Here is a series of posts from another bard message board, thought I would
share them.
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Dancing Nerfed
by Aloro Silvertongue (E'ci) posted 9/20/99 2:19:28 PM
It has come to our attention here at Verant that certain bards have been
using their dance animation to entertain other players. This is clearly
unbalancing, as other classes lack similar animations. We plan to implement
a new command called /dance to balance out this obvious inequality, but
found that on the test server this caused ogres and trolls to explode, and
caused dark elves to fly into a frenzy and attack everything in range, even
somehow to the point of ignoring -PvP flags. Curiously, halflings could not
be made to stop dancing once the command has been used.
Until this can be remedied, the following changes will be in effect:
Male bards will still be able to dance when playing songs on some wind or
brass instruments. However, the animation has been changed to match the new
music for this animation, Pop Goes the Weasel. Note that, once begun, this
dance will not end until the song has stopped, which will take approximately
8 minutes. In order to reduce abuse, this animation will preclude the use of
any song or spell effects except those causing harm to the bard. When the
song has been completed the animation will end, and the bard will take 500hp
of damage and lose all fatigue, to reflect the enormous physical drain of
dancing.
Aloro Silvertongue (E'ci)
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This topic isnt funny at all!
by Brad McQuiad (aka Voice) posted 9/20/99 7:02:17 PM
Dear gamers,
Such mocking of our patching system is not funny. We work really hard to
provide a fun and ballanced game. When we do present a patch its to make the
game better. I'm sure you all agree a dynamic game is more fun than having a
stagnent gaming world.
Now lets face it, the bard class was an accident. It was never intended as a
viable player class, it was only included cause in the early stages of
development we copied everything out of Gary Gygax's books. You will note
that none of the developement team nor any of the GM's play bards as that
would hose their character too much (You dont want a GM who has to twist for
effects, they'd never be able to type to you and tell you why your banned.)
We also do no testing on bards when contemplating new changes cause if it
hurts you , well its because your a jack of all trades meaning you get all
the disadvantages and none of the benifits of other classes.
We have already removed female dancing cause it gave females an unfair
advantage over their male counterparts. (You expect to look cute AND dance?
That is way too unbalancing.) Of course the idea of damage/fatigue from
dancing sounds nice, I'll see about implementing that soon, so maybe I'll
include female dancing again.
For those of you who are interested here is the way a patch is made.
1. A problem is spotted. While there are many difficult problems in the
game, our priority are the ones that players have some control over. That
way the patch is seen as a punishnment for something you did wrong, not us.
2. GM's are sent out to spy on players. Each GM is to report how rampant
such abuse by players is. Since the GM only watch players who are commiting
such abuse, we manage to get a 100% abuse rate, which justifies an immediate
patch.
3. Our think tank squad spends 30 min comming up with an equitable, in game
soulution that makes sense and will work . For example in the kiting patch,
they suggested Dots have reduced effect when the CASTER moves showing that
spells with an over time component require some degree of concentration in
order to have its full effect.
4. The programmers are then given the problem and disreguard any equitable,
in game soulution as too dificult to program and instead cut and paste old
code from existing parts of the program to make create a patch. In the
kiting patch it was decided to change the rules of physics for players
dots...mob dots were left as is.
5. The patch is then placed on the test server. This is a crucial part of
the procedure since the test server is composed of players who are less
abusive to the system (i.e no power levelers there) and have all applied to
Verant for a position there. This insures a minimal of complaining and
exagerates the effectiveness of the patch which makes the programmers look
good to their boss. Since there is a smaller population on the test server
the chances that any one patch will have a noticable effect on a given
class/race/level combination is minimal making it crucial for us to beliive
we have everything under control.
6. The patch is placed online and we shut everything down for a couple of
hours so we can go out and have a few drinks.
7. We observe the results of the patch. Hopefully it greates a few
unintended bugs thus ensuring us perpetual job security and that we dont
have to address the real tough concearns that may lose us consumers such as
ebay buying and twinking.
8. We shut down all the servers for hours at a time for much needed naps
since we have to work around the clock instead of hiring a large enough
staff to handle all the problems that arise. We call thaese naps our
emergancy patch downtime.
9. We then ask a survey with choices specifiaclly designed to lead people to
answer the way we want. Only questions that are self serving are asked so we
know which group of players are affected by the choice. Such questions like
do you think you should do more damage while in melee give us the ammo we
need to justify hoseing non-tanks. We do not ask questions that would give
us any ideas as to actual game improvement, such as should we have more
trade skills, or would you rather see us address class balancing or camping
reduction as our first priority.
I think you will all see the wisdom of our procedure and will stop mocking
us. If you don't I'll be forced to to make the bard class KOS to all town
residents.
Brad
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P.S. If anyone from Verant is reading this, I apologize. Please, please
reconsider my application ;)
Voice of the Winds
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Mocking Verant
by Smed posted 9/20/99 11:32:40 PM
I am sincerely disappointed in the lack of maturity and respect shown by
posters on this board. We here at Verant work long and hard to provide you
with entertainment which will keep you in a dazed and drug-like stupor for
months on end. You must admit that playing EverQuest is less expensive and
less prone to legal repercussions than just buying a kilo of coke per month,
a comparable addiction.
Because bards are a small subsection of our player base, you must realize
that fixing the "holes" in your class is not a priority for our overworked
programmers. Instead of implementing your missing songs, or fixing the few
that are not yet fully functional, we find it far more cost-effective to
create new equipment and quests for warriors and rangers. After all, let's
face it, tanks are necessary parts of any good party, while bards are just
whiny pansies with flutes.
However, because we don't want you to feel we are ignoring you completely,
we have taken steps to assure that the denizens of Norrath have a special
appreciation for bards. To this end, we have increased bard's ability to
taunt monsters by approximately 4172% in the latest patch. Now bards will
have no difficulty in finding game to hunt, as monsters from across the zone
will home in on that annoying music. In fact, we are currently testing new
code which will allow monsters in nearby zones to be aware of bards and come
to meet them at the zone entries.
There, happy?
John Smedley
channeled by Aloro Silvertongue (E'ci)
p.s. I really *do* love the game, but I feel it incumbent on me as a bard to
use one of our most potent weapons - satire - to expose any and all
foolishness on the part of the high and mighty, as long as it seems like
fun.
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This long pointless repost can be blamed on:
Rokenn Swiftsong - Karana server
Master Craftsmen of Societus Argenti
reposted from:
Songs of Norrath message board
http://www.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?Action=Display&BoardID=105011