My take on Patch 1

[josephm]

Magic:
I love the credit changes. Now I don't have to just focus on one or two things until I get up to a high level where I can focus on two other things I could afford before...even though I can't buy anything else because I'm focusing on those two things!

The afflictions do appear to be a bit broken though. I don't mind not being able to totally kite mobs my level. In fact I didn't do it before the patch because I thought it was kind of cheesy. But I think I should, at level 53, be able to fear/kite a fledgling izam until I give the poor thing a heart attack. At least with fear 3-4.

Well maybe the solution is that I still have to focus on just a few spells, but I still get some more options. Three spell options now is about 100% more than what I was previously working with! So good job! I maxxed out on all my bombs when I could have..not and put them all into affliction. Oh well, my bad. I guess I'll have to spend some nuke xp on afflictions.

Given how often my nukes resist...I'm having doubts to the quality of afflictions at higher levels though.

Heal REALLY pissed me off though. I think they should fix this and remove all the credits I spent so I can respend them on heal the right way. I maxed out on heal, but the only way to get heal 2 is to get life gift 1...which is basically just me buying a stupid hp credit I don't want...I do want SOME hp credits. But I use them as a balance to even out my casting. I don't think I should be forced into buying 7 health credits just to get to level 7 in heal. it seems like heal is even MORE expensive this way. Not to mention filling my initial credit add screen with needless spam.

Crafting

I'm not crafting magic amps so they aren't a concern to me. I noticed my amp changed with the patch to gloves. Boy do they look cool! Thanks guys!

Buying mats for harvest sure shows little option right now....but wait, didn't people JUST start selling into the stores? I'm gonna have a great time mixing and matching mats to make cool new stuff thanks to this. I can craft things for fashion as well as ability and xp.

I decided to go the gun crafting route since no one else in my clan is. gotta stock those armor shells since I'm making shields too! We'll see how effective gun fighting is. But ammo isn't to expensive except for launcher ammo, but maybe we'll get a ton of raids where they'll be useful for leveling later... but of course I'm only crafting shields. Guns kind of limit you that way.

*edit* The new way of naming items? that's cool! I still want to name mine thuogh. Just for pop ups in my hands screen...names like 'equalizer' for an all around magic amp, or the 'devastator' for a high elem amp. stuff like that!

Harvesting

I spent a good couple of hours harvesting today, working off 150k dp from PR I was in just before the patch. I like the changes. Period.

I'm 68 harvesting and I spent a good amount of time working off the DP with 50 ag/50 ge and ground stab2 with resource pres 1. I must say I'm impressed. Once I get back to the game I'm going to have a full 20 slots dedicated to different modes of harvesting and prospecting.

You do have to pay attention to your actions now, but repairing a source no longer takes away from the Q of your mats. This means that ground stabbing and harvesting make me pull 3 mats instead of 4 mats on an unlucky source 1, or 2 mats instead of three on nearly any other source.

There is maybe a 15% chance or less I will pull one mat or ruin a source depleting the area. The only reason it's this high is because I was playing Gladius at the same time and filed to pay attention sometimes.

I never died since the 2nd extract I pulled, when I wasn't watching my hp.

Sources still change, after each explosion. This makes sense if you think about it, since the falling of dirt or shifting of the material changes how you harvest. I accordingly swap my strategy dependent on the source. Awsome.

I haven't tried group harvesting. But now that you get xp for aiding the harvester, I'm all about group harvesting for high mat pulls.

I didn't watch the experience to much, like I said I was regaining DP. Eventually I started gaining xp though, and when I left the game I found out I was pretty close to 69 harvest. I was getting less xp than before the patch sure, but this leads me to believe that the xp per level has been reduced. I like this. I really like this. Because now 3k xp is saved for supreme/excellent name dropping 'boss' mobs.

I'm leveled pretty quick with more mats than I've ever pulled, had more fun doing it while I paid minimal attention and I'm actually looking forward to more with the group harvest option.

THANK you for giving us the prospect 'type' only stanza. When I am looking to craft specific items for people I can do so much easier. Now I don't have to find a source with 20m and then shut it to 5m and prospect the entire friggen region.

Fighting

The linear 10 level thing is what really jacks it for solo players. Also the fact that every single mob of the same type is exactly the same level. Not every buffalo in the herd is a healthy buck or a struggling old ninny. Give us variance so we can dance around the herd picking off the weak until we are stronger. Growling / Scowling / Baying gingos in the same area just doesn't do enough.. Having Growling = 21-29 Scowling = 30-38 Baying = 39-51 would be AWSOME. We can add to randomization by giving the shades of difficulty a 5 level varience. So the bottom level gingos will be lighter, but you still don't know if you ae pulling a 21 or 25 growling gingo.

