear from the Banderling Village quest is no give, as is the key to the last room.

Sigh..

[Shao Majii]

Ibn, what's the current plans regarding higher base wield weapons ? Are 375 and 400 wield ones coming ?

How about in the next 6 months ? If more than 6 months, I can see investing into another set, but if less than 6 months, I'll save my salvage.

You understand, new stuff is nice, but when it renders extremely nice things we have acquired virtually worthless, players like me get concerned.

I'd really would like to know some kind of time frame if higher base ones are coming as I have an extremely good set of weapons, via old standards, which cost me much time and valuables to get. I do not want to start a new set, just to have to start over again in a month or two.

We're AC players - we gotta have the best we can use of course, but I can be patient.
This is a HUGE concern for me, personally.
I played and when I got my Impious staff, I thought to myself "YAY! I've got a no-drop staff and I'll never need another caster!"

That turned out to be WAY wrong. I thought the same thing when I got my critical strike staff fully tinked (finally). Then RR wands... Nope. Now there's magic D and melee D bonuses... And now, yet AGAIN, my old stuff is just that.

What is the end goal? To endlessly make better stuff and monsters with higher stats to compensate for it? I'll tell you right now, that doesn't work. Ever play an epic level D&D campaign? Eventually, your players are stronger than you can possibly imagine. You suddenly find yourself looking at the stats of the Avatars of the various gods and deities and thinking 'nope... I'll need a few of these...' Then you send entire ARMIES at each player, seperately, headed by Avatars of a few gods and goddesses that joined forces to kill the players... That fails. Eventually, the players get bored because you can't possibly challenge them enough, and everyone rolls new characters, switches GM's, and plays in a different world.

THAT is the fate of AC if you keep this up. Players need to be challenged more than they need better stuff... Trust me.

[Gripen]

I'm very excited by what I've seen of the new melee hunting grounds so far. They seem to be just what I was hoping for. I hope the idea will be extended in future patches.

I'm a 3-school swordsman. I trained creature, life and item so that I could self-buff. With a starting focus of 10 and without specced life, my life skill is nowhere near high enough to imp or vuln the creatures in VOD. I do just fine in a VOD fellow, but hunting solo in VOD, I can't kill the creatures fast enough to make it worth my while. I can make more solo xp hunting olthoi mutilators, for example, because I can kill them so much quicker.

I was surprised by some of the posts that the withered creatures take too long to kill. My sword skill buffs to about 480. The lugians go down at about the rate I'd expect with a lightningR sword. I haven't tried an AR sword yet.

The xp is a little on the low side. I think I can still make more xp hunting olthoi mulilators. The loot seems excellent from what I've seen so far. My first impressions are that it's VOD quality loot.

The biggest surprise was that the lugians don't hit nearly as hard as I'd expected. Olthoi mutilators hit a lot harder. Since specced life is a prerequisite to solo in VOD, I expected specced melee def to be a prerequisite to solo in high-level melee hunting grounds. I unspecced melee def recently to spec magic def instead and I still evade the withered lugians.

I'm very pleased by the new melee hunting grounds. I'd prefer the lugians to be more of a challenge, hitting much harder but rewarding with more xp. Ideally, I'd like the new lugian dungeons to recreate the challenge that the lugian citadel presented to me at level 15 :)

[Flipo]

Weeeeeee... I so like the fireworks!

lol
I wish they were something u can wield and set off or drop on ground and set off. Would be a nice thingy for Weddings/leveling parties.


Did I mention Weeeeee.

[Madaster]

Ibn,

On Leafcull at least Umbral Halls is a triple spawn of portals and monsters. :)

Drudge Aviator quest: Any way to speed up the spawn on the Aviator? He's on like a 5 minute spawn, the rest of the critters in there one minute at most. Isn't huge, but with a big group it is a long camp fest.

[Da_Woodshadows]

http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?p=172571#post172571

That is my feedback.... Plz IBN, give me a straight answer why this has been done, PM, reply on that thread, reply here, anywhere, just let me know plz!!!!

I didn't think it was nice for you to not answer me on my post but rather to answer someone else on my post.... Felt like you totally blew me off.

