How Does This Happen?

It's ironic that your main defense is "because a dev said so" in a thread originally about a dev not knowing what the hell they were talking about.

 

As I posted in the official forums:

I'd be OK with your line of thought if the code wasn't already in game. It will probably take less than 1 hour of work to add the new harvesting levels to the harvesters and pony. And I'm sorry if they aren't willing to make that much of an effort to appease the Tradeskillers, who make up a large part of their revenue, they are only shooting themselves in the foot.

 

Is it also ironic that Caith, Gninja and Kander have all posted on said thread, and they seem to be sticking to their guns?

Either way, ponies will eventually be added to PoP, per Kander on the now locked thread.


We've already stated that there will be an upgrade for the pack pony when we release the signature line content after the expansion. No one is being told to piss off.

Locking this thread as it has become arguing and name calling.

 

When I made that comment, I was considering things along the line of being both pony adjustments + TS timeline ready for PoP launch. It would have been better if I was more clear about that.

As for the whole 1 hour to edit code for ponies, I am no coder at DBG, but I have heard horror stories of their spaghetti code. Could very well be a 1 hour job to add in the new stuff, or a 20 hour job... Question is, do they want to? Evidence would indicate no, because they do not want people cycling through 12+ alts to click auto-harvesters this early in the expansion.

I suspect the TS line will provide the upgrade to our ponies to work in PoP. What would be an added bonus is if we could get the new ethereal wings on our ponies, for appearance sake at the very least.

 

You didn't claim it, no. But that is how, with your clear bias, you are presenting your 'argument'. The manner in which you address the use of a player's legitimately earned amenity expresses that you feel they didn't earn the right to use it as implemented.

One half of Caith's statement **almost supports your regressive position, so you wave that flag as hard as you can while disregarding the other half of the statement (which doesn't support your position) because it's complete nonsense.

The devs didn't claim it is an abuse - you interpret it that way, unless you have a quote that provides more clarity. No? That you continue to assert without evidence that there is a claim of abuse - by the devs - again just illustrates your strange predjudice on the issue. So PLEASE stop with the abuse nonsense, present a valid argument. You are not a mind reader, no matter how 'obvious' your blind intolerance thinks something is - don't put words in the dev's mouths.

Mermut made the Epic 2.0 comparison, and you made an ill informed 'take down'. When I pointed out that you presented another misleading argument, it's not relevant - convenient.

At this point it makes sense that you would try to read - or insert - some drama. In the grand scheme of things, is the delay of the pony upgrade the most egregious part of the expansion? No, but at the end of a long chain of disappointments, for many it could be the thing that makes them walk away - and that's not good for the game.



** Not So Breaking News: The ponies and other harvesters are being updated when they get around to it, and will function as normal, so that negates your assertion that the devs believe the use of them to be an abuse.

 

Ahh, so its not valid unless its specifically stated/claimed, unless it is your interpretation of my intentions, then it is open season. Good to see your application of consistency.

As mentioned previously, we can continue to use the pony as it was earned, in KA and prior content. Use of the pony in PoP content will be earned at a later date. Nothing was taken.

It does not matter what the Devs do at this point. There is not enough of them to put out the quantity, quality and range of content that will prevent people from walking away from the game.

Indeed, not so breaking news, it's common knowledge, and something I have already commented on. I will give the benefit of doubt on that as I suspect you were writing your reply and missed my prior comments.

 

As I posted in the official forums:

I used to be a coder before I decided to concentrate my skills towards network and server operating systems and their related infrastructure...

So yeah if you have a question regarding Pascal, I might still be able to help you out.

That being said I doubt, even with the pasta code EQ2 is built upon, refuse to believe that its that difficult to add a few lines of text to a dialogue window and then define which harvesting nodes should be brought back when that line is selected. Don't need a Bob for it that's for sure.

And now to expand on it...

I agree that our devs are not trying to sabotage the game, I truly believe they are trying their best with the tools they are given and the time allocated to them (I even really liked KA for that matter) But concentrating on the adventure side is going to bite not just them but all of us on the ass in the relatively short future. Upgrading the pony and harvesters from the get go would have been a lot more than just throwing the tradeskillers a bone, it would have gone a very long way to appease them about the timeline being late.

And now to a semi-related matter, I really like what I've experienced so far in the beta, I don't think it is as far behind the curve as a lot of people (including a few people posting in this thread) are making it out to be.

Sure the instances need a bunch more tweaking (started off too easy and now are on the bad side of hard) But the zones are well done, and take this from someone who disliked the faction system in RoK and hated the Hole faction system so much that I refused to do it, I actually didn't mind it this time around.

I like the story, I love the overland zone (both in size and artwork) and found the quests (even the repeatables) well done. I also like that they went to a mix of the old master collection / normal collection / meta collection system this time around. I found there to be a good amount of content to keep me busy and not too much grind. So far I'm happy with my purchase and am looking forward to it going live.

 

I am 100% sure the devs could update the ponies in 1-2 hours of work. That code cannot be that complicated to go through.. even though the whole game is so badly coded and filled with so many bugs it is laughable.

The long term development since CN took over is to create more revenue from the marketplace. Everything they developed since then had some sort of "upgrade using $$" mechanic. So my bet is that some manager looked at the sales from marketplace and wondered "why are we not selling these harvest satchels?". That is the main reason the ponies/gobs/guild harvesters are not getting upgraded from the start. They are betting that the people buying materials for $$ > the loss of sales and subscriptions. The q4 results needs to reach the goals that the investment firm set up and this is a way for them to do so.

