srand
03-15-2004, 01:35 PM
You were right; we were wrong. We made a mistake with the recent PK changes.
We introduced several new dynamics in March that were primarily aimed at the PK audience, including spell redirection to chest armor and changes to the spell words of arc spells. Our intention was to add more elements of optional tactics to PK combat, but the feedback that we have received since the March update -- as well as our own observations in game -- have shown us that these dynamics are not playing out the way we had hoped that they would. The majority of feedback we have received is not happy with these changes -- and since PK is one area of the game in which parity, fun, player opinion, and player demand are so delicately balanced, it behooves us to listen carefully. We've said that we're going to communicate with you more, and listen to you better, and this is an excellent opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is. We were wrong about these changes, and we're going to revert them.
So later this week, we will be bringing down the servers to patch the following PK-related functionality:
- Item enchantment spells cast on a player will not redirect to the chest armor of a player. They will still redirect to a shield if one is wielded, but if no shield is wielded the spell will fail (as they did prior to the March update).
- The spell words for all arc spells will once again be identical to the spell words for the corresponding bolt spell.
- PK/PKL players will no longer be able to use @die at the very last minute in a PK/PKL battle to protect their corpse.
- Weeping weapons will once again resist all magic cast on them.
This last PK bullet point may surprise you, since Weepings have been debuffable since last December. The feedback we have received, however, indicates to us that this is where we started to go wrong with our PK changes -- a lot of players were beginning to see a plausible, workable balance before these changes. So that is what we need to return to before we can go forward. And we will be going forward -- but only after talking more about what you want out of PK and discussing the options with you.
In addition to those changes, we will also be fixing a few important bugs at the same time:
- The hookable portal from the Temple of Ixir Zi will no longer be able to be hooked on non-mansion housing. Existing portals hooked on non-mansions will remain where they are, but once they are unhooked you will only be able to re-hook them on a mansion. This portal will also look correct when hooked, although you will need to rehook it to see that change.
- The spell issues on the Crown of Anointed Blood -- spells that affected the wrong attribute, or had the wrong magnitude of effect -- will be fixed.
- The golems in the Knorr quest will once again be willing to tell players their riddles.
This patch is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 3/18 at 9:00 AM EST. If that date needs to change for any reason, we will inform you as soon as possible.
We introduced several new dynamics in March that were primarily aimed at the PK audience, including spell redirection to chest armor and changes to the spell words of arc spells. Our intention was to add more elements of optional tactics to PK combat, but the feedback that we have received since the March update -- as well as our own observations in game -- have shown us that these dynamics are not playing out the way we had hoped that they would. The majority of feedback we have received is not happy with these changes -- and since PK is one area of the game in which parity, fun, player opinion, and player demand are so delicately balanced, it behooves us to listen carefully. We've said that we're going to communicate with you more, and listen to you better, and this is an excellent opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is. We were wrong about these changes, and we're going to revert them.
So later this week, we will be bringing down the servers to patch the following PK-related functionality:
- Item enchantment spells cast on a player will not redirect to the chest armor of a player. They will still redirect to a shield if one is wielded, but if no shield is wielded the spell will fail (as they did prior to the March update).
- The spell words for all arc spells will once again be identical to the spell words for the corresponding bolt spell.
- PK/PKL players will no longer be able to use @die at the very last minute in a PK/PKL battle to protect their corpse.
- Weeping weapons will once again resist all magic cast on them.
This last PK bullet point may surprise you, since Weepings have been debuffable since last December. The feedback we have received, however, indicates to us that this is where we started to go wrong with our PK changes -- a lot of players were beginning to see a plausible, workable balance before these changes. So that is what we need to return to before we can go forward. And we will be going forward -- but only after talking more about what you want out of PK and discussing the options with you.
In addition to those changes, we will also be fixing a few important bugs at the same time:
- The hookable portal from the Temple of Ixir Zi will no longer be able to be hooked on non-mansion housing. Existing portals hooked on non-mansions will remain where they are, but once they are unhooked you will only be able to re-hook them on a mansion. This portal will also look correct when hooked, although you will need to rehook it to see that change.
- The spell issues on the Crown of Anointed Blood -- spells that affected the wrong attribute, or had the wrong magnitude of effect -- will be fixed.
- The golems in the Knorr quest will once again be willing to tell players their riddles.
This patch is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 3/18 at 9:00 AM EST. If that date needs to change for any reason, we will inform you as soon as possible.