Paradigm Shifts & The Death of the Dinosaurs

[Pootle]

Normally, I read patch messages. I read the MOTD. And that is ALL. I don't read class messageboards, I don't check EQTraders news (sorry!), I don't subscribe to the general channels.

I personally think that if I ever have to look something up, then it was very very poorly implemented. I don't want to play my games by the textbook, I want to explore and improvise and make the occasional huge train.

I am impressed you made it to 250 in various tradeskins, on various characters, without getting information other than that avaliable in game.

There has been a lot of warnings and anouncements about this change in various places. I cant see how it could have been more publicised without having NPCs spam the game zones.

:You have entered Plane Of knowledge

NPC_Town_Crier Shouts: HEAR YE.. HEAR YE... the Mistics of Knowledge have looked into the future and seen that on the 8th of October, all cultural recipies will change. This announcement has been brought to you by Mindsphere's Chanter Buffs, at the MB, donations welcome! HEAR YE... HEAR YE....

[Ngreth Thergn]

And the warning was in two patch messages...

[darcmater]

Given the massive amount of content of this game to think thats its possible to find all the information ingame instantly and easily is not even realistic. There was several patch messages though that did give warning for this so even if you choose to ignore all the readily available information for this game with just this website and alla alone, then I have no simpathy for you. Thats like running out to vote on election day and voteing simply based upon the commercials and not doing any research on your own. To willingly be that ignorant is pointless and you end up missing so much of this game that you may never even know about.

[Akael]

And the warning was in two patch messages...

And apparently one was *the day before* the patch, and the other was at least a month+ earlier, before I'd started playing again. I DO read the patch messages, every little detail of the things. Apologies if I'm letting the side down by taking an EQ break and not logging in every single day to make sure nothing's going to change tomorrow.

As for not looking anything up in my climb up the tradeskill ladder - I did not say I don't look things up when I'm stuck. I have no problem with looking some individual piece of info up if I can't solve it on my own. But the notion that I should HAVE to read petty little out-of-game news posts to avoid being ninja-*^%#ed really, really upsets me.

And that's my piece; I'm retiring from this discussion now, as I have nothing constructive left that I can say through the slew of angry ranting that I really want to do.

[Tundrabear]

Maybe next time we need to try psychic messages?

Don't worry, EQ IX will download the upcoming patch notes straight into your brain.

[GrimwoodCT]

"...you could play EQ without reading but it would be akin to driving cross country without a map or sailing without a compass..." - maybe I'm crazy, but that sounds divine to me.

And when you get stranded, lost, take on water, break down you can always scream for help then look down your nose at the manner in which that help was furnished.

I am sure you did not refer to EQTC and all the hard work they did when you opined: "But the notion that I should HAVE to read petty little out-of-game news posts to avoid being ninja-*^%#ed really, really upsets me."

EQTC has empowered more tradeskillers than ctrl-click, shift-click and collapsible containers by several degrees of magnitude.

[Pootle]

Akael, I think you have pretty much all of us on your side when you have had your tradeskill supplies turned usless overnight. But 'angry ranting' especially directed here at EQTC will not get you much support.

I dont honestly see how Niami, Ngreth and the EQTC Team could have announced this change any more that they did. This is a constantly changing game, and like you said you didn't come back untill after the first announcement in the patch notes..... well I wouldnt read old patch notes if i had been away either, but nobody can expect to take a break from a game like this and not expect it to have changed.

I hope you can get over the loss of your old supplies and get back into the swing of tradeskills, and I hope the RNG treats you to a few extra skillups to make up for it.

Oh, and come to the boards more often. They are an excelent source for tradeskill information, and we love having new tradeskill'aholics to talk to!

[Itek]

There isn't much to say. You are NOT required to read out of game material to play.

Reading out of game material may (or may not) improve your enjoyment of the game.

Failing to read out of game material almost certainly WILL reduce your enjoyment of the game.

And, please, don't say you weren't warned.

[Anterouk]

I did feel similar to the op posting above when I first found out that the changes had gone in, I knew changes were a foot so to speak, but hadnt seen when. And Id bought 4 MDS previous night to use for Snowborn armour.

But managed to offload a total 6 MDS only losing 500pp in the bargain last weekend, after the changes have been made.

