Ark's Ark

A comment I made in the post before this one deserves some explanation. This is what I was referring to, from an interview with Paul Barnett.

“I was in charge of hiding all the crazy things around the world for people to find,” Paul confirmed. “I can safely say that no one has come anywhere near finding even two percent of them. There are years and years of finding all the nonsensical gags that are hidden within the game!”

There are two possibilities.

A. Large amounts of content was created that is so impossibly hard to find, that 98% of it has been completely invisible to even the most hardcore player, 2 months after release. This is apparently a good thing, as it allows the developers to think how jolly clever they are in hiding it. I disagree. Content that is that hard to find may as well not exist, and was a complete waste of development time that could have been used to flesh out the parts of the game that normal people do in fact experience. It was especially useless in persuading people to stay on after their first month.

In fact, how does Paul even know that “no one has come anywhere near finding even two percent of them”. Did they not only waste dev time creating this stuff, but then also spend time creating some method to track how many of them we’d found?

B. That the claims are untrue, or at best, wildly exaggerated. This may seem an unkind suggestion, but I have been here before. When EQ2 was released, one of the races that was supposed to be in the game was the Froglok, but upon trying to choose that race you would be confronted by this sight:

The depths of the deceit can be seen in a post I did back at that time. Suffice it to say, the race did not in fact exist in a playable form, and the suggestion we could find and unlock them was a lie. A great many people wasted a whole lot of time trying to find something that did not exist.

My point is, when an MMO developer says that something is in the game, but we, the players, just haven’t been smart enough to find it yet, I am filled with suspicion. It is true that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it’s a whole lot easier to say something exists than to make it so. It is a great delaying tactic.

So we have a choice between A) An awful display of time-management, wasting precious developer resources that could have been used to improve the game in tangible ways, or B) A claim designed to make us think that something exists, when it does not.

I do not know whether A or B is correct, but I find neither possibility particularly admirable. I am genuinely perplexed that anyone would be boasting about it. Or perhaps I’m just a cynical old bastard who doesn’t understand.

Hellos!

I’s not posteds here before, but something happened todays which made me very sads. Very sads indeeds!

The Prophet of my healingy godses Rodcet Nife, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, is dead! Murdereds! And someone’s responsibles!

This is us in the goods times, sharing the funny jokeses about silly Bloodsabers and their dumb god. I bets it was thems…

She was all sparklies and everythings!!! When mes came to Qeynos all those years agos, she was only ones who wanted to let me joins the Celestial Watchs. Me’d had vision of heally Rodcet saying to go theres, and she’d had visions of Him saying me was comings and to be nices to mes!!!! Boo hoos!!! I’s missing hers sos! I’s going to find whoever did this horrible horrible things, and teach thems lessons in the personal hygienes that theys won’t be liking very muches. Oh noes, not one bits.

If yous know who dids this, yous be letting me knows, and yous get big thanks from mes, Maltheas, poor little sad heally Ratonga.

Boo hoos!!!!

Oh’s, Arkenor asked mes to post this things too:

Game Update 48 Notes

Special Events

The Guild Hall building projects for Qeynos and Freeport have begun to run dangerously low on resources! Director Jasmine at the Antonica docks and Director Hezreal at the Commonlands docks are eagerly seeking workers willing to help alleviate the situation.

During “Breaking Ground” (GU48): The Prophet of Healing, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, has been murdered and Antonica appears to have been affected! Theories abound as to who performed the deed and towards what end. You may start your own investigation at the Temple of Life in North Qeynos. Meanwhile Evdokia, one of the Plaguebringer’s fervent followers in Gorowyn, has tasks for those willing to help the Disciples of Disease. Won’t she be delighted by the news of the Seeress’ demise!

Veksar

Once thought lost to the waters of the Lake of Ill Omen, the ancient iksar city of Veksar has once again been discovered by the adventurers of Norrath! What has happened in the ancient theater of this once thriving resort city since it disappeared after the Age of Turmoil, and what secrets and treasures does it hold now? Make your way to the outpost of Omen’s Call, and see if you can begin to unravel the mystery of this risen ancient monument to the pride and power of the Sathirian Empire.

Guild Member Points

Guilds can now assign and track points for guild members. Points can be assigned in many different ways. New guild permissions determine which members can manage points and which members can receive points. For more information, check out the Guild Member Points help topic in-game by clicking on the help button (“?”) on top right of the the Guild Window (U).

Gameplay

Fixed the camera position on Griffins and Sokokars in 3rd person mode.

