This is so much harder (and will the staff be pointless now?)
 

I had been mastering all of the weapons that I thought would be more difficult first. Saved mastering staff and doll until last. Well, I've sure messed things up for myself by waiting to level the staff. What would have been a breeze before the update is now proving very difficult.

It's bad enough that we're getting fewer points per kill than we were getting yesterday, but the real problem is that you cant target more than one enemy at a time unless they're green or gray, and then you get almost no experience points for them. Trying to find yellow level enemies (and only for around 20pts per kill depending on the skill used!) is very difficult. And when you do find one, chances are there will be other things attacking at the same time. Trying to kill a red level enemy is almost impossible without using tonics or dieing, unless you kill it quick for few experience points. Might as well kill the greens and yellows.

I havent been to Kingshead yet, but Im sure leveling with the group of soldiers in the field (for almost no experience points if your weapon is over level 20) will be out of the question now, even at levels 30 - 40 notoriety, unless you have at least one person there healing you.

Anyway, it looks like the staff will be useless (for killing several higher level enemies at a time) unless you have a good healer or two with you. You can still use it to kill one enemy at a time with relative ease, but we can do that with any weapon.

I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. On one hand I'm glad the game will be more difficult to play. I think it was too easy before. And I don't really mind that healers will be needed more. But, I do wish we were getting the same experience points we were used to getting, especially since its more difficult to get them.

i think POTCO should have kept the rep points they way they were

The Staff can still be used to take out SEVERAL enemies at once..I don't know where you got that from..
~CLJ

I think leveling was too easy. God forbid they challenge us! :O

Yesterday I could go into The Catombs of Padre Del Fuego, alone, and draw all of the enemies to my character with the staff (often inculding several 30 plus level enemies as well as a few more in the 20 to t29 range and some less than 20 levels), and kill them all using only the whither skill, and usually without needing a tonic and get 150 to 200 exp pts each time.

Today I walked in, doing the same thing I did yesterday and found myself in jail before I could even hit the T for tonic. So, now I'm back to killing one enemy at a time, as with most of the other weapons, targeting green and yellow enemies for only 10 to 20 points.

Sure, you might be able to kill several enemies at the same time, but you better do it quick, and if there are more than one in the red level range you're probably still going to need someone to heal you, because you'll be taking damage from the others in the group as well, instead of only from those higher level enemies.

I suppose this is mostly an issue if you're trying to level, and want to kill them more slowly for more experience points. Either way, killing a group of enemies is much more difficult now, and especially if some of them are red level enemies.

And like I said before, I dont really mind all of that so much. But I do mind getting fewer points for it.

Grenades and staff didn't give much points before. Now this is rediculous.

I went to jail four times in a row from Kingshead today, trying to use my staff and grenades in the field, just to see what the differences were in rep points were.

Before with the staff, using just wither, I got 3-4 rep per soldier. Now it's 2-3 rep and you lose a bunch of your health. And don't step off to the side and wait for it to go back up, because any little lvl 11 Sargeant walking by can finish you off.

I also used to use desolation for the first hit and wither to finish them, and could get 9-12 rep points per soldier. Now I can't hit tonic fast enough to keep from dying!

Grenades are even worse. Now once the soldiers start chasing you, you're taking hits the whole way. And not just from the soldier in front, but from all of them, even though none of them should be able to reach you. I don't even know how many rep points because I couldn't get through without dying - my tonic doesn't recharge fast enough.

It's already hard for me to work on my grenades now they lower the rep
point i don't think i will work on my grenade anymore.
Being a high level pirate also useless now to help other like searching
crates for their grenade quest in kingshead because we might
get killed ourselves.
And healer pirate helping a friend in battle won't get rep point
anymore when the enemy is defeated.

And has anyone tried to win the 'newly improved' boss battle in test?
My friend tried it 7 times and always died. He never reached the 4th bridge.

And the most annoying thing from this 'update' is we DON'T get gold or
treasure anymore from any enemies.
We can only get gold from plundering ship now.

So it seems that they try to make this game harder and harder
and think that it's fun for us to go to jail 20 times a day.
No thank you, if they don't change this i think
i will just find another online game.

I agree. This game is more of a chore now instead of "fun." Ugh I am having to make myself play (to justify spending the money on it). I keep saying it will get better. All the while it keeps getting worse.

