PL Today – In-Depth Analysis and Long Term Outlook

[WhoIsThis]

Introduction
Well to begin with, I’ve been gone for quite some time (about 6 months) and due to real life issues (will be moving soon and I’m due for surgery soon), but I’ve been back long enough to discuss the trends that PL has been coming towards.

I’ve mostly put this together as a way of collecting some of my thoughts, but at least one person has told me (off-game) that they would like to see this on a thread and addressed, so at the risk of being moderated, I’ve put this on the forums. For readability purposes, I've split these into separate posts.

If nothing else, I seriously wonder if the Sewers will go down as the height of PL ... an era where skill dominated, an era where despite it's imperfections, elixirs were not the force that they were and PvP was much more balanced.

You may agree with me ... or you may think I'm totally crazy.

[WhoIsThis]

PvE Situation

The PvE Situation of PL is relatively simple. Endgame is now an elixir dominated event. Players that are wealthy or who have reached 71 have mostly gotten there by more or less buying their way through the game and spending stupendous amounts (at times) of platinum. In some cases, there have been players who have spent in excess of $5,000 USD on platinum, mostly for elixirs. That is an extreme case, but it is not uncommon to see players that have spent well over $1,000 USD on elixirs.



The player skill in PvE has noticeably declined. I think that this is ultimate culmination of the trend that started with the introduction of Nuri’s Hallows. When Nuri’s Hallows first came out, many players found that they either had difficulty adapting to the difficulty level compared to the Sewers and/or wanted to reach level 61 by the most rapid means possible. The end result was widespread elixir usage. After many players reached 61, they then began using elixirs to accelerate their completion of the glyph sets (then top end gear), and finally, farming materials for the demonic glyph sets after their introduction later in the dungeon.



After that … a large percentage of players simply became addicted to the elixirs. Many formerly competent or players I would consider competent were adversely affected. They had adapted a play-style designed for elixir usage and were either unable (or perhaps unwilling) to go back to a “normal” style. This carried on into Mount Fang and has continued into Humania. A secondary reason may have been that many players have been that many players did not have the patience anymore to farm a dungeon and wanted a quick fix, something elixirs could offer.



The effects have been widespread and not just for elixir users. For newer players, they’ve become used to being carried by people with elixirs. It’s fed a different message, not get to the level cap, get experienced and build your skills (like a typical MMO), but rather, that elixirs > skill. Essentially we now have three groups of players, elixir-users, people carried by elixir users, and a small, shrinking minority of players bemoaning the current situation and the impact of elixirs.



The other disturbing trend is the general acceptance of the “carnival” style for Humania – namely the final level of Humania, which requires a platinum fee per run. I recall that when the Winter Festival was introduced, the reaction to a carnival style of run was very negative and resulted in a few people getting banned or warnings in PMs to many players (myself included). Today, it would appear that such things are widely accepted – what’s in dispute is what is considered a “fair” drop rate in return for 3 plat per run. For me it’s a far cry from say, Alien Oasis. In that era, had STS attempted to charge plat on a per run basis for say, Victory Lap or Plasma Pyramid, the reaction would have been very strongly negative. I think that this is a result of people being conditioned to spend plat, particularly among the newer players but even among the older players as well who have … changed. For players who didn’t leave like I did, I suppose it’s a much more gradual and hard to notice change, whereas for me it was a shock.



For new players, leveling appears to have been made more accessible. STS appears to have reduced the xp requirements to get to the endgame. I don’t view this as a good thing. For a new player to understand PL, despite its simplified mechanics and play it to a level I would define as “competent”, they need a certain level of experience to absorb everything that is around them. The end result is that we now have players that are even less prepared for the endgame and far more likely to be carried or use elixirs because frankly, they suck.

[WhoIsThis]

Endgame PvP Situation

The PvP situation is somewhat more complicated. The reason is because we have several tiers of PvP, each with different equipment, different relative class strengths/weaknesses, and different tactics.