Main benefit is the ease in which you can now skill up in smithing and tailoring as alot of mobs in alot of zones drops the gear needed for combines, rather than some in just a few.

[Bara]

For those that can, probably the most efficient way to re-stock their tradeskill supplies is to set up a buyer in the bazaar. (yes I know it is not possible for everyone.) I certainly have plenty of new tradeskill items below my skill level that I can't bear to destroy and they are simply crowding my bank space.

[Eleena Transient]

I remember when the "May 8th" patch went in years ago that introduced blue diamond cultural. I had an AFK button:

"/afk www.eqtraders.com Look it up yourself"

[Eggborn]

Someone mentioned it, so...

So there I was.....minding my own business in The Overthere, when all of a sudden I see the message: "d00d sow plz".
Of course, my natural instinct was not to answer, since I thought the clueless newb (hereafter referred to politely as "the petitioner") must have been poorly informed at best.
Boy was I ever wrong.
I switch out of 1st person into an external camera, and what did my wandering eyes behold? Only myself and the petitioner.
So I says to myself...."Self? You need to edumacate this fella!"
(Keep in mind what the overall setting looked like: There I was, in skeleton form, carrying a scythe, FLOATING IN MIDAIR IN A MEDITATING POSITION, with a LARGE dark-brown skeleton named "Gibober" standing behind me. Ummm....No, skippy, I'm not a druid or a shaman.)
I say "Wish I could, bro, but I don't have SoW. I'm a Necromancer."
The Petitioner says, "$#*&@#$ **** , sow me already! it's for a cr"
Feeling as if my feathers had been ruffled a bit, I do a "/who all dumbass" (um..pardon..I meant "/who all petitioner")
This is where I discovered the "/who all" bug. Certainly it must have been a bug, right? There's NO WAY IN CREATION the dumbas...err...petitioner could have been a level 31 Dark Elf Wizard, right???? RIGHT????? /em begins to cry like a little girl.
Well, needless to say, I couldn't have been any more shocked than if my pet began dancing an Irish Jig. I quickly begin the arduous task of maintaining my composure, while deciding how best to deal with this tricky situation.
I say, "Necromancer's can't cast SoW".
Petitioner says, "Bull@#$%! you cast a spell while you were running and you sped up! i couldn't catch you until you sat down! if you're not going to sow me just say so you dont have to be a **** about it a$$hole"
Yes I know....he didn't use any punctuation in that last sentence.
I say, "I have JBoots."
He says, "what are they"
Before I have a chance to pick my chin up off the floor....
Petitioner asks, "can you buff my hps my hp sux"
I say, "I can't buff you, dude. I'm a necromancer. I only have one buff that you would probably want."
He says, "yeah the one you won't give me **** "
Ok. Time to have fun with the hopelessly clueless.
I say, "Why do you need a sow?"
He says, "i need to get to burned woods to hunt. sumbody said its perfect for my level"
Yep. That's what he said......"burned woods".
I say, "man are you ever in the wrong place."
He says, "?"
Apparently he found the "question mark" key conveniently located nearby other various and sundry communication facilitators.
I didn't answer him.
He repeats, "??"
Found it twice...good for him.
He repeats, "???"
Having an IQ greater than plantlife, I sensed a pattern forming.
I say, "You are NO WHERE near Burned Woods."
He says, "my friend told me it was in kunark"
I say, "Yeah, the operative word there is 'WAS'. There was a major patch a couple of months ago after a bunch of complaints were filed about 'static content'."
He says, "?"
I say, "!"
He says, "?"
I say, ","
He says, "***"
I say, "no, already have some."
He says, "????"
I don't respond.
He says, "so where the @#$% is burned woods"
He lost the question mark button again. Probably popped off when he was sniffing his feet.
I say, "Well, THIS week it's south of Freeport. It changes with every patch, since they began randomizing zone locations."
My guild is hysterical at this point. And I haven't even told them the ENTIRE story yet. Just snippets.
He says, "@#$% i just got off the boat"
I say, "You don't need the boat."
He says "why"
I say, "You're a wizard!"
He says, "how you know that"
I say, "I did a /wh...nevermind....the important thing is you have teleportation spells."
He says, "oh yeah the green ones"
I nod.