Sorry to be so negative!

Yeah its a pain at the moment.

Yesterday i could relaxed work on my weapons in Padres behind El Sudorno switching between grenades, dagger (using Asp, Sidewinder, Adder and getting alot of rep), gun (using lead shot).

Today i had very hard times when being attacked by several grey leveled enemies and a red one. Using my dagger's throwing skills would mean end up in jail in 5min. Same for voodoo staff which should load faster or you dont stand a chance against a L33 grenadier and some L20.
So i ran out of tonics quite fast and had to go back to get new ones alot.
All this made it more a pain to level up than its fun.

I even found myself in jail when i came back after being 5min afk. Killed by the giant crabs at Tormenta beach. Fancy that!:psmiley22:

Oh grand....what sort of "fixes" did they do to that??

Getting gold and treasure from enemies
 

Has anybody noticed that you don't get any gold or items from killing things any more? I've reported this as a bug, but have only had a standard reply so far. Since this is the main way of getting gold (apart from sea battles) and the only way of getting certain treasure items, I am sure the developers didn't mean this to have happened.

I really hate the change involving lower level characters now being able to inflict damage. It's not nearly as fun this way. I want to target enemies at a level higher than me, now I have to fight through all the lower level characters before I can do this. Please change it back to how it was. Please stop making changes that ruin the game!

You know whats gonna happen? Out of necessity, the doll is going to quickly become the only weapon used in many areas of the game, because many of the quests that we used to be able to do alone will require assistance now. But, now, even the helpers will need to be attuned and healed too.

If you can't get anything from enemies, what's the point of the treasure quests? Tia's Menagerie and the Treasure Chess ones you're supposed to get from the undead, the Navy medals you're supposed to get from soldiers. Can you no longer collect the treasures?

If they're trying to cater to the "family" audience, then they shouldn't make it too hard. If it's too hard to accomplish the tasks in the game, too hard to level up, to hard to upgrade your ships because it's too hard to get the gold to afford it, the target audience is going to give up quickly and go to something else.

And based on the comments on this forum, the majority of players don't feel that their game play experience is being improved by these latest changes.

I am NOT diggin this new "feature"

If I have to fight anything that's going to have a chance of killing me, I want rep and gold (or at least a treasure) for defeating it. I'm sending a bug report about the gold and treasure thing....just have to remember to take a screanie next time I'm on....this HAS to be a mistake. Or at least I hope it is...

You can't dig for treasure either, unless you have a quest that requires you to dig, which you can't get if you've finished the Black Pearl story quests.

So I landed my ship on Devil's Anvil so I could run and switch a load of laundry, and came back just in time to see my level 34 pirate being killed and sent to jail by a LEVEL 2 SAND CRAB!!!!!

Don't leave your computer unattended even for a second if you are anywhere near a spot where there are enemies. You may not survive.

This has happened to me several times since the update. As a parent player who has to step away from the computer from time to time if I'm playing while the kids are home and awake, this is a little frustrating.

And is nobody else having trouble using the staff as a weapon? It is hard to kill even just a few green or yellow enemies at one time without a healer, and even then its difficult because they often are being hit themselves. You really need to have 2 good healers with you, now, whenever targeting a group of enemies, so they can heal each other while keeping the person using the staff or any other weapon healed. And if they're not going to get any rep for it, who's going to want to do it?

But the best way to level the staff can still be done alone. Go figure. Just target the gypsies or other voodoo using enemies, drain their voodoo with the hex eater shot on your pistol then proceed with the staff. We're still getting about half as many points as we were before the update, but it doesnt seem quite so impossible to level as it did before I remembered the gypsies (or brinescum and mollusks on Tormenta).

Unfortunately Ive been suspended for my very first time since playing Disney games, and wont be able to take advantage of these voodoo users for a few days...

You never should leave your character unattended. From playing UO for over 8 years taught me this.

POTCO is billed as a family and a serious gaming player game. The last newsletter mentioned something about attracting gaming players.

if they want to limit the staff as they probably saw too many people who basically were a god. The ability would be cool, don't get me wrong; but making the game too easy will draw boredom and potentially lose playing customers.

well, at least we get gold from killing enemies again. But the staff gets ridiculously low rep now. I am not 32 killed a level 22 and got 8 rep!

