So What's Keepin Ya?

[carrie]

That's my major hope, that people will find themselves drawn back to Atys. I wont be one of those sayong "I told you so", I'll be welcoming you back with open arms.

Oooooooo, a big hug for me....I'll be hunting you down when/if I return.

[kuroari]

Oooooooo, a big hug for me....I'll be hunting you down when/if I return.

Well good, at least you plan on probably coming back..


You know.. after thinking about that whole "8 years" thing.. do you really think we'll be stuck witha 250 cap for a whole 8 years? or that lvling will be the only thing to do? maybe some of us that have already reached the higher lvls and don't know wat else to do - SHOULD take a break for a few months. this way they will miss the wonderful community, and miss out on hopefully a lot of interesting changes/updates. time flys when your not face-to-face with the bugs that irritate you. when they hear of the things that have changed - they'l come running back

/hopeful

well neway - i'm a little intimitated this thread got so big O_O i wasn't expecting it thanks for all the input guies!

/humbled

[veilelb]

I like this game very much ...

You know what I did ...

I took a subscription for 1 year ...

Now hoping this is not a bad decision

[carrie]

Well good, at least you plan on probably coming back..

Only if the role for neutrals is developed properly and if FvF/PvP doesn't become the only thing offered us.

[thebax]

Couldn't find a better thread to post this, my good-bye. I hope that this doesn't incur the wrath of the censor.

First, let me say that it is indeed a beautiful game. My hat is off to the modelers/artists, they did a fantastic job. However, it is a bit of a silk purse from a sow's ear, a white-washed grave.

I have been patient. I have waited over a year for Neverax to fix the game in some very basic areas. I have heard (read) it said that their abominably slow progress was due to their small size. This is not true. I have seen smaller, 10-20 person companies make as many, if not more, improvements/new content adds/fixes in two months as Neverax has managed in more than a year. Their(Neverax's) size is an excuse, not a reason. There may be a number of possible reasons, poor management, French labor practices, laziness, arrogance, or a lack of any pride in their work, but their size is not to blame.

Every skill path has deficits in function that are unecessary, annoying, and fixable.

The abysmal defense in mob hunting (Baxter dodges attacks from mobs 125-145 levels lower than his dodge as well as mobs equal to his melee level or 20 less dodge his melee attacks).

Ranged.

Link-spells that don't link nearly often enough to be useful for strategy.

Double plus dapper cost for using enchantments (during the debate over the foolish magic-nerf, some complained that casters were given an unfair advantage, as they benifited from having melee levels more than melee benifited from having magic levels. Their efforts and time would have been better spent campaigning for the removal of this double plus dapper cost, as having enchantments fueled purely by sap crystals would have given a equal, if different, benifit to high caster melees. or even better, having them fueled by sap crystals untill those run out, and then drawing their power from the user).

Useless spells like "Sleep". Still causes agro. It'd be useful for more than leeching if it did not.

Useless combat stanzas, such as "Aim Kitin Torso". Spend the points, and if the critical happens, you can make the mob lose stamina. yayyyyy.

The horrendous and idiotic cost of Gentle Speed for digging. Currently, Gentle Speed 6 is fairly useless for digging past Q70. Past that, you get more mats with speed 5 or lower, as the faster you swing your pick, the more inherent cost there is. If the cost for Gentle Speed were lowered to be the same as Gentle Rate, as Agressive is, it would still cost more to use, say, Gentle Speed 6 with Gentle Rate 3, than Gentle Speed 3 with Gentle Rate 6.

Degrades in crafting. Baxter is a "Shieldsmith Master"(I know, I know, just another example of the esteem in which Neverax holds English speakers). After death-porting to a spot near a resource (had to death-port, agro between there and civilization is in bands too closely packed to sneak through in less than a day real-time, and moves faster than a mount, so cannot be out-run) he re-spawned ~50 meters from one of the still non-functioning TPs, and the way they're talking, those TPs will remain always non-functional (broken) for those alligned to the wrong faction and for those who are neautral. He then proceeded to the spot for digging the wood he needed, as he already had the armor-clips necessary to fill the order. The wood pops during "mystery weather", still unlisted on the map, with no visual/audial clues as to it's presence. so after several hours of trying to dig when the agro was out of noticing-range and occasionally having such times coincide with the appropriate time of day and secret weather, he filled his bag. Good thing too, because, even though he is level 250, as good as it gets, and a supposed "Master" After 13 degrades, and uncounted numbers of complete failures, he managed a succesful craft. BAH... If you are going to have degrades, they should;
A)be rarer than complete failures, as not only did you mess up, but you didn't even notice that you made a mistake and stop.
and
B) be balanced with an equal chance for extraordinary success, as in grade X mats yielding an item with stats equal to those if the item had been made with the same types of mats, but of the next level of grade, fine acting as choice, exe acting as supreme, etc. For supreme mats, I don't know...maybe make the item infinitely durable, an heirloom.
Alternatively, do away with degrades altogether, especially in the case of a so-called "Master" crafter.

There are a number of other annoyances; we still can't jump, no head-gear outside of HA, the gender pronouns, etc.

Instead of fixing even the easiest of these, the gender specific pronouns, Neverax wasted time, efort, and resources on racial animations, something unasked for, and in many cases unwanted.

