David Bowman: Reopening the AROP discussion

[Vesuvius]

I am not going to say much on this, since I meet almost all the requirments thought here anyway. Except maybe hoard. But 100 in both classes is wrong. For some hate to craft. I love to craft, but forcing someone to craft is wrong. a level 100 dragon in either shcool should be fine, or 140 in levels combined, and 90 in at least one school. so a level 90/50 dragon could be ancient or 100/40 dragon could be ancient. To be a high level craft your adventure already goes up, but not vice versa, and for the casual player not many craft.

I hate crafting with a passion and yet I think it should be 100/100.

[bright]

Well, one way to prevent that AFK ingame dragon would be to do what pretty much every other game out there does, and have a forced log after so long of inactivity. heck DAOC you used to be able to sit there all day long then they made it so that you had to actively be at you pc pushing buttons or you would be booted after 30 minutes. that is very resonable since anyone who is just going to AFK is not going to do so for more then that length of time. even if they are doing something on the side like cooking dinner, they will still check in every now and then which would reset their timer.

you know i seriously do not mean the requirements, and i still find them laughable. bad part is ive been playing a year, but my dragons only 46. still though to say just 100 days of creation wimpy. personally i liked the idea of log in time of 50 days, heck i dont even think i have that. got tired of playing drake once and made a biped heh.

the lvl 90 req is ok, and im thankful its not 90 in both i for one am not a huge fan of crafting. though im starting to get up there got i think 40 in that now too, anyway. there needs to be a time req'd but 100 is a tad too low. 6 month commitment is nice which comes out to what around 180 days. then yes there should be that ingame req, but an implimentation of forced boot after so long of inactivity would help drastically with people just AFKin their dragons. hoard requirement, while i myself always hated grinding stuff for hoard it is a vital part of a dragon. so that is a definate needs be. though i really think they should allow gems to be hoardable again. they shiney, and i would much rather sit on a pile of gems then the 1/2 pile of LB from premerger, and currently a large pile of scales. i need to call just for dragon because by bow i swear i had to have lost all mine heh

well, just personal thoughts, and after seeing these requirements. YEP were huge hatchlings. wohoooo. started in january last year with the hopes of being the once mighty dragon they talked about. not to mention the many steps to growth which they sacked, but o well. i still think they should have kept their idea of juvenile dragons that could glide but not fly, and since they gave the ability to have different breaths to adult, which was SUPPOSED to be an ancient feature, what is there to look forward to as ancient besides having a butt so big you make everyone mad[*-)]

[Fireclaw]

I have one concern with the forced log though:

I don't think its worth it implementing a forced log that would take dev time, and affect all players, merely to make one of the requirements for ARoP more meaningful.

Perhaps an in-game requirement should not be required. Instead, have the requirements:
200 days since creation
100 days since becoming adult
100/100 level dragon
2.5-10 million hoard
All available dragon adventurer or all available dragon crafter quests completed (one or the other).

[TheGolden Dragon]

I vote for 100 days after creation and 100-180 days after ROP, but NOT for 100 days ingame time. Here are also people, who loves their dragon char so much, like me but they have to work and/or go to school. I have only onecharacter - dragon, taking care of him like RL pet and i am 200 days after creation...but trying to hit at least poor half of 100 days ingame limitThat mean another year spend here... (luckily for me, i dont want ARoP so much[;)] cause i prefer RP playing than getting quickly new stuff)

Hoard should be more than 10M, cause it makes it a bit harder to reach. And makes gem fields more depleted.

Dragon level should be 100 at one of the classes. But not both. That should be fair. (hate crafting but what can i do :-) )

Dragon quests all done. That is good too cause i heard here "Ancient Dragon should know everything" and that is true.

Also some Event quest done for community/empire should be here. Some Damnly hard [:P] to earn respect. Like "He is one of group, who defeated Big Guy,Lord of something".

Votes for 50-60 days ingame, more will be a bit annoying, but true dragon players will even wait 100 days if it will really be here.

TheGolden Dragon

[oluviel]

Everyone seems to be missing the point. The devs COULD spend all this time factoring time played and creating forced logouts or they could simply save time and strike down a dopey rule. They made the decision based on the first rop that time played in game shouldn't be a factor in starting the rop. There are fewer people complianing this way, and the content reaches the public quicker. Without capping the amount of ancients there can be on a server(which is a bad idea anyway) there is no way to escape it, eventually there will be a large amount of ancient dragons flying around. It's inevitable that ancient dragon pcs will be common, it's just a matter of time. However,just because the reqs are low doesn't mean they have to make the quest easy. Judging by how they have made named npcs harder lately it will not be an easy quest like the first one.Another thing that comes up a lot isfinishing alldragon quests up to that level, that would mean that ae would have to release these quests for us to finish which won't happen for a long time. Hell we still can't get our advquests past lvl 70.I'm totally fine if you can start the ancient rop at 90, just as long as it is followed up by a lot of hard solo fights and work because the hardest fighta dragon will ever have is when they are alone and not supported by a full group of friends.

[imported_Lycaunoss]

This thread is obsolete.

A specifically restricted player committee has taken the role of choosing what we'll like to see, fight, and get as reward.

As such, our ideas and opinions now are moot.

Sadly this is true and happens to be why I don't bother giving my opinion on this issue any longer.

[dracinfir]

Thanks Kumu.

[David Bowman]

Thanks to all of you for voicing your opinions and hopes for the Ancient Rite of Passage. The issue of requirements to get the ARoP, the challenges to complete, and the rewards that result continue to be evolving based on feedback found here in the forums, in IRC chats, through several different focus groups, and from our first-hand experience in playing the game.

