End of the week with Major Malphunktion 9.23.11

[tokenghost]

Bound to account was ok for these items, a lot of casual players grinded out as much as they could to get just a couple of these item to use on all their toons.

Now everything is going to be bound to character? [using very quiet angry voice now] Fine, then drop how much these stupid things take to craft to maybe 1/10th what they do now, otherwise, they aren't worth the time it takes to grind them out for just one toon. Glad I got enough done last time to twink my lowbies/TRs. Thanks for the grandfathered items, but this change is all kinds of suck.


Forget it. I'm making air eles, all air eles, see if I can hit 1 mill.

Are the air ele's going to be bound to character too? LOL, maybe next time this comes on they'll end up bound to character. But I guess if you get kicked in the pills enough times you learn to take it... I haven't yet, Turbine.

Not happy. Not at all.

[waterboytkd]

So in the Hot Fix or the patch will there be a fix to Mark 3 in the master artificer. I can not believe that is WAI. Mark 3's AI is buggy and annoying. It has gotten to the point where one of my guildies is about ready to quit that quest solely due to the AI of Mark 3. His AI makes people lag and we chase him around with no purpose unless we are successful tricking his AI.

From what I undestand, he's a ranged titan. If he aggros on someone, he tries to move away from them so he can pepper them from a distance. If the aggro'er chases, he keeps running. Last time we did MA, we let an AA "tank" Mark 3, and that kept the titan still for the melees. Of course, there were a few hiccups (the AA getting nuked by the titan's 500 damage attack, the Frenzied Berserker stealing aggro because the AA who recently died hadn't gotten Manyshot off cooldown yet, Favored Souls stealing aggro when AA gets nuked again; turns out that 500 damage nuke is freaking brutal!), but it went really well. Casters take Mark 2, using DoTs to take him down, weapon users go after Mark 3, with a ranged character "tanking" it, since Mark 3 won't run if his target is far away.

PS Maj, this thread rocks. Last week's rocked. Please keep this up!

[ainmosni]

The bind status of an item will only change to Bound to Character when it is upgraded, when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are currently Bound to Account will not have their bound state change unless they are upgraded when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are acquired after Crystal Cove returns will change their bound state when they are upgraded. Clearing and adding augment crystals will not impact the item's bound state.

i dont understand why people dont understand this.

people seem to think crystal cove will make all items bound to character as soon as it goes live, even with devs borderline spamming the above point.

[Solmage]

Really don't like the BtC change with old items being grandfathered. It screws over people that are newer to the game and don't have the resources to twink all their new alts. It has very little effect on someone like me (I have most of the level 16 tier 1 or 2 items as twink gear and practically never use them as I can just hand a new alt Greensteel mats anyway).

Either you think the items are overpowered as BtA, and thus should make them all BtC including current ones, or you should leave them as-is.

Sorry but I disagree. Grandfathering is the least they could do. Yes, it sucks but it doesn't begin to compare to how much it would suck if they went ahead and changed an item I already spent the time creating, as opposed to changing an item I have never created, and thus can choose whether it's still worth my time to make.

[Ryiah]

Crystal Cove is back from repair(EDIT) and in QA.

I would think calling yourself a "QA" team would require you to assure the players what they are receiving is quality. I fail to find the quality in changing an event's items from BtA to BtC when the player base doesn't want that. It was supposed to be that way you say? How come your "QA" team failed to spot it when it was first made? I'm beginning to think your "QA" team is more for Turbine's benefit than for the player base.

Sorry if it comes out as nasty, but I tried to tone it down a bit. Believe me, the way I feel about Turbine right now is anything but stellar. I'm beginning to regret spending money in anticipation of Update 11. Either way, I won't be spending more for some time to come.

[sirgog]

Sorry but I disagree. Grandfathering is the least they could do. Yes, it sucks but it doesn't begin to compare to how much it would suck if they went ahead and changed an item I already spent the time creating, as opposed to changing an item I have never created, and thus can choose whether it's still worth my time to make.

