Thursday, January 31, 2013

Messing With Heads

It can be very easy to mess with people who deserve it.

The "Before"

Amber has become a "hot" commodity of late. Several people using it for leveling Engineering (high level), use for invances, and as well the every-10-days global request requiring 1200 of this not so easily gotten commodity.

All three are valid uses, of course. For a while, there were a few people, myself included, looking to buy and stock it for Engineering. In the end, one player ended up dominating that thanks to bought gc, and well, I regularly took myself off the market during periods before globals and such when there was a major lack of it for it and the invancers. I wasn't trying as hard as I could have to get it bought.

The "Moment"

For the last global, amber was one of the big reasons it wasn't getting done. Of course, the blame went to those evil power-leveling engineers who were using amber themselves for a perfectly valid different reason.

That didn't stop a small group from jumping on their high horses though. High horses are things I like to knock people off of... because it's funny.

Now, there were only 2 engineers at that particular moment who had been recently buying up amber. Myself of course, though as I said I'd been off the market a lot, and was even off of it prior to the global getting done, waiting until it was done to get back to buying.

Meanwhile, the gc buyer who had been buying up all the amber with serious overpricing was even bragging on the forums about the 7k of it he had in storage.

He "just happened" to stop buying the day before. But he wasn't offering up any of that stash for the global either. Not one of the people I messed with complained about him.

I actually had no amber at that time, as I'd used up my last stash several days before, and as I said was off the market until the global was done. I have No Personal Interest in the global, but I stayed off the market to help allow for others to get it done.

Now, I know the complainers had been reading the forum threads, and saw this person had enough for almost 7 globals just by himself, but never did anyone say a peep about him.

I found that fascinating.

The "Messing With of Heads"

When the global was over, I went back to purchasing on my bot, always offering a few gc more than the highest offer on any other bot. This is because my bot's a longer walk from storage than the others, and I have to offer a little extra for people to be willing to haul it to me. If I same-price, there's 3-4 other bots just steps from storage that I wouldn't be able to compete with. My bot is much better at buying things like bones and FEs in its location.

I got villainized for that. "Oh, he's buying amber, and it's not for the global!!!" as if that is the only reason anyone should be allowed to. I already stop buying before the global, now I'm apparently supposed to stop completely, never buy any again, because a handful of holier-than-thou dimwits think "only the global" is a valid use for it?

Yeah, bite me, kids. I'm not putting an end to my valid use of it just because you want it for your own purposes. And I do mean your own purposes, as again I have No Personal Interest in the global since I get very little if anything out of it.

Anyway, I didn't respond to their whining and crying. I just went back to what I do, buying amber on my bot, offering a few extra gc for the extra travel, as I always do.

Still, noone saying anything about the person with 7k hoarded, even after this situation led to these people re-reading the forum thread where he brags about it. Just me, and how evil I am for daring to buy amber.

But hey, wanna fuck with me, I'll screw you over. PK isn't the only means to mess with people.

The Phony Price War

Two of them started upping their buy price. Not by a few gc, but 50 and 100gc at a time. I met their offer, with the standard extra couple gc to again compensate for the distance from storage of my bot.

That led to them hiking the price another 50 to 100gc. And so on. When they hit 500gc each, I'd fuck with them in a different way... I took myself off the market.

They'd eventually catch this, and drop their prices back down to the 310gc or so level it originally was.

And I'd be right back on market at that, again a couple gc higher than them.

That went on ad nauseum for hours. I was just harv stocking and watching a movie and such at the time, so I had the time to mess with them.

Finally, I tried something different. I wanted to see just how stupid they were. I wasn't even caring about buying amber at this point, as I had an alternate plan (get into later), but it was too much of a laugh watching them get all whiny over a couple gc and how someone wasn't respecting their High Horse Mentalities.

So yeah, let's see how stupid they were.

Instead of adding a couple gc with the next price war wave, I took a different tactic.

