Manga, request for information, please.

[Khoal]

Manga,

OnSeptember 22you wrote that:

I am working on a Dragon Advance page to be release in a few days

It's now October 5, and the design preview has already been released (and it looks good, by the way!). I'm wondering (and perhaps a few others as well) what the status of this Advancement Page is. You're a very busy person, we all know this, and in the level of work you've been processing, the Advancement Page may have slipped your mind, or dropped down a few pegs in the priority scale.

If you could spare a minute or two, could you give us a quick update as to the status of the Advancement Page?

Thanks!

(Note to all others: I posted a similar question on the general board, and it quickly devolved into one of those old-n-busted "dragon-vs-biped" things, so I removed my question and decided to post it here.This post is merely asking for clarification. NOTHING MORE. So if you feel the need to turn it into one of those pointless dragon-vs-biped threads, or derail it...don't.)

[oluviel]

Bump, or is it already sweapt under the carpet?

[Khoal]

No, it hasn't been swept under the carpet. Yesterday, when I poked Amon in IRC to ask him to let Manga know about this post, I was informed that Manga wasn't in the office. Not feeling well, it would seem.

I can understand this. The Mooman is a very busy person, and I've no doubt everyone there is under a lot of stress.

Anyway: Manga, hope you're feeling better soon!

[oluviel]

Well then, sorry, feel better "mooman"

[oluviel]

hmmm i understand the situation, but i think it's time maybe tulga delegates some authority on this issue. Unless this information is totally bottled up inside manga's head, which i doubt at this point anyway, anyone else can consolidate the information and just release it to the community.

[Khoal]

I agree. Didn't hear much from Manga through IRC over the weekend, other than he isn't feeling too well.

Today (Monday) was a federal holiday here in the U.S. and almost everyone was missing from the offices, except for a skeleton crew.

Some feedback would be greatly appreciated, devs!

[oluviel]

Common i'll beg if i have to! this is the reason for me to keep playing so please give me a reason to look forward to the future

[Theolaerynn]

Remember when folks were talking about how these new schools would even the playing field with Bi-Peds, and I said it couldn't be counted yet because it was going to take the Devs a week just to tell us what they plan to do someday?

Well, I think we can safely say it has been more than a week and still nothing. I believe we can pretty much write this off at this point, it is going to be a year if we are lucky. Hell, at this rate it may be a year before we even hear what they plan.

[oluviel]

I think ancient rewards are sufficient, but they are not keeping me in the game. If the devs don't respect us enough to be within a weeks estimate to createa PREVIEW i just don't know what to say, i would have been fired already.

Oh well my time is better spent painting anyway.

[Theolaerynn]

I think ancient rewards are sufficient

For me they are two different conversations. Other than the model nerf, I am thrilled with the ARoP and the rewards.

But when we are told that the new classes are one of the reasons we were not made powerful enough to keep up with massively multiclassed Bi-Peds, and that more information will be coming in the next few days, I expect it to be at least +/- two weeks. I mean, it isn't like we are asking for the final product, just a description of the final product.

Basically it leads me to believe they don't actually have one, and it is nothing more than another hollographic carrot. The classes are nothing more than a wish-list item that they will get around to someday when they have time.

At least I expected it this time and am only mildly disapointed. Lairs will keep me busy for quite some time.

[Kitimandiri]

I don't understand how dragons can ask for anything more in terms of content just for them after ARoP and lairs [^o)]

[Theolaerynn]

Didn't realize I was asking for content, thought I was just asking for the information Manga said he would give us. Or has the definition of 'content' changed when I wasn't looking?

I feel Dragons are doing pretty well right now, especially with Lairs due soon. Bi-Peds are due their long awaited turn, and I am not asking to alter that. I am simply asking for communication.

[Dragoniade]

We don't ask for more content. Just something that will finally balance our class up and give us something to do.

Now that the ARoP is over, what is left for us to do?
Adventure with no reward whatsoever, since we're all 100?

I remember Tulga announcing that WITH ancient, we would get school. Well, ancient are out and I have yet to see another dragon school to give us something to do WITH the ancients.

That and the reward that is barely fixing the disbalance between bipeds and dragons. With the dueling happening in Blight, I sure wouldn't even bother to enter. A dragon don't stand a chance agaisn't a biped that can instant and maintain a root on you, or another one that can do 2000 damage in 1 attack. Unless of course the dragon goes all on hoard (Shield of Gold and Gold Rage a-go-go) on it. But what will the reward be? You'll just get back what you used in hoard, unless the reward is like 50'000 - 100'000 in hoard.