I'm approaching my breaking point with this game. I started a new character after not being able proceed much in the game while being stuck on the BP quest on my level 35 character. My new character made the Black Pearl quest about a week ago, and I got excited because I love training weapons. Can't tell you how not-excited I am now.

I can barely train my weapons at Kingshead (which I use to have a lot of fun doing). Did I say barely? I meant 'not at all'. Trying to train my cutlass/dagger/grenades on those guys is nearly impossible at any level I would imagine because they just constantly hit you until you run out of health. This new update made the game harder, and I (and I think I speak for many others) are not liking it. Training my pistol is nearly impossible. I left my pistol at level 2 (yes level two) until I was ready to train it and expected it to be a breeze... now it's near impossible to beat anything at Murky Hollow (as well as any place harder than that) without dying in a heartbeat...

And who wants to ask one of your friends to just stand there and heal you? I know I wouldn't want to do that. How boring...

This game is not going to be successful as it stands now; unless they make some serious changes. They messed up the game for now, that's for sure. I'm thinking of resubscribing to Toontown now (even though BBHQ is STILL not released) to finish up some unfinished fishing and golfing. Unless POTCO makes a major release and major changes to the game (something similar to an HQ in Toontown, that takes a while to max) I don't see myself paying for much longer.

If they were smart, they would put everything back to the way it was before the newest release. Mostly just the new "low level's can hit higher level players now" release.

I just stopped playing for the day today, may not play tommorow, depends how bored I am. They really messed up the game in one simple release...

Years to build a game, seconds to ruin it.

Cory, I'd be happy to heal while you leveled at Kingshead. My former guildmates haven't been back to play since they reached the end of the quests and my new guildmates, who I play with on my second character, are still working through them, so I'd hate to ask them to stop and heal Elisa for a few hours everyday while I leveled. Maybe we could take turns healing for each other to limit the boredom of it. Send me a PM if you're interested. I won't be able to do anything until after Christmas though.

The staff has no advantage over other weapons at all, now, in my opinion. It was unique and desired as a weapon worth working to level 30 for, because you could kill several high level (25 - 35 plus) enemies at once with it. I can't even charge desolation quick enough to use it before I die, now. I had put 5 skill points on the skill which rehcarges your health more quickly. Had I known this update was coming I would have put them on the skill that enables you to load/charge the voodoo skill you're using more quickly.

I'm all for them "balancing the game play" (I'm pretty sure that means that the enemy attacks are stronger in addition to them having made it so that lower level enemies can cause injury) and making it a little harder. It really was too easy. However, they have made the staff worthless in making all the changes that they did (unless you have some reason to go to Murky hollow or the Thieves Den at level 30 or higher to kill groups of level 15 and under enemies).

I'm probably a little bit more miffed about it than some others maybe, because I could have leveled staff when it was easier to do so and I didn't. I had anticipated having each weapon mastered by the end of this weekend so that I would be able to devote my playing time to my guild and second character, and now I can't. So, I'm probably whining more than I might otherwise have. That still doesn't change the fact that they have spoiled the uniqueness of the staff. We'll see what happens when they add more content, but I can't see myself using it for much of anything in the game at this point, even after it's mastered.

anyone here who doesn't like the update better leave feedback by sending in a bug report to that effect, and dont just send it and forget, follow through till you're emailing one of the techs, make sure they know you're unhappy, if enough do it, they'll change it back, if not, we're all complaining here for nothing.

We could do that, a time and a place so we could friend first :xwink:

Don't worry, get all your anger out here. I'm angry too! :xembarassed:

I, along with the rest of you, DO NOT like the recent update they have given this game. I thought that to contend with the boredom waiting for some new quests to be activated, I would just level up like everyone else was doing. Now, they have even taken the fun of doing that away! I am a level 34 and now after fighting a level 12 & 14 soldier, I have to rest for a minute or so to get my health back. And then after all that, I get a measly 2-3 rep. I have to say that unless some big changes take place soon that I probably will not be playing this game for much longer. It is supposed to be fun, not work!

grrr i just got my grenades today and the only thing that i can hit for now is a fly trap plant bc they dont move.