I added 0.01 gc to their high price. 1/100th of a gc.

Nobody in their right mind would have walked all the way to my bot to sell for just 1/100 of a gc more than those bots a few steps from storage.

But wow, the High Horse Mentality continued on overdrive. You could watch in 6 (where I remained silent) how "OMG, I JUST HAD TO INCREASE THE PRICE AGAIN!!!!"

Their price: 310.00 gc
My price 310.01 gc

Yes, the High Horses had to raise the price over that. Not a few gc. But 50gc. 100gc at time.
Over 0.01gc.

Truly stupid. But I was laughing my ass off at just how whiny they were getting over it.

But I let that continue a while, as that day I had nothing else to really do.

The End of the High Horses

Apparently they finally gave up, High Horses knocked out from under them. I kept a modestly higher price up for a while, but eventually took that off as my actual goal (alternate plan) for this project was accomplished.

They went through all that bitching and whining and drama, for no reason. I egged it on just because, simply put, people on high horses deserve it.

The Alternate Plan

You see, the amber market was pretty dry at that point. One having a hoard of it (that noone once demanded he help with the global with, too busy whining that I was daring to buy it for my own valid use), and others having donated it or have it stocked for invance use.

I bought very little. A couple hundred. But I was never expecting to buy much.

After all, my alternate plan turned out to be much simpler than I'd expected.

That being, get ings for Action Point potions for all the amber I needed.

The ings?
1- Pears - I'm one of the top pear hunters. Not a problem.
2- Oranges - Easily enough bought.
3- Grapes - Much harder to buy, though I did buy a couple in the 2 days my bot was offering the highest price for them.

I did something others forget to do... I got off my back end and hunted them myself. In 2 days of occasional critter kicking, I found 4 grapes.

Now I'm back off the market for amber and grapes as I need neither for the time being.

As a hunter, I easily obtained the pears and grapes, the hardest parts of action point pots.

As a high-level mixer, I can easily mix the potions myself.

As a high-level harvester, I can easily harvest the amber myself.

That didn't stop me from trying to buy it before, simply because I could, and it was simpler for a while.

But the price raisers were just getting so dumb-dumb-stupid that I wouldn't actually keep my price that high.

You see, the cost of all the potion ings at current market value would leave an amber price of 375gc each. And these dimwits were going up to 500gc. I only put mine up that high when I was fucking with the High Horse Patrol.

Add to that I find the most expensive ingredient myself (pear), meaning a big savings there. And I got off my rear and kicked animal for periods over two days and found almost all the grapes I needed.

Again, massive savings. The amber I harvest myself because of this will probably cost me about 100gc each.

And yes, it's all gonna get used for Engineering.

I should insert a picture of that "Ha Ha!" kid on the Simpsons here, really. All that time they were High Horse messing with me, they actually weren't. I had other plans the whole time.

Other Things They Did Wrong

1- "One power leveler is trying to grab all the amber for himself instead of letting people give it to us for the global, even though he benefits from it too!" - stated on 6 by a High Horser

A: No, I benefit essentially not at all from the global.

And with this sudden new mentality of collecting it all day, every day, you were essentially saying noone and nothing else mattered other than this thing that I have no use for. I was supposedly supposed to just "stop" ever working on my Engineering leveling just because of that.

Yeah, fuck that. And the High Horse it was ridden in on.

High Horsers do not dictate how others can and cannot play.

2- A link to an incredibly old post I made in a thread discussing why oranges were becoming a global problem way-back-then, when I actually was willing to participate in the global, was posted in 6 as if it were of any relevance to the current amber situation.

A: No, it wasn't relevant. I was encouraging the removal of oranges from daily because new uses had been implemented and they were incredibly rare on the market at that time, with those that were costing over 20kgc each.

Instead of asking for the removal of amber from the global, as any half-intelligent person would do, you got on your High Horses instead and whined like little babies that people were daring to use amber instead for other perfectly valid reasons.

