Harving was a general mass stock of BSFs, as recent tailoring leveling using blue dye took a big chunk of those, as well as normal use for SRs. And continued work on ings for another 1k of creature food so I can finish leveling my mule (and I need to do some more wine hauling).
New server update... most of the changes didn't really affect me, more geared towards high level fighters as well as general invasion stuff (like tank rabbit summoning, something I won't be able to do for quite a long while), but three were on the list.
1) New ranging arena - Gave it a try. It's a good idea, I likey, will definitely get some use from me. But the target in it had problems that made way too many misses. That's supposed to be fixed on the next server update, so no more on this until then. Looking forward to trying it again after the next update though.
2) Change to the True Sight Potion ings - specifically removing the henbane and replacing it with brown rabbit fur. The rule of thumb for potioning is if it requires an animal part, it won't be used for leveling.
Granted, I've only made about 4k of them and gotten to potion 92, but I know they are commonly made for leveling. This put an end to that, which had to be the intention as the TS pot ings themselves had never been called into question before this sudden change.
SRs/BRs will be the leveling items now, which individually give much less experience. But those are what I'd been leveling on anyway so no biggie on my part.
There's already been talk of changing the fur, possibly to beaver.
Even worse idea was to constantly change the needed fur based on how many furs were in-game. Adding a fur to the ings alone will kill the making of these things (especially since there's limited use for them these days), but no other skill has to put up with wondering "what are the ings for an item this week", it makes no sense, common or otherwise, to constantly change the ings for an item.
Since I don't really make them much, it wouldn't matter to me. But I hope a tad of sense is used, and a single fur or other ing is found and stuck with rather than the suggested Wheel of Randomness.
3) New harvesting events - This is the one that got the attention.
Basically, some new "minor" events were added, in an aim at the gold farmers (they keep saying afk-harvers, but the afk-harvers were never brought up as a problem until after gold farming was brought up as an issue that was killing EL Shop sales).
These new minor events have about a 1/25 chance of happening per harvest, so they happen quite frequently. Not astro affected. (Old "normal" events are still around, and astro affected as usual.)
Lots of debating over these, some for, some against. I stayed neutral in the debating itself, though I participated in it. I still haven't made up my mind on them, so taking a pro or con stance on them wasn't really possible.
My only gripe was a bug with the harvesting eye candy, which should be fixed in the next server update so nothing to say on it now, heh.
At any rate, I did a sample graphic that shows what occured during harving a single load of BSFs, the green times showing how long between when harving was (re)started and an event occured:
(Like all graphics in this blog, click if it's reduced or you can't see the whole thing.)
I can't take a pro or con stance on them because for the most part I regularly checked my harving anyway even while doing other things, so the slowdown is minimal here.
It's a possible way to take a dump on the gold farmers. While a good thing, I don't think it's the best way to deal with them, so uncertain on that end as well.
Lots of chatter over this change at any rate, both positive and negative.
Very much expected to be a hot topic, having something like this sprung up out of nowhere on everyone. And of course some people will complain over it. Any thought that people wouldn't complain would be seriously misguided.
Best thing to do is let people get it out of their system, and in a few days they'd be used to it and move on. Hell, even stuff I've had a gripe about in the past I don't give a second thought to these days. (The boat from PV to KJ removal, killing a few harvables here and there, there's been quite a few, and none are even thought about now.) It's just a matter of giving it a little time for people to adjust, assuming it's not something of a game-killing nature, which this certainly isn't... and I say that with slight arthritis where the no-clicking time during harving is a welcome break from the clicking needed for every other skill.
Unfortunately, the time wasn't given to let this blow over. The drastic overkill response came way too soon, with "you're gonna click once for every harvest", throwing green day (no harv) at everyone, and then the real reason for it all became a discussion in channel 6... tired of working on the game and wants to move on, possibly sell it.
That's kinda obvious based on the reactions given to even the slightest thing. People are going to complain, it's human nature. Expecting people to act like androids is hardly realistic. Expecting praise for doing something that makes things more difficult is even less realistic, even though several did just that.
More importantly: People complain about something when they actually care about it. The complaints in themselves, while annoying at times, are a testimony to just how much people care about EL.
Yesterday was the first time I seriously questioned if EL even had a future. This kind of overkill reaction, not any actual change, is what will drive people away. A community-based game where one person can sweepingly screw everyone just because of a bad mood can't possibly last. And that would be a shame, considering how much work has been put into it as well as the community that's been built on it.
Selling the game just might be the only way EL will survive.
Despite any complaints I've had in my just-under-a-year playing, I love this game. And I appreciate everything Radu has done to make it what it is. But it's obvious he's tired of it, and it's not good to continue doing something so many people rely on when in that state. Besides that it takes its toll on everyone in the game, more importantly it's not healthy.
I've been in a similar situation. I ran an online community (full web designer, coder, and keeping things under control user-wise) for over 7 years. Quite an active one at that. Around the 6th year though, I was well tired of it. At one point, I shut down the site for several days in frustration, something I regretted ever since. That's when I learned that while I'd created it, I'd also created the community, and that community deserved better from me, as a human being. I put the site back up, got more people involved in maintaining the rules, postings and whatnot, so I focused almost solely on coding and functionality which kept me away from the majority of the frustrating issues. After the 7th year was up I turned the site over to someone else, so it could continue without me. And it still does to this day.
My thoughts that selling the game is the best option has nothing to do with Radu himself, but from understanding where he's at now. If he's truly at that point where he's wanting to stop working on EL, and sell it off or whatever, then he should, for his own sake. Before a mistake like mine was made. The mistake I made was easily rectified because there were no other communities at the time that focused on what mine did. A mistake like mine being done to EL would be the end of the game completely, as there are other options out there. At that point, selling wouldn't be an option anymore either.
This is not a rant, nor a complaint. Just an observation. Just that I understand where he's at, I've seen the same attitude in myself when I was at that point, and if he feels selling the game is his only option now, I support it. If he can find a way to make himself interested in continuing working on it, then all the better of course. Health and happiness first though. I wish him luck in whatever his decision is, and thanks for the game.
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