First person view as a winter wolf is no longer disrupted by winter steam effect.

The barrier holding the doors of the Godking’s temple have weakened with the onset of the void storms, allowing entry even without the sacred eyes!

Zones

Everfrost

* Everfrost has had a facelift! Adventurers will find dozens of additional quests, four new hubs, and a population friendlier to various playstyles.

South Freeport

* The alchemy merchant in South Freeport has begun stocking kindling as a sideline.

Firemyst Gully

* Wood in Firemyst Gully is now fully harvestable.

Veeshan’s Peak

* Adventurers in Veeshan’s Peak will now find that defeating certain bosses will earn various respawn points in the zone.
* Pattern drops in Veeshan’s Peak now use the Smartloot system.
* Milyex Vioren has switched strategies against invaders in Veeshan’s Peak, and is now much more aggressive and much less defensive.
* Xygoz, Nexona, Hoshkar, and Druushk will now drop two set pieces to match Silverwing, Phara Dar & Trakanon’s drop rates.

Travel

Mariner bells have been added to the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest docks to take players back to Antonica and Commonlands, respectively.

There is now a bell on the Nektulos Forest dock to take Neriak citizens to the docks in Neriak.

Mariner bell appearances have been added to the Neriak dock to help those who play on lower settings and couldn’t see the portal glows.

There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands on the Neriak dock.

Neriak citizens can now use the carpet in Sinking Sands to fly to the docks in Neriak.

There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands in Kelethin near the Greater Faydark ramp.

A bell has been added to the left hand dock of Kylong Plains to take adventurers to Gorowyn.

A bell has been added to the Gorowyn dock to take adventurers to the Kylong Plains.

The level restriction on the Gorowyn portal to Kylong Plains has been removed.

Quests

You can now speak to Ulgofar Wisme in Mara and get another Geomancy book if you no longer have your first one.

Special Agent Froak in Kunzar Jungle now gives another copy of the item “Reet Marching Orders” to those that are on the quest “Save the Reets” but have lost their original orders.

Rotten Chestwraps of the Guilty will now give credit to the priest who triggered it.

Assassins working on their epic who are not on stage 11 will no longer get quest credit for killing Rhylinil.

The “Dwarven Ringmail Plans” is now removed from inventory upon the completion of “In Honor and Service”.

Captain Vrondell in West Freeport will now update “Bandit Sash Bounty” for non-Freeport citizens.

Those who have finished ‘Deception’ will now have access to Darathar’s island.

General goods merchants Ilmira T’Oziarn and Ilztaonar V’Setiate in Neriak, and Sage Navarius Orvalis in North Freeport now sell creature cataloging quest starter tomes previously unavailable to evil aligned players.
ITEMS

The artisan’s tunic reward for the tradeskill tutorial quest no longer has the adventuring stats.

In-home crafting stations are no longer flagged as Lore.

The Diamond Rod from Shard of Hate now says “In Combat Run Speed” instead of “Speed at all Times”.

The focus effect on the Robe of Nexus disruption has been changed from a 600 point hate reduction on Blip to a 20% chance to lower the caster’s hate position by 1 upon casting Blip.

The Crystal of Dark Energy should now stack to 100.

Illusionist Shimmering Hues 4 piece bonus should now function properly.

Troubador Magnetism 4 piece bonus should now function properly.

Fury Stormbringer 4 piece bonus should now function properly.

Spells

All non expiring class based spells should now gray out when cast and remain that way until cancelled.

Master Strikes should work correctly with implied targeting now.

Damage Over Time ticks, double attacks and flurry will no longer trigger damage shields and similar spells which trigger off of taking damage.

Sathirian Scroll of Benediction and Smoldering Pontiff’s Second Sight will now stack.

Certain spells like Rescue which are common to the classes will no longer be reset while betraying.

Moving players between groups in a raid should no longer cause non stacking group spells to cancel.

Assassin, Brigand, Ranger and Swashbuckler self buffs should now be toggleable.

Berserker

* Juggernaut and Adrenaline have had their descriptions updated to match how they work while berserk.

Defiler

* Yoppa’s Rodent Form should work correctly now.

Fury

* The Savage Feast proc should now apply properly when a dumbfire pet gets the kill.

Warlock

* Gas Cloud and its upgrades are now maintained.

Achievements

An issue has been fixed which allowed players to use more than one achievement mirror. If you were using more than one, the system will take the first one as your valid mirror and wipe the profiles from any extra mirrors.

Assassin

* Obfuscation should no longer appear to work with Concealment.

