Fix or flub

[Karma]

Anytime in the past I have killed Netopir he has always dropped 100 notes I killed him twice this evening and he dropped 10 notes. Is this a fix and supposed to be this way?

[+Colibri]

Yes, we found out that it drops 100, while it was intended to drop 5-20. I've reduced it to 10 initially, but after a talk with Rayne i found that 20 is the more appropriate number. Was considered a bug, it should have always dropped 20.

[Harabakc]

Wow...

So when are the note prices going to get reduced? Because they've never been lowered and were set for back when ALL of the peerless dropped 100 each.

Edit: I wasn't going to post this at first, but I'm going to anyway. Have no staff members done this quest in the last year?

[Bubba Ho Tep]

And no offense meant, but the price/benefit relation on the items bought with elven notes is ridiculous. The quivers wont provide damage increase (a 4mil 5% defense chance increase item); the pendant of the magi isnt good enough to be worth 3 mil a piece (1500 elven notes at 2000 gp each - and thats not exactly the average price); and so forth...I mean, lets face it, the cost is just ridiculous.

[+Rayne]

The Elven Notes are used to buy mostly things that one could solicit a player to make for them. It is a convenience option. If you do not feel like mining granite, you may buy it with Elven Notes in Heartwood. If you do not feel like mining for special gems, you may buy them in Heartwood. If you do not feel like gathering the materials to make an Elven Bed, you may buy one. There are also rare and special items in the area to buy. The price is set for the rarity. As for the Ultimate Quiver (Defense Chance Increase 5%, Damage Increase 10%, your name engraved when it is equipped), it is a special item that can only be purchased in Heartwood (or occasionally from an auction). People tend to enjoy it for its appearance, much the same way that players will pay large amounts for rare decorations. This aspect will not change when it comes to special items. It's again something one can strive to buy if they do not have any other means of obtaining the item.

The prices were in fact changed once the Elven Note drop was reduced (within 1 month of the introduction of Elven Notes and the opening of Heartwood.) For example, 50 Platinum Ingots used to be 300 Elven Notes. Now they are simply 50. Carpets used to cost 500 Elven Notes. Now they cost 150. We decided to make each note worth more to avoid carrying large quantities. And this brings me to another point; the value ratio. I do not believe that the value (unless they are in high demand) is 2k Gold Pieces per 1 Elven Note. I do believe it is around 665 Gold Pieces per 1 Elven Note, give or take for the convenience or rarity option. I have updated a few more of the vendor prices this evening, so you will see some changes. But the special or rare items will still be a splurge.

+Rayne

[fingers]

One of my guildmates, a long time player here, has created a character on an other shard and I think we will have a hard time at getting him back here. He is digusted by all the changes made lately (leveling weapons, bedlam access; and the notes). He has been contributing to the shard as much on a personal level (helping new players and being nice to all) as by donating.

Today, I talked to an other player, very active and contributing as well. He is also fed up and considerates moving on. I have myself been very frustrated by the different changes (nerfs) that occured as all of them are part of what i would hunt alot. But I decided to get over it, as for me, the most important thing is to play with cool people that I appreciate.

But now, even that (possibility to play with friends) is in jeopardy.

Please do something about it, thanks!

[fingers]

As for the price of notes, I saw them several times on tc vendors and makoto vendors for 4000 each. And it's not going to get better with the recent changes...

[+Colibri]

Initially there were no elven notes planned, but they were put in as an added value. As +Rayne said, and I couldn't agree more, it's misc things that you could get othervise, except for those high end items, which can't really come cheap

But anyhow, maintaining balance on a shard is very difficult, and as you can see our shard has a pretty large amount of functionality. We can't make it equally good. Some things are bound to have a better price/reward ratio than others, and well some items are going to be a bit more lame. Then it's up to each individual to decide on what they will spend their gold/notes/tokens/ED. (we have four currencies, oh my!)

[fingers]

Quiver=2000 elven notes= 100 netopir
1 netopir = 20 minutes to kill + 1 hour to respawn + 5 minutes to run to it

141 hours = one quiver wich damage increase DOESN'T work, as tested by an other player.

That is not balance IMO.

[Harabakc]

I spent 3 weeks killing Netopir. I killed Netopir 5-10 times per day. Notes are not 100% drop. I ended up with 5000 or so elven notes, how is that unfair or unreasonable?

