Impressions of Chapter 1 from ATS: of special interest to those who forage.

[ariaki]

Lets keep the discussion here on topic please.

After 3 days on the test server I think they bought stock in eq2 and wow and are betting on the 6k paying coustomers here all leaving .

The game is simply not balanced at all.

Harvesting and crafting for 4 days to play one is in no way Fun its a chore and soon as eq2 and wow both open up people will leave here fast.

Even the most devout sor fans are talking of leaving sone of the csr people web site builders etc.

This patch on the test server will only make things worse and worsen the fun factor in this world.

This is a game its not a constriction site or a I like to look at holes in the ground fantasy game lol, or then maby it is digging for days on end is good cause we can leave the pc turn it off and go do somathing fun .

[shenan]

As a part-time ranged fighter, I sure hope they having something planned to boost ammo crafting. As it is, I just mooch of my guild hunting parties to level ranged fighting by just taking one shot with q1 storemat ammo, and getting the easy 3k per mob.

If I were to actually be an asset to my party and use max dmg crafted ammo in a normal manner, I would be spending about 4 hours crafting ammo for each hour in the field using it. This is all to do about half the damage as a melee fighter or magic user.

If these changes are as bad as they look, they might as well just get rid of ammo crafting and have ranged weapons just shoot without ammo, cause I can guarantee you there won't be a single ranged fighter left in Atys.

[billg1]

After reading this I cant but wonder a few things - I'm going to just echo some of the thoughts posted by Cieran and a few here or there.

1) Why do credits not jump by 10s like the other skill sets or even 20s? Why go from 24 to 64? 32 to 64 is bad enough in the current setup.

2) Why is exp not shared among the group as it is for killing a mob? Just because someone used only care plans or did the only the prospecting or only the harvesting doesn't mean they did anything less. Everyone still did something to help the group achieve the goal. In a hunting group you have a fighter that does the damage a nuker nukes and healers heals and so on. They all perform 1 specific and different aspect and all receive the same xp. Why make something so simple for hunting parties so complex and out of whack for harvesting?

3) Why make focus consumption even greater creating more downtime, causing even fewer mats to be harvested. Crafters cannot get enough mats to keep up with the demands as it is. The focus consumption is ridiculous. The lack of mats for the crafters and gear is unacceptable. Your forcing every single person to take up harvesting, which most people dislike, and making it take even longer. No one wants to harvest for a week so we can actually play on the weekends.

Some of the changes I like but the shortgage of mats has got to end.
So does the need to harvest non stop for days.
Harvesting is boring.

[elfmatic]

It seems that we have a few masochistic players that are absolute harvesting fiends and levelled up WAY faster than Nevvy intended, so now they feel compelled to F _ _ _ EVERYBODY because 20 people are 200+ forage already. I'm 88 forage in one area only and it has been painful, I say PAINFUL for me to get that far.

I like the idea of having more skills, abilities, and teamwork matter, but make them MATTER not absolutely earth shattering requirements that complicate an issue to the point that everyone hates it.

Why do these games always take on an Us vs. Them mentality? Why do I feel like EVERYONE is getting punished because Nevvy doesn't like the actions of a few? I think they're looking at the time frame that the game has been released and what level people are, vs. the # of hours played by those people and what level they are. You cannot code this system optimised for somone who plays for 20 hours straight on the weekend (like a forager I know did last weekend) and still expect anyone who plays 2 hours at a time to be anything but completely frustrated. Hell, they won't even play at all.

In closing, it seems (and we'll know with certainty after wednesday) that Nevvy is completely pissing off the high level foragers (some will quit over this I guarantee) and making the 'profession' next to impossible for the rest of us. Good job.

edit: and another thing! Since when has too many mats been a problem? I have NEVER heard of ANYONE say they had too many mats to know what to do with. It's so bad that often times even within my own guild if you want something YOU have to provide the mats. They're not being mean, THEY JUST DON'T HAVE THEM!

