Next Weeks Update...

[Maddoc-the-Wayfarer]

... Will contain a few things that I think you guys will like, so I thought I'd give a brief list of what to expect:

• Brewing - Some of the Gates Brewed teas have had their "Drink Duration" increased. The best teas will now be a "Lasting Drink".
  
  
• Fletching - All of the Gates Fletched arrows have had a couple changes:
  • All arrows are now magical.
  • All arrows have received a damage increase of 1.
  • All arrows have undergone range changes to follow the standard arrow creation formula.
  
  
  
• Smithing - All of the Gates Smithed weapons have had several changes:
  • Recommended Levels have been removed from many of the lower-end weapons.
  • Required Levels have been added to many of the higher-end weapons.
  • HP / Mana / End have been added to all of the Gates Smithed weapons.
  
  
  
• Quests - A quest has been added that will allow you guys to swap between the two Aid Grimel earrings.
  • NOTE: You will NOT be able to obtain both earrings, so don't try.

These were some changes I managed to look at in what little spare time I could conjure up, so it's not a lot...

I'll be evaluating more concerns from the Fan-Faire / Guild Summit discussions and posts as I find more spare time lying around.

-- Maddoc

[Lilosh]

Thanks for the information.


The brewing stuff sounds neat.
I can hear the screams already about the required levels, though, on some of the high end weapons.
And you read my mind about the Aid Grimel thing. I was wondering if we'd be able to get both. :-)


-Noish

[Wyloc Wormwood]

thanks for the update Maddoc

[kiztent]

HP/mana on gates weapons = win

[KyrosKrane]

Awesome updates, thankee much! =)

[Abazagaroth]

What's so wrong about being able to get both earrings? =P Considering the flags you need, the cost of skilling up, the cost of the combines (even if you camp the stuff you could have made several items worth a lot instead from the components), and the 18 aa you have to invest, that doesn't seem to out of balance to me =P

Hell, if you're on FV you can have both, why not everywhere else?

Seems like 99.9% of the people that would be doing the turn in as is will be bards. Can't see anyone else trading for the other earring (any caster using this would be hard pressed to already have conservation of xegony or better and be able to give up the FT3 easily, and if you can you're probably in time and have access to much better earrings).

[Itzena]

Nice to see some changes for GoD tradeskills.
Hopefully the wheat flour and refined sludge (and the mountain/highland versions) will get some uses soon as well.

[KyrosKrane]

I think I'll agree with Abaz here. Both earrings would be amazingly nice. (Yes, there's a touch of the greedy in me talking. No, I don't think it would be grossly unfair.)

[Lilosh]

I think I'll agree with Abaz here. Both earrings would be amazingly nice. (Yes, there's a touch of the greedy in me talking. No, I don't think it would be grossly unfair.)

I'd also like to add my support of this.

-Lilosh

[Taglos]

Seems like 99.9% of the people that would be doing the turn in as is will be bards. Can't see anyone else trading for the other earring

As a ranger, you better believe I'll be turning in the FT3 earring for the vengeance one At least until I max out worn attack without the Signet of Might.

Given the difficulty of the quest, being able to get both earrings would be nice. Though as an avid TSer before the quest, it makes me cringe to think of adding more incentive for people to do the quest.

[Kaycie]

/grin as soon as i can get a new mana pres item i'm going to swap mine for the veng/regen on the sig of might, (im a regen junky)

Kay

[Elton]

why not?

Can you elaborate on why not? I have spent roughly 380k pp and 18AA points while working on this quest. It doesn't sound unreasonable to go from a Marked Runed Signet to either of the final earrings to me. All my tradeskills are now 220 and higher except Tailoring. My tailoring is only 162. If I go the solstice robe route my grand total could reach 600k pp.

What time and/or money investment did the designers have in mind when this quest was added? Is 600k pp accurate? If I remove the elemental plane drops I have had to purchase my current total drops to roughly 275k pp. I could still reach 500k out of pocket if the random number generator hates me, which it usually does.

I had more money than time when I started this quest. I chose to spend my money buying some of the low end ingredients instead of farm them. I did some farming, but the drop rate on things like small pieces of velium, spiderling silk and any of the LoY ribbon dye components is terrible. It takes hours and hours and hours of killing greens to get the necessary items to make a decent run at getting skill ups after 180.

I know tradeskills were changed to make macroing money impossible, but the people that really feel the crunch are us honest folks that earned our plat. The folks that duped PP either have a pocket full of cash or tons of PP in the bank. I'm sure there are some that have both. In any case, they aren't the ones doing tradeskills now. When the recipes stopped making money they stopped macroing tradeskills. If vendors buy completed items back at cost it still weeds out the bots. Taking a loss for a failed combine is acceptable. Paying to try is not. For example, I just went from 230 to 240 Fletching making bows. It cost me 39,000 pp to do it. I was using a geerlock planing tool and had 280 INT. I did not record any information, but I guesstimate I made the item 90% of the time or more. Most of that 39,000 pp was lost when I sold the bows back to the vendor. Selling 225 (roughly) bows to players for the 375 pp (roughly) it cost to make them would have taken a very long time not to mention the amount of space it would take up in the meantime. If the vendor paid me what I paid to make the bows my cost would have been closer to 10k pp (from failed combines).

I understand I will still lose money in most cases when I buy dropped components in the bazaar instead of farming them myself. I'm fine with that. It's my choice to spend the plat on raising my skill. We should be able to break even on recipes that use all vendor sold components.

Sorry, I don't mean to derail the thread. I am just trying to justify why I think getting both earrings should be an option. If we are going to spend 600k or 250K and tons of time farming and getting AA points we should get the minor upgrade from having two of the final earring instead of one final earring and a Marked Runed Signet.

[Zophim]

Seems to me that to change it now would be grossly unfair to those who did this quest before. Sure, it'd be cool to have both, and I'll even concede that it's not even the slightest bit overpowering, but at the most basic level, it's unfair to all of those who came before and did it.

I was the first melee finished with the earring on my server, and I would be more than a bit upset if somebody could come along and crank out 2 now. Alot of the drops are rare even by today's standards. It would certainly be harder for others to complete their first, let alone their second.

I dunno, just seems not cool to me. I like the changes like they are.

Z

[Elton]

hmm?

You could always get the final earring for your class and a Marked Runed Signet. The change means you can now get your final earring of choice and a Marked Runed Signet. The only upgrade is going from a Marked Runed Signet to the final earring you don't have. The difference is getting a second hope stone. The tradeskill combines are still there.

[Maddoc-the-Wayfarer]

The Aid Grimel quest is quite lucrative, it doesn't need an additional boost by allowing you to have both earrings -- The exchange process will already add to the healthy longevity of this item, even if indirectly.

Allowing players to exchange the earring for one that suits their individual needs seemed like a reasonable request, without affecting the existing dynamic of the quest.

-- Maddoc