I think this is a big revamp though. We'd have a big patch seeing as how we'd have to add in the specs to fill in all the mobs in the game. It really works well with the 'herd' mentality that Nevrax has ingeniuously introduced into their world.

I fought a 50ish gingo with my 53 magic ability..which is about where my melee is. I win 50% of the time and that's just perfect. Because if I fight a 53 player, I expect the same. Now you have to be more aware of your surroundings with fighting a pack of dogs that each weight more than you do. Oh darn.

For all the people complaining, stop fighting such hard mobs! Like I said in harvesting, I think max xp to level has been reduced. Shoot me later if it hasn't, but give it a few days to try it out. I said in another post that if you are 100 fighting 130 mobs it should be the same as being level 20 fighting level 50 mobs in our current state. Don't look at things in a percentage, therefore reverse exponential growth rate. Look at it as a linear growth rate that allows for slightly better containment of exploration according to levels.
People made it to other lands thruogh PR getting 1 shotted by large mobs. So in that respect the game is the same. You can still get 1 shotted because you are only HALF the level you can get in ONE aspect of the game anyways!

In the crafting section I mentioned how I like to craft shields. Well I not only used shields I got the 'shielding' skill and it worked pretty well pre patch, except that mobs didn't do to much damage. Blind was over used and mobs didn't attack so essentially I wasted SP and never really got higher in it. Try the spell out, I'm not going to spoil how cool it is. I haven't used it yet, but I'll give you a big hint. Protection is % based. With blind fixed, stun at a higher level and therefore more expensive and rare, shielding is now a viable option. When a mob is stunned I hit it, when it's unstunned I shield my tank and share damage...just like Jason Horhee when he crushes a persons head or impales them on a spear...always thinking!

Economy:

I'm still waiting to see how the shop turns out. I think it's alright though. I sold a bunch of mats into it, but was busy playing Gladius while I harvested, or dying to a Scowling/Growling gingo combo to notice if I sold anything.

The base monies that you get allow you to buy another person's mats when you need them right away. But unless you got someone supplying you with mats, crafting is secondary. It makes sense in this economy. The one thing I don't like is flooding the stores with mats. I can see it happening despite the filters. I'm selling a lot to up the content now, but eventually I want to sell without resale on things. This means a lot of extra clicking to make the option 'not for resale'. Why not just make everything available for resale, so you get luck of the draw and have mats disappear...every 3-4 days.

I noticed a lot more tasks, I heard someone in guild chat mention someone finding the story line. YES!!! FINALLY!!!

Beginning music is nice. TY

MP3 player is kick ass. TY

My guild leader has mentioned more guild options now. TY

Many mispellings in stanzas or misinformation, I've reported what I could. Icon worshippers still have a bug in name. I feel this should have been fixed, and wouldn't have taken to long. But oh well I don't code, so I can't judge.

I'll post more maybe when I level up. Anyways, for all you 'high level' people, try out a few of these things and counter them with an explination, or provide one if you already have before saying 'oh you're just a level 50 P.O.S. scr** you monkey!' I get enough of that from my boss...who continually gives me equipment that fails ARGH! At least he tries out things and continually fixes what he can though. I believe the system to be more linear now.

Like I said, solo is still messed up imo, but maybe not. Try that xp thing. I didn't get to long to play around, but stacking 500xp yubos might be the same as getting 1500 mean kipee prepatch. I'll be happily disproven because this knowledge can only make the game better. Or aid me in changing strategy.

[jjm152]

Magic:
I love the credit changes. Now I don't have to just focus on one or two things until I get up to a high level where I can focus on two other things I could afford before...even though I can't buy anything else because I'm focusing on those two things!

The afflictions do appear to be a bit broken though. I don't mind not being able to totally kite mobs my level. In fact I didn't do it before the patch because I thought it was kind of cheesy. But I think I should, at level 53, be able to fear/kite a fledgling izam until I give the poor thing a heart attack. At least with fear 3-4.

Well maybe the solution is that I still have to focus on just a few spells, but I still get some more options. Three spell options now is about 100% more than what I was previously working with! So good job! I maxxed out on all my bombs when I could have..not and put them all into affliction. Oh well, my bad. I guess I'll have to spend some nuke xp on afflictions.

Given how often my nukes resist...I'm having doubts to the quality of afflictions at higher levels though.

Heal REALLY pissed me off though. I think they should fix this and remove all the credits I spent so I can respend them on heal the right way. I maxed out on heal, but the only way to get heal 2 is to get life gift 1...which is basically just me buying a stupid hp credit I don't want...I do want SOME hp credits. But I use them as a balance to even out my casting. I don't think I should be forced into buying 7 health credits just to get to level 7 in heal. it seems like heal is even MORE expensive this way. Not to mention filling my initial credit add screen with needless spam.

