Kwoung and Zindi rate this patch... Two Thumbs Down

[Kwoung]

<DIV>I posted the quick problems I found in the 20 minutes and 8 deaths(from low green mobs) of play I just I played in the issues thread. But overall, the game is pretty unplayable right now. I think Csantran said it best, this weekends raids are going to be a blast doing yellow epics, when green heroics are owning us in regular hunting.</DIV>

[Kwoung]

On a plus note, the sorting of the spell book is awesome and lowering the housing prices to be actually affordable is also nice.

[Heiro]

<DIV>10 gold to the person who can correctly identify the location of the heads of the devs who orchestrated this debacle, and I will give you a hint ... its not "securely attached just above the shoulders".</DIV>

[Archae]

<P>Its an abomination.</P> <P> </P> <P>When i first saw it iw as telling folks it had to be a mistake, someone misplaced a decimal point.  A level 40^^^ mob hitting a level 50 pet fully buffed for 500 with swings and 2000 with specials cant be right, but no, BG posted its intentional.</P> <P> </P> <P>This will be the death knell if it goes live.  Folks wanted to solo and were enjoying soloing.  We still had to group for tough ^^^'s (named, or groups) but we could solo the occasional solo ^^^ and we were having FUN.  Now we are regulated to forming a full group to take a ^^^ that is 5 levels below us.  We dont want to even try an epic now.</P>

[Shazzbott_Feldercarb]

I particularly enjoyed when my level 8 scout was slapped 6 ways from Sunday by a SOLO 2 down arrow level 6 bog faries.  Then after recovering what little dignity I had left, I gated home to play in my own back yard(the ruins).  There a SOLO level 5 green 2 down arrow orc beat my down 30% in just 4 hits. Did I miss something in the patch notes today? <div></div>

[Kaereni]

It sure does make soloing not even worth doing as the game stands now.  It would be nice if a dev came on and said something. <div></div>

[WuphonsReach]

Test server population is a lot lighter today then normal. Was only 41 online at 10am eastern, and after lunch we've been fluctuating at 60-65 players. That's about 25% lower then normal (maybe a bit worse). I'm waiting to see if we break 100 this evening.I know of more then a few regulars who have basically said "the hell with it" and aren't bothering to submit anymore /bug or /feedback (or even to login and play). If I didn't have crafting to keep me busy, I probably wouldn't login again until I'd heard of another patch. Hell, I can't remember the last /bug report that I've filed and I used to submit at least one per day.What that means for the test cycle:When you put out a badly broken patch like this, even if you repair the damage within 24 hours, you've turned off a lot of the folks for at least a few days or a few weeks. That's a very bad thing to do when you're less then a week away from release. Because now you're going to have a lot less feedback during a timeframe when you need fast turnaround on whether a particular change works.

[Sunrayn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> WuphonsReach wrote:<BR><BR><BR>I know of more then a few regulars who have basically said "the hell with it" and aren't bothering to submit anymore /bug or /feedback (or even to login and play). If I didn't have crafting to keep me busy, I probably wouldn't login again until I'd heard of another patch. Hell, I can't remember the last /bug report that I've filed and I used to submit at least one per day.<BR><BR><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>I am one of those that are not even logging in anymore.  I said my goodbyes just now and logged out on the steppes dock after being killed in seconds by 2 lvl 31, blue, one down arrow, solo mobs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Last night, I was disgusted by the changes, now, I dont even care.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Sunrayn</DIV>

[WuphonsReach]

I think one of the big complaints folks have at this point is the sudden and drastic changes in direction over the last week or two. Up until 13e/13f, the Combat Changes seemed to be proceeding well and were well on the way to being fine tuned down to their final numbers. Most folks were happy with their roles, their new or changed powers, and had adjusted playstyles to match. We felt that we had a pretty good handle on where changes were headed and that the remaining 5% of issues were well in hand. (13E was probably the best of the snapshots.)Now, in the last 2 weeks before release we're seeing massive changes to the con system, mitigation numbers, resists, mob difficulty, removal of mitigation from accessories, massive changes to invis and stealth. These are all changes that should have been made much earlier in the process.From the view of the ground pounders, who have been diligently testing, diligently giving feedback, and being patient about being test subjects, it looks an awful lot like the combat change team has gone psychotic. I know you believe that you know what it looks like from 10,000 meters, but down here on the ground... it looks like you (the devs) don't know which direction to go and you're just throwing changes on the wall to see what sticks.

[Kuulei]

<P>Well they finally did it...</P> <P> </P> <P>After nearly <STRONG>4</STRONG> <STRONG>YEARS</STRONG> with eq 1 test, zoning to find myself gearless, dying happily at the hand of dev's over and over to test new content and changes, days of multiple patches, bugs and fixes galore, expansions and revamps and lots of /bug, /feedback that made me think I made a difference...</P> <P>...it took only <STRONG>9 MONTHS</STRONG> on eq2 test to finally realize my input is pretty much worthless and I canceled my account and it expires on September 20, 2005.</P> <P>I only hope they rethink all this, give me a reason to reinstate my subscription on September 20th.</P>

[goboy]

<P>Don't close the door Kuulei, keep it open for me.  I have cancelled my DoF pre-order.  I will cancel the EQ2 account if this is their vision.</P> <P> </P>

[Kaereni]

Well. I left eq when daoc came out  and swore I would never play something by sony again. But when eq2 came along I looked and started playing. When test server opened up I zipped right over starting over not worrying about trying to move a character or three. All along I have put up with the changes. Some of the changes I saw were good, and some, though I dissagred with figured that there would be a reason in the bigger picture. But this last week or so has been the final straw. Canceled 2 accounts. Mine and Snorkels. Come Sept 27th  I wave a sad fairwell to eq2. <div></div>

[Kwoung]

Good news it appears: <A href="http://www.eq2test.com/viewtopic.php?t=947" target=_blank>http://www.eq2test.com/viewtopic.php?t=947</A>

[Archae]

When we see it, and if it reverses what they did, but even his letter makes it sound like its not a reversal, just a tweaking

[Heiro]

<P>That letter basically said  ... OPPPS   we screwed the pooch, we didnt mean to nerf ya that badly.</P> <P> </P> <P>Wife talkin to me today asked,  what other game is there now?   to which I answered .. doesnt matter.. never thought I would be considering another game within the first 2 years, but I am.</P> <P> </P> <DIV>They messed up.. they said they will fix it... </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>They also said that we would have our respec ... 3 weeks ago...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>seems like they say one thing publicly, then appologize and acknowledge that they didnt mean it only privately.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>not cancelling my account yet .. but then again  .. I can always cancel later ... I will give them a chance to pull thier heads outta their [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot]es.. again .. and see what happens.</DIV>

[goboy]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Archae wrote:<BR>When we see it, and if it reverses what they did, but even his letter makes it sound like its not a reversal, just a tweaking <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>They should not reverse it - there were balance issues to correct.  However, they did to too far.  They either make things too easy or too hard.  Finding the middle ground would be nice.</P> <P> </P>

[Anthony Gorecki]

I have also decided to move on as a result of the recent changes. Partly because of the lack of communication and partly because I simply don't enjoy playing the game, both Icah and Deojek have been retired. I plan to give away all of my tradable items and coin, and once that is finished, I won't be playing any MMORPGs until Vanguard is released.It's been a pleasure being part of the Test community: I wish you all the best of luck with future testing.<p>Message Edited by Anthony Gorecki on <span class=date_text>09-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>12:09 AM</span>