[Kyayote]

I agree that the withered arae needs improvment. I went running out there with high hopes & was severly disappionted. I found it is not much different than hunting in vod with a rend xbow. Not much different at all. I thought the point was to make them easier for melee?
The tummies with shields? are the shields vulnable becuase omg they are impossable. & it took my 15 mins or more to fall a lugi. The archer tummies are not so bad but then again niether are the ones in vod:)
Thanks for the prizes though:)
Kya

[Tahjn]

The withered area most definitely needs to be worked on a little, maybe halving the life of all the critters there and making the tumeroks' shields negligible. I like the new weapons though. And I hate that everyone is complaining about having to get a new set of weapons. When you find a weapon you like that works well you stick with it, you dont just throw it away as soon as something better comes out. Its kinda like a car or a computer in that respect. Not to mention there are vassals and such that can use the old weapons that are outclassed now and will love you for giving them such excellent weapons.

[Frank The Knife]

Just tried the new hunting ground and all I have to say is HORRIBLE.

I can tell nobody at turbine follows the seven P's.

Proper Previous Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

That about sums up what I have waited for the last month+.

Goodbye! :mad:

[Janusz]

ok, I have a lot of problems with the melee hunting grounds. the place sucks, and was not desinged properly for melees. sorry but, the devs working on this project failed to meet their goal. you do not have a hunting ground that allows melees to make as much xp as a mage.

I have several unique problems with this place...

the mobs take too long to kill, and dont give enough xp. I dont care if they are pre vulned. all you're doing is changing numbers around, it does not make sense. you're not solving an issue here. you increase the hp of a mob, then pre vuln it so you do more damage. you are accomplishing NOTHING here. the amount of time it takes to kill a mob worth 300k xp, I can go elsewhere and kill 5 mobs, each worth 60k xp. you solve nothing. this place is a slap in the face to melees. you call this a fix? do you understand a mage can make more solo than a melee.

this place has nothing to do with melees, how did it earn the name melee hunting grounds?

the mobs chosen are not melee friendly. drudges, banderling and tumeroks are mage food. othoi, tuskers, and lugains are melee food. 3/4 of the mobs found there are mage food. melee characters do not like monsters that cast war spells, why do 3 out of 4 mobs found in the melee hunting grounds casting spells?

I can not begin to express how disappointed I am. a person can make more xp, as a melee, in the olthoi rainment dungeons.

you need to un-nerf tusker island, did you guys notice those dungeons are abbandoned now and no one goes there? as game developers, is that what you want?

[wisdoms fair]

New withered creatures :confused:

Once again my xbower sits and kills one creature to 5 for a mage.
Good thing I have some good hunting friends or I would never make any xp.

Then again I thought the whole idea of this place was for people with lousy magics to actually be able to hunt?

Almost a whole bundle of arrows for one kill and within one buff cycle by myself I made a whopping 3mill.

Going back to the ole puppy dog eyes at the nearest mage so they will hunt with me in vod or caul. At least I will get some xp and some loot...that is if I can get a kill in :mad:

And as for the person who said you put all the crap into this hunting grounds?
They are right. All your missing is the bugs. I avoid all the mobs that are in this hunting grounds on my mage and my xbower in vod. Sometimes you just got to admit you messed up and take a step and correct it. You guys messed up here time to correct it.
These critters suck in vod and now are sucking even worse in these new hunting grounds.

[Kermit_LC]

One issue I had:

With the Holiday planner, there is a bug if you give him one of the holiday items nearly the same time someone else does. He will keep one or both the items given, and not return anything! Happened to me, it sucks! All I wanted was a bawwwoon... :(

[LeachateDrinker]

My one problem is the size of the new area is just too small. It needs to be made larger. The tummies also need to lose the shields. Do not change the spawn rate for the non spell casting monsters I think this is just right. The spawn rate for the casters could be reduced though. I am level 159 sword and can make over 20 mil solo so this is a nice place to hunt especially since it is outdoors. This is the first time in awhile that it is fun to hunt with the sword guy in months.