Crafting

I'm not crafting magic amps so they aren't a concern to me. I noticed my amp changed with the patch to gloves. Boy do they look cool! Thanks guys!

Buying mats for harvest sure shows little option right now....but wait, didn't people JUST start selling into the stores? I'm gonna have a great time mixing and matching mats to make cool new stuff thanks to this. I can craft things for fashion as well as ability and xp.

I decided to go the gun crafting route since no one else in my clan is. gotta stock those armor shells since I'm making shields too! We'll see how effective gun fighting is. But ammo isn't to expensive except for launcher ammo, but maybe we'll get a ton of raids where they'll be useful for leveling later... but of course I'm only crafting shields. Guns kind of limit you that way.

*edit* The new way of naming items? that's cool! I still want to name mine thuogh. Just for pop ups in my hands screen...names like 'equalizer' for an all around magic amp, or the 'devastator' for a high elem amp. stuff like that!

Harvesting

I spent a good couple of hours harvesting today, working off 150k dp from PR I was in just before the patch. I like the changes. Period.

I'm 68 harvesting and I spent a good amount of time working off the DP with 50 ag/50 ge and ground stab2 with resource pres 1. I must say I'm impressed. Once I get back to the game I'm going to have a full 20 slots dedicated to different modes of harvesting and prospecting.

You do have to pay attention to your actions now, but repairing a source no longer takes away from the Q of your mats. This means that ground stabbing and harvesting make me pull 3 mats instead of 4 mats on an unlucky source 1, or 2 mats instead of three on nearly any other source.

There is maybe a 15% chance or less I will pull one mat or ruin a source depleting the area. The only reason it's this high is because I was playing Gladius at the same time and filed to pay attention sometimes.

I never died since the 2nd extract I pulled, when I wasn't watching my hp.

Sources still change, after each explosion. This makes sense if you think about it, since the falling of dirt or shifting of the material changes how you harvest. I accordingly swap my strategy dependent on the source. Awsome.

I haven't tried group harvesting. But now that you get xp for aiding the harvester, I'm all about group harvesting for high mat pulls.

I didn't watch the experience to much, like I said I was regaining DP. Eventually I started gaining xp though, and when I left the game I found out I was pretty close to 69 harvest. I was getting less xp than before the patch sure, but this leads me to believe that the xp per level has been reduced. I like this. I really like this. Because now 3k xp is saved for supreme/excellent name dropping 'boss' mobs.

I'm leveled pretty quick with more mats than I've ever pulled, had more fun doing it while I paid minimal attention and I'm actually looking forward to more with the group harvest option.

THANK you for giving us the prospect 'type' only stanza. When I am looking to craft specific items for people I can do so much easier. Now I don't have to find a source with 20m and then shut it to 5m and prospect the entire friggen region.

Fighting

The linear 10 level thing is what really jacks it for solo players. Also the fact that every single mob of the same type is exactly the same level. Not every buffalo in the herd is a healthy buck or a struggling old ninny. Give us variance so we can dance around the herd picking off the weak until we are stronger. Growling / Scowling / Baying gingos in the same area just doesn't do enough.. Having Growling = 21-29 Scowling = 30-38 Baying = 39-51 would be AWSOME. We can add to randomization by giving the shades of difficulty a 5 level varience. So the bottom level gingos will be lighter, but you still don't know if you ae pulling a 21 or 25 growling gingo.

I think this is a big revamp though. We'd have a big patch seeing as how we'd have to add in the specs to fill in all the mobs in the game. It really works well with the 'herd' mentality that Nevrax has ingeniuously introduced into their world.

I fought a 50ish gingo with my 53 magic ability..which is about where my melee is. I win 50% of the time and that's just perfect. Because if I fight a 53 player, I expect the same. Now you have to be more aware of your surroundings with fighting a pack of dogs that each weight more than you do. Oh darn.

For all the people complaining, stop fighting such hard mobs! Like I said in harvesting, I think max xp to level has been reduced. Shoot me later if it hasn't, but give it a few days to try it out. I said in another post that if you are 100 fighting 130 mobs it should be the same as being level 20 fighting level 50 mobs in our current state. Don't look at things in a percentage, therefore reverse exponential growth rate. Look at it as a linear growth rate that allows for slightly better containment of exploration according to levels.
People made it to other lands thruogh PR getting 1 shotted by large mobs. So in that respect the game is the same. You can still get 1 shotted because you are only HALF the level you can get in ONE aspect of the game anyways!

In the crafting section I mentioned how I like to craft shields. Well I not only used shields I got the 'shielding' skill and it worked pretty well pre patch, except that mobs didn't do to much damage. Blind was over used and mobs didn't attack so essentially I wasted SP and never really got higher in it. Try the spell out, I'm not going to spoil how cool it is. I haven't used it yet, but I'll give you a big hint. Protection is % based. With blind fixed, stun at a higher level and therefore more expensive and rare, shielding is now a viable option. When a mob is stunned I hit it, when it's unstunned I shield my tank and share damage...just like Jason Horhee when he crushes a persons head or impales them on a spear...always thinking!

