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Cure Rewards

Petra Fyde

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I did the event in a fairly casual way, handed in 185 cures in all and got more than I expected, the sash, staff and necklace. I don't have a character that could make use of the sleeves anyway.
 

Adol

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Let's just clarify two things, shall we?

Time does not equal skill. Many of you have plenty of time, but that doesn't mean you've done anything worthy of respect, you've simply killed the time you had. Likewise there is more than one form of competition, but we as a species only truly recognise certain types... People like the athletes at the coming Paralympics are widely admirable because they have chosen to compete positively with their time, they have taken a skill people can see, and trained it and worked it as hard as they could to world beating levels. Where as in any MMO, you've mostly chosen to eat meals on the go, maybe cut down on showering and dressing time to sit at the computer screen more... you have chosen to cut back on humanity and fun to dedicate just more time to something no one outside of that specific game will even recognise as worth while. Try chatting a lady up at the bar with the Epic Loot you have, for instance, and see how much it helps you "score"; Thus competition to sacrifice your time is not on the same level or is even the same type of active participation in a struggle that even someone competing in a Chess tournament (say) earns, and never will, outside of an MMO setting, inspire people with your "competitiveness".

Secondly, once you understand the above, you will realise why the sensible route was to walk away from the competition instead. What you have been doing is playing brinkmanship with your own basic humanity; you have been calculating that you can hit the brakes closer to the cliff edge than every one else. The ultimate result of this attitude is that eventually someone ends up going over the cliff... In the meantime, whilst you may have braked later than others at this point and gained the short term reward for doing it, you can only ever win if people already thought the reward wasn't worth it. You win not because they were beaten, just as the reason anyone ever "chickens" out is not because they are chicken, quite the opposite in fact, but because they've wizened up and the calculation no longer works out sensibly, and they've given up in disgust.
In our hyper-aggressive, anti intellectual culture though it's hard for people to understand that... because the rules as they are currently written say you were more unreasonably aggressive and won, right? And that kind of attitude may have made sense when we were surrounded by aggressive animals that needed an aggressive clubbing for your survival... but as the dominant, world breaking apex predator now, that attitude is an evolutionary dead end for mankind from here. Because if Mankind really does have a future, in our current age of Mutual Assured Destruction and environmental collapse and Peak Oil approaching, it will come from those who turn away from the edge much much sooner, and find a better way forward.
And so it proves in an MMO too... if you want to encourage people to be unshowered obsessives, keep on encouraging games of Grind-Chicken. You'll make a lot of money in the short term, sure. It's such easy content to program too! But the future of gaming, if it is to have one, lies elsewhere...

So to make it completely simple; People do not hate YOU for winning the gloves, they hate the whole system which encouraged them to play in an irrational, destructive manner, and they hate that the benefits achievable would be set by the very worst sort of competitiveness. And like the High Warlord title in World of Warcraft, it may be a rarity to possess the Tier 4 items too, but it's rare in the most unpleasant way now; people are mostly glad that they don't in fact have it... the reward has the off-putting smell of the unwashed around it.
 
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Basara

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BTW folks: the easiest way to get the Terethan cuticles was to do Ilshenar spider champ spawns. I managed to get 50 or so in one spawn, and that was with me leaving when the matriarchs hit. Plus, you got extra vanilla and sugar from the paragons of all types.

Ironically, I only did about 7-8 cures, all in the last 5 days of the event, and without actually growing anything. If I'd done it hard core, it should have been easy.

And the math was such that I think scripting it would have been slower and less likely to work, unless it was programmed to dump and walk out if it got to the last step before explosion. And it would have taken a complex script (able to do the logic below). or constant iterations of a few specific tries, constantly switching flasks if the tries failed.

Step 1: 1 of each item
a. if 5 out of 5, you got a cure
b. If 0 matched, add 1 to all.
c. all other results go to step 2.

Step 2. if 1-4 matched, add 1 to 1 type, see if it improved or worsened the result, or did nothing.
a. if it did nothing, then add a 3rd of that type, and start step 2 again with the next ingredient.
b. if it improved the number, leave in, and start Step 2 again with the next ingredient. (if the result was a cure, go back to step 1).
c. If it made the number drop, 1 was the correct number. Record what the number was of each before you added that one, use tongs, and reset that amount. start step 2 again on the next ingredient.

Most of the time, you could get a completed cure before you ran out of tries. if not, dump right before the explosion and start over.
 

