February 2010 Content Update

[Velea]

We're aware of this. The problem should be solved soon, but players will need to log out and back in for the messages to actually stop.

I'll try to post a confirmation message once I know that the right files have been patched into the simulation. Sorry about the extra spam in the mean time.

[AmonGwareth]

Forest Skulk Fins have successfully replaced Fyakki Stinger Tips as a tech comp but unlike other such replacements, existing Inventories of Fyakki Stinger Tips have not been changed to Forest Skulk Fins.

That is not a bug.

[Dragonboy]

* All level 10 dragon crafter mastery quests now use Xarinnis in Parsinia rather than starting with various NPC's around the world.

This is going to be fun for the hatchlings who want to keep their craft on par with adventure and havent attuned yet to Parsinia...
The most dangerous mob in Lesser Aradoth "Forest Crawler Huntress" in the North and whole armies of Undead in the south.

While I managed to navigate my low level alt on blight easily from Kion to Sslanis and furthur to Parsinia, but I know the area, what to avoid at which locations and most importantly when to use Sprint.

Most hatchies will probably have some problems with that... and trust me the long way is probably the easy way. The Forest Crawler Huntress will hunt you from Kion to Sslanis if need be.

[StalePopcorn]

This is going to be fun for the hatchlings who want to keep their craft on par with adventure and havent attuned yet to Parsinia...
The most dangerous mob in Lesser Aradoth "Forest Crawler Huntress" in the North and whole armies of Undead in the south.

While I managed to navigate my low level alt on blight easily from Kion to Sslanis and furthur to Parsinia, but I know the area, what to avoid at which locations and most importantly when to use Sprint.

Most hatchies will probably have some problems with that... and trust me the long way is probably the easy way. The Forest Crawler Huntress will hunt you from Kion to Sslanis if need be.

Yes, she is an excellent challenge. I remember dancing with glee when my Cleric finally got powerful enough to beat her many years ago

[Dhalin]

Yes, she is an excellent challenge. I remember dancing with glee when my Cleric finally got powerful enough to beat her many years ago

She's also easily capable of killing a lv10-15 in 1-2 hits.

Not sure that's the best thing to show a newbie... "Hey, you're Lv10? You need to go to this place called Parsinia" and on the way there, right outside of Kion, WHAM. 2-shotted by a mob that really shouldn't be where it is.

And of course, the newbie wouldn't know to save sprint, but even if he did, the spider could still kill him with the right combination of lag and luck... she hits hard enough that I could see being one-shotted if you were only Lv10.

[Raptress]

Are we going to get an updated map? It can be very frustrating looking for these places to attune when a) the terrain is very different from the map and b) some places, like King's Cross, aren't even on the default map. This could be a very negative thing for a new player to see, as they will both get lost and frustrated as well as it just plain looking bad from a game polish standpoint.

[Shian]

Are we going to get an updated map? It can be very frustrating looking for these places to attune when a) the terrain is very different from the map and b) some places, like King's Cross, aren't even on the default map. This could be a very negative thing for a new player to see, as they will both get lost and frustrated as well as it just plain looking bad from a game polish standpoint.

QFE :/ really disorienting to be in a snow or blighted area, but the map is still green.

Fine for me, I can fly and get a bigger picture. Bipeds however that will depend solely on said map will get dizzy.

[Dhalin]

Are we going to get an updated map? It can be very frustrating looking for these places to attune when a) the terrain is very different from the map and b) some places, like King's Cross, aren't even on the default map. This could be a very negative thing for a new player to see, as they will both get lost and frustrated as well as it just plain looking bad from a game polish standpoint.

Last I checked, the map still doesn't display the "New" (back then) Blighted Kwellen area near the Swamp, the one hatchlings have to skirt around to get to Draak.

And that patch was well before the EI takeover.

[StalePopcorn]

She's also easily capable of killing a lv10-15 in 1-2 hits.

Not sure that's the best thing to show a newbie... "Hey, you're Lv10? You need to go to this place called Parsinia" and on the way there, right outside of Kion, WHAM. 2-shotted by a mob that really shouldn't be where it is.

And of course, the newbie wouldn't know to save sprint, but even if he did, the spider could still kill him with the right combination of lag and luck... she hits hard enough that I could see being one-shotted if you were only Lv10.

I consider that the "Welcome to Istaria. Quick! Duck!" greeting

Hopefully by that stage they will have done a good percentage of New Trismus, so they should be getting familiar with critters that can beat you up quickly if you aren't careful

[Creme]

She's also easily capable of killing a lv10-15 in 1-2 hits.

Not sure that's the best thing to show a newbie... "Hey, you're Lv10? You need to go to this place called Parsinia" and on the way there, right outside of Kion, WHAM. 2-shotted by a mob that really shouldn't be where it is.

And of course, the newbie wouldn't know to save sprint, but even if he did, the spider could still kill him with the right combination of lag and luck... she hits hard enough that I could see being one-shotted if you were only Lv10.

Heh, that's how the level 3 maggots on New Brommel used to be

The old attunement quests had a number of destinations where it was downright lethal to try and attune, unless you had someone relatively high level escorting you through. Attuning to Harro and running past Fang and his werewolf buddies was a heart pounding experience and ML was even more intense.

By and large, most of the roadways on the attunements are relatively safe; although there might be some difficulties for low level characters. Technically, level 10-15 characters probably are still in the Kion/Sslanis leveling stage and so it would be prudent for them to either get escorts or level up a bit higher before trying to get attuned everywhere in the Dalimond peninsula area.

Also...no one says you *have* to run on the road. I've never seen the huntress on the beach, and if you skirt the coastline, you can definitely reach Parsinia with little worry of bumping into the Huntress.