For the oranges, I thought of the game. For the amber, you wanted to play "high and mighty".

  Yeah, that's exactly why I fucked with you, kids.



A Small Bit of Irony to End On

While the High Horsers were busy thinking they were outpricing me on amber I never expected to buy, a pear hunt ended in the most ironic of places... I found it in the EVTR amber. The timing was just beautiful.

(And oh yeah, you can see a grape I found randomly kicking a skeleton in there along the way.)



Pear

Monday, January 28, 2013

Return to Eternity

Since the last update, I played a bit longer, but then got sidetracked for a couple months by a big real life project, which will continue to have me off on occasion over the coming months, just not completely gone.

And it's taken a while since return since I've had time to work on an update here.

There's been some upping of the levels though. Rather than going through every level like I normally do, just gonna cover the bigger stuff in summary as the other would take too long.

Pears

Since the last pear update, there's been 50 more found.

I've decided to stop showing all the screenshots for pear finds. There's too many of them. ;-)

The screenshots are all generally looking the same now. I may post a few more interesting finds in the future, but basically put they're not different than the many posted before.


Magic

I've kinda-sorta started working on this again... not in any power-leveling way like the mana drain methods, but I'm trying to use magic more when like mixing at storage, using TS magic instead of pots when hunting invisible rats, mana drains when kicking DCWs and FCWs, anywhere I can toss some magic in, I do.

Once I hit my Engineering goal, I plan to switch that god to Magic, then with my "above average" alch skills combined go for some massive magic leveling. I've even started stocking for that.

The days of mana draining bears, the method I used to use on magic days, are essentially over. I focused on bears since I could use their furs for summoning, but I'm working on switching to tiger stones now so no more use for those furs.

For now, one magic level... gotten while doing a tele-to-range.


You advanced to level 78 of magic!


Magic 78


Attack/Defense

Still continue to be almost exclusively leveled by dailies, though I have found myself more frequently doing a round or three on one of the double FCW spawns. Mixing skills will continue to be dominant for the foreseeable future.



You advanced to level 127 of attack!


Attack 127


You advanced to level 128 of defense!


Defense 128



Harvesting

There's been a motherload of hydro harved. A good 13k or so in the past several months. The skill itself, not being paid attention to, I level when I level, I don't look for high experience. But...



You advanced to level 113 of harvesting!


Harvesting 113


Manufacturing

My "other god" that I have a goal for, so I can get it switched to another. I still have quite a way to go on that goal, probably get to my Engineering goal first.

But books are being regularly read, helms are mixed both at Trik and in the school when I can afford it (most gc going to other things at the moment). And the skill is getting a decent amount of attention.




You advanced to level 86 of manufacturing! (book finished)


Manufacturing 86

You advanced to level 87-88 of manufacturing! (both in school)


Manufacturing 87


Overall

It's wonderful to finally hit one of these on the rare occasions I do. ;-) I've given up on focusing on getting to the next one though, just letting them happen naturally as I power-level in various skills.



Your overall level is now 159!


Overall 159


Ranging

I've taken advantage of several ranging days, which has gotten me another 5 levels since my last update.



You advanced to level 51-55 in ranging! (all done in arena)


Ranging 55


Tailoring

No god, so no focused plan. I intend to continue leveling this, though on a brief hiatus as I need the gc to work on other skills.

But a school day with a stock of fabric ings led to another 4 levels.



You advanced to level 61-64 in tailoring! (all done in school)


Tailoring 64





And the big one... Engineering

A labor of... labor. I've dropped Point Defense as the leveling item now, as those are starting to take forever to get to the next level and have become a waste of good Eng Day time. Those still working up, yes, they're awesome, keep using them until you're ready to move on to...

Failure predictors. We're heading into heavy ing territory here.