Endgame PvP is now a dodge-based or luck-based game. That is a far bigger criticism that I make it sound. The rewards for being skilled and experienced at playing your class and build are far smaller than ever before. For an MMO to succeed, fundamentally, you need to have a game where there’s an incentive to be skilled, where there’s an incentive to keep playing until you build that degree of skill that you need to perform.



For players that have been around for a long time, I want to draw your attention to the decreasing number of new player questions. It used to be that new players would start PvP thinking that they would “try” something new, get owned, and in a few cases, post for help on the forums. The players that were committed, that wanted to do better would try and learn and in time, make progress. The ones that were not would usually quit PvP, hide their PvP stats on their toons, and run around saying that PvP required “no skill”, when in reality, it was a whole different game from PvE and one with a learning curve that they did not have the patience to do. Those types of threads are now mostly gone. The reason why is because endgame PvP is not skill based anymore – it’s luck based. To be fair, there has always been an element of luck in PvP, but never to the extent that it is today – where it has dominated over skill and experience.



The reason for this is one stat – dodge for all 3 classes. Dodge has increased across the board. Let’s examine the effect on the core classes:



Dex birds – well let’s just say that if you are fighting another dex bird, it’s all in the dodge now. If they dodge you and you don’t, you’re dead. If it’s the opposite – you’ll own that fight. If both players dodge, expect a long match (isn’t dex bird vs dex bird supposed to be a fast fight?).



Int mage – int mages are supposed to have high dodge? Umm … what happened to the idea of glass cannon staff mages and high armor, low dodge wand mages? The cannon is there, assuming (very BIG and IMPROBABLE assumption) that they hit. But why do mages have the kind of dodge that they have? Oh, and why isn’t the staff at least 20% more potent than the wand/bracer set given the massive loss in survivability?



Str bear – strength sets, perhaps more so than anything else have broken end game PvP. It is possible to get in excess of 83% dodge with a strength set. Consider the implications. That means that 5 out of 6 shots at a fully buffed bear (or warbird) will be dodged (assuming you aren’t hit debuffed in which case it will be even smaller). Among the shots that get through … they won’t be doing that much damage with iron blood up for bears.



It ruins the possibility as well of any logical combo. Let me illustrate why. Suppose you are a bird trying to set up a cruel blast. First, your chances that your Shattering Scream will hit are 17% (1 in 6) and your chances that your Blast Shot will also hit are 17% (1 in 6). What does this mean about the chances that your combo will hit? That’s 1 in 36 or 2.78%. Actually, statistically you’re far safer in betting that both attacks will miss – 25 out of 36 times (69.44%), they will.



Pretty much with dodge so high, it becomes a game of praying that your attacks hit. This may be attractive to new players at the beginning, but for skilled players – what incentive is there to become skilled at PvP?



These high dodge sets aren’t a good idea for PvE either. It’s been noted that pure int mage and pure dex bird in the hands of skilled players work in PvE and lead to very rapid runs. With pure str bear … it doesn’t work; you need hit or your beckons won’t hit. Bears are more or less forced to use dex as a secondary stat by default (or perhaps int as it also provides some hit).



The other is that there are now 7 points in buffs. Consider the implications – suppose you are an int mage. Your blessings now gives you +70% crit, +35 damage when fully buffed and a ton of armor, plus a mana shield. Admittedly, the +70% crit is now of questionable value since 100% is the crit cap, but try fighting a fully buffed player unbuffed. Similar things could be said about birds. (Str sets are different because the dodge is so high that luck is predominant in determining outcomes here, which is again problematic). More so than ever before, if you are buffed and fighting unbuffed, skill doesn’t matter – you’ll own.



This is also a problem in PvE, although not to the same extent. Assuming you have no elixirs – you can safely get in front with buffs on, but the minute you have buffs down, you’re target practice. With elixirs, buffed, things just melt away in front of you, while unbuffed … it’s somewhat slower but still quite rapid.



Regardless, PvP at the endgame is in need of a serious rework in order for skill to become the deciding factor again.

[WhoIsThis]

Twinking PvP situation

Twinking deserves its own separate section. I want to draw your attention to Crimsontider’s thread. It’s perhaps the most comprehensive thread that attempted to address the issue.