I think that the people stating that it takes too long to kill the monster may be either too low in level(was in a fellow yesterday for a short time and there were guys that were in their 70's) or not have a good tinkered weapons.

I would not go overboard with changes but make some small adjustments and see how it goes.

[tesla_ff]

feedback: (content feedback is based upon what is capable with my connection. many quests i havent been able to do the past 3 months because of my connection. dsl will be in the area jan 25th after 5 years of bugging the phone company.)

ok :) so far so good :) your recognition of non life chrs faults (namely meleechrs lack of high end power hunting creatures) shows that you understand a long overdo fix for us melee's inadequacies:)

withered grounds feedback: LOVE the lugian dungeon. it doesnt tax my connection to imobility (smnall concentration of monsters , no spells) my only complaint is that there are to few of them.

the other spellcasting whitherds are group huntable but not very feasable solo hunting (scary bod recoverys early am of the 15th lol i still had fun tho.)

hopeing ya got more melee viable huntin spots otw. im really sick of killing bugs after 5 years.

i think you need to add creatures that only a melee trained toon can hunt viably (and actually be able to hunt viabley. NOT like those huge tuskers in huge packs that only MAGES can hunt.)

id like to see creaturs that war magic does very little damage to them, so theres an actual creature around that a mage would actually want a melee around. this means that hunting the creature would have to be desired.

we melee's are screamin for our skills to have glorification on the server. now that youve added withereds and are showing that you are listening to us melee's , more melee's will be apt to tell ya there greivances :) hehe love the patch the quests are pretty cool from what ive seen of them (loving the artwork)
im looking forward to post dial-up exploration soon >:)

[tesla_ff]

ok, I have a lot of problems with the melee hunting grounds. the place sucks, and was not desinged properly for melees. sorry but, the devs working on this project failed to meet their goal. you do not have a hunting ground that allows melees to make as much xp as a mage.

I have several unique problems with this place...

the mobs take too long to kill, and dont give enough xp. I dont care if they are pre vulned. all you're doing is changing numbers around, it does not make sense. you're not solving an issue here. you increase the hp of a mob, then pre vuln it so you do more damage. you are accomplishing NOTHING here. the amount of time it takes to kill a mob worth 300k xp, I can go elsewhere and kill 5 mobs, each worth 60k xp. you solve nothing. this place is a slap in the face to melees. you call this a fix? do you understand a mage can make more solo than a melee.

this place has nothing to do with melees, how did it earn the name melee hunting grounds?

the mobs chosen are not melee friendly. drudges, banderling and tumeroks are mage food. othoi, tuskers, and lugains are melee food. 3/4 of the mobs found there are mage food. melee characters do not like monsters that cast war spells, why do 3 out of 4 mobs found in the melee hunting grounds casting spells?

I can not begin to express how disappointed I am. a person can make more xp, as a melee, in the olthoi rainment dungeons.

you need to un-nerf tusker island, did you guys notice those dungeons are abbandoned now and no one goes there? as game developers, is that what you want?


the grounds arnt a melee lvl joint and wasnt meant to be (although id like to see something for melee's that would allow us to keep up with mages hunting xp/hr)

the withered grounds were meant to give non life players (melee pretty much) a place to hunt at the top lvls of loot with decent experiance and succesfully kill without mage support. although some tweaks need to be thought about the concentration lvls of the creaturs (and hopefully less chain wars) i believe that they have succeeded in there initial steps to do that.

withered critters are still in development. feedback on what needs fixed should be along those lines whemn dealing with them (viable top tier killing for melee's)

but yeah we need a huntin dungeon too. try the lugian only withered quest dungeon. ive found it to be AWSOME. and im ua and killing them was fun for me.

[Steeda of TD]

Im really surprised and kind of upset that max damage for the new wield axes only went up +2, whereas sword went up +5. How is that justifiable at all??

[MIdnightFire7]

I am really enjoying this new patch. Thanks for the new weapons. The bows are sooo pretty :) and the gifts are kinda cool too. Not got a chance to try out some of the new areas, but will get to it soon.

[MaddyFF]

This is a HUGE concern for me, personally.
I played and when I got my Impious staff, I thought to myself "YAY! I've got a no-drop staff and I'll never need another caster!"