Ranger

* Conservation will now apply properly to power, heal and thorn potions.
* Enhance: Snare will no longer reduce the effectiveness of the Wood Elf racial Light Footed.
* Enhance: Fettering Poison will now increase the trigger chance of Fettering Poisons.

Tradeskills

Tradeskill writs now award 300 faction (for timed work orders) or 200 faction (for regular work orders) on completion.

Handcrafted and mastercrafted armor (levels 1-69) has received an upgrade. Existing pristine items will automatically receive the improvement.

Outfitters are happy to announce there are no more incomplete armor sets craftable at any level — not all sets are available at all levels, but if a set is available, every piece can now be made.

All available crafted armor sets from level 10 up can now be imbued.

The appearances of cloth and leather crafted armors are now more consistent, more varied in shape and tint, and should provide a much-awaited wider range of appearance options for the fashion conscious.

A wider variety of crafting stations are now available in Qeynos Harbor.

Station Voice

Voice Channels with over 100 players are now considered “high-user channels” and will only display active speakers.

Player vs Player

You can now betray and play the good classes in the evil cities and the evil classes in the good cities. In other words you can have a templar in Freeport or a brigand in Qeynos.

Hypnosis can no longer be canceled by the target of the spell.

It should now be possible to cure charm spells cast by hostile players.

Inquisitor

* If you cast Inquisition on a player, the spell will only heal members of the inquisitor’s group. Due to the nature of this spell, casting it on a hostile NPC will still cause it to heal nearby enemies. This is due to the fact that the NPC is casting the area of effect heal not the Inquisitor.

User Interface

World chat channels such as the Level channels can now be properly turned off on the main chat tab and moved to other tabs.

Fan Faire Feedback

Neither good nor evil players should spawn directly next to the docks in Kylong Plains anymore.

None of the PVP respawns in the Fens of Nathsar should be threatened by creatures wandering too close.

Several creatures in Veeshan’s Peak and Shard of Hate now drop fabled deity altars.

The “Clear All Hotkeys” option now displays a confirmation dialog before clearing your hotbar.

Oh’s, dont be forgettings to check Squadron Leader Jack Steel outs toos. He likes the beatings up of zombies as much as I dos.

Right, me’s off to have the small chats with Bloodsabers…

A pretty big update, this time around, though it has been a few week since the last one. Lots of tweakage to the playfields, and a healthy dollop of voice-overs for certain quests. I’m one of those who actually reads quests and listens to voice-overs, so this is the sort of addition I really like.

Ah yes, and maker’s marks have been added to crafted items! This is a feature that every crafter desires, and one that shows at least some regard for the crafting playstyle creeping in.

And, oops, aye. I’m late with this. Confession: I’ve mostly been playing EQ2, after being tricked back there by the Living Legacy programme, and finding it far more fun, even third time around, than I’ve been having in AoC.

The update notes for Age of Conan’s 19th of August patch continue below. Just hit the link below if you’re not on this posts specific page.

Keep reading →

Been a busy week. After the DnL debacle, I was still thirsting for a world based MMORPG to supplement DDO.

I was persuaded by some good friends on the DDO irc channel to give the new Everquest progression server a try. It’s a new sort of server, where each everquest expansion has to be unlocked by the players, usually by someone raiding the nastiest enemies of the previous expansion.

What I found out: That I have no idea why I ever found it fun. It’s ugly, laggy, and as for corpse runs, well, I don’t know why we ever put up with that nonsense. I just find myself getting horribly bored. I will persevere for now though.

Seeing as I was going to break my vow of never touching another SOE game (They keep buying everyone else anyway. At this rate I’d never play a MMORPG again.), I figured I might as well go for the Access account option, and have a little poke around EQ2. The game has changed a great deal since April 2005 when I quit, and I found I had no idea how to play my existing characters, at least not without doing grave harm to their kills to deaths ratio.

So I decided to start a new character on the newest servers. These happened to be PvP ones, but I figured, hey, it’ll make being a questaholic more challenging.

What I found out: That non-consensual PvP sucks horribly. If I step out into Antonica, within a minute I’ll be dead from some stealther sneak-attacking me. Given the feebleness of my reaction times, and my utter lack of killer instinct, this is not going to be a long lived experience. Nevertheless, until I stepped out into Antonica, I was having fun, so I shall keep my eyes open for a fresh regular server being opened. That seems pretty rare though, unfortunately. A shame, as there is nothing like the delicious taste of a clean start. Til then, my much mistreated Access acount will be put back into it’s state of suspended animation. Probably. Unless I get really bored.

