Complete Patch Notes

[_____________Garnock]

I have a slight problem with patch notes. At best, they contain 60% of the changes that were actually made.

I know this has been brought up in the past, but I feel it should be revisited again.

13.2, the small patch, off the top of my head, I can list 2 things that were never mentioned in the notes.

QL of loot in chests.

B&E skill actually needed to open locked chests.


I'm sure there are tons of others I'm missing in even this small patch. In larger patches, the unmentioned changes outnumber the mentioned changes.

All the changes are NOT bad. QL of loot in chests? VERY good, I like it, but it was not mentioned. B&E skill needed to open chests, finally, a use for a before-now defunct skill. However, had it been mentioned, I "might" have siphoned some IP into it before the patch went live, or at least saved some IP to put in it if I needed to.


We NEED to know these changes beforehand to plan and prepare for it.

Please try and get all changes gathered into the notes, good & bad. It's very frustrating to me at least, to not have these mentioned at all.


I'm going to skip over the auto-attack on cast thing, as many threads have suggested it's a bug and not meant to be there, and if that is truly the case, I understand it not being in patch notes. I just hope they fix that one soon. It's killing me.


Garnock

[____________Slivicon]

Agreed.

I have a hypothesis, however: I believe "whats going to be patched" moves around the office, changing hands, being updated, etc. So, as time goes on, what the programmers end up actually changing usually differs from the original memo that ended up on the customer service desk.

[_____________Garnock]

As is the same for our change control here. My point being is that if this is the problem, implement a better system. A central database of changes to be made, already made, blah blah. Pull the patch notes directly from this place, as opposed to whatever system they may have.

Get on those devs to make sure they document what they do. If I made that many changes on a system in our environment without having documentation of it, boy would I be in a heap of trouble.


Garnock

[______________Dareus]

Agreed. I thought they said they weren't going to do that anymore. Theres also a lack of future/proposed changes on the website.

[______________Scorus]

Yes, I think this is just an internal communication problem. Someone, Cz I guess, said that after 12.8 or 12.9 that they were really trying to cut it out but it obviously is still around.

And I think that the B&E thing is a bug, from Cosmik's list. Could be that it was supposed to be harder but not THAT much harder, though.

Scorus

[_____________Garnock]

I'm level 81, doing 50% missions. I couldn't open a single chest after the patch. I put IP into B&E to right at 100, and use the B&E Expertise to bump up to 120. I have 0 problems opening any chest in my mission right now. Sometimes it takes up to 3 picks to get it, but very easy, and tons less frustrating than clicking on it a million times like I used to do.


Garnock

[_____________Garnock]

Originally posted by FunCom
Nerfing: We're now striving for a zero-surprise policy in regards to balance changes and game fixes. Through our In Production section, as well as in the Developer Journals, chats, and forums, we've opened up our processes to the players, and they've had major input into what's changed about the game.

CaptFallout just pointed out the page in his thread that this quote is taken from. I hope that they hold true to this in the next patch and the accompanying patch notes.

Here is his thread.

http://aoforums.funcom.com/showthread.php?threadid=2557

Garnock

[-Zagadka-]

Originally posted by Garnock
I'm level 81, doing 50% missions. I couldn't open a single chest after the patch. I put IP into B&E to right at 100, and use the B&E Expertise to bump up to 120. I have 0 problems opening any chest in my mission right now. Sometimes it takes up to 3 picks to get it, but very easy, and tons less frustrating than clicking on it a million times like I used to do.


Garnock

120 B&E at level 81? My current char is level 34 and has B&E at 100. I think that it is reasonable to have a character need to know something about breaking and enternig; picking locks isn't something anyone can do, and one of the main traditional role playing classes is a thief who specializes in cracking locks. I am glad to see the skills being used, and characters having to have weak points instead of being across-the-board-uber.

[_____________Garnock]

I had never raised the B&E skill before this patch. I am particularly IP conscious and don't raise things at all unless I know for certain that I need that skill. I put it at 100 base, with the 20 buff, and just checked to see if I could get in the chests in my mission. If I run across more than I cannot get into, I'll raise that skill a bit more. Especially now that loot is around the same QL. It's made worth selling.




Garnock

PS. I'm NT not thief, so I figure that skill level is pretty good for me. Personally, I figure I have so good control of nano-bots, that I'd be able to blast the lock without damaging the goods inside, but that's just me.

[______________Scorus]

They have been striving for that for a while. At least for a couple of months. Still a bit short, obviously, but hopefully they will get there.

Scorus