That turned out to be WAY wrong. I thought the same thing when I got my critical strike staff fully tinked (finally). Then RR wands... Nope. Now there's magic D and melee D bonuses... And now, yet AGAIN, my old stuff is just that.

To prevent the economy from being totally static Turbine nees to keep introducing new and better things for the players to work towards. I like to see item degradtion added to the mix.

[Northstar]

Ok this is a tough one as I've really only tried my main who is a bow toon in the Withered area so I'll try to be as objective as possible, also I'm only commenting on this from a solo point of view.

Before even entering the area I prepared myself for the worst [The gimp is spec bow/melee D/magic D with innate focus now of 100] and since he doesn't have healing I loaded up on healing rations, comps and headed out.

First impression after just surveying the area was how very tiny it was with thick little pockets of critters very close together [I immediately thought that if I died in there it would be solo recovery hell :rolleyes: ], and I was very disappointed at the small variety which just happened to include drudges and bandies that toss war spells.

While I can live with the war spells [as that adds to the challenge], what I can't believe is that you let them keep all the same debuffs as well?!? Seriously, as others have posted before me.. would you waste 150 or arrows to kill one creature for 500K and possibly die trying to kill it?

I'll break it down to this:

6000 health + 150 arrows + 3 -5 mins to kill [if you don't die first] does not = fun... I don't care about XP, I just want adequate returns for the time invested. I personally want challenge and possibility of death, but if you use proper tactics you can persevere.

Any noob can jump in and express their opinion... however I've always for the most part [Since May 1999] played this game solo and progressed to where I am now without being in a chain, XP whore, etc. So after all these years and being a respectable level 136 grief archer, I can't even make decent XP over time solo in a supposedly melee friendly area?

Don't get me wrong... I [B]can hunt there and draw critters out one at a time and kill one single spawn in time for it to regenerate before I can recover my corpse, that's always fun right?

So my personal solo thoughts on them are this:

Lugies: challenge is about right... just think using half a bundle of arrows is a waste.

Bandies: challenge is off... spec magic D and a Dark Nayin, half a bundle of arrows, and 12 healing rations/plus a few Adja's Interventions later and just surviving was a bit much for me.

Mystics: same as above

Tummies: Honestly... after the other three what's the point? I spent 45 mins on one buff and had made what 5 - 6 mill?

Playing hard means devoting 100% of your attention to the job at hand [I like that], however when that means just avoiding death and not being in the middle of a mob is just futile [I'll stick to other areas for now solo].

On the good side, kudos to you for removing the level restrictions on the forge dungeons... it was such a chore hunting for writ items every month [or paying insane prices for them in MP] that it's a very welcome change to be able to have a place you know will return one for the effort of running through the dungeon and killing the boss.

Overall.. great ideas... just need more work and I thank you for your efforts, now hurry up and fix it! :D

North

[SpaghettiBender]

If there is a racial req to activate a new weapon, can a different race still utilize the elemental dmg bonus ? I know the imbue (ex. BR) works irrespective of activation, but do the new bonuses?

[-Kaxak-]

Ahhh yes , another Patch of Lag , stupid same old crap , again lack of content , I wonder how long this is gonna last , but than again I just quit , I can't stand the lag , or how IBN makes melee changes to the game to help make up for his lack of skills ( oh didn't you guys know ? Yes , IBN plays a melee on DT ) that's just FYI ..........

well peeps , take care don't let the bad patches and total lack of content get ya down , if anything remember your paying 12.95 a month for this kinda junk LOL what a joke ...........


main reason I quit , ( Lag) ( lack of content)

[Lokarton]

It's concerning that the community relations representative doesn't recognize the expressed frustration as relevant to the this thread. Bear in mind that all the player community knows of the January event is forced eviction related to coding errors (billing server) -- feedback thus far relates to how poorly this event has been released.

If I had my choice between a more static fee for service experience with acceptable uptime statistics (e.g. quarterly updates) or new content that completely disrupts game play, I'll choose a more static but reliable service.