[Bubba Ho Tep]

Going off topic now, but could you guys fix the quivers them? I mean, it takes 1mil to bless them, since it can't be insured. Plus the 2000 elven notes (times 665 gp, thats still 1.33 mil), it's still a over 2 mil item (if you aint crazy to run around without insurance or bless) from whic 2/3 of the benefits won't work. Not a big deal, since very few have it, but still - is it that a hard fix?

[Harabakc]

Cool, around 14 effusion kills, roughly 60 elven notes.

[+Rayne]

As was already stated, the price of Elven Notes is up to the players, however the comparative price is what I have listed. It is up to the players to choose the price. If you do not like the price, the best answer is not to buy until the price becomes what you would consider reasonable.
Also, we really need to get past the concept that reward should be instantaneous or absolute. If you believe that it will take 100 hours to accumulate the Elven Notes needed for an Ultimate Quiver, then so be it. It is meant to be a goal to reach over time, not within a single day or a single week. You will feel quite accomplished when you achieve these goals as well.

To Harabakc's question, 5000 Elven Notes over a period of 3 weeks is very very high. It is not meant to be gotten in that amount in a short period of time. It is considered an unreasonable number which is why it has been fixed.

As for people who wish to try out other shards, we cannot please everyone, and those who are meant to be here will understand the rules and the functionality, or at least respect them and trust the staff members. Furthermore, we do not wish to have anyone here who is unhappy as it is unfair to both the player and to the shard. Though we enjoy the number of people that we have on the shard, we will not change what we believe in order to increase those numbers. We have made alterations based on player feedback and suggestion but this simply will not happen every time. Though we appreciate constructive feedback, most of the feedback given recently is far from constructive. We do not mind hearing feedback about 1. Concerns that have not previously been answered by a staff member 2. Feedback presented constructively, but if it does not meet both of these criteria I know that I will personally not be responding and I believe fellow staff members will agree. So I ask you first to think before you start a thread or respond to a post about a concern. Make sure that your concerns are presented in a constructive manner. A great rule of thumb is that for every criticism that you constructively present, you should include 3 positive points.

+Rayne

[Harabakc]

So spending 5-6 hours per day, every day, for 3 weeks to get 5 items is unreasonable?

You're the one talking about price based on the rest of the economy based on comparisons. They will never sell for what you're trying to compare them to, not even remotely. They *MIGHT* begin to come close to that if every peerless dropped 100.

I don't know what you think this game is supposed to be, but this is getting stupid. You obviously aren't playing anymore, and I'm not sure that you remember what it is to play. This isn't some big dumb conspiracy post, this is the simple fact of the matter is you've lost touch.

Who knows, maybe you're actually getting paid for this, for all the time you're wasting everyone I hope you are. We never had it easy, at 100 notes per drop, it's not easy. Bedlam with mark and recall isn't easy. Leveling weapons with spells isn't easy(besides the 1 person macroing). I've got it easier then the vast majority of people and it's still not particularly easy. I don't know why you equate time invested to difficulty but it's a failed concept. I'm seriously amazed at you and your attitude of late, the fact that you've forgotten what it is to actually play this game is quite surprising. I thought you were better then that, who knows, maybe you'll surprise me.

I'm sure you'll post about how you're all shocked about how I act and what I say, although I'm not sure why it would be surprising. I've always been 5000% direct, I'm not going to nice it up, I'm going to tell it flat out how it is. I've been one of the biggest advocates of balance, but this isn't balance, this is absurdity. We've had discussions about how Coli was so far off the mark and doesn't understand why because he doesn't play. Now I'm sitting here having the exact same thoughts about you, and I really am sad.

Where did the person I spent so much time playing with go?

[fingers]

Well, everytime we got a nerf recently, my reaction was "has the person who initiated this change has ever attempted to do this quest on a regular character?". I think no, but i don't know. One thing is sure though, completing the quest was already asking enormous investment of time and effort, and only acheivable by players with very high skills/knowledge of the game.

I know the intentions are good behind each changes, and I completely trust the staff for that matter. All they want is a balance so players don't become rich exploiting this or that that is not in balance with other activities. But if 100% of the players actually doing the task (quest or whatever) say that this is wrong, I would expect more than a "If you are not happy, this is not good for the shard and you might want to go elswhere".

I second Harabacks post for the most part and truely hope that there will be a larger opening from staff to take account of players point of view.

*casts area spell of love, friendship and trust*