When has SE done the right thing?Follow

You dont see it as often in here, but in the main forum there are countless gripes about how SE is never doing anything to fix issues in the game. People complain about bots and gilfarmers and how SE lets them run wild. This just blows me away. Not to sound like an SE fanboy, but since NA PC launch I have seen them make some serious efforts to fix things we gripe about.

Fish Bots:

- Frequent updates made fish monsters more agressive, and if ignored more powerful. This drove fish bots into the cities. Fatigue was added to they would have to check in and zone now and then too. This was followed by:

- Interactive fishing: This made bot script 1000 times more complicated, essentially doing away with the majority of the exploiters.

Mining/Logging:

- fatigue added, so the old trick of parking in front of a known mine point spawn location with autofire controller, pounding a pickaxe macro and leaving for 2 days? Toast. I see gil farmers work for their mine points now, same as we do.

NMs

- archer rings... they used to be in a little room. Battle of the macros. Now the slimes spawn all over the top floor. Once again a bit more work needed on everyones part to pull a claim. SE also added quested acc rings, something proposed in countless forum rants ages ago.

- Other NMs got slight tweaks as well, but there was still room for exploitation. Also more "equivalent" gear was added in CoP. Sadly the alternative to kotes and emp hairpin ended up being harder to get then their original, but hey they tried. ^^

MPK/NM exploits

- Gil sellers that play by the rules are still around. The ones that were the notorious MPK types? Gone. Did you think you were wasting you time reporting MPKs from the coolgang to GMs? Then scoff when they say "we'll look into it". Well they did look into it. And they did something about it. 800 accounts closed.

Castle Oz. AF coffer

- If your job wasnt affected, you dont care. But if your AF coffer was pillaged 24/7 by gil sellers looking for a high value ring, you would gripe. SE responded to this and moved the ring elsewhere so people wont be denied their AF becuase of IGE.

3rd party program Nerf

- this is what prompted me to post. This is the most significant anti-bot move SE has done to date. Its main goal was to stop the rapid transport hack that was being abused client side.

- As an added effect, this also kills the windower. To honest people the windower is a good way to take time out for email or check resource sites for info. Sadly it is through the use of a windower where many exploits are loaded. A good hacker/botter can get by without it, but the script kiddies who download cheats off the net rely on the windower to launch their apps. They then proclaim "fear my mad player skills" (only spelled with lots of ph and z's, of course. And hacker with an "X". Beware... >.<).

- I havent been to fafnir this week, but I am curious if this update has resolved the infamous darter trick. From the info I had on it, it did involve the windower in order to play with the client side files, with the end results being a fast, safe pull of a ground god.

Long story short, SE is doing what they can about the current exploits. Players often see these as "the mining nerf" or "the windower nerf", but small compromises must be made for the benefit of the whole online community.

And dont get me started on non-exploiter fixes. Ballista is tweaked every update, summoner job came to life with the addition of L20 avatars, and once again SE is looking at shuffling around mobs to make more camps avaialble in the crowded level ranges. On a broader scale it appears they are trying to hinder inflation by removing more money from the economy.

They wouldnt go to this trouble if they didnt listen to player feedback. Go back and read the update history at playonline... its really amazing how much has changed from later 2003. And by all means keep griping. Apparently someone is listening afer all ^^

People like to rant -- that is why you see all those posts that claim SE not doing anything. Sometimes taking action against something "wrong" (in general) takes planning, thinking, and compromise (especially if interests of certain people and groups are involved.

It is generally more useful to make constructive suggestion instead of complaining.

Ban those "gilsellers"! (And how are you going to proof it)
This sucks! (Very "infomative")
etc etc

I will agree for the windower argument that it may be a good idea for SE to create their own sanctioned windower, but right now the windower potentially can open "a can of worms", and is offically illegal.

Instead of complaining and shouting SE sucks etc, send some email to SE (with the use proper language).

I think making a browser will need some development time that can be used for more productive goals -- like balancing game play, making new expansion, or just simply design an offical windower...

A lot of cases with limited time and money resources, any business (including SE) has to determine what needs to be done first. It will actually be interesting to see what are on the SE's immediate agenda right now ;)

Catching gil sellers is a lot harder than you think...... Just to ask a rhetoric question:

Are you 100% confident on someone that camps Valkrum Emperor or Stromper Chyme is a gil seller?

Being likely to be a gil seller does not equate someone is a gil seller.... This is

Do you want catching gil seller like Salem Witch Hunt?

Hate to be the bearer (sp?) of bad news. Yes SE works to fix these probs, but they won't stop them. Yes the nerf screwed 3rd party programs... for 2 days. Windower is back up. Bots are still working strong. And, no matter how horrible it sounds, i'm betting if someone knows their programming, they will prolly get that infamous hack working again. SE is working hard, but it would seem players are working harder.

I think the term 'gil seller' should be replaced with the term 'NM monopolizer.' I think that SE really should be working on these NM monopolies rather than the 'gil sellers.' It's true, that we can't tell exactly who is a gil seller and who is just a very greedy player, but nonetheless... on my server, these 'NM monopolizers' do not leave these areas much, if at all. They do not log off. This should be the red flag, rather than the whole gil seller thing. Sure, HNMLS's do the same, but that in itself is part of the same problem.

I guess there's not much that can be done, but if a GM would take the time to observe some of these suspected 'gil sellers,' it will be more than obvious that they do nothing but camp these NM's. It's obvious they do not do this to further their character in game, considering some of these people have been doing this for months, and a lot still wear incredibly bad equipment. Put 2 and 2 together and really, it's not hard to deduce that these people aren't using the gil in game. Sure, the evidence isn't quite as clear cut as we'd like, but come on... Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the obvious signs. They really should make rules against NM monopolizing; rules that they will enforce. That's the only way I see the gil seller problem getting better.

So many major gripes have been addressed this time around. Gil sellers, crowded leveling areas, job balance, and new content.... All got equal attention. Again, not to sound like a SE fanboy, but they have listened well and worked hard for you, me... this entire player community.

-The way that the following items are acquired has been changed:
Archer Ring, Leaping Boots, Emperor Hairpin, Peacock Charm
In addition, players may receive an EX/Rare or EX item with the same attributes from the monsters who previously dropped each of the above items.

Previous updates added a questable +3 acc ring. People still complained. Now SE replied with this! A nail in the gilseller coffin. There will still be long lineups at these NMs for the gear... Lots of competition but it will all be from people who really need it.

-Before the update, a monster that was claimed by a party or alliance would occasionally go unclaimed when magic or a weapon skill was used on the monster as the monster moved out of range before the magic or weapon skill could strike.

The infamous NM stealing trick has been addressed? Great news for everyone. (Except Cato, apparently)

-The NPC may be called only when there are less than six members in the player's group. A party may contain a maximum of three NPC fellows, along with the three players who have called them.

Some of you hate the idea of these NPC buddies. But now that its confirmed they can participate in normal XP parties, this is the biggest godsend to us limited time gamers who can only XP on a Saturday afternoon (when only 3 drk and a pld are lfg). Yes, real players will always be prefered, but this will help immensely on the "build you own party, but wait 3-5 hours for a rdm" afternoons.

SE has potentially fixed the biggest bottleneck in online gaming. I expect the NPCs to suck, but its better then 3 days lfg in Jeuno as a L52 monk ^^

Anyhow, rambling now... the update is up. See it for yourself. And forgive the odd "nerf".... they only hurt you because they care ^^