[Dhalin]

Also...no one says you *have* to run on the road. I've never seen the huntress on the beach, and if you skirt the coastline, you can definitely reach Parsinia with little worry of bumping into the Huntress.

It is very unlikely a newbie would know/realize/expect a Lv25+ mob right near Lv5-8 mobs.

That and New Tris quests say "Go along the road for this, go along the road of that" and you do a LOT of running around on New Tris, a newbie would no doubt see the Road Bonus.

If they look at the map and see just how far it is from Kion to Parsinia, you *know* they are gonna want to use the road... they haven't been taught differently, have they?

Still think a Lv25 *named* mob in a Lv5-8 area is a bit too much. Even Lt. Khar isn't that bad. You can at least run away from him in most circumstances.

[Guaran]

Most people have fond memories of running across the huntress. She's fine. If there isn't a little bit of real danger... plus she roams a large area. Teaches people to watch out where they are going.

[velveeta]

This is going to be fun for the hatchlings who want to keep their craft on par with adventure and havent attuned yet to Parsinia...
The most dangerous mob in Lesser Aradoth "Forest Crawler Huntress" in the North and whole armies of Undead in the south.

While I managed to navigate my low level alt on blight easily from Kion to Sslanis and furthur to Parsinia, but I know the area, what to avoid at which locations and most importantly when to use Sprint.

Most hatchies will probably have some problems with that... and trust me the long way is probably the easy way. The Forest Crawler Huntress will hunt you from Kion to Sslanis if need be.

ummm one can always run along the beach to get to pars.....its safer than going thru the forest - the sand beets don't aggro and if you just keep running, you can mostly avoid the sand pygs......
altho they can be worse than the spiders if you stop to talk to them.....
i believe the beach route is actually a bit shorter than the forest way as well

[Dragonboy]

Most people have fond memories of running across the huntress. She's fine. If there isn't a little bit of real danger... plus she roams a large area. Teaches people to watch out where they are going.

Many people have fond memories about the huntress, like me dying at lvl 17 with that *bleep* only 5 hp's left!!!
However in my experience while she roams a huge area I always meet her just beyond the small bronze field as if she preys on the weak that walk there...

ummm one can always run along the beach to get to pars.....its safer than going thru the forest - the sand beets don't aggro and if you just keep running, you can mostly avoid the sand pygs......
altho they can be worse than the spiders if you stop to talk to them.....
i believe the beach route is actually a bit shorter than the forest way as well

Probably true, but newbies tend to take roads when travelling.

[AmonGwareth]

Are we going to get an updated map? It can be very frustrating looking for these places to attune when a) the terrain is very different from the map and b) some places, like King's Cross, aren't even on the default map. This could be a very negative thing for a new player to see, as they will both get lost and frustrated as well as it just plain looking bad from a game polish standpoint.

Yes, we're working on it.

[AmonGwareth]

Many people have fond memories about the huntress, like me dying at lvl 17 with that *bleep* only 5 hp's left!!!
However in my experience while she roams a huge area I always meet her just beyond the small bronze field as if she preys on the weak that walk there...


Probably true, but newbies tend to take roads when travelling.

Learning is what playing a game is all about. You learn about how the game operates, how monsters fight and where they are and how to navigate. In this case, newbie A runs down the road smack into the Huntress. She either kills the newbie or the newbie gets away. Either result, the newbie has now learned that "that nasty spider is on that road, so next time I am near there I should not be on the road or I should keep my eyes peeled". This is not a bad thing, this is called gaming and it happens in just about every MMO I've ever played.

[No1]

So there won't be any maps or guides on how to get to all the cities we lost access to after the patch?

Also why wasn't all the other changes to the portal system mentioned? (only one I saw was that Sslanis needs attunement)

[AmonGwareth]

So there won't be any maps or guides on how to get to all the cities we lost access to after the patch?

Also why wasn't all the other changes to the portal system mentioned? (only one I saw was that Sslanis needs attunement)

They were in one of the Blight patches, but the note got lost mistakenly when we prepared the live notes.

And we are working on getting a map update prepared.

[No1]

Learning is what playing a game is all about. You learn about how the game operates, how monsters fight and where they are and how to navigate. In this case, newbie A runs down the road smack into the Huntress. She either kills the newbie or the newbie gets away. Either result, the newbie has now learned that "that nasty spider is on that road, so next time I am near there I should not be on the road or I should keep my eyes peeled". This is not a bad thing, this is called gaming and it happens in just about every MMO I've ever played.

After a patch some games gameplay change drastic, as in all the fun disappears, and just trying to do the same as before the patch requires the help of high level players (almost constantly). The lesson I have usually gotten is that I shouldn't be in that game.

IF you really feel that you needed to make all those changes to the portal system, then document them ALL!

I don't know about most people, but I have a limit to how many deaths (of the stupid and unnecessary kind) I can tolerate. And this patch really left me locked in NT without any way to get to the trainers I usually visit, the resources I usually gather, or even the guild I belong to.

All in all logging in after three days patching was not only not fun, but a complete waste of time.

[AmonGwareth]

After a patch some games gameplay change drastic, as in all the fun disappears, and just trying to do the same as before the patch requires the help of high level players (almost constantly). The lesson I have usually gotten is that I shouldn't be in that game.

IF you really feel that you needed to make all those changes to the portal system, then document them ALL!

Like I said, it was a mistake.

I don't know about most people, but I have a limit to how many deaths (of the stupid and unnecessary kind) I can tolerate. And this patch really left me locked in NT without any way to get to the trainers I usually visit, the resources I usually gather, or even the guild I belong to.

All in all logging in after three days patching was not only not fun, but a complete waste of time.

Thank you for your feedback. Sorry you don't like it.