2nd part of Arop on blight?

[Vlisson]

ok have found this satyr NSC =)

now i fear the next dragon NSC is missing on unity :(

[imported_Lycaunoss]

hmm ive done all quests (ca. 1 year ago) but i dont remember any new dragon

tazoon crater? is there anything to look at?

search admistthe ashes for the ghosts of the protectorate...

I had a real problem with this clue. I knew where to go look and I was sure that I'd seen an NPC there but it wasn't spawning. Had nothing to do with my view distance it just didn't spawn. Once I logged out and back in again surprise surprise there's an NPC.

I have a real problem with this part of the ARoP. I love the search type of quest but this one just stinks. You either know exactly what your looking for (or where) or you don't. If you don't then the only way you can get help is to ask another player. I misread one of the clues and while I was in the right place I was looking for the wrong thing. If it wasn't for Maltavorn I'd still be running around in circles. This part just feels like it was thrown together in ten minutes.

[imported_Frith-Rae]

And why on earth the rush to become ancient? Technically we shouldn't even BE adult. How many days has your dragon been in Istaria? Less than 200? More? So a 200 day old dragon, not even a year old, should be an adult? Just be glad you are allowed to be that, for crying out loud.

Sorry but some of these dragons are more than 400 and 500 days old. And its not "allowed" to be that - its what this game *promised* was in AT RELEASE! (not ancient...but adult)

Game days don't work like real life days anyway...so the whole "you're only 200 days old" thing doesn't fly very well...

So yea..some of us..who have been waiting 400 and 500 days - sorry if we're seeming a bit "ansy" on what we're told, when we're told, and when it supposedly is suppose to "go live"

Being told "Ancient will be in IN DECEMBER...and its not in till May - what you want us all to jump up and down and say thanks for doing yer' job?

*shrugs*

[imported_Silowyi]

I think I'm at 554 days right now, personally :)

Anyway, the primary issues I'm seeing are technological. The quest lore is /obscure/, but when writing the quest the focus was upon obscure lore. Ancient status kind of implies a mastery of the game, and this was the only way to really ensure that being ancient means more than "I spent XXX hours grinding."

Unfortunately because of technical limitations, lack of staff, and lack of existing content, a lot of the foundational lore for the ARoP is not easily available in game. It's all there, but you might have to dig for it. And older players will have an easier go of this quest than newer ones. I would have loved to have seen 100 new NPCs for ARoP, with maybe half of them simply telling stories, but that wasn't going to happen.

So you will likely have to ask questions of your fellow dragons.

Most of the problems appear to be along the lines of NPCs not spawning/being visible, which is a problem with the game engine though, and even if you know the lore, that's not going to help you. Not much that a quest writer can do about that though.

[Goriax]

No one said ARoP would be completed by June, just that it will be released to live before June. There was absolutely no specifics, I believe it was Zideon who gave this information? Someone had it copied in another thread what his exact words were and it was not specific to the entire quest. So technically, since the first part was released before June, what he said was true.

I know they have said it was to be released in December, but what were the words said then? That we want it to be released, or that we promise without a shadow of a doubt that the entire thing will be out by December? See those are two completely different things, and it seems like you hear only what you want to hear without comprehending what was actually said.

And why on earth the rush to become ancient? Technically we shouldn't even BE adult. How many days has your dragon been in Istaria? Less than 200? More? So a 200 day old dragon, not even a year old, should be an adult? Just be glad you are allowed to be that, for crying out loud.

So they want things to happen at a certain time, but yet things happen so they can't do it. So what? Have you ever waited for something to be released in real life only to be disappointed that it was set back? If you haven't then you're ******** lucky. I can't recall how many times I've been anticipated the release ofsomething I've already been waiting a long time for, only for it to be set back another year or more.

Maybe they don't want to make the mistake of releasing something too early, like they did with the game itself. Or would you rather have a poop quest, then something that may turn out to be fantastic once all the pieces are put together? Sorry, but no poop for me please.

I for one am in no rush to become ancient. I am doing the quests as they come out and really, if we weren't getting anything real cool like resurrection I wouldn't become ancient at all. I'm not real excited on become bigger, that's just more spaces that I can't fit my fat ****** through.

Thank you for saying that better then I ever could.

Ok, so it's possible to be 550 + days old. That's still less then two years old.

And other then the first clue (which apparently is straightforward if you did a quest --thus they managed to give something to those who also did high level crafting even though crafting is not required for the AROPand adventuring is. If I'd known about that dragon I'd have made a beeline for him before searching elsewhere) I thought they said enough that you could work with it IF you knew the lore of Istaria. I haven't quite finished but after I got past the one guy the clues pretty much directed me where I needed to go. Yes I often had to do some searching -- but in a fairly confined area. If you say there isn't much lore then that just means there's less to remember so it should be easier.

