Like every gamer out there, every so often something really makes me frustrated, and what else is this blog for besides sharing my thoughts or at least getting them off of my chest. I apologize that this post won’t be my usual glorious ‘rah rah’ cheerleader version of whatever game I’m playing – but yesterday game update 61 went live and EQ2 and personally speaking it was by far the WORST update in EQ2 history, baring GU13 which was actually quite needed once the anger died down. That’s right, I said it.
To start things off the update was so bad that they have decided to re-unattune all gear (including banked gear this round) and pop off adornments (only on worn gear) and re-set aa specs once more (this time properly) today. That means the hours I spent fixing up my characters yesterday were for naught. In preparation at least I did manage to strip my main characters so that their adornments won’t pop off this time, causing me to search my bags in wonder exclaiming “where the heck did this one go!”
Those were not even some of the main issues. The itemization revamp that went live could have used a few more weeks (or months) of testing. To begin with, all Sentinel’s Fate gear is now better then DoV gear in terms of ‘extra’ stats. Players promptly ran off to one group Toxxulia because her gear was better then what they were wearing. That junky trash loot from Library (specifically a helm that constantly dropped from the first named) has better critical mitigation and ‘blue stats’ then my Ry’Gorr DoV gear. Trakanon loot was changed to legendary. The fabled charm from SF collections, legendary (from fabled), enervated and heritage quests were not revamped yet although they are probably actually used and worn as gear more then anything else that was revamped.
That’s not to say all was doom and gloom. The new crafted items added are quite nice, the new house ranking system works gloriously.
The new dungeons have already had their gear nerfed, and after I watched the discoveries going on last night it was no wonder. I have no idea what the general idea was during the creation of those items but they were better then x4 gear that people had been sporting. It’s gear I would expect to see during the next expansion, and not during the remainder of DoV.
There were other issues, too. Some leather crafted pants had a chain graphic and were worn on the hands. Roundshields (whether intentional or not) are no longer allowed by scouts, but are priest only which means the nice shield I had saved up for my ranger now sports wis and a +dps buff that she can no longer use. Forums were filled with bug reports and issues and I can’t help but feel sorry that this update ever went live. It required a LOT more testing.
Time to get back to my regular cheery posts. In the mean time, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
This was only the second GU that I witnessed since I came back to EQ2 (and played it in earnest, ever). I can only agree: this patch would’ve needed at least a couple more weeks of time, and this was so blindingly obvious that I can’t understand how anybody would’ve ever thought it would go over well. Probably nobody did, which makes you wonder why they consider this a good way to go about things. Bananaware (ripens after delivery) ahoy!
As someone who hasn’t played much EQ2, can you shed a bit of light on your GU13 reference? It’s surprisingly hard to find old patch notes, and all that I found were comments like “GU13 changed every single part of the game”, which sounds both exaggerated and inaccurate.
I’m sure things were tested and reported – but my issue is that they should have never been allowed to go live. If it wasn’t fixed, don’t push it to live. Even today there’s still so many bugs they’re offering yet another unattuning for players – optional, but still. This GU was not ready.
Doh! Second para should begin “Mrs Bhagpuss and I” . The way I wrote it, it sounds like I let her play all the characters while I just watch :P
As a longtime resident of EQ2’s Test server I’d like to point out that, as usual, most of these issues were known and reported.
Mrs Bhagpuss played my our main EQ2 characters on Test for five years until Freeport launched last year and we moved to EQ2X. All our level 90s are still on Test. In all the time we’ve been there, every major update has gone Live with many, many bugs which had not just been reported by Testers but discussed ad nauseam in the Test channel, frequently with QA people and even Devs present during the discussions. While it’s very true that the persistent low population of the Test server has always meant that not all bugs, particularly ones involving high-end content, are found, it’s also the case that many bugs which are found just get sent to Live anyway.
Personally, this is one of the reasons I like SoE MMOs more than almost all others. I see the chaos as content. One of the defining reasons why Mrs Bhagpuss and I didn’t last long in WoW was that hardly anything ever seemed to go wrong, which was just really dull. That said, GU61 is waaaaaay past anything anyone could call acceptable. It clearly needed weeks more work. It was also blindingly obvious to anyone that this was going to happen.
I’m just glad I only logged on yesterday to check out the patch with one of my low level characters. Only an hour’s attuning and AAs to redo. I hope my discoveries stand, though! I didn’t solo Ladon for nothing!
Ugh. EQ2 just seems to be so muddled now and confusing. I think the game is just too old and needs a total revamp. I cant take it seriously anymore. EQ3 anyone?
You know I agree with you. This GU needed a LOT more testing. There were even items that were marked as Pants, and they were CLOAKS?!?! Then to tell us that this is going to be repeated today. I was frustrated because I would have to spend 290 aa’s on my level 90 toon to then turn around and spend them again.
I just really wish they got a clue… Test test test. Oh well.. Hopefully things will settle down after the weekend.
This is one of the reason SoE will have an MMO on caliber to WoW (and i’m going to assume The Old Republic). They either make the choice to allow crap like this out, or they don’t do enough testing to prevent crap like this.