~Elf

[jeffhill]

Devoted harvesters seem to have far outlevelled other classes ( and doing it solo I might add ). The QL of the stuff some of you pull far exceeds the demanded level.

So....I don't think its wise to have people level up to max in a few months, so I think Nevrax's system is fair in the interim, but maybe increase the exp back a bit in patch 2 when all the other classes catch up. Also I like the idea that foragers have to group... just like mob hunters. Sounds fair to me. Just my opinion.

[moriant]

So Shrike.. how exactly are the vendors going to be a huge new source of training mats for crafters if the harvesters won't even be able to pull the same amount of mats per hour (or whatever time table) as compared to now?

These changes slow the intake of materials that by most accounts were already a tad to slow for crafters. If the harvesting changes go into effect you will not see a huge influx of materials for crafting on the vendors. Player harvesters will not want to sell their very hard earned materials to someone for some measily dapper. They'll save them for their guild crafter who will be needing every last mat (just like now, but worse) just to supply their own guild.

I personally was listening to most of what Cieran and Stigian were doing on the ATS via our guild's Teamspeak server and Cieran isn't making this stuff up. Both Cieran and Stigian spent several hours playing around with various set ups to see what they could do and it was not encouraging.

This patch, in it current state, will drive away almost every player that is currently sitting on the fence. Only those of us who really like the game will attempt to tough it out. Most will be extremely frustrated I imagine.

--Moriant

[jesder]

Devoted harvesters seem to have far outlevelled other classes ( and doing it solo I might add ).

You dont destroy a whole class because some people were leveling too much.

After I got to about 75 I stopped using the mat spec all together(before they turned it off). Since then I have raised foraging to 99 1/2 (hehe so close). This gain was all from attempting to pull as many q100 mats as I could in the time I was harvesting without paying any attention to what level I was. This allowed me to do what foragers should be doing .. getting MATS. Now since they are messing up foraging so bad, the only option will be to do qty 1 pulls with short prospecting times. This lowers the amount of mats I would get per hour and INCREASES the XP I would get compared to pulling QTY from a source.

Mat spec was messing up harvesting however it also was needed to lessen the gap between pulling q50 and q100 and q200. Mat spec provided the half way points. On paper this might have looked good but in practice it was not balanced. So they turned it off after it had already done much damage.

Now we get to this new system which seems to make harvesting even less able to fulfill it's role by making it next to impossible to gather qty mats.

[btamilio]

Can we all just wait for the damn patch to come out before we cry 'Game Over' on Ryzom?

I know change is tough for some people, but, come on -- at least wait for the patch to come out. Maybe they made a change that will affect the pattern of how you and your guild has been playing the game for the last month, and, maybe that's too bad for you, since you've spent all this time to understand how it works and have a rhythm down, but maybe, just maybe, there's something you/we're missing here and ultimately it will balance the game better for all, in combination with other features being released.

[fellgrim]

Just curious...anyone know what mats are used in crafting the new 'amps' ( I mean glam rock gloves)? Same as before, even though they no longer have a 'shaft'? Light armor with an amber twist?

[vanderpm]

As a part-time ranged fighter, I sure hope they having something planned to boost ammo crafting. As it is, I just mooch of my guild hunting parties to level ranged fighting by just taking one shot with q1 storemat ammo, and getting the easy 3k per mob.

If I were to actually be an asset to my party and use max dmg crafted ammo in a normal manner, I would be spending about 4 hours crafting ammo for each hour in the field using it. This is all to do about half the damage as a melee fighter or magic user.

If these changes are as bad as they look, they might as well just get rid of ammo crafting and have ranged weapons just shoot without ammo, cause I can guarantee you there won't be a single ranged fighter left in Atys.

I agree, to get max damage ammo it takes me almost a whole day of foraging to get 200 shots worth, and that is as it stands now. And "max damage" is slightly over 100, for a Q50 weapon, with 17 shots per minute. That is not a fun time.