Economy:

I'm still waiting to see how the shop turns out. I think it's alright though. I sold a bunch of mats into it, but was busy playing Gladius while I harvested, or dying to a Scowling/Growling gingo combo to notice if I sold anything.

The base monies that you get allow you to buy another person's mats when you need them right away. But unless you got someone supplying you with mats, crafting is secondary. It makes sense in this economy. The one thing I don't like is flooding the stores with mats. I can see it happening despite the filters. I'm selling a lot to up the content now, but eventually I want to sell without resale on things. This means a lot of extra clicking to make the option 'not for resale'. Why not just make everything available for resale, so you get luck of the draw and have mats disappear...every 3-4 days.

I noticed a lot more tasks, I heard someone in guild chat mention someone finding the story line. YES!!! FINALLY!!!

Beginning music is nice. TY

MP3 player is kick ass. TY

My guild leader has mentioned more guild options now. TY

Many mispellings in stanzas or misinformation, I've reported what I could. Icon worshippers still have a bug in name. I feel this should have been fixed, and wouldn't have taken to long. But oh well I don't code, so I can't judge.

I'll post more maybe when I level up. Anyways, for all you 'high level' people, try out a few of these things and counter them with an explination, or provide one if you already have before saying 'oh you're just a level 50 P.O.S. scr** you monkey!' I get enough of that from my boss...who continually gives me equipment that fails ARGH! At least he tries out things and continually fixes what he can though. I believe the system to be more linear now.

Like I said, solo is still messed up imo, but maybe not. Try that xp thing. I didn't get to long to play around, but stacking 500xp yubos might be the same as getting 1500 mean kipee prepatch. I'll be happily disproven because this knowledge can only make the game better. Or aid me in changing strategy.

The higher level you are, the more imballancing the monster strength increases are. This is not someone just saying STFU newb, its the truth. I can probably only reasonbly kill something that gives me about 40XP. I am not joking. 40xp. I can kill two of those before I have to sit down and rest, and this is with me using self heal inbetween fights. My equipment is top notch (made it myself) and about 60-50 QL's higher than the enemies I am fighting.

That is in no way, shape or form, any degree of fun for me or the vast majority of the players.

I am sorry, but this "patch" stinks on ice. The (very) few nice things they added were totally over powered by the plethora of steaming crap that got added in as well. As it is right now the game is completely unplayable past level 60 or so. Whatever designer made this decision is a complete idiot.

Later

[josephm]

Man that really blows. I guess that's why one of our higher level peeps was so distraught with his DP. I was hoping it wasn't so since the laments came an hour or two after patching. Thanks for the info JJM152! I hope they fix it. Otherwise leveling is going to be like going down that hallway Willy Wonka had..the one that kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller....

[shrike]

Generally agree with you (exept that I cannot comment on fighting or magic combat currently, since so far I only tested harvesting).

Just one correction:

...
Heal REALLY pissed me off though. I think they should fix this and remove all the credits I spent so I can respend them on heal the right way. I maxed out on heal, but the only way to get heal 2 is to get life gift 1...which is basically just me buying a stupid hp credit I don't want...I do want SOME hp credits. But I use them as a balance to even out my casting. I don't think I should be forced into buying 7 health credits just to get to level 7 in heal. it seems like heal is even MORE expensive this way. Not to mention filling my initial credit add screen with needless spam.
...

The heal life / lift gift cycle is because they take turns with the heal spell power. Meaning "heal life 1" uses the "heal 1" spell power brick, "lift gift 1" uses "heal 2", "heal life 2" uses "heal 3", and so on... And since you always need the previous spell power brick to buy the next one you have to by both spells.

Only till life gift 4, though. Because once you are past lvl 20 in spells you can decide just to buy the spell upgrades (near the end of the trainer list). So you just have to get 2 health credits if you want to get heal 7, those of the lvl 1-20 spells life gife 1 and 2.

That being said, I use the -15 HP credit of life gift 2 in allmost all my spells. Those 20 hp fit just nice with my heal reg rate. If you use no hp credit at all you are wasting one recource of yours.

[josephm]

Thanks shrike I'm at heal 5, so I have't gone to six and seen that skip. I do use health credits, just not as much as sap etc. I have many different spell configurations, particularly for affliction. Often they don't take any sap, which allows me to maintain sap though I'll hit it up in dire need, or save for my heals which need to be fast, and sometimes long distance. That of course, was pre-patch so I guess you're right, I'll have to recheck on this!

[loyats]

i do indeed like the new skill system, thank you Ryzom for that.