If patch notes are unfeasible, will the staff consider notifying players of significant item changes from now on? In advance, ideally.
The Mountain's Fury, long considered the end-game Range item, had its stats slashed by 42% overnight without a peep from the staff. One person I know was asked just a week ago what he still exped for, and he replied simply by linking that book, as he had long since run out of tomes. With the cut in stats, the colossal exp requirement (which used to be the equivalent of 78.5 Codices of Power, or so I once heard) was also cut, and that player's book was bumped up to max level in the blink of an eye, leaving him suddenly at a loss for how to find purpose for playing his character in groups. This change must be discouraging to all those who spent hours and hours of their time (and sometimes thousands and thousands of their platinum) to gather the pages used to forge the book, but never mind this specific case.
When players only learn through the grapevine or a chance self-inventory that his or her character has been weakened through yet another of the server's mysterious patches, that player is liable to feel slighted. Item nerfs are oftentimes perfectly in order and oftentimes long overdue, but this method of watering things down without notifying the players makes for bad public relations. It can leave the staff looking capricious at best, if not underhanded. Even an ex post facto notification would be better than none whatsoever.
Is the secrecy behind these changes deliberate? Perhaps a demoralized developer implements the changes without making it known because he or she feels his work has been deemed "imperfect" by the bigger wigs, or perhaps the changes aren't announced because a few upset whispers are preferable to facing the initial clamor that an official announcement would inevitably bring.
Personally, I don't have any of my own gripes with the idea of items being weakend. I gave a little sigh when I learned I'd gone to sleep one night with 100% haste and realized -- only after a friend told me -- that my beloved haste was dropped to 50% during the night's patch, but I trusted that the staff's judgment was probably sound. After all, I'm in no position to question the server's vision, but is it unreasonable to ask for this smidgen of transparency?
The Mountain's Fury, long considered the end-game Range item, had its stats slashed by 42% overnight without a peep from the staff. One person I know was asked just a week ago what he still exped for, and he replied simply by linking that book, as he had long since run out of tomes. With the cut in stats, the colossal exp requirement (which used to be the equivalent of 78.5 Codices of Power, or so I once heard) was also cut, and that player's book was bumped up to max level in the blink of an eye, leaving him suddenly at a loss for how to find purpose for playing his character in groups. This change must be discouraging to all those who spent hours and hours of their time (and sometimes thousands and thousands of their platinum) to gather the pages used to forge the book, but never mind this specific case.
When players only learn through the grapevine or a chance self-inventory that his or her character has been weakened through yet another of the server's mysterious patches, that player is liable to feel slighted. Item nerfs are oftentimes perfectly in order and oftentimes long overdue, but this method of watering things down without notifying the players makes for bad public relations. It can leave the staff looking capricious at best, if not underhanded. Even an ex post facto notification would be better than none whatsoever.
Is the secrecy behind these changes deliberate? Perhaps a demoralized developer implements the changes without making it known because he or she feels his work has been deemed "imperfect" by the bigger wigs, or perhaps the changes aren't announced because a few upset whispers are preferable to facing the initial clamor that an official announcement would inevitably bring.
Personally, I don't have any of my own gripes with the idea of items being weakend. I gave a little sigh when I learned I'd gone to sleep one night with 100% haste and realized -- only after a friend told me -- that my beloved haste was dropped to 50% during the night's patch, but I trusted that the staff's judgment was probably sound. After all, I'm in no position to question the server's vision, but is it unreasonable to ask for this smidgen of transparency?
