Ask the admin (11/07/2011)

[Lanzer]

Hello everyone,

How do you like this year's Halloween event overall? Any feedback is appreciated. The new housing editor is close to completion but we still have a few bugs to work through so there's still a couple more days of delay. It's looking really good and I can't wait to see new houses again.

How many of you actually watched scary movies during Halloween?

[Krissim Klaw]

My question is why are there such horrible crafting odds with the LOW SUCCESS RATE formulas in alchemy. I tried to craft a level 5 formula, which was at my current level, with a low success rate and it failed 12 times at 50k a pop blowing 600k before I was forced to give up and let a higher level alchemist do it. What worries me is there are a number of level 10 formulas with low success rates and that trick won’t work with them since level 10 is as high appears to be as high as you can go. Many of these formulas have 750k-1mil craft costs.

Why isn’t there some sort of failsafe or increase in success odds with each failure so users don’t get screwed if they have bad luck?

Couldn’t you at least offer a sure thing option even if it was say 3-5x the original crafting cost?
---
On another note I am curious as to why you would make commissioning an alchemist so easy for scammers to take advantage of?

As it is currently set up you have to go on an alchemist’s word when it comes to how many times your formula failed. They could easily scam people out of gold by claiming the formula failed multiple times when it did not and have the user send over more gold to cover another try. On the flip side, honest alchemists find the entire situation stressful because they can’t show proof to their customers when something fails. Do you have plans to address this issue and make alchemy safer for all?

[Fractale]

1: Is La Victoire located in Isle de Gambino? It's been brought to my attention that the ground in front of the shop is the same as the ground in front of Gambino Outfitters.

2: If La Victoire is, in fact located in Gambino, does this mean that the observatory the star siblings are staying in, is located on Gambino Isle as well?

3: Why has the manga stopped getting numbered? The last manga that was numbered was #42- The Fall.

4: In the EI Report during the finale of Ravenwood Manor, it was mentioned that Mr. Jackdaw and Mephiste are one and the same. So is the guy's name Mephiste Jackdaw, or Jackdaw Mephiste?

[Sagebomb]

Howdy

1) So, during component week a bunch of auctions glitched and didnt pay out. This was fixed through a back tuning the auctions to the click and claim way (thanks).

BUT...Now auction component glitches seem to be much worse,

Items either are not granting

or

Are granting to the person in 10th spot (before winner flip)

Most auctions seem to flip the winners names around as well.

This happened before but was fixed, this has happened again, there are threads in SF and Bugs forum, but no word on it being looked into, this is happening continuosly on a live feature, so can we get official word this is getting looked into?

EDIT: that was talked about in dev notice

EDIT 2: that fix only looks at flipped, some auctions still didnt pay anyone.

2) So you confirmed sacred keys are usable now, but if I was say level 5 could I use the keys? Or how about say level 9?

(I know you want us to find it ourselves, but it seems a few more clues would aid us in the such thereof)

[bluecherry]

Hi. smile I don’t want to be too much of a pain, but is there any kind of estimate on how much longer spring cleaning is going to go on? It was said to be intended to last a couple weeks or so, but we’ve definitely exceeded a month by now with no sign of any conclusions in sight.

[.~.Lady_Aji.~.]

- What's up with all of the light hair colors in the salon? The colors that are being passed off as dark aren't even dark. They're medium at best. Can we get some more saturated/darker hair colors? Stop saving them for cash shop wigs.

- The site's alchemy feature is a** backwards. A feature like this should be challenging. Not damn near impossible to do. Also, why on earth would you make it so that some of the formulas require cash shop items? I think that was a dumb move. All you're doing is causing cash items that people are interested in owning become rare and more expensive. Or worse, cause them to be non-existent because they are no longer available on the site. Just admit that you dropped the ball on this feature and fix it. Here's a post that gives a suggestion on how alchemy should work on this site.

Quote:

This type of thing is really the crux of the "issue of Alchemy". That is, many of the components are simply too rare to be of use to most people. Given that the system only grants you exp if you create formulas at your level or one below it, I don't see why any and all components that are necessary for level one formulas are not properly farmable. Realistically, in a 10 tier system such as Gaia's (There are only 10 levels right? I haven't messed with alchemy much due to rarity issues), the first 3-4 levels should require components that are being released in mass quantities or are created from components that are directly made from items released in mass quantities. That is, everything for the first few levels should be easily farmable.

Personally, I'd like to see every single component have a formula for creating it, much like the Orb Aggregate.

In this particular case, I look in my inventory and I see the following from zOMG: Polyester, Suede, Leather, Silk, Mystic Weave, Cured Hide, Cloth, Fauxskin, Kevlar, and Synthetic Fiber. In Bifrost I see Rawhide Leather.

The image for Fabric Swatches () has 4 different fabrics in it, so going with that here are some possibles:

Fabric Swatches = Formula 1: Fabric Swatches + 15 Rawhide Leather + 15 Polyester + 15 Silk + 15 Mystic Weave + 500 gold
Fabric Swatches = Formula 1: Fabric Swatches + 15 Rawhide Leather +10 Cured Hide +10 Fauxskin + 10 Synthetic Fiber + 500 gold


The first option uses the store bought component plus loot found in Bill's Ranch and Zen Gardens, the 2nd and 3rd areas respectively, both relatively low level. The second uses the store bought component, but this time the zOMG loot comes from Bass'ken Lake, Old Aqueduct, and Gold Beach, which are more mid to (low end) higher level areas, thus requiring a bit less due to more initial time investment to get that strong. And this is just for one instance of Fabric Swatches, so it's not like these would suddenly pop out at 100 an hour per person. It would require time and work, more so if you play alone due to lower drop rate, but it would be doable without needing luck in Daily Chance or tons of gold to buy on the vend.