I will say once again, that every post, in every thread gets read by the staff. Not all of the staff, and not every post is read by one person (though I do my best to do this). But any decision to improve, change or extend the game is strongly influenced by what we read and learn from you the players.

David Bowman

[oluviel]

put your claws away boys there is your reassurance

[Peaches]

Just like I said, David Bowman or other devs do in fact, read this board. Not all the times can they respond.


Thank you David.

[Pharcellus]

Mmmmffmmfmfmfmffmfmmfffmff!
[:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#][:#]

[Blue Hasia]

Im sorry david that was just a fluff, you replyedto none of the issues adressing what we the players have been bringing up.[:^)]

[Cobal]

Good, we now have confirmation you actually read the threads.
Thanks.

could you enlighten us a bit on How the discussions have influenced your design?
Did you choose new requirements yet?

[Dvergar]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Vahrokh wrote: You have zero clue because you did not log in into IRC where we talked with devs and not for a very long time. The NDA is about them not talking of game information, not on their objectives.

It's not my fault you weren't here to listen.

Since Peaches decided to delete my posts...

Vahrokh, you have zero idea what the focus group is and is not. Saying that this thread is obsolete because you believe that the focus group is in control of the ARoP is just plain ignorant.

You BELIEVE you know what the focus group is and is not, but you are simply misinformed. You have even less than no information, you have incorrect and assumed information.

Till you are in the focus group, spouting what it is and is not discussing is useless and counterproductive and an outright misrepresentation of the facts.

as there is - once again - no information, assuming is the only thing we can. And that is hardly the players fault [:(]

It's this lack of communication which makes everything worse (just check the dev-tracker when there was any new information posted).

[cauri_order]

Peaches, please. ahhh nevermind, don't want to get the thread locked.

DB's post was fluff, it didn't reassure me about anything. There is absolutely no information in his post.

I logged into IRC after he posted that. Asked him about ARoP and how it's coming along. He said Manga is starting to test it. Info like that is what we want. Updates on stuff they announced they are working on.

Seriously Peaches, if you think that's information and reassurance and proof that they read and absorb.......well......nevermind.

[Vlisson]

hmm time passes

days are gone, weeks are gone

month are gone...

no new info? only the info that DB reads the forum?

@peaches dont delete posts or close this threat!

[Vesuvius]

DB's post was better than nothing, as it at least gives the idea that he read the threads.

However, it would be nice to know where things stand now... it would be nice to know a little relavant info here and there without being in some special group.I can understand why specific quest details are not released, but things such as requirements and a general reward factor (a statement better than 'we are looking into balance. Dragons will be happy with the changes' - such statements are worthless to a player) I see no reason why they cant be released.

Give the players something to discuss, something to work with, something to look forward to.

[Manga]

Hi guys,

From keeping tabs on this thread and reading and re-reading the excellent feedback from the board, I've gained alot of insight from what the Dragons are looking forward too in AROP requirements.

My first round of requirements for the AROP was as follows:

Adult ROP and Khutit Quests Completed
6 month old character ( creation time, not time played )
( Changing the ROP to 3 months creation time at the same time )
100 Levels in Adventurer
100 Levels of Crafter
5 million Hoard

After reading the responses I decided that the 100 Crafter is a bit too much and have decided on removing that requirement as the AROP is much more Adventure Based and Dragon Crafting in the higher levels is more "grinding mass quanities of items" instead of a rewarding profession.

The 5 million Hoard requirement was removed due to the fact that the current implementation of the Hoard remains unfinished and is simply not a fun game mechanic at all. (More to follow in the near future)

The 6 months requirement is still open to debate, although the 100 days (creation time, not played) is what I have now.

100 Levels of Adventure is my current choice for the level requirement.

As far as the reward goes, there isn't a singular reward chosen, but many rewards.

For example for those wanting an insight:

Breath weapons, flight speed, capacity bonus, armor bonus,as well asone of the most requested feature from dragons, resurrection.

I look forward to your feedback [:P]

Thanks,

Manga

[Manga]

Just for clarification on some points...

It will not have a requirement dealing with time played. We do not track how much time you spend connected to the world and actually pressing keys that DO something. Experience is the statistic that gives us the best indication of how much active time your character has spent in world.

It will have a level requirement. (currently set for 90) It will not go lower than 90, but could be raised, though some here are personally against raising it higher to ATTEMPT the quest.

Best (personal opinion) suggestion from player discussions is a requirement for quest completions. We are researching the method for doing this and will likely add it to the requirements.

The initial steps of the ARoP are being tested. We want the ARoP to take a significant period of time to complete, and are trying to make steps within it rely upon the individual Dragon. Some of the steps will allow for biped or Dragon assistance, some will allow for only Ancient Dragon assistance, some will allow only flying Dragon assistance.

The rewards for completion are intended to make the Ancient Dragon significantly more powerful than an Adult of comparable experience. It also is a prerequisite for future quests leading to more power and customization.

Hope this help shed some light on where we are coming from.

Thanks,

Manga

[Vahrokh]

Hmm... the most requested feature from dragons is healing.

Without real healing, after the merge, our survival capacity is exactly as good as the biped healer that tags along.

Ress is nice, but if you could please place a choice... I am not a priest that wants to resurrect people. Leave that for Helians. I am a fighter.

I am just a dragon who wants to heal enough to survive 1 vs 1 "reliably" and possibly detox with the techs on my healing.

Nothing more.