Just a heads up: Flight for the Renewal of Ro expansion is unlocked upon completing 15 Research Missions, NOT the signature questline.
The devs weren't too happy that flight was accessed through just a few hours of TS quests in VoV when it would take far longer to obtain it for adventurers. They padded things out so that if you follow the mission timers closely, you'll be done with 15 at right around the same time as you'd complete the adventure sig line.
Well, point of fact it's been that way since BoL, so if they were unhappy, they should have fixed it long before now. Frankly, I don't know who's ox is getting gored here. The lack of a TS developer for the last few years should have clued someone in. That said, who really cares in the scheme of things whether you finish TSing first or the ADV line. I'm really not seeing a significant disadvantage. Lot of people do TS first because they're still required to keep doing TS/Weekly quests to get recipes that ought to be dropping in adv zones like they used to--long after they've finished the ADV sig line. Honestly, have the devs broken a sweat about any of that in the last few years? I would think the devs have way too much other important stuff to be worrying about then how fast someone can fly. I mean seriously now, kids. If you want to work on the game, how about some class balancing across all lines--something the player base has been screaming about for years now. Or, making sure armor stats have things useful to the class. Here's a clue--mages don't need block on gear. The list goes on. What I'm saying is let's get things in perspective. in the scheme of things, I don't care whether I fly first doing adv or TS. Maybe if they'd have focused on getting the Player Advisory Council up and running since announcing it back in March, they'd have gotten some significant things to consider and prioritize. Focus on stuff that matters to everyone. Food for thought.
Denmum has done a wonderful job as the new dedicated TS developer for VoV. Take your complaints somewhere else. The purpose of this thread was to inform everyone that additional requirements have been added for the much shorter TS questline to obtain flight compared to the longer adventure signature questline in the Renewal of Ro expansion.
Just because Denmum is doing well doesn't mean she's perfect. Valid criticism is still a thing and I'd say gatekeeping flying for crafters behind something other than completing the signature line just means that the crafting signature line probably ought to be longer.
Well I have a complaint in general. I understood the moon flying dilemma, because of the nature of the zone, but why VoV and the new one? It would have the same atmosphere as the normal zones, wouldn't it? Just saying, it already takes adventure levels to get there, I just don't understand why I need to do anything to fly there. Again I understand the moon, but not all of it. I did not have to do anything to fly in AOM zones. Are they assuming that I forget how to fly each expansion or what? Just my opinion, it is not realistic. It was just be 85 to fly, now they are making it just a pain. It's like if you lose your driver's license every time you move. It ruins my long term goal completion list as well. My first goal completed was to get all mine to 85 so I could fly. Now they just keep adding to it. I have other goals you know. Keeping flight is not on the list. If this continues to long, I will just focus on RL. I really don't like thinking for years I can fly just to have it keep being taken away. It is really upsetting. Had I have known this, I would not have even bought it. This is one time sinks I just don't want to keep doing every year.
Yeah, it started as an in-story explanation, but then the second half of the moon was brought in and the story just solves that by having the Duality wave his hand and say that you can now fly. The devs were speaking up at this time that giving flying to players right from the bat was hindering level design-- they started feeling that the overworlds were becoming lazy and unimaginative in their layouts after expansions like AoM, ToT, KA, and PoP. You take a look at AoM and PoP, and it's mostly just vast nothingness between the islands. Since then, what had once been justified in the story, has now just become a game mechanic to make sure players don't just blitz through the storylines in 3 minutes. I'm not in disagreement that it breaks immersion to not be able to fly on Norrath's gravity, but I agree with the idea that players need to slow down.
First of all, I've always been highly complementary of Denmum. What I said in my paragraph clearly talked about the lack of a TS developer in our last three xpacs. Denmum didn't come on until midpoint of this year. So unless you have a fundamental problem counting on your fingers, my statement that the game hasn't had a TS dev for the last three xpacs is totally accurate, which has absolutely zero to do with Denmum. That's a reading comprehension problem. She has done some remarkable things since arriving. And frankly, how you can possibly infer from my comment that I assume the same people are performing all the different jobs is mindboggling ludicrous. Talk about making inherently flawed assumptions. Having spent many years working for a Fortune 50 (not a typo) corporation, I have a very good grasp of organizational structure and how departments are organized. All that said, I complement people when they do a good job and I am honest in assessing a work product when it isn't. How you could read my post and take that as a criticism of Denmum while hypothesizing my "assumption" about DBG's company structure from nothing stated is breathtaking. I might suggest you take a look in the mirror and practice what you seem to be preaching.
I'd concur with this observation. I'd also suggest that the purpose of beta testing is to provide valid feedback on a product that players will be using. Given the change to the TS a week before launch when the beta has been active for considerably longer obviates the point to a fair degree. As I pointed out in in an earlier post, this situation has been going on for several years--I could be wrong with my statement of 3 xpacs. Color me incredulous that someone at DBG couldn't figure this out a week before launch and mandate a change at the 11th hour. I have an idea I know why it's occurring, but it doesn't have anything to do with "trivializing the Adv sig line." And I'm not about to comment on it as I have a lot of experience with egos in a working environment. I don't want to create a situation here.
harvesting is so painful on foot that I was really starting to enjoy finally flying about to get to the nodes that I want to get to. I don't even know how low level adventurers will deal with it. I'm sure glad I only got standard edition, I'll vote with my wallet on this flying issue.
I really want them to add more questlines if they want us to take longer. That would probably mean hiring more devs, admittedly, which they may or may not be able to afford. Business needs are going to trump player wishes every time. Restricting flying then opening it later just seems the wrong way to do things. In this case, I will STILL do the tradeskill stuff first, and work on the adventure line on foot while I cycle through the research Missions. It's a pain in the posterior. I think it's poor design. But I still recognize that business needs will trump that.
I concur with everything you said. I'll still do the TS first for reasons that have absolutely zero to do with flying. I don't think, however, that business needs had anything to do with this decision. The Proof of the Pudding (oh gosh, did I actually say that, haha) will be what happens when they start work on a new xpac. Denmum will have been in place at the start, not come in mid term on that project. Time will see.
I don't understand when player expectations got changed but harvesting was meant to be something done by adventurers back in vanilla EQ2 in 2004. Harvesting was supposed to be the "bridge" between adventurers and crafters. Therefore a low level adventurers has no business going to high level area and harvesting materials there. Anyway things have changed now and players expect to harvest without facing any danger but the game as whole is poorer for it.
both sig lines do not take much time to complete. with vov i had done both and had most solo collections done in two weeks. they really need to add a ton more content to keep the game interesting. much of the past year i have spent my time doing old heroic content for shinies.
Denying players the right to fly, unless they complete new questlines, sucks. We already had to jump through hoops to get the ability to fly. Not flying isn't going to slow down any of the players who burn through content--it just punishes those of us who don't. It is really a poor business practice to make players feel like they are being punished for other people's actions.
"Punishment is focused on reducing or eliminating unwanted behaviors.,,Negative punishment involves taking away a desirable stimulus after a behavior has occurred." (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-punishment-2795413) Burning through content is the unwanted behavior. Unfortunately, in the case of putting flying behind a firewall, the only players being punished are the ones like me who have problems using their hands and we aren't the ones engaging in the unwanted behavior. DP is whipping the horse because the dog barked.
