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It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:26 pm
by jared96
OK, who does this when digging down in PR ?

Ya know there's a bunch of nasties running around that spot in in PR so when ya wanna go dig some "Supreme Bubble Gum" you go to that safe spot 70m away and cast for with "Supreme Only", "100 meter range" and "Gum/BubbleGum" mat spec for a few minutes / hours. You continually get wrong weather conditions messages until finally ya get a hit and it reads that there's some of the stuff at 73m. You run ovr and hopefully you get to dig some before weather changes again or some nasty comes and chases you off or eats you.

So yesterday a few minutes before season change, I run down to a spot that I needed stuff from. I have to items on my action bar which I uses to check wc (weather conditions) .... I adjust each one depending on what mat I am looking for....otherwise stanzas stay same unless I need to adjust range.

So I'm down at my favorite BubbleGum spot when season changes. And I cast tracking for Gum\Bubble for sup only (wrong weather) .... cast for exe only (wrong weather) ....rinse and repeat each time focus regens. Then I get a hit 43m on exe.....40.....35.........1m. I cast prospect for exe BubbleGum......i get wrong weather message. I cast for supreme, wrong weather; I cast for choice I get pops; I cast for exe get wrong weather; I track for exe again and I get 1 m again so tracking telling me it's still exe weather....both before and after. I walk all around 75' radius and no changes. Tracking brings me to 1m, prospect says wrong weather......try range from 0 to max, same thing. Later tracking says sup is up and I go to and dig it up. Note that I have dug exe and sup this spot many, many times and know the exact blade of grass to stand on. The only reason I even bother to sue tracking is to stay outta range of the nasties until the right weather pops.

Now I know, or at least I think I do how tracking works and the whole grid thing. I know and understand what it means when you track to a spot @ 1m and come up empty, depleted, different class etc. However there's two things that have never hapened to me in game (beta / focus beta / release):

1. I have never tracked a specific mat successfully and then been told on prospect that it was in wrong season.

2. I have never before tracked a specific mat successfully and then been told on prospect that it was in wrong season.

So I filed a ticket on 2 and CSR told me that "it's not a bug, it's working as designed". If it's working as designed, I gotta wonder how I never ran into it before.

Now, as I see it, it's either the right season or wrong season, it can't be both. It's either the right weather or the wrong weather it can't be both at the same time.

Again a "not in area", "depleted" or "empty" or another message seems feasible but to get wrong weather messages sandwiched in between right weather tracking seems to me like something outta whack. The fact that I never seen it before either means I am extremely lucky or the quirk is of recent vintage. BTW, choice and sup both worked "as designed"......or better said "as I am used to".

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:38 pm
by ffxjosh
Tracking, As far as i know just takes you to where the Mats are - regardless of wetaher/ season. There ARE mats there, just not right now ;)

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:40 pm
by vguerin
jared96 wrote:So I filed a ticket on 2 and CSR told me that "it's not a bug, it's working as designed". If it's working as designed, I gotta wonder how I never ran into it before.
Definately sounds frustrating, some things like that always keep us guessing man. Can we assume your referring to SN's ?

The CSR response is classic if properly quoted... Of course everything is working as designed, working as intended or properly is another story :P

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:46 pm
by jared96
ffxjosh wrote:Tracking, As far as i know just takes you to where the Mats are - regardless of wetaher/ season. There ARE mats there, just not right now ;)
No, it doesn't. If that were true, why would tracking for Supreme Bubble Gum give message "not available in this season", "not available under these weather conditions", "not avaialable at this time" ?

If it was regardless of "weather / season", we wouldn't be getting those messages.

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:59 pm
by jared96
vguerin wrote:Definately sounds frustrating, some things like that always keep us guessing man. Can we assume your referring to SN's ?

The CSR response is classic if properly quoted... Of course everything is working as designed, working as intended or properly is another story :P
No, not SN's....this was in wastelands.

With as good as the crew here is, I hate to see answers that bear any resemblance to those in the "Microsoft Tech Support 101" binder. Other quirks I have seen so far:

-Only 56 mats in supreme node I camped before season changed....no didnt time out on weather, last pull gave 3 mats and next wasa focus stealer (0 mats)....still undug cabbages on surface.
-Crafter names in Info Box for boss mats (Hey Goupi can I get some more 270 Vorkoo claws - Supernovae, how about making me some more kippeeketh shells ?)

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:09 pm
by hokipoki
vguerin wrote:The CSR response is classic if properly quoted... Of course everything is working as designed, working as intended or properly is another story :P
I heard this one too: "Works as coded".
Priceless.

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:20 pm
by ffxjosh
jared96 wrote:No, it doesn't. If that were true, why would tracking for Supreme Bubble Gum give message "not available in this season", "not available under these weather conditions", "not avaialable at this time" ?

If it was regardless of "weather / season", we wouldn't be getting those messages.

we talking about tracking or prospecting?????

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:31 pm
by blaah
jared96 wrote:It's either the right weather or the wrong weather it can't be both at the same time.
what time of day (atys) did you prospect ? it may explain right weather / wrong weather "at the same time and weather".
you sure you didnt get "lucky" and hit it the time weather was changing ?

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:57 pm
by jared96
ffxjosh wrote:we talking about tracking or prospecting?????
Both together.

Step 1 - Track with specific mat and class (i.e. exe, sup) spec....if successful, proceed to step 2
Step 2 - Prospect with exact same mat and class spec

If step 1 says it's good weather, then step 2 shouldn'y say bad weather. It could say, gone, depleted, empty, wrong time, wrong season, but not bad weather. The existence of proper weather already established in step 1

Re: It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:07 pm
by blaah
jared96 wrote:Both together.

Step 1 - Track with specific mat and class (i.e. exe, sup) spec....if successful, proceed to step 2
Step 2 - Prospect with exact same mat and class spec

If step 1 says it's good weather, then step 2 shouldn'y say bad weather. It could say, gone, depleted, empty, wrong time, wrong season, but not bad weather. The existence of proper weather already established in step 1
nope, because if you time it right, weather can change between step 1 and step 2.
if you already didnt know, then 11 to 12, 2 to 3, 5 to 6, 8 to 9 (am and pm) are the times weather is changing and not constant. prospecting 11:45 (step 1) and 11:46 (step 2) can be 2 totally different weathers.