But it seems like a lot of the problem for some people is they don't know even what lore there is. If you don't know the site of the living races' greatest victory then I'm sorry, but you were told in-game. If you aspire to be ancient you should know that stuff. If you do know then you shouldn't have a lot of trouble with that part.

By the way, I loved the dialog of some of the NPCs.There was one dragon who made me laugh out loud. (can't say who or I'd spoil it :( ).

[imported_Lycaunoss]

I think I'm at 554 days right now, personally [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img]

Anyway, the primary issues I'm seeing are technological. The quest lore is /obscure/, but when writing the quest the focus was upon obscure lore. Ancient status kind of implies a mastery of the game, and this was the only way to really ensure that being ancient means more than "I spent XXX hours grinding."

This is in some ways worse than grinding. At least with grinding you know what your purpose is. I also disagree that this shows mastery of the game. Any day now someone is going to post a guide with all the locations of the NPC's you need to find.

Unfortunately because of technical limitations, lack of staff, and lack of existing content, a lot of the foundational lore for the ARoP is not easily available in game. It's all there, but you might have to dig for it. And older players will have an easier go of this quest than newer ones. I would have loved to have seen 100 new NPCs for ARoP, with maybe half of them simply telling stories, but that wasn't going to happen.

So you will likely have to ask questions of your fellow dragons.

I don't agree that there are technical limitations with making this type of quest more enjoyable. There isn't enough information for you to dig for the additional information. The additional information just isn't there. New NPC's are not required just a little more dialog.

Most of the problems appear to be along the lines of NPCs not spawning/being visible, which is a problem with the game engine though, and even if you know the lore, that's not going to help you. Not much that a quest writer can do about that though.

Well so far that holds true for me. I'm afraid that the technical issues won't have a solution really soon.

The most frustrating part was when I was defeating myself and did have to turn to a fellow player for assistance. There was literally no where in game that I could go to except another player. I specifically chose the player to ask for assistance because he wouldn't just tell me where to go (though he might have wanted to [:D]). A quest writer could do something about that. I'll also point out that it hurts that we cannot go back and review dialog when you were given the quest.

[kengar]

Ok, so it's possible to be 550 + days old. That's still less then two years old.

Funny, by that logic, there shouldn't be a player character that's old enough to swing a sword.

Time is funny in MMORPGs. We have what, a day every 2 hours or so in most of them, but few games bother changing seasons once a week. So even though we've had 18 years worth of days in game so far, we've still only seen the first anniversary of events that happened after the game released.

If you really think we need to wait real world years to become ancient, you're trying to apply too much reality to a fantasy setting. How about realistic, real-time healing rates. Getting nearly killed puts a character out of hardcore action for weeks. Realistic? Sure. fun? No way. Heck, even accelerated at 12:1, a day of downtime to heal from injuries baring magical intervention?

Also, isn't one of the other unreleased MMORPGs is going to have characters dropping dead of old age 1-2 years after it's released? Or maybe that was one of the ones that got cancelled. Time scales aren't

[Theolaerynn]

And why on earth the rush to become ancient? Technically we shouldn't even BE adult. How many days has your dragon been in Istaria? Less than 200? More? So a 200 day old dragon, not even a year old, should be an adult? Just be glad you are allowed to be that, for crying out loud.

I love arguments like this, so well thought out. Shall we examine the nuances of this astute observation?

We could take the simple path and point out how, if a Dragon of just 200 RL days, not even a year old, should be glad they are adult then it should be a *really* long time before they are Ancient. A couple of RL years at least, right? Lets not take the simple path just yet, though.

Lets instead cary this train of thought out a bit. A 200 real time days old Dragon is not even a year old, and should be a hatchling, or at the very least grateful they are allowed to be adult. Note carefuly the usage of real time to discuss the propper age of a game character.

This brings up other important questions, like how many RL days must a character be before they can cast magic? If we are using a real time scale to figure out adult or ancient status, at what real time age were you first able to cast useful spells? At whatever age that is, that is reletive to the age your character should be before they can cast spells.

Most importantly, what age should your character be able to revive themselves from the dead? Again, apply the RL timeline from when you were last able to do this.

In short, a Dragon 6 RL months should be just eligible for the Adult quest, and 6 months as an Adult would be more than fine for Ancient, in my oppinion. I know I for one am not going to pay to wait rediculous amounts of time because someone wants to correlate RL time with Game Time.

I have already paid to wait rediculous amounts of time for reasons the Devs can't control.

[imported_Silowyi]

On the dialogue statement... we have needed a quest journal for a very very long time.... eeeeh, devs please?

[Uro]

Time runs differently in Istaria. 24 hours there equals something like 1 hour in RL(I can't remember the exact time) You can go check one of the clocks in the game if you want to make sure, there is one in the cawe in new brommel, but also at other locations.