I got a couple levels before my 2-month hiatus, then:

With stone in hand, I spent close to the full 6 hours on a day I clicked into existence doing non-stop failure predictor mixing, which led to 5 levels.

You can see what was left in my bag as I got the last level in that in the image below. I continued mixing for another 2/3 or so of a level before ings finally ran out. (And for the hyperbag jumpers, no, I have nothing left in there, hehe.)




You advanced to level 86-90 in engineering! (all done in school)


Engineering 90

Yes, it took quite a long while to build that hyperbag before setting off the #day stone.

I started collecting ings for Treasure Finders at this point, but due to focus on other skills I wasn't heavily focused on it. Did get about 3 hours worth to mix though when another Eng Day came along, and poofed them in speed hax mode between sto and school, carrying only ings for 11 at a time as they're quite heavy.

And that led to another 5 levels. (Yes, the below image shows almost 4 hours of the day having passed, but first half hour was spent pear hunting, and another half hour I had to go off for a bit. It was only about 3 hours of actual running and mixing.)



You advanced to level 91-95 in engineering! (all done in school)


Engineering 95






The Continuation...

Engineering is slowly being stocked, for an eventual Eng Day where I'll poof to getting my next level 100 skill.

Meanwhile, alchemy is getting a boost as I've begun stocking for the eventual switch to magic god after that, plus personal mixing and some HE sales on my bot.

Manufacturing will get another jolt very soon. I just need to get off my ass transform into a mule to haul a motherload of leather now that I got some gc for it.

Hmmm, that's not surprisingly all three of my skills with gods. ;-)

I'm stocked for another ranging day should that come up, prepared to stop and use it.

Yeah, that's about it. Oh right, I may go look for some pears, too. Maybe. Possibly.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

My Lack of Interest in the Global Quest

Occasionally I post about stuff other than the usual leveling and hunting.  And well, here's one.

And before I begin, this is NOT saying that the global should be removed. There are people who do it, and find it worth doing, and I'm not the kind of person who says something should go just because I don't do it. This is solely to explain why I've personally lost interest in it.


There was a time I regularly participated in the global quest. From the very beginning... I was the one who first found the right NPC for it when it was introduced, I covered a lot of what was needed that first time, and was the first to find a worm.

Over time, it got less and less. These days it's regularly taking at least 2-4 days for it to get done.

Why is that?

I can't speak for all, but I can give my personal reasons in losing interest in it. So I'm only speaking for myself here.


"Get it done, now, or it's gone!"

If something is being done too slowly, or not as often as was expected, or even not at all, it means the players have found it to not be balanced value-wise.

This isn't the first thing with that threat of removal hanging over it, and a long time back when I finally realized it was becoming a regular thing for almost everything new that was added, I decided that once the threat of removal got put out there, my interest in it was over, it may as well be gone. I don't feel it's worth investing time, effort, and gc in doing something that's just going to be removed, or constantly be threatened with removal.


I don't play to be forced to focus on anything. I have what I want to do planned, and I'm not gonna stop it just because something else has to be rushed or "it'll be removed". I'd rather it be removed than that be a constant threat.


I don't comprehend the harm in it taking "longer than expected", or something being used less than expected, but...  the interest is gone the second that happens. And it is happening on a regular basis for the global.

My interest had already waned (due to below reasons) in the global, but I was still helping with it a bit. Once the threats of removal started though, my interest died completely. I do what I want to do, as it's a game, not what I'm feeling forced into.

("ZOMG, he's complaining about radu!?!" ... Nope. I'm having an opinion on something I think doesn't belong in a game. I have nothing personal against radu. That doesn't mean I won't occasionally disagree with him. No two people agree on everything, that's called being human. My normal tendency is to go along with his game changes, as I've rarely complained about a game aspect.)



The Problem of What It Requires

Amber. MoPs. RVMs. Oranges. Scales.

The global is something that is supposed to be for "everyone's" benefit (though as I explain below, I don't really see the benefit personally).