To begin with, before I begin my critique and analysis, I have a lot of respect for Crim. But – I VERY STRONGLY disagree with his opinion on the matter and sympathize with the opinion of the twinkers.



http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...Weapons-Raging

Reading over the way that Crim describes it, it’s clear that he does not twink very often (neither do I truth be told). It’s clear that Crim is also a very active endgame PvE player. For PvE players, the disproportionate influence that PvP has, considering (in their opinion) the percentage of players that are very active PvPers has always been a mystery. Perhaps even more so, the impact of twinking is even more striking – to PvE players, twinking seems like a niche within a niche – that it has influence at all in the community to PvEers is considered an oddity.



The reason why PvP has always exerted a high influence is because of the percentage of high platinum spenders that are PvPers. Let’s consider the following. In any F2P MMO, only about 5-7% of the population is actually paying. The rest are really “F2P” and don’t spend much (if any) money. Among those 5-7%, again, only a percentage are high spenders. The reason why PvP has such a high influence is because from a company’s perspective, the only thing that matters is those 5-7%. The 93-95% are just server bandwidth – their only use is their potential to bring in new players and to make the game more enjoyable for those 5-7%. But among those 5-7% and within those the high spenders, a very high percentage of players are very regular PvPers and that is why PvP has the influence that it does.



Let’s look at the Forgotten weapons. Before their introduction, twinking was something that required intimate knowledge of a certain level range, the relative strengths of the gear at that level range, the introduction of new skills, and so on. These new weapons by contrast, upset that balance. They upset it to such an extent that it is possible to kill another player with just 2 auto attack hits with the bow (as a dex bird vs a mage).



For people that are into twinking, it’s not just a game. It’s their passion. It’s their reason for playing PL. They’ve spent in many cases, as early as 2010 learning about their level range, and everything there is to know. The introduction of the Forgotten weapons has destroyed their passion, their reason to play PL, and all that they’ve worked for. That is why there are so many twinkers passionately raging on the forums.



It’s very difficult for a PvE player to empathize with that. I recommend you read over Crim’s responses to the regular twinkers. True, the twinkers are guilty of being arrogant and less than civil at times. But notice Crim’s responses – he’s chosen to interpret the fact that they have disagreed with him as “non-constructive” and asked repeatedly for such people to leave. Judging by his responses, it’s clear that he is not a very active twinker and has relatively limited knowledge about it. Unable to suppress the dissent, he is forced to have his own thread locked. But even if the twinkers were arrogant, that does not mean that they do not have a solid argument. Everything that they have worked for in the past 2 years is gone – gone because of the introduction of the new weapons that totally upset twinking balance.



Will twinking adapt? Some have pointed to the introduction of GCD or the vanity sets as a precedent. Unfortunately, no. GCD was universal – everyone who played PL was affected by it. Thus it was able to largely negate the problem of handing advantages to most players (with the notable exception of players that have very fast reaction times – for them, it is a handout to slower players). The vanity sets did not provide a huge upgrade (I want anybody who thinks that they do to list for me how big the buffs are in stats) that ruined endgame PvP.



The forgotten weapons by contrast change the twinking game entirely. First, only players that have them have an advantage and it’s not due to skill, it’s because their gear is so OP that nothing else at that level range can compete. Second, they are exclusive. (That said, discontinued items are often reintroduced at the same time the following year, but what happens in the interim?) For new players starting twinks (or even alts of existing twinkers), they are at a huge disadvantage. They have to pay gold and are at the mercy of merchants for these weapons, which will likely get more and more costly as we get further from this event. Admittedly, most twinkers probably own at least a couple of these weapons, but what about new players and alts? There will be no “adapting” and there is no precedence for something like this.



Ultimately, the outcome will that twinking will become a game where whomever owns the Forgotten weapons and gets the first shot off wins and the only way to fight back is with Forgotten weapons. Twinking used to be something with many builds, exotic and unconventional times, and filled with experimentation. Barring a nerf, twinking will become homogenous and like endgame, the forgotten weapons and luck rather than skill or experimentation dominate.







