End of the week with Major Malphunktion 9.23.11

[Bob_The_Terrible]

Thanks for the update

[Faent]

Thanks for the communication.

[Esserbe]

Please consider keeping at least the level 12 or 16 and below upgraded items BTA. There's a lot of good 12+ BTA or unbound loot in the game already that won't require juggling ingredients to lots of lowbies.

[Auriljr]

Please consider keeping at least the level 12 or 16 and below upgraded items BTA. There's a lot of good 12+ BTA or unbound loot in the game already that won't require juggling ingredients to lots of lowbies.

yes please

[Mistinarperadnacles]

So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance.

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!

[Backley]

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.yes
5 yes
6 yes
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

Fixed because I was wrong.
it looks like adding a crystal to one of these items or clearing the slot should both leave the item still BTA.
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

Your fix missed the "Too late already."
To summarize:
Epic slotting doesn't change the BTA items to BTC, only upgrading them in the barter box changes them to BTC, and if your item already has an Epic slot it can't be upgraded further in the barter box anyway.

So, instead of "Too late already" you now mean "Never too late to add/change crystals. Crystal slotting/clearing does not change BTA to BTC."

[Psiandron]

Thanks for the info Maj and Cordovan. Glad you guys got things sorted out. So it really was the mushrooms. Sad, I feel kinda betrayed after all the fun we've had together. You know pizzas, steaks, that kind of thing. I'd never use mushrooms for anything else. Yes, I do always cross my fingers that way...Its compfortable...really.

Too bad about the items going to btc when upgraded, but oh well.

Keep up the good work and maybe one day more people will decide to read your posts.

[Magnyr_Delorn]

Question: Will we still be limited to the original end date, will the time be extended proportionally to how long we had downtime, or we get additional time past THAT to make up for the BTA/BTC change?

[My2Cents]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

As long as we can use our alts to craft items for their future, i.e. they cannot use YET, by transferring BTA ingredients from higher level alts, I can live with this.

Its important to be able to make items for my toons future that are BTA.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.

[Ganolyn]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

Will the items initially created in the cove box be BTA or BTC? If BTC, then how do I make items for my alts for when they are bigger (but not yet big enough to run themselves for the ingredients for their future items.) I don't remember if the ingredients are BTA or BTC? Please clarify the issue of making items for my alts for the future when they are bigger than they are now.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.

It has been stated that all ingredients and items fresh out of the Barter Box will still be BTA. They only turn BTC when you upgrade them.

[Backley]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

Will the items initially created in the cove box be BTA or BTC? If BTC, then how do I make items for my alts for when they are bigger (but not yet big enough to run themselves for the ingredients for their future items.) I don't remember if the ingredients are BTA or BTC? Please clarify the issue of making items for my alts for the future when they are bigger than they are now.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.

Already answered further up, but here's a summary again:
1. Tier 1 upgradeable items when created via the barter box will start life as BTA.
2. Existing BTA cove items from the last cove event will remain BTA unless upgraded in the barter box.
3. Upgrading a Tier 1 item to Tier 2 will change it from BTA to BTC on the character that does the upgrading.
4. Upgrading a Tier 2 item to Tier 3 will change it to BTC if it wasn't already (i.e. old Tier 2 BTA items will become BTC if upgraded to Tier 3)

[Avenging_Angel]

I'm a bit disappointed by the BtA-BtC thing, but I guess you can argue it's fair, maybe. Cove back in 7-10 days? That's two weeks down, imho a lot for an already existing event. I hope you will make it last the original amount of time, setting the end day further into October. This whole thing leaves me in a "Meh :| " mood.

As for the rest of fixes: good, some work on handwraps, it seems.

Thank you for posting here and letting us know what's going on.

[Diyon]

I just thought I'd add this suggestion, as far as the BTA-BTC changes are concerned.


When it goes live, make sure this is noted in the Launcher news, and even better, somewhere in the cove that's fairly obvious.

If not, you going to get a lot of complaints from people who don't check the website and/or forums when they upgrade items on a character it's useless for.

[jejeba86]

First of all, Major, you're the man!

Second, how can people misunderstand something so simple and well said plenty of times?!?!?!?!?!

[Ganolyn]

First of all, Major, you're the man!

Second, how can people misunderstand something so simple and well said plenty of times?!?!?!?!?!