However, the requirements for it don't fit the reward. High-level harvs that require high nexus that many won't get because it doesn't fit their "fighter" build. High-level potions that again are limited to only a select group of people to mix. Oranges, only available to a select group who do instances. Scales, again a limited group of people.

Someone mentioned on 6 that they thought the requirements for global should be something everyone could be involved in, and I very much agree with that.

"Difficult" does not have to mean rare or high level. 200k yellow roses for example: noone stocks these due to their lack of use, they're not directly close to a storage like the votd red roses, it would take time and effort to harvest that many... BUT, and this is the important part, ANYONE could help.

I do believe one of the serious issues with not so many wanting to help with the global is simply that it isn't designed to be able to be done by anyone who has benefit... anyone. There's just too much that's required that's on a more rare or high-level skill. While these could occasionally be required, the primary requirements for a global that (supposedly) is good for everyone should be able to be assisted with by most anyone. And not just by wasting away gc, as I don't think that's the purpose.

Yellow Roses. Black Roses. Cactus (do get used for DEs, but the weight adds to the difficulty but can be harved by most anyone). Wheat. There's 4 items alone that, if huge amounts were required, would make it difficult to do, but still anyone could help with.

Hell, tree shrooms. Yes, there's a lot of people currently having those in heavy stock atm, but that would eventually deplete, getting them out of the game, and there'd be a need to harvest them. Those would be limited to higher-level harvesters but we have a lot of them in-game, more importantly no nexus requirement.

The use of rare or hard to get items does eventually cause issues with gameplay. Just as grapes had to be removed for the global most recently as they were becoming too difficult to come by. Amber is hitting that state now. (And no, fighters, engineers should NOT have to give up THEIR use of it just because you want it, or the global wants it. We have just as much right to buy and stock it, as well as harv it for our own use, as you do. Your desire to have it does not negate others' need for it for other reasons.)

Simply put, yes, global should have some difficulty, but as it's something that's supposedly good for everyone, it should be primarily doable by everyone.





The Value of the Rewards

As I said, there are people interested in it, and doing it, so there are those in the game who find the rewards worthwhile.

I haven't though, in quite a while.

The reasons I don't find them worth the effort:

1- "wait less to do daily quests" - I'm a creature of habit. I do my dailies when I get up in the morning. Due to the time diff in game and real life, on a rare occasion I skip a day just to get it back to "my" morning time game day.

Being able to do them every 3 game days doesn't change that I do them once a day.

At best, I can use this to not have to skip a single day. But that's only if that happens to occur when I need to skip the day, which is a 1 in 4 chance.

Actual Value (for me): nothing


2- "fewer harvesting mini events" - I've been collecting a lot of experience and gc with these, since I do the overwhelming majority of my harvesting on red astro with a harv medallion, which makes for some peaceful non-stop harvesting.

This reward is actually a Big Negative in that respect. I get less gc, and less experience because of it.

When the latest harvesting perk was added, which invalidated this reward, I didn't hesitate to take the perk. It gave me that experience and gc back.

Actual Value (for me): nothing now, a bad thing before I took the harv perk


3- "More Special Days, and Less Bad Days" - This just isn't happening the way it claims. While it's just randomization at work, the last 4 times I saw this reward, we ended up with more bad days than when this wasn't in effect, and less good ones.

It needs to be tweaked. Badly. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen it since I was off for a couple months recently, so I don't know if it's changed since before that break. I've seen nothing in server updates.)

On top of that, I don't focus on special days. You never see me screaming for special ones. Yes, I stock for when school days happen, or engineering days, or whatever. But I'm in no rush for them, I just prepare for when they happen. Those days have thus far tended to happen less, or not at all, when this reward is in effect.

So I not only don't look forward to this reward, I actually hope it doesn't happen.

Actual Value (for me): a Negative. Or no value. Yeah, the latter I guess. With a possibility of being negative.