Lord X

Sage
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Stratics Legend
I am about to start a petition to make everyone aware that this item that we didnt get are SLEEVES not GLOVES. Its like the 5th time ive seen them referenced as gloves.


b. if it improved the number, leave in, and start Step 2 again with the next ingredient. (if the result was a cure, go back to step 1).
c. If it made the number drop, 1 was the correct number. Record what the number was of each before you added that one, use tongs, and reset that amount. start step 2 again on the next ingredient.

Most of the time, you could get a completed cure before you ran out of tries. if not, dump right before the explosion and start over.
I always got a completed cure before I ran outta tries. It involved not using the tongs till I knew the combination. I wager a script could have done that too. Either way.... yes.
 

Eärendil

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In our hyper-aggressive, anti intellectual culture though it's hard for people to understand that... because the rules as they are currently written say you were more unreasonably aggressive and won, right? And that kind of attitude may have made sense when we were surrounded by aggressive animals that needed an aggressive clubbing for your survival... but as the dominant, world breaking apex predator now, that attitude is an evolutionary dead end for mankind from here
This was exactly, what I wanted to say - but my English seems to be insufficent... THANKS!

So to make it completely simple; People do not hate YOU for winning the gloves, they hate the whole system which encouraged them to play in an irrational, destructive manner, and they hate that the benefits achievable would be set by the very worst sort of competitiveness.
Exactly. Heard enough social-darwinistic "I win, you lose, accept it, you whimp!"-stuff. It´s not about these 20-30 winners, it´s about the way it was designed - as an appeal to the worst insticts of mankind :)
 

Cyrah

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I just do not understand all this. I thought the few devs left have been with UO many years. IMHO no way they would think this event up, much less implement it. The distribution was silly, one cure gets the same prize as many?

As for players would joined groups and lied... karma.
I have a few house holding accounts I was on that fence about renewing.
If this is the direction UO is going I will not renew.

I did not turn in cures. I grew sugar for a dear friend this event hurt.
Whom ever designed this event, your silliness hurt him. That is not acceptable.
 

Nimuaq

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It is true that the core members of the development team have been with UO for many years and they are in fact quite creative and good at what they do at most times. If you discard the distribution of the rewards, the mastermind game with the in-game resources that takes place on a part of a facet that hasn't been used before and backed by the in-game fiction is not a bad direction at all. I don't think the designer of the event decided the way the rewards are distributed just by him/herself. I think the current situation is the result of some specific design constraints and limitations, perhaps arising from the concerns on the rarity of the rewards and probably agreed upon by the development team beforehand but unfortunately implemented poorly or haven't been tested or thought thoroughly. The problem is the way the rewards are distributed which I still believe was another attempt to remove the part the rng plays on event reward distribution, like all the other acts of the event cycle. The same development team designed the in the shadow of virtue war system in the lost lands desert and recently the void pool of covetous, both of which were refreshing and fun and instilled our trust and confidence. Thus, I do believe that they will somehow fix this but the ongoing lack of communication is really frustrating. I think this is the last day of TheGrimmOmen working on the game and we're not only losing a great developer, but we're also losing the last bit of communication we had with the development team, as he was also our friend in the forums who too often replied to even our harshest criticism and boosted our morale.
 

Picus at the office

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I still fail to see what people are up in arms about. It was clearly stated that you might not reach the top tier and you might not even get into the bottom if the curve was such that you failed to break into it.

Tough luck people. Sorry but it was a risky gamble that didn't pay off. This event went on for months which provided an ample amount of time to farm gold and items which would have paid for any and every reward, twice over. And lets face it, if the top "reward" wasn't so different and if people didn't assume that it was able to fetch a godly sum no one would have bothered so, again, greed killed it.
 

G.v.P

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I still fail to see what people are up in arms about. It was clearly stated that you might not reach the top tier and you might not even get into the bottom if the curve was such that you failed to break into it.

Tough luck people. Sorry but it was a risky gamble that didn't pay off. This event went on for months which provided an ample amount of time to farm gold and items which would have paid for any and every reward, twice over. And lets face it, if the top "reward" wasn't so different and if people didn't assume that it was able to fetch a godly sum no one would have bothered so, again, greed killed it.
The rarity of the item means buying the item will become impossible after awhile. A few people, including myself, complained about the system before the content became available, while a few people counter argued and said, "If you work hard you should get the best stuff." Now many of those hard-worker people are coming back here ready to complain because they scoffed at first only to lose out on the top item despite submitting hundreds of cures.
 

Picus at the office

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Yep they got screwed but on the trade forums it is indicated, last I looked, that the item is selling for 1.1 billion gold. While it is a absurd number it could have been reached. Farming the new dungeons for rare rings or armor over the last three months would have been a better trade off than doing this quest.

