Friday with Means - April 17th, 2009
A busy week while we get another update ready for the TestLive dimension with some fixes, and changes that I hope will put some smiles on collective faces.
Coming to TestLive:
Bosses inside "Elder Hall" should now be Boss-Calmable again.
This should also fix the issue with Vortexx, the Technomaster and Ground Chief Mikkelsen. I heard of the "calming" exploit just before the final build sent to live last week...and the fastest/lowest risk fix was implemented (adding resists)as to not hold back other important updates (ie: nasty credit expoits.). This was not the "right" fix...merely the fastest with the intention that we would get a better fix in the near future. My reaction to the calms being called "broken" was perhaps not politic...to be frank finding out that the calms were being abused this way to remove all challenge from the instance pissed me off...and I posted without running a polished marketing comb through my comments. If you would like to call it unprofessional...that would be accurate. Nevertheless it was how I felt at the moment. Returning to less frequent strictly proffessional marketing style posts isn't going to make anyone happy. We have worked this week to address the problem in a more appropriate if time consuming way (actions speaking louder than words).
I do not feel that the ability to calm ANY boss is a central part of the Crat toolset. The nanoline is not called "Boss Calms"...that is what someone else called it. I respect the idea of a "panic" button...but that is not how it is being used. The ability to drag parts of an encounter off in a corner to invalidate their presence was never the intention of this nano...I am pretty certain those who used it this way know that too. The fact that it could be done in another way by exploiting instance team mechanics was not any validation for this action...neither was posting it on the open forum going to win you any points. Should I feel like making a boss that can not be "paused" at any time... I will. I never wanted this nano in as I feel it makes a joke of pvm. Period. That being said no adjustments are going to be made at this time and currently every boss in the game should still be able to be victimized by this ridiculous nano. Some of you might not agree with my opinion of this nano...I can live with that.
ps. Don't plan on standing on the door inside the instance to exploit pathing either. Oops. Sorry about that.
NCU Wipe
The spawn of the Deranged Xan should no longer trigger an NCU wipe. NCU wipes inside any instance should also no longer remove "reward buffs" of any kind..like Hollow island or DB instance buffs.
The Ending
One thread (you know who you are) mentioned that it was a disappointment when the Deranged Xan died and nothing happened. I agree. Good feedback. No closure there. We had a chance this week to add an additional (albeit brief) ending and reward for those who complete the Elder Hall instance.
Dust Brigade Instances
You will no longer have to complete a quest line to access "Inside the Machine". Those who have already completed this quest and have received their "Dust Brigade Security Codes" will now find that this item will now transport them to the DB instance from anywhere on RK and transport them BACK to a city of their side once outside the instance. This is a long difficult quest and a significant reward is appropriate now that access to the instance is no longer the goal.
This should be the final update in the 18.0 series (assuming nothing goes to hell). Now we can hope to concentrate on getting 18.1 with instanced Pandemonium, instanced cities, a new space club and apartments out in the near future.
Have a great weekend!
Colin "Means" Cragg
Originally Posted by Means
