Blight Patch - 9/21/05

[Dragoniade]

UPDATE: I am told that the crystal ancient dragons receive to replace the headscale now has the 5% haste bonus built in. Thus there is no longer any nerf whatsoever in taking that last step to become ancient. An ancient dragon is at least as strong in every way when compared to an adult.

Yep. AS strong, but NOT more powerful. So why do those quest then? Why become an ancient if there's no reward whatsoever?

[Ixalmaris]

UPDATE: I am told that the crystal ancient dragons receive to replace the headscale now has the 5% haste bonus built in. Thus there is no longer any nerf whatsoever in taking that last step to become ancient. An ancient dragon is at least as strong in every way when compared to an adult.

So the only difference between an adult with headscale and an ancient is a bit health and a pay per use ability. Still nothing I would come back for. If the headscale didn't exist then the reward for becoming ancient would be great, but as the only reward for becoming ancient is a redistribution of boni from one item slot to a other one I don't see much of an incetive to come back and grind my way up to ancient.

[Fireclaw]

[img]/Web/Themes/default/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Fireclaw wrote:

UPDATE: I am told that the crystal ancient dragons receive to replace the headscale now has the 5% haste bonus built in. Thus there is no longer any nerf whatsoever in taking that last step to become ancient. An ancient dragon is at least as strong in every way when compared to an adult.


So the only difference between an adult with headscale and an ancient is a bit health and a pay per use ability. Still nothing I would come back for. If the headscale didn't exist then the reward for becoming ancient would be great, but as the only reward for becoming ancient is a redistribution of boni from one item slot to a other one I don't see much of an incetive to come back and grind my way up to ancient.

For me the bump up in power for ancients that I'm looking forward too comes from the new breath weapon. Sure it costs hoard and is quite inferior to gold rage, but the thought of finally have a breath weapon worthy of the name is exciting enough. The other thing that looks nice is the +10 fly speed. Even the size boost, stunted though it is, is worth doing ARoP for in my mind. After staring at the same dragon for 19 months I'm ready for a change.

However, some of the ancient stuff is useless. I can't imagine ever having a use for the super expensive rez and won't ever hotkey it. The expensive mez seems useless too. If I get an add I wouldnt waste hoard mezsing it. Rather I'd just take off and reposition myself to take on my original target. I don't plan to hotkey either of those useless abilities.

[Dragoniade]

Because you are misinformed.

There are the stat rewards for ancient such as flight speed, health, power, focus (Hahaha), and such.

Those stats rewards that can be beaten by Tier 3 Biped Gifts are arejust a joke for a level 100 that are lacking like 200 points in those stats.

[Hyacinthe]

From before the ARoP to after its completion (Not partially complete as it stands on the live servers) Ancients are better than Adults. period.

And if it is true that the 5% delay mod was put on the crystals then we lose NOTHING through the course of the quest.


~Hy

[Dragoniade]

But, they are a reason to finish the ARoP. You stated we gain nothing which after the last rounds of changes, ancient=better than adult. The argument that we lose by going ancient is invalid.

Don't take me to literal :P
Remove the cost/reward of those bonus and it's less than nothing :P

[Dragoniade]

oh, and by the way, Ancient's power should come from within, not from an equiped item. Considering a claw Slot can hold 3 crystals, are those crystal stackable?

Next thing we'll see is are PLed dragons getting their crystal, then selling it before doing it again for more crystal to equip/sell, just like the Amber crystel. Is it what Ancient's power is all about? A crystal?

[Justa Mirage]

I really feel sad for some of these posts... there are clearly some sanity issues here at work....

For Blue and Cobal:

I stand by my original post in this thread; players are players... they are not dragons, cats, or lizards.... they are not 1/2 giants, gnomes, or elves...

They are people behind a keyboard controlling their characters and enjoying the game.

Some people here may have not started "day 1" playing a dragon, but that option is always open to them if they so should play one. If the "player" is a good roll player, their opinion counts when making suggestions.

"Knowing what makes a true dragon player tick?"

How about asking "Knowing what makes a Horizons player tick?"

