Changes on Firiona Vie

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Aghinem, Feb 14, 2014.

  1. Iila Augur

    The options of Prathun/devs either never reading the forums, petitions or feedback near anniversary time or lying about just hearing about this are both bad.

    The anti-mass killing makes sense, in a non-conspiracy way, it gets rid of a disruption problem that's been going on for a year and hits the next best sources of exp to normalize exp gains a bit. While this is more of a straight up "FU, FV, buy our exp pots and heroic characters".

    I am certainly getting a chuckle thinking about how many thousands of these potions are gonna be stranded on traders and storage mules, though.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  2. Chikkin Augur


    My comment was personally in response to Moog.

    I didn't attempt to define what is and isn't allowed when I bolded "special ruleset server". I merely asked Piestro for clarification earlier because it didn't make sense.Piestro tried to explain it to me, but regardless I left that alone. Personally it does sound like there wasn't necessarily an issue or glaring problem that the majority of FV would want fix. It sounds as if it is a push more towards the SC store.


    For Moog, he said we act like we're playing a different game. It's very true, we do play the game very differently. My comment is out of context in reference to yours.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  3. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    It does apply to what you and others have said about FV being a special rules server. All I did was bring up the fact that the server was created as a roleplaying (not a all items tradeable) server and that originally you could only make 1 character per account and each account had to be paid for which would make chaining the quest for thousands of xp pots harder.
  4. Aghinem Augur

    Greetings Everyone,

    When I initially started this thread, I didn't expect it to explode into a massive extravaganza of replies, debates, arguments, forum policy violations for some of us, yelling, finger pointing etc. BUT... I am glad I did it. The one thing that I noticed through reading, and re-reading all these posts, is the vast majority of the FV players (myself included) did not even know this change was imminent. What a catastrophe to suddenly wake up and find that your stack of potions that you either farmed or purchased is no longer tradable (btw, tradable is a proper word, need to fix the forum dictionary). As I said in my first post, I discovered this all through chance... as it would have been easy for me to miss the general chat conversation of someone saying the potions can no longer be traded. I thought the guy was full of it because I had just bought some until Smakm confirmed the change was on Test Server. My reaction was...."I didn't see anything about this on the forums." So, yeah - I started this thread to see if it was really true or if it was a general chat hoax/joke.

    Now, I am not going to get into conspiracy theories about why this is happening. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the true reasoning behind this, but in the end it won't matter whether the theories are right, wrong, or indifferent. I truly feel the negative reaction of the general players with the answer that has been provided thus far as to why this is happening is because no player likes to be made felt that their intelligence or deductive logic is being insulted.

    Now, the whole thing about the developer's not knowing this has been going on since the inception of the 6th Anniversary could be a legitimate issue. Perhaps the /bug report command is not working. Heaven knows I have sent a stack of reports regarding legitimate issues that have gone virtually unanswered since VoA. And if you file a petition, the CS will refer you to the knowledge base of using the /bug command to report any issues. Well, if you have a broken command that is not properly reporting or logging incidents, how would a developer know? I actually have experienced a situation like this when I ran a MUD for 10 years. People were using the /reportbug command, and yet - the log files were going someplace unintended and it took me a long time to find out why I wasn't receiving reports, and yet people were telling me, "hey, did you get my bug report?" So, it can happen! That is giving the developer's the benefit of the doubt regarding why after all this time, they now just discovered this.

    Now, I was one of the people that complained about the camping issues of the 6th Anniversary Quest. After I completed it, I vowed I would never do it again with any of my alts. Its too much of a hassle. In equal frustration, I was amazed of how much time someone was willing to camp a single spot to get hundreds of relevant materials. Holy, I would have been bored out of my mind. So that being said, I really enjoyed the convenience of being able to buy a potion from the Bazaar using platinum that I earned.

    If this change is going to happen, well its going to happen. But I implore the developers to give people real time. I just had a guy return after being a month on the road last night, and I had to tell him the news. He had to sift through his 4 gold accounts to find his potions. By the time I logged out, he had located 24 and was not even half way done. That is a lot of work for a man who works 7 days a week and rarely gets a chance to take a break, only to find out that the few hours he has to actually play - goes toward having to move with haste to make sure his potions don't get stuck. Now he is back on the road.

    As suggested in many aforementioned threads, it would be a more viable method to simply phase out potions rather than flip the switch on everyone.