I say, "Yep. The 'green ones'. Pretty nice how you have them grouped by color."
He says, "thx"
I say, "How'd you think about doing it that way?"
He says, "they were all @#$%## up when i got this char"
I say, "Sit down and mem the spell 'Fay Gate'."
He says, "why"
Question mark key is on the ground in front of your chair, guy. Mixed in with your collection of boogers.
I say, "It's going to put you within spitting distance of Burned Woods."
He says, "how do you know"
I say, "All patch messages come with a zone connection map."
He says, "oh"
I say, "Ok. You have it memmed now?"
He had just stood up after what I assumed was meditating/looking at his spell book.
He says, "yeah"
I say, "Ok. Cast the spell and let me know when you get there."
Dumba...errr....Petitioner begins to cast a spell.
A LONG time goes by.....ok, maybe 5 minutes I still haven't heard from him.
Getting curious:
I tell petitioner, "Are you there yet?"
No reply. No reply at all. [Yes, I'm a Genesis fan... ]
Obviously he's there, or my tell wouldn't have gone through.
I tell petitioner, "Hit the 'r' key to reply to me."
He replies, "i'm here now where do i go."
Right idea....wrong punctuation mark. Oh well. "C" for effort.
I tell petitioner, "Ok, do you see a hotkey on the screen that says 'Sense Heading'?"
He replies, "no"
I reply, "Hit the arrow buttons one by one until you see one."
It was a guess, but an educated one.
He replies, "found it"
I reply, "Click on it."
He replies, "north"
I reply, "Ok, you need to head east along the path. Keep going until the path turns north. When it forks to the right, take the right fork."
He replies, "ok"
Who knows, maybe the guy who sold his account on Ebay worked his Felwithe faction up.
He replies, "sumbody told me i shouldnt be here cause i'm a dark elf"
I reply, "They were roleplaying."
He replies, "oh hehe @#$%@#$ morons ;P"
Priceless. Utterly priceless, I tell you.
I reply, "Where are you?"
He replies, "i see something now. looks like a castle"
I reply, "Run into the castle as fast as you can. The guards might give you some trouble, just keep running."
Yeah...****ed conscience started kicking in.
A fairly long period of time passes. Not sure how long, but longer than I was expecting.
I tell petitioner, "What happened?"
As if I didn't know....
He replies, "my spells are gone!"
I reply, "What happened?"
He replies, "i died why"
I reply, "Oh man! Did I tell you to run east or west?"
He replies, "east ***???"
I reply, "Yikes. My bad. You should have run west."
He replies, "?"
I reply, "So where are you now?"
He replies, "how can i tell"
I reply, "Look right after you see 'Loading please wait'. It should tell you 'You have entered [zone]'."
He replies "it doesnt say [zone] there."
After smacking my head against my monitor....
I reply, "What does it say in place of [zone]?".
Get this....
He replies, "Burning Woods"
I nearly fell out of my chair! I couldn't have PLANNED it that way!
He replies, "is that the same as burned woods"
I reply, "No, but you're close. Start running south so you can get your corpse back."
He replies, "i have to get my corpse back?????"
/ignore petitioner
Moral of the story: EBay...Just Say No!
Out of sheer curiosity, I took him off ignore later to find out what happened.
I tell petitioner, "How's it going?"
He replies, "***? where you been"
I reply, "been afk, sorry."
He replies, "got my corpse back. some dude rezzed me."
My conscience somewhat eased...
I reply, "Really? Cool! Where are you now?"
He replies, "iceclad ocean"
I scratch my head a few times.
I reply, "Why Velious?"
He replies, "the guy that rezzed me told me burned woods was in western wastes this
week"
I don't recall exactly how long it took me to stop laughing. I stopped breathing shortly before my dog dialed 911.
He replied, "@#$%&* wouldnt sow me either. what is that sh#$ gold?"
That's what finally killed me. I'm writing this from the afterlife.

[Elyssanda]

OH Eggborn, can I PLEASE have permission to repost this????????????

[KyrosKrane]

The story's been around since forever. Here it is, along with its sequel.

http://www.geocities.com/zinphandelc...urnedwoods.txt

It's posted here along with other humor. The WWAADD story is my favorite, I think.

http://ancarett.com/eqhumour.html

[Flungmuk]

I was thinking of that story just last night. While on my bard alt I was asked for buffs.
I was even holding my drum...Hand drum even as my bard is level 11.