Both endgame and twinking PvP are broken. I don’t make that statement lightly. Like many MMOs, all too often in PL, when somebody says that something is OP or “broken”, it’s usually because said player fought a highly skilled player of that class and got owned. But in this case, we have a situation where previous mechanics and tactics are completely written from ground up and a world where player skill is no longer the dominant deciding factor in outcomes. That is broken.

It saddens me to come to this conclusion. It used to be that saying you were a PvPer was a mark of pride. PvP, compared to PvE, had a large learning curve, was a distinct game unto itself in many ways, and require a lot of commitment. Today ... that has died in both because it is now more gear/luck-dependent and because of the arrival of players who resort to actions like kill-boosting.

[WhoIsThis]

Why did it happen?

I have theories of course, but without access to STS’ internal information, I can never be sure. But we can make an educated guess.



I suspect that whoever is in charge of making the stats of items never bothered to take the time to consider the implications of what they were doing. Group think could also be another issue.



Many of us are a part of generation Y. We’ve grown up with computers, we’re used to them, and we’re used to them as a source of entertainment. I first began working with computers when I was 5 years old in 1995 and started gaming when I was 6. Between that time and now, I’ve player perhaps over 150 games, maybe more. I’ve lost count. But one thing that has struck me is that you can always tell when a developer has spent a lot of time carefully thinking about something and testing their game for stability. There are signs. Generally a poorly conceived game will often be released in a beta state. They tend to have stability issues. Balance issues. And they are not fun to play and a struggle to get working, often due to the DRM that the develops attach futilely trying to deter file sharing while upsetting paying customers. Fortunately as an MMO-centric developer, STS is largely immune to that.



Judging by the comments from other people I have spoken with (I was not present at the time), Humania when it was released did have its share of stability issues. But in general, STS has done a pretty good job of fixing stability issues, at least when acknowledged. The game is in a state that I would consider fit for a release version.



But in terms of balance … I get the overall impression that careful thought and planning was not done. Balance is in an alpha state. That whoever made the decisions did not think the impacts through. Or they simply did not attach the importance of good balance in a game. Perhaps working on so many different games, STS’ resources are stretched and time was not allocated to do the appropriate beta and QA testing for balance.



That’s my best hypothesis. The only other worth mentioning is far more cynical. It’s that PvP is perceived to have a much lower revenue base than elixir burning endgame PvE, so the objective is to deliberately unbalance PvP and encourage elixir usage. I don’t think that this is the case, but I can neither prove nor disprove it. I think that theory one is the most probable.


As for the endless monetization, that's easy to explain. STS obviously feels that PL has reached a critical mass if you will. There is enough of a player base to aggressively monetize the game without any consequence.

[WhoIsThis]

Long term outlook

A lot of oldies tell me that they have stayed – they say that they hope that things will get better. If current trends hold though, that may not be the case. In fact, there is much more potential for things to get worse.



Dodge-based sets

First, the amount of dodge has been increasing with each new cap. That means that by next cap, if current trends hold, we could start to see 90%+ dodge on str based sets.



Since Nuri, the gap between dex and str sets has been growing with each new cap introduced. Dex has not had the kind of crit increases needed to compete, while str sets have had massive increases to dodge, health regen, armor, and survivability. Int sets meanwhile now have consistent crit when buffed, good damage, and offer competitive survivability, leaving dex behind.



These trends began in Nuri’s Hallows, worsened in Mount Fang, and worsened yet again in Humania. For those praying for a return to the “good old days”, I ask you – where is the evidence that this will change?



At some point, assuming current trends hold, str sets will have dodge approaching 100% (around the 81 cap). That will mean the end of all balance in PvP and PvE – the introduction of an “invincible” player or one that can’t die from enemy fire (in both PvP and PvE).



Player Quality

It would appear that the quality of player will continue decline. This is particularly true because the oldies will begin to quit or move on. To be sure, there have been good new players, but the percentage of good new players that take the time to learn their class, to improve, and to build their skills (especially in a world with elixirs) is on the decline.



