01-Noviembre-2011. Mantenimiento.

And October is over.. for us here it felt like a much too short month.. But we are getting closer to the Holiday season!

November 1st

    GoCash Bonus 10% stops at 5pm November 1st
    FWB bonuses will be distributed for the joins in October!
    Ymir will return to no free character slot.
    3 RWC memorial Headgears will discontinue being sold
    Minion of Morroc Doll will discontinue being sold
    Prizes for the +9 Morroc of Minion Doll will be distributed through the Code the Redeemer
    Minion of Morroc will become tradable after the prizes are distributed.
    2x Exp will end.
    Many maps will become "no worky with Blank Cards and St Pats Hat
    Green Ale will get weight comparable to Yggdrasil Seeds 25weight . Stop botting...
    On November 15, Green Ale will become Account bound until in season again. Notes to such will also be on the Ale Description.
    The 2 Halloween Quest and the Spooky Machine will continue to the 8th.
    Halloween Spooky Packs and Boxter will continue until the 8th.
    New Turnins
    Don't forget if you complete a turnin and want to do it again immediately, bypassing the 23 hour timer, use a Reset Stone to reset the timer!

    90-110 Niffelheim
    - Lude
    - Heirozoist

    115-130 Rachel Sanctuary 4/5 spawns are increased on bothfloors
    - Agav
    - Echio

    135+ Bio Labs 3 (Spawn is normal, but Turnin EXP is doubled)
    - Cecil Damon
    - Eremes Guile
    - Margaretha Sorin
    - Seyren-Windsor
    - Kathryne Keyron
    - Howard Alt-Eisen


I'll be making another pinned thread to discuss what is happening behind the scenes here with the updates and why this week is a little "soft" on the updates.

Notice:

Green Ales and why so angry?
Post here if you have an opinion on the Green Ales.

Heimdallr.

Today Novermber 1st I announced upcoming and current changes to the Green Ale using/gathering/trading systems. There are certainly some very strong voices about the change. I first want to state what all the changes on the drawing board are, and why such a change. And then ask for alternatives from you. But before I get your feedback it is absolutely necessary that you understand the reasons for why the changes need to be made.

Changes:

1. Nov 1 Weight is increased from 3 -> 25 this makes them slightly lower weight than Yggdrasil Seeds.

2. Nov 15 Become account bound until St patricks Season rolls around.

What are the changes intended to address?:

1. There is a significant botting going on with gathering these items. They are very mobile in the vending world so getting away with it for even a little bit still has a large impact on the game.

2. WoE for some guilds became a who can pot the Ales most wins. This is more of a game balance issue, as Ygg Berries, Seeds, Ales were not intended to be default pots but rather emergency restores. The Ales were too weight perfect and readily available, that is my fault as we should have put them up in weight last March. If they were rare and stayed rare, then the weight was fine, which was the case before this year as a St pats season only item. But this year due to the farms and their illegal gathering methods there are so many pots in the game that it has short circuited the Potting market significantly. It is important that people pot as it helps incentivize game play and more people can gather Pot items than the exclusive few that can gather Green Ales.

Alternatives:

1. Increase Weight so at least in WoE they are less likely to have hundreds on them. It also brings them in parity to the Yggdrasil Seeds that they were meant to mimic.

2. Account bound : In the short term this is to get them trapped so we can deal with farmers. in the long run it makes them a seasonal sale, so in March and maybe September we can do Green Ale events where they are tradable and those that participate in those seasons get ahead.

3. Disable the St Patricks Hat : This was considered, but since the hat was upgraded it causes problems with compensation with debuffing a hat, and truly punishes everyone.

4. Adding a long reuse delay on Green Ales, this wouuld only affect the WoE usage and their value a little bit but wouldn't stop farms from profitting.

5. Deleting all the Green Ales in the game, and then make sure that farming locations are not efficient. I know this would stop the issue temporarily at the cost of considerable community backlash (I know I'd be P.O.ed).

In the end we need to make sure that the Green Ales are not short circuiting the Potting System due to how good they are, and we need to be sure that those willing to cheat are not getting unduely benefitted from the Green Ale items.

Please post up your takes on this or alternative ideas for sorting out these concerns. I'll be honest there was more rage about this than I was expecting, granted only from a handful of players so far but I still feel that a proper discussion on alternatives would benefit everyone.

Notice:

Look behind the Curtain : All about updates.

Many of you are likely looking forward to the various things that are coming down the pipeline, and wonder when are you going to get them.

Well we are getting close to premiering them in testing form, but we have had a few hangups that have pushed back their launch dates.

1. Costume Tab, MVP Gravestone markers, Shopping Catalogue System. This update is what we were testing on Sakray for the past 3 weeks, there was a problem that caused Disconnects when trying to switch maps or return to character server. It is basically a set of errors that are "Showstoppers" until fixed. HQ has been working with us to get it resolved, but this past week Sakray sort of Died and we are in the process of using a Ygg Leaf on it so we can continue testing. This update has only 1 big concern for me and that is the Shopping Catalogue, we want to be sure it is functional and doesn't allow the sort of exploitation the Buy it shop exhibited.
This update is intended to go live in Early November, at least prior to the live launch of 14.1.

2. Skill update patch : this one is the biggy, both popular and infamous this is sure to require a lot of player testing and feedback. Just to be clear on it, the changes may not be made from your feedback immediately, but sensicle feedback that betters the game balance will be given full weight of the iRO staff to get implemented. HQ has told us and all partners that this is stage 1 of the Skill Balancing, with subsequent stages of balancing intended to take place through the first half of 2012. The full Intention is to have the skills balanced so the entire game feels like a fluid growth of your characters and a good balance of powers between the classes. At one point they didn't feel the need for continued balancing but a number of partners with the backing of the players have changed that mindset. We will be one of the first versions to install this update so our voices will be the ones they get first, so lets stake it as an opportunity to shape RO rather than feel it is a bad change.

This update is actually part of the 14.1 update, but we will likely put it in live prior to us installing 14.1 NPCs, maps, etc. We should start Sakray Testing as soon as Sakray lives again. Currently we are getting the kinks worked out on our internal servers to get the update to "run" so we can then make it public to test.

3. 14.1 Bifrost : This is a new Chapter in the Story of Ragnarok, still focused in the New World your task is to track down the elusive Satan Morroc and pursue him deeper into the new World. Of course new areas, weapons and monsters await you in this high level area. Designed for 100+ level game play.

We are going to make the Sakray test go live a week or so after the Skill update starts being tested. Hopefully we have a live launch in time for Thanksgiving. Currently the quests and areas are being worked on internally to make sure they run as expected. Being done in parallel with the above 2.

The next few maintenances may be a bit "weak" as far as new quests and contents as we are putting a lot of time into getting the above 3 implemented and tested. We will still have our weekly turnins and such but we may be a little short on big quests or quest updates.