Extruded Black Pearl removed

I could be wrong, but werent those past anniversary cheesed bonuses designed by soe? So maybe dbg is in this case being more strict than the folks from sony.

Good. I hope everyone who exploited the mission gets the aug removed. I actually would like it if you just got banned. Now you have to run the mission again, actually complete it too. Also, there's only one berry paste per mission now, so have fun grinding it over and over again. Have a nice day!~

Arguing that the past doesn't matter and then arguing that the past matters (when it benefits you). The irony, lol. Next time don't exploit so blatantly, PROBLEM SOLVED, /thread.

Dude... it is abundantly obvious you abused the mechanics to get 6 augs you didn't deserve and are now upset. Your continued crusade just makes you look even more ridiculous. Re-do the mission (which is now easy mode) and get the augs as intended. In another post you said this was your "day to play" but since servers are down you are bummed... well, I recommend relaxing with a nice bottle of wine to go with your (now removed) cheez.

Ok 1st off if you are always getting TAs why even play EQ at all .. 2nd if DB did not want people to get TAs or stuff from the TAs then they should really do a little more work on removing certain mechanics from the game all together .. Oh and don't punish us for your lack of writing the software correctly in the 1st place .. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" ..

Selective enforcement of having to complete the mission to get a bonus item is odd. Don't really care either way tho.

1) There was a change on Test that only one Red Berry Paste was awarded per mission and that if you didn't have the ach the batling in Dreadspire would not give you the aug
2) That was made public
3) There was a warning about the exploit and a hotfix to prevent the exploit a month ago
4) The month of "ample warning" during which players had the option to complete the difficult version of the mission for essentially no apparent reward (up to 800pp, 10 Com Coins and XP) and would have also rewarded them and up to 5 other characters an aug even though they wouldn't know that at the time
5) The servers came up after today's patch, my traders went up with Extruded Black Pearls the highest of which is Level 16 and therefore did not complete the mission
6) Reading these and other versions of these boards and playing this game for 18 years I was aware that the Devs are rarely concerned about customers or consider recent events like the launch of the FV server which is about as recent as the attack on the World Trade Center and specifically reminded them to consider customers on that server which would also affect Brekt (I think, maybe it's prog and doesn't have a 19th anniversary mission)
7) 1 or 2 hours after the servers came up, not part of the patch, some sweep took place to delete augs from characters without the achievement and players were punished for possessing augs that were obtained without the use of an exploit, I'm sure many players preferred doing the mission with their main a 2nd+ time rather than running the mission with their alt

At this point I don't know if part of the aug deletion sweep was refunding around 100mil plat to characters that had purchased the augs just from legitimate clears where I was the only or one of the two people involved in the mission. I also don't know if that was a one time sweep or if the ach is forever tied to possession of the aug, because the same people too lazy to update the motd on FV and Brekt are too lazy to inform customers of the nature of the post patch update.

Other than FV and Brekt every character who had the aug deleted exploited the mission by Ngreth's standards, the Red Berry Paste is only awarded at completion of the mission since the hotfix. Be lazy and make more work for yourself, both the people who now have to do the mission for one aug post patch or the CSR staff who could have updated two server motds and instead will have to deal with many petitions from people who possessed a legitimately obtained mission reward and will be punished by a sweep that is intended to target exploiters.

You left out: be grateful for free content that offers upgrades which unfortunately people found a way to exploit because the devs aren't jebus incarnate in designing said content.

I am not a fan of them [devs] in general but with all the unwarranted player salt, people are turning OOT into the dead sea.

Those who got 6 pastes per mission were exploiting as well dude. You can't be selective in your judgement to exclude yourself, lol.

The proper thing to do is to remove all of the augs and require everyone to redo the mission for it.

If you cannot see the difference between 1) spending 5 minutes to cheez 6 augs, 2) completing the mission and obtaining 6 augs (on "hard" mode), and 3) obtaining one aug per run (on "easy" mode) then YOU are being selective in judgement.

Why should people that did the mission correctly have the augs removed?

Well, design a mission with an expected duration of 30-45 minutes without requiring players know about hidden rooms in an ancient zone, what various rooms might be called or needing to destroy objects like weapon racks, then more people probably would have just done the thing the "right" way to begin with. Part of the problem is when you create boring content, more and more people flock to short cuts.

how could you cheat in this mission? it took me four hours when mission first became available to figure it all out and get the aug from the bat. I better not lose my aug, but im pretty sure I didnt get the coins for mission completion

252k hp 32k AA tank class...

before this patch you could hand in the food on the table 1 at a time and the one that the npc keep was the murder. you could then just say the correct npc name and it go active to kill then get the item to turn in. DIdin't have to go get all teh clues.

Well, when we saw his post about the something was going to be done. Everyone was advised to ensure they had completed the entire mission even it they had gotten the aug. So, I ran and re ran the mission for as many friends as I could. Lucky for them that went with me. They did not loose their augs.

How many people did the entire Drunkard Stein quest? A 30 minute combat click-able escape to poK is far more valuable than an aug. Perhaps they can remove those from people as well!

oh ok, I didnt do that. had to go find the food in the room etc. hopefully im ok then, be a shame to lose that much time

How was I arguing with the past, only stateing the fact PAST anniversary missions and task gave rewards (bonus) items if you will, and you did not have to complete them. Or do them out of order to see if you will obtain the (bonus) item... if that is your definition of me arguing with the past.. ok

Yes the only day in the month sarcasm wore off on you and your box wine..

Also I am a firm beliver that in this game we all have different definitions of the same used word. I would never say I abused game mechanics, I would use that definition as a mob generator to afk kill. I would use the word exploit as in useing a race change scroll to gain mass amount of platinum to buy krono on a TLP then use said Krono on live for gear/free game play.

What I would feel is needed for wording here is more along the lines of testing broken content and informing the development team of broken aspects and not having movement on this.

Also what are twist top plastic bottles of wine good? Got it at 7-11 so I’m sure it’ll go great with my frozen bounty bead dippindots and golden meadow tide pod!

1) Deal with 2 or 3 orcs (one is a wanderer) just past the door, there may be a g-spot where you can turn in invite without aggro
2) Hail all the guests, some of them have 2 keywords adding to the challenge
3) Turn in food items on the table one at a time, or 4 at once for added challenge, the food that updates the quest was in front of the murderer
4) If the food is Fancy Ham or Fancy Drumstick you may want to drop and try again, seeing either with an Eye of Zomm or similar adds extra challenge, alternatively drop the mission unless the murder food is ham or drumstick
5) Look for the ground spawn with an Eye of Zomm or similar, ideally a SoS and fade Rogue, you can at least search Ballroom, Library and Labaratory with a Stalking Probe, guess any other location if you don't find the ground spawn
6) If quest updates on first guess (no 'the' for room) then say "the class_of_murderer", kill the murderer, hail Melion and off to Dreadspire for up to 6 augs
7) If quest does not update repeat Step 1