Listen to the players -- implement a release management process with decision checkpoints that eliminate this sort of outage following system changes. This sort of event is stressful for everyone but sweeping it away into a different thread reduces the reality that the January event cost every single player in the game 1/30th of their total monthly experience. I hope the other 29/30 aren't going to follow this alarming trend.



Whaaaaa..... your check will be in the mail for a whole 64 cents.....LOL

[rathrot]

i like that both Queen Elysa's new year's resolutions and Nuhmudira's new year's resolutions both contain Find Oswald and kill him.

its funny.

[AlphaSwift]

Small thing only your lawyers will love. The copyright notice on the splash page still says 2004.

[Damien Johnson]

Not sure this is where this goes but I feel someone needs to be told, this new Idea you guys have with Aun Ralirea Is just plain Garbage, you supposedly made him easier to find by removing the possibility of spawning him and then you took out the fact that he was randomly on some part of the map at some time...so now there is no telling when if ever he is going to be on now. we had a group of 4-6 people looking for over 3 hours For Ralirea and were never able to find him....way to go Yet another Nerf for this game and everyone wonders why I hardly play it anymore, Crap like this is exactly why I stopped playing AC and started playing other MMO's....if this continues unchecked I will stop investing in this game period and maybe buy a sub to WOW or CoH like alot of the people I used to play alongside in AC Have done.....WAKE UP TURBINE....fix this sort of crap while you still have time and a player base

[Gaetano]

Ok, now that I have waited, collected, and imbued a few of these new higher wield weapons, I can say the following about them.

1> The new casters witha +3% or higher mod do quite well. Using a slash +4, Rendering Wand I cast on average one spell less per kill. That means mutties and executors are a one shot kill. Not bad at all, but not worth the 310 req. either.

2> The new bows are a serious joke. Yes JOKE. 315 Wield for a +1 to +5 bonus to damage for ONE specific type. It would have been better to just add a damage bonus to +1 to +5 period. In combat, these bows are even more disappointing. You can barely notice any difference. This is using a +127% +3 Fire, Fire Rending bow. Maybe if I can add five or more bags of mahogany...wait, aren't these bows suppose to near the top of their chain? So far the old bow still fare better. Lower craft, same or better mods. Archers, don't be in a rush to waste vital salvage on these bows. Maybe the next set will be better.

3> The new drudge dungeon is a lot of fun, until you complete it that is. Then you are locked out for the duration of the timer. Not sure why that is. The spawns outside the portal are just great, fast, and full. The fact that we have run to the place is awesome, a lot of fun. No more instant access portals. Lets have more of them.

4> Those new spirits are fun also, and the level 135 version, is a challenge in mobs of 3 or more. I haven't finished this one yet, but I look forward to it.

[Sy Black]

A lot of people said this already, but I'm hopping that if more people speak up it might make a difference (even though in 5 years it hasnt yet).

The problems melee char have, is that they usually will have low magic resistance. The reason most of us couldn't kill creatures in VoD is because they, with one war spell can take away more then 60% of your life, not because we cant debuff them like mages do.

If you are going to make a melee friendly area, it needs to have monsters that do not cast level 7 war spells at you and sit in packs of 5, the odds of a melee char in that situation of NOT dieing are very small.

[Flipo]

Aun Ralirea:
I've not tried this patch to find but i've seen posts about difficulty of finding Aun Ralirea over the last few months. So far to date, I've found Ralirea easier to find since they disconnected Aun Ralirea with Queen Quest event.

I went to help find last month and by the time I got there person seeking found em. hehe go figure.

Advice I give out to ppl is use plugin to detect Ralirea and run pattern near dams/falls.
I also really think ppl should "just" look for the random Bow dude...cause I always find Ralirea that way. lol

[Chazcon]

Aun Ralirea: Last time I hunted him, took me 7+ hours. Now that is not all bad.

Think of it from this angle: It gets you up on the Marae Lassel Plateau which, even when server populations have been healthy, has been devoid of players. I made a personal attitude adjustment and killed everything in sight, gained 3 levels, collected a bag full of Gromnie teeth for my tradesman, and generally had a good time. Visiting the dams and the rooms down inside, the Menhir rings, the talking trees, the Hea enclave in the SW corner, Timaru, and grabbing a few pincers, made my time spent up there all worthwhile. And to cap it all off, I found Aun Ralirea of course and was able to train Item Enchantment five levels early.