Likewise, many other things such as toggles could have formulas such as this. Alternate methods like this as opposed to purely DC or rare/random boxes would allow this to truly be the fabled and promised system for backwings that was said to be an epic quest, but one that any user could do if they put in the time and effort.

[Mage Ragepunk]

Good evening Lanzer. Thank you for the attention you've been showing the zOMG! community these past few weeks as of late. Halloween Jack and Moonrise were some fun events. Now, to address some issues at hand:

1. Is there a possibility of glitches being removed from the game? I've seen the Upgrade glitch be quickly resolved, but numerous others still remain, and persist Like Kit has spoken of, like Failing Quest Rewards, or Silent NPC's, are terrible glitches that can hinder the players, and bring them to a grinding halt in their progress. It's quite cumbersome, and can force users to quit.

2. What happened to the old Tutorial? I remember when the game was first created back towards October 2008, and the "Frank On a Train" tutorial was super fun. It helped me learn a little, but sadly, it seems like there is no current tutorial for new users. It simply starts them out with a CL 1 GGG, and puts them on their merry way. Whatever happened to Frank? Could we see a revamped version of the Train/Sewers Tutorial, with emphasis on Buff usage, and Rage Ranking?

Thank you, and have a wonderful evening, Lanz~

-Red Mage

[Mademoiselle Kit]

Dear Lanzer:

I'd like to give thanks for the measures that Gaia has taken lately to help zomg. Jack appearing in zomg, promising powerup bundles, advertising DMS, etc.

But there is still somethings a lot of us regulars are unhappy with namely: how zomg does not favor new users.

The current tutorial is horrid, not helping new users understand the game at all. The old tutorial with Frank, the train, and the Barton sewers, helped people get a feel for the game and understand concepts like buffs, ghi, and rage ranks much better.

Also, the prevailing glitches, like the silent NPC glitch, or quests failing to give rewards, make it hard for new users to advance through the game.

I have heard of several new users coming to zomg, not understanding the tutorial and falling prey to glitches, leaving because they feel its not worth their time.

Maybe if DMS does get the attention (and money) that zomg needs, some time can be taken to address these glitches and the tutorial problem?

Thanks.

[iBalthier]

Hi Lanzer, hope you had a fun halloween.

My questions are towards the Coming Soon box- is early November before halfway through the month, or sometime after? emotion_awesome

[LuckyButtercup]

Bidblast - List time the listing will finish, as well as the date? Any plans for this?

Item Glitches
Item Glitches was started in Site Feedback in February, none have been fixed. Any plans for this?
Avatar Glitches - Avatar System 3.0 subforum of Q & A forum - Focus is on Items that provide real income to Gaia...Why are reported bugs never fixed?
"In The Que" subforum - in Bug Report & Tech Support - This would be helpful info - will it be used?

[Panagrammic]

Can you point me to relevant posts / examples? We're looking at this code now and can check.

Sagebomb

EDIT: that was talked about in dev notice

EDIT 2: that fix only looks at flipped, some auctions still didnt pay anyone.

[Panagrammic]

In the language of Coming Soon, "early" means anytime before the midpoint of the month!

iBalthier

Hi Lanzer, hope you had a fun halloween.

My questions are towards the Coming Soon box- is early November before halfway through the month, or sometime after? emotion_awesome

[Panagrammic]

My understanding is that the zOMG team deliberately stripped down the tutorial because the earlier, longer tutorial was losing users. JK or swarf would have more details.

Edit: That said, agreed that zOMG has a learning curve. We've been looking at more tutorial information and/or some kind of mentoring.

Mademoiselle Kit

Dear Lanzer:

I'd like to give thanks for the measures that Gaia has taken lately to help zomg. Jack appearing in zomg, promising powerup bundles, advertising DMS, etc.

But there is still somethings a lot of us regulars are unhappy with namely: how zomg does not favor new users.

The current tutorial is horrid, not helping new users understand the game at all. The old tutorial with Frank, the train, and the Barton sewers, helped people get a feel for the game and understand concepts like buffs, ghi, and rage ranks much better.

Also, the prevailing glitches, like the silent NPC glitch, or quests failing to give rewards, make it hard for new users to advance through the game.

I have heard of several new users coming to zomg, not understanding the tutorial and falling prey to glitches, leaving because they feel its not worth their time.

Maybe if DMS does get the attention (and money) that zomg needs, some time can be taken to address these glitches and the tutorial problem?

Thanks.

[Mademoiselle Kit]

Panagrammic

In the language of Coming Soon, "early" means anytime before the midpoint of the month!

iBalthier

Hi Lanzer, hope you had a fun halloween.

My questions are towards the Coming Soon box- is early November before halfway through the month, or sometime after? emotion_awesome

"Midpoint" is the 15th so...DMS BEFORE THE 15th? eek * hyperventilates*

[Existential Existence]

1) Many of the poses in the Monthly Collectible item Heartbreaker are not showing up for many many many Gaians (which means these poses cannot be equipped at the moment - I don't think for anyone). People have been posting about this in the bugs forum for many days (possibly weeks?). Can you pass this information to the artists?
You can equip the poses in the MP preview, but when you have the actual item in your avatar inventory, half the items will not equip.

2) Care to share who the artist of Prince of the Sea (the new 999 EI) is? (if they are okay with telling us who they are, that is)

3) Someone found an article about a possible movie partnership for the Monster Galaxy game! Congrats! Are the people at Gaia excited?


The Halloween event was great. Integrating the flash space with forum activity (turning into a wolf or human) was a fun element.