Indeed that one should get the best reward for working hard but there is many a day when I come home looking from the special reward from Mrs. Picus after a grueling day trolling this forum and I don't get what I'm looking for. Life ain't fair, the ultra item was far from worth the effort and, again, the team let down the 99%.
 

NBG

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LIfe is not fair but UO is not real life.

People play the game to escape from all the BS in the world that we have to deal with. The game is a paid service last I checked and people should not have to deal all the ridiculous so called innovations that the dev decided to implement even after player population has voiced concerns.

There are many example in the past where the Dev adjusted events\quests based on player feedback. The cure event did not even get a response at all when players had voiced extreme concerned before it was even in game.

If we are to treat UO on the foundation that life is not fair get over it, then you know what lets stop talking about game balance issues and other game mechanics that we always talk about. Faction, PvP, PvM all have outstanding issue that is not fair for one reason or another so lets just lump all that under the same principle of its life get over it. We can even go far as saying its life get over the bugs in the game but I doubt anyone would agree with that.

Bottom line is that some people keep using the excuse that life is not fair get over is not acceptable. If you want to use that argument, I do not expect you to ever complain about anything in this game EVER. If you can do that the go ahead and treat the game like real life and most likely you will be the few remaining players left to pay for the game.
 

Viper09

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This always happens though, ALWAYS. When someone doesn't get the best available reward in an event, they complain. This very reason is why EMs can no longer hand out really unique items at their events. This game is all about pixels for most people now, try and say you participated just for the event and they call you a sore loser...
 

SlobberKnocker

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1.1 billion gold. way to go dev's....

this event was designed to bring out the worst in the play population, and it surely did.

i am so glad i didnt do this event. to think that you could turn in 25 cures and get the same items
as the person who turned in 600 is pathetic.

i hear people talking about 17 days to grow plants, 4 hours a day to farm this, 3 hours a day to farm that, 25 cures a day on the turn in (dont miss a day or you'll be sorry!!!), and all i can say is step back from the computer and find a better way to spend your time.

crooked 3rd world governments have a better sense of running things than this dev team does. what a sham.
 

NBG

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When it comes to most event quests giving out rewards, the model of the reward distribution always follow the principle that if you work at it, you will get the top reward even for casual players. This cure event is has multiple uncertainties when it comes to reward distribution that was concerns voiced by the players. In this case, there is no end goal which will result in the top tier reward based the amount of time spent on the quest.

It is strictly a competition for player that can devote the most time and\or are willing to cheat in some cases. Its a global arc event quest that pretty much shuts out general player population from being able to achieve the end reward.

I could careless about useless pixels but I would think that all the players would like a defined goal for the quest when it comes to reward items that could be used for character improvement. This falls somewhat in the same category as the +5 stats scrolls.

To me, this quest is setup to generate cash for the power gamers and cheaters that is what it amounts to.
 

Picus at the office

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Yamato got 21 of the tier 4 items...lol they wtfpwnd everyone. Thats a shard that either had teamwork down to an art, the best writers or both. If that is not a misprint I'd say that no one has anything to complain about execpt themselves for looking out for #1 only.
 

Viper09

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I think it also has to do with everyone expecting the worst and thus refusing to do much with this event. From the day the notes for the event came out people were complaining about how it seemed to be unfair. The prevailing attitude was "why bother, scripters will just get it all."
 
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NBG

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I posted the following comments in the healer cure result thread, I think I am pretty accurate as far as my interpretation of the result and that ******** faction ranking change that pretty much killed faction resulting in the recent faction changes as far as faction armor accessibility. The Dev did post the high level logic on how the faction rank was determined and I seriously think they tweaked that code for the reward distribution check it out if you do not believe it.

"Ummmm is it just me or does this sounds like the reuse of of code logic and math used to assign faction ranks that got everyone pissed off leading to the recent change to faction again?

If so Devs, WTF are you thinking? It DID NOT work for factions rank assignment based on # of participants versus points of each participant why would you Devs think it would work for quest reward distribution? It both has similar issue with bring able to access the top end tier faction items when used for faction and now the new quest with another top tier item causing the same issue!!!!!!

Do you Devs just don't care anymore? If you do not give a damn about the player please quit your job and let someone else step in."
 

Eärendil

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Yep they got screwed but on the trade forums it is indicated, last I looked, that the item is selling for 1.1 billion gold. While it is a absurd number it could have been reached. Farming the new dungeons for rare rings or armor over the last three months would have been a better trade off than doing this quest.

>That is exactly what I did :)
 
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