[Ennewi]

Edit/Delete Absor Gives Feedback on Donals
Xanthus [1/30/2001-6:07:14 PM] Comments[15]
Absor replied to some of the concerns brought up by players on the boards today:

Indigarious wrote:

>"Since release, there have been so many issues that have been "tuned" or "fixed". For two years, I have seen many bugs/issues get placed on the backburner. Issues that we, as a player community have respectfully brought to your (Verant's) attention. But, whenever anything comes up that could offset the game balance to *any* degree, VI is quick to respond. This is just my perception and opinion."<

Well, I guess this is where this whole thing gets kind of strange for me. I'm reading here how a people are telling us that, since it has been so long since this item was introduced, we should just leave it. Yes, we move slowly sometimes, nobody is denying that. And yet, even with this 'nerf' having taken us six months to get to, it is still the bugs that people see as on the back burner for a long time…

*shrug*

>"I know there have been many favorable changes to the game, and as a paying customer, I appreciate them. However, I echo the voices of many when I ask you to please leave the game alone from an item-perspective."<

And I ask you to step back and really examine the effect that an item like this can have on the entire game. Look at it and try to understand how it would completely change the entire game, and not for the better.

I certainly understand your philosophy about only adding and never taking away. And it's the most pleasant route to take. But that route can only lead to disaster. If we never 'nerf' anything, then we have to spend every moment trying to push everything up to meet the standard of the best. If we make one tiny mistake and overpower one item, then we have to spend months (and I do mean months) boosting everything up to meet it. A few years from now we'd probably just have to start people a 50th level with planer gear so that they wouldn't be underpowered…

Sorry, as much as we would like to take the easy route, it's also the road to disaster.

Cattie_Luv said:

>"I just don't see the point in nerfing an item 0.05% of the server population will actually posess and make use of it."<

This is another sentiment that I don't understand. It seems, to me at least, self contradictory. You are saying that we shouldn't make this change because it only affects a very small number of players (which, by the way, I disagree with). But if it only affects 0.05% of the server population, than how can it be such a big deal that we change it?

Celdor wrote:

>"As a DM since the days when D&D; was called Chainmail™, I can tell you that the worst thing a GM can do is feel offended that the players outsmarted you."<

That's absolutely true. And if you think that we are making this change out of some sort of anger over being outsmarted, you are mistaken. I've explained several times how unbalancing this item is. We're changing it because it is broken, and that is the only reason.

Jovius wrote:

>"Thank you for your well thought out presentation, although it was clearly lost on a lot of people . I think your doing a great job so far."<

Thanks. And, well, I was wrong to put that six month thing like I did. No matter the case, yes, we should have made a far more dramatic change earlier. We should have noticed the possible effect on the game a while ago. We didn't. I'm not, however, going to say that this should have been easy to see. Seeing that the item was broken is one thing (and we did, that's why the casting time was raised). But seeing the wide range potential problem with this thing is not as easy as your going along as it is when looking back at it.

>"I think for the great majority of us, the nerf represents a reasonable attempt to work out a situation that clearly needed your attention. We (and I do play a high level cleric fwiw) appreciate Verant's efforts and can easily accept this nerf due to the well stated problem."<

Thanks.

Really, the last thing I want to say on this is to ask you to consider this: some people claim that they started their clerics only because they were looking forward to getting this one item. I am sorry if this change makes you unhappy about that decision. But the main thing to realize is that no one item should be the sole reason for the existence of any character.

Alan

Classic.