So for the folks who are level grinders and to whom actual game content is an obstacle on their mad climb to 126, sure, any random spawn must be excruciating. To those of us who love the game, it's just another amazing facet of an incredible and wonderful place to be.

[Paraduck]

These live events are interesting and fun. Curmudgeon just better be careful if he decides to show back up on MT... ;)

[Samis]

ok so i ran with a party of players who all saved her and now i cant finish this quest since they cant enter the next dungeons and they require that there be 2 poeple. This is a very limiting factor when my quest night gets nerfed because the dungeon is requiring 2 people and you wont let anyone in to help.

[Semper Fi]

First, Thank You for the presents. Very festive and thoughtful. The new weapons seem to be a hit! Looking forward to having a few of them tinked and seeing results. The Withered Lands are a nice hunting area, and I noticed great Fellowships and Friendships as a result :)

[08kareni]

What does no patch server mean? i cant get into the game :mad: Also the Ash gromnies are NOT dropping the thick gromnie hides, necessary for the gromnie hide shirt, for cottage purchase, but the new thick gromnie hide is green n gives a coat, which doesnt work :( :( : :confused:

[Archdruid]

On your live events, I partapated in the hunt for the thief, we got the Global that Darth caught em, it would be nice if you'd put in the global the coords where the thief got caught etc. so the rest of us would know just how close we were of if we were aways off.

[Shao Majii]

To prevent the economy from being totally static Turbine nees to keep introducing new and better things for the players to work towards. I like to see item degradtion added to the mix.

Items Degrade? Heck no. I'd quit. The game isn't balanced or designed for that.

Ok, answer this: Why is sword the only skill with an upgradeable quest weapon like the SoLL? Shouldn't each skill have something like it? I mean, the SoLL and the SoLH are even effective on Caul and in VoD. Why don't other skills get something similar?

And frankly, I thought I explained why constant upgrades are bad... Do I need further clarification? Look at certain monsters that were never meant to be solo'ed. Guess what? People solo them. Was it intended? I doubt it. The point is, the majority of what made that possible is continued item upgrades. All this results in, sometime in the future, is creature rebalance. Eventually, items exceed the monsters and they get adjusted. Is that ok? I don't know. What it means is at some point, mages will end up dealing 7k a hit, melees will do 3 or 4k, etc and that's not even crits. It's gotta stop somewhere. I mean, if they brought in BZ and Asheron agian with the same stats they had back then, we could probly do some serious damage if not kill them today. I mean, players landed spells on Martine on one server and had him running around. Today, with all the advancements in items and such, that would be even easier. He'd probly be killed.

It's just a whole bunch of numbers that keep getting higher and higher. That's not challenge, it's bigger numbers while the challenge remains the same. It just LOOKS more challenging. Ask DT'ers what challenge is and they'll tell you it's NOT bigger numbers. It's the difficulty of the "AI" of your oppenent. Why are they on DT? To seek a challenge. If monsters with bigger stats and handed out item upgrades was a challenge, they wouldn't need to kill eachother for that challenge.

My old copy of DOOM II isn't a challenge, because it's just a map with a bunch of AI things trying to kill me. Once I figure them out, it's no longer challenging. I now have to get a lan party going to make the game fun again because the enemy is no longer a simple AI. Games with nothing to figure out get dull. We've figured out everything. We KNOW how to tinker a weapon for best damage, we know how to overcome VoD monsters, we know how to solo stuff that shouldn't be solo'ed. The only thing left to figure out is content like quests. This is why people complain about low levels of content. They run out of things to figure out!

[Celestin]

So far, I like the new wield reqs, but the patch seemed a bit light on other content besides the Withered creatures, which take up far too small an area of the Dires.