So, with the ARoP done, we're still the same, except sightly bigger.

[Pharcellus]

Actually, I think we do OK in the Arena. We are still weak in the to-hit department, and once we've blown our various wads, we're pretty much toast until they recycle. All a biped has to do is mezz us, wait out things like Gold Shield, Ref Breeze, Spiked Scales, etc, and then lay into us hard. It's not always a guaranteed kill, but it is an effective tactic, especially in group combat.

[oluviel]

We're asking for a PREVIEW that was said to be ready within a few days two weeks ago. A Preview is not content my boy.

[Khoal]

OK, OK, hold on, people. I started this thread in the hopes of getting Manga's attention to find out what the status was of the Advancement page, and not to have it turn into something else.

So. What is the status of the Advancement page? Well, here's what I've learned so far from Manga through IRC over several days:

The Advancement page has not been forgotten, but rather it has been lowered a few notches on Manga's work priority list. This means that it won't be coming out "in a few days."It doesnot, not, NOT, mean that they're nerfing anything. (let's squash that rumor before it even starts)

When I had the chance to corner Manga in IRCand ask him directly whether the Advancement page would be coming out "soon" or "soon(TM)," his response was "the latter." We should all know better than to ask for an ETA, what with the workload the Devs have.

A brief comment about that workload. In the past few days I've seen a lot of modifiers such as "|FallFestival" tagged to the nicks of the Devs. It seems a pretty fair bet that the Fall Festival is the project Manga is working on right now, instead of the Advancement page.

So. That's the situation. Don't expect to see an Advancement Page untilat least afterthe Fall Festival.

[Theolaerynn]

This pretty much confirms what I have been saying. It takes what, half an hour maybe, to post a note about a topic that is known to some minimal extent? If the developers can't drum up half an hour to post on the subject, that means they don't have a good enough grasp of it.

In other words, they haven't formulated the design yet. No way are we seeing completed code within a years time, there is to much other stuff to do. I don't really mind that, it would just be nice to get an honest answer instead of silence.

Speaking of which, anyone else getting rather tired of the whole IRC thing? Seems like an aweful lot of discussion happens there that never gets communicated to the rest of us.

[Khoal]

There's nothing holding anyone out of IRC. It's not like the place is reserved for the Power Elite. Feel free to tune in whenever you like!

You might be surprised how wide-ranging the topics of conversation are. The Devs are usually online, but they're usually busy doing dev things. Sometimes they take breaks, and sometimes during those breaks they'll tune in and chat a bit...

Today they chatted a bit about the following things, in no particular order: what they had for lunch; what brand soda they liked; ice cream; Tokoz's habit of being struck by large vehicles; college football; and a little (and I do mean little) about the Fall Festival. (You'd never be able to get direct interaction like this out of SOE or Blizzard on a regular basis, I guarantee)

But if you don't want to hear anything more about the "IRC thing," then just let me know, and I'll discontinue the updates. [:)]

[Dragoniade]

There's nothing holding anyone out of IRC. It's not like the place is reserved for the Power Elite. Feel free to tune in whenever you like!

You might be surprised how wide-ranging the topics of conversation are. The Devs are usually online, but they're usually busy doing dev things. Sometimes they take breaks, and sometimes during those breaks they'll tune in and chat a bit...

Today they chatted a bit about the following things, in no particular order: what they had for lunch; what brand soda they liked; ice cream; Tokoz's habit of being struck by large vehicles; college football; and a little (and I do mean little) about the Fall Festival. (You'd never be able to get direct interaction like this out of SOE or Blizzard on a regular basis, I guarantee)

But if you don't want to hear anything more about the "IRC thing," then just let me know, and I'll discontinue the updates. [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img]

It would help though if the IRC server information was more visible or put into a sticky.
Been some time since I went there, and I lose the server information (since it's a 3rd parties server and not something like irc.istaria.com). I wonder though why, since Tulga is supporting the server, they don't create a sub-domain pointing to the IRC server. That would make the server a lot less for the 'elite' ;)

[Fireclaw]

This pretty much confirms what I have been saying. It takes what, half an hour maybe, to post a note about a topic that is known to some minimal extent? If the developers can't drum up half an hour to post on the subject, that means they don't have a good enough grasp of it.

In other words, they haven't formulated the design yet. No way are we seeing completed code within a years time,

Agreed.