I am anticipating DDO’s Module 2 with something akin to the feeling I get when someone waves a bag of pork scratchings before me (Sadly an all-too uncommon event). If QA clear it in time, it’ll be this week.

Stolen shamelessly from Lum, Mythic’s CEO has stated his opposition to Station Exchange type antics. Over at Gamedaily.biz

Some highlights:

I think that not only supporting the sale of in-game characters, items and currency, but also taking a ‘cut’ of those sales, is not only a mistake but one of the worst decisions in the history of the MMORPG industry

Mythic Entertainment has turned down a number of opportunities to participate in such ventures, both with the companies that auction these goods, as well as doing it on our own. We remain committed to keeping our games as games and not as opportunities to encourage behavior that runs counter to their spirit of creativity and entertainment. We have no plans to participate in this type of service. We will gladly ‘leave money on the table’ to ensure that whether or not you like our games, that they remain as that, games and not an entertainment version of day-trading

A quick plug, as they deserve it after that! Mythic’s Dark Ages of Camelot, is quite a good game, though I haven’t played it in a while. Certainly, if you’re not wanting to stick around with SOEbay, and want something to do while waiting for Vangard, it might be worth your time checking it out.

A man goes to a casino. He exchanges dollars for chips at the entrance, and heads in. While there he plays a variety of games where the results are randomly determined, gaining and losing chips as he goes. When he is done, he exchanges his chips back for real money, and heads away, richer or (rather more likely) poorer.

A man loads up Everquest 2. He buys some plat with dollars, and heads out into Norrath. While there he slays many beasts, where the reward for doing so is randomly determined. When he is through, he sells his plat and loot for real money, and logs out, richer or poorer.

Does Station Exchange Everquest 2 count as gambling? I must admit, I cannot think of a good argument as to why it does not. I am aware that gambling laws in the US vary wildly from state to state, but I think most of them are somewhat unhappy with allowing minors to gamble. They also quite like to tax it.

For instance, Tennessee law states that “a person commits an offense who knowingly engages in gambling,”defined as “risking anything of value for a profit whose return is to any degree contingent on chance,”(From here). Can that definition ever fit in any possible permitted usage of Station Exchange? If it does, it’s illegal to even sell Everquest 2 in Tennessee.

We all know people who are addicted to Everquest 2, and many of us also know people addicted to gambling, I can’t help thinking that this is a truly undesirable merger of the two. For every one of Moorgard’s college students putting themselves through college, there might be someone who neglects themselves and their children.

In the past, while Everquest addiction was certainly not rare, SOE itself did not profit more from addicted players than non (or maybe less) adicted players. Now they will, and I find that deeply troubling.

Though perhaps I’m drawing parallels with the wrong sort of addiction. Will it be long before someone turns to real life crime in order to fund their plat habit? We’ve already had our first MMORPG-related murder.

So much of the distaste expressed for this service has been because some insist that all it does is enable the botters, the farmers, the slimeballs. That all Station Exchange does is make cheating legal, and that SOE is somehow saying cheating is okay as long as we profit from it. But life isn’t that simple, and neither is this issue.

I don’t know how many of you have been in a situation where you’ve known somebody who has sold an account for cash. I have. Many times, in fact. I was in a high-level guild in EQ for years, and most players who have spent any time in that kind of environment know someone who has bought or sold an account. I’ve had guildmates that I played alongside, adventured with, and whose characters I’ve helped equip sell those characters to other people. Sometimes that fact angered me, in the few cases when it was someone saying “Screw you guys, I’m cashing in.” Other times, there were people I really cared about who couldn’t play anymore and needed cash for real-life emergencies, and they needed the money they knew those characters were worth. Was I happy about it? No. But I could understand it, and I didn’t lose respect for those people as a result of the choice they made.

Likewise, there were times when we found out that someone who applied to our guild was playing a character they had purchased. Most of the time we wouldn’t consider those applications, but if it was someone we knew had played the game before and decided to return, or if they were a good player who had decided to switch to a different class and thus bought a character, we sometimes let them join. After all, the person who bought a high-level character isn’t necessarily less skilled at playing another class than the player who twinks an alt and has their friends powerlevel it.

When I think of an auction service, these are the kinds of issues that hit home for me, because I’ve lived through them. This service isn’t all about botters and farmers; it’s also about real people who have to leave the game for personal reasons or who simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.