It’s typical of any computer game. Generally when a game is new, when a game is not mainstream, the first couple of generation of players are very good. The respect each other, the world around them is full of discovery and wonder, and they set the bar for the future generation of players.



As a game becomes more mainstream, it starts to attract casuals and players of a less desirable sort. They don’t want to put in the effort, they want things NOW, and they don’t always interact with other players well. Meanwhile, the older generation starts to move on or seeing what the game becomes, leave in disgust. It happens in every MMO. In fact, it could be argued that it is happening to the MMO genre altogether. In the days of Camelot and Everquest, people who played were generally very skilled and treated people with a degree of civility that is harder and harder to find in today's MMOs. Only hardcore guilds and MMO players in games such as Final Fantasy or WoW approach their skill level. Gone though is the civility.



Let me split the game into 3 tiers:

Tier 3: New players and players that simply are bad. The clueless. They are either learning the game or are simply not good at games. Others are veteran players who well … computer games aren’t for them. It’s not the thing that they excel at.



Tier 2: Usually the largest category. The mediocre. These types of players have some skill. Usually though they are a lot worse than they think they are. Some players in this category pick on T3, knowing that they will never match the T1 players. A disproportionate number of players in this tier think that they are T1 when they are really mediocre. They also tend to have a lot of attitude I find.



Tier 1: Top end veteran players. In a mature game, this represents well under 5% of a population. They have situational class awareness, theorycrafting, and are skilled players. They are usually veterans and the cream of the crop.



Tier 1 is becoming an endangered species. In PvP, it’s impossible to distinguish between T1 and T2 because gear and luck are so dominant. In PvE, only without elixirs is it possible to distinguish. Furthermore (and unique to PL), elixir addicts can turn T1 players into T2s. (It’s very rare to see T1 players turn into T2s unless like myself, they choose to retire. For that reason, I view myself as a T2 player at this point. Elixirs are so unbalancing in PL that they change this.) Compounding all of this, there is a smaller and smaller percentage of T2 players becoming T1 players to replace the ones that leave.



Coming from other MMOs, I have noticed on PL that it’s not as politically correct to say these sorts of things. I think it’s because PL doesn’t have that kind of aggressive-competitive player base where everyone tries to play at their best. It’s also because PL has a younger, much less mature demographic that plays compared to many other MMOs.


Generally when pushed, devs of any MMO don’t acknowledge these sorts of things. They don’t want to. The reason is because regardless of a player’s skill, they all pay the same money. In fact, a low skill player might have a bigger incentive to buy plat because they don’t have the skills to perform competitively without plat. Not to mention, T3s and T2s are the overwhelming majority of any player base (except at the start) in an MMO so getting them ticked is bad business.

Elixir Usage

I anticipate that elixir use will continue to increase. I would also anticipate more potent and more expensive elixirs being introduced in the future. The 80p an hour elixir sold well enough to justify more potent and more expensive elixirs. And ... given how many people have bought it, I do not anticipate price reductions in the near future, barring the usual "deal of the day" sales that STS implements.

Elixir usage is now closely tied to the quality of player and the declining quality that we have to contend with as a community. It's no surprise that given how widely elixirs are used, that there are people who have adapted entirely to them, and who rely on elixir users to carry them. The number of players that can function effectively as a group or in a pug without elixirs is on the decline and will continue to decline for the forseeable future.

Many players who have become wealthy in PL have essentially paid real money for PL gold indirectly - elixirs for farming and rapid dungeon runs to make money. Others use it to supplement their income that they gain primarily from merchanting.

Lets just put it this way - when the Alien Oasis and the Sewers were endgame content people never imagined a world where player skill would decline further than the Mynas Generation or the Power Level Generation. Welcome to the era of the Elixir Generation.


I am not going to comment on the cost of vanity items, pets, etc. They do not impact gameplay in terms of balance. I am actually quite supportive that STS has implemented things such as 500 platinum vanity hats - it is a good way for high spenders to subsidize lower platinum spenders.

[WhoIsThis]

Solutions?

Well to begin with, for a solution to exist, there has to be an acknowledgement of a problem.