    On a final note, I really have enjoyed reading all the responses and I appreciate the responses from all ends. Just remember one thing though, everyone who pays money towards a service has a right to vocalize their opinion whether it be positive or negative. I have seen some people rushing to the defense of SoE with the attempt to stifle opposing views, and that shouldn't happen.
    Mysl, Gyurika Godofwar and SirLord like this.
  5. Trajet D'Or Augur

    "Besides I don't think the no drop rule was intended to allow the repetition of quests that are not possible to be repeated elsewhere."

    Why should you have to think? The server has been up for 12 years, obviously the Devs have communicated their intentions by now and stated "The rewards for non-repeatable quests on FV should be No Trade, if you encounter a non-repeatable quest reward that is tradeable on FV but No Trade on other servers please submit a bug report."

    Which would result in a timeline something like:

    Oct 2001 - FV server launches
    Dec 2001 - Luclin expansion launches
    Dec 2001 - Christmas holidays
    Jan 2002 - Devs focused on Luclin related issues
    Feb 2002 - Still working on Luclin issues, that truly was a terrible expansion launch
    Mar 2002 - Devs clearly state: non-repeatable quest rewards that are No Drop on other servers should be No Drop on FV, please submit a bug report if you encounter a quest reward that does not match this policy

    Mar 2005 - Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship quests goes live for the 6th anniversary, the quest is /bugged as not meeting the clearly stated 3 year old policy on quest rewards, the Devs message the intention to make CEoS No Trade in the FV server message of the day and on the message boards.

    Apr 12, 2005 - The next scheduled patch (a quest reward on FV is not considered an emergency patch level issue):

    *** Headlines ***
    ------------------------------------
    - A new button has been added to character select: Return Home. If a character
    has not been played in the past 6 hours, this button is enabled and pressing it
    will log the character into the game in their starting city.
    - If a character is logged out for more than an hour, full health, mana, and endurance
    will be granted upon logging in. This is still a bit under development. You may not be
    quite at 100% but very close.
    - Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship are now No Drop on the Firiona Vie server.

    May 2005 - No Drop becomes No Trade

    Instead after 12 years there is still no known policy for non-repeatable quest rewards on FV. In terms of knowing about the CEoS being tradeable, shortly after SC XP potions went live there was a report showing virtually no XP potion purchases on the FV server and that someone in marketing or accounting, professions with vastly more interest in revenue streams than EQ Devs, identified the reason SC XP potion sales were so low on the FV server.

    Shortly after SC XP potions went live a deliberate decision was made to have the CEoS remain tradeable even though that was costing the company money. Whoever was empowered to make the decision chose to leave the quest as is, likely factoring in the size of the FV market and realizing that some XP potion sales would be recovered as players would spend $10 on SC whether CEoS were tradeable or not and a weapon ornament purchase is just as valuable to Sony as an XP potion purchase.

    When Heroic Characters were being planned someone in marketing or accounting again brought up the issue of a quest on FV costing the company money. This time someone different empowered to make the decision or the same person making a different decision resulted in the Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship becoming No Trade.

    Since money has spoken there is no realistic chance that the CEoS will be tradeable on FV on March 16th, 2014. The only realistic change that might occur due to feedback is SEoC becoming No Trade with the March 12th patch instead of the Feb 19th patch.

    If Prathun's return means we are actually going to have communication on issues on your list of things to do write down "decide on a policy for non-repeatable quest rewards for the FV server and publically communicate that decision". Prathun taught me communication in the Tutorial, to return the favor I'll explain to him how to communicate on this issue.
  6. Addikeys Elder

    It's silly implementation too. They could make the quest drops no trade and/or lore, which would help fix things for the future. Additionally, they could get rid of the quest or change the reward to a different no trade potion. They could make them no trade but heirloom to eliminate the market but allow for productive use of potions already obtained. People already spent time and/or pp obtaining the potions in game and now they are being retroactively punished.

    Or, they could just leave things alone like they did for the better part of a decade....
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  7. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    As has been said, there is no statute of limitations on bug fixes.

    SoE closed down other games, and they now appear to be plowing through the backlog of bugs on their flagship title, which I am glad for. EQ appears to finally be getting the attention it's needed for many years. Overall this is a good thing, but there might be some changes to longstanding exploitable issues (Beams, Swarming, FV/PvP specific issues...) that people have gotten used to. Hopefully they will catch up, and have the game in a healthy state for the next 5-10 years.
    SirLord likes this.
  8. Chikkin Augur

    Really good Post Trajet, if not a bit harsh.
  9. Chikkin Augur


    I agree with this. In this particular instance however, it seems that FV potions dont make sense. Cant you just buy unlimited exp potions via SC?
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  10. Dabrixmgp Augur

    account bound would be better.
  11. alicard Elder

    Those potions are only 50 percent exp, not 100 percent. Plus you don't have to spend real money on them. As a matter of fact, you didn't even need to be silver or gold to make them and use them.