They are milking every asset of the game, nothing but the bare minimum is spent to keep eq2 afloat. As long as the short term revenue from the marketplace exceeds the income from subscriptions eq2 will be running. It will come to a point where that is not the case and eq2 will be closed. Question is, you want to feed the owners of the investment company as they push the dev team harder and you get a worse and worse product? If the answer is yes, then buy the xpac... I voted with my wallet and are not buying this one either even though I had high hopes that things would change so I could return to the game I once loved.

 

I think they saw another opportunity to potentially squeeze more $$$ out of the player base by making harvesting/tradeskilling so frustrating that people would break down and buy harvestables from the marketplace and/or research their spells via dbc.

Remember how well that worked out with ascended spells for them? They know that certain players impatience will get the better of them. It's really all about wringing the dish rag that is EQ2 until it runs dry at this point and moving forward.

Also, they are going to continue to push boundaries with the remaining player base to see how much nickel and diming they can get away with. The only way we can get their attention and consideration at this point is by speaking with our wallets.

 

I actually agree with the philosophy behind not immediately adding the new harvestables to the pack pony / other gathering stuff, but it's also a decision that looks spectacularly bad given that it hasn't been done in previous expansions, as well as how it was first "announced," especially considering the general mood around how the team communicates these days.

 

I did the pack pony on one toon, and that was enough for me. I can't imagine doing it on 2 let alone 16 or whatever.

To the peeps that have an army of pack ponies, God bless ya. You deserve every bit of what you worked to achieve. I couldn't do it.

 

I regret not stocking up on Kronos before I quit a few years ago. T_T

 

I never said that crafters and adventurers don't overlap and I never suggested that the plat exploiters hadn't been 'punished'. But you're not suggesting that 'only' the players you feel are 'abusing' the ponies should be 'punished'.. you're saying EVERYBODY with even 1 pony should be 'punished'.. by, effectively, removing the usefulness of ALL ponies.

So, you're comparing common harvests with top tier raid loot? I find that laughable in light of your assertions about the merits of my comparison.
You also seem to be implying that most (all) people with ponies, especially those with many, specifically use the materials from the ponies to make plat by selling resources on the broker.
Also, what do you mean by 'proceeds'.. most times people use that they mean money, in this case plat. Perhaps YOU would sell the materials if you had a herd of ponies, but if you read the comments in the various posts, 75% or more are concerned about their ability to CRAFT... and help their friends and guildies CRAFT.. not to make plat.
I get the impression that YOU want to be able to sell harvests and if people have ponies, they won't have to buy from you.

Why do you think the pony should require a paid membership? Why should 2 sig lines (the first that gives the pony and the 2nd that upgrades it) be locked behind membership? And why just tradeskill timeline and not an adventure timeline (like epic 2.0)?

On a closing note, ponies have absolutely nothing to do with Kunark Ascending. They were introduced around the time Shadow Oddessy came out..
And they have been able to harvest new tiers of materials, without requiring any quests, as soon as each new expansion came out. I have no idea where you got the idea that they were 'designed for' KA.

 

Nah, your prolific posting, with what appears to be clear bias, is valid enough.

And thank you, I do try to be consistent in advocating for players and the quality of the game, rather than personal preference.

As for the news note at the bottom, that was for general edification since your primary argument presented here has been the inappropriate accusation of abuse by players - the devs, by proposed action, do not share your opinion.

I have made the point I intended.

~Game on, Crafters. Game on! ~

 

Oh, there's a bogeyman to blame for this. Maybe even a couple...

 

How do I explain current design, itemization, content progression, etc?
I already did, in the part you quoted.

There is not enough Devs to put out the quantity, quality, and range of content that will prevent people walking away from the game at the rate they have been over the last few years.

Despite Dave Georgeson and John Smedley now being gone for years, the damage caused by their decisions can last much longer, and be very difficult to recover from.

 

You twisted yourself into knots making that post.

I don't know anyone who wanted PGs (I was hoping for a fixed up BGs), they just appeared one day and we had to farm them to keep up. I have wanted a cross server dungeon finder for a long time, but their last round of mergers wiped that off the radar (along with alleged technical difficulties). I have been critical of stat/DPS inflation going back as far as EoF. I have been against the state of plat inflation for a long time, it became a very glaring issue in/from RoK. You could not have misrepresented me more if you had purposefully tried.

There is a long list of things I would love to see in EQ2, how I think things should be done in an ideal world... And then there is a thing called reality.

The remaining Dev team working on EQ2 face an insurmountable challenge. There is not enough of them. The realistic prospect of their team getting significant support is slim to none. I can't blame CN for this. When they acquired "DBG", and looked over the numbers, EQ2 was in bad shape. I can only imagine the sentiments expressed by CN execs when they found out EQNext was a lemon, Anything related to EQ probably became a naughty word in their board rooms.

I suspect EQ2 is getting close to "maintenance mode". However, I will continue to play so long as I continue to enjoy the interactions with friends and guildies, and the content is reasonably tolerable. Going back several years, EQ2 claimed the significant bulk of my gaming time, that is no longer the case. I am actually enjoying the variety in my gaming time. When PoP launches, I will sink another solid chunk of time into EQ2, and see how it all plays out once the dust settles.