On STS side, I cannot imagine that they will view the increased elixir use as a "problem" but rather something to be welcomed. On that note, we can expect to see more and more incentives (such as Vinnie the Vendor) attempting to advertise the benefits of elixirs. I think that for the forseeable future, PvE will remain an elixir-fest. Expect more "deals of the day", highly priced vanity items, and the like.

I can also see more aggressive monetization in the foreseeable future -an example is that the Humania Monster Bash versus say, the era of Alien Oasis III Victory Lap. Other things that we see that are free today, that many players take for granted may someday cost platinum.

At this time, I cannot comment on whether there will be more "elite dungeons" such as Monster Mash setting a new precedent. Whether future equivalents drop superior gear remains to be seen, although I cannot imagine that the gear will be much better, for fear of breaking game balance (although admittedly, the game is not balanced at the endgame at time of this writing).



PvP by contrast could be balanced relatively easily.

- First, the forgotten weapons. They need to be nerfed so that they are comparable or perhaps slightly inferior to similar weapons of their level range. That would turn them from a negative addition to a positive addition to twinking (and indeed PvE as it will now need more skill) because it brings more choices for gearing.

- Dodge as a stat needs a thorough reduction. Ever since the 61 cap, things have gone a bit crazy with the stats. I will put together a thread detailing what I think will lead to better balance if there is enough demand for it. (Please indicate below).

- All of the Angel and 70 sets need a thorough rebalance. Gear has trumped skill because it's such a big gap over even the crafted 66 sets.

Interestingly enough, re-balancing PvP would probably lead to (in a non-elixir world) a better PvE balance as well, along with gear that is more consistent with the official lore.

[WhoIsThis]

Concluding Remarks and the Big Picture

Throughout all of this, one thing that many newer players have noted is that the oldies whenever they see changes that they do not like tend to be the most vocal about them. The reason why is because we oldies - many of us dating back to 2010 feel that we have more to lose than anybody else if this game does not succeed. We've invested more time, in many cases more money, and are in it for the long haul versus newer players which are often transitory in their game choices.

You might think that STS is benefiting immensely from the aggressive monetization of PL. In the short run, that is indisputably true. STS has undoubtedly seen it's revenues increase immensely from all of the platinum sales. But in the long run ... it's not so clear.

PL gave STS one very big and unique advantage. First mover in a market that in 2010, was largely unproven. The mobile MMO market. It could very well be one with immense potential. It is too early to tell. But noteworthy to me is that games like Everquest or Camelot were not the defining game of this genre. The defining MMO is World of Warcraft, a game that came later and was heavily influenced by it's earlier fellow MMOs. WoW today is so dominant in the MMO arena that it is the MMO that has elements that other MMOs copy ideas from.

And that is what PL could have become. It still might. Or it might not. Remember WoW was not the first MMO. And Blizzard not the first studio. But they were the ones that truly popularized MMOs and made fistloads of cash over it.

Will PL be that game for the mobile space? It's too soon to tell. But there are two signs that are very discouraging. First, it's that the game was monetized in a way that a person can "buy" their way through the game. I note that today in WoW you cannot pay Blizzard for say, skill in PvP or heroic progression. It's earned. That could a powerful and perhaps fatal flaw in truly popularizing PL.

The other is the lack of focus that STS seems to have. Notice that the gaming studios that make the games that are truly awesome, like Blizzard and Valve - they don't release that many games. They release games infrequently. They take their time to develop. If there's a bug, usually it means pushing back the release date, rather than exposing their fans to beta-quality software. STS has released PL, SL, DL, and soon to be AL. For a company of this size, that's quite something. Rather than focusing down on one game (PL) and making it truly awesome, it's very much a quantity over quality strategy. It's interesting really. Whenever I speak with devs of small studios and ask them why they are not releasing a WoW-like game, they tell me that it's not that they would not like to, it's that they do not have the resources to match Blizzard. Perhaps it's a reasonable excuse. But what matters for a company is what they do with the limited resources that they do have at hand.