What improvements have been implemented, such as the recent ones to jewels and armor, have typically been accompanied by nerfs or stealth patches that are a greater deficit. Sometimes, the "improvement" itself is a nerf, such as the 5Xxp, 5Xhealth creatures. Still takes the same amount of time to get the same amount of xp(no benifit there), but those who used to be able to solo one of those beasties no longer can(a nerf in sum). Or, they have been declared as fixed, but never fixed, like the harvesting window obscurement issue, said to be fixed in patch-notes, after the patch still as bad, and support claiming that they are working on it, still happenning today.

And now, any semblence of free-speech is pretty much gone, as the moderators of the forum have declared a campaign of censorship. "We listen and value your comments". Yeah, right. That's why when one poster starts a thread concerning conflict of interest of the CSRs who post, it is shut down as soon as an ex-CSR confirms her worries, but another thread, begun by one of the cheerleaders, not only has in it's opening post a blatant flame against the "whiners" on the forums, but has one of the silliest assertions ever posted. For all I know, this, essentially Baxter's last statement, will be deleted, even though there is no flame here, as no one is mentioned by name, and no "naughty" words have been used.

But you know, none of these were insurmountable. Yes, they are examples of a poorly designed game mechanic, but they used to be only annoyances. Just like climbing most mountains is doable, if you are propperly equiped, take your time, and use some sense. Although you don't want to have to do it every time you need groceries.

They used to be only annoyances, because the citizens of Atys were just that, citizens. In every post about "What I Like Most" the community was always listed first. Now, with being force-fed PvP, that is pretty much destroyed. Repeatedly killing eachother leading to a divided community? Whoda thunk it?

Oh yeah, we did.

And then they have the gall to publish a post that they really do listen, honest. Ms. Mulligan makes it sound like it has just come to their attention that a segment of the population wants no part of PvP, when that is what we have been saying for months.

The new denizen (not citizen) of Atys is a very different creature from those that joined in a struggle against a common foe, and to rebuild a lost civilization. A direct quote from a ganker standing over the corpses of Baxter and another digger, burned into my memory; "I don like dig/craft. I just like running around shooting stuff." Not other people, not Homins, not even an OOC other players. "Stuff". That is the new denizen of Atys, that is who Neverax wants playing this game. They may say different, but actions speak louder than words.

With the possibly irreperable destruction of the community, the deficits in the game mechanics loom much larger, and there is no reason to continue playing, and paying for, Ryzom.

To those friends who still remain on Atys;
I will try to return before Baxter is perma-wiped, probably in 2-2.75 months. More than enough time for Neverax to fix this blasted game and make it as fair as the many others out in the market, although that would require them to get their collective rear-ends in gear and actually work as hard as their competitors. If I do not return, I will miss you, and will always remember you. I sincerely hope that your continued faith in Neverax is not misplaced, and that the get their act together and make this game live up to it's potential. I simply have seen them use deciet to cover a mistake rather than fix it to often to maintain my own faith in them. However, like I said, I am willing to give them one more shot, to fix the game, to change their forum practices, to prove themselves worth our employ. Even if we do not meet again on Atys, Baxter will always be out there somewhere, exploring, talking funny, making stuff, and arguing with the gods.

[scarazi]

/tar Baxter
/bow

very well said. sums up alot of the feelings atm

[carrie]

Sorry to see you go, Baxter, and wish you happiness in all future ventures. Excellent post covering so many of the long-standing and current frustrations many of us have.

[lathan]

As usual you've summed up the feelings of many on the server admirably bax.. it'll be a shame to see you go, especially feeling as you do, but then I guess not many of us are planning on sticking around these days anyway.

Hoping things will be better before that sub runs out, and you'll rethink your decision then,

Lath.

[sylvanos]

Darn.

Was that a goodbye from Baxter? Myss is sad...

Its sad to see any vet player leave, moreso not for their current, but future investment in the game. Feedback is a wonderful tool. Its even sadder to see a player who can articulate their concerns so well finally throwing in the towel. Debate is nothing without measure in the debatees.

Myss will miss (sic) you. And also because in your absence the forums will become a little murkier, a little harder to comprehend. Any game that attracts your attention is truly blessed.

(ahem). So as for moi. What's keeping me? i'll go out on a limb, and say its not the people keeping me anymore. Myss has been dissappointed far too often by homins who live to level, who live for 'stuff' (se prev. threads) , who live because they have not 'conquered' Atys yet. I don't think the concept of power is shirkable in that it should be an alien concept, and much less a goal, but it should not become an end unto itself. So much of the debate hinges on unbalancing, to which Myss agrees, but sometimes the arguments put forth are for what i feel are wrong intentions. And it makes it hard when Myss teams with such homins, because she knows that beneath pearly actions there are darker souls.

There is a place for morality in any game, even if the masses don't believe =)

So i've picked something abstract. Myss now lives for the economy. Dig all day, craft all night, or die ten times trying . Gonna make sure there's items to buy, at the right price, when and where you want. Is it a final act of desperation to etch out a place in the game mechanic? Maybe it's Myss' small way of making the game more accessible, without players having to run to guilds for support. There should be life without guilds.

(PS. agree with the bax on degrades. More success should = greater circulation. Offset durability maybe to increase repurchase rate? Time that Nevrax stops playing the conservative game and takes some risks - 20/20 foresight only ever comes in hidsight, and that would be too late . Its now or never).

Speaking of final acts, Myss goes on holidays today. From Atys. For three weeks. A fitting time to evaluate the past, present and future. Whatever the outcomes of this debate, I hope it is... conducive, to the future.

Mysstri,
xoxo
- - -
Project Mayhem
- - -

[ajsuk]

awwe Bax..

We hear you & we'll miss you..