The new AA has no mechanics??? [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

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Raay

10-05-2009, 07:01 PM

Here is the deal; my 70 Zerker had 18 Heritage quests completed before the new “Advanced” Achievements program went into place. So I logged him on and noticed that EVERYTHING had been reset… Great trick of mine to get a toon to 70 without visiting one single location or zone, secrets manual to follow… order now for $19.95. Right so I went out and did 2 more HQ’s and thought that once I got to the Relic Keeper title maybe the AA system would update, no soap. So I sent off a petition (only the second in 4 ½ years so I’m not a complainer) to basically express my disappointment in the dev team for not being able to credit folks with what they had earned and for very flippant way it is stated that customer service won’t help you. Customer service won’t help the customer; sad state of affairs this world has turned into. The other updates are an annoyance, but can be repeated and thus credited once recompleted. But HQ’s once finished that is the end of the story, can’t go back and redo them. Thus this toon could never finish the line and receive the ‘bragging’ points; which is the point of this system… right? Yet the email I received (from a GM, just doing what he is told I'm sure)stated that they do not have the ‘mechanics’ to credit any player with past achievements if they did not update correctly. Funny I can confirm my HQ count from my journal (plus the certs and title of Relic Keeper), but it would be totally impossible to prove, get the 'mechanics' into motion (because they don't have them you see) and thus have the points awarded. BOLLOCKS! Try selling that to the non IT crowd, push that rubbish to those who don’t know how computing works. Basically what this all equates to is we do not want to commit the person power or time to fix yet another thing that does not work that we consider trivial. But the devs went forward with their fun little idea without a back up plan in place should something go wrong. Yes it is a ‘for fun’ bug, er umm feature; but it should work as intended or have been dropped. This late into the game with still, I’m sure; a rather large community that have been around since launch that I’m sure can not be happy about how this bug, er umm feature went down. I let very few things bother me in game, all games have glitches and launch problems, I usually find something else to do while they get worked on or fixed. But to flat out say that there is ‘no mechanics’ to fix a problem is almost as funny as saying that any program or system can be ‘fool proof’.

Lasai

10-05-2009, 07:20 PM

Yes, the supposed tracking of achievments leaves a lot to be desired.I had to redo most of the druid rings on one char, in spite of them being tracked for portal use.The HQ thing for you though is really raw. No repeats.I took one look at all I had not been given credit for and just decided none of it was worth doing over.

Seidhkona

10-05-2009, 08:39 PM

If you completed a quest or POI before AA was introduced, they weren't recording your specific locations, location records have been reset several times, and so on.If you completed a quest, killed a name, or hit a POI after you were at AA cap, it also wasn't recorded because you were not earning AA at that moment.Remember, getting the new AA stuff is not about anything other than bragging rights and fluff gear, so don't sweat it!

Gisallo

10-05-2009, 11:24 PM

<cite>Sigrdrifa@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you completed a quest or POI before AA was introduced, they weren't recording your specific locations, location records have been reset several times, and so on.If you completed a quest, killed a name, or hit a POI after you were at AA cap, it also wasn't recorded because you were not earning AA at that moment.Remember, getting the new AA stuff is not about anything other than bragging rights and fluff gear, so don't sweat it!</blockquote>I think part of the problem (not necessarily the OP's problem mind you) is that some people think it ill have a real effect. Say you were interested in joining a raid guild. Before they may have just said "must have 170+ AA and myth, if you are really bad A## myth may be overlooked, give us a call." I think some people are afraid that now they will be asked to show up for an "interview" and have their Achievements inspected and if there aren't eniugh points, or the right mobs dead on it, it will be a wash.I don't think that will happen, expect maybe in guilds I would never have an interest in trying to sign onto anywho. Also some people just get way to tied up with applying "principles" to a video game. They see this as penalizing the long term players while giving the new players something. This though is not new. AA's were the same. When they introduced the KoS trees new players could start earning AA as soon as they hit the appropriate level. By the time they hit the KOS level cap they had more AA's than the long term players did at that level because the system didn't exist when the long term players were already there as I understand.