I think I know why. Read this article:
http://syncaine.com/2012/01/26/preying-on-the-weak/

Most of the platinum heavy spenders of PL resemble the player described in that article. The sheer number of games means that STS can continue to collect revenues even after said player become bored of PL (which will happen much faster than had the players taken to become skilled). In the short run, it has generated a lot of revenue for STS. But it does give me pause and make me wonder in the long term, STS may have forfeited something much greater.


In 2010 and for much of early 2011, I genuinely believed that PL would be THE game that defined the mobile space. I thought that the developers were engaged with their fans and frequently interacted with them. The disappointment of Nuri's Hallows and later Mount Fang though, combined with the increasingly hostile stance that STS took towards what was constructive feedback though changed my views in a very short period of time. Not to mention, there was an increasingly sense of disconnect between what their oldest and most vocal supporters wanted and what actually happened. Talk is always cheap. Actions matter.

I left for WoW. In January of 2012, I took a moment to engage in some self-reflection. I realized something - I viewed my time in PL as a sunk cost. I decided to look for a new MMO. I chose, after discussing the matter with several people (including a former GoA) WoW. To me, it was simple. Comparing WoW and PL is very much apples to apples. Let's think about this. Like you, I have a limited amount of time, a limited amount of money (in terms of how much I want to spend on entertainment, I budget myself around $2,000 a year, including both my hardware and software purchases, which makes me an attractive target for game studios), and I have to ask myself - why do I play computer games? What do I get out of it? What am I looking for? For me personally, after thinking carefully about it, I realized that WoW fit my needs far better than PL did.

You too should carefully look at yourself and engage in self-reflection. You may find that PL is THE game that you want to play. Or you may not. I don't know. I can't comment on your personal situation. (You probably will find PL to be your game truth be told ... or else, why are you here reading my post on PL?) But let's just say this. F2P games are built on impulse purchases. Your much more likely to find the negative consequences of any decision that you make, whether in a game or in real life much more bearable if you've carefully thought out the consequences of your decisions. Carefully consider your future purchases, how you spend your time in PL in the future. You'll find that with that, you're going to have much less regretting down the road.

So what does this have to with anything? The answer is that how attractive PL as a game is to you and your capacity to enjoy your time spent on PL is limited by how good a game STS can deliver. As is mine. And if you don't agree with STS decisions ... what are you going to do about it? You know what I did. I chose to speak out, to risk moderation. If nothing else, let me ask you this. If you agree with everything that STS has done to this game, then we're through. You can go back to being a passive T2 or T3 player. But if you don't ... what will you do about it?

I believe that PL has the potential to be one of the defining games of the MMO genre in the years to come. I would like to see it succeed. I would like to see STS succeed. However, I cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence that this game might not be that outstanding game that I thought it would become, the game that would define mobile MMOs.












Note: When I originally made this, I never really intended for this to be a thread that was going to be posted ... idk ... sometimes I just write on a computer (or paper) to put down my thoughts and put them into something cohesive. Hopefully this has been presented in a readable format.

On that note, combined with my real life issues, it's also the reason why I'm rather reluctant to invest a lot of time into this game; it just doesn't hold the charm it once did over me for the reasons described above.

[WhoIsThis]

Reserved in case I have anything else to add.

[Patricks]

Maybe youre right.....

Can you elaborate?

[Thelastblink]

Spot on with every single one..... Getting ticked off at how I sometimes get one shotted by a dex bird.... Especially pvp part, it requires no skill...... Also caused everyone to rush ( Im a rusher, LOL!) But the fact that everyone is either holding a bow or staff is so awkward.... Pvp is not the same anymore, I dont have the surge of excitement, it seems all I do is drain ice fire to get the kill, Bears do beckon stomp and birds use two or even at times one shot to kill an enemy Sts, please fix this, I suggest the new forogotten items get nerfed , maybe to be only in use in PVE cos that will make the situation happy for everyone! And to stop people raging cos of the plat they wasted to reset their stats could you guys like do a free plat thing for changing stats? I remember a long time ago you guys did that for the skills. Please sts?

[WhoIsThis]

Can you elaborate?

