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Why is noone talking about whom this game is being changed for?
Once upon a time the dark halo of the disciples (evil minstrels) was so
overpowered, they were closed.
Once upon a time you had the rare black gem ring, the quickly dulling obsidian
longsword and the
time limited sword of darkness and could get some COMBAT AID out of your
blindfighting skill that you
paid tax for. Who had those and the black bandana draining their mana like
crazy, was grinding like hell.
Even better when you had infravision like ... one, sometimes two guilds. One of
those has been opened
and closed quite a few times over the years.
Darkroot has been changed to not give darkness as it did before.
Then changes to permanent light/darkness sources arrived by
- removing the feather from the dude with the trident
- changing mittikna
- adding several light&darkness levels AND damage by introducing gloves&boots
- changing war-gems
- changing holy armours.
These days 1 level of light or darkness has been powercrept by a pair of boots
or gloves an expert can
obtain with some luck - the fight requires nothing, except the luck to have the
owner pop up with them.
These days using your light or darkness imbue that you collected for months
gives you nothing compared
to those gloves and boots.
Why keep the gold gloves and boots, when you removed the feather, the war-gems
and changed the holy
armours?
Who is the beneficiary of those changes? Surely not the regular players who
have NO real means to
counter a blob of darkness both several levels deep (much better than the once
best black gem ring)
and which will last for days - unlike torches, lamps, herbs or other items.
You wanted to invite real new players once - are you introducing changes with
them in mind, or for
the benefit of the few, who already bot ... I mean play this game in easy-mode
for years, compared to
the rest?
And no - just "get the boots or gloves yourself" is not the answer. Real new
players won't ever see
them available and some guilds can't even use them at all and for some using
them would cripple their
performance into unplayability.
(*****)
Racial changes have been aintroduced, when
- goblins lost their 30 years old edge in fighting
- dwarves lost their 25 years old relationship between stats and their Clan
abilities
- kenders lost their dexterity, which they based their play-styles on
(especially a certain Society)
- elves stopped to be the magical creatures - now anyone can be as potent a
caster, even a goblin, if
they didn't fall to the bottom of playable races
- humans became the new jack of all trades, in times when there is no master
race anyway - neither for
fighters, nor for casters.
Who is the biggest (pun intended) beneficiary of those changes? Those who were
forced to play humans
before, now don't have a goblin or dwarf be stronger, or hobbit more agile than
them anymore. There
is only one guild where players who are really interested in this kind of
"balance" flock to.
(*****)
Once upon a time specials were important. Most important. Some opted for harder
hitting weapons with
lower hit potential so build on their quick specials and not use their
two-handed combat skill.
These days haste is the king with 2 handed no-dull weapons. We all still pay
tax for our specials
but those specials are all outperformed by weapon choice. Whoever based their
performance on their
specials simply got nerfed. Whoever did not - boosted.
Who was the main beneficiary of this change? Who was able to stack high haste
without getting tired?
Who was and still is the main user of the most legendary sword in the game
(happens to be best
for combat and spellcasting)?
(*****)
Once upon a time you wouldn't get the kind of skills and abilities and perks
and equipment choices
available for one guild. One guild that can solo the legendary nazgul, make use
of his sword for
both combat and their spells, stack high haste and have darkness thrown at them
right and left
without negatively impacting their performance.
Jacks of all trades, masters of ... the game? By now - yes.
All the rest of us is getting a more or less crippled game compared to the
chosen few. Chosen
by the admin for obscure reasons. Where is the AoP - the player agency guardian
- in all this? We
know AoB was quite influenced by vampires before and so was the keeper who is
not a good coder
and has a less than spectacular track record in managing people in this world.
This place used to be more balanced in the past. Now it's getting ridiculously
easy for one
guild only. Why? Are those more valuable people, like the whales in P2W games?
Are those better
players than the rest of us? Do they have more chars to populate this world?
Were vampires the
dominant faction in Middle Earth or did they rule Krynn as they rule this
donut, again?
It's bad player agency and it's bad balance and it's bad resource management.
There we go - I called the AoP, the AoB and the keeper incompetent at their
chosen jobs.
Galen