majmalphunktion wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2013 at 12:36am:


2013 felt to me the same as previous years - there wasn't anything noteworthy about it, except perhaps for Feather of Sun rubbing his ass all over the place and the text book example of how to not upgrade an internet forum (seriously - that was undefendably shitty and you should STILL be ashamed of it).

Some nice things were added to the game, much of which was turbined within 6 months.  Lots of bugs that were reported in the preview server pushed live.  A couple exploits were made public, some of them fixed.


If this is a "very good year", I'll bet all years are "very good" ones.


What made it very good?


Was it because the domain name got renewed before it expired?




Here's a partial recap of the updates from 2013.

2013 started with Epic Gianthold (U17 February).

• Existing pack, quests, maps, mobs, trap placements made Epic.
• A new raid with new loot (and a lot of extant loot made "epic") and great DM narration.
• Generally well received.

U18 (Disciples of Shadow) in May.

• Bladeforged
• Skill Tomes
• changes to cosmetic armor and hat mechanism (Thank you for breaking ShowHelmet).
• Two F2P quests (Yay!  Subscribers get MORE content!)

U19 ShadowFail and Enhancement Pass in August.

Shadowfail introduced as an "expansion" which is code for "Subscribers, you're going to feel a slight pressure. Pay for access to two new adventure packs and new Iconic races, just like everyone else." 

Enhancement Pass.  Changed the UI for enhancements (good!).  Also changed many enhancements and prestige pre-requisites.  No new racial prestiges, most classes without "complete" prestiges.  All characters must respec. 

• Chest Re-Roll, with Chest Re-Roll button conveniently placed where it's super easy to click!  Awesomium!
• Daily Dice upgraded to no longer drop Astral Shards.
• Sagas!  Best Invested Developer Time Ever.
• Daily bonus XP for first time quest completion
• Level Cap increased to 28! 
• Lesser Re-inc still baffled by triple class characters.
• New Harbor layout (Exactly what was the value proposition for this?  Seriously - nothing was added and new players continue to ask where things are with the added benefit that the existing player base directed them to the old locations)
• Spellcraft skill!
• DUP-a-Palooza! and EXTREME PREJUDICE
• Occupy Stormreach reveals the extent to which Turbine is powered by its fans

U20 - Critical Return (November 12)

• Two F2P quests - this is code for "Additional content available to subscribers for Free!"
• A new prestige for arcanes (Eldritch Knight). Varg really hit the bull's eye with this one!  It's proven to be very well received by players of all skill levels and addresses the many public discussions requesting something similar.
• New Reincarnation with New and Improved currency, absurd cost, and questionable PL rewards.
• New XP!  New XP/Level, New total XP for TR lives, New Quest XP!
• NEW store items (Otto's boxes)
• More fiddling with Sagas!
• New Secret Door Mechanism developed by someone with one foot out the door!
  

You should really be fair about that quote.

He works for the company, what is he supposed to say? We had a mediocre year? Sure it's the truth, but if he wants to keep his job he needs to not bad mouth the company behind its back on a forum that isn't allowed to be mentioned on the main forums.

My fave things of the year: U17 was really fun, epic GH is awesome.

Enhancement pass is really cool.

If you lower the grind for eTR and make the rewards mayhaps a bit better eTR is awesome.

Iconics are pretty sweet for if you get sick of low levels on your way to completionist.

The storm horns explorer area is really nice, and the quests are okay.

What I didn't like:
The prison adventure pack.....just yuck

Wheloon prison explorer area: oh I want migraines? YAY PURPLE!

Random loot gen rape by Feather of Suck.

TWO updates with only TWO quests each? Gee whiz, that is quite awful.....more content needs to be released.

Level 28 cap, I really hated this.....it felt like an unnecessary bump up that just gave the game fewer end game raids....


Over all, if turbine releases more content, fixes loot gen (put back convalescent of superior parrying as a rare drop), and fixes bugs, I will be happy.

For now I'll go back to playing battlefield 4 and maybe leveling my sorc....

The Manager wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2013 at 2:14pm:


EGH was cooler, but this was better than Shadowfail.

Much of the new contest was good, new enhancements were great just need to fix some that are broken (such as sorc wand and scroll mastery), primarily what they need to focus on now is clearing up the goddam fucking "lLAG"

exploytoften wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2013 at 6:00pm:


I won't argue with you here, totally agree.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's trying to jump and getting the "psyche fake jump" about 1/4 of the time.  Makes kiting a pain when the hands go up but I don't jump.

mystafyi wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2013 at 6:33pm:


I certainly do.

It's no secret that Epic Gianthold was ready to go for a long time prior to it's release.


Rubbinns wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2013 at 5:28pm:


Last year's Bag-a-Palooza (place BTA/BTC item in green bag, trade green bag to your friend) was similar.  Things were traded very freely and pleasantly! Many people finally got their epic Chaosblades, RoSSs, etc. then.