If it was so overpowered that it needed a nerf (cough, min level 1 Epic Robe of Dissonance), then it needs a retroactive nerf.

If it's not so overpowered (and IMO the Cove items fit this category), then leave them alone.

[corporalspaz]

Hey MM from one military man to another, just wanted to give you a thumbs up for all your work. Regardless of how i feel about the actual changes to the great game of DDO I must say your feedback on these forums is well appreciated.

Wait... you're not a real major are you.... :-D

[Riggs]

Most of the Crystal Cove stuff it temporary junk you use until you get better stuff. Words cannot describe how much making this BTC sucks.

Reconsider this Turbine.

+1

Maybe the level 20 stuff is fine as BtC - but as said the 16 and under would suck rocks as Btc...since the only reason to make them is to pass them to lowbies - which most characters will only be for a short period of time (barring multiple Trs) - and the cove is like a 2x per year thing.

**edit
And also - the ingredients being BtA are nice...for a week. But after it closes again, the BtA aspect is still useless as if you make a new character in the next year - they cannot craft anything anyway unless the barter box stays open year round.

Which as said benefits older players with a stock of Bta items from the previous run only.

[Ryiah]

Maybe the level 20 stuff is fine as BtC - but as said the 16 and under would suck rocks as Btc...since the only reason to make them is to pass them to lowbies - which most characters will only be for a short period of time (barring multiple Trs) - and the cove is like a 2x per year thing.

I'd be okay if the only things that are BtC are the Tier 3 items.

[tokenghost]

Had another idea...

Ok, if you want everything btc, fine, but then turn on the event and leave it on. Come up with new content, new events, and leave everything running. Then I wouldn't care what anything was bound to, new players would be able to go out there and get their twink gear(bound to toon) and I'm pretty sure most of the hurt feelings would disappear.

[Hakushi]

Thank you so much MajMalphunktion for these weekly threads. I'm really happy to see this communication with the community.

For the CC items, I think the lower level versions should be left BtA. I have another question, is this also for the trinkets, are they gonna be BtC on upgrade as well?

Also, I have a request for the trinkets:

Please, would you consider changing their icons to something else, they have the exact icons as necklaces but are trinkets and this is rather confusing.

[Ryiah]

Ok, if you want everything btc, fine, but then turn on the event and leave it on. Come up with new content, new events, and leave everything running. Then I wouldn't care what anything was bound to, new players would be able to go out there and get their twink gear(bound to toon) and I'm pretty sure most of the hurt feelings would disappear.

Would make it a bit less of a headache as the players wouldn't feel pressed to run them as much as possible all at once.

[red_cardinal]

Also, about the Cove loot - why isn't there any bow in there? If a shotbow would be present, it would be nice.

[Matuse]

If the events were running all the time, people would barely run them at all.

People would not spend a lot of time farming out map pieces in the outer area, so the cove entry itself would basically never be open.

Getting a group together on short notice when the doors DID open would be difficult.

Enthusiasm for most people after the first 2-3 weeks would be effectively gone. "It will still be there, I don't feel like it".

This is particularly bad for Mabar, because you need a sizable number of similar level people to do the dragon. Basically anyone under level 20 would be completely screwed on that score.

It's not an event if it is going on all the time.

[sirgog]

If the events were running all the time, people would barely run them at all.

People would not spend a lot of time farming out map pieces in the outer area, so the cove entry itself would basically never be open.

Getting a group together on short notice when the doors DID open would be difficult.

Enthusiasm for most people after the first 2-3 weeks would be effectively gone. "It will still be there, I don't feel like it".

This is particularly bad for Mabar, because you need a sizable number of similar level people to do the dragon. Basically anyone under level 20 would be completely screwed on that score.

It's not an event if it is going on all the time.

Agreed, but I don't like the whole 'run Cove till your ears bleed, or you can't make an effective armor-wearing AC character for the next year' side of it.

IMO the event should be on roughly 3 times per year.

[rodallec]

im a legend
Major Malphunktion

i didnt think you would be communicating with the community this regularly but its amazing.

thanks.

[bronzelyre]

First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated.