4- "Consume less food when we make items" - Okay, of the four, this is the only good one (for me).

And it, not that big a deal. Maybe if it was done in a manner where it was based on clicking the food instead of mixing an item, I'd regularly do the daily in hopes of getting this.

Why? The overwhelming majority of food I consume is during running, not mixing. Comparing to the overall amount of food I consume, saving some while mixing just isn't that much.

Compared to what is required to get (1 in 4 chance of) this reward, the cost is enormous, and it wouldn't take donating much to completely invalidate what is saved on food.

Actual Value (for me): Slightly positive



Overall result of rewards: Other than the last one, nothing I want or have use for. And the 4th being a 1 in 4 chance of showing up, and limited to mixing, makes it something I wouldn't lose sleep over losing.


And a reminder, as what tends to happen is some moron will get upset that I dare have different opinions than them, these are my opinions and only explaining my personal loss of interest in the global. I have no interest in seeing it removed... unless the threats of it being removed are gonna continue, of course.



The Cost of Doing It

I'll first give Kudos for grapes being removed due to their need elsewhere. Things do need to be tweaked sometimes, especially when other things are changed requiring items more in other ways.

It's supposed to be difficult and something everyone can participate in. But unfortunately that's not quite how things are.

The biggest holdups tend to be, in order:

1- Amber 

* 30 action points gets you 2 pieces. Action Points are *incredibly* slow to regenerate. Potion of Action Points is way too expensive to be wasted on amber harvesting, their only regular use being for making books.

* Inorganic 6 is an extreme limiter in who can harvest it. Your average fighter for example tends to have at most Inorganic 2 to harvest iron/silver. This puts the burden on those who do heavy-harvest, and their limited action points.

* Harv 110 for amber as well limits who is going to actually try harvesting it to those that are Harv 90 or higher.

* Amber has regular usage for invances, and even more so, quite a few are using it for high-level engineer leveling, myself included. This has been keeping it off the market for quite some time. Even those of us using it for non-global reasons are having a difficult time getting any.

The end result: Asking for 1200 amber every 10 days is damn near impossible.

And no, as long as I need it for other reasons, there's no way in hell I'm going to give up any stash of it I get for a global that I get essentially nothing out of. I need it for other reasons... and by the way, one huge GO FUCK YOURSELF to a few who complained about that. I don't care. I need it for my own reasons, and they are no less valid than yours, they're part of the game. Nobody is stopping you from trying to stock up for your precious global in the same way that I stock it for my own precious engineering. I'm not the first to do it, I know several who have, and I know I'm not the last, or even the only doing it right now.

One of the fuckers who dared complain to me about that also was against my idea on the forums of the fast regen perk/cape slightly speeding up AP regeneration, because we didn't need faster AP. Hey, moron, here's your need. And if you can't harvest amber yourself because you don't want to "waste PP's" on Inorganic 6... again, I don't care about your opinion, since you're not contributing to the supply at all.


2- 50 ref veg mixes (or mix of powers)

This is where many *could* get involved, but don't. A huge part of the burdon of this ends up being put on the backs of those who have earned their high potion level and have the nexus to mix these.

There are of course some who'll help harvest for these and I don't want to take away credit for those. But it does tend to be left to potioners to waste their time harvesting the incredible amount of flowers needed for these potions.

Not to mention the feran horn collecting for the MoPs.

The difficulty is fine, it's the few number of people willing to help harv that makes this problematic.

Oddly enough, gypsum, fruits, and other such directly-asked-for items don't have this problem as much.




Let's remember as well... all of this has to be done *every 10 days* (on threat of removal, *has* to be done).

Sorry... no. I just don't see the value in it, personally. And as such, I lost interest.


A final reminder, for those individuals who can't grasp basic concepts well... this is not stating that the global should be gone, it is solely explaining why I personally lost interest in it. I'm aware of those who do find it worthwhile, and wouldn't request something be removed that others find useful.