Pissed off.

EDIT: I don’t intend to break the silence anytime soon but this was too funny:

I mean after all, 1.81c wasn’t a bad patch, It was a good patch, one of the best ones so far. Infact 1.81 so far is turning out to be one of the best patches ever introduced to DAOC, All because Scott Jennings took over as the head guy smacking Mackey down after Catacombs.

Jennings has done a great job since he’s taken over, We’ve gotten Argramon, DR, TOA fixes, Class Fixes, and Classic servers for those who didn’t like those things.

EDIT2: Ahaha! After becoming the producer of DAoC we also discover that Lum is now Internet Relations Manager for Mythic:

Scott Jennings, Internet Relations Manager for Mythic Entertainment, a.k.a. Lum the Mad, added his wisdom to our discussion of instancing in online worlds. He has joined our forums and linked his reply in response to Brad McQuaid and Raph Koster’s comments about the subject.

Really busy these days, huh? I’m waiting for the book as well.

EDIT3: Mythic pushed on the test server another huge patch.

Lots of changes in Ralm Points mechanics and classes. I wish I could comment but I don’t really feel I can contribute in a meaningful way. While I can understand some of these changes, some look rather obscure or I cannot figure out the reasons behind or what is the intended purpose. On the boards I’ve seen a bunch of players complaining but again I don’t think I have the competence to contribute with comments that aren’t just vague and imprecise assumptions.

Which brings to my critique. Here above there’s a quote from a player that again somewhat rants against Mackey. The one that the players saw as the responsible behind most of the radical changes to the classes in the past. In particular I remember all the drama when Mythic nerfed the berserks. I remember that I had also a discussion about that episode with Therrik (former wiz Team Leader). He said that Mythic couldn’t have handled it in a better way. The nerf was necessary and there wasn’t any solution to keep the players calm. Instead I had another opinion and I thought that the reaction of the players was adequate and a direct consequence of Mythic’s attitude. And with a different attitude that “trauma” could have been handled much better.

This is another occasion to undeline that old point. Right now huge changes are being pushed in the game. I see some of these as positive, some not incisive enough and some potentially bad. But the most important point is that for many of these I only have a really vague idea of the reasons that brought to these changes. I cannot suppose the line of thoughts that the devs followed to arrive to those changes and I can only wonder what they can be.

This is the critique to the lack of communication. Changes are pushed on the game, some rather significant. But we know nothing about the reasons behind these. We are just served with the patch notes and have to wonder by ourselves what is going on behind the scenes.

Again I don’t find this accettable, nor positive for Mythic. The players have all the rights to get mad if they feel so because they have no way to understand better what is happening and noone is caring to discuss these important changes with them. A two-way discussion, of course.

So I have this huge patch and I wish I could comment and discuss it. But right now I’m just puzzled about it and I have so many questions that won’t have any answers. I could go on with my assumptions, but the problem is that the players are left just with that: vague and imprecise guesses.

Quoting and reversing a comment about Eve-Online: “They surely aren’t making any effort to justify their decisions.”

I’m really not surprised if some players get mad.

EDIT4: Eve-Online introduces real I-WIN buttons. Ahah:

Titans
Bigger than life? These are the daddies of any fleet, inspiring its children with technical bonuses that even scare me a bit. They have the same abilities as Motherships; having a clone bay, corporation hangar and ship maintenance.
But there’s more…

* Jump Portal
Instead of just activating their jump drive, Titans are able to open a bridge to distant solar systems allowing gang mates to jump through. Opening this wormhole comes at a cost based on every ship that goes through, on the mass of the ships that enter and distance of the jumps. So Frigates will be cheap to send through but Battleships will not be. It won’t cost as much as not as dreads jumping on their own but it will be a number you won’t forget once you’ve tried it out for the first time.

Still not done…

* Doomsday Devices
You may have heared rumors of some superweapons that only titans will be capable of using. Some of you have even fallen victim to such a device destroying your ship. These weapons are true and they should not be tested when there are large numbers of friends around, unless you are as cruel as I am. What these weapons do is BIG BAAAAAAAAAADAA BEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwn and hurt almost everyone that is in sight, so be careful with your mouse when flying with your friends. These weapons are expensive to use and can not be used frequently (massive reactivation delay, recharge time is 60 minutes).

So the possibility to open portals and launch raid attacks to other system and weapons of mass destruction that finally won’t discriminate between friends and enemies.

Sounds good :)

Who cares if it’s so totally unbalanced :)

P.S.
The staggering possibilities make me squirm. I wrote on Corpnews some of my desires/expectations. I really hope CCP will go down that path. Because it’s so awesomely cool.

EDIT5: Well said.

EDIT6: Related to EDIT3. From the Grab Bag:

Q: How does (insert 1.81 patch note here) affect (insert game element here)?

A: Y’all, this is not a smart aleck answer, so don’t take it the wrong way when I say, “Beats me, log in to Pendragon and find out.” This material is on the test server so we can see if our conjecture and planning is close to Reality Land. That’s what the test server is for. We’re testing as best we can internally, but nothing beats real live player experience.

So go test it yourself because I don’t know your conjecture and planning and I cannot figure out if they are close to Reality Land.