    I still think they are giving people a break on them. If they were to make them No Drop AND Lore what would we do?
  12. Izcurly Augur

    That's your browser doing the word markup, not the forum. Can't blame SOE for everything. The fix has to happen at YOUR end.
    Iila, Aghinem and Chikkin like this.
  13. Chikkin Augur

    lol, forget that, it's SOE's fault!
  14. Biltene Kingslayer

    It boggles my mind.

    I can understand when people get upset over minor changes to gameplay that seem to have a great impact on their preferred, or at least most conditioned style of play. Sometimes a nerf comes in that doesn't seem like to an individual like it makes much sense, since you're not affecting others adversely, and you're having fun in your own little world, but honestly, there should be signs that logically make sense to a reasonable person that certain things are intended while others are not.

    As a wizard, when TSS came out, the first time I cast an instant nuke...with no negative effects, I was in heaven. But I realized, almost instantly, that it had to get nerfed. If it didn't, I could literally kite just about anything without even snare and it was just too powerful. Sure enough, the nerf came, but it made reasonable sense, from a gameplay perspective.

    Now with all the changes, everyone's up in arms about their "fun" getting taken away, and "why do you have to do this?"

    The first time I saw my SK buddy swarm, I thought: "Wow, that's....very impressive, I can't imagine that's truly intended". The first time I ran with my ranger buddy HS'ing down lizard men in Ferrott, and I got a stupid amount of AAs for a lesson burn, again, I thought, "This cannot be intended." I can understand people getting joy out of these obviously overpowered abilities, but if you've played this game for any length of time, you should have known the gravy train would end someday. If you think it's reasonable for someone to farm 1400 CEoS during an anniversary time period in order to earn as much as 120 million pp, and that this is even something that should be allowed in today's game, REGARDLESS of how long it's taken to make the change, then you haven't been playing the same game I have.
    Moklianne and Blink like this.
  15. Aghinem Augur

    I am interested to know if this will still be part of the patch coming in this week or if they will postpone this until the Anniversary to give people real time to prepare for this. As I have said before, not everyone reads these forums and are generally unaware of what is in front of them.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  16. Archery Lorekeeper


    I was attempting to make two points:

    1) Any person calling themselves a DEV should have some clue about the history of the game. To say "this is the first I heard of it", when referencing something that has been going on from the 6th anniversary shows plainly:

    A) Either they are new to the game -OR-
    B) They have paid no attention to the boards -AND-
    C) They haven't a clue about the FV server.

    I have no personal interest in the Scholarship elixirs as I no longer play on FV. I do have a personal interest in the game. I strongly disagree with allowing people who are ignorant of what is and has been going on to take it upon themselves to alter a long standing feature in the interaction of the server.

    2) "FAIR WARNING"?? Are they kidding? Giving people with multiple accounts and a huge supply of characters merely a few days warning is simply NOT "Fair Warning". This is heavy handed and thoughtless of the people playing all these years.

    If this is, all of a sudden, so egregious and needing to be changed then "Fair Warning" should be given. Most every player, if not all, on FV use the double experience POT. Be Fair and give them the opportunity to sort it out.

    Keep in mind that SOE is making themselves the sole Dispensary of potions to increase the rate of experience. Seems it's only noxious if anyone else does it.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  17. Prathun Developer

    This is reasonable. Older versions of the potion will remain tradable on Firiona Vie for now. New versions for doing the quest this year and forward will be no-drop on Firiona Vie. The name of the tradable potion has been changed slightly - I believe Chandrok added the prefix "Dusty". If we decide to make the Dusty elixirs no-drop in the future, we will give the community advance notice.

    Thanks for your feedback.
    Chikkin likes this.
  18. Trevor Elder

    A developer didn't know something that was extremely well-known for years? People even used them like sojs in D2 when the "F2P" platinum limit was still in place. I just can't see how you're not either bad at your job or lying.
  19. Prathun Developer

    Noted, thanks.
    Chikkin likes this.
  20. Moklianne Augur

    Or he and the rest of the team don't play toons on FV. I had no idea about this, but I play on another server.

    Why does everyone think that the devs are all knowing, omniscient beings? Out of all of the bugs and feedbacks submitted over the years, why would this stand out among anything else? Not to mention, I'm sure the server kept it hush, hush as long as they could as any exploit would be.
    Obiziana and Elricvonclief like this.