You must not be from around here. jejeba86, allow me to introduce you to the inhabitants of the planet Earth...

[Chazzie]

Tip of the hat Maj

Im So thankfull for your time keying it up to keep us up to date,I'm a very happy camper

One Idea~I havent log into game yet but it be nice to have a blurb on the launcher,While we long in....The reason I think this would be a good idea is so it will hopefully cut down on the "you didnt warn me" threads.

If a link is already on the launcher please disregaurd

Tip of the hat & again a Big Thank You

[Aphion]

Another crazy week. People say coming up to launch is chaos, sometimes it is the weeks after one that is even busier. It basically adds another project to the list, patch gets added to the workload while Update 12 is already at full swing. We will have a hot fix ‘soon’ as in the next week to 10 days, and then a Patch another few weeks away.

So long to wait

Now,I have some good news and some bad news. Go ahead get your torches and pitchforks…I’ll wait.

*grabs torch and pitchfork*
*dumps gasoline on pitchfork*
*Lights pitchfork with torch*

OK one flaming pitchfork and torch- CHECK
Kobolds beware!

OK you’re back?
First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.
But now this is ‘fixed’, and is like all the other places with this kind of loot in the game. Sorry. We should have had this in the release notes, but I will admit I did not cast my net far enough into the past to notice the fix. Sorry for the confusion. So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.

Leaving it as it was knowing that it wasnt WAI and not saying anything doesnt exactly promote any goodwill with me but ah well I'll live. I mean just saying that it may be fixed in the future would have been enough. Perhaps at the end of the last cove to prevent people going crazy farming\upgrading them trying to horde but we were doing that anyhow so *shrug*.

1. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now? yes
2. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix? yes
3. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now? yes
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix? yes
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

I really don't understand this one. They're already bound taking them out of the economy and twinking with them is further restricted by minimum levels. Its then even further restricted being that cove isnt always around. Theyre not exactly the best items in the game but some are pretty nice.

So basically all the upgraded items from the past cove are like irreplacable antiques you cant get anymore. How long before you 'fix' that as well? At least I got in early and old upgraded\new non-upgraded ones stay BtA. Not really surprising but it is disappointing. Id put this info on the launcher or reconsider this aspect but thats all just my opinion

Now the good:

• Crystal Cove is back from repair(EDIT) and in QA.It will come back sometime around the hotfix. The flip the switch day is up to Marketing, not me.( I love it and would have it on all the time) Oddly it was the same exact bug that caused some crashing issues a while back, due to mushrooms in Red Fens. So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance. See, it was the mushrooms fault…sort of. Why a mushroom and a door work the same is one of those mysteries of life, and maybe only David Attenborough knows the connection.

• We fixed melee attacks. This will be in the hot fix. (cheers!)

• We are still looking at lag- it is a tricky one, but we have a band-aid that may help that is going out with the hot fix.

Glad to see that this will be fixed and lag may potentially be less after.

Then, in the next patch…yes, a sneak peek(Note: these are not set in stone, and due to issues found may be pulled from the patch at any time)

Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.

I see what you did there. I'm sure many will be happy to see the crafted and loot handwraps fixed finally.

Hirelings!
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• Display cool down timers for Pet and Hireling active abilities on the control shortcut bar
• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.
• Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.
And a bunch of other stuff!!
Back to the mines! Yark!

Go Pats!
Major Malphunktion

Glad to see some of these fixes and the communication is a good thing. Keep it up!

Now to find some kobolds for this flaming pitchfork and torch.
*You hear kobolds screaming in the distance and then silence*

[BDS]

See that there was some mention of fixes to crafted wraps. Any chance the enhancement bonus will actually start applying? Main reason I started crafting in the first place was so I could make some nice wraps for my light monk. Was pretty disappointed when I crafted my +5 HoGLOB wraps and found out the enhancement bonus wasn't applying.

[Gkar]

Thanks for the regular updates Major

Thanks for the heads up Maj. The Cove BTC change sucks but saves me a lot of grinding. Most of the stuff I wanted to make were twink items to pass from alt to alt.

Same here, its a disappointing change. No more Cove for me from now on.

[redoubt]

Many thanks to Maj and Cordovan.

This is the type of communication we used to get a lot of and it is really appreciated by, well, at least me. (And I think many others too.)

Not that it matters to you company guys, but +1 for each of ya!