Please turbine consider this post from another thread:

It would be nice if they were BtA unless they were epic, in which case they would be BtC. I could get behind that as a fair compromise.

[bbqzor]

Regarding these 2 lines, snipped from your post:

When Crystal Cove returns, any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded.

Consumables and other items from Crystal Cove that are not upgraded (or upgradable) will remain Bound to Account.

The way I read that, the level 4 trinkets will become BTC if you upgrade their tiers at all. This seems kind of rough. I mean, saying (newly acquired) epic level items will BTC, okay fine on some level I understand not wanting swappable epics. But level 4 trinkets? No ones going to grind out the "roughly half an epic level items worth" of ingredients to make one to use for a couple levels while TRing.

And that's sort of the problem with the whole changeover to BTC. Everything save the epics, is stepping stone loot. Yet the effort to farm it is far beyond what it would take to get anything comparable you might use for a couple levels except perhaps Green Steel (which is, arguably, 'level 20' gear anyhow given the length of time it takes to farm one as a newer player).

And for players which aren't newer, even the epic gear generally becomes stepping stone loot between miscellaneous level 20 gear and 'real' epic items. Meaning that if you're able to farm regular epic equipment, you really wouldn't bother with Cove items...

... Except when BTA, they made very flexible and usable bridging equipment. It was a way to take one toon from being at level 20 but not really epic level, and getting his foot in the door while he got some real gear. Thus it was worth the time investment to farm 1-2 to pass around as you outgrew them.

Now, its like spending time to farm an item you know you'll bank. In general terms, no one able to get better will bother investing time in filling their precious bank space with more old gear. The same can be said for the trinkets; I know of almost no one who wants to farm half an epic item to use some twink gear for a few levels... they'll just hit the AH or Cannith Craft one or something quicker.

So really the only people who can get mileage out of this post changes are newer players who aren't able to regularly do normal epic content, where it might be worth sinking a lot of work into some stepping stone gear on one of (or their only) main character.

Which maybe is a valid target audience. But it seems a shame, because this was one of the best things Turbine ever added, in terms of well put together content that was fun to play. I hate to see a lot of older players have no reason to go back, or be forced to go back for much longer times trying to get twink items on each and every TR they want to roll (for those insane enough to do so). Or worse, new high level players who have no reason to ever go in the first place, having better avenues to invest time in, and so never get to hear how much kobolds still hate them.

I am sure this wasn't the direct intention, but that's how its going to play out. Making these items BTA was incredibly smart marketing, as it made them desirable by everyone, and got a lot of people involved, which made getting groups, having successful runs, and achieving the goal of some nice items readily reachable by everyone participating on a regular basis. Now the participation will slump, groups will be harder to fine, the work involved increases, the reward for the work decreases, and you have something that will get left behind. Why marginalize some of your best content and irritate the player base at the same time? That's bad decision making under any conditions.

At least extend the BTC change only to epic gear if that was the main concern by the eggheads. If they want epic items to be bound, there's nothing we can really do to fight it. But don't penalize the whole rest of the loot table for it. Personally, I would've only made the epic items so I'll still be screwed (and sad panda about it, for the record). But at least TRs and newer players will get some opportunities for fun.

Frankly I'd just leave it BTA on everything; the game has not suffered for it, Ratkillers everywhere didn't imbalance any epic events (or similar, lol)... why fix what isn't broken? I can't fathom that 'hey lets make the cove less playable' came up as a legitimate topic around the water cooler, so I guess on some level I wonder what the actual reasons behind the whole thing were. But we will probably never know, so at least allow people some use out of it at the earlier tiers, if not the epics. Just my 2 cents.

[whitehawk74]

no band-aid fixes please. kill dem bugs that cause the boo-boos.

band-aids break, fall off, and end up in the pool filter.

[Shattered.likeness]

Since the Crystal Cove was originally announced to last for 3 weeks, does this mean that Once turned on again in 7-10 days, will we still have 3 weeks to farm the items we want? Or, will the amount of time the Cove stays opened this time be shorter than originally announced?