Thank you Plundering Mom, you have added additional insight that I was not aware of regarding the Staffs. :)

well gold returning from killing enemies is better...I still hate the idea of having to watch my back all the time for little sand crabs and swamp gators chipping away at me though.

Ive already taken my credit card info off my account so they cant bill next month, I worked hours upon hours getting to mid 30 levels and now if i get distracted for a few minutes i look down and im in jail because a lvl 2 gravedigger walked by? No thanks im going back to toontown unless its changed back. If they want to make it more challenging just expand the enemys that can hit you like instead of lvl 14s not hitting a 20 let them hit him but not a lvl 10..... Just plain stupid....

For many of us higher leveled players, working their weapons is the only thing there is to do since:
-the Black Pearl Boss Battle still isnt fixed (or whatever they are doing with it)
-we dont get any notoriety when sailing or firing cannons when mastered.

Result:
Alot of us are extremely bored and ready to quit. I'm thinking in that direction also... Its so frustrating getting hit by the lower level enemies! Even Beckett's Quarry and Catacombs become impossible due to that. And then they even lower the rep for grenades and voodoo staff. Whats the point of this?

My main location to work weapons is Tormenta and i still love that place but for me its not good to work my grenades. If anyone out here can give me a location when i can train my grenades without getting attacked by 10 enemies at once, please let me know.

I used the back beach on Padres to master grenades, mostly because of the convenience of having a gunsmith right there where I could restock. There are, however, a lot of lower level enemies there, too, that couldnt cause damage while I was leveling, that may be a problem now.

OutlawZ made a post here and mentioned a stump on Cutthroat Isle that you could use to level grenades with from a postion above it on the cliff where it couldnt reach you to cause substantial health loss. Cutthroat Isle and El Sudoron have the same layout with a stump in the same location (I used the one in El Sudoron to level cutlass and dagger). If I was going to use the stump for grenades, I would use the one in El Sudoron since its not a far run to the back beach for restocking.

Well that sounds interesting. I'm gonna try it right now since i need some open air after being inside Tormenta Cave for several hours.:ani-taz: The "fresh air" of El Sudoron will sure do me good. I prefer El Sudoron above Cutthroat also for the nearby shops since i run out of fire bombs fast. Thx already for your nice advice. I'll come back here later to let you guys know how it went (i'm quite sure i'm not the only one having problems leveling the grenades). :sign0145:

Personally, I am not sure that the fact lower level enemies can now attack you is a bad thing. After all, why shouldn't they be able to? Why should we expect a free ride on building levels? It's no fun if it's too easy. Is it too hard now? I am not sure that it is. More challenging yes, but too hard?

The main thing that bothers me is that I paid for 6 months up-front only to effectively have the game finish for me after less than a month. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to do the Boss battle before it was removed, and now the only thing I can possibly do in the game is to increase my levels, which isn't exactly very exciting! Disney should certainly have extended the quests by now as I know many players have finished them. I hear talk that they are working on introducing such features as being able to customize your ship and your pirate. Not bad ideas at all, but pointless if they have lost a large majority of their players before that ever happens.

On another note, I have already bought a war frigate and all the available weapons upgrades and have nothing else to spend the gold I collect on. If anyone wants 40,000 gold from me I will happily give it to them over the poker table. First PM to arrange it gets it.

I can only agree and i will have the gold problem too in a week or so. I bought one from every ship, already sold a war gal before and bought a new one to get rid of the gold.
The customize feature will be cool but as you said they should better add some new long quest(s) and the ability to raise notoriety and weapon levels since thats what the game is about.

I pretty much agree with you, Fred.

I think PotCO could compromise a bit, though, and perhaps return the lowest levels (< LVL7 maybe?) to the non-damaging ranks. Things like Undead Gravediggers, Sand Crabs, Cave Bats, etc., are the PotCO equivalent of gnats and really aren't worth the time to deal with after you reach a certain level. Plus, we get zero rep for our "trouble".

But a couple of LVL9 Sergeants or Rock Crabs, for example, can still create some interesting battles, especially when they "group up" with higher level enemies. Personally, I'd gotten a bit complacent leading lower level Pirates in to places like Thieves Den -- and was surprised to find that my health meter actually hit yellow doing that exact same thing this past weekend.