Elaborate on what? If you want answers, you've got to be specific.

[Hadesofshadow]

twinking is fine although it appears kiting is new to you

str sets are not

lv55 warbirds can beat lv60+ mages because of the armor&dodge

and lol, in the beginning of the game (lets call this ao2 cap)

people would make a toon, go to mynas tombs hit 45 and pvp

my bird has never completed and dungeon set

[HunterSLAYER]

I've read part of your thread, at least until the Twinking part i must say there are many things that are broken in the game.

However, fixing those "broken" things may only lead to other issues.
Like the forgotten weapons for e.g.(not going to elaborate as most of you probably knew about i already.)


*Hopefully i can finish reading your epic thread by today :P

Sent from my Xperia S using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2

[WhoIsThis]

twinking is fine although it appears kiting is new to you

I am quite aware of what kiting is and how to kite effectively. Is is the act of keeping the enemy either out of melee distance or a ranged attack (different weapons have different ranges). I am interested to know though, what makes you think I am unaware of what kiting is?

Here though is a more in depth analysis (WoW-oriented, but relevant for PL).

http://www.wowwiki.com/Kiting

Unfortunately, the forgotten sets are so powerful that they can kill in 2 hits as a ranged weapon. That makes kiting much less effective.

and lol, in the beginning of the game (lets call this ao2 cap)

people would make a toon, go to mynas tombs hit 45 and pvp

This game has been around since before Alien Oasis. I would think that by your join date, you would be aware of that. Twinking at levels lower than 45 does exist. You just destroyed your credibility right there when you asserted that it did not.

[WhoIsThis]

However, fixing those "broken" things may only lead to other issues.
Like the forgotten weapons for e.g.(not going to elaborate as most of you probably knew about i already.)2

Balance is always relative. What matters though is that a very skilled player can defeat a skilled player of another class and that no set of gear, or specific build is so dominant above all the others that it cannot be compensated for by skill.

[HunterSLAYER]

Balance is always relative. What matters though is that a very skilled player can defeat a skilled player of another class and that no set of gear, or specific build is so dominant above all the others that it cannot be compensated for by skill.

That is absolutely right, unless the whiny player is not skilful or pvp less.



Sent from my Xperia S using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2

[Everyone'sFavMage]

I agree. And I have always respected you and your posts. I always look forward to threads made by you because I can count on there being useful and desperately needed information in them.

Pvp just seems like a luck game now which it never used to be. So I started twinking in ao3-61 as those levels were for me the high light of this game. And now with forgotten weapons it ruins it. Sts doesn't need to do a whole lot, they just need to listen to their community.
Pvp is all luck, there is no skill anymore. And that was the one and ONLY reason I played this game. During sewer cap I found myself addicted, playing perhaps a bit too much a day. And now I hardly find the desire to log on. Sts needs to read this thread and seriously consider the amount of players they are going to lose if they don't change things FAST...
So thank you, elf, for making yet another extremely worth while thread. And to the devs, you better turn this game around or you are going to lose A WHOLE BUNCH of players in the nxt few months.

Sincerely,
EFM

[WhoIsThis]

Pvp just seems like a luck game now which it never used to be. So I started twinking in ao3-61 as those levels were for me the high light of this game. And now with forgotten weapons it ruins it. Sts doesn't need to do a whole lot, they just need to listen to their community. Pvp is all luck, there is no skill anymore. And that was the one and ONLY reason I played this game. During sewer cap I found myself addicted, playing perhaps a bit too much a day. And now I hardly find the desire to log on.

That is very much the consequence of dodge. It's negated the ability to put any reasonable PvP combo.

And yes, many people here play for the PvP ... and perhaps for their friends.

[Everyone'sFavMage]

That is very much the consequence of dodge. It's negated the ability to put any reasonable PvP combo.

And yes, many people here play for the PvP ... and perhaps for their friends.

Yes it's a dodge based game now, I hate too see this game go down the gutters because I have fond memories of it. But with developer team ming so many mistakes, and the community quality declining at the rate it is, I feel I may have to make an exit.