[summer]

I Love the Live events !
I hope there is more
I never been in one until last night, as we helped the Curmudgeon the Drudge.
It was so funny as we tried to figgure out what the drudge needed, and where was the mud cave.
I alerted my clan members and we gathered together and had a lot of fun.
I was so stunned that I was a part of it.. It was my very first live event.

I do hope there are more! :)

[Brandias]

I'm a little concerned, IBN. What about the great suggestions that are made each month? Do you guys do anything about them when the month is over, or once people stop suggesting something (mainly because their on about something else now) do you forget about it?

Just in case: Plz fix the burden units on the stamina and health rations. A granola bar shouldnt weight more than a gatorade.


And as for the rest this month:

1) A warning in the LTTP that higher req weapons would be out as soon as February, would have been greatly appreciated by those of us who blew up all their salvage this month!

2) I really, really thought that the withered grounds meant no more death spells on ME from the monsters I was trying to kill. Guess I didnt understand. Yuck.

3) The new year's treats were great. Loved the originality of each of them.

4) The downtime reminds me of Zone, not exactly the company you guys should be emulating.

The rest didnt mean very much to me, cause I didnt do them.

[Wasarcher]

Ok, now that I have waited, collected, and imbued a few of these new higher wield weapons, I can say the following about them.

1> The new casters witha +3% or higher mod do quite well. Using a slash +4, Rendering Wand I cast on average one spell less per kill. That means mutties and executors are a one shot kill. Not bad at all, but not worth the 310 req. either.

2> The new bows are a serious joke. Yes JOKE. 315 Wield for a +1 to +5 bonus to damage for ONE specific type. It would have been better to just add a damage bonus to +1 to +5 period. In combat, these bows are even more disappointing. You can barely notice any difference. This is using a +127% +3 Fire, Fire Rending bow. Maybe if I can add five or more bags of mahogany...wait, aren't these bows suppose to near the top of their chain? So far the old bow still fare better. Lower craft, same or better mods. Archers, don't be in a rush to waste vital salvage on these bows. Maybe the next set will be better.
3> The new drudge dungeon is a lot of fun, until you complete it that is. Then you are locked out for the duration of the timer. Not sure why that is. The spawns outside the portal are just great, fast, and full. The fact that we have run to the place is awesome, a lot of fun. No more instant access portals. Lets have more of them.

4> Those new spirits are fun also, and the level 135 version, is a challenge in mobs of 3 or more. I haven't finished this one yet, but I look forward to it.

I too think these bows are about as much use as a bicycle is for a fish.What a LOAD OF PALAVER made introducing them and what do we get, 123DM,125DM,127DM bows of wms 6+ that need 315 wield.....I'll stick to my imbued and tinked 130DM(158DM/166DM) 290 wield bows, thank you very much. Why not just add the bonus to the relevent arrow, it would save time all round.

[summer]

SUGGESTION: Can we PLEASE dye our Furnature? :)

Like I have 30 pots of Dark green Dye, 36 pots of mint Green Dye..
I dye most armor and whatever in our clan with my cook.. But I got all this extra dye!
I look at my furnature and think...

Gee that couch would look nice a pretty Green, Or that Table a nice Green :D

Pretty Pretty Please! :D

[summer]

QUESTION: How many portals are there now for Mansions ...AND How many can a mansion have on its hooks?

Did I read somewhere we can only have 5 or 6?
My clan is very active and forever bringing to our Monarch and clan each new portal.
In showing a new clan member places to explore, I found one of our portals not up..
I made a post that we make a poll in asking which ones we really need up on hooks, hoping this will help our delima.

Im confused .. can we put up and use ALL portals now?
And if not.. please can we in the future? :)

[Lance]

I held off posting on this thread for a bit to expirence some of the content for a bit before passing judgement. Now I think I am ready to put in my two pyreals.

For those complaining about the new tier of weapons sucking and not being worth anything, maybe you want to consider changing the area you are hunting to pick the stuff up. I have found numerous work three and four 350 melee weapons and my patron is sitting on a maxed out wk 4 315 piercing bow with +4 to piercing damage. With more coming out down the line, finally have a reason to tear through all the salvage on the mules, so for that one thank you.