Bayler_x

10-06-2009, 11:52 AM

<cite>Raay@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote> Here is the deal; my 70 Zerker had 18 Heritage quests completed before the new “Advanced” Achievements program went into place. So I logged him on and noticed that EVERYTHING had been reset… Great trick of mine to get a toon to 70 without visiting one single location or zone, secrets manual to follow… order now for $19.95. Right so I went out and did 2 more HQ’s and thought that once I got to the Relic Keeper title maybe the AA system would update, no soap. So I sent off a petition (only the second in 4 ½ years so I’m not a complainer) to basically express my disappointment in the dev team for not being able to credit folks with what they had earned and for very flippant way it is stated that customer service won’t help you. Customer service won’t help the customer; sad state of affairs this world has turned into. The other updates are an annoyance, but can be repeated and thus credited once recompleted. But HQ’s once finished that is the end of the story, can’t go back and redo them. Thus this toon could never finish the line and receive the ‘bragging’ points; which is the point of this system… right? Yet the email I received (from a GM, just doing what he is told I'm sure)stated that they do not have the ‘mechanics’ to credit any player with past achievements if they did not update correctly. Funny I can confirm my HQ count from my journal (plus the certs and title of Relic Keeper), but it would be totally impossible to prove, get the 'mechanics' into motion (because they don't have them you see) and thus have the points awarded. BOLLOCKS! Try selling that to the non IT crowd, push that rubbish to those who don’t know how computing works. Basically what this all equates to is we do not want to commit the person power or time to fix yet another thing that does not work that we consider trivial. But the devs went forward with their fun little idea without a back up plan in place should something go wrong. Yes it is a ‘for fun’ bug, er umm feature; but it should work as intended or have been dropped. This late into the game with still, I’m sure; a rather large community that have been around since launch that I’m sure can not be happy about how this bug, er umm feature went down. I let very few things bother me in game, all games have glitches and launch problems, I usually find something else to do while they get worked on or fixed. But to flat out say that there is ‘no mechanics’ to fix a problem is almost as funny as saying that any program or system can be ‘fool proof’.</blockquote>I'm sorry that it's not working for you. But I think your expectations are set way too high. I expect that when the GM said that "they" don't have the "mechanics", he was talking specifically about the GMs. They're the ones whose job it is to deal with customer troubles, as best they can. But they only have limited tools to work with. Yes, the data for your HQs is all there, in the database. But you can't expect them to manually go in and hack rows in the DB. No sane company on this scale would allow that. If the devs didn't give them a tool for the job that needs to get done, then it can't be done.Sure, somewhere there's a programmer with enough knowlege to fix the broken update script or manipulate your character record. But it's not worth their time to make individual fixes for everything the GMs can't solve. Instead, it's their job to create fixes for the general problems that come up - to *make* a tool for the GMs to fix this issue, if it keeps happening.It's like you bought a car and the ashtray squeeks when you pull it out. Sure, the ashtray is a feature of the car and you are right in wanting it to work without squeeking. But that's not the case. But if the dealership mechanics can't fix it, do you really expect them to fly an automotive engineer out to your city, to mill new parts for the ashtray assembly for your specific car? No - his time is spent making sure that next year's model doesn't squeek. If it were a safety issue, sure, he'd be working some hack to fix it for the cars already sold with the problem. But it's not - it's a squeeky ashtray.

Mythal_EQ2

10-06-2009, 12:07 PM

Out of curiosity, is it not recording any HQs for you, or is it recording less than the 18 (or, I suppose 20 now) that you have completed?Your best bet would be to send a PM to Rothgar, since he is the programmer in charge of Achievements, giving him your character name (server.name) and a list of the heritage quests listed in your journal for which you have not received credit. As others said, the GMs do not have the tools to fix a database issue, so you'll either have to /bug it or contact Rothgar directly -- or both.By the way, keep in mind that several Heritage quests do have sub-quests which show under the Heritage Quest tab in your journal, but do not actually count as HQs -- not for the various titles nor for the new achievements.As far as I know, though, quests -- whether you were at the AA cap when you completed them or not -- are recorded correctly for your character's achievements, so I'm sure what you're facing is a fluke that can be fixed.D.PS: Do not mix "AAs" (as in Alternate Advancement -- previously known as Achievement Points) with the "new" Achievements...

Armawk

10-06-2009, 06:41 PM

Certainly this sounds like a bug in your case and NOT a systematic thing. Your heritage quest count should be correct, as should all things that are not repeatable like quest counts etc. It is only things you can do again that may not be credited if you were capped on AA (or it was before there were AAs) when you did them that will be missingYour description of your petition 'So I sent off a petition (only the second in 4 ½ years so I’m not a complainer) to basically express my disappointment in the dev team for not being able to credit folks with what they had earned and for very flippant way it is stated that customer service won’t help you. 'Doesnt sound like a request for assistance. Im sure if you do request assistance you will get it. Sounds like you made a bunch of assumptions and got angry about nothing.

Lasai

10-06-2009, 08:46 PM

<cite>Sigrdrifa@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you completed a quest or POI before AA was introduced, they weren't recording your specific locations, location records have been reset several times, and so on.If you completed a quest, killed a name, or hit a POI after you were at AA cap, it also wasn't recorded because you were not earning AA at that moment.Remember, getting the new AA stuff is not about anything other than bragging rights and fluff gear, so don't sweat it!</blockquote>I get a bit annoyed at the old vet posts like this... ok, while the achievement thing is not important to you, it is not your place to tell someone else that it isn't important to them.. the fact that he posted indicates it is of some importance.People give the same statement about broken quests, broken placeholders, etc. "Its not that big a deal, just skip it" or some variation. Well, it isn't up to you all to define that for another person. Now about his complaint re the mechanics. The info a GM needs to "fix" many achievement lapses are on the persons character.. and in this case, regarding non repeatable quests, should be used. The quest tracker will show the number of completed HQs and should be used to address this.. and other non repeatable quests like Signature quests.If they assert they cannot give credit for completed non repeatable Heritage quests then they should just remove the HQ achievement altogether.I just boggle at what people accept. This Achievement system was a big part of the last update.. and the reaction to it being broken and incomplete is... it's meaningless, don't sweat it. Says a lot for the update in general and what the long term community has come to define as acceptable.