July 26, 2010

The Miltonius Mess

Let's Try This Again

As you probably know, we "fixed" the issue if Miltonius selling quest item turn-ins for AC this Friday. We did this primarily for the players who were looking at their ACs and coming up short, then sending us letters to ask what happened. We keep track of items bought and sold for ACs so that we can provide you guys with the very best Player Support that we can, but unfortunately, due to the database layout, we can't track AC items that you turn in for quests which really messes up your spending record, and damages Player Supports ability to help you if you lose an item, think you lose and items or get hacked. Miltonius was unaware of this fact when he originally designed these quests and rewards.

Our solution was elegant. Replace all the items with copies that are not worth ACs, leaving the originals in tact and still able to be stored in the bank for free or sold back for ACs, while giving all new-comers a shot at these famously hard-to-get items but without the AC tracking nightmare.

We didn't want to you to feel like you'd wasted any money getting these items so we made them pretty hard to farm for. Most AC items were replaced with a number of Totems which one can only get by gaining access to Miltonius' Secret Area and killing his minions until they drop 100 Essences of Miltonius, each essence only having 10% drop rate. We did the math and found that it would take about 40 times as long to farm for a Totem as it would take to get the requisite amount of ACs by doing AExtras offers, depending on your luck in item farming.

We felt like it was a pretty fair deal. People who  spent the money to save hours of their lives farming for items that were much harder to get now, got "Rare" tags on their items and got to keep them in the bank for free, while newer players still had access to the items. Problem solved, right?

Very wrong. Oh Cysero, will you ever get tired of being so wrong?

YOU did NOT feel like it was fair. Quite a few players believe that NO amount of life lost farming can equal spending $10 on ACs. You spoke, some of you more eloquently than others, and we listened to all of you.

We really want you guys to be happy, and we don't want you to feel like you EVER sspent money on AQW only to see it wasted, so here's what we are going to do now.

We're removing these items and making them Rare. As of today, you will no longer be able to obtain these items in AQW.

• Betrayal Blade of Miltonius
• Dual Betrayal Blade of Miltonius
• Primal Saw of Miltonius
• Primal Dread Saw of Miltonius
• Dual Primal Dread Saw of Miltonius
• Oblivion Blade of Miltonius
• Shadow Orb
• Primal Orb
• Blood Orb
• Arcane Orb
• Coin of Miltonius Pet (300)
• Void of Miltonius
• Shadow of Miltonius
• Shadow Guard of Miltonius
• Fiend of Miltonius
• Fiend Face of Miltonius
• Blood of Miltonius
• Blood Guard of Miltonius
• Hex of Miltonius
• Hex Mask of Miltonius
• Dual Busters of Miltonius
• Spellbound Staff of Miltonius
• Skull of Miltonius
• Vestige of Miltonius

The Totem versions will not be tagged. If you happen to get one or more over the weekend, grats!

For those of you who feel left out in the rain, fear not. Miltonius is working on a load of new armors, items and pets for his area all of which/whom will be obtained with Totems, so your totems will not go to waste. We'll start releasing the new items next week!

We really, sincerely appologize for this whole mess and hope that this will satisfy everyone.

Live and Learn (to never do anything like this ever again).