Also just expirenced the new Whitered Grounds with some of my clan mates last night. Definantly a step in the right direction. Will be much better once the Tummies get their shields stripped, otherwise as I have said, definantly a step in the right direction.

The live events have been a blast to participate in when I am on. Kinda nice seeing people coming out from their hiding places and socializing while trying to achieve their goals.

So for Jan, the baby steps have been taken. I am definantly intrested to see how things turn out if they continue to make more "non life spec" content and to see what devilish things the LeO's will pull once they get their land legs.

[Merubin]

Thanks for leaving the scarecrows & stuff in for another month :)the Ash gromnies are NOT dropping the thick gromnie hides, necessary for the gromnie hide shirt, for cottage purchase, but the new thick gromnie hide is green n gives a coat, which doesnt workIt's been that way for awhile. You have to give the new thick hide to an Agent of the Arcanum (not a leather crafter!) to get the item you need to buy those homes.

How many portals are there now for Mansions ...AND How many can a mansion have on its hooks?I think there's 9 different portals & a maximum of 7 hooked at a time for now.

[summer]

Thankyou Merubin ! :)

[Crimson-Ghost]

Make the withered grounds much much bigger (like maybe that entire southern ridge that makes a semi circle at the bottom of the dires) and stagger the spawns so it's more of a obsidian plains type deal. As it is, it's just way too small, you don't even need a full fellow to clear out the lugian area... the amount of people that want to hunt here as opposed to those that can GREATLY impedes its use.

[Fel]

The withered lugies aren't bad, but I've a problem with them!

In the Vile dungeon they can walk through doors and I've followed them through in attack mode. They also seem to throw their rocks through doors too!

[Poison-Elf]

Ok gave this patch its full look before I wanted to make any comments.

Again like I stated before on previous patches, things are highly geared only to mages. This is easily backed up, by most the mages running around with their plus 5 to monster wands in every category, including my little mage. When this versus, not a single fully maxed sword (in my case), and just a couple other weapons through out the server, another extremely mage geared patch.

As for the melee area, the critters are around 3/5 the xp. The Mystics blast melees with these huge spells making them to hard to deal with (remember we haven't melee on a wand like mages, and can tink it and use a spell, in the area on magic defense) Shields on the tummies, makes a good 10 minute battle if you want to try. The prize weapons have no use over anything else you already have that I can find. The only plus I saw in this area is a major will drop now and then, new weapons as well but not very good in general. No big xp critters, like v's, oblit's etc.

The Royal oil quest has only cause me a headache, Recovering peoples bodies. With the creature generation so quick in here, and the creature bodies piling up and not decomposing, ultimately a entire fellow lags out and all dies.

I have used most my salvage up as well trying to just get a few weapons, though this should seem depressing, I really can't much get to excited about newer weapons coming. This obviously means new weapons for mages again, and one or two on the server for every one else. At least it was fun using a sing trove again. Not sure how many hundreds of keys I used to end up with some wands, and a couple other mediocre weapons. Still 0 % on any imbues on any new sword attempt, that is remotely close to the wands max damage. Did see one sell though, for a heck of a lot, guess that is the point. Everyone but mages will have to buy there stuff for a few hundred currency. Not actually be able to go out and hunt and find something. Sure makes me think about why do these guys macro, guess its because that way they have a chance to get a weapon, that’s not a wand, once in a blue moon. At least some of these perfect stat wands, I have been selling some. Hopefully someone will get a sword on our server sometime, and I can pay several hundred for it, can’t wait for the future ones, probably 500 mmd’s, or so, what do you guys think? You know, you guys who are inflating the economy so much with no drop items, that mages can sell and make tons of cash, because they have all theirs.

I have transferred three characters now to mage, since this is what is being insisted upon. Others have just got sick of it and refuse to give in to this, and have quit. So what are we all going to do when everyone is a mage like you guys are pushing for? All my guys are heading in that direction, since there has yet in the numerous years I been here a effort in any manner to have any thing remotely close in drop rates in weapons. Thus, a favored character type by the designers.

[Asper]

Should the Untamed Sirluun [sic] Pikestaff be more correctly named the Untamed Siraluun Pikestaff?