Constantly I read these postings and personally it's an insult to me as a player. When I play my dragon, I am a dragon. When I play a Saris, I am a Saris.

Making a general statement that tells vetran MMORPG players that if you didn't start off as a dragon when the game was released or when you started your first character, you have no rights posting on ANY DRAGON RELATED THREAD here.

If you check the dragon board, I posted a very nicely done dragon check off sheet for the "adv / cft" quests for playing a dragon, it's available on my webspace.

So, no.... I don't know anything about playing a dragon, I am stupid, a moron, or what ever fits the thesarus for "complete idiot" and that statement of what makes a dragon player tick doesn't hold very much credibility to me...

Oh, and as a side note, some of my relatives have read a couple of chapters of a dragon novel I am writing and love it.... when it's finished... I will make sure to let you know when it's available to be read.

[FleshRoast]

Okay, my Dragon is my main. I, and I alone, know my reasons for playing it and what things to me personally, make a dragon. Everyone is different here, not wrong nor right, just different. Part of this game is discovery, both in what the devs have put in and inside of ourselves. Will you learn everything you need to know about life from this game? Of course not. Nor can you become an expert on a mythological creature. You *can* however, definatively make a character that, to youpersonally, is the epitome of <insert your character race here>.

Is Flsssssh the perfect dragon? Lol, to me he is. I wouldn't expect it to be for anyone else. Quite honestly, I wouldn't *want* all dragons to be the same. It makes things far more interesting to be different. Everyone has a viewpoint and just because some have more experience than others doesn't make a viewpoint invalid or wrong. Viewpoints change as our knowledge increases, that is how we learn, and learning is *never* wrong.

There are actors and character actors. Actors can take *any* role and do well with it. Character actors are exceptional in one or two roles, but usually don't do well in others. These are the ones that are usually stereotyped.I see the same thing with players. Some play a race very well, but other races not so good. Othersare more consistent across the board. Any time playing a character is enough to provide a viewpoint, with fresh eyes I might add, to see things from that character's perspective.

I would think that any grouping of people that limits itself to only those present at a one-time event has doomed itself to extinction. The group will slowly dwindle to atrition and without any new input, disappear. What legacy does that leave for others?How do the issues of this groupbecome shared with others?Improvements are made through fresh ideas and perspectives as well as re-hashing old issues. It is the *combined* effort of the old and new players that will improve the game, address problems/concerns, and make things more enjoyable for all. If the game were absolutely perfect for any one person, only one would play it (disallowing clones and puppets:) )

To me, a far better way is to attempt to understand another's viewpoint. They may have information I do not, thus causing me to change mine. We may have information that when shared, causes them to change their viewpoints. We'll never know unless we share the facts as we understand them, will we?

Flsssssh
Blight's Redemption

[Vahrokh]

PJ if setscale truely manipulates the bounding box of the mesh server side and it allows collision meshes to be dynamically adjusted that is just broken. No other client / server engine I've worked on has ever done that for obvious control / exploit reasons.

I'm not disagreeing with you btw, I am just floored that the game allows clients to change their collision meshes at a whim. If this is true then all I can say is good luck. Thats just simply 100% asking for silliness

Setscale works like many other things in Hz: client side only.
As scary as you'll immediately understand the implications of it, it works like that.

Last time I played (could have changed in those 3 weeks...) Hz only checks locally for bounding boxes and possible paths. If I rescale to mice size I can pass everywhere.
The other players will just see a "full me" magically trespassing into a wall instead.

Likewise map blocks are completely hackable (sure now they got some checksum code but... better I don't dig more), you can make a completely flat map and then you'll go everywhere. The others see you "disappearing thru the terrain". Meanwhile you reach "impossible" places.

Likewise the mobs never check for possible pathing (at least this when I last checked it, 3 months ago). They go to you in a "straight line" bypassing everything.
The client gets their positions from the server and height displace them on the map on the client.

Horizons is very lucky not to be mainstream, else the hackers, the real and professional ones that challenge even security monsters like WoW would rip this game into tiny pieces in a day.