I’ve made a number of posts about this subject, because there has been a lot of misinformation and assumptions made that I don’t think are entirely fair. But you’ll notice that in none of my posts have I tried to convert anyone to use this service. I wouldn’t use it myself, and I would have no interest in playing on an Exchange server personally. But to simply paint Exchange as nothing more than a sweatshop enabler simply isn’t true. There are real people who want to sell the right to use the characters or things they’ve justly acquired to other real people willing to buy them. Is it right from a purist gaming standpoint? I’m not saying it is or isn’t. But I’m saying it’s a reality that you can’t ignore, and the thing that Station Exchange does is to provide a safe place where it’s okay for those two honest people to do what they want to do in a safe and secure way. And I’m being completely honest when I say that I don’t see that as a bad thing.

- Moorgard

There’s so much in this post, I’ll probably be nibbling at it for the rest of the day.

1. Moorgard admits to being aware of account/plat selling, and doing nothing about it. So much for SOE’s enforcement of the rules. Assuming such enforcement happens, you needn’t worry if you’re in Moorgard’s guild, I’m sure.

2. Recent dev posts have been liberally sprinkled with college students paying their way through college, and people with real life problems. This is so that anyone critising Exchange can be characterised as lacking compassion. Where were all these people before Station Exchange could make a profit off them? Will people with Real-life emergencies who sell on non-exchange servers still be banned? Is it right that Exchange is extracting a cut from such people on Exchange servers? Should we even be charging them monthly fees?

3. People who “simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.” over the other players. Sometimes called cheats and exploiters. Remind me, why are we banning exploiters anyway? They’re just regular folks, *sniff*. Bobby needs his speed hack to keep up with all the compentent players. Oh the humanity!

I think Moorgard must be emotionally exhausted. They’ve wheeled Brenlo out.

It’s a game not a morality lesson. It is no more immoral than buying a hammer instead of making your own or buying corn rather than growing your own. It is no more immoral than house rules in Monopoly or house words in Scrabble.

And let’s please stop the labeling of anyone who says this isn’t so bad as a plat farmer or a character seller it really diminishes all of the cogent and well thought out discussion. This is not the McCarthy hearings, it is a game.

- Brenlo

Getting a tidgy bit defensive there. “Are you, or have you ever been, a capitalist?”

Buyers and sellers remain completely anonymous. No Station name, forum name, email, or anything else is surfaced anywhere public.

-the mysterious Hammerfel

And I wonder why? IGE is only anonymous because it’s trade is illicit. Ebay is not anonymous.Without names, all the items and money appearing for sale could have been put up for sale by our worst foe, the servers most notorious bot-team, or simply spirited out of the ether.

Developing…

It’s a fait accompli. The press release is out, the website up. It’s going to happen no matter what.

In the past week, one of the things that has hit me most, is how much the devs and mods are sounding like lawyers these days. Sadly, I don’t mean in their cultured use of Latin, but in their use of obfuscatory ambiguous speech, and their unwillingness to answer the tough questions. As Guk-gate has shown us, they seem to have received training in making statements which say one thing, while leaving sufficient wiggle room to backtrack later. When that’s not possible, they say nothing. So there’s not really much of interest to report on the last days Dev posts.

Hmm, except Mr Smedley thinks it’s a lot like selling trading cards. (He rather splendidly uses the rhetorical trick of “Describe the exception, not the rule” there. He also reminds me why I stopped playing Magic. I couldn’t afford it.)

As for the “vote” on how many servers get exchange? My vote is to call in United Nations election monitors. They’ve already done their sums as to how many servers should change, in order to maximise profits.

There is only one way SOE can prove to me that I’m wrong. (Well, two ways, but canceling SOE Exchange isn’t going to happen.)

If Exchange is really coming in for the good of the players, make it free. You don’t need to charge a fee. You don’t need a percentage. And removing the overheads on the the player would truly let Exchange put IGE out of business on Exchange servers, rather than just creating competition which they can and will undercut.

If Exchange was free, we would not have to worry that any changes in the game were to facilitate the greater flow of money and goods through the Exchange system. Yes you deny that will happen. We don’t believe you any more.

If it’s free, there won’t be any pressure to apply it to servers which do not desire it. We would be more inclined to believe the vote count.

Meanwhile, I found a bizarrely prescient comment over at Lum’s. Either TPRJones is the new Nostradamus, he should read his non-disclosure agreements more carefully, or he should sue SOE for nicking not only his ideas but his terminology. Was that post the birth of Station Exchange?

A tense moment at the Sony World Chess Championships