Live Update 21

I didn't comment on this one when it was on test or when it was released. But I will now anyway.

I thought the release was probably the "sloppiest" I have seen thus far of a Live Update. There were problems with reviving and with pets. But okay, it was fixed quickly (although the servers came down and we were booted and locked out from a raid zone). And SOE's technical track record is pretty nice with EQII in my opinion. So let's move on.

Remember when I complained about the comparison tooltips? It turned out that more people who commented on that post liked them then didn't. Okay, fair and I'm glad to hear it. But still, I think I had a point about being able to turn them off. Well, soon after a coder from SOE posted a way to turn them off with through a command or editing the .ini file. But now, even better, it's in the options. So those of us who like them and those of us who don't can all be happy.

One thing I'm not happy with in the Update is the change that auto-boots you from a Griffon, Carpet or Cloud if you don't move in 10 seconds. Why? Well, you all probably know about the cloud bug in KoS where you are on a cloud and you never move or only move after a long pause. And seriously, I'm amazed that it hasn't been fixed. But since it hasn't, let's make the best of it. At least before this Update a lot of times your cloud would eventually move if you stayed on it. Now you are booted. And I ended up having to travel to another island first to get to the one I wanted to get to. Crazy. It was mildly annoying before. Now it is outrageous.

The zone reuse timers are absolutely fantastic. Not only a great idea but well implemented. The merchant changes were nice too. I also love the ranged auto-attack upgrade on my scout. The fixes to AA's seem cool as well.

Mentoring in PvP was taken out (except for instances) before this Live Update, but okay, since they put it in the notes I'll address it. You never realize how great something is until it's gone. I don't really mentor or, er mentee, much on PvE because the people I usually play with are all at or near the same level as I am. But in a more casual Guild like Aggroculture, lack of mentoring really killed our night when there were only a few on and the level range was varied. I completely understand there was an exploit (though I tend to think there is one on the PvE servers too). But fix the exploit and don't take out the whole system, if possible. Blackguard says they are trying to get it back in, so that's something.

One change I'm ambivalent about is the group lotto results. It was fun to watch at first. But I think some game mechanics should be opaque and not transparent (I'd actually like to see a ton of other stuff be more hidden but that's for another time). Do you really need to see loot rolls? I can't figure out the rationale behind this change. Is it to satisfy the complainers who think they're somehow always getting the short end of the stick? Well, they will probably still complain. I don't dislike this one (I have the loot notes in my combat text window so I never really see them) but I don't really like it either.

For more comments check Quylein if you haven't already.